St. Ies - Forgotten Books

ST I ES

MARY H . KINGSLEYAUTHOR OF TRAVELS IA A AAA AAAAAA

WI TH ILLUSTRATI ONS AND MAPS

iLn n h u n

N AND CO .

,L I M I T ED

THE MACM I LLAN COMPANY

1 899

A l l w ie l ds r eseawed

TO MY BROTHER

MR . C . G. K INGSLEY

AND TO MY FR IEND WHO IS DEAD

TH IS BOOK IS

fi sbiw teh

PREFACE TO THE READER

I PRAY you who may come acros s th is book to dist in gu ish careful ly between the] part of it written by othersand that written by me.Anything concerning West Africa written by M . le

Comte C . de Cardi or Mr. J ohn Harford , of Bristol , doesnot requ i re apology and explanation ; whi le anythingwritten by me on th is , or any subject, does . M . le Comtede Cardi possesses an unrival led knowledge of the nativesof the N iger Delta

,gained , as al l West Coasters know,

bypersonal experience , and gained in a way whereby he hadto test the truth of his ideas about these natives

,not against

things said concerning them in books , but against the factsthemselves

,for years ; and depending on the accu racy of

his knowledge was not a theory,but hi s own l ife and

property . I have always wished that men having this kindof firs t -hand

,wel l-tested knowledge regard ing West A frica

could be i nduced to publ ish i t for the benefit of students,

and for the foundation of a true knowledge concerning thenatives of West A frica in the minds of the general public ,feel ing assured that if we had this class of knowledgeavai lable

,the student of ethnology wou ld be saved from

many fantastic theories,and the general publ ic enabled to

PREFACE

bring its influence to bear in the cause of j ustice , in stead ofin the cause of fads . I need say nothing more regardingAppendix I . ; i t is a mine of knowledge concerning a highlydeveloped set of natives of the true Negro stem

,particu larly

valuable because,during recent years , we have been

singularly badly o ff for information on the true Negro . I t

would not be too much to say that,with the exception of the

important series of works by the late Sir A . B . El l i s , anda few others

,so few that you can count them on the fingers

of one hand,and Dr. Freeman ’s Askan t i an d jamam, pub

l ished this year, we have pract ical ly had no rel iable information on these

,the most important of the races of Africa

,

since the eighteenth century. The general publ ic have beendependent on the work of great East and Central Africangeographical explorers , l ike Dr. L ivingstone, Mr. H . M .

Stanley, Dr. Gregory,Mr . Scott E l l iott , and Sir H . H .

Johnston,men whose work we cannot value too highly

,and

whom we cannot sufficiently adm ire but who,nevertheless

,

were not when describ ing Africans describing Negroes , butthat great m ixture of races existing in Central and EastAfrica whose main ingredient i s Bantu . To argue fromwhat you know about Bantus when you are dealing withNegroes is about as safe and sound as to argue from whatyou may know about Eastern Europeans when you are dealing with Western European s . Nevertheless , this fa l laciousmethod has been fol lowed in the domain of ethnology andpoliti cs with, as might be expected , bad results . I am ,

therefore,very proud at being permitted by M . le Comte

de Card i to publ ish his statements on true Negroes ; and Ineed not say I have in no way altered them

,and that he is

m no way responsible for any errors that there may be inthe portions of th is book written by me .

PREFACE ix

Mr. John Harford , the man who first 1 opened up that sti l ll i tt le-known Qua Ibo r iver

,another region of Negroes

,also

requires no apology. I am confident that the quite u n conscious picture of a West Coast trader’s l ife given by him inAppendix I I . wil l do much to remove the fantastic n otionsheld concerning West Coast traders and the manner of l ifethey lead out there ; and I am convinced that i f the Englishpubli c had more of this sort ofmaterial i t would recognise

,as

I, from a fairly extensive knowledge ofWest Coast traders ,have been forced to recogn ise

,that they are the c lass of

white men out there who can be trusted to manage WestAfrica.I most sincerely wish that the whole of this book hadbeen written by such men as the authors of Appendices I .and I I . IVe are seriously in want of reliable informationonWest African affai rs . I t i s a sort of i nformation you canonly get from resident white men

,those who l ive in close

touch with the natives , and who are forced to know thetruth about them in order to l ive and p rosper, and fromscientific trained observers . The transient t ravel ler, passingrapidly through such a region as West Africa, i s not sovaluable an informant as he may be in other regions of theEarth

,where his observations can be checked by those

of acknowledged authorities,and supp lemented by the

l i terature of the natives to whom he refers . For on WestAfri ca, outs ide E ll is ’s region , there is no authority newerthan the eighteenth century

,and the natives have no written

l i terature . You must,therefore

,go down to Urs t ufi

' andrely only on expert observers

,whose l ives and p roperty

1 Mr . McEach en firs t t raded th ere in a h u lk b u t , after ab ou t tw o

years , w ithdrew in 1 873. No t rade w as don e in th is river b y w h ite

m en u n t il Mr. Harford w en t in , s in ce th en it has con t in u ed.

PREFACE

depend on thei r observing wel l,or whose sc ience trains

them to observe carefu l ly .

Now of course I regard myself as one of the second classof these observers : did I not do so I would not dare speakabout West A frica at al l , especial ly in such company butwhatever I am or whatever I do , requ i res exp lanation ,apology

,and thanks .

You may remember that after my return from a secondsojourn in West Africa

,when I had been to work at “ fetish

and fresh-water fishes,I publ i shed a word -swamp of a book

about the s ize of Norie’

s N avigat ion . Mr. GeorgeMacmil lan lured me into so doing iby stating that if I gavemy own version of the affai r I should remove m isconceptions ;and if I did not it was useless to object to such things asparagraphs in American papers to the effect that “M issKingsley

,having crossed the continent of Africa

,ascended

the N iger to V ictoria, and then cl imbed the Peak ofCameroon ; she i s shortly to return to England , when shewi ll del iver a series of lectures on French art , which shehas had great opportunities of studying .

” Well,thanks to

Mr. Macm i l lan ’s kindness,I did publish a sort of interim

report , cal led Travels in Wes t Af r z'

ca . I t did not work outin the way he p rophesied I t has led to my being referredto as “an intrepid exp lorer, a thing there is not the makingof in me, who am ever the prey of frights , worries , andalarms ; and its main effect , as far as I am personal lyconcerned

,has been to plunge me further sti l l i n debt for

kindness from my fel low creatures , who , though capable ofdoing al l I have done and more capable of writingabout it in real ly good English

,have tolerated that book

and frequent ly me also,with half-a-dozen co lds in my head

and a dingy temper. Chief among al l these cred itors of

PREFACE xi

mine I must name Mrs . J . R . Green,Mrs . George Macmil lan ,

and M i ss Lucy Toulmin Smith ; but don ’t imagine thatthey or any other of my creditors approve of any singlesol itary opinion I express , or the way in which I exp ress i t .I t i s merely that I have the power of bringing out in myfel low-creatures

,white or black

,thei r virtues

,in a way

honourable to them and fortunate for me .I must here also acknowledge the great debt of gratitude Iowe to Mr. John Holt , of L iverpool . A part of my work l iesin the affai rs of the s o -cal led Bu b ies of Fernando Po

,and no

one knows so much about Fernando Po as Mr. Holt . He

has also been of the greatest help to me in other e th n o

logical questions,and has permitted me to go through his

col lections of African things most generously. I t is , however, id le for me to attempt to chron icle my debt to Mr.

Holt, for in every part of my work I owe him much . I donot wish you to think he is responsible for any of it , buthis counsels have ever been on the s ide of moderation andgenerosity in adverse criti cism . I honestly confess I bel ieveI am by nature the very mildest of cri tics ; but Mr. Holtand others think otherwise ; and so , although I have notaltered my opin ions

, I have restra ined from publ ishin gseveral developments of them

,i n deference to Superior

knowledge .I am also under a debt of gratitude to Professor Tylor .

He a l so i s not i nvolved in my opinions,but he kind ly

permits me to tel l him things that I can only “ tel l Tylorand now and again

,as you wil l see in the Fetish question

,

he comes down on me with a refreshing fi rmness ; in factI feel that any attempt at fantastic explanations of WestAfri can culture wi l l not receive any encouragement fromhim ; and it i s a great comfort to a mere drudge l ike myse l f

xii PREFACE

0 know there is some one who cares for facts, withouttheories draping them .

I wil l merely add that to al l my own West Coastfriends I remain indebted ; and that if you ever come acrossany one who says I owe them much , you may take it as a ru lethat I do

,though in al l my written stuff I have most careful ly

ticketed its source .

I now turn to the explanation and apology for this book ,b riefly . Apology for its l iterary style I do not make . I

am not a l iterary man , only a student of West Africa . I

am not p roud of -

my imperfections in Engl ish . I w ou ld

write better i f I could,but I cannot . I find when I try to

write l ike other people that I do not say what seems to metrue

,and thereby lose a l l right to say anything and I am

more convinced,the more I know of West Africa—my

education is continuous and unbroken by hol idays,—that i t

i s a d ifficu l t thing to write about,particularly when you are

a student hampered on all s ides by masses of inchoatematerial

,unaided by a set of great authors to whose opin ions

you can refer, and addressing a publ ic that is not interestedin the things that interest you so keenly and that youregard as so deep ly important.I n my previous book I most carefu l ly confined myself tofacts and arranged those facts on as thin a l ine of connectingOp in ion as possib le . I was anxious to see what manner ofop inion they wou ld give rise to in the minds of the educatedexperts u p here ; not from a mere feminine curiosity , b u tfrom a distrust in my own abi l ity to construct theories . On

the whole this method has worked well . Ethnologists ofd ifferent theories have been enabled to use such facts asthey saw fit ; but one of the greatest of ethnologists hasgrumbled at me

,not for not giving a theory

,but for omitting

PREFACE xiiito show the inter-relationship of certain groups of facts , ani nter- relationship h is acuteness enabled him to know ex isted .

Therefore I here give the key to a good deal of this interrelationship by dividing the di fferent classes of Fetishismi nto four schools . I n order to do this I “have now to placebefore you a good deal of material that was either crowdedout of the other work or considered by me to require furtherinvestigation and comparison . As for the new statementsI make

,I have been enabled to give them this from the

constant information and answers to questions I receive fromWest Africa . For the rest of the Fetish I remain a merephotographic plate .

Regarding the other sections of this book , they are tome al l subsidiary in importance to the Fetish , but theybelong to it . They refer to its environment , without aknowledge of which you cannot know the thing. WhatMr. Macmil lan has ticketed as Introductory— I could notfind a name for i t at al l— has a certain bearing on WestAfrican affairs as showing the l ife on a West Coast boat.I may remark it is a section crowded out of my previousbook ; so , though you may not be glad to see it here, youmust be glad it was not there .

The fishing chapter was also cast out of Travels in

Wes t Af rica . Cri ti cs whom I respect said it was wrongof me not to have exp lained how I came by my fishes .This made me fear that they thou gh t l had stolen them ,

so I publ ished the article promptly in the Na t ion a l

Review,and , by the kindness of its editor, Mr. Maxse

,I

reprint it. I t i s the only reprint in this book .

The chapter on Law contains all the material I havebeen so far able to arrange on this important study . Thematerial on Crim inal Law I must keep unti l I can go outagain to West A frica

,and read further in the minds of

X I V

men in the African Forest Belt region ; for in them ,in

that region,i s the original text . The connection between

Rel igion and Law I have not reprinted here,i t being

avai lable,thanks to the courtesy of the H ibbert Trustees

,in

the Nat ion al Review, September, 1 897 .

I have left my sti ffest bit of explanation and apologyti l l the last, namely, that relating to the Crown Colonysystem

,which is the thing that makes me beg you to

disassociate from me every friend I have,and deal with

me alone . I am alone responsible for it,the on ly thing for

which I may be regarded as sharing the responsibi l ity withothers being the statistics from Government sources .I t has been the most difficu lt th ing I have ever had todo . I w ou ld have given my right hand to have done itw el l

,for I know what i t means i f things go on as they are .

A las ! I am hampered with my bad method of exp ression .

I cannot show you anything clearly and neatly . I have toshow you a series of pictures of things

,an d hope you wil l

get from those p i ctures the imp ression which is the truth .

I dare n o t set myself up to tel l you the truth . I only say,

look at it ; and to the best of my abi l ity faithfully giveyou

,not an artist ’s p i cture , but a photograph, an overladen

with detai l,colourless version ; al l the time wishing to

Heaven there was some one else doing i t who could do i tbetter

,and then I know you would understand

,and al l

would be wel l . I know there are people who t ax me witha brutal ity in statement

,I feel unjustly and i t makes me

wonder what they wou ld say if they had to speak ab outWest Africa. I t i s a repetition of the d ifficu lty a friend ofm ine and myse lf had over a steam launch ca l led theDragon Fly , whose internal health was chronica l ly poor, andsubject to bad attacks . Wel l

,one afternoon , he and I had

to take her out to the home-going steamer, and she had

PREFACE xv

suffered that afternoon in the engines,and when she su ffered

anywhere she let you know it. We did what we could forher, in the interests of humanity and ourselves ; we gaveher lots of oi l , and fed her with del icately-chopped woodbut al l to but l ittle avai l . So both our tempers beingstrained when we got to the steamer

,we told her what the

other one of us had been sayin g about the Dragon Fly .

The purser of the steamer thereon said “ that peop lew ho said things l ike those about a poor inanimate steamlau‘nch were fools with a flaming hot future

,and lost sou ls

entirely.

” We real ised that our observations had beenimperfect ; and so , being ever desi rous of improving ourselves

,We offered to pu t the purser on shore in the Dragon

Fly . We knew she was fee ling sti l l much the same,and

we wanted to know what he would say when jets of superheated steam played on him . He Came , and they did ;and when they did

,you know

,he said things I cannot

repeat . Nevertheless,things of the nature of our own

remarks,but so much finer of the kind

,that we regarded

him with awe when he was returning thanks to the poorinanimate steam launch ” but it was when it came to hisgoing ashore

,gladly to leave us and her

,that we found out

what that man could say ; and we moral ly fainted at hisremarks made on discovering that he had been sitting in apool of smutty oil , which she had insidious ly treated himto

,in order to take some of the stuffing out of him about

the superior s n ow w hit en es s of his trousers . Well,that

purser went off the scene in a b lue flame ; and I said tomy companion , “ Sir ! we cannot say things l ike that.”“ R ight you are, M i ss Kingsley,”he said sadly you and Iare only fit for Sunday school entertainments .”I t i s thus with me about this Crown Colony affai r . I know

XVI PREFACE

I have not risen to th e height other peop le—my superiors .l ike th e purser—wou ld rise to , if t hey knew i t but at thes ame time , I mav s eem to those w ho do not know it

,who

onl y kn ow the good intentions of Englan d , and who regards s tems as inan imate th ings , to be speaking harshly. I

wou ld not have men t ioned t h is afl'

air at al l . did I notclear lv see t hat ou r present met hod of dea l ing w i th tropicalpossess ions under t he Crow n Colony system w as dangerousfi n ancial ly. an d brought wi th i t suffering to the nativeraces and d isgrace to Engli sh gentlemen , w h o are boundt o ob ey and carry out th e orders given t hem by thesy stem .

Plotinus very properly said that the proper th ing t o do w ast o superimpo se t he idea upon the actua l . I am not one ofthose who w ill ever tel l you things are impo ss ible , but I ampart icu l arly hope fu l i n t his mat ter. England has an excel len tidea regard ing her du ty t o n at ive races in WestAfri ca . She

has an excel len t act u a l in the “e s t African native t o

superimpose her idea upon . A l l that i s wan ted is the prope rmethod ; and thi s me th od I assure vo u t hat Science , trueknow ledge

,th at w hich Sp inoza termed the inw ard aid of

God, can give vou . I am n o t Science . but only one of herbri ck -makers . an d I beg y o u to t u rn to her . Remembe ryou have tried to do w i t hout her in A frican matte rs for400 years , an d on th e road to civi l i sation and advance therey o u have travel led on a cabbag e leaf.I have n ow on ly the p leas ant duty of remarking that in

this book I have sai d nothing regarding missionary questions .I do n ot think it w il l eve r be necess ary for me to mentiont hose qu estio n s again except to Non con formist missionari es .I sav t hi s advised ly ,

because . though I have not one wordt o ret ract of w hat I have said , t he say ing of i t has demon

PREFACE

s t rat ed to me th e fearles s hones ty an d the pe rfect chival ryin controversy of t he Noncon formist m iss ions in England .

As they are the most extensive ly in teres ted in “fes t Afri ca .

i f on my next stay o u t in “fest Africa I find anythin g Iregard as rather wron g in mission ary affairs I intend to haveit out wi thin doo rs ; for I kn ow that the Non con formis ts w i l lbe clear-headed

,and fight fair an d s tick to the po i n t.

MARY H . K INGSLEY .

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xx CONTENTS

CHAPTER V I I I

AFRICAN MEDIC INE

CHAPTER IX

THE WITCH DOCTOR

CHAPTER X

EARLY TRADE IN WEST AFR ICA

CHAPTER XI

FRENCH D ISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA

CHAPTER XI I

COMMERCE IN WEST AFR ICA

CHAPTER XI I I

THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM

CHAPTER XIV

THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM IN WEST AFR ICA

CHAPTER XV

MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM

CHAPTER XV I

THE CLASH OF CULTURES

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVI I

AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN

CHAPTER XV I I I

AFRICAN PROPERTY

APPENDIX

I . A SHORT DESCR IPTION OF THE NATIVES OF THE N IGER

COAST PROTECTORATE, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR

CUSTOMS, RELIGION ,TRADE

,ETC . BY M . LE COMTE

C . N . DE CARD II I . A VOYAGE TO THE AFRICAN OIL R IVERS TWENTY-FIVE

YEARS AGO. BY JOHN HARFORDI I I . TRADE GOODS USED IN THE EARLY TRADE WITH AFR ICA

AS GIVEN BY BARBOT AND OTHER WRITERS OF THE

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. BY M . H . K INGSLEY

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRAT IONS

SI R IMBA PLAYERS,CONGO

SANTA CRUZ,TENERIFFE Tofacevag e

FOR PALM WINE

SECRET SOC IETY LEAVING THE SACRED GROVE

JENGU DEVIL DANCE OF K ING WILLIAM’S SLAVES,

SETTE GAMMA,NOVEMBER 9, 1 888*

BATANGA CANOES

FALLS ON THE TONGUE R IVER

LOANDA CANOE WITH MAT SAI LS

ST. PAUL Do LOANDAROUND A KAGONGO CAMP FIRE

FANTEE NATIVES OF THE GOLD COAST

YORUBA .

A CALABAR CH IEF

NATIVES OF GABOON

FJORT NATIVES OF KAGONGO AND LOANGO

OI L R IVER NATI VES

ST. PAUL DO LOANDACLIFFS AT LOANDADONDO ANGOLA

TRAD ING STORES

ST. PAUL DO LOANDABy permis s ion of R . B . N . Walker

,Esq .

LIST OF ILLUSTRAT IONS

IN AN ANGOLA MARKET

A MAN OF SOUTH ANGOLA

A B OUSAHOUSE PROPERTY IN KACONGO

BUBIES OF FERNANDO PO

JA JA, K ING OF OPOBO

JA JA MAK ING JU JU

WEST AFRICAN STUDIES

CHAPTER I

I N TRODU CTORY

Regardin g a voyage on aWest Coas t b oat , With some Ob servat ion s onth e n at u ral h is t ory ofmarin ers n ever b efore pu b lish ed t o Which is

added s ome descript ion of the hab it s an d n at u re Of th e an t an d

oth er in s ect s , to the en d that th e n ew -comer b e in formed con

cern in g th es e thin gs b efore h e lan ds in Afrik .

THERE are some people who Wi l l tel l you that the labou rproblem is the most difficul t affair that Africa presents tothe student ; others give the fi rst place to the influence ofc ivi l isation on native races

,or to the interaction of the

interests of the various White Powers on that continent,or to the successful sanitation of the said continent

,or some

other high -sounding thing ; but I , Who have an acquaintancewith al l these matters

,and think them wel l enough

,as

intel lectual exercises,yet look upon them as sl ight com

pared to the problem of the West Coast Boat.NOW l ife on board a West Coast steamer i s an importantfactor inWestAfrican affairs

,and its influence i s far reaching.

I t is, indeed , ak in to What the Press is in England , i n thatB

INTRODUCTORY CHAP.

i t forms an immense amount of publ ic Opinion . I t is onboard the steamer that men from one part ofWest Africameet men from another part ofWest Afri ca—parts ofWestA frica are different. These men talk things over togetherW i thout explaining them , and the consequence i s confusioni n idea and the darkening of counsel from the ideas soformed being handed over to people at home who practical ly know no part of the West Coast whatsoever.I had an examp le of this the other day, when a lady saidto me in an aggrieved tone

,after I had been saying a few

words on swamp s, “Oh , M iss K ingsley, but I thought it waswrong to talk about swamps nowadays

,and that Africa w as

real ly quite dry. I have a cous in who has been toAccra andhe says

,

”&c. That ’s the way the formation of an erroneous

Opin ion on West Africa gets started . Many a time have Iwith a scientific interest watched those erroneous opinionscoming out of the egg on aWes t Coast boat . Say , for example ,a Gold Coaster meets on the boat a R iver-man . R iver-manin course of conversat ion , states how,

hearing a fil laloo inthe yard one night I got up and found the watchman going to s leep on the top of the ladder had just lost a leg bymeans of one crocodi le, whi le another crocodi le was k ickingup a deuce of a row climbing up the crane.” Gold Coastersays

,

“Tel l that to the Marines. R iver-man says,

“Perfectfact

, Sir, my place swarms with crocodi les. Why , once, whenI was,” &c.

, &c. Anyhow it ends in a row . The GoldCoaster says , “Sir, I have been 7 years (or I 3 or someimpress ive number of years) “on the West Coast ofAfrica ,Sir, and I have never seen a crocodi le.” R iver-man makesremarks on the ex istence of a tox i c state wherein a mancan’t see the holes in a ladder

,for he knows he ’s seen

hundreds of crocodi les .

4 INTRODUCTORY CHAP..

massacre or some unpleasantness . The two statementshave in them the connecting thread of truth

,that truth that

,

according to Fichte , is i n al l th ings . The fi rst shows that iti s the des ire in the official m ind that everything should bequite satisfactory to every one ; the second , that practical lyth is blessed state has not yet arrived—that i s al l .I need not

,however

,further dwel l on this complex phase

,

and wil l turn to the high educational value of the WestAfrican steamboat to the young Coaster

,hold ing that on

the cond itions under which the Coaster makes h is fi rst voyageout to West Africa largely depends whether or no he takes .to the Coast . Strange as it i s to me, who love West Africa,there are people who have real ly been there who have noteven l iked it in the least. These people , I fancy , have notbeen properly brought up in a su i table academy as I was .Doubtless a P. O . i s a good preparatory school for

India,or a Un ion , or Castle l iner for the Cape, or an

Emperez a Nacional s imply superb for a Portuguese Wes tCoast Possession, but for the Bights, especial ly for the terrible B ight Of Ben in

,

“Where for one that comes out there are

forty stay in,

”I have no hesitation in recommending the

West Coast cargo boat. Not one of the best ships in thefleet

,m ind you they are wel l enough to come home In and

so on,but you must go on a steamer that has her saloon

aft on your first trip out or you w i l l never understand WestAfrica.I t was on such a steamer that I made my first voyageout in ’

93 , when , acting under the advice of most eminentmen

,before whose names European Science trembles , I

resolved that the best place 't o study early rel igion and law,and col lect fishes

,was the West Coast of Africa .

On reaching L iverpool , where I knew no one and of wh ich

AN ENERGETIC TRADER 5

I knew nothing in ’

93, I found the boat I was to go by wasa veteran of the fleet. She had her saloon aft, and I amb ound to say her appearance was anything but reassuringto the uninitiated and alarmed young Coaster, depressed bythe d ireful prophecies of deserted friends concerning al lthings West African . Di rt and greed were that vessel ’smost obvious attributes . The dirt rapidly disappeared , andby the time she reached the end of her trip out

,at Loanda,

she was as neat as a new pin , for during the voyage everyinch of paint work was scraped and re-painted , from the redbelow her Pl imsol l mark to the uttermost top of her blackfunnel . But on the day when first we met these th ingswere yet to be . As for her greed , her owners had evidentlyt hen done al l they cou ld to sat isfy her. She was heavi lyladen

,her holds more fu l l than many a better ship ’s ; but no,

she was not content, she did not even pretend to be, ands hamelessly whistled and squ arked for more. So , evidentlyjust to grat ify her, they sent her a l ighter laden with kegsof gunpowder, and she grunted contentedly as she saw itc ome alongs ide . But she was not real ly entirely contenteven then

,or satisfied . I don ’t suppose, between ourselves ,

any South West Coast boat ever is, and during the wholet ime I was on her, devoted to her as I rapidly became , ISaw only too clearly that the one thing she real ly cared forwas cargo. I t was the criterion by which she measuredthe importance

,nay the very excuse for existence

,of a

port.If she is ever sold to other owners and sent up the

Mediterranean, she wi l l anathemat ise Malta and scornNap les . “What !no palm oi l !”she’ l l say ; no rubber ? Cal ly ourself a port !”and t ie her whistle string to a stanchionu nti l the authorit ies bring off her papers and let her cleara way. Every on e on board her She i nfected with a com

INTRODUCTORY CHAP

1

mermal se x-i t . I am n c t hv n at u re a c a n em ia . man

paraffin Oil in cas es in th e Big t s : an d even to m is s ion aries

8 INTRODUCTORY CHAP.

That’s right,says the interlocutor you want them to

wear at funerals. Do you know,

”he remarks,turn ing to

another old Coaster,my dress trousers d id not get mouldy

once last wet season .

Get along,

”says his friend , you can ’t hang a th ing uptwenty-four hours without its be ing fi t to graze a cow on .

”

Do you get anyth ing else but fever down there ? ”asks anew comer

,nervously.

Haven ’t t ime as a general ru le,bu t I have known some

fel lows get kraw kraw.

An d the Portuguese itch, abscesses, u l cers , the Gu ineaworm and the smal lpox

,

”observe the chorus calmly .

Wel l , says the fi rst answerer , k indly but regretfu l ly, asif i t pa ined him to admit this wea l th of disease was den iedh is part icu lar local ity “ they are mostly on the South-westCoast .” An d then a gentleman says parasites are

,as far as

he knows , everywhere on the Coast, and some of them severalyards long. Do you remember poor C . says he to the Captain , who gives h is usual answer, Knew h im wel l . Ah !poorchap, there was quite a quant ity of him eaten away, ins ideand out, w ith parasites , and a qu ieter, better l iving man‘than C . there never was .” “Never,”says the chorus , sweepin g away the hope that by tak ing care you may keep clear ofsuch things—the new Coaster’s great hope . Where do youcal l says a young victim consigned to that port . Somesay it i s on the South-west, but op inions d iffer, sti l l thevi ct im is left assured that i t i s j ust about the best place onthe seaboard of the cont inent for a man to go to who wantsto make h imself into a sort of complete hospital course fora set of med ical students .This instruction of the y/oung in the charms of Coast l ifei s the fa ithful ly d ischarged m iss ion of the old Coasters

OLD COASTERS AND YOUNG COASTERS

o n steamboats,especial ly

,as aforesaid , at meal times .

Desperate vi ctims sometimes determine to keep the conversation off fever

,but to no avai l. I t i s in the ai r you

breath,mental ly and phys ical ly ; one w i l l mention a l ively

an d amusing work,some one cuts in and observes Poor D.

was found dead in bed at C . with that book alongside him .

”

With al l subjects i t i s the same . Keep clear of i t in conversation

,for even a half hour, you cannot . Far better is

i t for the young Coaster not to try, but just to col lect al lt he anecdotes and information you can referring to it, andt hen l ie low for a new Coaster of your own to tel l them to ,a n d when your own turn comes , as come it wi l l i f youh aunt the West Coast long enough, to peg out and be poors o and so yourself. For goodness sake die somewhere wheret hey haven ’t got the cemetery on a hi l l , because going up ah i l l in shirt col lars

, &c. ,wi ll cause your mourners to peg

o u t too,at least this is the lesson I was taught in that

e xcel lent West Coast school .When

,however

,there is no new Coaster to instruct

o n hand,or he is t i red for ten minutes of do ing it

,

t he old Coaster d iscourses w ith his fel low old Coasterso n trade products and insects . Every attent ion shouldbe given to him on these po ints . On trade productsI w i l l d iscourse elsewhere ; but insects i t i s wel l thatt he new comer shou ld know about before he sets foot onAfrica. On some West Coast boats excel lent train ingis afforded by the supply of cockroaches on board , andt here is nothing l ike gett ing used to cockroaches earlywhen your l ife is going to be spent on the Coast—butI need n o t 'detain you w ith them now

,merely remark

ing that they have none of the modest reticence of theE uropean variety. They are very compan ionable, seek ing

I o INTRODUCTORY CHAP

rather than shunn ing human society , n es t l in g in thebunk withyou if the weather is the least chi l ly

,and I fancy not averse

to l ight it is true they come out most at n ight,but then they

d istinctly l ike a bright l ight,and you can watch them in a

tight packed c ircle round the lamp w ith thei r headstowards it

,twirl ing the ir antennae at it with evident satis

fact ion in fact i t’s the l ively n ights those cockroacheshave that keep them abed during the day. They are sometimes of great magn itude I have been assured by ob

servers of them i n factories ashore and on moored hu lksthat they can stand on their h ind legs and drink ou t of aquart jug

,but the most common steamer k ind is smal ler

,

as far as my own observat ions go . But what I do Object toin them is

,that they fly and feed on your hair and nai l s

and d isturb your sleep by so do ing ; and you mayn ’tsmash themthey make an awfu l mess i f you do . As

for insect powder,wel l

,I’

d l ike to s ee the insect powderthat would disturb the d igest ion of a West African insect .But it’s against the insects ashore that you have to bespec ial ly warned . During my first few weeks of A fri caI took a general natural historical interest in them w ithenthusiasm as of natural history ; it soon became a meresporting one

,though equal ly enthusiasti c at fi rst . After

wards a nearly complete indifference set in,unless some

wretch aroused a vengeful spi rit in me by stinging or

b i ting. I should say, look ing back calmly upon the matter,that 7 5 per cent . of West African insects sting, 5 per cent .bite

,and the rest are either permanently or temporari ly

paras iti c on the human race. An d undoubtedly one of themany worst things you can do inWest Africa i s to take anynot ice of an insect . If you see a th ing that looks l ike across between a flying lobster and the figure of Abraxas on

1 2 INTRODUCTORY CHAP.

viou s year on a Castle l iner,having

,i n those remote and

dark ages , been taught to bel ieve that L iverpool boats wereto be avoided I was

,so far, in a state of mere transit ion

o f opin ion from this view to the one I at present hold ,namely

,that L iverpool West A frican boats are quite the

most perfect th ings in their way,and

,at any rate , good

e nough for me .I need not d iscourse on the Grand Canary ; there are manybetter descript ions of that lovely is land

,and l ikewise of

it s s ister , Teneri ffe , than I cou ld g ive you . I cou ld,indeed

g ive you an account of these islands, particu larly when aWest Coast boat is i n from South ,” that wou l d Showanother s ide of the is land l ife ; but I forbear, because itwou ld

,perhaps , cause you to th ink i l l of the West Coaster

u njustly ; for the West Coaster, when he lands on theisland of the Grand Canary

,homeward bound

,and real ises

h e has a good reasonable chance to see his home andEngland again , i s not in a normal state , and prone to fal lunder the influence of exc itement

,and display emotions

t hat he would not dream of either on the West Coasti tsel f or in England . Indeed , i t is not too much to sayt hat on the Canary I slands a good deal of the erroneousprejudice aga inst West Afr ica is formed but this is not thep lace to go into detai ls on the subject .I t was not unt i l we left Canary that my fel low passengers

o n the real ised that I was going to the Coast .” Theyhad most c ivil ly bidden me good-bye when they werea shore on the morning of our arrival at Las Palmas andthey were surprised at my presence on board at dinner,as attent ive to thei r conversation as ever. They explained that they had regarded me at first as a ladym iss ionary, unt i l my fai lure , during a Sunday service in

I GET MYSELF EXPLAINED 1 3

the Bay of Biscay,to rescue it from the dire confusion into '

which it had been thrown by an esteemed and able officerand a dut iful but inexperienced Purser caused them to re

gard me as only a very early vis itor to Canary. Now theyrequired explanation . I said I was interested in NaturalH i story . Botany

,

”they sa id,They had known some men

who had come out from Kew,but they were al l dead

now .

I denied a connection with Kew, and in order to g ive anair of defin it en e s s to my intentions, remembering I had beeninstructed that “ one of the .worst things you can do inWest Africa is to be indefin ite,”I said I was interested inthe South Antarctic Drift—I was in those days.They promptly fel l into the pit of error that this was a.

gold mine speculat ion , and sa id they had never heard ofsuch a m ine.’ I attempted to extricate them from thisidea

,and succeeded , except with a deaf gentleman w ho

kept on sweeping into the conversat ion with yarns an d

Op inions on gold m ines in West Africa and the awfu lmortal i ty among peop le who attended to such things, wh ichnatural ly led to a prolonged d iscuss ion ending in a generalresolution that people who had anything -To do with goldmines general ly died rather qu i cker even than men fromKew. Indeed , it took me days to get mysel f expla ined ,and when it was accompl ished I found I had nearly gotmyself regarded as a lunatic to go to West Africa for suchreasons . But fortunately for me, and for many others w hohave ventured into this kingdom

,the West African mer

chants are good-hearted , hosp itable Engl ish gentlemen , whoseem to feel i t their duty that no harm they can p reventshould happen to any one ; and my fi rst friends

,among

them my fel low passengers on the fai l ing in inducing

I 4 INTRODUCTORY CHAP .

me to return from Sierra Leone, w hich they strongly adv ised

,did the ir best to save me by means of education .

The th ings they thought I real ly ought to know ”wou ldmake W i ld reading i f published in extenso . Led by thekindest and most helpful of captains , they poured ininformation

,and I acqu i red a taste for facts —any sort

o f facts about anything—a taste when appl ied to WestAfrican facts , that I fancy ranks with that for col lectingvenomous serpents but to my l istening to everyth ing thatwas told me by my first instructors

,and bel ieving in it

,

u ndoubtedly I have often owed my l ife,and countless

t imes have been enabled to steer neatly through shoalyc i rcumstances ashore .Ou r captain was not a man who would deliberately

a larm a new comer, or shock any one, particularly a ladyi ndeed , he del iberately attempted to avoid so do ing. He

held i t wrong to dwel l on the dark s ide of Coast l ife,he

s aid,

“ because youngsters go ing out were frequently sofrightened on board the boats that they died as soon asthey gOt on shore of the fi rst cold they got in the head

,

th inking it was Yellow Jack ”; so he always started conversation at meal t imes with anecdotes of h is early yearso n an ancestral ranch in America . On e great charm about“ facts” i s that you never know but what they may comein useful ; so I eagerly got up a quantity of very strangei nformation on the conduct of the American cow . He

would then wander away among the China Seas or theInd ian Ocean, and I cou ld pass an exam inat ion on thes oc ial habits of captains of sai l ing vessels that ran toBombay in old days . Sometimes the discourse vis itedthe South American ports , and I took on information thatw i l l come in very handy shou ld I ever find myself wander

PIONEERS OF TRADE

ing ab out the streets of Cal lao after dark, searching for atavern . But the turn that serious conversation alwaysdrifted into was the one that interested me most, thatrelating to the Coast . Particularly interesting were thosetales of the old times and the men who fi rst establ ishedthe palm oi l trade. They were

,many of them , men

who had been engaged in the s lave trade , and on thes uppression thereof they turned thei r attention to palm oi l ,to which end their knowledge of the local ity and of thenative chiefs and their commercial methods was of the greate s t help . Their ideas were possibly not those at present infashion

,but the courage and enterprise those men displayed

under the most depressing and deadly conditions made mep roud of being a woman of the nation that turned out thePalm oi l ru ffian s

”—Drake,Hawkins , the two Roberts ,

Frobisher, and Hudson—it is as good as being born aforeign gentleman .

There was one of these old coasters of the palm oi lru ffian type who espec ial ly interested me. He i s dead now.

For the matter of that he died at a mature age the yearI was born , and I am in hopes of col lecting facts sufficientto enable me to publ ish h is complete b iography. He l ivedup a creek

,threw boots at leopards

,and “ had real ly swel l

s pittoons , you know, shaped l ike puncheons , and bound withJ

b rass . ’ I am sure it is unnecessary for me to mention hisname .T w o of the old Coasters never spoke unless they had

s omething useful and improving to say. They were Scotchindeed

,most of us were that trip

,and I often used to

w onder if the South Atlant ic Ocean were broad enough fort he accent of the “ a, or Whether Strange sounds wouldever worry and alarm Central America and the Brazi ls .

1 6 INTRODUCTORY CHAP..

For general soc ial purposes these Si lent ones used coughs,

and the one whose seat was always next to m ine at tablekept me in a state of much anx iety, for I used to turnround

,after having been riveted to the captain ’s conver

sat ion for minutes,and find him hold ing some dish for me

to help myself from he never took the least not ice of myapologies

,and I felt he had made up his mind that

,if I

did i t again,he Should take me by the scruff of my neck

some night and drop me overboard . He was an alarmin gly powerfu l ly bu i l t man , and I quite understood the

local African tribe wish ing to have him for a spec imen .

Some short time before he had left for home last trip,they had attempted to acqu i re hi s head for thei r local juju house, from m ixed aesthetic and rel igious reasons . In away

,i t was cred itable of them ,

I suppose, for it wouldhave caused them grave domest ic inconven ience to haveremoved thereby at one fel l swoop

,thei r complete set of ’

tradesmen ; and as a fel low col lector of specimens I ambound to admit the soundness of the ir methods of col lecting ! Wishing for this gentleman’s head they shot h im inthe legs . I have never gone in for col lecting specimens ofhom in idae but sti l l a recital of the inc ident d id not fireme with a des ire to repeat thei r performance ; i ndeed ,so discouraged was I by thei r failure that I hesitatedabout ask ing him for his skeleton when he had qu i tedone with it

,though it was gal l and wormwood to think

of a real ly fine thing l ike that fal l ing into the hands of‘another col lector.The run from Canary to Sierra Leone takes about aweek . That part of it which l ies in the track of the N .E .

Trade Winds, i.e., from Canary to Cape Verde, makes you .

b el ieve Mr. Kipling when he sang

I 8 INTRODUCTORY CHAP. .

you have to leave it, l ike al l other such quest ions , to A l lah ,and go on .

We passed close in to Cape Verde, which cons ists ofrounded hil ls having steep bases to the sea. From thesebases runs out a low, long strip of sandy so il , which is thetrue cape. Beyond , under water, runs out the dangerou sAlmadia reef, on which were s t il l, in ’

9 3, to be seen the remainsof the Port Doug las , who was wrecked there on her way toAustral ia in ’

92 . Her passengers were got ashore andmost kindly treated by the French officers of Senegal ;and final ly

,to the great joy and rel ief of thei r rescuers

the said passengers were fetched away by an Englishvessel

,and taken to what England said was their

destination and home , Austral ia, but what Franceregarded as merely a stage on thei r journey to hel l

,to

which port they had plain ly been consigned .

