800 PROFESSOR SMITH'S JOURNAL. 



put him to death ; but every one most readily w ill lend his 

 wife to his neighbour for a very trifling consideration. 

 Some of our gentlemen had thoughts of hiring a house ; but 

 the distance from the vessel was considered to be too great, 

 and the Captain did not by any means approve of it. 



A long deliberation had taken place among the King's 

 advisers; after which we again assembled. The Captain 

 repeated what he had said before. One of the sons of the 

 King was the person who showed most uneasiness, distrust, 

 and coldness during the whole deliberation. At length, 

 an old man, uncle of the King, who commonly communi- 

 cates the resolutions of the assembly, and who had voted 

 with Simons in our favour (Simons had been called upon 

 by them to take the oath), broke leaf, Avhich is the symbol 

 pf peace and amity, with the Captain ; implying, that they 

 believed that he had come on friendly purposes, &c. The 

 most interesting personage was the father of Simons. He 

 had given his son in charge to a trading slave captain, of 

 Liverpool, in order to be educated in England ; but instead 

 of this, the boy had been sold by this captain in the West 

 Indies, where he had suffered many hardships : from 

 which he escaped by getting on board a King's ship, from 

 which he was by mere accident sent on board the Congo. 

 The father, after waitin^>- for his return eleven years, during 

 which time he had made many inquiries for him in vain, 

 had now unexpectedly got intelligence of his being with 

 us, and came on board the first evening of our arrival near 

 liOomba. His excessive joy, the ardour with which he 

 hugged his son in his arms, proved that even among this 



