Chap. VITI. SLAVE VILLAGE OP KING OLENDA. 141 



could grasp the balustrade, my foot slipped, and I fell 

 headlong into a deep hole, from which I was extri- 

 cated with difficulty. My arms and watches were 

 fortunately not at all damaged by the bath, and I was 

 glad to find that it did not damp the charges in my 

 revolver, for, on reaching the opposite bank, I fired 

 them all off, not a little to the surprise of the negroes, 

 whose respect for the weapon was thereby very much 

 increased. 



A march of about a mile beyond the river brought 

 us to a large plantation, the chief slave settlement of 

 the late King Olenda. It comprised a large extent 

 of land cleared from the forest, and contained a 

 village inhabited by the slaves, three or four hundred 

 in number. I was greatly astonished to find the 

 houses better built than in the town of Olenda, and 

 the whole village more neat and orderly. The plan- 

 tation extended over a picturesque and undulating 

 tract of ground, with brooks of crystal water in the 

 hollows. In places where these cool streams flowed 

 under the shade of trees, their banks were most 

 delightful, being overgrown with rich vegetation, and 

 the trunks and branches of the trees overhead covered 

 with vines and parasitic plants. The great quantity 

 of plantain-trees in the open ground, with their 

 gigantic, glossy leaves, the patches of ground-nuts, 

 and the light green blades of the sugar cane, gave 

 a pleasant aspect to the place, and hid the charred 

 trunks and stumps of trees which are otherwise so 

 unsightly in these clearings. 



The slave village had its chief, himself a slave, 

 and all called themselves the children of Olenda. 



