He had represented them in a manner which would have
exceeded his attempts at praise of the most luxurious scenes. Their
apartments, he said, were fitted up as advantageously for them as
circumstances could possibly admit: they had several meals a day; some
of their own country provisions, with the best sauces of African
cookery; and, by way of variety, another meal of pulse, according to the
European taste. After breakfast they had water to wash themselves, while
their apartments were perfumed with frankincense and lime-juice. Before
dinner they were amused after the manner of their country; instruments
of music were introduced; the song and the dance were promoted; games of
chance were furnished them; the men played and sang, while the women and
girls made fanciful ornaments from beads, with which they were
plentifully supplied. They were indulged in all their little fancies,
and kept in sprightly humour. Another of them had said, when the sailors
were flogged, it was out of the hearing of the Africans, lest it should
depress their spirits. He by no means wished to say that such
descriptions were wilful misrepresentations. If they were not, it proved
that interest or prejudice was capable of spreading a film over the eyes
thick enough to occasion total blindness.
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