CHAPTER XXXII.
Information of the approach of the travellers had been previously sent to the monarch, but they were obliged to wait with much patience for a considerable period, until he had put on his robes of state. In the mean time to amuse his august visitors, the head drummer and his assistants, with the most benevolent intention, commenced a concert of the most bewitching melody; and long drums, kettle drums, and horns were played with little intermission, till Mansolah, the king, made his appearance, and the travellers were desired to draw nearer to pay their respects to his majesty. They performed this ceremony after the English manner, much to the entertainment and diversion of the king, who endeavoured to imitate them, but it was easy to see that he was but a novice in the European mode of salutation—bowing and shaking hands; nor did he, like some other monarchs, stretch forth his hand to be kissed, which, to a man possessing a particle of spirit, must be degrading and humiliating. There is no doubt that it was owing to the rusticity and awkwardness of their address, not having been brought up amongst the fooleries and absurdities of a court, that Mansolah's risible faculties were so strongly excited, but he laughed so long and heartily, and his wives, and eunuchs, and subjects of all sorts joined with him with such good will, and such power of lungs, that at length the travellers were obliged to laugh too, and were constrained to unite their voices to the general burst of kindly feeling, although, if they had been asked the cause of such jollity and obstreperous mirth, they would have been at a loss for an answer.
Mansolah's headpiece was something like a bishop's mitre, profusely ornamented with strings of coral, one of which answered the purpose of a ribbon, for it was tied under the chin, to prevent the cap from being blown off. His tobe was of green silk, crimson silk damask, and green silk velvet, which were all sewn together, like pieces of patchwork. He wore English cotton stockings, and neat leathern sandals of native workmanship. A large piece of superfine light blue cloth, given the chief by Captain Clapperton, was used as a carpet. The eunuchs, and other individuals who were present at the interview, prostrated themselves before their prince, agreeably to the custom of the country, and rubbed their heads with earth two separate times, retreating at some distance to perform this humiliating and degrading ceremony, and then drawing near the royal person, to lie again with their faces in the dust. They also saluted the ground near which he was sitting, by kissing it fervently and repeatedly, and by placing each cheek upon it. Then, and not till then, with their heads, and faces, and lips, and breasts, stained with the red damp soil, which still clung to them, they were allowed to seat themselves near their monarch, and to join in the conversation. Two or three of the inferior eunuchs, not satisfied with this servile prostration, began to sport and roll themselves on the ground, but this could not be effected without immense labour, and difficulty, and panting, and puffing, and straining; for like that paragon of knighthood Sir John Falstaff, they could not be compared to any thing so appropriately as huge hummocks of flesh. There they lay wallowing in the mire, like immense turtles floundering in the sea, till Ebo desired them to rise. A very considerable number of bald-headed old men were observed among the individuals present, their hair or rather wool, having been most likely rubbed off by repeated applications of earth, sand, gravel, filth, or whatever else might be at hand, when the prince happened to make his appearance.
