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 OMAN, GKEEN, and CO. raternoster Kow 
 
 i 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
/- .f 
 
IMPEESSIONS 
 
 OP 
 
 WESTEEN AFEICA. 
 
 W ITH REMARKS ON THE 
 
 DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE 
 
 AND 
 A REPORT ON THE PECULIARITIES OP TRADE UP THE 
 
 RIVERS JN THE BIGHT OF BIAFRA. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS J. HUTCHINSON, ESQ. 
 
 HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL FOR THE BIGHT OF BIAFRA AND 
 THE ISLAND OF FERNANDO PO. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, & ROBERTS. 
 
 1858. 
 
 . r ^,^ \ '■ff'e rif/kt of translation is resei'ved. 
 
rONDOlS" : 
 
 PEINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. 
 
 ITEW-STRKET SQUABE. 
 
^1 rn 
 
 TO 
 
 THE EIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK, 
 
 EAEL OF CLARENDON, KG., G.C.B. 
 
 HER majesty's PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 
 
 AS A TEIBUTE TO THE BENEVOLENT INTEBEST 
 EVEE DISPLAYED BY niS L0ED8HIP 
 
 IN ALL MATTEES AFFECTING THE CIVILISATION OF 
 
 AFRICA'S GREAT CONTINENT, 
 
 THIS WOEZ IS EESPECTFULLY 
 
 gebuati^ 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A RESIDENCE of eight years — two of which have 
 been passed in my present official position under Her 
 Majesty's Government — on the Western Coast of 
 Africa, will, I trust, be considered a sufficient justifi- 
 cation for laying the following pages before the public. 
 
 My first experiences there having been in a Medical 
 capacity, I made the subject of African malaria and 
 fever my continuous and attentive study. The truth 
 of the old maxim that " prevention is better than cure," 
 \\ith which I commenced my professional duties at Old 
 Kalabar in the year 1850, which I followed up in the 
 Niger Expedition of 1854, and which I still practise 
 as well as preach, has been abundantly confirmed in 
 my experience. 
 
 I have introduced into the following pages a few 
 passages relating to Madeira, Sierra Leone, and the Kru 
 
 A 3 
 
 ivi31?368 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Coastj as well as some of the observations on Malaria 
 and Fever, which appeared in my "Narrative of the 
 Niger, Tshadda, and Binue Exploration." I was led 
 to adopt this course in order to make the narrative of 
 voyaging along the coast consecutive, and on account 
 of the importance so long attached to the bugbears 
 of African malaria and fever. 
 
 The commerce of Africa, like the intelligence of its 
 people, is yet in a condition little better than that of 
 helpless infancy. I do not entertain as great hope 
 respecting the hereafter of this country, from its ivory, 
 gold dust, or copper ore, as from the industrial products 
 of its cotton, shea-butter, and palm oil. 
 
 To some it may appear a flight of imagination to 
 regard the slave population as the future workers in 
 developing these resources for their own and their 
 country's good, as well as for the promotion of the com- 
 mercial interests of the British nation. Nevertheless, 
 ever since I became acquainted with the negro cha- 
 racter T have entertained this opinion; and it is 
 strengthened by a daily increasing knowledge of the 
 tribes who trade up the rivers within my consular 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 jurisdiction, as well as by the conditions of society 
 wliich exist in the countries visited and described by 
 those illustrious and indefatigable travellers, Doctors 
 Earth and Livingstone. 
 
 British Consulate, 
 Fernando Po. 
 
 January 1st, 1858. 
 
 A 4 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Sailing from Liverpool. — Atlantic Sea-sickness. — The Madeiras. — 
 Legends of their First Discovery. — Impressions of Funchal. — The 
 Parvis. — Ride up to the Church of Nossa Senhora del Monte. — View 
 from the Small Curral. — General Aspect of Funchal. — The Imports 
 to Madeira. — Canary Islands. — Visit to Santa Cruz, the Capital of 
 Teneriffe. — The Theatre and Market-place at Santa Cruz. —The 
 Church of St. Barbara. — Peculiarities of the Inhabitants met in the 
 Streets. — Height of the Peak of Teneriflfe. — Baron von Humboldt's 
 Opinion of its last Eruption. —Wonders and Beauties of the Tropical 
 Sea. — Flying Fish and nightly Phosphorescence . . Page 1 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 First Approach to African Continent. — Tornadoes. — Difference of Sen- 
 sations perceptible on Land and at Sea after a Tornado. — Lieut. 
 Bold's Description of them. — Portandik and Senegal. — St. Louis and 
 its French Governor. — Native Names of River and Capital. — The 
 Foota Toora and Foota Yaloo Tribes. — Exports of Senegal. — Goree 
 and its Fort. — African Scene in the Town. — Cession of Goree to the 
 French Government by the Treaty of 1816. — Glimpse at Dakur. — 
 Exports of Goree. — The Gambia and Bathurst. — Cheerless first 
 Appearance of the latter. — Its Market-place and Street. — The Man- 
 denga and Yaloof Houses. — The Lepidosiren. — Explorations of the 
 Gambia in the Seventeenth Century. — Thompson's, Jobson'S, Ver- 
 muyden's, Stubbs's, and other Expeditions. — Conviction of Unhealthi- 
 ness of the Gambia Settlement. — Chief Cause to which this may be 
 attributed. — Notice of the Rivers between Gambia and Sierra Leone. 
 — These Rivers shown to be the Cradles in which the Slave Trade 
 was nursed . . . . . .19 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Sierra Leone. — Impressions of its first Appearance. — Streets and 
 Buildings of Freetown. — Kissy Street. — The Road to Fourah Bay 
 Grammar School, — Peculiarities of the native Timneys. — Early 
 History of Sierra Leone. — Governmental Institutions. — Natural 
 Productions. — Harmattan. — Cape Mount and Liberia. — Description 
 of Monrovia. — Mrs. Stowe's Expectations of it. — The Kru Coast and 
 Krumen. — Their Indispensability for African Trading. — Visit to 
 Grand Sestros. — Kruman's Mode of Apprenticeship. — Improvisatori 
 amongst Krumen. — Polygamy ; of its general Characteristics in 
 African Nations. — Approach to the Gold Coast . . Page 36 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Cape Coast and its Castle. — A Walk through the Town to Fort 
 William. — L. E. L.'s Grave. — Description of the Place in which she 
 is buried. — My Sensations on seeing it. — Refutation of the Calumnies 
 against Herself and Husband. — Supposed Cause of her Death. — The 
 Gold Country interior to Cape Coast. — Mode of Swearing amongst 
 the Natives. — Dysentery and Guinea Worm the prevailing Diseases 
 here. — Some Notes about Ashantee. — Akra. — The Fort of St. James. 
 — The Poll Tax, and Native Objection to it. — The Gold Mines of 
 Akim. — The Artificers at Akra. — Akim Superstition . , 56 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 The Bight of Benin Whydah and Appi. — Vi?ta. — Monopoly at the 
 
 latter Place. — Badagry. — Peculiarity of Lagos Roadstead. — Geo- 
 graphical Position of the Town, and Description of it. — Of the 
 Natives at Lagos. — The Abbeokutan Warriors. — Commerce of the 
 neighbouring Countries. — The Cotton Exportation from Lagos. — 
 The French Settlement of Palma. — Benin River. — The Tomcn. — 
 The Niger between Benin and Nun River. — Intervening Boundary 
 of the B'ghts of Benin and B.afra . . . .71 
 
CONTENTS. p 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Boundaries of the Bight of Biafra. — Names of Rivers contained within 
 it. — Explorations of the Niger. — Lander's Discovery of its Mouth. 
 — Laird and Oldfield's Expedition. — Governor Beecroft's Ascents. 
 — Failure of the Government Expedition of 184L — The "Pleiad's" 
 Voyage up this River in 1854. — Urging Causes for this Attempt. — 
 Dr. Barth's Discoveries in Central Africa. — Fittings out of the 
 " Pleiad." — Success in her Geographical Discoveries, as in the 
 
 sanitary Arrangements for her Crew The present Operations up 
 
 the Niger, under the Foreign Office Contract with Mr. Laird Page 8 1 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Brass River. — Lander's Description of its chief Town. — Visit to Twa 
 Village. — Appropriateness of Twa for a Slave-trading Depot. — 
 Sketch of Brass Town. — Present Kings of Brass. — Its domestic 
 Slavery. — Primogenitureship. — New Kalabar River. — King Ama- 
 kree. — The Town of New Kalabar. — The Ju-ju King. — Amakree's 
 Ju-ju House. — Peculiar Fashion amongst the Ladies. — Bonny 
 River. — Statistics of former Slave Trade in Bonny. — The Palm-Oil 
 trading Stations interior to Bonny. — Sketch of Bonny Town. — The 
 Iguana (the Bonny Ju-ju). — Style of Architecture in Bonny. — 
 Horrors of the Ju-ju House. — The Market Place. — Ex-King Peppel's 
 Physique His Successor, King Dappo. — Internecine War con- 
 sequent on the Death of the latter. — Peppel's subsequent Career. — 
 The Equity Court House. — Andony River . . .93 
 
 CHAP. VIIL 
 
 Up the Old Kalabar River. —Tom Shot's Breakers and East Head. — 
 Peculiarities of the Mangrove Trees. — Dr. Brown's Description of 
 them. — Parrot Island, and the Superstition connected with it. — 
 Statistics of former Slave Trade in Old Kalabar. — Anti Slave Trade 
 Treaty of 1842. — ^Clarkson's Record of Brutalities committed during 
 Slave- Trade Times in this River. — Explorations of Cross River ; 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 Governor Beccroft. — Mr. Colthurst's Attempt and Failure to reach 
 the Niger from this Stream. — View of trading Vessels moored off 
 Duketown (or Atarpah) the Capital of Old Kalabar. — Size of the 
 Town and Number of Population. — Henshaw Town (or Nsiring). 
 — Its Necropolis. — View from the top of Duketown Hill. — "Wat- 
 tle-and-Dab " Architecture of the Iliggledy-Piggledy Order. — The 
 " Jukas," or Night Watchman. — Promenade through the Turkey 
 Buzzard's Pasture Grounds. — King Eyamba's Iron Palace. — His 
 Majesty's Carriage and Horses. — Notions of Royal Dignity. — The 
 Duketown Palaver-house. — Its Construction and Appearance. — 
 The Egbo Drum. — Times at which it is beaten, and Tunes sounded 
 upon it. — King Architong's House. — Chop Days in Old Kalabar. — 
 Devotions on their Sabbath. — The Duketown Tyburn Tree. — The 
 Market-places and their odorous Attractions. — Sketch of Antika 
 Cobham's House i Furniture and Fat Wife. — Varieties of Kings in 
 Old Kalabar. — A Slave-Trader's Tomb. — Cask Houses on the 
 Beach ....... Page 109 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 A Visit to Old Town (or Obulong) through the Qua Country. — The 
 Qua People and Language. — Curious Character attached to a Palm 
 Tree opposite the Royal Residence. — Her Majesty Queen Qua. — 
 The Qua People the original Owners of Kalabar Country. — The 
 Kalabarese resident here only on Toleration. — The arborescent 
 Scenery of the inner Country. — Corroboration of Mr. Gosse's Opinion 
 on the Music of Birds and Odour of Flowers in Tropical CHmates. 
 — Anansa, the tutelary Guardian of Old Town. — Creektown (or 
 Ekuritunko). — King Eyo Honesty. — Opinion of his Character. — 
 Support given by him to the Presbyterian Missionaries. — His Dress 
 and Appearance. —State Visits to the trading Vessels. — Superiority 
 of Creektown to Duketown. — King Eyo's Palace and Harem. — 
 
 Tom Eyo's Museum. — A Trip down Monkey Creek Mountains 
 
 to the East of Duketown. — Suppositions concerning Tribes to the 
 Interior of Old Kalabar. —The Mbudikum, Mbafum, Tcka, and Ding- 
 Ding. — Remarkable Echoes in Old Kalabar River . .127 
 
CONTENTS. Xm 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The Egbo Order of Old Kalabar. — Derivation of the Title Egbo 
 
 Difference of Grades. — Similarity to our Freemasonry. — Mode of 
 Initiation. — Peculiarities of the Order. — Style of Egbo Proclamation 
 by a Spirit supposed to come from the Woods. — Brutalities connected 
 with the " Brass Egbo " Day. — Legal and Judicial administration 
 of Egbo Statutes. — The Bloodmen. — Generalities of Ju-ju Worship. 
 
 — Kalabarese Polytheism. — Ideas of Abasi-Ibum (the Efik name for 
 God Almighty). — Old King Kalabar the Efik High Priest. — The 
 Children's Deity Obu. — Idem-Nyanga and Ekponyong. — Skulls 
 
 paving the Ground Devil-houses as Obsequies for the Dead. — 
 
 Howling over the Graves. — Fashions in Native Mourning. — The 
 Esere or Chop-nut Test. — Ifod or Witchcraft. — Professor Christi- 
 son's Experiments on the Properties of the Chop-nut. — Graphic De- 
 scription of its Effects by a Kalabar Man. — The Abiadiong, or Sorcerer- 
 His modus operandi when consulted. — The Abiabok or Native Doctor. 
 
 — Surgery performed by the soft Sex. — Extent of Therapeutic 
 Knowledge . . . . ... Page 141 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The "Afias," or Ordeals of Old Kalabar. — Power and Influence of the 
 Abiadiong Faculty. — Albiam or " Chop-Doctor " (the Native Oath). 
 — Mode of Administering this Oath. — The Lady Artists in Old Kala- 
 bar. — Varieties of Hair-dressing. — Its similarity to the old English 
 Practice. — The biennial Custom of " Judok." — Description of Nabi- 
 kems, and of Operations to expel Evil Spirits. — Belief in the Trans- 
 migration of Souls. — Examples of African Fables. — Of the Unicorns. 
 
 — Championship. — Of the Chameleon's Varieties of Colour and 
 Uniformities of Habit. — Baron von Humboldt on the fantastic Crea- 
 tions of uncivilised Tribes. — Superstitions in burying Twins alive. — 
 Account of the Presbyterian Mission in Old Kalabar. — Its Necessity 
 
 here.— Of the Work it has effected.— The Kio del Key The Kame- 
 
 roons Mountain. — The Bimbia District. — Kameroons Towns, and 
 their clean Streets. — A Queen Street-Sweeper. — Kameroons Egbo 
 Peculiarities. — Kongolo Order. — Gambia Sorcerer. — Qua Poison. — 
 Captivations of soft Sex. — Yearly Produce of the Locality. — Elvers 
 in the Bight of Biafra below Kameroons . . . .156 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Fernando Po. — Its geographical Position and early History. — Trans- 
 ference of Ownership from Portugal to Spain. — First Spanish Colo- 
 nisation. — Attempt at Settlement by the English. — Why it failed. — 
 Replanting of the Spanish Flag in 1843. — First Appointment of a 
 Consul here for the Bights. — The British Government making no 
 Agreement with Spain for the Cession of the Ground now called 
 Clarence. — Census of Clarence in 1856. — Description of the Town, 
 — Monument to Governor Beecroft. — His successor, Governor Lyn- 
 slager. — Clarence Grave-yard. — Lander's Grave. — Fernando Po 
 Peak. — George's or North-west Bay. — Its Position. — Charles's Folly. 
 — Point Kelly. — Goat and Kid Island. — Assemba and Moloko Terri- 
 tories. — Lander's Opinion of the sanitary Superiority of George's 
 Bay to Clarence Cove ..... Page 173 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 The Aborigines of Fernando Po. — Reasons for rejecting their Name of 
 " Boobees." — Most certain mode of ascertaining the Ethnological 
 Distinctions of African Races. — Supposition of the Fernandians' 
 affinity to the Okoos. — Dr. Thomson's name of Adeeyahs for them. 
 — Lieutenant-Colonel Smith's Error in identifying them with the 
 Guanches of TenerifFe. — Items of Dissimilarity. — Notice of Berthelot's 
 " Memoire sur les Guanches." — Estimated Population of the Island. 
 — Peculiarities in Appearance of the Fernandians. — Their Modes of 
 decorating the Bodies. — The " Tola" Pomatum. — Style of Dress. — 
 Attractiveness of soft Sex. — Arhis of Warfare. — Beauty of Lan- 
 guage — Varieties of Currency. — Stone Hatchets. — Laziness of the 
 Fernandians. — Review of Fernandian Warriors. — Visits to the 
 Towns of Issapoo, Banapa, and Bassili. — Mode of manufacturing 
 Palm-Oil. r— Peculiarities of the Town-gates — The "Reossa." — Attri- 
 butes of the Skin of a " Roukarouko " (Serpent). — King Bowaowdi's 
 Palace. — Ceremonial of Coronation — Causes of Deficiency in Gal- 
 lantry to a Fernandian Queen. — The Solemnity of Marriages. — 
 Picturesque Mode of Fishing amongst the Race. — Their own Account 
 of their Origin. — Burial of the Dead. — Whale. — Calving Season at 
 Fernando Po . ..... 186 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Prince's Island. — Its Position. — Agalhas or West Bay. — Approach to 
 the Capital, Porto San Antonio. — Preliminaries to entering the Town. 
 
 — Portuguese Soldiers at the Custom House. — Chapels of Porto San 
 Antonio. — " Deserted Village " Appearance of the Town. — Governor 
 Ozorio. — Dr. Nunez's Opinion of the sanitary Character of the Island. 
 
 — Natural Products of Prince's. — The Voyage Home. — Difference 
 of Sensations from those entertained on going out. — First Sight of 
 the Polar Star. — The Azores or Western Islands. — Their volcanic 
 Nature. — The deceptive Appearance of African Rivers, as to the 
 Origin of Malaria. — Professor Daniel's Theory of its Generation. — 
 Enumeration and Specification of Objections to it Analysis of Pro- 
 fessor Dumas. — Opinions of Surgeon Peters, Drs. Johnson, Ferguson, 
 Watson, Madden, M'William, and others . . Page 203 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Malaria continued. — Best Means of Neutralising its Influence. — Indis- 
 pensability of Quinine. — Awnings to Ships. — Clothing, Diet, and 
 moral Influences. — Prevention of Fever. — Administration of Qui- 
 nine. — Treatment of Fever. — Symptoms of African Endemic. — 
 Objection to Vensesection and Salivation. — Suggestions for removal 
 of irregular Intermittents. — Division of African Fever. — No ac- 
 climatising Fever in Africa Enumeration of exciting and pre- 
 disposing Causes. — Facts opposed to Salivation. — Paralysis super- 
 vening on Prostration caused by frequent attempts to excite Vomiting. 
 
 — Unruly Symptoms of a perplexing Case. — Removal of Patients 
 
 into a different Atmosphere. — Mr. Boyle's Sol-lunar Influence Its 
 
 true Explanation by Mr. Milner and Dr. Lardner. — Dysentery 226 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Report on the peculiarities of Trade up the Rivers in the Bight of 
 Biafra. — Geographical Position of the Bight. — Enumeration of its 
 Rivers.— Table of latest Returns of Palm-Oil.— Of the existing Con- 
 dition of Niger and Tshadda Trade.— Varieties of Currency Mode 
 
 in which Trade is carried on at the different Stations of Brass, New 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 Kalabar, Bonny, Old Kalabar, and Kameroons. — Contrast between 
 the present Production of Palm-Oil and that of Twenty Years back. 
 — Necessity of non-interference of Supercargoes with the Laws and 
 Superstitions of the Natives. — Progress of the Slave Class in Trading 
 Operations. — The peculiar Condition of African Society as at present 
 constituted. — The Slave Class the future Producers of their Country's 
 industrial Resources. — Dr. Livingstone's Observations on Free 
 Labour at the Mauritius. — The true Plan of civilising Africa. 
 
 Page 251 
 
 APPENDIX A .269 
 
 APPENDIX B . . . ... 280 
 
 APPENDIX C 294 
 
 INDEX . .299 
 
IMPRESSIONS 
 
 WESTEEN AFEICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Sailing from Liverpool. — Atlantic Sea-sickness. — The Madeiras. — 
 Legends of their First Discovery. — Impressions of Funchal. — The 
 Parvis. — Ride up to the Church of Nossa Senhora del Monte. — View 
 from the Small Curral. — General Aspect of Funchal. — The Imports 
 to Madeira. — Canary Islands. — Visit to Santa Cruz, the Capital of 
 Teneriffe. — The Theatre and Market-place at Santa Cruz. — The 
 Church of St. Barbara. — Peculiarities of the Inhabitants met in the 
 
 Streets. — Height of the Peak of Teneriffe Baron Von Humboldt's 
 
 Opinion of its last Eruption. — Wonders and Beauties of the Tropical 
 Sea Plying Pish and nightly Phosphorescence. 
 
 Chill and gloomy was the morning of Monday the 
 23rd of September, 185<>, as I sailed from the port of 
 Liverpool, on my first voyage to the Bight of Biafra, 
 Western Africa. 
 
 But gloomier by far than the weather were the feel- 
 ings that held the minds of all to whom I had bade 
 farewell on that day. The name of this part of the 
 world had been associated with such horrors, that my 
 friends viewed my going to it in the light of a perverse 
 
2 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 fatuity, little short of self-immolation. / had made a 
 resolution for the venture ; and yet I could not be 
 obstinate enough to contradict the force of their argu- 
 ments save by a passive adherence to my original inten- 
 tion. To Western Africa ! The grave of Europeans 
 and the plague-spot of the world ! No wonder that 
 their impressions should very materially influence my 
 spirits at the time of departure ; but I was buoyed up 
 by a hope — which experience has since confirmed — 
 that Western Africa is in a great measure made the 
 grave of Europeans by Europeans themselves. 
 
 After the bustle of setting our ship in sailing trim 
 was over, and our crew had been divided into watches, 
 on the following day we lay, as evening approached, 
 midway between Kingstown and Holyhead — the ocean 
 and atmosphere around us as placid as in the most per- 
 fect tropical calm. It was an evening for sober and quiet 
 meditation over the past and towards the future, but 
 not in the slightest degree suggestive of the horrors 
 of the ensuing fortnight's sufferings. 
 
 Four days brought us clear of the dangers of the 
 Channel. The Tuskar lighthouse and Saltee islands 
 were distinctly seen as our ship sailed by their localities 
 on the Irish coast; and the last glimpse of British 
 territory was the peak of the hill overtowering Dun- 
 garvan, about forty miles north of Cork. 
 
 To say that our passage across the Atlantic was very 
 rough and stormy could give no one a correct idea of 
 what I endured. Should the reader have never made 
 this voyage, let him not imagine he knows anything of 
 
THE MADEIRAS. 3 
 
 the malady called sea- sickness. The form of that disease 
 suffered in small boats or in steamers trading coast- 
 wise bears no more resemblance to the Atlantic sea- 
 sickness than an ordinary cold in the head does to 
 cholera morbus. I have laughed very heartily, and no 
 doubt many have done the same, at the inimitable 
 description of it given by Dickens in his " American 
 Notes," but one would hardly believe the vast difference 
 between reading a written sketch, however graphic, and 
 going through its actual endurance for a fortnight. 
 
 In about three weeks land was again in view, and 
 with it came a change in the temperature of the air 
 that was very agreeable. This was the cluster of the 
 " Madeiras," the main island being the first of the group 
 visible, seeming like a huge cinder looming out of the 
 sea, as all islands appear whose outlines are perceptible 
 at a single coup cToeil. On a nearer approach to it we 
 had evidences of vegetable life and human habitation, 
 pictured in the thick brushwood and neat white cottages, 
 that afforded a pleasing contrast to the dark, craggy, 
 and beetlinoj masses of rocks, which formed a ruggred 
 ridge over the extent of the island, and were overtopped 
 by the Pico Ruivo. Away to the east was the island 
 of Porto Santo, a very chaotic mass of basalt, present- 
 ing varied hues, that had quite a picturesque combin-^ 
 ation in the glowing sunshine. On the eastern side of 
 Madeira some small villages were observed near the sea, 
 close by the outlets of ravines, and having a convent or 
 chapel in each. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 One of these was Machico, called after the man 
 whose memory is hallowed here for his being the first 
 discoverer of Madeira, according to the following ro- 
 mantic story. 
 
 Robert Machin, with Anna d'Arfet, sailed from 
 Bristol to escape the wrath of the lady's friends, as she 
 had been forced into a previous marriage with one 
 whom her heart loathed. Th^y intended to land on the 
 coast of France. But, as the course of true love has 
 never run smooth, so it was with this hapless pair, who, 
 being driven by a storm far away to sea, at length 
 arrived at this unknown and uninhabited island. The 
 period of this occurrence is given as the year 1344, and 
 their landing-place as the village now called Machico, 
 where there is a chapel built to their memory. A cross 
 is also shown here that has the reputation of having 
 been placed over their graves by the crew of the ship 
 that brought them out, and who remained 'only long 
 enough to see them buried. 
 
 The record farther goes, to the eiFect that between 
 1417 and 1419 some Spaniards, who had settled at Porto 
 Santo after the conquest of the Canaries in 1402, 
 sailed towards the S.W. from seeing a dark cloud 
 constantly in that direction, and discovered the island 
 of Madeira with the cross over the graves of Robert 
 Machico and Anna d'Arfet. 
 
 Another story is told of the discovery of Madeira by 
 the original Portuguese settlers at Porto Santo. Accord- 
 ing to this. Prince Henry, a younger son of John I. 
 fitted out a vessel entrusted to two gentlemen, who 
 
LEGENDS OF THEIR FIRST DISCOVERY. 5 
 
 had instructions tQ use their utmost endeavours to 
 double Cape Bojador, and thence to steer southward. 
 A sudden squall drove them out to sea, as they were 
 trying to sail along the shore — the only system of navi- 
 gation known in those days — and so they soon found 
 themselves safely landed on an island which they 
 named Porto Santo. They returned to Portugal, and the 
 following year three ships were manned and sent out 
 to take possession of it. They had not been long there 
 ere they were attracted by a dark spot southward on the 
 horizon, and, conjecturing it might be land, they sailed 
 towards it, finding it to be uninhabited and covered with 
 trees, whence they designated it Madeira.* 
 
 Not daring to doubt the romance of Strephon and 
 his Phyllis having come out and died just in time to let 
 the sailors return together, I am rather incredulous as 
 to the Portuguese suspecting land to be S.W. from 
 Porto Santo by a dark cloud only, as the southern 
 extremity of that island is only thirty-five miles from 
 the harbour of Funchal; and the Pico Ruivo in 
 Madeira rises to a height of 6056 feet above the level 
 of the sea. 
 
 But the poetry of this record is completely annulled 
 by Mr. White, who, in his work on Madeiraf, entitles 
 the story of Robert and Anna " a romantic and pro- 
 bably fabulous narrative." He attributes its 'discovery 
 
 * Madeira is the Portuguese -word for wood, 
 
 f Madeira, its Climate and Scenery, By Robert White, London : 
 Craddock and Co., Paternoster Row. 1851. 
 
 B 3 
 
6 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 ** to Joas Gonzalves da Camera (commonly called 
 Torgo, or Squint-eye) and Tristas vax Saxeira, under 
 the auspices of Don Henry, the Conquistador, son of 
 King John I. of Portugal, in July 1419." 
 
 Rounding the sharp rocks of Punto San Lorenzo, 
 relieved by occasional patches of verdure on the loftier 
 places about, and by the white sails of a few fishing- 
 boats coming out from Funchal, we stand in for the 
 harbour. The Loo rock, with its citadel, the custom- 
 house. Governor's mansion, with the church of Nossa 
 Senhora del Monte on the hill, are the chief attractive 
 features of Funchal seen from the roadstead. We are 
 landed on shore by one of the native boats, that are 
 turned stern in by the rowers, and with the assistance 
 of a surging wave joined to a rope pulled by some 
 hands on the beach, are hauled up, high and dry, on 
 the pebbles. Hard by is a lofty column of blowsy- 
 looking bricks which was used as a lighthouse, at some 
 remote age. In a few moments a number of men and 
 boys are around, — some with sticks, and others with 
 baskets to sell; more wanting us to engage horses, 
 which are not used for draught at Funchal, but are 
 kept to be let out on hire for riding. A walk up a 
 street between the Governor's and the custom-house 
 brings us to the Parvis, used for a lounging and 
 fashionable promenade in the evening, where gigantic 
 plants, bearing flowers, give a grateful shade, and show 
 a handsome bloom. Of the magnolia, I observed a 
 specimen in the corner near the cathedral, with a 
 cream-white blossom on it as large as the crown of a 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF FUNCHAL. 7 
 
 man's hat. From the Parvis, the Terreiro del Se leads 
 to one of the fruit markets, protected by walls and iron 
 railings, with two parallel sheds at either end, and a 
 number of wooden houses in the centre, the whole 
 surrounded, inside the walls, by lofty chestnut trees. 
 
 Funchal contains about 30,000 inhabitants, or 
 nearly one fourth of the population of the island. 
 The houses in the town are very high, and the streets, 
 which are paved with basalt, are narrow, so narrow, 
 indeed, that there is no room for side pathways for 
 pedestrians. The character of Madeira for salubrity, 
 particularly for persons affected with pulmonary com- 
 plaints, is too well known for me to descant upon it. 
 The thermometer is never below 53° Fahr., its mean 
 annual temperature being 66°. Sometimes, but rarely, 
 there is snow on the tops of Pico Kuivo and Pico 
 Grande, but it is never seen lower than 2000 feet 
 above the level of the sea. 
 
 The beauty of the scenery surrounding Funchal is 
 indescribable, hills, peaks, cliffs, and ravines being 
 interspersed with vegetation of every shade, and con- 
 trasted here and there with the white faces of country 
 houses. 
 
 On horseback ! and away up to the church of Nossa 
 Senhora del Monte ! up a hill so steep that the wonder 
 is how the horse never misses a step as he clatters 
 over the basaltic pavement! over one of many bridges 
 that cross a bed for a river, running the whole length 
 of the town from the Curral to the sea, and which is 
 
 B 4 
 
8 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 flanked by two strong and lofty walls, of the same 
 material as the street pavement ! At either side of this 
 river-bed, as far up and down as one can see, there is a 
 row of Justicia elegans and maple trees, whose branches 
 intermingle in the centre, and form an arch aloft. 
 Portuguese sign-boards are everywhere in the streets, 
 and the language is screamed into our ears by a man 
 walking in advance of two bullocks fastened to a sleigh, 
 and who is bellowing furiously at the animals, whilst 
 the cogency of his arguments is impressed upon their 
 buttocks by another individual, who goads them re- 
 morselessly with a spike. Past high walls, overtopped 
 with hedges of spartinum, lavender, roses, geraniums, 
 heliotrope, and eglantine, filling the air around with 
 their fragrance! The gardens inside are teeming with 
 cherries, peaches, apricots, oranges, limes, bananas, and 
 all kinds of European as well as intertropical fruits. 
 Here and there large heaths and cypress trees vary the 
 natural scenery, with woodbine flowers of a purple hue, 
 and we arrive at laurels and myrtles as we get up 
 higher. On the top of nearly every wall is a little 
 black Cerberus, that salutes us with a gruff bark, until 
 we pass by the limits of his territory, when the burden 
 is taken up by the next dog in rotation. 
 
 I was very much disappointed with the appearance of 
 the church. Seen from the harbour, it has an air of 
 smartness, and an attractive exterior ; viewed at its 
 threshold and within its walls, it has quite a chilly and 
 withered aspect of faded gentility. In spite of a very 
 lofty ascent of steps, and a towering turret on either 
 
VIEW FROM THE SMALL CURRAL. V 
 
 side, it impressed me with a melancholy feeling. When 
 inside, and gazing round at the many altars, decora- 
 tions, and pictures, our guides seemed only intent on 
 impressing us with the fact that the chandeliers and 
 lamps were of solid silver, and other ornaments of 
 solid gold. 
 
 The view of the town from the church steps is shut 
 out by some lofty trees growing underneath the 
 quinta* of the British Consul, but it is seen to 
 advantage from a bend in the road over the Paliero, by 
 which we returned. Looking across the Small Curral, 
 there is a landscape of picturesque beauty, which I 
 rested for many minutes to admire. Neat cottages, 
 gardens teeming with vegetable life, trelliswork here 
 and there for the vines, flowers sending heavenly odours 
 around, wild canaries warbling in the tree-tops, and 
 little purling streams, whose presence is only known 
 by their rippling music. The peasantry whom we 
 saw hereabout are observed cultivating the soil, or 
 driving mules along the roads, with panniers on their 
 backs, — the former and more onerous work being im- 
 posed on the women, the latter and lighter being taken 
 in charge by the men. The working portion of the male 
 sex whom we met in the streets of Funchal, as well as in 
 the country, wear blue jackets, loose white linen 
 breeches, buiF-coloured buskins, and " capu9as," or 
 little caps that are only large enough to cover a few 
 hairs of their heads, and seem like funnels turned 
 
 ♦ Country residence. 
 
10 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 upside down, with a peak tliat is ever waddling like a 
 water wag-tail. 
 
 Besides a visit to the market-place, where the din of 
 Portuguese clatter would deafen the most obdurate, I 
 went, as strangers are permitted to go, into the convent 
 to have transactions with the nuns for the purchase of 
 artificial flowers, which they have fabricated from fea- 
 thers very neatly. The ladies hold converse with the 
 applicant or his interpreter through a double grating, 
 with six or eight inches between the bars of each, the 
 flowers being moved out and the money taken in by a 
 revolving wooden box at one end. Sleighs drawn by 
 bullocks, and sedan chairs carried by men, are the only 
 locomotives of the town. It possesses excellent hotels, 
 as well as libraries and reading-rooms. 
 
 The whole aspect of Madeira has quite a dilettanti 
 appearance. Riding not along, but up and up and 
 round about, over roads well paved, but appearing an ad 
 infinitum of curvatures, — with a stream flowing in an 
 artificial channel on one side, and yawning abysses 
 with huts at the bottom on the other ! by quintas 
 whose w^hite, yellow, and red fronts, diversified with 
 green and blue jalousies and flowers of various gorgeous 
 hues outside, in some places I pass under latticework 
 stretching across the road, from which huge pumpkins 
 are suspended,"' and then by the river's-side walls, look- 
 ing over which, a tiny stream, the Ribiera delJoas Gomez, 
 seems struggling through huge blocks of granite, on the 
 most elevated of which, pieces of cotton cloth are 
 spread for drying. 
 
THE IMTORTS TO MADEIRA. 11 
 
 Yet this rlyer, generally insignificant in its supply of 
 water, is at certain seasons so swollen by the mountain 
 torrents, that it sweeps away many whole streets of 
 houses and destroys many lives. Since my last visit to 
 Funchal, I have heard of its having caused fearful de- 
 vastation, carrying away a convent, and its inmates, 
 several of whom were drowned. This calamity occurred 
 previous to the outbreak of cholera in 1856. 
 
 On board the boats containing the industrial products 
 of the island for sale, and which are generally in num- 
 bers around the mail steamers, may be observed several 
 of the juvenile population of Funchal, who will dive in 
 a depth of six fathoms of water to catch any piece of 
 silver that a benevolent signor may throw into the sea 
 for the practical development of their marine agility. 
 
 By the " Mappa Commercial de Porto de Funchal,'' 
 for the year 1854, it appears that 107 English ships 
 entered the port that year, with cargoes amounting to 
 68,400/., an amount nearly double that of its Portuguese 
 commerce, to whose crown the island belongs. 
 
 A merchant there informed me that American oak 
 shoots for casks can be had at Madeira mdam^mtk per 
 cent, cheaper than in England. fi^ 
 
 South of Madeira, about 150 miles, is a group of 
 rocks called the Salvages. They are uninhabited, but 
 are sometimes visited by Spaniards and Portuguese, for 
 the purpose of collecting barilla — the only vegetable 
 substance that is found there — and from whose ashes 
 the purest kind of alkali is obtained. 
 
 The chief islands of the Canary group, are Palma^ 
 
12 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Fuerteventura, Lancerota, 
 Gomera, and Ferro. They all belong to the crown of 
 Spain, and the total number of their inhabitants is esti- 
 mated at 200,000. 
 
 The distance from Madeira to Teneriffe is about 250 
 miles. The Canary islands produce wine, corn, oxen, 
 and goats. With these, the cochineal has of late years 
 become a very important article of export from Tene- 
 riffe. Here also grows a species of lichen from which 
 the rich purple dye of orchil is obtained, and whose 
 chemical principle furnishes the blue test litmus. 
 
 From Point Anaja, the northernmost end of Tene- 
 riffe island, the distance to Santa Cruz, the capital, — 
 which is situated on the N.E. side, is about ^ye miles ; 
 and this extent of country has no aspect save that of 
 cindery cliffs with patches of euphorbia growing thereon. 
 
 Entering Santa Cruz roadstead by the first dawn of 
 morning, the town is, at the earliest glance, perceptible 
 only as a white line along the beach. On going ashore 
 and clambering up a few ricketty steps, the first thing 
 that impressed me with a conviction of being in a 
 strange land was a camel grinding cement by rotatory pro- 
 gression, turning a wheel. The animal was blindfolded 
 to keep him from becoming giddy. On the right hand 
 side at the town end of the pier, is a small garden for 
 public recreation, called the Allemada. Turning over 
 to the same side and past the English hotel, we find a 
 working yard for engineers, and, about one hundred paces 
 farther on, the fort of San Pedro, from which the fatal 
 
SANTA CRUZ, CAPITAL OF TENERIFFE. 13 
 
 shot was fired that took oiF the arm of the gallant 
 Nelson. To the left from the pier is the fort of San 
 Christobal, — the castle of the port, — and passing by 
 which we come into Constitution Place, — a neat square, 
 in which is erected at one side a cross to point out the 
 place where the Spaniards first planted the symbol of 
 Christianity in TenerifFe. At the opposite side is a marble 
 column placed there in the reign of King Charles III. 
 of Spain, with a statue of the Virgin and Child at 
 the top. The chief attractive houses of the square, 
 are the residence of the Governor-general of the gar- 
 rison, and a French cafe. From the latter an omnibus, 
 drawn by four mules, goes twice a day to Laguna — 
 a large town about six miles distant in the interior. 
 From the upper end of Constitution Place stretches 
 Castle Street, which is the Regent Street of Santa 
 Cruz, and which commands the main thoroughfares of 
 the town. 
 
 Strolling to the right, we pass some gloomy streets 
 and get into the interior of the church of San Francisco. 
 Nothing more is observable in it than is to be seen in 
 similar Spanish edifices all over the world. A few 
 streets from this, and on a rising ground, are erected 
 the theatre and the market-place, on the site where 
 formerly the convent of San Domingo stood. There 
 is here only "one step from the sublime to the ridi- 
 culous"! only forty to fifty yards from the Thespian 
 muse to cabbages, pumpkins, and bilious-looking apples ! 
 Yet in both establishments there is a neatness not re- 
 
14 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 cognisable in like places at Madeira, and which is in 
 singular contrast to the filthy aspect of the town and 
 its inhabitants. The parish church of the Conception, 
 at the time of my first visit, had grand preparations in- 
 side of it for the celebration of high mass to St. Barbara, 
 who is the patron saint of the Artillery, and a company 
 of whose devotees I met, with drums beating and bugles 
 blowing, on their way to worship. Inside of the 
 church a large quantity of military appanages, mortars, 
 shot, swords, and flags were arranged in artistic style 
 before the high altar. Hanging by a wall, close to a 
 small altar on the left side, is a coffin-shaped box 
 containing the colours that were taken from Nelson 
 in his hapless attack on TenerifFe, and which are 
 treasured with pride by the Spanish residents of the 
 island. 
 
 The streets of Santa Cruz have a very varied aspect: 
 — ladies with black skull caps and long flowing veils, 
 listlessly carrying expanded fans in their hands ; sol- 
 diers in white uniform having blue caps and green tassels 
 suspended therefrom; brigandish-looking fellows from 
 the country with sombrero hats, and ponchos made out 
 of common blanket ; half-starved mules, ponies, don- 
 keys, and camels that seem to understand as much what 
 they were born for as many of the people one meets 
 about. 
 
 The population of TenerifFe amounts to 70,000 inha- 
 bitants. It produces better wine than any other of the 
 islands. Its remarkable peak, called by the inhabitants 
 the " Peak of Teyde," and supposed to have been the 
 
THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE. 15 
 
 Atlas of Yirgil and Homer, is at times the most magni- 
 ficent spectacle in the world. 
 
 Large masses of flecky cloud generally enwrap the 
 mountain ; but often the atmosphere is clear enough to 
 admit an uninterrupted view from the base to the highest 
 point. The top of it is a cupola, as perfect in symmetry 
 as the dome of St. Paul's, and depressed on the summit 
 by the concavity of the crater. The latter is 12,176 
 feet above the level of the sea ; and on the western side 
 of the mountain, down to the margin of the ocean, are 
 waving beds, in streamy form, of now solid basaltic 
 lava, emitted from the crater when the volcano was in 
 action. These present a most attractively sublime ap- 
 pearance from a ship's deck when passing by, as the 
 setting sun frequently causes them to glow with a ruddy 
 and resplendent glare. 
 
 There is still, according to Captain Alexander, a 
 vapour issuing from the summit, and portions of finely 
 crystallised sulphur deposited on its sides. The last 
 eruption is recorded to have taken place in 1798, but 
 Baron von Humboldt states that " the volcano has not 
 been active at the top for thousands of years, its erup- 
 tions having been from the sides, the depth of the crater 
 being only about twelve feet. The peak forms a pyra- 
 midal mass, having a circumference at the base of more 
 than two geographical miles. Two thirds of the mass 
 are covered with vegetation, the remaining part being 
 sterile and occupying about ten square leagues of sur- 
 face. The cone is very small in proportion to the 
 mountain, having a height of only 537 feet. The 
 
16 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 lower part of the island is composed of basalt, and is 
 separated from the more recent lavas and the product 
 of the present volcano by strata of tufa-puzzolana and 
 clay."* 
 
 The vale of Orotava, which is at the south-western 
 side of the island, is said to have an average of five 
 degrees warmer temperature than Madeira,. and being 
 much drier is therefore considered a more salubrious 
 residence for Europeans with bronchial affections. 
 
 The country interior to Santa Cruz, in the Laguna 
 direction, was reported to me to have a beautiful appear- 
 ance, with corn-fields and gardens of cactus, on which 
 the coccus insect is nurtured. The island is said to 
 abound in pitch lakes. At the south side of Santa Cruz 
 are a few lazy windmills ; and along the whole stretch 
 of country visible there are vineyards, diversified by 
 white houses and cactus plantations, till our ship gets 
 away on her ocean home again, and we exchange the 
 beauties of the land for those of the vasty deep. 
 
 Speeding along and entering the northern tropic, 
 each evening brings an increase of the soothing sensa- 
 tions communicated by the balmy atmosphere, with ad- 
 miration at the many wonders and beauties of the tro- 
 pical sea. " It is in the tropical seas, towards the heart 
 of the torrid zone," writes' Milner f, "that several re- 
 markable phenomena are witnessed in perfection. The 
 phosphorescence of the ocean ; the flying fish chased by 
 
 * Nautical Magazine, No. 47, January, 1836. 
 f Gallery of Nature, p. 333. 
 
PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE TROPICAL SEA. 17 
 
 the dolphin ; successive regions of steady breezes and 
 calms, interrupted by sharp and sudden squalls and 
 enormous deluges of rain, which generally descend in 
 equatorial districts in a perfectly still state of the at- 
 mosphere. No spectacle is more imposing and magni- 
 ficent than the luminous appearance of the sea at night 
 in these latitudes. The path of a vessel seems like a 
 long line of fire, and the water thrown up in her pro- 
 gress, or dashed by the waves upon deck, flashes like 
 vivid and lambent flames. Sometimes myriads of lu- 
 minous stars and spots float and dance upon the surface, 
 assuming the most varied and fantastic aspects. This 
 phosphorescent or shining appearance of the ocean is by 
 no means uncommon, but is most frequent in the equa- 
 torial seas, and is usually ascribed to animalcula which 
 exist there in inconceivable numbers, and to the serai- 
 putrescent matter of plants and fishes developing elec- 
 tricity." A few hundred miles south of the Canaries 
 we have all the beauties of it, without the disagreeables 
 of *^ sharp and sudden squalls with deluges of rain," not 
 having yet arrived in the latitude of African tor- 
 nadoes. 
 
 Standing on the deck at night, and watching the 
 glowing meteors in the sea, where, to use the words of 
 Baron Von Humboldt, '^ every scintillation is the vital 
 manifestation of an invisible world," I gaze with admi- 
 ration at the long path of lambent flame in the ship's 
 trackway — down in the ocean, where the tropical fish 
 are following the vessel's course — and far away to the 
 
 c 
 
18 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 horizon's boundary, to which the breeze is causing the 
 water to sparkle in vitalised fire, as they — 
 
 " Soft, brilliant, tender, through the waters glow, 
 And make the moonbeam brighter as they flow." 
 
19 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 First Approach to African Continent. — Tornadoes. — Difference of Sen- 
 sations perceptible on Land and at Sea after a Tornado. — Lieut. 
 Bold's Description of them. — Portandik and Senegal. — St. Louis and 
 its French Governor. — Native Names of River and Capital. — The 
 Foota Toora and Foota Yaloo Tribes. — Exports of Senegal. — Goree 
 and its Fort. — African Scene in the Town. — Cession of Goree to the 
 
 French Government by the Treaty of 1816 Glimpse at Dakur. — 
 
 Exports of Goree. — The Gambia and Bathurst. — Cheerless first 
 Appearance of the Latter. — Its Market-place and Streets. — The Man- 
 denga and Yaloof Houses. — The Lepidosiren. — Explorations of the 
 Gambia in the Seventeenth Century. — Thompson's, Jobson's, Ver- 
 muyden's, Stubbs's, and other Expeditions. — Conviction of Unhealthi- 
 ness of the Gambia Settlement. — Chief Cause to which this may be 
 attributed. — Notice of the Rivers between Gambia and Sierra Leone. 
 — These Rivers shown to be the Cradles in which the Slave Trade 
 was nursed. 
 
 When approaching the African continent, the sensa- 
 tions communicated by the atmosphere are not agreeable 
 to any one who has voyaged hither for the first time. 
 As we neared the coast, the sun became not only in- 
 tensely hot, but was arid and desiccating in its influence ; 
 and the clouds at night assumed a surly and lowering 
 appearance. Towards the land, thunder was heard 
 constantly murmuring and grumbling, after the sun had 
 gone down ; and we were frequently saluted by tor- 
 
 c 2 
 
20 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 nadoes — a mingled combination of wind, rain, 
 lightning, and thunder. Rude though this clash of 
 elements be at all times, it generally gives due notice of 
 its coming ; and at sea the thermometer falls many de- 
 grees after it has passed away, — the intense and over- 
 powering heat which precedes it giving way to a more 
 cool and refreshing temperature. It is not always so 
 on land, more especially at the commencement of 
 this season. During the existence of a tornado, the 
 thermometer often falls from twelve to twenty de- 
 grees ; but as soon as the rain acts upon the earth, equally 
 oppressive heat as that which preceded the elemental 
 outbreak frequently supervenes. The thunder-clouds 
 are sometimes so near the earth in these outbreaks, that 
 I have often experienced a dash of increased heat simul- 
 taneous with a vivid flash of lightning. Dr. Baikie* 
 writes of this sensation, which he and Mr. May expe- 
 rienced up the Binue — as " a feeling of warmth in the 
 face," on the occasion of a tornado. 
 
 The tornado t derives its appellation from the Por- 
 tuguese, being a corruption of "trovado," a thunder- 
 storm. " It is known," says Lieut. Bold, " on all the coast 
 of Africa between the Rio Nunez, in lat. 10^° W., and 
 the equator; but is most severely felt on the windward 
 coast (extending from Cape Mesurado to St. Andrew's 
 Bay), and seems intended by Divine Providence to expel 
 
 * Narrative of an Exploring Voyage up the Rivers Kworra and Binue, 
 in 1854. P. 206. Murray, London. 
 
 t Vide Merchants' and Mariners' African Guide. By Lieut. E. Bold. 
 Svo. London, 1S22. 
 
TORNADOES. 21 
 
 the noxious matter with which the air is so frequently- 
 charged. The tornado first announces itself by the 
 appearance of a small silvery cloud in the zenith, which 
 gradually increases and descends towards the horizon, 
 and becomes veiled over with the most impenetrable 
 darkness. At this moment the functions of nature 
 seem to be paralysed, and the elements to have ceased 
 their operations. The most profound and solemn still- 
 ness reigns around, with scarcely a breath of air from 
 the heavens ; in consequence of wliich, the whole phy- 
 sical system feels oppressed with sensations of approach- 
 ing suffocation. Violent and reverberating peals of 
 distant thunder, with lightning, commence, gradually 
 advancing and increasing to an extreme not easy to 
 describe ; the atmosphere being at times in a continued 
 blaze for miles without intermission. At length the 
 gust arrives, with sometimes the greatest, irresistible 
 violence, the impulse of which no sails can frequently 
 withstand. It is fortunately not of long duration, 
 extending from one to three hours, and concludes with 
 a furious deluge of rain, that descends rather in columns 
 than in drops. The great danger is in the sudden im- 
 pulse of the gust, which would immediately dismast or 
 overturn a vessel unprepared for that event. Nothing 
 can be more exquisitely delightful than the subsequent 
 (^ear and pure state of the air, creating an apparent re- 
 generation of the animal as well as the vegetable world." 
 Though vessels, unless specially bound thither, do not 
 touch at Senegal, it is the first river of importance on 
 the N. W. coast of Africa. 
 
 c 3 
 
22 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Before arriving at Senegal, and about a hundred 
 miles to the north of that river, is the town of Portandik, 
 where a small trade is carried on by English vessels. 
 It is situated on a rocky coast, not accessible for ships, 
 as there is a fearful surge breaking across the bar. The 
 trade, however, is of little importance, being confined 
 to gum-arabic, for which the chief market is Senegal. 
 By the treaty of 1783 with France (having reference to 
 Western Africa) it was stipulated that the English gum 
 trade should be entirely confined to Portandik. 
 
 St. Louis, the capital of Senegal, is situated about 
 twenty-one miles from the mouth of the river. Here 
 the French governor of Senegal resides, who is styled 
 by the natives Borom N'Dar, i. e. chief of N'Dar — 
 the African name of the island on which St. Louis 
 is situated. The population of St. Louis amounts 
 to nearly 10,000 inhabitants; of whom about 250 are 
 Europeans (Frenchmen), 800 military of the same 
 nation, 200 black soldiers, and the remainder negroes 
 and mulattoes. It is the most important settlement of 
 the French on the African coast. Its chief articles of 
 export are gum-arabic, ground nuts, and hides. Ivory 
 and gold-dust are occasionally obtained here from the 
 interior countries. 
 
 On the left side of the river as you enter is the town 
 of Guet N'Dar, outside of which the Sahara, or Great 
 Desert, commences to develope itself. The opposite 
 side is denominated the Cayor country, and is occupied 
 by the people of that negro race, whose king, Dommel, 
 is reported to be able to muster 20,000 horsemen on a 
 
THE FOOTA TOORA AND FOOTA YALOO TRIBES. 23 
 
 field of battle. The river Senegal, in the language of 
 the Cayor people, is called Jallibalil. 
 
 The Cayor tribe are of the Yaloof race.* They are 
 reputed to be the bravest in combat, and the most 
 athletic in physical conformation of any tribes to be 
 met on the coast. 
 
 At a considerable distance interior to Senegal, are 
 the countries inhabited by the Foota Toora and Foota 
 Yaloo tribes of the Filata races. The chief city of 
 the Foota Tooras, which is approachable up the 
 Senegal stream, and by voyaging along one of two 
 rivers entitled Woodo and Reo, whence you pass the 
 town of Islande, is called Aurifonde. Here the King 
 Almamif Abdul resides; and he can collect 13,000 
 horsemen at his command. 
 
 Between the Foota Toora and Foota Yalloo districts 
 are two pagan countries called Yanda and Bande. The 
 present King of Foota Yalloo is Almami Omar. 
 
 Of the opposition manifested towards the French by 
 these tribes, I have heard many stories, all of which were 
 confirmatory of their cunning and bravery. The exam- 
 ples of the Foota Tooras and Foota Yaloos that have 
 come within my acquaintance, seem to possess a very 
 superior intelligence. And although the Kuran is the 
 basis of their education, their political and social ideas 
 
 * Koelle, in his " Polyglotta Africana," gives to these people the name 
 of Wolofs. I believe it is also the name given hy themselves towards 
 their own species ; they are likewise entitled Yaloos and Yaloofs indis- 
 criminately. 
 
 f Almami is the Foota Toora title for king. 
 
 c 4 
 
24 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 prove them, nevertheless, to be endowed with a high 
 degree of mental development. 
 
 The trade winds, combined with steam, bring us 
 rapidly to the latitude of the Cape Verd Islands, 
 between which and the Madeleines we first observe the 
 peculiarities of African coast scenery — a patch of sand ; 
 — here and there a few gigantic trees towering over 
 their fellows; — with a smoky haze extending to where 
 the trees and sand are bounded by the visible horizon, 
 or to where the little town of Goree, built on a small 
 island outside Cape Yerd, causes us to drop anchor. 
 From Senegal to Goree is a distance of about eighty 
 miles. 
 
 The island of Goree, though belonging to the British 
 Crown from 1809 to 1816, was ceded to the French 
 Government in the latter year by the treaty of Paris. 
 Its population is about 7000, and its negro inhabitants 
 are of the Yalloo race. 
 
 The town is built on a barren, rocky island, com- 
 posed of basalt and sand. A single palm-tree, wuth a 
 few straggling oleanders in the market-place, are the 
 only evidences it possesses of vegetable life. From the 
 south-western end of the island, which is not more than 
 400 fathoms long and 170 wide, abuts the fort — the 
 chief French military depot in Western Africa. Inside 
 its w^alls, which are strong fortifications, is a pretty 
 monument to the memory of Monsieur Thomas Renault 
 de Germain, who had been formerly Governor of 
 Senegal. Stones and mortar lying about, as well as 
 excavations made in several places, show that it is 
 
GOREE. — DAKUR. 25 
 
 not yet finished ; but that part of it which is so has 
 been accomplished in the artistic style peculiar to the 
 French. There is a drawbridge admitting to the main 
 entrance ; and Goree presents a very curious appearance 
 when viewed from the battlements. One sees nothing 
 but flat roofs of white plaster down as far as the water's 
 edge, over the whole extent of the island. Coming 
 out of the gate, and looking over a high wall, there 
 is a real African scene before me ; — a few negro 
 boys, clambering up a wall like monkeys, between 
 the spot on which I stand and a swine colony under- 
 neath ; — two women working at looms in the same 
 place, spinning narrow strips of cloth out of cotton ; — 
 a large quantity of pigs, some of which are dozing under 
 the roofs of little unwalled sheds ; and farther on houses 
 of the natives, an idea larger, constructed with walls, 
 but so filthy in their outward aspect, that at first they 
 appear to me as being intended for the aristocracy of 
 the swinish race. The streets and dwellings have all a 
 very battered appearance about them, save the pretty 
 little chapel of Notre Dame, which is situated in the 
 centre of the town. 
 
 About three-quarters of an hour's pull across the sea 
 to the mainland is a place named Dakur, containing 
 3000 inhabitants, whose chapels and sisters of charity 
 institutions were visible to us from the fort or from any 
 part of Goree. 
 
 Gum-copal and ground-nuts are the principal articles 
 of export, chiefly to Rouen and Marseilles. 
 
 Between Goree and the Gambia, at the mouth of 
 
26 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 which the capital, Bathurst, is situated, nothing of the 
 land is visible unless you are very close to it; and 
 coming up to this the prospect is equally uninviting ; 
 a perfeetly flat country on either side, diversified with 
 a few ghostly trees rising out of the sand, and leaving 
 one uncertain as to whether there is a sea or a yawning 
 abyss behind St. Mary's Island on which Bathurst is 
 situated. There is no elevation of ground as far as the eye 
 can reach, — the horizon over the tops of the houses and 
 beyond the trees being bounded by the sky, and by that 
 alone. On the right side of the river, a few miles below 
 Bathurst, is Fort Bullom. From this fort, which is on 
 the opposite side to the city, a surface of a mile inland 
 from the beach, extending up the stream to a distance 
 of twenty miles, is owned by the British Government, 
 to which the colony belongs. This affords a yearly 
 revenue in the pilotage and harbour dues of ships, — 
 as the chief trade here, as well as in Goree and Senegal, 
 is carried on by French vessels. 
 
 Two wooden piers extend from the shore to a distance 
 in th<j river sufficient to allow ships to come alongside 
 to discharge their cargoes, and take in the country pro- 
 duce in return. 
 
 The sand on the beach and in many of the streets is 
 so soft that it is really a labour to wade through it. Turn- 
 ing to the right, I pass by a market-place, containing 
 many women, seated beside baskets of *' khola " nuts, 
 with bundles of the same sewed up in bamboo mats 
 for exportation down the coast. A quantity of hides, 
 which give out an abominable odour, lie about on the 
 
BATHURST. 27 
 
 ground ; women and girls,- bearing baskets of oranges, 
 greet you ; and perhaps a British officer in uniform can- 
 ters by, splashing up the sand in a shower behind him. 
 This road leads to the barracks, thence by the governor's 
 house to the hospital, where the view is limited by a 
 swamp. Facing the water, the dwellings as well as 
 places of business occupied by nearly all the European 
 traders are situated, with piazzas and verandahs outside 
 each, and rows of the blooming oleander, with its 
 brilliant scarlet blossoms, growing between the houses 
 and the highway. 
 
 Between this latter and the water a number of wild 
 cotton and fig-trees grow parallel with the houses, and 
 form a shady arborescence for lounging. Mandenga men 
 and women — some weaving, spinning, and chatting, 
 and some devoutly perusing the Kuran — are in groups 
 beneath the trees. At the end of this street several 
 boats are on the beach undergoing repair, and twenty 
 or thirty craft are riding at anchor in the harbour. 
 
 The market-place is the neatest I have seen in 
 Africa, protected from the sun by a zinc roof, and 
 being quite a cool retreat inside. There is also a 
 slaughter-house within view of it, and these have both 
 been erected by the colonial government. 
 
 In the interior, lying between the street and the 
 hospital, the houses of the native Mandengas and Yaloos 
 are situated. They are really pattern specimens of 
 African neatness and industry. The majority are 
 fashioned like mammoth beehives, with large spaces of 
 ground, used for yards, surrounding them ; in every one 
 
28 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA, 
 
 of which I observed males and females engaged in some 
 industrial occupation. Many of these houses are of 
 lattice walls and shingle roofs, but all are clean and 
 compact. From behind the convent,which is situated in 
 the Mandenga part of Bathurst, you can have a view of 
 the steamer " Albert " (lying a wreck on the beach), 
 which was engaged in the Niger Expedition of 1841-42. 
 
 A very curious animal, the Lepidosiren*, which forms 
 a connecting link between fish and reptiles, is an in- 
 habitant of the river Gambia. As the upper parts of 
 this river are liable to be dried up during much more 
 than half the year, the whole of this period is spent by 
 the Lepidosiren in a hollow which it excavates for itself 
 deep in the mud, where it lies coiled up in a completely 
 torpid condition, whence it is called by the natives, 
 " the sleeping fish." When the return of the rain 
 causes the streams to be again filled, so that the 
 water finds its way down to the hiding-place, it comes 
 forth for its brief period of activity ; and with the 
 approach of drought, it again makes its way down 
 into the mud, which speedily hardens round it into 
 a solid mass. 
 
 Ever since African exploration was commenced by 
 the English nation in the 17th century, the Gambia has 
 been the chief theatre for its attempted operation. 
 Although each succeeding effort to reach central Africa 
 by the Gambia failed, nevertheless the venture was 
 persevered in. For marvellous stories were told of the 
 
 * A specimen of this fish is in the Crystal Palace. 
 
EXPLOEATIOXS OF THE GAMBIA. 29 
 
 countries adjacent to the Niger and Timbuktu ; — of 
 the existence of one or more localities where the roofs 
 of the great men's houses were covered with gold, and 
 where the precious metal was to be found in the river 
 bottoms, and at the mountain sides. 
 
 In 1618, a company, building its hopes on these de- 
 lusive stories, was formed in London ; and Richard 
 Thompson, a Barbary merchant, sailed from the Thames 
 in a vessel of 120 tons. He advanced up the Gambia 
 as far as Tenda, a place never reached by an European 
 before, where he was massacred, most probably by his 
 own people. Lander writes that he was murdered by 
 the Portuguese, but surely if no European had ever 
 reached so high previously to his ascent, this was out of 
 the bounds of probability. 
 
 Kichard Jobson commanded the second expedition, and 
 arrived in the Gambia in 1620. His narrative is a most 
 interesting one — of the numerous wild animals, as lions, 
 elephants, river-horses, and crocodiles, with which the 
 country and the river abound. But many of his stories 
 are tinged with the apocryphal. He describes the river as 
 being filled with a " world of sea-horses, whose paths, 
 as they come on shore to feed, were beaten with tracks 
 as large as a London highway." "We should not for a 
 moment doubt this, when we learn further on, that 
 "baboons appeared to hold the sovereignty of the woods, 
 and whenever the navigation of the river obliged the 
 travellers to keep close in shore, where the banks were 
 covered with trees, the baboons posted themselves on 
 the branches, and kept up a regular attack upon the 
 
30 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 navigators, throwing at them the largest sticks which 
 they could find, and apparently holding a palaver with 
 each other as to the best mode of prosecuting the at- 
 tack against the lawless intruders into their territory." 
 
 The voices of crocodiles, the snorting defiance of 
 elephants, the distrust of the baboons " in the friendly 
 advances of their brother bipeds," would lead the reader 
 to imagine that Jobson went up as a Munchhausen 
 naturalist, rather than as a commercial explorer, did he 
 not ascertain the report of " a silent traffic carried on 
 in the interior between the Moors and a Negro nation, 
 who would not allow themselves to be seen." The reason 
 why these negroes conceal themselves is that they have 
 " lips of an unnatural size, hanging down half way over 
 their breasts, and which they are obliged to rub with 
 salt continually to keep them from putrefaction " — a 
 statement incompatible with our knowledge of phy- 
 siology in the present day, as well as of what interior 
 African exploration has since taught us. 
 
 To Jobson, Vermuyden succeeded on another expe- 
 dition in 1665, and improved on his predecessor in the 
 narrative he gives of the opposition encountered by the 
 animal kingdom. " So daring were the river-horses, that 
 one of them struck a hole in the boat with his teeth ; an 
 accident that was rather of a serious nature, as there 
 was no one on board possessing skill in carpentry." But 
 Vermuyden returned as Jobson did, without finding 
 the El Dorado ; and I am incredulous enough to believe 
 that these wonderful stories of savage animals w^ere 
 only palliatives for the failure of the expeditions. The 
 
STUBBS'S AND OTHER EXPEDITIONS. 31 
 
 wild animals of Western Africa, from the northern 
 tropic to the equator, have nothing like the craft or 
 daring in these instances recorded of them. 
 
 Another expedition was undertaken in 1720, when 
 the Duke of Chandos was Governor of the African 
 company, by Captain Stubbs, who only got a few miles 
 above the falls at Banaconda, and not so far as Thomp- 
 son or Jobson. The African Association, soon after 
 its first formation in 1791, sent out Major Houghton, 
 who undertook to reach the Niger by the Gambia, 
 on land. He was misguided to Tisheet by some Moors, 
 who, under the excuse of showing him the way to 
 Timbuktu, robbed him of his clothing, and left him to 
 perish under a tree. In 1793, the celebrated Mungo 
 Park sailed from England to explore central Africa, by 
 the Gambia; and although perishing on the Niger, 
 near Boussa, in a subsequent voyage, has left a name im- 
 mortalised by such chivalrous perseverance as has never 
 been before or since recorded, up to the successful 
 labours of Drs. Barth and Livingstone. He reached 
 the Niger by crossing overland, through the countries 
 of Medina, Satadoo, and Bongasi. 
 
 The age of romance must either have passed away 
 when I was at the Gambia, or, perhaps, not having 
 ventured above the river's embouchure, I had no oppor- 
 tunity of witnessing the poetic marvels described by 
 Jobson and Vermuyden. But I have seen enough of 
 it to make me believe that Captain Belcher must have 
 been dreaming when he wrote, " even in its present 
 state, it is by far the most healthy part of the coast; 
 
32 IMPRESSIOXS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 and had a portion of the liberality of Government 
 to Sierra Leone been extended to Bathurst and its 
 dependencies, it would have acquired that character 
 which eventually, with infinite labour, it will establish 
 for itself from its own resources." J do not " feel satis- 
 fied " of anything of the kind ; Jaecause geographical 
 facts, as thus described by Dr. Daniell*, go against its 
 possibility. '^ The settlements of Gambia are not so 
 favourably situated as those of Sierra Leone, being 
 deficient, not only in picturesque embellishments and 
 local advantages, but also in affording a less healthy 
 climate. Vast alluvial and densely-wooded mangrove 
 morasses extend on all sides, the heavy and monotonous 
 scenery of which reminds the voyager of the more 
 deadly swamps of equatorial Africa." So it appeared 
 to me at the time of my visit ; the entrance into the 
 river being one of the most dismal prospects to be seen 
 on the west coast of Africa. And a fact communicated 
 by Dr. Lawson, the Staff Surgeon of the Colony in 
 1852, adds cogency to Dr. Daniell's opinion: "that 
 in 1836, out of 96 Europeans (English soldiers) sent 
 to the hospital, 92 died." 
 
