TO SEREKEI. 359 



beg us to wait for a little while, that Mr. Brooke's 

 ambassador and letter might be properly conducted 

 into the town. About two hours afterwards, while we, 

 having dressed, were waiting for our breakfast, a fleet 

 of large boats with drums (i. e. tomtoms), and trumpets 

 (i. e. gongs), were seen coming towards the place where 

 we lay. We supposed from the number of boats that 

 the Dattu himself was coming, and in a few minutes 

 ascertained that such was the case. He was in a 

 covered boat, pulled by about twenty men, and followed 

 by twenty other boats, some larger than that he occu- 

 pied, all of which, when he came alongside of us, drew 

 up in a line on the right-hand side of the river. 



The chief inquired of us whether we were ready to 

 enter the town, and begged us to excuse him from coming 

 out of his boat to ours, as he had a disease in the bone 

 of one of his legs which prevented his using it. His 

 house, he said, had been burnt down some time since, 

 and he had since constantly resided in this boat. As 

 soon as we signified to the chief that we were ready to 

 proceed up to the town, a signal was made from his 

 boat to those on shore, on which they immediately took 

 a hawser from each of our two boats, and towed us 

 slowly through the town until we came opposite the 

 Balei or Town-Hall. The town was everywhere decorated 

 with flags of all shapes and colours ; the music of the 

 noisy gongs and tomtoms was also in high requisition, 

 and brass guns were fired on all sides of us : during 

 our triumphal entry nothing they could devise was 

 neglected to give us a high idea of the estimation in 



