Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/112

at this first interview to see his face, a privilege he never accorded publicly to any who had before visited the place, at the same time informing us, that it was because he regarded us as his own people, descendants of native Africans. Besides the direct subject of our mission, we conversed on the forms of civilized government, his majesty asking many questions respecting Queen Victoria, and the ruler of the country from which we came, of whom the American missionaries had before informed him. As a "ruse," he invited us to accompany him to his mosque, to which he said he was just going. We accepted his invitation, but when we prepared to go, he laughed and again seated himself, saying that he was glad we seemed to have no prejudices against his religion; he was seated on a mat in a long piazza, usually entirely screened, but on this occasion the screens were drawn up just where he sat, so as to expose him to view, but still keeping out of sight many of his wives. He is an old man, and like the king of Abbeokuta has had the misfortune to lose an eye. He is not a pure Negro, but like many of the Fulanees in his town, one of his parents, most likely his father, must have been an Arabian; his physiognomy therefore is not purely Negro. He is a man of small stature, but well proportioned, and was neatly