CHAP. LXX.--I remove, and settle permanently at New Florence--I open communications with cruisers to supply them with provisions, &c.--Anecdote of SOMA, the gambler--His sale and danger in the hands of a Bushman--Mode of gambling one's self away in Africa--A letter from Governor Macdonald destroys my prospect of British protection--I haul down the British flag--I determine to devote myself to husbandry--Bad prospect 424 CHAP. LXXI.--Account of the character of the VEY negroes--The GREE-GREE bush--Description of this institution, its rites, services, and uses--Marriage and midwifery--A scene with Fana-Toro, at Toso--Human sacrifice of his enemy; frying a heart; indignity committed on the body--Anecdote of the king's endurance; burns his finger as a test, and rallies his men--Death of Prince Gray--Funeral rites among the Vey people--_Smoking the corpse_--I am offered the choice of his widows 429 CHAP. LXXII.--My workshops, gardens, and plantations at the Cape Mount settlement--I do not prosper as a farmer or trader with _the interior_--I decide to send a _coaster_ to aid in the transfer of the Yankee clipper A---- to a slaver--I part on bad terms with the British--Game at Cape Mount--Adventure of a boy and an _Ourang-outang_--How we killed leopards, and saved our castle--Mode of hunting elephants--Elephant law 437 CHAP. LXXIII.--Fana-Toro's war, and its effect on my establishment--I decline joining actively in the conflict--I allow captives to be shipped by a Gallinas factor--Two years of blockade by the British--A miraculous voyage of a long-boat with thirty-three slaves to Bahia--My disasters and mishaps at Cape Mount in consequence of this war--Exaggerations of my enemies--My true character--Letter from Rev. JOHN SEYS to me--My desire to aid the missionaries--CAIN and CURTIS stimulate the British against me--Adventure of the Chancellor--the British destroy my establishment--Death of Fana-Toro--The natives revenge my loss--The end 442 THEODORE CANOT. CHAPTER I. Whilst Bonaparte was busy conquering Italy, my excellent father, Louis Canot, a captain and paymaster in the French army, thought fit to pursue his fortunes among the gentler sex of that fascinating country, and luckily won the heart and hand of a blooming Piedmontese, to whom I owe my birth in the capital of Tuscany. My father was faithful to the Emperor as well as the Consul. He followed his sovereign in his disasters as well as glory: nor did he falter in allegiance until death closed his career on the field of Waterloo.