 I believe the ill-healthiness of this locality to be as 
 much attributable to the vicissitudes of temperature as 
 to the influence of its malaria. For the temperature in 
 the town, on the river, and outside the bar varies con-^- 
 siderably, — the first sometimes, even on the same day, 
 exceeding the last by from ten to twenty degrees. 
 
 * Sketch of Medical Topography, &c., p. 8. S. Highlev, Fleet-street, 
 London. 
 
RIVERS BETWEEN BATHURST AND SIERRA LEONE. 33 
 
 The Gambia has another settlement on it, named 
 McCarthy's Island, which is 180 miles interior. 
 
 A steamer is attached to the governing power at 
 Bathurst, which keeps up a communication between 
 both places. Ground-nuts, ivory, bees' wax, and hides 
 are the chief articles of export hence, — the ground-nuts 
 by the French, and the hides by the Americans. Goora 
 or Khola nuts also form an important item of traffic 
 at all the ports from this to Lagos. It is used amongst 
 the native Africans entirely as an agreeable bitter or 
 provocative ; but I believe it to possess valuable tonic 
 and febrifuge qualities as well. 
 
 The population of Bathurst is about 7000. The 
 Yaloos and Mandengas are the chief negro tribes of the 
 place. 
 
 Between Bathurst and Sierra Leone, now the chief 
 British Colonies in Western Africa, are the rivers 
 Cazamanza, Cacheo, Jeba, Rio Grande, Bolola, Rio 
 Nunez (or Kakundy), Campanee, Rio Pongo, Dembia, 
 and Debueka, with the Bijooga Islands, and the Isles 
 de Los. Then by Matacong Island, Mahneal, Mor- 
 dinale, Mellacooree, Janna, and Great Scarcies rivers, 
 and rounding the Bullom shore, we come within sight 
 of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. 
 
 All the countries traversed by the rivers just men- 
 tioned have long been the resort of Spanish and Por- 
 tuguese slave traders. And, however humiliating it 
 must be to us Englishmen to confess it, the records 
 tell us that from the river Nunez was brought, in the 
 year 1562, a cargo of slaves by Captain Hawkins, 
 
 D 
 
34 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the first Englishman who opened this traffic, which 
 he bartered at Hispaniola for hides, sugar, and other 
 produce of that island. He was, however, preceded 
 by Alonzo Gonzalves, a Portuguese, who made a 
 venture in 1434 ; and no doubt it was the money to 
 be made by this line of commerce that induced Pietro 
 de Centra to settle at Sierra Leone in 1480. The 
 latter was followed up by more of his nation taking 
 possession of the Gold Coast, and erecting the present 
 Dutch fort of Elmina in 1481. 
 
 In 1618, a charter was granted by James I. to 
 Sir Robert Rich, to establish a regular slave-trading 
 company to Africa, which, however, for want of in- 
 tegrity in its formation, soon broke up. The year 
 1631 saw the formation of a second company, which 
 secured from Charles I. the exclusive right of trading 
 between certain parts of Africa. Gradually, however, 
 the privileges of this company were infringed upon by 
 private adventurers, and so it shared the fate of its 
 predecessors. Jamaica was taken by England in 1645, 
 and seventeen years after, namely, in 1662, a third com- 
 pany was formed, at the head of which was the Duke 
 of York. One of the conditions upon which the com- 
 pany was invested with a royal charter was, that it 
 should supply annually to Jamaica 3000 slaves. 
 
 The opening of the slave trade was a blot upon the 
 grand geographical discoveries of the Portuguese in the 
 fifteenth century ; but it should never be forgotten that 
 the trade commenced by Captain Hawkins was legalised 
 in Great Britain for nearly two centuries, and was even 
 
ORIGINAL SLAVE-TRADE MARTS. 35 
 
 under royal patronage. In the spirit of that period, 
 one of Hawkins' vessels, in his second voyage, which 
 comprised ten ships, was styled the '^ Jesus," and 
 another the " John the Baptist," while he, the apostle 
 of the trade, was knighted on his return by Queen 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 A history of the slave trade is not my purpose here, 
 and these few observations have only been drawn forth 
 by the recollection, that the places by which we have 
 now passed were the great original slave-trade marts, 
 before the traffic found its way to the windward and 
 leeward coasts, as well as to the Bights of Benin and 
 Biafra. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Sierra Leone. — Impressions of its first Appearance. — Streets and 
 Buildings of Freetown. — Kissy Street. — The Road to Foarah Bay- 
 Grammar School. — Peculiarities of the native Timneys. — Early 
 History of Sierra Leone. — Governmental Institutions. — Natural 
 Productions. — Harmattan — Cape Mount and Liberia. — Description 
 of Monrovia. — Mrs. Stowe's Expectations of it. — The Kru Coast and 
 Krumen. — Their Indispensability for African Trading. — Visit to 
 Grand Sestros. — Kruman's Mode of Apprenticeship. — Improvisatori 
 amongst Krumen. — Polygamy ; of its general Characteristics in 
 African Nations — Approach to the Gold Coast. 
 
 Sierra Leone, according to Mr. Oldfield*, was named 
 by its early inhabitants Romarong, and by its first 
 discoverers (the Portuguese) Sierra Leone, from their 
 supposing that its mountains abounded in lions; but 
 Harduin, in his notes on Pliny, derives the name from 
 the noise of the surf on the shore. The bay of Sierra 
 Leone was named by early geographers Sagrin or Me- 
 tomba. 
 
 The colony has long possessed the reputation of being 
 the " white man's grave," strengthened by the allegory 
 of its possessing always two governors, — one going out 
 living and the other coming home dying. This character 
 seems to have been derived from the fact that in 1834 
 three governors died there in the space of ten months ; 
 
 ♦ Vide Sierra Leone Almanac for 1854. 
 
STREETS AND BUILDINGS OF FKEETOWN. 37 
 
 and such an occurrence was enough for the genius of 
 European poetry to build upon with reference to African 
 mortahty. Yet the appearance of the locality, as we 
 approached it, completely banished from my mind all 
 the accounts I had heard of its insalubrity. Our vessel 
 made a detour by the lighthouse to the south of the 
 harbour, in order to get up the proper channel, and so 
 we had a full view of its capital, Freetown. From the 
 lofty lighthouse on a low point of land, with a few palm 
 trees between it and the sea, — to the Wesleyan Mission 
 House between Kentown and the shore, — to the many 
 men-of-war and merchant vessels in the harbour, — to 
 the Fourah Bay grammar-school, which is quite an 
 attractive object northward of the town, — to the 
 cathedral, the governor's house, the hospital, the 
 barracks, — to the lion mountain overtopping all, and 
 clothed in varying tints of verdure, my gaze was turned 
 alternately with admiration. An ascent of forty or fifty 
 steps of granite flag from a pier on the beach, soon brings 
 us to the level surface of the town. The streets of 
 Freetown are laid out with mathematical precision, — a 
 carriage-way being in the centre, and a greensward of 
 Bahama grass* between this and the side path, over 
 which the walk is delightfully cool and agreeable. Kissy 
 Street, on the outskirts of Freetown, is in a perpetual 
 bustle of negro venders and purchasers at the many 
 shops with which it abounds. Leaving the street behind, 
 the road along here is a perfect rus in urhe, consisting of 
 
 * The health of the town is reported to have materially improYed 
 since the sowing of this grass in its streets. 
 
 D 3 
 
38 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 houses, not placed in juxtaposition, but having gardens 
 intervening teeming with limes, oranges, guavas, sweet- 
 sop, mangoes, pine-apples, and every intertropical fruit. 
 The Fourah Bay grammar-school is a Church Missionary 
 Society Institution, whose principal, the Rev. Mr. Jones, 
 has made an Elysian garden of the place, by cultivating 
 vines, and intermingling British fruits and flora with 
 those of the tropics. 
 
 In the market-place, as well as in other parts of 
 the town, I saw many nobly-formed men of the Man- 
 denga race, who are Mahomedans, and distinguished 
 from other negroes by the sweeping tobes they wear, 
 many of them likewise having a white or red cap. A 
 piece of leather, in which is sewed up a written 
 passage from the Kuran, is usually suspended round 
 their necks to preserve them from evil influence. A 
 similar practice obtains along the coast in pagan as 
 well as Mahomedan countries ; the only difference being 
 that the former wear tiger tusks and poison-nuts as 
 their guardian fetishes, whereas the latter place faith in 
 extracts from the KHran. Bridles beautifully orna- 
 mented, riding whips, carved calabashes, baskets, bows 
 and arrows, cartouche boxes, telescope cases, all manu- 
 factured by them in excellent style, are sold in the 
 market by the Mandengas. Every European merchant 
 residing in Sierra Leone is obliged to have an inter- 
 preter of this race to assist him in carrying on traffic 
 with the people of the interior for gold, which is brought 
 to the town in solid rings of various sizes. 
 
 The cries of the women in the town at early morning, 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE TIMNEYS. 39 
 
 parading the streets and selling "foo-foo,"* '* Man- 
 denga bread," " Agiddy,"t '' Khola nuts," and *' peppers," 
 brought me back in fancy to the by-streets of Liver- 
 pool or London. It gave me a better idea than I 
 had been accustomed to entertain of the capacity for 
 physical endurance of the negro women, when I learned 
 that they often bear a basket with these articles on 
 their heads, as well as carry a child on the back, the 
 whole weighing upwards of 100 pounds, from Hastings, 
 a distance of fourteen miles from Freetown, arriving in 
 the market at six in the morning, and returning the 
 same journey at night. 
 
 This colony extends twenty-six miles from east to 
 west, and thirty-four from north to south. Its chief 
 inhabitants, independent of Europeans, are of the Aku, 
 Mandenga, Timney, Soosoo, Yoruba, and Kru tribes, 
 all participating in the privileges of its government. It 
 is situated in the country of the Timneys, who worship 
 flint and thunder, as the original elements which rule 
 the world. When they take an oath, the affirmation is 
 sealed by their striking a flint and steel over their heads. 
 They likewise worship the bug-a-bugj insect, and build 
 hives over them in the rainy season. Freetown con- 
 tains nearly 30,000 inhabitants, and covers an area of 
 
 * " Foo-foo " is a name, I believe, of the Koso language, descriptive 
 of a substance made from yams by mashing them into the consistence 
 of putty. 
 
 f Agiddy is the Papaw title for Indian corn bruised with water into 
 a gruel -like preparation. 
 
 % The Termesfatak of Cuvier. 
 
 D 4 
 
40 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 about SIX miles. It is built on the hill-side in a bight 
 of the sea, forming the harbour of Sierra Leone, into 
 which its river falls, after being formed by the junction 
 of the Waterloo, Rokelle, and Port Loco streams, about 
 nine miles above the town. The colony has a popu- 
 lation of about 56,000 negroes, and 120 Europeans. 
 
 The distance from St. George's Bay on the west, to 
 Gambia Island on the east, twenty-six miles, with 
 between twenty and thirty miles inland, was marked 
 out as the original settlement in August 1787. A 
 treaty for the cession of this land was at that time made 
 with King Faranah of Queah ; and the first colonisers 
 were 400 negroes who had been discharged from the 
 army and navy after the American war, and who were 
 accompanied by sixty white men. For many years 
 afterwards, constant wars with the surrounding tribes 
 kept the colony in perpetual disturbance ; and even in 
 1809, the new treaties which were made with the kings 
 and chiefs of their respective districts threw no oil on 
 the troubled waters. Up to this period the government 
 had been in the hands of the African Company, when 
 it was ceded to the crown. It was not, however, con- 
 stituted an accredited and established British colony 
 until 1822. Three years before this time, new cove- 
 nants had been entered into with the surrounding 
 chiefs, which contained all the elements conducive to 
 the civilisation of the colony, — namely, a complete sup- 
 pression of the slave trade, or of the exportation of 
 slaves to foreign countries; an unrestricted right of 
 passage through their dominions to all British subjects ; 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF SIERRA LEONE. 41 
 
 a free and full permission for the native traders to 
 bring to market the natural produce of the country ; 
 and not only toleration of, but protection to. Christian 
 missionaries. As a consideration for the yearly revenue 
 lost to the kings and chieftains by the abolition of the 
 slave trade, and on their faithfully adhering to this 
 treaty, our Government guaranteed to pay them a yearly 
 stipend. 
 
 The administrative power of Sierra Leone consists 
 of a captain- general and go vernor-in- chief, who is also 
 vice-admiral of the British waters in the Gulf of 
 Guinea, and who is assisted by a legislative council of 
 three, — the chief justice, the queen's advocate, and the 
 colonial secretary ; with five others, as specified in the 
 charter of 1822. The council vote supplies and make 
 colonial laws, with the governor's suggestions ; but the 
 executive power is entirely vested in him. 
 
 The colony is rich in the production of teak-wood, 
 palm-oil, coiFee, and gum copal. Red pepper, arrow- 
 root, and ginger, form also important articles of culti- 
 vation. Ivory as well as gold are brought to it from 
 the interior. As teak-wood is too heavy to float — 
 the age of locomotives not having yet come to Western 
 Africa — this is brought down the rivers on rafts of 
 cork -wood towed by canoes. There were 500 tons of 
 ginger produced from the colony in 1851 ; and in 1852, 
 from 8000 to 9000 pounds of cotton were sent to 
 England by the African Improvement Society. 
 
 For many years, Mr. Oldfield, a merchant of the 
 colony, has carried on an extensive manufacture of 
 
42 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 ground-nut oil in Freetown ; and this establishment 
 constitutes the only manufacturing power in the place. 
 It is prepared by a screw press, and besides giving 
 employment to a large number of people throughout 
 the year, affords the inhabitants on this part of the 
 coast a very superior burning oil. Being pure and 
 free from smell, it is supplied to the steamers of the 
 African squadron for their machinery. 
 
 The Harmattan is one of the most remarkable fea- 
 tures of Sierra Leone to a European, if he should 
 happen to be there during its occurrence. Of its phy- 
 sical effects, of its extreme dryness, of no dew falling 
 during its continuance, of its destroying vegetable life, 
 and of its being conducive to human convalescence after 
 disease, accounts have been given by Dr. Dobson* and 
 Mr. Milner.f My first visit to the colony was made in 
 the centre of the Harmattan season, and its peculiarities 
 were disagreeably sensible on shore: — a thick vapour 
 like a London November fog, having a mingled odour 
 of lime and sulphur, with a sensation of barely palpable 
 particles of sand deposited on my face, accompanied by 
 no breeze, and imparting quite a depressing and dried- 
 up feeling to the whole system. At times, during the 
 season, the sand deposited can be gathered from the 
 table or the floor with a spoon. Scientific authorities 
 are not agreed as to the region whence this sand comes. 
 Some say it is the dust blown over from the Sahara, 
 
 * Vide Philosophical Transactions, Vol. LXXL 
 f Gallery of Nature, p. 448. 
 
THE HARMATTAN. — LIBERIA. 43 
 
 and is identical in its nature with Teste of Madeira, 
 and the sirocco of the Mediterranean. This, however, 
 has been doubted, from the fact of a quantity of dust 
 falling in the latter being collected on board the ship 
 " Revenge " at Malta, and submitted to microscopical 
 examination. It was found to be of a brown colour 
 (while the Sahara dust is dazzling white), and to con- 
 tain in its composition a species of infusoria belong- 
 ing to Chili. Something similar was gathered by 
 Mr. Darwin when on board the " Beagle " at St. lago, 
 one of the Cape Yerd Islands. That collected in the 
 last-named ship, when scrutinised by the microscope of 
 the celebrated Ehrenberg at Berlin, was proved to 
 contain numerous specimens of flint-shelled animalcules 
 or infusoria, known to naturalists as polygastrica, and 
 minute portions of terrestrial plants. Such facts go 
 very much against the probability of the Harmattan 
 dust being wafted from the Sahara. 
 
 From Sierra Leone we voyage along the Banana and 
 Sherbro islands, and past Cape Mount (a. place rendered 
 notorious by its having been so long the residence of the 
 celebrated slave trader. Captain Canot), to Liberia, a 
 colony of free negroes. The constitution of Liberia, which 
 is now a republic, was begun and fostered by the advice 
 and money of the American Colonisation Society, to 
 assist liberated negroes in returning to the land of their 
 forefathers, for the purpose of establishing themselves 
 in liberty and independence. 
 
 The capital of Liberia is Monrovia, on the river 
 
44 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Mesurado ; but they claim as their territory the whole 
 coast from Cape Mount to Cape Palmas, a distance of 
 300 miles. I have been given to understand that within 
 the last few years they have annexed territory as far 
 as Berebi, a distance of nearly 100 miles to the leeward 
 of Cape Palmas, and near the Drewen country which is 
 adjacent to Cape Lihu. 
 
 The colony w^as established in 1822, when it was 
 described to extend for a distance of 300 miles along the 
 shore from Half Cape Mount to Piccaniny Sestros, and^ 
 to contain a population of about 6000 negroes from 
 America, with about 80,000 natives. 
 
 The British government made to the Liberian 
 authorities, some years past, a present of a schooner, 
 which, at the time of my first visit, was lying useless 
 and dismasted in the harbour. They have several 
 missionaries resident throughout Liberia, and publish a 
 fortnightly newspaper at Monrovia. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the colonists live in peace with 
 one another, and with the natives, and although the soil 
 is remarkably fruitful, yet Liberia never can be pros- 
 perous, in consequence of the ill chosen site for Monrovia, 
 which is entirely shut in from the sea-breeze. The 
 rivers on the Liberian coast are all short and rapid, and 
 their courses rocky ; the anchorage at the bar being 
 shifting sand, and not mud possessing any tenacity. 
 The river Mesurado is no exception to this, for as I 
 was crossing the bar in a four-oared gig, the Kruboys 
 were obliged to get out and shove the boat off a bank 
 of sand, which is reported to change its position with 
 
MONROVIA. 45 
 
 every tide. Monrovia is deprived of the northern sea- 
 breeze in its purity, by the long sandy beach and brush- 
 wood which stretches from Cape Mount to St. Paul's 
 River, across which it must pass before reaching the 
 place, and of the westerly wind by a high peak of land 
 intervening between the town and the sea. On the 
 summit of this peak is built a lighthouse very much 
 resembling a colossal pepper-caster, as you view it from 
 the harbour. 
 
 The city is erected on an eminence which you can 
 ascend from the shore by either of three or four rugged 
 pathways, past the church, a hotel, and the President's 
 house, until you find yourself in some place, which one 
 tries to realise into the fact of a street. But it cannot 
 be done. Houses are jotted down as if they had been 
 dropped out of the sky ; flowers of the richest hue are 
 in the gardens ; but there is a stillness, with an absence 
 of spirit or business in the place that made me at first 
 wonder where I was. I looked up at the President's 
 house, the chilliest, most prison-looking building at 
 which I have ever gazed, — then up at the mammoth 
 pepper-caster, then down the street, yet no sign of life 
 was anywhere. 
 
 A copy of President Roberts's message, which had 
 been delivered at the House of Assembly the day before 
 one of my visits, was put into my hands as I was leaving 
 the hotel, and its perusal afforded me a great deal of 
 pleasure. It was couched in a style creditable to any 
 statesman, and, amongst other facts, mentioned that the 
 Emperor of France had presented 1000 stand of arms 
 
46 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 to the Liberian Republic. Since that time President 
 Hoberts has given place to President Benson. 
 
 Monrovia has a population of about 2000; but I 
 fancy that the majority of its inhabitants are very 
 unlike Harper^ the American negro, who was reported 
 to me (by virtue of his possession of the freedom of 
 Liberia) to have taken a farm of ten acres of ground up 
 the St. Paul's River, and to have been cultivating coffee 
 at an extraordinary rate. Within three years previous 
 to the time of my information (at the beginning of 
 1854) he had 200,000 coffee trees fit for transplanting, 
 and 400 or 500 of them transplanted, as well as in full 
 bearing. 
 
 It is out of men like this that African nationality 
 must grow to make it what it ought to be, " racy of 
 the soil," and thus possessing endurance. Such a 
 nationality will be the only true and efficient eradicator 
 of slavery. '^ To fill up Liberia with an ignorant, 
 inexperienced, half-barbarous race just escaped from the 
 chains of slavery, would be only to prolong for ages the 
 period of struggle and conflict which attends the in- 
 ception of new enterprises." Thus writes Mrs. Stowe; 
 and as this lady testifies that the labours of a body 
 comparatively small, in the north of her country, can 
 show forth examples of men formerly slaves who have 
 rapidly acquired property, reputation, and education, 
 " amongst whom talent has been developed, and who 
 for moral traits of honesty, kindness, tenderness of 
 feeling, for heroic efforts' and self-denial, endured for 
 
HOPE FOR AFRICA. 47 
 
 the ransom of brethren and friends yet in slavery, have 
 been remarkable to a degree, that, considering the in- 
 fluences under which they were born, is really remark- 
 able," — there should be hope for Africa in such a class 
 as this.* 
 
 *^ Honesty, kindness, tenderness, heroic self-denial ! " 
 — these traits developed out of such a slough as existed 
 in the plantation of Simon Legree, prove that there are 
 innate germs of nature's nobility beneath the skins of 
 the sable sons of Ethiopia. And in the virgin soil of 
 Africa's young community, the inculcation of industrial, 
 moral, intellectual, and Christian truths would evidently 
 produce a golden harvest, of which may the mercantile 
 community of our Christian Queen of England be the 
 tillers and the gleaners ! 
 
 The appearance of the track of the sea-coast for 
 several miles eastward of Monrovia presents no variety. 
 Interminable forests of acacia, and mangrove ; an end- 
 less beach of white sand, with a small town, or a few 
 slave barracoons on the shore, are the only evidences of 
 human existence. 
 
 At Grand Sestros and at the town of Cape Palmas 
 are the chief colonies of Krumen, from which our 
 
 * The Rer. Dr. Willis, Professor of Divinity at Toronto College, 
 in the course of a lecture which he delivered in Glasgow on Canada, 
 stated that there were about 60,000 emancipated slaves settled in 
 Canada ; most of them had fled from bondage. He had repeatedly 
 preached to congregations of emancipated slaves, and had ever found 
 them attentive and devout. They appeared to him to enter with more 
 spirit into the praise of God than white men generally. 
 
48 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 merchant ships and men-of-war are supplied, and without 
 whose assistance it would be impossible for Europeans 
 to carry on trade in Western Africa. 
 
 The town of Grand Sestros is the only part of the 
 Kru coast at which I have been ashore, and it is very 
 primitive in its fashioning. A cluster of rocks are near 
 the landing-place, on a steep shelving beach, against 
 which in the rainy season the surf beats furiously. The 
 houses are formed of i:)laited bamboo stems, which are 
 first sliced, and then woven together, to fabricate walls, 
 without any mud or plaster. Leaves of bamboo form 
 the roofs, which in many cases looked like gigantic bee- 
 hives, over-topped by a circular dish that was again 
 surmounted by a sugar-loaf form of the same material. 
 No cultivation of the land is observed about, save for 
 rice. The house of the king was unlike the others, 
 being quadrilateral, and was longer than the rest. He 
 was an old man, named Onee, and had a very stupid, 
 expressionless countenance, with no more evidence of 
 intelligence than if it had been carved in ebony. He 
 came out into his courtyard to greet me, wearing a 
 furniture-chintz dressing-gown, and having a slave 
 carrying over his head an umbrella, which seems to be 
 a sine qua non with all African potentates. 
 
 Fishtown, Rocktown, and Cavally are contiguous to 
 and to the eastward of Cape Palmas. From these 
 localities the best kruboys can be procured. The cape 
 has a lighthouse on the western extremity ; and 
 between it and the town are a few houses, occupied by 
 American missionaries, from which the star-spangled 
 
KRU COAST AND KRUMEN. 49 
 
 banner is seen floating when a ship is near enough for 
 observation. 
 
 As soon as a vessel is visible on this part of the coast, 
 tending shorewards, numbers of Krumen come off in 
 their little canoes, at first appearing in the distance 
 like black spots on the water ; but, as they approach the 
 ship, three or four black bodies are recognised in each 
 canoe, sitting on the calves of their legs bent under 
 them, and paddling as if for their very lives, in order to 
 be in time for competition in the engagement of their 
 services. Each man is furnished with a character either 
 for himself or his apprentices, which he calls a *^ book " 
 (a generic term given to all writings by the Africans), to 
 which he adds as much self-laudation as he thinks will 
 go down with his anticipated employer. 
 
 Speaking only of their physical qualifications, I believe 
 them to be the bone and sinew of the negro races of 
 Western Africa, the only men of the Ethiopian tribe 
 who will bear any amount of hard work without com- 
 plaining. By their system of apprenticeship, a number 
 of young men will attach themselves for a certain period 
 to a head man, so called from his being considered the 
 representative head of the young men. This head man 
 has made a few voyages to leeward, to the oil rivers, 
 before he can obtain a name and be allowed to build a 
 house, or to trade. It is his duty to ship the boys 
 off for the oil rivers, which he can more effectually 
 do from his knowledge of the trading-masters, and 
 from his facility in talking the extraordinary jabber 
 of Anglo- African language, which can be heard daily 
 
 £ 
 
50 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 amongst his countrymen in the streets of Liverpool. 
 For this service the head man is entitled to the one 
 month's advance of wages always paid by the super- 
 cargo of the ship at the time of engagement, and to a 
 portion of the boy's salary on his return. When a boy 
 has made two or three voyages, and can speak English 
 with the fluency of other head men, he becomes a head 
 man himself, buys wives for himself amongst the fami- 
 lies of nations around him, whom he obliges to work for 
 him in his declining years ; and a Kruman is considered 
 as a very independent gentleman when he can cease 
 hiring himself out, and has twenty or thirty wives at 
 his command. At a Kruman's death his wives become 
 the property of his son, as part of his chattels ; and thus 
 a man may, literally speaking, have his own mother for 
 his Avife. 
 
 This social condition is considered, and justly too, as 
 one of the greatest brutalities connected with the vile 
 system of polygamy in Western Africa. But I think 
 the anti-poly gamists go a little beyond the logic of true 
 Christian induction by instituting a parallel between 
 these usages in heathenised lands and their aspects of 
 its supposed existence amongst us at home. In Eng- 
 land the possibility of such an arrangement would be 
 abhorrent to the vilest nature, save to Mormons and 
 Agapemonians. In Africa, interiorly as well as on the 
 coast, there is an absence of any consideration for blood 
 relationship in the matter of marital connections. Sons 
 have their mothers, brothers their sisters, and uncles 
 their nieces in the same affinity — in name only, the 
 
POLYGAMY. 5 1 
 
 reader will please to observe, and not de facto, as one 
 or two instances will suffice to demonstrate. The pre- 
 sent King Bell of Cameroons had only two wives on 
 his father's death, but when that event took place he 
 made a selection from the wives of the late king, and 
 now possesses beyond thirty, the majority of whom were 
 owned by his father, to whom he succeeded as ruler. 
 King Peppel, the ex-King of Bonny, had his own sister 
 called his head wife, whilst one of the daughters of King 
 Eyo of Old Calabar is wife of the king's brother, whose 
 daughter is again married to the king's eldest son. 
 
 Such a position of affairs will doubtless appear very- 
 glaring to those who are accustomed to regard wives in 
 the light in which they are regarded in England, both 
 in law and scripture teaching. A comparison of this 
 kind would be unjust to the African. Many of the 
 monarchs look upon their wives chiefly in the light of 
 soldiers or domestic helps. The King of Ashantee has 
 three thousand three hundred and thirty -three (a num- 
 ber which Mr. East facetiously tells us " is never ex- 
 ceeded "), whom it would be absurd to consider in the 
 light of marital companions, even if we did not know 
 that the majority of them constitute his array of Ama- 
 zons. The King of Yoruba told Clapperton that he did 
 not know how many wives and children he had; but 
 he was sure that his wives would reach hand in hand 
 from Katunga, his capital, to Jenna, a distance of about 
 250 miles. Bowditch, in his ^' Mission from Cape Coast 
 Castle to Ashantee," mentions many instances of the 
 monarchs being furnished with a like profusion ; and 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 although nothing could be farther from my mind than to 
 express a sanction or toleration of this apparent absence 
 of moral usage, it is magnifying the animality of the 
 negro race a little too much to paint them in the 
 colours wherein they are usually depicted in appeals 
 to our Christian public. 
 
 One remarkable trait in the character of theKrumen 
 is thus recorded by McQueen, — '^ they never enslave one 
 another ; " and a very beautiful characteristic is that 
 mentioned by Mr. Wilson* of the Kruman's love for his 
 mother, — "Her name, whether dead or alive, is always 
 on his lips and in his heart. She is the first being he 
 thinks of when awaking from his slumbers, and the last 
 he remembers when he closes his eyes in sleep. To her 
 he confides secrets which he would reveal to no other 
 human being on the face of the earth. He cares for no 
 one else in times of sickness. She alone must prepare 
 his food, administer his medicines, perform his ablutions, 
 and spread his mat for him. He flies to her in the hour 
 of distress ; for he well knows, if all the rest of the world 
 turn against him, she will be steadfast in love whether 
 he is right or wrong." 
 
 They have the same silly superstitions, a belief in 
 ju-jus and fetishes, as all the races who are uncivilised 
 and unchristianised, but nothing of the bloodthirsty 
 practices that are engrafted on the idolatry of the natives 
 
 * Western Africa, its Condition, History, and Prospects : by the Rev. 
 I. L. Wilson : p. 116. Chaps, iii. iv. v. and vi. of this work contain the 
 most interesting record I have seen given of the history of these people. 
 
KRUMEN CHARACTERISTICS. 53 
 
 of the Bight of Biafra. Their language is principally 
 a combination of vowels, and, from Its peculiar nasal 
 pronunciation, can rarely be acquired by an Englishman. 
 Different nations of them speak different languages, and 
 Captain Adams has justly remarked *^ that the tower of 
 Babel might have been built on the western shores of 
 Africa, as a different language is spoken at every ten 
 or twelve miles, though these different languages are 
 generally understood by the natives alOng the coast." 
 
 The Krumen, in rowing or paddling boats or canoes, 
 take parts of a song in pairs, as if carrying on question 
 and response ; and the whole join in chorus at the end 
 of each verse. I am inclined to think, owing to their 
 great length, that these songs are improvised ; and 
 the fact is recorded by Mr. Smith in his " Trade 
 and Travels on the Gulf of Guinea," that " in Bonny, 
 Krumen sing songs which their countrymen can hear in 
 another ship, and whereby they manage to communicate 
 the running news of the time." On our reaching the 
 bar of the Nun, in returning from the ascent of the 
 Niger, Tshadda, and Binue in 1854, one of our.Kruboys 
 composed an extempore song, in which he celebrated the 
 safe return of himself and his countrymen from a river 
 of such a deadly character, recording all the incidents of 
 our vovaoje, and givino; to each of the officers on board 
 that meed of praise to which their poet laureate con- 
 sidered them individually entitled. These Kruboys, the 
 majority of whom were Fishtovvn men, were thirty-three 
 in number; and I feel pleasure in recording here that 
 
 £ 3 
 
54 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 they could not have worked more energetically, or acted 
 more faithfully, had they been chosen for the purpose. 
 
 I regret, very much, that hitherto all my efforts to 
 obtain an early history of these people have failed ; for 
 I believe they are the most remarkable race of negroes 
 to be met with in all Africa. 
 
 In Laird and Oldfield^s narrative of the Expedition 
 into the Interior of Africa, by the river Niger*, in 1833, 
 an instance is recorded of the Krumen's devotion to 
 their head man, who got into disgrace, that reflects great 
 credit upon his subordinates. A most remarkable pecu- 
 liarity is their unwillingness to expatriate themselves 
 for a length of time ; and their affections towards 
 their parents, wives, and children are as deeply founded 
 and as powerful as those of any civilised nation in the 
 world. The Krumen take an oath by swallow^ing a few 
 grains of salt placed on the cover of a bible. 
 
 Leaving Cape Palmas behind, we come to the Grain 
 Coast, and thence to the Gold Coast, which lies be- 
 tween Cape Lihu and Cape St. Paul's. The town of 
 Axim, in a bay of that name, is visible, wdth its old 
 Dutch fort, before we reach Cape Three Points, where 
 are tw^o forts, those of Antonio and Brandenburg. On 
 Point Aguydah are the ruins of another Dutch fort, 
 situated over a small negro village bearing the same 
 name as the point. ^ 
 
 To the eastward of Cape Three Points, we pass the 
 fort and town of Dix Cove, one of the British settle- 
 
 • Vol. i. p. 261 : Bentlev, London, 1836. 
 
APPROACH TO THE GOLD COAST. 55 
 
 ments on the Gold Coast. A little further on are the 
 villages of Pompondee and Secondee, then Shura, and 
 we come within view of the Castle of St. George 
 d'Elmina with its white walls. The whole of this 
 part of the coast is occupied by a Dutch and English 
 fort alternately. Eleven miles lower down, our anchor 
 is dropped opposite Cape Coast castle. ^ 
 
 E 4 
 
56 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 CHAP. ly. 
 
 Cape Coast and its Castle. — A "Walk through the Town to Fort 
 William. — L. E. L.'s Grave. — Description of the Place in which she 
 is buried, — My Sensations on seeing it. — Refutation of the Calumnies 
 against Herself and Husband. — Supposed Cause of her Death. — 
 The Gold Country interior to Cape Coast. — Mode of Swearing 
 amongst the Natives. — Dysentery and Guinea Worm the prevailing 
 Diseases here. — Some Notes about Ashantee. — Akra. — The Fort of 
 St. James. — The Poll Tax, and Native Objection to it. — The Gold 
 Mines of Akim. — The Artificers at Akra. — Akim Superstition. 
 
 In my progress along the shores of Western Africa^ 
 there was no part of the coast to which I turned with 
 such an ardent desire as to this, a place endeared to 
 every Englishman by its being the final resting-place 
 of L. E. L., the sepulchre of her whose muse was the 
 delight of my early days, whose fate I bitterly 
 mourned in common with all who admired her genius, 
 and whose memory flings a poetic halo about this 
 desert shore, that changes its barren soil into a bloom- 
 ing garden. 
 
 The foreground of Cape Coast town, whose native 
 name is Inquah, is chiefly occupied by the castle, which, 
 with its white bastions and buttresses, forming an 
 agreeable contrast to the brown roofs of the native 
 houses, stretches over a good length of beach, and is 
 
CAPE COAST AND ITS CASTLE. 57 
 
 guarded from the sea by a ledge of rocks, against 
 whose front the waves beat furiously. The extreme 
 view to the east is terminated by sand and brushwood ; 
 to the west by the Dutch fort of Elmina Castle. As 
 boats cannot be safely managed along the Gold Coast, 
 owing to the peculiar surging swell in the ocean, I 
 must go on shore in a canoe ; and getting on the land 
 through a shower of spray, pass round the castle and 
 find myself in the town. 
 
 The castle is an irregular building of great extent 
 and strength, surrounded by walls of five feet thickness 
 at the base, but evidently best calculated for a defence 
 seaward, the least likely position to be required. As- 
 cending the main street opposite the castle gate, I pass 
 by a Wesleyan chapel and some substantial houses, 
 the residences of European merchants or their agents. 
 A visit to many of them showed me that the houses 
 here are the most substantial and most comfortable to 
 be found in any town of Western Africa, not even 
 excepting Sierra Leone. A street leading from the 
 Wesleyan chapel towards the right, has a row of 
 lofty india-rubber trees on either side, which, meeting 
 in the centre, make a natural parasol, from one end of 
 the street to the other, — a plan that ought to be adopted 
 in the towns of all intertropical countries. Here and 
 there, I observed small heaps of sand swept up into 
 little pyramids from the streets, which, on inquiry, I 
 learned were gathered to be washed for the gold, which 
 is thus to be obtained in the very earth upon which I 
 walked. 
 
58 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 In the western side of the town is the market-place 
 of the natives, containing half a dozen parallel sheds, 
 and presenting, during market-time, the most amusing 
 picture to be seen in Negroland. I will defer a descrip- 
 tion of one of these until arriving at a place where its 
 characteristics are more varied than at Cape Coast. On 
 two peaks of hill inside are Fort Victoria and Fort Wil- 
 liam. The latter is the nearer, and the easier of access, 
 and has a lighthouse at the summit of its tower. Stand- 
 ing within its ramparts, my eyes ranged over a swelling 
 campagne of hills and vales, of mound and valley, 
 stretching away for many miles ; with clumps of cactus 
 and groves of acacia. A road leading away towards 
 Annamaboe and the farm-house of Mr. Hutton, on the 
 way to Benlah, are the only objects to break the 
 monotony of the vast tract of country. Turning down 
 the town, the castle again engrosses attention. De- 
 scending the hill on the road whereby I ascended, I 
 soon found myself within its walls. A splendid range 
 of apartments for the governor, a library and new^s- 
 room for the officers, and a force of about 200 negro 
 troops, are attached to the military arrangements of the 
 castle. 
 
 I felt a solemn awe, as if I were treading upon hal- 
 lowed ground, when going into the furthermost court- 
 yard from the entrance, and the nearest to the sea. 
 Here L. E. L. is buried. Red tiles and quadrangular 
 flags, scarcely discernible from the mass of rubbish over 
 them, pointed out to me the burial-places of officers, 
 all without inscriptions to signify whose ashes repose 
 
L. E. L.'S GRAVE. 59 
 
 below. A tablet to the memory of James Swanzy, Esq., 
 is fixed in the wall on the left side after you enter the 
 court. On the opposite side, and directly facing her 
 grave, is the following inscription on a marble slab : — 
 " Hie jacet sepultum omne quod mortale fuit L. E. 
 Maclean, quam egregia ornatam indole, Musis unice 
 ornatam, omniumque amores secum trahentem, in ipso 
 JBtatis flore mors immatura rapuit, die Octobris 15mo, 
 1838, aetatis 36to. Quod spectas, viator, marmor, va- 
 num heu doloris monumentum, conjux ma3rens erexit." 
 — Which may thus be translated for the unclassical 
 reader: "Here lies interred all that was mortal of 
 L. E. Maclean, adorned with a pure mind, singularly 
 favoured of the Muses, and drawing the love of all 
 towards her. Premature death snatched her away in 
 the flower of her age, on the 15th October, 1838, aged 
 36 years. The marble which you behold, oh tra- 
 veller ! a sorrowing husband has erected, — vain monu- 
 ment of his grief." 
 
 The grave is distinguished by twelve red tiles, over 
 which the soldiers march, and the workmen tread, every 
 day ; whereon the tropical sun pours down its intensest 
 blaze, as the little negro children toddle over it on 
 their way to or from school and their respective abodes 
 within the castle. But when I looked around to as- 
 certain if I were in a reality, — with the bricks and 
 mortar for some repairs, strewed over the tiles — with a 
 few howitzers lying upon her husband's grave along- 
 side of hers — with the faces of negro soldiers gazing 
 down at me from the ramparts — the music of the sea, 
 
60 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 breaking in melodious chiming on the rocks outside, 
 was the only thing that seemed to me to pay fitting 
 devotion to her spirit's rest. African habits, horrors, 
 and wonders, the sea, the desert, and the people, be- 
 came the fancies and dreams as well as the realities of 
 her later years, and she is now laid amongst them far 
 away, 
 
 " Beside the moaning sea, 
 And where acacias wave." 
 
 In a chapter of his work, devoted specially to the 
 subject, Mr. Cruikshank* has tried to refute the 
 calumnies that were circulated of her self-destruction, 
 and of her unhappiness with her husband. He writes, 
 *^ There was no evidence save that of a malignant 
 woman to prove the former, and every act of her daily 
 life at Cape Coast fully disproved the latter. If any 
 faith can be placed in appearances, I believe that she 
 would willingly have shielded him from such cruel 
 aspersions at the sacrifice of herself. I never heard 
 her speak of him but with pride, and as a woman speaks 
 who loves her husband." 
 
 Yet Dr. Madden, in his late work on the " Life and 
 Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington," gives 
 a history of Governor Maclean's conduct to her as dia- 
 metrically opposed to this as darkness is to light. 
 
 In company with one of the most respectable mer- 
 chants of Cape Coast, I visited the boudoir in which 
 she was found dead, and as he had been an intimate 
 
 * Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, by Brodie Cruikshank. 
 
DEATH OF L. E. L. 61 
 
 acquaintance of L. E. L.'s, I felt confident he would 
 tell me the truth about her fate. 
 
 After showing him a copy of the Countess of Bles- 
 sington's letter contained in Dr. Madden's work, he 
 assured me it was a tissue of errors from beginning to 
 end. He had seen her the night before her death, after 
 she had finished writing a letter to Mrs. S. C. Hall, 
 which was to have been brought home by a vessel about 
 to leave the roads next morning, as her demise occurred 
 previous to the establishment of the present line of 
 mail steaitiers which touch at Cape Coast. On her last 
 morning in this world she had written a note to my 
 informant, requesting him to come up and see Mr. 
 Maclean, who was a little unwell ; and on his way to 
 the castle, about an hour after receiving her note, he 
 met a messenger who informed him that she was no 
 more. On going into the room, he picked up a small 
 bottle, which was labelled " Prussic Acid, — three drops 
 to kill a rabbit, five drops to destroy human life," and 
 which the attendants had feared to touch before he 
 came in. He was informed that they had heard her 
 fiill, and on trying to go into the room, found the door 
 blocked up by her body, against which they were forced 
 to push with vigour before an entrance could be gained. 
 He entertains no doubt but that feeling a spasmodic 
 action of the heart coming on, a disease to which she 
 was frequently liable, she put the bottle to her mouth 
 and unwittingly imbibed enough to kill her. 
 
 The woman with whom her husband had lived pre- 
 vious to their marriage had gone to her native place 
 
62 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 of Akra a long time before Mrs. Maclean came out, 
 and never after did he hold the slightest communication 
 with her. My informant further added, that he had 
 passed many a pleasant evening with the Governor and 
 Mrs. Maclean, and never saw or heard of any domestic 
 unhappiness between them. Yet so far did the tongue 
 of scandal injure her husband, that after her death he 
 was removed from the post of governor ; and when he 
 died, was holding the subordinate situation of judicial 
 assessor at Cape Coast. 
 
 Gold forming the principal article of export from 
 Cape Coast, is brought to England aimually to the 
 amount of from 70,000 to 80,000,.f!liSi$i weight. 
 
 At Wossa, about six days' journey from Cape Coast, 
 it is found mixed with quartz ; and at a place called 
 Confus-a-say, ten days' journey from the town (the 
 furthermost part of the Wossa territory bordering on 
 Ashantee), the greater part of the gold that comes from 
 this locality is obtained. It is there got in crystal 
 quartz strata. This district belongs to the King of 
 Inquah, whose capital is passed on the first day's 
 journey from Cape Coast, and whose tribute for work- 
 ing the gold is levied thus: — any nugget weighing five 
 ounces of gold is divided into three parts ; the working 
 slaves receive one third, the owner of the slaves another 
 third, and the king gets the remainder. 
 
 'No corn is raised in the Inquah country. Foo-foo, 
 made of pounded plantain fruit, and garnished with 
 snails, forms the chief condiment of the people. An 
 eatable called koose-koose, which is a kind of foo-foo. 
 
MODE OF SWEARING. 63 
 
 is also manufactured from millet seed. All through 
 Wossa there is a large quantity of gum-elemi, which 
 drops from the trees after the rainy season, and is 
 found imbedded in the ground by the gum hunters. 
 The gamboge tree and the india-rubber tree grow plen- 
 tifully all around the Cape Coast district. 
 
 The natives in the Cape Coast country have a strange 
 mode of swearing. Governor M'Carthy was killed on 
 a Wednesday* in a battle with the Ashantees, and so 
 the people swear by Wednesday, calling their objurga- 
 tion " McCarthy's oath or law." Whoever can be proved 
 to have sworn falsely by this solemn form, has to pay a 
 forfeit of two ounces of gold.f The Ashantees in the 
 same war lost the battle of Cormantee ; and hence one of 
 their nation swearing untruly by this memorable event 
 insures the loss of his head. 
 
 The black ladies of Cape Coast mourn by having 
 their heads shaved and then whitewashed with chalk 
 water. 
 
 Dysentery is more prevalent at this place than fever; 
 and that abominable disease, the dracunculus, or Guinea 
 worm, prevails very much amongst Europeans as well 
 as amongst negroes. Dr. Roe informed me that in 
 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, they were found 
 from the knee downwards. Some of them I have seen 
 extracted from the limbs which were a yard in length, 
 one especially, a yard and two inches long, taken from 
 
 * The 21st of January, 1824. 
 
 t Gold is valued here at 4l. an ounce : one ounce constitutes 1 6 ackies, 
 each of which is equivalent to a dollar's worth of silver. 
 
64 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the back of a negro's hand, after it had been killed by the 
 blow of a wooden ruler. In Abyssinia, Bruce tells us, this 
 disease is called Pharentert, or '* the curse of Pharaoh." 
 
 Interior to Cape Coast is the kingdom of Ashantee, 
 one of the most powerful and despotic monarchies in 
 Africa. The vilest paganism is practised in this coun- 
 try, — the worship of sharks and snakes ; and with it 
 is coupled the brutality of human sacrifices in their 
 most appalling features. The remarkable thirst which 
 the monarch and people have for human blood springs 
 either from a desire to vent their spleen on enemies 
 taken in war, to worship their deities, to appease the 
 spirits of their heroes killed in battle, or from the 
 belief that the victims will act as slaves to them in a 
 future state. 
 
 Sometimes the skulls and other bones of great men 
 are dug out of their places of burial to be washed with 
 the blood of the slain. Frequently graves are saturated 
 with the latter, and although some of their customs are 
 similar to those reported to have prevailed in Asia 
 during the days of Moses, they are the most truculent 
 savages that the face of the earth can show in the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Dupuis, Bowditch, and Lander describe the fearful 
 scenes which they saw taking place in Ashantee, with 
 appalling minuteness. Mr. Bowditch was British envoy 
 ^0 the court of Coomassee, the capital, in 1811, and 
 details horrors of human sacrifices dreadful enough to 
 make one's flesh creep. 
 
 The kino; is an absolute monarch. A violation of the 
 
AKRA. 65 
 
 marriage tie is punishable by death, although prostitu- 
 tion is legalised by the state. 
 
 The shore between Cape Coast and Akra* presents 
 the same unvarying aspect as the greater part of 
 Western Africa, — an unbroken line of beach with 
 glistening sand, a vegetation of perpetual verdure, 
 forming a palisading wearisome to look at, from its 
 monotony of colours, botanical character, form, and 
 proportion. 
 
 The setting sun cast a vivid glare, as the tropical sun 
 only can, on the white walls of St. James's and the 
 Dutch fort at Akra as we steamed into the roadstead. 
 The fort of Christianburg stood out prominently about 
 three miles to the eastward. On landing, I walked up 
 a brick -paved esplanade by St. James's fort, and en- 
 tered British Akra. The town is divided into two 
 portions, of which the forts constitute the governing 
 and protective authorities. Hence there are British 
 Akra and Dutch Akra. The native houses here have 
 a dismal appearance, being built of mud, not white- 
 washed, and roofed with a dusky straw, the ends of 
 which hang down like a slovenly boy's hair sadly in 
 want of a comb. But the domestic arrangements inside 
 give one a better idea of the people. Walls ornamented 
 with framed engravings of sacred pictures, beds with 
 clean clothing on them, chairs and tables, show evidence 
 of a progress in civilisation not to be found everywhere 
 
 * Derived from Akrim, which, in the native language, means " ant." 
 The interior country is variegated all over with ant turrets fabricated by 
 the bug-a-bug, or Termes fatalis species. 
 
 F 
 
66 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN" AFRICA. 
 
 on the coast. Many of the men trade in monkey and 
 leopard skins, some of them are skilful artificers In gold 
 and silver, and others engage in trading for gum-copal, 
 with which the inner country abounds. 
 
 The females at Akra wear enormous bustles — not 
 from any idea of grace or beauty attached to such an 
 appendage, but from their conviction of its utility, in 
 enabling them to support their children, and occasionally 
 to carry loads on their backs with less muscular strain 
 than they could without them. A church and a school, 
 the houses of merchants, two hotels with Eno;lish slo^n- 
 boards on them, and a level high road leading down to 
 Chrlstianburg, brought back England to my mind, save 
 for the absence of turnpike gates, and the presence of ant- 
 pyramids along the course of the road. A lake stretches 
 away to the westward In the direction of Cape Coast ; 
 and far beyond, and around it, is an immense tract of 
 country, not covered with thick brushwood, but dotted 
 with bunches of euphorbia, which grows around Akra 
 in profusion. An overland post is kept up between 
 Akra and Cape Coast, a distance of eighty miles ; and 
 this is transmitted from either place by alternate relays 
 of negro runners, who leave both stations twice a week. 
 
 It was in the year 1492 that the Portuguese took 
 possession of Akra and established a government there. 
 But the authorities acted towards the natives with such 
 cruelty, that the latter rose up against them, and ex- 
 terminated them to a man. The place where the 
 governor was killed is still considered such sacred or 
 accursed ground, that the women anoint all their newly- 
 
PURCHASE OF DANISH POSSESSIONS. 67 
 
 born children with earth gathered from the spot, which 
 they suppose possesses the power of imparting to the 
 infant a spirit of resistance against tyranny, such as 
 characterised their forefathers. 
 
 In 1848, the King of Denmark made overtures to the 
 British government for the purchase of his possessions on 
 the Gold Coast. The overtures were accepted, and for 
 the sum of ten thousand pounds these were handed over 
 in 1851. They consisted of Christianburg Castle, the 
 fort aiAkra, w^ith three minor stations, Ningo, Adda, 
 and Quittah, giving to our government command over 
 a line of territory from Cape Coast to the eastward of 
 the Yolta — a distance of 140 miles, and inland several 
 days' journey from the shore. 
 
 As soon as our government came into possession of 
 the administrative authority at this part of the coast, a 
 council was summoned in April, 1852, at Cape Coast 
 Castle, presided over by Major Hill (now a Lieut.- 
 Colonel, and the respected governor of Sierra Leone), 
 and composed of the British authorities, as w^ell as of 
 the chiefs and head men of the countries under British 
 protection. The purpose of the council was, as the third 
 section of the proclamation issued by them states, to take 
 into consideration the advantages which the chiefs and 
 natives derive from the protection afforded them by 
 Her Majesty's Government, and to declare it reason- 
 able and necessary that the natives generally should 
 contribute to the support of the government, by sub- 
 mitting from time to time to pay such taxes as may be 
 determined on by the majority of the chiefs assembled 
 
 F 2 
 
68 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 In council with His Excellency the Governor. From 
 this a poll-tax of a shilling a head for every man, woman, 
 and child residing in the districts under British protec- 
 tion was decided to be levied. The master of a house 
 or head of a family to be considered responsible for 
 the Avhole of the inmates of the house. This procla- 
 mation further set forth, in the eleventh section, 
 *' That the revenue derived from the tax after the pay- 
 ment of stipends of the chiefs and other expenses 
 attending its collection, be devoted to the public 'good ; 
 in the education of the people ; in the general improve- 
 ment and extension of the judicial system ; in affording 
 greater facilities of internal communication ; in increased 
 medical aid, and in such other measures of improvement 
 and utility as the state of the social progress may render 
 necessary ; " and " that the chiefs be informed of the 
 mode of its application, as well as entitled to offer such 
 suggestions on this point as they may consider necessary." 
 
 On the whole coast of Western Africa that I have 
 visited, from Goree to Cameroons, I never met a race of 
 negroes so conscious of their mental inferiority to white 
 men, and yet so full of noble aspirations to climb a step or 
 two on the ladder of civilisation, as those I conversed 
 with at Akra. A poll-tax collector at Christianburg told 
 me that he had been paid three hundred and thirty- 
 seven ounces of gold as poll-tax for the last year, in the 
 Akim district, and that the people would pay more if 
 they w^ere conscious of receiving for it value in protec- 
 tion or information. 
 
 At Akim, which is three days' land journey from 
 
ARTIFICERS AT AKRA. 69 
 
 Akra, they have one of the best gold mines in this part 
 of the country. It is sunk only to a depth of twenty 
 feet from the surface. The native miners will not drive 
 horizontal shafts, from a very curious superstition. The 
 soil being loose, sandy, and deficient in tenacity, it falls 
 down as soon as they cut under it in that manner, with- 
 out support ; and they believe it to be the fetish who is 
 the guardian spirit of the gold, that causes the earth to 
 come down in order to put a limit to human avarice 
 impelled by the aiiri sacra fames. 
 
 The artificers at the goldsmiths' shops in Akra are all 
 native negroes, taught the art, no doubt, by the Spanish 
 and Portuguese original settlers of those nations. A score 
 of them at work in a shop would really be a picture 
 worthy the pencil of Lorraine — some assaying — some 
 melting — others blowing fires with small bellows — 
 more hammering on Lilliputian anvils; others portioning 
 with charcoal, and more fashioning chains for rings or 
 bracelets. One of the tribe brought out for my inspec- 
 tion some ear-rings and bracelets, the manufacture of 
 which would have done credit to a London house. But 
 as the majority of them are poor, the gold is generally 
 brought by those who want to get ornaments fabricated, 
 which can be done to any design or pattern. 
 
 At Akra, the people name their children after that 
 day of the week on which they are born. 
 
 The people in the interior country at Akim — of 
 whose excellent gold mines I have already spoken — 
 have for a fetish what is called a *^ catagury," a large 
 brass pan said to have fallen in some remote age from 
 
 F 3 
 
70 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 heaven, but which Is kept from inquisitive eyes, as no 
 one is yet recorded to have seen it. The fetish house 
 is ornamented with swords and axes having golden 
 handles ; and the drums are ornamented with gold 
 also. The fetish man or high priest is always very 
 rich, because if a person dies without having conciliated 
 him, he has the power of ordering the corpse to be 
 placed in an upright position inside the house. Should 
 the body retain its perpendicularity all the property 
 it possessed when living is claimed by the family ; if 
 it fall, which the fetish man has knowledge enough of 
 the peculiarity of gravity in a dead body always to 
 secure, the effects of the defunct must of course be 
 at once handed over to the Moloch of superstition. In 
 cases of sickness, a goat is often given as a placebo 
 to the fetish, which is required always to pass through 
 the hands of the representative priest, and whose fate 
 may be easily divined. 
 
 There is a German, missionary establishment at 
 Akrapong, about thirty miles inland from Akra. 
 
71 
 
 CHAP. Y. 
 
 The Bight of Benin. — Whydah and Appi. — Vista. — Monopoly at the 
 latter Place. — Badagry. — Peculiarity of Lagos Roadstead. — Geo- 
 graphical Position of the Town, and Description of it. — Of the 
 Natives at Lagos. — The Abbeokutan Warriors. — Commerce of the 
 neighbouring Countries. — The Cotton Exportation from Lagos. — 
 
 The Trench Settlement of Palma Benin River. — The lomen. — 
 
 The Niger between Benin and Nun River. — Intervening Boundary 
 of the Bights of Benin and Biafra. 
 
 Between Cape St. Paul, which is the eastern boun- 
 dary of the Gold Coast, and Cape Formosa, the western 
 boundary of the Bight of Biafra, is contained the Bight 
 of Benin. Of its chief ports, — Whydah, Porto Novo, 
 Badagry, Lagos, and Benin river, the three first have 
 long been notorious slave -dealing outlets. The trade 
 has been chiefly carried on by Spanish and Portuguese 
 residents at these places ; but the watchfulness of the 
 African squadron, and the fact of a British consul having 
 been sent to reside at Lagos, have been severe impedi- 
 ments to the success of the inhuman traffickers. 
 
 About fifteen miles west of Whydah, and seventy 
 from Lagos, is a fort named Appi Vista. For the whole 
 right and liberty to trade in palm oil at this place, — I 
 have been informed on good authority, — one of the oldest 
 and most celebrated slave-dealing residents there gives 
 the King of Dahomey something near 10,000 dollars a 
 
 r 4 
 
72 I3IPIIESSI0NS OF WESTERN AFPaCA. 
 
 year. That such a sum should be paid for this exclusive 
 privilege shows the importance of the locality; and the 
 iniquity of the monopoly is further proved by the fact, 
 that the king binds all his traders to give palm oil to 
 this man, and to him alone, at the price fixed upon it by 
 His Majesty. So that, no matter how this valuable 
 product may fluctuate in value elsewhere, the king's 
 despotic law must be obeyed, or the loss of their heads 
 is the forfeiture paid by those who revolt against it. 
 
 Interior to the lagoon, about a mile from the sea- 
 shore, and twenty-five to the eastward of Porto Novo, 
 is the town of Badagry with a population of about 5000. 
 In the olden times of slave-trading Badagry was chiefly 
 supplied from the Dahomey and Issoo countries. An 
 overland route from this town would bring the traveller 
 in four days to Abbeokuta*, one of the chief towns in 
 the Yoruba kingdom, possessing a population of from 
 sixty to eighty thousand people, and being entirely sur- 
 rounded by walls, whose circumference is fifteen miles. 
 It was from Badagry likewise that the brothers Lander 
 penetrated when they discovered the outlet of the long 
 famous Niger. 
 
 The peculiarity that impresses itself on the perceptions 
 of all persons visiting Lagos for the first time is the dis- 
 agreeable surging roll of the sea, whereof one becomes 
 
 * The name Abbeokuta is derived from two words of the Yoruba 
 language : " Abbe " (under), and " Okuta " (a stone, or rock), from the 
 cave in which the Egba fugitives were used to take refuge during the 
 times of the slave wars. For a more accurately descriptive account 
 of this celebrated city, see Miss Tucker's " Abbeokuta, or Sunrise 
 within the Tropics." Nisbet and Co., Berners Street : London, 1853. 
 
LAGOS ROADSTEAD. 73 
 
 conscious as soon as the vessel is anchored in the road- 
 stead. I felt the motion of the ship as if she were in a 
 marine swing-swong ; but the disagreeable sensation of 
 not being able to walk on deck was a little modified 
 by looking round the harbour and observing all the 
 other crafts engaged in the same topsy-turvy riding , 
 so prone is human nature to be influenced even by in- 
 voluntary sympathy in its sufferings. Men-of-war of 
 large tonnage, even steamers of 200 horse-power, which 
 one would think ought to have sufficient weight of ma- 
 chinery to keep them steady, took in water through their 
 bulls' eyes, over the officers' beds, in one or two cases, 
 where these apertures were neglected to be closed; and 
 the difficulty of climbing up or down a ship's aide to get 
 out of or into a boat is not at all alleviated by the pros- 
 pect of half a dozen sharks cruising about in the water 
 underneath, and ready, without the slightest compunc- 
 tion, to make an annexation of a human body, if it fall in. 
 The harbour of Lagos is full of these prowling monsters 
 of the deep, and so daring are they that they stvim close 
 alongside a boat, with their back fins completely above the 
 water. Before the natural breakwater was formed, which 
 now runs parallel with the mouth of the river and about 
 a quarter of a mile from it, there was a line of breakers in 
 which the sea rolled with a fearful '^thud," and over 
 which it was nearly impossible for canoes to float in 
 safety. The slavers, however, made the effort; for with 
 the profits of that inhuman trade* they could aflbrd the 
 
 * If one cargo of slaves out of every six that are shipped escapes to 
 its destination, it is considered to pay a remuneration for the outlay of 
 
14: IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 losses which frequently occurred from the canoes up- 
 setting here, and all their unfortunate occupants be- 
 coming at once food for the sharks. Hence the sharks 
 grew in number, in ferocity, and in sagacity ; and it is 
 recorded that they always hovered about the bar, ac- 
 companying canoes to the ships in anticipation of a 
 meal. 
 
 Lagos (to which the name Eko has been given by the 
 natives, and Oni, by the Portuguese) is situated in lat. 
 6° 2b' K, and long. 15° 52' W., at the mouth of the 
 river Ossa, running from Badagry into the Lake 
 Cradoo, the other end of which communicates with 
 Benin. 
 
 The town of Lagos is built on an island of the same 
 name, and is situated about four miles from the river's 
 mouth. Unfortunately, there is not draught enough of 
 water for vessels of ordinary tonnage to cross the bar 
 where it joins the sea. There, it is not more than a 
 quarter of a mile wide, and its mouth is not visible 
 seaward from its emptying itself by an angularity in 
 the land. Turning round this corner, after passing 
 through a narrow channel that exists between the 
 breakers and the beach, and w^hich is navigable only 
 for boats, we can pass by the stores of Hamburg 
 traders, and recognise a few white houses peering up 
 amongst the ocean of arborescence that rises .on the 
 high ground before us. By degrees, brown-roofed 
 dwellings and brown walls become at first indistinctly 
 
 all. Hence the risks that have been run, and the ingenuity that has 
 been resorted to in this pursuit. 
 
TOWN OF LAGOS. 75 
 
 visible in the morning's haze. As I approached the 
 beach at the town, I observed a number of men fishing 
 in canoes, some with rod and bait, others with nets, 
 and many women, tidily dressed, coming down to the 
 river's side for water. The river pier of the British 
 consul's residence (Mr. Campbell) is the nearest place 
 for landing. The Church missionaries have a very 
 extensive piece of ground, walled and fenced in, with 
 a comfortable dwelling-house, and a large school at- 
 tached to the premises. As the front of their esta- 
 blishment faces the river, to get to the town I walked 
 through the backward part of the courtyard, on which 
 the largest market-place in Lagos abuts. The wall 
 around it, as well as the walls through the town, are all 
 strengthened by buttresses. The streets are generally 
 of soft sand ; but in many of them there are double 
 rows of trees, as in Cape Coast Town, that form a very 
 grateful shade. The houses are generally built of mud, 
 which, when it becomes hard, is quite durable. Many 
 are whitewashed, and the majority bear an air of com- 
 fort about them. A verandah, formed by causing the 
 roof to project, and an elevation of ground raised about 
 a foot above the level of the street, constitute the 
 shops, in which British manufactured goods and articles 
 of native produce are exposed for sale in a manner that 
 does credit to the taste of the arranger. Nearly all the 
 Avomen here, as well as the men, do not dress in the 
 savage attire of the hip-sw^athe alone, seen on so many 
 other parts of the coast. They wear flowing garments ; 
 in the women, reaching from the waist, and in the mea 
 
76 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 from the shoulder to the heel, — both sweeping the ' 
 grouDcl, as the togce of the Romans did before the 
 Christian era, and ladies' dresses also were used to do 
 not many years back in Regent Street and Piccadilly. 
 But whatever sex they are, the people of Lagos im- 
 pressed me with the notion of their being not only 
 conscious of existence, but of feeling something of 
 responsibility attached to the fact. Every one whom I 
 met in the town walked along as if he had a feat to 
 accomplish as well a determination to complete it ; and 
 the many armed men tliat I observed parading about, 
 with white or scarlet turbans on their heads, and scimi- 
 tars in their hands, seemed exactly like men who un- 
 derstood the resj3onsibility of being warriors, and of 
 being prepared when occasion arose for the proof. 
 
 These warriors were placed by the Abbeokutans In 
 Lagos, and paid by their government to protect the 
 natives against the usurpations of Kosoko, who, stimu- 
 lated no doubt by the Spanish and Portuguese slave 
 traders, organised a plan to intercept all legitimate 
 traffic. This he commenced by deposing the late king, 
 Akitoye, the rightful sovereign of Lagos, who was 
 restored in 1851, but who died in September, 1853. 
 Akitoye's son, Dosumo, was then declared king, and 
 his assertion of the sovereignty sanctioned by Rear- 
 Admiral Bruce as well as by H.B.M.'s consul, Mr. 
 Campbell. 
 
 Kosoko I believe to be a man whom nothing but the 
 fear of punishment will keep from the illegal traffic of 
 the slave trade. Mr. Macgregor Laird, in his evidence 
 
COMMERCE. 77 
 
 before a Committee of the House of Commons^ has 
 defined " moral force in Western Africa to mean a 
 24-pounder, with a British seaman behind it ; " and on 
 no part of the coast has this species of moral force been 
 more earnestly required than at Lagos — by no one 
 there more than by Kosoko. Even within the last year 
 he has been known to have conspired with the King 
 of Dahomey, with the intention of making an attack on 
 Lagos, and driving all the a«ti-slave men and legal 
 traffic merchants out of the place. This attack was 
 planned to be simultaneous with one to be made by his 
 Dahoman majesty on Abbeokuta. 
 
 Lagos is about six miles in circumference, and con- 
 tains a very large population. Before the last Lagos 
 war, Ejenrin, the market near Ekpe, in the laboo terri- 
 tory, furnished the traders at this port with 60,000 or 
 70,000 gallons of palm oil per week. A communica- 
 tion by creeks can be made hence to Bonny, a distance 
 of 270 miles (as the crow flies), but its bar is the great 
 obstacle to its ever becoming a prosperous trading 
 location. Otherwise, I believe the country interior 
 to it to be inexhaustible in the production of palm 
 oil, as well as other industrial resources.* Cow- 
 ries are the chief currency here, varying in value as 
 government consols or railway shares do at home ; but 
 generally averaging 2000 — which is called a head — 
 for a dollar. The Hamburg merchants, who are traders 
 at Lagos, charter ships to bring cargoes of cowries from 
 
 * Vide Appendix A. 
 
78 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Zanzebar and other parts of the east coast, where they 
 can be obtained. 
 
