efore entered. Refreshments were
placed before him. These he did not need, but thought it better to
eat of them. While he was so doing, an animated conversation was
maintained between the chief and his followers.

After a time, the chief made signs to him to follow him, and
conducted him to a smaller house close by, which he made signs to
him that he was to consider as his own. Mats had been already
spread on the ground; rugs made of quilted cotton, for sleeping
upon, piled in a corner; vases of flowers placed about the room,
and all made ready for occupation. An old woman, followed by two
young girls, came forward and saluted to the ground. They were
slaves, whom the chief had appointed to wait upon the visitor.

No sooner had the chief left than a perfect levee commenced, and
went on for hours; until it seemed to Roger that every man, woman,
and child in the town must have called upon him. Most of them
brought little presents as tokens of goodwill. Garlands of flowers
were thrown round his neck, baskets of fruit, cakes made from maize
flour, dishes of meat of various kinds, little trinkets of gold,
baskets containing beans and many other eatable seeds, and a ground
powder of brownish hue, of whose uses Roger was ignorant, but which
he afterwards discovered to be cocoa, which furnished the most
popular beverage of the natives.

Not until it was quite dark did the stream of visitors cease. Then
the old slave dropped a hanging across the door, and one of the
young ones brought forward to Roger, who was utterly worn out with
the fatigues of the day, a bowl of steaming cocoa, and some cakes
of fruit. Roger found the cocoa extremely palatable, and wholly
unlike anything he had ever before tasted; and it seemed to
invigorate him greatly.

After drinking, he spread some of the quilted mats upon the floor,
and threw himself down upon them. The old woman had lighted a lamp,
and withdrawn with the younger ones to an apartment behind; which
served as their sleeping place, as well as kitchen.

Now that he was alone and had time to think, Roger broke down
entirely. Was it possible that it was but this morning he was on
board ship, with his father and friends; and that now all were
gone, gone forever, and he was in a strange land, cut off from all
hope of return, surrounded by people who, if they were friendly
today, might yet, for aught he knew, slay him on the morrow?

For the time, however, his own fate occupied him but l