Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/40

 the bread exceedingly white and excellent, owing to its being prepared with a small quantity of toddy, drawn from the cocoa-nut tree. In compliment to the English present, a toast was given during dinner to the health of His Majesty the King of Great Britain, at which time the company all stood up, and a royal salute was fired from the fort. We gave in return, the Prince Regent of Portugal, and a royal salute was fired from the Racehorse.

After dinner we retired to another apartment, where tea and coffee were set out in a splendid service of pure gold from Sena, of excellent workmanship, executed by the Banians resident on the island. The Governor, when in his official dress, wears a very costly and curiously wrought chain of the same metal, and, on state days, has two or three black slaves in attendance, who appear almost overwhelmed by the pressure of the golden ornaments, with which they are encumbered, remnants of the splendour once attending these Viceroys of Eastern Africa. Upon the whole, the day passed away as pleasantly as can be imagined, without the society of ladies, whom it is difficult even to get a sight of in this Settlement.

On the ensuing day Captain Fisher and myself set out at day-break, with the Governor in his state-barge, rowed by native blacks, with paddles like the boats in India, on a visit to Mesuril, lying nearly at the bottom of the bay, about three leagues distant from the town, where the Governor has a country residence. The appearance of the house on the approach by water is extremely beautiful. It is situated on a high bank, at no great distance from the beach, with a small garden in front, forming a kind of terrace, from which a double flight of steps leads down to a grove of lemon, orange, citron, and papaw trees, which were at this time bending with the weight of their fruit. On its eastern side, and at the back of it, rises a thick forest of cocoa-nut, mango, cashew, (Anicardium occidentale) and other lofty trees, and on the western side is a flight of steps, leading up from the seaside to the house. The house itself is not very large, consisting of one range of apartments only, almost destitute of furniture; but the agreeableness of the situation,