ymen
on the following day, Richard Lander was obliged to sit the whole of
the afternoon with an old cloth wrapped round him, until his clothes
were washed and dried. This was the most miserable and starving place
which they had yet visited: since their arrival, Mr. Gun had sent
them two meals, consisting of a little pounded yam, and fish stewed
in palm oil, and for this he had the impudence to demand two muskets
in payment. These fellows, like the rest on the coast, were a set of
imposing rascals, little better than downright savages; Lander was
informed that they had absolutely starved three white men, shortly
before his arrival, who had been wrecked in a slaving vessel, when
crossing the bar.

CHAPTER XLI.

Richard Lander had determined that one of his men should accompany
him down the river, and at ten o'clock, having taken leave of his
brother and the rest of the party, they embarked in King Boy's canoe,
with a light heart and an anxious mind: although distant about sixty
miles from the mouth of the river, his journey appeared to him
already completed, and all his troubles and difficulties, he
considered at an end. Already, in fond anticipation, he was on board
the brig, and had found a welcome reception from her commander had
related to him all the hardships and dangers they had undergone, and
had been listened to with commiseration; already had he assured
himself of his doing all he could to enable him to fulfil his
engagements with these people, and thought themselves happy in
finding a vessel belonging to their own country in the river at the
time of their arrival. These meditations and a train of others about
home and friends, to which they naturally led, occupied his mind as
the canoe passed through the narrow creeks, sometimes winding under
avenues of mangrove trees, and at others expanding into small lakes
occasioned by the overflowing of the river. The captain of the canoe,
a tall sturdy fellow, was standing up, directing its course,
occasionally hallooing as they came to a turn in the creek, to the
fetish, and where an echo was returned half a glass of rum and a
piece of yam and fish were thrown into the water. Lander had seen
this done before, and on asking Boy the reason why he was throwing
away the provisions thus, he asked, "Did you not hear the fetish?"
The captain of the canoe replied, "Yes." "That is for the fetish,"
said Boy, "if we do not feed him, and do good for him, he will kill
us, or