GREEDINESS OF THE NATIVES. 237 



The head Mallam, who is the king's confiden- 

 tial adviser, signed his name in Arabic cha- 

 racters ; — he was a fine venerable-looking old 

 man, with a beard as white as the driven snow : 

 and we had no sooner done, than the sound of 

 music was heard, in the adjacent yard, of an ex- 

 traordinarily wild, yet pleasing description. 



I desired the king to send abundance of trade, 

 — not one or two teeth, but plenty : on which he 

 drily observed that I did not make good trade 

 with his sister the last time she came. 



These people are never satisfied. They want- 

 ed me to present them with the best and largest 

 piece of cloth we had, and also a cap which some 

 one had seen on the cabin table. There is no- 

 thing secure if any of Attah's people get a 

 glimpse of an article which suits them. 



I was now requested to see Cookooga, the 

 king's head messenger, who was indisposed, or 

 at least reported to be so. I thought that it 

 was only a stratagem of the king's to see if I 

 were friendly towards him, which he doubted. 



This Cookooga had been on board with two of 

 the king's daughters to visit the ship. After 

 they had seen every part of her, they went to the 

 quarter-deck, where chairs were offered them ; 



