CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 87 



curiosity. Their general cargoes were salt, and palm nuts, 

 from the latter of which they extract oil. The salt is pro- 

 cured from the north shore, in the district of Boolambemba, 

 near Fathomless Point. In one of these canoes were also 

 an elephant's tooth and a boy for sale. 



From the natives who were on board we learnt that the 

 King of Sonio resides at Banza Sonio, on a fresh water river, 

 the entrance of which is the creek marked in Maxwell's chart 

 " Raphael's creek," and that a boat would be twelve hours 

 ascending to the town, though the current is trifling. We 

 also now learnt how the human bones came in the place 

 where they were seen by tlie Naturalists nearShark Point, 

 and which, without an explanation, might have led to the 

 supposed cannibalism of tlie natives ; Ave Avere however 

 assured that they were the remains of criminals, who had 

 suffered for the crime of poisoning, this spot being the place 

 of execution of a certain district. When a conunon man is 

 convicted of this crime, his head is first severed, and his 

 body then burnt ; but the punishment of a culprit of su- 

 perior rank is much more barbarous, the members being 

 amputated one by one, so as to preserve life, and one of each 

 sent to the principal towns of the kingdom, to be there 

 burnt. The trial is always by a kind of ordeal. 



This afternoon the transport weighed with the sea 