I t was j ust south of Cape Verde that I met my fi rsttornado . The weather had been wet in violent showers al l themorn ing and afternoon . Ou r old Coasters took but l i ttlenot i ce of it, resigning themselves to saturation Without astruggle

,previous experience having taught them i t w as

the best thing to do,dryness being an unattainable state

during the wet season,and worrying one ’s sel f about any

thing one of the worst thin gs you can do in West Africa .

”

So they sat on deck calmly smoking, their new flannelsuits

,wh ich were donned after leaving the trade winds ,

shri nking,and thei r colours running on to the other deck,

uncriti cised even by the Fi rst officer . He was chargingabout shouting directions and generally making thatafternoon such a wi ld

,hurrying fuss about “ getting in

awn ings,

” tricing up al l loose gear,such as deck cha irs , and '

so on,to permanent parts of the that, as noth ing beyond

A TORNADO 1 9

showers had happened,and there was no wind , I began

to feel most anxious about h is mental state . But Isoon saw that this act ivity was the working of a pract icalprophetic sp irit in the man , and these alarms and excurs ions of his arose from a knowledge of What that low archof black cloud coming off the land meant.We were surrounded by a wild , strange sky . Indeed

,

there seemed to be two skies , one upper, and one lower ;for parts of it were showing evidences of terrific activity

,

others of a subl ime, utterly ind ifferent calm . At onepart of our horizon were great columns of black cloud

,

expanding and coalesc ing at the ir cap itals . These weremounted on a background of most exquis ite pale green .

Away to leeward was a giganti c black cloud-mountain ,across whose vast face were bands and wreaths of deli catewhite and si lver clouds

,and from”whose grim depths every

few seconds flashed palp itating, fit fu l,l ivid l ightn ings .

Striding towards us came across the sea the tornado ,lashing it into spray mist with the tremendous arti l lery ofits rain

,and shaking the ai r with its own thunder-growls .

Away to windward leisurely boomed and grumbled a thirdthunderstorm , apparently not addressing the tornado butthe cloud-mountain , wh i le in between these phenomenawandered strange, wild winds , made out of lost soulsfrightened and wail ing to be let back into Hel l

,or taken

care of somehow by some one. This sort of thing natural lyexc ited the sea , and al l together excited the who

,not

be ing bui lt so much for the open and deep sea as for theShoal bars ofWest African rivers , made the most of i t.In a few seconds the wind of the tornado struck us ,scream ing through the rigging

,eager for awnings or any

loose gear, but foi led of its prey by the Fi rst Offi cer, whoC 2


stood triumphantly on a heap of them,l ike a defiant hen

guard ing her chickens .Some one real ly ought to write a monograph on thenatural history of mariners . They are valuable be ings ,an d thei r habits are exceedingly interesting. I myself, beinga l ready engaged in the study of other organisms, cannotu ndertake the work ; how ever, I place my observationsat the d isposal of any fel low natural ist who may have moret ime

,and certainly wi l l have more abi l ity.

The sai lor officer (Naa la pelag ias vel ofi eiaal is ) ismetamorphic . The stage at wh ich the specimen you maybe observing has arrived is eas ily determined by the bando fgaloon round his coat cu ff; in the Engl ish form the numbero f gold stripes increas ing in d irect rat io with rank .

The galoon markings of the foreign species are frequentlym erely decorative , and in many foreign varieties onlycond itioned by the extent of surface avai lable to d isplaythem and the abil i ty of the ind ividual to acqu i re the galoonw herewith to decorate himsel f.The Engl ish third officer, you wil l find , has one stripe,

t he second two , the first three, and the imag e, or captain ,four

,the upper one having a triumphant twist at

t he top .

You may observe,perhaps

,about the ship sub-variet ies ,

having a red velvet,or a white or blue velvet band on the

coat cuff ; these are respectively the Doctor, Purser, andC hief en gineer but with these sub-varieties I wi l l not dealn ow ,

they are not essent ial ly marine organisms,but akin to

t he amphibia .

The metamorphosis i s as clearly marked in theindividual as in the physical characteristics . A thirdo flicer is a hard-working individual who has to do any

NATURAL H ISTORY OF MAR INERS 2 1

thing that the other offi cers do not feel incl ined to,and

therefore rarely has time to wash . He in course of timebecomes second officer

,and the s lave of the hatch . During

this period of his metamorphosis he feels no compunctionwhatever in hau l ing out and dumping on the deck burstbacon barrels or leaking lime casks

,actions which

,when he

reaches the next stage of development,he wi l l regard as

undistinguishable in a moral point of V iew from a compound commission of the seven deadly sins . For the deck,be i t known , i s to the Fi rst officer the most important thingin the cosmogon y ,an d there is probably nothing he would notsacrifice to its complexion . On e that I had the pleasureof knowing once lamented to me that he was not al lowedby his then owners to spread a layer of ripe pineapplesupon his precious idol , and let them be wel l trampled inand then l ie a few hours , for this he assured me gave amost satisfactory bloom to a deck ’s complexion . Ye t whenthis same man becomes a captain and grows another striperound his cuffs

,he no longer takes an active part in the

ship ’s household affairs,that is h is First officer’s bus iness , the

ship’s husband ’s affai r ; and shou ld he have an inefficientFi rst the captain expects Men and Nat ions to sympathisew ith h im

,j ust as a lady expects t o be Sympathised with over

a bad housemaid .

There are,however, two habits which are constant to al l

the Species through each stage of transfo rmation from roustabout to captain . On e i s a love ’

of pa inting . I have neverknown an officer or captain who cou ld pass a paint-pot,with the brush sticking tempt ingly out

,w ithout emot ion .

Wh i le, as for Jack , the happiest hours he knows seeminglyare those he spends s itting on a slung plank over the side ofhis ocean home

,with his bare feet dangl ing a few feet above

2 2 INTRODUCTORY CHAP.

the water as tempting bait for sharks , and the trop ical sunblaz ing down on him and reflected back at him from thei ron sh ip’s s ide and from the oi ly ocean beneath. Thenhe carols forth his amorous l ay, and shouts , Bil l , pass thatpaint-pot ” in his jol l iest tones. I t is very rarely that ablack seaman is treated to a paint-pot al l they are al lowedto do i s to knock off the old stuff, wh ich they do in thenerveless way the African does most handicraft . Thegreatest d iss ipation of the black hands department cons ists in be ing al lowed to knock the old stuff off the steamp ipe covers

,donkey

,and funnel . Th is is a del icious

occupation,because

,fi rstly

,you can usual ly s it Whi le doing

i t,and secondly

,you can make a deafening din and sing

to it .The other habi t and the more w idely known is thean imistic view your seaman takes of Nature. Everyarticle that i s to a landsman an article and nothing more

,

is to him an ind ividual with a wi l l and mind of his own . I

myself bel ieve there is someth ing in it . I feel sure that acertain hawser on board the bad a weird influenceon the minds of al l men who associated with it. I t w as usedat L iverpool coming out of dock , but owing to the absenceof harbours on the Coast i t was not requ ired again unti l ittied our ocean l iner up to a tree stump at Boma

,on the

Congo. Nevertheless i t d idn ’t su i t that hawser’s views tobe down below in the run and see nothing of l ife. I t

ins isted on remaining on deck , and the officers gave in to itand said Wel l

,perhaps it was better so

,it would rot if it

went down below,” so some days it abode on thequarter-deck

,some days on the main

,and now and again

i t would condescend to l ie on the fo ’

cas t le , head in the sun .

I t had too its varying moods of t idiness , now neat and

FIRST OFFICER AND CH IEF ENGINEER 23

dandy coi led , now d ishevel led and Slummocky after associat ion with the Kru boys .It i s almost unnecessary to remark that the relat ionshipbetween the Fi rst officer and the Chief engineer is rarelyamicable . I certainly did once hear a Fi rst officer prayespecial ly for a Chief engineer al l to himself under his breathat a Sunday service but I do not feel certain that this wasa d isplay of true affection . I am bound to admit that “ thee ngineer i s messy

,which is magnanimous of me, because

I had almost always a row of some kind on with the Fi rstvofficer, owing to other people upsetting my ink on his deck ,whereas I have never fal len out with an engineer—on thecontrary, two Ch ief engineers are amongst the most valuedfriends I possess .The worst of it i s that no amount of experience w i l ldrive it into the head of the First officer that the en

g in eer wil l want coal—particularly and exactly when the shiphas just been thoroughly scrubbed and pa inted to go intoport. I have not been at sea so long as many officers , yetI know that you m ight as wel l try and get a confirmeddipsomaniac past a grog shop as the engineer past

,say the

C anary Coal ing Company ; indeed he seems to smel l theDakar coal , and hankers after it when pass ing it mi les outto sea. Then , again , if the engineer is al lowed to have a-coal depos it in the forehold it i s a fresh blow and grief tothe Fi rst officer to find he l ikes to take them as Mrs . Gampdid her stimulant, when she feels dispoged,”whether thedeck has just been washed down or no.The cook

,although he always has a blood feud on with

the engineer concern ing coals for the galley fire, whichshou ld endear him to the First offi cer

,i s moral ly a greater

!t rial to the First than he is to his other victims . You


see the cook has a grease tub , and what that means to t hedeck in a high sea is too painful to describe . So I leavethe Fi rst officer with his patheti c and powerful appeals to ‘

the immortal gods to be told why it is hi s fate to becondemned to this “ dog’s l ife on a floating Hanwel l lunati c '

asylum,

”commending h im to the sympathetic considerat ion of al l good housewives , for only they can understandwhat that dear good man goes through .

After we passed Cape Verde we ran into the West “

African wet season rain sheet. There ought to be someother word than rain for that sort of thing. We have to »

stiffen this poor substantive up with adject ives , even foruse w ith our own thunderstorms

,and as is the morning

dew to our heaviest thunder “ torrential downpour of rain,

so is that to the rain of the wet season in West Africa .

For weeks it came down on us that voyage in one swishing

,rushing cataract of water . The in terspaces between

the pipes of water—for i t d id not go into detai ls withdrops—were fi l led with gray mist

,and as this rain struck the

sea it k icked up such a water dust that you saw not thesurface of the sea round you

,but only a mist sea gliding by .

I t seemed as though we had left the clear cut world andentered into a mist universe . Sky , air, and sea were al lthe same

,as our vessel swept on in one plane

,j ust because

she capriciously preferred it . Many days we could notsee twenty yards from the ship . Once or twice anothervessel wou ld come out of the mist ahead , slogging past usinto t he '

m is t behind,vis ible in our l ittle water world for

a few m inutes only as a misty th ing,and then we

le isurely tramped on alone “ o ’er the viewless , huelessdeep

,

”with our horizon alongside.If you cleared your mind of al l prejudice the thing w as


As far as I remember, Mr. Burnand , who in Happy Thoagkt s

and My Healm,gave much information

,curious and

interest ing,on earwigs and wasps

,omitted this interesting

insect. So , perhaps, a p re’eis of the information I obtainedmay be interesting. I learnt that the only thing to dowhen you have got them on you is to adopt the course ofaction pursued by Brer Fox on that occasion when he wasleft to himself enough to go and buy ointment from BrerRabbit

,namely

,make a burst for the creek

,

”water beingthe quickest thing to make them leave go . Unfortunately ,the fi rst time I had occasion to apply this short and easymethod with the ant was when I was strol l ing about by Bel lTown with a white gentleman and his wife , and we strol ledinto Drivers . There were only two water-barrels in thevicinity

,and my companions

,being more active than mysel f,

occupied them .

Whi le i n West Afri ca you should always keep an eyel i fting for Drivers . You can start doing i t as soon asyou land

,which wil l postpone the catastrophe

,not avoid

it ; for the song of the West Coaster to his enemy istruly

,

“ Some day, some day, some day I shal l meet you3

Love,I know not when nor how .

’

Perhaps,therefore

,thi s

being so,and watchfulness a strain when done del iberately,

and worrying one of the worst things you can do in WestAfri ca, i t may be just as wel l for you to let things sl idedown the time-stream unti l Fate sends a column of thewretches up your legs . This experience wi l l remain“ indel ibly l imned on the tablets of your mind whena yesterday has faded from its page

,

”or,as the modern

school of psychologists would have it,The affai r w il l be

brought to the notice of your subl imated consciousness ,and that part of your mind wi l l watch for Drivers without

DR IVER ANTS 27

worrying you,and an automatic habit wi l l be induced that

wi l l cause you never to let more than one eye roam spel lbound over the beauties of the Afri can landscape the otherwi l l keep fixed , turned to the soi l at your feet.”The Driver is of the species P oaem ,

and is general lyreferred to the species an omma arcen s . The females andworkers of these ants are provided with stings as wel l aswel l-developed j aws . They work both for al l they areworth

,driving the latter into your flesh

,enthus iastical ly u p

to the hi lt they then remain therein,keeping u p i rritation

when you have hasti ly torn their owner Off in response to as ensation that is l ike that of red hot pinchers . The ful lgrown worker is about half an inch long

,and without

ocel l i even . Ye t one of the most remarkable among hismany crimes is that he wi l l always fi rst attack the eyes ofany victim . These creatures seem to have no settledhome ; no man has seen the beginn ing or end , as far as Iknow, of one of thei r long trains . AS you are watch ing theground you see a ribbon of glistening black

,one portion of

it lost in one clump of vegetation,the other in another

,and

on look ing closer you see that it i s an acies in s t it u ta

of Driver ants . I f you stir the column up with a stickthey make a pecu l iar fiz z in g no ise, and open out in alld irections in search of the enemy

,which you take care they

don ’t find .

These ants are sometimes also cal led “ visi ting ants ,from their habit of cal l ing in quantit ies at inconvenienthours on humanity. They are fond of marching at night,and drop in on your house usual ly after you have gone tobed. I fancy, however, they are about in the daytime aswel l

,even in the brightest weather ; but i t is certain that it

i s in du l l , wet weather, and after dusk, that you come


across them most on paths and open spaces . At othertimes and hours they make thei r way among the tangledground vegetation .

Their migrations are infinite , and they create some of"the most bri l l iant sensat ions that occur in West Africa ,replacing to the Engl ish ex i le there h is lost burst waterp ipes of winter, and such l ike things , while they enforcehealthy and bri sk exerc ise upon the African .

I wil l not enter into particulars about the customarywhite man ’s method of rece iving a visi t of Drivers

,those

methods being al ike ineffect ive and accompanied by dreadfu l language . Barricad ing the house w ith a rim of red hotashes, or a river of burning paraffi n , merely adds to the in conven ien ce and endangers the establ ishment .The native method with the Driver ant is d ifferent : o n em inute there wi l l be peace in the s imple African home ,the heavy-scented hot night a ir broken only by the rhythmicsnores and automati c s ide s laps of the fam i ly

,accompanied

outside by a chorus of cicadas and bul l frogs . Enter theDriver—the next moment that night i s thick with hurryingblack forms , l ittle and big, for the fam i ly, accompan ied byrats, cockroaches, snakes, scorpions , centipedes, and hugeSpiders animated by the one des ire to get out of t he

vis itors’ way, fal l helter skelter into the street, where theyare j o ined by the rest of the inhabitants of the vi l lage

,for

the ants when they once start on a vi l lage usually make aregular house- to-house vis itation . I mixed myself up oncein a del ightful knockabout farce near Kabinda, andpossibly made the biggest fool of myself I ever d id . I wasin a l ittle vi l lage

,and out of a hut came the owner and

h is family and al l the household parasites pel l mel l , leavingthe Drivers in possess ion but the mother and father of the

A GALLANT RESCUE 29

family, when they recovered from this unwonted burst ofactivity

,showed such a l ively concern

,and such u nmis

t akable s igns of angu ish at having left someth ing behindthem in the hut

,that I thought i t must be the baby. A l

though not a family man myself, the idea of that innocentinfant perishing in such an appall ing manner roused me toaction , and I j oined the frenzied group, crying, “Where himl ive ? ” In him far corner for floor !” shrieked thedistracted parents

,and into that b u t I charged . Too true !

There in the corner lay the poor l ittle thing, a mere inert‘black mass

,with hundreds of cruel Drivers al ready swarm

ing upon it . To seize it and give i t to the d istractedmother was

,as the reporter would say , “ the work of an

instant.” She gave a cry of j oy and dropped it instantlyinto a water barrel

,where her husband held it down with a

“hoe,chuckling contentedly. Sh iver not, my friend , at the

cal lousness of the Ethiopian ; that there thing wasn’t aninfant—it was a hamThese ants clear a house completely of al l its owner’saffl i ct ions in the way of verm in , ki l l ing and eating al l theycan get hold of. They wil l also make short work of anymeat they come across , but don ’t care about flour or bis

.cuits . L ike their patron Mephistopheles , however , they don ot care for carrion , nor do they destroy furniture or stuffs .Indeed they are typical ly West African , namely, good andbad m ixed . I n a few hours they leave the house again onthei r march through the Ewigkeit , which they enlivenwith criminal proceed ings. Ye t in spite of the advantaget hey confer on humanity, I bel ieve if the matter were put-to the human vote, Africa would decide to do without theDriver ant . Mank ind has never been sufficiently gratefu lto its charwomen

,l ike these insect equ ivalents , who


do thei r t idying up at supremely inconven ient t imes . I

remember an inc ident at one place in the Lower Congowhere I had been informed that cork fever w as

ep idemic in a severe form among the White population .

I was returning to quarters from a beetle hunt, in pouringra in ; it was as i t often is, “ the wet season ,”&c.

, when Isaw a European gentleman about twenty yards from hiscomfortable- look ing house seated on a chair

,clad in a

white cotton suit,umbrel laless

,and w ith the water running

off him as if he was in a douche bath . I had never seen a

case of cork fever,but I had heard such marvel lous and

qua int tales of its symptoms that I thought—wel l , perhaps ,an yhow ,

I would not open up conversation To my re ~

morse he said,as I passed him

,Drivers . Inwardly

apologis ing, I outward ly comm iserated him ,

and we discoursed . I t was on this occasion that I saw a mantis , w hoi s by way of be ing a very pretty pirate on his own account ,surrounded by a mob of the bl ind hurryingDrivers who, Imay

remark , always attack l ike Red Ind ians in open order. Thatmantis perfectly wel l knew his danger

,but was as cool as a

cucumber, keep ing quite qu iet and l ifting his legs out o f

the way of the bl ind enemies around him . But the chancesof keeping six legs going clear, for long, among suchbrutes without any of them happening on one

,were smal l

,

even though he only kept three on the ground at one time .So , being a devotee of personal cou rage , I rescued h imwhereupon he hit me for my pains . Why d idn ’t he fly ? ’

How can you fly,I shou ld l ike to know

,unless you have a

j ump ing off place ?Drivers are indeed dreadful . I was at one place wherethere had been a wh ite gentleman and a b irthday partyin the evening ; he stumbled on his way home and went“

BRE V] SPA n o IN TERjE CTO 3 1

to s leep by the path s ide,and in the morn ing there was

only a white gentleman ’s skeleton and clothes.However

,I wil l dwel l no more on them now. Wretches

that they are,they have even in spirit pursued me to

England,caus ing a crit ic to observe that orevi spal io

in teiy'

eeto is my only Latin , whereas the matter is th is . I wasonce in distinguished society in West Africa that includedother lad ies . We had a d istinguished native gentleman ,who had had an European education , come to tea with us.The conversation turned on Drivers , for one of the ladieshad the previous evening had her house invaded by themat m idnight. She snatched up a blanket, wrapped herselfround w ith it

,unfortunately al lowed one corner thereof to

trai l,whereby it swept up Drivers, and awful scenes fol

lowed . Then our vis itor gave us many reminiscences ofhis own

,winding up with one wherein he observed brevi

spazio in teiy'

eelo, ladies off came my breeches .” A fter thiswe lad ies al l natural ly used this phrase to describe rap idaction .

There is another ant , wh ich is commonly cal led the redDriver, but it is qu i te d istinct from the above-ment ionedblack spec ies . I t i s an unwholesome-looking, watery-redthing with long legs , and it abides among trees and bushes .An easy way of obtaining specimens of this ant i s to gounder a mango or other fru it tree and throw your cap atthe fru it . You promptly get as many of these insects asthe most ardent naturalist cou ld desire, its bite being everybit as bad as that of the black Driver.These red ones build nests with the leaves of the treethey reside on . The leaves are stuck together with whatlooks like sp iders ’ webs . I have seen t hese nest s the sizeof an apple

,and sent a large one to the Brit ish Museum ,


but I have been told of many larger nests than I haveseen . These ants , unfortunately for me who share thetaste

,are particu larly devoted to the fruit of the rubber

vine,and also to that of a poisonous smal l - leaved creeping

plant that bears the most d isproportionately-s i zed spiny,

viscid,yel low fru it . I t i s very, difficult to come across

specimens of either of these fruits that have not been eatenaway by the red Driver .I t is a very fascinating th ing to see the strange devicesemployed by many kinds of young seedl ings and saplingsto keep off these evidently unpopu lar tenants . Theychiefly consist in having a sheath of exceedingly s lipperysurface round the lower part of the stern

,which the ants

sl ide off when they attempt to cl imb . I used to spendhours watching these affa irs . You would see an ant dashfor one of these protected stems as i f he were a City manand his morning train on the po int of start ing from the topof the plant stem . He would get up hal f an inch or sobecause of the dust round the bottom help ing him a bit ,then

,

'

ge t t in g no holding-ground , off he wou ld sl ip, andfal l ing on his back

,desperately kick himself right s ide up

,

and go at i t again as if he had heard the bel l go, only to meetw ith a s im i lar rebuff. The plants are most forbearingteachers

,and their behaviour in every way a credit to them .

I hope that they may in time have a moral and educationaleffect on this overrated insect, enabl ing him to real ise howwrong it is for him to force himself where he is notwelcome ; but a few more thousand years , I fear, wi l lelapse before the ant is anything but a chuckleheaded ,obst inate wretch. Nothing nowadays but h is happening tofal l off with his head in the d irection of some othervegetable frees the sl ippery plant from his attempts . To

34 WEST AFRICAN STUDIES CH. 1

breed and not a bit better. Eatables are kept in swingingsafes at the end of coir rope recently tarred . But when

,in

spite of these precaut ions,or from the neglect of them

,you

find,say your sugar

,a brown , busy mass, just stand it i n.

the ful l glare of the sun . Su n i s a thing no ant like s , ‘

I

believe,and it i s particularly d istasteful to ants with pale

complexions and so you can see them tear themselvesaway from thei r beloved sugar and clear off into a HydePark meet ing smitten by a thunderstorm .

This kind of ant,or a nearly al l ied spec ies

,i s found in

houses i n England,where it is supposed they have been

imported from the Brazi ls or West Indies in 1 828 .

Poss ibly the Brazi ls go t i t from South West Afri ca, withwhich they have had a trade s ince the s ixteenth century ,most of the Brazi l s laves coming out of Congo . I t i sunl ikely that the importat ion was the other way about forexotic things , whether plants or animals , do not catch onin Western Africa as they do in Austral ia . In the formerland everything of the kind requ ires constant care to keepi t going at al l

,and protect it from the terrific local c ircum

stances . I t i s no use saying to animal or vegetable , thereis room for al l i n A fri ca”—for Africa, that i s Africaproperly so cal led- Equatorial West Africa, i s fu l l up withits own stuff now , crowded and fighting an internecine battlewith the most marvel lous adaptations to its environment.

CHAPTER I I

SIERRA LEONE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

Con cern in g the perils that b es e t th e n avigator in th e Baixos of St .

An n , w ith some des cript ion Of th e cou n t ry b etw een th e SierraLeon e an d Cape Palmas an d the reason s w h erefrom it came t o

b e cal led the Pepper, Grain , or Melegu e t ta Coast .

IT was late evening-time when the reached that partof the South Atlantic Ocean where p revious experienceand dead reckoning led our captain to bel ieve that SierraLeone existed . The weather was too thick to see ten yardsfrom the ship

,so he, remembering certain captains who ,

under similar circumstances , fai l ing to pick up the l ighton Cape S ierra Leone, had picked up the Carpenter Rockwith their keels instead , let go his anchor, and kept usrol l ing about outside unti l the morning came. Slipperty S lop ,

crash ! Slipperty slop, crash ! went al l loose gear on boardall the night long ; and those of the passengers who went infor that sort of thing were i l l from the change of motion .

The mist,our world

,went gently into grey, and then black ,

growing into a dense darkness fi l led with palpable , wool ly ,wet ai r

,thicker far than it had been before. This

,my

instructors informed me, was caused by the admixture ofthe “ sol id malaria coming off the land .

”

However, morning came at last, and even I was on deckas it dawned , and was rewarded formy unwonted activityby a vision of beautiful , definite earth-form dramatical ly u n

D 2

36 SIERRA LEONE,ETC CHAP.

ve i led . No longer was the ou r only material world .

The m ist l ifted itsel f gently Off,as it seemed

,out of the

ocean,and then separated before the morning breeze ; one

great mass rol l ing away before us upwards,over the land

,

w here portions of it caught amongst the forests of themountains and stayed there al l day

,wh i le another mass

went leisurely away to the low Bullam shore,from whence

it came aga in after sunset to jo in the mountain and theocean m ists as they drew down and in from the sea

,help ing

them to wrap up Freetown , S ierra Leone and its lovelyharbour for the n ight .I t was with a thri l l of joy that I looked on Freetown

h arbou r for the first time in my l ife. I knew the place sow el l . Yes there were al l the bays

,Kru

, English and

Pirate and the mounta ins,whose thunder rumbling caused

Pedro do Centra to cal l the place Sierra Leona when hediscovered it in 1462 . An d had not my old friend

,Charles

Johnson,writ ing in 1 724, given me all manner of informa

t ion about it during those deli cious hours rescued froms chool books and ded icated to a most contentious study ofA Gen eral H is tory of Roooerz

'

es au a’

M u rders of tire mos t

N otoriou s Py rates ? That those bays away now on myr ight hand “ were safe and convenient for cleaning andwatering and so on and there rose up before my eyes av is ion of the soc iety ashore here in 1 724 that l ived “ veryfriendly with the natives—being th irty Engl ishmen in al lmen who in some part of thei r l ives had been either privateering

,buccaneering

,or p i rating, and sti l l retain and have the

riots and humours common to that sort of l ife .” Hard by ,too

,was Bence I sland , where, according to Johnson , “ there

l ives an old fel low named Crackers (his true name he th inksfi t to conceal ) , and who was formerly a noted buccaneer he

u FREETOWN ,OLD AND NEW 37

keeps the best house in the place , has two or three gunsbefore his door with which he salutes his friends the pyrat eswhen they put in

,and lives a jovial l i fe with them al l the

whi le they are there .” A las no use to me was the carefu ll ist old Johnson had given me of the residents . They wereal l dead now

,and I could not go ashore and hunt up Peter

Brown or “ John Jones,who had one long boat and an

I rish young man .

”Social things were changed in Freetown ,

Sierra Leone but,only social ly, for the old description of

it i s,as far as scenery goes , correct to-day, barring the

town . Whether or no everything has changed for thebetter is not my business to discuss here

,nor wi l l I detain

you with any description of the town , as I have alreadypublished one after several visits , with a better knowledgethan I had on my first cal l there .

On one of my subsequent vis its I fel l in with SierraLeone rece iving a shock . We were sitting, after a warmand interesting morning spent going about the town talking trade

,in the low long pleasant room belonging to the

Coal ing Company whose windows looked out over aneventfu l warehouse yard ; for there in abode a large dogfaced baboon , who shied stones and sticks at boys andany one who displeased him

,pretty nearly as wel l as a

Fl intshi re man . A lso in the yard were a large consignment of kola nuts packed as usual in nat ive-made baskets

,

cal led b ily s , l ined ins ide with the large leaves of a Fi cusand our host was explain ing to my mariner companionstheir crimes towards this cargo while they defended themselves with spirit . I t seemed that this precious product i fnot kept on deck made a point of heating and then goingmildewed Wh ile

,i f you did keep it ondeck, either the Fi rst

offi cer’s minions went fool ing a bout it with the hose, which


made it swel l up and burst and ruined it,or left i t in um

mitigated sun , which shrivel led it—and so on . Th is led ,natural ly

,to a general conversat ion on cargo between the

mariners and the merchants , during which some dreadfu lthings were said about the way matches arrived

,in West

A frica and other things , shipped at shipper’s own risk, letalone the way trade suffered by stowing hams next the boi lers .Of course the other side was a complete denial of these accusat ion s , but the affai r was too vital for any of us to attend to anotorious member of the party who kept bothering us “ toget up and look at someth ing queer over K ing Tom .

”

Now i t was market day in Freetown ; and market daythere has got more noise to the square inch in it than mostthings . You feel when you fi rst meet it that i f i t wereincreased a l ittle more it wou ld pass beyond the grasp ofhuman ear

,l ike the screech of that whistle they show off

at the Royal Society’s Conversaz ione . However,on this

occasion the market place sent u p an enti re compound yell ,sti l l audible

,and we rose as one man as the portly

housekeeper,fol lowed by the smal l , but able steward , burst

into the room,announcing in excited tones

, Oh !the townbe took by locusts ! The town be took by locusts ! (D C.

fort is s imo) . An d we attended to the incident ousting thereporter of “ the queer th ing over King Torn ”from the

Hwindow,and ignoring h is “ I told you so, because he

hadn ’t.This was the first cloud of locusts that had come right

into the town in the memory of the oldest inhabitant,

though they occasion ally raid the country away to theNorth . I am informed that when the chiefs of theWesternSoudan do not give sufficient gifts to the man who is locustking and has charge of them—keeping them in holes in the


n ext morning the balance of our passengers were neithe rup early

,nor l ively when they were up but to my surprise .

after what I had heard, no one had the much-progn os t icated attack of fever. A l l day long we steamed onwards ,pass ing the Banana I sles and Sherb oro Island and thesound usual ly cal led Sherboro R iver .1 We being a SouthWest Coast boat

,did not cal l at the trading settlements

here,but kept on past Cape St . An n for the Kru coast .

A ll day long the rain came down as i f thousands ofenergeti c—iw e l l , let us say—angels were hurriedly bal ingthe waters above the firmamen t out into the ocean . .

Everything on board was reeking wet .You cou ld sweep the moisture off the cabin panel l ingwith your hand

,and our clothes were clammy and musty ,

and the towels too damp on thei r own account to dry you .

Why none of us started special ising branch iae I do notknow, but feel that wou ld have been the proper sort Of '

breathing apparatus for such an atmosphere.The passengers were al l at the tai l end of thei r spirits,

for S i erra Leone is the defin ite beginning of the Coast tothe out-goer. You are down there when you leave it outward bound ; i t i s indeed , the complement of Canary. Thosegoing up out of West Africa begin to get exc ited at S ierraLeone those going down intoWestAfrica, particularly whenit is the wet season

,begin to get depressed . I t d id not

,how

ever , operate in this manner on me . I had survived SierraLeone, I had enjoyed it why, therefore, not survive otherplaces, and enjoy them Moreover

,my scientific training

,

combined with close study of the proper method of carrying on the local conversation , had by now enabled me to1 Th is w ord is prob ab ly a corru pt ion of the oldn ame for th is dis trict ,

Cerb eros .

I I RED VELVET SLIPPERS 41

understand its true spirit,—never contradict, and , i f youcan

,help it onward . When going on deck about 6 o’clock

that evening, I was alarmed to see our gallant captain in

red velvet s l ippers . A few minutes later the chief Officerburst on my affrighted gaze in red velvet s lippers too. On

my way hurriedly to the saloon I encountered the thirdofficer similarly shod . When I recovered from these succes s rve shocks, I carried out my mission of alarming therest of the passengers

,who were in the saloon enjoying

themselves peaceful ly,and reported What I had seen . The

old coasters,even including the s i lent ones , agreed with

me that we were as good as lost so far as this world wentand the deaf gentleman went hurriedly on deck

,we think

“ to take the sun,—it was a way he had at any time of

day,because “ he had been studying about how to fix

points for the Government—and wished to keep himself inpractice .”My fel low new-comers were perplexed and one of them

,

a man who always made a point of resisting education,and

who thought nothing of ca ll ing some of our instructor’sbest informat ion Tommy Ro t !” sa id , “ I don ’t see whatcan happen ; we’re right out at sea, and it’s as calm as am i l lpond .

”

“Don ’t you , my young friend ? don ’t you ? ” sadly saidan o ld Coaster. “Wel l

,I’

l l j ust tel l you there ’s preciousl ittle that can ’t happen , for we’re among the shoals of St .Ann .

The new-comers went on deck “ j ust to look round andas there was nL.hing to be seen but a superb specimen ofdamp darkness

,they returned to the saloon

,one of them

bearing an old chart sheet which he hadborrowed from theauthorit ies. Now that chart was not reassuring the th ing

42 S IERRA LEONE,ETC CHAP

looked like an exhibition pattern of a prize shot gun,with

the quantity of rocks marked down on it.Look here,”said an anx ious inqu i rer why are some

of these rocks named after the Company’s ships ? ”Think

,

”said the calm old Coaster.Oh , I say ! hang it al l , you don ’t mean to say they’ve

been wrecked here ? Anyhow, i f they have they got offall right . How i s i t the Yoruba Rock and the GambiaRock ? ’ The Yoruba and the Gambia are running now.

”

Those,exp lains the old Coaster kindly, “ were the old

‘Yoruba ’

an d ‘Gambia .

’ The ‘Bonny ’ that runs nowisn ’t the old ‘Bonny.

’

I t’

s the way with most of them ,

i sn ’t it ? ” he says,turn ing to a fel low old Coaster. Na

t ural ly,

”says his friend . But th is is the old original , youknow

,and it’s j ust about t ime she wrote up her name on

one of these tombstones . “You don ’t save sh ips ,” hecontinues

,for the instruction of the new-comers , attentive

enough now ; that go on the Kru coast, and if youge t ashore you don ’t save the th ings you stand up in—thenatives strip you .

”

Cannibals !”I suggest .Oh , of course they are cannibals they are al l cannibals,

are natives down here when they get the chance. But,

that does not matter ; you see what I object to is beingb rought on board the next steamer that happens to cal l.crowded with all sorts of people you know,

and with a ladymissionary or so among them

,j ust with nothing on one

Pbut a flyaw ay native cloth. You remember DWel l , says his friend . Strengthened by this support, “ hetakes his turn at instructing the young critic

,saying sooth

in gly ,“ there, don ’t you worry have a good dinner.”( I t was

just being laid .)“For i f you do get ashore the food is

3 1 AIDS TO NAV IGATION 43

something beastly. But , after al l , what with the sharks andt he surf and the cannibals

,you know the chances are a

t housand to one that the worst wi l l come to the worst andyou l ive to m iss your trousers .After dinner we new-comers went on deck to keep aneye on Providence, and I was cal led on to explain how thea larm had been given me by the footgear of the officers .I said , l ike al l great discoveries , i t was founded on observation made in a scientific sp i rit. I had noticed that whene ver a particularly difficu lt bit of navigation had to bedone on our boat

,red velvet sl ippers were always worn

,as

for instance,when running through t he heavy w eather we

had met south of the Bay, on going in at Puerto de la Lu z ,and on rounding the A lmadia reefs , and on entering Freet own harbour in fog. But never before had I seen more thanone officer wearing them at a t ime, Whi le to-night they wereblazing l ike danger signals at the shore ends of al l three .My op inion as to the importance of these articles to

n avigation became further strengthened by subsequentobservations in the Bights of Biafra and Benin . We pickedup rivers in them

,always wore them when crossing bars

,

and did these things on the whole successfu l ly . But once Iwas on a vessel that was rash enough to go into a diffi cultzriver—Rio del Rey—without their aid . That vessel gots tuck fast on a b an k , and , as l ikely as not, would be stickingthere now w ith her crew and passengers mere mosqu ito-eatenskeletons , had not our Fi rst officer rushed to his cab in , puto n red velvet sl ippers and gone out in a boat

,energetical ly

s ounding around with a hand lead . Whereupon we got off,for clearly i t was not by his sounding it never amounted tomore than two fathoms

,wh i le we required a good three

an d-a-half. Ye t that Fi rst officer, a truthful man , always ,

44 S IERRA LEONE ,ETC CHAP.

said nobody did a stroke of work on board that vessel barhimself ; so I must leave the reader to escape i f he can frombel ieving it was the red velvet sl ippers that saved us

,

merely remark ing that these invaluable nautical instrumentswere to be purchased at Hamburg, and were possibly onlymet with on boats that run to Hamburg and used byveterans of that fleet .I f you wi l l look on the map

,not mine

,but one visible

to the naked eye, you w i l l see that the Coast from SierraLeone to Cape Palmas i s the lower bend of the hump ofAfrica and the turn ing point into the Bights of Benin ,B iafra and Pan avia.

I t s appearance gives the voyager his fi rst sample of thoses tupendous sweeps of monotonous landscapes so characteris t ic of Afri ca. From Sherboro R iver to Cape Mount,viewed from the sea

,every mile looks as l ike the next as

peas in a pod , and should a cruel fate condemn you to l iveashore here in a factory you get so used to the eternal sameness that you automat ical ly bel ieve that nothing else butthis sort of world

,past

,present

,or future

,can ever have

existed and that cit ies and mountains are but the memoriesof dreams . A more horrible l ife than a l ife in such a regionfor a man who never takes to it

,it i s impossible to conce ive

for a man who does take to it,i t i s a kind of dream l i fe.

I am judging from the few men I have met who have beens tationed here in the few isolated l ittle factories that areestablished . Some of them look l ike haunted men , who ,w hen they are among white men again

,cl ing to thei r

society others are lazy,dreamy men

,rather bored by it .

The kind of country that produces this effect must beexceed ingly s imple in make : i t i s not the mere isolationfrom fel low wh ite men that does it—for example , the

n SAND,FOREST, SURF AND OCEAN 4 5

handful of men who are on the Ogowe do not get l ike thi sthough many of them are equally lone men , yet they areb right and lively enough . Anyhow, exceedingly s imple inmake as i s this region of Africa from Sherboro to Cape

‘

Mount , it consists of four d ifferent things in four long l ines—l ines that go away into eternity for as far as eye can see.There i s the band of yellow sand on which your l ittlefactory is bui lt . This band is wal led to landwards by awall of dark forest

,mounted against the sky to seaward

by a wa l l of white surf ; beyond that there i s the horizon‘bounded ocean . Neither the forest wal l nor surf wallC hanges enough to give any l ively variety ; they just runup and down a gamut of the same set of variations . In

t he l ight of brightest noon the forest wal l stands darkagainst the dul l blue sky

,i n the depth of the darkest

night you can see it stand darker sti l l , against the stars ;o n moonlight nights and on tornado n ights , when yousee the forest wal l by the l ightning l ight

,it looks as if i t had

b een done over with a coat of tar. The surf wal l i s equal lyconsistent , i t may be bad , or good as surf, but it’s general lyt he former, which merely means it is a higher, broader wal l ,and more noisy

,but it’s the same sort of wal l making "the

same sort of noise al l the time . I t i s always white ; inthe sunl ight

,snowy White , suffused with a white m ist

w herein are l ittle broken,quivering bits of rainbows . In

the moonlight , i t gleams with a whiteness there is in nothingelse on earth. I f you can imagine a non-transparentdiamond wall , I think you wi l l get some near idea to it, andeven on the darkest of dark nights you can sti l l see thes urf wal l clearly enough

,for it shows l ike the ghost of its

dayl ight self, seeming to have in it a l ight of its own , andyou love or hate it. N ight and day and season changes pass

46 SIERRA LEONE, ETC CHAP.

over these things,l ike reflect ions in a m irror, w ithout altering

the m i rror frame but noth ing comes that ever st i l ls for onehalf second the thunder of the surf-wal l or makes it darker,or makes the forest-wal l brighter than the rest of your world .

