July 12th.--Early in the morning a messenger arrived from the caboceer with his cane, which he presented to me with his master’s compliments, desiring to know if I were quite well, and how I slept. Soon after the messenger had left me, the caboceer came, preceding his commissariat train, with an immense quantity of provision in large and small calabashes, containing beef, pork, mutton, fowl, kankie, dabadab, and a delicious dish made from a vegetable called occro, which when boiled forms a gelatinous substance, and is very strengthening. This dish is seasoned with palm oil and pepper. The provisions in all amounted to twenty bushels. The good old caboceer of Gbowelley, whom we left yesterday, sent some of his people after us this morning with a present of one goat, three fowls, and a large calabash of kankie. This was an acknowledgment for some presents, which I had given to him when I left him. The carriers and messengers were quite delighted when I presented each of them with some needles and thimbles, and returned home rejoicing. After breakfast, the caboceer wished me to walk round his town with him--seeming anxious to gratify his people with a glimpse or sight of the King’s stranger. This was just what I wished, as I was anxious to acquire as much information as possible during the short time I had to spare. Accordingly we visited the markets, which were well supplied with provisions and articles of manufacture. I noticed amongst other things some English chequered handkerchiefs. Native cloth, of various quality and colours, was exposed for sale. Kaom, or saltpetre, is very abundant in the Kong mountains, and is sold in the markets in all the towns in the vicinity. It is used as medicine, and, as in England, is much in requisition for cattle. Deer skins of various species are sold in the market, also nuts of various sorts, as well as different kinds of beans and peas. Ginger is very abundant in this neighbourhood, and is sold at about eight-pence per Winchester bushel. The corn is now nearly ripe, and some of the Guinea corn is as much as ten feet high, so that the town is entirely concealed until the fence, which invariably encloses the African towns on the plain, is passed. The prickly bush at Abomey is planted like a double hedge round the town, and is about ten yards wide, so that to a European it would seem a matter of impossibility ever to break through it. The female soldiers of Dahomey, however, as I have already mentioned, are capable of taking one of these towns with apparently little trouble.