FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 71 



His palace was merely a clusier of mud cabins surrounded 

 by a hedge of reeds. In one of these huts he reclined on a 

 couch, while several of his wives and daughters sat round 

 him on mats spread on the ground. The reception was 

 perfectly friendly, and Brue even obtained permission to 

 erect forts, — a privilege of which African princes are usually 

 and indeed naturally jealous. The director was allowed 

 full liberty to converse with the female circle, who were by 

 no means held in that state of austere seclusion which gives 

 such a gloom to Mussulman society. The ladies began to 

 talk in the most lively and familiar manner ; and as Brue 

 was thought to eye with admiration a handsome young 

 prmcess of seventeen, she was tendered to him in marriage. 

 He excused himself as one already joined in the bonds of 

 matrimony ; but the ladies professed themselves quite un- 

 able to conceive how this could form an objection, their 

 young relative being of course prepared to share the honour 

 with any reasonable number of rivals. It then behooved the 

 director to explain the matrimonial system of Europe, which 

 furnished, as it always does in Africa, ample ground for 

 wonder and speculation. The lot of the French ladies was 

 pronounced to be truly enviable ; but Brue's own situation 

 was much commiserated, especially in his present state of 

 separation from his only wife. 



The court being obliged to remove by the annoyance 

 arising from a species of flying insect, Brue had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing the royal procession travelling in order. 

 First came a numerous body of mounted musicians, who, 

 performing on various instruments, produced a noise at 

 once deafening and discordant. Next followed the royal 

 ladies, mounted on the backs of camels in large osier 

 baskets, which so completely enveloped their persons that 

 their heads only were seen peeping above. Their female 

 domestics, riding by their side on asses, endeavoured to en- 

 liven them by incessant talk. The baggage behind was 

 borne by a long train of camels and asses ; while horsemen, 

 in military amy, with the king and his principal nobles at 

 their head, closed the procession. The director and his 

 party, while all this gay train passed by, exchanged with 

 them mutual courtesies and salutations. Having satisfac- 

 torily accomplished the immediate object of his journey, 

 Brue returned to St. Louis. 



