all,
graceful, and commanding. As the son of an important chief, he had
been free from those menial toils which, in that climate, soon
obliterate all intellectual characteristics. His face was well formed
for an African's. His high and broad brow arched over a straight nose,
while his lips had nothing of that vulgar grossness which gives so
sensual an expression to his countrymen. Ahmah's manners to strangers
or superiors were refined and courteous in a remarkable degree; but to
the mob of the coast and inferiors generally, he manifested that harsh
and peremptory tone which is common among the savages of a fiery
clime.

Ahmah-de-Bellah was second son of the Ali-Mami, or King of
Footha-Yallon, who allowed him to exercise the prerogative of leading
for the first time, a caravan to the seaboard, in honor of attaining
the discreet age of "twenty four rainy seasons." The privilege
however, was not granted without a view to profit by the courage of
his own blood; for the Ali-Mami was never known to suffer a son or
relative to depart from his jurisdiction without a promise of _half_
the products of the lucrative enterprise.

The formation of a caravan, when the king's permission has been
finally secured, is a work of time and skill. At the beginning of the
"dry season," the privileged chieftain departs with power of life and
death over his followers, and "squats" in one of the most frequented
"paths" to the sea, while he dispatches small bands of daring
retainers to other trails throughout the neighborhood, to blockade
every passage to the beach. The siege of the highways is kept up with
vigor for a month or more, by these black Rob Roys and Robin Hoods,
until a sufficient number of traders may be trapped to constitute a
valuable caravan, and give importance to its leader. While this is the
main purpose of the forest adventure, the occasion is taken advantage
of to collect a local tribute, due by small tribes to the Ali, which
could not be obtained otherwise. The despotic officer, moreover,
avails himself of the blockade to stop malefactors and absconding
debtors. Goods that are seized in the possession of the latter may be
sequestrated to pay his creditors; but if their value is not equal to
the debt, the delinquent, if a pagan, is sold as a slave, but is let
off with a _bastinado_, if he proves to be "one of the faithful."

It is natural to suppose that every effort is made by the small
traders of the interior to avoid t