“Their town contains not more than thirty or forty houses, all irregularly clustered together, all thatched with reeds; yet each has a kind of yard inclosed with mud walls like our hovels or hog-styes in England. Instead of a locked and bolted door, the entrance is only closed by a mat, having nothing to be stolen; and for bedsteads they have only a few billets covered by a mat; yet some have hangings of mats, especially about their beds. Their furniture consists of two or three earthen pots to hold water, and to boil such provisions as they can get; a gourd or two for palm wine; half a gourd to serve as a drinking cup; a few earthen dishes for their loblolly or pottage; and a basket or two for the Maria to gather cockles; and a knapsack for the man, made of bark to carry his provisions, with his pipe and tobacco. When a negro man goes from home he has always his knapsack on his back, in which he has his provisions and tobacco, his pipe being seldom from his mouth; besides which he has always his little sword by his side, made by themselves of such iron as they get from the Europeans, his bow also, and quiver full of poisoned arrows, pointed with iron like a snake’s tongue, or else a case of javelins or darts having iron heads of good breadth and made sharp, sometimes both. The men of this country are large and well-made, strong and courageous, and civilized manners for heathens; as they keep most faithfully to their wives, of whom they are not a little jealous. I could not learn their religion, for though they have some idols, they seem to know that there is a God in heaven, as, when we asked them about their wooden puppets, they used to lift up their hands to heaven. All their children are circumcised, but I could not learn the reason why. They are very just and true in their dealings, and theft is punished with instant death. When any one dies, a small thatched roof is erected over his bier, under which are set earthen pots kept always full of water, and some earthen plates with different kinds of food, a few bones being stuck up around the body. To the South of this bay, some thirty or forty leagues into the interior country, there are very fierce people, who are cannibals, and sometimes infest the natives of Sierra Leone.