n or woman bask lazily in the sun._ Females were constantly busy
over their cotton and spinning wheels when not engaged in household
occupations; and often have I seen an elderly dame quietly crouched in
her hovel at sunset reading the Koran. Nor are the men of Timbo less
thrifty. Their city wall is said to hem in about ten thousand
individuals, representing all the social industries. They weave
cotton, work in leather, fabricate iron from the bar, engage
diligently in agriculture, and, whenever not laboriously employed,
devote themselves to reading and writing, of which they are
excessively fond.

These are the faint sketches, which, on ransacking my brain, I find
resting on its tablets. But I was tired of Timbo; I was perfectly
refreshed from my journey; and I was anxious to return to my factory
on the beach. Two "moons" only had been originally set apart for the
enterprise, and the third was already waxing towards its full. I
feared the Ali-Mami was not yet prepared with _slaves_ for my
departure, and I dreaded lest objections might be made if I approached
his royal highness with the flat announcement. Accordingly, I schooled
my interpreters, and visited that important personage. I made a long
speech, as full of compliments and blarney as a Christmas pudding is
of plums, and concluded by touching the soft part in African royalty's
heart--_slaves!_ I told the king that a vessel or two, with abundant
freights, would be waiting me on the river, and that I must hasten
thither with his choicest gangs if he hoped to reap a profit.

The king and the royal family were no doubt excessively grieved to
part with the Furtoo Mongo, but they were discreet persons and
"listened to reason." War parties and scouts were forthwith despatched
to blockade the paths, while press-gangs made recruits among the
villages, and even in Timbo. Sulimani-Ali, himself, sallied forth,
before daybreak, with a troop of horse, and at sundown, came back with
forty-five splendid fellows, captured in Findo and Furo!

The personal dread of me in the town itself, was augmented. If I had
been a Pestilence before, I was Death now! When I took my usual
morning walk the children ran from me screaming. Since the arrival of
Sulimani with his victims, all who were under the yoke thought their
hour of exile had come. The poor regarded me as the devil incarnate.
Once or twice, I caught women throwing a handful of dust or ashes
towards me, and uttering an invocati