M ind you,i t i s intensely beauti fu l

,intensely sooth ing, in -r

tensely interesting if you can read it and you l ike it,but l i fe

for a man who cannot and does not i s a l iving death .

But i f you are seafaring there is no chance for a brood ingmelancholy to seize on you hereabouts

,for you soon run

along th is bi t of coast and see the sudden,beautifu l headland

of Cape Mount , which springs aloft i n several rounded hi l lsa thousand and odd feet above the sea and looking l ike anis land . After passing it

,the land rapidly Sinks again to the

old leve l,for a stretch of another 46 miles or so when Cape

Mesurado , 1 ris ing about 200 feet, seems from seaward to b eanother is land .

The capital of the L iberian Republic,Monrovia

,i s s itu

ated on the southern s ide of the river Mesurado,and right

under the h igh land of the Cape,but i t is not vis ible from the

roadstead,and then again comes the low coast

,unrol l ing its

ribbon of sandy beach , walled as before with forest wal land surf

,but with the d ifference that between the sand

beach and the forest are long stretches of lagoon ed waters .Evi l looking, mud-fringed things, when I once saw themat the end of a hard

,dry season

,but when the wet season ’s

rains come they are transformed into beautifu l lakes commu n icat in g w ith each other and overflowing by shal low

1 Th e derivat ion of this n ame given b y Barb ot is from miserioora’ia .

As some pre ten d on occas ion of a Port u gu es e sh ip cas t aw ay n eart he l it t le river Dru ro , th e men of that sh ip w ere as s au lt ed by t he

n egroes , w h ich made the Port u gu ese cry for qu art er, u s in g the w ordmi

’

sericordia , from w h ich by corru pt ion mesu rado .

”

48 SIERRA LEONE , ETC CHAP.

the tornado-rain ironing the ocean down ; so if, according to one of my eighteenth century friends, you see thatwel l-known tornado-cloud arch coming, and you are on aGu ineaman

,for your sins , “ a dray of a vessel with an

Epping Forest of sea growth on her keel , and two-thi rds ofthe crew down with fever or dead of it, as l ikely they wi l lbe after a spel l on th is coast,” the sooner you get herready to run the better, and with as l i ttle on her as youcan do with . If, however, there be a wh ite cloud insidethe cloud-arch you must strip her qu ick and clean

,for that

tornado is going to be the worst tornado you were ever in .

Nevertheless, tornadoes are nothing to the rocks roundhere. At the worst , there are but two tornadoes a day,always at tide turn , only at certain seasons of the year ,and you can always see them coming but it i s not that waywith the rocks . There is at least one to each quarterhour in the entire twenty-four. They are there al l the yearround

,and more than one time in forty you can ’t see them

coming . In case you think I am overstat ing the case,I

beg to lay before you the statement concern ing rocks givenme by an old captain , who was used to these seas andnever lost a ship . I had said something flippan t aboutrocks

,and he said , “ I

’

l l write them down for you,missy .

This is j ust his statement for the chief rocks between JunkR iver and Baffu not a day’s steamer run . Two and threequarters mi les and six cables N .W. by W. from Junk R iverthere is Hooper’s Patch,’ irregular in shape

,about a

mile long and carrying in some places only 2 fathoms ofwater. There is another bad patch about a mile and a-hal ffrom Hooper’s , so if you have to go dodging your way intoMarshal l , a L iberian settlement , great caution and good luckis useful . In Waterhouse Bay there ’s a cluster of pinnacle

3 1 ROCKS AHEAD 49

rocks al l under water,with a wil l—o ’

-the wisp kind of buoy,

t hat may be there or not to advertise them . On e rockat Tobokan n i has the civi l i ty to Show its head above water

,

an d a chum of his, that l ies about a mile W . by S . fromTobokan n i Point, has the seas constantly breaking on it .The coast there i s practical ly reefed for the next eight mi les ,with a boat channel near the shore. But there is a gap inthis reef at Young Sesters , through which, i f you handle herneatly

,you can run a ship in . In some p laces this reef of

rock is three-quarters of a mile out to sea . Trade Town isthe next p lace where you may now cal l for cargo. I t s

particular rock l ies a mi le out and show s wel l with the seab reaking on i t. After Trade Town the rocks are mores cattered , and the bit of coast by Ku rrau R iver rises in cl i ffs 40to 60 feet high . The sand at thei r base i s strewn with fal lenb locks on which the surf breaks with great force, send ingt he sp ray u p in columns ; and unti l you come to Sestos R iverthe rocks are innumerable, but not far out to sea, so you cankeep outside them unless you want to run in to the li ttlefactory at Tembo . Just beyond Sestos R iver, three-quarterso f a mile S .S.W. of Fe n R iver, there are those Fen rocks onwhich the sea breaks

,but betw een these and the Man na

rocks, which are a l ittle more than a mi le from shore N .W .

by N . from Sestos R iver, there are any quantity of rocksmarked and not marked on the chart. These Manna rocksare a jol ly bad lot, black , and only a few breaking, and therei s a shoal bank to the S E. of these for hal f a mi le

,then for

t he next four mi les , there are not more than 70 hul l Openersto the acre . Most of them are not down on the chart

,so

there ’s plenty of Opportunity now about for you to do al ittle African discovery unti l you come to Sestos reef, off apoint of the same name, project ing half a mi le to westwards

E

50 SIERRA LEONE ,ETC CHAP

with a lot of fou l ground round i t. Spence rock whichbreaks

,i s W. two-thirds S.

,distant 1 2-11 miles from Sestos

Point ; within 5 miles of it i s the rock which Tlie Cor iseo d iscovered in 1 8 8 5 . I t i s not down on the chart yet

,al l these

set of rocks round Sestos are sharp too , so the lead givesyou no warning

,and you are safer right-away from them .

Then there ’s a very nasty one cal led Diab o litos , I expectthose old Portuguese found i t out

,i t’s got a lot of l ittle

ones which extend 2 m i les and more to seaward . There isanother devi l rock off Bruni

,cal led by the natives Ba Ya.

I t stands 60 feet above sea- level,and has a towering crown

of trees on it . I t i s a bad one is this,for i n thi ck

weather,as i t i s a mile off shore and isolated

,i t i s eas i ly

mistaken,and so acts as a sort of decoy for the lot of'

sunken devi l rocks which are round it . Further alongtowards Baffu there are four more rocks a m ile out, andforest ground on the way .

”

I j ust give you this bit of information as an example,

because I happen to have this rough rock l ist of it ; buta l ittle to the east the rocks and dangers of the Kru

Coast are quite as bad,both in quantity and qual ity

,

indeed,more so

,for there is more need for vessels to call .

I Often think of th is bit of coast when I see people unacqu ain t ed with the l ittle local pecul iarities of clear WestAfrica looking at a map thereof and wondering why suchand such a Bay i s not uti l ised as a harbour, or such and sucha river not navigated , or this, that and the other bit ofCoast so l ittle known of and traded with . Such undevelopedregions have general ly excel lent local reasons

,reasons

that cast no blame on white man ’s enterp rise or black man ’ssavagery. They are rock-reefed coast or barred rivers

,

and therefore not worth the expense to the trader of

HUGG ING THE COAST 5 1

working them,and you must always remember that unless

the trader opens up bits of West Africa no one else wil l .I t may seem strange to the landsman that the navigatorshould hug such a coast as the shoals (the Baiu os as theold Portuguese have it) of St . A n n—but they do. If youask a modern steamboat captain he wi l l usual ly tel l you i tis to save time

,a statement that the majority of the passen

gers on a West Coast boat wi l l receive with open deris ionand contempt

,holding him to be a spendthrift thereof ; but

I mysel f fancy that hugging this coast is a vestigial idea. Inthe old sai l ing-ship days, i f you ran out to sea far from theseshoals you lost your wind , and maybe it would take youfive mortal weeks to go from S ierra Leone to Cape Mountor Wasa Cong o, as the natives cal led i t in the 1 7 th century .

Off the Kru Coast , both West Coast and South-WestCoast steamers and men -o ’

-war on this station,cal l

to ship or unship Krumen . The character of the rocks,

of which I have Spoken , —their being submerged for themost part, and pinnacles— ln creases the danger considerably,for a ship may tear a wound in herself that wi l l makeShort work of her, yet unless she

‘remain s impaled on the

rock, making, as it were, a buoy of herself, that rock mightnot be found again for years .This sort of thing has happened many times

,and the sur

veyin g vessels , who have been instructed to local ise thedanger and get it down on the Chart

,have fai led to do

so in spite of their most elaborate efforts ; whereby themore uncharitable of the surveying officers are led in thei rwrath to hold that the mercanti le marine offi cers whoreported that rock and gave its bearings did so under theinfluence of drink, while the more charitable andscientifical ly incl ined have suggested that elevation and sub

E 2

5 2 S IERRA LEONE , ETC CHAP.

s ide n ce are energet ical ly and continual ly at work along theBight of Benin

,ho isting u p shoals to w ithin a few feet

of the surface in some places and withdraw ing them inothers to a greater depth .

The peop l e ashore here are commonly spoken of asL iberians and Kru boy s . The L iberians are colonists in thecountry

,having acqu ired settlements on th is coast by pur

chase from the chiefs of the native tribes . The idea of restoring the Africans carried off by the slave trade to Africaoccurred to America before it d id to England , for it waswarmly advocated by the Rev. Samuel Hoskins , of New

port,Rhode I sland , in 1 770,

but it was 1 8 1 6 before Americacommenced t o act on it, and the fi rst emigrants embarkedfrom New York for L iberia in 1 820. On the other hand ,though England did not get the idea unti l 1 787 , she tookact ion at once

,buying from King Tom

,through the St

George’s Bay Company,the land at S ierra Leone between

the Rochelle and Kitu R iver. This was done on therecommendation of Mr . Smeatham . The same year wasshipped off to th is new colony the fi rst consignment of460 free negro servants and 60 whites out of those 400arrived and survived thei r first fortn ight, and set themselves to bui ld a town cal led Granvi l le

,after Mr.

Granvi l le Sharpe, whose exertions had resu lted in LordMan sfie ld

’

s epoch-making decis ion in the case of Somersetv . Mr. J . G . Stewart, his master, i.e. ,

that no slave could beheld on Engl ish soi l .The L iberians were d ifferently s ituated from thei rneighbours at S ierra Leone in many ways in some of thesethey have been given a better Chance than the A fricanssent to S ierra Leone— in other ways not so good a chance .Neither of the colonies has been completely successful.

1 1 ACCLIMAT ISATION 5 3

I hold the opinion that if those American and Englishph i lanthropists cou ld not have managed the affair betterthan they did

,they had better have confined their attention

to talking,a thing they were natural ly great on , and left

the so -called restoration of the African to his native soi lalone. For they made a direfu l mess of the affai r from apractical standpoint, and thereby infl i cted an enormousamount of suffering and a terrible mortal ity on the Africansthey shipped from England

,Canada

,and America ; the

tradition whereof sti l l cl ings to the colonies of L iberia andSierra Leone , and gravely hinders their development by theemigration of educated

,or at any rate civi l ised

,Africans

now living in the West Indies and the Southern States ofAmerica .I am aware that there are many who advocate the returnto Africa of the Africans who were exported from theWest Coast during the slavery days. But I cannot regardthis as a good or even necessary pol icy

,for two reasons .

On e i s that those Africans were not wanted inWest Africa .

The local Supply of African is sufficient to develop thecountry in every way. There are in West Africa now,

Africans thoroughly wel l educated,as far as European

education goes,and who are quite conversant with the

nature of thei r own country and with the language of thei rfel low-countrymen . There are also any quantity of A fricans there who, though not wel l educated , are yet pastmasters in the particular culture which West Africa hasproduced on its inhabitants .The second reason is that the descendants of theexported Africans have seemingly l ost their power ofresistance to the malarial West Coast cl imate . This amost interesting subject

,which some scientific gentleman

54 SIERRA LEONE, ETC CHAP.

o ught to attend to,for there i s a sufficient quantity of evi

dence ready for h is investigation . The mortality amongthe Africans sent to S ierra Leone and L iberia has beenexcessive , and so also has been that amongst the WestIndians who went to Congo Belge

,while the original in t en

tion of the United Presbyterian M iss ion to Calabar had tobe abandoned from the same cause . I n fact i t looks as ifthe second and third generation of deported Africans hadno greater power of res istance to West Africa than thepure white races and

,such being the case

,i t seems to me

a pity they should go there . They would do better tobring the ir energies to bear on develop ing the trop icalregions of America and leave the undisturbed stock ofAfrica to develop its own .

However,we wi l l not go into that now. I beg to refer

you to Bishop Ingram ’s S ierra Leon e af ter a Hun dred

Years , for the history of England ’s phi lanthrop ic efforts .I may some day

,perhaps

,in the remote future, write

myself a book on America’s effort, but I cannot write itnow, because I have in my possession only printed matter

- a wilderness of opin ion and a mass of abuse onL iberia as it i s . No sane student of West Africa wouldproceed to form an o pin ion on any part of it with suchstuff and without a carefu l personal study of the thingas it i s .The natives of thi s part of theWest coast, the aboriginalones

,as Mrs . Gault would cal l them , are a different matter .

You can go and l ive in West Africa without seeing acrocodi le or a hippopotamus or a mountain , but no whiteman can go there without seeing and experiencing a Kru b oy ,

and Kru boys are one of the main tribes here . Kru b oys are ,indeed

,the backbone of white effort in West Africa, and

56 SIERRA LEONE,ETC CHAP

‘

.

West Africa. For such men are a mere handful whomImperial ism can neglect with impunity

,and , even if

it has for the moment to excuse itself for so doing,i t need

only cal l us “ traders . I say us,because I am vain of

having been,s ince my return

,classed among the L iverpoo l

traders by a dis t in gu ished offi cer .This part

gfWestern Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape

Palmas was known to the geographers amongst the classicsas L eu ce E tfiiopia : to the ir successors as the Grain orPepper or Me legu et t a Coast . I will d iscourse later of theinhabitants

,the Kru

,from an ethnological standpoint ,

because they are too interesting and important to be got inhere . The true l imits of the Grain coast are from theR iver Ses t ros to Grow y ,

two leagues east of Cape Palmasaccording to Barbot

,and its name came from the fact that

i t was hereabouts that the Portuguese,on thei r early expe

dit ion s i n the 1 sth century, fi rst came across grains ofparadise, a circumstance that much excited those navigators at the time and encouraged them to pursue theirexpeditions to this region

,for grains of parad ise were in

those days much valued and had been long known inEuropean markets .These euphoniously-named spices are the seeds of

divers amomums , or in lay language, cardamum—Amomum

M eleg u et ta (Roscoe) or as Pereira has it, Amomum g rau u m

Paraa’is i. Their more decorat ive appellation “grains of

Paradise is of I tal ian origin , the I tal ians having known andvalued this spice, bought it, and sold it to the rest of Europeat awfu l prices long before the Portuguese

,under Henry

the Navigator, vis ited the West African Coast . TheItal ians had bought the spice from the tawny Moors

,

who brought it, with other products of West Africa across

I I GRAINS OF PARADISE 5 7

the desert to the Mediterranean port Monte Barca byTripol i .The reason why this African cardamum received eitherthe name of grains of Paradise or of Me legu e t ta pepper is,l ike most African things , wrapt in mystery to a certainextent. Some authorities hold they got the first name ontheir own merits . Others that the I tal ian merchants gavei t them to improve p rices . Others that the I tal ians gave itthem honestly enough on account of their being nice , andno one knowing where on earth exactly they came from

,

said,therefore

,why not say Paradise I t i s certain

,however

,

that before the Portuguese went down into the unknownseas and found the Pepper coast that the I talians knew thosepeppers came from the country of Mel l i , b u t as they did notknow where that was

,beyond that it was somewhere in

Africa, th is did not take away the sense of romance fromthe spice .As for thei r name Me legu et ta, an equa l divergence ofopinion reigns. I myself think the proper word is men egu e t ta.

The old French name was man egu ilia, and the name theyare sti l l cal led by at Cape Palmas in the native tongue isEman equ et ta. TheFrench claim to have brought peppers andivory from the R iver Ses t ros as early as I 364, and the R iverSes t ros was on the seaboard of the kingdom of Mene

,but

the termination quetta i s most probably a corruption of thePortuguese name for pepper. But, on the other hand , thenative name for them among the Ses t ros people isW'

aiz an z ag.

An d therefore, the w hole name may wel l be European , andj ust as wel l cal led me legu e t ta as men egu e t ta, because thekingdom of Mene was a fief of the Empire of Mel l iwhen the Portuguese first cal led at Ses t ros . The otherpossible derivation i s that which says mele is a corrup

5 8 SIERRA LEONE,ETC CHAP.

tion of the Ital i an name for Turkey mi llet,M elanga , a

thing the grains rather resemble . Another very plausiblederivation i s that the who le word is Portuguese in origin ,but a corruption of mala gen s , the Portuguese having foundthe people they fi rst bought them of a bad lot, and sonamed the pepper in memory thereof. This however i sinterestingly erroneous and an early example of thedanger of armchairism w hen deal ing with West Africa.For the coast of the maleg en s was not the coast thePortuguese fi rst got the pepper from ,

but it was thatcoast j ust to the east of the Me legu e t ta, where al l they gotwas ki l l ing and general unpleasantness round by the RioSan Andrew

, Drewin way, which coast is now included inthe Ivory.

The grains themselves are by no means confined to theGrain Coast

,but are the fruit of a plant common in al lWest

African d istri cts,particularly so on Cameroon Mountain ,

where just above the feet level on the east and southeast face you come into a belt of them ,

and horrid walkingground they make . I have met with them also in greatprofus ion in the Sierra del Cry stal ; b u t there is cons iderabled ifference in the k inds . The grain ofParadise of commerceis

,l ike that of the East Indian cardamom ,

enclosed in afibrous capsu le

,and the numerous grains in i t are su r

rounded by a pu lp having a most pleasant, astringent,aromatic taste. This i s pleasant eating

,particularly if

you do not manage to chew up with it any of the grains ,for they are amazingly hot in the mouth

,and Cause one

to wonder why Paradise instead of Hades was reportedas their “ country of origin .

”

The natives are very fond of chewing the capsu le andthe inner bark of the stem of the plant . They are, for the

I I MELEGUETTA PEPPER 59

matter of that , fond of chewing anything , but the p racticein this case seems to me more repaying than when carriedon with kola or ordinary twigs .Two kinds of me legu e t ta pepper come up from Guinea .

That from Accra is the larger,plumper

,and tougher

skinned , and commands the higher price . The capsule ,which is about 2 inches long by 1 i nch in breadth , ismore oval than that of the other kind

,and the grains

in it are round and bluntly angular,bright brown out

side, but when broken open showing a white inside . Theo ther kind , the ordinary Guinea grain of commerce, comesfrom Sierra Leone and L iberia. They are devoid of theprojecting tuft on the umbil icus . The capsu le is l ike thato f the Accra grain . When dry

,i t i s wrinkled

,and if soaked

does not display the longitudinal fri l l of the JavanAmomu m

maximu m, which i t is sometimes used to adulterate . This

common capsule i s only about 1 5 inches long and 5 an inch indiameter

,but the grain w hen broken open is also w hite l ike

the Accra one . There are,however

,any quantity on

Cameroons of the winged Javan variety,but these have so

far not been exported.

The plants that produce the grains are zingiberaceous ,cane-l ike in appearance

,only having broader

,blunter leaves

than the bamboo. The flower is very pretty, i n some kindsa violet p ink

,but in the mos t common a violet purple , and

they are worn as marks of submission by people in the OilR ivers su ing for peace . These flowers

,which grow close

to the ground,seeming to belong more to the root of the

plant than the stem,or

,more properly speaking, looking

as if they had nothing to do with the graceful great softcanes round them

,but were a cr0p of lovely crocus- l ike

flowers on their own account,are fol lowed by crimson

60 S IERRA LEONE,ETC CHAP.

skinned pods enclos ing the black and brown seedswrapped in ju icy pulp

,qu i te unl ike the appearance they

present when dried or withered .

There is only a smal l trade done in Gu inea gra ins now,

George I I I . (Cap . 5 8) having declared that no brewer ordealer in w ine shal l be found in possession of grains ofParadise withou t paying a fine of £200,

and that if anydruggist shal l se l l them to a brewer that druggist Shal l paya fine of 500 for each such offence .The reason of this enactment was the idea that thegrains were poisonous

,and that the brewers in us ing them to

give fi re to thei r l iquors were destroying the ir consumers ,His Maj esty’s l ieges . As far as po ison goes this idea waswrong, forMe legu e t ta pepper or grains of Paradise are qu iteharmless though hot. Perhaps

,however

,some consignment

may have reached Europe with poisonous seeds in it. I oncesaw four enti rely different sorts of seeds in a single sample.That is the worst of ou r Ethiopian friends , they adulterateevery mortal thing that passes through the ir hands .I wi ll do them the justice to say they usual ly do sowith the intel lectual ly comprehensible end in view ofgaining an equivalent pecuniary advantage by it . Sti l l i t i scommercial ly unsound of them for example for years theysent up the seeds of the K iet ia Af rican a as an adulterationfor S t rop/zan t u s , whereas they would have made more byfind ing out that the K ionia was a great rubber-producing tree .They wi l l often take as much trouble to put in foreign matteras to get more legitimate raw material . I real ly fancy i f anyone were to open up a trade in Kru Coast rocks

,adultera

t ion would be found in the third shipment . I t i s their way,and legislation i s useless. Al l that is necessary is thatthe traders who buy of them should know thei r business

I I MEDIC INAL USES 6 1

and not make infants of themselves by regarding theAfri can as one or expecting the government to dry nursethem .

I n private l ife the native uses and values these Guineagrains highly

,using them sometimes internal ly sometimes

external ly,pounding them u p into a paste with which they

bep laster their bodies for various aches and pains . For

headache,not the sequelae of trade gin , but of malaria, the

forehead and temples are p lastered with a stiff paste madeof Guinea grain , hard oi l , chalk , or some such suitablemedium , and it is a most efficacious treatment for this fearfu l ly common complaint in West Africa. But the carefulethnologist must not m ix this med icinal plaster up withthe sort of prayerful plaster worn by the West Africans attime for Ju Ju ,

and go and m istake a person who is merelyattend ing to his body for one who is attending to hissoul .

CHAPTER I I I

AFRICAN CHARACTERISTICS

Con tain in g s ome accou n t of th e divers n oises ofWes t ern Afrik an d an

accou n t of th e cou n t ry eas t of Cape Palmas,an d o th er th in g s

t o w h ich is added an accou n t of th e man n er of sh ippin g t imb erof th e old Bris to l t rade ; an d

,mercifu l l y for the reader, a leav in g

off.

WHEN we got our complement of Krumen on board ,we proceeded down Coast with the intention of ca l l i ngoffAccra . I wil l spare you the description of the scenes whichaccompany the taking on of Kru boy s they have frequentlybeen described

,for they always alarm the new-comer—they

are the first bit of real Afri ca he sees i f bou nd for the GoldCoast or beyond . S ierra Leone, charming, as it i s, has a sortof Christy M instrel ai r about it for which he is prepared

,but the Kru b oy as he comes on board looks qui te

the Boys ’ Book of Africa sort of thing though,needless to

remark,as innocent as a lamb

,bar a tendency to acquire

portable p roperty. Nevertheless , Kru boys coming on boardfor your first time alarm you at any rate they did me , andthey also introduced me to African no ise , which l ike theinsects i s another most excel lent thing

,that you should

get broken into early.

Woe to the man in Africa who cannot stand perpetualuproar. Few things surprised me more than the rarity ofsi lence and the intensity of i t w hen you did get it . There

CH . 1 11 THE NOISES OF AFR ICA 63

i s only that t ime which comes between A.M . andP.M . ,

in which you can look for anything l ike the usualquiet of an Engl ish vi llage . We wi ll give Man the fi rstplace in the orchestra , he deserves it . I fancy the mainbody of the lower classes of Africa think external ly insteadof internal ly. You will hear them when they are engagedtogether on some job—each man issuing the ful lest direct ions and prophecies concern ing it, i n shouts no one takingthe least notice of his neighbours . I f the head man real lywants them to do something definite he fetches thosewithin his reach an introductory whack ; and even whenyou are s itting alone in the forest you wi l l hear a man orwoman coming down the narrow bush path chattering awaywith such energy and expression that you can hardly bel ieveyour eyes when you learn from them that he has no companion .

Some of this talking is , I fancy, an equivalent to ourwriting. I kn ow many Engl ish people who, i f they wantto gather a clear conception of an affai r write it down theAfrican not having writing, first talks it out . An d againmore of it is conversation with spi rit guardians and famil iarspirits

,and also with those of their dead relatives and

friends,and I have often seen a man , s itting at a bush fire or

i n a vi l lage palaver house , turn round and say, You remember that

,mother to the ghost that to him was there

.

I remember mention ing this very touching hab it oftheirs

,as it seemed to me , in order to console a s ick and

irritable friend whose cabin was close to a gangway thenin possess ion of a very l ively lot ofSierra Leone Kru boy s ,

and he said,

“ Oh ,I daresay they do

,Miss Kingsley ; but

I’

ll be hanged ifHel l i s such a damned way o ffWes t Africathat they need shout so loud .

”

64 AFRICAN CHARACTER ISTICS CHAP.

The calm of the hot noontide fades towards even ingtime

,and the noise of things in general revives and

increases . Then do the natives cal l in instrumental aid ofdiverse and to my ear p leasant kinds . Great is the value of thetom -tom

,whether it be of pure native origin or constructed

from an old Devos patent paraffin oi l tin . Then there i sthe kitty-kat ty , so cal led from its strange scratchingvibrating sound

,which you hear down South , and on

Fernando Po,of the excruciating mouth harp

,and so

on,all accompanied by the voice .If i t be play night

,you become the auditor to an

orchestra as strange and varied as that which p layedbefore Shadrach, Meshech , and Abednego . I know I am nomusician

,so I own to loving African mus ic, bar that

Fernandian harp ! L ike Benedick , I can say, “ Give me ahorn for my money when al l i s done ,”unless

’ i t be a tomtom . The African horn , usually made of a tooth of ivory,and blown from a hole in the side , is an instrument I u n fort u n at e ly cannot play on . I have not the lung capacitv .

I t requires of you to breathe in at one breath a whole S .W .

gale of wind and then to empty it into the horn, whichresponds with a prel im inary root-too-toot before i t goes offinto its noble dirge bellow. I t i s a fine instrument andshould be introduced into European orchestras

,for i t i s

ful l of colour. But I think that even the horn,and certainly

a l l other instruments,savage and civi l i sed , should bow thei r

heads in homage to the tom-tom , for, as a method of gettingat the inner soul of humanity where are they comparedwith that nob le instrument ! You doubt it. Wel l go andhear a mil i tary tattoo or any performance on kettledrums up here and I fee l you wi l l reconsider the affair buteven then

,remember you have not heard al l theAfrican tom

111 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 65

t om can tel l you . I don ’t say i t’s an instrument suited forserenading your lady-love w ith , but that i s a thing I don ’trequire of an instrument . Al l else the tom-tom can do

,and

do wel l . I t can talk as wel l as the human tongue . I t canmake you want to dance or fight for no private reason

,as

nothing else can,and be you black or white it cal ls up

in you al l your Neol i thic man .

Many African instruments are,however

,sweet and

gentle,and as mi ld as sucking doves

,notably the xylo

phonic family. These marimbas,to use thei r most common

name,are al l over Africa from Senegal to Zambesi . Their

form varies with various tribes—the West African varietiesalmost universal ly have wooden keys instead of i ron onesl ike the EastA frican . Personal ly

,I l ike the West African

best there is something exquisi te in t he sweet , clear , waterl ike notes produced from the strips of soft wood ofgraduated length that make the West African keyboard .

A l l these instruments have the sound magnified andenriched by a hol low wooden chamber under thei r keyboard . In Calabar this chamber i s one smal l shal lowbox , ornamented , as most wooden things are in Calabar,with poker work—but in among the Fan , under the keyboard were a set of calabashes

,and in the calabashes

one hole ap iece and that hole covered careful ly withthe skin of a large sp ider. Whi le down in Angola youmet the xylophone in the imposing form you can seein the frontispiece to this volume . Of the orchid fib re

stringed harp , I have spoken elsewhere, and there re

mains but one more truly great instrument that I needmention . I have had a trial at playing every Africaninstrument I have come across

,under native teachers ,

and they have assured me that,with application , I should

F

66 AFRICAN CHARACTERIST I CS CHAP.

succeed in becoming a rather decent performer onthe harp and xylophone

,and had the makings of a

genius for the tom -tom , but my greatest and most rapidtriumph was achieved on this other instrument. I pickedup the hang of the thing in about five minutes

,and then

,

being vain , when I returned to wh ite society I natural lydes ired to Show off my accompl ishment

,but met with n o

encouragement whatsoever—indeed my friends said gently,but fi rmly

,that i f I d id it again they shou ld leave

,not the

settlement merely, but the continent , and devote the irremaining years to sweep ing crossings in thei r nativenorthern towns—they said they would rather do this thanhear that in strument played again by any one.This instrument is made from an old powder keg

,with

both ends removed a piece of raw hide i s tied tightly roundit over what one might cal l a bung-hole

,while a p iece of

wood with a lump of rubber or fasten ing is passed throughthis hole. The performer then wets his hand , inserts itinto the instrument

,and l ightly grasps the stick and works

i t up and down for al l he is worth ; the knob beats thedrum skin with a beautiful boom

,and the stick gives an

exquis ite screech as it passes through the hole in the sk inwhich the performer enhances with an occasional howlor wai l of his own , accord ing to his taste or feel ing.

There are other varieties of this instrument,some with one

end of the cy l inder covered over and the knob of the stickbeating the inside , but in al l i ts forms i t is impress ive.Next in point of strength to the human vocal andinstrumental performers come frogs . The smal l green one,whose note is l ike that of the cricket’s magnified , i s apart-s inger

,but the big bul l frog

,whose tones are al l his own ,

s ings in Handel Festival s ized choruses . I don ’t much mind

I I I FROGS AND CR ICKETS 67

either of these,but the one I hate is a solo frog who seems

eternal ly engaged at night in winding u p a Waterburywatch . Many a night have I stocked thick with calamityon that frog’s account many a night have I landed myselfin hai l ing distance of Amen Corner from having gone outof hut

,or house

,with my mind too ful l of the intention of

flattening him out with a sl ipper,to think of driver ants

,

leopards,or snakes . Frog hunting is one of the worst things

you can do in West Africa.Next to frogs come the crickets with their chorus of “shedid

,she didn’t

,

”and the cicadas,but they knock off earl ier

than frogs,and when the frogs have done for the night

there is qu iet for the few hours of cool , unti l i t gets toocool and the chil l that comes before the dawn wakes upthe b irds

,and they wake you with their long, mellow ,

exquis itely beautifu l whistles .The aforesaid are everyday noises in West Africa, andyou soon get used to them or d ie of them but there aremyriads of others that you hear when in the bush. Thegrunting sigh of rel ief of the hippos , the strange groan ing,whining bark of the crocodiles

,the thin cry of the bats

,

the cough of the leopards,and that unearth ly yel l that

sometimes comes out of the forest in the depths of darknights . Yes

, my natural ist friends , i t’s al l very wel l to sayit is only a love—lorn

,innocent l ittle marmoset-kind of thing

that makes it. I know,poor dear

, Softly, Softly, and he '

wou ldn ’t do it . Anyhow, you j ust wai t unti l you hear i t ina shaky l ittle native hut, or when you are spending thenight

,having been fool enough to lose yourself

,with your

back against a tree qu ite alone and that yel l comes at youwith its agony of anguish and appeal out of that dense blackworld of forest which the moon

,be she never so strong

,can

F 2

68 AFRICAN CHARACTERIST ICS CHAP.

not enl ighten,and which looks al l the darker for the

contrast of the gl istening si lver mist that shows here andthere in the clearings, or over lagoon , or r iver, waveringtwining

,ri sing and fal l ing ; so ful l of strange motion an d

beauty, yet, somehow, as sin ister in its way as the rest ofyour surroundings , and so deadly si lent . I think if you hearthat yel l cutting through th is sort of th ing like a knife ands inking despairingly into the surrounding s i lence , you wi l lagree with me that fit seems to favour Duppy, and that ,perchance

,the strange red patch of ground you passed

at the foot of the cotton tree before n igh t c ame down onyou

,was where the yel l came from , for it i s red and damp

and your native friends have told you i t is so because of theblood whipped off a sasa-b on s um and his vi ctims as he goesdown through it to his under-world home .Seen from the sea , the Ivory Coast i s a rel ief to the eyeafter the dead level of the Grain Coast

,but the attention of

the mariner to rocks has no practical surce ase and there i sthat submarine horror for sai l ing ships, the Bottomless p it .They used to have great traged ies w ith i t in olden times

,and

you can sti l l,i f you like

,for that matter but the French

having a station 1 5 miles to the east of i t at Grand Bassamwou ld nowadays prevent your experiencing the action ofthis phenomenon thoroughly, and getting not onlywrecked but k i l led by the nat ives ashore

,though they are

a l ively lot sti l l .Now although this i s not a manual of devotion , I mustsay a few words on the Bottomless pit. Al l along the WestCoast of Africa there is a great shelving bank , submarine ,formed by the deposi t of the great mud- laden rivers andthe earth-wash of the heavy rains . The slope of what thescientific term the greatWest African bank is , on the whole ,

SECRET SOC IET Y LEAV ING THE SACRED GROVE

1 11 THE BOTTOMLESS PIT 69

very regular,except oppos ite Pi ccaninny Bassam ,

w herei t is cut right through by a great chasm , presumably theresult of volcanic action . This chasm commences about1 5 miles from land and is shaped like a V , with the narrowe nd shorewards . N ine mi les out it i s three miles wider and

feet deep,at three miles out the sides are opposite

e ach other and there is l ittle more than a mile betweenthem

,and the depth is feet ; at one mi le from the

beach the chasm is only a quarter of a mile wide andt he depth 600 feet— close u p beside the beach the depthis 1 20 feet. The floor of th i s chasm is covered with greymu d, and some five miles out the surveying vessels gotfragments of coral rock .

The sides of th is submarine valley seem almost verticalC l i ffs, and herein l ies its danger for the sai l ing Ship. Themaster thereof

,in the smoke or fog season (December

February) , may not exactly know to a mile or so where heis

,and being unable to make out Piccaninny Bassam

,which

i s only a smal l native vi l lage on the sand ridge betweent he surf and the lagoon , he lets go his anchor on thee dge of the cl i ffs of this Bottomless pit. Then the set oft he t ide and the onshore breeze cause i t to drag a l ittle

,

an dover it goes down into the abyss , and ashore he is boundt o go. In old days he and his ship ’s crew formed awelcome change in the l im ited dietary of the exu ltantn at ive . Mr. Barbot, who knew them well , feel inglyremarks, “ i t is from the bloody tempers of these brutesthat the Portuguese gave them the name of Malagen s fort hey eat human flesh, and he cites how recently they havemassacred a great number of Portuguese

, Dutch andEngl ish

,who came for provisions and water

,not thinking

o f any treachery,and not many years since

, (that is to say,

7o AFR ICAN CHARACTERIST ICS CHAP.

i n 1 677) an Engl ish ship lost three of its men a Hol landerfourteen ; and , i n 1 678 , a Portuguese, nine, of whomnoth ing was ever heard since.From Cape Palmas unti l you are past the mouth of theTaka R iver (St . Andrew) the coast is low. Then comesthe Cape of the L ittle Strand (Cab oda Praz u ba) , nowcal led

,I think

, Price ’s Po int. To the east of this you wil lsee ranges of dwarf red cl i ffs ris ing above the beach andgradually increasing in height unti l they attain theirgreatest in the face of Mount Bedford , where the cl iff i s280 feet high . The Portuguese cal led these Barrei raVermelhas ; the French , Kalaz is Rouges ; and the Dutch,Roode K lift in

,al l meaning Red Cli ffs . The sand at their

feet is strewn with boulders,and the whole country round

here looks fascinat ing and interest ing . I regret never havinghad an opportunity of seeing whether those cl i ffs hadfoss i ls on them

,for they seem to me so l ike those beloved

red cl iffs of mine in Kacon go wh ich have. The investigat ion , howe ver, of such makes of Africa is messy . ThoseKacon go cl i ffs were of a sort’ of red clay that took on agreasy sl ipperiness when they were wet

,which they

frequently were on account of the l ittle springs of waterthat came through their faces . When pottering aboutthem , after having had my suspic ions lul led by twenty orthirty yards of crumbly dryness

,I would ever and anon

come across a water spring, and down I used to go—and losenothing by it

,going home in the evening time in what

the local natives would have regarded as deep mourningfor a large fami ly—red clay being their s ign thereof. Thefossil s I found in them were horizontal ly deposed layers ofclam shel ls with regular intervals

,or bands

,of red clay, four

or five feet across ; between the layers some of the shel l


you no cause to ask which is the prevai l ing wind here, forthey tel l you bright and clear, as they lean N .E.,

that theSW . wind brought them up to do so .

Groves of coco palms are no favourites of mine . I don ’ tl ike them . The trees are nice enough to look on

,and n ice

enough to use in the divers ways you can use a coco-nutpalm but the no ise of the breeze in thei r crowns keeps upa perpetual rattle with thei r hard leaves that sounds l ikeheavy rain day and n ight

,so that you feel you ought to

l ive under an umbrel la, and your mind gets worried aboutit when you are not looking after i t with your commonsense .Then the natives are such a nu isance with coco-nuts .

For a truly terrific kniff give me even in West Africa asand beach with coco-nut palms and natives . You neverget coco-nut palms without natives , because they won ’tgrow out of sight of human habitation . I am told also thatone coco wi l l not grow alone ; i t must have another cocoas well as human neighbours, so these things, of course , endin a grove. I t

’

s l ike keeping cats with no one to drownthe k ittens .Wel l

,the way the smel l comes about in this affai r is thus .

The nat ives bu ry the coco-nuts in the sand , so as to get thefibre off them . They have buried nuts in that sand forages before you arrive

,and the nuts have rotted

,and crabs

have come to see what was go ing on , a thing crabs wi l l do ,and they have settled down here and died in their generations

,and rotted too. The san dflies and al l manner of

creeping things have found that sort of distri ct suits them,

and have jo ined in,and the natives

,who are great hands at

fi shing, have flung al l the fish offal there,and there i s

u sual ly a lagoon behind this sort of thing which contributes

I I I THE IVORY COAST 73

i ts particular aroma,and so between them the smel l is a

good one,even for West Africa.

The ancient geographers called this coast Ajan gin alAi th iope , and the Dutch and French used to reckon i t fromGrow e

, where the Melagu et ta Coast ends . Just east of CapePalmas

,to the Rio do Sw eiro da Costa, where they counted

the Gold Coast to begin,the Portuguese divided the coast

thus . The Ivory, or, as the Dutchmen cal led it , the TandKust, from Gowe to Rio St . Andrew the Malaguettafrom St . Andrew to the Rio Lagos ; 1 and the Quaqua fromthe Rio Lagos to Rio de Sw eiro da Costa, which is j ust tothe east of what i s now cal led Assini .

I t i s undoubtedly one of the most interesting and nowadays least known bits of the coast of the Bight of Beninbut, taken altogether, with my smal l knowledge of it, I donot feel j ustified in recommending the Ivory Coast as eithera sphere for emigrat ion or a pleasure resort . Neverthele ss ,i t is a very rich distri ct natural ly, and one of the most amusing features ofWest African trade you can see on a steamboat is to watch the shipping of timber therefrom .

