, and furnished with tolerably-made doors and
cupboards. This wood bore decided marks of its having once formed
part of a vessel, and was most likely the remains of one which,
according to report, was wrecked not long ago on the bar of the
river. The house had recently been converted into a kind of seraglio
by King Boy, because ho had, to use his own expression, "plenty of
wives," who required looking after. It also answered the purpose of a
store-house for European goods, tobacco, and spirituous liquors. Its
rafters were of bamboo, and its thatch of palm leaves. The
apartment which the Landers occupied, had a window overlooking the
basin, outside of which was a veranda, occupied at the time by Pascoe
and his wives. The whole of its furniture consisted of an old oaken
table, but it was supplied with seats, made of clay, which were
raised about three feet from the ground. These, together with the
floor, which was of mud, were so soft and wet as to enable a person
to thrust his hand into any part of them without any difficulty
whatever. In one corner, communicating with the other apartments, was
a door destitute of a lock, and kept always ajar, except at night,
when it was closed. One of the sides of the room was decorated with
an old French print, representing the Virgin Mary, with a great
number of chubby-faced angels ministering to her, at whose feet was a
prayer on "Our Lady's good deliverance." The whole group was designed
and executed badly.

When the tide is at its height, the water flows up to the doors and
windows of the house, which may perhaps account for its dampness; it
is, however, held in very high estimation by its owner, and was
called an English house. In general the houses are built of a kind of
yellow clay, and the windows are all furnished with shutters.

There were several huts opposite the town, where the people make
salt, after the rains are over; the water at present was brackish
from the effect of the rains, but according to the information given
by Boy, in the course of two months it will be quite salt, when they
will again commence making it. It is an article of trade, and appears
to be taken in large quantities to the Eboe market, where it is
exchanged for yams, the kowrie shell not being circulated lower down
the river than Bocqua. The principal employment of the people
consists in making salt, fishing, boiling oil, and trading to the
Eboe country, for not a particle of cultivated land w