3 2c TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



It was neceflary now to acquaint the king of Gingiro 

 of their arrival in his kingdom, and to beg to be honoured 

 with an audience. But he happened at that time to be 

 employed in the more important bufinefs of conjuration and 

 witchcraft, without which this fovereign does nothing. 



This kingdom of Gingiro may be fixed upon as the firfl 

 on this fide of Africa where we meet with the ftrange prac- 

 tice of divining from the apparition of fpirits, and from a 

 direct communication with the devil : A fuperftition this 

 which likewife reaches down all along the weftern fide of 

 this continent on the Atlantic Ocean, in the countries of 

 Congo, Angola, and Benin. In fpite of the firmer! founda- 

 tion in true philofophy, a traveller, who decides from the 

 information and inveftigation of facts, will find it very dif- 

 ficult to treat thefe appearances as abfolute fiction, or as 

 owing to a fuperiority of cunning of one man in over- reach- 

 ing another. For my own part, I confefsl am equally at a 

 lofs to afiign reafons for difbelieving the fiction on which 

 their pretenfions to fome preternatural information are 

 founded, as to account for them by the operation of ordina- 

 ry caufes. The king of Gingiro found eight days neceflary 

 before he could admit the ambaflador and Fernandes into 

 his prefence. On the ninth, they received a permillion to 

 go to court, and they arrived there the fame day. 



When they came into the prefence of the king he was 

 feated in a large gallery, open before, like what we call a 

 balcony, which had iteps from below on the outfide, by 

 which he aicended and descended at pleafure. When the 

 letter which the ambaflador earned was intimated to him, 

 'he came down from the gallery to receive itj a piece of re- 



fpect. 