 Within the last few years some bales of cotton 
 have been exported from Lagos to England ; and the 
 amount stated to me by Rev. Mr. Crowther, as cleared 
 at Abbeokuta in 1856, was 33,491 pounds in weight. 
 This gentleman further adds, in a communication on the 
 subject, " The highest price at which sound cotton from 
 Abbeokuta was sold at .Manchester was from 6^d. to 
 6|c?. per lb., and the lowest price from A^d. to 6d, per lb. 
 It is impossible to tell the quantity or extent of cotton 
 plantation in Abbeokuta, inasmuch as we have not yet 
 made impression on the small portions brought to 
 market for sale, and of their store -houses in their 
 farms. Besides the above quantity, we are getting 
 about ten tons ready for the ^ Token' as part of her 
 cargo this month. All this will be shipped over Lagos 
 bar ; of course we watch for a fair opportunity to ship 
 it." 
 
 And despite of the enthusiasm of some Manchester 
 gentlemen on the subject, I cannot avoid believing that 
 the frequent want of that ^' fair opportunity " in con- 
 sequence of the perpetual surf of the bar, will ever 
 present an obstacle to Lagos becoming the great outlet 
 for cotton from the interior countries on the west coast 
 of Africa. The districts inland from the mouths of the 
 Niger, Bonny, Old Kalabar, and Cameroons rivers are as 
 eligible for the cultivation of cotton as any localities in 
 the Yoruba kingdom ; and these rivers have the ad- 
 vantage of presenting no obstacles to the transit of 
 
BENIN RIVER— THE lOMEN. 79 
 
 produce or cargo at any season of the year or condition 
 of the tide.* 
 
 East of Lao;os several farm villaores stretch alons: the 
 shore ; and about thirty miles in the same direction ia 
 the small town of Palma, which promises to become 
 a place of rising trade since the French have set- 
 tled there. The palm- nuts are reported to grow in 
 this district in such abundance, that a large extent of 
 country is covered with them as they fall from the 
 trees unnoticed and unused. Forty miles further on 
 is the Rio Formosa, or Benin river, with nothing but 
 the small town of Oddy between, and a few brown 
 huts upon the beach. 
 
 Never having been at Benin, I cannot describe it; 
 for the town is a long journey from the place where 
 ships lie for trading. 
 
 The way to Benin town, which is called in the 
 native language Bini, and in some old maps Oedo, is by 
 passing Gatto creek, through which Governor Beecroft 
 attempted to reach the Niger in his ascent with the 
 Ethiope steamer in 1840. It was at Gatto Town, up 
 this creek, that the African traveller Belzoni died. 
 
 In the Warree country, which lies between the 
 Benin and Nun rivers, is a piratical tribe, named lo- 
 men, who are supposed to be of the Ejo race, resident 
 in the Oru country. They live by pillaging all the 
 canoes they can lay hold of, containing either British 
 goods or palm oil. 
 
 * Vide Appendix B. 
 
80 IMPKESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 A communication, may be made from Lagos to Old 
 Kalabar by creeks leading from one to the other of the 
 many rivers that constitute the Delta of the Niger, and 
 this comprises a coast distance of nearly three hundred 
 miles. According to Captain Denham's survey, be- 
 tween Benin and the river Nun are the outlets of the 
 Esclaros, Forcados, Ramosa, Dodo, Penington, Middle- 
 ton, with two streams called the Winstanley Outfalls, 
 and the Sengana branch of the Nun, all flowing from 
 the stream which is formed by the junction of the 
 Kworra and Tshadda, at an inland distance of nearly 
 300 miles from the sea. 
 
81 
 
 CHAP. YL 
 
 Boundaries of the Bight of Biafra. — Names of Rivers contained within 
 
 it Explorations of the Niger. — Lander's Discovery of its Mouth. 
 
 — Laird and Oldfield's Expedition. — Governor Beecroft's Ascents. 
 
 — Faihire of the Government Expedition of 1841. — The "Pleiad's" 
 Voyage up this River in 1854. — Urging Causes for this Attempt. 
 
 — Dr. Barth's Discoveries in Central Africa, — Fittings out of the 
 "Pleiad." — Success in her Geographical Discoveries, as in the sani- 
 tary Arrangements for her Crew. — The present Operations up the 
 Niger, under the Foreign OflSce Contract with Mr. Laird, 
 
 After passing the Sengana outlet and before coming 
 to the Nun, we find that projection of land entitled 
 Cape Formosa. The Bight of Biafra extends from this 
 Cape, which is in lat. 4° 5' N., long. 6° E., to Cape St. 
 John, in lat. T 15' N., long. 9° 30' E., a distance round 
 the coast line of 400 miles, and in a straight direc- 
 tion of 280. The Bight of Biafra also includes in it 
 Fernando Po, Princes, St. Thomas and Anno Bon 
 Islands. Within this Bight are contained the rivers, 
 Nun, Brass (or Bento), St. Nicholas, St. Barbara, 
 St. Bartholomew, Sombrero, New Calabar, Bonny, 
 Andony, Old Calabar, Bio del Bey, Bimbia, Cameroons, 
 Balimba, Boreah, Campo, Bati, St. Benito, and Bassa- 
 koo. The first named eight, with the other rivers ex- 
 
 G 
 
82 IMPEESSIOXS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 tending to Benin (mentioned at the end of last chapter), 
 are known to have communication with the Kworra 
 interiorly. 
 
 It is three hundred years since these portions of 
 Africa around the delta of this noble stream were 
 known to Europeans, and more than two hundred since 
 English traffic was first commenced here. Since that 
 time its name has been associated with appalling records 
 of African mortality; and even still its mouths are 
 known to contain little more attractive features than 
 mud and mangroves, with their concomitant abomina- 
 tions of mosquitoes and malaria. 
 
 After traversing the country from Badagry to Bous«a, 
 — where twenty years before Mungo Park was killed, — 
 Richard Lander with his brother made a descent of the 
 Kworra, in canoes, and came out at the Nun mouth, in 
 November 1830. This was the first discovery of the 
 outlet of the Niger, Kworra, or Joliba, which has been 
 mentioned in African history from the days of Herodo- 
 tus and Ptolemy to the present time. By the same 
 stream, Messrs. Laird and Oldfield ascended this river 
 on an exploring expedition, to try its trade-resources in 
 1832. Their outfit consisted of the '' Kworra " and "Al- 
 burkah^' steamers, with forty-nine Europeans, of whom 
 only nine lived to return. The expedition extended 
 into the years 1833-34; and one of the vessels as- 
 cended as high as Eabba up the Kworra, and Dagbo 
 up the Tshadda. Richard Lander accompanied them, 
 and, during the trading operations, was shot when re- 
 turning from the mouth of the river in a canoe with 
 
GOVERNMENT EXPEDITION. 83 
 
 cowries, by some people of the Angiammah district of 
 Oru country. He lived long enough to reach Clarence, 
 in the island of Fernando Po, in whose necropolis he 
 lies buried, without a tree or a stone to mark the place 
 of his sepulture. 
 
 In 1840, the late Governor Beecroft went up the 
 Kiger in the ^thiope steamer, to within a few miles of 
 Lever (which is only thirty miles this side of Boussa), 
 and where the rapidity of the current, caused by jut- 
 ting rocks, intercepted the further progress of his ves- 
 sel. He entered the Niger, a little above Truro island, 
 from Benin river, having passed up Youngtown creek, 
 through the Rio des Forcados, which flows across the 
 Warree country. His first attempt was to get up 
 Gatto creek, about forty miles from the Benin bar, but 
 he found this impassable for a steamer. 
 
 The «^ Albert," the " Wilberforce," and the "Soudan" 
 steamers were sent out by Government in 1841, under 
 the auspices of His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and 
 the late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton. The object of 
 this expedition was to make treaties with the African 
 kings on the banks of the Niger, for the suppression of 
 the slave trade. To teach them the industrial art of 
 agriculture, a model farm was established under Mount 
 Stirling, near the confluence of the Kworra and Tshadda. 
 Yet fitted out and guided though it was by eminent scien- 
 tific men, it proved a complete failure. The highest point 
 reached was Egga, and the only steamer that arrived 
 there was the " Albert." From this she w^as oblisred 
 to return, in consequence of the mortality amongst her 
 
 c 2 
 
84 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 crew from the river fever. The European officers, 
 marines, seamen, engineers, and stokers amounted, in 
 the three vessels, to 145 men, of whom forty-eight 
 died. The "Albert" was only sixty-four days from the 
 time of crossing the bar, till she returned, and yet in 
 that time lost nineteen from river fever, of whom 
 twelve were sailors, and seven officers, besides ^yq 
 taken by death previously from casualties ; the " Wilber- 
 force " was up forty-five days, and lost seven from river 
 fever, six sailors and one officer, with three from ordi- 
 nary causes beforehand ; and the " Soudan," in her 
 forty days' voyage, was minus five officers and eight 
 sailors. 
 
 The "Albert " was assisted in her return by Governor 
 Beecroft, who, with that manliness for which he was 
 remarkable, went to her assistance in the steamer 
 "^thiope," as soon as he discovered by the arrival at 
 Fernando Po of the " VVilberforce " and " Soudan," that 
 the whole affair had proved a failure. 
 
 Such a history of African adventure up the 'Nigev 
 was not very promising for future explorers; and at 
 first thought our expedition in 1854* seemed to all, who 
 knew no more about African shores than its recorded 
 facts of mortality indicate, as very like a "forlorn hope " 
 
 * " Narrative of the Niger, Tshadda, and Binue Exploration, includ- 
 ing a Report on the Position and Prospects of Trade up those Rivers ; 
 with Remarks on the Malaria and Eevers of Western Africa," by T. 
 J. Hutchinson, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Bight of 
 Biafra, forming parts 91 and 92 of the " Traveller's Library." Lon- 
 don : Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 
 
RICHARDSON, EARTH, AND OVERWEG. 85 
 
 to undertake. Yet it succeeded in a sanitary point of 
 view beyond any expedition of which African history 
 gives us record ; and I may here explain the chief object 
 for which the "Pleiad" was commissioned. 
 
 At the end of the year 1849, Mr. Kichardson, an 
 Englishman, who had been previously known by his ex- 
 ploration of part of the Northern Sahara, from Tripoli to 
 Ghadames, Ghat, and Murzuk, was joined by two Ger- 
 mans, Drs. Bartli and Overweg, in a political and com- 
 mercial expedition which he was about to undertake to 
 Central Africa, under the sanction of Her Majesty's Go- 
 vernment. Their route was made from Tripoli, through 
 the Sahara to Damergu, on the borders of Sudan, and a 
 frontier country of Bornu; whence they travelled in 
 different directions : Mr. Richardson proceeding to Un- 
 gurutua in Bornu; Dr. Barth travelling by Katshna 
 and Kano ; and Dr. Overweg by a circuitous westerly 
 route through Guber and Mariada — making arrange- 
 ments to have Kuka, the capital of Bornu, the place of 
 their final rendezvous. All three never met again ; for 
 Mr. Kichardson died at Ungurutua on the 4th of March 
 1851 ; and twenty days before the melancholy news of 
 his demise reached Dr. Barth, Dr. Overweg arrived at 
 Kuka, there to meet his surviving colleague ; and they 
 both went in company to Kanem, to the north of Lake 
 Tshad, after Dr. Overweg had circumnavigated the lake, 
 and launched on its waters a boat entitled the " Lord 
 Palmerston " at Maduari, east of Kuka, the very place 
 where he expired on the 17th of September, 1852. 
 
 To enumerate the peculiarities of the countries visited 
 
86 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 by these enterprising travellers — many of them terri- 
 tories hitherto untrodden by European feet — is not my 
 purpose. And it is only as connected with our voyage, 
 that I make the following extract from Dr. Earth's 
 journal, written on his route from Kuka to Yola, be- 
 tween May and July, 1851 : — 
 
 " The most important day, however, in all my African 
 journeys, was the 18th of June, when we reached the 
 river Binue, at a point colled Taepe, where it is joined 
 by the river Faro.* Since leaving Europe, I had not 
 seen so large and imposing a river. The Binue, or 
 ' mother of waters,' which is by far the larger one of the 
 two, is half a mile broad, and nine and a quarter feet 
 deep in the channel where we crossed it. On our re- 
 turn, eleven days later, it had risen a foot and a half. 
 The Faro is five-twelfths of a mile broad, and three feet 
 deep, which increased to seven and a quarter by our 
 return. Both rivers have a very strong current, and 
 run to the west into the Kworra. We crossed the 
 Binue in boats, made out of single trees, twenty-five to 
 thirty-five feet long, and one to one and a half foot 
 broad ; and forded the Faro, which latter was not ac- 
 complished without difficulty, on account of the strong 
 current. The Binue is said to rise nine days' journey 
 from Yola, in a south-easterly direction, and the Faro 
 seven days' journey distant, in a rock called Labul. 
 During the rainy season the country is inundated to a 
 
 * In lat. 9° 2' N. and long. 14*^ E., 235 geographical miles to the 
 south of Kuka, and 415 geographical miles in a direct line, east by 
 north, from the confluence of the Tshadda with the Kworra, 
 
87 
 
 great extent by the two rivers, which rise to their 
 highest level towards the end of July, and remain at 
 that level for forty days, namely, till the first of Sep- 
 tember, when the waters begin to fall. Both rivers are 
 full of crocodiles, and the Binue is said to carry gold. 
 After having crossed the rivers with some difficulty to 
 the camels, we passed at first through some swampy 
 ground, then through a very fine country, thickly in- 
 habited, and reached Yola, the capital of Adamawa, on 
 the 22nd of June." 
 
 Dr. Barth remained at Yola only four days, in conse- 
 sequence of discourteous treatment he received from the 
 sultan, Mahommed Lawal ; but he stayed long enough 
 to be informed that Adamawa is one of the richest 
 kingdoms in Central Africa for ivory — that the neigh- 
 bouring and more southern kingdom of Kororoofa yields 
 various mineral productions — that both are fertile and 
 thickly populated, and governed by monarchs who are 
 subject to the great Filatah sultan at Sakatu. He 
 mentions the inhabitants of Wukari, the capital of 
 Kororoofa, as being clothed ; but as he did not visit the 
 place, he can only take this from information received at 
 Kuka. 
 
 This discovery — if the Binue and Tshadda are proved 
 to be one stream — has demonstrated that the latter 
 river has no connection with Lake Tshad, the only rivers 
 communicating with that lake being the Shary and the 
 Yeou, or Komadagu, that flow into it, instead of having 
 it for their source. 
 
 The *' Pleiad" was built by Mr. John Laird in 
 
 Q i 
 
88 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Birkenhead; was a screw steamer, measuring a hun- 
 dred and five feet in length and twenty-four in beam, 
 with an engine of forty horse-power, and a register 
 of seventy- one tons. Her after and fore cabins con- 
 tained, each, five state rooms for the officers, with a 
 steward's pantry and a bath. Through all of the offi- 
 cers' rooms from one to the other there was ventilation 
 by means of movable jalousies; and above the doors 
 were passages to admit a current of air from the corridor 
 that ran from the ladder to the saloon. The after cabin 
 was elegantly fitted up with mahogany tables — green 
 morocco leather sofa — a bronzed chandelier — marble 
 sideboards — and mirrors on either side of the entrance. 
 An ample library also formed part of her furniture. 
 Parallel with the cabin ceiling on either side ranged a 
 dozen sabres ; and between the bull's eyes a number of 
 pistols were suspended. On deck she had two two- 
 pound swivels in her bows, two four-pound carronades 
 on the quarter-deck, and a long Tom twelve-pounder 
 between the fore hold and fore cabin. 
 
 She was the first exploring vessel ever fitted with the 
 screw propeller, and having been built on the model of 
 the famous yacht ^'America," displacement was procured 
 by breadth, not length, as may be known by her mea- 
 surement. With the propeller lifted, she was a fast 
 sailing schooner ; and hence the peculiarity of her build 
 enabled her to make the voyage out to the scene of 
 operations without the necessity of taking in fuel of 
 green wood on the coast, which is sure to engender fever. 
 Her shortness rendered her also more manageable up 
 
THE '^ PLEIAD." 8^ 
 
 the river ; and at sea she was able to steam ten knots an 
 hour. 
 
 The contract between the Lords of the Admiralty and 
 Mr. Laird was to the effect, that he should build this 
 steamer and pay all the expenses of the voyage for a sum 
 of 5000/. With this he was also to carry out as pas- 
 sengers such officers as the Government might appoint. 
 The native negro races being incapable of appreciating 
 an expedition of a purely scientific character, Mr. Laird 
 saw that the amicable reception of the ships and admi- 
 ralty officers would in a great measure depend on the 
 ostensible motive of their voyage. She was therefore 
 fitted up with a cargo for trading in ivory, shea butter, 
 and palm oil. Dr. Baikie, E. N., D-# J. May, Esq., 
 R. N., and an assistant of Dr. Baikie's constituted the 
 Admiralty gentlemen on board. The late Governor 
 Beecroft, Spanish governor of Fernando Po and H. B. 
 M.'s consul for the Bight of Biafra, volunteered for the 
 command of the expedition ; and, as he was a veteran 
 in Niger exploration, his services were at once accepted 
 by the Government. Unfortunately he died during the 
 '* Pleiad's" passage out to Fernando Po, and his place 
 was taken by Dr. Baikie, who was the senior Govern- 
 ment officer. 
 
 Our crew, when leaving Fernando Po for the Niger, 
 on the 8th of July, consisted of three Admiralty gentle- 
 men and the Rev. Mr. Crowther, nine European officers 
 sent out by Mr. Laird (of whom I was one, and in 
 medical charge of the ship's crew) ; twenty-one Africans 
 as sailors, interpreters, and firemen, with thirty-three 
 
90 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Krumen, making an aggregate of sixty-six in our little 
 vessel. We arrived at Fernando Po on our return the 
 7th of the following November, having been away for a 
 period of 122 days, with the same number and the same 
 hands on board, without a single mishap by disease or 
 accident ! 
 
 Similar success in a sanitary point of view attended 
 the expedition throughout ; and soon after our return to 
 England, Mr. Laird addressed a letter to Lord Claren- 
 don, urging on Her Majesty's Government the expe- 
 diency of making " annual visits " to these rivers by 
 means of a steamer, and justifying his recommendation 
 on the grounds of the " Pleiad's " voyage. " Standing 
 out in broad relief," wrote Mr. Laird, *^ from all former 
 ascents of the Niger or land expeditions of discovery 
 into Central Africa, the Chadda expedition is remarkable 
 for the safe return to this country of all Europeans en- 
 gaged in it." 
 
 All the energies of our Government being engaged 
 in the Crimean war at the time of the " Pleiad's " 
 arrival home in the beginning of 1855, nothing was 
 done in that year in answer to this appeal. But at the 
 end of 1856, Mr. Laird entered into a new contract 
 Avith the Foreign Office Department of Her Majesty's 
 Government, to supply a steamer every spring for 
 five years, and at the same time made preparations 
 to enter with commercial spirit into the speculation. 
 Dr. Baikie was again entrusted with the command of 
 this expedition, and arrived at Fernando Po, with 
 several brother officers, in the month of May, 1857, on 
 
OPERATIONS UP THE NIGER. 9l 
 
 board the Royal Mail Steamer ** Candace." They left 
 Clarence on board the " Dayspring " on the 29th of 
 June. A schooner, the " George," which was to be 
 placed for trading purposes at the confluence, sailed 
 from Clarence on the 25th June, for the mouth of the 
 Brass River, to be towed up by the steamer. 
 
 The " Dayspring " was built somewhat on the model 
 of the " Pleiad," with the difference of being twenty 
 feet shorter, — with her engines on deck — and drawing 
 only four feet of water. 
 
 " The main objects of this expedition," according to 
 the instructions from Her Majesty's Government, are 
 to explore the River Niger and its tributaries ; to ascer- 
 tain the natural productions and capabilities of the 
 countries through which they flow ; to enter into 
 friendly relatiqps with the native chiefs ; to facilitate 
 the return of liberated Africans to their homes, and 
 practically to show the advantage of legitimate trade 
 over the debasing and demoralising traffic in slaves." 
 
 Dr. Baikie was further authorised to confer with the 
 present Filatah Sultan Alihu at Sokoto, to which place 
 he was to proceed overland from Rabba. After execut- 
 ing his commission with the Sultan, he was to advance 
 in a northerly direction to Tsai, returning from this to 
 Rabba by water. The operations of the explorers 
 were also to include an overland journey to Abbeokuta 
 and Lagos across the Yoruba country ; a trip to the 
 Kororoofa and Adamawa kingdoms up the Tshadda and 
 Binue ; and a march from Igbebe, the large town at 
 
92 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the confluence, to the district of Atum near the Ethiope 
 Rapids up the Cross Kiver. 
 
 Nothing could be more promising for the result of 
 such an expedition than the directions contained in the 
 following extract from the instructions: — "It is most 
 desirable to impress on the chiefs that you are there as 
 traders, not as colonists, not as acquirers of land ; but 
 simply as traders and as the protectors of trade." 
 
 The Rev, Messrs. Crowther and Taylor, of the Church 
 Missionary Society, were members of the party, with 
 interpreters, and intended to establish branches of their 
 mission wherever a site was found available for the 
 purpose. 
 
93 
 
 CHAP. YII. 
 
 Brass Eiver. — Lander's Description of its chief Town. — Visit to Twa 
 Village. — Appropriateness of Twa for a Slave-trading Depot. — 
 Sketch of Brass Town. — Present Kings of Brass — Its domestic 
 Slavery. — Primogenitureship. — New Kalabar River. — King Ama- 
 kree. — The Town of New Kalabar. — The Ju-ju King. — Amakree's 
 Ju-ju House. — Peculiar Fashion amongst the Ladies. — Bonny 
 River. — Statistics of former Slave Trade in Bonny. — The Palm Oil 
 trading Stations interior to Bonny. — Sketch of Bonny Town. — The 
 Iguana (the Bonny Ju-ju). — Style of Architecture in Bonny. — 
 Horrors of the Ju-ju House The Market Place. — Ex-King Pep- 
 pel's Physique. — His Successor, King Dappo. — Internecine War 
 consequent on the Death of the latter. — Peppel's subsequent Career. 
 — The Equity Court House. — Andony River. 
 
 The River Brass, or Bento (styled by the natives who 
 reside near its mouth Twa Tora), is the next in position 
 to the Nun, its outlet being only about twelve miles 
 from the latter. The inhabitants of this locality style 
 their territory Nimbe. The Abos call it Itebu. From 
 the Nun to Brass there is a water passage called 
 Akassa creek ; and Akassa Tora is the name given by 
 the inhabitants of the latter country to the former 
 river. Between the Nun and Brass Rivers besides 
 the small village of Akassa, are three towns, Billet- 
 shima, Egummo, and Iliama, all situated on the banks 
 of a small creek that flows into the sea, not half a mile 
 
94 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 from the west side of Brass River. The largest of 
 these is Billetshima, bearing the prefix of Oko, which 
 in the Nimbe language means *' great." The inhabitants 
 speak a different language from the Brass ; and they 
 pronounce Akassa with the guttural sound of Akagha. 
 
 " Of all the wretched, filthy, and contemptible places 
 in this world of ours/' writes Richard Lander *, " none 
 can present to the eye of a stranger so miserable an 
 appearance, or can offer such disgusting and loathsome 
 sights, as this abominable Brass town. Dogs, goats, 
 and other animals, were running about the dirty streets, 
 half starved, whose hungry looks could only be ex- 
 ceeded by the famishing appearance of the men, 
 women, and children, which bespoke the penury and 
 wretchedness to which they were reduced, while the 
 skins of many were covered with odious boils, and 
 their huts were falling to the ground from neglect and 
 decay." 
 
 The mouth of Brass River is not more than half a 
 mile in width across the bar ; but when one arrives in- 
 side, there is a noble expanse of sixteen or eighteen 
 miles in circumference, reminding you at once of Milford 
 Haven. 
 
 Twa, where the native pilots reside, is not visible 
 until your boat is on the beach, at the very town, and 
 alongside the houses. The passage to it is through a 
 very tortuous creek, which at low water emits such 
 noxious effluvia as would make one certain that Mark 
 
 * " Travels into the Interior of Africa," p.'690. London : 1836. ■ 
 
TWA VILLAGE. 95 
 
 Tapley could have " found credit in being jolly " if 
 compelled to take up his living here. Huge radicles of 
 mangroves, some of them larger than their j)arent 
 stems, seemed twisted into a Gordian knot of arborescent 
 existence, as if they were resolved (not to lift up, but) 
 to let down their giant arms in rebellion against their 
 parent stock. 
 
 This village is composed of a number of miserable 
 huts, and the streets, if the narrow pathways can be 
 denominated such, are diversified by heaps of oyster 
 shells, a profusion of mangrove, cocoa-nut, and plantain 
 trees, with narrow streaks of muddy water stretching 
 their whole length even in the dry season. What it 
 must be when the heavy rains fall, I would rather 
 imagine than practically realise ; but the effect of its 
 abominations is visible in the face of every man, 
 woman, and child to be met about. 
 
 From the position of Twa — up a creek where 
 canoes can float — perfectly shut in from human obser- 
 vation in the harbour, and its proximity to the sea, I 
 have no doubt that it was originally intended as a half- 
 way depot for the slaves sent down from Brass town, 
 when the slave trade flourished in this locality. 
 
 Brass, the capital of this territory, being about 
 thirty miles from the mouth of the river, I determined 
 to pay it a visit on one of my trips there in a man-of- 
 war, and so proceeded on the voyage up the river in a 
 boat, as the water was reported to be too shallow for 
 the ascent of a steamer. 
 
 Passing the small creek leading to Twa round Fish- 
 
96 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 town point, and skirting along a wide creek to Fishtown 
 or Oguonuna, by another trending to the town of 
 Fautoi, and by a third communicating with the St. 
 Nicholas River, we soon get out of the Brass main 
 stream, and navigate an apparently interminable wind- 
 ing of creeks. 
 
 On arriving there I found that it is divided into two 
 towns ; the Obullum Abry side being governed by 
 Keya, a nephew of the late King Boy, and the Bass- 
 ambry by Orishima, a near relative of King Jackets. 
 
 The frontage of Orishima's town presents a convex 
 crescent shape, but neither of the cities shows a feature 
 one whit more attractive than they did in Lander's 
 time. The whole journey up does not afford one 
 square inch of terra Jirma, being nothing more than 
 mud and water, out of which mangrove is springing ; 
 and the ground whereon the houses are erected, seems 
 to be formed of the debris of a sort of periwinkle shell, 
 called in the native language semee. The fish contained 
 in these is one of the epicurean delicacies of food with 
 the inhabitants. The streets contained in the wet 
 season, when I visited it, little but mud and filth, 
 piles of red wood, for fire-wood, with mangrove stems 
 having oyster-shells placed outside the doors for a pro- 
 tecting ju-ju. 
 
 The system of polytheism, founded on their belief in 
 spiritual and intelligent beings taking up their residence 
 in natural bodies, is the most general superstition all 
 over Western Africa. To this the title ju-ju, or fetish, 
 is given, expressive as well of a malignant demon as of 
 
JU-JU HOUSE. 97 
 
 a protective power, and to be appeased or honoured by 
 a propitiatory sacrifice. 
 
 In Brass the grey and white kingfishers are ju-ju or 
 sacred, and therefore not molested. The same hblds 
 good with reference to a bird about the size of a dove, 
 and in its movements resembling the water-wagtail. 
 Yams are not cultivated in Brass territory ; and if you 
 ask the head men why this is so, their answer is, " Ju-ju 
 no will" 
 
 Outside the Bassambry side of the city and along a 
 pathway over which the stem roots of bombax trees are 
 ramifying in luxuriance, is the Brass head ju-ju house, 
 whose high priest Mummo was seated there on my 
 visit to it. His left arm was resting upon the rudely- 
 carved figure of a small elephant, which is supposed to 
 be the guardian numen when he is away. A phrenolo- 
 gically-charted cast of the human skull in plaster of 
 Paris, a few jugs with the figures of Tam O'Shanter 
 and Souter Johnny in bold relief beneath their spouts, 
 and a number of wooden puppet-size human figures carved 
 by native artists constitute the chief ornaments of the 
 place. In the centre of the room is an iron staff about 
 five feet in height, surrounded by eight bent spear- 
 heads. This is styled the tokoi, and at its bottom is a 
 hole into which libations are poured as a sacrifice to the 
 ju-ju who is supposed to be influenced by them. 
 
 A very brutal practice exists with the Brass people, 
 of occasionally sacrificing an Albino child at the bar of 
 the river, for the purpose of appeasing the ju-ju of the 
 surf, so as to permit vessels to come in. 
 
 H 
 
98 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 At some locality between Brass and New Kalabar, 
 there is a tribe living who are entitled by the inhabitants 
 of both places " God-country people." They are the 
 head ju-ju men, referred to in all grievous difficulties, 
 and bear with them a kind of " Delphic oracle " reputa- 
 tion. In Brass they are styled the Ekrika nungos* ; 
 and the same gentry have a like sacred reputation at 
 New Kalabar and Bonny. 
 
 A remarkable characteristic of the Brass people is 
 the absence of petty thievery. Not that they can be 
 said to yield, in their qualifications of importunate 
 begging and swindling in reference to their palm-oil 
 debts, to any negro nation ; but the tactus eruditus, so 
 certain a development of the adhesive faculty amongst 
 negroes in contiguous districts, is entirely unpractised by 
 them. 
 
 The Brass people are naturally not brutal; for human 
 sacrifices, save in the case of the Albino just mentioned, 
 are not practised. The head ju-ju man is the chief referee 
 in criminal cases. One, if not the only one, of their 
 forms of trial by ordeal, is that of driving a quill through 
 the tip of the tongue : if it do not break, the accused is 
 pronounced guilty ; in case it fractures, the culprit is 
 declared innocent. 
 
 The chief attractive features of Brass town are the 
 kennels in the passages of streets, amphibia entitled 
 mud-fish or jump-fish in the puddle between the man- 
 grove bushes and the water, with the variety at night of 
 
 • " Nungo " is the Nimbe word for '* people." 
 
DOMESTIC SLAVERY. 99 
 
 bull frogs, rats, and mosquitoes everywhere. Yet more 
 agreeable than any of these, to a person passing a night 
 there as I did, is the perpetual clatter of the women 
 going to and returning from fishing, whose appearance in 
 the morning will delight every lover of natural beauty 
 wiien he sees some of them bedaubed over with powder 
 of red saunders-wood (bright almost to a pinkish hue), 
 styled umbia, and others ornamented with a black 
 pigment which is obtained from the juice of an apple- 
 shaped pod entitled mummeree. One of these fashions 
 gives the wearer the semblance of a highly-tinged Red 
 Indian ; and the other strikes you as being an illus- 
 tration of carrying coals to Newcastle. I have been 
 informed by Mr. McCall, a very intelligent supercargo 
 at Brass, that he has known houses to become the pro- 
 perty of three different persons of a family in ten years, 
 thus giving an abstract idea at least of the shortness of 
 human life in this part of the world. 
 
 In the domestic slavery of the Brass country, — the 
 only one, I am happy to say, now existing, — there are two 
 classes; the Egbo-bos, or nigger-niggers, who are em- 
 ployed as pull-a-boys for the canoes and to do the 
 most menial work — and the Winna-bos, who are a higher 
 grade, ranking as adopted children, and having liberty, 
 if they possess means, to purchase their own freedom. 
 
 The law of primogenltureship is not sanctioned by 
 the Brass people ; so that when a man dies, the friends 
 and relations elect a head man, according to competency, 
 to rule the domestic concerns of the family and the com- 
 mercial affairs of his territory. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 In the upper end of the harbour is a large island 
 called Opolobo (or big island) which would be a capital 
 place for a mercantile station for any commercial expedi- 
 tion settled up the Niger. Brass Eiver may be reached 
 from the Nun by passing Akassa Creek which flows 
 from opposite the lower end of Alburkah Island, nearly 
 to a juxtaposition with the hulks that are moored inside 
 the Brass bar. 
 
 Between this and the New Kalabar are the St. 
 Nicholas, the St. Barbara, the St. Bartholomew, the 
 Sombrero, but nothing of the country interior to these 
 is known, as no legitimate trade has been as yet opened 
 in them. 
 
 In former times New Kalabar and Bonny rivers had 
 a common embouchure ; but of late years the confluence 
 of the streams flowing down wdth the regurgitation of 
 the sea-tides backwards has formed a large bank of 
 sand betw^een their mouths. This is called Breaker 
 Island ; and its formation must have been recent, from 
 the fact of its not appearing in the chart of these rivers 
 drawn by Captain Vidal and the officers of H. M. S. 
 *f Barracouta " in 1826. 
 
 Entering New Kalabar river you pass between Fouche 
 Point and Breaker Island, — the first on the western, 
 the second on the eastern side. There is a fearful 
 roll of breakers perpetually on this point, and no vessel 
 is safe going in here without a pilot, who can always be 
 obtained from Fouche Town, by firing a gun when an- 
 chored in the offing. From this latter place, where 
 the trading vessels are stationed opposite Young Town, 
 
KING AMAKREE. 101 
 
 you pass no village, save that of the pilots' residence, 
 and about eight miles higher up is the capital of New 
 Kilabar and in which King Amakree resides. 
 
 Amakree is the most independent king to be met 
 anywhere on the coast; and I believe he owes this 
 reputation to the fact of his not taking goods on trust 
 from any supercargo, nor allowing his people to do it, 
 consequently maintaining his high position. 
 
 He is past the middle age, and has a very anxious ex- 
 pression of countenance, as if subject to the influence of 
 some internal malignant disease. On state occasions he 
 is clothed in a black velvet tobe, and wears a black hat 
 with several brass stars on it, and a profusion of beads 
 round his neck. 
 
 Many of the streets of his city reach down in parallel 
 rows to the water's edge of the creek, which is barri- 
 caded in its whole extent of shore by the entrances into 
 the streets and with stout and lofty palisading. All 
 the people met with in the town have an air of sturdi- 
 ness in their walk, not to be seen elsewhere except at 
 Lagos or Akra. In the centre, outside the king's 
 palace, is a miniature copy of Trafalgar Square — Avith- 
 out the monument and accessories — from whose basin 
 all the townsfolk have permission to draw water ad 
 libitum for their domestic use, without corporate in- 
 terference of water-dues. 
 
 The social position of the ju-ju king is before that of 
 Amakree amongst his people. The ju-ju king is the 
 head high priest, and holds the same preeminence over 
 the monarch as Church does over State in other parts 
 
 B 3 
 
102 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 of the world. On public occasions the ju-ju king 
 always walks before Amakree, having an umbrella held 
 over his head by an attendant slave. Every great man 
 in New Kalabar has a ju-ju house of his own, and the 
 varieties of carving in ivory and wood to be seen in 
 these heathen temples are grotesquely savage indeed. 
 Inside of Amakree's there are four large tusks carved 
 to represent human figures, each one supposed to preside 
 over its particular ju-ju dwelling-place. As at Brass, 
 there is an excavation in the ground, in the centre of 
 three figures, about a yard in circumference, in which solid 
 offerings are deposited, and around this cavity, which is 
 supposed to be the deity's residence, are erected four 
 mud-clay cones with a hole in the top of each, into 
 which wine, rum, or palm-wine is poured as oblations 
 to suit the different motives for sacrifice. 
 
 The shark is the ju-ju of New Kalabar, and it is the 
 custom every seven years to sacrifice the tawniest 
 Negro child procurable, as an offering at the mouth of 
 the river. 
 
 The ladles of New Kalabar attempt the '^gilding re- 
 fined gold " system in their fashions ; for their faces, 
 bodies, arms, and legs are painted over with black 
 streaks and spots, and shapes of inexplicable patterns. 
 That which strikes a stranger most is their mode of 
 wearing bustles — generally about the size of small hay- 
 cocks, and which are carried before instead of behind. 
 This mode certainly — let the beau monde speak 
 against it what they will — has the advantage of giving 
 an upright carriage to the fair sex, which they are 
 
BONNY TOWN. 103 
 
 obliged to assume in order to balance their poses de 
 promenade. 
 
 From Xew Kalabar a passage may be made to Bonny 
 between Breaker and Shark islands without returning 
 to the sea. 
 
 Bonny River is designated by the inhabitants of 
 Brass, Okuloba-Toro, and by the natives of Bonny its 
 former name is reputed to have been Okul5ma, from 
 the fact of a quantity of birds, seen on their first visit to 
 the swamps where the town is erected, having deserted 
 the place when it was fitted for human residence. The 
 Bonny people came originally from some part of the 
 Abo country. 
 
 Bonny Town appears to me no better or cleaner than 
 Brass is described by Lander. It seems the iie plus 
 idtra of abomination and filthiness, evidently a fitting 
 Pandemonium for that vile traffic in human flesh that, 
 during its continuance for twenty years, flourished at 
 an export of twenty thousand slaves per year. Of 
 these, nearly sixteen thousand were from the Abo coun- 
 try, of which the original King Peppel of Bonny and 
 Amakree of New Kalabar were natives, and some of 
 whose ancestors were no doubt the earliest originators 
 of the trade. Fairs for the sale of the human stock 
 were held every five or six weeks, as horse and pig fairs 
 are held at home with us ; and this traffic was continued 
 remorselessly until the abolition of the slave trade, by 
 Act of Parliament, in 1819, and the consequent opening 
 of the palm-oil traffic in 1821. The chief trading sta- 
 tions interior to it are Iguangu, Sebrotonme, Ouragua, 
 
 H 4 
 
104 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Oriante, Kufe, Grata, and Egbanaje, all in a territorial 
 district entitled Qua. A tribe of the Qua race I believe 
 to have been the original owners of Bonny district^ as 
 they were of Old Kalabar. 
 
 It is stated from authentic information not to be 
 doubted that, previous to the commencement of the 
 palm-oil trade, 190 cargoes of slaves had been carried 
 off from Bonny river during a period of fifteen months. 
 The same activity which the former chiefs showed in 
 the sale of their subjects, their successors are now ex- 
 hibiting in the palm-oil markets ; for Bonny supplies the 
 largest amount of that article that is brought from any 
 river in Western Africa. There are generally from 
 twelve to fifteen vessels in this stream ; and these com- 
 prise an average tonnage of nine to twelve thousand tons. 
 The New Kalabar river trade (the station not being 
 more than sixteen miles from Bonny) is carried on by 
 subordinates of the traders in the last-mentioned river. 
 The ships here are all moored opposite the town, only 
 a few miles from the sea, consequently under the full in- 
 fluence of a sea breeze, and not cooped in a bight such 
 as may be found up many of the rivers where mosqui- 
 toes congregate in thousands. 
 
 All my subsequent visits to Bonny have impressed 
 me with sensations similar to the first, when, landing on 
 the sandy beach, hard by a cask house, with the inten- 
 tion of exploring the town, I had not walked forty 
 yards up a passage pointed out as the proper road by a 
 Kruboy chaperon, before my progress was arrested by a 
 muddy-looking pool, from which rivulets ran on the 
 
THE IGUAXA. 105 
 
 road, as far as my eyes could reach, on the other side. 
 Locomotion was of course stopped, unless I adopted the 
 alternative of riding on the Kruboy's shoulders, most 
 kindly offered to me for that purpose by one of the 
 supercargoes trading in a vessel moored in the river. 
 So I mounted accordingly, the journey being anything 
 but refreshing, independent of the perspiratory odour 
 from my sable Rosinante, and from the foul vapours 
 which he stirred up in the pool as he went along. For 
 stagnant water and currents of liquid mud, with decom- 
 posing vegetable matter, were everywhere visible, form- 
 ing pleasant retreats for those nasty crawling reptiles, 
 the iguana, many of whose family were about. This 
 animal is considered the Bonny man's ju-ju, or fetish ; 
 the tutelary genius of his town, and guardian of his 
 trade. It is not a venomous reptile, and so is allowed 
 to wander where it pleases with impunity. If a native 
 were to kill or injure one of these animals, summary 
 death would be his punishment ; if a white man, the 
 stoppage of his ship's trade, and the infliction of a con- 
 siderable fine. 
 
 The style of architecture in Bonny cannot be defined 
 except as an extreme of Gothic angularity; and the 
 possibility of distinguishing between back and front of 
 the houses is out of the question. Only one file of 
 walkers has room to traverse the passages, in which 
 fronts, rears, gables, and angles of houses jut out in 
 amazing confusion. To get in or out of a gentleman's 
 residence (a pilgrimage incumbent on every stranger 
 who visits here) is like going through the maze at 
 
106 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Hampton Court — save for the surrounding scenery — 
 even in broad daylight. At the house of King Peppel 
 I made my bow, and was conducted to his inner court- 
 yard. A clay ram, having real horns, and a human 
 figure of like material, with his two legs, a musket and 
 sword which he held in his hands, sunk in the ground, 
 were the gendarmes inside the door as I entered. 
 
 But no sight I have ever witnessed, not even the 
 room of horrors at Madame Tussaud's, shocks one so 
 much as the first view of the Bonny ju-ju house. The 
 pillars of the two doors are formed of human skulls ; 
 inside, the ground is paved with them ; an altar is 
 erected on which is a dead iguana ; and the whole of 
 this is fabricated of the same material as the pillars of 
 tlie door. Two high columns of them are beside the 
 altar ; a string of jaw-bones is hanging by the wall ; 
 and these, you are informed, are the skulls of their 
 enemies of the Andony country, which adjoins the 
 Bonny territory, and with whom, a few years ago, they 
 waged a furious war. The stories that are told of their 
 having devoured the bodies of the victims whose heads 
 are here, seem too preposterous to believe, and are too 
 disgusting to repeat. 
 
 The market-place is very small, and a huge wild 
 cotton-tree is growing in the centre of it. Opposite 
 the ex-king's house, the European traders had fitted up 
 a sort of club-house of their own, to meet and discuss 
 matters of trade, and have an evening's lounge in when 
 the business of the day was over. His Majesty was 
 not at home when I visited his palace, on my first tour 
 
KING DAPPO. 107 
 
 through his town, but I saw him at his canoe-yard, 
 whither I was directed. He appeared to me to be be- 
 tween thirty and forty years of age, semi-paralysed, 
 his articulation very much impeded. He had a care- 
 worn expression about his countenance, which is not 
 so black as that of many of the negro tribes I have 
 seen on the coast. Leaving him apparently indis- 
 posed for much palaver, I returned by a creek at the 
 back of the town, which reminded me of all I had read 
 in the heathen mythology of that Styx that leads to 
 the country of bottomless notoriety. 
 
 King Peppel had been deposed since my first visit, 
 and a younger man, Dappo, constituted monarch in his 
 place. The latter, soon after his assumption of the 
 government, died of what the surgeons attached to the 
 ships in the river report to have been an intus-suscep- 
 tio ; and the superstitious people of the place, not under- 
 standing anything of a death from physical causes, 
 attributed his demise to poison, administered by some 
 of ex-King Peppel's family. Hence a fearful slaughter 
 was the consequence, and the white men's house, which 
 had come to be used as a court of equity as well as a 
 place of worship, was razed to the ground, because the 
 supercargoes had rescued two of Peppel's men, Yanibo, 
 and Fred Peppel, from the fury of the mob. King 
 Peppel threw himself on the protection of my prede- 
 cessor, Governor Beecroft, Her Britannic Majesty's 
 Consul for the Bight of Biafra, and accompanied that 
 gentleman to Fernando Po. After Governor Beecroft'a 
 death, he w^as sent to the Island of Ascension by Go- 
 
108 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 vernor Lynslager, at that time Her Britannic Majesty's 
 Acting Consul, and from Ascension he proceeded by 
 Sierra Leone to England. In London he was baptized, 
 and became, it is said, a disciple of George Cruik- 
 shank's, in the Temperance cause. Of his character at 
 Bonny, I wish to write nothing, because what I should 
 write would not be in his favour. Bonny politics are 
 now ruled by a species of provisional government, con- 
 sisting of four men, who are entitled regents. 
 
 The general design upon which the court of equity 
 just mentioned was founded w^as, for the purpose of 
 keeping commercial transactions between the European 
 and native traders on a proper basis of justice and 
 honesty, as well as to nurture friendly feelings between 
 both parties. In the absence of any international codes 
 of jurisprudence, such a court was considered by its 
 founders necessary to hold the natives true to the prin- 
 ciples of fair and honest dealing, and the more so, as 
 there was no tribunal of appeal in this country for the 
 recovery of debts due by the native traders to the 
 supercargoes. Some of the head men, including the 
 king, w^ere representatives of their people in it, before 
 the destruction of the house ; and by black traders, as 
 well as by white, its utility to the healthy condition of 
 their comm^ce was universally allow^ed. 
 
 Of the next river, the Andony, nothing is yet known, 
 and so we pass it by en voyage for Old Kalabar. 
 
109 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Up the Old Kalabai River. — Tom Shot's Breakers and East Head. — 
 Peculiarities of the Mangrove Trees. — Dr. Brown's Description of 
 them. — Parrot Island, and the Superstition connected with it — 
 Statistics of former Slave Trade in Old Kalabar. — Anti-Slavetrade 
 Treaty of 1842. — Clarkson's Record of Brutalities committed during 
 
 Slave Trade Times in this River Explorations of Cross River ; 
 
 Governor Beecroft. — Mr. Colthurst's Attempt and Failure to reach 
 the Niger from this Stream. — View of trading Vessels moored off 
 DukStown (or Atarpah) the Capital of Old Kalabar. — Size of the 
 Town and Number of Population. — Henshaw Town (or Nsiring). 
 
 — Its Necropolis. — View from the Top of Duketown Hill. — " Wat- 
 tle-and-Dab" Architecture of the Higgledy-Piggledy Order. — The 
 " Jukas," or Night Watchman. — Promenade through the Turkey 
 Buzzard's Pasture Grounds. — King Eyaraba's Iron Palace. — His 
 Majesty's Carriage and Horses. — Notions of Royal Dignity. — The 
 Duketown Palaver-house. — Its Construction and Appearance. 
 
 — The Eybo Drum. — Times at which it is beaten, and Tunes 
 sounded upon it. — King Architong's House. — Chop Days in Old 
 Kalabar. — Devotions on their Sabbath. — The Duketown Tyburn 
 Tree. — The Market-places and their odorous Attractions. — Sketch 
 of Antika Cobham's House ; Furniture and Fat Wife. — Varieties of 
 Kings in Old Kalabar. — A Slave-Trader's Tomb. — Cask Houses on 
 the Beach. 
 
 The Old Kalabar river is said by McQueen to be 
 twelve miles wide at its mouth. To me, on my many 
 visits, it seemed much wdder ; but authority like 
 McQueen's I would not dare to dispute. The w^estern 
 extremity of land at the embouchure is called Tom 
 
110 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Shot's Point, between which and the channel of the 
 stream, are some very dangerous breakers. The east- 
 ern point is entitled East Head. Sailing some miles 
 above East Head, I observed two promontories called 
 Greenpatch and Fishtown Points, in the heights between 
 which the water forms semicircular bays, giving the 
 river here a magnificent appearance. 
 
 Between its mouth and Parrot Island, which is about 
 thirty miles from the bar, the Backasy and the two 
 Qua rivers empty themselves, on the eastern side, one 
 of the latter having a small island, called by the Kalabar 
 missionaries Robson Island. The upper Qua river 
 debouches itself by James's Island, which is a low, 
 swampy locality, appearing, as you advance up the 
 river, to be part of the main continent rather than 
 an island per se, as Parrot Island is situated in the 
 centre of the stream, and is directly opposite James's 
 Island. At the other side of Parrot Island, and on 
 its western side, the lower and larger mouth of the 
 Cross River empties itself, although this is not indi- 
 cated on any chart of the river yet published. Parrot 
 Island is about twelve miles in circumference, and is 
 covered with dense vegetation, principally of the man- 
 grove tree. There is no solid ground on it as yet ; but 
 the earth washed down by the river, and held by the 
 peculiarly spreading branches of the mangrove, will no 
 doubt, in time, make the soil solid and substantial, 
 instead of being what it is now, a mere swamp of mud 
 for the retreat of crocodiles and manattis.* 
 
 * The sea-cow, of the Cetacea herbivora of Ciivier and supposed to 
 
MANGROVE TREES. Ill 
 
 The mangrove is a tree of very peculiar growth, and 
 is a very noticeable feature at the mouths of all the 
 African rivers. The swamps in the Bight of Biafra 
 nurture it, so far as there is salt water from the ocean, 
 impelled by tidal action, to make the currents of the 
 stream brackish. The name which botanists give it, 
 Rizophora (a word derived from the Greek, and signify- 
 ing root-bearing) is very applicable : for the most re- 
 markable appearance in its growth is the number of 
 spicula or appendicles that spring from the branches, 
 downward to the mud, and, there taking new roots, 
 generate new trees, thus forming a series of arbo- 
 rescence ad infinitum. In his natural history of Ja- 
 maica *, Dr. Brown says : " It grows on the borders of 
 the sea, and there only in such places as have a soft 
 and yielding bottom." The " soft and yielding bottom *' 
 is certainly essential to its growth in the African rivers ; 
 but it is not confined to the borders of the sea, on their 
 banks. The arched branches of the appendicles form a 
 kind of network, that serves to stop the mould which 
 is continually being washed down by the current, and 
 thus in time forms rich and fertile soil out of what 
 otherwise might be useless ponds or creeks. Perhaps 
 its growing on the borders of the sea may be a peculi- 
 arity of its condition in Jamaica ; for I have seen it 
 growing likewise at the mouth of a river in the island 
 of Fernando Po. 
 
 be the original of the mermaid, from its having two palmated fins, hke 
 hands. Hence its name. 
 * Page 211. 
 
112 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 A curious superstition is connected with Parrot 
 Island, and is observed with religious punctuality by the 
 natives of Old Kalabar, on the occasion of need arising 
 for its performance. Whenever a scarcity of European 
 trading ships exists, or is apprehended, the Duketown 
 authorities are accustomed to take an Albino child of 
 their own race, and offer it up as a sacrifice at Parrot 
 Island, to the God of the white man. This they do 
 because the island is in view of the sea, ^'or big- 
 watery " (to use their own phraseology), over which the 
 God of the nations that sent them articles of European 
 manufacture is supposed to preside. The last sacrifice of 
 this kind was made within the past year ; and every one 
 must regret that the increasing trade of the country, 
 together with the teachings of the missionaries and 
 supercargoes, has not put an end to this brutality. 
 
 On the western side of the river, above Parrot Island, 
 is a small islet called '* Alligator Island," improperly 
 so styled ; for the animals in the Old Kalabar, as well as 
 in all the African rivers, called alligators, are true cro- 
 codiles according to Baron Cuvier, whose authority no 
 naturalist will dare to impugn. Here the old Kalabar 
 stream forms an acute angle, which is exactly opposite 
 the upper mouth of Cross River, and is called Seven 
 Fathom Point. It was near this place, as well as higher 
 up at Oldtown, that slave vessels were anchored for their 
 living cargo, when the traffic was carried on in this river ; 
 and some idea of how extensive that commerce was here, 
 may be gleaned from the fact that in 1821 Sir Charles 
 McCarthy reported, from authentic proofs, that during 
 
ANTI-SLAVETRADE TREATY. 113 
 
 the previous fifteen months 162 cargoes of slaves had 
 been carried off from the Old Kalabar River. 
 
 A treaty was made, on the usual terms of anti-slave- 
 trade treaties, with Kings Eyo and Eyamba, by Com- 
 mander Eaymond, R. N., of H.M.S. " Spy," in 1842, 
 and both of these kings' letters, signifying their assent 
 to stop the slave trade and to accept the terms for its 
 suppression, expressed a desire to the Commander to 
 have cotton and coffee cultivation, with sugar manufac- 
 ture, taught to their people ; and thus add other materials 
 beyond palm oil, to the development of the industrial 
 resources of the country. These men, with a sagacity 
 which did them credit, saw that the slave population, 
 becoming superabundant by the forbiddal of their expor- 
 tation, would require employment to keep them from 
 mischief, as well as to contribute to their daily sus- 
 tenance. 
 
 When the slave trade was rife in Old Kalabar, the 
 officers and crews of four Bristol ships and one from 
 Liverpool and London, committed a most fearful atrocity 
 in this river. The details of it are described at length in 
 Clarkson's work, " On the Slave Trade."* This book 
 gives likewise incontrovertible accounts of a series of 
 brutalities committed by their masters on the crews of 
 English ships, during the existence of that appalling 
 traffic, that seems to have been the originator of the 
 fearful title of " Grave of Europeans," which Western 
 Africa has so long possessed. 
 
 The native name of Kalabar River is Akpa-Efik, the 
 
 * P. 186. John W. Parker, West Strand, 1839. 
 I 
 
114 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 former word being a name for water, and the latter the 
 title of the tribe who now inhabit the country. 
 
 The Cross Kiver seems to be the larger of the two 
 that meet at this point. It has been explored by the 
 late Governor Beecroft as far as the Ethiope rapids ; 
 and an account of the expedition is published in the 
 Journal of the Geographical Society, for 1844. This 
 expedition was commenced on the 7th of September, 
 1842. The channel taken (for the number of islands 
 here makes the course very uncertain) was that which 
 trends to the N.W. in a serpentine course, with an 
 average width of a hundred yards, and having through- 
 out a depth of water from four to six fathoms. The 
 only features described in the narrative are those 
 referring to breadth of river and depth of channel, and 
 so I will proceed to something that may be more inter- 
 esting to the general reader. Mr. Colthurst, an Ame- 
 rican, also made an ascent of it with the intention of 
 crossing over by water to the Niger, but did not succeed ; 
 and he died on board the '* Agnes," on his way back 
 from Old Kalabar to Fernando Po. In my Narrative 
 of the Niger Expedition of 1854, I stated my reasons 
 for believing no water communication to exist between 
 these two rivers. 
 
 Round ing Seven Fathom Point, we come in view of 
 the trading vessels moored oiF Duketown ; and further 
 lip the river, of the small village of Oldtown, situated 
 on a fine eminence, that is refreshing to behold, after the 
 swamps which have been passed on our way down the 
 coast. 
 
DUKETOWN. 1 15 
 
 Duketown (or Atarpah*) is about two miles in cir- 
 cumference, and contains a population of at least four 
 thousand. At about a quarter of a mile to the seaward 
 of it is a small village called Henshaw Town (or 
 Nsiring), having not more than about 120 inhabitants, 
 and remarkable as well for possessing a spring of fresh 
 water, as for being bounded on the river side by the 
 Necropolis, for the interment of all the sailors who die 
 on board the ships anchored in the river. A pathway 
 leads from this by the Presbyterian mission house and 
 school to Duketown ; and reaching the top of the hill 
 where these are situated, there is an ample view of all 
 the trading vessels — of Oldtown and Creektown — 
 with an interminable sea of brushwood stretchino; rio;ht 
 and left — as well as of the city beneath our gaze. 
 
 The houses are built by forming walls of interlaced 
 palisading, which are plastered inside and outside with 
 mud, technically styled *^ wattle-and-dab." The struc- 
 ture of the roofs is fabricated in like manner ; but these, 
 instead of being covered with mud, have matting made 
 of the bamboo-leaf placed over them. The native ar- 
 chitects have not yet arrived at the civilisation of a 
 chimney ; the smoke passes out the way the fire came 
 in — through the door; and, except at a few of the gen- 
 tlemen's residences, square holes in the walls suffice for 
 windows. 
 
 The town is sadly in want of a corporate body, the 
 only semblance of corporation it has being in the fact 
 that a number of young freemen, called Inkas, pervade 
 
 * The native Efik name. 
 I 2 
 
116 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the passages at night, in respective watches, nominally to 
 see that no thievery — a science indigenous in all African 
 nations — is abroad; but really to keep the serf popu- 
 lation in awe of the guardianship of the town being 
 committed to the Inkas by a superior power. Houses 
 are jotted down without any regard to the evenness or 
 regularity of the ground on which they are erected. 
 The higgledy-piggledy order of architecture prevails 
 throughout ; and the axiom of Bacon that " a house was 
 meant to live in," is carried out in its most original sim- 
 plicity in Old Kalabar. As I walk through the passages 
 intended for streets, I have to scramble over eminences 
 and down declivities in the best way I can. In a path- 
 way between two houses opposite each other, or perhaps 
 side by side, there may be an ascent or a descent of a 
 dozen or score of feet ; and in wet weather it is impos- 
 sible to escape a footbath in some of the many ruts to 
 be met with as one goes along. Heaps of dirt and all 
 kinds of refuse are thrown indiscriminately through the 
 town, as if to allow pasture ground for the many turkey- 
 buzzards *, styled by Swainson the *^ scavengers of 
 nature," that congregate upon them, and have a per- 
 petual carnival in browsing upon the festering ofFal. 
 
 The most remarkable house in Duketown, on my first 
 visit (for it has since fallen, and not a vestige of it 
 remains), was the iron palace of the late King Eyamba, 
 which, previous to its being sent out, was exhibited in 
 
 * Le Vaillant, the French traveller, found six pounds weight of 
 hippopotamus flesh in the stomach of one of the sociable-vulture family in, 
 Africa. 
 
KING EYAHBA'S iron PALACE. 117 
 
 Liverpool on the site of the Sailor's Home. It was 
 constructed of galvanized iron, and consisted of two 
 stories and an attic, being erected on mangrove posts 
 about six feet from the ground. 
 
 No man was more impressed with an idea of the dignity 
 attachable to the trappings of royalty than Eyamba ; and 
 so he must have a carriage. But the horses soon died*, 
 after draojo-ino; out life for some time ; the skeletons of 
 two only w^ere visible about Duketown, perfect anatomies 
 vivantes, at the time of my first visit there. When 
 I beheld the nature of the streets and roads in and 
 around the town, it was a marvel to me how Eyamba 
 could find a place broad or level enough for four wheels 
 to roll upon. But he did make out a few yards meet 
 for that purpose ; and there it was his custom to have the 
 
 * Horses not being native to this part of the country, it puzzled the 
 lexicographers very much to find a name for them in their Efik tongue, 
 — the language spoken at Old Kalabar. At length they hit upon the 
 term " Euang makara," which signifies " white man's cow ;" and, to 
 carry the absurdity further, entitled Eyamba's carriage, *' Ufok euang 
 makara," which literally means "white man's cowhouse." 
 
 From a small book, " The Translation of the Prophecies of Elisha 
 and Jonah," published at the Mission Press in Old Kalabar, I transcribe 
 a copy of the Lord's Prayer in this language : — 
 
 The Lord's Prayer in Efik. 
 
 AKAM. (i. e.. Prayer.) 
 
 " Ete nyin emi odude ke enyong. Nam pupru owo ekpuno enying 
 Fu. Yak ubong Fa edi. Nam pupru owo ke isong, enam se Afu 
 amade nte emi emamde ke ,enyong. No nyin ke usen emi udia eke 
 ekemdc ye nyin. Dahadu ke idionkpo nyin nte emi nyin idahade 
 du ke idionkpo eke owo enamde nyin. Ku yak nyin itiene mbukpebe, 
 edi nyanga nyin ke ubok Satan. Kuru ubong, ye odudu, ye ukpuno, 
 enyenede Fi, nsi nsi, nsi nsi. Amen.'* 
 
 1 3 
 
118 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 carriage drawn before him by a number of slaves, whilst 
 he walked after it, with his shining brass crown upon 
 his head, and an immense partycoloured parasol held 
 aloft by a strong-armed man. The Irishman who got 
 into a sedan chair, and finding the bottom of it, said 
 ^' he might as well be walking, were it not for the 
 grandeur of the thing," had a nearer semblance to state 
 than this gander-brained monarch, w^ho often used to 
 boast of his desire to see Wellington and Napoleon, that 
 he might show his pre-eminence over them, and who 
 was accustomed to sign all his letters and documents as 
 Eyamba Y., " King of all black men ! " 
 
 Everything in this once magnificent house w^as, on my 
 visit to it, in a state of perfect ruin and decay ; for his 
 majesty died a few years after it had been constructed. 
 
 This condition of affairs may be explained by the fact, 
 that there exists amongst the people of Old Kalabar, as 
 amongst the majority of the heathen nations in Western 
 Africa, a silly superstition, that w^ien a man dies he 
 requires the spirit of all that belonged to him in this 
 world: his wives, slaves, clothes, chattels, and furniture, 
 for use in the unknown world to which he has gone. 
 In proportion to what his competency was here, and to 
 the means of his friends to make a corresponding sacrifice 
 for him, so is his anticipated comfort in the next state 
 to be measured. 
 
 I have been since informed that in a fe\^ hours after 
 its fall there was not a single piece of its structure to be 
 found on the site of its former location : for the inhabi- 
 tants all acted as so many human turkey buzzards; and 
 
DUKETOWN PALAVER-HOUSE. 119 
 
 the earliest bird of course picked up his choice of the 
 best worms. 
 
 Coming out of the palace, and not fifty yards from it, 
 although I had a hill to go down, a rut to scramble 
 through, and an eminence to ascend, I find myself in 
 front of the Duketown Palaver-house, a species of sena- 
 torial forum, where all the legislative matters of the 
 country, the municipal affairs of the town, "palavers"* 
 on matters public or private, are discussed and settled 
 by the king and the Egbos.f 
 
 The palaver-house consists of two walls running 
 parallel for about forty yards, terminated by a transverse 
 wall, about as many feet in length, and thatched with a 
 stout bamboo roof. The end by which it is entered is 
 opened from side to side, a space of nearly eighteen inches 
 intervenes between the tops of the walls running length- 
 ways and the roof; and there is an ascent from the road by 
 half-a-dozen steps to the floor, which is hard and smooth. 
 In the centre of the entrance is a huge hollow brass pillar 
 reaching up to the roof; further in are two more of 
 equally imposing diameter, whilst between them are a 
 large bell and a piece of wood. The latter is drum-like 
 in shape, with a slit longitudinally in it, and fixed to the 
 
 * The term "palaver," derived from the Spanish "palabra" (talk), 
 has a very extensive meaning. It signifies "dispute," "controversy," 
 " argument," or " reasonings." " War palaver," " trade palaver," are 
 used in reference to these affairs. " God palaver," is applied to the 
 missionary teaching ; and " sweet mouf palaver," is analogous in its 
 meaning to the term " blarney " with us. 
 
 f Of the Egboship, more hereafter. 
 
 14 
 
120 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTEEN AFRICA. 
 
 pillar. This is the Egbo drum* which is beaten to 
 alarm the inhabitants in case of a fire, to give notice of 
 the attack of an enemy, or to signify the fact of a leopard 
 having been captured, each occurrence being indicated 
 by a peculiarity of beating the drum, which is known 
 as soon as the sound is heard. In the farthest corner 
 of the house is a private sanctuary into which none- but 
 the privileged are admitted on occasions of Egbo meet- 
 ings, and outside the front are two flourishing ju-ju 
 trees, with ^ye pillars of stone before them, said to be 
 solidified basaltic lava brought from Prince's Island, and 
 erected there to the memory of five sovereigns of Old 
 Kalabar. 
 
 Not far from this palaver-house was the residence 
 of the late king, Archibong I. There was nothing 
 noticeable in it, beyond that of any other gentleman 
 trader's abode ; but the king was one of the most ex- 
 traordinary specimens of sable humanity I ever met. 
 He could neither read nor write the English language, 
 but spoke it in a very imperfect gabble ; and, go to his 
 house whenever you would, he was nearly always in 
 that condition in which he might be expected to agree 
 with the sentiment of Sancho Panza, ^* Blessings on 
 the man who first invented sleep." On the first day 
 of the week, which consists of eight days, he was accus- 
 tomed to entertain all the supercargoes and surgeons in 
 the river at a dinner ; and this was called " Chop- 
 
 * A similar drum is used by the natives to the north of Sierra Leone. 
 It is called ballangi. 
 
CHOP-DAY DEVOTIONS. 121 
 
 day."* Duketown chop-day is entitled Aqua-e-dere, 
 and is equivalent to our Sunday ; but it is used only 
 as a day of rest — drinking rum and palm wine being 
 their chief devotions. They wash their courtyards 
 with cow dung and water on that morning, and the 
 largest market in the week is held on Aqua-e-dere. 
 Eyamba, when king, adopted it as his " Chop-day," 
 because it was the most honoured in the week ; and he 
 wished to be considered the most consequential man 
 in the country. King Archibong followed in his foot- 
 steps with reference to the same practice, A similar 
 custom is adopted on the second day of the week, called 
 Aqua-ibibio. The dishes served up at King Archibong's 
 were very creditable to his culinary establishment. 
 They consisted of various kinds of soups, containing 
 goats' flesh, fish, pork, cocoa leaf and root, plantains, 
 bananas, with a variety of other dishes, such as Apicius, 
 Meg Dod, or Alexis Soyer never smiled upon, and 
 which, to use the words of Mr. Laird, "contained 
 pepper enough in them to have scalded a silver spoon." 
 These were followed by roast maize, ground-nuts, and 
 shrimps as a dessert. *^ Mimbo," or " min-Efik," f the 
 native name for palm wine, was the beverage at these 
 dinners. It is a milky fluid, having sometimes an acid 
 and sometimes a saccharine taste, and is procured from 
 a particular species of the palm tree, by tapping it at 
 
 * All condiments, liquid or solid, are called ** chop," on the West 
 Coast of Africa. 
 
 t " Min-Efik " means " strong drink of Efik." " Min-makarra " sig- 
 nifies "rum," or "strong drink of white man." 
 
122 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the top, and allowing the juice to exude into calabashes 
 placed to receive it. One dish relished very much by 
 the king was a plate of pounded yam, made in the putty- 
 like consistence of '^ foo-foo," used with a soup entitled 
 ^* palaver sauce." The mode of eating it was by 
 grasping a lump from the dish, rolling it on the palm of 
 the hand into the shape of a racket-ball, putting the 
 index finger into the centre, dipping it in the soup, 
 and bolting it. The table was always neatly laid out 
 with silver service, and the viands were brought in in 
 large calabashes covered with white cloths, on the 
 head of a number of female slaves. 
 
