Upon this I replied, through my interpreter, that I had come to pay him a visit, and also for the purpose of trading with them. Though no further remark was made by them, there seemed something incredulous in his manner; and the whole of his people seemed distant and suspicious. I felt, consequently, much inclined to leave the town, and encamp for the night in the bush; but, upon a second consideration, I thought if any evil were premeditated towards us, it would be more likely to be put into execution if we were out of the town than when under the protection of the King. I therefore sent a messenger to ask him if he could accommodate us with a hut to shelter us, as it was now raining fast. But he had already observed the sudden approach of the tornado, and had gone to order a hut for our accommodation. This was at some distance, and we were led through small doors from one court-yard into another. After passing through several court-yards, I was told that my horse could proceed no farther, and must remain where it then was. This I did not at all relish. The objection made was that the doorways were too low; whereupon, I ordered the saddle to be taken off, and the poor animal, bending itself down, passed through the whole of the low doorways, through which I could scarcely thrust myself. At last we arrived at a tolerably comfortable court-yard, of a quadrangular form, one side of which was occupied by large stones for grinding corn. Here a number of good-looking young females were busily employed in grinding. Upon my entry, the most ridiculous confusion ensued; no retreat was ever more precipitate; one young girl pushing down and running over another, children screaming, even the dogs running, howling with fear, and upsetting pots of provision, or anything which stood in their way. By this time I was wet through, and very glad when shown my hut, which was quite dark, having no opening to admit of light except the door-way, which was little more than three feet high. We were shortly afterwards furnished with some wood to make a fire, but we had nothing to cook. I endeavoured to bargain for some fowls in exchange for needles or thimbles, but, although they seemed to covet every thing they saw, money was their only object, and, though Mahomedans, this seemed their god. We were consequently obliged to satisfy ourselves with roasting the heads of boiled corn which we still retained in our havresacks. One young lad engaged to procure me plenty of grass and corn-leaves for my horse for some needles, which I readily agreed to. He was so much satisfied with his wages, that I easily engaged him to procure some old corn for my horse also. He said his mother had got a large corn-store, but I found what he considered a large store did not exceed fifty or sixty bushels.