“Before breakfast, Adizzetta was employed above an hour in cleaning and polishing her teeth, by rubbing them with the fibrous roots of a certain shrub or tree, which are much esteemed, and generally used for the purpose in her own country, as well as in the more interior parts.  A great part of the day is consumed by many thousands of individuals in this amusing occupation, and to this cause, the brilliant whiteness of their teeth, for which Africans, generally speaking, are remarkable, may be attributed.”  Such is Lander’s description of an African beauty, and that beauty a queen.

About ten in the morning, a mess of fish, boiled with yams and plantains, was produced for breakfast.  As King Boy was fearful that the presence of the Landers might incommode the lady, they were desired to move farther back, that she might eat with additional confidence and comfort, for alas! they were not placed on an equality with Adizzetta and her kingly spouse.  When they had breakfasted and swallowed a calabash of water from the stream, the Landers were served with a plateful, and afterwards the boat’s crew and the slaves were likewise regaled with yams and wafer.  In the evening, another refreshment, similar to this, was served round to all, and these are the only meals which the men of Brass have during the twenty-four hours.  Before eating, Boy himself made it a practice of offering a small portion of his food to the spirits of the river, that his voyage might be rendered propitious by conciliating their good will.  Previously also to his drinking a glass of rum or spirits, he poured a few drops of it into the water, invoking the protection of these fanciful beings, by muttering several expressions between his teeth, the tenor of which, of course, they did not understand.  This religious observance, they were told, was invariably performed, whenever the Brass people have occasion to leave their country by water, or return to it by the same means; it is called a meat and drink offering, and is celebrated at every meal.  A custom very similar to this prevails at Yarriba, at Badagry, Cape Coast Castle, and along the western coast generally; the natives of those places never take a glass of spirits without spilling a quantity of it on the ground as “a fetish.”  In the morning, they observed a branch of the river running off in a westerly direction, the course of the main body being southwest.

They stopped awhile at various little villages during the day, to purchase yams, bananas, and cocoa-nuts, and the curiosity of their poor inhabitants at their appearance was intense.  They were chiefly fishermen or husbandmen, and notwithstanding the uncouth and remarkable dress of the Landers, they behaved to them without rudeness and even with civility, so that their inquisitiveness was not disagreeable.  Speaking trumpets, it was imagined, were quite a novelty with the men at Brass, by the extraordinary rapture which they displayed for their music, which certainly was