hour, during which time Boy
was in the hut with the priest, he rejoined them, and they proceeded
to Forday's town, and took up their residence at Boy's house. In the
extraordinary ceremony which they had just witnessed, it was evident
that they were the persons principally concerned, but whether it
terminated in their favour or against them; whether the answers of
the _Dju-dju_ were propitious or otherwise, they were only able to
ascertain by the behaviour of the Brass people towards them.

It was with the strongest emotions of joy that they saw a white man
on shore, whilst they were in the canoe, waiting the conclusion of
the ceremony. It was a cheering and goodly sight to recognize the
features of an European, in the midst of a crowd of savages. This
individual paid them a visit in the evening; his behaviour was
perfectly affable, courteous, and obliging, and in the course of a
conversation which they had with him, he informed them that he was
the master of the Spanish schooner, which was then lying in the Brass
River for slaves. Six of her crew, who were ill of the fever, and who
were still indisposed, likewise resided in the town.

Of all the wretched, filthy, and contemptible places in this world of
ours, none can present to the eye of a stranger so miserable an
appearance, or can offer such disgusting and loathsome sights as this
abominable Brass Town. Dogs, goats, and other animals were running
about the dirty streets half starved, whose hungry looks could only
be exceeded by the famishing appearance of the men, women, and
children, which bespoke the penury and wretchedness to which they
were reduced, while the sons of many of them were covered with odious
boils, and their huts were falling to the ground from neglect and
decay.

Brass, properly speaking, consists of two towns of nearly equal size,
containing about a thousand inhabitants each, and built on the
borders of a kind of basin, which is formed by a number of rivulets,
entering it from the Niger through forests of mangrove bushes. One of
them was under the domination of a noted scoundrel, called King
Jacket, to whom a former allusion has been made, and the other was
governed by a rival chief, named King Forday. These towns are
situated directly opposite each other, and within the distance of
eighty yards, and are built on a marshy ground, which occasions the
huts to be always wet. Another place, called Pilot's Town by
Europeans, from the number of pil