IN WESTERN AFRICA. 
41 
the pure oil that which was three-fourth parts clay 
and water. He has also known them, with true 
Yankee ingenuity, to hollow out balls of bees-wax 
and fill the vacuum with sand, closing the sand in 
BO neatly as to avoid detection. 
They also take the juice of camwood and stain 
other wood with it, making such a perfect imitation 
that no one suspects the deception. They have 
been known too to manufacture an ingenious im- 
itation of ivory, and sell it to traders for the pure 
article. They adulterate gold, and palm off the 
spurious article upon the trader. 
I have been too often defeated while they were 
in my employ as oarsmen to believe anything else 
than that they possess, naturally, as much 
mind as their paler brethren. It is their custom 
to stop at almost every village and town on the 
river when they travel with canoes; and in order 
to make better speed, I would, by stratagem and 
the exercise of dictatorial power, do my utmost to 
prevent this. Often my attempts were vain. 
If persuasion, or the promise to pull the harder 
to make up the loss of time, or some other plea, 
would not induce me to let them stop, before I got 
to the next town the fire would be out, or the 
spile out of the water-cask, or something else 
would occur that made it absolutely necessary to 
land. Hever shall I forget the fattening laugh 
