156 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA 
finding a little milk was the only article offered 
for sale, and that after sunset, and at exorbitant 
prices, I was reduced to the necessity of endea- 
vouring, by means of a considerable present, to 
make peace with him. This, however, took some 
time, and put me to much inconvenience in 
sending messengers to him. 
Although I had a month's corn in store, I 
conceived it much better to arrange matters 
thus, than remain at variance with a man who 
had so many opportunities of annoying me, and 
who, the longer I resisted him, would become 
the more difficult to be satisfied. 
The present amounted to three hundred and 
fifty bars, being nearly double what I had paid 
for the mare. Thus is a man, when in the 
power of these chiefs, subject to every species 
of imposition and insult, both of which it would 
not only be improper, but unsafe, to resent 
on some occasions. 
