BEFORE THE KING. 
73 
young and of middle stature, but well built — his face, 
tliough somewhat marked with small-pox, bears the stamp 
of a powerful, yet beneficent king, and his whole appear- 
ance gives the impression of a soul capable of great deeds. 
There was no look of cruelty, and I no longer felt anxious 
about my wife. He remained standing before us for a 
few moments, in some degree of astonishment, for I sup- 
pose we were the first white people he had ever seen ; in 
our patched and torn garments, which a beggar in our 
country would have disdained, and with our toes peeping 
through our shoes, we encountered the gaze of this mighty 
monarch, who at length waved his hand kindly to us, 
and passed on, his long procession of attendants following. 
At this juncture, we were told to stand up and thank 
the " nena," or queen-mother, the most influential person 
at court, for presents she had lately sent us ; she was pro- 
tected from the sun by large fans, embroidered with 
coloured silk held round her by court ladies, and wore a 
gorgeous dress, with a silk scarf thrown over her 
shoulders. She was a stout enero-etic old ladv, and re- 
turned our greeting with a good-natured smile. The 
procession, after lasting an hour and a half, ended with a 
number of officers and others; and we departed more 
light-hearted than we had arrived. The excitement had 
done my wife good, her indisposition had disappeared, 
and we all looked with new hope to the future. We 
tasted the palm wine, but found it so strong that we 
divided it amongst our people, a^nd the " friends " who 
crowded around us. 
On May 25th, we received from the king a couple of 
sheep, and an old pair of Dutch military shoes, accom- 
panied by a pair of boots for Mrs. R., of English make, 
and the finest leather. They had been presented by the 
Wesleyan missionary Freemen in 1842, to the reigning 
sovereign, and inscribed on the soles in gilt letters were 