 In a triangular space between the three houses last 
 described, is situated the smaller market-place of Duke- 
 town. Markets are held daily in the town, but at 
 either of the market-places alternately. The larger one 
 is higher on the hill, and the upper side of it is orna- 
 mented by a splendid specimen of the wild cotton tree, 
 whose beauty and towering grandeur at once attract your 
 admiration. It is the Tyburn tree of Duketown, where 
 criminals sentenced to death undergo the extreme 
 penalty of the law, by being shot or decapitated. 
 
 Yet a view of these market-places during the 
 time of business would be a rare novelty to any per- 
 son accustomed only to Covent Garden or Leadenhall. 
 The first impression that one has on coming within 
 sight of it, and within hearing of the muitmur in the 
 vast mass of negro life before you, is that all the 
 females of the adjoining countries have met for a gab- 
 bling party, with the intention of trying to talk one 
 
MARKET-PLACES. 123 
 
 another to death. Amongst the several hundred 
 persons in the market-place, it may be inferred at once, 
 from the clatter, that the softer sex have the predomin- 
 ance, both as venders and purchasers. The currency 
 among them consists of pieces of copper wire, black- 
 ened and bent into a horse-shoe form, called "black 
 coppers." Bundles of fire-wood, nuts of the palm tree, 
 cocoa nuts, oranges, pine apples — and in their season 
 cassava, cocoa root *, plantains, bananas, and Indian 
 corn, — elephants' flesh, living goats, fowls, and eggs^ 
 with a variety of British manufactured goods, con- 
 stitute the articles offered for sale. There are no 
 tables or standings to place these upon. Such as 
 would receive detriment from comincj in contact with 
 the ground, are contained in calabashes, and the seller 
 squats down beside them. 
 
 But try to push your way through the crowd, and 
 the exhaling odour from that naked congregation almost 
 paralyses you. Men and women in Old Kalabar wear 
 no clothing, save a hip-swathe, differing in its material 
 with the difference of the wearer's rank and station. 
 Here, in this market-place, there is palpable evidence 
 of the condition of affairs arising from this practice. 
 No vile compound of drugs or chemicals — the vilest 
 that could be fabricated by human ingenuity — would 
 rival the perspiratory stench from the assembled multi- 
 tude. It is not only tangible to the olfactory nerves, 
 but you feel conscious of its permeating the whole 
 
 * The Arum acaule. 
 
124 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 surface of your body. Even after going from the 
 sphere of its generation, it hovers about you and 
 sticks to your clothes, and galls you to such an extent 
 that, with stick and umbrella in your hands, you try to 
 beat it off, feeling as if it were an invisible fiend 
 endeavouring to become assimilated with your very 
 life-blood. 
 
 A sketch of one of the trading gentlemen's houses will 
 suffice for the whole. I enter Antika Cobham's yard 
 by a door leading from a veranda facing the river, 
 from which I have a view of the ships anchored be- 
 neath, and of the dense brushwood which springs up 
 from the swamp stretching over to Creektowm. I come 
 into a quadrangular courtyard, which has houses for 
 the residence of slaves ; and from this into another, 
 through a large door. Here is a veranda on either 
 side of the yard, a pigeon-cot in the centre, and before 
 me a profusely-furnished room, between which and the 
 veranda there is a passage on either side leading into 
 the harem. The style of beauty of the ladies occupy- 
 ing this may be imagined from the fact of his head 
 wife being styled ^^ Bang-aran-ket," which, in the Efik 
 tongue, literally means '^ one puncheon of palm oil ! " 
 The place on the right contains his bed, his table, a 
 sofa, and a few chairs for gentlemen to sit down on, who 
 come to him on business matters. Whilst seated on 
 one of these my eyes wandered over the place. The 
 walls all round the court are adorned with a variety of 
 extravagant designs of apocryphal animals ; impossible 
 crocodiles, possessing a flexibility in their outlines such 
 
125 
 
 as IS never seen in the living specimens ; leopards \vith 
 six feet ; birds with horns from their tails. Diamond, 
 and crescent, and cruciform shapes of vari-coloured 
 hues abound wherever there is a spot to paint them on. 
 Opposite where I am sitting are tw^o large mirrors, 
 w'ith a number of tin caddies suspended by nails on 
 the walls around them, whilst on a table hard by are 
 seated a peacock and a turkey buzzard. In the centre 
 of the yard is the pigeon-cot, fixed on the top of a pole, 
 with a looking-glass placed between each nest. Look- 
 ing to the large room, the first idea of wonder that 
 came into my mind was, how the person who fitted it 
 up managed to get out of it, or if he did get out with- 
 out breaking anything. There did not seem to me to 
 be space for a fly to turn or stand within its precincts. 
 China and glass jugs, all kinds of delf and crockery- 
 ware, mirrors in profusion and of every size, blue 
 decanters, chandeliers and pictures, glass globes and 
 China vases, with an uncountable quantity of inde- 
 scribable jimcrackry, seem heaped up to repletion. 
 Turning out, I passed through another courtyard, 
 leading to a different part of the town, by the residence 
 of the late Adam Duke, styled " King War." * It was 
 a very fine house, having lofty rooms, with an ascent 
 of double stairs on the outside. 
 
 * " King War," in Old Kalabar, is a veiy lucus a non lucendo name of 
 honour. " King Wash," the title given to a man who used to wash for 
 the sailors, " King Chop " to a fellow who had a gluttonous appetite, 
 and " King Lie " to liars, show how highly they estimate the dignity 
 of royalty in Africa. 
 
126 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 There is a granite slab in the yard of one of the 
 gentlemen at Duketown, over the body of a slave- 
 trader who died here, and which, under the name and 
 date — both forgotten by me — has inscribed on it the 
 two first lines of Pope's " philosophical " elegy on his 
 friend Elijah Fen ton : — 
 
 " The modest stone, what few vain marbles can, 
 May truly say, here lies an honest man." 
 
 Aloncr the beach at Duketown is a rano^e of cask- 
 houses, where all the appurtenances for casking the 
 palm oil are kept by the supercargoes of the various 
 ships, with large pots to boil the oil, and purify it from 
 the adulterations with which it is frequently impreg- 
 nated. 
 
127 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 A Visit to Oldtown (or Obulong) through the Qua Country. — The 
 Qua People and Language. — Curious Character attached to a Pahn 
 Tree opposite the Eoyal Kesidence. — Her Majesty Queen Qua. — 
 The Qua People the original Owners of Kalabar Country. — The 
 Kalabarcse resident here only on Toleration.— The arborescent 
 Scenery of the inner Country. — Corroboration of Mr. Gosse's Opinion 
 on the Music of Birds and Odour of Flowers in Tropical Climates. 
 — Anansa, the tutelary Guardian of Old Town. — Creektown (or 
 Ekuritunko). — King Eyo Honesty. — Opinion of his Character. — 
 Support given by him to the Presbyterian Missionaries. — His Dress 
 and Appearance. — State Visits to the trading Vessels. — Superiority 
 of Creektown to Duketown. — King Eyo's Palace and Harem. — 
 Tom Eyo's Museum. — A Trip down Monkey Creek. — Mountains 
 to the East of Duketown. — Suppositions concerning Tribes to the 
 Interior of Old Kalabar. — The Albudikum, Albafu, Tekar, and Ding- 
 Ding. — Remarkable Echoes in Old Kalabar Kiver. 
 
 Ascending a rugged pathway that passes through 
 both market-places, and that is sadly in want of maca- 
 damization, we come to the outskirts of the town, where 
 a road turning to the right leads to Henshawtown, or, 
 keeping more directly to the eastward by another road, 
 I can travel to a creek that connects Qua with the 
 Old Kalabar river. But the pathway to the left being 
 the most open and inviting, I turn up that, and pro- 
 ceed through a country profusely rich in every variety 
 of vegetable life, to the town of Qua*, and thence 
 
 * The Qua language is different from the Efik. It is very liquid, 
 whilst the Efik is guttural. Abakpa is the native name of Qua town 
 and country. 
 
128 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 circultously to Old town (or Obulong), about three miles' 
 distance from Duketown. 
 
 The kingdom of Qua had been governed from 1850 
 to 1854, by a queen, who was sister to the former king. 
 The chief town is not more than a quarter of a mile in 
 circumference, and contains only about a hundred inha- 
 bitants. 
 
 There is little worthy of notice about it, save that it 
 contains two palaver-houses, one of which is generally 
 tenanted by a herd of cows. It has a latticework 
 boundary, on each side of the entrance roads, with a 
 semicircular passage to admit one person at a time 
 coming along from Oldtown or Duketown. 
 
 Opposite the queen*s residence grows a palm tree, 
 whose gracefully-pendant foliage always attracted my 
 attention after I had been told of a strange character it 
 is reputed to possess — that of ensuring conception 
 even to the barrenest of those women who eat a palm 
 nut from its branches. The queen *, although fallen 
 into the " sere and yellow leaf, " ever bore an expression 
 of kindliness and good nature on her countenance. She 
 had a prince consort, but no family of her own. And 
 this is not of much consequence, as royalty in most 
 parts of Africa is not hereditary, wealth and influence 
 having more to do with the acquisition of regal autho- 
 rity than family connexion. The Qua people were the 
 original holders of the Kalabar country ; and the 
 present inhabitants of Duketown, Oldtowtt and Creek- 
 town are descendants of the Egbo Shary or Ibibio 
 * Since my first visit the queen has died. 
 
THE QUA PEOPLE. 129 
 
 tribe up the Cross River. The Kalabar authorities 
 pay a yearly tribute to the Qua people for permission to 
 reside in their territory. In fact, the natives of the 
 chief Kalabar towns originally came from the Egbo 
 Shary country to carry on the slave trade, at the time 
 that the whole inhabitable country on the east side of 
 the river belonged to the people of Qua. In the 
 original settlement, the Egbo Shary immigrants obtained 
 only sites for their towns and little more. The Qua 
 people are therefore still owners of a considerable 
 portion of land to the east and south of Duketown, 
 which is gradually becoming absorbed by the Old 
 Kalabar residents of the present day. 
 
 The country between Qua town and the river of that 
 name, w^hich flows about four miles to the eastward and 
 empties itself into the Kalabar stream near the mouth 
 of the latter, possesses a very rich soil, and is partially in- 
 habited and cultivated. The houses are surrounded by 
 lofty trees, pre-eminent amongst which are the towering 
 wild cotton, the palm, and the cocoa-nut. The woods 
 here are perfect oceans of arborescent and animal life, 
 and I could not avoid in my many rambles through them 
 being impressed with the redundance of the one, and 
 the unremitting activity of the other. The perpetual 
 singing and chattering of birds ; the chirruping and 
 twittering of insects ; the creepers and parasitic plants 
 that cling around every stump to which they can lay 
 hold, and fling their leaves about in rich profusion ; the 
 myriad pencilled streaks of vegetable life around, all 
 filled my mind, at each successive walk amongst them, 
 
 K 
 
130 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 with a feeling of gratitude and adoration to Him 
 '* whose music is the harmonious voice of all creation." 
 It has often been remarked that in tropical climates, 
 where ^* brilliant and varied colours have been granted 
 to the birds and flowers, song has been denied to the 
 one, and fragrance to the other," a flippant generalisation 
 completely set aside by Mr. Gosse in his recent work, 
 '^ A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica." It is untrue of 
 Kalabar, as well as of Jamaica, a fact which I can 
 testify from my observation in the former country. I 
 have frequently heard the songs of birds — particularly 
 in the neighbourhood of Oldtown — perhaps not as 
 tuneful in their melody as the lark or linnet in the 
 blooming fields of England, but nevertheless musical. 
 The majority of the brilliant flowers do not give out 
 perfumes, it is true ; but gazing on them and inhaling 
 the sweet odour emanating from the fragrant herbs, I 
 often found myself instinctively repeating the beautiful 
 lines of Horace Smith : — 
 
 " Were I, God, in clmrchless lands remaining, — 
 Far from the voice of teachers or divines, 
 My soul would find in flowers of thy ordaining, 
 Priests ! — sermons ! — shrines ! " 
 
 Of late years a Presbyterian mission station and school 
 have been established at Oldtown. There is a com- 
 manding view of the whole course of the river to Seven 
 Fathom Point, and of Mangrove Morass up to Creek- 
 town — as seen from Antika Cobham's — visible from 
 the eminence between the king's and the mission house. 
 Beneath the latter, and adjacent to the beach, is a ravine 
 
KING EYO. 131 
 
 full of the densest and richest vegetation, whence a 
 limpid well of delicious water gushes up and flows 
 along in a purling stream to the river. This spot was 
 considered hallowed ground by the king ; and all his 
 people had strict commands to revere it as such. Not 
 a branch of a tree was allowed to be cut here, for the 
 king believed it to be the residence of his god '^ Anansa," 
 the tutelary guardian of Oldtown, with whom he ex- 
 pected to take up his abode when he died. 
 
 On the opposite side of the river, ascending higher, 
 and about half a mile up a creek leading from the 
 parent stream, is Ekuritunko, or Creektown, the re- 
 sidence of the chief trader of the Kalabar country. 
 King Eyo Honesty. All the kingdoms of Western 
 Africa would very soon present a diflerence from their 
 present condition, were they governed by such men as 
 King Eyo. 
 
 He is anxious for the civilisation of his people and 
 the cultivation of his country ; but he has had no one 
 to teach them anything of the latter, and so the fruitful 
 soil of his dominion lies unproductive, save in the one 
 material of palm-oil. Those who agree with me in think- 
 ing Christianity and civilisation to be cause and effect 
 in Africa, as they are all over the world, will rejoice to 
 hear that he has given every countenance and assistance 
 to the body of Presbyterian Missionaries settled at Old 
 Kalabar. He speaks, reads, and writes the English 
 language very well ; keeps his own accounts ; and 
 translates the Rev. Mr. Waddell's sermons into the 
 Efik tongue for his congregation. The king's sons are 
 
 K 2 
 
132 IMPKESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the only members of his family that have made an open 
 profession of their belief in the doctrines of Christianity ; 
 but Eyo enjoins the sacred keeping of the Lord's Day 
 — has no dinners for the traders, when it comes romid 
 in its eight-day rotation ; has abolished the market 
 formerly held on Sundays at Creektown — commands 
 the weekly attendance of his people at the missionary 
 service in the galvanised iron church ; is most respectful 
 and attentive during worship ; and follows the preacher, 
 translating sentence after sentence for the audience. 
 He is a man past forty years of age, about ^wq feet 
 eight inches in height ; of a stout muscular frame ; with 
 eyes and lips of the usual prominence observable in the 
 Ethiopian face, and grey whiskers. His dress con- 
 sists of a cloth, generally silk, tied round his loins ; a 
 silk handkerchief thrown over his shoulders; a black 
 hat with a gold band, and a binding of the same material 
 about the edge. His ornaments are circlets of blue glass 
 or coral beads round his neck, wrists, and ankles, with 
 a massive gold ring on the index finger. He partakes 
 freely of snufF, and this is carried by his slave in attend- 
 ance in a silver box. It is the only luxury in which he 
 indulges, for he never smokes, and from spirituous liquors 
 no man can be more abstemious. 
 
 When he goes in state to Duketown, as he always 
 does on business occasions, to the trading ships in the 
 river, he is invariably accompanied by a train of large 
 canoes, from one of which a gun is fired to announce his 
 approach, as the royal party turns the angle opposite 
 Oldtown. The king is always seated in a six-oared gig 
 
STATE VISITS TO TRADING VESSELS. 133 
 
 belonging to the ship to which he is proceeding, whilst 
 the canoes contain his eldest son, young Eyo, and his 
 three brothers, with an innumerable host of slave at^ 
 tendants. He has a gigantic parti-coloured parasol held 
 over his head on these occasions, as he has whenever 
 walking about his town, or seated in one of his court- 
 yards, overlooking his trade-books. The musical band 
 accompanying the king consists of an Egbo drum, 
 placed transversely in the canoe, which is not beaten on 
 the ends as our drums are, but on the top of its longi- 
 tudinal surface with a pair of sticks; an instrument 
 formed of iron, as of the saucers of two shovels, welded 
 face to face, and struck with a piece of the same metal ; 
 a cow's horn, blown rather discordantly : and clattering 
 boxes made of bamboo matting, with a fringe to them, 
 held in the hands like Spanish castanets, and shaken 
 vigorously to produce a noise by the agitation of the 
 pebbles, or pieces of broken crockery- ware, they contain. 
 Yet, with this primitive attempt at music, the banners 
 flying from the canoes, the simultaneous hoisting of 
 flags on all the ships in the river, and the return of a 
 salute from the vessel to which he is proceeding, when 
 the king's party becomes visible, give the whole scene a 
 very animated appearance. 
 
 Creektown is in its arrangements, as well as in the 
 order and cleanliness of its streets, much before Duke- 
 town. It is not more than one mile and a half in cir- 
 cumference, and its population, daily increasing, amounts 
 to about 3000 inhabitants. From the beach up to the 
 new Presbyterian church, by the king's house, through 
 
 K 3 
 
134 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the market-place, and past the Egbo Palaver-house, 
 there is a fine sweep of broad level street, which, after 
 leaving Duketown, is quite a comfort to walk upon, 
 and a rarity such as is seldom met with in an African 
 city. Here one of King Eyo's new houses (his old man- 
 sion was burned, with a large quantity of goods, in the 
 beginning of 1852), is a very fine substantial wooden 
 building, of an angular, or rather semi- crucial form, one 
 side of the angle being much longer than the other. This 
 was entirely planned and erected under the superintend- 
 ence of his son, young Eyo. 
 
 A house constructed for him by Messrs. Holmes of 
 Liverpool, on a contract with a merchant of that town, 
 is, however, a beautiful residence ; tastefully furnished, 
 well ventilated, having wide verandahs, and a movable 
 dome at top. It has all the luxury of coolness that 
 one might suppose a Turkish palace to possess. The 
 inside chief hall is not fitted up bombastically, as other 
 regal residences in Africa are, but is nevertheless 
 *^ right royally " furnished. 
 
 Facing this palace, though separated from it by 
 two quadrangular squares, is a large courtyard of the 
 same shape, which contains his harem. It is death 
 for any Kalabar man to put his foot within the hal- 
 lowed precincts of this place ; yet the king's wives 
 are not shut up with the jealous feeling which charac- 
 terises the Turkish and Eastern nations. They are 
 permitted to go into the town, but no black man is 
 allowed to speak to one of them, under pain of capital 
 punishment. Sometimes a dozen or a score will be 
 
TOM EYO'S MUSEUM. 135 
 
 seated on mats, beneath the piazza in the small yard 
 opposite his house, plying their needles as busily as 
 though they subsisted on the profits of their work. 
 They live in the most friendly relations with one 
 another, showing no jealousies, or bickerings, or 
 animosities. 
 
 Higher up, and opposite the Egbo Palaver-house, 
 fiicing the market-place likewise, is the residence of 
 the king's eldest brother, Tom Eyo. On entering the 
 outer courtyard, I saw before me an immense collection 
 of crocodile skulls and jaw-bones ; the jaw-bones of 
 sea cows, the skulls of leopards and goats ; a sufficient 
 collection of ossific curiosities to form the nucleus of a 
 museum. In the market-place a huge bell is suspended, 
 opposite the Palaver-house. On the brow of the hill 
 higher up, rise the Presbyterian Mission-house, two 
 schools, and a chapel. 
 
 The country lying in the angle formed by Duke- 
 town, Creektown, and the Creek, which makes a com- 
 munication, from the latter place, of the Kalabar with 
 the Cross River, is a dense swamp. I have heard of a 
 fresh-water lake being in this district, — which I cannot 
 vouch for, as it has not been visited by any European ; 
 but of whose existence there is strong presumptive 
 evidence in the many rivulets of pellucid water flowing 
 from the mangrove bush all around. Wild pigs and 
 deer are said to abound in such parts of it as have terra 
 Jirrtia for them to stand on ; but these spots must be 
 oases " few and far between," judging from the nature 
 of so much of it as is visible. Moreover, these 
 
 K 4 
 
136 IMPEESSIONS or WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 animals could scarcely penetrate the dense bush that 
 everywhere abounds, and through which no pathway is 
 known to exist. There is a water passage through this 
 territory, from Creektown to Duketown, called Monkey 
 Creek, a trip down which is one of the most delightful 
 that any lover of natural beauty need require. 
 
 On entering it, I found myself surrounded by an ex- 
 treme richness and variety of arborescence. From the 
 brightest yellow down through pale emerald to sombre 
 brown, are trees of every species observable within 
 the tropics, with the beautiful water-lily (the Alga 
 nymphea), adorning the water's surface wdth its virgin 
 w^hiteness. Here and there a huge trunk of bombax, 
 rooted up from its fastenings by the action of the tidal 
 flow, was lying diagonally over the water, so that I was 
 obliged to stoop beneath it as the boat glided along. 
 Towering up above all vegetable life around, is the 
 majestic palm-tree, called truly and appropriately by 
 Linnaeus, " the prince of the vegetable world." " The 
 common world atmosphere," writes Yon Martins, " does 
 not become those vegetable monarchs; but in these 
 genial climes, where nature seems to have fixed her 
 court, and summons around her, of flowers, and fruits, 
 and trees, and animated beings, a galaxy of beauty, 
 there they tower up into the balmy air, rearing their 
 majestic stems highest and proudest of them all." Birds 
 chattering, many whistling, and some singing, are in 
 the apparently impenetrable foliage around. Now and 
 then a parrot — a sun-bird, or a kingfisher, darts across 
 the creek, over my head. With a fruzzle in the water. 
 
MOUNTAINS EAST OF DUKETOWN. 137 
 
 a huge crocodile, which has been ruminating on the 
 mud, escapes from my sight by a spasmodic dive. Vari- 
 coloured butterflies give an additional charm to all the 
 beauties around, and the chanting of the Kruboys as 
 they slowly paddle the boat along, chimes in with the 
 universal melody of nature. 
 
 The land becomes elevated from Oldtown interiorly, 
 and from the veranda of the Mission-house at Duke- 
 town a chain of mountains is seen stretchino^ east and 
 west, of whose geographical position and bearings, 
 no one could give me information, when in Old Kala- 
 bar. Captain Cummins saw no mountains at the 
 highest point to which he ascended the Old Kalabar 
 river ; but Mr. Oldfield states that at Beaufort Reach, 
 five miles above Akrikok, distant mountains run from 
 north to south in the direction of the Qua Mountains. 
 These are probably the hills whose peaks I recognised, 
 and which turn to the south, as they must do to join 
 Qua Mountain ; for on the published charts the latter is 
 placed in a parallel latitude with Parrot Island. Or 
 perhaps they may be a chain connected with Mount 
 Gelangero, which, in Mr. Petermann's chart of Dr. Earth's 
 travels, is placed between Duketown and the letem 
 country. 
 
 All the mountains in this neighbourhood, the Qua, the 
 Rumby, the Cameroons, and the Clarence, at Fernando 
 Po, are said to be one continuous chain of volcanic 
 origin. 
 
 Of the Kalabar people, through the kindness of Rev. 
 Mr. Anderson^ I have received some information toucji- 
 
138 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 ing the interior tribes of this district extending as far 
 down as Cameroons. 
 
 The Mbrikum, — the Mbrikum or Mbudikum race, 
 which Dr. Barth conjectures to be Koellss * Ndob, are 
 located between Kalabar and Cameroons, and comprises 
 many tribes, as the following i — 
 
 Mbafum, — there is a people or country, or both, far 
 on the other side of Qua, (/. e, S. E. of Duketown) 
 called Mbafum, some of whom are brought occasionally 
 as slaves to Old Kalabar. These I have no doubt to be 
 the Mbafus of Dr. Barth. They are by some persons 
 styled Mbafong, or Ekoi. 
 
 Teka is believed by many to be Ataka or Ataga, 
 near Akuna-Kuna. Others represent them to be of a 
 tribe and country near the Tibare, by which name the 
 Filatahs are spoken of here. 
 
 The Banunu are a strong fierce people, who some- 
 times wage war with the Tibare. 
 
 The Ding-Ding, represented by Dr. Barth as living in 
 trees, I have ascertained to be a name given by the 
 Tibares to some of the Mbudikum race, who are placed 
 as sentinels in small houses erected in trees to watch for 
 the coming of these marauders. 
 
 The word Ding-Ding in the Tibare language is syno- 
 nymous with slave, and is no doubt applied as a nickname, 
 like Baibai and Nyem-Nyem, — the former of which 
 means " fools " and the latter *' cannibals." 
 
 Other districts to the east of Efik or Old Kalabar 
 ('' on the side where the sun rises ") are named Babak, 
 
 * Vide Polvglotta Africana, p. 9. 
 
ECHOES IN OLD KALABAR EIVEK. 139 
 
 Bariki, Bangwa, Isa, Bansok, Bambo, Babri, Banam, 
 Baion, and Ba Koiika ; but of these nothing is known. 
 
 The Bato people, as represented in Petermann's chart 
 of Dr. Barth's travels, are not white. They are pure 
 negroes. I have seen two of them at Fernando Po. 
 One of them is a native of Banim in the Bati country, 
 and from the position of his birthplace pointed out to 
 me by this informant, I conjecture it to be in the same 
 place as that race described by Mr. Petermann. 
 
 It would be interesting to ascertain to what physical 
 causes are attributable the remarkable echoes in the 
 Old Kalabar river. Is the refraction of sound due 
 to the density of the atmosphere or to its percussion on 
 the thick bush ? The latter, I am inclined to doubt, 
 because I believe vegetation possesses the quality rather 
 of absorbing than of refracting it. The constant 
 occurrence of these echoes at first surprised, and sub- 
 sequently delighted me. On the morning of King 
 Eyo's dinners there are always three guns fired to give 
 notification of the day ; although he is courteous enough 
 to send a polite written reminder to the traders the 
 evening before. 
 
 But listen ! a booming sound of ordnance comes 
 over the swamp from Creektown — it rolls and rolls 
 away down the river, and over the country by Henshaw 
 Town. The gradual diminution of echo at every 
 reverberation at once attracts my listening faculties, A 
 silence of a scarcely appreciable moment ensues. Is it 
 gone ? No : farther oif than I would presume to guess 
 the roll and the rattle seem making an effort at resusci- 
 
140 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 tation ; but they are weaker at every peal, now rallying 
 now expiring, until I am fixed in the veriest anxiety of 
 attention by the sharp roll of another gun, followed 
 soon after by another. The most remarkable phenome- 
 non of the echo occurs after the third shot is fired. As 
 I strain my attention to hear, I become conscious of the 
 echoes of the three shots being separate and distinct 
 from one another; varying, of course, in intensity 
 by the time which has elapsed between the firing 
 of each. A shot from a rifle, the striking of cooper's 
 hammers on board a ship, have a somewhat similar 
 effect ; and the voices of the children, singing hymns in 
 the Mission School may be heard re-echoing over the 
 dense bush which abounds in the neighbourhood of 
 Duketown. 
 
141 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The Egbo Order of Old Kalabar. — Derivation of the Titk Egbo. — 
 E-ifference of Grades. — Similarity to our Freemasonry. — Mode of 
 Initiation. — Peculiarities of the Order. — Style of Egbo Proclamation 
 by a Spirit supposed to come from the Woods. — Brutalities connected 
 with the "Brass Egbo" Day. — Legal and Judicial administration 
 of Egbo Statutes. — The Bloodmen. — Generalities of Ju-ju Worship. 
 — Kalabarese Polytheism. — Ideas of Abasi-Ibum (the Efik name for 
 God Almighty). — Old King Kalabar the Efik High Priest. — The 
 Children's Deity Obu. — Idem Nyanga and Ekponyong. — Skulls 
 paving the Ground. — Devil-houses as Obsequies for the Dead. — 
 
 Howling over the Graves Fashions in Native Mourning. — The 
 
 Esere or Chop-nut Test. — Ifod or Witchcraft. — Professor Christi- 
 son's Experiments on the Properties of the Chop-nut. — Graphic De- 
 scription of its Effects by a Kalabar Man. — The Abiadiong or Sor- 
 cerer. — His modus operandi -when consulted. — The Abiabok or Native 
 Doctor. — Surgery performed by the soft Sex. — Extent of Thera- 
 peutic Knowledge. 
 
 The Egbo order of Old Kalabar is a very peculiar one^ 
 and in its ceremonies is similar to the Miimbo Jumbo 
 tomfoolery practised in other parts of Africa, and de- 
 scribed by Mungo Park and Major Laing. It is a sort of 
 negro brotherhood of kings, chiefs, and freemen, and the 
 title is derived from '' Ekpe," the Efik name for tiger. 
 There are eleven grades, the three superior of which, the 
 " Nyampa," the " Brass " (or Okpoko), and the " Ka- 
 
142 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 kunda," are not purchaseable by slaves. In former 
 times, the Egbo title was confined entirely to freemen, 
 the second or third generation of a slave born " within 
 the pale " of an Egboman's dwelling being liberated by 
 this fact, and allowed to purchase it after their parents 
 were dead. It cannot be compared to any institution 
 familiar to European minds but to that of Freemasonry. 
 Previous to initiation, the Egbo candidate is obliged to 
 go through a number of ceremonial observances ; as, for 
 instance, on a " Brass Egbo ^' applicant's admission into 
 that order, his body is daubed over with yellow dye to 
 simulate brass, and there is a sacrifice of animals on tlie 
 occasion. The secrets and meetings of Egbo men are 
 strictly private. If a slave man, woman, or child, have 
 a complaint of grievance against a master or neighbour, 
 he or she has only to give notification of it by slapping 
 an Egbo gentleman on the front of his body, or by 
 going into the market square and tolling the large Egbo 
 bell. The gentleman apprised by the first mentioned 
 form of notice, is bound to have at once an Egbo meet- 
 ing to redress the grievance complained of; and if this 
 be found to be trivial the punishment is inflicted on the 
 complainant. When an Egbo man wants to make a 
 proclamation relative to a theft committed, or the reco- 
 very of a debt^ he sends out into the town what is sup- 
 posed to be the Idem, or spiritual representative 
 of Egbo, a man with a black vizard on his black 
 face, and the whole of his body covered cap-a-pie 
 with a fantastical dress of bamboo matting. This per- 
 sonage is sometimes preceded by a few drummers, and he 
 
THE EGBO ORDER. 143 
 
 always has a bell fastened to his side, which rings as he 
 goes along. In his left hand he carries a bunch of green 
 leaves (for he is believed to have been exorcised from 
 the woods, and of course must keep up his sylvan cha- 
 racter), in his right is an enormous cow-hide whip w^ith 
 ■which he flogs every slave, man or w^oman, whom he 
 meets, as taste or inclination may suggest. A brutal 
 peculiarity of the Egboship is this, that the want of a 
 single variety of the title will expose him who is so un- 
 fortunate as to lack it, to the lashings of the Idem of 
 that particular grade which he has not purchased. If 
 an individual who is in possession of all the inferior 
 grades, and of three of the superior ones, happens to be 
 out on the day when the Idem of that particular Egbo 
 that he was in want of is walking, he is marked out 
 from the common multitude and treated with extra 
 severity. Should the Idem not meet any slave in the 
 streets to whip on his rounds, he has liberty to go into 
 their houses and whip them to his heart's content. 
 The sound of " Egbo Bells," and the name of 
 '^ Egbo Day," are enough to terrify all the slave popu- 
 lation of Duketown; and when they hear it, they 
 hide in every available place. Latterly females have 
 been permitted to buy Egbo privileges, but are not 
 allowed to be present at the councils of the Egbo gen- 
 tlemen, nor to enter at any time within the walls of the 
 Egbo Palaver- house. When a yellow flag floats from 
 the king's house, it is understood to be " Brass Egbo " 
 day, and none but a few of the privileged are allowed to 
 walk abroad. A strip of cloth of the same colour nailed 
 
144 IMPKESSIOXS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 to any man's door implies that his house is under the 
 powerful protection of Brass Egbo, the indication being 
 significant' of the master's absence from home. If an 
 Idem meets an European in his progress, where there 
 are two roads or pathways available, the Idem walks 
 off on the one different from that on which the white 
 man is approaching ; if there be but one road, the latter 
 is expected to turn his back, and let the supposed spirit 
 pass unnoticed and undisturbed. ** Aqua-Ofiong," the 
 last day of the Kalabar week, is Grand Egbo Day, on 
 which there is a carnival and Egbo procession, with the 
 usual amount of brutality. All legal and judicial pro- 
 ceedings in the country are ushered in and carried out 
 under Egbo demonstrations, for the purpose evidently 
 of keeping the law in terrorem over the heads of the 
 slave population. And no stronger evidence of this can 
 be adduced than that a man tried and condemned by 
 Egbo law has to forfeit all his slaves and other property 
 in his possession, no matter to whom this latter may 
 belong. These are all divided as prey amongst the 
 highest Egbo authorities. Persons sentenced to death 
 by Egbo trial are allowed, what is considered a pri- 
 vilege, of leaving the world in a state of intoxication. 
 
 There is a class of people here called " bloodmen," 
 who live in tne interior, at the plantations, and whose 
 presence in Duketown does not give much comfort 
 to the Egbo authorities. Some time after the death 
 of King Eyamba in 1846, a number of slaves belonging 
 to the duke's family, ran away from their owners, and 
 entered into a blood covenant for mutual protection. 
 
IDEAS OF ABASI-IBUM. 145 
 
 In a short time others joined them, and they now amount 
 to several thousands. The present King of Duketown, 
 Duke Ephraim, is the lineal descendant of the master 
 of the original refugees, and consequently has consider- 
 able influence over them. Some time back, they tried 
 to be allowed the establishment of a separate Egboship 
 for themselves, but were refused. They come into the 
 town whenever any ceremonial is performed having 
 reference to a deed of blood ; but what their relation is 
 to the Egbo order still remains a profound secret. The 
 gentlemen at Old Kalabar have all private fetishes at 
 their houses ; the skulls of human beings, the bones of 
 leopards, hippopotami, crocodiles, and manattis, arranged 
 according to the owner's taste and fancy. Peculiar 
 species of food are not eaten by many families, from the 
 fict that some members of them die after eating of such 
 condiments, and their ju-ju consequently places an 
 interdict on their use. 
 
 The idea of God entertained by the Kalabarese is 
 confined to their incomprehensibility of natural causes, 
 which they attribute to Abasi-Ibum, the Efik term for 
 Almighty God, hence they believe He is too high and 
 too great to listen to their prayers and petitions. Idem- 
 Efik is tlie name of the god who is supposed to preside 
 over the affairs of Kalabar, and who is connected myste- 
 riously with the great Abasi ; sometimes represented by 
 a tree, and sometimes by a large snake, in which form he 
 is only seen by his high priest or vicegerent on earth — 
 Old King Kalabar. This representative of Idem-Efik 
 was a lean, spare, withered old man, about sixty years 
 
 L. 
 
146 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 of age, a little above ^ve feet in height ; grey-headed 
 and toothless. He wore generally a dresshig-gown, 
 with a red cap, bands of bamboo rope round his neck, 
 w^rists, and ankles, with tassels dangling at the end. 
 In case of any special crime committed, for the punish- 
 ment of which there is no provision by Egbo law, the 
 question was at once referred to King Kalabar's judg- 
 ment, whose decision of life or death was final. King 
 Eyo and all the gentlemen saluted him by a word of 
 greeting peculiar to himself, " Etia," meaning in English 
 " You sit there," which, amongst persons of the slave 
 order, must be joined with placing the side of the index 
 fingers in juxtaposition, and bowing humbly as evidence 
 of obeisance. He offered up a weekly sacrifice to Idem, 
 of goats, fowls, and tortoises, whose relish must natu- 
 rally be more savoury to the Idem-Efik's taste if dressed 
 up with a little rum. When famine was impending or 
 a dearth of ships existed at Old Kalabar, the king sent 
 round to the gentlemen of the town an intimation of the 
 necessity of making an offering to the deity, and that 
 Idem-Efik was in want of ^^ coppers," which of course 
 must be forwarded through Old King. He had a privi- 
 lege, that every hippopotamus taken or leopard shot 
 must be brought to his house, that he may have the 
 lion's share of the spoil. Since my first visit to Kala- 
 bar this old man has died, and has yet had no successor, 
 as the head men and people pretend to believe twelve 
 "moons" (two years) must pass by, before " he be dead 
 for thrice." 
 
 Besides this idea of worship, they have a deity named 
 
SKULLS PAVING THE GROUND. 147 \ 
 
 Obu, made of calabash, to which the children are taught 
 to offer up a prayer every morning, to keep them from 
 harm. Idem-Nyanga is the name of the tree, which 
 they hold as the impersonation of Idem-Efik; and a 
 great reverence is entertained for a shrub, whose pods, 
 when pressed by the finger, explode like a pistol. In 
 all their meals they perform ablution of the hands before 
 and after it ; and in drinking, spill a teaspoonful or so 
 out as a libation to their deity before imbibing. When 
 they kill a fowl or a goat as sacrifice, they do not forget 
 to remind their god of what '^fine thing" they do for 
 him; and that "they expect a like fine thing from him 
 in return." Ekponyong is the title given to a piece of 
 stick, with a cloth tied round it at top, and a skull 
 placed above the cloth which is kept in many of their 
 yards, as a sort of guardian numen. In nearly all the 
 courts there is a ju-ju tree growing in the centre, with 
 a parasitic plant attached to it, and an enclosure of two 
 to four feet in circumference at the bottom of the stem, 
 within which skulls are always placed and calabashes of 
 blood at times of sacrifice. At many of the gentlemen's 
 thresholds a human skull is fastened in the ground, 
 whose white glistening crown is trodden upon by every 
 one who enters. 
 
 The most ridiculous superstition of the Kalabarese is 
 that connected with the obsequies for the dead. At the 
 deaths of Iron Bar, a very respectable trader, and of 
 the late King Archibong, I saw the absurdity of these 
 rites carried out to their fullest extent. At Iron Bar's, 
 
 L 2 
 
148 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 as I went into the yard, there was a d^nse crowd 
 gathered round what was supposed to be his grave, 
 which was made in the room where he died, and sunk 
 to a depth of ten or twelve feet, that it might hold all 
 the things put into it for his use in the next world. 
 At the head of the grave a palm oil light was burning 
 with a livid flame, and cast a dim shade over a man, 
 who had descended into it, for the purpose of arranging 
 his furniture — brass pans, copper rods, mug, jugs, pots, 
 ewers, tureens, plates, knives and forks, spoons, soap, 
 looking-glasses, and a heap of Manchester cloth, all im- 
 paired in their integrity by a slight fracture or a tear. 
 
 In the evening I visited the place again. The grave 
 was filled up and levelled. Over it was placed a num- 
 ber of mats, on which were squatted a score of women. 
 In all the apartments of the court numbers of the soft 
 sex were in a like position, and kept up the most dismal 
 and dolorous mourning it is possible for the imagination 
 to conceive. I find it out of my power to convey any 
 idea of the sensation it communicated to me. It was 
 not harsh, it was not loud, it was not crying, nor was 
 it shrieking ; it bore no resemblance to an Irish wake, 
 or to the squalling of a congregation of cats ; but it was 
 a puling, nauseating, melancholy howl, that would have 
 turned my stomach long before it could have affected 
 my brain. 
 
 Over the grave and suspended by a string from the 
 roof was a living cock tied up by his legs, with his 
 beak pointed downward. There is always a hole left 
 in the side of the grave, through which, from time to 
 
OBSEQUIES FOR THE DEAD. — DEVIL-HOUSES. 149 
 
 time, rum or miaibo is poured for the spirit's refresh- 
 ment. With this there are also erected, within the house, 
 or on the public road, or by the river's side, what are 
 called " Devil-houses," of which Iron Bar's were good 
 specimens. There were three structures of this kind 
 constructed for him ; one in the court attached to the 
 house, one outside, and one on the beach adjoining the 
 river. All were similar in their fixings: a scarlet 
 canopy overspread the bamboo roof placed to shelter 
 the table, and over this again was a trio of parasols, 
 two crimson and one blue, of silk material, and white 
 fringe to each ; around the table were three large sofas ; 
 and at either end of the roof a pendent glass lamp. 
 But the greatest display was on the table. In the 
 centre was a large mirror, with a huge brass jug behind 
 it. On either side, and covering every spare inch of 
 the table, heaped over each other as high up as an 
 equilibrium could be sustained, were monster jugs, 
 decanters, tumblers, soup tureens, flower vases, bottles, 
 and mugs of all sha|:^3 and sizes, china and glass 
 articles, as much as would stock a large shop, all being 
 damaged like the articles placed in the graves ; perhaps 
 on the supposition that their materiality should be 
 destroyed, in order to allow the spirit to escape with 
 them, for the ghostly company they were intended to 
 serve ; or perhaps, and more likely, to render them 
 useless to any of the thieving fraternity, who in the 
 practice of their science might stray in the road of 
 these establishments. In another of the^ " Devil- 
 
 L 3 
 
150 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 houses " a quantity of stewed meat^ cooked plantain, 
 and the pounded yam called foo-foo, were placed in 
 calabashes, for the refreshment of himself, and those 
 who were to be his fellow-travellers in the world of 
 spirits. It shows clearly that they have a belief in a 
 future existence, because these " Devil-houses " are 
 always furnished as profusely as their means will allow, 
 from the conviction (as I have mentioned when writing 
 of Eyamba's palace), that of whatever quality his chop 
 and comforts may have been to the defunct, when he 
 ^vas in this w^orld, they will be similar in the next. 
 
 The houses erected for King Archibong, to entertain 
 his devil in, were superior in their furniture to those of 
 Iron Bar. That on the beach particularly contained 
 a quantity of the productions of native art. The 
 women always go in mourning by painting patterns 
 of deep black on their foreheads, and the men by 
 covering their bodies over with ashes. When the 
 mourning time is over, a general smash is made of all 
 the things in the Devil-house j^the house itself is pulled 
 down, and nothing but the " wreck of matter " left 
 behind. 
 
 Together with the widow^s and slaves, who in 
 former times w^re sacrificed at the death of a gentle- 
 man, there were added to the list a number of persons 
 who were accused by the friends of the deceased as 
 being accessory to his death, and obliged to undergo 
 what is called the " chop-nut " test. They cannot 
 believe, or at least they will not try to understand 
 how natural causes create diseases ; but attribute them 
 
PROPERTIES OF THE CHOP-NUT. 15l 
 
 and subsequent death to " ifod," or witchcraft. Hence 
 a plan is adopted to find out the perpetrator by fixing 
 on a number of persons, and compelling them, as the 
 alternative of the Egbo law of decapitation, to take a 
 quantity of a poisonous nut, which is supposed to be 
 innocuous if the accused be innocent, and to be fatal if 
 he be guilty. 
 
 In the " Monthly Journal of Medicine " for March, 
 1855, there is a very interesting paper by Professor 
 Christison on the poisoning properties of the test nut 
 used in these cases, exemplified by experiments on his 
 own body which had nearly proved fatal to him. He 
 writes, " The ordeal-nut of Kalabar, called ' esere ' 
 by the natives, is a leguminous seed or bean, about the 
 size of our garden bean, but thicker. The seed is, I 
 apprehend, quite unknown in Europe. Of several 
 eminent botanists, including Mr. E. Brown, to whom I 
 have shown it, no one has been able to recognise it as 
 a known species. In order to describe it, it has been 
 cultivated at my request by my colleagues. Professor 
 Syme and Dr. Balfour ; and both have succeeded. It 
 proves to be a perennial creeper, of the natural family 
 LeguminoscBf and closely resembling a Dolichos. It 
 has a large root-stock. The fresh plant has a heavy, 
 strong smell after being some time cut. Though two 
 years old, it has not yet flowered, and, like perennial 
 creepers, it may require to form wood for several years 
 longer before it bears flowers. I am therefore unable 
 to describe it further or to name it. 
 
 L 4 
 
152 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 *^ It has a hard brittle, ligneous tegument, rather 
 rough, and of a brownish crimson or pale chocolate- 
 brown colour; but many specimens are ash-grey, ap- 
 parently from slight mould. The kernels, which weigh 
 from 36 to 50 grains, are always in good preservation, 
 and never injured in the slightest degree by insects — 
 a rare occurrence w^ith tropical seeds. They are white 
 and hard, but may be chewed ; and they have the taste 
 of the eatable leguminous seeds, without bitterness, 
 acrimony, aroma, or any other impression on the organs 
 of taste ; in fact, they are scarcely, if at all, distin- 
 guishable in taste from a haricot-bean. This is a 
 formidable peculiarity, were it possible for the seed to 
 become a familiar poison in Europe. So far as I know, 
 the property in question is peculiar to it, for all other 
 poisonous seeds of the LeguminoscB, with which we 
 are sufficiently acquainted, are bitter. The blandness 
 of its taste is indeed so unusual a character, that I was 
 at first misled, and imagined that I had probably got a 
 wrong and harmless seed ; but I soon found that I was 
 much mistaken." 
 
 It does not grow in Kalabar, but is brought 
 from the interior. I have seen it frequently on the 
 beach washed down by the river. Some persons say 
 that boiling wate^ destroys the virus of the nut ; hence, 
 when a man is doomed to the poison, who is rich enough 
 to buy over the interest of the Abiadiong, it is generally 
 found to be very harmless. It causes convulsions, 
 shooting pains in the head, a discharge of water from 
 
THE ABIADIONG, OR SORCERER. 153 
 
 the eyes and mouth, spasmodic twitchings of the whole 
 muscular system, paralysis, and death. " Him do dis," 
 said one of the Kalabar gentlemen, describing to me 
 its effects ; and in the words, as well as the action suited 
 to them, there was a graphic power impossible for me 
 to transfer to paper ; " him do dis, soap come out of him 
 mout, and all him body walk," — a most perfect descrip- 
 tion of the frothing from the mouth, and the convul- 
 sive energy of the whole frame. 
 
 Civilisation advances step by step in all countries ; and 
 so, before the science of the " chop-nut " test was brought 
 into operation in Old Kalabar, it was customary to per- 
 form sacrifices either by summary decapitation, or by 
 strangulation effected with placing two horse-shoe-formed 
 pieces of brass wire, one before and the other at the 
 nape of the neck, twisting their ends together until the 
 convict was choked. Now, however, a person styled an 
 '^ Abiadiong," or sorcerer, is always consulted in cases 
 of sickness, death, or capital crime, to find out the in- 
 dividual who has earned a chop-nut by bringing a ma- 
 lady on his neighbour. He is reputed to derive his 
 knowledge by education, but is not the bearer of a 
 diploma, save one in his title. The *^ Abiadiong " squats 
 himself beside the sick man — repeats a number of in- 
 cantations — tosses strings of beads he has in his hand, 
 as an appeal to the spirit he invokes — rubs the beads 
 alternately on his own body and that of the sick man — 
 cogitates and decides. Sometimes the decision is settled 
 by a little ^^ copper palaver " beforehand ; and as the 
 
154 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Egbo law gives to the possessor of its privileges an un- 
 limited power in this respect, it may be imagined what 
 scenes of blood the system creates and fosters. 
 
 ^' Abia-bok " is the title which in this country is 
 given to a doctor of medicine ; but the Kalabarese have 
 little faith iu drugs, and surgical operations are gene- 
 rally performed by the soft sex. These are confined to 
 two species of cupping— the dry and the bloody — and 
 to enema administering. The dry cupping is effected 
 with a pyriform calabash upon the breasts of young 
 women, whose bodies are chalked over at the same time, 
 to force them to maturity. Razors are used as scarifi- 
 cators in moist cupping the side and temples of persons 
 labouring under, what they suppose to be, congestive 
 diseases. Ulcers are usually dressed by a piece of leaf 
 passed round the diseased part, and fastened by a bam- 
 boo stem. A poison-bean, with a string through a hole 
 bored in it, is frequently worn as a curative ju-ju round 
 a sore leg, — only a modification of the similia similihus 
 curantur system. 
 
 Perhaps it is to carry out a like idea that dogs are 
 buried in the ground with their heads above the ground, 
 where the poor creatures spend three or four days before 
 nature conquers their power of life, for during this time 
 they are allowed no food. These dogs are generally 
 impounded so before the door of the sick man. When 
 small-pox prevails in some places they dot their bodies 
 over with spots of chalk, perhaps to make the demon of 
 disease believe that they have previously been visited 
 
EXTENT OF THERAPEUTIC KNOWLEDGE. 155 
 
 with a skin affection, and that his ground is abeady 
 occupied. 
 
 It may hence be inferred that in all even the ex- 
 tremest cases it is barely possible to induce them to 
 leave a sick man under the care and treatment of an 
 European doctor ; for their ju-jus and fetishes hold by 
 far the greatest amount of their confidence. 
 
156 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 The " Afias," or Ordeals of Old Kalabar. — Power and Influence of the 
 Abiadiong Faculty. — 'Albiam or " Chop-Doctor" (the Native Oath.) 
 
 — Mode of administering this Oath.— The Lady Artists in Old Kala- 
 bar. — Varieties of Hair-dressing. — Its similarity to the old English 
 Practice. — The biennial Custom of " Judok." — Description of Nabi- 
 kems, and of Operations to expel Evil Spirits. — Belief in the Trans- 
 migration of Souls. — Examples of African Fables. — Of the Unicorns. 
 
 — Championship. — Of the Chameleon's Varieties of Colour and 
 Uniformities of Habit. — Baron von Humboldt on the fantastic Crea- 
 tions of uncivilised Tribes. — Superstitions in burying Twins alive. — 
 Account of the Presbyterian Mission in Old Kalabar. — Its Necessity 
 here. — Of the Work it has effected. — The Rio del Key. — The 
 Kameroons Mountain. — The Bimbia District. — Kameroons Towns, 
 and their clean Streets. — A Queen Street Sweeper. — Kameroons 
 Egbo Peculiarities. — Kongolo Order. — Gambia, sorcerer. — Qua 
 Poison. — Captivations of soft Sex. — Yearly Produce of the Locality. 
 
 — Rivers in the Bight of Biafra below Kameroons. 
 
 Akin to the chop- nut test, though not so fatal In their 
 results, are the " Afias " or ordeals, of which there are 
 eight. The first is the ^* Afia-aran " or palm-oil test, 
 in which boiling palm oil is poured on the hand of any 
 one suspected of thievery. If the hand be burned, it 
 is taken as proof of guilt ; if not, the suspected person 
 is held to be innocent. As the Abiadiong is the ma- 
 nipulator in all these cases, it may be guessed from what 
 causes the temperature of the oil may be varied by the 
 operator ; or permission given to hold the hand in an 
 
ORDEALS OF OLD KALABAR. 157 
 
 inclined position ; or the fingers squeezed, so that the 
 oil runs off on its application. 
 
 The second is the " Afia Ayara." Ayara is the name 
 of a kind of calabash. Water is poured into it, and 
 pepper is bruised in the water. A feather is then taken, 
 and the eye-lids rubbed over with the liquid. If the 
 eyes are not made to scald, the accused is declared 
 innocent ; if otherwise, guilty. The third is the '^Afia- 
 edet-ibom." " Edet " is the Efik name for " tooth " and 
 " ibom " means a black snake. This reptile's teeth are 
 small crooked things, like a sparrow's claws, and are 
 inserted below the eye-ball by the Abiadiong. Should 
 the accused eject the teeth by rolling his eye-ball in 
 every direction, he is pronounced innocent ; if not, he 
 is deemed guilty. When the suspected culprit cannot 
 emit the article of torture, it is dexterously pulled out 
 by the operator with something like a leopard's tooth ; 
 and the supervening inflammation of the eye is an 
 addition to the other punishment bestowed for the 
 offence suspected. *^ Afia-ibnot-idiok " is the fourth. 
 "Idiok" is the native name of a chimpanzee. The 
 operator holds the head (or ibnot) of a chimpanzee over 
 which he draws one line with chalk, another with char- 
 coal. In case the operator favours the person under 
 trial, the baboon's head can be made to drag him towards 
 the white line, signifying acquittal, as the black line is 
 fatal. The fifth is the "Afia-ntuen," performed with 
 seeds of an acrid plant in the eye, as the third test is 
 done. The sixth is styled "Afia-usan," " usan " signi- 
 fying a plate or dish. The Abiadiong appoints a man to 
 
158 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 wave a plate or dish full or nearly full of water, a little 
 charcoal or other substance put in with the water. If 
 the liquid falls out with the process, ^^ guilt " is decreed ; 
 if not, *^ innocence." The seventh, " Afia-utong," is one 
 in which a needle is run through the lobe of the ear. 
 Should it go through easily, the accused is pronounced 
 innocent ; if it break, he is as once condemned by the 
 fact. The eighth is entitled the "Afia-itiat," or ordeal 
 of the stone. The Kev. Mr. Anderson acquaints me 
 that he saw this form used in a case where a Henshaw- 
 town chiefs house had been robbed, to test whether the 
 burglary were committed by a Duketown or Henshaw- 
 town thief. In order to ascertain this, a large round 
 stone was brought in presence of the Egbo authorities 
 of both places. A white line and a black one — with 
 chalk and charcoal — were then drawn about a yard 
 apart, for a distance of several feet in length. The 
 stone was placed between the two lines, one of the chiefs 
 (not an Abiadiong) pouring a few drops of vegetable 
 juice on it, appealing to it to do justice, and apprising 
 the assembly that if it rolled towards the black line a 
 Duke-town man was the thief, if to the white line a 
 Henshaw-town man would be proved to be the guilty 
 party. A boy was then called forward, who placed his 
 hands on the stone, after some of the vegetable juice 
 had been dropped on them. Then he commenced ope- 
 rations, by seemingly pressing the stone perpendicularly 
 downwards. A very obstinate stone at the first mani- 
 pulation it proved to be ; for it advanced, inclining to 
 neither side, and the boy was getting into a profuse 
 
THE NATIVE OATH. 159 
 
 perspiration, which probably may have been the cause 
 of its leaning towards the black line and eventually 
 becoming fixed on it. This of course was the occasion 
 of plaudits for the Henshaw-town people, who were 
 therefore freed from all imputation of theft. To the 
 Abiadiong was left the discovery of the individual 
 rogue. 
 
 It might be said that these plans of trial have a 
 beautiful trait of simplicity about them, free from all 
 the paraphernalia and technicalities of law courts in 
 civilised countries, did we not know what an extensive 
 power and influence the Abiadiong faculty possesses in 
 their dispensation. Under the influence of a bribe, one 
 of this class will fix upon any person obnoxious to a 
 great man, as being the cause of his illness. By the 
 same impelling power he can modify the action of the 
 poison-nut by mixing an emetic properly with it — can 
 wink at the boiling palm oil test— put the snake's teeth 
 in a man's eyes so as they are sure to tumble out — in- 
 sert a sharp needle through the lobe of any one's ear 
 without suffering it to fracture, and make a chimpanzee 
 turn its head to the white or the black line as he 
 pleases. 
 
 "Chop-doctor" is the English title which the Kala- 
 barese give to taking an oath. It is called "Albiam " 
 in the Efik tongue, and is accomplished in the following 
 manner. The "Albiam" is composed of a variety of 
 substances it would require an eminent analytical che- 
 mist to discover, and one of which is too abominable to 
 mention. The person about to be sworn is seated on 
 
160 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 tbe ground, and three bottles containing ^^Alblam" 
 placed before him. The administrator of the oath 
 (generally an *^Abiadiong ") delivers a harangue to 
 those around, explaining his reason for giving it. When 
 the speaker ceases, some of the Albiam is poured into 
 a dish from each bottle, and the oath-taker dips his 
 forefinger three times into the dish, putting the finger 
 each dip into his mouth. The same movement of the 
 fingers is again repeated a similar number of times; 
 and this is followed by putting the fingers on the tops of 
 the great toes. The dish is then held to his mouth, by 
 the administrator of the oath ; he tastes a little, and the 
 remainder is thrown upon his head. "Albiam " is the 
 Efik name for a disease similar to dropsy, with which 
 all persons swearing falsely are supposed to be visited ; 
 causing sickness even to death. After the oath is 
 taken, an address is delivered to the portion of the 
 ^^Albiam " remaining in the bottles, charging it not to 
 forget the oath, and enjoining it to visit the breaker 
 with its vengeance, if he may hereafter falsify his 
 abjuration. 
 
 The women in Old Kalabar are not only the surgical 
 operators, but are also artists in other matters. Carving 
 hieroglyphics on large dish calabashes and on the seats 
 of stools ; painting figures of poeticised animals on the 
 walls of the nouses ; shaving the gentlemen's heads ; 
 weaving and dyeing mats, — all are done by them. The 
 varieties in the friseur department it would be impos- 
 sible for me to describe, without taking a series of 
 portraits. 
 
KALABARESE HAIR-DRESSING. — SONGS. 161 
 
 In my former " Narrative " I mentioned the analogy 
 that exists between the Filatahs of our time and the 
 Anglo-Saxons of a pre-christian age.* I may institute 
 a like comparison here. The very fashions which existed 
 in England in 1643, as described by Dr. Hall, in a 
 little work " On the Loathsomeness of Long Hair," 
 may be seen any day in the present year amongst the 
 Kalabarese : — *' How strangely do men cut their hairs 
 — some all before ; some all behind ; some long round 
 about their croivnes, being cut short like cootes or popish 
 priests and friars ; some have long locks at their ears, as 
 if they had four eares or were prickeared, — some have 
 a little long lock onely before, hanging down to their noses 
 like the tail of a weasell ; every man being made a foole 
 at the barber's pleasure, or making a foole of the barber 
 for having to make him such a foole." 
 
 The words printed in italics, describe the prevailing 
 fashion of hair-dressing amongst the Kalabarese, save 
 that instead of single locks, each pendant lappet is com- 
 posed of three or four locks gathered in a plait. 
 
 All my efforts to obtain a song of the Efik tongue 
 were unsuccessful. I heard of a translation of a war sons: 
 of Kalabar, which was taken " through an interpreter 
 from the lips of one of the settlers in Fernando Po." 
 When paddling their canoes they chant sometimes a 
 lively air, whose chorus chimes in with remarkable 
 accuracy to the strokes of their paddles. 
 
 * Vide Narrative of Niger, Tshadda, and Binue Exploration, p. 75. 
 
 M 
 
162 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 A strange biennial custom exists at Old Kalabar, that 
 of purifying the town from all devils and evil spirits, 
 who, in the opinion of the authorities, have during the 
 past two years taken possession of it. They call it 
 " Judok," and a similar ceremony is performed annually 
 on the Gold Coast. At a certain time a number of 
 figures, styled ^^ Nabikems," are fabricated and fixed 
 indiscriminately through the town. These figures are 
 made of sticks and bamboo matting; being moulded 
 into different shapes. Some of them have an attempt 
 at body, with legs and arms, to resemble the human 
 form. Imaginative artists sometimes furnish these spe- 
 cimens with an old straw hat, a pipe in the mouth, and 
 a stick fastened to the end of the arm, as if they were 
 prepared to undertake a journey. Many of the figures 
 are supposed to resemble four-footed animals; some 
 crocodiles; and others birds. The evil spirits are ex- 
 pected, after three weeks or a month, to take up their 
 residence in them, showing, to my thinking, a very great 
 want of taste on the part of the spirits vagrant. When 
 the night arrives for their general expulsion, one would 
 imagine the whole town had gone mad. The population 
 feast, and drink, and sally out in parties, beating at 
 empty corners as if they contained tangible objects to 
 hunt, and hallooing with all their might and main. 
 Shots are fired ; the '' Nabikems " are torn up with 
 violence, set in flames, and thrown into the river. The 
 orgies continue until daylight dawns ; and the town is 
 considered clear of evil influence for two years more. 
 
STRANGE CUSTOM. — SUPERSTITIONS. 163 
 
 Strange inconsistency with their ideas of the provision 
 necessary to be made for the dead in their passage to 
 another world ! 
 
 But heathenism is full of these follies : and few of 
 them can be more absurd than their belief, that, if a 
 man be killed by a crocodile or a leopard, he is sup- 
 posed to have been the victim of some malicious enemy, 
 who, at his death, turned himself into either of these 
 animals to have vengeance on the person that has just 
 been devoured. Any man who kills a monkey or a 
 crocodile, is supposed to be turned into one or the other 
 when he dies himself. On my endeavouring to con- 
 vince two very intelligent traders of Duketown of the 
 " fool palaver" of such nonsense, and of my belief that 
 men had no more power to turn themselves into beasts 
 than they had to make rain fall or grass grow, I was 
 met with the usual cool reply to all a European's argu- 
 ments for civilisation, "It be Kalabar * fash '-(ion), and 
 white man no saby any ting about it." 
 
 The same answer, "white man no saby any ting 
 about it," was given to me by our Yoruba inter- 
 preter when up the Tshadda, on my doubting two 
 " supposed facts," which he thus recorded to me. The 
 first was, that the Houssa people believe in the existence 
 of the Unicorn, but his precise location cannot be 
 pointed out. He is accredited to be the champion 
 of the unprotected goat and sheep from the ravages 
 of the leopard, — that, when he meets a leopard, he 
 enters amicably into conversation with him — descants 
 
 H 2 
 
164 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 upon his cruelty, and winds up, like a true member of 
 the Humane Society, by depriving the leopard of his 
 claws. On my asking him if a clawless leopard had 
 ever been discovered, or if the unicorn had proposed 
 any other species of food as a substitute — observing 
 me smile with incredulity — he gave an answer similar 
 to that of the Kalabar men, in the instance just 
 mentioned. 
 
 The second was to the effect that a chameleon always 
 went along at the same pace, not quickening his steps 
 for rain or wind, but going steadily in all phases of tem- 
 perature, changing his hue in compliment to everything 
 he met, turning black for black man, white for white, 
 blue, red, or green, for any cloth, or flowers, or vege- 
 tables that fall in his way, and the only reason he 
 gives for it when questioned on the subject is, that his 
 father did the same before him, and he does not think it 
 right to deviate from the old path, " Because same ting 
 do for my father, same ting do for me." 
 
 The "revelling in strange and fantastic creations," 
 which Baron von Humboldt w^rites of as existinor in 
 nations least advanced in civilisation, comes before a 
 man's sight and within his hearing every day on a visit 
 to an African river. " Instead of examining, men are 
 led to conjecture, dogmatise, and interpret supposed facts, 
 that have never been observed."* This represents the 
 most potent species of arguments used by Africans 
 against our civilisation. It was even resorted to in 
 
 * Cosmos, vol. i. p. 1 6. 
 
SCOTCH MISSIONARIES. — SCHOOLS. 165 
 
 Old Kalabar, when it was tried to suppress the brutal 
 system of burying twins alive and banishing the mother 
 from all society, as well as the equally cruel one of 
 burying a child, though living, with its mother, if she 
 died during the period of suckling. But many of these 
 superstitious brutalities and wickedness have received a 
 check from the labours of a body of Scotch Missionaries 
 in this part of Africa. 
 
 In the year 1846 the United Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland sent out missionaries to Old Kalabar, deeming 
 it a most important field for Christian enterprise. They 
 established three stations, one at Duketown, the second 
 at Oldtown, which carried its operations into the Qua 
 Country, and a third at Creektown. The Europeans 
 consisted of four ordained clergymen and their wives, 
 with several- catechists and assistants ; and, during the 
 twelve years they have been labouring here, there have 
 occurred but three deaths amongst them. 
 
 About two hundred children are in daily attendance 
 at the Mission Schools ; and between twenty and thirty 
 of the native youths have been baptized. There is a 
 printing press attached to the mission, which was 
 worked by the Rev. Samuel Edgerley till his death in 
 May, 1857, and employed in furnishing school books 
 and translations of the Holy Scriptures, in the na- 
 tive language, previously unwritten. The Rev. Mr. 
 Goldie has penetrated to Ekrikok or Ikunitu up the 
 Cross River; and new stations are contemplated at Ekri- 
 Tobaka on the Aboli side of the main river below Parrot 
 
 M 3 
 
166 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Island, at Guinea Company and Uwet up the Kalabar 
 Stream, and at the Duketown plantations in the Qua 
 Country, thus spreading their operations over a tract of 
 land that commands the main entrance to the very heart 
 of the continent. 
 
 At Duketown near the Mission residence, are a 
 chapel and a school, made of wood, with bamboo roof; 
 a galvanised iron church is at Creektown, with two 
 schools ; and at all the stations they are labouring ener- 
 getically, each in his vocation, to propagate the doc- 
 trines of the Christian religion. All the gentlemen 
 address the people on scriptural subjects in their native 
 tongue, the Efik ; whilst the Rev. Mr. Anderson *, be- 
 sides his hard work amongst the Duketown people, 
 frequently performs service for the crews of European 
 ships in the river. 
 
 And, surely, there is no region of Western Africa 
 where the doctrines of Him, who came on earth to 
 preach " peace and good will amongst men," have more 
 need to be engrafted, than where so many native dia- 
 bolical doings still prevail. 
 
 From East Head, the voyager sails by more of the 
 mud and mangrove swamp past the Rio del Rey, which 
 flows from the Rumby country, and of which nothing 
 is known save apparently extravagant stories recorded 
 by ancient geographers. The Kalabar native traders 
 
 * To him I am indebted for much of my information about the pecu- 
 liarities of Efik superstitions. 
 
RIO DEL KEY. — ITS TRIBES. 167 
 
 have some acquaintance with the natives of the countries 
 on the banks of this river, and they call them Arumbee. 
 By the Kameroons residents they are styled Duwalla, 
 D'Ambedi, and Collambedi. Many of the Kameroons 
 people, whose native name is Duwalla, trace their origin 
 to some part of the country here. This river has never 
 been explored, and there is no traffic opened in it as yet; 
 but it is said that the Dutch had a factory on a small 
 island at the mouth, in the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 Before arriving at Bimbia, we come within sight of 
 the Amboises Islands, and, if the day be clear, of the 
 lofty peak of Kameroons mountain. 
 
