DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH. %51 
not amount to much more than twenty pounds ; 
and they had then the satisfaction of bidding adieu 
to their illustrious visitors. 
The king of Barsally, as well as all his attend- 
ants, are zealous Mahometans ; and whenever he 
was not completely intoxicated, he prayed most 
fervently. Far from thinking, with others of his 
persuasion, that it was worse than death to taste 
brandy, or other strong liquors, he considered 
it almost as deadly an evil to taste any thing weak- 
er. His usual course of life was, to rise at night, 
and drink till towards daylight, then eat, and go 
to sleep till near sunset. At that time he rose, and 
having again drank copiously, went to sleep till 
midnight. His insatiable thirst for brandy kept 
both his subjects and neighbours in a state of per- 
petual terror. When he stood in need of a supply 
of this indispensable article, he immediately sent to 
the managers of the Company at James- Fort, re- 
questing, that they would dispatch a cargo to be 
exchanged for slaves ; a call which those worthy 
personages always obeyed with the utmost alacrity. 
The king then marched suddenly to a neighbouring 
town, set fire to three parts of it, and stationed his 
guards at the fourth, who seized the inhabitants as 
they attempted to escape. If he was not at war 
with any of his neighbours, he then, says Moore, 
" falls upon one of his own towns, which are 
" numerous, and uses them in the very same man- 
