JOURNEY FROM BADAGRY TO KATUNGA. 
13 
view to the west ; the view to the east is interrupted by thick 
woods. The inhabitants are apparently civil and industrious, and 
may amount from 8000 to 10,000. They are great carvers; their 
doors, drums, and every thing of wood is carved. It has formerly 
been surrounded by a wall and ditch : the gate and ditch arc now all 
that remain. The streets are irregular and narrow ; the houses occu- 
pying a large space, and in the same form as those of Puka. Here, 
amongst the Yarribanies, is the poor dog treated with respect, and 
made the companion of man ; here he has collars around his neck 
of different colours, and ornamented with cowries, and sits by his 
master, and follows him in all his journeys and visits. The great 
man is never without one, and it appeared to me a boy was ap- 
pointed to take care of him. In no other country of Africa, that 
I have been in, is this faithful animal treated with common hu- 
manity. 
Owing to a Brazilian brig having arrived at Badagry for slaves, 
the people here have been preparing themselves for two days to 
go on a slaving expedition to a place called Tabbo, lying to the 
eastward. 
I cannot omit bearing testimony to the singular and perhaps 
unprecedented fact, that we have already travelled sixty miles in 
eight days, with a numerous and heavy baggage, and about ten 
different relays of carriers, without losing so much as the value of 
a shilling public or private ; a circumstance evincing not only some- 
what more than common honesty in the inhabitants, but a degree 
of subordination and regular government which could not have 
been supposed to exist amongst a people hitherto considered bar- 
barians. Humanity, however, is the same in every land ; govern- 
ment may restrain the vicious principles of our nature, but it is 
beyond the power even of African despotism to silence a woman’s 
tongue : in sickness and in health, and at every stage, we have 
been obliged to endure their eternal loquacity and noise. 