 In the days of Hanno*, who voyaged this way from 
 Carthage 2500 years ago, an exploration along the 
 western coast of Africa was made, but the navigators 
 turned back on seeing fire issue from the crater of the 
 Kameroons mountain. As everything in that epoch 
 was looked upon in the light of heathen mythology, 
 the mountain was named the ^* Chariot of the Gods." 
 
 Kameroons peak, which, in the native Duwalla lan- 
 guage, is called Mongo-ma-Loboh, rises to a height of 
 13,760 feet above the level of the sea, and is there- 
 fore 1,590 feet higher than TenerifFe. The lower peak, 
 entitled the Mongo-ma-Etendeh, is 5820 feet high. 
 But the inhabitants at the base of the mountain on the 
 
 * Hanno the Carthaginian general, and likewise a historian, was 
 spoken of by Pliny, as the first lion tamer : "Primus hominum leonem 
 manu tractare ausus, et ostendere mansuefactum Hanno e clarissirais 
 Poenorum traditur." 
 
 S4 
 
168 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Kameroons side, the Mungo tribe, who trade with the 
 Bakouli race higher up, report that the latter will 
 permit no strangers to pass through their country. 
 Hence we may infer that the peak is inaccessible till 
 more civilised notions are propagated and take root 
 amongst these people. 
 
 The appearance of the country about it stretching 
 up the mountain side is very attractive, from the 
 livery of redundant vegetation which it wears, and 
 its brown-roofed houses contrasted with the white 
 aspect of the Baptist Mission residence. The in- 
 habitants of this district are of the Isebutribu tribe. 
 Passing Nichols Island*, on which are two trading 
 establishments, belonging to merchants in Fernando Po, 
 and rounding Cape Kameroons, we find ourselves as- 
 cending the Kameroons river, leaving a group of ugly 
 breakers, called the Dogs' Heads, on the right-hand side. 
 Up the river, about sixteen miles, the trading vessels 
 are stationed, some of which are permanent hulks with 
 residents on board. Josses-town, King Bell's-town, 
 King Aqua's-town, Dido's-towns — one governed by 
 Charley and another by Ned of that ilk, — with Long 
 Tom's-town, are the trading locations on the left side of 
 the river. At King-Bell's town there is a Baptist 
 Mission Sjtation, where capital bricks have been manu- 
 factured. On the opposite side of the river, higher up, 
 
 * Called so after my respected friend, General Sir Edward Nichols, 
 K.C.B., who was governor at Fernando Po after Captain Owen had 
 formed the British settlement there in 1827. 
 
KAMEROOXS AND DUTCH TOWNS COMPARED. 169 
 
 is Hiccory-town *, presided over by a chief named 
 Preese Bell. The head men of all these places are 
 living in a continual state of petty jealousy one with 
 another, on account of trading matters. 
 
 Nothing appeared to me so illustrative of the vast 
 difference between the Kalabar and Karaeroons people, 
 as the remarkable cleanliness of the streets in the 
 latter place. They are all perfectly level, and are 
 swept after sundown every evening, to a condition 
 equal to the neatest Dutch town you fall in with when 
 travelling up the Rhine. The houses have their floors 
 raised from the ground by mud, which becomes hard 
 as brick; but no plaster is used for the walls, which 
 are composed of sliced bamboo stems closely wefted to- 
 gether. They are all quadrilateral in shape ; and, ex- 
 cept those belonging to the chiefs, have no separate 
 rooms, chimneys, or windows. 
 
 On my first visit to Kameroons — being then a novice 
 in my experience of African peculiarities, — it struck me 
 as very singular to see a Queen sweeping the streets. 
 The royal broomer, I was informed, was the head of 
 three Queens of King Aqua, monarch of Aqua territory. 
 She was a woman of not more than twenty years of age, 
 the front of her body tattooed with deep black marks, in 
 the forms of birds, circles, angles, and parallel lines. 
 Her only clothing consisted of a silk hip swathe, but 
 her hair was plaited to above the summit of the crown 
 
 * Derived from the title " Niggery-town," which was given to it in 
 the flourishing days of the slave-trade. 
 
170 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 into a helmet shape, and set off on either side of the top 
 by a circular cake of dyed earth. At each temple was a 
 like-shaped piece of hard mud, and all of these four 
 earthy ornaments had four holes bored through. From 
 temple to temple, and from forehead to crown, extended 
 a string of large mock coral beads; around her neck 
 was a broad tape-like string of small beads, whilst a 
 brass ring on each toe of the left foot completed her 
 costume. 
 
 The Kameroons people have an Egboship like the 
 Kalabarese, somewhat similar in its tomfooleries, but 
 not in its atrocities. Palm trees and pepper are their 
 chief ju-jus, and their mode of swearing is by chewing 
 apiece of Euphorbia leaf before the process of abjuration. 
 
 In oases of serious illness, or dearth of rain, a ju-ju 
 festivity is made ; when a number of persons go into 
 the woods, every man twisting each of three palm leaves 
 into a knot. Amongst the worshippers is a supposed 
 spirituality, fabricated by a series of hoops, sur- 
 rounded with grass cloth; the tenant inside of which 
 has the power of lowering or elevating the structure 
 by an elastic contrivance, known only to themselves. 
 Kongolo is the Duwalla name for the Egbo order in 
 Kameroons. A person, entitled Gambia, represents the 
 Abiadiong character of Old Kalabar: and the poison 
 which is administered as a capital punishment is the 
 root of a tree, and is called Qua. 
 
 The country interior to Kameroons is very extensively 
 cultivated ; and there must be a large population here. 
 
BALIMBA ElVEK. —IVORY TRAFFIC. 171 
 
 The women are all abominably tattooed ; some of them 
 wear rings of bead- rings in their noses ; and are, taken 
 altogether, the most disgusting specimens of negro 
 humanity I have ever met with. 
 
 The entrance to Balimba river is by a surfy bar, 
 across which there is no passage for a vessel drawing 
 more than four feet of water. The country, for a dis- 
 tance of twelve miles up the Balimba river, has a far 
 more pleasing aspect than at the mouths of any rivers 
 in this Bight. There are no mangrove swamps — the 
 left bank, along which stretch rows of hamlets are from 
 four to six feet above the water's surface — redun- 
 dant in cocoa nut, plantain, and cocco trees. On the 
 opposite banks are plantations where the slaves reside, 
 and which they cultivate. Interior to their country is 
 the Woorree race, who speak the same language as the 
 Balimbas, and are supposed of the same descent, being 
 entirely different from the Duwallas of Kameroons and 
 Isebus of Bimbia. The Balimba has several mouths, 
 one of which is called the Boreah. 
 
 Touching the trade or other peculiarities of the rivers 
 beyond Kameroons in the Bight of Biafra, very little is 
 as yet known. In the Boreah, some ivory traffic is 
 carried on at Corisco : it is chiefly conducted by the 
 Americans; at Gaboon, by the English and French. 
 Gaboon is a French settlement, and owns a Governor 
 there, who is also Commandant of the Naval establish^ 
 ment. On the south-west coast, at Angola, Ambrig, 
 and Saint Paul de Loando, British merchants have 
 
172 IMPKESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 permanent factories, and this is the healthiest part of 
 the West Coast. Unfortunately there is no postal com- 
 munication to this place, as it is intermediate between 
 Fernando ~Po (the last port whereat the Royal West 
 African Mail Company's steamers touch) and the Cape 
 of Good Hope, Casual visits of men-of-war are the 
 only media of communication between these stations and 
 Fernando Po. 
 
173 
 
 CHAP. XIL 
 
 Fernando Po. — Its geographical Position and early History. — Trans- 
 ference of Ownership from Portugal to Spain. — First Spanish Colo- 
 nisation. — Attempt at Settlement by the English. — Why it failed. — 
 Replanting of the Spanish Flag in 1843. — First Appointment of a 
 Consul here for the Bights. — The British Government making no 
 Agreement with Spain for the Cession of the Ground now called 
 
 Clarence Census of Clarence in 1856. — Description of the Town. 
 
 — Monument to Governor Beecroft. — His successor, Governor Lyn- 
 slager. — Clarence Grave-yard. — Lander's Grave. — Fernando Po 
 
 Peak. — George's or North-west Bay. — Its Position Charles's 
 
 Folly. — Point Kelly. — Goat and Kid Island. — Assemba and Moloko 
 Territories. — Lander's Opinion of the sanitary Superiority of George's 
 Bay to Clarence Cove. 
 
 The island of Fernando Po is situated between Lat. 3° 
 and 4° IST., Long. 8° and 9° E., and is about 100 miles 
 in circumference. From its northern extremity of 
 Point Bullen to Melville Bay, on the south side of the 
 island, is a distance of about thirty-five miles ; and from 
 its easternmost point, Cape Horatio, (not more than 
 twenty miles from Point Bullen,) to the land of Bimbia 
 on the African continent, there are only twenty-five 
 miles of sea intervening. 
 
 Fernando Po was discovered in 1471 by a Portu- 
 guese navigator, who entitled it the '^ Illha Formosa " 
 (or beautiful island), but it has since been called after 
 the explorer who found it out, and whose name was 
 Fernando Poo. Dr. Hensman has styled it *'the 
 ]\Iadeira " of the Gulf of Guinea. 
 
174 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 It has been stated by some authorities, that the 
 possession of this island was transferred from Portu- 
 gal to Spain in exchange for the island of Trinidad, on 
 the coast of Brazil. This, however, does not appear in 
 the "General History of Spain," by El Padre Mariana, 
 who gives an account of Fernando Po and Anno Bon 
 having been ceded to Spain, in a treaty ratified at 
 Madrid, the 24th of March, 1778 ; and states that they 
 had been privately given over on the 1st of October, in 
 the previous year, by Joseph II., the then reigning 
 monarch of Portugal. These ratifications were entered 
 into in consequence of a difference between both powers, 
 about the famous line of Alexander YL, relating to 
 their possessions in South America. It is confessed in 
 a despatch by the Count de Floridablanca (at that time 
 premier to his Catholic Majesty, Carlos III.), that the 
 necessity existing for the cultivation of the Spanish 
 colonies in America by negro slaves made the posses- 
 sion of these islands desirable ; as it would enable them 
 to procure negroes at first cost, instead of paying an 
 usurious sum to the French and Portuguese slave traders 
 for their supply. In a little more than a month after 
 the treaty was ratified, a Spanish expedition set out 
 from Monte Video for Fernando Po, in the frigate of 
 war " Catalina," and two other smaller vessels, contain- 
 ing 150 men as soldiers, operatives, and agriculturists. 
 These were commanded by Count de Arjelejos, to whom 
 Don Joaquim Primo de Rivera, a colonel of artillery, 
 was second. 
 
 They did not arrive in Fernando Po till towards the 
 
FERNANDO PO. — ITS HISTORY. 175 
 
 end of October in the same year, thus occupying six 
 months in the passage. Hence they proceeded to Anno 
 Bon, occupying two months in their voyage thither, 
 during which time Count Arjelejos died. At Anno 
 Bon they were resisted and repelled by the Portuguese 
 residents, who — having dwelt on the island for seventy 
 years, constructed a fort, and organised an artillery and 
 an establishment of seventy priests — could not under- 
 stand w^hy they should be disturbed in their abiding- 
 place, which they considered the bond fide property of 
 their crown. 
 
 By the orders of the government of Madrid — by a 
 mutiny caused through a sergeant named Geroninio 
 Martin — and worse still, by the fatality of the climate, 
 which in less than three years had carried away 128 
 out of 150 men, Primo de Rivera returned with his 22 
 survivors to Monte Video. From thence he sailed to 
 Buenos Ayres, w^here he handed over his insurrec- 
 tionists to the Vice-Roy of that place, and proceeded 
 himself to Spain. Thus ended the first expedition pre- 
 vious to the British colonisation in 1827 ; and from the 
 abandonment of this island in 1781 till Lerena's ex- 
 pedition in 1843 — a period of sixty-two years — the 
 Spanish government seems to have blotted out Fernando 
 Po from the map. 
 
 The frequent visits of English men-of-war and mer- 
 chant ships to Fernando Po to procure water, yams, 
 and live stock — the last two of which on the first visits 
 of ships could be obtained for pieces of iron hoops — 
 induced our government to establish a colony in this 
 
176 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA, 
 
 island, which was undertaken in 1827. A motive of 
 humanity was the main inspiring idea of this settlement. 
 It was considered that Fernando Po being only from 
 twenty-five to a hundred miles from the mouths of the 
 principal rivers in the Bight of Biafra — then the great 
 slave-trading mart- — a colony here would form an eli- 
 gible ground for a mixed Commission Court, and so 
 diminish the horrors of the dreary passage to Sierra 
 Leone, — that the climate appeared salubrious, — and 
 that thus, after a time, it might be the key for opening 
 civilisation and Christianity to Central Africa, through 
 all the streams whose embouchures its position com- 
 manded. 
 
 The settlement was accordingly made in 1827 by 
 Captain Owen, of His Majesty's ship " Eden," who 
 assumed the post of superintendent of the colony, whilst 
 the chief civil appointment Avas given to Captain Har- 
 rison. The ground measured out was entitled Clarence- 
 town ; a formality of purchasing it was gone through 
 with two native chiefs ; and the work of clearing it and 
 building commenced. 
 
 Here began also one grand error in our colonisation, 
 the employment of Europeans to dig and delve under a 
 tropical sun, amidst the rifest germs of disease. Hun- 
 dreds of valuable lives were lost in carrying out the 
 ideas of a military establishment in Clarence, — by 
 raising mounds whereon to place guns — a most mis- 
 taken system of cultivating any soil or humanising any 
 class of people. The introduction of legitimate com- 
 merce up any one river in the Bight of Biafra has done 
 something to neutralise the slave traffic. How have all 
 
CLARENCE DISCLAIMED BY ENGLAND. 177 
 
 the lives and money wasted in Fernando Po tended to 
 assist this object ? 
 
 From 1827 to 1833 the colony of Clarence — the only 
 town in the island save the hamlets of the aborigines — 
 remained in the hands of the British government, when 
 Admiral Warren came out in H.M.S. "Iris," and dis- 
 claimed, on the part of the government, their future 
 intention to keep it up. I believe a great deal of the 
 bad character it bore up to this time is attributable to 
 the misrepresentations about it that were sent home by 
 those interested in retaining the mixed Commission 
 Court at Sierra Leone, as well as the fact that black 
 men were not employed in the primary clearing of the 
 ground, nor proper sanitary measures adopted to preserve 
 the health of the white men so engaged. Europeans 
 should never be employed as day labourers in clearing 
 land over any part of Africa. I lay that down as an 
 indisputable axiom, — because a tropical sun is too in- 
 tense for the physical constitution of a white man to 
 endure through the course of a day's out-door work, — 
 because the prostration ensuing on this hard labour is 
 almost certain to be followed by an attempt to recover 
 energy through indulgence in stimulating drinks, — 
 because these combined are the main predisposing germs 
 of African fever, — and because such effects are all per- 
 fectly avoidable, as any quantity of black men may be 
 had on the Kru coast to do the work. 
 
 After the British government had given up their 
 houses and other establishments in Clarence, they passed 
 into the hands of Dillon, Tenant, and Company, on 
 
 N 
 
178 IMPKESSIONS OF WESTEEN AFEICA. 
 
 whose bankruptcy, in 1837, the West African Company- 
 became possessors of the houses and stores till 1841, 
 when they were purchased by the Baptist Missionary 
 Society for 1500/. 
 
 In 1843, an expedition was sent out from Madrid 
 under the direction of Don Jon Joseph de Lerena, 
 gentleman of the military order of St. Hermenegildo, 
 and commander of the Spanish brig of war " Nervion," 
 commissioned by the regent of Spain to the islands of 
 Fernando Po and Anno Bon, with full powers to replant 
 the Spanish flag there, and assume the proprietorship of 
 these islands for his kingdom. During this expedition 
 the island of Corisco was made over to Spain by the 
 head chiefs of the place ; the Spanish flag was hoisted 
 in Anno Bon as well as Fernando Po, and Mr. Beecroft 
 was made governor of the latter place, as well as of its 
 dependencies. Anno Bon and Corisco. 
 
 The authorities at Madrid were so well pleased with 
 the result of this expedition, that in the end of 1845 
 they fitted out another, which arrived at the island in a 
 war corvette entitled the " Yenus," under the command 
 of Captain Don Nicholas de Manterola. It was accom- 
 panied by Chevalier Guillemard de Aragon, then 
 Spanish Consul-General at Sierra Leone. There were 
 only two priests and a few soldiers left behind out of 
 this company. The latter soon died ; one of the former 
 remained only eighty days, and returned to Madrid, via 
 Liverpool, in a palm-oil ship (the " Magistrate "), the 
 other quitted soon after on board a French man-of-war. 
 
 Meanwhile the British government deeming the in- 
 
ANOTHER ENGLISH COLONY ESTABLISHED. 179 
 
 terests of British commerce in the Bights of Benin and 
 Biafra as sufficiently important to require the appoint- 
 ment of a consul, fixed upon Governor Beecroft for the 
 post. He received Her Majesty's commission in 1849. 
 The situation of Spanish Governor did not interfere 
 with this, for never during his occupation of it had this 
 title been more than a nominis umbra. 
 
 At the time of the arrival of a body of Spanish 
 missionaries, under the superintendence of Signer Don 
 Miguel Martinez y Sanz on the l4th of May, 1856, there 
 was not a single Spaniard residing over the whole length 
 and breadth of Fernando Po. 
 
 The British government in their original settlement 
 of 1827 made no agreement with Spain about their in- 
 tention to establish a colony here ; and it is said by 
 Spanish authorities that their government protested 
 strongly against the occupation of it by the English. 
 The ground marked out for the town of Clarence was 
 purchased for a trifle from two aboriginal chiefs ; and 
 hence British residents can still be permitted to remain 
 solely on the toleration of the Spanish crown. 
 
 I learn from Lieut. Holman's "Travels*," that on 
 Christmas-day, in the last-mentioned year, formal pos- 
 session of the ground for a settlement was taken in the 
 name and on behalf of His Majesty George the Fourth, 
 in the presence and by permission of two chiefs, named 
 Chameleon and Cut-Throat — titles given to them by 
 Captain Owen's company. 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 336. 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Since that time the vessels of H.B. M.'s squadron 
 have left many slaves in Clarence rescued from slave 
 ships taken in the Bight; and on the 31st of March, 
 1856, the census of the population was as follows: — 
 
 Abstract of Census of the Population of Clarence, 
 Fernando Po, taken 31st March, 1856. 
 
 British residents 
 
 Liberated by British men- f 
 of-war from slavers cap- \ 
 tured in the Bights, &c. J 
 under the impression i 
 that they are becoming I 
 British subjects . . . f 
 
 Orphans of old settlers, "1 
 the majority of whom [ 
 came with Capt. Owens j 
 in 1827 J 
 
 Offspring of living parents 1 
 who believe themselves S 
 to be British subjects . J 
 
 Non-British and non 
 liberated residents, 
 
 working as artisans and 
 servants . . . . . 
 
 \ 
 
 Natives of 
 
 England . 
 Sierra Leone 
 British Akra 
 Cape Coast 
 Lagos . . 
 Aboh . . 
 Old Kalabar 
 Kameroons 
 Habenda . 
 Congo . . 
 Popoh . . 
 Akw . . 
 
 Clarence, Fdo. Po 
 
 Ditto ditto 
 
 Bonny 
 
 Portuguese from "| 
 Princes and Saint i 
 Thomas Islands . J 
 
 Dutch Akra 
 
 Bimbia 
 
 Old Kalabar 
 
 Kameroons 
 
 Aborigines 
 
 Benin . . 
 
 America . 
 
 Jamaica . 
 
 Krumen . 
 
 Male. Female. Total. 
 
 22 
 
 89 
 14 
 33 
 
 7 
 55 
 
 4 
 44 
 27 
 
 
 
 1 
 158 
 
 1 
 
 21 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 24 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 21 
 
 91 
 
 1 
 13 
 21 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 Total 
 
 } 
 
 105 
 
 238 
 
 43 
 
 180 
 
 416 
 
 982 
 
MONUMENTS TO EUROPEANS. 181 
 
 The town of Clarence is situated at the northern end 
 of the island, behind a small cove between Point 
 William and Point Adelaide. These are in Maidstone 
 Bay, whose extreme boundaries are Point William and 
 Cape Bullen. 
 
 The volcanic nature of the island is evident on the 
 road from the beach to the town ; for basaltic scoriae are 
 imbedded in the soft clay through which it is cut. 
 These are of such a size that they could have been 
 placed there by no mechanical power available in this part 
 of the world, and are essentially diiferent in their geo- 
 logical formation from the soil in which they are im- 
 pacted. 
 
 The few houses constituting the foreground, visible 
 from the sea, are the best in the town ; for the remain- 
 ing habitations behind are only a superior kind of African 
 cabins. The negro residents, save the Krumen, nearly 
 all dress in European style, and are very courteous in 
 their bearing when met in the streets. 
 
 Near the end of Point William is a plaster monu- 
 ment, fabricated by one of the terra cotta artists of the 
 New Road, London, which has been erected " by their 
 shipmates and relatives," to the memory of the officers 
 and men who died whilst serving in the expedition to 
 the River Niger, under the British Government in 1841 
 and 1842. Underneath a huge red-wood-tree about 
 400 yards from the Niger monument, the late Governor 
 Beecroft is buried. A handsome stone pillar has been 
 lately placed over his grave, and a front slab contains 
 the following inscription : — " Beneath this monument 
 
 N 3 
 
182 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 are deposited the remains of John Beecroft, Spanish 
 Governor of the Island of Fernando Po, and Her 
 Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Bight of Biafra, who 
 died June 10th, 1854, aged 64 years. This memorial 
 was erected by the inhabitants of the colony of Clarence, 
 as a testimonial of their gratitude for his many years' 
 fatherly attention to their comforts and interests, as well 
 as for his unwearying exertions to promote the happi- 
 ness and welfare of the whole African race." 
 
 He died in June, 1854, just as he was about 
 to start in command of the Niger Expedition of 
 that year ; and to him succeeded, as representative of 
 Her Catholic Majesty Isabella the Second of Si)ain, 
 Governor Lynslager. This gentleman is a descendant 
 of Maurice Lynslager the celebrated merchant of 
 Amsterdam, of whom Van Tromp the valiant Dutch 
 Admiral said, that he " was a brave citizen and a good 
 Christian." 
 
 Governor Lynslager is known for the best and noblest 
 qualities which adorn a man. Wherever the island is 
 spoken of, his name and Fernando Po are as inseparable 
 as the Siamese twins. 
 
 The grave-yard of Clarence is situated at the end of 
 Waterfall-street, where the murmur of a slight cascade 
 hard by gives a melancholy tone to one's feelings 
 when entering ; more particularly, because in it some 
 of the heroes of African exploration are buried, — French 
 and English officers of men-of-war, — Dr. Yogel the 
 botanist, and Captain Bird Allen, R. N., who were up 
 the Niger in the government expedition of 1841-42, 
 
MR. BEECROFT'S ascent OF THE PEAK. 183 
 
 together with Richard Lander. Though his grave be 
 unmarked from the mass of mortality by which it is 
 surrounded, yet he has built up for himself a monumen- 
 turn (Bre perennius, by his great discovery of the mouth 
 of the river Niger. The brushwood is remarkably 
 dense, as if vegetation assumed new life from the many 
 dead bodies underneath. 
 
 The peak of Fernando Po is more than ten thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea ; and I believe the 
 mountain to possess all the varieties of temperature, as 
 well as of vegetation, to be met with from the equator 
 to the poles. The palm-tree, the banana, the plan- 
 tain, orange, and all kinds of intertropical fruits, 
 flourish on the low ground. Higher up, satin-wood, 
 lignum-vitaB, and mahogany grow, with cinnamon and 
 tamarinds ; whilst, ascending farther, cloves are found, 
 and, near the summit, myrtles and lichens. The upper 
 part of the mountain is said to abound in wild peacocks. 
 The late Governor Beecroft made an ascent of it in 
 1840, and so intense was the cold at the peak, that two 
 of his negro servants died on their return to Clarence. 
 The thermometer was down to 40° Fahr. From this it 
 may be presumed that an hospital could be erected here, 
 in a position to be above all the endemic influences of 
 the country, as the fever miasma is never known to 
 rise higher than 2000 feet above the level of its germi- 
 nation. 
 
 North- West Bay is situated about thirty-five miles 
 from Clarence in the direction which its name indicates. 
 It has ^Iso been called George's Bay, in honour of 
 
 N 4 
 
184 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 George lY. At the time of its being visited by Captain 
 Kelly, in 1822, the king of the Moloko country was 
 nominated King George. The Assemba chief bears the 
 name of Bioko, to whom the Moloko monarch is subor- 
 dinate, and Bioko's town is the principal of three vil- 
 lages, of which the Assemba kingdom is composed. 
 
 Between Clarence and North- West Bay, there is 
 nothing to attract one's attention, save a few rocks, 
 some distance at sea, called the Boteler Rocks, and two 
 small islets, styled Goat and Kid Islands, which are 
 opposite Moloko Point (Point Kelly), at the eastern 
 end of the bay. From this to its western extremity, 
 called in the native language, Jumpana Point, is a dis- 
 tance of six miles, within which is the very safe and 
 secure bay, comparatively protected from the tornadoes 
 which beset the other side of the island. Farther on is 
 a point called Balibi, to which the title of Charles's Folly 
 has been given in our English charts ; and, beyond this, 
 is Bakaika Point, coming between it and Cape Badgely, 
 the westernmost extremity of the island. The whole 
 of North- West Bay is included between Point Kelly 
 and Charles's Folly. 
 
 The landscape visible from the roadstead here 
 presents a greater variety than that seen from Clarence 
 Cove. The North- W^est Peak rises at least 4000 
 feet above the level of the sea, and from this to Bassa- 
 poo, which is about twelve miles north and west of 
 Clarence, there are slopes, and hills, and valleys, — very 
 few level plains, — but all clothed down to the water's 
 edge with vegetation of many centuries' growth. 
 
geoege's bay and clarence compared. 185 
 
 I should easily coincide with Lander's* opinion to 
 the effect that George's Bay is far healthier than 
 Clarence, were there more cleared land between it and 
 Cape Badgely. And if a town were erected on that 
 lofty piece of ground, tilled by tlie natives for yam 
 plantations, I feel confident it would be as healthy as 
 any position in a tropical island, from the facts that it 
 is above the fever level, as well as exposed to the wes- 
 terly sea-breeze. Such of the soil as I saw near the 
 shore is dark and loamy, not red, like that which 
 borders the cliffs in the neighbourhood of Clarence. 
 There are also streams here of equally pure water as 
 those of the latter place. 
 
 * Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa, p. 737. 
 
186 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 The Aborigines of Fernando Po. — Reasons for rejecting their Name of 
 " Boobees." — Most certain mode of ascertaining the Ethnological 
 Distinctions of African Races. — Supposition of the Fernandians' 
 affinity to the Okoos. — Dr. Thomson's name of Adeeyahs for them. 
 
 — Lieutenant-Colonel Smith's Error in identifying them with the 
 Guan(?hes of TenerifFe. — Items of Dissimilarity. — Notice of Berthelot's 
 " Memoire sur les Guanches. " — Estimated Population of the Island. 
 
 — Peculiarities in Appearance of the Fernandians. — Their modes of 
 decorating their Bodies. — The " Tola" Pomatum. — Style of Dress. — 
 Attractiveness of soft Sex. — Arms of Warfare. — Beauty of Lan- 
 guage. — Varieties of Currency. — Stone Hatchets. — Laziness of the 
 Fernandians. — Review of Fernandian Warriors. — Visits to the 
 Towns of Issapoo, Banapa, and Bassili. — Mode of manufacturing 
 Palm Oil. — Peculiarities of the Town-gates. — The " Reossa." — Attri- 
 butes of the Skin of a "Roukarouko " (Serpent). — King Bowaowdi's 
 Palace, — Ceremonial of Coronation. — Causes of Deficiency in Gal- 
 lantry to a Fernandian Queen. — The Solemnity of Marriages. — 
 Picturesque Mode of Fishing amongst the Race. — Their own Account 
 of their Origin. — Burial of the Dead. — Whale. — Calving Season 
 at Fernando Po. 
 
 The Fernandians, who are the aborigines of the 
 island, do not seem to have an affinity with any of the 
 races of the continent.* The name " Boobees " has 
 
 * Dr. Baikie is nevertheless of opinion that the Fernandians are one 
 of the purest negro races to be met with on the coast. He traces an 
 analogy to the Corisco and Kabenda tribes of the south coast from 
 similitude of language, but I cannot avoid deeming this theory a fore- 
 gone conclusion. 
 
ETHNOGRAPHICAL DISTINCTIONS OF AFRICANS. 187 
 
 been given to them by Captain Kelly when he landed at 
 North- West or George's Bay, in 1822, at the place now 
 styled in the charts Kelly's Point. " A boobee," in their 
 language, signifies " a man." 
 
 They are called " Adeeyahs " by Dr. Thomson, who 
 was one of the medical officers of the Niger expedition 
 of 1841 ; but, as this word in their language signi- 
 fies a *' town," I deem a generic name from their 
 native place to be more correct than either appellation. 
 
 The most certain mode of ascertaining the ethnolo- 
 gical distinction of African races is the peculiar shape of 
 the cicatrix with which nearly all are marked in the 
 face. A few of the Fernandians are not marked at all. 
 Some have transverse incisions across the forehead, 
 cheeks, nose, and chin ; giving to the countenance a very 
 horrible appearance. Others have semicircular cicatrices 
 from the forehead to the cheeks, with the convex side 
 diverging towards the ear. And this last is supposed 
 by some persons to afford the only clue to their origin 
 that has yet been ascertained. The Okoo negroes, who 
 are natives of a district in the Yoruba country, interior 
 to Lagos, bear exactly similar marks. Hence it is 
 not at all improbable that these Fernandians may be 
 of a mixed race between the Okoos and the Portuguese, 
 who visited Lagos some hundred of years ago, and 
 who were the original discoverers as well as the first 
 colonisers of Fernando Po. 
 
 Lieut.-Colonel Smith, in his " Natural History of the 
 Human Species," has given portraits of a Fernando Po 
 Chief, who bore the English name of Cut-Throat, and of 
 
188 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 a Fernandian woman, neither of whom bear the slightest 
 resemblance in colour, or form of feature, to any I have 
 ever seen in the island. These faces are more Cauca- 
 sian in outline, more blanched, and possess an expression 
 of greater suavity and of higher intelligence than I have 
 at any time observed in a specimen of the hundreds of 
 countenances that have been before me. He states 
 them to have been from drawings of the late Capt. 
 Filimore, E-.N., and that they are of the Guanche 
 race. 
 
 An interesting description of the latter race, who 
 constituted the original inhabitants of Teneriffe, is pub- 
 lished in the " Memoires de la Societe Ethnologique," 
 at Paris (1841), in a paper by Sabin Berthelot, entitled 
 *^ Memoire sur les Guanches," and in which he makes 
 extracts from a previous account contained in a very 
 curious document from the Magliabecchi Library at 
 Florence, published in 1827 by M. I. Ciampi. 
 
 The manners, customs, and superstitions of these 
 people may be similar, yet not more so than in the 
 analogy which we find in all uncivilised and unchristian- 
 ised tribes. But the tall stature, the tawny colour, the 
 indubitable evidence of their being descendants of 
 a white race, whether Phenicians or Carthaginians, 
 from their hair being long and not crisp, as well as the 
 rare beauty of their women, can find no parallel in the 
 inhabitants of the present day at Fernando Po. The 
 Guanches of Teneriffe may, no doubt, have greased 
 their bodies with goat's fat, stained with vegetable 
 dyes ; fed on corn unkneaded ; and used the same 
 
POPULATION. — THE PEOPLE DESCRIBED. 189 
 
 weapons of warfare, a long javelin with a barbed spear 
 at the end, as the Fernandians of our time do. The 
 description given of the former by Don Antonio 
 de Yiana, in his work *' Antiquedas de las islas Afortu- 
 nados," published in Seville, in 1 604, paints them in the 
 following characteristics : — '^ Les Guanches etaient 
 des gens vertueux, honnetes et braves; en eux se trou- 
 vaient reunies les plus belles qualites : magnanimite, 
 adresse et courage, formes athletiques, force dame et 
 de corps, fierte de caractere, noblesse de maintien, 
 physionomie riante, esprit intelligent et devouement 
 patriotique," — qualities not one of which is possessed 
 by our Fernandians, and which I fancy to be very 
 redolent of poetic imagining, when applied to the abori- 
 gines of any African islands. 
 
 I have heard the population of the island estimated 
 at 30,000 ; but, judging from the towns I have visited, I 
 cannot conceive that this is correct, more especially as I 
 am not aware of the existence of any mode which can 
 be depended on of obtaining a correct census here more 
 than in another part of Africa. 
 
 The bodies of the Fernandians, in a natural condition, 
 are as black as those of other negroes, the only essential 
 difference observable in their physique being that, in 
 many, the hair falls down to the nape of the neck 
 in spiral curls. These are generally smeared over with 
 a pomatum made of a red-dyeing herb, which they call 
 " Tola," and which is mixed with palm oil and ashes in 
 its fabrication. Occasionally ochre earth is added to it, 
 which gives the curls the appearance of having lumps of 
 
190 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 red lead attached to the ends. Some of the higher 
 class paint their faces with red, yellow, white, and 
 brown dyes alternately in patches under the eyes and 
 on the cheeks. Many of the men have long beards, 
 pendent from their chins ; others have mustachios ; but 
 whiskers are seen on very few. Their dress — of those 
 who do dress — consists of a hat, often only a mere 
 plate, but sometimes approaching the conical, which is 
 fastened to the head by a skewer passed through the hair 
 from one side to the other. In some cases a bunch of 
 parrot's red feathers is stuck in the hat, which is 
 frequently covered by a monkey's skin. Their only 
 trowsers consist of girdles, five or six inches in width, 
 worn on their legs and arms, and called '' Tpas." These 
 are made from small pieces of the Achatina shell strung 
 together, or from white beads. Circlets of another 
 shell, which conchologists entitle the Architectonica, and 
 each of which is about the size of half a crown, 
 are worn across the forehead ; a monkev-skin hanojs 
 down in front of the body ; and that is all, save with the 
 gentlemen and chiefs. 
 
 This class is further adorned with green leaves at dif- 
 ferent points of the body ; pouches of a semilunar 
 ehape, containing goats' fat, suspended from the 
 shoulders over the waist, and enormous strings of 
 beads. 
 
 Large strings of beads are the predominant ornament 
 with the females, who are as attractive as incisions in 
 the face, an indescribable amount of Tola pomatum, 
 and an inexpressible odour can make them. 
 
LANGUAGE. — CURRENCY. 191 
 
 Their arms of warfare are represented only by a spear 
 with many indentations in it, that would give a very 
 disagreeable wound. Its blade is from six to eight inches 
 long; generally quadrilateral, and the handle is from 
 six to eight feet. But their intestine wars — the only 
 broils they can indulge in — are very rare ; and when 
 they do occur, neither age nor sex is spared. 
 
 Of the Fernandian language, Mr. Clarke, a Baptist 
 missionary, who has compiled a vocabulary, declares 
 there are five different species in the island, and a great 
 number of dialects. This I am not enough of a linguist, 
 or do not possess sufficient experience, to decide ; but 
 such parts of the tongue spoken by those I have heard 
 seem to me very peculiar, " Oipudo Abiaso ? " is their 
 " How do you do, sir ? " and the reply is " Apotto," 
 meaning, ^' Thank you, stranger," leaving you to under- 
 stand that " very well " is intended to be prefixed to the 
 response. The expression, " Ko Hodi oowe lobu lobu," 
 " I love you very much," has a very spluttering har- 
 mony in it, conveying, I should imagine, to a dear one's 
 ears, sounds very different from the love-making lan- 
 guage of Kacine and Moliere. 
 
 Their currency is represented by small pieces of the 
 Achatina diminished to the size of a silver three half- 
 penny coin or a medium-sized bead. Some of them are 
 much smaller, and most are suspended on strings by 
 means of holes which are driven through them. Twelve 
 strings of the former, about a finger's length each, 
 are valued at 6d.; and 100 strings maybe purchased 
 for a dollar. This halfpenny currency is their only 
 
192 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 one in the domestic markets. These they entitle 
 ^^ Tshibbu." All varieties of this money are worn round 
 the body, and the large ones from the Architectonica 
 are entitled " Tshoko." The mint for the manufacture 
 of this coin is at a place called Ballilipaj near Melville 
 Bay, at the south end of the island. 
 
 I have been informed that, at a locality named 
 Bassakatoo, near Ballilipa, there are stone hatchets 
 in the keeping of one of the kings. This fashion of 
 instrument was used for splitting wood and separat- 
 ing bunches of palm-nuts from the trees, before they 
 became acquainted with iron. The knowledge of this 
 metal was first communicated to them through their 
 exchanging vegetables and stock for iron hoops, in 
 the early visits of European traders to their island. 
 Now, however, they have arrived at the civilisation of 
 Birmingham axes, cutlasses, and matchets, which are 
 procured by the exchange barter of yams and palm oil. 
 Since they have begun to manufacture palm oil, 
 which is sold in blighs, or wicker pots, containing from 
 one to ten gallons (entitled " Bectapas " ), they exchange 
 this commodity for British merchandise. Save the 
 manufacture of about 300 tons of palm oil in the year, 
 -^n an island which could produce double that number 
 of thousands, and the growth of a few millions of yams, 
 their country, though teeming with indigenous produc- 
 tions of nature to its very summit, is as unproductive 
 as the Sahara. I believe them to be the laziest and 
 idlest race in creation. No offer of any premium will 
 make them clear their ground or cultivate it ; and were 
 
REVIEW OF FERNANDIAN WARRIORS. 193 
 
 the yams or plantains to grow spontaneously, I think 
 they would be content with sheds of huts in the 
 branches, and bite the fruits off the trees, without the 
 trouble of plucking or cooking it. 
 
 During my first month's stay here as a resident, 
 three or four hundred Fernandians came down from 
 the village of Banapa, and had a military review in 
 the square beside my office. They were all armed 
 with their peculiarly shaped spears, and many carried 
 enormous cow-hide shields, sufficiently large to pro- 
 tect the whole body from their javelins, — a very dis- 
 agreeable weapon to look at, much more, I should say, 
 to feel. The huge hats, many of them surmounted 
 by scarlet feathers, — the hair curls with the red lead 
 beads at the end, — the ** Tshoko " shells round the 
 forehead, — the bladder pouches entitled "Bahaba," 
 and filled variously with fat of cows, snakes, or goats, 
 indicative of the wealth of the wearer, — the monkeys' 
 tails dangling about them, — and the differences of 
 colours painted on their faces, red, dirty white, blue, 
 and yellow, gave them a tout ensemble of the most 
 grotesque nature. Their filing off in groups, and 
 marching to attack an imaginary enemy, had some- 
 thing, really graceful in it ; and it would be impossible 
 for me to convey an idea of the thrill which the music 
 of their voices sent through me, — their war chanting 
 was so solemnly profound, and yet so wildly har- 
 monious. A group of women and children accompanied 
 them, and sat at one side of the square, whilst the 
 warriors were going through their evolutions. 
 
 o 
 
194 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Yet with all their savageness of aspect, there is 
 an innate nobility in some of their manners. I re- 
 ' member once seeing a Fernandian chief rising from a 
 group who had watched a man being flogged by the 
 jailor for having beaten a Fernandian woman, and 
 appealing forthwith to Governor Lynslager as earnestly 
 for the cessation of the punishment as if it were for his 
 own son. 
 
 Having long meditated a visit to a Fernandian town, 
 I started one morning at 6 a.m. from Clarence, accom- 
 panied by an interpreter and two of my Krumen 
 servants, to reach Issapoo. The road led through a 
 country so prolific in palm-trees, that the pathway as 
 we went along was literally paved with the kernels 
 of the nuts, whose outside pulpy rind had either 
 rotted off or been devoured by the monkeys. Three 
 rivulets of fresh water flowing down from the mountain 
 were passed at intervals of about a mile from each other, 
 and the rich soil was utterly unproductive of any useful 
 vegetation save the palm-trees. The remainder of the 
 thick bush along the way consisted chiefly of red wood, 
 parasitic plants, and ferns tenanted by birds, butterflies, 
 and ants. As we neared the village, we passed a palm- 
 ^1 manufactory, where the women were at work ex- 
 tracting the oil from the rind in the primitive manner 
 in which it is done on most parts of the coast. The nuts 
 are plucked from the cones on which they grow, and 
 then placed in a heap covered with palm leaves till they 
 are verging on putrefaction. They are then pounded 
 in a mortar- shaped hole made in the ground, and paved 
 
MODE OF MANUFACTURING PALM OIL. 195 
 
 at the bottom with stones. The pounding operation is 
 sometimes effected with a large stone, frequently with a 
 wooden pestle. When this is finished, the inner kernels 
 are taken out and thrown away. The macerated pulp 
 is placed in a country pot to simmer over the fire, after 
 which the oil is pressed out of it by no more potent 
 agency than the women's hands. Thus a large quantity 
 of oil from the outer rind of the nut, as well as the 
 whole contained in the kernels, is completely lost by 
 ineflScient manipulation. 
 
 Entering Issapoo by either of tvvo arched gateways, 
 divided from one another by a single bamboo stick, 
 my interpreter pointed out to me a number of large 
 Achatina shells that were at the threshold, in each of 
 which was perforated a hole, and through the hole was 
 passed a stem of palm-tree. These he explained to me 
 were placed there to keep the devil out, when he is 
 prowling in the neighbourhood. His Satanic Majesty 
 must be supposed to be very tender-footed, for the in- 
 habitants believe that as soon as he touches one of 
 these shells, with his toe or with his hoof (?), as the case 
 may be, he turns back ! Not being palpably in our 
 company at the time, this mystic chevaux-de-frise did 
 not keep me from going in. No clearing of ground is 
 inside the gate (for the yam and plantain farms are all 
 at a short distance), save a square entitled the " Keossa," 
 and the places on which the houses are stuck. 
 
 The " Keossa " is an open space, used as a kind of 
 forum for holding legislative assemblies, and for dis- 
 cussing palavers, as the Egbo House is in Old Calabar, 
 
 o 2 
 
196 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Thisj however, is open, and exposed to sunshine, rain, 
 and tornadoes, is often used as a market-place, and is 
 sometimes allowed as a play-ground for children. Near 
 its centre is a group of shrubs, with about half a dozen 
 rough stones underneath them — no doubt seats for the 
 senators, — and from a branch of the tallest tree in this 
 hunch there is suspended the skin of a species of ser- 
 pent, entitled " Roukarouko," with its head uppermost. 
 The tail reaches to within a yard and a half of the 
 ground ; and the placing of a snake's skin here is an 
 annual ceremony. As soon as the ceremonials con- 
 nected with the operation are completed, all children 
 born during the past year are carried out, and their 
 hands made to touch the tail of the snake's skin. This 
 species of snake, styled by the Portuguese residents of 
 the island Jack Maranta, is believed to be their 
 guardian deity — to possess the power of good or evil 
 towards them, — to be able to confer riches, or inflict 
 sickness, even to cause death — therefore needing to be 
 propitiated. 
 
 " Bowaowdi " is the euphonious name of the present 
 chief of Issapoo. The monarchy here, as in all 
 Fernandian to'.Yns, is hereditary, not from father to 
 son, but from uncle to nephew. His palace was 
 certainly a most extraordinary place for human resi- 
 dence. Yet on my getting inside, his first exhibition 
 to me was, as the interpreter explained it, his throne 
 and crown ; the former consisting of a filthy stool, that 
 looked old enough and dirty enough to have been 
 handed down in his family for several scores of gene- 
 rations, — and the latter, an equally filthy old hat of 
 
CEREMONIAL OF CORONATION. 197 
 
 bamboo-leaf, with a monkey tail pendent from it. 
 Inside the house, the light came in through dozens of 
 crevices in the walls as well as the roof. The walls 
 consist only of lap-boards placed side by side, reaching 
 from the ground to the roof, all of which are movable, 
 80 that the inmate has only to shift one or two at any 
 side, and he lets himself in or out as he pleases. Across 
 the house inside are placed a number of poles, on which 
 are suspended hats, skins, rusty guns, cloth, and cala- 
 bashes; but no windows, stools, beds, or tables, save 
 the old throne ; and a tax-gatherer would find a great 
 scarcity of available chattels in the place. 
 
 The coronation of a king is a ceremonial that I have 
 not yet had the pleasure of witnessing ; but it has been 
 reported to me as one possessing interesting features. 
 It is so bound up with their notions of a spirit or devil, 
 that I deem it necessary to explain the peculiarity of 
 their belief on this latter point. 
 
 ^* Maaon " is the title given to the devil, and the 
 Botakimaaon (his high priest) is supposed to have in- 
 fluence with him through communication with the cobra- 
 capella, the '* Roukarouko." Their faith in God, to 
 whom the name of " Kupe " is given, is a loftier aspira- 
 tion than that of the devil ; but they believe that the 
 Deity's favour can be only obtained by intercession 
 through the " Botakimaaon " with his master. 
 
 At the ceremony of coronation, the Botakimaaon 
 steps into a deep hole, and pretends to hold conversation 
 with one of the Roukaroukos at the bottom ; the candi- 
 date for regal honours standing alongside, and all his 
 
 o 3 
 
198 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 subjects, in fiituro, being about. This conference is, I 
 believe, carried on by means of ventriloquism, — a faculty 
 with which many of the Fernandians are reported to me 
 to be endowed. The Botakimaaon then delivers to the 
 king the message from the Koukarouko for his guidance 
 in his high station, shakes over him a quantity of yellow 
 powder, entitled " Tsheobo," which is obtained by col- 
 lecting a creamy coat that is found on the waters at the 
 mouths of some small rivers, evaporating the water, and 
 forming a chalky mass of the residue. From the 
 lightness as well as friability of this article, I believe it 
 to be of a vegetable nature. 
 
 He has then placed upon his head the hat worn by 
 his father, and the crowning is accomplished. After be- 
 coming a king, his majesty is forbidden to eat cocco 
 (Arum acaule), deer, or porcupine, which are the 
 ordinary condiments of the people ; and the ceremonial 
 is concluded by the latter having some of the yellow 
 powder rubbed over their foreheads by the Botakimaaon, 
 with instructions to use the same material in a like 
 manner every morning for seven days. 
 
 The man holding the same position here as the 
 Filatah Galadimo is named, ex officio, the " Boakitshi," 
 and he is field-marshal, prime minister, the king's head 
 adviser, market-marshal, as well as everything from a 
 secretary of state down to a bellman. 
 
 Issapoo contains a population of about 2000, and 
 can turn out more than 250 armed men. 
 
 My visits to Banapa and Bassili had nothing in 
 them worth recording, save that the same road leads 
 
INTERVIEW WITH KING AND QUEEN. 199 
 
 to both. This, after passing the first river, more de- 
 cidedly ascends, for Bassili is the highest town on the 
 Clarence side of Fernando Po. About a mile outside 
 Clarence was pointed out to me a pathway leading to 
 where the town of Bassili formerly stood, and near 
 which General Sir Edward Nichols, K.C.B., had a 
 mountain residence when he was British Governor 
 of the island, in 1830-32. The road along was similar 
 in all its characteristics, the ^^ Keossas " alike in the 
 towns, — and his majesty Boibieg gave me the honour 
 of an interview outside his house, seated on his throne, 
 whilst his queen Salee squatted on the ground beside 
 him. I must confess I was so little impressed with her 
 queenly air, that I did not even think of offering her a 
 camp stool, which one of my boys had carried, and on 
 which I was seated, for so fearfully was she bedaubed 
 with the Tola pomatum, that I dreaded to try and 
 imagine where the unction found its limit. 
 
 Perhaps it may be a small compensation for my defi- 
 ciency in gallantry to her majesty Salee, to give here 
 an account of the mode in which happy pairs are joined 
 for life. 
 
 The marriage ceremony — and polygamy prevails 
 amongst them according to their means of supporting 
 wives — is performed by an old woman. The marriages 
 take place in the evening. The couple about to be 
 united catch hands, and the priestess gives them advice 
 separately, to the man directing him not to neglect this 
 wife even if he have many more, and to the woman, 
 enjoining her not to omit her duty of tilling her 
 
 O 4 
 
200 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 husband's farm, and making palm oil, as well as being 
 faithful to him. When this exhortation is finished the 
 spectators all cry out " Eeo ! " which is synonymous 
 with our ^' Amen." The bride and bridegroom walk 
 through the town followed by several persons playing 
 what are called " Leebos," or wooden bells, and accom- 
 panied by the " Nepi," or head singer, whose chanting is 
 very solemn, bearing with it something akin to a procla- 
 mation of the ceremony just completed, and which is 
 carried on with a solemnity as impressive on them in 
 their savage state, as a like ceremonial would be to 
 Christian spectators, with the usual accompaniments, in 
 St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 
 The bride is dressed from head to foot with strings 
 of " Tshibbu " already described, and wears a broad- 
 brimmed hat trimmed with feathers, sometimes pea- 
 cocks', the wild species of which bird is said to abound 
 up the mountain ; the hat is fastened to her hair with a 
 wooden pin run through from side to side. After the 
 wedding procession has terminated, there are feasting 
 and drinking baow (palm wine), and dancing to a late 
 hour. 
 
 The atmosphere about a quarter of a mile higher up 
 than the town was deliciously cool ; but the natives have 
 no residence above this. I cannot estimate its height of 
 surface over Clarence ; but I could see the governor's 
 house, the residence of Messrs Horsfall's agent, and my 
 own abode from it, — guessing them to be about a 
 mile beneath my level, though nearly six miles distant. 
 
 The Fernandians who reside^ in the many small 
 
PICTURESQUE MODE OF FISHING. 201 
 
 villages along the coast, all of which have names in 
 their language that it would nearly break my pen to 
 write, are called Fishraen, and their places of abode Fish- 
 towns. Fernando Po bays contain immense quantities 
 of all kinds of fish, and the native style of catching 
 them with rod and line is very picturesque. Three 
 or four canoes are paddled round a circle of about a 1 00 
 yards in circumference. Into the centre of this circle a 
 number of small fish are thrown as an alluring bait, the 
 paddlers on the outside of the canoes splash the water 
 up as they propel, and on the inner side of each canoe, 
 three or four men with rods, lines, and hooks, having 
 some species of nibble aflSxed, try to attract the fish 
 to take their barbed treat. Besides this they fabricate 
 sieves out of thread made from the fibres of trees, and 
 catch turtle on the southern and eastern parts of the 
 island. They also collect in wicker baskets any 
 amount of small fish like minnows, which they call 
 *' Soko," and which, dressed with palm oil and pepper, 
 afford a treat such as the white-bait epicurists of 
 Blackwall or Greenwich could not imagine. 
 
 "Apotto" is the title which the Fernandians give 
 to the Europeans and colonisers of Clarence, and which 
 in their language signifies a stranger, or one speaking a 
 foreign tongue. 
 
 A Fernandian's account of the origin of his people 
 is, that they came out of the mountain's top. Knowing 
 that the summit of the peak was once a volcano, this 
 idea at first amused me very much ; and I endeavoured 
 to ascertain if they had any notion of a primitive 
 
202 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 creation, but found it impossible to convey to their sense 
 of understanding, even through an interpreter, a per- 
 ception of what I was aiming at. 
 
 When any of the race dies, the members of his 
 family emigrate to another town, after burying the body 
 in an upright position, one half of it being left above 
 the ground. The graves are dug by the females, the 
 ground being rooted with a piece of stick ; and no cere- 
 monials are connected with a death, as amongst other 
 savage tribes, save that in cases where life is despaired 
 of, as of prolonged ulcerations in the leg, a small hut is 
 erected, within which the patient is placed, and a 
 cooked yam or plantain with a little water daily 
 left outside for his sustenance, till death puts an end 
 to his sufferings. Yams and plantains constitute the 
 only food of the common people, save now and then 
 the luxury of a little palm oil. 
 
 In the months of July, August, and September, 
 numbers of large whales may be seen sporting in the 
 bays around Fernando Po. They are supposed to 
 come here for the purpose of calving. Attempts to 
 capture them by American whalers have proved that 
 the sharks are able to appropriate their blubber before 
 -4t could be secured, and so the pursuit is not followed 
 up. 
 
203 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Prince's Island. — Its" Position. — Agalhas or West Bay. — Approach to 
 the Capital, Porto San Antonio. — Preliminaries to entering the Town. 
 
 — Portuguese Soldiers at the Custom-house. — Chapels of Porto San 
 Antonio. — "Deserted Village" Appearance of the Town — Governor 
 Ozorio.— Dr. Nunez's Opinion of the sanitary Character of the Island. 
 
 — Natural Products of Prince's. — The Voyage home. — Difference 
 of Sensations from those entertained on going out. — First Sight of 
 the Polar Star. — The Azores or Western Islands. — Their volcanic 
 Nature. — The deceptive Appearance of African Rivers, as to the 
 Origin of Malaria. — Professor Daniel's Theory of its Generation. — 
 Enumeration and Specification of Objections to it. — Analysis of Pro- 
 fessor Dumas.— Opinions of Surgeon Peters, Drs. Johnson, Ferguson, 
 Watson, Madden, M'William, and others. 
 
 About one hundred and forty miles to the S.W. of 
 Fernando Po is Prince's Island, which, discovered by 
 a Portuguese navigator at nearly the same time as Fer- 
 nando Po, is still in possession of the Crown of Portugal. 
 The point of land nearest to it on the African continent 
 is Cape St. John, about a hundred and five miles to the 
 eastward ; and perhaps this may have been a reason for 
 its not being introduced into the Madrid treaty of 1778. 
 It is situated in lat. 1° 25' N., long. 7° 20' E., and was 
 styled Ilho da Principo, after a prince of the blood 
 royal of Portugal, who existed at the time of its disco- 
 very — whether by Santarem or Escobar* is of little 
 
 * Juan de Santarem and Pedro Escobar, with Fernando Po and 
 Bartolome Diaz, were the chief geographical explorers of the Portuguese 
 nation in Africa towards the end of the fifteenth century. 
 
204 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 consequence to its present rulers and its present in- 
 habitants. 
 
 Nearing the north-western part of the island, we 
 could observe the trees growing down to the very water's 
 edge where no beach existed. The isolated rock, the 
 ** Dutchman's Cap," forms a prominent object of at- 
 tention ; and with it two large mounds of stone, one 
 perfectly circular and cylindrical, resembling an enor- 
 mous cauldron, such as is seen in a soap manufactory 
 or in gas-works at home, the other the rock called 
 " Parrot's Bill," both clothed with verdure to their very 
 summits. 
 
 To the westward at Agulhas, or West Bay, is a little 
 town inhabited by Portuguese negroes, and consisting 
 of about a dozen houses, overtopped by a larger one 
 occupied by the superintendent of the place, and from 
 whose balcony the colonial flag of Portugal floats when 
 vessels approach. From this you can steer round by 
 Church Bay, the point of Mai-Marta, and past the small 
 islet of Bombon, to the harbour of San Antonio, the 
 capital. 
 
 It is situated on the N. E. side of the island. You 
 enter, passing by the dilapidated fort of Sta. Anna, with 
 the church of Sta. Anna on the top of the hill, at the 
 northern side of the bay, and the Fort da Point da 
 Mina on the opposite shore, in an equally helpless con- 
 dition. White houses on the beach, white houses on 
 hillocks higher up, white houses on the brow tops, over 
 all, presented a very pleasing scene. Our gig was but 
 half-way in when we were met and stopped by two 
 
PORTUGUESE SOLDIERS AT CUSTOM-HOUSE. 205 
 
 Portuguese officials in a boat, having the colonial ensign 
 at the flag-staff. This was to demand our papers for 
 the custom-house officers, to ask an account of our in- 
 tentions in visiting the island, the amount of our cargo, 
 and its species, the number of our crew and passengers. 
 These preliminaries being settled, and one of the officials 
 having remained on board to prevent illegal intercourse 
 with the shore, we again proceeded towards the beach, 
 and landed at a jetty opposite the house of Monsignor 
 Carnero, one of the most extensive merchants in San 
 Antonio, and from whose verandah a number of slaves 
 gazed down upon us as we passed. His house and that 
 of Madame Ferreira, for extent and durability, resemble 
 those I have seen at Cape Coast. 
 
 Over a small river which falls into the sea here is 
 erected a neat little bridge, across which I had to pass 
 to get into the town, first by the custom-house, outside 
 of which were a few individuals in Portuojuese militarv 
 costumes, whom I took at a glance for boys training 
 for a pantomime, marching indolently backwards and 
 forwards. From this I proceeded into a wide space, 
 where three chapels confronted me, into one of which I 
 walked. Its neatness and absence from the tawdriness 
 recognisable in the chapels of Madeira surprised me 
 very much, and the more so, as every house and street 
 around seemed receptacles for filth and decay. There 
 were about a score of people in the building, whose de- 
 votion did not seem to me to be very great — perhaps 
 because the heat of the day was sufficiently oppres- 
 sive. I learned that there are six such chnpels in the 
 
206 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 town, and as many more at different posts over the 
 island. 
 
 From this, about the distance of a few hundred yards, 
 to the governor's house — to whom we felt in duty 
 bound to pay our respects — the place has all the ap- 
 pearance of a deserted village ; houses untenanted, 
 some roofless, some Tvindowless, more with broken 
 walls. Even those which are inhabited, and are roofed 
 with draining tiles, placed in alternate rows of the con- 
 vex and concave surfaces uppermost, have a chilly filthy 
 air of poverty about them, that makes them seem only 
 fit tenements for reptiles and crawling things. No 
 shops, no business, no signs of life or energy amongst 
 the population. But I am wrong ! There is a shop or 
 two ! Here, for instance, is one little gloomy cell — 
 for traffic, I suppose — hard-by the governor's house, but 
 with such a contracted entrance that I am sure a ray 
 of blessed sunshine never crosses its doorway to dazzle 
 the moths and spiders in their damp retreats. If I had 
 a portable gas lamp, or one of Drummond's lights, I 
 might make out what is in the shop, if the individual 
 standing inside the door, who appears an embodiment 
 from the " Mysteries of Udolpho," or the *' Castle of 
 Otranto," would allow me. Not furnished with either 
 of these, and unwilling to test the spirituality of the 
 ghoule-faced man, I plod on to the governor's, and find 
 another chapel before me. The governor and his secre- 
 tary were at home, and received us very graciously. 
 
 Our progress was no further than the governor's 
 
DR. NUNEZ'S OPINION OF THE ISLAND. 207 
 
 house, for the streets had all the same blue-mouldy 
 appearance ; and after scrambling down the governor's 
 crazy staircase, gazing for a few minutes on the peak 
 that rises inland, with a dell between it and the hill 
 behind the town — a place for jollity amongst the Ha- 
 madryads — I turned backwards to Madame Ferreira's 
 mansion, to which we had been invited to dinner, and 
 which is nearest to the sea of any house in Porto San 
 Antonio. 
 
 Prince's Island is about seven leagues in circum- 
 ference, and contains a population of from four to &ve 
 thousand ; whereof San Antonio, the only town, con- 
 tains more than two thousand. And the population is 
 evidently diminishing, as the number of deserted houses 
 can testify. I cannot agree with Dr. Daniell in his 
 opinion that " Prince's Island has acquired a better 
 sanitary reputation than can be justly ascribed to it," 
 for the experience of Dr. Nunez, the colonial surgeon, 
 during a four years' residence, is more to be relied 
 upon than the observations of any one who has paid 
 only a flying visit to the locality. From a few hours' 
 conversation with this gentleman, carried on in French, 
 as he could not speak the English language, I believe 
 him to be conscientious and intelh'gent. The topo- 
 graphical features of the island go also to corroborate 
 his opinion of its salubrity as reported to me ; for there 
 is not a square inch of swampy land upon its whole 
 surface. Intermittent fevers of the daily and tertian 
 type are the only forms of the disease known here; 
 
208 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 remittent, yellow, or typhoid never having occurred in 
 his experience. The intermittents, too, are of the 
 mildest form in their attacks. Dysentery sometimes 
 prevails amongst the negro population. There are two 
 wet seasons here, as up the African rivers ; and during 
 these periods the inhabitants suffer very much from pul- 
 monary disease. A large quantity of paloi-trees is 
 found over the island ; but the oil is manufactured only 
 for domestic use, not for exportation. The other pro- 
 ducts are cotton, coffee, cocoa, cassava, yams, and all 
 kinds of intertropical produce. 
 
 With these, geese, turkeys, ducks, and fowls abound ; 
 and there may be seen, wandering about the streets, 
 many descendants of that ancient family of pigs, recorded 
 by Carleton as being extinct in Ireland, ^* with sharp 
 backs and long noses, that were used throughout the 
 country in the hunting season, when dogs were scarce." 
 
 Stretching away from the Point da Praia Sulgada, 
 which is outside the Point da Mina, the site of one of 
 the old forts, the lights of a number of fishing-boats 
 gave quite a glowing appearance to the sea at night — 
 now fading into dim sparks, now bursting out into a 
 vivid corruscation, as if from an electro-light ; I watched 
 their movements (as the boats were not stationary) for 
 more than an hour after dark on our poop. 
 
 ****** 
 
 None but those who have battled through the dis- 
 agreeables of life on board a ship, — more especially 
 one of the trading genus out here, — can at all appre- 
 ciate or understand the new pleasure that is infused 
 
THE VOYAGE HOME. 209 
 
 into the mind, on turning one's back to Africa for a 
 homeward return, after a prolonged absence from Eng- 
 land. The earliest pleasure which I enjoyed on my first 
 ascent up the Old Kalabar river was to gaze on the 
 palisading of bright green mangroves on either side of 
 that noble stream, — which, after a three months' mono- 
 tonous voyage at sea, seemed so regular in their out- 
 line, so refreshing to look at, that it can be consi- 
 dered no wonder for a landsman like me to have felt a 
 longing desire to rub my face against the leaves, to 
 smell them, and to climb amongst them ! A few peli- 
 cans musing on a patch of sandy beach, — paddlers in 
 their canoes, chanting merrily as they passed us by, — 
 parrots flying over head, and chattering gaily, — the 
 murmur of the insect world in the impenetrable bush, — 
 the water flowing down so gently, — all these influences 
 made me feel my former notions of the country re- 
 moved as by the wave of an enchanter's wand. 
 
 And taking a view from the deck of a ship in the Old 
 Kalabar river, near its mouth, with all these associations 
 I have enumerated, — with the peaks of Kameroons and 
 Fernando Po, — the Qua and Rumby range of moun- 
 tains in view, that seem, to use the words of Captain 
 Owen, " like the tombstones of a past earthquake," — no 
 scene in the world can be so sublimely different from 
 w^hat is generally conceived of the features of an African 
 landscape. I have no doubt that similar sensations 
 are felt in like cases by many persons, whose sense of 
 sight is so long strained to pierce beyond the horizon's 
 
210 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 boundary, by the first view of living verdure on a 
 foreign shore. 
 
 Sailing ships on their homeward voyage go much to 
 the westward of the course taken by steamers, and out of 
 sight of land ; but the student of nature can find much 
 to wonder at and admire in the vast meadows of Fucus 
 natans, or gulf-weed, that adorn the Saragossa Sea; 
 in the droves of porpoises that come tumbling past the 
 stem or stern of the ship, as if they were running away 
 from angry creditors, or bound on a voyage of discovery 
 to the other end of the world; in the numbers of 
 Medusae, of the Portuguese men-of-war or girdle of 
 Venus species ; in coming again to the region of flying 
 fish, benitoes, and albicores, with the exciting change 
 of an occasional cry of " sail ahoy ! " or the still more 
 agreeable one of now and then speaking a ship outward 
 bound, which always bears with it an odour of home 
 and home's comforts. 
 
 Many a night have I spent, on my first passage out, 
 as well as on my return, in observing the profuse dis- 
 play of the great Architect's handiwork in the many 
 constellations that adorn the tropical skies ; but no 
 -inhabitant of a country at tlie other side of the equator, 
 ever experienced more pleasure in beholding the 
 Southern Cross than I did on the first night that the 
 Polar Star beamed on our progress, when returning to 
 England in a sailing vessel. '^ In the solitude of the 
 seas," writes Baron von Humboldt, " we hail a star as 
 a friend from whom we have long been separated ; " and 
 I deeply felt the truth of his remark, as night after 
 
THE AZORES. 211 
 
 night made it appear more elevated, save when per- 
 plexing calms and contrary winds stood in the way of 
 our progress. 
 
 As we n eared the Azores or Western Islands, Fayal 
 and Pico were sighted, and our ship stood in for Ter- 
 ceira, as she was in want of repairs, which it was 
 deemed expedient to obtain before she attempted the 
 angry sea that lies between these islands and England. 
 
 Angra, the capital of Terceira, is the residence of 
 the governor, and the only town I had a glimpse of 
 when passing, as fearful squalls prevented our getting 
 into harbour. This group consists of nine : St. Mary's, 
 St. Michael's, Terceira, St. George's, Graciosa, Fayal, 
 Pico, Flores, and Corvo. They were discovered in the 
 middle of the fifteenth century, about forty- three years 
 before the discovery of America by Columbus. It is 
 said that Joshua Vanderberg was, on a voyage from 
 Bergen to Lisbon, driven by stress of weather into one 
 of the Azores. He is reputed to have been the first 
 man who trod the soil, for they are of recent volcanic 
 formation. They belong to the crown of Portugal. 
 
