MALEMBA, 
529 
appearance, drest in a superfine red cloth waist- 
coat, with his secretary, who had the uniform 
coat of an Enghsh general wrapped round his 
otherwise naked body. They began by assuring 
the English that they had a most copious and ex- 
cellent assortment of slaves, a cargo of which the 
armament was presumed to be in quest of. It prov- 
ed a most difficult task to convince them of the 
contrary, as there appeared to them no other in- 
telligible or^conceivable motive for the expedition. 
When satisfied at last that their slaves would find 
no market, they commenced a most furious tirade 
against the crowned heads of Europe, particularly 
our own most gracious Sovereign, whom they 
termed " the devil,'* declaring that their town 
was nearly ruined by the wanton stop which he 
had put to this traffic. The party were most 
grotesquely embellished j the favourite ornament 
consisting in circles of elephant's bristles round 
the neck, of which some that were ambitious to 
shine had so many, that they could scarcely move 
the head. They were loaded with the most hete- 
rogeneous substances destined to serve as fetiches ; 
bits of shells, horns, stones, wood, rags, monkey's 
bones, &c. The Mafook had some rudely sculp- 
tured figures of a somewhat indecent character, 
and marked by this striking peculiarity, that the 
features, instead of negro, were Egyptian. When 
the minister's wrath had spent itself, he became 
VOL. I. L I 
