hen Lieutenant Findlay, of Her
Britannic Majesty's naval service, made his appearance in the river,
with three boats bearing the cross of St. George, no man in the
settlement was less anxious than Don Teodore, the _Spaniard_.

When the lieutenant handed me an order from the governor of Sierra
Leone and its dependencies, authorizing him to burn or destroy the
property of Joseph, as well as to arrest that personage himself, I
regretted that I was unable to facilitate his patriotic projects,
inasmuch as the felon was afloat on salt water, while all his property
had long before been conveyed to me by a regular bill of sale. In
proof of my assertions, I produced the instrument and the books; and
when I brought in our African landlord to sustain me in every
particular, the worthy lieutenant was forced to relinquish his
hostility and accept an invitation to dinner. His conduct during the
whole investigation was that of a gentleman; which, I am sorry to say,
was not always the case with his professional countrymen.

* * * * *

During the rainy season, which begins in June and lasts till October,
the stores of provisions in establishments along the Atlantic coast
often become sadly impaired. The Foulah and Mandingo tribes of the
interior are prevented by the swollen condition of intervening streams
from visiting the beach with their produce. In these straits, the
factories have recourse by canoes to the smaller rivers, which are
neither entered by sea-going vessels, nor blockaded for the caravans
of interior chiefs.

Among the tribes or clans visited by me in such seasons, I do not
remember any whose intercourse afforded more pleasure, or exhibited
nobler traits, than the BAGERS, who dwell on the solitary margins of
these shallow rivulets, and subsist by boiling salt in the dry season
and making palm-oil in the wet. I have never read an account of these
worthy blacks, whose civility, kindness, and honesty will compare
favorably with those of more civilized people.

The Bagers live very much apart from the great African tribes, and
keep up their race by intermarriage. The language is peculiar, and
altogether devoid of that Italian softness that makes the Soosoo so
musical.

Having a week or two of perfect leisure, I determined to set out in a
canoe to visit one of these establishments, especially as no
intelligence had reached me for some time from one of my country
traders who had been disp