At length all was finished,
and then and not till then we carried the wretched youth from the chamber
of death, to one as dark, as gloomy, and as scantily furnished, but having
a wood fire burning in the grate, and a bed with ragged curtains at one
end of it. And here, in comparative comfort, the landlady allowed him to
be placed, even though she saw little chance of her lodgers being able to
pay for the change. Into the glass of water held to his parched lips, as
he recovered his senses, I poured a sufficient quantity of the opiate to
produce slumber, and had the satisfaction of hearing his mother fervently
thank God, as still half unconscious, he swallowed the draught. I thought
he would not have survived the shock he had received; but I was mistaken.
The merchant was buried and forgotten; the son lived, and we met again in
a far, far different scene."
* * * * *
THE GATHERER.
NOBLES OF JOHANNA.
We had long been aware that the potentates of the _Guinea coast_ not only
assume English titles, but wear under, or in place of, diadems, the
cast-off wigs of our Lord Chancellors--but we were not prepared for what
follows in the latitude of the Mozambique Channel, as related by Captain
Basil Hall.
"We proceeded to our guide's house, where he introduced us, not indeed to
his wives, for all these ladies were stowed away behind a screen of mats,
but to some of the males of his family, and, amongst others, to a queer
copper-coloured gentleman, who styled himself, in his communications with
us, 'the Duke of Devonshire,' and begged very hard to be allowed the
honour of having our linen to wash.
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