322 FISH TOWN. 



Previously to our leaving the Nun, we were 

 given to understand that our journey would be 

 ended by sunrise on the morning after we had 

 set out ; and as King Boy promised us plenty of 

 chop to eat, we had merely taken with us a few 

 little biscuits. About eleven o'clock we stopped 

 at a town on the left bank, consisting of a few 

 huts, named Fish Town. This town is inhabited 

 chiefly by fishermen, who dry large quantities of 

 fish. The method of drying them is by placing 

 them about ten feet above a wood-fire in the 

 smoke for a few hours. A great number of 

 oyster-shells were lying about the bank, which 

 the natives calcine and convert into a good chalk. 

 The pullaboys remained here about two hours to 

 rest. Having had nothing to eat since we start- 

 ed, I found the cravings of nature so powerful, 

 that I gladly partook of what I could not have 

 been induced to do at another time. This was 

 a cold piece of boiled yam saturated with Mala- 

 getta pepper, which tasted as unpleasant as cold 

 potatoe dipped in vitriolic acid. 



About one o'clock we proceeded on our 

 journey. The night was fine, and excepting the 

 occasional strange cries of the pullaboys, and the 

 noise of their paddles entering the water, all was 



