402 JOURNEY TO THE COAST. Chap. XIX 



nothin;^ was left of it but a few. poles, and it was 

 tbe same with the habitations of many other negroes 

 who had formerly been good friends to me ; tho 

 owners were dead, and their houses were in ruins. 

 The little fetich-houses in their neighbourhood re- 

 mained standing, with their talismanic creepers grow- 

 ing round them, but there was no one to take care of 

 them ; I took the opportunity to lecture the negroes 

 who were with me, on the ft^lly of believing in these 

 fetiches, which they might see had no power to avert 

 the calamity that had overtaken their owners. 



Soon after this, Quengueza himself arrived with all 

 his followers, in their canoes. Many of the survivors 

 of his clan had been trying to make him suspect 

 witchcraft as being at the bottom of the misfortunes 

 that had befallen him, and were crying out for the 

 pona oganga to sacrifice more victims and still fur- 

 ther reduce the numbers of the people. But the old 

 man would not listen to these miserable croakers. 

 I was glad to see him resist all their appeals ; he 

 said there was no witchcraft in this plague, but it 

 was a " wind sent by Aniambie' (God)." " Enough 

 people had died," he continued, " and we must not 

 kill any more." 



The old chief seemed to have lost heart completely, 

 and was thinking of leaviLg his country for good. 

 " If I was a young man," he said, " I would go with 

 you to the white man's country ; and even old as I 

 am, if your country was not so far oft', I would go 

 with you. If it was no further than the Mpongwe 

 country (tho Gaboon), or Fernando Po" — for he 



