be none other than Mr.
Longways, the Company's agent.

So soon as the _Cassandra's_ boat had come alongside he skipped up the
side like a monkey, and gave me a very civil bow immediately his feet
touched the deck, which I returned with all the gravity I was able to
command.

Mr. Longways was a lean, slim little man, and was dressed with great
care, and in the very latest fashion that he could obtain; from which,
and his polite, affected manners and grimaces, I perceived that he
rarely had the opportunity of coming upon board of a craft where there
were ladies as passengers.

After Mr. Longways came Captain Leach, and after him the three great,
tall, native chiefs, half naked, and with hair dressed after a most
strange, curious fashion. At first they would have prostrated themselves
at my feet, but I prevented them; whereupon they took my hand and set it
upon their heads, which was anything but pleasant, their hair being
thick with gums and greases.

I presently led the way to my cabin, the chiefs following close at our
heels, and Mr. Longways walking beside me, grimacing like a little old
monkey in a vastly affected manner. Nor could I forbear smiling to see
how he directed his observations towards the ladies, and more especially
Mistress Pamela, who stood at the rail of the deck above. Mr. Longways
carried in his hand a strong iron despatch-box, about the bigness of
those used by the runners at the Bank, and so soon as we had come into
my cabin he clapped it down upon the table with a great noise.

"There!" says he, fetching a deep sigh; "I, for one, am glad to be quit
of it."

"Why," says I, "Mr. Longways, is there then so much in the little
compass of that box?"

"Indeed yes," says he; "enough to make you and me rich men for our
lives."

"I wonder, then," says I, laughing, "that you should bring it so easily
to me, when you might have made off with it yourself, and no one the
wiser."

"No, no," says he, quite seriously, without taking my jest, and jerking
his head towards the black chiefs, who had squatted down upon their hams
nigh to the table--"No, no. Our friends yonder have had their eyes on me
sharply enough, though they do not understand one single word that we
are saying to one another."

While we had been conversing I had fetched out a decanter of port and
five glasses, and had poured out wine for all hands, which the black men
drank with as great pleasure as Mr. Longways and myself.

After M