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Lander dated from king Obie's palace at Eboe, about three weeks after they had sailed from the entrance of the river Nun. King Obie had treated them with much kindness, and had made Lander a present of some canoes, with people to pilot them up the river. A few days before their arrival at Eboe, the steamers sent their boats ashore to cut wood.
As I was reflecting on this circumstance I happened to cast my eyes towards the horizon, to convince myself of its reality, when I found the tall, masculine figure of Obie's favourite daughter intercepted it entirely from my view. Obie is represented to be a sprightly young man, and yet his favourite daughter Adizzetta is married, and between 20 and 30 year of age.
"Well, Uncle Obie's newspapers always get here about four or five days after they are printed. Dear me! I must write to your Uncle Obie just as soon as we can spare the money for paper and stamps. He'll be glad to know we are all alive and well, and that's about all I can tell him." Obadiah smiled broadly behind his geography and began reckoning the days.
Previously to embarking, they had taken a little boiled yam with palm oil at Obie's house, and they remained two hours lying on the bank. At seven in the evening they settled themselves for the night, but found that they were exceedingly cramped up for want of room, occasioned by the yams being stowed badly.
It was paddled by forty men and boys, in addition to whom there might be about twenty individuals, or more, including a few slaves and themselves, so that the number of human beings amounted altogether to sixty. Like Obie's war canoes, it was furnished with a cannon, which was lashed to the bow, a vast number of cutlasses, and a quantity of grape and other shot, besides powder, flints, &c.
The former had flocked down to the water's edge in considerable numbers, armed with muskets, spears, and other offensive weapons, and kept up a dreadful noise, like the howling of wolves, till long after midnight; when the uproar died away King Boy slept on shore with his wife Adizzetta, who was Obie's favourite daughter, and on her account they waited till between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, when she made her appearance with her husband, who, they understood, had embraced the present opportunity of making an excursion with her to his native country, to vary her life a little by a change of air and scene, and to introduce her to his other wives and relatives residing at Brass.
The travellers had the prospect of being detained for an indefinite period, had not King Boy of Brass-town, Obie's son-in-law, undertaken to pay the amount, and convey them to the coast, on condition of receiving a guarantee for thirty-five bars, being determined to retain the difference as profit for his trouble.
However, that she smiled I am quite certain, and very prettily too, for I saw a circling dimple, radiating upon her full, round cheek, which terminated in a momentary gleam of animation, and illuminate her dark languishing eye, like a flash of light; and what could all this mean I had forgotten to say that the person of Obie's daughter is tattooed in various parts, but the incisions or rather lacerations are irregular and unseemly.
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