OBSERVATIONS ON BRASS TOWN. 331 



and the floor was quite undermined by them. 

 From the incessant noise they made, their num- 

 ber must have been immense. 



In the course of the afternoon, one of the 

 pullaboys had stolen a pocket-handkerchief from 

 me, and I mentioned the circumstance to Bella, 

 the king's eldest wife, through an interpreter. 

 She seemed to express much concern about it, 

 and examined them all before her, and held a 

 long palaver, the substance of which was, that I 

 had lost a handkerchief, and that she insisted on 

 its being delivered up on pain of her displeasure. 

 After being out a few minutes, I returned, and 

 found my handkerchief lying upon my cloak, 

 evidently placed there by the guilty party. 



Brass Town, I have before observed, is situ- 

 ated in a morass ; the streets are very narrow, 

 and abominably filthy ; — neither before nor since 

 have I ever met with a more disgusting place. 

 The tide comes up to the town, and at low water 

 the filth of the natives is indescribable. I walked 

 a short distance into the bush ; the soil was allu- 

 vial. The natives subsist chiefly on fish, plan- 

 tain (miisa sapientum), and bananas (musa para- 

 disalid), which are brought from the little Eboe 



