318 THE PILOT DIDO. 



women as property according to the trade they 

 make. 



Dido has four wives, three of whom live with 

 him at Cassa, and one at Brass Town. He is 

 a slave of King Jacket's at Brass, and resides 

 here for the purpose of conducting vessels into 

 the river. He is a very shrewd, intelligent man, 

 and speaks good English. In all our dealings we 

 found him strictly honest. In his visits to us on 

 board the Columbine, this pilot generally brought 

 us the gossip of the'place, which he dealt out 

 with an air of great importance. Among other 

 stories, he told us of a report that the vessels had 

 been attacked in the little Eboe country, and 

 some white men killed. What degree of confi- 

 dence to put in this stat^ent, I did not know ; 

 but it appeared to me not unlikely to be true. 

 We now became every day more anxious for the 

 return of King Boy from the steamers with des- 

 patches. The last few mornings had been exces- 

 sively hot, and we had had several tornadoes from 

 the eastward, the good effects of which in clear- 

 ing and purifying the air were evident to us. 



On the morning of the 13th of November, we 

 were agreeably surprised by the appearance of 

 King Boy, who brought us accounts from the 



