I have said a good deal about my boatmen, and will now give you a brief sketch of the habits and customs of this people. In the first place, the men go entirely naked, with the exception of a cloth they wear, something like that of an American baby’s diaper. The women wear about four yards of cloth thrown carelessly around them, covering the lower extremities, and tied by the ends about the waist. When one dies, they have what they call “the cry,” in which all join. They go for miles to attend “the cry.” The body of the deceased is wrapped in matting, and conveyed to its long resting-place--a hole which is dug for that purpose. This has always been their mode of burying, and in many instances they prefer it to our way. As to the general build of this people it is quite good. They possess very good features, as a general thing, having smooth skins and round faces. Their noses are not so flat as the American negro’s; neither are their eyes so red and blood-shot. Their mouths are not so disfigured. The most of them have quite a neat lip, not so thick as that of the American negro. Their hands and feet are generally small. Their bodies are very straight and well developed. It is astonishing to see how they carry burdens, either upon the head or back, with a loop so that it can be fastened around their foreheads. A good stout man will carry as much on his head and back as you can pack on a young ass three years old, and they never murmur. They live in mud houses covered with thatch, but a thatch inferior to anything we know of in America. It is made of bamboo, and only lasts from nine to twelve months. They subsist on rice, cassada, cocoa, fufu, crencray, palaver-sauce and fish. Any one of these vegetables mentioned will grow without any attention at all, except the cocoa, and that is a very tender plant, indeed, and the consequence is, that they have less of it than anything else. The cocoa and cassada are the only vegetables that I have learned to eat. The cocoa, after it is cooked, is much like an Irish potato, and makes a very palatable dish, indeed. The cassada, when cooked, resembles an American squash, and is a very nice dish for dinner or breakfast. Should a person presume to eat these vegetables mentioned, without having been a good while in the country, he at once had better have a mill-stone hanged about his neck, and his body committed to the briny deep. He would fare about as well. No foreigner, of whatever nationality he may be, can come into Africa and subsist at first upon the native productions.