This region of the Bight of Benin is one of enormoustimber wealth

,and the development of this of late years

has been great,adding the name of T imber Ports to the

many other names this particu lar bit ofWest Africa bears ,the Timber Ports being the main ports of the French IvoryCoast , and the Engl ish port ofAxim on the Gold Coas t.The best way to watch the working of this industry is tostay on board the steamer if by chance you go on shorewhen this shipp ing of mahogany l s going on you may beexpected to help

,or get out of the way , which is hot work ,

or diffi cult . The last time I was in Africa we on the1 N0 con n ect ion w ith th e Colon y of Lagos .

74 AFR ICAN CHARACTERISTICS CHAP.

shipped 1 70 enormous bulks of t imber. These logs run onan average 20 to 30 feet long and 3 to 4 feet i n d iameter .They are towed from the beach to the vessel beh ind thesurf boats

,seven and eight at a time , t ied together by a

rope running through rings cal led dogs,which are driven

into the end of each log,and when alongs ide

,the rope

from the donkey engine crane is dropped overboard , andpassed round the log by the negroes swimming about in thewater regardless of sharks and as agile as fish . Then

,

w ith much uproar and advice , the huge logs are slowlyheaved on board

,and either depos ited on the deck or

forthwith swung over the hatch and lowered down . It i salmost needless to remark that

,with the usual foresight of

men , the hatch is of a s ize unsuited to the log, and therefore, as it hangs suspended , a chorus of counsel surges upfrom below and from al l s ides .The Officer in command on this particu lar hatchpresently shouts “Lower away

,wav ing his hand graceful ly

from the wrist as though he were practising for p iano playing, but real ly to guide Shoo Fly , Who is driving thedonkey engine. The tremendous log hovers over the hatch ,and then gradual ly

,

“ softly,softly

,

”as Shoo Fly would say,d isappears into the bowels of the ship

,unti l a h et erogen eou s

yel l in Engl ish and Kru warns the trained intel l igence thatit i s low enough

,or more probably too low.

“Heavea l ink shouts the officer

,and Shoo Fly and the donkey

engine h eave th . Then the official hand waves, and thecrane swings round with a w hiddle , w h iddle , and there i s amoment’s pause, the rope s t raIn s

,and groans

,and waits

,

and as soon as the most important and valuable peop leon board

,such as the Captain

,the Doctor, and my

self,are within its reach to give advice

,and look down


one that’s handy,and n ew and again they succeed . There ‘

was a man helping that day at Axim whom the Doctorsaid had only last voyage fel l a victim to the hooks theysl ipped out of the head of the log and played round his own ,laying it open to the bone at the back , cutting him over theears and across the forehead

,and i f that man had not had a

phenomenal ly thick skul l he must have died . But no,there

he was on this voyage as busy as ever with the timber,close

to those hooks,and evidently w ith his superstit ious trust in

the invariable embedd ing of hooks in timber unabated onefraction .

Sometimes the performance is varied by the hau l ingrope itself parting and going up the alley way l ikea boa constrictor in a fi t

,whisking up black passengers

and boxes ful l of screaming parrots in its path from placesthey had p laced themselves, or been placed in , wel l out ofits legitimate l ine of march . But the day it succeeds inclawing hold of and upsetting the cook ’s grease tub

,which

l ives i n the al ley-way, that is the day of horror for theFi rst officer and the inaugurat ion of a period of ardentholystoning for his m in ions .Should , however, the broken rope fai l to find , as the foxhunters would say, in the al ley-way , i t flin gs itself in apassionate embrace round the person of the donkey engineaft, and gives severe trouble there . The mariners , with anadmirable faith and patience

,untwine i t

,talking serious ly to

i t meanwhi le, and then fix i t up again,may be with more

care, and the shout , “Heave away !”— goes forth again ;the rope groans and creaks , the hooks go in well on eithers ide of the log

,and off it moves once more with a gracefu l,

dignified gl ide towards i ts destination . The Bo’sun andChips with their eyes on the man at the winch , and let us

I I I A LIVELY LOG 7 7

hope thei r thoughts employed in the penitential contemplat ion of their past s ins , So as to be ready for theconsequences likely to arise for them if the rope partsagain

,do not observe the l ittle white note— underbi l l

as a German would cal l it,which is getting nearer and

nearer the end of the log,which has stuck to the deck . I n

a few moments the log is off it, and down on Chips’ toes ,who returns thanks with great spontaneity, in languagemore powerfu l then select. The

’ Bo’sun yel ls , “Avastheaving

,there and several other things

,while his assistant

Kru boy s , chattering l ike a rookery when an old lady’spet parrot has just joined it , get crowbars and raise up thetimber

,and the Carpenter is a free man again , and the

l ittle white bi l let reinstated Haul away,” roars theBo’sun

,

“ Abadeo Na nu de um oro de Kri Kri,” j oin inthe hoarse-voiced Kru boy s , Ji na oi , answers the excitedShoo Fly ,

and Off goes that log again . The particu lar logwhose goings on I am chronicl ing slewed round at thisjuncture with the force of a Roman battering ram , drovein the panel of my particular cabin

,causing 'al l sorts of

bottles and things inside to cast themselves on the floorand smash

,whereby I

,going in after dark

,got cut . But no

matter,that log

,one of the classi c sized logs, was in the end

safely got u p the al ley-way and duly stowed among its companions . For let West Africa send what it may, be it neverso large or so difficult

,be he never so i l l-provided with

tackle to deal with it,the West Coast mariner wi l l have

that thing on board , and ship it—al l honour to his determ ination and abil ity.

The varieties of timber chiefly exported from the WestAfrican timber ports are Oldfieldia Af r ican a,

of sp lendidsiz e and texture, commonly cal led mahogany, but real ly

78 AFR ICAN CHARACTER ISTICS CHAP.

teak, Bar and Camwood and Ebony. Bar and Cam aredye-woods

,and

,before the Ani l ines came in these woods

were in great request ; invaluable they were for givingthe dul l rich red to bandana handkerchiefs and thewarm brown tints to tweed stuffs . Camwood was oncepopular with cabinet makers and wood-turners here

,but

of late years i t has only come into this market in rootsor twisty bits— al l the better these for dyeing

,but not for

working up , and so it has fal len out of demand amongcab inet makers i n spite of its beautiful grain and fine colour

,

apin ky yel low when fresh cut, deepening rapidly on exposureto the air i nto a rich

,dark red brown . Amongst old

Span ish furn iture you wil l find things made from Cam-woodthat are a joy to the eye . There has been some confusionas to whether Bar and Camwood are identical—merely amatter of age in the same tree or no—but I have seen thenat ives cutting both these timbers

,and they are quite

di fferent trees in the look of them ,as any one would

expect from seeing a bi l let of Bar and one of Cam ; theformer i s a l ight porous wood and orange colour w henfresh cut

,while 500 bi l lets of Bar and on ly 1 50 to 200 of

Cam go to the ton .

There are many s igns of increasing enterprise in theWest African timber trade, but so far this form of wealthhas barely been touched

,so vast are the West African

forests and so varied the trees therein . At present it, l ikemost West African industries, is fearful ly handicapped bythe deadly cl imate , the inferiority and expensiveness oflabour

,and the difiicu l t ie s of transport.

A t present it i s useless to fe l l a tree, be it ever so fin e, i fi t i s growing at any distance from a river down which youcan float it to the sea beach

,for it would be imposs ible to

80 AFRICAN CHARACTERISTICS CHAP.

much strengthened by observing the conduct of Africantimber. Nor am I alone in judging it harshly

,for an

American missionary once said to me, Ah ! it w i l l be agrand day for A frica when we have driven out al l the heathendevils ; they are everywhere, not only in graven images ,but just universally scattered around . The remark wasmade on the occas ion of a floor that had been la id downby a mission carpenter coming up on its own account , asnative timber floors laid down by native carpenters customarily come, though t he nat ive carpenter lays Norwayboards wel l enough .

When,after much toi l and tribulat ion and uproar, the

log has been got down to the river and floated , i ron ringsare driven into it

,and it is branded with i ts owner’s mark .

Then the owner does not worry himsel f much about it for amonth or so

,but lets i t float its way down and soak , and

general ly lazy about unti l he gets together sufficient of itskind to make a shipment .On e of the many strange and curious things they toldme of on the West Coast w as that old idea t hat hydrophobia is introduced into Europe by means of these logs .There is

,they say

,on the West Coast of Africa a pecu liarly

venomous scorpion that makes i ts home on the logs whi lethey are floating in the river, three-parts submerged onaccount of weight, and the other part most delightful lydamp and cool to the scorpion ’s m ind . When the logs getshipped frequently the scorpion gets shipped too, and subsequently Comes out i n the hold and bites the resident rats .So far I accept this statement ful ly, for I have seen morethan enough rats and scorpions in the hold

,and the West

Coast scorpions are particularly venomous,but feel ing that in

these days i t i s the duty of every one to keep thei r bel ief for

I I I HYDROPHOBIA 8 1

religious purposes , I cannot go on and in a whole sou ledway bel ieve that the dogs of L iverpool

,Havre

,Hamburg

,

and Marsei l les worry the said rats when they arrive in dock,

and,getting bitten by them

,breed rabies .

Nevertheless,I do not interrupt and say

, Stuff, because i fyou do this to the old coaster he only offers to fight you

,or

see you shrivel led,or bet you half-a-crown

,or in some other

time-honoured way demonstrate the truth of his assertion,

and he wil l,moreover

,go on and say there is more hydro

phobia in the aforesaid towns than elsewhere,and as the

chances are you have not got hydrophobia statistics withyou

,you are lost. Besides , i t ’s very unkind and unnecessary

to make a West Coaster go and say or do things which wi l lonly make things harder for him in the time “ to come

,

and anyhow if you are of a cautious,nervous d isposit ion

you had better Search your bunk for scorp ions, before turning in , when you are on a vesse l that has got timber onboard

,and the chances are t hat your labours wi l l be rewarded

by discovering specimens of this interesting animal .Scorp ions and centipedes are inferior in worrying powerto driverants

,but they are a feature in Coast l ife

, part icu

larly i n places— Cameroons, for example. If you see aman who seems to you to have caut ion in themethod of dealing with his hat r napkin

,

judge him not harshly,for the chances are he is from

Cameroon , where there are scorpions—scorpions of greatmagnitude and tough constitutions

,as was demonstrated

by a little affair u p here that occurred in a fami ly I know.

The inhabitants of the French Ivory Coast are an exceedin gly industrious and enterprising set of peop le incommercial matters , and the export and import trade iscomputed by a recent French authority at ten mil l ion

G

82 AFRICAN CHARACTERISTICS CHAP.

francs per annum . No offic ial computation , however, ofthe trade of a Coast d istrict i s correct

,for reasons I wil l

not enter into now.

The native coinage equ ivalent here is the man i l la—a

bracelet in a state of s ink ing into a more conventionaltoken . These man il las are made of an al loy of copperand pewter, manufactured mainly at Birm ingham andNantes , the ind ividual value be ing from 20 to 2 5 centimes .Changes for the worse as far as Engl ish trade is concerned have passed over the trade of the Ivory Coastrecently

,but the way

,even in my t ime, trade was car

r ied on was thus . The nat ive traders deal with the captains of the Engl ish sa i l ing vessels and the French factories

,buying palm o i l and kernels from the bush people

with merchand ise , and sel l ing it to the nat ive or foreignsh ippers . They get pa id in mani l las , which they can , whenthey wish, get Changed again into merchandise e ither atthe factory or on the trad ing ship . The man il la is

,

therefore,a kind of bank for the black trader

,a some

thing he can put h is wealth into when he wants to storei t for a t ime .They have a s ingu lar system of commercial corre

sponden ce between the vi l lages on the beach and thevi l lages on the other s ide of the great lagoon thats eparates it from the mainland . Each vi l lage on theshore has its particu lar vi l lage on the other side of thelagoon, thus Alin dja Badon is the interior commercialcentre for Grand Jack on the beach

,Abia for Anama

qu oa, or Hal f J ack, and so on . An amaqu oa is onlyseparated from its s ister vi l lage by a l ittle lagoon thati s fordable

,but the other towns have to commun icate by

means of canoes.

84 AFR ICAN CHARACTER IST ICS CHAP.

lay week out and week in short al ike of wind an d

water.I n old days, when the Bristol ship got to the Coast Shewould cal l at the first vi l lage on i t. Then the nat ive chiefsand head men would come on board and haggle with thecaptain as to the quantity of goods he would let them haveon trust

,they covenanting to bring in exchange for them

in a given time a certain number of s laves or so much produce. Th is arrangement be ing made

,off sai led the Guinea

man to his next vi l lage,where a sim i lar game took place

al l the way down Coast to Grand Bassam .

When she had paid out the trust goods to the last vi l lage ,she would stand out to sea and work back to her fi rst vi l lageof cal l on the Bristol Coast to pick up the prom ised produce

,

this arrangement giving the native traders time to col lect it.I n nine cases out of ten

,however

,i t was not ready for her

,

so on She went to the next. By this time the Gu ineamanWould present the spectacle of a farmhouse that had gonemad , grown masts , and run away to sea for the deckswere protected from the burning sun by a wel l-bu i l t thatchroof

,and She lounged along heavy with the rank sea growth

of these seas . Sometimes She would be unroofed by a

tornado,somet imes seized by a p irate parasiti c on the

Guinea trade,but barring these interruptions to bus iness She

cal led regularly on her cred itors,from some gett ing the pro

mised payment, from others part of it, from others againon ly the renewal of the promise

,and then when She had

again reached her last point of cal l put out to sea once moreand worked back again to the fi rst creditor vi l lage. I n thosedays she kept at this weary round unti l She got in al l herdeb t s ,a process that often took her four or five years , and costthe l ives of half her crew from fever

,and then her consorts

I I I JOYS AND SORROWS OF WEST AFRICA 8 5

drafted a man or so on board her and kept her going unti ls he was ful l enough of pepper, gold , gum , ivory, and nativegods to sai l for Bristol . There, when the Guineaman camein, were grand doings for the smal l boys , what with parrots ,o ranges , bananas, &c. , but sad times for most of those whoserelat ives and friends had left Bristol on her .I n much the same way, and with much the same risks, the

B ristol Coast trade goes on now, only there is l ittle of itl eft

,owing to the French system of suppressing trade.

Palm o il i s the modern equivalent to s laves,and just

a s in old days the former were transhipped from the coasting Gu in eamen to the transatlantic Slavers

,so now the palm

o il is shipped off on to the homeward bound Africans teamers

,while

,as for the joys and sorrows

,century-change

a ffects them not. So long as Western Afri ca remains thedeadl iest region on earth there wi l l be joy over those whocome up out of it heartache and anxiety over those whoare down there fighting as men fought of old for thoset hings worth the fighting

,God

,Glory and Gold and grief

over those who are dead among al l of us at home who areil l-advised enough to real ly care for men who have thepluck to go there .During the smoke season when dense fogs hang over theBight of Benin

,the Bristol ships get very considerably

s worn at by the steamers. They have letters for them ,and

they want oi l off them ; between ourselves, they want oi lo ff every created thing, and the Bristol boat i s not easy tofind . So the steamer goes dodging and fumbling aboutafter her, swearing softly about wast ing coal al l the time,an d more harshly sti l l when he finds he has picked u p thewrong Guineaman , only modified i f she has stuff to sendh ome

,stuff which he conjures the Bristol captain by the

86 AFRICAN CHARACTER ISTICS CHAP.

l ove he bears h im to keep , and ship by h im when he is on!

h is way home from windward ports,or to let him have

forthwith .

Sometimes the Bris to lman wi l l s ignal to a passingsteamer for a doctor. The doctors of the African an d

Brit ish African boats are much thought of al l down theCoast

,and are only second in importance to the doctor on

board a telegraph ship,who

,being a rare specimen , i s .

regarded as,ips ofaeto, more gifted , so that people wi l l save

up their a i lments for the telegraph ship ’s med ical man,wh ich

is not a bad practice, as i t leads commonly to their gett ingover those ai lments one way or the other by the time thetelegraph ship arives . I t is reported that one day one ofthe Bris t o lmen ran up an urgent s ignal to a pass ing mai lsteamer for a doctor

,and the captain thereof ran up a s ignal

of assent,and the doctor went below to get his medicines .

ready. Meanwhi le, i nstead of display ing a patient gratitude

,the Bris to lman s ignal led “Repeat signal .” G ive i t ’em~

again,said the steamboat captain , those Bris to lmen a in ’ t

got no Board schools .” Sti l l the Bris to lman kept bothering,runn ing up her original s ignal , and in due course o ff wentthe doctor to her in the gig . When he returned h is captain :

asked h im,saying

,

“ Pi l ls,are they al l mad on board that

vessel or merely drunk as usual Wel l,

”says the doctor,that’s curious

,for it’s the very same quest ion Captain N .

has asked me about you . He i s very anx ious about yourmental health , and wants to know why you keep onsignal l ing ‘H aul to

,or I w i l l fire into you

,

’ and the

story goes that an invest igation of the code and the

steamer’s signal supported the Bris to lman ’

s reading, an d

the subject was dropped in steam C i rcles .A l though the Bris to lmen do not carry doctors

,they are

CHAPTER IV

FISH ING IN WEST AFRICA.

THERE is one d ist inct ive charm about fish in g—its fasc inations wi l l stand any cl imate. You may s it crouching onice over a hole ins ide the arctic c ircle, or on a Windsorchair by the s ide of the R iver Lea i n the s o-cal led temperate zone

,or you may squat in a canoe on an equatorial

r iver,w ith the surround ing atmosphere 45 per cent. mosquito,

and i f you are fishing you w i l l enjoy yoursel f ; and what ismore important than th is enjoyment

,is that you w i l l not

embitter your present,nor endanger your future

,by going

home in a bad temper,whether you have caught anything

o r not, provided always that you are a true fisherman.

This is not the case with other sports ; I have beenassured by experienced men that i t “ makes one feel awful lybad when

,after carry ing for hours a very heavy elephant

g u n ,for example

,through a tangled forest you have got

a wretched bad chance of a shot at an elephant and as forfootbal l , cricket, &c.

,wel l

,I need hard ly speak of the

unchristian feel ings they engender in the m ind towardsump ires and successful opponents .Be ing, as above demonstrated , a humble, but enthus iastic,devotee of fish in g—I dare not say, as my great predecessorDame Jul iana Berners says , with an angle, ”because my

90 FISHING IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.

cook to go inland . I n his days smal l trading vessels usedto cal l at Corisco for cargo

,but they do so no longer

,al l

the trade in the Bay now be ing carried on at Messrs . Holt’sfactory on L ittle E loby I sland (an island nearer in shore) ,and on the main land at Coco Beach

,belonging to Messrs .

Hatton and Cookson .

I n Winwood Reade ’

s days , too, there was a settlementof the American Presbyterian Soc iety on Corisco ,w ith a staff of wh ite men . Th is has been abandonedto a nat ive m in ister

,because the Soc iety found that

facts d id not support the ir theory that the is landwould be more heal thy than the mainland

,the mortal ity

be ing quite as great as at any cont inental stat ion,so they

moved on to the continent to be nearer their work . Theonly white people that are now on Corisco are two Span ishpriests and three nuns ; but of these good people I saw l ittleor nothing

,as my headquarters were w ith the Presbyterian

native m inister,Mr. Ibea

,and there was war between h im

and the priests.The natives are Benga

,a coast tribe now rapidly dy ing

out. They were once a great tribe, and in the old days ,when the Slavers and the whalers haunted Corisco Bay,these Benga were much in demand as crew men

,in Sp ite of

the reputat ion they bore for ferocity. Nowadays the grownmen get the ir l iving by going as travel l ing agents for thewhite merchants into the hinterland behind Corisco Bay

,

amongst the very dangerous and savage tribes there,and

when one of them has made enough money by th is trading,

he comes back to Corisco,and rests

,and luxuriates in the

ample bosom of his fami ly unti l he has spent his moneythen he gets trust from the

’

w hite trader, and goes to the

Iv COR ISCO ISLAND 9 1

Bush again,pretty frequently meeting there the sad fate of

the pitcher that went too often to the wel l , and gettingkil led by the h in terlan ders .

On arriving at Corisco I sland,I “ soothed with a gift, and

greeted with a smi le the dusky inhab itants . Have yougot any tobacco ?” said they. I have

,I responded , and

a friendly feel ing at once arose. I then explained thatI wanted to join the fishing party. They were quitew i l l ing

,and said the lad ies were just finishing planting

their farms before the tornado season came on,and that

they would make the pecul iar,necessary baskets at once.

They d id not do so at once in the Engl ish sense of the term ,

but we al l know there is no time south of and so I waitedpatiently

,walking about the island .

Corisco is local ly celebrated for its beauty. WinwoodReade says : “ I t i s a l ittle world in min iature, with itsm in iature forests

,min iature pra iries

,m in iature mountains ,

miniature rivers,and min iature prec ip ices on the sea-Shore .”

I n consequence partly of these things,and partly of the

inhab itants ’ rooted idea that the proper way to any placeon the island is round by the sea-Shore

,the paths of

Corisco are as strange as several other th ings are inlatitude O

,and

,l ike the other th ings

,they require under

standing to get on with.

They start from the beach with the avowed intent ion ofjust go ing round the next headland because the tidehappens to be in too much for you to go along by thebeach ; but, once started , the ir pres iding geni i m ight s ingto the wayfarer Mr. Kipl ing’s The Lord knows where weshal l go , dear lass , and the Deuce knows what we shal lsee. You go up a path off the beach gladly

,because you

have been wad ing in fine white sand over your ankles,and

9 2 FISHING IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.

in banks of rotten and rotting seaweed,on wh ich cent i

pedes, and other catam u mpu s es , craw l in profus ion , not tomention sand -flies , &c. , and the path makes a plungeinland

,as much as to say, “ Come and see our noted

s cenery ,”and having led you through a miniature swamp, am in iature forest

,and a miniature prairie

,

“ I t’

s a p ity,

”

s ays the path, not to cal l at So -and-so’s vi l lage now weare so near it, and off it goes to the vi l lage through apatch of grass or plantat ion . I t wanders through thescattered vi l lage cal l ing at houses , for some time, andthen says

,Bless me, I had nearly forgotten what I came

o u t for ; we must hurry back to that beach,”and off it goest hrough more scenery, land ing you ultimately about fi ftyy ards off the place where you first joined it

,i n consequence

o f the South Atlantic waves flying in foam and fury againsta miniature precipice—the fi rst thing they have met thatdared stay the ir lordly course s ince they left Cape Horn orthe ice wal l s of the Antarct ic.At last the fish ing baskets were ready, and we set off for

t he l akes by a path that plunged into a l ittle ravine,crossed

a dried swamp, went up a hi l l , and on to an open prairie,in the course of about twenty minutes . Pass ing over th isprairie

,and through a wood

,we came to another prairie

,

l ike most things in Corisco just then (August), dried up ,for i t was the height of the dry season . On this pra irie wewaited for some of the representative ladies from otherV i l lages to come up for without their presence our fish ingw ould not have been legal . When you wait in WestAfrica it eats into your l i fet ime to a considerable extent,and we spent half-an -hour or so standing howl ing

,in

prolonged,intoned howls

,for the absent ladies , notably

g rievously for On -gou-ta,and when they came not, we threw

94 FISH ING IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

rounded by th ick forests on every S ide,and that the dry

season is the cool season on the Equator,prevents them

from drying up.Most of these lakes are enc ircled by a rim of rock

,from

wh ich you jump down into knee-deep black sl ime,and

then,if you are a representative lady

,you waddle

,and

squeal,and grunt

,and Skylark general ly on your way to

the water in the middle. If it is a large lake you arework ing

,you and your compan ions drive in two rows of

stakes,cutting each other more or less at right angles

,more

or less in the m idd le of the lake,so as to d ivide i t up into

conven ient portions . Then some lad ies w ith their special lyshaped baskets form a l ine , w ith their backs to the bank,and the ir faces to the water-space

,in the enclosure

,hold ing

the baskets w ith one rim under water. The others go intothe water

,and splash w ith hands

,and feet, and sticks, and ,

needless to say,yel l hard al l the t ime. The natural ly

alarmed fish fly from them,intent on gett ing into the mud

,

an d are deftly scooped up by the peck by the lad ies intheir baskets . In l ittle lakes the staking is not necessary

,

but the rest of the proceed ings are the same. Someof the smaller lakes are too deep to be thus fishedat al l

,be ing, I expect , clefts in the rock , such as you

see in other parts of the island,sometimes 30 or 40

feet deep.

The usual resu l t of the day’s fishing is from twelve tofifteen bushels of a common mud-fish

,

1 wh ich is very goodeating. The spoils are d ivided among the representat ivelad ies

,and they take them back to their respective vi l lages

and distribute them . Then ensues,that same even ing, a

tremendous fish supper,and the fish left over are smoked

1 Clarias lavz'

aps .

IV VARIETIES OF FISH 9 5

an d careful ly kept as a del icacy, to make sauce w ith , &c . ,

unti l the next year ’s fishing day comes round .

The waters of West Africa,salt

,brack ish

,and fresh

abound with fish,and many kinds are

,i f properly cooked ,

excel lent eating. For cul inary purposes you may div idethe fish into sea-fish

,lagoon-fish and river-fish ; the first

d ivision,the sea-fish

,are excel lent eating , and are in enorm

ous quantities,particularly along the Windward Coast on

the Great West African Bank. South of this,at the mouths

of the Oil rivers , they fal l off, from a culinary standpoint ,though sc ientifical ly they increase in charm

,as you find

hereabouts fishes of extremely early types,whose relations

have an interesting series of monuments in the Shape offoss i l s

,in the sandstone but if primeval man had to l ive on

them when they were al ive together, I am sorry for him ,

for he m ight j ust as wel l have eaten mud,and better

,for

then he would not have run the risk of gett ing chokedw ith bones . On the South-West Coast the cul inary valuegoes up again ; there are found quantities of excel lentdeep-sea fish , and round the mouths of the rivers , shoalsof bream and grey mul let.The lagoon-fish are not particularly good

,being as a

rule supremely muddy and bony ; they have their uses,however

,for I am informed that they ind icate to Lagos

when it may expect an ep idem ic ; to th is end they d ie, inan adj acent lagoon , and float about upon its surface

,wrong

side up,unti l decomposition does i ts work. Their method

of prophecy is a sound one,for i t demonstrates (a) that the

lagoon drinking water is worse than usual (b) if it is notalready fatal they wi l l make i t so.The river-fish of the Gold Coast are better than those ofthe mud-sewers of the N iger Delta

,because the Gold Coast


rivers are brisk sporting streams,with the exception of the

Volta,and at a short distance inland they come dow n over

rocky rapids with a sti ff current. The fish of the upperwaters of the Delta rivers are better than those down inthe mangrove-swamp region and in the South-West Coastrivers

,with which I am personal ly wel l acqu ain t ed,

the u p

river fish are excel lent in qual ity,on account of the swift

current. I wil l how ever leave cul inary cons iderat ions,

because cooking is a subject upon which I am l iable tobecome di ffuse

,and we w i l l turn to the consideration of the

Sporting Side of fishing.

Now,there is one thing you wil l always hear the Gold

Coaster (wh ite variety) gru mb l ' 1 about , There is n o

sport.” He has only got himself ( 0 blame. Le t him tryand introduce the Polynes ian pract ice of swimming aboutin the surf

,w ithout his clothes , an d with a suitable large ,

sharp knife,s laying sharks—there ’s no end of Sharks on the

Gold Coast,and no end of surf. The R ivermen have the

same complaint,and I may recommend that they should

try Spearing st ing- rays , th ings that run somet imes to s ixfeet across the wings

,and every inch of them w icked

,

particularly the tai l . There is quite enough danger ineither sport to satisfy a Sir Samuel Baker for myself, beinga nervous

,qu iet

,rational individual

,a large cat-fish in a

smal l canoe suppl ies suffic ient excitement.The other day I went out for a day ’s fish ing on an

African river. I and two black men , in a canoe , in companywith a round net

,three stout fish in g-l ines

,three paddles

,

Dr. Giin ther’

s S t u dy of Fishes , some bait in an old Morton ’sboi led-mutton tin

,a l ittle man ioc

,stinking awful ly (as is its

w ont) , a broken calabash baler, a lot of dirty water to s itin

,and happy and contented minds . I catalogue these

98 FISH ING IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP .

sons of u n san ct ified house l izards ,”1 and such l ike valuableadvice and admon ition . The man in the more remote end ofthe canoe made an awful swipe at the 3 ft .-long, grunt ing,flopping

,yel low-grey

,sl imy, thing, but never reached it

owing to the paddle meet ing in mid-air with the flying leg ofthe man in front of h im

,drawing blood profusely. I real ly

fancy,about this time

,that

,barring the cat-fish and mysel f

,

the occupants of the canoe were standing on the ir heads , witha V iew of removing their lower l imbs from the terriblepectoral and dorsal fins

,w ith wh ich our prey made such

l ively play.

“Brevi spa tio in teiy'

eoto,as Caesar says, in the m iddle

of a bad battle,over went the canoe

,while the cat-fish

w ent off home w ith the l ine and hook . On e black manwent to the bank

,whither

,w ith a bl ind prescience of our

fate,I had flung

,a second before

,the most valuable occu

pant of the canoe,Tli e S tu dy of Fiskes . I went personal ly

to investigate fluvial depos it in situ . When I returned to thesurface—accompan ied by great swirls of mud and greatbubbles of the gases of decompos ition I had liberated onmy vis it to the bottom of the river—I observed the canoefloating bottom upwards

,accompan ied by Morton ’s tin

,the

calabash,and the paddles , wh i le on the bank one black man

was engaged in haul ing the other one out by the legs ; fort umately this one ’s ind ividual god had seen to it that h istoes Should become entangled in the net

,and th is floated

,

and so ind icated to h is compan ion where he was,when he

had dived into the mud and got fairly embedded.Now i t’s my bel ief that the most diffi cult thing in the1 Tran s lat ion :

“Leave it alon e ! Leave it alon e ! Throw it in tothe w ater at on ce What did you catch it for ? ”

IV ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 99

world is to turn over a round-bottomed canoe that is wrongSide up, when you are in the water w ith the said canoe .

The next most difficult thing is to get into the canoe, afteraccompl ish ing triumph number one, and had it not beenfor my black friends that afternoon

,I should not have don e

these th ings successful ly,and there would be by now

another haunted creek in West Africa,with a mu d an d

blood bespattered ghost trying for ever to turn over theghost of a l ittle canoe. However

,al l ended happily. We

col lected al l our possess ions,except the result of the day’s

fishin g—the cat-fish—but we had had as much of h im as w e

wanted,and so

,add ing a thankfu l mind to our contented

ones,went home.

None of us gave a verbatim report of the inc ident. I

held my tongue for fear of not being allowed out fish ingagain

,and I he ard my men giving a fine account of a

fearful fight,w ith accompanying prod igies of valour

,that

we had had with a witch crocod i le. I fancy that must havebeen just their way of put ti ng it

,because it is not goo d.

form to be frightened by cat-fish on the West Coast,and I

cannot for the l ife ofme remember even having seen a w itchcrocod ile that afternoon.I must

,however

,own that native methods of fishing are

usual ly safe, though I fai l to see what I had to do in p rodu cin g the above accident. The usual method of deal ingw ith a cat-fish is to bang him on the head with a club

,and

then break the sp iny fins off,for they make nasty wounds

that are d ifficult to heal,and very painful .

The native fishin g-craft is the dug-out canoe in its

various local forms . The Accra canoe is a very safe andfirm canoe for work of any sort except heavy cargo

,and

it is particu larly good for surf ; i t is, however , slower thanH 2

Ioo FISHING IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.

many other kinds. The canoe that you can get thegreatest pace out of is undoubtedly the Adooma

,wh ich is

narrow and flat-bottomed , and simply fl ies over the water.The paddles used vary also with local i ty, and thei r form isa mere matter of local fash ion , for they al l do the ir workwel l . There is the leaf-Shaped Kru - paddle

,the trident

shaped Accra , the long- lozenged N iger, and the longhandled

,smal l -headed Igalw a paddle ; and with each of

these forms the native,to the manner born

,Wi l l send h is

canoe flying along w ith that unbroken sweep I cons ider themost luxurious and perfect form of motion on earth .

I t is when it comes to sai l ing that the African Is Inferior.He does not sai l half as much as he m ight, but sti l lpretty frequently. The materials of wh ich the sai ls aremade vary immensely in d ifferent places

,and the most

beautiful are those at Loanda, wh ich are made of smal lgrass mats

,with fringes , sewn together, and are of a warm ,

rich sand-colour. Next in beauty comes the branch of apalm

,or other tree

,stuck in the bows

,and least in beauty

is the fisherman’

s own damaged waist-cloth. I rememberi t used to seem very strange to me at first

,to see my com

panion in a canoe take off his cloth ing and make a sai l withit,on a wind springing up behind us . The very strangest

sai l I ever sai led under was a black man ’s blue trousers,they

were t ied waist upwards to a cross-stick , the legs neatlycrossed , and secured to the thwarts of the canoe. You

cannot wel l tack,or carry out any neat sai l ing evolutions

with any of the African sai ls,particularly with the last

named form . The shape of the African sai l is almostalways in appearance a triangle

,and fastened to a cross

stick which is secured to an upright one . I t i s not theform , however, that prevents i t from be ing handy, but the

FALLS ON THE TONG UE R IVER .

[To face jag e I o r .

LOANDA CANOE WITH MAT SA ILS .

IV SAILS AND FISH ING APPLIANCES 1 01

way it is put up,almost always w ithout sheets

,for river

and lake work,and it is tied together w ith t ie tie—bush

rope“ If you should personal ly be managing one , andtrouble threatens

,take my advice

,and take the mast

out one time,and deal w ith that tie tie palaver at your

leisure. Never mind what people say about this methodnot being seaman- l ike—yo u survive.The mat sai ls used for sea-work are Spread by a bamboosprit. There is a single mast

,to th e head of which the sai l

i s either hoisted by means of a smal l l ine run through themast

,or, more frequently,made fast with a seizing. Such a

sai l is worked by means of a sheet and a brace on the sprit,usual ly by one man

,whose compan ion

'

s teers by a paddleover the stern sometimes

,however

,one man performs both

duties. Now and again you wil l find the luff of the sai lbow lin ed out with another stick . This is most commonround S ierra Leone.The appl iances for catching fish are

,firstly

,fish traps

,

sometimes made of hollow logs of trees,

-with one end leftOpen and the other C losed . On e of these is just droppedalongside the bank

,left for a week or so

,unti l a fish family

makes a home in it,and then it is removed with a jerk.

Then there are fish -baskets made from spl it palm -stemstied together with tie tie ; they are c ircular and con ical , resembl ing our lobster pots and eel baskets

,and they are usual ly

baited with lumps of kank soaked in palm -oi l . Then thereare drag nets made of pineapple fibre

,one edge weighted

with stones tied in bunches at intervals as a ru le '

these runten to twenty-five feet long

,but in some places they are

much longer. The longest I ever saw was when out fishingin the lovely harbour of San Paul de Loanda. This wasover thirty feet and was weighted with bunches of clam

ma FISH ING IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

sh el l s, and made of European yarn , as indeed most nets arew hen this is procurable by the natives

,and it was worked

by three canoes which were be ing poled about,as is usual

in Loanda Harbour. Then there is the un iversal hook andline, the hook either of European make or the s imple bentpin of our youth.

Bu t my favourite method,and the one by which I got

most of my fish up rivers or in creeks is the stockade trap.

The se are constructed by driving in stakes close together,

leavin g one Open ing, not in the middle Of the stockade, buttowards the up river end . I n t idal waters these stockadesare vis ited dai ly, at nearly low t ide, for the high tide carriesthe fish in beh ind the stockade, and leaves them thereon fal l ing. Up river, above tide water, the stockades areleft for several days , i n order to al low the fish to congregate.The n the open ing is closed up, the fisher-women go insidean d throw out the water and collect the fish. There isan other k ind of stockade that gives great sport. Duringthe w et season the terrific rush of water tears off b its ofb an k in such r ivers as the Congo , and Ogowe, where, ow ingto the continual fierce current of fresh water the brackisht ide waters do not come far up the river, so that the banksare not Sh ielded by a great network of mangrove roots .I n the Ogowe a good many of the banks are composed of as tou t clay, and so the p ieces torn off hang together, and oftengo sai l ing out to sea, on the current, waving thei r bushes ,and even trees

,gal lantly in the broad Atlantic, out of sight

of land . Bits of the Congo Free State are great at seafaring too, and owing to the terrific stream of the greatZaire, wh ich Spreads a belt of fresh water over the surface ofthe ocean 200 m i les from land , ships fal l in w ith these floatin g i slands , w ith the ir trees sti l l flourish ing. The Ogowe is

FLOATING ISLANDS 1 03

not so big as the Congo,but it is a very respectable stream

even for the great continent of rivers,an d i t pours into the

Atlantic, in the wet season , about cubic feet offresh waterper second

,on which float some of these islands .

But by no means every island gets out to sea,many of

them get into Slack water rou nd corners in the Delta regionof the Ogowe and remain there

,col lecting al l sorts of a’e’éris

that comes down on the flood water,getting matted more

and more fi rm by the floating grass,every joint of which

grows on the smallest opportunity. I n many places thesefloating islands are of considerable s ize ; one I heard ofwas large enough to induce a friend of mine to start acoffee p lantation on it ; unfortunately the wretched th ingcame to p ieces when he had cut down its trees and turnedthe soi l up . An d one I saw in the Karkola river

,was a

weird affair. I t was in the river Opposite our camp,and

very Slowly, but perceptibly it w ent round and round in ano rbit

,although it was about half an acre in extent. A

good many of these bits of banks do not attain to thehonour of becom ing islands

,but get on to sand -banks in

thei r early youth, near a native town , to the joy of theinhabitants

,who forthwith go off to them, and drive round

them a stockade of stakes firm ly anchoring them. Thousands of fishes then congregate round the l ittle islandins ide the stockade

,for the rich feeding in among the roots

and grass,and the affair is left a certain time. Then the

entrance to the stockade is firmly closed up,and the natives

go inside and bale out the water,and catch the fish in

baskets,tearing the island to p ieces

,with shouts and squeals

of exultation . I t’

s messy, but it is amus ing, and you gettremendous catches .A very large percentage of fish traps are dedicated to


the capture of shrimp and craw-fish,wh ich the nat ives value

h ighly when smoked , us ing them to make a sauce fortheir kank among these is the shrimp-basket. Thesebaskets are t ied on sticks laid out in paral lel l ines ofconsiderable extent. They run about three inches indiameter

,and their length varies with the place that i s be ing

worked . The stakes are driven into the mud,and to each

stake is tied a basket with a l ine of tie t ie,the basket act ing

as a hat to the stake when the t ide is ebb ing as the t idecomes in , it lowers the basket into the current and carriesinto i ts open end large quantities of Shrimps

,which get en

tangled and packed by the force of the current into thetapering end of the basket, which is sometimes eight or tenfeet from the mouth. You can always tel l where there is al ine of these baskets by seeing the l ine of attendant sea-gul l sal l so lemnly arranged with the ir heads to w in ’

ard,sea-gul l

fashion .

