obi's “good behavioue.” 
135 
There were about a hundred canoes alongside, and 
the noise of the people chatting and hallooing was 
incessant. Obi and his people had brought off abun- 
dance of wood for us, besides goats, fowls, jams, and 
plantains, in return for which he had a present of 
some scarlet cloth and cowries. Obi's prompt assist- 
ance to us on this occasion was of the highest impor- 
tance. He is decidedly a fine character, and assuredly 
did not discredit the high opinion we had already 
formed of him''\ 
It would not have been prudent or just to have 
made Obi, or any other savage with such means as ho 
had at hand, acquainted with the full extent of our dis- 
tress, so he was not invited to go over any part of the 
ship except the captain's cabin and the gun-room ; nor 
were any but his son and a few of his personal 
attendants allowed to accompany him on board. He 
gave expression to great sympathy and pity, when he 
saw Captain Trotter, Commander B. Allen, and the 
other officers sick in the cabin. 
Simon Jonas, our Abbh interpreter, who, at the 
* I speak thus of Obi, with a full knowledge of his detention of the 
Landers, until tliey were ransomed by King Boy of Brasstown ; an 
act, on the part of Obi, which cannot be too highly deprecated. But 
some allowance is due to a savage like Obi, who, on the unprecedented 
and extraordinary occasion of having two white men in his power, 
took advantage of circumstances, and exacted from them a much 
higher amount of tribute than was paid by ordinary strangers in 
passing through his territory. 
