which markets in general are more or
less famed.

Here were to be seen great heaps of earthenware of red clay--pans for
cooking rice, water-jars, bottles, and dishes of all sorts, as well as
English crockery, especially that with the old willow-pattern design!
There were great varieties of straw hats, beautifully made of rice and
other straw. Elsewhere might be seen iron-work of native manufacture,
some of it displaying considerable taste and skilful workmanship. There
were also beds, with well-turned posts, made of a wood like mahogany,
and the mattresses for these were stuffed with down from a certain
flower, which made soft and comfortable couches. Lambas of many kinds
were also to be seen, from those of coarse rofia cloth to those of finer
and more ornamental material--though the finest silk lambas and the more
expensive European goods were not often exposed for sale there, but were
to be had at the houses of the traders and manufacturers. One part of
the market was devoted to wood for the rafters and framework of houses,
another to the sale of vegetables and fruits--among which were sweet
potatoes, manioc, beans, maize, peaches, bananas, mangoes, pine-apples,
oranges, lemons, pumpkins, melons, grapes, Cape gooseberries,
mulberries, guavas, pomegranates, and many others, besides bread-fruit
and rice--which last is the staple food of the people.

"Oh! I say, 'Ockins," whispered Ebony at this point, "my mout's
a-waterin'."

"Well, mine's somethin' in the same way," returned the seaman, "but we
haven't a rap to buy with."

Whether Laihova overheard the whisper or not we cannot tell, but he
stopped at that moment, purchased a large quantity of the tempting
fruit, and handed it, without a word, to his friends, who received it
with becoming gratitude.

"You's a trump, Hovey," said the negro, as he put a whole peach into his
capacious mouth.

"Ditto," said Hockins, performing the same feat with a banana.

"Do I hear music?" said Mark Breezy.

"An' don't I smell rum?" remarked Hockins.

"An' doesn't I hear cackling?" inquired Ebony.

By way of answer to all three, Laihova turned round the corner of a
stall, when the party reached a spot which was devoted to the sale of
native rum, or "toaka"--a coarse fiery spirit made from sugar-cane, and
sold at a very low price. Here a native musician was discovered
twanging a native guitar, either as an accompaniment to the cackling of
hundreds of fowls and the gobbli