ound hundreds of canoes, some of them even larger than any
they had previously met with. When they had come alongside the
canoes, two or three huge brawny fellows, in broken English, asked
how they did, in a tone which Stentor might have envied; and the
shaking of hands with their powerful friends was really a punishment,
on account of the violent squeezes which they were compelled to
suffer. The chief of these men called himself _Gun_, though
_blunderbuss_ or _thunder_ would have been as appropriate a name; and
without solicitation, he informed them, that though he was not a
great man, yet he was a little military king; that his brother's name
was King _Boy_, and his father's King _Forday_, who, with King
_Jacket_, governed all the Brass country. But what was infinitely
more interesting to them, than this ridiculous list of kings, was the
information he gave them, that besides a Spanish schooner, an English
vessel, called the Thomas of Liverpool, was also lying in the first
Brass river, which _Mr. Gun_ said was frequented by Liverpool traders
for palm oil. Full of joy at this intelligence, they passed on to a
little artificial creek, where they were desired to wait till the
king's pleasure respecting them should be known. They were afterwards
drawn in a canoe over ooze and mud to a house, where, if the
countenance of their host had been at all in unison with the
agreeableness of his dwelling, they imagined that they could live at
ease in it, for a few days at least. The harshness, however, of this
man's manners, corresponded with his sulky, ill-natured face, and
deprived them of a good deal of pleasure, which they would have
enjoyed, in reposing at full length on dry, soft mats, after having
been cramped up for three days in a small canoe, with slaves and
goats, and exposed to the dews by night and the sun by day.

An hour or two of rest invigorated and refreshed them extremely, and
they then received a message from the king, that he was waiting to
see and converse with them. Having little to adjust in regard to
their dress, they rose up, and followed the messenger. Passing near
the outskirts of the town, the messenger conducted them, by paths
little frequented, to the outward yard of the palace, before the door
of which was placed the statue of a woman in a sitting posture, and
made of clay, of course, very rude and very ugly. Having crossed the
yard, in which they saw nothing remarkable, they entered by a wooden
doo