"The afternoon is the usual time of trade; but sometimes it is protracted during the whole of several days, and being my proper business, I make a point of never neglecting it (Note C.) If concluded early, I sometimes take a trip to some of the neighbouring villages, and return home to supper, amusing myself, as I am now doing, with writing or reading, and occasionally visiting two or three friends. In these visits, the refreshment is generally palm and honey wine, or a fruit called cola, which very agreeably relishes water. I frequently, also, form one of a party in shooting doves and partridges. I have indeed no want of society, generally having even more company than I desire. These visitors are traders, and messengers from the great men in this and the adjacent kingdom, who frequently send me presents of pieces of cloths, cows, spices, and even a slave. These presents I would gladly decline, as I well know they are given with a view of obtaining more valuable returns, or to bribe me to some measure in which my interest or aid is required; but I am obliged to accept what they offer, because the interest of the Company renders it necessary to conciliate the natives, who may forward the trade. But to return to my accommodation: perhaps you think I repose on the 'verdant mead, under the spreading palm.' No such thing, my dear Sophy: my bed-room is large and airy, and during the rainy season glows with the cheering blaze of a fire. My bedstead is raised by forkillas; at the head and feet are cross poles, upon which is placed a platform of split cane. My bed itself is composed of silk-cotton, a sort of vegetable down, extremely soft, and very plentiful here; and to complete my bedstead, I have erected light posts at the corners, to support a pavilion of thin cloth, as a defence against the musquitoes. Independently of the linen I brought from England, I have some presented to me, by a negro king and his sister: (what think you of that, Sophy?) it consists of fine cotton cloths, six yards long and three wide: these I use for sheets. Thus, you find, I have all my comforts around me, even on the burning shores of Africa, to which you were so unwilling I should direct my way.