Behind him the bearers of the inevitable bribes:
a drum, two blunderbusses, a bed, a piece of scarlet cloth, and a
solitary dog. (There should have been another, but it had bolted far
back at Mariancounda.) Then said Isaaco: "Maxwell, Governor of
Senegal, salutes you and sends his compliments to you. Here is the
present your father asked of Mr. Park and which he promised to send
him." "Is the Governor well?" asked Dacha. "Yes," replied Isaaco, "he
is well and desired me to beg your assistance to discover what has
become of Mr. Park. We would know if he is dead or alive." After these
civilities they fell to business, and Isaaco bargained for a canoe to
row as far as needful down the Niger. The King hesitated over the
Governor's offer of two hundred bars, for was he not far enough away
to break his word? But when the two pigs got loose and waddled about,
he became as happy as a child, and was no more trouble to Isaaco. To
confirm his goodwill, he killed a bullock for him, and begged him to
remain as his guest throughout the remainder of that moon. After a
fortnight's festivities, Isaaco was preparing to depart, when the
King's mind was suddenly turned another way. A message was brought in
that the Prince of Timbuctoo was at hand and desired an audience. King
Dacha scowled. Then he leapt to his feet, summoned his 600 guards, and
went out in full war-paint to meet him. The Prince rode up airily and
said: "Being a friend of your father, I thought it my duty to let you
know of my coming to take a wife, promised to me in your tribe." "And
why," asked Dacha in his dreadful voice, "why have you permitted the
people of your country to plunder one of my caravans, and why did
_you_ yourself plunder another?"

With no more said, the King returned to his kraal. It was from others
the Prince learned that the merchants of the caravans had denounced
him before the King, that his betrothed had been given to another, and
that he was in danger of being plundered of his life. With almost
indecent haste he despatched three horses to the King, gave pieces of
colored stuff to all the captains of the guards, and slunk back
ashamed to Timbuctoo. But King Dacha was so furiously enraged, he
could neither stay in his kraal nor allow Isaaco to take leave. Away
he rode to Impelbara and Banangcoro, with Isaaco trailing behind, very
much out of temper and somewhat out of breath. It seemed, as the chief
slave tried to explain, that when the King was an