CiiAP. x. PRESENTS PROM PRINCES AT THE CAPITAL. 
259 
a servant to Captain Underwood, secretary to the late Lord 
Charles Somerset, the governor; but that many years ago he 
had returned to his native country, and had since, in the ca¬ 
pacity of guide and interpreter, accompanied many foreigners 
from the coast to the capital. He said the present was the 
best season for making the journey, and that I need not be 
apprehensive of the fever. I was sorry to find afterwards 
that habits of drinking rendered my guide incapable of afford¬ 
ing us much assistance. 
During the day I had many applications for medicine, and 
for books, dictionaries, spelling-books, &c.; and in the after¬ 
noon four or five chiefs, each arrayed in the large white lamba 
of the Hovas, came to my house. They were attended by a 
number of dependents, some of whom led an ox, while others 
brought turkeys and other poultry, with bags of rice, and 
other provisions, which they said they had been directed by 
their superiors residing at the capital to present to Mr. 
Cameron and myself on our arrival, but that as I alone had 
come, they had brought them for my acceptance. Through 
the medium of the interpreter, I thanked them for their kind¬ 
ness, and begged them to convey to the princes at the capital 
my grateful acknowledgments. One of the chiefs handed me 
a letter, which, on reading afterwards, I found to be from the 
prince royal and his cousin, expressing the pleasure with 
which they anticipated our arrival, and informing us that they 
had directed the present to be given to us as an expression of 
their regard. 
As the guide intimated that the ox was intended as provi¬ 
sion during the journey, it was, at his recommendation, killed 
the same evening, and salt provided for curing it; but long 
before our departure it had all disappeared. Towards even¬ 
ing tw r o soldiers were stationed at my house, for the avowed 
purpose of preventing any of my packages being stolen, and 
from this time one or two soldiers were always in the house. 
