Wednesday, 14th.—The morning raw and cold; Morrison a little better; Captain Pearce and my servant Richard Lander taken ill. After daylight the caboceer sent to inquire after our health, and at 10 A.M. we paid him a visit. We found him in the same place we saw him last night. The whole of the verandah and square was full of people, except a small space for those who came to prostrate themselves. In the centre of the square was a large baboon and pole, and a forked stick, with water for pigeons, that were continually flying about our heads. Behind the caboceer sat about two hundred of his wives and concubines. He was sitting on a mat, reclining on a large round pillow, one of each of which he immediately ordered for us. We sat down beside him and gave him a glass of grog, which he drank off with great relish, turning himself round so that his own people might not see him drink. We handed a few glasses more to his ladies, and a goblet full to his headmen, who were sitting in front with all the marks of their morning’s salutation of their master. Their obeisance is a complete prostration of the body at full length on the ground, with the chin resting on the hands, turning one cheek to the ground, then the other, and finally to bestow a kiss on their mother earth and rise. Before entering the caboceer’s presence their heads must be covered with dust or clay. He told us he had a house at Eyeo, and that half his wives were there. When he spoke in a complimentary way to us, all the people clapped their hands joyfully. When we told him that a white man had only one wife, he and the whole people, with his wives, laughed immoderately. After staying with him an hour we took our leave, giving him two bottles of rum, and a promise of something more when the baggage arrived. The town of Laboo is large, and stands on a rising ground on the top of a small hill, and in some parts commands an extensive view, particularly to the south, which is low and flat. Lagos, we were told, can be reached in one day by a messenger. Thursday, 15th.—Our sick better: at eight, sent them off in the hammocks: at nine, started on horseback, but waited a short time for the caboceer, who came mounted, but without stirrups. He attended us some distance out of town with the whole population of Laboo around him, the women singing in chorus and holding up both hands as we passed; and groups of people were kneeling down and apparently wishing us a good journey. The country well cultivated and beautiful, rising into hill and dale: from the tops of the hills we had distant views, the road leading through plantations of millet, yams, calavances, and Indian corn.