320 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



It was necelTary now to acquaint the king of Gingiro 

 of their arrival in his kingdom, and to beg to be honoured 

 with an audience. But he happened at that time to be 

 employed in the more important bufinefs of conjuration and 

 witchcraft, without which this fovereign does nothing. 



This kingdom of Gingiro may be fixed upon as the firft 

 on this fide of Africa where we meet v/ith the ftrange prac- 

 tice of divining from the apparition of fpirits, and from a 

 diredl communication with the devil : A fuperflition this 

 which likewife reaches down all along the weftern iide of 

 this continent on the Atlantic Ocean, in the countries of 

 Congo, Angola, and Benin. In fpite of the firmeft founda- 

 tion in true philofophy, a traveller, who decides from the 

 information and inveftigation of fadts, will find it very dif- 

 ficult to treat thefe appearances as abfolute fidlion, or as 

 owing to afuperiority of cunning of one man in over- reach- 

 ing another. For my own part, I confefs I am equally at a 

 lofs to affign reafons for dilbelieving the fi(n:ion on which 

 their pretenfions to fome preternatural inform.ation are 

 founded, as to account for them by the operation of ordina- 

 ry caufes. The king of Gingiro found eight days necefiary 

 before he could admit the ambafl'ador and Fernandes into 

 his prefence. On the ninth, they received a permiiiion to 

 go to court, and they arrived there the fame day. 



When they came into the prefence of the king he was 

 feated in a large gallery, open before, like what we call a 

 balcony, which had fleps from below on the outfide, by 

 which he afcended and defcended at plcafure. When the 

 letter which the ambaiTador carried was intimated to him, 

 he came dov/n from the gallcrv to receive it, a piece of re- 



fped 



