ppeared from among the wild and reeling crowd,
and concluding her functions by some mysterious ceremonies, led forth
the lank groom from the dark cavity of his hot and sleepless oven,
looking more like a bewildered wretch rescued from drowning, than a
radiant lover fresh from his charmer. In due time, the bride also was
brought forth by the matrons for the bath, where she was anointed from
head to foot with a vegetable butter,--whose odor is probably more
agreeable to Africans than Americans,--and fed with a bowl of broth
made from a young and tender pullet.

The marriage _fetes_ lasted three days, after which I insisted that
Joseph should give up nonsense for business, and sobered his ecstasies
by handing him a wedding-bill for five hundred and fifty dollars.

There is hardly a doubt that he considered COOMBA very _dear_, if not
absolutely adorable!

FOOTNOTE:

[2] A _tontongee_ is a strip of white cotton cloth, three inches wide
and four feet long, used as a _virgin African's only dress_. It is
wound round the limbs, and, hanging partly in front and partly behind,
is supported from the maiden's waist by strands of _showee-beads_.

CHAPTER XIV.

I am sorry to say that my colleague's honeymoon did not last long,
although it was not interrupted by domestic discord. One of his
malicious Sierra Leone creditors, who had not been dealt with quite as
liberally as the rest, called on the colonial governor of that British
establishment, and alleged that a certain Edward Joseph, an
Englishman, owned a factory on the Rio Pongo, in company with a
Spaniard, and was engaged in the slave-trade!

At this the British lion, of course, growled in his African cage, and
bestirred himself to punish the recreant cub. An expedition was
forthwith fitted out to descend upon our little establishment; and, in
all likelihood, the design would have been executed, had not our
friendly Israelite in Sierra Leone sent us timely warning. No sooner
did the news arrive than Joseph embarked in a slaver, and, packing up
his valuables, together with sixty negroes, fled from Africa. His
disconsolate bride was left to return to her parents.

As the hostile visit from the British colony was hourly expected, I
did not tarry long in putting a new face on Kambia. Fresh books were
made out in my name exclusively; their dates were carefully suited to
meet all inquiries; and the townspeople were prepared to answer
impertinent questions; so that, w