FIRST DAY CLOSES. 
181 
Paraboli, where they met an Ibu pilot, whom they had 
seen at the mouth of the Nun. Captain Trotter wished 
to have engaged his services, but he set such an ex- 
travagant price on them, that the otfer was declined. 
At this place, a rude resemblance of an alligator, cut 
in wood, was noticed in a Ju-ju house, and, in a small 
enclosure attached to the building, a carved figure of a 
child. The natives were soon divested of their fears, 
though, at first, the female portion especially, evinced 
considerable alarm, and ran off into the bush as the 
vessels approached ; they had dark circles tattoed over 
several parts of the body, mostly on the breast. 
At 7 P*M. we anchored in the middle of the stream, 
having made a distance of about thirty-three miles from 
the embouchure, 
The river had here attained a breadth of more than 
three hundred and fifty yards, with a depth in the middle 
of thirty feet. The shores, sometimes of sand with a 
loamy coloured clay, rising two or three feet in firm land 
above the level of the water, shewed that the Nun was 
here confined within a decided channel- A populous 
village was abreast of us on the right bank ; the huts 
very mde in construction. The inhabitants at first made 
their appearance armed with muskets and cutlasses, and 
though they soon laid these aside and shewed signs of 
gratification at our visit, they could not be prevailed on 
to communicate with us. 
Darkness soon enshrouded all objects, and was the 
more intense from the close vicinity of the lofty forests 
by which wc were surrounded. This, our first night in 
