eamish kind, which could relish them.

On the return of the Landers from the market, where they were more
gazed upon than any of the articles submitted for sale, they received
a visit from their friend Ebo, who was the bearer of the unwelcome
intelligence, that a body of Fellatas from Soccatoo had arrived at
the Moussa, a river which divides Yarriba from Borgoo, and that they
had attacked a town on its borders, through which their route would
lie. Therefore, continued Ebo, the Yaoorie messenger will of
necessity be compelled to wait here till authentic intelligence be
received of the truth or falsehood of the rumour, before he sets out
on his mission to Kiama. There was little doubt, Ebo said, but the
truth or falsity of the statement would be ascertained in about three
days, and the messenger then would be immediately despatched on his
errand.

This intelligence bore in the eyes of the Landers the character of a
complete fiction, but for what purpose it was so got up, they could
not divine. The king could gain little or nothing by their protracted
stay in his capital; he had received his presents, and therefore it
was conjectured, that it might be the etiquette of the court of
Katunga, not only for the king to receive some presents from
strangers on their arrival, and especially from travellers of the
character and importance which the Landers gave themselves out to be,
as the accredited ambassadors of the king of England, but also that
the departure was to be preceded by certain presents, as a kind of
passport or purchase of his leave to travel through his dominions.
It appeared also most strange to the Landers, that the very day after
their arrival, the Fellatas should so opportunely seize upon a town,
through which they were to pass, and that the information of the
inroad of so dreaded an enemy should not have reached Katunga at an
earlier period, when intelligence of no moment whatever flies through
the country with the swiftness of an arrow from the bow. There was
also another strong inducement, which operated upon the mind of the
Landers, to expedite their departure, and that was, that from some
circumstances which had occurred, it was not beyond the range of
probability, that the head of John Lander, if not of his brother
also, might be severed by the skill of Ebo, the executioner. Love is
certainly a most wondrous power, whether it shows itself in the bosom
of the fair English girl, or in that of the sooty Af