320 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



compare unfavourably even with Jack Falstaff's 

 villains, in whose company he was ashamed of 

 passing through Coventry — " for they marched 

 wide between the legs as if they had gyves on." 

 In such an affair, le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle. 

 During the day Lieut.-Colonel Smith and two 

 companies of the 2nd West India Regiment, 

 making about 120 men, embarked for Lagos, 

 which up to this time had had no garrison. 



At midnight we returned on board in the Go- 

 vernor's barge, which also took the mail-bags, and 

 at 2.30 a.m. (14th January) weighed anchor. I 

 was right glad to get away from this place, the 

 native population of which has been aptly described 

 by an American missionary as " the scum of the 

 Creation." 



On the 15th January, at 9 a.m., we sighted Cape 

 Mesurada, bearing N.E. by N., distant ten miles, 

 and at about 11 a.m. the following day we came 

 to anchor off Cape Palmas, where we found the 

 homeward bound mail-steamer "Ethiope," by which 

 we were enabled to send letters to England. Cape 

 Palmas is a bold headland, jutting into the sea, be- 



