VISIT FROM THE KING. 199 



Babel of noise and clamour which it is quite 

 laughable to think of now, although it was suf- 

 ficiently annoying at the time. 



About ten in the morning, the king's chief 

 eunuch came to see our packages of goods ex- 

 amined, in order that we might be satisfied that 

 our conductors had taken nothing. On finding 

 everything right, I made a present to each of 

 the escort and bearers far beyond their expecta- 

 tions. In the afternoon I was visited by the 

 king, who was attended by a great number of 

 eunuchs and a cavalcade of about a dozen 

 horsemen. He was splendidly dressed in silk 

 and velvet robes, and appeared to be a man of 

 immense size. His countenance is by no means 

 prepossessing, particularly his eyes, which are of 

 a dirty red colour, having a sinister and forebod- 

 ing expression. I presented him with a brass- 

 mounted sword, an umbrella five feet in diameter 

 highly ornamented, a brace of pistols, and seve- 

 ral other things, and then informed him through 

 my interpreter that I had come from a great dis- 

 tance to look at him in the face, and to hold a 

 good palaver with him ; that his messengers had 

 informed me it was his desire to see the face of 

 a white man, and trusting to his good faith, I 



