242 
KING BELLS HAREM. 
Like most African potentates, his wealth was to be 
guessed at by the number of his wives ; of which both 
he and his neighbour Aqua are said to have each 
upwards of one hundred. These extensive harems do 
not seem to give rise to the jealous feelings which 
obtain in eastern countries ; on the contrary, we had 
frequent reason to be disgusted at the open and 
unblushing manner in which their “ liege lords” prof- 
fered the women, as if they had been mere articles of 
household furniture. 
The population of this place is large, though no 
possible estimate could be formed of its amount by us, 
as the town being laid out in wide streets or alleys, 
with plantations surrounding the houses, extends to a 
very great distance from the river. The natives affect 
to speak of it as interminable, and the population to 
be beyond all powers of calculation, though they have 
not settled here many years. The houses are built of 
wood, with a great deal of taste, and arc very clean, 
as are also the streets, which are bordered with 
palms, cocoa-nuts, bananas ,&c., affording an agreeable 
shade as well as abundance of fruit. The people are 
superior to most of the Africans we have met with on 
the coast. The men are well made, muscular, and of 
fair stature ; the skin is soft, and in many of them of 
a yellowish brown tinge. Though the features are not 
good, — the nose being often rather expanded and the 
lips thick, — still the countenance is open and agree- 
able, and quite a pleasing contrast to that of their 