Another device employed in smal l streams for the captureof either craw-fish or smal l fish is a l ine of calabashes

,or

earthen pots with narrow mouths ; these are tied on to al ine

,I won ’t say with tie tie, because I have said that

i rri tat ing word so often,but sti l l you understand they are

this l ine is tied to a tree w ith more,and carried across the

stream,suffic iently s lack to submerge the pots

,and then to

a tree on the other bank,where it is secured w ith the same

material . A fetish charm is then secured to it that wi l lsee to it

,that any one who interferes with the trap

,save the

rightful owner,w i l l swel l up and burst

,

”then the trap isleft for the n ight

,the catch being col lected in the morning.

S ingle pots, wel l baited with bits of fish and with asu itable stone in to keep them steady

,are frequently

used alongside the bank . These are left for a day or more,

Iv CRAB-TRAPS 105

and then the owner with great care , crawls along theedge of the bank and claps on a l id and secures theprey.

Hand nets of many kinds are used . The most frequentform . is the round net

,weighted all round its outer edge .

This is used by onem an,and is thrown with great deftness

an dg race , in shal low waters . I suppose one may hardlycal l the long wreaths of palm and palm branches, used by theLoan go

'

an d Kacon go coast native forfi shin g the surf with ,nets

,but they areamo s t effective. When the Calemma (the

SII rf) is ’ not too bad,two or more men wi l l carry this long

thick wreath out into it,and then drop it and drag it towards

the shore. The fish fly in front of i t on to the beach,

w here ~ they fal l vict ims to the awaiting ladies, with thei rbaskets. Another very quaint set of devices is employedby‘ the Kru boys whenever they go to catch their belovedland and shore crabs . I remember on ce ‘

thin kin g I hadprovident ially l ighted on a beautiful bit ofju -ju the wholestretch of mud beach had l i ttle l ights dotted over it on theground . I investigated . They were crab-traps . “ BottleofBeer

,

”“The Prince ofWales,

”“ Jane An n,

”and “Pancake”had become—by means we wil l not go into here—possessedof b its of candle

,and had cut them up and put in front of

them -p ieces of wood in an ingenious way. The crab,a

creature whose intel l igence is n o t sufficiently appreciated,

fired with a scientific curiosity,went to see what the l ight

was made of, and then could not escape, or perhaps d id nottry . to escape, but stood spel l-bound at the beauty of thel ight anyhow, they fel l victims to their sp irit of ia '

I iry . I

have also seen drop-traps put for crabs round their holes .In this case the sense of the beau ty of l ight in ’ the crabis not rel ied on , and once in he is shut in , and cannot

106 FISHING IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.

go home and commun icate the resu l t of h is investigationst o h is family.

Yet,in sp ite of al l these advantages and appl iances above

cited,I grieve to say the West African , al l along the Coast,

decen ds to the unsportsmanl ike trick ofpo ison ing. Certa inherbs are bruised and thrown into the water, ch iefly intolagoons and river-pools . The method is effect ive, but Ishou ld doubt w hether it is wholesome . These herbs causethe fish to rise to the surface s t u pefied, when they arescooped up w ith a calabash. Other herbs cause the fish tol ie at the bottom

,also s t u pefied, and the water in the pool

is thrown out,and they are col lected .

More as a pastime than a sport I mu s t class the shoot ingo f the pecul iar hopp ing mud-fish by the smal l boys w ithbows and arrows

,but this is the only way you can secure

t hem as they go about star-gazing w ith the ir eyes on thetops of thei r heads , instead of attending to baited hooks , andtheir hear ing (or whatever it is) is so keen that they burythemselves in the mud-banks too rapidly for you to net them .

Spearing is another very common method of fish ing. I t iscarried on at night

,a bright l ight be ing stuck in the

b ow of the canoe,wh i le the spearer crouching, screens h is

eyes from the glare with a plantain leaf, and dropshis long-hafted spear into the fish as they come up tolook at the l ight. I t i s usual ly the big bream that arecaught in this way out in the sea

,and the carp up in fresh

water.The manners and customs of many West African fishesare quaint. I have never yet seen that fish the nativesoften tel l me about - that is as big as a man

,only th icker

,and

which walks about on its fins at n ight,in the forest

,so I

cannot vouch for it ; nor for that other fish that hates the


A s im i lar affl iction is the sal t-water drum -fish , with its2bum -bum .

’

Loanda Harbour abounds w ith these, and sodoes Ch i loango. I n the bright moonl ight n ights I havelooked overs ide and seen these fish in a wreath round thecanoe

,with their s i l ly noses against the Side

,

“ burnbumming away whether they admire the canoe

,or

whether they want it to come on and fight it out,I do not

know,because my knowledge of the di fferent k inds of

fishes and of their internal affairs is derived from .

Dr. Gunther’s great work , and that contains no sectionon ichthyological psychology. The Wes t African nativeshave

,I may say

,a great deal of very curious information on

the thoughts of fishes , but, much as I l iked those goodpeople , I make it a hard and fast rule to hold on to my common-sense and keep my bel ief for religious purposes whenit comes to these deduct ions from natural phenomenanot that I display th is mental attitude external ly, for thereis always in the ir worst and wi ldest fetish notions an underly ing element of truth. The fetish of fish is too wide asubject to enter on here

,i t acts wel l because it gives a close

season to river and lagoon fish ; the natives round LakeAy z in go , for example, saying that if the first fishes that comeup into the lake in the great dry season are ki l led

,the res t

of the Shoal turn back,so on the arrival of this vanguard

they are treated most careful ly,talked to with “ a sweet

mouth,

”and given th ings . The fishes that form these shoalsare Hemicnromis fasciat u s and Caromis ogow en s is .

I know no more charming way of spend ing an afternoonthan to le isurely paddle alone to the edge of the Ogowesand bank in the dry season

,and then lie and watch the ways

of the water-world below. If you keep qu iet, the fishestake no not ice of you

,and go o n with their ord inary

I V F IGHTING FISH 109

avocations,under your eyes

,hunting, and feeding, and

playing,and fighting

,happily and cheeri ly unti l one of the

dreaded raptorial fishes appears upon the scene,and then

there is a general scurry. Dreadful warriors are the l ittlefishes that haunt sand banks (Ales t is K ing s ley/w ) and verybold

,for when you put your hand down in the water, w ith

some crumbs,they first make two or three attempts to frighten

it,by sidl ing up at i t and butting, but on finding there’s no

fight in the thing,they swagger into the palm of your hand

and take what is to be got with an air of conquest ; butbefore the supply is exhausted

,there always arises a row

among themselves , and the gal lant bul ls , some two incheslong

,wil l spin round and butt each other for a second or so

,

and then ‘

spin round again , and flap each other w ith thei rtails

,their l ittle red-edged fins and gi l l-covers growing

crimson with fury. I never made out how you countedpoints in these fights

,because no one ever seemed a scale

the worse after even the most desperate duels .Most of the West Coast tribes are inveterate fishermen .

The Gold Coast native regards fish ing as a low pursuit,more

particularly oyster-fish in g, or I should say oyster-gathering,for they are col lected ch iefly from the lower branches of themangrove-trees ; th is occupation is, indeed, regarded asbeing only fit for women

,and among al l tribes the vi l lages

who turn their entire attention to fishing are regarded aslow down in the social scale . Th is may arise from fetishreasons , but the idea certainly gains support from theconduct of the individual fisherman . Do not imagineBrotherAnglers, that I am hinting that the Gentle Art is badfor the moral nature of people l ike you and me, but I fear i tis bad for the African . You see

,the African

,l ike most of us

,

can res ist anything but temptation—he wil l resist attempts

I I O FISH ING IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

to reform h im,attempts to make h im tel l the truth

,attempts

to clothe,an d keep h im t idy, &c., and he w i l l res ist these

powerful ly but give him real temptation and he succumbs,

w ithout the European prel im inary struggle. He has bynature a kleptic bias

,and you see being out at n ight

fish ing,he has chances—temptations, of succumbing to th is

—and so you see a man who has left h is home at eveningwith only the intent ion of Spearing fish

,in his mind

,goes

home in the morn ing pretty often with h is miss ionary ’sducks

,h is ne ighbours’ plantains

,and a few odd t rifles from

the trader’s beaches,in h is canoe

,and the outer world says

“Dem fisherman,al l t ime

,al l same for one, w ith t ief man .

”1

The Accras,who are employed right down the whole

West Coast, thanks to the valuable educat ion given themby the Basel M iss ion as cooks , carpenters , and coopers ,cannot res ist fish ing

,let their other avocations be what

they may. A friend of m ine the other day had a newAccra cook . The man cooked wel l , and my friend vauntedh imsel f

,and was content for the fi rst week. At the begin

n ing of the second week the cook ing was sti l l good,but

somehow or other,there was just the susp ic ion of a smel l

of fish about the house. The next day the susp ic ionmerged into certainty. The third day the smel l wasinsupportable

,and the atmosphere unfit to support human

l ife,but obviously healthy for fl ies.The cook was summoned

,and asked by Her Britannic

Majesty’s representat ive Where that smel l came from ? ”He said he “could not smel l it

,and he d id not know.

”Fourth

day,thorough investigat ion of the premises revealed the

fact that in the back-yard there was a large clothes-horsewh ich had been sent out by my friend ’s w ife to a ir h is

1 Tran s lat ion “All fishermen are th ieves .

CHAPTER V .

FETISH .

Wherein the s t u den t of Fe t ish determin es t o make th in gs qu ite clearth is t ime

,w ith resu l t s that an y sage kn ow in g the s u bject an d the

s t uden t w ou ld have s afe ly proph esied ; t o w h ich is added s ome

remark s con cern in g the pos it ion of an ces t or w orship in We s t

Africa.

THE final Object of al l human des i re is a knowledge ofthe nature of God . The human methods

,or rel igions

,em

ployed to gain this object are divisible into three mainclasses

,inspired

Firs t ly , the subm iss ion to and acceptance of a directdivine message .Secon dly, the attempt by human intel lectual power toseparate the conception of God from material phenomena,an d regard Him as a th ing apart and unconditioned .

Tnira’ly ,the attempt to understand H im as manifest in

natural phenomena.

I personal ly am constrained to fol low th is last andhumblest method

,and accept as its exposition Spinoza’s

statement of it,

“S ince without God nothing can ex ist orbe conceived , i t is evident that al l natural phenomenainvolve and express the conception of God , as far as theiressence and perfection extends . So we have a greater andmore perfect knowledge of God in proportion to our

CH . V THE WORD FETISH 1 1 3

knowledge of natural phenomena. Conversely (s ince theknowledge of an effect through a cause is the same thingas the knowledge of a particular property of a cause), thegreater our knowledge of natural phenomena the moreperfect i s our knowledge of the essence of God which is thecause of al l things .”1 But I have a deep respect for al lother forms of religion and for al l men who tru ly bel ieve ,for in them clearly there i s this one great desire of the knowledge of the nature of God , and E in g u terM en s eli in s ein em

du n t eln Drange I s t s icn cles recaten Weg es w onl bemu s z t .

”

Nevertheless the most tolerant human mind is subject to afeel ing of irritat ion over the methods whereby a fel low-creature strives to attain his end , particularly i f those methodsare a sort of heresy to his own, and therefore it is a mostunpleasant thing for any religious-minded person to speak ofa rel igion unless he either profoundly bel ieves or disbel ievesin it. For, i f he does the one, he has the pleasure of praise ; i fhe does the other, he has the pleasure of war, but the thingin between these is a thing that gives neither p leasure ; i ti s l ike quarrel l ing with one’s own beloved relations . Thusit is with Fetish and me. I cannot say I either d isbel ieveor bel ieve in it, for, on the on e hand

,I clearly see it is a

rel igion of the third class ; but, on the other, I know thatFetish is a religion that is regarded by my fel low whitemen as the embodiment of al l that i s lowest and vi lest inman—not altogether without cause . Before speaking further on it , however, I must say what I mean by Fetish, for“ the word of late has got i l l sorted .

I mean by Fetish the rel igion of the natives of theWestern Coast of Africa, where they have not been in fluen ced either by Christianity or Mohammedanism . I Sin

1 Of th e Divin e Law , Tractat u s Tneologico Pol it icas , Spin oza.

EI 4 FETISH CHAP.

cere ly w ish there were another name than Fetish which wecou ld use for it, but the natives have di fferent names fort he ir own religion in d ifferent d istricts, and I do not knowwhat other general name I could suggest

,for I am sure that

t he other name sometimes used in place of Fetish , namelyJuju

,i s

,for al l the fine wild sound of it , only a modifica

tion of the French word for toy or dol l ,joujou . The FrenchC laim to have v is itedWest Africa in the fourteenth century

,

prior to the Portuguese, and whether this claim can besustained on h istoric evidence or no

,i t i s certain that the

French have been on the Coast in considerable numbersS ince the fifteenth century

,and no doubt have long cal led

the l ittle objects they saw the natives valuing so strangelyjoujou ,

j ust as I have heard many a Frenchman do downthere in my time . Therefore , bel ieving Juju to mean dol lor toy , I do not th ink it is so true a word as Fetish and ,after al l

,West Africa has a prior right to the use of this word

Fetish,for i t has grown u p out of the word Feit igo used by

t he Port u gu e se navigators who rediscovered West Africaw ith al l its wealth and worries for modern Europe . Theseworthy voyagers

,noticing the veneration paid by Africans

to certain objects,trees

,fish

,idols

,and so on

,very fairly

compared these obj ects with the amulets , tal ismans ,Charms

,and l ittle images of saints they themselves used ,

and cal led those things s imilarly used by the AfricansFeit igo, a word derived from the Lat in fact it iu s , in thesense magical ly artfu l . Modern French and English writersh ave adopted this word from the Portuguese ; but i t is amodern word in its present use . I t is not in Johnson , andthe term Fe

’

t icnisme was introduced by De Brosses in hisremarkable book

,Du Cu l te a

’

es Dieu a' jet icnes , 1 760 butdoubtless , as Professor Tylor po ints out, i t has obtained a

1 1 6 FETISH CHAP.

visiting the la ity,on whom he is exceed ingly hard , he comes

in pesti lence and tempest, or, for more individual vi l lagevisitations

,as a smal l and m iserable boy

,desolate and

crying for help and kindness,which

,when given to him ,

Tando repays by ki l l ing off his benefactors and the ir fellowvi l lagers with a certain disease . This trick , I may remark ,is not confined to Tando

,for several other West African

gods use it when sacrifices to them are in arrears ; andI am certain i t is more at the back of outcast chi ldrenbeing neglected than is either sheer indi fference tosuffering or cruelty . Because , fearing the disease, yournative wi l l be far more l ikely to remember he is in debtto the god and go and pay an instalment, than to takein that chi ld whom he thinks i s the god who has come topunish .

But you have only to look through E l l is ’s importantworks

,the “ Tshi -speaking, Ew e -speaking, and Yoruba

speaking peop les of the West Coast of Africa,”to findmany instances of the gods of Fetish who do not requirea material object to man ifest themselves in . An d I

,while

in West Afri ca, have often been struck by incidents thathave made this point clear to me. When I have been ou twith native companions after n ightfal l , they pretty nearlyalways saw an apparition of some sort , frequently apparitions of different sorts

,i n our path ahead . Then came a

pause,and after they had seen the apparition vanish

,on we

went—not cheerily, however, unti l we were wel l past theplace where i t had been seen . This p lace they c loselyexamined , and decided whether i t was an Abam bo ,

orManu

,or whatever name these sp i rit c lasses had in thei r

local language,or whether it was something worse that

had been there,such as a Sasabon s u m or Omb u iri.

ALARM ING SYMPTOMS 1 1 7

They knew which it was from the physical condition ofthe spot. Ei ther there was nothing there but ordinarypath stuff ; or there was white ash , or there was a log orrock

,or tree branch

,and the reason for the different emotion

with wh ich they regarded this latter was very simp le, for ithad been an inferior class spi rit, one that thei r charms andhowled incantations could guard them against. Whenthere was ash

,i t had been a witch destroyed by the

medicine they had thrown at it, or a medium class spiritthey could get p rotection from “ in town .

” But if “he leftno ash the rest of our march was a gloomy one it was abad business

,and unless the Fetish authorities in town

chose to explain that it was merely a demand for so muchwhite cal ico

,or a goat, &c. , some one of our party would

certainly get i l l .Wel l do I remember our greatest terror when out atnight on a forest path . I believe him to have been a Sasab on s um ,

but he was very widely distributed—that i s tosay we dreaded him on the forest paths round MungoMah Lob eh ; we confidently expected to meet him roundCalabar ; and , to my disgust , for he was a hindrance,when I thought I had got away from his distribution zone

,

down in the Ogowe region , coming home one night with aFan hunter from Fula to Kangwe

, I saw some one comingdown the path towards us

,and my friend threw himself

into the dense bush beside the path so as to give thefigure a w ide berth. I t was the old symptom . You seewhat we obj ect to in this sp i rit i s that one side of him isrotting and putri fying, the other sound an d healthy, and ital l depends on which side of him you touch whether yousee the dawn again or no . Such being the case , andAfrican bush paths being narrow

,this sp i rit helps to make

1 1 8 FETISH CHAP.

evening walks unpopular,for there are places in every bush

path where,i f you meet h im , you must brush aga inst h im

places where the wet season ’s rains have made the patha narrow ditch

,with clay incurved wal ls above your head

—places where the path turns sharply round a cornerplaces where it runs between rock wal ls. Such being thecase

,the risk of rubbing against his rott ing side i s held

to be so great that i t i s best avo ided by staying at homein the vi l lage w ith your wives and famil ies

,and playing

the tom -tom or the orchid-fib re -stringed harp,or

,if you

are a bachelor,s itt ing in the vi l lage club-house l isten

ing to the old ones talking l ike retired Colonels . Ye t

however th is may be,I should hes itate to cal l this half

rotten individual “ a material obj ect .” Sometimes we hadmerry laughs after these meetings , for he was only So -and-sofrom the vi llage—it was not him . Sometimes we had coldchi l ls down the back , for we lost s ight of him under oureyes he went and he left no ash .

Take again Mb u iri of thc Mpongwe, who comes in theform usual ly of a man or Nkala

,who comes as a crab or

the great Nzambi of the Fj ort—they leave no ash—and soon . This subject of apparition-forms is a very interestingone

,and requires more investigation . For such gods as

Nzambi Mpungu do not appear to human beings on earthat al l , except i n tempest and pesti lence . The great godsnext in order leave no ash . The witch

,i f he or she

be destroyed , does leave ash, and the ord inary m iddleand lower class spirits leave the thing they have beenin

,so unaltered by their use of i t that no one but a

witch doctor can tel l whether or no it has been possessedby a spiri t.You see therefore Fet ish i s in a way complex and cannot

1 20 FET ISH CHAP.

known,though I have known the l ines these five-and-twenty

yearsGod of th e gran it e an d the rose ,Sou l of th e lily an d the b ee,

Th e migh ty t ide of b ein g flow sI n cou n t les s chan n e l s , Lord, from Thee .

I t sprin gs to life in gras s an d flow ers ,Throu gh every ran ge of Bein g ru n s

,

An d from Creat ion’s migh t y t ow ers ,

I t s glory flames in s tars an d s u n s

and secondly in this statement by Sp inoza By the help ofGod

,I mean the fixed and unchangeable order of nature

,

or chain of natural events , for I have said before and shownelsewhere that the un iversal laws of nature

,accord ing to

which al l things exist and are determ ined,are only another

name for the eternal decrees of God , wh ich always involveseternal truth and necessity, so that to say everythinghappens according to natural laws, and to say everythingis ordained by the decree and ordinance of God

,is to say

the same thing . Now , s ince the power in nature is iden t ical with the power of God , by which alone al l things happenand are determined , i t fol lows that whatsoever man as apart of nature provides himself with to aid and preserve hisex istence , or whatsoever nature affords him without h ishelp

,i s given him solely by the Divine power acting e ither

through human nature or through external ci rcumstances .So whatever human nature can furnish itself with by its ownefforts to p reserve its ex istence may be fit ly termed theinward aid of God , whereas whatever else accrues to man ’sprofit from outward causes may be cal led the external aidof God .

”1

Now both these utterances are magnificent Fetish, and1 The Vocation of ike Heérew s , Spin oza.

A W ITCH DOCTOR 2 1

because I accept them as true,I have said I neither bel ieve

nor disbel ieve in Fetish . I could quote many more passagesfrom acknowledged phi losophers

,particularly from Goethe .

I f you want,for example

,to understand the position of

man in Nature according to Fetish,there is

,as far as I

know, no clearer statement of it made than is made byGoethe in his superb P romei/zeu s . By al l means read it, foryou cannot know how things real ly stand unti l you do .

This was brought home to me very keen ly when I wasfi rst out in West Africa . I had made friends with a dist in gu ished witch doctor, or, more correctly speaking, he hadmade friends with me . I was then l iving in a desertedhouse the main charm of which was that it was the housethat Mr. H . M . Stanley had l ived in while he was waitingfor a boat home after his first cross ingAfrica. This charmhad not kept the house t idy

,and it was a b ee t lesome place

by day,while after n ightfal l

,i f you wanted to see some of

the best insect society in Africa, and have regularWalpurgisal l round , you had only got to l ight a lamp ; but thesethings were advantageous to an insect col lector l ike myself,therefore I lodge no complaint against the firm of traders towhom that house belongs . Wel l , my friend the witch doctorused to cal l on me

,an d I apo loget ically con fes s I fi rst thought

his interest in me arose from material objects . I wrongedthat man in thought

,as I have many others , for one night ,

about I I p m ,I heard a pawing at the shutters—my African

friends don’t knock . I got up and opened the door, and therehe was . I made some observations

,which I regret now,

about tobacco at that time of n ight,and he said

,No . You

be big man , suppose pu s son s ick ? ”’

I acknowledged thesoft impeachment . Pu s son sick too much pu s son l ive fordie . You fit for come P “Fit ,

”said 1 . Suppose you come ,

1 22 FET ISH CHAP.

you no fit to talk ? ”said he . No fit, said I , with a shrewdnotion it was one of my Portuguese friends who was i l l andwho did not want a blazing blister on , a thing that wasinevitable i f you cal led in the local regular white med icalman

,so

,p icking up a medicine-case

,I went out into the

darkness with my darker friend . After getting outside theclosed ground he led the way towards the fores t

,an d I thought

it was some one si ck at the Roman Cathol ic miss ion . On

we went down the path that m ight go there but when wegot to where you turn off for it

,he took no heed

,but kept

on,and then away up over a low hi l l and down into deeper

forest sti l l,I steering by his white cloth . But Africa i s an

alarm ing place to walk about in at n ight, both for a witchdoctor who bel ieves in al l his local forest devi ls , and a ladywho believes in al l the local material ones

,so we both got

a good deal chipped and frayed and frightened one wayand another but nothing worse happened than our walkingup against a python

,which had thoughtful ly festooned him

self across the path,out of the way of ground ants, to s leep

off a heavy meal . My eminent friend , in the inky darkness and h is hurry to reach h is pat ient, fai led to see this,and went fai r up aga inst it . I , be ing close behind , did ditto.

Then my leader ducked under the excited festoon and wentdown the path at headlong speed

,with me after h im

,al ike

terrified at los ing sight of his guiding cloth and at thepython

,whom we heard going away into the bush with that

pecul iar-sounding crackle a big snake gives when he isbadly hurried .

Finally we reached a smal l bush vil lage, and on theground before one of the huts was the patient extended

,

surrounded by unavai l ing, wai l ing women . He was suffering from a disease common in West Africa

,but amenable

1 24 FETISH CHAP.

yet it seems to me that it is only this class of d ifferencethat ex ists between the African

,the Brahmanist, and the

Shintoist.Another and more fundamental point to be consideredis the influence of physical environment on religions

,par

t icu larly these Nature rel igions .The Semitic mind , which had never been kept quite in itsproper place by Natural difficulties, gave to man in thes cheme of Creation a pre-eminence that deeply influencesEuropeans , who have l ikewise not been kept in the ir placeowing to the environments of the temperate zone . On theo ther hand , the African race has had about the worst set ofconditions possible to bring out the higher powers of man .

He has been surrounded by a set of terrific natural phenomena

,combined with a good food supply and a warm

an d equable cl imate . These things are not enough inthemselves to account for his low-culture condition

,but

they are factors that must be cons idered . Then , u n

doubtedly,the nature of the African ’s mind is one of the

most important points . I t may seem a paradox to say ofpeople who are always seeing visions that they are notvisionaries but they are not .The more you know the African

,the more you study

his laws and insti tutions,the more you must recognise that

the main characteristic of his intel lect is logical,and you

see how in al l things he uses th is absolutely sound butnarrow thought-form . He is not a dreamer nor a doubter ;everything is real

,very real

,horribly real to him . I t is im

possible for me to describe it clearly,but the qual ity of the

African mind is strangely uniform . This may seem strangeto those who read accounts of wi ld and awful ceremonials

,

ora of the African’s terror at white man ’s things ; but I

THE AFRICAN M IND 1 2 5

believe you wil l find al l people experienced in deal ing withuncultured Africans wi l l tel l you that this alarm and briefwave of curiosity i s merely external

,for the African kn ows

the moment he has time to think i t over,what that white

man’s thing real ly is,namely

,either a white man ’s Juju or

a devi l .I t i s this power of being able logica l ly to account foreverything that is, I believe , at the back of the tremendouspermanency of Fetish in Afri ca, and the cause of many ofthe relapses into it by Africans converted to other re

ligion s ; i t is also the explanation of the fact that whitemen who l ive in districts where death and danger are everyday affairs , under a grim pal l of boredom ,

are l iable tobel ieve in Fetish , though ashamed of so doing. For theAfrican , whose m ind has been soaked in Fetish duringhis early most impressionable years

,the voice of Fetish i s

almost i rresistible when affl i ction comes on him . Suddendangers or terror he can face with his new rel igion

,because

he is not quick ‘at thinking. But give him time to thinkwhen under the hand of adversity

,and the old explanation

that answered it al l comes back . I know no more distressing thing than to see an African convert brought face t oface with that awful thing we are used to

,the problem

of an omnipotent God and a suffering world . This does notworry the African convert unti l i t hits h im personal ly ingrief and misery. When it does , and he turns and call supon the God he has been taught wi l l l isten

,pity and

answer, his use of what the scoffers at the convertedAfri can cal l “ catch phrases ” is horribly heartrending t ome

,for I know how real , terribly real , the whole thing is to

him,and I therefore see the temptation to return to those

old gods—gods from whom he never expected p ity, presided

1 26 FET ISH CHAP.

over by a god that does not care. All that he had to dowi th them was not to i rritate them , to propitiate them ,

tobuy thei r services when wanted , and , above all , to dodge andavoid th em , while he fought it out and managed devi ls atlarge . R i sky work, but a man i s as good as a devi l anyday if he only takes proper care ; and even if any devi ls hould get him unaware—ki l l him bodi ly —h e has the satisfaction of know ing he wil l have the power to make it warmfor th at devi l w hen they meet on the other side .

There is something al luring in th is, I think, to any makeo f human mind , but part icularly so to the logical , intenselyhuman one possessed by the West African . Therefore

,

when wearied and worn out by confronting things that hecannot reconci le

,and d isappointed by unanswered prayers ,

he turn s back to his old bel ief enti rely, or modifies the re

ligion he has been taught unti l i t fits in with Fetish, and isgradual ly absorbed by it .I t i s often asked wheth er Ch r istian ity or Mohammedanism i s to possess Africa—as i f the choice of Fate lay b etween these two things alone . I do not th ink it i s so

,at

least i t i s not wise for a mere student to ignore the otherthing in the affai r

,Fetish

,which is as i t were a sea wherein

al l things suffer a sea change . For remember i t is notChristianity alone that becomes tinged with Fetish

,or gets

engu l fed and dominated by it . I slam,when it strikes the

true heart ofAfrica,the great Forest Belt region

,fares l i ttle

better though it i s more recent than Christian ity,and though

it i s preached by men who know the make of the Africanmind . I slam is in its b lii th -

period now in al l the open parts,even on the desert regions of Afri ca from its Mediterraneanshore to below the Equator

,but so far it has beaten up

against the Forest Belt l ike a sea on a sand beach . I t has

1 28 FET ISH CHAP.

view, but one must be practical , you know and it i s thisfactor that makes me respect the African deeply andsympathise with him

,for I have this same unmanageable

hindersome th ing in my own mind , which you can cal lanything you like ; I myself cal l it honour. Now conscience when conditioned by Christian ity i s an exceedinglydifficult thing for a trader to manage satisfactori ly tohimself. A mass of compromises have to be made withthe world

,and a man who is always making compromises

gets either sick of them or sick of the thing that keepson nagging at him about them , or he becomes merelygaseous-minded al l round . There are some few in al lraces of men who can think comfortably

That con scien ce , like a res t ive hors e,Wil l s t umb le if you ch eck h is cou rs e

,

Bu t ride h im w ith an easy rein,

An d ru b h im dow n w ith w orldly gain ,

He’l l carry you t hrou gh th ick an d th in ,

Safe, al th ou gh dirty ,’t il l you w in

,

”

but such men are in Africa a very smal l minority,and so it

fal ls out that most men engaged in trade revert to Fet ish,

or become lax as Church members, or embrace Islam .

I think , i f you wi l l consider the case, you wil l see that theworkabil ity of I s lam is one of the chief reasons of its successin Africa. I t is , from many Afri can points of view,

a mostinconvenient rel igion , with its Rahmadhiz an

,bound every

now and again to come in the height of the dry season itsrestrictions on alcohol ic drinks and gambling but

,on the

whole it is satisfying to the African conscience . Moreover,

l ike Christian ity,it l i fts man into a position of paramount

importance in Creation . He i s the thing God made therest for. I have often heard Africans say, “ I t does a mangood to know God loves him ; i t makes him proud too much .

”

GRADES OF SPIR ITS

Wel l , at any rate it is pleasanter than Fet ish, where man, incompany with a host of spiri ts , is fighting for h is own hand ,in an arena before the gods, eternal ly.

We wi l l now turn to the cons iderat ion of the status of thehuman soul in pure Fet ish

,that is to say in Fet ish that

is common to al l the d ifferent schools of West AfricanFetishism .

What strikes a European when studying it is the lackof gaps between things . To the African there i s perhaps no gap betw een the concept ion of sp iri t and matter ,animate or inanimate . I t is al l an affai r of grade—not ofessential difference in essence. At the head of ex istence arethose beings who can work w ithout us ing matter

,either as

a constant associate or as an occasional tool -do it al l themselves

,as an African wou ld say. Beneath this grade there “

are many grades of sp iri ts , who occas ional ly or hab itual ly,as in the case of the human grade, are associated w ith

matter,and at the lower end of the scale is what we cal l

matter,but which I bel ieve theWest African regards as the

same sort of stuff as the rest, only very low—so low thatpractical ly it doesn ’t matter but it is spirits

,the th ings that

cause al l motion,al l d ifficu lt ies

,dangers and calam ities

,

that do matter and must be thought about,for they are real

things whether “ they l ive for thing or no.

The African and mysel f are also in a fine fog about form ,

but I wil l spare you that point, for where that th ingcomes from , often so quickly and si lently, and goes, often so

quickly and si lently, too, under our eyes, everlastingly, thatth ing on wh ich we al l so much depend at every moment ofour l ives

,that thing we are qui te as consc ious of as l ight and‘

darkness,heat or cold , yet wh ich makes a thing no heavier

K

I 30 FETISH CHAP.

in one shape than in another,—is altogether too large a

s ubject to touch on now. Yet , remember it is a most imp ortant part of pract ical Fet ish , for on it depends d ivinationand heaps of such l ike mat ters , 'that are parts of both thew itch doctor and the Fet ish priest’s dai ly work .

On e of the fundamental doctrines of Fetish is that theconnect ion of a certa in sp irit w ith a certain mass of matter,a material object

,is not permanent the African wi l l po int

out to you a l ightning-stricken tree and tel l you that its spirithas been ki l led ; he w i l l tel l you when the cook ing pot hasgone to b its that it has lost its sp ir it if h is weapon fai ls it isbecause some one has stolen or made s ick its spirit by meansof witchcraft. I n every action of h is daily l ife he showsyou how he l ives w ith a great, powerfu l sp irit world aroundh im . You w i l l see h im before starting out to hunt or fightrubb ing med ic ine into h is weapons t o strengthen the spiri tsw ith in them

,talk ing to them the whi le tel l ing them what

care he has taken of them , remind ing them of the gifts hehas given them

,though those gifts were hard for h im to

g ive,and begging them in the hour of h is d ire necess ity

n o t to fai l him . You w i l l see him bend ing over the face ofa river talking to its spi rit w ith proper incantat ions

,asking

it when it meets a man who is an enemy of h is to upset h iscanoe or drown him

,or ask ing it to carry down with it

some curse .to the vi l lage below which has angered h im , andin a thousand other ways he shows you what he bel ievesif you w i l l watch him pat iently.

I t is a very important po int in the study of pure Fet ishto gain a clear concept ion of th is arrangement of th ings ingrades . As far as I have gone I th ink I may say fourteenclasses of sp irits ex ist in Fet ish . Dr. Nassau of Gaboon

1 32 FETISH CHAP.

El l is , and to my great pleasure found that the three first saidn oth ing against my statements , and that SirA . B . E l l is hadh imself said the same thing in h is Ew e Speaking Peop le.

Moreover, I sent a ci rcu lar written on th is point to peopleinWest Africa whom I knew had opportunities of know ingthe facts as at present ex ist ing—the answers were unan imous w ith El l i s and mysel f.Nevertheless, mind , you wi l l find someth ing that looksl ike worsh ip of ancestors in West Afr ica . Only it i s nomore worsh ip, properly so cal led , than our own deferenceto our l iving, elderly, and influential re lations .In almost al l Western African d istricts (it natural ly doesnot show clearly in those where re incarnat ion is bel ieved tobe the common and immed iate lot of al l human spirits) is aclass of sp irits cal led “ the wel l d isposed ones

,

”and this3 )class is clearly d ifferent iated from “ them , the generi c

name used for non-human sp iri ts . These “wel l d isposedones ”are ancestors , and they do what they can to benefitthe ir part icu lar vi l lage or fami ly, acting in conjunction w iththe vi l lage or fam i ly Fetish, who is not a human sp iri t, noran ancestor. But the th ings given to ancestors are gifts , notin the proper sense of the word sacrifices , for the wel ld isposed ones are not gods even of the rank of a Sasabon s um or an Omb u iri.In an extremely interesting answer to my inquiries that

I rece ived from Mr. J . H . Batty, of Cape Coast, who hadk indly subm itted my quest ions to a native gentleman wel lversed in affairs , the statement regard ing ancestors is , “Thepeople bel ieve that the sp irits of their departed relationsexerc ise a guard ian care over them

,and they w i l l fre

quently stand over the graves of the ir deceased friends and

SPIR ITS OF THE DEPARTED 1 33

invoke their spir its to protect them and their chi ldren fromharm . I t i s imagined that the spirit l ingers about thehouse some time after death . I f the chi ldren are i l l thei l lness is ascribed to the sp irit of the deceased motherhaving embraced them . Elderly women are often heard tooffer up a kind of prayer to the sp irit of a departed parent,begging it either to go to its rest

,or to protect the fam i ly

by keeping off evi l sp irits, instead of inj uring the childreno r other members of the fam i ly by its touch . The ghostsof departed enemies are considered by the people as bads pirits , who have power to injure them .

In connection with th is fear of the ancestor’s ghost hurting members of its own fami ly, part icu larly children ,

I mayremark it has several times been careful ly explained to met hat th is “ touching comes not from malevolence

,but from

loneliness and the desire to have their company. A sent imental but inconven ient des ire that the l iving human cannotgive in to perpetual ly

,though big men wil l accede to the ir

ancestor’s des ire for society by k il l ing off people who mayserve or cheer h im . This des ire for companionship is ofcourse immensely greater in the sp irit that i s not definitelysettled in the society of sp iritdom , and i t i s therefore moredangerous to its own belongings

,i n fact to al l l iving society,

while i t is hanging about the other s ide of the grave,but

this side of Hades. Thus I wel l remember a del ic ious rowthat arose primari ly out of trade matters

,but which caused

one family to yel l at another fam i ly d ivers remarks , endingu p w ith the accusation , You good-for-nothing i l legitimateoffspr ing of house l izards

,you don ’t bury your ditto ditto

dead relations , but leave them knocking about anyhow, acurse to Calabar.” Natural ly therefore the spi ri t of a deade nemy is feared because i t would touch for the purpose of

1 34 FETISH CHAP.

gett ing sp irit s laves therefore i t fol lows that powerfu l ances tors are valued when they are on the other s ide, for theycan keep off the dead enem ies . A great chief’s sp irit is athoroughly usefu l thing for a vi l lage to keep going

,and in

good order,for it conquered those who are 'among the dead

with it,and can keep them under, keep them from aiding

their people in the fights between its l iving relations andi tself .and them,w ith its s lave sp iri t army. I ought to saythat it is customary for the l iving to send the dead outahead of the army, to bear the brunt in the first attack .

Ancestor-esteem you w i l l find at i ts h ighest p itch inWest Africa under the school of Fetish that ru les the Tsh iand Ew e peoples . El l i s gives you a fu l l description of it forAshanti and Dahomey.

1 The next d istrict going down coastis the Yoruba one but Yoruba has been so long under theinfluence of Mahome tan ism that i ts Fetish, judging fromE l l is ’s statement in h is Yoraoa Speaking P eople, i s deeplyt inged with it. I have no personal acqua intance withYorubaland , but have no hes itat ion for mysel f in acceptingh is statements from the accuracy I have found them

,by

personal experience w ith Tsh i and Ew e people,to possess .

Below Yoruba comes a district,the Oil R ivers , where , alas ,

E l l is did not penetrate,andwhere no ethnologist, unless you

wi l l grac iously extend the term to me , has ever cautiouslyworked .

In th is d istrict you have a school where reincarnation isstrongly bel ieved in

,a d ifferent school of Fet ish to that of

Tsh i and Ew e,a class of human ghosts cal led the wel l-d is

posed ones . An d these are ancestors undoubtedly. Theydo not show up clearly in those d istricts where reincarna1 TIre Ts lt i Speaking , Ew e Speaking an d Yor u ba Speaking People

CHAPTER V I

SCHOOLS OF FETISH

Wherein the s t u den t , thin kin g th in gs may b e made clearer if it b eperceived that there are divers school s of Fet ish , discou rses on theschool s ofWest African re ligiou s thou gh t .As I have had occasion to refer to schools of Fetish, and

as that is a term of my own , I must explain why I use it,an d w hat I mean by it , in so far as I am able . Whent ravel l ing from d istrict to distri ct you cannot fai l to bes truck by the d ifference in character of the native re

l igion you are studying. My own range on the WestC oast is from Sierra Leone to Loanda and here and therei n places such as the Oil R ivers , the Ogowe , and the LowerCongo

,I have gone inland into the heart of what I knew

t o be parti cularly rich districts for an ethnologist. I maken o pretence to a t horough knowledge of African Fet ishi n al l its schools , but I feel sure no wandering student ofthe subj ect in Western Africa can avoid recognising theex istence of at least fou r dist inct forms of development ofthe Fet ish idea. They have, every one of them ,

the underlying idea I have attempted to sketch as pure Fet ishwhen speak ing of the pos ition of the human sou l and yett hey differ. An d I believe much of the confus ion wh ich issupposed to ex ist in African religious ideas is a confus ion

[To/ace pag e 1 37 .

FANTEE NAT I VES OF T HE GOLm COAST.

