l62 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

perfectly satisfied with my conduct in tliis affair, and would wait patiently and peaceably for Almamy's decision ; and to convince me of the truth of what he asserted, he would send the women of his village to the market as usual tomorrow.

The messenger to Almamy did not return before the evening of the 28th, when he was accompanied by one of his ministers, a chief priest, or, as they call it, Alpha or thierno, bringing his sovereign's decision, which, although conveyed in many more words than necessary, merely went to say, as it appeared to Almamy and his good men % as they call his chiefs and ministers (a very ill-placed appellation), that the woman came by her death accidentally, I had nothing more to do than procure a slave woman of as nearly the same age of the deceased as possible, and hand her over to Osman. Almamy also desired Alpha Mamadoo to say, that he was extremely sorry I should have thought it necessary to put my child, meaning Shaw (for so he always called all my men) in prison, from whence he now desired him to be released.

I represented to Alpha the dislike I had to any thing like purchasing a fellow creature, and requested that I might be allowed to give the * Imbev mojubov.