o or
three calabashes of palm-wine, each containing about one gallon.

_Saturday, 17_.--The number and confidence of the natives continued to
increase, as well as the annoyance we experience from their
importunities;--it had been found necessary to protect the market by a
guard of soldiers. On returning from the market to-day, near the border
of Hay river, a party were daring enough to snatch the sentinel's
bayonet from out of its scabbard, and throw it into the river. The
soldier, however, succeeded in recovering it, and, to deter them from
proceeding to greater lengths, fired his musket over their heads. This
alarmed them so excessively, that away they scampered like a flock of
sheep, without daring to cast a look behind; indeed, such is their
terror of fire-arms, that it is only with the greatest difficulty that
they can be persuaded to touch a musket.

_Monday, Nov. 19_.--The young man, named Matthew Elwood, who had so
recently returned from his visit in the interior, where he had been
sent by Capt. Owen, with a view of acquiring some knowledge of their
language, volunteered to repeat it, accompanied by another young man,
and they had now been two days at the same village a few miles distant
from the settlement, where the King resided. Anxious to lose no
opportunity of obtaining information respecting the manners and customs
of this singular people, I determined on joining the party, and fixed
upon the present day for my journey. I have ever, throughout life, but
perhaps more particularly since the loss of my sight, felt an intense
interest in entering into association with human nature, and observing
human character in its more primitive forms: this propensity I have
previously had opportunities of enjoying, in some of the countries most
remote from European knowledge, amidst the wilds of Tartary and the
deserts of Siberia; and I can refer to the indulgence of it many of my
more pleasurable sensations. I know that the world declaims against the
absurdity of an individual, circumstanced like myself, professing to
derive either pleasure or information from such sources, and maintains
that travelling by the fireside would better suit those circumstances,
and convey an equally gratifying interest. I answer confidently that
this is not the case, and that I believe the intensity of my enjoyments
under the system I have adopted, equals, if not surpasses, what other
travellers experience who journey with their eyes open.