UNPLEASANT SITUATION. 
3 
I had given them nothings and that if I did not pay them 
they would put me on shore. I saw very well that their 
only object was to intimidate me and thereby to extort 
something from me. I disregarded their threats^ and pre- 
pared to sleep on board in spite of them^ for the cold night 
air and the damp were very unpleasant. 1 arranged my 
resting place as well as I could on a heap of baggage^ where 
I was almost folded double and unable to move. I had not 
a wink of sleep during the whole nighty and the negroes 
annoyed me in every possible way to induce me to leave 
the canoe. They even began to address insulting language 
to me^ and threatened to put me on shore next day if I did 
not satisfy their demands. I suffered much from this an- 
noyance ; but the negroes gained nothing by their insolence. 
When the common people of these countries meet with a 
stranger who does not speak their language, they think 
they may insult him with impunity 3 but it is sufficient to 
shew firmness to make them more tractable. They gave 
me for supper a little rice boiled in water, which was the 
food of the slaves. I had not eaten any thing all day, for 
there was no possibility of cooking on account of the 
crowded state of the canoe. 
At four in the morning of the 24th of March we stood 
to the N. E. The sailors pushed forward the canoe with a 
long pole : they rowed it in deep water, and sometimes 
towed it along shore. 
At this part, the river is about half a mile broad and 
very deep. Its banks, though low, are adorned with a 
species of mimosa, which grows only to the height of a 
small shrub. About seven in the morning we stopped before 
the village of Soufara, situated on the right bank, on a 
height which preserves it from the inundation. Beside 
this village is a little stream, which runs in an eastward 
direction. We went ashore to purchase some maumies and 
pistachio-nuts for breakfast. In this place there is no regular 
B 2 
