ANECDOTE. 335 



Louis, the pilot who accompanied us in Boy's 

 canoe, is a shrewd intelligent negro, and, from 

 his intercourse with Spanish vessels, speaks the 

 Spanish language remarkably well. In the course 

 of the day, while we were at Brass,* he came 

 to me and requested me to go and look at his 

 house, which to gratify him I did. He produced 

 some excellent tombo, or palm-wine ; and after- 

 wards, pointing to a shrub, and a jar with wa- 

 ter, and a small piece of yam in it, said it was 

 his Ju-ju. 



The following anecdote will serve to illus- 

 trate the absolute power possessed by these 

 African kings : — King Gun had accidentally re- 

 ceived a wound in the arm from one of two 

 boys who w^ere playing with cutlasses. This 

 boy threw his cutlass at the other : Gun hap- 

 pened to be passing the corner of the street at 

 the same time, and received the point of the 

 cutlass in his arm. The boy was immediately 



* This man, Louis, was afterwards tied to a piece of 

 wood and thrown into the river to the sharks, for his inti- 

 macy with one of King Fourday's wives. The method 

 of punishment for crimes of this nature consists in the par- 

 ties being drowned, or obliged to take poison. In this in- 

 stance, the latter was preferred by the unfortunate woman, 

 while the pilot chose the former mode of death. 



