musical talents were frequently exerted either to divert our fatigue, or
obtain us a welcome from strangers. When we departed from Kamalia, we
were followed for about half a mile by most of the inhabitants of the
town, some of them crying, and others shaking hands with their relations,
who were now about to leave them; and when we had gained a piece of
rising ground, from which we had a view of Kamalia, all the people
belonging to the coffle were ordered to sit down in one place, with their
faces towards the west, and the townspeople were desired to sit down in
another place, with their faces towards Kamalia. In this situation, the
schoolmaster, with two of the principal Slatees, having taken their
places between the two parties, pronounced a long and solemn prayer;
after which, they walked three times round the coffle, making an
impression on the ground with the ends of their spears, and muttering
something by way of charm. When this ceremony was ended, all the people
belonging to the coffle sprang up, and without taking a formal farewell
of their friends, set forward. As many of the slaves had remained for
years in irons, the sudden exertion of walking quick, with heavy loads
upon their heads, occasioned spasmodic contractions of their legs; and we
had not proceeded above a mile, before it was found necessary to take two
of them from the rope, and allow them to walk more slowly until we
reached Maraboo, a walled village, where some people were waiting to join
the coffle. Here we stopt about two hours, to allow the strangers time to
pack up their provisions, and then continued our route to Bala, which
town we reached about four in the afternoon. The inhabitants of Bala, at
this season of the year, subsist chiefly on fish, which they take in
great plenty from the streams in the neighbourhood. We remained here
until the afternoon of the next day, the 20th, when we proceeded to
Worumbang, the frontier village of Manding towards Jallonkadoo. As we
proposed shortly to enter the Jallonka Wilderness, the people of this
village furnished us with great plenty of provisions; and on the morning