1 38 SCHOOLS OF FETISH CHAP.

the forest says to the Wind and the ra in , and al l the forests ’own smal l talk in the bargain , and , therefore, also the innernature of al l these things and both, l ike other lad ies,I have heard prefer gentlemen ’s society. Women theyhave a tendency to be hard on , but e ither Srahman t inor Nzamb i th ink noth ing of taking up a man ’s time ,making him neglect h is bus iness or h is fami ly affai rs, orboth together

,by keeping h im in the bush for a month or

so at a t ime,teaching h im th ings about medicines , and

final ly send ing h im back into town in so addlepated a cond it ion that for months he hardly knows who he exactly is .When he comes round , however, if he has any sense , he setsup in bus iness as a medical man sometimes

,how ever , he

just rema ins merely crackey . Such a man was my esteemedKefalla.

But look how d ifferent under d ifferent schools is thepos ition of Srahman t in and Nzamb i . Srahman t in is on lyprop it iated by doctors and hunters ; by al l respectable, busy ,fam i ly ‘men forced to go through forests , she is s implydreaded

,while Nzamb i, the great Princess

,ent irely

dom inates the whole school of Nkis s ism.

Fromwhat cause or what series of causes the predom inanceof these di fferent th ings has come , I do not know, unless itbe from d ifferent natural environment and different race.I t i s certainly not a mere tribal affa ir, for there are manyd ifferent tribes under each school . For example, I do notth ink you need make more than a subd ivis ion between theTshi

,the Ga or Ogi and the Ew e peoples ’ Fetish, nor more

than a subd ivis ion between those of the Eboes and theIbb ib ios , or those of the Fjort and Mu s s u ron goes ; but wewant more information before it wou ld be qu ite safe todogmatise .

vi GEOGRAPH ICAL DISTRIBUTION 1 39

I t is impossible in the present state of our knowledge togive exact geograph ical l imits of the d ifferent schools ofFetish , and I therefore on ly sketch their geograph ical dis t rib u t ion in Western Africa, from S ierra Leone to Loanda

,

hop ing thereby to inc ite further research.

Sierra Leone and its adjacent distri cts have not beenstudied by an ethnologist. We have only scattered information regarding the rel igion there ; and unfortunately theobservations we have on i t mainly bear on the operat ionsof the secret societies , which in these regions have attainedto much power, and are usual ly though erroneously groupedunder the name of Poorah . Poorah

, l ike all secret societies ,i s intensely interesting, for it i s the manifestation of the lawform of Fetish ; but secret societies are pure Fetish, andcommon to al l distri cts . All that we can gather from thescattered observations on the rest of the Fetish in th isregion is that i t is al l ied to the Fet ish school of the Tsh ispeaking people .Next to this unobserved district , we come to the wel lobserved distri cts of the Tsh i , Ew e , and Yoruba-speakingpeople—El l is’s region .

I t may seem unwise for me to attempt to group thesethree together and cal l them one school

,because from thi s

one d istrict we have two distinct cu lts of Fetish in the WestInd ies, Voudou and Obeah (Tchanga andWanga) . Voudouitself is d ivided into two sects

,the white and the red—the

first,a comparatively harmless on e , requiring only the

sacrifice of, at the most, a white cock or a white goat,whereas the red cul t only uses the human s acrifice—the goatwithout horns . Obeah , on the other hand , ki l ls only bypoison—does not show the blood at al l . An d there is .

another important difference between Voudou and Obeah,


and that is that Voudou requires for the celebrat ion of itsrites a priestess and a priest. Obeah can be worked bye ither alone

,and is not t ied to the presence of the snake.

Both these cu l ts have sprung from slaves imported fromEl l is ’s d istrict, Obeah from slaves bought at Koroman t in

mainly,and Voudou from those bought at Dahomey.

Nevertheless, it seems to me these good people havedifferent iated the ir rel ig ion in theWest Indies cons iderably ;for example

,i n Obeah the spider (an an s i’) has a pos ition

g iven it equal to that of the snake in Voudou . Now thes p ider is al l very wel l in West Africa round h im there hasg rown a series of most amusing stories , always to be toldthrough the nose

,and wh i le you crawl about but to put

h im on a plane with the snake in Dahomey is absurd h isequivalent there is the turtle, also a focus for many tales ,only more improper tales , and not half so amus ing.

The true importance and status of the snake in Dahomeyis a thing hard to fix . Personal ly I believe it to be merelya case of especial deve lopment of a local ju -ju . We al lknow what the snake s ignifies, and instances of its attain inga local em inence occu r elsewhere. At Creek Town

,in

Calabar,and Brass R iver it i s more than respected . I t i s

an accidental result of some bit of history we have lost,l ike the worship of the crocodi le at Dix cove and in theLower Congo. Whereas i t i s clear that the general respect,amounting to seeming worsh ip, of the leopard is anotheraffa ir altogether

,for the le0pard is the great thing in al l

West African forests,and forests and surf are the great

things in Western Africa—the l ines of perpetual danger tothe l ife of man .

But there is a remarkable point that you cannot fai l tonotice in the Fet ish of these three d ivis ions of true Negro

V I YORUBA AND BEN IN 141

Fetish studied by E l l i s,namely

,that what is one god

in Yoruba you get as several gods exercis ing one part icu lar function in Dahomey, as hundreds of gods on theGold Coast. Moreover, al l these gods in al l these districtshave regular priests and priestesses in dozens

,whi le below

Yoruba regular priests and priestesses are rare . Therethe officials of the law soc iet ies abound , and there areFetish men, but these are different peop le to the priestsof Bohorw rs sr and Tando .

I do not know Yoruba land personal ly,but have had

many opportunities of inquiring regarding its Fetish fromeducated and uneducated nat ives of that country whom I

have -met down Coast as traders and artisans . Therefore ,having found nothing to mil itate against El l is’s statements ,I accept them for Yoruba as for Dahomey and the GoldCoast and my great regret is that h is carefu l researches didnot extend -down into the d istrict below Yoruba—thed istrict I class under the Calabar school—more particularlyso because the d istricts he worked at are al l d istricts wherethere has been a great and long-continued infusion of bothEuropean and Mohammedan forms of thought

,owing to

the four-hundred-year-old European intercourse on theseaboard , and the even older and greater Mohammedaninfluence from the Western Soudan whereas below thesed istricts you come to a region of pure Negro Fetish that hasundergone but l ittle infusion of al ien thought.Whether or no to place Ben in with Yoruba or withCalabar is a problem . There is

,no doubt

,a very close

connect ion between it and Yoruba . There is also no doubtthat Ben in was in touch, even as late as the seventeenthcentury, w i th some k ingdom of the higher culture away inthe interior. I t may have been Abyss inia

,or i t may have

142 SCHOOLS OF FETISH CHAP.

been one of the cu l tured states that the chaos produced bythe Mohammedan invas ion of the Soudan destroyed . I n

o u r present state of knowledge we can only conjecture,I venture to think, idly, unt i l we know more . Theonly th ing that i s certain is that Ben in was influencedas is shown by its art development. Ben in practical lybroke up long before Ashantee or Dahomey, for, asProyart 1 remarks , many smal l k ingdoms or native stateswh ich at the present day share Africa among them wereoriginal ly provinces dependent on other kingdoms

,the

particular governors of wh ich usurped the sovereignty.

”

Ben in’s north-western provinces seem to have done this,

poss ibly with the assistance of the Mohammedan isedpeople who came down to the seaboard seeking the advantages of white trade ; and Ben in became isolated in itsforest swamps, cut off from the stimulating influenceof successful wars

,and out of touch with the expand ing

influence of commerce,and devoted its attent ion too much

to Fet ish matters to be healthy for itself or any one whofel l in w ith it . I t is an interest ing po int in this connect ionto observe that we do not find in the accounts g iven by theearl ier voyagers to Ben in city anyth ing l ike the enormoussacrifice of human l ife described by vis itors to it of ourown t ime. Other d istricts round Calabar, Bonny, Opobo ,and so on

,have human sacrifice as wel l

,but they show no

s igns of be ing under Benin in trade matters,in wh ich Benin

used to be very strict when it had the chance . In fact,whatever respect they had for Ben in was a sentimental one,such as the King of Kongo has

,and does not take the

pract ical form of paying taxes.1 H is tory of Loang o, by the Abb é Proyart, 1 776. Pin kerton , vol .

xvi., p. 587.


three great Fetish kings in Western Africa were those ofAshantee , Dahomey, and Ben in . Each of these kings was.al ike bel ieved by the whole of the people to have greatFetish power in his own local ity. In the time of which wehave no h istorical record—prior to the vis its of the fi rs twh ite voyagers in the fifteenth century—there is traditionalrecord of the King of Ben in fight ing with his cous in ofDahomey. Possibly Dahomey beat him badly anyhowsomething went seriously wrong with Benin as a territorialk ingdom , before its d iscovery by modern Europe.I now turn to the Fet ish of the Oil R ivers which I havecal led the Calabar school . The predominance of the bel iefthere in reincarnation seems to me suffic ient to separate itfrom the Gold Coast and Dahomey Fet ish. Funeral customs ,important in al l Negro Fetish

,become in the Calabar

school exceed ingly so . A certain amount of care anywhere is necessary to successful ly establ ish the human sou lafter death, for the human sou l strongly obj ects to leavingmaterial pleasures and associations and going to

,at best

,

an un interesting under-world but when you have notonly got to send the sou l dow n , but to bring i t back intothe human form again

,and not any human form at that

,

but one of its own social s tatus and fam ily, the t hingbecomes more compl icated st i l l and to do it so engrosseshuman attention , and so absorbs human wealth, that youdo not find under the Calabar school a multitude of priestserved gods as you do in Dahomey and on the Gold Coast.M ind you , so far as I cou ld make out whi le in the Calabard istricts myself, the equivalents of those same gods, werequ ite bel ieved in ; but they were neglected in a w ay thatwould have caused them in Dahomey, where they have beentaught to fancy themselves to wreck the place. Not only


in Srahman daz i, but not so in the R ivers . Wi thouts laves , wives , and funds , how can the dead soul youcare for speak w ith the weight of testimony of men as toi ts rest ing place or pos ition Rol ls of velvet or sat in

,and

piles of mani l las or doubloons alone cannot speak bes ides ,t hey may have been stolen stuff, and the sou l you care formay be put down by the authorities as a mere thieving slave,a sort of mere American gold bug trying to pass himself offas a duke—o r a descendant of GeneralWashington—whichwou ld lead to that sou l be ing d isgraced and sent back in av i le form . Think how you yourself, i f in comfortable ci rcumstances

,belonging to a fami ly possess ing wealth and power,

would l ike father,mother, s ister, or brother of yours who

by this change of death had just left these things,to go

dow n through death , and come back into l i fe in a squal ids lumWe meet in th is school , however, with a serious problem—namely

,what does become of dead ch iefs I t i s a point

I w i l l not dogmat ise on , but i t certainly looks as if theC alabar under-world was a most aristocratic spot , peopledentirely by important chiefs and the ret inues sent down withthem—by no means having the fine m ixed soc iety ofSrahman daz i.

The Oil R iver deceased chief is clearly kept as a sort ofp ensioner. The chief who succeeds him in his headship ofthe House is given to mak ing h is father”annual ly. I t i snot necessari ly his real father that he makes

,but his pre

decessor in the headman sh ip—a s lave succeed ing to a free

man would make his father to the dead free man,and so

o n . This function undoubtedly consists in send ing hispredecessor a big subsidy for his support

,and consolation in

t he shape of s laves and goods . I may as wel l own I have

v1“MAKING H IS FATHER” 147

long had a dark susp ic ion regard ing th is matter—a suspicion as to where those goods went. The ir proper destination

,of course

,shou ld be the under-world . Th ither u m

doubtedly on the Gold Coast they wou ld go ; but whens ent in the R ivers I do not th ink they go so far. I n fact,t o make a clean breast of it , I do not bel ieve big chiefs areproperly buried in the Oil R ivers at al l . I think they are ,for pol it ical purposes , kept hanging about outside l ife, butnot inside death

,by thei r diplomati c successors . I feel

emboldened to say this by what my friend,Major Leonard

,

V i ce-Consul of the N iger Coast Protectorate, recently toldme. When he was appo inted V ice-Consu l , and was introdu cin g h imself to his chiefs in this capacity, one chief hev is i ted went aside to a deserted house, opened the door, andt alked to somebody inside there was not any one inmaterial form ins ide

,only the spir it of his deceased pre

decessor, and al l the th ings left j ust as they were when hedied ; the l ive ch ief was tel l ing the dead chief that thenew Consul was come

,&c.

The reason,that i s the excuse, for this seem ingly u m

princ ipled conduct in not properly burying the chief,so

that he may be reincarnated to a complete human form,

l ies in the fact that he wou ld be a pol it ical nuisance to hiss uccessor i f he came back promptly therefore he is keptwaiting.

From firs t -class nat ive informants I have had fragmentso f accounts of making-father ceremon ies. Parti cu larlyinterest ing have been thei r accounts of what the l ive chiefsays to the dead one. Much of it

,of course

,is

,for diplo

mat ic reasons , not known outside offic ial circles . But thegeneral tone of these communicat ions is wel l known to beo f a nature to d iscourage the dead chief from returning

,

L 2

148 SCHOOLS OF FETISH CHAP

and to reconci le h im to h is ex isting state. Th ings are notwhat they were here. The price of o i l is down , women areten times more frivolous

,slaves ten t imes more trying,

wh ite Consu l men abound , also thei r guns are more deadly'

than of old,this new Consu l looks worse than the last, there

is nothing but war and worry for a ch ief nowadays . The

whole country is go ing to the dogs financial ly and domestical ly

,in fact

,and you are much better off where you are.

Then come pet itions for such help as the ghost chief an dhis ghost retinue can g ive.Th is

,I th ink

,explains why ch iefs ’ funeral customs in the

R ivers d iffer in k ind , not merely in grade , from those of bigtrade boys or other important people

,and also accounts for

thei r repet ition at intervals . Big trade boys,and the s laves

and women sent down w ith them , return to a fu l l human formmore or less promptly mere low grade s laves

,s laves that

cannot pu l l a canoe, i.e. , provide a war Canoe for the serviceof the House out of thei r own private estate

,are not buried

at al l—they are thrown away, unless they have a motherwho wi l l bu ry them . They wi l l come back again al l rightas slaves , bu t then that is al l they are fit for.Then we have left very interest ing sections of the com

mun ity to cons ider from a funeral rite point of viewnamely, those in human form who are not, strictly speaking,human be ings , and those who, though human , have commit t ed adultery w ith spirits—women who bear twins or w hodie in ch i ld-b irth. These s inners

, I may briefly remark ,are ne ither buried nor just thrown away ; they are , as faras possible, destroyed . But with the former class the matteris sl ightly different. Children

,for example

,that arrive

with ready cut teeth, wi l l in a strict fam i ly be ki l led orthrow n away in the bush to d ie as they please ; but the

1 50 SCHOOLS OF FET ISH CHAP

usual ly have another. You sort of d iss ipate in novels, i nfact. I do not say it’s qu iet read ing, because unprincipledpeople wi l l come headlong and l isten when you have gotyour minstrel started

,without paying thei r subscription

Hence a row,unless you are , l i ke me , i ndifferent to other

people hav ing a l ittle pleasure .These song-nets

,I may remark , are not of a regulation

s i ze . I have never seen on theWest Coast anything l ike sosuperb a collection of stories as Mr. Swanzy has tied.

on that song-net of h is—Woe i s me ! without thetrans lat ing minstrel

,a cycle of dead songs that must have

belonged to a West African Shakespeare . The most impressive song—net that I s aw was the one at Buana. I t s

ow ner I cal led Homer on the spot,because his work s .

were a terrific two . T ied on to h is smal l net were a.human hand and a human jaw bone. They were his onlysongs . I heard them both regardless of expense. I did

not understand them,because I d id not know h is language

but they were fascinating things , and the human hand on ehad a passage in it wh ich caused the singer to crawl on h ishands and knees , round and round , stealth i ly lookingth is s ide and that

,giving the pecul iar leopard quest ing

cough , and mak ing the le0pard mark on the earth with his .doubled-u p fist. Ah that was someth ing l ike a song ! I twould have roused a rock to enthus iasm a civi l ised aud ience .

would have smothered its s inger w ith bouquets . I—wel l,

t he headman w ith me had to interfere and counsel moderat ion in heads of tobacco .

But what I meant to say abou t these s ingers was onlyth is . They are not buried as other people are they are puti nto trees when they are dead—may be because they are al l .same for one ”with those s ingers the birds . I do not know,

1 5 2 SCHOOLS OF FETISH CHAP.

cu lture . The Mohammedans in Africa as aforesaid havenever mastered the western region of the forest bel t andthe Europeans have never, in this region between Cameroon and Loango, establ ished themselves in force . I t i sundoubtedly the wi ldest b it ofWest Africa.The dom inant tribes here have

,for as far back as we can

get evidence—some short four hundred years—been tribes ofthe Mpongwe stem—the s o-cal led noble tribes . To-daythey are dying—go ing off the face of the earth , l eavingbehind them noth ing to bear testimony in this world totheir great abi l ity

,save the most marvel lously beautifu l

l anguage, the Greek of Africa, as Dr. Nassau cal ls it, andthe impress of the ir more elaborate thought-form on them inds of the bush tribes that come into contact with them .

The ir last pupi ls are the great Bafan gh , now supplantingthem in the regions of the B ight of Pan avia.

From the ir influence I think the school of Fetish of thisregion is perhaps best cal led the Mpongwe school , thoughI do -not altogether l ike the term

,because I bel ieve the

Mpongwe stem to be in origin pure Negro, and the Fetishschool they have elaborated and co-ord inated is"Bantu i nthought- form , just as the language they hav e raised to sohigh a p itch of ex istence is in i tsel f a Bantu language .Ye t the Mpongwe are ru lers of both these th ings

,and they

w i l l thereby leave imprinted on the m inds of thei r supp lanters in the land the mark of their intel l igence .I have said the predom inant idea in this Mpongwe school

i s the securing of material prosperity. That i s to sayt his is the part of pure Fetish that receives more attentionthan other parts of pure Fet ish in this school ; but it attainsto no such definite predominance as funeral rites do in theC alabar school, or the preservation of l ife in E l l is’s school .

v i THE MPONGWE SCHOOL 1 5 3

On e might, however, quite fairly cal l the Mpongwe schoolt he trade-charm school , great as trade charms are in al l

West African Fetish.

This lack of a predominance sufficient to dwarf otherp arts of pure Fetish makes the Mpongwe school particularlyinteresting and valuable to a student ; i t is a magnificents chool to study your pure Fetish in, as none of i t i s heret hrown by a predominant factor into the background ofthought , and left in a neglected state .I t i s of this school that you wi l l find Dr. Nassau ’s class i

ficat ion of sp i rits , and al l the other observations of h is thatI have quoted of things absolutely bel ieved in by the natives ,an d also al l the Mpongwe , Benga, Igalw a, NcomI

, andFetish I have attempted to describe .1I t has no gods with proper priests . Human be ings arehere j ust doing thei r best to hold their own with the Spiritw orld , getting spirits under thei r control as far as possible,an d deal ing w ith the rest of them dip lomatical ly. Thisstate I venture to think i s Fet ish in a very early form , aform through which the now elaborate true Negro Fetishmust have passed before reach ing its present co -ordin at ed state. How long ago i t was when the t ru e Negro

w as in this stage I wil l not venture to conj ecture. Sir

Henry Maine, of whom I am a very humble fol lower, says ,Nothing moves that is not Greek .

” This is a hard saying toaccept, but the truth of it grows on you when you are studying things such as these

,and you are forced to acknowledge

that they at any rate have a s low rate of developmentsometimes indeed i t seems that there i s a mere wave motionof thought among al l men rising here and there whenin ‘the hands of superior tribes , l ike the Mpongwe for ex

1 Travel s in Wes t Africa. Fe t ish Chap t ers .


ample,to a wave crest destined on their extinction to fal l

again . Now and again as a storm on the sea, the impu l seof a revealed rel igion sweeps down on to this ocean o f

natu re phi losophy, elevates it or confuses i t accord ing tothe in itial profund ity of it . I f you have ever seen thed ifference between a deep sea storm and an esturial storm ,

you wil l know what I mean . Ye t this has nothing to dowith the truth or fals ity Of the Fetish thought-form , butmerely has a bearing on the qual ity of the m inds that dealw ith it

,as i t must on al l m inds not under the influence of a

revealed rel igion and I now turn,in conclus ion of th is brief

consideration of the schools of Fetish in West Africa, tothe next school to the Mpongw e , namely, the school ofNkis s ism. I need not go into deta i ls concerning it here ;you have them at your command in the two great worksof Bastian

,A n Expedit ion n n a

’er Loango K iis te an d B es aok

in San Salvador , and in Mr. R . E. Dennett’s Folk Lore of

tke Eforts , publ ished by the l iberal ity of the Folk LoreSociety, and also his former book, Seven Years among t/ze

The predom inant feature in this school is undoubtedly theextra recogn ition given to the mystery of the power of theearth, Nkis s i ’

n s i. Here you find the earth goddess Nzambithe paramount feature in the Fetish ; from her the Fetishpriests have their knowledge of the proper way to manageand communicate w ith lower earth sp irits

,round her circle

almost al l the legends,in her l ies the u l t imate human

hope of help and protect ion . Nzamb i i s too large a subject for us to enter into here. She is the great mother,but she is not absolute in power. She i s not one of theforms of the great unheeding over-lord of gods

,l ike

1 Sampson Low an d Co.

[To f ace pag e 1 5 5 .

FjORT NAT I VES OF KACONGO AND LOANGO.

v1 THE SCHOOL OF NKISSISM 1 5 5

Nyan ku pon g, or Abass i-boom ; the equivalent to h im , i sher husband Nzamb i Mpungu

,among the fol lowers of

Nkis s ism ; but the predominance given in this school tothe great Princess Nzamb i has had two effects that mustbe borne in mind in studying the region from Loango tothe south bank of Congo . Fi rstly, i t apparently led t oNzambi being confused by the nat ives with the HolyV i rgin , when they were under the tuition of the RomanCathol ic m iss ionaries during the s ixteenth and seventeenthcenturies ; hence Nz amb i

’

s cu l t requires to be studiedwith the greatest care at the present day . Secondly,partly in consequence of the nat ive predom inance given t oher

,and partly in the predom inance she has gained from

the aforesaid confusion , women have a very s ingularposition

,a superior one to that wh ich they have in other

schools this you wi l l see by read ing the stories col lectedby Mr. Dennett. I wi l l speak no further now concern ingthese schools of Fet ish, for Nkis s ism is the most southern of the West African schools , its domain extending overthe whole of the regions once form ing the kingdom ofKongo down toAngola. Below An gola, on theWest Coast,you come to the fring ing zone of the Kalahi desert, an dto those interesting people the Bushmen

,of whose rel igion

I am unable, with any personal experience, to speak . Belowthem you strike South Africa. South Africa i s SouthAfri ca ; West Africa is West Afri ca . Of the former Iknow nothing, of the latter alas I o nly a tenth part of whatI should wish to know, so I return to pure Fetish and t oits bearing on witchcraft.

CHAPTER V I I

FETISH AND WITCHCRAFT

Wh erein th e s t u den t havin g by n ow got rath er in volved in th in gs ingen eral , is con s train ed t o discou rse on w itchcraft an d it s posit ionin We st African re ligiou s thou gh t , con clu din g w ith the con vict ionthat Fe t ish is qu it e clear thou gh the s t u den t has n ot su cceeded in

makin g it so .

NOW, here we come to a very interesting question Whatis witchcraft i n itself ? Conversing freely with the Devi l ,s ays Christendom

,fi rm ly ; and taking the Devi l to mean

the Sp iri t of Evil,I am bound to think Christendom is

i n a- way sc ient ifically quite right

,though the accepted

scientific definit ion of w itchcraft at present is otherw ise , andholds witchcraft to be convers ing w ith Natural Science ,w h ich of course I cannot accept as the Devi l . ThusI cannot reconci l e the two definitions shou ld they meant he same thing ; and so I am here real ly in the pos it ion of being at one in Op inion with the Roman Cathol icmissionaries of the fifteenth century

,who

,as soon as they

laid eyes on my friend the witch-doctor,recognised him

and his goings on as a mass of w itchcraft,and went for the

whole affai r in an exceeding game way .

But let us take the accepted V iew,that fi rst propounded

by Sir A l fred Lyal l ; and I humbly beg i t to be clearlyunderstood I am only speaking of the bearing of t hat

FETISH AND WITCHCRAFT CHAP.

fet ishism and witchcraft may be d ifficu lt to trace in thee lementary stages , yet from the beginn ing a true dis t in ct ion can invariably be recogn ised . According to this theory

,

the witch is more nearly al l ied with rudimentary sciencethan with priestcraft, for he rel ies not upon prayer, wors hip , o r propiti at ion of d ivin it ies, but upon his own secretknowledge and experience of the effect producible bycertain tricks and mysterious devices upon the unseenpowers

,over whom he has Obtained a sort of command .

I nstead of serving l ike a priest these powers , he is enabledby his art to make them serve him , and i t is for thisreason that his practices very soon become denounced anddetested by the priesthood .

”

Now there are many interesting po ints to be cons ideredin West Africa bearing on the above statement of SirAlfred Lyal l ’s theory of the nature of witchcraft, —po intswhich I fancy, i f careful ly cons idered , would force uponu s the strange conclus ion that, accepting this theory as ageneral statement of the nature of witchcraft, there was nowitchcraft whatever in West Africa , nothing having “ atrue distinction ” in the nat ive m ind from rel igion . You

may say there is no rel igion and i t’s al l witchcraft,but this

is a superfic ial view to take you see the orthodox Christ ianV iew of witchcraft contains in it an element not present i nthe West African affa ir ; the Christian regards the witchwith hatred as one know ing good

,yet choosing evi l . The

West African has not th is cho ice in his mind ; he has todeal with spiri ts who are not

,any of them

,u p to much in

the way of virtue viewed from a human standpoint. I don ’tsay they are al l what are cal led up here devi ls a goodmanyof them are what you m ight cal l reasonable, respectable,easy-going sort of people ; some are downright bad ;

V I I DEIT IES NOT BENEFICENT 1 59

in fact, I don ’t think it would be going too far tosay that they are al l downright bad if they get theirtempers u p or take a d isl ike to a man ; there is noto n e of them b en eficen t to the human race at large.Nzambi is the nearest approach to a b en eficen t deity Ih ave come across, and I feel she owes much of this to theconfusion she profits by

,and the Holy V i rgin suffers from ,

in the regions under Nkis s ism ; but Nzambi herself is farfrom morally perfect and very difficult tempered at times .You need not rely on me in this matter take the importan t statement Of Dr. Nassau : Observe, these °

w ere dist in ct ly p rayers , appeals for mercy , agonising protests butthere was no praise , no love, no thanks , no confess ion ofs in .

”1 He was speak ing regarding utterances made downthere in the face Of great affl i ctions and sorrow and therewas no praise , because there was no love, I fancy no thanksbecause what good was done to the human being was amere boughten thing he had paid for. No confession ofs in

,because the Fetish bel iever does not hold he l ives in a

s tate of s in,but that it i s a th ing he can commit now and

again if he is fool enough . Sin to him not being what i ti s to us

,a vi le treason against a loving Father

,but a very

il l-advised act against powerful,nasty-tempered spirits .

Herein you see l ies one difference between the Christianan d the Fetish view

,—a fundamental one

,that must be

borne in m ind .Then in the above-quoted passage you wil l observe that

t he dis like to witchcraft is traced in a measure tot he action of priesthoods . This hatred is undoubted .

But witchcraft is as much hated in d istri cts inWest Africaw here there are no organised priesthoods as in districts

1 Travels in Wes t Africa . (Macmil lan,1 897 , p .

1 60 FET ISH AND WITCHCRAFT CHAP.

where there are—in the regions under the Calabar an d

Mpongwe schools , for example, where the father of thehouse is the true priest to the fam i ly

,where w hat looks l ike

a priesthood , but which is a law god-cult only—the secretsociety—i s the dominant social thing. N ow th is law godcu lt affair, Pu rroh , Oru

,Egbo, Uku kiw e , etc ., etc .,

cal l i twhat you please , it ’s al l the same th ing, is not the organ isation that makes war on witchcraft in West Africa. I t dealswith i t now and then , i f i t is brought under its oflicialnotice ; but i t i s not necessary that this should be done ;s ummary methods are used with witches . I t j ust appeals atonce to ordeal , any one can claim it. You can cla im it

, an d

administer i t yourself to yourself, i f you are the accusedparty and in a hurry. A . says to you , You ’re a witch.

”I’

m

not,you ej aculate. I take the bean down it goes you ’re

s ick or dead long before the elaborate mechan ism of t hel aw society has heard of the affai r. Of course, i f you want tomake a big palaver and run yourself and your accuser into alot of expense you can cal l in the society ; but you needn ’t.From this and divers things l ike it I do not think the hatred ofwitchcraft in West Africa at large has anyth ing original lyto do with the priesthood . You w i l l say, but there isthe hatred of witchcraft in West Africa. You have onlyto shout “ Ifot ” at a man or woman in Calabar, or Na

’o

toki in Fjort -land , and the whole popu lat ion , so goodtempered the moment before, i s turned bloodth irsty.

W itches are torn to bits, destroyed in every savage way,when the ordeal has conclus ively proved thei r gu i lt—m indyou

,never before . Granted but I bel ieve this to be j ust a

surging up of that form Of terror cal led hate .I am old enough to remember the dynam ite scares u p

h ere , and the Jack the R ipper inc idents ; then it w as only

1 62 FETISH AND WITCHCRAFT CHAP,

there is also involved in i t another curious fact,and that i s

that the sp irit of the ordeal is held to be able to manageand suppress the bad spirits tra ined by the witch to des t ru ction . Human be ings alone can col lar the witch and destroyhim in an exemplary manner

,but spiritual aid is requ ired to

col lar the w itch ’s dev il,or i t wou ld get adrift and carry on

after its owner’s death. Regarding ordeal affa irs I wi l lspeak when deal ing w ith legal procedure.Such being theWest African view of w itchcraft , I ventureto th ink there are in th is world d ivers reasons for hatingwitchcraft . There is the fetish one , that he is an enemy tosociety there i s the priesthood one, that he i s a sort of quackor rival pract it ioner—under this head of priesthood avers ionfor w itchcraft I th ink we may class the witchcraft that ismerely a hovering about of the Old rel igion which the priesthood of an imported rel igion are anxious to stamp out andthere is that aversion to witchcraft one might cal l the Protestant avers ion

,which arises from the feel ing that it is a

direct sin against God H imself. This latter feel ing has beenthe cause of as violent a persecution of witches , witness theaction of King James I . and that of the Quakers in America

,

as any West African has ever presented to the world .

Throughout al l these things the fact remains,that whether

black,wh ite

,or yellow

,the witch is a bad man

,a murderer

i n the eyes of A l lah as wel l as those of humanity.

That al l witches act by means of po ison alone w ould betoo hasty a thing to say, because I th ink we need hardlydoubt that the Afri can is almost as l iable to die from a

poisonous idea put into his mind as a poisonous herb putinto h is food indeed

,I do not know that in West Africa

we need confine ourselves to saying natives alone do this ,for wh ite men s ink and d ie under an idea that breaks their

VI I KILLING BY TERROR 163

spirit. A l l the vital powers are requ i red there to res ist thedepress ing cl imate. If they are weakened seriously in anyway

,death is l iable to ensue. The profound belief in the

power of a w itch causes a man who knows,say

,that either

a nai l has been driven into an Nkis s down on the SouthWest coast

,or the Fan garee drum beaten on h im up in the

Sierra Leone region , to col lapse under the terror of it , an dI own I can see no moral d ifference between the gui l tof the man or woman who does these things with the intentto s lay a fel low-citizen and that of one who puts bush intohis chop—both mean to ki l l and do kil l , but both methodsare good West African witchcraft. The latter may seem tobe an incipient form of natural science

,but i t seems to me

I say it humbly—that theWest African incipient sc ientist isnot the local witch , but that highly respectable gentlemanor lady

,the vi l lage apothecary, the Nganga kilongo or the

Akiabok. The means of ki l l ing in vogue in West Africanwitchcraft without the direct employment of po ison are

highly interesting, but I think it wou ld serve no goodpurpose for me to give even the few I know in detai l .There is one interesting point in this connection. I havesaid that in order to make a charm efficac ious agains ta particular person you must have preferably some of hisblood in your possession

,or

,fai l ing that

,some hair or nai l

cl ipping ; fai l ing these, some articles belonging intimatelyto him—a p iece of his loin-cloth

,or

,under the school of

Nkis s i, a bit of his iron . This I believe to hold good foral l true fet ish charms ; but we have in the Bight of Ben incharms which are under the influence of a certain amountof Mohammedan ideas—for example, the deadly charms ofthe Ku fon g society. This class of charm does not requ ireabsolutely a bit of someth ing nearly connected with the

M 2

1 64 FETISH AND WITCHCRAFT CHAP.

v ict im,but nevertheless it cannot act at a great d i stance

,

or without the element of personal connection . Takethe Fan garee charm , for examp le, to be found among theMendi people, and al l the neighbouring peoples who arel iable to go in for Ku fon g.

Fan garee is the name of a smal l drum that is beaten bya hammer made of bamboo . The uses of this drum arewide and various

,but it also gives i ts name to the charm

, b e

cause the charm , l ike the drum , is beaten w ith a similar stick.The charm stuff i tself is made of a dead man’s bone

,of

di fferent herbs smoked over a fi re and powdered the sameday , ants’-hil l earth, and charcoal . This precious mixturei s made into a parcel ; that parcel is placed on a framemade of bamboo st icks . On the top of the charm a smal l l iveanimal—an insect, I am Informed , w i l l do—is secured by astring pass ing over it, and the charm is fixed with woodenforks into the ground on e ither side. This affair is placedb y the murderer close to a path the victim wi l l pass along,an d the murderer s its over it , waiting for him to come.When he comes , he is al lowed to pass j ust by, and then h ise nemy breaks a dry bamboo stick ; the no ise causes thevictim to turn and look in the direction of the noise—i.e.

on to the charm—and then the murderer h its the l ivean imal on it

,cal l ing h is v ictim ’s name

,and the charm is on

him . I f the an imal is struck on the head,the vict im ’s head

is affected , and he has violent fits unti l “ he dies frombreak ing his neck in one of them i f the animal is struck totai lwards

,the victim gets extremely i l l

,but in this latter

case he can buy off the charm and be cured by a Fan gareeman . A s im ilar arrangement i s in working order under someSouth-West coast murder societ ies I am acquainted with.

T he interest ing po int, however, is the necessi ty of establ ish


i n amongst the bushes at the side of the path,or in the

water of the river, or at the end of your canoe, or in the o i lin the pots, or in the Manchester cottons in the factory shop .

Wherever you look, there it is . I n a way it’s unobtrus ive,

i t does not spread itself out, or make a no ise, or change,yet

,sooner or later, in every place , you cannot m iss

seeing it. At first you th ink, by changing your environment—go ing outdoors , com ing in , go ing on a journey, mixing w i th you r fel low-men , or avoid ing them - you can getrid of the thing but you find , when you look round , —a thingyou are certain to do when the charm has got its grip

,—for

sure that face is there as usual . Now this sort of thingtel ls on the toughest in t ime, and you get sick of l i fe when ithas always got that face mixed up in it, so s ick that you trythe other th ing—death. Th is is an i l l-advised course

,but

you do not know in time that, when you ki l l yourself, youwi l l find that on the other s ide, in the other thing, you w i l lsee noth ing but that face, that unchanging s i lent face youare so s ick of. The Ku fon g man who has thrown h is face atyou know s , and w hen he hears of your su ic ide he laughs .Natural ly you cannot know, because you are not a Ku fon g

man,or the charm cou ld not be put on you. What you

“ can do in th is here most awfu l go,”as Mr. Squeers wou ldsay

,I am unfortunately not able to tel l you I made many

inqu iries from men who know the face, who had hadi t happen on people in the ir fam i l ies , an d so on , but inanswer to my inquiries as to why the affl icted did not buyit off

,what charms there were against it

,and so forth, I was

always told it was a b ig charm ,that the man who put it on

lost something of h imsel f by so do ing,so it was never put

on except in cases of great hatred that wou ld stick atnothing and would k i l l also that it was of no real use for the

V I I INDIRECT EFFECTS OF WITCHCRAFT 1 67

v i ctim to ki l l h is charmer, though that ind ividual , knowingthe pleasure so doing would afford his victim , takes goodc are to go on a journey

,and to keep out of the way unti l

t he charm has worked out in suicide. There is a certainamount of common sense in this p roceeding wh ich is u ndoubtedly true African , but there is a sort of imaginat ivetouch wh ich makes me suspect Mohammedan infus ion anyhow

,I leave you to j udge for yourself whether

,presupposing

you accept the possibi l ity of a man doing such a thing toyou or to any one you love

,you th ink he can be safely

ignored,or whether he 18 not an enemy to society who had

b etter be found out and kil led—ki l led in a showy way.

Personally I favour the latter course.There is but one other point in witchcraft inWest Africa

‘that I need now detain you w ith,and that i s why a person

k i l led by witchcraft suffers more than one who dies of o ldage

,for herein l ies another reason for th is hatred of w itch

craft. Every human soul in West Africa throughout al lthe Fet ish schools is held to have a certain proper t ime ofincarnat ion in a human body

,whether it be one incarnation

o r endless series of incarnations anything that cuts that in-carnation period short inconven iences the soul , to say theleast of it. Under E l l is ’s school , and I bel ieve throughoutal l the others

,the sou l that l ives its l ife in a body fully

through is held happy it is supposed to have learnt its ful llesson from life

,and to know the way down to the shadow

l and home and al l sorts Of th ings . Hence also comes therespect for the aged

,common throughout al l West Africa.

They are the knowing ones . Such an one was the late ChiefLong John of Bonny. Now if this process of developmentis checked by witchcraft and the sou l is prematurely driven!from the body, i t does not know all that it should, and its

1 68 FETISH AND W ITCHCRAFT CHAP.

cond ition is therefore m iserable . I t is , as it were, sent bl ind ,or deaf

,or lame into the spirit-land . This is a thing n o t

only dreaded by individuals for themselves , but hated fo rthose they love hence the doer of i t is a hated thing. You

must remember that when you get keen hatred you mustallow for keen affect ion

,it is not human to have one with

ou t the other. That the Africans are affectionate I am

fu l ly convinced . Th is affection does not l ie prec isely on thes ame l ines as those of Europeans, I al low . I t is not w iththem so deeply l inked with sex ; but the love betweenmother and chi ld

,man and man

,brother and s ister

,woman

and woman,i s deep, true, and pure, and it must be taken

i nto account in observing their institutions and ideas,par

t icu larly as to th is w i tchcraft where it shows violently andexternally in hatred only to the superficial observer. I w el lremember gossip ing w ith a black friend in a plantation inthe Calabar d istrict on w itchcraft

,and he took up a stick

and struck a plant of green maize, breaking the stem of it,saying, “ There, l ike that is the sou l of a man who iswitched

,i t wil l not ripen now.

