supposed his mother to be long since dead; while the mother was quite ignorant of the fate of her son. I felt great interest in this meeting; but such is the general brutality of nature in these slave countries, that the meeting seemed to excite little of the warmer feelings of human nature; in fact, they seemed to regard the circumstance as no more than any ordinary event. I asked my servant if he wished his mother to be liberated, and allowed to go home with him to Whydah, his residence. At first he seemed grateful for the proposal; but, after a few days, when his mother again called, and I offered to make a request to the King to grant his mother and sister their liberty, he began to hesitate and calculate the additional expense which it would entail upon himself. Although this could not exceed one halfpenny per day, he said, that as they seemed to be comfortable, they had better remain where they were. Such was the filial gratitude of an educated African, who had not seen his parent for nearly twenty years; and, although the poor old mother was anxious to be with her son, the heartless fellow seemed glad to shake off the connexion, and to avoid the opportunity, which under such circumstances seldom occurs, of being reunited with the parent from whom he had been so ruthlessly torn. July 3d.--My white servant being without shoes, I this day made him a pair of untanned bullock’s hide. According to his statement, he was a French Canadian. He came to me from an American brig which arrived at Whydah with a cargo of tobacco. The vessel was sold by the captain for four thousand dollars to the Portuguese, and sailed in a few days after with six hundred slaves on board. This circumstance, it will be recollected, is noticed in a former part of my Journal. My servant, at first, appeared a very good trust-worthy man, and boasted greatly of his courage and qualifications for travelling In Africa. But I observed to-day that he had been drinking, and determined to watch him. Going shortly afterwards into my store-room I caught him in the act of stealing cowries; he had also stuffed the sleeve of my coat, which was laying on a bamboo-table, with them. Upon remonstrating with him, he flew into a violent passion, using the most disgusting language, and at the same time drawing a butcher’s clasp-knife, with which I had entrusted him, and with which he threatened to murder me. It was now time to act on the defensive. I succeeded in knocking him down, and, after having secured the knife, I flogged him with a small riding-whip, and discharged him. With all his boasted valour, he was afraid to return alone to Whydah, and still more afraid to remain in Dahomey, till my return from the Kong Mountains. I had not determined on making any report of the circumstance to any person of power in Dahomey, lest it might act prejudicially in regard to the good opinion formed of Englishmen; but to my surprise, in less than an hour after