SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE FROM OBIE. 335 



ing been obliged to anchor every night, and 

 occasionally in the daytime to obtain wood. 

 As soon as we had arrived here, I sent Johnson 

 ashore, with Eboe, a black man, who had been 

 cook on board since leaving Fernando Po. I sent 

 by him a present of a rug and two fancy caps to 

 Obie. 



I was desirous that the man Eboe should ac- 

 company us down the river to the Nun, as in 

 case I should require an interpreter he was the 

 only person who could speak the Eboe language. 

 As an inducement, I repeatedly told him, that 

 unless he did so, I would not give him the value 

 of a flint for his services. He said, " If Obie tell 

 him for go, he go ; if Obie tell him for stay, he 

 stay :" but this was a mere excuse, and I believed 

 that he did not wish to go down. I strongly sus- 

 pected that he had inflicted a wound between his 

 toes, and applied some escharotic herbs to it, in 

 order that his lameness might be a plea for leav- 

 ing me. 



At one o'clock Johnson returned from King 

 Obie with a very unsatisfactory and suspicious 

 account. Obie desired him to say that he had no 

 letters for me, but that he wished very much to 

 see me, and that I must go on shore in the morn- 