We wi l l now turn to the cons iderat ion of that class whosebusiness in l ife is mainly to guard the commun ity fromw itchcraft and from m iscel laneous evi l sp irits acting ontheir own in itiat ive, the Fetish Men ofWest Africa, namely ,those men and women who devote their l ives to the cult ofWest African rel igion . Such people you find in everyWest African d istrict ; but their pos it ion differs underdifferent school s , and it i s in connection with them that wemust recognise the d i fferences in the various schools

, re

memberin g that the form Of Fetish makes the form ofFeti sh Man

, not the Fet ish Man the form of Fet ish. He

may,as it were , embroider it, compl icate it, mystify it»


Ashantee or of Shango in Dahomey,is of a higher grade than

a Nganga to an Nkiss,certainly far higher than a Fet ish Man

u nder the Mpongwe school,where every house father and

e very vi l lage ch ief does a lot of h is own Fetish withou tprofess ional assistance. Of course chiefs and house fathersdo a certain amount in al l d istricts—in fact

,in West Africa

every man and woman does a certain amount of Fetishfor h imself ; but where , as in E l l is ’s school , you get aregu lar set of priests and plenty of them, t he rel igion fal ls intotheir hands to a greater extent. I feel that the study ofthe pos it ion of Fet ish-Men i s deserving of great attent ion . I

implore the student who may take it up to keep the FetishMan for pract ical purposes d ist inct from the gentleman w horepresents the law god-cu lt—the secret tribal soc iety. I f

you pers ist in mix ing them,you w i l l have in practical

politi cs as fine a mess as i f you m ixed up your own Bencho f Bishops with the Woolsack. I beg to contribute to thestore of knowledge on th is point sundry remarks sent meon most excel lent nat ive authority from the Gold CoastThe inhabitants of Cape Coast must congratulate them

s elves that they enjoy the p rotection o f seventy-sevenfetishes. Every town (and th is town) has one fetish houseor temple

,often bu i l t in a square or oblong form of

mud or swish,and thatched over, or constructed of st icks

or poles placed in a c ircu lar form and thatched . In thesetemples several images are general ly placed . Every FetishMan or p riest , moreover, has h is private fetishes i n h is ownhouse, one ofa bird , stones encased by string, l arge lumps ofc inder from an iron furnace

,calabashes

,and bundles of

sticks tied together with string. Al l these are stained withred ochre and rubbed over with eggs . They are placed ona square platform and shrouded from the vulgar gaze .

“VI I NATIVE TESTIMONY 1 7 1

The fet ishes are regarded as Spiritual intel l igent beingsw ho make the remarkable obj ects of nature their res idenceor enter occasional ly in to the images and other artific ialrepresentations wh ich have been duly consecrated by certain ceremonies . I t i s the bel ief of this people that thefetishes not unfrequently render themselves vis ible tomortals . Thus the great fet ish of the rock on whichCape Coast Castle stands is said to come forth at n ight inhuman form ,

but of superhuman size,and to p roceed

through the town dressed in wh ite to chase away evi lspirits .

“ In al l the countries along the Coast (Gold) the regularfetish day is Tuesday. The fishermen would expect that,were they to go out on that day

,it would spo i l the ir

fish ing.

The priest’s offi ce may in some cases be hered itary,but i t

is not uniformly so,for the chi ldren of Fetish-Men somet imes

refuse to devote themselves to the pursuits of the ir parentsand engage in other occupations. An y one may enter theoffi ce after suitable tra in ing

,and parents who des ire that

thei r chi ldren may be instructed in its mysteries place themwith a Fe t ish -Man

,who receives a premium for each . The

o rder of Fetish-Men is further augmented by persons whodeclare that the fetish has suddenly seized on them . A serieso f convuls ive and unnatural bod i ly d istort ions establ ishthei r claim . Appl icat ion is made to the fetish for counseland a id in every domestic and publ ic emergency. Whenpersons find occasion to consult a private Fetish-Man

, theytake a present of gold-dust and rum and proceed to hishouse. He receives the presents

,and e ither puts a l ittle o f

the rum on the head of every image or pours a smal lquant ity on the ground before the platform as an offering


to the whole pantheon ; then , tak ing a brass pan w ith waterin it

,he sits down w ith the pan between h im and the

fetishes,and his inqu i rers also seat themselves to awai t

the result. Having made these preparatory arrangements,

look ing earnestly into the water,he begins to snap h is fingers ,

and addressing the fetish,extols his power

,tel l ing him that

the people have arrived to consu l t him,and requesting him to

come and give the desired answer. After a t ime the fetishman is wrought up into a state of fury. He Shakesviolently and foams at the mouth ; this is to intimate thatthe fetish was come home and that he h imself is no longerthe speaker

,but the fetish

,who uses his mouth and speaks

by him . He now growls l ike a tiger and asks the peoplei f they have brought rum

,requiring them at the same time

to present it to him . He drinks, and then inqu ires forwhat purpose they have sent for him . If a relative isi l l

,they reply that such a member of their family is s ick

and they have tried al l the means they could devise t orestore h im , but without success , and they, knowing he is agreat fet ish, have come to ask his aid , and beg him toteach them what they should do . He then speaks kindlyto them

,expresses a hope that he shal l be able to help

them , and says , “ I go to see .” I t is imagined that thefet ish then quits the priest

,and

,after a s i lence of a few

minutes , he is supposed to return , and gives his response tothe inquirers .

In cases of great difficu lty the oracle at Abrah is the lastresort of the Fantees . This notable oracle is always cons u lt ed at night. They find a large fire made upon the

ground,and the presents they have brought they place in

the hands of the p riests who are in attendance. They arethen directed to elevate thei r presents above their heads


the festive occasion . On arriving at the house,the friends

form a c ircle round the father,who delivers a kind o f

address in which he acknowledges the k indness of thegods for giving him the ch i ld , and cal ls upon those presen talso to thank the fetishes on h is account then

,tak ing the

chi ld in his arms , he squ irts upon it a l ittle sp irit from h ismouth , pronounc ing the name by wh ich it is to be cal led .

A second name which the chi ld usual ly takes is that ofthe day of the week on wh ich it is born . The fo l lowmg are

the names of the days in the Fanti l anguage,varied in their

orthography according to the sex of the chi ldMale . Female .

Sunday Quis iMonday Kujo t Aj ua.Tuesday Qu ab in a Abmaba.

Wednesday Qu aku Eku a.

Thursday Quahn Aba.

FridaySaturday Qamin a Ama.

Those ceremonials cal led on the Coast customs are

the things that show off the Fetish-Man at the best in moresenses of the word than one . We wi l l take the yam custom .

The intentions of these yam customs are twofold—firs t ly

they are a thanksgiving to the fet ishes for al lowing theirpeople to l ive to see the new yarns, and for the new yams,but they are also institutions to prevent the general publ iceating the new yam before it’s ready. The idea is, and n odoubt right ly

,that unripe yarns are unwholesome, and the

law is that no new yams must be eaten unti l the yarn customis made. The Fetish-Me n settle when the yarns are in a fits tate to pass into circu lation , and then make the custom .

I t general ly occurs at the end ofAugust, but is sometimes

V I I THE YAM CUSTOM 1 7 5

kept back unti l the beginning of September. I n Fantee al lthe inhabitants of the towns assemble under the shade ofthe grove adjoining the fetish hut, and a sheep and anumber of fowls are ki l led

,part of their flesh is mixed with

boi led yarn s and palm -oil , and a portion of this mixture isplaced on the heads of the images , and the remainderi s thrown about before the fetish b u t as a peace-offeringto the deities .At Winnebah, on the Gold Coast, there is an interesting

modification in the yam custom . The principal fetish of

that place,it i s bel ieved , wil l not be satisfied with a sheep ,

but he must have a deer brought al ive to his temp le, andthere sacrificed . Accordingly on the appointed day everyyear when the custom is to be celebrated , almost al l t heinhabitants except the aged and infirm go into the adjo ining country—an open park-l ike country

,studded with

clumps of trees. The women and chi ldren look on,give

good advice , and shriek when necessary, whi le the menbeat the bush with sticks , beat tom-toms , and halloo withal l their might. Whi le thus engaged , my correspondentremarks in his staid way

,

“ sometimes a leopard startsforth

,but i t is usually so frightened with the noise and

confusion that it scampers off in one direction as fast asthe people run from it in another. When a deer is drivenout

,the chase begins

,the people try to run it down

,fl inging

sticks at its legs . At last it is secured and carried exu l t in gly to the town with shoutings and drummin gs . On

entering the town they are met by the aged people carryingstaves

,and , having gone in procession round the town , they

proceed to the fetish house,where the animal is sacrificed ,

and partly offered to the fetish,partly eaten by the priests .”

These yam customs are at their ful lest in the Benin


B ights , but you get a custom made for the new yarn in al lt he d istricts lower down . These customs have long beenc redited with being stained by human sacrifices . No t

altogether unjustly. You can always read human sacrificefor goats and fowls when you are considering a districtinhab ited by true Negroes

,and the occasion is an important

o n e,because in West Africa a human sacrifice is the most

persuas ive one to the fetishes. I t is j ust with them as witha ch ief—if you want to get some favour from him you mustg ive him a present. A fowl or a goat or a basket of vegetables

,or anything like that is qu ite enough for most

favours,but if you want a big th ing

,and want i t badly

,you

h ad better give h im a slave, because the slave is al ike moreintrinsi cal ly valuable and also more useful . So far as Iknow

,al l human beings sacrificed pass into the service of

t he fetish they are sacrificed to . They are not merelykil led that he may enjoy their blood

,but that he may have

t heir assistance . Fetishes have much to do,and an extra

p air of hands is to them always acceptable. As for theimportance of these harvest customs to the generalsystem of Fetish

,I think in West Africa i t i s smal l .

The go ings on,the l icent iousness and general jo llificat ion

that accompany them,upsetting law and order for days

,

give them a fal lacious look of importance but I th ink farmore real ly near the heart of the Fetish thought-formis the lonely man who steals at night into the forestto gain from Sasabon som a charm ,

and the woman who,

on her way back from market, throws down before thefet ish houses she passes a scrap of her purchases comparedto the cult of the law-god

,wel l

,yam customs are dirty

w ater price, palaver, and insignificant pol itically.

I have dealt here w ith Fet ish as far as the pos it ion of the


t h is d ifference . I inst inct ively say us . She d id nott hink we were objects of interest to the tornado or theforest it was scourging. She took it they had a sort offam i ly row on

,and we might get h i t with the b its , there

fore it w as highly unfortunate that we were present at themeet ing. Again

,it is the same w ith the surf. The boat

boys see it’s in a nasty temper,they keep out of it, i t may

be better to-morrow,then it wi l l tolerate them , for it has no

real palaver w ith them ind iv idual ly. Of course you cango and upset the temper of b ig nature sp irits, but when youare not there they have their own affairs .Hence it comes that we have in Fetish a rel igion in which

its bel ievers do not hold that devot ion to rel igion cons t it u tes V i rtue. The ord inary c it izen is held to be mostvirtuous who is least mixed up in rel igious affairs . He can

a ttain V irtue, the love and honour of his fel low-men , bybe ing a good husband an d father, an honest man in trade, ajust man in the palaver-house, and he must , for the pro t ection of his interests, that is to say, not only his individualw el l-be ing, but the wel l-be ing of those dependent on h im ,

g o in to a certain extent for rel igious practices . He musta ssoc iate with spirits because spirits are in al l things an d[everywhere and over everyth ing and the good citizen dealsw ith the other Spirits as he deals with that class of sp iritsw e cal l human beings ; he does not cheat the big oneso f their dues ; he spi l ls a portion of his rum to them ;

he gives them the ir white cal icoes he treats his s lavesp irits honourably

,and he uses h is slave spirits for no bad

purpose,and i f any great grief fal ls on him he cal ls on the

g reat over-lord of gods , ment ion ing these things . But menare not al l pr ivate citizens ; there are men whose destinyp uts them in high places- men who are not only house

“

VI I“A DAMNED ROCKY JUJU

”1 79

fathers but who are tribe fathers . They, to protect andfurther the interests of those under them ,

must ventureg reatly and further, and deal with more powerfu l spirits ,as it were, their social equals in sp iritdom . These goodch iefs in their higher grade deal ings preserve the same cleanh anded conduct. An d bes ides these there are those men ,t he Fetish men , who devote the ir l ives to combating evi lact ions through witches and miscel laneous sp irits who preyo n mankind . These men have to make themselves important to important spirits . I t i s risky work for them

,

for spirits are a risky set to deal w ith . Up here in London ,w hen I have to deal w ith a Spirit as manifest in theform of an op in ion

,or any big m ind-form incarnate in

o n e man,or in thou san ds , I often think of an African

friend of mine who had troubles,and I think sympathetic

al ly, for his brother expla ined the affair to me . He was an(e ducated man .

“You see,” he said , “my brother’s got as trong Ju Ju , but it’s a damned rocky Ju Ju to get onw ith.

”

AFRICAN MEDICINE

Main ly from the poin t Of view of the n at ive apothecary, to which is

added some accou n t of the s leep disease an d the mal ign an t

melan cho ly.

THERE is , as is in al l th ings West African , a greatdeal of fet ish ceremon ial mixed up with West Africanmed ical methods . Underly ing them throughout there isthe fetish form Of thought ; but it i s erroneous to

bel ieve that al l West African nat ive doctors are witchdoctors

,because they are not . On e of my Efik friends, for

example,would no more think of cal l ing in a witch doctor

for a s imple case of rheumatism than you wou ld th ink ofcal l ing in a curate or a barrister he would j ust cal l in theequ ivalent to our general practit ioner, the ab iabok. If hegrew worse instead of better, he w ou ld then cal l in hisequivalent to our consu lt ing phys ic ian , the witch doctor, theab iadion g. But if he started being i l l w ith someth ingexh ib iting cerebral symptoms he wou ld have in the witchdoctor at once.Th is arises from the ground princ iple of al l WestAfricanphys ic. Everything works by sp irit on sp irit, therefore theSpirit of the med icine works on the sp irit of the d isease .Certa in d iseases are combatable by certain sp irits in certain

1 82 AFRICAN MEDIC INE CHAP.

may somehow be connected w ith a knowledge of t he

properties of herbs , for I observed when at Corisco that anapothecary from the ma inland who was over there for a .

V is it shrank from din ing w ith the local med ico .

These apothecaries are, as aforesaid , learned in the

properties of herbs , and they are the surgeons, in so far assurgery is ventured on . A w itch doctor would not dream ofperform ing an operat ion . Amongst these apothecariesthere are lady doctors , who, though a b it dangerous inpharmacy, yet, as they do not venture on surgery, are, onthe whole

,safer than the ir confre’res , for African surgery is .

hero ic.Many of the apothecaries ’ medical methods are fa irlysound

,however. The Dual la pract it ioner is tru ly great on .

poultices for extract ing foreign substances from wounds,

such ' as b its of old i ron cook ing pot, a very frequentforeign substance for a man to get into h im in West A frica

,

owing to pots be ing broken up and used as bulletsA lmost incred ible stories are told by black men and wh itei n C ameroons concern ing the efficiency of these poulticesone I heard from a very rel iable white authority there of a .

man who had been shot w ith b its of iron pot in the th igh .

The wh ite doctor extracted several p ieces,and declared he

had got them al l out ; but the man went on suffering an dcou ld not walk, so final ly a country doctor was cal led in

,

and he appl ied h is pou lt ice. I n a few m inutes he removed ,

i t,and on its face lay two p ieces of i ron pot. The wh ite

doctor said they had been in the pou l ti ce al l the time, buthe d id not carry publ ic op in ion with him , for the pat ientrecovered rap idly.

The Negroes do not"seem to me t o go in for baths in .

med ical treatment quite so much as the Bantu ; they hold

VI I I HOT BATH TREATMENT 1 83

more with mak ing many l ittle inc isions in the skin round aswollen joint

,then encasing it with clay and keeping a

careful ly tended fi re going under it. But the Bantu isgiven greatly to baths, accompanied by massage, part icularly in the treatment of that great West African affl i ction ,rheumatism . The Mpongwe make a bath for the treatmentof this d isease by digging a suitably sized hole in the groundand putting into i t seven herbs—whereof I know thenative names only, not the scien t ific—and in addition in gocardamoms and peppers . Bo i l ing water is then plenti ful lypoured over these, and the patient is laid on and coveredw ith the parboiled green stuff. Next a framework of twigsi s placed over h im,

and he is hasti ly clayed u p to keepthe steam in

,only his head remaining above ground . I n

this . bath he is somet imes kept a few hours,sometimes a

day and a half. He is l iable to give the travel ler who mayhappen suddenly on h im wh i le under treatment the ideathat he is an atrocity but he is not and when he is takenout of the . bath-poultice he is rubbed and kneaded al lover, plenty more hot water be ing used in the process ,this indeed being the pal lad ium of West Coast physic.The Fjort tribe do not bury their rheumatic patients unti lthey are dead and al l the ir debts paid , but they employ thevapour bath. My friend , Mr. R . E. Dennet, who has for thepast eighteen years l ived amongst the Fjort , and knowsthem as no other white man does

,and knows also my

insatiable thirst for any form ofWest African information,

has kindly sent me some detai ls of Fj ort med ical methods,

which I give in his own words The Fjort have namesfor many diseases aches are general ly described as tan taki tan ta they say the head suffers N t n tan ta ki tan ta, t he

Chest suffers M t ima tan ta ki tan ta,and so on. Rheumatism

1 84 AFRICAN MEDIC INE CHAP.

t hat keeps to the joints of the bones and cripples the suffereri s cal ledNgoyo, while ord inary rheumat ism is cal ledMaoongo.

They general ly try to cure th is d isease by giving thes ufferers vapour baths . Theyput the leaves of the a ka intoa pot of bo i l ing water

,and place the pot betw een the legs

of the patient, who is made to s it up. They then cover upthe pat ient and the pot w ith coverings .

“They try to rel ieve the local pain by spluttering theaffected part with chalk, pepper, an d logwood , and theleaves of certain plants that have the pow er of bl isterin g.

Smal l-pox they t ry to cure by smearing the body of thepat ien t overw ith the pu lped leaves of the mz eu z il . Palm oi l isa lso used. These pat ients are taken to the woods , where ahut is bu i l t for them ,

or not, accord ing to the w ealth anddes ire of the ir relat ions. If poor they are often al lowed tod ie of starvat ion. A k ind of long th in worm that creepsabout under the eyel id is called Loy ia, and i s sk i l fu l lyextracted by many of the n at ives by means of a n eedle orp iece of wood cut to a sharp po int.“Bl ind boi ls they cal l Fvama, and they cure them byspl intering over them the pu lped root N ekeoki

,m ixed w ith

red and wh ite earth. Leprosy they cal l Bois i, agueCli ios i, matter from the ear M afi n a, rupture Sangafn lla .

But d iseases of the lungs, heart, l iver, and spleen seem topuzz le the native leeches and many nat ives d ie from theseterrible i l ls . Cupping and bleed ing, wh ich they do withthe hol low horns of the goat and the sharpened horn of akid are the remed ies usually resorted to.

All persons are supposed to have the power to give thei renemies these di fferent s icknesses. Amu lets , frontlets ,bracelets , and waistbands charged w ith med icines are alsoused as e ither charms or cures.

1 86 AFRICAN MEDICINE CHAP

the South-west Coast tribes, with thei r pou ltices and vapourbaths, are very successful in treating it, more so than thetrue Negroes , w ith thei r clay plaster and bak ing method .

Rheumatism is a d isease the Africans seem especial ly l iableto, whatever may be the local cl imate, whether i t be thatof the reek ing N iger Delta, or the dry del ightful cl imate OfCabinda moreover, my friends who go w hal ing tel l me theBermuda negroes also suffer from rheumatism severely

, an d

are a perfect cuss,”want ing to come and sit in the bloodan d blubber Of fresh-kil led whales . Small-pox is a vi lescourge to Africa. The common treatment is to smear thebody of the pat ient with the pu lped leaves of the mz eu z il

palm and with palm oi l ; but I cannot say the method is.successful

,save in preventing pitting

,wh ich i t certain ly

does. The mortal i ty from this disease, particul arly amongthe South-west Coast tribes , i s s imply appal l ing. But iti s extremely diffi cult to make the bush African real ise thati t i s infectious

,for he regards it as a curse from a great Nature

spirit,sent in consequence of some sin

,such as a man

marry ing with in the restricted degree, or someth ing of that .kind . Mr. Dennett mentions smal l-pox pat ients beingsent into the bush with more or less accommodation provided. Mr. Du Chaillu gave Mr. Fraser the idea that the.

Bakele tribe hab itual ly drove their small-pox s ick into thebush and neglected them

,wh ich certain ly, from my know

ledge of the tribe,I must say is not their constant habit by

any means . I venture to think that th is rough attempt ati solation among the Fjort i s a remnant of the influence ofthe great Portuguese dom inat ion of the kingdom of Congoi n the fifteenth

,s ixteenth , and seventeenth centuries, when

the Roman Catholic miss ionaries got hold of the Fjort asno other West African has s ince been got hold of. Never

VI I I SMALL-FOX AND LEPROSY 1 87

t heles s the keep in g of the s ick in huts you w i l l find inalmost al l d istricts in places—i.e. round the house of agreat doctor. My friend M iss Mary Sles sor, of Okyon ,

has

the bush round her compound fairly studded with l ittletemporary huts

,each with a patient in. You see, dist in

gu ished doctors everywhere are a l ittle uppish, and so thei rpatients have to come to them . Such doctors are usual lyspecial ists

,noted for a cure of some particular d isease, an d

often patients wi l l come to such a man from towns andvi l lages a week’s journey or more away

,and then bu i ld

their l ittle shan t ie near h is residence, and remain therewhile undergoing the cure.There is a prevalent Coast notion that wh ite men do n otcatch smal l-pox from black, but I do not think this i s, atany rate, completely true. I was informed when in Loandathat during an epidemic of it amongst the natives , everywhite man had had a more or less severe touch, and I haveknown of cases of wh ite men having smal l-pox in otherWest Coast places

,smal l-pox they must either have

caught from natives or have made themselves , which isimprobable. I fancy it is a matter connected w i th thevaccination state of the white

,although there seem to be

some diseases prevalent among natives from wh ich whitesare immune—the Yaws

,for example.

Less terrible in its ravages than small-pox,because it is

far more l imited in the number of its victims,i s leprosy

sti l l you wi l l always find a case or so in a district. You

wi l l find the victims outcasts from society,not from a

sense of its being an infectious disease,but because it is con

founded with another d isease,held to be a curse from an

aggrieved Nature spi rit. There was at Okyon when I w asthere a leper who l ived in a regular house of his own

,n o t

‘

1 88 AFR ICAN MEDICINE CHAP.

a temporary hosp ital hut, but a house with a plantat ion .

He led a lonely l ife, having no wife or family or slave he

w as h imself a slave, but not cal led on for service—it w as

just a lonely l i fe. People wou ld drop in on h im and chat,

and so on,but he d id not l ive in town . There was also

a nother one there, who had h is own people round h im ,and

‘to whom people w ou ld send the ir slaves,because he w as

r egarded as a good doctor ; but he also had his house inthe bush

,and not in tow n .

Undoubtedly the d iseases that play the greatest con

t in u ou s havoc with black l ife in West Africa are smal l-pox ,d ivers forms of pneumon ia, heart-d isease, and tetanus , thelatter be ing largely respons ible for the terrible mortal i tyamong ch i ldren but the two West African native d iseasesmost interest ing to the European on account of the irstrangeness

,are the mal ignant melancholy and the sleep

s ickness,and strangely enough both these d is eases seem to

h ave their head centre in one region—the lower Congo.They occur elsewhere, but in th is region they are constantlyp resent, and now and again seem to take an ep idem i c form .

Regard ing the firs t -named , I am sti l l col lecting informat ion ,for I cannot tel l whether the mal ignant melancholy of thelower Congo is one and the same with the hystero-hypoc hondria, the home-s ickness of the true Negro. In the

lower Congo I was informed that th is mal ignant melancholyhad the native name s ign ifying throwing backwards

,from

its be ing the habit of the affl icted to throw themselves backw ards into water when they attempted a drowning form ofsu ic ide .1 They do not

,however, confine themselves to

1 An experien cedmedical man fromWest Africa in forms me that he

con s iders the African s very liab le t o hys t erical disease , an dhe at trib u test he throw in g b ackw ards t o the pat ien t ’s des ire n ot t o spoil h is or her

1 90 AFRICAN MEDICINE CHAP.

observes on its d istribution that it seems probable thatas our knowledge of Africa extends

,this d isease w i l l be

found endem ic here and there throughout the bas ins ofthe Senegal , the N iger, the Congo , and their afl’lu en t s . We

have no information of its ex istence in the districts drainedby the N i le and the Zambesi

,nor anywhere on the eastern

s ide of the continent . AS far as my own knowledge goesthe centres of this disease are the Senegal and the Congo .

I never saw a case in the Oil R ivers , nor could I hear of any,though I made every inquiry ; the cases I heard of fromLagos and the Oil R ivers were among people who had beendown as labourers

, &c.,to the Congo. What is the reason

of th is I do not know,but certainly the people of the lower

Congo are much given to al l k inds of diseases , far more sothan those inhabiting the dense forest regions of CongoFrancais, or the much-abused mangrove swamps of theN iger Delta.Dr. Manson says

,The sleep ing s ickness has been at

tributed to such th ings as sunstroke,beriberi , malaria,

po ison,pecu l iar foods

,such as raw b itter man ioc, and

diseased grain ; i t i s evident, however, that none of thesethings explains al l the facts . In regard to this I maysay I have often heard it ascribed to the man ioc when inKakongo, the idea be ing that when manioc was soakedIn water surcharged wi th the po isonous extract, it had abad effect. Certainly in Kakongo th is was frequently thecase in many districts w here water was comparatively scarce .The pools used for soak ing the root in stank

,and the

p repared root stank , in the pecu l iar way it can, somethingl ike sour paste

,with a dash of aceti c ac id , an d thereby the

vil lages stank and the market-places di tto, in a way thatcou ld be of no use to an y one except a person anxious to fin d

‘VI I I THE SLEEPING SICKNESS 1 9 1

h is homestead in the dark but Dr. Manson’s suggest ion isfar more likely to be the correct one. Against it I can onlyu rge that in some distri cts where I am informed by mymed ical friends that Filariapers tan s i s very prevalent, suchas Calabar, the N iger, and the Ogowe, s leep ing S icknessis not prevalent . Dr. Manson says the fact that thedisease can be acqu i red only in a comparatively l im itedarea

,suggests that the cause is s im i larly l imited ; and th e

fact that the d isease may develop years after the endemica rea has been qu itted , suggests that the cause is of such anature that it may be carried away from the endemic areaand remain latent

,as regards its disease-producing qual it ies

for a considerable period ; even for years .’ He then goeso n to say, “Filaria pers tan s , so far as is known, is l imitedin its geograph ical d istribution to Western EquatorialAfrica—that is to say, it can be acquired there onlya nd it may continue in active l i fe for many years afterits human host has left the country in which alone it canbe acquired . We also know that simi lar entozoa in theirwanderings in the t issues by acc ident of location , or bydisease, or injury of their organs, not infrequently give riseto grave lesions in their hosts . I therefore suggest thatp ossibly Filiaria pers tan s may in some way be respons iblefor the sleeping sickness . I know that this paras ite is ext reme ly common in certa in sleeping sickness distri cts, andmoreover, I have found it in the blood of a considerablenumber of cases of th is d isease—in s ix out of ten—including that described byMackenzie. There are many diffi cultiesin the way of establ ishing this hypothesis

,but there is a

s uffi cient inherent probabi lity about i t to make it wel lw orth fol lowing up.

The most important statement that I have been able to

1 92 AFRICAN MEDICINE CHAP.

get regard ing i t so far, has been one sent me by Mr. R . E.

Dennett who says The sleep ing s ickness though prevalen tthroughout Kakongo and Loango is most common in thenorth of Loango and the south Of Kakongo, that is northof the river Qu illou and among the Mu s s oron go .

What the cause of the Sickness is , it is hard to say, but itis on e of those scourges wh ich is ever with us . The nat ivessay any one may get it, that it is not hered itary, and onlyinfect ious i n certain stages . They avoid the dejecta Of

affected persons, but they do not force the nat ive tol ive in the bush as they do a person affected by smal lpox .

“Pains in the head chiefly j ust above the nose are firstexperienced, and shou ld these continue for a month or so iti s to be expected that the d isease is Madotolz ila, or the fi rststage of the s leep ing s ickness .

“ In the word M adotokila w e have the idea of a state ofbe ing poisoned or bewitched. At this stage the s ickness iscurable

,but as the s ick man w i l l never adm it that he has

the s ickness and wi l l suffer excruc iat ing pain rather thancompla in , and as it is cr im inal to suggest to the inval id or

others that he is suffering from the dreadfu l d isease,it often

happens that it gets great hold of the affl icted and fromt ime to t ime he fal ls down overcome by drows iness.Then he swel ls up and has the appearance of on e

suffering from dropsy,and this stage of the d isease is

cal led Malaz i, l i terally mean ing thousands (Kalaz i= one

thousand , the verb Koala to become great and ai the

productive fly.)“ This appears to be the acute stage of the d isease an d

death often occurs w ith in eight days from the beginn ing ofthe sw el l ing.

1 94 AFR ICAN MEDIC INE CHAP.

however,the malady returned , and he went to town an d

g radual ly wasted away. They told me that sores upon one ofh is arms had caused him to lose a hand , which he l ived tos ee buried before h im . Sanda was of royal blood, so hisbody was taken across from the north bank to SanAnton io or Son io, on the south bank of the Congo, andt here he was buried with h is fathers .

“Another sad case was that of a woman who l ived in thefactory.

“As a chi ld , i t appeared afterwards, she had sufferedfrom the disease

,and had been cured by the good French

doctor then res ident in Landana (Dr. Lucan) . I knew nothingof this at the time

,and put her s ickness down to drink , but

got a doctor to see her. He could not make out what wasthe matter

,but thought it m ight poss ibly be some nervous

d isease altogether we were completely puzzled .

On one occasion during my absence she nearly torturedone of her chi ldren to death by stabbing her with a need le.On my return , and when I heard what she had done, I was

~very angry w i th her, and turned her out of the factory, andshortly afterwards the poor creature d ied in the swel l ingstate of the d isease .JoaO (a more or less c ivi l ised native) tel ls me that one

of h is wives was cured of this sleeping s ickness. She wasl iving with him in a white man ’s factory when she had i t

,

and on one occasion fel l upon a demijohn and cut her backO pen rather seriously—the white man cured her so far asthe wound was concerned . A native doctor, a Nganga orKakamu cka, later on cured the sleeping sickness . He fi rstgave her an emetic, then each day he gave her a kind ofTurkish bath ; that is, having boi led certain herbs in water,he placed her within the boi l ing decoction under a covering

V I I I A HOPELESS CASE 19 5

o f cloth, mak ing her persp ire freely. Towards nightfal l hepoured some medic ine up her nostri ls and into her eyes, sothat in the morn ing when she awoke

,her eyes and nose

were ful l of matter at the same time he cupped and bledh er in the local ity of the pain in the head. What themedicines were I cannot say, neither wi l l the Nganga tel la n y one save the man he means sha l l succeed him in hisO ffi ce.The native doctors appear to know when the d isease has

b ecome incurable and the l i fe of the patient is merely a quest ion of a few days

,for once whi le I was at Chemon goan leo , on

t he lower Congo I heard the vi l lage carpenter hammeringn ai ls into planks and asked my s ervan t what they were do ing.

‘Bu i lding Bu it e s coffin,

’ he said .

‘What, is he dead ? ’

s aid I .

‘NO, but he must d ie soon ,’ he answered . Th is

s tatement was -con firmed by the relations of Bulte w ho

came to me for rum as my share towards his funeralexpenses . Imagine my feel ings when Shortly after this Bu it e

,

swollen out of al l l ikeness to h is former sel f,crawled along

t o the Shop and asked me for a gal lon of rum to help himpay his doctor’s bi l l .

A doctor of the Congo Free State began to take aninterest i n the sickness and asked me to persuade some ones uffering from the disease to come and place h imself unde rhis care, promising that he would have a p lace apart madefor him at the station

,so that he cou ld study the s ickness

an d try to cure the poor fel low. A fter a good deal o ftrouble I got him a patient wi l l ing to remain w ith h im

,but

owing to some red tape d ifficu l ty as to the supply of foodfor the sick man this doctor’s good intentions came tonought. A Portuguese doctor here also gave his seriousattention to the sleep ing s ickness

,and it was reported

0 2

I 96 AFRICAN MEDIC INE CHAP;

that he had found a cure for it in some part of a .

fresh bi l ly-goat. Th is good man wanted a spec ial hosp ital:to be bui lt for h im and a subs idy so that he migh t devote .

himself to the task he had undertaken . His Government,however

,although its hosp itals are far in advance of those

of i ts neighbours on the Coast,could not see its way t o

erect such a place .”A l l I need add to th is is that I was informed that the diseasewhen it had once definitely set in ran its fatal course in a

year,but that when it came as an ep idem ic it was more

rapidly fatal,sometimes only a matter of a few weeks , an d

it was th is more acute form that was accompan ied by w i lddel i rium . Another nat ive informant told me when i t w asbad it usual ly lasted only from twenty to forty days .Monte iro says the s leep disease was unknown south of

the Congo unt i l i t suddenly attacked the tow n of Musserra,where he was told by the natives as many as 200 died of iti n a few months . Th is was in 1 870,

and curious to say itdid not Spread to the neighbouring towns . Monte iroi nduced the nat ives to remove from the old town and themortal ity decreased t i l l the d isease d ied out. “There w asnoth ing in the old town to account for th is sudden singu larep idemic . I t was beaut iful ly clean and wel l-bu i lt on highdry ground

,surrounded by mand ioca plantat ions , the l ast

place to al l appearance to expect such a curious outbreak.

”1

Monte iro also observes that “there is no cure known for i t,

”

but he is speaking for Angola, and I th ink this strengthenshis statement that i t is a comparatively recent importationthere . For certainly there are cures

,if not known

,at any

rate bel ieved in , for the sleep ing s ickness in i ts own homeK akongo and Loango . There is a great difference in the

1 Angola an dMe [ fiver Congo. Macmil lan . Vol . i. , p . 144.

1 98 AFRICAN MEDIC INE CHAP. V111

that when he first commenced pract ice in West Africa hesaid to a c ivi l ised native who was looking after h is brother

-the patient G ive h im a l inseed pou l tice made l ike th is—demonstrat ion and mind he has it hot.” The man cameback shortly afterw ards to say his brother had been verys ick

,but was no better

,though every b it of the stuff had been

swal lowed so hot it had burnt h is mouth . But swallowingthe poult ice is a minor danger to its exh ib ition . Even i fyou yourself see it put on outs ide

,carefu l ly

,exactly where

that poulti ce ought to be,the moment your back is .

turned the pat ient feel ing hot gets into the most awfuldraught he can find

,or into cold water, and the

consequences are inflammat ion of the lungs and death , andyou get the cred it of it. The nat ives themselves you wi l lfind are very clever at doctoring in the ir own way

,by n o

means entirely depend ing on magic and spells and you wil lalso find they have a strong pred i lection for bl isters

,cupping

and bleeding,hot water and emet ics ; in al l their ai lments

and on the whole it suits them very wel l . Therefore I prayyou add your med ical knowledge and your special drugsto the irs and for outs ide appl icat ions stick to bl isters inplace of hot pou lt ices .

CHAPTER IX

THE WITCH DOCTOR

African Medicin e main ly from the poin t of View of the Witch Doctor.WE wil l now leave the vi llage apothecary and h is

methods,and turn to the witch doctor

,the consulting

physician . He of course knows all about the therapeuticaction of low-grade spirits

,such as dwel l in herbs and s o

on ; but he knows more—namely the actions of highersp irits on the human sou l

,and the disorders of the human

sou l into the bargain .

The dogma that rules his practi ce is that i n al l cases ofdisease in which no blood is showing

,the patient is suffering

from something wrong in the soul . In order to lay thi sdogma fairly before you

,I should here discourse on the

nature of spirits unal l ied to the human sou l—non-humanspirits—and the nature of the human Spirit itself ; but ason the one hand

,I cannot be hasty on such an important

group of subjects , and , on the other, I cannot expect youto be anything else in such a matter

,I forbear

,and

merely beg to remark that the African does not bel ievein anything being soul less

,he regards even matter i tself as

a form of sou l,low, because not l ively, a thing other spiri t

forms use as they please—pract ical ly - as the cloth of thespirit that uses it. This conception is

,as far as I know,

constant in both Negro and Bantu . I wi l l therefore here

200 THE WITCH DOCTOR CHAP.

deal only w ith what the African regards as merely one classo fspirits—an important class tru ly, but above it there are atleast two more important classes, whi le beneath it in gradethere are

,I th ink

,about eleven

,and equal to it

,but d iffering

in nature, several classes—I don’t exactly know how many.

Th is class of sp irits is the human soul—theK la of the trueNegro, the M an n of the Bantu . These human souls arealso of d ifferent grades , for one sort is b e lieved/ t o be ex istent before birth

,as wel l as during l ife and after death , w hi le

other classes are not. There is more interest ing stuff here,but I am determined to st ick to my main po int now—themed ical . Well , the number of souls possessed by each individual we cal l a human be ing is usual ly held to be four( I ) the sou l that survives, (2) the sou l that l ives in an an imalaw ay w i ld in the bush, (3) the shadow cast by the body,(4) the sou l that acts in dreams . I believe that the moreprofound black thinkers h old that these last-named soulsare only funct ions of the true sou l , but from the w itchdoctor’s po int of V iew there are four

,and he acts on this

Opin ion when doctoring the d iseases that affl ict these sou l sof a man .

The dream -sou l is the cause of woes unnumbered to ourAfrican friend , and the th ing that most frequently convertshim into that desirable state, from a w itch doctor’s po int ofv iew of a patient. I t is th is w ay . The dream -sou l i s

,to put

i t very m i ldly, a s i l ly fligh ty th ing. Off i t goes when itsowner is taking a nap , and gets so taken up with sky-larkin g, fighting, or goss ip ing with other dream-sou ls thatsometimes it does not come home to i ts owner when he iswak ing up. So , i f any one has to wake a man up greatcare must always be taken that it i s done softly—softly

,

namely gradually and quietly,so as to give the dream-sou l

202 THE WITCH DOCTOR CHAP..

lust i ly,bu t in a profess ional manner, beats a drum . This

prevents the sou l from bolting again , and tends to frighteni t into the patient.I n some obstinate cases of loss of dream-sou l

,however

,

the most experienced med ical man w i l l fai l to get the freshsoul inserted . I t cl ings to his fingers

,it Whisks back into

the basket or into his ha ir or clothes,and it ch irrups dis

mal ly,and the pat ient becomes convulsed . Th is is a grave

symptom,but the d iagnos is is qu ite clear. The pat ien t

has got a s isa i n h im ,so there is no room for the fresh sou l .

Now ,a s isa is a dreadful bad thing for a man to have

in him,and an expens ive thing to get out. I t i s the sur

vivin g soul of a person who has not been properly buriednot had h is devi l made

,in fact. An d as every human sur

vivin g sou l has a certain al lotted time of existence in a

human body before it can learn the dark and difficult waydown to Srahman daz i, if by m ischance the body gets k i l ledoff before the time i s up, that soul , unless properly buriedand sent on the way to Srahman daz i, or any other Hades ,under expert instruct ion given as to the path for the dead ,becomes a s isa

,and has to hang about for the remaining;

years of i ts term of bodi ly l i fe .These en s isa are held to be so wretchedly uncomfortablein th is state that thei r tempers become perfect wrecks,and they grow utterly malignant

,continual ly trying to

get into a human body,so as to fin ish the ir term more

comfortably. Now , a s isa’

s ch ief chance of getting into abody is in whipp ing in when there is a hole in a man ’ssou l chamber, from the absence of his own dream-soul . If

a s isa were a quiet, respectable soul that would settledown

,it would not matter much

,for the dream -sou l i t

supplants i s not of much account. But a s isa is not.

