bosom. This latter ornament, which has probably
been given him by a slave captain, had by no means an unbecoming
appearance. King Boy introduced himself to me with the air of a
person who bestows a favour, rather than soliciting acquaintance, and
indeed his vanity in other respects was highly amusing. He would not
suffer any one to sit between him and the platform, but squatted
himself down nearest the king's seat, which, as a mark of honour, had
been previously assigned to us; and with a volubility scarcely
imaginable, he commenced a long narrative of his greatness, power,
and dignity, in which he excelled all his neighbours, and to this I
was constrained to listen with assumed composure and attention for a
considerable time. To convince me of his veracity, he produced a
pocket book, containing a great number of recommendatory notes, or
'characters,' as a domestic would call them, written in the English,
French, Spanish, and Portuguese languages, and which had been given
him by the various European traders, who had visited the Brass River.
This practice of giving written characters, which has for some time
been adopted by Europeans, is both praiseworthy and useful, and it
has become almost universal on the western coast; because it is not
to be supposed that the natives themselves can understand these
documents, and strangers are made acquainted with their good or bad
qualities by them, and taught to discriminate the honest from the
unfaithful and malicious. Boy's letters mentioned certain dealings,
which their authors had had with him, and they likewise bore
testimony to his own character, and the manners of his countrymen.
Amongst others is one from a 'James Dow, master of the brig Susan,
from Liverpool,' and dated: '_Brass First River_, Sept. 1830,' which
runs as follows: "Captain Dow states, that he never met with a set of
greater scoundrels than the natives in general, and the pilots in
particular." These he anathematised as d----d rascals, who had
endeavoured to steer his vessel among the breakers at the mouth of
the river, that they might share the plunder of its wreck. King
Jacket, who claims the sovereignty of the river, is declared to be a
more confirmed knave, if possible, than they, and to have cheated him
of a good deal of property. The writer describes King Forday as a man
rather advanced in years, less fraudulent but more dilatory. King
Boy, his son, alone deserved his confidence, for he had not abused
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