and appeared by the number of villages
which are scattered over its surface, to be very populous. As they
rode along, a place was pointed out to them, where a murder had been
committed about seven years ago, upon the person of a young man. He
fell a victim to a party of Borgoo scoundrels, for refusing to give
up his companion to them, a young girl, to whom he was shortly to be
married. They, at first endeavoured to obtain her from him by fair
means, but he obstinately refused to accede to their request, and
contrived to keep the marauders at bay, till the young woman had made
her escape, when he also ran for his life. He was closely pursued by
them, and pierced by the number of arrows which they shot at him; he
at length fell down and died in the path, after having ran more than
a mile from the place where the first arrow had struck him. By the
care with which this story is treasured up in their memory, and the
earnestness and horror with which it is related, the Landers were
inclined to believe, that although there is so great a fuss about the
Borgoo robbers, and so manifest a dread of them, that a minder on the
high-way is of very rare occurrence. When this crime was perpetrated,
the whole nation seemed to be terror-struck, and the people rose up
in arms, as if a public enemy were devastating their country, and
slaughtering its inhabitants without mercy. This is the only instance
they ever heard of a young man entertaining a strong attachment for a
female. Marriage is celebrated by the natives as unconcernedly as
possible. A man thinks as little of taking a wife as of cutting an
ear of corn; affection is altogether out of the question.

A village in ruins, and a small town called Nama, where they halted
for a short time, were the only inhabited places they passed through
during the day, till their entrance into the town of Leoguadda, which
was surrounded by a double wall, and in which they passed the night.
The governor happened to be in his garden on their arrival, so that
they were completely wearied with waiting for him, but as he did not
make his appearance, they themselves found a convenient and
comfortable hut; and though they were assailed by a volley of abuse
from the mouths of half a dozen women, they succeeded in sending them
away, and they remained in tranquil possession of their quarters. In
the centre of their yard was a circular enclosure without a roof,
within which was an alligator that had been confin