nd, addressing a few remarks to the king which seemed to
make the latter feel rather uncomfortable, took himself off to his
fetish-house, within which he vanished. Then the king shouted something
to his women-folk which caused them to scuttle back into the palace like
so many rabbits; and the next moment the two guards who had me in charge
marched me off to an empty hut behind the palace--which was, luckily, to
windward of the crucifixion tree, the odour from which therefore did not
reach as far as my lodging--and, having signed to me to enter, mounted
guard, one on each side of the door.

My prison--if such it was--was a tolerably spacious affair, measuring
about twenty feet long by fifteen feet wide, and it was absolutely
empty; also, there being no windows to the building, and the light
entering only by the open door, the obscurity, on entering, seemed
profound, although a few minutes sufficed to enable one's eyes to grow
accustomed to it, when, at least during daylight, it was possible to see
clearly enough for all practical purposes.

I had not been in my new quarters above five minutes when two elderly
women entered, each bearing upon her head a large bundle of dry fern,
which they cast down in one of the two corners of the hut most distant
from the door and proceeded to spread there in such a fashion as to form
a most comfortable bed, upon which I at once flung myself, for I was
very weary. But before I could compose myself to rest two other women
entered, one of whom bore, upon a thick biscuit-like cake the size of an
ordinary dinner-plate, two roast ribs of goat and a generous portion of
boiled yam, while the other carried a calabash full of what I took to be
some kind of native beer. Evidently, whatever was to be my fate, they
did not intend to starve me; and, gratefully accepting the viands, which
gave forth a most appetising odour, I sat down and made a hearty meal,
after doing full justice to which I composed myself to sleep upon my bed
of ferns, and enjoyed a long and most comfortable night's rest.

I may here mention that I never again saw the party of savages who
brought me up the river, and I was therefore strengthened in the
conclusion at which I had arrived that they had gone to all the trouble
of conveying me that long distance in order that they might make a
present of me, possibly as a peace-offering from their tribe, to King
Banda, who, I soon had reason to believe, was a decidedly formidable