hundred yards when we perceived several groups of armed men on both sides of the road a little way ahead: as we approached, they directed their weapons towards us in rather a threatening manner, yet they did not seem hostile; so urging my horse to a brisk trot, I rode amongst them, laughing and cheerfully sa-luting them as I approached. They could not help laughing too, but when I presented my hand successively to the first three or four, neither would touch it: passing the others, I presented it somewhat insist-ingly to one who seemed the leader: he shook it, several others following his example. They merely in-quired whence we came, and suffered us to pass.
About two hours after, we crossed the Ogun and suddenly encountered one of the saddest spectacles in Africa, a village only a few days before full of life and activity, now entirely depopulated, its inhabitants captured as slaves, itself in ruins and ashes. The people belonged to Oyo, and were collected there on account of the employment of ferrying passengers over the Ogun during the rainy season. The King of Oyo having a short time before captured a few of the people of Ijaye, Arey in retaliation sent an expedition against the place, and suddenly pouncing upon the unsuspecting inhabitants at midnight, took every individual and burnt the place.
