Account of bance's island. 
35 
island is covered with cotton, palms, and pine apples. A great 
number of the slaves here had ulcerated legs as we!! as the ciavv- 
cravvs. I saw a small thin giri, not more tiian twelve years of 
age, W'lio had a very tine young child ; there i also saw a beau- i 
tiful little animal of the deer kind. It is common here, though 
Mr. Brown, the governor of Bance's island, has jirohibited their 
being shot. We refreshed ourselves with some bread, cheese, 
and porter, and then crossed over to Bance's Island ; wliich, 
though very small, has a most delightful appearance at a little 
distance ; it resembles a strong fort ; they have a good battery^ 
and the builduigs are large and commodious, with a^gaîlcry to 
Walk all round. The pubhe dining room \diere they all meet, is 
of a considerable size. The present slave-yard is ill adapted, 
and the houses are mean and duty, but there is a new one build- 
ing on a new plan. The towli is large in proportion to the ishuid, 
and every thing is conducted in tlie most orderly manner; they 
have a furnace here for heating shot red hot, but there is one 
practice which must be considered as very obnoxious ; I mean 
the burying of the dead on so small an island. I could discover 
an offensive effluvium from the burying grounds. It is to be 
hoped, that the governor or the merchants, to whom this duty 
belongs, will, for the future, order the bodies at Goree, to be 
sent to the Cotîtinent or Tasso, and not endanger the lives of 
such a number of persons, by so shocking a custom. 
Every gentleman here has his black wife, and the usual mode 
of marrying is as follows : When a girl is marriageable, the 
mother looks out for a husband, who, if approved of, must send 
the following articles, viz. one fathom of cloth, a jar containing 
three gallons ofs[)irits, and four or six hands of tobacco; they 
then bring the girl, and she pulls off her ping or boddice, puts 
on the cloth, and that moment commences a woman. Hence 
they have a common manner, when tliey mean to express them- 
selves delicately respecting the loss of their virginity, of saymg, 
he was the man w ho put a cloth on me. The ping is a qarrow 
slip of cloth, three fingers in breaddi, which only a virgin wears ; 
yet with this simple covering, they are far more modest than 
the girls of Europe, 
Near this island is another, named Bob's Island. To this 
place 'd\l the widows are removed, v^liere they are taken great 
care of, and provided with every requisite of life. It îuay there- 
fore be more properly termed Widow's Island. In the rainy 
season, there are always a large quantity of alligators among 
these islands ; and at a boat-house, close to the fort, on Bance's 
Island, one came and took away a black boy in presence of a 
ïiumbeT of persons^ who could render him no assistance. On the 
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