TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 123 sitors of all ages and descriptions, coming to see, for the first time in their lives, a white man.

Shortly after our arrival some of the king's wives sent us two or three large calabashes, full of fine milk and cous cous, which was not at all a despicable present.

Many of the great men of the town paid us visits of ceremony and curiosity ; all which we would have most willingly dispensed with, but they were not to be sent off in a hurry, and we were often reduced to the necessity of walking out of our huts, in hopes of their doing so too. But even this did not always succeed, and we were necessitated to submit wdth an apparent good grace to their importunities for presents.

I do believe they thought that asking alone was necessary to the filling of their pockets with amber, &c., and covering their backs with silks, bafts, &c. ; for the procuring of all of which they seldom brought any more valuable articles than a little milk, or some rice, or corn. Indeed we wanted nothing else, but the miserable handfuls which they presented, were scarcely worth the trouble of receiving, mucli less giving more than the value in return.