left Bluefields the next day and returned to Pearl
Key Lagoon.

I must here relate a humorous conversation I heard at Bluefields between
two of the most respectable young ladies of that place, named Mary and
Mauger. A vessel having arrived there from Curracoa, the captain and two
others came on shore, and setting down along side of these young ladies,
commenced a vulgar conversation with Mauger. Mary having more modesty
than her companion, immediately called Mauger away from them, and said,
"Mauger, you fool gal, why you talk them Curracoa Buckras, mind by and
by, mouth fly off."

The father of the present Musquitto king must have been fond of women,
as he had no less than fourteen wives. He was a great tyrant, and was
murdered by his subjects for his tyranny over them. The English
government ordered his two eldest sons to be carried to Jamaica and put
under the care of the Duke of Manchester, then governor of that island,
where they remained about six years and obtained a fair English
education. The present king, who calls his name George Frederick, was
furnished with a large outfit from the duke, consisting of a suit of
clothes worth eighteen hundred dollars, repairs of his father's crown
fifteen hundred dollars, and four thousand dollars' worth of goods and
presents to distribute among his subjects. A sloop of war was fitted out
to carry him to the Bay of Honduras, where he was crowned, and from
thence conveyed to his own dominions.

Soon after my return from Bluefields I was visited by the new king, it
being his first visit to the Lagoon. After my introduction I told him
the English traders on the coast were determined to prevent my opening a
trade with his subjects, and solicited his protection. He readily agreed
to give me a permit, which he himself signed, and is as follows:

"Pearl Key Lagoon, _July 20th, 1815_.

"Permission is hereby given to Captain Jacob Dunham, a citizen
of the United States of America, to touch and trade in all
parts of my dominions in any vessel from North America.

"GEORGE FREDERICK,
King of the Musquitto Nation."

I made the king a few presents, and the inhabitants gave us a ball,
where we amused ourselves by dancing on a ground floor. The king left us
a few days after.

I soon became familiar with the Indians, by joining in their amusements
and obtaining a knowledg