The conference being brought to a close, a kid, a calabash of caffas, and two thousand kowries were presented to the Landers, and cheered by a flourish of music, they laughed in concert as a mark of politeness, and shook hands with the king, and walked away to their own dwelling, which had been repaired, and thoroughly cleansed for their use. The latter operation was particularly necessary, as previously to their inhabiting it, it had been occupied by a multitude of domestic animals, sheep, pigs, goats, fowls, guinea fowls, bullocks, in fine, it had been a kind of stable, where Ebo, the principal eunuch, kept his stock of animals. Here, however, they were glad to lie down to repose their aching limbs, although the stench arising from some parts of the hut was almost insupportable. In the evening, the king returned their visit, and immediately took a fancy to John Lander's bugle horn, which was very readily given him. He appeared to be greatly pleased with the present, turning about and inspecting every part of it, with the greatest curiosity. It appeared to him, however, to be immaterial as to which end the mouth was to be applied, for he put the lower part of the instrument to his mouth, and drawing up his breath to its full extent, sent such a puff of wind into it, as would have been sufficient for a diapason pipe of an organ; not hearing, however, the accustomed sound, he delivered the instrument to John Lander, who brought out of it the shrillest note which he could, which set the king and his eunuchs into a violent laugh, and he expressed his delight to the donors of so valuable a present, assuring them that it made his heart glad to see them, and hoped that they would make themselves quite comfortable whilst they remained at Katunga. They now shook hands, made a bow, not one that would have been deemed a very elegant one amongst the courtiers of St. James', and the sovereign departed, followed by a suite of wives, eunuchs, and other attendants. Ebo inquired if there were any thing further that they wished to be done to their residence, to render their stay as agreeable as possible. Their yard adjoined that of Ebo, with which it communicated by a door way, without a door, so that it enabled the travellers to have frequent opportunities of seeing his numerous unhappy wives, and a number of little boys and girls, who were his personal attendants. The circumstance of a eunuch keeping a whole retinue of wives, appeared to the Landers rather an extraordinary one, for he appeared to treat them with all the jealousy of a Turkish pacha towards his mistresses in his seraglio. Of their fidelity or continency, however, could be said, whenever an opportunity presented itself; but do not require to travel as far as Africa for the experience, when an opportunity of that kind is wanted, it is not long before it is obtained. The eunuch sent them a very fat sheep, as a further token of his good will. On Friday May 14th, Richard Lander accompanied by Ebo, and the other unwieldy eunuchs, took a present to the king, which was pretty well received; Mansolah, it was supposed out of compliment, remarked that if they had not brought with them the value of a single kowrie, they should have been favourably received at Katunga, and well entertained at his own expense. They had, previously to presenting themselves before the king, consulted their friend Ebo, on the subject of their journey to the Niger, and he strongly advised them by no means even to hint at such an intention to the king, whose suspicions, he assured them, would immediately take the alarm, so that instead of being forwarded on their way thither, they would either be detained in the town for an indefinite time, or sent back again to the coast. They therefore conceived it prudent to give him the following statement only:—"That the king of England, anxious to procure the restoration of certain papers which belonged to a countryman of theirs, who perished at Boosa about twenty years ago, which papers were supposed to be in the possession of the sultan of Yaoorie, they had been despatched hither by their sovereign, in the hope that the king of Katunga would forward them to the latter state, for the purpose of obtaining them from the sultan of Yaoorie, and taking them back with them to England."
Mansolah, with the natural indifference of the uncultivated mind, displayed neither eager curiosity as to their object in coming to his country, nor surprise when they had informed him of it, but very promptly observed, that in two days time, he would send a messenger to Kiama, Wouwou, Boossa, and Yaoorie, for the purpose of acquainting the rulers of those provinces of their intention to pay them a visit, and that on the return of the messenger, they should have his permission to depart. This was promised after Richard Lander's repeated solicitations and importunities, that they should not be detained here longer than necessary, as in a very short time, the violent rains would render the roads to those countries impassable, and, in consequence, they would not be able to travel till the return of the dry season. Their speedy departure was also a matter of importance to them on account of their health, which they found to be far better when they were travelling, than when cooped up in a close unwholesome hut, where ventilation appeared to be the object the least attended to, or considered of no importance at all.
They were expressly and repeatedly informed that the monarch of this empire was brother to the king of Benin; but notwithstanding this near relationship of the two sovereigns, not the slightest intercourse or communication is maintained between Yarriba and that power, and the reason ascribed for it is, that the distance between the two countries is too great. It must, however, be remarked, that friends and acquaintance are often called brothers in Yarriba; and to make a distinction in the above instance, they assert that Mansolah and the king of Benin were of one father and one mother. They made some inquiries of Ebo on this subject, but he soon silenced their remarks by observing, that they were too inquisitive, or to use his own words, "that they talked too much." It was the intention of the Landers, after leaving Yaoorie to proceed direct to Guarie, the prince of which country would no doubt send them to Funda, whence it would be their endeavour to discover the termination of the Niger, agreeably to their written instructions.
