Joag till my return: to this they all objected; and insisted, that as we
had all acted contrary to the laws, we were all equally answerable for
our conduct.

[8] Maana is within a short distance of the ruins of Fort St. Joseph,
on the Senegal river, formerly a French factory.

I now took my landlord aside, and giving him a small present of
gunpowder, asked his advice in so critical a situation. He was decidedly
of opinion that I ought not to go to the king: he was fully convinced, he
said, that if the king should discover anything valuable in my
possession, he would not be over scrupulous about the means of obtaining
it. This made me the more solicitous to conciliate matters with the
king's people; and I began by observing, that what I had done did not
proceed from any want of respect towards the king, nor from any wish to
violate his laws, but wholly from my own inexperience and ignorance,
being a stranger, totally unacquainted with the laws and customs of their
country. I had indeed entered the king's frontier, without knowing that I
was to pay the duties beforehand, but I was ready to pay them now; which
I thought was all that they could reasonably demand. I then tendered
them, as a present to the king, the five drachms of gold which the King
of Bondou had given me: this they accepted, but insisted on examining my
baggage, which I opposed in vain. The bundles were opened; but the men
were much disappointed in not finding in them so much gold and amber as
they expected; they made up the deficiency, however, by taking whatever
things they fancied; and after wrangling and debating with me till
sunset, they departed, having first robbed me of half my goods. These
proceedings dispirited my people, and our fortitude was not strengthened
by a very indifferent supper, after a long fast. Madiboo begged me to
turn back; Johnson laughed at the thoughts of proceeding without money,