port his conduct to
their master, and they did not return for a fortnight, during which
time, Lander remained at a Bowchee village, an hour distant, very
ill, having nothing to eat but boiled corn, not much relishing
_roasted dog._ The inhabitants, who came by hundreds every day to
visit him, were destitute of any clothing, but behaved in a modest
and becoming manner. The men did not appear to have any occupation or
employment whatever. The women were generally engaged, the greater
part of the day, in manufacturing oil from a black seed and the
Guinea nut.

Not deeming it safe, according to the advice of the sultan of Zeg
Zeg, to pursue his homeward way by the route of Funda, he chose the
Youriba road; and, after serious delays, he reached Badagry on the
21st November 1827; but here he was nearly losing his life, owing to
the vindictive jealousy of the Portuguese slave-merchants, who
denounced him to the king as a spy sent by the English government.
The consequence was, that it was resolved by the chief men to subject
him to the ordeal of drinking a fetish. "If you come to do bad," they
said, "it will kill you; but if not, it cannot hurt you." There was
no alternative or escape. Poor Lander swallowed the contents of the
bowl, and then walked hastily out of the hut through the armed men
who surrounded it, to his own lodgings, where he lost no time in
getting rid of the fetish drink by a powerful emetic. He afterwards
learned, that it almost always proved fatal. When the king and his
chiefs found, after five days, that Lander survived, they changed
their minds, and became extremely kind, concluding that he was under
the special protection of God. The Portuguese, however, he had reason
to believe, would have taken the first opportunity to assassinate
him. His life at this place was in continual danger, until,
fortunately, Captain Laing, of the brig Maria of London, of which
Fullerton was the chief mate, and afterwards commander, hearing that
there was a white man about sixty miles up the country, who was in a
most deplorable condition, and suspecting that he might be one of the
travellers sent out on the expedition to explore the interior of
Africa, despatched a messenger with instructions to bring him away.
The parties who held him were, however, not disposed to part with him
without a ransom, the amount of which was fixed at nearly L70, which
was paid by Captain Laing in broadcloths, gunpowder, and other
articles, and