 Looking into Angra between Mount Brazil and the 
 Cabra islets, over as great an extent of country as was 
 visible, white houses seem very thickly dotted outside 
 the town, with here and there the towers of a convent, 
 or spire of a church overtopping all. Fields divided by 
 dykes or ditches showed a superior style of agriculture 
 to what is practised in Africa; whilst peaks and fissures 
 over the land pointed out the localities of former vol- 
 • canic convulsions. The town of Praya, which is to the 
 
 p 2 
 
212 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 north and east of Angra, was destroyed by one of these 
 eruptions so late as the year 184L* 
 
 A description of the Azores has been written by 
 Captain Boidf of the Portuguese navy, in which he 
 depicts them as so many gardens of Eden, but repre- 
 sents their inhabitants, male and female—lay and sacer- 
 dotal — as very low in the scale of morality. 
 
 It is unnecessary to revert to any facts connected 
 with my return home — on three successive voyages, 
 and in each of them with renewed health — save those 
 which are connected with the chief cause of this work 
 appearing before the public — namely, to give the 
 results of my experience as to the most effectual means 
 of removing the erroneous impressions that prevail 
 with respect to Western Africa, and of setting forth 
 my own ideas as to the future prospects of that 
 country's commercial relations with Great Britain. 
 
 African Malaria. 
 
 At the first view of an African river, the voyager 
 who has been a reader of Liebig may remember that 
 he has written :j: : " The oxygen which is produced from 
 
 * For particulars, see an article in the "Nautical Magazine" for 
 September, 1841, by Mr. Hunt, then British consul at St. Michael's. 
 
 ■j- A Description of the Azores, or Western Islands. By Capt. Boid, 
 late of Her Majesty's Navy. London, Churton, Holies-street, 1835. 
 
 J Chemistry and Physics in Relation to Physiology and Pathology, 
 p. 66. 
 
AFRICAN MALARIA. 213 
 
 green vegetable substances is an enemy and opponent 
 of all contagion and miasma." In my earliest super- 
 ficial glance, I was puzzled to understand how malaria 
 could be generated where so great a quantity of oxy- 
 gen must be constantly in process of development, 
 amongst trees and shrubs of such perpetual verdure as 
 those which gird the embouchures into the sea of all 
 the West- African rivers. 
 
 Yet that malaria and fever are cause and effect in 
 Western Africa, as they are all the world over, there 
 can be no doubt to any person who has once penetrated 
 that region. At certain seasons of the year, as soon as 
 we come within the sphere of the germination of malaria, 
 our olfactory nerves frequently make us sensible of its 
 presence. Walking along pathways through the bush- 
 wood, and far away from what we are apt to consider 
 as the indispensables of decomposition, we occasionally 
 become conscious of a " steamy vapour," which flies up 
 with an intensity sufficient to bring on an attack of 
 ague (with persons predisposed to it) in the course of 
 a few hours. Voyaging in a boat up the creeks that 
 abound in the rivers of the Bight of Biafra, an odour of 
 a more disagreeable flavour, but not so suddenly oppres- 
 sive, often greets us. Endemic fever attacks a large 
 proportion of the crews of nearly every ship sent out 
 for the purpose of trading ; and the ultimate chances of 
 recovery depend, perhaps, as much, if not more, on the 
 diminution of the main exciting cause, by removal of 
 the invalid from its influence, as on the idiosyncrasy of 
 
 p 3 
 
214 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the patient, or the efficiency of therapeutic means for 
 the removal of the disease. 
 
 Whence, then, comes this malaria that has so long 
 given a deadly name to these rivers and shores? The 
 late Professor Daniel thus answered : " It appears to 
 me that there are only two sources to which it can, 
 with any probability, be referred, namely, submarine 
 volcanic action, in which case its evolution might be 
 considered direct or primary ; and the reaction of the 
 vegetable matter upon the saline contents of the water, 
 in which case it would be secondary. The probability 
 of a volcanic origin is, I think, small, from the absence, 
 I believe, of any other indications of volcanic action, 
 and from the great extent of the coast along which it 
 has been traced. What is known of the action of 
 vegetable matter upon the sulphates, and the immense 
 quantities of vegetable matter which must be brought 
 by the rivers within the influence of the saline matter 
 of the sea, renders, on the contrary, the second origin 
 extremely probable. Decaying vegetable matter ab- 
 stracts the oxygen from the sulphate of soda contained 
 in sea-water, and a sulphuret of sodium is formed. 
 This again, acting upon the water, decomposes it, and 
 sulphuretted hydrogen gas is one of the products of the 
 decomposition." 
 
 This distinguished chemist therefore inferred that 
 sulphuretted hydrogen gas, produced as thus explained, 
 was the basis of malaria. Eight bottles of water taken 
 up from different parts of the coast, were forwarded to 
 him for analysis ; and in one specimen, that of water 
 
OBJECTIONS TO PROFESSOR DANIEL's THEORY. 215 
 
 taken from the Bay of Lopez, the gas amounted to the 
 same proportion as it exists in the waters of Harrowgate 
 — I believe sixteen cubic inches to a gallon. Yet, 
 although it has been stated that this gas impregnates 
 the seas and rivers along shore in enormous quantities, 
 through an extent of more than 16° of latitude, as well 
 as that the ysVo^^ P^^^ ^^ sulphuretted hydrogen gas 
 in the atmosphere acts as a direct poison upon small 
 animals, I have objections to this theory, from a dis- 
 trust of its correctness,, for the following reasons : — 
 
 Firstly. — Because the unhealthiness of Western 
 Africa is not confined to the coast, nor to the localities 
 where sul[)huretted hydrogen gas can be generated by 
 the action of decomposing vegetable matter on salt 
 water; but seems — at least it has done so in expedi- 
 tions previous to that of the "Pleiad" — to increase 
 w^ith the ascent of the rivers, and not to be absent from 
 countries very distant from the sea-shore. In Mungo 
 Park's second expedition, of 44 Europeans who accom- 
 panied him from the Gambia, 39 died between Shrouda 
 and Sansanding, several hundred miles from the man- 
 grove swamps, through which they passed without loss. 
 In Laird and Oldfield's Niger expedition of 1833, out 
 of 40 Europeans 9 only returned — the majority dying 
 near Adamuggoo, more than 150 miles from the river's 
 bar: and in the government expedition of 1841-42, 
 there was a mortality of 48 out of 145 — only 15 
 escaping the river fever, which did not make its ap- 
 pearance till the ships were at Iddah, above 200 miles 
 
 p 4 
 
216 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 from the sea! The mortality increased as they as- 
 cended to Egga^ about 80 miles above the confluence. 
 In Captain Tuckey's expedition up the Congo in 1816, 
 56 men died — the greatest number at the highest point 
 of progress, 280 miles from the coast. Sulphuretted 
 hydrogen gas, begotten of mangrove and salt water, 
 could have had nothing to do with these facts of mor- 
 tality ; and the cause of them is undecided. 
 
 Secondly. — If this theory of Professor Daniel's were 
 correct, malaria should be generated iu every part of 
 the tropics where the elements for its manufacture 
 exist On the opposite coast of Brazil, and up the 
 Amazon and Orinoco rivers, vegetation is as profuse 
 and as luxuriant as in Western Africa, and yet malaria 
 is not developed in like proportion. The Maranham 
 river, on the northern coast of Brazil, in lat. 4° S., 
 long. 44° W., — only two degrees north of the deadly 
 Congo, the scene of Captain Tuckey's luckless expedi- 
 tion, — rises from sixty to seventy feet in height during 
 the rainy season, extending from June to August. 
 During the following three months it falls a like 
 amount, leaving behind it a quantity of earthy detritus, 
 decomposing vegetable matter, and so forth, on which 
 the salt water must act, as the tide ascends to sixty 
 miles from the river's mouth. " It is very strange," 
 observes Dr. M'Cormack*, "that, according to writers 
 in the ' JNTaval Medical Statistics,' extensive districts in 
 South America, abounding with the usual sources, so 
 esteemed, of malaria, should yet display little or no 
 
 * Methodus Medendi, p. 29. 
 
TEOFESSOR DANIEL's EXPERIMENTS. 217 
 
 periodical disease, while regions in the same parallel in 
 Africa, neither hotter, perhai)S, nor abounding with 
 more exuberant vegetation, are proverbial for its fre- 
 quency and severity." 
 
 Thirdly. — Professor Daniel seems to have lost sight 
 of the fact, that waters brought from African rivers, 
 and requiring a few months for their conveyance, 
 cannot be expected to possess the same chemical pro- 
 perties in a laboratory in London as in their parent 
 streams in Western Africa. The laws of chemistry are 
 so uncertain, that these waters must be constantly 
 undergoing changes not cognisable to subsequent ana- 
 lytical tests, if from no other, from meteorological 
 causes. Professor Bischof, of Bonn, states, that 
 " the sea- water in Africa will contain far less sul- 
 phuretted hydrogen than that analysed by Professor 
 Daniel ; " and that " this gas has for the most part 
 been produced during the carriage of the waters to 
 England." 
 
 Fourthly. — Fevers occur at Elmina, Cape Coast, 
 and Akra, although no mangrove swamps are there, 
 as marked in their characters as any that take place 
 in the Bay of Lopez, where sulphuretted hydrogen gas 
 is reported to be equal in quantity to that contained in 
 the waters of Harrowgate. 
 
 Fifthly. — Because my own experience does not 
 justify my placing faith in Professor Daniel's experi- 
 ments. When I was stationed in the Old Kalabar 
 river, on board the "Magistrate" in 1851, and on 
 board the "Loodinah" in 1853, I tested the water of 
 
218 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 that river, taken up at six different localities, ten miles 
 from each other, but not higher than Duketown, above 
 which the mangrove grows, and whose locality is about 
 forty-five miles from the bar, in lat. 4° 57' 3C N., 
 long. 8° 9' 15" E. Now, as Baron von Humboldt says 
 that " salt water is necessary for the growth of man- 
 grove," there must have been in all these specimens 
 the elements necessary for the production of sul- 
 phuretted hydrogen gas. Some of the water was tested 
 at the time of taking it up, and some of it kept for a 
 month afterwards before being submitted to analysis. 
 It was preserved in a bottle with a ground-glass 
 stopper, — in a bottle corked and sealed, — in a bottle 
 corked alone, — and in an open jug. My reason for 
 keeping it in a bottle with a ground-glass stopper w^as, 
 because Dr. M'William, in his register of experiments 
 upon the waters of the Niger, states that he had 
 discovered sulphuretted hydrogen gas therein ; but 
 adds, that he could not tell whether the gas was gene- 
 rated by the action of the tannin of the cork upon the 
 water, or of the components of the water one upon an- 
 other. My specimens were tested by solution of sulphate 
 of copper, of acetate of lead, and of nitrate of silver, all 
 made in distilled water ; yet in no instance was there 
 evidence of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, — a milkiness 
 in the w^ater, produced by the nitrate of silver solution, 
 and a bluish tinge by that of the sulphate of copper, 
 being the only changes evident. 
 
 The specific gravity of the water used in my analysis 
 varied from 1019 to 1260, the temperature from 76° 
 
OPINIONS OF PROFESSOR DUMAS. 219 
 
 to 80°, according to the seasons or the time of the day 
 at which it was taken up. 
 
 In this explanation of Professor Daniel's, I would 
 also ask any disciple of his to observe how he makes 
 this theory conflict with the opinions of the celebrated 
 Professor Dumas.* 
 
 " Wafted away by the wind, sulphuretted hydrogen 
 soon meets with vegetable remains, in the humid pores of 
 which it is again converted into sulphuric acid and sul- 
 phates. The sea contains sulphates, and feeds mollusca, 
 the secretions of which absorb the oxygen of the 
 sulphates, and they are changed to sulphurets, from 
 which hydro-sulphuric acid is constantly disengaged." 
 
 So that here are opinions of two eminent chemists, 
 tending to opposite results in their explanation. If 
 Professor Dumas be correct, we know that this change 
 is taking place every day where mollusca exist, as they 
 do over all the intertropical ocean. Moreover, an 
 ordinary knowledge of chemistry teaches us that sul- 
 phur is constantly returned to the earth from the sea, 
 through the atmosphere, thence the soil and to plants ; 
 yet this process does not produce malaria elsewhere 
 than on the western shores of Africa. 
 
 *' I have applied the tests f which were sent to 
 me," said Mr. J. Peters, assistant-surgeon, of H. M. S. 
 " Pluto," in his evidence before a parliamentary com- 
 mittee on Western Africa, '' to all the waters of the 
 
 * In an opening lecture delivered at the Faculty of Medicine^ Paris, 
 Nov. 16th, 1846. 
 
 f The tests similar to those used b^ Professor Daniel, 
 
220 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 different rivers, and it is farcical in the extreme. There 
 was nothing of the sort, or the least approach to it. 
 The waters were no more sulphuretted than pure water 
 would be from a well in England." This latter state- 
 ment is a little hyperbolical ; for the waters of all the 
 African rivers contain mud and vegetable decom- 
 ponents ; but there is no evidence from chemical analysis 
 of the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen gas. 
 
 In another paper of Professor Dumas *, on the same 
 subject, he writes: " We all know the deleterious effect 
 of the disengagement of sulphuretted hydrogen gas in 
 certain marshes, where it is caused by the decomposition 
 of sulphate of lime. This salt acting on the organic mat- 
 ters, which are found there, is converted into sulphuret of 
 calcium, which the carbonic acid in its turn decomposes 
 into carbonate of lime and sulphuretted hydrogen. 
 Its appearance is always indicative of great danger, 
 especially if we find the locality of its manifestation 
 to have been overflowed with water, and that whether 
 we consider this gas to act by itself (zvhich is least pro- 
 bable), or whether it be regarded as a mere vehicle of 
 of organic miasmata." 
 
 So that, after all this polyglot of scientific palaver, 
 we arrive at the conclusion that the cause and origin 
 of malaria are still in embryo as much as they were 
 in the time of Lancisi, an Italian physician, who wrote 
 a work on the noxious effluvia of marshes about the 
 year 1695 — the first book known to have been penned 
 on the subject of malaria. 
 
 * Vide "Medical Times," No. 380, Jan. 9th, 1847 p. 273. 
 
OPINIONS OF DE. WATSON. 221 
 
 Pursuing the subject, however, a little further, the 
 experiments of Professor Daniel do not coincide in 
 their conclusions with the practical experience of Dr. 
 William Fergusson, corroborated by Dr. Watson in his 
 " Principles and Practice of Physic." He says * that 
 '^ vegetation is not necessary for the production of 
 malaria, and that the peculiar poison may abound where 
 there is no decaying vegetable matter, and no vege- 
 table matter to decay." Dr. AYatson, after giving 
 some facts from a paper of Dr. Fergusson's, — as of the 
 encampment of the British army at Rosendaal and 
 Oosterhout in Holland, in 1794, where remittent 
 and intermittent fever appeared among the troops, 
 bivouacking on a dry sandy soil without any vegetation 
 — of the army, after the battle of Talavera, retreating 
 into the plains of Estremadura, where all the country 
 and the streams were dry from want of water, and 
 remittent fever of destructive malignity almost extir- 
 pated our troops — of the river Tagus at Lisbon, di- 
 viding the healthy town from the Alentejo, which, though 
 flat and sandy, is most pestiferous, — thus continues f : 
 " Now these facts, and facts like these, seem to prove 
 that the malaria and the product of vegetable decom- 
 position are two different things. They are often in 
 company with each other ; but they have no necessary 
 connection. For producing malaria, it appears to be 
 requisite that there should be a surface capable of 
 absorbing moisture, and that this surface should be 
 
 ♦ Dr. Watson's Principles and Practice of Physic, p. 733. 
 t Op. cit. p. 735. 
 
222 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 flooded and soaked with water, and then dried ; and 
 the higher the temperature, and the quicker the drying 
 process, the more plentiful and the more virulent 
 (more virulent probably because more plentiful) is the 
 poison that is evolved." 
 
 Malaria is known to be absorbed by its passing over 
 water as well as by its attraction to the foliage of lofty 
 umbrageous trees. It is also stated to have no in- 
 fluence 2000 feet above the surfoce of its germination ; 
 and one or the other causes acting so as to modify its 
 influence on the human economy, no limit can be 
 placed to the period of its development. Dr. Johnson 
 writes, " It often requires eighteen, twenty, or even 
 thirty days to bring on fever." Dr. Jackson says, 
 ^' It is not limited to two months." Dr. Bancroft 
 allows it even nine or ten. I have known a person 
 residing for fifteen months on board a ship up the Old 
 Kalabar river, never having had an hour's illness during 
 his stay there, yet three months after his return to 
 Liverpool — his voyage home likewise occupying 
 three months — he had two very severe attacks of inter- 
 mittent. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, in his " Influence of Tropical Climates 
 on European Constitutions," takes more trouble than 
 appears to me to be necessary to contradict the ridi- 
 culous idea, that " the stomach is the medium through 
 which the matter of contagion acts, and, by analogy, 
 that marsh miasmata take the same road." The mu- 
 cous membrane of the stomach has its share, of course, 
 •in the general absorption; but the Schneiderian (or 
 
OPINION OF DR, MADDEN. 223 
 
 membrane lining the nose) and the pulmonary 
 mucous membrane have much the larger part of the 
 work. The quantity taken in by the stomach cannot 
 affect the nervous system primarily as it is done by 
 the combination of its influence on the other functions 
 just named. 
 
 Out of a mass of medical testimony compressed into 
 one of the Blue Books of the House of Commons by 
 Dr. Madden, and all relating to Western Africa, the 
 only spark of light that is thrown on the subject of 
 malaria is the opinion given by Dr. Madden himself 
 of the causes of mortality that occurred in the expe- 
 ditions up the African rivers. *' These perils are, in 
 my opinion, occasioned by atmospherical conditions 
 and circumstances connected with vegetation, and not 
 by peculiarities in the waters of these countries. 
 Whenever there is a hot and humid atmosphere, and an 
 uncultivated country with rich soil and rank rapid 
 vegetation, the elements of African disease are to be 
 found, and there also its perils avoided." 
 
 It will be observed, that each of the authorities 
 quoted is of a different opinion about the fo7is et origo 
 mail in malaria. One attributes it to '^ decomposing 
 vegetable matter in its action on salt water ; " another 
 makes, as a sine qua non for its production, '* a surface 
 capable of absoibing moisture; this surface flooded and 
 soaked with water and then dried ; " and the third will 
 allow it to be " dependent on atmospherical conditions 
 and circumstances connected with vegetation." With 
 Dr. Madden I am more inclined to agree than with 
 
224 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 the others, particularly in his first sentence. Because, 
 from the " steamy vapour," which is so abundant in 
 Fernando Po, as well as through the countries up the 
 rivers, I am induced to believe that the African 
 malaria is an earthy emanation, caused by chemical 
 changes that can only be produced from uncultivated 
 land, or, in a lesser degree, from land undergoing the 
 process of cultivation. All agricultural industry in 
 Africa has proved that the cultivation of the soil is the 
 most effectual way of doing away with the demon 
 malaria; and this likewise makes me believe it to be 
 a virus peculiarly sui generis, for the reasons advanced 
 in my second objection to Professor Daniels theory, 
 did no others exist. In writing this, I am aware that 
 I advocate an opinion contrary to some of my medi- 
 cal brethern, for whom I entertain a profound respect ; 
 but my conviction on this subject is further corrobo- 
 rated by the following extract from Captain Trotter's, 
 report of the expedition of 1841-42; ^* The sickness 
 of the coloured men on this occasion, shows, in some 
 measure, that the constitution of the negro, whether of 
 African or American birth, requires an habitual resi- 
 dence in Africa to be entirely exempt from the fever 
 of the country. This is found to be the case in Liberia 
 with the emigrants from North America; they all, 
 with few exceptions, have fever on their first arrival, 
 and many die ; but those that recover are said to stand 
 the climate afterwards."* If it can be proved to me 
 that members of Caucasian race, emigrating from one 
 * Parliam. Rep. p. 88, 
 
THE CAUCASIAN RACES. 225 
 
 nation to another in Europe, require to be acclimatised 
 before settling in foreign countries for their residence ; 
 or if it can be demonstrated that the peculiar narcotic 
 " steam vapour " written of, is generated in any inter- 
 tropical country save Western Africa, then, I shall 
 give up my faith in the virus of fever here being a 
 specific one, but not till then. 
 
226 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 CHAP. xy. 
 
 Malaria continued. — Best Means of neutralising its Influence. — Indis- 
 pensability of Quinine. — Awnings to Ships. — Clothing, Diet, and 
 moral Influences. — Prevention of Fever. — Administration of 
 Quinine. — Treatment of Fever. — Symptoms of African Endemic. 
 
 — Objection to Vensesection and Salivation. — Suggestions for re- 
 moval of irregular Intermittents. — Division of African Fever. — 
 No acclimatising Fever in Africa. — Enumeration of exciting and 
 predisposing Causes. — Facts opposed to Salivation. — Paralysis super- 
 vening on Prostration caused by frequent Attempts to excite Vomiting. 
 
 — Unruly Symptoms of a perplexing Case. — Removal of Patients 
 into a different Atmosphere. — Mr. Boyle's Sol-lunar Influence. — Its 
 true Explanation by Mr. Milner and Dr, Lardner. — Dysentery. 
 
 Leaving, however, the organic composition of ma- 
 laria still as an uncertainty, enough has been ascertained 
 of it to prove that sulphate of quinine is the best pro- 
 phylactic to its influence, aided with such hygienic 
 measures as were adopted so successfully in the 
 '^ Pleiad's " voyage. With these I believe the culti- 
 vation of the soil to be the most eiFectual antagonist to 
 its future generation. 
 
 Previous to our ascent of the Niger in 1854, I re- 
 ceived from Dr. Bryson a paper of suggestions, in the 
 most of which there is a perfect unanimity of opinion 
 between the respected author's views and my own.* 
 
 * Vide Narrative, p. 226. London, Longman, Brown and Co., 1855. 
 
MEANS or NEUTRALISING MALARIA. 227 
 
 With reference to his advice about an awning with 
 curtains for those who were to sleep on deck, there was 
 an awning permanently over the '' Pleiad " from stem 
 to stern, and a curtain to hang down by the side of the 
 quarter-deck at night, or during rain. Some of our 
 officers slept in cots on deck invariably, and others were 
 occasionally compelled to pass the greater part of 
 the night there, owing to the serenading of the blood- 
 thirsty mosquitoes. I consider a fixed awning to be in- 
 dispensable on board any ship intended for exploration 
 of a West African river. 
 
 The vessels moored in the African rivers for trading 
 purposes present to unaccustomed eyes a very singular 
 appearance. Their lofty rigging is all taken down, and 
 from stem to stern a bamboo roof stretches over the 
 decks, impervious alike to the intense heat and the 
 heavy rains of the climate. 
 
 There are few things that conduce so much to health 
 in Africa as keeping up a uniform temperature of the 
 body, and changing one's clothes as often as comfort will 
 suggest. This is one of those trifles which many people 
 pass heedlessly by, but its importance cannot be over- 
 estimated. The few trivial cases of fever we had when 
 up the " Tshadda-Biniie " were, I believe, owing to the 
 neglect of this rule. The climate of Africa is so vari- 
 able that one does not know when the thermometer may 
 rise or fall eight or ten degrees ; and therefore the care- 
 less throwing aside of flannel leaves the body unguarded 
 against these vicissitudes. Dr. Coombe mentions his 
 
 <12 
 
228 IMPKESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 being told by Captain Murray, that he was so strongly 
 impressed, from former experience, with a sense of the 
 efficiency of the protection afforded by the constant use 
 of flannel next the skin, that on his arrival in England, 
 in Dec. ] 823, after two years' service amid the ice-bergs 
 of Labrador, the ship being ordered immediately to sail 
 for the West Indies, he directed the purser to draw two 
 extra flannel shirts and pairs of drawers for each man, 
 and instituted " a regular daily inspection to see that 
 they were worn." These precautions were followed by 
 the happiest results. He proceeded to his station with 
 a crew of 150 men, ^* visited almost every island in the 
 West Indies, and many of the ports of the Gulf of 
 Mexico ; and notwithstanding the sudden transition 
 from extreme climates, returned to England without 
 the loss of a single man, or having any sick on board on 
 his arrival." Sir James McGregor states that when in 
 India he witnessed a remarkable proof of the usefulness 
 of flannel in checking the progress of the most aggra- 
 vated form of dysentery in the 2nd battalion of guards. 
 All who go to Africa, whether medical men or other- 
 wise would soon find it a different climate, if by 
 these and other suggestions they become imbued with 
 the very old axiom, that " prevention is better than 
 cure." 
 
 The experience of eight years has impressed me with 
 the necessity of attending to such precautions ; of 
 taking care to avoid wetting, and, if this be inevitable, 
 of changing clothes as soon as possible. It is important 
 to make it an invariable rule never to go ashore in the 
 
INDISPENSABILITY OF QUIKIXE. 229 
 
 morning without breakfast, or an equivalent to it in the 
 shape of a cup of coffee. 
 
 Dr. Bryson's opinion of the prophylactic influence of 
 quinine *, demonstrated by reports from the medical 
 officers of the African squadron, first turned my atten- 
 tion seriously to consider it in the light wherein 
 I believe it to be the most valuable ; — before fever, 
 striking a blow at the virulence of malaria ; after fever, 
 screwing the debilitated system out of the abyss of 
 adynamia. Hitherto I had only known it to be used 
 in the treatment of fever and ague, in the pyrexial 
 as well as the powerless condition. From the day 
 before we crossed the bar, in the ^' Pleiad's " voyage, 
 I commenced giving quinine solution to all the Euro- 
 peans on board. Not having a sufficient quantity of 
 the medicated wine, I dissolved the sulphate in 
 like proportions in water, and added two glasses of 
 wine to each pint of my solution. Some of the officers 
 at first grumbled in taking it, and drank it with a 
 very sour face; but soon all, wuth one exception, 
 came to be so anxious for it, that had I not made a 
 rule to put the bottle and glass over the engine-room 
 every morning at daybreak, they would be down at my 
 bedside for the dose. The man whom I could not 
 train into taking it was one of our second mates, who 
 in the course of our voyage had a few severe attacks of 
 remitting fever, accompanied with delirium, for which I 
 was obliged to shave his head, and administer sedatives 
 
 * Vide Article on " Prophylactic Influence of Quinine," in Medical 
 Times and Gazette, January 7th, 1854, by A. Bryson, M.D. 
 
 Q 3 
 
230 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 and sudorifics. After some time our negro men craved 
 for it ; and the Krumen even commenced to steal it. 
 
 I think a fact, which I am about to state here, will 
 answer the following paragraph in Dr. Bryson's sugges- 
 tions : — '^ Whether or not the influence of quinine on 
 the system, like that of other medicines, becomes 
 lessened by long-continued use, we have no knowledge ; 
 possibly the question may be determined during the 
 present expedition." I had it dispensed daily for the 
 Europeans under my charge from the day before we 
 crossed the bar to three weeks after our return to Fer- 
 nando Po, a period of a hundred and forty days. In no 
 single case could I recognise its failure. When some of 
 our officers, who from not taking it punctually, got slight 
 attacks of remittent fever, the accession always yielded 
 to an active purge of calomel, colocynth, and taraxacum, 
 with doses of quinine increased to ten grains. The 
 symptoms subdued, I returned to the original dose 
 of quinine, observing after each occurrence the 
 precaution to lecture them on their irregularity in 
 taking it ; pointing out its benefits, and impressing 
 them with the fact, that our return through the Delta 
 would be in the most unhealthy season of the year. 
 Despite of these attacks, and of our prolonged stay up 
 the river, we had the same number and the same men, 
 twelve Europeans and fifty-four Africans, on our 
 return to Fernando Po, that we had on board when 
 leaving it, the 8 th of July. The preservation of 
 their health I attribute to the following causes : — 
 
 First. — To our having entered the river at the 
 
PREVENTION OF FEVER. 231 
 
 least unhealthy season of the year, when the water was 
 rising. 
 
 Second. — To my having induced the Europeans to 
 take quinine solution daily, without making any fuss for 
 its palpable necessity. 
 
 Third. — To our not being required to stow green 
 wood in the bunkers, in consequence of having the iron 
 canoes for its conveyance. 
 
 Fourth. — By attending to the health of the ship and 
 crew, in having all the water used on board passed through 
 the engine's boiler before it was filtered ; having the 
 deck dry scraped instead of washed ; and looking after 
 some of Sir William Burnett's zinc solution being passed 
 down the bath floor twice a week, taking care to have 
 the bilge water pumped out daily. 
 
 Last, though not the least in consequence, keeping up 
 the hilarity of all on board by the Krumen's nightly 
 dance to the music of a drum, kindly lent to us by Go- 
 vernor Lynslager, of Fernando Po. 
 
 There is one point not alluded to in Dr. Bryson's 
 suggestions, which I think it would be culpable in me 
 to pass over unnoticed : — ■ I mean the utility of daily 
 ablution, with a shower bath if it can be procured. 
 We had one on board the " Pleiad," and found its use 
 most refreshing and invigorating. Attention to the 
 functions of the skin in any part of the world, but 
 especially in a tropical climate, is as necessary as any 
 rule about the preservation of health. Dr. James 
 Johnson, in his work on " Intertropical Diseases," writes 
 earnestly of the sympathy between the liver and skin. 
 
 Q4 
 
232 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Knowing such a sympathy to exist, then, and aware of 
 the important functions which the liver carries on in the 
 torrid zone, this ought to be, of all hygienic rules, the 
 most assiduously cared for. Whether E. Wilson's state- 
 ment in the "Philosophical Transactions for 1844," of a 
 German physician, named Dr. Simon, having discovered 
 Eniozoa foUiculorum in the perspiratory tubes, be cor- 
 rect or not, is a matter of little value for practical men 
 to inquire into. Enough for us to know, that Lavoisier 
 and Seguin have estimated eight grains of perspiration 
 to be exhaled by the skin in course of a minute, a 
 quantity equal to thirty-three ounces in twenty-four 
 hours; that 2500 are the number of square inches over 
 the body of a man of ordinary height and dimensions; 
 2800 the average number of pores in a square inch, con- 
 stituting a length of 700 inches ; that these multiplied 
 show 7,000,000 of pores, and 7,750,000 perspiratory 
 tubes — that is, 145,833 feet, or 48,600 yards, or nearly 
 28 miles ! and enough to teach us the necessity of keep- 
 ing the skin in a healthy condition. 
 
 Should the healthy exhalation of the skin be sup- 
 pressed or arrested, its power to absorb is increased ; 
 and then not only what has been eliminated through 
 the perspiratory tubes is again taken in, but with it 
 the deadly poison of paludal malaria finds an entrance 
 into the human economy. 
 
 To this may be added a further calculation of 
 Lavoisier's, that eight grains of perspiration per minute 
 amount to a quantity of thirty-three ounces in twenty- 
 
DR. MCWILLIAM. — MORAL IMPRESSIONS. 233 
 
 four hours. If a man would Imagine his body plastered 
 over with two pounds weight of mud during each day 
 and night of his life, a little more attention would be 
 paid to the function of the skin. 
 
 A very absurd idea prevails with some people that 
 prickly heat {lichen tropicus) must be driven into the 
 system from the skin by washing in cold water, and so 
 may cause fever or dysentery. Cold water properly 
 applied, that is, by a few douches or scrubs of the body 
 with it, only causes a stimulus to increased action of 
 the skin, and thus rather obviates fever and dysentery 
 than promotes them. 
 
 What I have mentioned as the third cause of the 
 " Pleiad's " being so healthy, is one that must not be 
 lost sight of in any future expedition ; for I believe it 
 was stowing green wood in the bunkers that more than 
 anything else contributed to the disastrous results of 
 former voyages, particularly to that of the government 
 expedition in 1842. 
 
 In his " Medical History of the Niger Expedition of 
 1841-42," (at p. 15), Dr. Mc William writes: "Moral 
 impressions are intimately connected with the main- 
 tenance of health, as well as with the production of 
 disease; a conviction that the ship herself is sweet, 
 that there is nothing in her to germinate disease, will, I 
 am persuaded, go far to fortify men against the evils of 
 the coast climate." I should rather say that the absence 
 of '* moral impressions " may be put down to the credit 
 of the " production of disease," and I should be very 
 
234 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 sorry to bind my ideas of moral influence to the single 
 fact of sailors' "convictions" on the ^* sweetness " of 
 their ship, and the absence in her of anything " to 
 germinate disease ; " chiefly because I know it is a thing 
 they never inquire into, and because my ideas on the 
 matter of *' moral impressions " are a little more latitu- 
 dinarian than to confine them to any isolated hygienic 
 fact like this. The ^^ moral impressions " of permitting 
 sailors to have an occasional walk on shore, where the 
 ground is dry and elevated, as it is up many of the 
 African rivers, instead of keeping them, as I know 
 them to be kept in some places, cooped up beneath a 
 bamboo roof on board a ship for a period often of two 
 years at a spell — the "moral impressions" caused by 
 allowing them to participate in public worship wher- 
 ever missionary stations exist— -the "moral impres- 
 sions " of permitting the joke and the song to circulate 
 amongst them when their day's work is over, — and 
 more especially as in our ascent of the Niger, and 
 Tshadda-Binue — at sight of lofty ground, bringing 
 back to recollection the mountains associated with their 
 childhood- — these are the ^^ moral influences" that pro- 
 duce the most salubrious eiFects, both mentally and 
 physically, in exploring voyages as well as on board 
 stationary trading vessels. 
 
 Another subject which this seems to me to be an 
 appropriate place for introducing, is that of the use of 
 spirituous liquors as beverages in Western Africa. 
 And I deem it the more necessary to do so, because 
 medical men who are looked up to as practical authori- 
 
PEEDISPOSING CAUSES TO FEVEK. 235 
 
 ties have advocated a system to which all experience 
 teaches me to be opposed. 
 
 Mr. Boyle, formerly colonial surgeon at Sierra Leone, 
 has published* a medical work upon Western Africa, at 
 p. 75 of which he writes : " However much the asser- 
 tion may be at variance with the conclusions arrived at 
 by some other writers and observers, it may be confi- 
 dently stated that the absolute ^ water drinker' is in as 
 dangerous a predicament when once seized with fever 
 as the * absolute drunkard.' " 
 
 The opinions of all the physiologists of our time, and 
 the records of mortality up every river as well as at every 
 station on the coast of Africa, speak directly contrary 
 to this " confident statement." I believe there are few 
 more powerful, and I fear not to add, more frequent 
 predisposing causes to African fever than the inebriety 
 of Europeans at all these places. The pathology of the 
 disease should teach us also, that when patients get into 
 an adynamic condition of the system, which appears to 
 be an invariable symptom of all phases of African fever, 
 the stimulus of spirituous liquor, which is then required 
 to keep them from sinking, cannot be as powerful in its 
 influence on those who have been in daily use of it as 
 on water drinkers. For Europeans to indulge in strong 
 drinks beneath an intertropical sun — even apart from 
 malarious influence — is like trying to put out a fire by 
 heaping coals upon it. 
 
 * " A Practical Medico-Historical Account of the "Western Coast of 
 Africa," by James Boyle, M.R.C.S.L., Colonial Surgeon at Sierra Leone, 
 Surgeon, R.N. London, Highley, Fleet Street, 1831. 
 
236 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Mr. Boyle tries to modify this statement by stating 
 that " the man who lives as nearly when abroad as cir- 
 cumstances will allow up to his general habits when at 
 home, has infinitely a better chance of recovery than 
 the absolute water drinker or the absolute drunkard." 
 This safe medium theory is perfectly erroneous, for a 
 man to drink or abstain from water — to drink or abstain 
 from brandy, under the impression that either practice 
 will indemnify him against taking fever, is an absurd 
 delusion, and almost the certain way to catch it. 
 
 " I do not look upon Africa as the deadly continent 
 it is the fashion to describe it," writes Lieut. Forbes. 
 *^ Men enter Africa determined to have fevers, and like 
 the phantom's story in the Persian fable of Cholera, fear 
 kills them. Less cant on the subject of African dis- 
 eases would materially assist to stop the slave trade, and 
 render African enterprise more genial." * 
 
 Hence it is the predisposing cause of fever that is 
 the fatal agent in such cases and not any debility ensu- 
 ing on over-indulgence in water drinking. 
 
 Another medical authority. Dr. Atkin, considers the 
 African fever most fatal amongst persons of intemperate 
 habits, in which I agree with him; but he adds, "Of 
 twenty persons coming to Sierra Leone, ten of them 
 practising total abstinence and ten moderately indulg- 
 ing in the use of wine and spirits, preserving the 
 medium between temperance and excess, the chances of 
 life would be greater amongst the latter." This I deny 
 
 * Forbes's *' Daliomy and the Dahomans." 
 
DR. atkin's opinion. 237 
 
 in toto, because I believe Dr. Atkin cannot define to 
 any prescribed limit a ne plus ultra between moderate 
 indulgence and excess. 
 
 Dr. Madden went to the coast '^ a practical believer 
 in the advantag^e of total abstinence from all kinds of 
 liquors," and only became converted to the contrary 
 doctrine, because he found the necessity of using wine 
 during his protracted convalescence after a recovery 
 from fever on the Gold Coast — when it was adminis- 
 tered medicinally, and when of course it would be of 
 most use to him. Even his case does not in the slightest 
 degree ratify the opinions of the two former-quoted 
 medical authorities ; and I fear not to assert, even 
 against Dr. McDonald's observation, that " total absti- 
 nence, unless from water, will never answer here." All 
 my experience goes to the contrary. The Europeans 
 whom I have known to be the best acclimatised men in 
 Africa — to sleep the most soundly — to have good Ap- 
 petites and clear heads — to get over attacks of fever 
 most lightly, were men who never indulged in spirituous 
 liquors, and who only took wine in conjunction with 
 quinine, after opening their bowels on an accession of 
 headache or other febrile disturbance. 
 
 The embryo of the Dracunculus or Guinea-worm 
 being supposed to be contained in the fresh water ob- 
 tained at Cape Coast and Akra may be advanced as an 
 objection to my principle there. But I believe the 
 nuclei of these animals, if they exist in it, can be de- 
 stroyed by boiling and filtering the water. 
 
238 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 The article on the prophylactic influence of quinine, 
 to which allusion has been made (at page 214), contains 
 the annexed paragraphs, which I deem this a very ap- 
 propriate place for introducing to the notice of my 
 readers — to the palm-oil merchants of England more 
 especially: — "I have been reminded by an obliging 
 communication, which I received only two days ago 
 from Mr. Hickmann, secretary to the commander-in-chief 
 (Rear- Admiral Bruce), of the necessity there is for 
 adopting some measures different from those which now 
 exist for the preservation of the health of the seamen 
 employed in merchant-vessels on the coast of Africa. 
 Vast numbers of these men, in the very prime of life, 
 die every year of fevers contracted on the coast, and yet 
 no one seems to know anything about them. As these 
 vessels generally carry (for the prevention of scorbutic 
 disease) a supply of lime-juice, which, in consequence of 
 thft great abundance of yams and fruit, is nearly if not 
 entirely useless, I would venture to submit, that instead 
 of the lime-juice, they ought to carry a sufficiency of 
 quinine wine for the use of the crew, which should be 
 administered in the same manner as in the men-of-war 
 on the station." The suggestion of using medicated 
 wine for lime-juice is one that only requires a twelve- 
 month's trial to prove its superiority. Were such a 
 regulation as this carried out. Western Africa would 
 cease to have the vile character it bears over the civilised 
 world. But in merchant- vessels it cannot be served as 
 in men-of-war. From the former boats are not sent on 
 detached service, but the ships are anchored, some for 
 
PROPHYLACTIC INFLUENCE OF QUININE. 239 
 
 SIX, others for twelve, and many from eighteen to 
 twenty-four months, in the very hot beds of malaria. 
 The endemic fever generally breaks out amongst the 
 crew at periods varying from four to eight weeks after 
 the vessel's arrival at her station. I would therefore 
 suggest that the medicated wine should be given daily 
 for two months after the ship has crossed the bar — that 
 it should be administered again for a month at the end 
 of the wet season — and always kept on board for use 
 in an accession of fever amongst the officers or crew. 
 If the merchants and supercargoes do not take these 
 suggestions in their hands, the attention of medical men 
 to them will be unavailing. Messrs. Bailey and Wills 
 of Horseley Fields, Wolverhampton, prepare a vinous 
 solution of this drug with proper directions for its ad- 
 ministration. I may here state I am of opinion that 
 daily washing the decks of a ship stationed in an African 
 river is anything but conducive to the health of those 
 on board. Being covered from stem to stern with 
 bamboo roofs, these must necessarily prevent the per* 
 feet evaporation from the water impregnated with the 
 germs of malaria, and hence it will be inspired by the 
 crew. Dry-scraping the decks every day, and washing 
 them only once a week, I would strongly recommend as 
 a substitute. 
 
 African Fever. 
 
 African fever may be divided into the continued, the 
 remittent, and intermittent — the first being the rarest, 
 and the last two the most frequent. Continued and 
 
240 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 remittent have some times degenerated into typhus 
 icterodes, and as the naval records tell us into epidemic 
 yellow fever, or *' the true yellow pestilence of the west 
 coast," of which I am thankful I have had no experience. 
 Ever entertaining a belief that there is no accli- 
 matising fever in Western Africa, the following extract 
 from Dr. Bry son's* work strengthens my opinion on this 
 subject : — *^In the report of the * AthoU' in 1 829, which 
 had been stationed in the Bights, it is remarked that the 
 cases of fever have recovered much more slowly of late 
 than formerly (a twelvemonth ago), so that, instead of 
 its being an advantage to be acclimatised, it is appre- 
 hended it will be found quite the reverse ; for the sys- 
 tem becomes relaxed and debilitated by the enervating 
 influences of the climate, and consequently it is more 
 difficult to restore it to a state of health and vigour." 
 The faith of Fordyce, with reference to persons becom- 
 ing hardened to the effects of the malarious or contagious 
 principle, is only true in Africa of cases where the 
 malaria has not become developed into any form of the 
 fever. When the human constitution is acclimatised, it 
 is most effectually accomplished without fever ; but, very 
 frequently, idiosyncrasy of the patient, or a combination 
 of powerful predisposing causes, will tend to the conver- 
 sion of miasma into a continued remittent or inter- 
 mittent attack. '^ In proportion as the body is weakened 
 or exhausted, it yields more readily to the pernicious 
 influence of contagion or malaria ; but by obviating all 
 
 * Keport on the Climate and Principal Diseases of the African 
 Station. By A. Bryson, M.D., p. 83. 
 
OBJECTION TO SALIVATION. 241 
 
 causes of debility, and fortifying the system, we walk 
 with comparative security amid surrounding pestilence."* 
 A good constitution may become acclimatised by absti- 
 nence from ardent spirits, unless used medicinally, by 
 attention to food and clothing, and to the functions of 
 the skin — by healthy exercise and a cheerful confidence 
 in the performance of the means recommended — the 
 best that can be adopted to obviate the " enervating 
 influence of climate." Every phase of African fever that 
 I have seen was adynamic; and therefore the system, 
 after each attack, is rendered more impressible to the 
 recurrence of another, by its being subjected to any of 
 the causes of this disease. The causes may be divided 
 into exciting and predisposing. The exciting is ma- 
 laria; the predisposing are constant exposure to the 
 main exciting cause — intemperance — fear and anxiety 
 
 — want of attention to cleanliness of person — sudden 
 change of temperature without attention to garments — 
 heavy wetting without changing clothing — over fatigue 
 
 — constipation. 
 
 And these causes being allowed to produce their 
 effects, either singly or in combination, by inattention 
 to the rules prescribed in the preceding pages, we have 
 to consider the fact of fever before us. 
 
 From the first case of fever which I treated in the 
 Old Kalabar River, in the beginning of 1851, to the 
 present time, I have entertained similar ideas to those of 
 Dr. Bryson, and followed out this line of practice inva- 
 riably — discarding the abuse of calomel as a ptyalist, 
 * Dr. Watson's Principles and Practice of Physic, p. 1 7. 
 
242 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 and setting my face against bleeding an European in 
 Africa, unless for inflammation of a serous membrane — 
 a case very rarely to be met with. The practice which 
 has been recommended by Johnson, Boyle, McCullagh, 
 McWilliam, and other intertropical writers, and which 
 has prevailed for the last thirty or forty years, is 
 contrary to all our present knowledge of human phy- 
 siology and pathology, and would seem calculated only 
 " to reduce the force of the vital energies without 
 moderating the violence of the fever." The very facts 
 that '' ptyalism cannot be produced under any circum- 
 stances, or in any disease while fever exists," and that 
 calomel (being a mineral preparation, insoluble in the 
 blood, unless it is converted into muriate of mercury by 
 the action of gastric juice upon it) cannot be eliminated 
 through the perspiratory functions of the skin, whereby 
 it should come, acting as an alterative, ought to teach 
 any one its hurtfulness. All that can be done when 
 fever sets in, is " to guide the patient over the dangers 
 of the passage," remembering that we cannot when it 
 is once established arrest the onward course of the 
 malady. 
 
 In our expedition of 1854 there was no case in which 
 extraordinary treatment of any kind was required, and 
 were the principle of neutralising malaria before it 
 becomes developed adopted more generally by medical 
 men on the coast of Africa, the fever of that country 
 would very shortly lose its appalling bugbear character. 
 Its therapeutic management may be summed up in a 
 very few words. Meet symptoms as they present 
 
FREQUENT EMETICS OBJECTIONABLE. 243 
 
 themselves. If the bowels be confined, open them with 
 a purgative of calomel, extract of colocynth, and 
 taraxacum, containing a drop of oil of peppermint ; — 
 if the head ache or delirium be present, cut or shave 
 off the hair, and apply cooling lotions ; — the tongue foul, 
 and nausea existing, give an emetic of tartarised anti- 
 mony and ipecacuanha, followed up after some time by 
 effervescent draughts, with five or six minims of 
 dilute hydrocyanic acid, administered in water " with 
 the chill off." If there be pain in the epigastrium, 
 apply camphor and oil of turpentine to the pit of the 
 stomach; — skin hot and dry, give a diaphoretic of nitre, 
 calomel, and James's powder after the bowels are 
 opened. This was the practice I have pursued in sixty 
 cases whereof I have written records, and which show 
 a mortality of four out of the sixty — about six per cent. 
 
 My recommendation of calomel as an accessory sudo- 
 rific and purgative will not be taken as an approval of 
 the drug for salivation. I have faith in the medicine 
 being a useful one when properly applied ; it is only 
 against its abuse that I contend. 
 
 To emetics frequently administered, I have a decided 
 objection ; and I would recommend them only to be 
 employed when the accession of febrile attack, with foul 
 tongue and nausea, comes on after a full meal. Of the 
 debility ensuing upon the frequent act of vomiting, even 
 caused by titillation of the fauces with a feather, I had 
 painful evidence in the case of a medical man at Old 
 Kalabar, who was very much addicted to that practice 
 in his own person. He died after lingering four days 
 
 R 2 
 
244 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 in the most perfect condition of paralysis I ever saw ; 
 and the general prostration I could attribute to no 
 other cause than to the weakness produced hj vomiting 
 — joined, perhaps, to the influence of malaria on a very 
 delicately formed frame. Even the muscles of deglu- 
 tition were so affected, that he could not swallow a 
 teaspoonful of any liquid without danger of suffocation. 
 And, though unable to exercise muscular action enough 
 to elevate his little finger, his sense of hearing was so 
 acute, that he could distinguish the sound of paddles or 
 oars long before they were perceptible to any one else 
 on board his ship. 
 
 Frequently the most unruly and distressing symptom 
 in African fever is the continued irritability of the 
 stomach. This I found, except in a few obstinate 
 cases, to yield to small effervescing draughts, always 
 made in water out of which the cold w^as taken by the 
 addition of a tablespoonful of the liquid warm, and 
 containing four to six minims of dilute hydrocyanic 
 acid (Pharm. London). When this failed, turpentine 
 and camphor applied to the epigastrium generally 
 proved efficacious. On one occasion, and in a very 
 perplexing case, I tried a plan recommended by a 
 Dutch surgeon at Elmina Castle. The patient was 
 pulseless and cold in his extremities, covered with a 
 frigid clammy perspiration, constantly vomiting, and 
 passing stools incontinently from him. Hopeless as 
 his recovery seemed at first — for I considered him 
 almost in articulo mortis — and seeing that neither by 
 mouth nor injection could anything be retained I 
 
A PERPLEXING CASE. 245 
 
 applied blistering fluid to the pit of his stomach, cut 
 the cuticle off as soon as it rose, and wetted the part 
 with flannel steeped in a solution of quinine and 
 brandy. Meantime, and while the blister was rising, I 
 had additional blankets put over him and hot bricks 
 applied to his feet. The man rallied ; his pulse rose ; 
 his extremities grew warm ; he was soon able to retain 
 grateful nourishing drinks on his stomach ; and he 
 eventually recovered. 
 
 Fearfully puzzling cases of fever that a medical man 
 is likely to meet with in Africa are those in which 
 prostration or perfect powerlessness comes on suddenly 
 — where there is no evidence of special organic derange- 
 ment, and where the patient sinks into death rapidly. 
 I have observed it seize a sick man in the middle of his 
 pyrexial condition, hurrying him to the grave in a few 
 hours ; and it pains me to confess, that I believe no 
 remedy can be applied for this condition of aflkirs, save 
 to obviate its occurrence by the proper administration of 
 quinine beforehand. Cases in which this morbid action 
 occurred seemed always to be derived from an accumu- 
 lated quantity of malaria in the system, thus becoming 
 developed " in a heap " (to use an expressive vulgarism) 
 by some predisposing cause. 
 
 The purgative I have most generally used contains 
 three grains of calomel, two of extract of taraxacum, 
 and five of compound extract of colocynth, made into 
 two pills with a little oil of peppermint. Taraxacum, 
 combined with calomel, seems to me to exercise a specific 
 action on the liver, as Dover's powder with calomel is 
 
 B 3 
 
246 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 increased in its diaphoretic, and jalap with the same 
 drug in its hydragogue properties. When the stomach 
 will not retain these pills, and a speedy evacuation is 
 required, ten grains of calomel in half a tea-spoonful of 
 liquid extract of taraxacum may be followed in a few 
 hours by an active seidlitz draught, to the unloading of 
 the bowels and liver sufficiently. 
 
 For intermittent I generally found that quinine, 
 given during an exacerbation, whether diurnal, tertian, 
 or quartan, was more effectual when prefaced by a 
 clearing out of the primes vice with some of the pills just 
 mentioned. But a careful avoidance of any of the pre- 
 disposing causes, and a removal from the germinating 
 influence of malaria, is essential to effect a cure. Dr. 
 Baillie, Dr. Pitcairn, Dr. Haviland, and Dr. Watson, 
 all advocate the same line of treatment, of giving open- 
 ing medicine before administering quinine. Sometimes 
 when quinine is objected to, salicine or biberine, if at 
 hand, may be tried, or quinine made into pills with mu- 
 cilage ; but, despite of Dr. Bryson's recommendation, I 
 contend that there is no occasion for the use of that 
 abomination to our Pharmacopoeia, Fowler's arsenical 
 solution, in the treatment of intermittent fever. When 
 the accession assumes the character which is entitled 
 " postponing," citrate of iron and quinine is a very 
 useful medicine, and most efficacious in fortifying the 
 system against an attack, when the invalid is removed 
 from the direct exciting power of the main cause of the 
 malady. 
 
 If the removal of an invalid from the direct exciting 
 
DYSENTERY. 247 
 
 power of malaria cannot be effected in toto, it is my 
 opinion that change of air, being known to be more be- 
 neficial in all maladies in a miasmatous country than in 
 a healthy one, will be found to be equally so out here. 
 Cases have come within my cognisance in Western 
 Africa, where persons removed into a comparatively less 
 pure atmosphere than they were used to reside in have 
 been benefited by the change. And this breaking the 
 habit of disease by removal into another atmosphere, as 
 in chronic intermittents, is thus commented on by Dr. 
 M'Culloch, in his "Essay on Remittent and Inter- 
 mittent Diseases : " — " If this be the case, a difference 
 in the quality of the air breathed, which is what the 
 popular phrase would signify, is not in itself the remedy ; 
 though respecting this we really are not in a capacity to 
 argue at present, since it is most certain that the atmo- 
 sphere in different states or places produces effects on 
 the body, of which our present chemistry does not 
 enable us to investigate the causes. The lungs or the 
 organs here concerned, to whatever extent, are in reality 
 chemical agents superior in discernment or power to 
 those of our laboratories ; or the involuntary and un- 
 conscious animal is that chemist, which the reasoning 
 one is not, carrying on operations which he can neither 
 imitate nor discover, and detecting substances which he 
 cannot find." There is no doubt of an evident truth 
 being in these remarks, though it is somewhat mystically 
 expressed. 
 
 Supervening upon fever, and indeed often assuming 
 its place as the representative endemic of the country, 
 
 B i 
 
248 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 comes that intractable disease, dysentery. The mala- 
 rious influence on the native population shows itself 
 more in this malady than in fever. With them I have 
 generally found it to yield to a little raw ground- rice, 
 mixed with cold water, or decoction of pomegranate 
 peel, in the proportion of half an ounce to a pint of milk 
 or water boiled for fifteen minutes. Compound powder 
 of chalk, with opium, will also be found useful after 
 clearing out the alimentary canal with a dose of castor- 
 oil. Opium is a medicine which should not be used to 
 excess, as the patient feels considerably relieved by its 
 anodyne influence, which, if long continued, will aggra- 
 vate the disease by relaxing the alveolar muscular tissue. 
 In most ordinary cases, a dose of castor- oil followed up 
 by ground rice, and abstinence ffom food, liquid or 
 solid, for a few days will effect a cure. 
 
 The majority of these attacks which ensue with 
 Europeans after fever, and are consequently dependent 
 on a debilitated state of constitution, can only be 
 effectually treated by removing the invalid into a dif- 
 ferent atmosphere. The same therapeutic management, 
 used as an accessory to the influence of change of air, 
 will prove in most cases equally salutary ; and no hy- 
 gienic treatment is more efficacious in warding off a 
 disease than attention to the functions of the skiif to 
 obviate dysentery. 
 
 In the same work of Mr. Boyle's, from which I have 
 quoted, and at the same page, are these remarks, the 
 erroneousness of which I deem it my duty to demon- 
 state : — " Sol-lunar influence is powerful in the produc- 
 
SOL-LUNAR INFLUENCE. 249 
 
 tion of fever on the western coast of Africa, and, 
 indeed, in all parts of the tropics. Many instances have 
 been known of men, whilst at work under the rays of 
 the sun, dropping down as if shot, and that without any 
 previous symptom or habit of indiscretion ; and also 
 men who, to avoid the closeness sometimes experienced 
 in sleeping between decks, have slept on the upper deck 
 without the knowledge of the officer on watch, thus ex- 
 posing themselves to the apparently harmless beams of a 
 brilliant moon, have often been known to be suddenly 
 affected with fever. The rapidity of the latter attack 
 precludes the thought that they were attributable to 
 damps or dews that might be falling in the night, and 
 which indeed are also common causes of fever, but not 
 -go immediate in their consequences." 
 
 The post Iwc ergo propter hoe reasoning of this is 
 completely put aside by remarks on the same sub- 
 ject in Milner's *' Gallery of Nature," page 481. "A 
 preceding statement, that in temperate climates, dew is 
 never observed upon the naked parts of a living and 
 healthy human body, is not true of tropical countries 
 where, after the high temperature of the day, under a 
 perfectly clear sky, the earth radiates heat with great 
 rapidity. This is the probable solution of some cases of 
 physical injury sustained by persons sleeping in the 
 open air with the face exposed, commonly supposed to 
 be the effect of moonlight. Now the circumstances 
 under which these effects transpired, a clear tropical 
 moonlight night, are precisely those favourable to the 
 production of dew, which promotes the putrefaction of 
 
250 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 animal matter, and renders it deleterious, and the in- 
 jury sustained by the parties sleeping exposed to the 
 moonbeams — not a solitary example of such an occur- 
 rence — was far more probably caused by the cold and 
 moisture produced by the immense radiation of heat, 
 consequent upon a cloudless night sky after a hot day, 
 than by moonlight, which all scientific examination 
 ehows to be innocuous, uninfluential." 
 
 This opinion is further confirmed by Dr. Lardner, 
 who states that " the skin being, in common with the 
 leaves of flowers and of vegetables, a good radiator of 
 heat, will, when exposed in a clear night, sustain a loss 
 of temperature." This must, therefore, arise from a 
 constant lowering temperature of the skin by radiation *, 
 and would seem to me to be similar to what Dr. John- 
 son calls '* a stroke of the land wind in India." 
 
 * Vide Appendix C. 
 
THE BIGHT OF BIAFRA. 251 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Report on the Peculiarities of Trade up the Rivers in the Bight of Biafra. 
 — Geographical Position of the Bight. — Enumeration of its Rivers. — 
 Table of latest Returns of Palm- Oil. — Of the existing Condition of 
 Niger and Tshadda Trade. — Varieties of Currency. — Mode in which 
 Trade is carried on at the different Stations of Brass, New Kalabar, 
 Bonny, Old Kalabar, and Kameroons. — Contrast between the present 
 Production of Palm-Oil and that of Twenty Years ago. — Necessity 
 of non-interference of Supercargoes with the Laws and Superstitions of 
 the Natives. — Progress of the Slave Class in Trading Operations. — 
 The peculiar Condition of African Society as at present constituted — 
 The Slave Class the future Producers of their Country's industrial 
 Resources. — Dr. Livingstone's Observations on Free Labour at the 
 Mauritius.— The true Plan of civilising Africa. 
 
 The Bight of Biafra extends from Cape Formosa, in 
 lat. 4'^ 21 N., long. 6° 10 E., to Cape St. John, in lat. 
 1° 15 N., long. 9"" 30 E. ; a coast extent of nearly 300 
 miles. 
 
 According to the latest Admiralty survey, the posi- 
 tion of Cape Formosa has been placed between the Nun 
 and Sengana outlets of the Kuorra. 
 
 The Bight of Biafra therefore contains the Xun, the 
 Brass (or Bento), the St. Nicholas, the St. Barbara, 
 the St. Bartholomew, the Sombrero, the New Kalabar, 
 the Bonny, Andony, Old Kalabar, Bio del Bey, Bimbia, 
 Kameroons, Balimba, Boreah, Karapo, Bati, St. Benito^ 
 
252 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 and Bassakoo; constituting nineteen rivers that have 
 their embouchures into this Bight. 
 
 The following table comprises the latest returns of 
 palm-oil exported from those places within this Bight 
 engaged in the trade; — 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name of River. 
 
 Amount 
 of Tons. 
 
 From Jan. 1, 1855 to Jan. 1, 1856 - 
 „ July 1, 1854 „ Julj 1, 1855 - 
 
 „ Jan. 1,1855 „ Jan. 1, 1856 J 
 
 Brass - 
 
 New Kalabar & Bonny * 
 OldKalabar - 
 Bimbia 
 Kameroons 
 Fernando Po - 
 
 Total 
 
 2,280 
 
 16,124 
 
 4,090 
 
 96 
 
 2,110 
 
 360 
 
 25,060 
 
 Independent of this, in the rivers Malimba, Boreah, 
 and Kampo, palm-oil is bought by coasting vessels, 
 chiefly American and French ; and from all the rivers 
 ivory, ebony, and redwood are brought home in nearly 
 every ship. Moreover some oil is taken by each of the 
 African Steam Company's vessels. Out of Kameroons 
 there are from six to ten tons of ivory yearly exported. 
 In the Old Kalabar and the Kampo, ivory is also pro- 
 duced ; and from the Benito, redwood, india-rubber, wax, 
 ivory, and ebony. 
 
 Up the rivers between Benin and Brass, as well as 
 between Brass and Bonny, there is no legitimate traffic 
 
 * These rivers are placed together because they have a common em- 
 bouchure, and trade is carried on in both by the same agent. 
 
VARIETIES OF CURRENCY. 253 
 
 yet established ; but from observations in our late ex- 
 ploration of the Niger and Tshadda-Binue in the S.S. 
 *' Pleiad," I believe the elements of a great mart to be 
 waiting development through the countries interior to 
 those streams. At Aboh, Iddah, Oloturo, Igbegbee (the 
 confluence of the Tshadda and Kworra), Yimmaha, 
 Gandiko, and Zhibu are the chief trading stations in 
 this river, which bears various titles in different local- 
 ities, the Niger-Kworra, the Tshadda-Lihu-Nu, and 
 Binue. The articles obtainable in the countries adja- 
 cent to its banks are palm-oil, shea-butter, cotton, lead 
 ore, red pepper, camwood, and indigo. No doubt but 
 that in time other industrial resources will be deve- 
 loped. The goods that are prized most by the natives 
 in exchange for these products are cowries, cloth, and 
 salt. Cowries are the shells of the cyprea moneta of 
 Linnaeus, procured in the islands of the Pacific, and in 
 Zanzibar, as well as in other parts of Eastern Africa. 
 Their ad valorem worth is generally a " string " of 40 for 
 a penny, a '' common head," or 5 strings (200), for 5 
 pence; a "head" of 50 strings (2000) one dollar; a "bag" 
 of 1 heads (20,000) 10 dollars. At Igbegbee, about 300 
 miles from the sea, British manufactured goods, which 
 are brought up from Bonny, Brass, and Benin, as well 
 as across the Yoruba country from Lagos, are exposed 
 in the market for sale ; and they have also here glass 
 beads of a double pyriform shape that are carried over 
 the continent from Mecca ; for the system of traflSc 
 and barter seems to be the prominent one in the African 
 temperament. 
 
254 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 At Rogan Koto, where the Tshadda is called Llhu, 
 the natives have a currency of iron plates of this shape, 
 the handle being about five inches long, 
 and the base of the triangle about four 
 inches in breadth. It is called Akika 
 (in the Doma and Tuka), Ibia (in the 
 Mitshi), and Agelemma (in the Houssa languages). 
 For the purchase of a slave, thirty-six of these are 
 given ; but I could not ascertain their commercial 
 value in other respects. They are also used by the 
 blacksmiths for making knives and similar utensils.* 
 
 Salt is so valuable at Ototouro, a few miles above 
 Iddah, that 10,000 cowries (5 dollars' worth) are given 
 for a bag of that article weighing twenty or thirty 
 pounds. This salt is brought from the palm-oil rivers. 
 Farther up the country, they dig salt from earth pits in 
 the dry season, which at a place called Ojogo, about 
 130 miles above the confluence, is exchanged at from 
 300 to 400 cowries' worth of goods, for a small matted 
 bag not containing more than one pound in weight. 
 That valuable vegetable product, shea-butter, with me- 
 
 * Dr. Baikie, in Appendix B, p. 416, to his Narrative of the Ex- 
 ploring Voyage of 1854, mentions this kind of money as being probably 
 of indigenous origin, and gives the following extracts to prove the exis- 
 tence of a similar currency in other places : *' In Moko they have coined 
 money made of iron in the form of a roach, the rundle as big as the palm 
 of a hand, with a handle about an inch long." — Ogilly's Africa, fol. 
 1670, p. 482. 
 
 " The money of Moko is of iron in the shape and figure of a thornback, 
 flat, and as broad as the palm of the hand, having a tail of the same 
 metal of the length of the hand," — Barhot's Description of the Coasts of 
 South Guinea, in ChurckiWs Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. v. 
 p. 380. 
 
MODE OF CARRYING ON TRADE. 255 
 
 talllc ores, and other industrial produce not obtainable 
 elsewhere in the Bight, can be obtained up these rivers, 
 and the natives are as anxious to barter as any to be 
 met with on the coast. 
 
 The mode of carrying on trade in the different rivers 
 of the Bight of Biafra, varies as follows : — In Brass, 
 New Kalabar and Bonny the representative currency is 
 called " bars ; " in Old Kalabar, it is entitled " coppers ; " 
 in Kameroons it is ^' i«r5," " coppers," " crews," " big 
 tings," and " little tings," terms constituting an ad va- 
 lorem representation, whose meaning I fear I shall be 
 unable to make myself understood in endeavouring to 
 explain. 
 
 With reference to the " bars " in Brass and Bonny, 
 they were formerly represented by " Manillas," and 
 are so still in some degree. Those cost three pence 
 each, and twenty of them, amounting to ^\q shillings, 
 signified a " bar " in the olden time. They are pieces 
 of copper of a horse-shoe form, about four inches in the 
 measurement of the circumference of their circle, and 
 and about half an inch in that of their density ; being 
 terminated by two lozenge shaped ends facing one 
 another. There are five different patterns, and though 
 a casual observer could scarcely discriminate between 
 them, yet the practised eye of the natives does it at 
 once, and cannot be deceived. The " Antony Manilla " 
 is good in all the interior markets. The " Cono-o 
 Singolo " * or " bottle-necked," is good only at Opungo 
 
 * This is also styled the " Nango Ward," or Long Ward, from a tall 
 gentleman of that name, who, I believe, first introduced them. 
 
256 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Market ; the " Onadoo " is best for the Eboe country 
 between Bonny and Xew Kalabar ; the *^ Finnlman 
 Tawfinna"* is passable in Ju-ju town and Qua market ; 
 but it is only one half the worth of the *^ Antony," 
 and the ^' Cull a Antony '^ is valued by the people at 
 Umballa. A piece of cloth, whatever it costs, is 
 charged at five " bars ; " a gun, a puncheon of rum, or 
 half a barrel of powder; and similar articles at so many 
 '^ bars '* of a fixed price. 
 