Instead of the jarring noise of women's tongues, which had hitherto annoyed and followed them at every stage of their journey from Badagry, they at length enjoyed as much of composure and tranquillity, as they could well desire; for the wives of Ebo residing at some distance from the part of the yard which they occupied, the shrill sound of their voices was pleasant, contrasted with the former loud, discordant, and perpetual din which rang in their ears from morning to night. Their male visitors were, likewise, few and select, and did not remain with them any very considerable time together. An order was issued by the king, that if any impertinent individual troubled them at any time with his company, when it was not desired, Ebo was at liberty to behead him, and no one according to the strict injunction of Mattsolah, should tax the eunuch with injustice or cruelty in the performance of his duties. This royal proclamation as it may be termed, had the desired effect, for it was regarded with greater exactness and punctuality than some royal proclamations are in Europe, the people having a great dread of Ebo, who, independently of the high office which he held of chief eunuch, somewhat similar to the office of Lord Chamberlain at the court of St. James', was also the occupant of the delightful office of public executioner, an occupation which, in that despotic country, was frequently called into practice.
The king of Katunga, like other kings, has also his master of the horse, who at the time of Lander's visit was an elderly person, possessing no small degree of influence over his royal master. The European and the African master of the horse, however, in some respects bore a great similarity to each other, although contrary to the opinion of the metaphysicians, the same cause produced a different effect. The European master of the horse has a great number of useless horses under his nominal care, and yet has nothing to do; the African master of the horse has also nothing to do, for the very best of all reasons, that he has no horses to take care of, the whole African stud consisting of one or two half-starved, ragged ponies, which would disgrace a costermonger's cart in the streets of London. Katunga, however, is not the only place in which the sun shines, where the office is made for the man, and not the man for the office; but as they have no pension list in Katunga, nor any retired allowances, nor any Chiltern Hundreds, to enable them to vacate their offices, they are immediately sent about their business when age, sickness, or other infirmity disables them from performing the duties of their office. The age of the master of the horse of the king of Katunga was about seventy, but he contrived, similar to the plan adopted in some other countries, of keeping to himself all the emoluments of his office, and getting a deputy to perform the labour; thus for a mess of Indian corn, the stud of the king of Katunga could be very ably looked after by some half-starved native, whilst the holder of the office was comfortably reposing himself amongst his twenty or thirty wives.
This important personage had been hitherto overlooked by the Landers, that is, they had not as yet made him any present; in order, however, to let them know that there was such a being in existence, he sent them a sheep as a present, on the principle of the English adage, of throwing a sprat to catch a mackerel. A present from an African master of the horse is not a disinterested gift; he had seen the presents delivered to the king, and he ardently longed for a slip of the red cloth wherewith to decorate his person, and set off the jetty blackness of his skin.
The pride of an African dignitary will not allow him to beg, and therefore he conjectured that on the receipt of his present of the sheep, common courtesy would instruct the Landers to return the compliment, by a present of some European article of corresponding value. Nor was the master of the horse wrong in his conjectures, for a present was sent him, and to his great delight a strip of red cloth was included in it. The unfortunate master of the horse, however, discovered, that although he filled the high office of master of the horse, he was not master of himself, nor was he master of that, which he believed did in reality belong to him, for his master and king no sooner heard that he had received a present of a piece of red cloth, than his majesty discovered that it was a colour, which royalty alone was entitled to wear. The master of the horse had scarcely exhibited his valuable present to his admiring wives, all of whom begged for a bit wherewith to enhance the charms of their unwieldy persons, than a messenger from the king arrived, bearing the afflicting intelligence to the master of the horse, to deliver up for the use of his majesty, a certain piece of red cloth presented to him by the Europeans then in the town, or submit to have his head cut off by the dexterity of his chief eunuch. The master of the horse judged it better to lose the cloth than his head, and with a very ill grace, and muttering some expressions partaking strongly of the enormous crime of high treason, the cloth was delivered up, and the master of the horse returned to his wives to condole with them on the heavy loss which they had sustained.