The king was glad to see me, gave me his own house, constructed of bamboo, whilst he himself, much against my inclination, resided in a small miserable mud hut. Like every other prince on the road, he was grieved to learn the decease of my master. I gave him my little horse, which I had brought the whole of the way from Soccatoo, and all the articles for presents that were left, consisting of two yards of light blue damask, and the same quantity of scarlet ditto, two yards of scarlet and blue silk, and two dozen pair of stockings.
On the 28th I waited on captain Morrison, a Portuguese slave-merchant, and obtained from him goods amounting to ninety-four dollars; and a barrel of gunpowder, which cost a doubloon, I paid for myself.
Three of the Portuguese slave-merchants residing at Badagry, went to the king one day, and told him and his principal men that I was a spy sent by the English government, and if suffered to leave, would soon return with an army and conquer their country. This the credulous people believed, and I was treated with coldness and distrust by the king and his subjects, who seldom came to see me. All the chief men at length assembled at the fetish hut, and having come to a resolution that I was to drink a fetish, sent for me to appear before them. On my way five or six hundred people gathered round me, and I could proceed with difficulty. A great number of them were armed with hatchets, bows and arrows, and spears; and waited outside the hut till I came out. On entering one of the men presenting me with a bowl, in which was about a quart of a liquid much resembling water, commanded me to drink it, saying, “If you come to do bad, it will kill you; but if not, it cannot hurt you.” There being no resource, I immediately, and without hesitation, swallowed the contents of the bowl, and walked hastily out of the hut, through the armed men, to my own lodgings, took powerful medicine and plenty of warm water, which instantly ejected the whole from my stomach, and I felt no ill effects from the fetish. It had a bitter and disagreeable taste, and I was told almost always proved fatal.
When the king and chief men found, after five days, that the fetish had not hurt me, they became extremely kind, and sent me presents of provisions, &c. daily, and frequently said I was protected by God, and that it was out of the power of man to do me an injury.
I remained at Badagry two months, but was advised by the king never to go out unarmed, as the Portuguese took no pains to conceal their inveterate dislike to me; and would no doubt assassinate me the first opportunity that might present itself. Several persons in canoes passed repeatedly from Badagry to Cape Coast, but although I offered to reward them, I could never get them to take a note for me to the latter place, so active had been the exertions of the Portuguese to debar me from every means of communicating with my countrymen.
There were five factories at Badagry, in which were upwards of one thousand slaves of both sexes, chained by the neck to each other, waiting for vessels to take them away.
Captain Morris, of the brig Maria, of London, hearing of my being at Badagry, kindly came from Whydah to fetch me, and on the 20th of January I went on board, and arrived at Cape Coast on the 31st of the same month. Here I gave my faithful slaves, Aboudah, Jowdie, and Pascoe’s wife their freedom, who testified their sorrow on my departure by heaping sand on their heads, and other marks of grief peculiar to the African race. Colonel Lumley generously promised to give them pieces of ground and a small sum of money, and I have no doubt they will do well.
Sailed from Cape Coast in the Esk sloop of war February 3d. and arrived in England the 30th of April following.
THE END.