 Articles bartered at Old Kalabar, are represented by 
 the term " coppers,*' the origin of which was a copper 
 rod, about a yard in length, value for a shilling. Now, 
 however, brass are substituted for copper rods ; though 
 the name still remains. For cloth and fancy articles 
 here, so many ^^ coppers '* are charged, according to the 
 profits required on the invoice price, or as the peculiar 
 species of goods are in demand amongst the natives. 
 
 In Kameroons the currency is known by the terms 
 "bars,*' "coppers," '^ crew^s," " big tings," and *' little 
 tings." The native traders carry on all their dealings 
 with the interior country by " bars," and with the 
 European traders by " crews." A crew varies in price 
 from ten to twenty shillings sterling, being a measure 
 of palm-oil which contains twelve and a half imperial 
 gallons, and therefore, the value of this is another 
 apocryphal representation of barter currency. " Big 
 tings" mean powder and guns, and the remaining 
 
 * "Finnimaii*' is the native name for Ju-ju -town, and "Tawfinna" 
 means permanent in, or peculiar to. 
 
BONNY, OLD KALABAR, BRASS. 257 
 
 heterogeneous mixture of cloth, rum, hardware, crock- 
 ery-ware, and so forth, come under the category of 
 "little tings." 
 
 When a vessel arrives at the mouth of any of these 
 rivers, its master is expected to send up for a native 
 pilot. At Bonny 150 "bars" must be given to the 
 pilot for conducting a ship in, and 250 for bringing one 
 out, no matter what her tonnage may be. If the pilot 
 be not sent for, and the master takes in the vessel 
 himself, he has, nevertheless, to pay half the sum for 
 pilotage. 
 
 In Old Kalabar the whole must be paid, whether the 
 pilot be employed or not. There it is twenty-five cop- 
 pers per registered ton of a ship. One " crew's ' worth 
 is paid for every three feet of the vessel's draught, if 
 only from Cape Kameroons to the anchoring place up 
 that river ; but if for a further distance, a " crew " or 
 two extra are generally paid. 
 
 Before a ship is allowed to commence trading, her 
 supercargo is expected to pay to the king or chiefs a 
 '^ comey," or custom bar, similar to port dues at home. 
 At all the rivers it is levied in goods, such as are 
 brought out for barter with the natives. 
 
 In Brass the " comey " amounts to the value of two 
 puncheons of oil for each mast a ship carries, and it is 
 divided between two chiefs, thus : — 
 
 A three-masted ship paying six puncheons value : 
 four of these are given to Keya, King of the Obullum- 
 
 Abry territory, and two to Arishima, King of Bassam- 
 
 s 
 
258 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 bry, the opposite side of the river. In Bonny and 
 New Kalabar, the '' comey " is five '^ bars " per register 
 ton of each ship ; and in the former river, this is divided 
 between Manilla Pepple, Ada Allison, and Illolly 
 Pepple, who constitute the present governing power 
 styled the " Regency." In the latter river, it is paid to 
 King Amakree. Beside this *^ comey " for Bonny, 
 there are two others demanded here ; one a '' custom 
 bar " for each puncheon of oil sold, which is deducted 
 from the native trader's money, and is levied by the 
 chief under whose auspices the supercargo may have 
 placed his ship for trading ; the other, a " work bar " 
 of three hundred for every twenty puncheons bought, 
 and which is claimed from the supercargo by the repre- 
 sentatives of the house to whom the trader belongs. 
 In Old Kalabar the "comey" is twenty coppers per 
 registered ton, two-thirds of which are paid to King Eyo, 
 and one-third to Duke Ephraim. In Kameroons it is 
 at the rate of ten ^^ crews" for every hundred tons of 
 the vessel's register. 
 
 At Old Kalabar and Kameroons the system of giving 
 out goods in trust prevails; and as there is no legal 
 mode of recovering debts from the natives, this gives 
 rise to much unpleasantness as well as to many abuses. 
 
 The circle of exchange in all the palm oil trading 
 countries being so extensive^ may be advanced as 
 a plea for the trust system. But, it should be re- 
 membered, that in a place where commerce is yet 
 in its infancy, it is impossible to realise a defini- 
 
TRADE IN PALM OIL. 259 
 
 tion of this principle, as thus explained in a " Dis- 
 course on Commercial Morals " by an accomplished 
 writer* : — " Credit is essentially a reliance upon charac- 
 ter during the currency of a transaction ; and with the 
 cycle of the transaction it should ever be susceptible of 
 close.*' 
 
 The natural indolence of the natives, and their want of 
 appreciation of the value of time, with the indispensa- 
 bility in most of the trust rivers, of changing British 
 goods into country currency, render the closing of 
 agreements at a given time an impossibility. 
 
 Hence it appears to me to be a matter of ordi- 
 nary caution to restrain trust within certain limits, 
 and to make a proportion of credit given out in cor- 
 respondence with the yearly produce of each locality 
 and the yearly average of trade carried on at each 
 station. Else, unrestrained, it is impossible to foretell 
 the time of social retribution to those who will shut 
 their eyes against common prudence in speculation. 
 
 No more cogent illustration of the success of legiti- 
 mate traffic to put down the slave trade could be 
 given than a record of the fact, that during the past 
 year 2,280 tons of palm oil were exported from Brass 
 river, and the chiefs of this place have never received 
 a farthing from Her Majesty's Government for the 
 suppression of the slave trade. When I state also 
 that in 1836, only twenty years ago, 13,850 tons were 
 the whole amount of palm oil imported into England 
 
 * Martineau. 
 s 2 
 
260 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 from all Western Africa; whilst, from July, 1854, to 
 July, 1855, more than 3,000 tons above that amount 
 have been sent from Bonny and New Kalabar, it may 
 be seen how the commerce of this part of the world is 
 increasing. 
 
 In the list of ninety-nine ships entered out from 
 Liverpool to the Western Coast of Africa from 24th 
 Sept. 1854, to 24th Sept. 1855, the tonnage amounted 
 to 43,346 tons. As nearly all these are entered under 
 the head of *' Africa," it is impossible to ascertain what 
 was the amount respectively to any of the rivers. But 
 the importance of the Bight of Biafra traffic may be 
 learned from our knowledge that, between the same dates, 
 there were imported into Liverpool, 50,672 casks of 
 various sizes, of which nearly one half, 23,830, were 
 brought from Bonny, and 2,850 from New Kalabar. 
 
 As corroborative of the importance of the Bonny trade, 
 I may mention that on the occasion of an official visit 
 there in April, 1856, there were twenty-six vessels in 
 both rivers, forming an aggregate of 13,216 tons. 
 
 When it is added, that in Dec. 1855, there were 
 upwards of forty vessels employed in the African trade 
 from the port of Bristol, comprising an aggregate of 
 about 10,000 tons, it is needless to point out how com- 
 mercial operations in the Bight of Biafra are advan- 
 cing. In Fernando Po, the palm oil export might be 
 increased to 4000 or 6000 tons per year, for the island 
 is covered with palm trees. But the Aboriginal Fer- 
 nandians are too lazy to do anything ; and so the palm 
 nuts fall down to rot on the roads leading to their 
 
NECESSITY OF NON-INTERFERENCE. 261 
 
 towns. A few millions of yams in the year are re- 
 ported to be produced from Fernando Po. 
 
 The trading operations in the rivers of the Bight of 
 Biafra need a very serious change before they can be 
 said to assume a condition that promises well for the 
 commercial prosperity of each locality. It is my 
 opinion, that Europeans coming out solely to barter 
 legitimately for the country's products, ought not to 
 interfere in matters of local government, local preju- 
 dices, or superstitions. The short interval that has 
 elapsed (say thirty-six years), between the slave 
 trading of former times and the legitimate commerce 
 of our day, has not allowed the social and moral 
 condition of the people to be changed pari passu 
 with the progress of that commerce. This is, unfor- 
 tunately, overlooked by our commercial representatives, 
 that men who before were liable to be seized and sold 
 any day in the market, as a puncheon of palm oil is 
 disposed of now, are becoming independent traders, 
 though not allowed to purchase their own freedom. 
 Thus the kings and chiefs wishing to keep these men 
 down, and they not seeing why they should not reap 
 the benefits of legitimate traffic in their own country, 
 the despotism of African monarchs is thereby some- 
 times called into operation, more especially when the 
 kings observe that those who were formerly slaves, and 
 are still unenfranchised, are the most active and honest 
 barterers to be found in the oil markets, as at Old 
 Kalabar, Bonny, and Kameroons. 
 
 fi 3 
 
262 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 The fact, that of the 150 millions of population, 
 which (according to McQueen) the continent of Africa 
 contains, three fourths are in a state of slavery, and 
 one fourth constitutes a despotic governing power, 
 is the most puzzling consideration with reference to 
 any design for its civilisation; and hence all matters 
 connected with such a plan must be discussed in a 
 light different from that in which we would judge of 
 affairs in a country where freedom is the aegis of peace 
 and comfort to all its inhabitants. 
 
 The absence of regular industry in the culture of the 
 soil, even for domestic comforts, as well as a complete 
 ignorance of mechanics and manufactures, must ever 
 exist where such a condition as this prevails. Educated 
 from his childhood to look upon his slaves, not as 
 his own flesh and blood, but as so many household 
 chattels, the master regards them in the same light as 
 our farmers do their cattle, to be sold or used to their 
 advantage. And we must not wonder at this, be- 
 cause these men, in whom the light of reason or of 
 religion has never been enkindled, cannot exercise 
 reflection on this or any other subject. Creatures of 
 an impulse little above that of animal instinct, in the 
 faculty of discerning between right and wrong on the 
 subject they are as deficient as the slaves ; who, on the 
 other hand, are made conscious, from the moment a 
 dawn of intelligence gleams upon them, that they are 
 their master's property, that they have no right to them- 
 selvesj and that they can be sold and torn from their 
 
REASONS FOR HELPING AFRICA. 263 
 
 parents — sent to the uttermost ends of the earth, at 
 their owner's will and pleasure. 
 
 The slave trade, being a growth of centuries, cannot 
 be eradicated in a day by any act of parliament, or 
 by any single plan, however excellent, or however 
 feasible. As much as our age can do will be to 
 clip its wings and extract its claws, leaving to a self- 
 created spirit of emancipation, that must be indigenous 
 to African soil, to effect its final overthrow. Nations, 
 the most civilised of which the world's history gives us 
 a record, have not grown to manhood in a single epoch. 
 Hence, Africa, helpless as she is, — for in human pro- 
 gress she is but an infant, — must have a fostering hand 
 to help her upwards, and show her people how to make 
 something of their country and themselves. There are 
 three reasons why Great Britain should be foremost in 
 this work : — 
 
 First. — Because of the Christian character of its 
 community, and its government. 
 
 Second. — In consequence of the restitution it owes 
 to Africa, for its many years' legitimisation of the slave 
 trade. 
 
 Third. — Because the exports from Great Britain to 
 Africa, and the imports vice versd^ exceed those used 
 and gained by any other nation of the world in connec- 
 tion with Africa. 
 
 On all parts of the coast, or near the outlets of 
 rivers, the British squadron, which has been actively 
 engaged here for thirty-seven years, finds very few slave 
 trading vessels to chase after or capture now. The 
 
 8 4 
 
264 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Portuguese and Spaniards to the north of Sierra Leone, 
 and in the neighbourhood of Lagos, are the only 
 powers engaged in it, and with them its importance 
 and consequent profit are daily diminishing, so closely 
 are they watched by Her Majesty's cruisers. In the 
 Bight of Biafra, as recorded of Angola by Dr. Living- 
 stone, " the time of the slave trade may be spoken of 
 in the past tense." 
 
 Nevertheless, it would appear, that the external as 
 well as internal slave trade will only be effectually 
 put an end to when the chiefs and masters in Africa 
 are taught, and understand, how far more profitably to 
 themselves they can exercise slave labour in the culti- 
 vation of their soil, than by selling it.* They will 
 then be brought to see, that it is not consistent with 
 common sense, transporting away the native Africans 
 to Brazil to cultivate and manufacture sugar, to 
 America to grow and pick cotton, to Cuba to aid in 
 the tilling of tobacco, when the very same products can 
 be obtained from their own ground at home. With 
 this will be generated, also, a desire and a power 
 amongst the slaves to work for their own emancipation, 
 of their anxiety to do which I have evidence, in a fact 
 communicated to me by the Rev. Mr. Crowther, that 
 several hundred slaves have so purchased their liberty 
 at Abbeokuta. The immense increase in palm oil, and 
 other exports from Africa, during the past ten years, 
 
 * " To deal and traffic, not in the labour of men, but in men them- 
 selves, is to devour the root instead of enjoying the fruit of human 
 diligence." — Burke, 
 
DR. LIVINGSTONE'S VIEWS. 265 
 
 will clearly disprove the fallacy that the native Africans 
 are averse to labour. At Sierra Leone, at Akra, at 
 Lagos, and at Old Kalabar, I have met negroes thirst- 
 ino^ for the knowledoje to turn the resources of their 
 districts into the proper channel, but, unfortunately, 
 no aid is nigh to give instruction to these aspiring 
 men. 
 
 No stronger evidence of the advantages of free 
 labour need be given, than that educed by the observa- 
 tions of the celebrated traveller, Dr. Livingstone. In 
 a letter to the " Times," on the occasion of his recent 
 visit to England, he writes: — ''The idea that the 
 Africans could not produce cotton enough for the 
 supply of England on their own soil, I very much 
 suspect, is a Yankee notion too. Look at the insigni- 
 ficant island of the Mauritius, 35 miles by 25 broad, 
 a great piece of volcanic rock, with so little soil, that 
 the boulders which covered it, must be placed in rows, 
 as dry stone dykes, in order to get space for the sugar 
 cane; the holes are made for the cane between the 
 rows, and a little guano added, for without that there 
 would be no sugar ; and when that part is exhausted, 
 the dykes must all be moved on to the intervening 
 spaces. The labour must all be brought by colonial 
 money from India, and then English enterprise pro- 
 duces sugar equal in amount to one fourth of the 
 entire consumption of Great Britain. The population 
 of this wonderful little island, 200,000, is entirely free : 
 the labourers, happy and comparatively free from the 
 influence of caste, feel more friendly to Christianity and 
 civilisation, and often return home as such men to spend 
 
266 IMPEESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 their after life in ease and quiet. Indeed, it is free 
 labour which here, as in Angola, produces the large 
 supply of the articles we need. The latter country- 
 contains a population of 600,000 souls, and only from 
 5 to 7 per cent, are slaves." 
 
 The people of Africa are slow in their habits of 
 thinking, as well as of acting. When Europeans pay 
 them a flying visit, such as the voyage up the Tshadda- 
 Binue, in 1854, they look upon it with distrust, be- 
 cause they have not time to comprehend it ; whereas, 
 by making settlements, having goods to sell, whose 
 addition to their comforts would become every day 
 more perceptible to them, showing them by example 
 how their land might be tilled to advantage, I have 
 not the slightest doubt that their faculties would soon 
 be incited to emulation, and thus the great work of 
 their civilisation would be commenced. 
 
 All our anti-slave trade cruising operations, all the 
 treaties for the abolition of the heinous practice of 
 bartering human beings, will prove of no avail in de- 
 livering the great Laocoon of Africa out of the grasp 
 of those two enormous serpents. Ignorance and Su- 
 perstition, with their attendant barbarity, under whose 
 power she is struggling, till Christianity and civilisa- 
 tion work hand in hand for her delivery. Not the 
 civilisation — too much of which I regret to believe is in 
 existence — calculated to create distrust on the part of 
 the natives towards Europeans ; but a spirit of com- 
 merce founded upon equity, and joined with conscien- 
 tiousness, that will induce the untutored African to 
 
THE TRUE PLAN OF CIVILISATION. 267 
 
 believe there is a reality in our Christian professions. 
 Such a system alone will realise the development of 
 peace, comfort, and happiness to them, as well as 
 lead in time to the commercial prosperity of Great 
 Britain. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 The information communicated to me in the following letter, 
 concerning the countries interior to Lagos, is from the pen 
 of the Rev. Samuel Crowther, a missionary of the Established 
 Church. 
 
 My first acquaintance with the Rev. Mr. Crowther, whom 
 I feel a pride and pleasure in calling my friend, was in our 
 fellow-passengership on board the S.S. " Pleiad," in the Niger 
 Expedition of 1854; and his mild and gentle bearing, with 
 his enlarged Christian views and manly intelligence on all 
 subjects he conversed about, made me at first inclined to 
 believe the history of his having been liberated from a slave 
 ship by Capt. Leake of H.M.S.S. ''Myrmidon," in 1822, 
 when he was only thirteen years old, as something akin to a 
 fairy tale.* 
 
 I do not know any one who is a more perfect illustration 
 of Mrs. Stowe'sf idea of "the wonderful and beautiful deve- 
 lopment locked up in the Ethiopian race," than the Rev. Mr. 
 
 * Vide Abbeokuta, or Sunrise with the Tropics, by Miss Tucker. 
 London, Nisbet and Co. 1853. 
 t Dred, p. 17. 
 
270 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Crowther. The observations and opinions in this commu- 
 nication are well deserving of serious thought with all 
 persons who have an interest in the development of the in- 
 dustrial resources of his country. And I have no hesitation 
 in giving it as my opinion, that it is chiefly men of the race 
 and qualities to be found in the Rev. Mr. Crowther that are 
 the best helpers to this work, and the most likely to com- 
 mence it successfully, be such an epoch at hand or in the 
 womb of futurity. 
 
 Peculiarities of the Countries interior to Lagos, 
 
 Lagos, September 10th, 1856. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 ^ "ik ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 This part of the country, of which Lagos in the Bight of 
 Benin is the seaport, is generally known by the name of 
 Yoruba country, extending from this Bight to within two 
 or three days' journey to the banks of the Niger. This coun- 
 try comprises many tribes, governed by their own chiefs, 
 and having their own laws. At one time they were all tri- 
 butary to one sovereign, the King of Yoruba, including Benin 
 on the east, and Dahomey on the west, but are now inde- 
 pendent. 
 
 The principal tribes into which this kingdom is divided, 
 are as follows. The Egbados : this division includes the Otta 
 and Lagos near the sea coast, forming a belt of country on 
 the bank of the lagoon in the forest, to Ketu on the border 
 of Dahomey. The next division is Ketu and Shabe, on the* 
 border of Dahomey on the west ; then the Ijebu on the east, 
 on the border of Benin ; then the Egbas of the forest, now 
 known by the name of Egba of Abbeokuta; then come 
 
APPENDIX. 271 
 
 Yoruba Proper, northward in the plain; Ife, Ijesha, Tjamo, 
 EfoLi, Ondo, Idoko, Igbomna, and Ado near the banks of the 
 Niger, from which a creek or stream, a little below Iddah, is 
 called Do or Ido River. 
 
 Water facility for conveyance of goods and produce from 
 the interior, is rather rare in the Yoruba country, but there 
 are some streams, if properly surveyed, which would prove 
 of immense advantage to commerce. 
 
 I would first mention the rivers lyewa and Opara, both of 
 which fall into the lagoon, the former a few miles above 
 Badagry, which was partly navigated by the Landers when 
 they started from Badagry on their journey to the Yoruba 
 country and the Niger. If explored, this river might be 
 navigable for boats and canoes to some distance inland 
 towards the industrious Egbado tribe, through whose district 
 it runs at the back of one of their villages, called Ijakaoke, 
 where it is crossed as one goes to Ketu. It was about three 
 feet deep in the dry season when I crossed it. The Opara 
 runs between Ketu and Dahomey, and is navigable for 
 canoes and boats to some distance inland westward ; from all 
 I could gather by information it runs through a country 
 abounding with palm trees, by which hundreds of tons of 
 palm oil and other produce might be floated down to the coast 
 instead of slaves, as it is now used by the King of Dahomey. 
 
 Besides the Ogun River, on which hundreds of tons of 
 palm oil, cotton, and other produce are floated down to 
 Lagos, there is a similar river eastward of Lagos in the 
 Ijebu country, known at the entrance into the lagoon as 
 Palma River. It is crossed in the Yoruba country, where 
 it is called Osun, and if explored might prove a valuable 
 facility from Yoruba Proper through Ijebu country, as the 
 Ogun River is through the Egba country. It is said the 
 
272 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 natives, through superstition, never navigate this water 
 except crosswise, which necessity compels them to do. 
 Judging from the point it is crossed in the interior on 
 the way to Eerin, upwards of a hundred miles above its 
 mouth, this river, which has been washing its waters into 
 the lagoon undisturbed, enshrouded in the bosom of thick 
 forest through which it runs to the coast, if explored, might 
 give a new impetus to commerce in this Bight. The advan- 
 tage of exploring this river has of late engaged the attention 
 of some enterprising persons, if encouraged to carry it out. 
 
 The people away from slave trading influence on the coast 
 are very industrious ; their chief occupation is farming and 
 trading. The male population attend to the former and the 
 female the latter, but a large portion of men do give part of 
 their time to trading also, and others pursue it altogether as 
 their chief work. They have no means of carrying their 
 produce to the coast except on the bead, and that from a 
 distance of one to two hundred miles from the interior. 
 Since the opening of the Ogun River from Abbeokuta to 
 Lagos, this drawback to conveyance of goods has been re- 
 moved in a great measure, and great impetus has been given 
 to the palm oil trade through that channel. If the Palma 
 River can be made use of in like manner, what an increase of 
 trade would be encouraged in this Bight from the interior ! 
 
 For want of better means of conveyance than men's heads, 
 immense tanks, unportable by human strength, have been 
 cut into pieces to facilitate their carriage to the coast from 
 the interior. There are a great many horses in the country 
 which cost only at an average of 10/. to 15/. each. With a small 
 outlay, cart and waggon roads can very easily be made from 
 one principal trading town to another, and we may infer from 
 the readiness with which the people load canoes with oil and 
 
APPENDIX. 273 
 
 Other produce from Abbeokuta to Lagos, that a cart or 
 waggon company would very readily recover their outlay, 
 and make a handsome profit on such an enterprise. The 
 facility with which carriage roads can be made in this country 
 is another inducement. The country being undulating, 
 makes a few small bridges necessary, and this among forests 
 of timber trees ; but to a very great distance the road runs 
 through level plains ; nothing is wanting but to widen the 
 path, and the cart road is made. In this way one might 
 travel with facility from Abbeokuta to the banks of the Niger 
 in a few days, and thus a chain of connection will be formed 
 both by land and by the River Niger, making Rabba the 
 upper trading establishment, in addition to that at the con- 
 fluence of the Kworra and Tshadda rivers below. Thus a 
 highway would be opened in this country by land from 
 Abbeokuta through Ijaye, Ago, Ogbomosa, Ilorin, and to 
 Rabba, a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles. 
 
 From the great interest the native chiefs take in trade, if 
 employed, they will expedite the work, and consider it a 
 great favour to be thus employed. Jealousy and fear of 
 each other prevent their moving to do anything of them- 
 selves, however desirable they may see the thing to be. 
 The present time is most favourable, since they have the 
 missionaries to back them in making peace with one another. 
 Those who had such a disposition, but dared not come for- 
 ward for fear of others, have been emboldened through 
 them to put in practice what otherwise they would have 
 been afraid to speak of. So it is in the case of road im- 
 provement. Abbeokuta would not do it, Ijaye would not do 
 it ; but no sooner was it proposed by the missionaries, and 
 some remuneration was promised to the labourers, than it 
 was at once agreed upon by the chiefs of both places. How 
 
 T 
 
274 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 much more will they not be likely to join hand in hand 
 when the subject is proposed to them by higher influence, 
 and shown to them that it is for their own interests. 
 
 The best way to draw out the resources of this country 
 would be the exploration of those streams leading to the 
 interior, and the improvement of the roads for traffic to the 
 banks of the River Niger, making Rabba the upper esta- 
 blishment, in addition to that of the confluence. 
 
 The chief produce of this country is, red palm-oil, made 
 from the red pulp of the palm-nuts ; the palm-oil made from 
 the kernel, shea-butter from nuts of shea-trees, ground-nuts, 
 beniseed, and cotton in abundance, and ivory : all these are 
 readily procured for European markets. 
 
 The religion of the country is heathenism, but Moham- 
 medanism has been making rapid progress among the people 
 since the kingdom has been split into independent states 
 through slave wars. A portion of the Yoruba country is 
 governed by Mohammedans, and subject to the sultan at 
 Sokoto. Their principal town and capital is Ilorin, whence 
 they travel into different parts of the country making prose- 
 lytes, at the same time carrying on active slave wars and 
 slave trade all over the country. 
 
 The idolatrous worship of the heathens is similar through- 
 out the country. There is an established religion connected 
 with government, which is the worship of the dead, or their 
 deceased ancestors, — the secret of which every male is 
 acquainted with, and is bound to keep the female ignorant 
 of, on pain of death on its being revealed to the weaker sex. 
 Thus it has become a law sacred to be observed by all the 
 male population throughout the land. Notwithstanding their 
 national enmity against each other, yet this religious law is 
 observed inviolate during those times of bitter rancour and 
 
APPENDIX. 275 
 
 revenge, at the time of slave wars which depopulated the 
 Yoruba country. 
 
 The people are very superstitious ; besides the worship of 
 their deceased ancestors, they worship the gods of thunder 
 and lightning, the devil, snakes, rivers, some particular 
 trees, the white ant hills, and rocks with caves, in which 
 they suppose the spirits of the gods dwell. To these objects 
 of worship sacrifices of bullocks, goats and sheep, fowls and 
 pigeons are made, and sometimes human beings also. Since 
 the last ten years Christian missionaries have directed their 
 efforts to the conversion of the heathen population, which 
 have been attended with encouraging success. 
 
 The present seat of the King of Yoruba is Ago, otherwise 
 called Oyo, after the name of the old capital, which was 
 visited by Clapperton and Lander. 
 
 A king is acknowledged, and his person held sacred ; his 
 wives and children are highly respected. Any attempt of 
 violence against the king's person, or of the royal family, or 
 any act of wantonness with the wives of the king, is 
 punished with death. There are no written laws, but such 
 laws and customs as have been handed from their ancestors, 
 especially those respecting relative duties, have become es- 
 tablished laws. 
 
 The right to the throne is hereditary, but exclusively in 
 the male line, or the male issue of the king's daughters. 
 
 The government is absolute, but it has been much modi- 
 fied since the kingdom has been divided into many inde- 
 pendent states by slave wars, into what may be called a 
 limited monarchy, as the king is assisted in making laws 
 and deciding matters by the elders, of whom six are the 
 principal leading men, called Iweffa. The same is observed 
 nearly in all the petty states. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 The building of the king's palace is thrown upon the 
 nation, who yearly contribute materials for this purpose. 
 The king is not supported by any fixed or standing revenue, 
 except in fees, custom, and tribute paid by his subjects. It 
 was the king's prerogative in old time to make war, and that 
 every third year ; and a certain portion of the slaves and 
 spoils taken in such wars were due to him. He employs 
 some of his people in trade, and others in agriculture. 
 
 Murder is punished with death; manslaughter, if well 
 attested as accident, may escape with heavy fine. Serious 
 theft is punished with death ; petty thefts with whipping 
 and fine, and if it becomes habitual, the thief is liable to be 
 sold away out of the country, — something like banishment. 
 
 An unchaste young woman is branded with disgrace, 
 and her character suffers for ever. Adultery is fined with a 
 heavy sum of cowries. 
 
 Parents are respected by their children, by whom they 
 are cared for and provided in their old age ; they think their 
 duty towards their parents is not completed till they can 
 give them honourable burial after death. 
 
 The system of pawning is prevalent in this country. In 
 case of distress for cowries, one or more members of the 
 family is pawned for a certain sum, from 20,000 to 60,000 
 cowries, according to the age and ability of the person 
 pawned to work his time, as the interest for that sum ; or by 
 fixing the interest, if paid in cowries, at 200 cowries every 
 fifth day, 400 every ninth, or 800 cowries at every seven- 
 teenth day, for every sum of 20,000 cowries principal in 
 loan. When the principal advanced is paid, the interest by 
 labour or cowries ceases. 
 
 During the time of pawn service, the person so pawned, 
 though he may reside in the house of his pawnee, if a young 
 
APPENDIX. 277 
 
 person, is not looked upon as the property of the lender 
 of the money. In time of sickness, or if he commits any 
 crime, he is sent over to his relatives, who are respon- 
 sible for the money due, and who also must bear the con- 
 sequences of the state of his health and of his bad conduct. 
 This makes a great difference between a slave and a pawn. 
 
 The system of pawn, as it is practised in this country, has 
 proved beneficial to thousands of families since slave wars 
 broke out with unbounded fury. 
 
 It is very often the case that after war has destroyed a 
 town, not only all the property is lost, but a large por- 
 tion of a family is also taken captive to be sold into foreign 
 slavery. Those who fortunately escape being caught, have 
 no other resource to ransom their captured relatives, but 
 this expedient, — to pawn a certain number of the family 
 for as many cowries as they need to ransom their captured 
 relatives from going into foreign slavery. Thus thousands 
 have been kept from being removed out of the country. 
 
 By conjoint persevering labour, they will soon pay the 
 loan, and free themselves from their debts. Hence origi- 
 nated that significant proverb among the Yorubas, under the 
 word Ete in my Yoruba vocabulary, which runs thus : — 
 Aimete aimero ni imu enia rneffa isingha egbaffa^ " Want of 
 consideration and forethought made six persons pawn them- 
 selves for six dollars;** whereas, instead of taking six loans 
 of one dollar each, if one of them had been put in pawn to 
 work the interest of the loan of six dollars, the remaining 
 five persons would have put their energy together to work 
 out, and soon pay the principal. 
 
 The system of saving clubs is universal in the Yoruba 
 country. The cowries so saved are not hoarded up, but put 
 into immediate use. For instance, if there is a club of 50 
 
 X 3 
 
278 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTEEN AFRICA. 
 
 persons, each member has to contribute at the rate of 10 
 strings^ or 400 cowries, every seventeenth day, at which time 
 500 strings, or 20,000 cowries are collected. This sum is at 
 once delivered to a member of the club who is most needy, 
 to make use of as he desires. Thus it is continued till all 
 the members have taken their share, and the round of 50 is 
 wound up ; this is a great inducement to industry, and the 
 prevention of waste and infrugality. 
 
 Sometimes the members may consist of men and women, 
 but most commonly each sex form separate clubs of them- 
 selves. 
 
 Since Lagos has ceased to be a slave port, trade has 
 greatly increased ; large farms have been cultivated ; many 
 persons have be<;ome much better off than they were 
 during the time the slave trade prevailed in the country. 
 Were the coercive measure adopted since 1851, to put 
 an end to the trade on this coast, followed up, nothing 
 more would have been heard of it now in this Bight ; but it 
 still exists, and is carried on at Pato Novo, Whydah, and 
 Little Popo, westward of Lagos. Those chiefs with whom 
 treaties have been made by Her Majesty's Government, are 
 not faithful to their engagements ; they consider the papers 
 they signed as if they were mere waste paper; hence 
 the slave trading portion of the inhabitants of the country 
 are using every possible means to unsettle the minds of those 
 who have given it up through the influence of the British 
 Government. Not long ago the King of Dahomey sent 
 large presents of slaves and other things to the Yorubee of 
 Ijaye, Ago, and Ilorin, to ask their combination with him 
 against the destruction of Abbeokuta, because it was through 
 that place the white men have got a footing in the country, 
 and the progress of their slave traffic has been obstructed ; 
 
APPENDIX. 279 
 
 hence the destruction of Abbeokuta would insure again 
 the revival of the slave trade, which they now so much miss. 
 This was the substance of his wicked message, but the 
 people of Ilorin being of better mind, betrayed the message 
 and the messengers to the King of Abbeokuta. 
 
 If these slave ports above mentioned had been effectually 
 stopped, the King of Dahomey would be less heeded in the 
 interior ; in fact, he would have no room for such insinuations 
 to poison the minds of the better part of this country. 
 
 I hope these brief notices will be of some use to you in 
 the execution of your work, in which I wish you all 
 success and popular sympathy. 
 
 I remain. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Samuel Ceowther. 
 
 S. J. Hutchinson, Esq. 
 H. B. M. Consul 
 
 T 4 
 
280 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 All those who have regarded with interest the commercial 
 advancement of Africa during the last twenty years, will 
 have observed that, up to this period, the cultivation of cotton 
 has not manifested as marked a feature of that progressive 
 condition as might have been expected from what is known 
 of the capacity of the soil for its culture. 
 
 Up most of the rivers within my jurisdiction — these 
 rivers forming the main outlets from Central Africa — it is 
 very partially tilled ; and at those places only for domestic 
 use. Indeed, it cannot be said to be raised in any territory 
 where the natives have access to British traders to exchange 
 their palm oil for British manufactured goods. Hence, in 
 these localities, the chiefs do not understand the mode of 
 setting about its culture ; nor can they appreciate its money 
 value in the market ; though the soil in their territories is 
 as suited to its growth, and the means of transit for the 
 produce by water power more available, than it ever can be 
 at any seaboard port like Lagos. 
 
 With the opinion of Lord Palmerston in a late debate on 
 African affairs in the House of Lords, I fully coincide, when 
 his Lordship observed : " It is quite evident, that if pains 
 
APPENDIX. 281 
 
 were taken by the capitalists and merchants of England to 
 obtain a supply of cotton from thence, Africa would, in a 
 short period, become quite as prolific a source of supply as 
 any other part of the globe." 
 
 I confess myself as anxious as any person for the arrival 
 of that time anticipated by a writer in the " Manchester 
 Courier," July 19th, 1856; that "It would be a proud 
 position for the cotton manufacturers of Lancashire to be 
 placed in to be able to say : * We are importing cotton from 
 the coast of Africa by means of our own enterprise, and we 
 shall become, in the course of a few years, less dependent 
 upon the American cotton, which competes with our manu- 
 facturers in its own market.' " 
 
 Hopeful as are the expectations of some gentlemen in 
 Manchester, as to Lagos becoming a successful location for 
 the exportation of cotton, I regret to say that my opinions on 
 the subject do not at all coincide with theirs. Not that I 
 have any doubts of the industry or superior knowledge in 
 the process of cultivation attained by the people of Yoruba. 
 But it is a judgment founded upon general as well as my 
 own observations of Lagos, that if every man, woman, and 
 child in the large districts of Abbeokuta, Ibadan, Ijaye, Ago, 
 Ogbomoso, Ilorin, and others, all in the Yoruba country 
 interior to Lagos, were to produce and prepare 100 bales of 
 cotton every day, the Lancashire market could not depend 
 upon its being shipped securely from Lagos during a period 
 of more than three or four months of the year. A surging 
 tide is ever breaking across that bar, even in the calmest 
 weather ; and we are constantly hearing accounts of canoes 
 upsetting, and their occupants being devoured instanter by 
 the remorseless sharks. 
 
 The first point being established, that the soil and climate 
 
282 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 on every part of the west coast of Africa are fitted for 
 growing cotton, the next to be considered is, what are 
 the obstacles to be overcome in attaining the object of 
 having our cotton cultivated in a country where, with its 
 culture, other blessings of civilisation may be introduced, 
 and a system of education brought in, that will be the surest 
 mode of eradicating the slave trade, by employing the super- 
 abundant serfs of Africa in tilling their own land ? If such 
 a condition of improvement be expected to arise amongst 
 the people themselves, from the fact that the Yorubans, the 
 inhabitants of one district, are active in its nurture, many 
 ages will pass away before any healthy change such as 
 wished for may take place so as to be considered universal. 
 The people, as a general rule, are not averse to labour. 
 Their natural indolence may be attributed to the combina- 
 tion of facts already stated. 
 
 Any one who has studied the peculiarities of the native 
 African will see that, beyon'd all uncivilised tribes of whom 
 ancient or modern history gives us a record, his character is 
 pre-eminently commercial. Even the Krumen, with whom 
 slavery has never been known to exist, except in one shape, 
 make that — I blush for them in writing it — a financial con- 
 sideration. The more wives a Kruman is able to buy from 
 neighbouring nations, the higher is he looked to as a stock- 
 exchange model, after his country fashion. 
 
 The palm oil manufacture being established on the ex- 
 terior at the mouths of the rivers, it is from the inner 
 countries that for many years the cotton must be expected 
 to come. The majority of nations interior to the Niger 
 understand the cultivation of the plant, but they do not 
 know its market value, nor the mode of preparing it for 
 
APPENDIX. 283 
 
 exportation to England. King Eyo Honesty of Old Kalabar 
 is most anxious for some one to go to his country and teach 
 him the cultivation of cotton and sugar-cane, for the pro- 
 duction of both of which his territory is adapted, as well as 
 palm oil. 
 
 Whether it be for present or future benefit, I consider 
 this a very suitable opportunity to lay before the public 
 a synoptical account of a paper given to me by Mr. James 
 Lees, formerly of Southport, and now of Eastbourne in 
 Sussex. It is entitled — " 1st. On the Six Months' Courses 
 of Seasons in the Tropics. 2nd. Their Astronomical Cause. 
 3rd. Their Effects upon Animal and Vegetable Life. Also, 
 appended thereto, 4th. Some Suggestions upon the Culture 
 of the Cotton Plant in Western Africa." 
 
 The essay is too lengthy for insertion, verbatim et lite7'atim, 
 in this work. Of the first three parts I can only give an 
 analysis, as proving how they bear on the fourth, which I 
 purpose to lay before tiie reader in full. 
 
 Mr. Lees, in his preamble, notices the fact of two fruit- 
 bearing, as well as two flower-bearing seasons occurring in 
 tropical countries during the year. This is proved by early 
 writers, as well as by more recent authors, English and 
 French writers on astronomy. My chief reason for directing 
 attention to it is, that, Mr. Lees' theory being correct, it will, 
 when cotton cultivation comes to be an established fact in 
 Africa, prove the possibility of double crops in the year, 
 from the existence of two seasons. 
 
 In the second part he sets out by showing the incorrect- 
 ness of the present mode of making a meteorological partition 
 of tropical seasons, by dividing them into wet and dry. 
 He writes, " It is by astronomy, and not by meteorology — 
 
284 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 by the position of the sun, and not by the state of the 
 weather, that the year must be divided, if we would cor- 
 rectly determine the courses of the seasons, either within the 
 tropics, or in any other part of the earth." 
 
 1st. He proves, by a quotation from the French astro- 
 nomer La Place*, that there are six months' courses of 
 seasons within the tropics, and twelve months' seasons 
 beyond them. 
 
 2nd. That every six months' course of season begins at a 
 solstice, and so does every twelvemonths' course. 
 
 3rd. That the six months' courses of the seasons are only 
 perfectly developed at the equator, their imperfection in- 
 creasing on receding from it (the equator), until they cease 
 to exist, and merge into a twelvemonth's course at the tro- 
 pical lines. This explanation is better in his own words, 
 with his own illustration : — 
 
 " This main distinction between the twelve months' and 
 six months' courses, proceeds from the fact that, the ascents 
 and descents of the sun's mid-day path in the twelve months' 
 courses of the season, are everywhere equal ; that is to say, 
 the ascent is everywhere equal to the descent ; whilst the 
 ascents and descents in the six months' courses are not 
 equal anywhere except at the equator. In every other place 
 within the trnpicci they aro unequal. There is a long and 
 short ascent each year, as well as a long and short descent ; 
 and these ascents and descents become more and more un-- 
 equal as the equator is receded from, until the short ascent 
 of one of the two courses in the year, with the short descent 
 of the other, totally disappear ; the two six months' courses 
 merging into one twelve months' course at the tropical lines. 
 
 * System of the World (Harte's Trans.) vol i, pp. 9, 10, 
 
APPENDIX. 285 
 
 " The following diagram shows the two six months' courses 
 of seasons in the year at Sierra Leone. 
 
 " Let p be Sierra Leone in 8° 30' N. lat. 
 
 " N, J, z, D, s, points in the plane of the meridian. 
 
 " N, the north point of the horizon. 
 
 " s, the south point. 
 
 " D, the mid-day position of the 
 sun at the December solstice. 
 
 " J, his mid-day position at the 
 June solstice. 
 
 " z, the zenith. 
 
 " At Sierra Leone, then, the long ascent of the sun's mid- 
 day path is from d to z, or from Dec. 21st to April 12th, the 
 day of the first zenith passage ; and the short descent is 
 from z to J, or from April 12th to June 21st ; which ascent 
 and descent together constitute one of the two six months' 
 courses of seasons in the year. The short ascent of the 
 sun's path is from J to z, or from June 21st to August 31st, 
 the day of the second zenith passage j and the long descent 
 is from z to d, or from August 31st to Dec. 21st ; and this 
 ascent and descent together constitute the other of the tw^o 
 six months' courses of seasons in the year. 
 
 " I would here remark, that the effect of the above-named 
 chief distinctive feature of the six months' courses of seasons 
 upon vegetable life will be, that at the equator alone, all 
 trees and shrubs can perfect their two crops of blossoms and 
 fruit every year ; in every other part of the tropics there 
 will be imperfection. So that, soon after receding from the 
 equator towards the tropical lines, some of the trees and 
 shrubs will fail to perfect both of their crops of fruit. One 
 of the crops will be inferior to the other ; and on receding 
 farther from the equator, the number of those which fail 
 
286 IMPKESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 will increase ; and on receding still farther, some of the 
 trees and shrubs will bear two crops of blossoms, but only 
 one crop of fruit every year ; in places at or near to the 
 tropical lines one crop of fruit only, without any second 
 crop of blossoms. Moreover, in all places within the tropics, 
 most of the trees and shrubs will yield a superior crop of 
 fruit in that six months* course of seasons in which there is 
 the long ascent of the sun." 
 
 Another proof of this ascent and descent of the sun 
 forming the two seasons within the tropics is given by 
 Mr. Lees, having reference to the sun's midnight path, and 
 of the consequent more intense darkness of summer nights 
 in inter- tropical than in extra-tropical countries. 
 
 The solstices, or commencement of summers, are said to 
 begin in June and December. 
 
 Of the influence of these seasons upon animal life, as of 
 migration, incubation, and moulting of birds ; lambing and 
 kidding of sheep and goat, with other like phenomena, oc- 
 curring twice a year^ I do not conceive this to be an ap- 
 propriate place for comment, as I am not compiling a purely 
 scientific work. 
 
 It is to vegetation that I wish to confine myself, and 
 therefore deem the following quotation an apposite one 
 here : — 
 
 " The effect of this distinction upon vegetable life will be 
 to make a less interval than six months between the recur- 
 rence of the phenomena which take place in the summer, in 
 all places within the tropics, except at the equator ; and the 
 interval will be less in proportion as the place is situate 
 farther from the equator. But as regards those phenomena 
 that take place very early in the six months' courses, and so 
 may be said to occur rather in the winter than in the 
 
APPENDIX. 287 
 
 summer, this distinctive feature will have but little effect 
 upon them ; the interval between them will not diminish 
 (for the solstitial points are fixed, and never approach each 
 other as the zenith passages do), and the periods of their 
 recurrence will be six months asunder, even in tropical 
 countries far removed from the equator." 
 
 Chiefly from a work entitled " Hortus Malabaricus," com- 
 piled by Van Rheede, the Dutch Governor of Malabar, 
 Mr. Lees adduces several proofs of the twice-a-year bearing 
 of many vegetables in that part of India. From other 
 writers like proofs are given of the same thing occurring in 
 tropical Ameri-ca, in the West India islands, in Dutch, 
 French, and British Guiana, and in tropical Africa. 
 
 The following " Suggestions upon the Culture of the 
 Cotton Plant in Western Africa," I consider of sufficient 
 importance to give in full. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the cotton plant in tropical countries, 
 where it is not destroyed by frost, continues to be productive 
 for several years, yet some varieties of it, even in those 
 countries, are cultivated as annuals. But the latter kinds 
 remain under culture, more generally, about three years ; so 
 that those most proper to be grown, as articles of export in 
 Western Africa, should probably be so treated. 
 
 " A knowledge of the habits of the cotton plant, and of 
 the tropical seasons, enables us to state that the plant when 
 cultivated as a perennial will bear two crops a year in such 
 parts of Western Africa as are suitable for it ; and yet, as 
 the cotton plant is one of those tropical shrubs which are not 
 deciduous, but which, bearing upon the new wood, have a 
 constant succession of new shoots, and have always upon 
 them both blossoms and fruit in all stages of growth, its 
 double harvests will run into each other, unless prevented 
 
288 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 from doing so by falls of rain. But merely to know the 
 habits of the plant and the seasons of the tropics, is far from 
 being sufficient for the successful culture of cotton in any 
 tropical country ; an accurate acquaintance with the state of 
 the weather throughout the year, as deriyed from long ex- 
 perience, and by which the natives in each particular 
 locality regulate their agricultural practice, and determine 
 the proper times for sowing, as well for most of the other 
 operations of agriculture, is absolutely indispensable. Con- 
 sequently, the growing of cotton in Western Africa, as the 
 supply of the British market, would be, in all probability, 
 carried on the most successfully by native cultivators. 
 
 " For promoting the culture of cotton for export in 
 Western Africa, the most effectual way would appear to be 
 for merchants, or persons in Britain, and especially those in 
 the manufacturing districts, to stimulate it, by buying from 
 the natives all the superior cotton they grow. As aux- 
 iliaries to this method, there might be, in the commence- 
 ment of the culture, a supplying of the native cultivators 
 with a good kind of seed, and with a proper cleaning im- 
 plement ; but these to be auxiliaries only ; and the main 
 thing to be the buying of the cotton at a fair price. In the 
 buying, it may very likely be found necessary to make long 
 contracts ; since the natives are so exceedingly poor they 
 cannot afford to sow a plant requiring a three years' culture 
 (and particularly if its produce is unsuitable for home use, 
 as that of a superior cotton plant might be), unless they can 
 be sure of a market for the whole period. Therefore, in 
 order that the culture should be vigorously promoted, the 
 buyers may have to enter into contracts with the natives, to 
 take from them all their superior cotton, at a certain fixed 
 and fair price, for a term of three years. 
 
APPENDIX. 289 
 
 " That the above suggestion, as to the buying of the 
 cotton in Western Africa, is not made on insufficient ground?, 
 may be seen from what has taken place in another country. 
 In British India, whilst, on the one hand, the Agri-Horti- 
 cultural Society of Calcutta — by a mere distribution of the 
 best varieties of seed, though continued during many years, 
 but unaccompanied by the buying of the produce from the 
 native cultivators — have failed in making the culture of any 
 of those varieties take root in any part of India, on the other 
 hand, the native cotton manufacturers in the extreme south of 
 India — by buying the produce of a superior variety called the 
 Bourbon cotton plant, the seed of which was introduced into 
 India by the East India Company about the beginning of the 
 present century— have succeeded in making the culture of 
 that variety become rooted in their own neighbourhood, and 
 in obtaining a supply of it from year to year. I will add, I 
 have strong reasons for believing, that if the British cotton 
 manufacturers would only follow a good example, and buy 
 at a fair price in India the produce of the Bourbon plant, 
 they might greatly extend that culture which the Indian 
 cotton manufacturers have already established ; and, as the 
 produce of the Indian grown Bourbon plant is superior to 
 that of the native Indian, and even to that of the Indian 
 grown New Orleans, they might thus obtain a supply of an 
 article highly suitable for the general requirements of the 
 British cotton trade. 
 
 "Auxiliary to the purchase of the cotton, is the supply of 
 a good kind of seed. Probably the best kind for Western 
 Africa, is that of some superior long-stapled variety of the 
 plant, as the seed of the Egyptian plant, or of the Sea 
 Islands, or, it may be, of some native plant ; for, the pro- 
 duce of superior long-stapled varieties has the advantage of 
 
 u 
 
290 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 always commanding the highest price in the British market. 
 But whatever kind of seed is selected, it should be such as 
 is suitable for the feeding of cattle ; as then the value of 
 the seed will pay for the expense of the cleaning ; and, in 
 fact, the seed of some of the cotton that is even now grown 
 in Central Africa possesses this good quality in remarkable 
 perfection ; for we are told by Capt. Clapperton, that at 
 Kouba ' Cotton seed bruised is very much used for feeding 
 sheep, bullocks, asses, and camels. These animals soon 
 become extremely fond of it ; it is an excellent food for 
 fattening them.'* Consequently, cotton seed which is so 
 thickly coated with fuzz as that of the New Orleans plant, 
 and is thereby rendered almost unfit for cattle food (and, 
 indeed, is never used, even in the United States, for feeding 
 cattle), is scarcely suitable for culture in Western Africa. 
 Moreover, the seed of which choice is made should produce 
 a seed-cotton, yielding a good per centage of clean cotton ; it 
 should yield at the least twenty-eight per cent. There is, then, 
 the further auxiliary of a proper cleaning implement. In truth, 
 the introduction of a better implement into Western Africa 
 than the one in present use, would appear to be requisite. 
 An iron spindle is apparently the only thing now generally 
 used for cleaning cotton throughout the whole of tropical 
 Africa. We are informed by Mungo Park that the Man- 
 dingo women * prepare the cotton for spinning, by laying it 
 in small quantities at a time upon a smooth stone or piece 
 of board, and rolling the seeds out with a thick iron 
 spindle.' f Capt. Clapperton says that the same implement 
 
 * Denham and Clapperton Journal, p. 6. 
 t Travels, 1799, p. 281. 
 
• APPENDIX. 291 
 
 is used in Central Africa.* Mr. Charles Johnston found it in 
 use in Abyssinia.| Yet, though this rude implement ought 
 certainly to be superseded, fairness towards it requires the 
 remark that it maintains its ground, and is to this day in 
 general use, under the name of the foot roller, in an exten- 
 sive district on the table-land of Central India. But it must 
 give way to the roller gin or churka, which is altogether a 
 superior implement, and of which there are many different 
 kinds, from the most expensive of all, with two fly-wheels of 
 iron, as used on the Sea Island cotton plantations of the 
 United States, to the cheapest of all, without any fly-wheel, 
 and made entirely of wood, in common use amongst the 
 natives of the Indian presidency of Madras. As to the saw 
 gin, it is too expensive an implement to be generally used 
 in Western Africa ; besides it has too powerful an action for 
 any kind of cotton except the New Orleans, and particularly 
 for cotton of a long staple, to which it is exceedingly in- 
 jurious. The necessary use of this costly implement is a 
 great impediment to the introduction of the culture of New 
 Orleans cotton into any tropical country ; for the fibre of 
 that variety of the plant adheres so firmly to the seed, as to 
 make the use of the saw gin in the cleaning perfectly in- 
 dispensable. 
 
 " The cotton plant is not an annual. In "Western Africa 
 and other tropical places, where it is not destroyed by frost, 
 it continues to be productive for many years. It is one of 
 those tropical shrubs which are not deciduous, but which bear 
 upon the new wood, and have a constant succession of new 
 shoots, and have at all times upon them both blossoms and 
 fruit. 
 
 * Denham and Clapperton Journal, p. 60. 
 f Travels in Southern Abyssinia, vol. ii.p. 322. 
 U 2 
 
292 IMPKESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 " It has a tap-root, which it strikes many feet deep into 
 the earth. 
 
 " Its native home is in the tropics, on lands nearly upon a 
 level with tlie sea, so that the coast lands of Western Africa 
 are a locality highly suitable for it ; and on them it will 
 growr most luxuriantly, and will be very productive. 
 
 " With regard to the cultivation of the cotton plant in 
 Western Africa, though it must be in conformity with the 
 above habits, yet it cannot be carried on upon true prin- 
 ciples without a knowledge of the course of the seasons. 
 
 " By what has been before stated respecting the astrono- 
 mical division of the year, there would appear to be in 
 Western Africa two sowing times in the year, — one of them 
 about the period of the December solstice, or perhaps a little 
 earlier, and the other rather before the June solstice — the 
 best time being that before the December solstice. 
 
 " And for the same reason, there would appear to be two 
 pruning times in the year, which times will be at the same 
 periods as those for sowing ; for at those periods, the plant 
 is the least productive, there being then the least solar in- 
 fluence. In Western Africa there will be a necessity for 
 pruning the plant, in order to keep it down to a height 
 convenient for picking. 
 
 " The cotton plant evidently requires for its tap-root a 
 considerable depth of light or sandy soil. 
 
 " The seed should not be sown too deep ; the depth of an 
 inch and a half is sufficient. 
 
 " The proper distance at which the plant should be sown 
 must be ascertained by experience, for the proper distances 
 between the rows as well as between plant and plant will 
 depend entirely on the size of the plants. 
 
 " It is very desirable that the results of all attempts to 
 
APPENDIX. 293 
 
 cultivate the cotton plant in any tropical country, on how- 
 ever small a scale these attempts may have been, should be 
 published in Manchester ; and it would be well if the pub- 
 lication of these results stated : — 
 
 " 1st. The number of plants in an acre, or in any pro- 
 portionate part of an acre. 
 
 " 2nd. The weight of seed-cotton annually produced in an 
 acre, or in any proportionate part of an acre. 
 
 " 3rd. The average weight of seed-cotton in a pod. In 
 the United States, as we are informed by Dillne, the 
 planter's quarter-acre is a plot of land 105 feet each way; 
 and the planter's acre, or four of these quarter-acres, is 210 
 feet each way." 
 
 These observations of Mr. Lees ought to form a hand- 
 book for all persons attempting the culture of cotton in 
 Western Africa. 
 
 U 3 
 
294 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 The Diseases of the Native Africans. 
 
 In the majority of stations in the Bight of Biafra, a medical 
 man has very little opportunity of practice in those diseases 
 which prevail amongst the natives. With Pagan as well as 
 Mahomedan races, their chief confidence is placed in the 
 healing power of a ju-ju, fetish, or gri-gri, as the faith of 
 some of our old women at home in charms. 
 
 There is very little difference between the organic dis- 
 orders of black and white men, save in those which affect 
 the skin, and in the intensity of the morbid symptoms by 
 comparison. Hence, the excreting and secreting functions 
 of the skin being more active, stronger stimulants and 
 detergents are required than those used by Europeans. I 
 lay this down as a general rule. 
 
 Lepra. 
 
 Of Lepra I have never seen cases, though it is reported to 
 have raged in the gaol of Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1828, 
 and to have been a contagious disease. 
 
APPENDIX. 295 
 
 Yaws. 
 
 "Yaws," to which the title of " Framboesia " has been 
 given by pathological writers on skin diseases, is a very 
 formidable looking affection. I believe it to arise from want 
 of cleanliness more than from general debility. The surface, 
 when the eruption comes on, seems as if it were daubed over 
 with raspberry jam ; and the fungous tubercles which it 
 presents are larger and grow more rapidly in well-fed 
 negroes than in those who are badly fed and thin. If it 
 attacks any part where hair grows, the hair turns white. 
 The period during which it is in progress varies from a few 
 weeks to several months, being much more ea&ily subdued 
 in children than in adults. The natives in some places give 
 for cure the decoction of the bark of certain trees, with 
 which the sores are also washed. It affects the individual 
 only once in a lifetime, and then no remedy can be applied 
 to stop its taking the course of our own pustular and exan- 
 thematous fevers. Alterative, aperient, and tonic medicines, 
 with the use of sulphate of copper, red precipitate, or caustic 
 externally, constitute the best treatment. 
 
 Cratv- Craw 
 
 Is a kind of purulent scabies. The negroes do not care 
 much about its cure, knowing its non-malignity. The same 
 remedies which are applicable to itch at home, are used in its 
 treatment. The peelings of plantain burned into charcoal 
 and mixed with water, also a paste made of palm-oil and 
 expressed juice of camwood, are applied to it in the Old 
 Kalabar country. Both have seemed to me to be ineffi- 
 cacious. I found compound sulphur ointment to be a very 
 good remedy for this disorder. 
 
 V 4 
 
296 IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. 
 
 Elephantiasis 
 
 Is one of those diseases upon which a European medical 
 man's opinion is never required by the natives. It is placed 
 by writers on intertropical diseases in the same class as the 
 two former, yet it very certainly affects deeper structures 
 than those of the skin, and is frequently unaccompanied by 
 any breaking of the external surface. Barbadoes leg is the 
 name given to it in the island of that name, which is reputed 
 to be its native place : but I can see no remedy for it save 
 repeated blistering and keeping up a discharge, or the knife ; 
 to neither of which the negro will submit. 
 
 Phagedenic Ulcer. 
 
 In Fernando Po, I have seen very bad cases of phagedenic 
 ulcer, many of which yielded to red precipitate and caustic 
 in the early stage, always with the provision that rest and 
 extension of the limb was to be the chief curative element. 
 They are generally found in the neighbourhood of the ankle, 
 internally or externally. The worst case of the kind I ever 
 saw was in a Boobee man, where the ulcer had eaten through 
 both bones, and the foot was retained to the leg only by a 
 small piece of cuticle. I performed amputation about three 
 inches below the knee, and the man soon got stout and re- 
 covered, though nearly dead from starvation as well as 
 disease when I saw him. Eest, with extension of the leg 
 is indispensable to make the caustic applications certain in 
 their effect. I have seen extraordinary cases of this affec- 
 tion, indeed cases so bad that several medical men des- 
 paired of any remedy but amputation, healed by the appli- 
 cation of a decoction of crotou nuts, over which slices of the 
 
APPENDIX. 297 
 
 fresh bitter-orange peel were fastened with a bandage. This 
 was renewed every day, and seemed to possess an astonish- 
 ing rapidity of curative power. 
 
 Lethargy. 
 
 The cases of lethargy or " sleepy sickness," which occur 
 in this island, are the most frequent maladies amongst the 
 inhabitants of Clarence, its capital : — a continuous sleeping, 
 and when wakened, showing no return of consciousness. As 
 it is said by Hooper, in his "Medical Dictionary," frequently 
 to arise from suppressed discharge or eruption, it would be 
 well deserving the attention of a medical man, who could 
 devote time to it, to try and ascertain whether those affected 
 by it have ever been afflicted with the previously mentioned 
 disease or other eruption. It most frequently occurs in 
 women, and in many cases coming under my notice I have 
 ascertained it to arise from irregularity or suppression of the 
 catamenia. 
 
 Amongst nearly all the members of the negro race, there 
 seems to be a peculiar faculty of lethargy as soon as they 
 are prostrated with sickness ; and this communicating itself 
 to their families, no intimation is given to a medical man 
 till the disease becomes a matter nearly of life or death. 
 But in almost all the cases of fever, dysentery, pleuritis, and 
 pneumonia that I have had in my charge, there was no 
 difference in treatment from that recommended and carried 
 out by the medical practitioners in Great Britain. 
 
29y 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Abakpa (town), 127. 
 Abasi Ibum (deity), 145. 
 Abbeokuta (city), 73, 78, 273. 
 Abiabok (doctor), 154. 
 Abiadiong (superstition), 153. 
 Achatina (shell), 190, 195. 
 Achitectonica (shell), 190. 
 Adam Dukes (King War), 125. 
 Adamawa (kingdom), 87. 
 Adda, 67. 
 
 Adeeyahs. See Fernandians. 
 Adelaide, Point, 181. 
 Ado (district), 271. 
 Advice to palm-oil merchants, 260. 
 Adynamia after fever, 229. 
 Afias, or ordeals, 156. 
 African Association, 31. 
 
 continent, approach to, 19, 24. 
 
 ■ diseases, 294. 
 fever, 213, 239. 
 
 Improvement Society, 41. 
 
 markets, 122, 123. 
 
 languages, 53. 
 
 polygamy, 50 — 52. 
 
 polytheisms, 96, 145. 
 
 scene at Goree, 25. 
 
 superstitions, 52,147, 162, 165. 
 
 275. 
 Agelema (currency), 254. 
 Agiddy, 39- 
 Ago (city), 273, 275. 
 
 (district), 275. 
 
 , King, 275. 
 
 Agulhas Bay, 204. 
 Aguydah Fort, 54. 
 
 Point, 54. 
 
 Akagha (creek and territory), 93, 94. 
 Akassa (creek and territory), 93, 
 100. 
 
 Akika (currency), 254. 
 Akim, gold district, 68, 69. 
 Alcitoye, King, 76. 
 Akpa-Efik, 113. 
 Akra, Dutch, 65. 
 
 , English, 65. 
 
 , appearance of town of, 65, 66. 
 
 , gold artificers of, 66, 69. 
 
 , superstition of, 69, 70. 
 
 Akrapong, 70. 
 Akrikok (district), 137. 
 Aku tribe, 39. 
 Albiam (oath), 159. 
 Alburkah Island, 100. 
 Allemada of Santa Cruz, 12. 
 Alligators, 112. 
 Alligator Island, 112. 
 Almami Abdul, King, 23. 
 Almami Omar, 23. 
 Alonzo Gonzalves, 34. 
 Amakree, King, 101. 
 Aniboises Islands, 167. 
 Ambrig, 171. 
 Anaja, Point, 12, 
 
 Analysis of Kalabar river water, 
 218. 
 
 , Dr. Daniel's, 218, 219. 
 
 , Surgeon Peter's, 219. 
 
 , the author's, 220. 
 
 Anansa (deity), 131. 
 Anderson, Rev. Mr., 166. 
 Anglo- African jobber, 49. 
 Angola, 171. 
 Angra (town), 211. 
 Anna, fort of, 204. 
 
 d'Arfet,4. 
 
 Annamaboe, 58. 
 Anno Bon, 81. 
 Ant hills, 65, note. 
 
300 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ant worship, 39, 65. 
 Antika Cobham's house, 124. 
 Antonio, Fort, 54. 
 
 , Porto Santo, 204. 
 
 , San, 204. 
 
 Apotto (people), 201. 
 
 Appi Vista (fort), 71. 
 
 Apprenticeship, Kruman's, 50. 
 
 Aqua, King, 169- 
 
 Aqua-e-deri, 121. 
 
 Aqua-ibibio, 121. 
 
 Aqua-Ofiong (Grand Egbo Day), 
 
 144. 
 Archibong, King, 11, 120, 147. 
 Architecture in Bonny, 105. 
 
 in Old Kalabar, 1 1 6. 
 
 Arjelejos, Count de, 174. 
 
 , Point de, 174. 
 
 Arumbee (tribe), 167. 
 Ashantee, fetish of, 64, 
 
 , savagery of, 64. 
 
 , superstitions of, 64. 
 
 , wives of King of, 51. 
 
 Assemba (territory), 184. 
 Astronomical partition of climate in 
 
 tropics, 284. 
 cause of two seasons in tropics, 
 
 284, 285. 
 Atlantic sea-sickness, 3. 
 Aurifonde (town), 23. 
 Axim (fort and town), 54. 
 Azores Islands 211. 
 
 Baboon's palaver (in River Gam- 
 bia), 30. 
 Backersy (river), 110. 
 Badagry (town), 71, 72. 
 Badgely, Cape, 184. 
 Bahama grass, 37. 
 Baikie, Dr., 89. 
 Bakaika Point, 184. 
 Bakouli (tribe), 168. 
 Balibi Point, 184. 
 Balilipa (district), 192. 
 Balimba (river), 171. 
 
 (tribe), 171. 
 
 Ballangi, 120, note. 
 Banaconda, falls of, 31. 
 Banana Islands, 43. 
 Banapa (town), 193, 198. 
 
 Bande, country of, 23. 
 
 Bang-aran-Ket, 124. 
 
 Baon (palm wine), 121. 
 
 Barbara, St. (river), 81, 100. 
 
 Barilla, 11. 
 
 Bars (currency), 255, 256. 
 
 Barth, Dr., 31, 85. 
 
 Bartholomew, St. (river), 81, 100. 
 
 Bassakatoo, 192. 
 
 Bassambry (district), 96, 97. 
 
 , King of, 96, 257. 
 
 Bassapoo, 184. 
 Bassili (town), 198. 
 Bathurst, 26. 
 
 , population of, 33. 
 
 Bati (race), 1 39. 
 Bay, Clarence, 177. 
 
 , Church, 204. 
 
 , George's, 182, 185. 
 
 , Lopez, 217. 
 
 , Maidstone, 181, 
 
 , Melville, 173. 
 
 , North- West, 183. 
 
 , West, 204. 
 
 Beach at Duketown, 126. 
 
 scenery, African, 122. 
 
 Beaufort Reach, 137. 
 
 Beauty of scenery in Funchal, 6, 7. 
 
 Bectapas, 192. 
 
 Beecroft, Governor, 79, 83, 89, 114, 
 
 179. 
 Belcher, Captain, 31. ^ 
 
 Bell, King, 51. 
 Bell, Preese, 169. 
 Belzoni, 79. 
 Benin River, 71,79. 
 
 , Bight of, 71. 
 
 Benito, St., 81, 251. 
 
 Benlah, 58. 
 
 Bento River, 93, 251. 
 
 Benson, President, 46. 
 
 Berthelot, Sabin, on Guanche race, 
 
 188. 
 Biafra, Bight of, 81, 251, 261. 
 *' Big tings" (currency), 255. 
 Bight of Benin, 71. 
 
 of Biafra, 81, 251, 261. 
 
 Bijooga Islands, 33. 
 Billetshima (town), 93. 
 Bimbia, 167. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 301 
 
 Bini (Benin), 79. 
 
 Binue River, 86, 253. 
 
 Bioko, King, 184. 
 
 Birds, songs of, in Africa, 130. 
 
 Bischof, Prof., on malaria, 217. 
 
 " Black coppers," 1 23. 
 
 Blessington, Countess of, on L.E.L., 
 
 60. 
 " Bloodmen," at Duketown, 144. 
 Boakitshi (headman), 198. 
 Boibieg, King, 199. 
 Boid, Captain, 212. 
 Bojador, Cape, 5. 
 Bold, Lieut., on tornadoes, 20. 
 Bolola River, 33. 
 Bombax tree, 97, 136. 
 Bombon Islet, 204. 
 Bongasi, 31. 
 Bonny River, 103. 
 
 town, 103. 
 
