TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 283 thing to say on the subject, should do so. Each chief then paid his respects to the Tonca, by calHng aloud his surname (Batchirie) and wishing him a long and prosperous reign. The chief of Dramanet, who is a priest and styled Almamy, spoke much. He said that, during the late wars with Bondoo, many of the chiefs present had either abandoned their towns to the enemy and taken refuge in those on the west side of the Faleme, there remaining inactive spectators of their country's fall, or openly assisted in its destruction, which their base conduct had so nearly completed that it became absolutely necessary they should adopt some deciave measure for its defence. He called on them to take example by the hitherto unsubdued resistance made by Samba Congole and the chiefs of Maghana and Maghadoo-goo, who preferred risking their own lives and the liberty of their families to a galling and disgraceful subjection to their enemies : that the time was now arrived when an understanding must be established between them ; and he advised them strongly to return to their duty, rebuild their towns, and support with him and his colleagues a war which threatened their very existence. Tonca and Samba spoke in their turn to nearly the same purpose. The end of each sentence spoken by the former was followed by two or three strokes on a