12 
MISSIONARY LIFE 
about four feet apart, planted in the earth, and ex- 
tending above the ground from eight to ten feet^ 
the posts being close to each other, make up the 
entire fortification. These have from two to four 
door-ways, which are closed at night, and often 
guarded during the. day, if danger from war, or 
other cause, is apprehended. 
If the reader has ever seen in the distance, and 
on the borders of a wood in some of our fine 
grazing districts, a large collection of hay-stacks, 
which had been some time exposed to the weather, 
he has in his mind a very proper image of an 
African town. The houses are jumbled together 
in a small compass. The largest town I was in, 
having near a thousand inhabitants, did not cover 
more ground than is usually occupied by a village 
of one hundred inhabitants in this country. In 
that land of wars it is unsafe to live without bar- 
ricades ; and hence the less ground occupied m 
building, the less there will be to inclose. 