 , architecture of, 105. 
 
 ——- comey, 257. 
 
 currency, 255. 
 
 , equity courts of, 108. 
 
 , iguanas ih, 105. 
 
 , ju-ju house of, 106. 
 
 , market-place of, 106. 
 
 , slave fairs of, 103, 104. 
 
 , trade of, 104, 260. 
 
 Boobees. See Fernandians. 
 
 Boreah River, 171. 
 
 Borom N'Dar, 22. 
 
 Botakimaon (high priest), 197. 
 
 Boteler Rocks, 184. 
 
 Boussa, 31, 82. 
 
 Bowaowdi, King, 196. 
 
 Bowditch, Mr., 51. 74. 
 
 Boy, King, 96. 
 
 Boyle on Sol-lunar influence, 249. 
 
 on total abstinence, 235. 
 
 Brandenburg (fort), 54. 
 
 Brass Egbo day, 143. 
 
 Brass River, 93. 
 
 Brasstown, Lader's sketch of, 94. 
 
 , author's visit to, 93, 95. 
 
 comey, 257. 
 
 currency, 255. 
 
 ju-ju, 96. 
 
 , palm oil trade of, 259. 
 
 sunerstitions of, 97. 
 
 Breaker Island, 100. 
 
 Breakers, Tom Shot's, 110. 
 
 — — , Dogs' Heads, 168. 
 
 British fort of Akra, 65. 
 
 Brown, Dr., on mangrove trees. 111. 
 
 Bruce, Admiral, 76, 238. 
 
 Brutalities of slavers, 113. 
 
 Bryson, Dr., on fever, 230, 240. 
 
 Bug-a-bug insect, worship of the, 39, 
 
 65, note. 
 Bullen Point, 181. 
 BuUom Fort, 26. 
 Bustles at Akra, 66. 
 at New Kalabar, 102. 
 
 Cacheo River, 33. 
 
 Calabar New River. See Kalabar, 
 
 New. 
 Calabar Old River. See Kalabar, 
 
 Old. 
 Calumnies against L.E.L., 60, 61. 
 Cameroons. See Kameroons. 
 Campanee River, 33. 
 Campo, exports from, 252. 
 Camwood, 253, 295. 
 Canary Islands, 11, 12. 
 Canot, Captain, 43. 
 Cape Badgely, 184. 
 
 Bajador, 5. 
 
 Bullen, 181. 
 
 Formosa, 81, 251. 
 
 Horatio, 173. 
 
 Kameroons, 168. 
 
 Lihu, 44, 54. 
 
 Lopez, 217. 
 
 Mount, 43, 45. 
 
 Palmas, 44, 47, 48. 
 
 St. John, 31, 203. 
 
 St. Paul's, 54. 
 
 Three Points, 54. 
 
 Verd, 25. 
 
 Cape Coast Town, 56. 
 
 , forts of, 56, 57. 
 
 , gold at, 51, 62. 
 
 , india-rubber of, 57^ 
 
 , market, 58. 
 
 — — , native name of, 56. 
 Cape Coast Castle, 56, 57. 
 
 , L. E. L.'s grave at, 59. 
 
 Carnero, Monsignor, 205. 
 
302 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Catagury (Akim fetish), 69. 
 Cavally (Kru Coast), 48. 
 Cayor country, 22. 
 
 people, 23. 
 
 Cazamanza River, 33. 
 Centra, Pietro de, 34. 
 Chameleon (Fernandian chief), 179. 
 Chandos, Duke of, 31. 
 Chapel, Wesleyan, at Cape Coast, 
 57. 
 
 at Prince's Island, 203. 
 
 at Teneriffe, 13. 
 
 " Chariot of the Gods," 167. 
 
 Charles Folly, 184. 
 
 Chop-doctor, 159. 
 
 Chop-nut test, 151.' 
 
 Chops of King Archibong, 121. 
 
 of King Eyo, 131. 
 
 Christian, Dr., on chop-nut, 151. 
 Christianburg, Fort, 65, 67, 
 Christison, Professor, on esere, 151. 
 Church of the Concepcion, 14. 
 
 in Old Kalabar, 133. 
 
 of Nossa Senhora del Monte, 7. 
 
 ■ ' San Francisco, 13. 
 
 Sta. Anna, 204. 
 
 Church Bay, 204. 
 
 Clapperton', Capt., 290. 
 
 Clarence, Beecroft's monument in, 
 
 182. 
 
 , history of, 177. 
 , Lander's grave in, 83, 183. 
 
 Mountain, 137, 183. 
 
 , necropolis of, 182. 
 
 , Niger monument in, 181. 
 
 , town of, 177. 
 
 , population of, 180. 
 
 , position of, 179. 
 
 Clarkson on slave trade, 113. 
 Clubs (Yoruba), 277. 
 Coast, Gold, 34, 54. 
 , Grain, 54. 
 
 , Kru, 47, 48. 
 
 Collambedi, 167. 
 
 Colours of Nelson (Santa Cruz), 14. 
 Colthurst, Mrs., 114. 
 Comey (or customs dues) at Brass 
 Town, 257. 
 
 at Bonny, 258. 
 
 at Kameroons, 258. 
 
 Comey at New Kalabar, 258. 
 
 at Old Kalabar, 258. • 
 
 Confus-a-say, gold of, 62. 
 
 Conquistador, the, 6. 
 
 Constitution Place (Santa Cruz), 13. 
 
 Convent of San Domingo, 13. 
 
 Coomassee, 64. 
 
 Coppers (currency), 255, 256. 
 
 Corisco, Island of, 178. 
 
 , ivory of, 171. 
 
 Cotton from Lagos, 78. 
 
 from Sierra Leone, 41. 
 
 ■ , Dr. Livingstone on the culti- 
 vation of, in Africa, 265. 
 
 , general instruction for culti- 
 vation of, 280, 287. 
 
 , Mr. Lee's paper on, 283. 
 
 Couse-couse. See Koose Koose. 
 
 Cowries, value of, 77, 253. 
 
 Cradoo, Lake, 74. 
 
 Craw- Craw, 295. 
 
 Creektown, 115, 131, 133. 
 
 Crews (currency), 255, 256. 
 
 Crocodiles, 87, 110, 112. 
 
 Cross River, 110, 112, 114. 
 
 Crowther, Rev. Mr., 78, 89, 92, 269. 
 
 , his letter on the countries in- 
 terior to Lagos, 270. 
 
 Cruikshank, Mr., on L.E. L., 60. 
 
 Currency, African, varieties of : — 
 
 , Agelema, 254. 
 
 , Akika, 254. 
 
 , Antony Manillas, 255. 
 
 , bars, 256. 
 
 , "big tings," 255. 
 
 , bottle-necked Manillas, 255. 
 
 , Congo Singolo Manillas, 255. 
 
 , coppers, black, 123, 255, 256. 
 
 , cowries, 77, 253. 
 
 , crews, 255, 256. 
 
 , Culla Antony Manillas, 256. 
 
 , Fernandian, 191. 
 
 , Finniman Tawfinna Manillas, 
 
 256. 
 
 , Ibia, 254. 
 
 , " little tings," 255. 
 
 , Moko, 254. 
 
 , Nango Ward Manillas, 255, 
 
 note. 
 
 , Onadoo Manillas, 256. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 303 
 
 Currency, Tshibbu, 192. 
 
 , Tshoko, 192. 
 
 Curse of Pharaoh, 64. 
 
 Cut-throat (Fernandian chief), 179, 
 
 187. 
 Cuvier, Baron, 112. 
 Cyprea moneta, 253. 
 
 Dab-and-wattle (architecture), 115. 
 
 Dagbo, 82. 
 
 Dahomey, king of, 71. 
 
 Dakur, 25. 
 
 D'Ambedi, 167. 
 
 Daniell, Dr., 32, 207. 
 
 Danish possessions of Gold Coast, 
 
 67. 
 Daniel, Prof., on malaria, 214. 
 Dappo, King, 107. 
 " Dayspring " steamer, voyages of 
 
 the, 91. 
 Dead ancestors, worship of, 274. 
 Debueka River, 33. 
 Delta of Niger, 82. 
 Dcmbia River, 33. 
 Denham, Captain, 80. 
 Devil houses, 148. 
 Diagram of tropical seasons, 285. 
 Dido's town, 168. 
 Dillon, Tennant, and Co., 177. 
 Ding-ding (tribe), 138. 
 Diseases of Africans, 294. 
 Diversity of languages, 53. 
 Dix Cove (fort and town), 54. 
 Doctor, African, 154. 
 Do River, 271. 
 Dodo River, 80. 
 Dog's Head Breakers, 168. 
 Dommel, King, 22. 
 Don Antonio de Viano, 189. 
 Don Joaquim Primo de Rivera, 174. 
 Don John Joseph de Lerena, 178. 
 Don Miguel Martinez y Sauz, 179. 
 Don Nicholas de Manterola, 178. 
 Dosumo, King, 76. 
 Dracunculus, 63, 237. 
 Drum, Egbo, 120 
 Dry-scraping decks, 239. 
 Duketown, beach of, 126. 
 
 , bloodmen at, 144. 
 
 Egbo palaver house, 119. 
 
 Duketown, Inkas of, 1 1 5. 
 
 , iron palace in, 116. 
 
 , market place of, 122. 
 
 mission premises, 166. 
 
 , native name of, 1 1 5. 
 
 , shipping at, 124. 
 
 Tyburn tree, 122. 
 
 Dumas, Prof., on malaria, 219. 
 Dupuis, 64. 
 
 Dutch fort at Akra, 63. 
 
 at Elmina, 57. 
 
 Dutchman's Cap, 204. 
 Duwalla, 167. 
 Dysentery, 63, 247, 248. 
 
 East Head, 110. 
 
 East, Mr., 52. 
 
 Ebony, 252. 
 
 Echoes of Old Kalabar, 139. 
 
 Ecliptic, 284. 
 
 Efik country, 1 1 4. 
 
 language, 117, 161. 
 
 Lord's Prayer, 117. 
 
 names of Kalabar towns, 138. 
 
 names for horses, 1 1 7. 
 
 Idem, 145. 
 
 Efou (district), 271. 
 Egba (tribe), 270. 
 Egbados (tribe), 270. 
 Egbo-Los, 99. 
 Egbo Brass, 141, 143. 
 
 drum, 120. 
 
 Nyampa, 141. 
 
 Idem, 142. 
 
 Kakunda, 142. 
 
 Palaver house, 1 1 9. 
 
 Shary, 128. 
 
 Egboship, explanation of, 142, 143. 
 
 , brutality of, 143. 
 
 — — , privileges of 143. 
 
 , sacrifices of, 143. 
 
 , spirituality of, 143. 
 
 Egummo (town), 93. 
 
 Ejenrin, palm-oil of, 77. 
 
 Eko ( Lagos), 74. 
 
 Ekpe, 141. 
 
 Ekponyong, 147. 
 
 Ekrika Nungos (people), 98. 
 
 Ekuritunke, 131. 
 
 El Padre Mariana, 174. 
 
304 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Elemi, gum, 63. 
 Elephantiasis, 296. 
 Elmina Castle, 34, 57. 
 Equity Court (Bonny), 108. 
 Esclaros River, 80. 
 Escobar, Pedro de, 203, 
 Esere test, symptoms of, 151. 
 
 Prof. Christison on, 151. 
 
 Ethiope Rapids, 92, 114. 
 Euphorbia, 170. 
 Europeans, grave of, 182, 183. 
 Expeditions to Fernando Po, 175. 
 Explorations of: — ^ 
 
 Cross River, 114. 
 
 Gambia, 26. 
 
 Niger, 82. 
 
 Exports from : — 
 
 Akra, 68. 
 
 Bimbia, 167. 
 
 Bonny, 104, 260. 
 
 Boreah, 171. 
 
 Brass, 259. 
 
 Campo, 252. 
 
 Cape Coast, 56. 
 
 Fernando Po, 192, 194, 260. 
 
 Gambia, 26. 
 
 Goree, 25. 
 
 Kalabar, New, 104. 
 
 Kalabar, Old, 126. 
 
 Kameroons, 252. 
 
 Lagos, 78. 
 
 Senegal, 22. 
 
 Sierra Leone, 41. 
 
 Eyamba, King, 116, 117. 
 Eyo Honesty, King, 131, 283. 
 Eyo, King, 51, 258. 
 
 Falls of Banaconda, 31. 
 
 Faranah, King, 40. 
 
 Faro River, 86. 
 
 Faiitoi, 96. 
 
 Fayal Island, 211. 
 
 Fergusson, Dr., on malaria, 221. 
 
 Fernandians, 186. 
 
 , arms of, 191. 
 
 , " Boobees," 186. 
 
 , coronation ceremony amongst, 
 
 197. 
 
 , currency of, 191. 
 
 , dress of, 190. 
 
 Fernandians, kings and queens of, 
 
 198, 199. 
 
 , language of, 191. 
 
 , laziness of, 192, 260. 
 
 '■■, marriage rites of, 1 99. 
 
 , mode of burial amongst, 202. 
 
 , mode of fishing with, 201. 
 
 , palm-oil of, 194. 
 
 , stone hatchets of, 1 94. 
 
 , superstitions of, 195, 197. 
 
 , warriors, 193. 
 
 Fernando Po, towns of, 201. 
 
 , early history of, 173. 
 
 , peak, 183. 
 
 , population of, 189. 
 
 , productions of, 192, 194, 260. 
 
 Fetish, Akim, 69. 
 
 , Ashantee, 64. 
 
 , Bonny. 106. 
 
 , Dix Cove, 54. 
 
 , Old Town, 131. 
 
 Fever, African, 213, 239. 
 
 Filatahs, 161. 
 
 Fishmen, 201. 
 
 Fishtown, Fernando Po, 201 . 
 
 , Kru Coast, 48. 
 
 Point, 110. 
 
 Flannel, wearing of, 227. 
 Floridablanca, Count, 174. 
 Flowers, odour of, 130. 
 Folly, Charles, 184. 
 Foo-foo, 39, 62, 122. 
 Foota Toora tribe, 23. 
 
 Yalloo tribe, 23. 
 
 Forcados River, 80. 
 Formosa, Cape, 81, 251. 
 , lllha, 173. 
 
 , Rio, 79. 
 
 Fouche Point and Town, 100. 
 Fort Aguydah, 54. 
 
 Akra (British), 65. 
 
 Akra (Dutch), 65. 
 
 Antonio, 54. 
 
 - Axim, 54. 
 
 Brandenburg, 54. 
 
 Bullom, 26. 
 
 Christianburg, 65, 67. 
 
 du Point de Mina, 204, 208. 
 
 Goree, 24. 
 
 San Pedro, 12, 13. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 305 
 
 Fort Victoria, 58. 
 
 William, 5S. 
 
 Frambcesia, 295. 
 Freetown, 33. 
 
 , visit to, 37. 
 
 , appearance of, 37. 
 
 — — , appearance, from harbour, 3' 
 
 , early history of, 36. 
 
 , manufactures in, 38. 
 
 , population of, 39. 
 
 Fucus natans, 210. 
 Funchal, aspect of, 6, 7. 
 
 , churches of, 6 — 8. 
 
 , currals of, 7, 9. 
 
 , imports into, 11. 
 
 , locomotives of, 10. 
 
 , market-place of, 10. 
 
 , population of, 7^ 
 
 , quintas of, 9, 
 
 , river of, 10. 
 
 , isalubrity of, 7. 
 
 Gaboon, 171. 
 Gambia Island, 40. 
 
 River, 26. 
 
 sorcerer, 170. 
 
 , explorations of, 28. 
 
 ordeal, 1 70. 
 
 Gatto Creek, 79. 
 
 Town, 79. 
 
 Gelangero, Mount, 137. 
 George's Bay, 182, 185. 
 George, King, 184. 
 German missionaries, 70. 
 Ginger from Sierra Leone, 41. 
 Goat and Kid Islands, 184. 
 God, idea of, 145. 
 " God-country people," 98. 
 Gold artificers at Akra, 66, 69, 
 Gold, export of, 62. 
 Gold Coast, 34, 54. 
 
 , poll-tax of, 67, 68. 
 
 , productions of, 68. 
 
 , superstitions of, 162, 
 
 Gonsalves, Alonzo, 34, 
 
 , Joas, de Camera, 6. 
 
 Goora nuts, 26, 33. 
 Goree, town of, 24. 
 
 , African scene at, 25. 
 
 , fort of, 24. 
 
 Gosse's work on Jamaica, 130. 
 
 Grain Coast, 54. 
 
 Grand Egbo Day, 144. 
 
 Grande Rio, 33. 
 
 Grave of Europeans, 182, 183. 
 
 of L. E. L., 59. 
 
 Great Scarcies River, 33. 
 Greenpatch Point, 110. 
 Ground-nut oil, 42. 
 Ground-nuts, 25. 
 Guanche race, 188. 
 
 , Col. Smith on, 188. 
 
 , Don Antonio de Viano on, 
 
 189. 
 
 , Sabin Berthelot on, 188. 
 
 Guet N' Dar, 22. 
 
 Guinea worm ( Dracunculus), 63, 
 
 237. 
 Gum-arabic, 22. 
 
 copal, 25. 
 
 Elemi, 63. 
 
 Hair-dressing, 161. 
 
 Half Cape Mount, 44, 
 
 Hamburg traders, 74, 77. 
 
 Hanno, 167. 
 
 Harem of King Eyo, 51. 
 
 Harmattan, the, 42. 
 
 Harper, the negro, of Liberia, 46, 
 
 Harrison, Captain, 176. 
 
 Hastings (Sierra Leone), 39. 
 
 Hawkins, Captain, 33. 
 
 Henry, Prince, of Portugal, 4, 5. 
 
 Henshaw Town, 115, 127. 
 
 , necropolis of, 115. 
 
 Hensman, Dr., 173. 
 
 Hiccory Town, 169. 
 
 Hill, Governor, 67. 
 
 Hispaniola, 34. 
 
 Holman, Lieut., R. N., 179 
 
 Horatio, Cape, 173. 
 
 Houghton, ilajor, his Expedition up 
 
 the Gambia, 31. 
 Human sacrifices, 97, 98. 
 — — ■ turkey-buzzards, 118. 
 Humboldt, Baron von, 15, 17, 164. 
 Hyampe, Egbo, 141. 
 
 Ibia (currency), 254. 
 Ibibio (tribe), 128. 
 
306 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ibum, Abasi (deity), 145. 
 Idem-Efik, 145. 
 
 , Egbo, 142. 
 
 , Nyariga, 147. 
 
 Ido River, 271. 
 
 Tdoko (district), 271. 
 
 Ife, 271. 
 
 Ifod, (witchcraft), 150. 
 
 Igbegbee, 253. 
 
 Igbomna (district), 271 . 
 
 Iguana (Bonny ju-ju), 105. 
 
 Ijakoke (town), 271. 
 
 Ijamo, 271. 
 
 Ijaye (town), 273. 
 
 Ijebu, 270. 
 
 Ijesha, 271. 
 
 Ilho da Principo, 203. 
 
 Iliama, 93. 
 
 Ilorin (town), 272, 273, 
 
 India-rubber, 252. 
 
 Indigo, 253. 
 
 Inkas ( Duketown), 1 1 5. 
 
 Inqua country, 56, 62. 
 
 , King of, 62. 
 
 loraen (tribe), 79. 
 
 Iron Bar's devil bouse, 147, 148. 
 
 Iron palace of King Eyamba, 116. 
 
 Isebutribu (tribe), 168. 
 
 Islande, town of, 23. 
 
 Islands, Alburkah, 100. 
 
 , Alligator, 112. 
 
 , Anno Bon, 81. 
 
 , Amboises, 167. 
 
 , Azores, 211. 
 
 , Banana, 43. 
 
 , Bijooga, 33. 
 
 , Bombon, 204. 
 
 , Breaker, 100. 
 
 , Canaries, 11, 12. 
 
 , Cape Verd, 24. 
 
 — — , Corsico, 178. 
 
 , de Los, 33. 
 
 , Fayal, 211. 
 
 , Fernando Po, 81, 173. 
 
 , Formosa, 173. 
 
 , Gambia, 40. 
 
 , Goat and Kid, 184. 
 
 , James's, 1 10. 
 
 , M'Carthy's, 33. 
 
 , Madeira, 3. 
 
 Islands, Madeleines, 24. 
 
 , Matacong, 33. 
 
 , N'Dar, 22. 
 
 , Nichols, 168. 
 
 , Opolobo, 100. 
 
 , Parrot, 110. 
 
 , Pico, 211. 
 
 , Prince's, 81,203. 
 
 , Robson, 110. 
 
 , Sherbro, 43, 
 
 , St. James's, 110. 
 — ., St. Mary's, 26. 
 
 , St. Thomas's, 81. 
 
 , Salvage, 11 
 
 — — , Terceiro, 11. 
 Issapoo, 194. 
 Itebu (country), 93. 
 Ivory, 87, 171, 252. 
 Iweffa, 275. 
 lyewa River, 271. 
 
 Jabber, Anglo- African, 49. 
 
 Jackets, King, 96. 
 
 Jack Maranta, 196. 
 
 Jaloof Negroes, 23. 
 
 Jamaica, supply of slaves to, 34. 
 
 Janna River, 33. 
 
 Jeba River 33. 
 
 Jenna, 51. 
 
 Jobson's expedition up the Gambia, 
 
 29. 
 Johnson, Dr., on malaria, 222, 
 Judok ( superstition >, 162. 
 Ju-ju King (New Kalabar), 101. 
 Jump fish, 98 . 
 Jumpana Point, 184. 
 
 Kakunda, Egbo, 142. 
 
 Kakundy River, 33. 
 
 Kalabar, New, chief town of, 101. 
 
 comey, 258. 
 
 currency, 255, 
 
 , fetish of, 101, 102, 
 
 , ju-ju, priest of, 101. 
 
 , King of, 101. 
 
 , ladies' fashions in, 102. 
 
 , palm-oil trade of, 104. 
 
 Kalabar New River, 101, 
 Kalabar, Old country, first imprest, 
 sions of, 109. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 307 
 
 147, 
 
 architecture, 
 
 109, 113, 
 
 Kalabar, Old, Abiadiong, 153. 
 
 , brutalities of slavers in, 113. 
 
 comey, 258. 
 
 — — , currency of, 123. 
 
 devil houses, 148. 
 
 , echoes in, 139. 
 
 , Egbo order in, 141. 
 
 esere, 151. 
 
 • Ifod, 151. 
 
 malaria, experiments in, 217 
 
 218. 
 
 , melody of birds in, 130. 
 
 , missionaries of, 165, 168. 
 
 , palm-oil trade of, 126. 
 
 , scenery around, 129, 130. 
 
 , superstitions of, 112, 11 8, 
 
 156, 162. 
 , towns in their 
 
 116. 
 Kalabar Old River, 
 
 218. 
 Kalabar ese, 137. 
 Kameroons River, 168. 
 Kameroons towns, 168. 
 ■ comey, 258. 
 
 currency, 256. 
 
 , cleanliness of, 169. 
 
 , Egbo order in, 170. 
 
 , mountains of, 167. 
 
 , ju-jus of, 1 70. 
 
 , palm-oil trade of, 252. 
 
 , Qua poison in, 170. 
 
 , regal street-sweepers in, 169. 
 
 , sorcerer in, 1 70. 
 
 Katunga, 51. 
 Kelly, Captain, 184. 
 Kelly Point, 184. 
 Ketu (town), 270. 
 
 (district), 270. 
 
 Keya, King, 96. 257. 
 
 Khola nuts, 26, 33, 39. 
 
 Kings, dignity of, in Africa, 275. 
 
 Kongolo, 170. 
 
 Koose-koose, 62. 
 
 Kosoko (chief), 76, 77. 
 
 Kororoofa, 87. 
 
 Kru Coast, 47, 48. 
 
 tribe, 39, 47, 50. 
 
 characteristics of Krumen, 50. 
 
 54, 137, 282. 
 
 Kworra River, 80, 82. 
 
 Lagos, cotton exports from, 78. 
 
 , countries interior to, 77, 270. 
 
 , description of town of, 74. 
 
 , Kings of, 76. 
 
 — — , native name of, 74. 
 
 , peculiarities of roadstend, 73. 
 
 -= , Portuguese name of, 74. 
 
 , trade of, 71, 77, 270, 278. 
 
 Laguna (Teneriffe), 13. 
 
 Laird, Macgregor, Esq., 76. 
 
 Laird, Mr. John, 87, 89. 
 
 Lake Cradoo, 74. 
 
 — Tshad, S7 . 
 
 Land-wind in India, 250. 
 
 Languages, diversity of, 53. 
 
 Lander's grave in Clarence, 83. 
 
 — — description of Brass Town, 94. 
 
 opinion of George's Bay, 1 85. 
 
 La Place, 284. 
 
 Lawson, Dr., 32. 
 
 Lees, Mr. James, on tropical seasons 
 
 and African cotton growing, 283. 
 L. E. L.'s grave, 59. 
 
 memory vindicated, 60, 61. 
 
 monument, 59. 
 
 — — true cause of death, 61. 
 
 Leopard skins, 66. 
 
 Lepidosiren, the, 30. 
 
 Lepra, 294. 
 
 Lerena, Don John Joseph de, 178. 
 
 Lethargy, 297. 
 
 Lever, 83. 
 
 Liberia, 43. 
 
 Liebig, Prof., on malaria, 212. 
 
 Lihu, Cape, 44, 54. 
 
 Linnaeus, 136. 
 
 ♦' Little tings " (currency), 255. 
 
 Liverpool, starting from, 1. 
 
 , advice to merchants of palm 
 
 oil, 10. 
 Livingstone, Dr., 31, 265. 
 Loo Rock, 6. 
 Lopez, Bay of, 217. 
 
 , Cape, 217. 
 
 Los, Isles de, 33. 
 Louis, St. (town), 22. 
 Lynslager, Governor, 182. 
 
 X 2 
 
308 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Maaon (devil), 1 97. 
 M'Call, Mr., 99. 
 M'Carthy, Sir Charles, 112. 
 
 's Island, 33. 
 
 's oath, 63. 
 
 M' William, Dr., on malaria, 218, 
 
 233. 
 M' Queen, on Kalabar River, 109. 
 
 on Krumen, 51. 
 
 Machico, 4. 
 
 Machin, Robert, 4. 
 
 Maclean, Mr., and L. E. L., 59. 
 
 Madden, Prof., on malaria, 223. 
 
 Madeira Islands, 3. 
 
 Madeleine Islands, 24. 
 
 Mahneal River, 33. 
 
 Maidstone Bay, 181. 
 
 Mai-Marta, Point, 204, 
 
 Makarra, 121. 
 
 Malaria, definition of, 213. 
 
 , Prof. Bischof on, 217. 
 
 , Prof. Daniel on, 214. 
 
 , Prof. Dumas on, 2 1 9. 
 
 . Dr. Fergusson on, 221, 
 
 , Dr. Johnson on, 222. 
 
 , Prof. Liebig on, 212. 
 
 , Dr. Madden on, 229. 
 
 , Dr. M'William on, 218. 
 
 , Surgeon Peters on, 219. 
 
 , the author on, 218, 223, et 
 
 seq. 
 Manattis, 110. 
 Mandenga race, 27, 38, 39. 
 
 bread, 39. 
 
 Mangroves, 111. 
 
 Manillas (Bonny currency) : — 
 
 , Antony, 255. 
 
 , " bottle-necked," 255. 
 
 , Congo Singolo, 255. 
 
 , Culla Antony, 256. 
 
 , Finniman Tawfinna, 256. 
 
 — — , Nan go Ward, 225 note. 
 
 , Onadoo, 256. 
 
 Manterola, Don N. de, 178. 
 
 " Mappa Commercial deFunchal," 1 1 . 
 
 Maranta, Jack, 196. 
 
 Mariana, El Padre, 174. 
 
 Market-place at Bathurst, 26. 
 
 at Bonny, 106. 
 
 — — at Cape Coast, 58. 
 
 Market-place at Duketown, 122. 
 Markets, African, 122. 
 Marriages of the Fernandians, 1 99. 
 Martin, Geroninio, 175. 
 Martinez, Don Miguel, 179. 
 Matacong Island, 33. 
 May, D. J., Esq., 89. 
 Mbudikum (race), 138. 
 Medina, 31. 
 Medusae, 210. 
 Mellacoree River, 33. 
 Melville Bay, 173. 
 Mesurado, Cape, 20. 
 
 River, 43, 44. 
 
 Middleton River, 80. 
 
 Milner on Sol-lunar influence, 249. 
 
 on tropical phosphorescence, 
 
 16. 
 
 Mimbo, 121. 
 
 Mina, De, Point, 204, 208. 
 
 Min-Efik, 121. 
 
 Min- Makarra, 121. 
 
 , church of England, 38. 
 
 , German, 70. 
 
 , Presbyterian, 130, 165, 
 
 Mode of palm-oil manufacture, 
 
 194. 
 Moko (currency), 254. 
 Moloko Creek, 184. 
 
 Point, 184. 
 
 territory, 184. 
 
 Mongo - ma - Etendeh (mountain), 
 
 167. 
 Mongo-ma-Loboh (mountain), 167. 
 Monkey skins, 66. 
 Monrovia, 43, 44. 
 Mordinale River, 33. 
 Mosquitoes, 99. 
 Mount, Cape, 43. 
 Mourning at Cape Coast, 63. 
 
 at Old Kalabar, 148. 
 
 Mud fish, 98. 
 
 Mumbo Jumbo, 141. 
 Mummeree (dye), 99, 
 Mummo (ju-ju man), 97. 
 Mungo (tribe), 168. 
 
 Nabikems, 162. 
 Necropolis, Clarence, 182. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 309 
 
 Necropolis, Henshaw Town, 115. 
 Nelson, Lord, place where he lost 
 
 his arm, 13. 
 Nelson's colours, 14. 
 Nepi, 200. 
 Nichols Island, 168. 
 Nichols, Gen. Sir Edw., K. C. B., 
 
 168, note ; 199. 
 Niger, delta of, 82. 
 , monument at Clarence, 83, 
 
 181. 
 Nimbo (territory), 93. 
 Ningo, 67. 
 
 North- West Bay, 183. 
 Nossa Senhora del Monte, church 
 
 of, 7, 8. 
 Nsiring, 1 1 5. 
 Nun River, 79, 80, 93. 
 Nunez, Dr. 207. 
 
 , Rio, 33. 
 
 Nuts of Goora, 26, 33. 
 
 of Khola, 26, 33, 39. 
 
 Nyanga, Idem, 147. 
 
 Oath of Ashantees, 63. 
 
 of Cape Coasters, 63^ 
 
 of Kalabarese, 1 59. 
 
 of Kameroonians, 1 70. 
 
 of Krumen, 54. 
 
 McCarthy's, 63. 
 
 ■ of Timneys, 39. 
 
 Obsequies for the dead, 148. 
 
 Obu (Deity), 147. 
 
 ObuUum Abry (country), 96, 257. 
 
 Obulong, 115, 127. 
 
 Odours of flowers, 130. 
 
 of Duketown market, 122, 
 
 123. 
 Oedo (Benin), 79. 
 Ogbomosa (district), 273. 
 Okoos (tribe), 187. 
 Okpoko Egbo, 14. 
 Oldfield, Mr. 41, 82. 
 Old Kalabar River, 109, 113. 
 Old King Kalabar, 145. 
 Old Town, 115, 127, 130. 
 Ondo (district), 271. 
 Onee, King, 48. 
 Oni (Lagos), 74. 
 Opara River, 271. 
 
 Opolobo Island, 100. 
 Ordeal of Brass, 98. 
 
 of Kameroons. 170. 
 
 s of Old Kalabar, 156. 
 
 Orishima, King, 96. 
 Orotava, vale of, 16. 
 Ossa River, 74. 
 Osun River, 271. 
 Ototouro, 254. 
 Overweg, Dr., 85. 
 Owen, Captain, 176. 
 Oyo (city), 275. 
 
 "Palmer," 119, note. 
 Palma (town), 79. 
 
 (river), 271. 
 
 Palmas, Cape, 44, 47, 48. 
 
 Palm oil, advice to merchants of, 
 
 260. 
 , mode of manufacture of, 
 
 194 
 , trade of, 71, 77, 104, 194, 252, 
 
 259. 
 Palm wine (baon), 121. 
 Park, Mungo, 31, 84. 
 Parrot Island, 110. 
 Parrot's Bill, 204. 
 Pato Novo, 278. 
 Pawning, 276. 
 
 " Peak of Teyde " ( Teneriffe), 1 4. 
 Penington River, 80. 
 Peppel, King, 51, 107. 
 Peters, Surgeon, on malaria, 219. 
 Phagedenic ulcer, 296. 
 " Pharaoh, curse of," 64. 
 Pharentert, 64. 
 Piccaniny Sestros, 44. 
 Pico Grande, 7. 
 
 Ruivo, 3, 5, 7. 
 
 Pilotage, 257. 
 
 " Pleiad," voyage of the, 87. 
 Po, Fernando, 173. 
 Point de Praia Sulgada, 208. 
 da Mina, 204, 208. 
 
 Mai-Marta, 204. 
 
 , Seven Fathom, 1 12. 
 
 , Tom Shot's, 1 10. 
 
 William, 181. 
 
 Poll-tax of Gold Coast, 67, 68. 
 Polygamy, African, 50 — 52. 
 
 X 3 
 
310 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Polytheism, African, 96, 145. 
 Pompondee, 55. 
 Pongo River, 33. 
 Popo, Little, 278. 
 Portandik, 22. 
 Port Loco River, 40. 
 Porto San Antonio, 204. 
 .— - Santo, 3 — 5. 
 
 Novo, 71. 
 
 Portuguese men-of-war, 210. 
 
 Praia Sulgada, Point de, 208. 
 
 Praya (town), 211. 
 
 Preese Bell, 169. 
 
 Presbyterian mission (Old Kalabar), 
 
 130, 165. 
 Primo de Rivera, Don Joaquinx, 
 
 174. 
 Primogenitureship (Brass), 99. 
 Prince Henry, 6. 
 Prince's Island, capital of, 203. 
 
 , health of, 207. 
 
 , position of, 203. 
 
 , productions of, 208. 
 
 Punto San Lorenzo, 6. 
 
 Qua country, 104, 128. 
 
 language, 127. 
 
 mountains, 137. 
 
 palm-tree (superstition of), 
 
 128. 
 
 poison, 170. 
 
 — — , queen of, 128. 
 
 River, 110, 129. 
 
 , town of, 127. 
 
 Quinine, use of, 229, 238. 
 Queen street-sweepers, 169. 
 Quittah, 67. 
 
 Rabba, 82, 273. 
 
 Ramosa River, 80. 
 
 Raymond, Commander, 113. 
 
 Redwood, 96. 
 
 Renault de Germain, M., 24. 
 
 Reo river, 23. 
 
 «' Reossa," 195. 
 
 Rheede, Van, 287. 
 
 Ribiera del Joas Gomez, 10, 11. 
 
 Rich, Sir Robert, 34. 
 
 Richardson, Mr., 85. 
 
 River, Andony, 81, 108. 
 
 River Backersy, 110. 
 
 Balimba, 81. 
 
 Barbara, St., 81, 100. 
 
 Bartholomew, St., 81, 100. 
 
 Bassakatoo, 1 92. 
 
 Bassakoo, 81. 
 
 Bati, 81. 
 
 Benin, 71, 79. 
 
 Benito, St., 81, 251. 
 
 Bento, 81, 93, 251. 
 
 Bimbia, 81. 
 
 Binue, 86, 253. 
 
 — — Bolola, 33. 
 
 - Bonny, 81, 102. 
 
 Boreah, 81. 
 
 -^— Brass, 81, 93. 
 
 Cacheo, 33. ' 
 
 -— Campanee, 33. 
 
 — = — Campo, 81, 
 Cazamanza, 33. 
 
 Cross, 110, 112, 114. 
 
 Do, 271. 
 
 -— — Dodo, 80. 
 
 Dembia, 33, 
 
 Debueka, 33. 
 
 del Joas Gomez, 10. 
 
 Esclaros, 80. 
 
 Forcados, 80. 
 
 — ^ — Formosa, Rio, 79, 
 Gambia, 25. 
 
 Ido, 271. 
 
 lyewa, 271. 
 
 — '^-^ Janna, 33. 
 —— Jeba, 33. 
 Kakundy, 33. 
 
 —. — Kalabar, New, 81, 100. 
 
 Kalabar, Old, 81. 
 
 Kameroons, 81. 
 
 Komadagu, 87. 
 
 Kworra, 80, 82, 25J . 
 
 Mahneal, 33. 
 
 Malimba. See Balimba. 
 
 Middleton, 80. 
 
 Morindale, 33. 
 
 Nicholas, St., 81. 
 
 Niger, 82. 
 
 Nun, 79, 80, 81. 
 
 Nunez, 20, 33. 
 
 Ogun, 271. 
 
 Opara, 271. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 311 
 
 River Ossa, 74. 
 Osun, 271. 
 
 Palma, 271. 
 
 Paul's, St., 45. 
 
 Penington, 80. 
 
 — — * Pongo, 33. 
 
 Porto Loco, 40. 
 
 Qua, 110, 129. 
 
 Quorrah. Set Kworra, 
 
 — — Ramosa, 80. 
 
 Reo, 23. 
 
 del Rey, Rio, 81. 
 
 • Rokelle, 40. 
 
 Scarcies, Great, 33. 
 
 Senegal, 23. 
 
 Senegana, 80. 
 
 Shary, 87. 
 
 Sombrero, 81. 
 
 Tshadda, 80, 253. 
 
 Waterloo, 40.; 
 
 Winstanley, 80. 
 
 Woodo, 23. 
 
 Yeon, 87. 
 
 Roberts, President, 45. 
 Robson Island, 110. 
 Rocktown (Kru Coast), 48. 
 Rogan Koto, 254. 
 Rokelle River, 40. 
 Romarong, 34. 
 Roukorouko (snake), 196. 
 Rumby Mountains, 137- 
 Rupe (God), 197. 
 
 Sabin Berthelot, 188. 
 
 Sahara, 22. 
 
 St. George's Bay, 40. 
 
 St. George d*Elmina (castle), 55. 
 
 St. James's Fort ( Akra), 65. 
 
 Island, 1 10. 
 
 St. Louis, 22. 
 
 St. Mary's Island, 26. 
 
 St. Paul's Cape, 54. 
 
 River, 45. 
 
 St. Paul de Loando, 171. 
 Sakatu, 87. 
 
 , Sultan at, 87. 
 
 Salee, Queen, 199. 
 Salt, 254. 
 
 Salvage Islands, 11. 
 San Antonio, 204, 205. 
 
 X4 
 
 San Christobel, fort (Santa Cruz), 13, 
 
 San Domingo, convent o^ 13. 
 
 San Francisco, church of, 13. 
 
 San Pedro, fort of, 12, 13. 
 
 Santa Cruz, Allemada of, 1 2. 
 
 — , church of Concepcion at, 14. 
 
 — — , colours taken from Nelson at, 
 14, 
 
 , market-place at, 13. 
 
 , San Barbara, 14. 
 
 , San Christobel, 1 3. 
 
 , San Francisco, 13. 
 
 , San Pedro, 12. 
 
 , theatre at, 13. 
 
 Santarem, Juan de, 203. 
 
 Saragossa Sea, 210. 
 
 Satadoo, 31. 
 
 Savings' clubs in Yoruba, 277. 
 
 Scarcies, Great, river, 33. 
 
 Schools of Old Kalabar, 165. 
 
 Sea, tropical, phosphorescence of, 16, 
 17. 
 
 Seasons, astronomical divisions ofj 
 283. 
 
 Secondee, 55. 
 
 Senegal, capital of, 22. 
 
 , governor of, 22. 
 
 , native name of, 22. 
 
 , native produce of, 22. 
 
 , population oi, 22. 
 
 river, 23. 
 
 Sestros, Grand, 47, 48, 
 
 , Piccaniny, 44. 
 
 Seven Fathom Point, 112. 
 Sliabe, 270. 
 Shark worship, 102. 
 Shea butter, 253, 254. 
 Sherbro Islands, 43. 
 Sierra Leone, capital of, 37. 
 
 , appearance of, 36, 37. 
 
 , character of, 36. 
 
 , early name of, 36. 
 
 , export of ginger from, 41. 
 
 , export of cotton from, 41. 
 
 , extent of colony, 39. 
 
 , government of, 41. 
 
 , Harmattan of, 40. 
 
 , Mahomedans of, 38. 
 
 , native productions of, 41. 
 
 — ^f-, population of, 40. 
 
312 
 
 IKDEX. 
 
 Sierra Leone, variety of tribes in, 
 
 39. 
 Skin, functions of, in tropical climate, 
 
 232. 
 
 , Erasmus Wilson on, 232. 
 
 , need of attention to, 232. 
 
 Skins of leopards, 66. 
 
 of monkeys, 66. 
 
 of serpents, 1 96. 
 
 Skulls, paving with, 146. 
 
 Slave Coast of Bonny, 103, 104. 
 
 of Old Kalabar, 113. 
 
 Slave trade, English, 33. 
 
 , Portuguese, 34, 71. 
 
 , Spanish, 71. 
 
 , statistics of, 103, 278. 
 
 Slaves, emancipated. Rev. Mr. Crow- 
 
 ther on, 264. 
 
 , Rev. Dr. Willis on, 47. 
 
 , Mr. Clarkson on, I IS. 
 
 Slave-trader's tomb, 126. 
 " Sleeping fish," 28. 
 *' Sleepy sickness," 297. 
 Soko, 201. 
 Solstice, December, 286. 
 
 , June, 286. 
 
 Sol-lunar influence, 249. 
 
 Soosoo tribe, 39. 
 
 Southern cross, 210. 
 
 Steamy vapour, 213. 
 
 Stone hatchets, 1 92. 
 
 Stowe, Mrs. H. B., on Liberia, 46. 
 
 Stubbs, Captain, his Expedition up 
 
 the Gambia, 31. 
 Superstitions, African, 52, 1 47, 1 62, 
 
 165, 275. 
 
 of Akra, 69, 70. 
 
 of Bonny, 105, 106. 
 
 of Brass, 97. 
 
 of Cape Coast, 64. 
 
 of Fernando Po, 195, 197. 
 
 of Old Kalabar, 112, 118, 147, 
 
 156, 162. 
 
 of Parrot Island, 112. 
 
 of Qua, 1 28. 
 
 Supply of slaves to Jamaica, 34. 
 
 Surgery at Kalabar, 154. 
 
 Survey by Captain Denham, R. N., 
 
 80. 
 Swainson, 116. . ♦ 
 
 Table of palm-oil produce, 252. 
 Taylor, Rev. Mr., 92. 
 Teak-wood from Sierra Leone, 41. 
 Teka (tribe), 138. 
 Temperance in Africa, 235. 
 
 , Mr. Boyle on, 235. 
 
 , Dr. Atkin on, 236. 
 
 , Dr. M'Donald on, 237. 
 
 , Dr. Madden on, 237. 
 
 , author's opinion of, 237. 
 
 Tenda, 29. 
 
 Tenant, Dillon, and Co., 177. 
 
 Teneriffe, capital of, 12. 
 
 , Peak of, 14. 
 
 , pitch lakes of, 16. 
 
 , population of, 14, 188. 
 
 — — — , wine of, 14. 
 
 Terreiro del Se, 7. 
 
 Terceiro, 211. 
 
 Test, "chop-nut," 151. 
 
 "Teyde, Peak of," 14. 
 
 Thompson's exploration (Gambia), 
 
 29. 
 Three Points, Cape, 54. 
 Timney tribe, 39. 
 
 oath, 39. 
 
 Tisheet, 31. 
 
 Tola (pomatum), 189, 199. 
 
 Tom Eyo's museum, 135. 
 
 Tom Shot's Breakers, 110. 
 
 Tom Shot's Point, 110. 
 
 Tomb of slave trader, 1 26. • 
 
 Tomfoolery (Mumbo Jumbo), 141. 
 
 Tornadoes, 20, 21. 
 
 Trade Report, 252. 
 
 Tristas vax Saxeira, 6. 
 
 Tropical double seasons, 284, 285. 
 
 Tropical seas, beauty of, 16, 17. 
 
 Tsai, 91. 
 
 Tshad, Lake, 87. 
 
 Tshadda trade, 253. 
 
 Tsheobo (dye), 198. 
 
 Tshibbu (currency), 200. 
 
 Tshoko (currency), 192. 
 
 Turkey buzzards, 116, 125. 
 
 — — , human, 118. 
 
 Twa (town), 94. 
 
 Twa Tora River, 93. 
 
 Tyburn tree (Duketown), 122. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 313 
 
 Ulcer of Fernando Po, 
 Umbia (dye), 99. 
 
 202. 
 
 Vaillant, Le, (French traveller), 116. 
 Vanderberg, Joshua, 211. 
 Vapour, steamy, 213. 
 Ventriloquism, Fernandian, 198. 
 Venus's Girdle, 210. 
 Verd, Cape, 24. 
 Verd, Cape, Islands, 24. 
 Vermuyden's exploration (Gambia), 
 
 30. 
 Viano, Don Antonio de, 189. 
 Victoria Fort, 58. 
 
 Volcanic nature of Fernando Po, 137. 
 ' of Kameroons, 167. 
 
 Voyage home, 209. 
 
 " War King," 125. 
 
 Warree country, 79. 
 
 Warren, Admiral, 177. 
 
 Waterloo River, 40. 
 
 Wattle and dab (architecture), 1 15. 
 
 Water conveyance, 271. 
 
 Wax, 252. 
 
 Wesleyan Chapel (Cape Coast), 57. 
 
 West Bay, 204. 
 
 Whales (Fernando Po), 202, 
 White, Mr., on Madeira, 5. 
 Whydah, 71, 278. 
 William, Point, 181. 
 
 , Fort, 58. 
 
 Willis, Rev. Dr., on slaves, 47, note. 
 
 Winna-bos, 99. 
 
 Winstanley Outfalls, 80. 
 
 Witchcraft, 150. 
 
 Woloof, 23. 
 
 Woodo River, 23. 
 
 Woorree (race), 171. 
 
 Wossa, gold of, 62. 
 
 Wukari, inhabitants of, 87. 
 
 Yaloof race, 23. 
 
 Yanda, country of, 23. 
 
 Yaws, 295. 
 
 Yeon River, 87. 
 
 Yola, 87. 
 
 Yoruba, country of, 270, 271, 275. 
 
 , King of, 51, 270, 275. 
 
 , savings' clubs in, 277. 
 
 tribe, 39. 
 
 , wives of the King of, 51, 
 
 275. 
 Young Town, 100. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON : 
 FRIITTED BY SPOTTISWOODK AND CO. 
 NJtW-STKEET SQUARE. 
 
DR. BARTH'S AFRICAN TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES. 
 
 Just published, Three Volumes, 8vo. with 11 Maps, 100 Engravings 
 
 on Wood, and 36 Illustrations in tinted Lithography, 
 
 price 638. cloth, 
 
 TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES 
 
 IS 
 
 NORTH AND OENTEAL AFRICA: 
 
 Being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the auspices of 
 Her Britannic Majesty's Government in the Years 1849'1855. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY EARTH, PhD., D.C.L. 
 
 FELLOW OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND ASIATIC SOCIETIES, ETC. 
 
 From The Times, Sepi. 4, 1857. 
 
 The last ten years have added 
 more to the stock of knowledge we possess 
 of the interior of Africa than any previous 
 century ; and it might almost be allowed 
 us to discern in this fact a specially 
 providential purpose. On the one hand, 
 manufacturing industry has received so 
 wonderful a development in Europe that 
 in more than one of its departments some 
 anxiety begins to be felt for a more ample 
 supply of raw material. On the other, the 
 failure of the attempt to put down that 
 great disgrace of humanity, the slave 
 trade, by the process of blockading the 
 coast of Africa, has stimulated the desire 
 to endeavour to suppress the evil if possible 
 in the bud. Whatever ulterior steps may 
 be desirable, it is quite certain that the 
 first condition of succeeding in this attempt 
 is to bring the wide region from which the 
 Inmian exports are derived into closer in- 
 tercourse with the civilised world, and to 
 prove to the native chieftains by whom 
 the supply is furnished that motives of 
 
 interest no less than those of hu- 
 manity should induce them to suppress the 
 accursed system from which alone they 
 now derive their wealth. In both these 
 points of view the researches of Dr. Barth, 
 of which thefirst instalment has been given 
 to the public in three thick volumes, are of 
 the highest interest. He has explored per- 
 sonally a large portion of Central Africa, 
 lying between the parallels of 9° and Ife® N., 
 andliasobtainedfrom authentic sourcesde- 
 tailed information respecting much more. 
 His own route, from day to day, is carefully 
 laid down on a scale whicli enables him to 
 note all the important topographical fea- 
 tures which strike the traveller ; and with 
 the help of the coloured illustrations and 
 spirited woodcuts, both of which are very 
 numerous, the reader in his arm-chair may 
 form a perfect conception of those myste- 
 rious regions which have proved beyond 
 any other part of the world the grave of 
 explorers. 
 
 1^" Vols. IV, and V., completing the work, are in the press. 
 London : LONGMAN, BROWN, and CO., Paternoster Row. 
 
CAPTAIN PARKER SNOW'S MISSIONARY VOYAGE OF 
 
 THE "ALLEN GARDINER" TO TIERRA DEL 
 
 FUEGO AND CAPE HORN. 
 
 Just publislied, iu 2 vols, post Svo. with 3 coloured Charts and 
 6 Illustrations in tinted lithography, price 24s. cloth, 
 
 TWO YEARS' CRUISE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MISSIONARY YACHT ALLEN GARDINER, 
 
 OFF 
 
 TIERRA DEL FUEGO, THE FALKLAND ISLANDS, 
 PATAGONIA, AND THE RIVER PLATE. 
 
 By W. PARKER SNOW, 
 
 Author of "Voyage of the Prince Albert in Search of Sir John Franklin." 
 
 Satueday Eeview. — "A 
 
 heartier, more genuine, nobler book than 
 this we have not seen for a long time. It 
 is in every way wonderfully well worth 
 reading. Not only is the subject-matter 
 very curious and almost entirely new, but 
 the spirit in which the book is written is 
 admirable. The character of the author 
 is stamped in the broadest manner on 
 every page, and can hardly fail to enlist 
 the sympathy of readeis of every class. 
 Captain Snow was formerly engaged in the 
 Arctic Searching Expedition, and was the 
 author of one of the books that were pub- 
 lished on the subject. His whole mind 
 seems to be full of the gallant and tender 
 spirit which actuated so many of the per- 
 sons engaged in that splendid enterpiise ; 
 and he writes with so becoming a mixture 
 of simple manly piety and intense sailor- 
 
 like enthusiasm for the sea and all 
 
 that belongs to it, that in reading his story 
 we sometimes are tempted to think that 
 Captain Marryat and Mr. Kingsley had 
 laid their heads together in order to pro- 
 duce a sort of missionary Peter Simple 
 
 The principal merit of the book is one of 
 which a review can only give an inadequate 
 description. It consists rather in the 
 heartiness, the good sense, and the fervour 
 with which the author writes upon all 
 sorts of things and people, than in the posi- 
 tive information which he conveys. He 
 seems to know and to love the sea in all 
 its moods ; and he tells the story of his 
 various storms and manoeuvres with that 
 strange energy, and that passion for wild 
 adventure, which have distinguished the 
 race to wliich he belongs from the days of 
 the Sea-kings downwards." 
 
 Spectatoe. — "A Eobinson- 
 Crusoe style of narration, and a kind of 
 rough and picturesque treatment, sustain 
 the interest of the nautical descriptions 
 more than might be supposed- the wild 
 and violent weather of the Falkland Is- 
 lands, with the dangers of their naviga- 
 tion, and the peculiar character of the 
 River Plate, have a novelty beyond the 
 common run of voyaging The adven- 
 tures in Tierra del Fuego are very interest- 
 ing. That region is perhaps the most 
 extraordinary in the world, from the 
 manner in which the water intersects the 
 land. It is about as fresh a place as a 
 traveller can go to; for, except Fitzroy, 
 in his celebrated surveying voyage, we 
 question whether any one has gone over 
 more ground — or rather water— than our 
 author. The real dangers of the naviga- 
 tion from rocks, shoals, winds, and 
 winding channels, are increased to the 
 imagination, from the mistrust which 
 seamen have ever felt for these waters, 
 since the first circumnavigator passed 
 through the Straits which bear his name, 
 even when the discovery of Magellan was 
 
 superseded by the doubling of 
 Cape Horn. Nor are the actual incidents 
 without attraction. The little Allen Gar- 
 diner encountered much rough weather, 
 and escaped many dangers. Captain 
 Snow's intercourse with the Fuegians ex- 
 hibits man in as unsophisticated a state 
 as he well can be ; for the natives of all 
 ages and sexes were quite fitted, as regards 
 costume, for the eatly days of Paradise. 
 Jemmy Button himself was discovered, 
 after "the lapse of some quarter of a cen- 
 tury, retaining a knowledge of Englisli 
 words, a remembrance of England, and 
 a sense of what was due to the presence 
 of ladies (Mrs. Snow was on board) ; but 
 was unwilling to go back to England, or 
 let any one else go. The country, as well 
 as the Captain's descriptions, as in the 
 engravings from his sketches, appears 
 more pleasant and fruitful than the mind 
 supposes can be the case in Tierra del 
 Fuego : even the spot where poor Gar- 
 diner perished, with its ominous name 
 of Starvation Bap, looks green and 
 agreeable in the plate." 
 
 Jjondou: LONGMAN, BBOWN, and CO., Paternoster Row. 
 
CENTRAL AMERICA-NICARAGUA, HONDURAS, &c. 
 
 Just published, in 2 vols, post 8vo. witli Maps and Sections, 
 price 16s. cloth, 
 
 TRAVELS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 FREE STATES OF CENTRAL AMERICA: 
 
 J^icaraguH, poniruras, aub ^an ^albabor. 
 By DE. GAEL SCHEEZEE. 
 
 " Since the appearance of Eo- 
 then, it has not been our fortune to meet 
 with a volume of travels of greater inter- 
 est than the one before us. It is not oft en, 
 indeed, that the traveller is equal to his 
 task, or a country to be foun(\ the pecu- 
 liarities of which have not been exhausted 
 by peripatetic literary gossipers. Such, 
 liowever, is not the case in the present 
 instance ; for Central America is the caul- 
 dron in which are even now bubbling and 
 boiling those terrific conflicting human 
 passions which have marked the middle 
 period or declensions in the history of all 
 empires. It is a land blessed with every 
 advantage that nature can bestow, and at 
 present almost every evil that man in his 
 anger can create. Yet it is, perhaps, the 
 battle-ground of future freedom and civi- 
 lisation- the land of the poetic Indian and 
 his sometime mastefj the ferocious Span- 
 iard, and the great highway to California. 
 Moreover it is the point where the savage 
 aborigine, the dusky, semi-civilised, half- 
 caste, European vagaoonds of every nation , 
 decivilised by the auri sacra fames, meet, 
 and recently memorable as the scene or 
 the sanguinary exploitsof General Walker 
 and his fiUibusters. This human olla 
 podrida is analytically portrayed by Dr. 
 Scherzer, whose natural powers of obser- 
 vation, no less than his talent for descrip- 
 tion, have rendered him fully equal to his 
 task. The author's main object was, by a 
 faithful picture of the extraordinary natu- 
 ral advantages of these states, to point out 
 to Europe the many inducements to tra(ie 
 and emigration, and in this we think he 
 has succeeded no less than in the masterly 
 sketches, portraits, and anecdotes with 
 wliich his work abounds." 
 
 MoENiNO Herald. 
 
 " Dr. Scherzer's travels ex' 
 tended principally to Nicara|gua, Hondu- 
 ras, and San Salvador. His book is 
 singularly well written. Its English is so 
 terse and idiomatic that we can hardly 
 suppose it to be a translation ; but if it is 
 Dr. Scherzer's own composition, we must 
 say that we can hardly call to mind an in- 
 stance in which a foreigner has contended 
 
 SO successfully with the problems 
 presented by our most difficult language. 
 The purity and force of his style form only 
 one of Dr. Scherzer's recommendations. 
 There is not a shade of levity, flippancy, 
 or smartness in what he writes, though it 
 is full of fi-eahness and vivacity. It has 
 also that sort of unaffected gentleness and 
 simplicity which are found in German 
 writers so much oftener than amongst our 
 own countrymen. It need hardly be ob- 
 served that the special importance of Cen- 
 tral America in tne present day arises very 
 much from the circumstance that it is tra- 
 versed by what is, in all probability, 
 destined to be the gi-eatest highroad in the 
 world. Dr. Scherzer discusses at some 
 length the advantages of the various routes 
 which it is proposed to open between the 
 Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans." 
 
 Satueday Review. 
 
 "These volumes pleasantly if 
 not very profoundly tell of travels through 
 the three states of Central America which 
 have just now considerable interest from 
 being the region where Walker was carry- 
 ing on his piratical attempts, where the 
 British and American Governments were 
 disputing about territorial rights, and 
 where or in their immediate vichiity tlie 
 canals and railway lines of communication 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean 
 
 must be made The narrative is easy 
 
 and pleasant In its style. The reader has 
 clearly brought before him the wildness 
 and grandeur of the mountain scenery, the 
 richness of tropical vegetation, the teem- 
 ing fertility of the soil, intermixed occa- 
 sionally with sandy desert or barren 
 rocks reflecting the lieat of the topical sun. 
 Incidents characteristic of the people, or 
 the disordered state of the country, con- 
 tinually occur; and even tire commonest 
 occurences have generally a freshness from 
 their contrast to what is'found elsewhere ; 
 for even the adjacent countries are better 
 provided with tlie necessaries of life, and 
 make some slighter approach to civilisa- 
 tion, than the people of Nicaragua and 
 Honduras, as soon as you have left the 
 San Francisco lines." Spectatoe. 
 
 London : LOIsTaMAlS", BROWN, and CO., Paternoster Row. 
 
THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
 
 A New Edition, with a new Portrait of Captain Sir R. M'Clure, 
 
 a coloured Chart, and Four Illustrations from Sketches 
 
 by Commander S. Gurney Cresswell, R.N., 
 
 in One Volume, %sq. 'price I5s. clothe 
 
 THE DISCOVERY 
 
 N0KTH-WE8T PASSAGE 
 
 BY 
 
 H.M.S. "inyestigator;' CAPT. R. LE M. M'CLURE, 
 
 In the Years 1850'1854. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 CAPTAIN SHERAED OSBOEN, C.B. 
 
 FROM THE LOaS AND JOURNALS OF CAPT. M'CLURE. 
 
 The Second Bdition^^QiQiw.^^ revised; with considerable Additions 
 
 to the Chapter on the Hybernation of Animals in the 
 
 Arctic Regions, and a Geological Paper by 
 
 Sir Roderick I. Murchison. 
 
 *' This is one of the books wliich form part of the nation's title- 
 deeds to greatness. It cotnmemorates the achievements of one of the grandest exploits 
 on record. Sir R. M'Clure and his crew were the first men who ever passed from the 
 Pacific to the Atlantic— thus solving a problem of nearly three centuries' standing. 
 From 1576 to 1854, the feat remained, in the words of Martin Frobisher, the first 
 explorer, a thing yet undone, whet'eby a notable mind might be made famous and 
 fortunate. Captain M'Clure's narrative, edited by one who himself served in the 
 Arctic Regions with distinguished honour, may well take its place by the side of the 
 stories of the pious and gallant men who,, quite as noble as they, navigated in the days 
 TCiiTQTTrifv. oTi.i Torviao " SatubdaY Review. 
 
 of Queen Elizabeth and James. 
 
 " The whole work teems with 
 valuable information, scientific research, 
 
 and (we may add) moral instruction 
 
 The style in which the narrative is writ- 
 ten is at once manly and simple. It 
 breathes deep respect and attachment to 
 the Commander, wholly divested of adu» 
 lation, or exaggerated Was. Captain Os- 
 born, the author or rather editor of the 
 work, which was compiled from the log 
 and journals of Sir R. M'Clure, has 
 deserved well of his country, in a literary 
 sense, before this book, by his excellent 
 publication of Stray Leaves from an Arctic 
 Journal, and his treatment of the present 
 subject maintains his well'eamed repu- 
 
 tation as a seaman and an author. 
 The friendship between Sir R. M'Clure 
 and himself was evidently founded upon 
 the sympathy ever existent between intel- 
 lectual and upright men, and the straight- 
 forward testitnony borne by one to the 
 conduct of the other illuminates the 
 merits of both. The book is illustrated 
 in a very efficient style by Commander 
 Cresswell, and altogether, as a text-book 
 of nautical authority, a narrative of naval 
 enterprise, or a practical exponent of 
 individual daring, is sure to find accept- 
 ance with every patriotic and intelligent 
 mind." JoHif Bull. 
 
 London : LONGMAN, BROWN, and CO., Paternoster Row. 
 
THE VOYAG E OF "THE RESOLUTE." 
 
 Just published, with a coloured Chart of the North- West Passage, 
 
 exhibiting the Resolute' s Voyage and Recovery, 8 Illustrations 
 
 in tinted Lithography, and 24 Engravings on Wood, 
 
 in One Volume, 8vo. price 21s. cloth, 
 
 THE EVENTFUL VOYAGE 
 
 OF 
 
 p.p. gbmtorH S^ip 
 
 THE RESOLUTE 
 
 ARCTIC REGIONS 
 
 IN SEARCH OF 
 
 SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE MISSING CREWS OF 
 HER MAJESTY'S DISCOVERY SHIPS 
 
 EREBUS AND TERROR, 1852, 1853, 1854. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 Ail Account of her being fallen iu with by an American Whaler 
 
 after her abandonment in Barrow Straits, and of her 
 
 presentation to Queen Victoria by the 
 
 Government of the United States. 
 
 By GEORGE F. M'DOUGALL, Master, 
 
 Late H.M.S. Resolute. 
 
 "Too much praise cannot be 
 accorded to the clearness with which the 
 mass of statistics that this volume con- 
 tains is drawn up, and to the industry 
 which collected them. Every mile tra- 
 versed by each party is recorded ; every 
 animal and bird that fell before the 
 guns of the sportsmen is noted, and 
 the weight of food which they afforded. 
 There is even a comparative table of the 
 amount of game talcen in the various 
 expeditions since 1819. There are also the 
 more important tabular results of the 
 author's observations as master of the 
 vessel. The maximimi and minimum of 
 the thermometer during every month; 
 the readings of all the more delicate in- 
 struments ; meteorological occurrences ; 
 the log of the ship's cruise,— all so simply 
 and clearly related as to inform as well 
 as interest even the general reader, while 
 to the profession they make a special ap- 
 peal. What we may term the domestic 
 nistory of the vessel and her inmates is 
 most pleasantly related— every small de- 
 tail which broke the monotony of their 
 life ; the various plans devised and carried 
 out by the officers for the amusement as 
 well as the instruction of the men." 
 
 Globe. 
 
 "Among the incidents of Arc- 
 tic enterprise which have for so many 
 years caused public attention to veer con- 
 stantly towards the North, not the least 
 interesting is that act or international 
 courtesy,— enhanced by the circumstances 
 of the moment at which it took place,— 
 the restoration to the British Navy by the 
 Government of the United States of one of 
 the exploring vessels abandoned iu the 
 ice, and most handsomely converted by 
 our American brethren into a present to 
 Queen Victoria. Apart, however, from 
 the special interest tnus imparted to the 
 Resolute, an account of the expedition in 
 which that vessel was engaged forms a 
 valuable feature in the history of Arctic 
 exploration, and is, indeed, indispensable 
 to its completeness. Such an account has, 
 fortunately, been preserved in the form 
 most reliable and most acceptable, that of 
 a journal kept from day to day by an in- 
 telligent officer connected with the expe- 
 dition ; nor will this journal lose any of 
 its attraction and trustworthiness in the 
 reader's eyes, because it was by the writer 
 of it intended to be essentially private, as 
 nothing was further from his thoughts 
 than its publication." 
 
 JoHM" Bull. 
 
 Loudon: LONGMAN, BKOWN, and CO., Paternoster Bow. 
 
RECENT VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
 
 A VISIT to ALGIERS. By the Rev. E. W. L. Davies, 
 
 M. A. Oxon., Rxural Dean of Selby. Post 8vo. with Illustrations. 
 
 II. 
 
 Captain BURTON'S FIRST FOOTSTEPS in EAST 
 
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 Captain BURTON^S PILGRIMAGE to MEDINA and 
 
 MECCA. 2 vols, crown 8vo, with Illustrations, 24s, 
 
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 MITLA ; or, Incidents and Adventures of Travel in Mexico 
 and Guatemala. By G. F. Von Tempskt. Edited by J, S. Bell. 8vo. with Illus- 
 trations. 
 
 V. 
 
 Captain OSBORN'S QUEDAH ; or, Stray Leaves from a 
 
 Journal in Malayan Waters. Post 8yo. with Illustrations, 10s, 6d. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The CHINESE EMPIRE. By the Abbe Hug. 2 vols. 
 
 Svo. price 24s. 
 
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 CHINA, TARTARY, and THIBET. 2 vols. Svo. 21s.-^VoL. III. is nearly ready. 
 
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 Mr. HINCHLIFF'S SUMMER MONTHS amonff the 
 
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 6