Chap. HI. COTTON-SEED NOT NEEDED. 71 



pleasant valley we met some of the people of the country, 

 who were miserably poor and hungry. The women were 

 gathering wild fruits in the woods. A young man having 

 consented for two yards of cotton cloth to show us a short 

 path to the cataract led us up a steep hill to a village 

 perched on the edge of one of its precipices ; a thunder- 

 storm coming on at the time, the headman invited us to 

 take shelter in a hut until it had passed. Our guide 

 having informed him of what he knew and conceived to be 

 our object, was favoured in return with a long reply in 

 well-sounding blank verse; at the end of every line the 

 guide, who listened with deep attention, responded with a 

 grunt, which soon became so ludicrous that our men burst 

 into a loud laugh. Neither the poet nor the responsive 

 guide took the slightest notice of their rudeness, but kept 

 on as energetically as ever to the end. The speech, or 

 more probably our bad manners, made some impression on 

 our guide, for he declined, although offered double pay, to 

 go any further. 



We brought cotton-seed to Africa, in ignorance that the 

 cotton already introduced was equal, if not superior, to the 

 common American, and offered it to any of the Portuguese 

 and natives who chose to cultivate it ; but, though some tried 

 this source of wealth, it was evident that their ideas, could 

 not soar beyond black ivory, as they call slaves, elephant's 

 tusks, and a little gold-dust. 



A great deal of fever comes in with March and April ; in 

 March, if considerable intervals take place between the 

 rainy days, and in April always, for then large surfaces 

 of mud and decaying vegetation are exposed to the hot 

 sun. In general an attack does not continue long, but it 

 pulls one down quickly ; though when the fever is checked 



