48 
THOMAS J. COMBER. 
“ There was an amusing thing occurred at Calabar. 
We went about the . town, and called upon King 
Archibong, who was engaged in the kingly occupa- 
tion of picking his teeth with a knife. Giving his 
knife to the knife-attendant, he called for the snuff- 
box attendant, who brought a silver snuff-box, which 
was politely handed to us, and as politely refused. 
We then went to call on a rich native, named Hen- 
schaw Toby, Esq., whose daughter was one of the 
king’s wives. His house was very large, many rooms 
and several court-yards. One room was furnished 
‘ English fashion ’ as Henschaw proudly called it. 
We were introduced to one of the Mrs. Toby, very 
stout, with just the usual cloth round her loins, sitting 
on the floor heavily ringed with brass from the foot 
to the knee, and her ankles in consequence sore and 
chafed. She was smoking ‘ a churchwarden,’ a long 
clay pipe ; and shaking our hands, saluted us by — 
' American.’ We said, no, we are English ; but our 
guide told us ‘ American ’ was the Calabar for ' glad 
to see you.’ We laughed heartily at the joke. Mr. 
Toby showed us a group portrait in which he figured. 
I pointed out a woman in the group, and said, ‘ And 
who is this ? ’ ‘ Oh ! ’ said he, ‘ that there fat woman,’ 
meaning Mrs. Toby, principal wife. 
''We passed the Fan tee and Ashantee country with, 
of course, special interest, and came opposite to 
Whydah yesterday, where are anchored the Sirius, 
Contest, Pioneer, and a few more English and two 
French men-of-war, to blockade Dahomey. I read 
more of Tennyson than anything else almost, except 
African travel. Sometimes any mental exercise is 
impossible. Have you read much of Tennyson ? 
I feel sure you would like his 'Idylls.’ There are 
some of the most beautiful and noble lessons taught 
in them. I read them at college, and have specially 
now been interested in 'Locksley Hall,’ in which 
there are some grand things (though some of them 
suit one’s morbid moments). There are two lines 
