the
prince's search for a _lawful_ homestead, we plunged still deeper in
the forest, but returned without finding a location to my taste. Next
day we recommenced our exploration by land, and, in order to obtain a
comprehensive view of my dominion, as far as the eye would reach, I
proposed an ascent of the promontory of the Cape which lifts its head
quite twelve hundred feet above the sea. A toilsome walk of hours
brought us to the summit, but so dense was the foliage and so lofty
the magnificent trees, that, even by climbing the tallest, my scope of
vision was hardly increased. As we descended the slopes, however,
towards the strait between the sea and lake, I suddenly came upon a
rich, spacious level, flanked by a large brook of delicious water, and
deciding instantly that it was an admirable spot for intercourse with
the ocean as well as interior, I resolved that it should be the site
of my future home. A tar was at hand to climb the loftiest palm, to
strip its bushy head, and hoist the union-jack. Before sundown, I had
taken solemn territorial possession, and baptized the future town "New
Florence," in honor of my Italian birthplace.

My next effort was to procure laborers, for whom I invoked the aid of
Fana-Toro and the neighboring chiefs. During two days, forty negroes,
whom I hired for their food and a _per diem_ of twenty cents, wrought
faithfully under my direction; but the constant task of felling trees,
digging roots, and clearing ground, was so unusual for savages, that
the entire gang, with the exception of a dozen, took their pay in rum
and tobacco and quitted me. A couple of days more, devoted to such
endurance, drove off the remaining twelve, so that on the fifth day of
my philanthropic enterprise I was left in my solitary hut with a
single attendant. I had, alas! undertaken a task altogether unsuited
to people whose idea of earthly happiness and duty is divided between
palm-oil, concubinage, and sunshine!

I found it idle to remonstrate with the king about the indolence of
his subjects. Fana-Toro entertained very nearly the same opinion as
his slaves. He declared,--and perhaps very sensibly,--that white men
were fools to work from sunrise to sunset every day of their lives;
nor could he comprehend how negroes were expected to follow their
example; nay, it was not the "fashion of Africa;" and, least of all,
could his majesty conceive how a man possessed of so much merchandise
and property, would volunta