IX GETT ING OUT A SISA 203

A t the best,it would only l ive out its remaining term , an d

then go off the moment that term was up , and most l ikelyki l l the sou ls i t had been sheltering w ith by bolting at ani nconven ient moment. This was the verdi ct given on thedeath of a man I knew who

,from what you would cal l

faintness,fel l dow n in a swamp and was suffocated . I n

convenient as this is , the far greater danger you areexposed to by having a s isa i n you lies in the chancesbeing 10 to 1 that i t i s stained with blood , for, without being “

hard on these unfortunate unburied souls , I may remarkthat respectable sou l s usual ly get respectably buried , and sodon ’t become en s isa . Th is blood which is upon it the devi lsthat are around smel l and go for, as i s the nature of devi lsand these devi ls whip in after the s isa sou l into his host in ‘

squads,and the man with such a set i n side him is natural ly

very i l l—convu ls ions, del irium ,high temperature, &c. , and

the ind icat ions to your true witch doctor are that thats isa must be extracted before a new dream -soul can b ei nserted and the man recover.But getting out a s isa is a most trying operation . Not

only does it necess itate a witch doctor sending in his

power to fetch it vi et arm is , it also places the medical mani n a posit ion of grave responsibi l ity regarding its disposalwhen secured . The methods he employs to meet this maybe regarded as akin to those of antiseptic surgery. Al l

the people in the vi l lage,part icularly babies and Old people

people whose souls are del icate—must be kept awake duringthe operat ion , and have a p iece of cloth over the nose andmouth

,and every one must howl so as to scare the s isa Off

them,i f by mischance it should escape from the witch

doctor. An effi cient pract itioner, I may remark, thinks

i t a great disgrace to al low a s isa to escape from him an d

2 04 THE WITCH DOCTOR cu s p .

s uch an accident would be a grave blow to h is pract ice , forpeople would not care to cal l in a man who was l iable tohave th is occur . However, our present medical manhaving got the s isa out, he has sti l l to deal with theq uestion of its d isposal before he can do anything more .The ass istant blows a new dream sou l into the pat ient

,and

his women see to h im ; but the witch doctor j ust holds on tothe s isa l i ke a bu l ldog.

Somet imes the d isposal of the s isa has been decided onprior to its extract ion . I f the patient ’s fam i ly aresufficiently wel l off, they agree to pay the doctor enough toe nable h im to teach the s isa the way to Hades . Indeed ,this is the course respectable medical men always ins isto n although i t i s expensive to the patient’s fami ly. Butthere are

, I regret to say, a good many unprincipled w itchdoctors about who wil l undertake a case cheap .

They wil l carry Off with them the extracted s is a for as mal l fee

,then shortly afterwards a baby in the vi l lage goes

off in tetanic convuls ions . No one takes much notice ofthat

,because it’s a way bab ies have. Soon another baby is

born in the same fam i ly—polygamy being prevalent,the

e vent may occur after a short interval—well , after givingthe usual anxiety and expense, that baby goes o ff i nconvuls ions . Suspicion is aroused . Presently yet anotherb aby appears in the fami ly, keeps al l right for a weekmay be

,and then also goes off in convu ls ions . Susp ic ions

are confirmed . The worm—the father,I mean—turns ,

a n d he takes the body of that third baby and smashes oneof its leg bones before it is thrown away into the bush ;for he knows he has got a wanderer sou l— namely

,a s isa ,

w hich some unprincipled practitioner has sent into hisfam i ly. He j ust breaks the leg so as to warn the soul he i s

2 06 THE WITCH DOCTOR CHAP.

S ierra Leone to Cameroons , but they are extra prevalento n the Gold Coast and in Calabar .These traps are usual ly pots conta in ing someth ing

a ttractive to the soul , and in this ba it are concealed kn ivesor fish -hooks—fish -hooks when the witch wants to catcht he sou l to keep, knives when the desire is j ust to inj ure i t.In the case of the lacerated dream -sou l

,when it returns

to its owner,i t makes him fee l very unwel l but the symp

t oms are quite di fferent from those aris ing from loss ofdream -sou l or from a s isa .

The reason for catching dream -sou l s with hooks isu sual ly a low mercenary one. You see, many patientsin s ist on having thei r own dream-soul put back into themthey don ’t want a substitute from the doctor’s store—so ofcourse the sou l has to be bought from the witch who hasgo t i t. Sometimes , however, the witch is the hirel ing ofs ome one intent on injuring a particular person and keeno n capturing the sou l for th is purpose, though too frightenedto kil l his enemy outright. SO the soul is not on lycaught and kept

,but tortured , hung up over the canoe fi re

an d so on , and thus, even if the patient has another dreamsoul put in

,so long as his original sou l i s in the hands of a

t orturer, he is uncomfortable.On one occasion

,for example

,I heard one of the Kru

boys who were with me mak ing more row in his s leep ,more resounding slaps and snores an d grunts than even anormal Kru boy does

,and

,resolving in my mind that what

that young man real ly requ ired was one of my pet p il ls, Iwent to see him . I found him asleep under a thick b lanketand with a handkerchief tied over his face . I t was a hotnight , and the man and his blanket were as wet with sweatas i f they had been dragged through a river. I suggested

ix THE SHADOW-SOUL 207

to head -man that the handkerchief muzzle should come o ff,a n d was informed by him that for several nights previouslythe man had dreamt of that savoury dish, craw fish seasonedw ith red pepper. He had become anx ious , and consultedt he head-man , who decided that undoubtedly some witchw as setting a trap for his dream -sou l with th is bait

,with

intent, &c. Care was now being taken to, as i t were, keepthe dream-sou l at home. I of course d id not interfere andthe patient completely recovered .

We wil l now pass on to diseases arising from disorders int he other three souls of a man . The immortal or survivingsoul i s l iable to a disease that its body suffered from duringits previous time on earth, born again w ith i t. Suchdiseases are qu ite incurable, and I only personal ly know oft hem in the Calabar and N iger Delta, where reincarnationis strongly bel ieved in .

Then come the d iseases that arise from injury to thes hadow-soul . I t strikes one as strange at first to see menw ho have been walking, say, through forest or grass lando n a blaz ing hot morn ing quite happi ly, on arrival at ap iece of clear ground or a vi l lage square, most careful ly goround it, not across , and you w i l l soon notice that they onlydo this at noontime, and learn that they fear losing the irs hadow. I asked some Bakwir i I once came across whowere particularly careful in this matter why they were notanxious about losing thei r shadows when night came downan d they disappeared in the surrounding darkness

,and was

told that that was al l right, because at n ight al l shadowslay down in the shadow of the Great God

,and so got

s tronger. Had I not seen how strong and long a shadow,

be it of man or tree or Of the great mountain itself,was

in the early morn ing t ime ? Ah me ! I said,the p roverb

208 THE WITCH DOCTOR CHAP.

is true that says the turtle can teach the sp ider. I neverthought of that .Murders are somet imes committed by secretly driving a

nai l or kni fe into a man ’s shadow , and so on ; but i f t hemurderer be caught red-handed at it

,he or she wou ld b e

forthwith ki l led , for al l d iseases aris ing from the shadowsoul are incurable. No man ’s shadow is l ike that of h isown brother

,says the proverb .

Now we come to that very grave class of diseases w h icharise from disorders of the bush-sou l . These d iseases arenot al l incurable

,nevertheless they are very intractable and

expensive to cure. This bush-soul is , as I have said ,resident in some wild animal in the forest. I t may be inonly an earth pig

,or it may be in a leopard

,and

,quite

providential ly for the medical profess ion no layman can s eehis own soul—it is not as i f it were connected with al learth pigs

,or al l leopards

,as the case may be

,but it is in

one particular earth pig or leopard or other an imal—so

recourse must be had to medical aid when anyth inggoes wrong w ith it . I t is usually in the temper that t hebush-sou l suffers. I t is l iable to get a sort of aggrievedneglected feel ing

,and want things given it. When you

wander about the wi ld gloomy forests of the Calabarregion , you wil l now and again come across , far away froma l l human hab itation or plantation , t iny huts , under whoseshelter l ies some offering or i ts remains. Those areofferings administered by direction of a w itch doctor toappease a bush-soul . For not only can a witch doctor see

what particular animal a man ’s bush-sou l is in , but he canalso see whereabouts in the forest that animal is . Sti l l , thesebush-souls are not eas i ly appeased . The worst of it is thata man may be himself a qu iet steady man, careful of h is d iet


mortal ity from tetanus among chi ldren,wh ich sometimes is

and sometimes is not put down to witchcraft, and themortal i ty from smallpox and the sleep disease down southin Loango and Kakongo, those diseases not being in anycase that I have had personal acquaintance with imputed t owitchcraft at al l . Indeed I venture to think that anydisease that takes an epidemic form is regarded as a

scourge sent by some great outraged Nature spirit , not amere human dabbler in devi ls . I have deal t with witchcraft itsel f elsewhere

,therefore now I only speak regarding

i t medical ly ; and I think , roughly speaking , not absolutely,mind you

,that the W itching something ou t of a man is the

most common in iquity of witchcraft from Cape Juby to

Cameroons,the region of the true Negro stock whi le

from Cameroons to Benguel la— the l imit of my knowledgeto the south on the western side of the continent— the mostcommon iniquity of witchcraft i s W i tching something intoh im . As in the diseases arising from the loss of the dreamsoul I have briefly dealt with the Wi tching something out,I now turn to the W itching something in .

I wel l remember,in 1 893, being then new to and eas i ly

alarmed by theWest Coast,going into a vi l lage in Kakongo

one afternoon and seeing several unpleasant-looking objectsstuck on poles . I nvestigat ion showed they were the lungs

,

l ivers , or spleens of human be ings ; and local informationstated that they were the powers of witches—witches thathad been ki l led and , on examination , found to have insidethem these things , dangerous to the state and society atlarge . Wherefrom it was the custom to stick up on polesthese things as warnings to the general publ ic not toharbour in their ind ividual interiors things to use againsttheir fel low-creatures . They mutely but firmly sa id

,

1x POST-MORTEM FOR W ITCHCRAFT 2 1 1

See ! i f you turn witch , your inside wi l l be stuck on apole .”I may remark that in many districts of the South-Westcoast and middle Congo it is customary when a persond ies in an unexp lainable way, namely without sheddingblood

,to hold a post-mortem . In some cases the post

mortem discloses the path of the witch through the victim—usually

,I am informed , the inj ected witch feeds on the

v ictim ’s lungs—in other cases the post-mortem discloses thewitch power itself, demonstrating that the deceased was akeeper of witch power

,or

,as we should say

,a witch .

Once when I was at Batanga a woman dropped downon the beach and died . The usual post-mortem was held ,and local feel ing ran high.

“ She no complain,she no say

nothing,and then she go die one time. ’ The post-mortem

d isclosed what I think you would term a ruptured aneurismof the aorta

,but the local verdi ct was she done witch her

s elf —namely that she was a witch, who had been eaten byher own power

,therefore there were great rejoicings over

her death.

This dire catastrophe is, however, l iable to overtakelegitimate medical men . All reasonable peop le in everycl ime al low a certain latitude to doctors . They are s u pposed to know things other peop le need not, and to dothings, l ike d issections and such , that other peop le shouldnot

,and no one thinks any the worse of them . This is the

case with the African physician,whom we roughly cal l the

witch doctor, but whose ful l title is the combatant of theevi ls worked by witches and devi ls on human souls andhuman p roperty. This medi cal man has

,from the ex igencies

o f his p rofession, to keep in his own ins ide a power, and a

good strong one at that,wh ich he can employ in his

P 2

2 1 2 THE W ITCH DOCTOR CHAP.

pract ice by send ing it i nto patients to fetch out otherwitch powers

,s t

'

m s , or any miscel laneous kind of devi lthat may have got into them . His pos ition i s total lydi fferent from that of the layman . He i s known to possess awitch power

,and the knowledge of how to employ it but

instead of this making h im an object of aversion to hisfel low-men

,i t secures for h im esteem and honour

,and

t he more t errifical ly powerful his power is known to be,the more respect he gains for suppose you were taken i l lb y a real bad devi l , you would prefer a med ical man

w hose power was at least up to that devi l’s fighting we ight.Nevertheless his having to keep the dangerous devi li n his own inside exposes the witch doctor to grave personal danger

,for i f

,from a particularly healthy season

,or

s ome notorious quack com ing into his distri ct,his practi ce

fa l ls off,and his power is thereby not kept fed

,that u n for

t u n at e man is l iable to be attacked by it . This was given meas the cause of the death of a great doctor in the Chiloangodistrict

,and I heard the same thing from the Ncom i district ,

so it i s clear that many eminent men are cut off in them idst of their professional career in this way .

As for what this power is l ike in its corporal form , I can

o nly say that it is evidently various . On e witch doctor Iknow just to the north of Loango always made it a praet ice to give his patients a brisk emetic as soon as he was cal ledin , and he always found young crocodiles in the consequences .I remember seeing him in one case secure s ix l ively youngc rocodiles that had apparently been very recently hatched .

These were witch powers . Again , I was informed of a witchw how as ki lled near the Bungo R iver having had found insidehim a thing l ike a l izard

,but with wings l ike a bat. The

m ost pecul iar form of witch power I have heard of as being


We wi l l start with the medical student stage . Now ,

every West African tribe has a secret society— two, i n fact,one for men and one for women . Every free man has topass through the secret society of his tribe . I f during th iseducation the E lders of this soc iety discover that a boy iswhat i s cal led in Calabar an eéumt up—a person who cansee spirits— the elders of the society advise that he shouldbe brought up to the med ical profession . The ir advice isgeneral ly taken

,and the boy is app renti ced as it were to a

witch doctor,who requires a good fee with him . This done ,

he proceedswith his studies,learns the d ifference between the

dream -sou l basket and the one s isa: are kept in—a mistakebetween the two would be on a par with mistaking oxal icacid for Epsom sal ts . He is then taught how to howl ina professional way

,and

,by watching his professor

,picks up

his bedside manner. I f he can acquire a showy way ofhaving imitation epilept ic fits

,so much the better. I n

fact,as a medical student, you have to learn pretty wel l

as much there as here. You rfiu s t know the dispositions,

the financial pos ition,l i ttle scandals

, &c. ,of the inhab itants

of the whole d istri ct, for these things are of undoubted usein divination and the finding of witches

,and in addition

you must be able ski lfu l ly to dispense charms,and know

what bab ies say before their own mothers can . Then someday your professor and instructor d ies

,h is own professional

power eats him,or he tackles a disease-causing spiri t that

is one too many for h im,and on you descend his parapher

nal ia and his practi ce.I t is usual for a witch doctor to acquire for his power amember of one of the higher grade spirit classes—he doesnot acqu ire a human soul— and his successor usual ly

,I

think , takes the same spiri t, or, at any rate, a member of the

1X PROPHYLACT IC METHODS 2 1 5

s ame class . This does not altogether l imit you as a succ essor to a certain l ine of practice , but, as no one spirit can-do al l things

,i t tends to make you a special ist. I know a

district where,i f any one wanted a canoe charm , they went

to one medical man ; i f a charm to keep thieves off thei rplantation , to another.This brings us to the practice itself

,and it may be

divided into two divis ions . Fi rst,prophylactic methods

,

namely,making charms to p rotect your patient ’s wives ,

chi ldren,goats

, p lantations , canoes , &c. f rom damage,

houses from fire, &c &c. ,

and to protect the patient himselffrom wild animals and al l danger by land or water . Thisis a very paying part, but fu l l of anx iety. For example, putyourself in the place of a Mpangwe medical friend of mine .

You have with much trouble got a real ly valuable spirit toc ome into a paste made of blood and divers things , andhaving made it into a sausage form

,and done it round with

fi bre wonderfu l ly neatly,you have painted it red outside to

please the spi rits— because spirits l ike red,they think it’s

"blood . Wel l , in a week or so the man you administered i t‘to comes back and says “ that thing’s no good .

”H is paddle

has broken more often than before he had the thing. Theamount of rocks

,and floating trees

,to say nothing of snags ,

i s , he should say, about double the normal , whereby he haslost a whole canoe load ofEuropean goods , and , in short, hedoesn ’t think much of you as a charm maker. Then he exp ectorat es and sulks offensively. You take the charm , andtel l him it was “a perfectly good one when you gave i t him ,

an d you never had any comp laints before, but you wil l seewhat has gone wrong with it . Investigation shows yout hat the spiri t is either dead or absent . I n the first case i th as been kil led by a stronger sp i rit of its own class ; i n

2 16“

THE WITCH DOCTOR CHAP.

the second , lured away by bribery. Now this clearly po intsto your patient ’s having a dangerous and powerful enemy

,

and you point it out to him and advise him to have a freshand more powerful charm—necessari ly more expensivewith as l ittle delay as possible. He grumbles

,but

,real i s ing

the danger,pays up

,and you make him another. The old

one can be thrown away, l ike an empty pi l l-box .

The other part of your pract ice—the cl in ical—consists in.combating those w itches who are always up to somethingsuck ing blood of young children

,putting fearful wild fowl

i nto people to eat up their most valued viscera, or steal ingsouls 0 ’ nights

,blighting crops

, &c.

Therefore you see the witch doctor’s l ife is not an idleone ; he has not merely to humbug the public and pocketthe fees—or I should say “ bag,”pockets being rare in thisregion—but he works very hard

,and has his anx ieties j us t

l ike a white medical man . The souls that get away from himare a great worry. The death of every patient i s a danger to !

a certain ext en t,

'

becau se the patient’s soul wi l l be vicious tohim unti l i t i s buried . But I must say I profoundlyadmire our West African witch doctors for thei r theory ofs isa: as an explanation of their not always be ing able toinsert a new soul into a patient

,for by th is theory they

save themselves somewhat,and do not entai l on themselves .

the treatment their brother med icos have to go through onthe Nass R iver in British Columbia. Accord ing to Mr .

Fraser, in that benighted Nass R iver distri ct those nativeAmerican doctors hold it possible that a doctor mayswallow a patient’s sou l by mistake . This is thei r theory toaccount for the strange phenomenon of a patient gettingworse instead of better when a doctor has been cal led in ,and so the unfortunate doctor who has had this accident

2 1 8 THE W ITCH DOCTOR CHAP .

t hey do thei r best accord ing to their l ights . I t would bedifficult to see why they shou ld doubt their own methods

,

because,remember, all their patients do not die the majority

recover. I am not putting th is recovery down to thei rsoul-treatment method , but to the vi l lage apothecary,who has usual ly been doctoring the patient with drugsbefore the s o -cal led witch doctor i s cal led in . Of coursethe apothecary does not get the cred it of the cure in thiscase

,but I fancy he deserves it . Another point to be

remembered i s that the Africans on the West Coast,at any

rate,are far more l iable than wh ite men to many strange

nervous disorders,especial ly to del irium

,which often occurs

in a comparatively sl ight i l lness . Why I do not pretend tounderstand ; but I think in these nervous cases the bedsidemanners of a witch doctor—though strongly resemblingthat of the physic ian who attended the immortal WhyWhy’s mother—may yet be real ly useful .As to the evi l these witch doctors do in the matter ofgetting people ki l led for bewitch ing it is d ifficu lt to speakj ustly. I fancy that, on the whole , they do more good thanharm

,for remember witchcraft in these distri cts is no

parlour game ; in the eyes of A l l ah as wel l as man i t i smurder

,for most of i t is po ison . Most witchcraft charms

I know of among people who have not been in contactwith Mohammedanism have always had that element ofm ix ing something with the food or drink—even in thatcommon , true Negro form of ki l l ing by witchcraft, puttingmed icine in the path , there i s a poisoned spike as wel l ascharm stuff. There can be no doubt that the witchdoctor’s methods of finding out who has poisoned a person

.are effective, and that the knowledge in the publ ic mind of

IX ELABORATED COMMON SENSE 2 19

this detective power keeps down poisoning to a greatextent. Of the safeguards against unjust accusation I wi l lspeak when treating of law.

As to thei r using hypnotism,I suppose they do use some

thing of the sort at times . West Indians,with whom I was

always anx ious to talk on the differences and agreementsb etween Vodou and Obeah and their parent West Africanreligion ,

certainly, i n their description of what they calledWanga—and translated as Glamour—seemed to pointto this ; but for myself, save in the case of blood comingbefore

,one case of which I witnessed , I have seen

nothing beyond an enormously elaborated common sense .I dare not cal l it sound , because it i s based on anddeveloped out of animism ,

and of that and our whiteelaborated V iew I am not the judge

,remembering you go

the one way, I the other—wh ich is the best , God knows .

CHAPTER XEARLY TRADE IN WEST AFRICA

C on cern in g th e accou n t s given b y clas s ic w rit ers of Wes t Africa,

an d of the me th od of b art er cal led the Silen t Trade .

IT is a general ly rece ived opin ion that there are t ooman y books in the world already. I cannot

,however

,

subscribe to any I nst itution that proposes to alter thi s!state of affairs

,because I find no consensus of Opin ion

as to which are the superfluous books ; I have my ownOpinion on the po int, but I feel I had better keep it t omyself

,for I find the very books I d is l ike—almos t

i nvariably in one-volume form,as this one is

,though

of a more connected nature than this i s l ikely to b eare the wel l-beloved of thousands of my fel low humanbeings ; and so I wil l restrict my enthus iasms in thematter of books to the cause of attempting to incitewriters to give us more . I f any one wants personal ly toobl ige me he wi l l forthwith write a masterly historyof the inter—relationships—rel igious

,commercial

,and

cultural—o f the other races of the earth with the

A frican,and he can put in as an appendix a sketch o f

the war conquest of Africa by the white races . I do notask for a separate volume on this

,because there wil l b e

222 EARLY TRADE IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

of African relationships with the rest of the world—whichI do not intend to write, but want written for me—and thati s the superiority both in qual i ty and quant ity of theporti on which re lates to the EarlyH istory of theWest Coast .Ye t very l ittle attention has been given in our own times tothis . I might say no attention

,were i t not for Sir A . B .

E l l is,that very noble man and gal lant sold ier, who did so

much good work for England both with sword and pen .

Just for the sake of the work being worth do ing, not inthe hOpe of reward for twenty years ’ service and the publ ication of a series of books of great interest and importancetaught him that West Africa was under a ban that i t w asbeyond his power to remove ; nevertheless he went onwith his work unfaltering

,i f not uncomplaining, and d ied ,

i n 1 89 5 , a young man , pract ical ly ki l led by the Warimincident—the true history of wh ich has yet to be written .

For the credi t of my country, I must s ay that j ust beforedeath he was knighted .

I do not quote Colonel El l i s’s works extensively, because,for one thing

,i t i s the duty of people to read them firs t

hand,and as they are perfectly access ible there is n o

excuse for their not do ing so and,for another thing, I am

in touch with the majority of the works from which hegathered his information regarding the early h is tory

,and

with the natives from whom he gathered h is ethnologicalinformation. There are certain points, I grant, on wh ichI am unable to agree w ith him ,

such as the opinion heformed from his personal prej udices against the traders inWest Africa ; but in the main , regard ing the regions withwh ich he was personal ly acquainted and on which he wrote—the Bight of Benin regions—I am only too glad thatthere is Colonel El l is for me to agree with.

PRINCE HENRY THE NAV IGATOR 223:

The fascination of West Africa’s histori cal record is ,

very great, bristl ing as it does with the deeds of bravemen

,bad an d good , black and white . What my German

friends would cal l the Blu th-period of this history i sdecidedly that period which was inaugurated by the greatPrince Henry the Navigator ; and no man who has everread

,as every man should read

,Mr. Major’s book on

Prince .Henry

,can fai l to want to know more sti l l

,and

what happened down in those re -discovered Bights of

Benin and Biafra after this Bl iith -period closed . This canbe done

,mainly thanks to a Dutchman named Bosman

,

who was agent for the great Dutch house of the GoldCoast for many years circa 1 698 , and who wrote home tohis uncle a series of letters of a most exemplary naturereeking with information on native matters and local

politics,and suffused with a tender fear of shocking h is

aunt,which did not

,however

,seem in his opinion to justify

him in supp ressing important ethnological facts .Regarding the ethnological informat ion we have o f

the Gold Coast natives, the most important works arethose by the late Sir A . B . E l l i s . His books are almostmodels of what books shou ld be that are written bypeople studying native customs in their native land .

We have also the resu lts of scientific observers in thew orks of Bu ckhardt and Bastian , besides a mass of scatt ered information in the works of travel lers

,Bosman

,

Barbot, Labat , Mathews , Bowditch, Cru ickshank ,Wi nwoodReade

,H . M . Stanley

,Burton

,Capta in Canot

,Captain

Binger, and others, and quite recently a valuable contrib u t ion to our knowledge in Mr. Sarbar

’

s Fan t i Cu s tomary

Law s ! I th ink that every student of the African form of1 C low es an d Son s , 1 897 .

224 EARLY TRADE IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.

thought should master these works thoroughly,and I

fu l ly grant thei r great importance ; but, nevertheless , Iam quite unable to agree with Mr. Jevons (l m‘

rodu oz‘ion to

Me H is tory of Rel igion , p . 1 64) when he says , regard ingFet ishism , that it i s certainly amongst the inhabitants ofthe Gold and S lave Coasts that the subject can best bestudied . These two Coasts are

,I grant

,the best place

for a student who is res ident i n Europe,and therefore

dependent on the accounts given by others of the thingshe is deal ing with

,to draw his i nformation from , because of

the accuracy and extent of the information he can get from“

E l l i s ’s work ; but, apart from E l l i s the value of theseregions to an ethnologist is but smal l

,and for an e t h n o ~

logis t who wi l l go out to West Africa and study hismaterial for himsel f

,the whole of the Coast regions of the

B enin B ight are but of tenth-rate importance,because of

t he great and long-continued infusion of both Mohammedana n d European forms of thought into the original nativet hought-form that has taken place in these regions .This subject I wil l refer to later

,and I wil l return now

t o the history, confining mysel f to the earl ier port ions ofit,and to that which bears on the early development of

trade .I s incerely wish I could go into ful l detai ls regardingthe whole history of the local ity here

,because I know

my only chance of being al lowed to do so i s onpaper, and i t would be a great rel ief to my mind ;but I forbear

,experience having taught me that the

s ubject , to pu t i t m ildly, i s not of general interest . For

example , person after person have I tried to i l luminateand educate in the matter of our relation ships withthe Ashantees always , alas, i n vain . Before I have got


were his two companions , their half-smoked pipes fal lenfrom thei r l imp fin gers

—al l profoundly,unquestionably

asleep .

“Oh , yes ! of course , I was del ighted ,” but n o t

flattered and,warned by this incident , I wil l here only say

that should any one be real ly interested in the eventfu lh istory of the long struggle between the Engl ish

,Portu

gu ese , French , Dutch , and Brandenburgers , w ith eachother and w ith the natives

,for the possess ion of t he

country where the black man’s gold came from , they willfind a good deal about it in the works already cited andshould any medical man—the remedy is perhaps a l ittletoo powerful to be trusted in the hands of the laityrequire it for the treatment of insomnia as above indicated ,I recommend that part of i t which bears on the Ashanteequestion in small but regular doses .Ou r earl iest authorities mentioning Africa with theknow ledge in them that it i s surrounded by the ocean , saveat Suez , are Theopompu s and Herodotus . Unfortunatelyal l Theopompu s ’s works are lost to us , voluminous thoughthey were

,his history alone being a matter of fifty—eight

volumes,while before he took up history he had won for

himself a great reputation as an orator, during the reignsof Phi l ip and A lexander the Great . He is perpetual lyreferred to

,however

,though not always p raised , by other

great classical writers,C icero

,Pl iny, the two Dion y s iu se s

and others,and was evidently regarded as a great

authority one particular fragment of his works that refersto Africa is preserved by PEIian , and consists of a conversation between S i lenus and M idas , King of Phrygia .S i lenus says that Europe, As ia, and Africa are surroundedby the sea, but that beyond the known world there is anisland of immense extent contain ing large animals and

HERODOTUS 227

men of twice our stature. This island Mr. Major thinks,

and doubtless rightly,i s connected with the tradition of

our old friend—you know what I mean , as CaptainMarryat’s boatswain says—the Atlantis of Plato . Thisaffair I wil l no further mention or hint at, but hasti ly passon to that other early authority, Herodotus, who was born484 years before Christ, and whose works, thanks be, havesurvived . He says : “ The Phoenician navigators undercommand of P haraoh-Necho , King of Egyp t, setting sai lfrom the Red Sea, made their way to the Southern Sea ;when autumn approached they drew thei r vessels to land,sowed a crop, waited unti l i t was ripe for harvest, reapedi t

,and put again to sea .

’

Having spent two years in thismanner

,in the thi rd year they reached the Pi l lars of

Hercules , (jeb u Zat ou t , and Gibraltar) , and returned toEgypt, “ reporting,” says Herodotus , “what does not findbelief in me

,but may perhaps in some other persons , for

they said in sai l ing round Africa they had the sun to theright (to the North) of them . I n this way was L ibyafirst known .

”1

Much has been wri tten regarding the accuracy of thesePhoenician accounts ; for, as frequently happens , thei rmention of a thing that seemed at fi rst to brand thei raccount as a l ie remains to brand it as the truth—andalthough I have no doubt those Phoenician gentlemenhearti ly wished they had said nothing about having seenthe sun to the North , yet it was best for them in the end ,as it demonstrates to us that they had

,at any rate

,been

South of the Equator ; and we owe to Herodotus here, asin many other places in his works

,a debt of gratitude for

honestly putting down what he did not bel ieve himself ; he1 M elpomen e, IV . 41 .


also has suffered from this habit of accuracy,becoming

himself regarded by the superficial people of this world as acredulous old romancer, wh ich he never was . Good man ,he on ly l iked fair play.

“Here,”he says as it were, “ i s athing I am told . I t

’

s a b it too large for my belief hatch,

but if you can get it down yours,you’re free and welcome

to ship it.” Herodotus,however

,accepts the fact that

Africa was surrounded by water,save at its connection

with the great land mass of the earth (Europe and As ia)by the I sthmus of Suez .Several other attempts to ci rcumnavigate Africa weremade prior to Herodotus’s writings . On e that we have ment ion of 1 was made by a Pers ian nobleman named Sataspes ,whom Xerxes had

,for a then capital offence , condemned

to impalement . This man ’s mother persuaded Xerxesthat i f she were al lowed to deal with her son she wouldimpose on him a more terrible punishment even than this

,

namely,that he should be condemned to sai l round L ibya .

There i s no doubt this good lady thought thereby to saveher son ; but, as events turned out, Xerxes, by accept ingh er suggestion , did not cheat justi ce by granting this asan alternative to immediate execut ion . However, offSataspes sai led with a ship an d crew from Egypt

,out

through the Pi l lars of Hercu les , and doubl ing the Cape ofL ibya

,then named So lo is , he steered south , and , says

Herodotus , traversed a vast extent of sea for manymonths , and finding he had sti l l more to pass he turnedround and returned to Egy pt and then back to Xerxes ,who had him then impaled

,because

,for one thing he had not

sai led round L ibya , and for another, Xerxes held he l iedabout those regions of it that he had visi ted for Sataspes

1 M elpomen e, IV . 43 .


o f this wreck of a vessel belonging to Western Europebeing found on the East Coast of Africa joined with theknowledge that these vessels d id not pass through theMediterranean Sea, gave Eudoxus the idea that the vesselhe had the figure head of must have come round Africafrom the West Coast, and he then proceeded to Cadiz andequ ipped three vessels

,one large and two of smal ler size

,

and started out to do the same thing, bar wrecking. He

s ai led down the known West Coast without trouble, butwhen he came to passing on into the unknown seas

,he had

trouble with the crews,and was compel led to beach h is

vessel s . After doing this he succeeded in persuad ing hiscrews to proceed

,but it was then found impossible to float

the largest vessel,so she was abandoned

,and the exped ition

proceeded in the smaller and in a ship constructed fromthe wreck of the larger on which the cargo was shipped withthe expedition . Eudoxus reached apparently Senegambia ,and then another mutiny broke out

,and he had to return to

Barbary. But undaunted he then fitted out another expedit ion

,consisting of two smal ler vessels

,and once again

sai led to the South to c ircumnavigate A frica. Nothingsince has b een heard of Eudoxus of Cyzicus surnamedthe Brave.1On his second voyage he fel l in with nat ives who

,he

says,spoke the same language that he had p reviously

heard on the Eastern Coast of A frica . I f he was right i nthis, some authors hold he must have gone down the WestC oast , at least as far as Cameroons , because there you

1 See E l lis ’s H is tory of tb e Gold Coas t,als o Toz er

’s H is tory of

A n cien t Geog rapity ,Beazley’s Daw n of M odern Geog rapéy , an d

S traoo,B .C . 2 5 , b ook xvii, edit ed b y Theodore Jan son iu s ab

Almelooven,Am s t erdam ,

1 707 .

x HANNO OF CARTHAGE 23 1

n owadays first strike the language,which does stretch across

t he continent, namely, the Bantu , and we have no reason tosuppose that the Bantu border l ine was ever further Northon this Coast than i t i s at present indeed

,the indications

a re , I think , the other way but as far as the language goes,i t seems to me that Eudoxus could have heard the samelanguage as on the East African Coast far higher up thanCameroons, namely, on the Moroccoan Coast

,for in those

days, p rior to the great A rab invasion , most l ikely thelanguage of the Berber races had possession of NorthernA frica from East Coast toWest . However

,there is another

s tatement of his which I think points to Eudoxus havinggone far South, namely, that the reason of his turning backwas an inabi l ity to get p rovisions , for this catastrophe isn o t l ikely to have overtaken so brave a man as he was unti lhe reached the great mangrove swamps of the N iger. Thel i toral of the Sahara was in those days , we may presume,from the accounts we have far later from LeO ~African u s

and Arab writers,more luxuriant and heavi ly populated

t han i t is at present.Of these voyages, however, we have such scantrecord that we need not dwel l on them further

,and

so we wil l return to about 300 B .C and consider the wonderfu l voyage made by Hanno of Carthage, of which weh ave more detai led knowledge ; although there sti l l remainsa certain amount of doubt as to who exactly Hanno was

,

mainly on account of Hanno apparently having been toC arthage what Jones is to North Wales—the name of anumber of individuals with a habit of doing everything and frequently d istingu ishing themselves great ly.

Th e Carthaginians were to the classic world much whatt he Engl ish are to the modern , a great colonising,

232 EARLY TRADE IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.;

commercial people—warl ike when wanted . They planted .

colonies in North Africa and elsewhere, and had commercial relationship with al l the then known nat ionsOf the world , i n cluding a trans-Sahara trade with thepeople l iving to the South of the Great Desert. We

shal l never know to the ful l where those Carthaginians »went

,from the paucity of record ; but we have record.

of the voyage of this Hanno in a P er iplu s original lyw ritten in the Punic language and then trans lated intoGreek .

1 Hanno,i t seems

,was a chief magistrate at Car

thage , and Pl iny says his voyage was undertaken whenCarthage was in a most flourish in g condition .

2 From t he

P eriol u s we learn that the expedition to the West Coastconsisted of sixty ships of fi fty oars each , and persons o f both sexes

,ample provisions and everything n eces

sary for so great an undertaking. The ob iect of thisexpedition was to explore, to found colonies , and to increasecommerce. The expedition , after passing the Pi l lars of

1 There is dou b t as t o w he ther this Pergolas is the en t ire on e w ith .

w h ich the class ic w rit ers w ere con vers an t .2 Et Han n o Carthagin is pot en t ia floren te circumvect u s a Gab ib u s .

ad fin em Arab iae n avigat ion em eam prodidit script o (an d Han n o ,

w hen Carthage flou rish ed, s ailed rou n d from Cadiz t o the remot es t

part s of Arab ia, an d left an accou n t of h is voyage in w rit in g) Plin iu s ,lib . ii. cap. lxvii. p .m . 220. See als o lib . v . cap . i. p .m . 5 23 , an d

Pompon iu s Me la, l ib . iii. cap . ix. p . 63 , edit . I s aici Vo s s ii.

There is an En glish vers ion of th e Pergolas , edit ed b y Falcon er,Lon don , 1 797 an d an Oxford edit ion of it

,an d s ome oth er w orks , by

Dr. Hu dson , 1 698 . Als o th ere is a w ork on Han n o’s Pergolas bas ed

on MS. in th e Meyer Mu seum at Liverpool by Simon ides , n ot th eIamb ic poet , w ho w rote a ridicu lou s sat ire again s t w omen , qu ot ed b y

[ Elian n or yet Simon ides w h o w as on e of th e great es t of th e an cien t

poet s , an d flou rish ed in th e seven ty-fifth Olympia ; b u t a modern ,

gen t leman con n ected w ith America, w hose w ork I am s u fficien t

s cho lar n e ither t o u se n or t o crit icis e.

2 34 EARLY TRADE IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.

they were as far from the Pi l lars of Hercules as thesewere from Carthage . So i t i s held now that Cerne isthe same as the French trading station A rguin (about 240miles north of Senegal R iver) , on to whose shoals thewreck of the French frigate La Medu s e drifted in 1 8 16 ,

the tragedy of which is fami l iar to us al l from Gericault’sg reat painting.

Hanno next cal led at a place where there was a greatl ake , which they entered by sai l ing up a river cal ledby them Chere te s . I n this they found three i slands ,al l larger than the i s land of Cerne . On e day’s sai l thenbrought them to the extrem ity of the lake overhung bymountains

,which were inhabited by savages clad in wild

beasts ’ skins,who prevented thei r landing by peltin g

them with stones . The next point in thei r voyage was alarge and broad r iver, infested with crocodi les and riverhorses and from this place they made thei r way back toCerne

,where they rested and repaired and then set forth

again , sai l ing south along the African shores for twelves uccessive days . The language of the natives of theseregions the Lixitae did not understand

,and the Cartha

gin ian s could not hold any communication with them foranother reason

,that they always fled from them towards

the last day they approached some large mountainscovered with trees . They went on two days further

,when

they came to a large open ing in the sea,on land on

either side of which was a plain whereon they sawfi res in every direct ion . At this p lace 1 they refi l led thei r

1 Major iden t ifies th is p lace w ith Cape Verde , poin t in g ou t that the

in ab ility of th e Lixitae in t erpret ers t o u n ders tan d th e lan gu age accordsw ith th e fact that at the Sen egal commen ce s th e cou n t ry of the b lack sth e immen se open in g”he regards as the Gamb ia.

A LAND OF FIRE 235

water barrels , and continued thei r voyage five days further ,when they reached a large bay which thei r interpreterss aid was called the Western Horn . I n th is bay they founda large is land

,in the centre of which was a salt lake with a

smal l is land in it . When they went ashore in the day timethey saw no inhabitants

,but at night time they heard in

e very direction a confused noise of p ipes , cymbals, drumsand song

,which alarmed the crew, while the diviners they

had with them,equ ivalent to our naval chap lains

,strongly

advised Hanno to leave that place as speedi ly as possible .Hanno , however, being less alarmed than his companions ,pushed on South , and they soon found themselves abreasto f a country blazing with fires

,streams of which seemed to

be pouring from the mountain tops down into the sea.We sai led quickly thence

,

” says Hanno,

“ being muchterrified .

”Proceeding four days further they found that

things did not improve in appearance from their point ofv iew, for the whole country seemed ablaze at n ight, acountry ful l of fire

,and at one point the fire seemed to

fly up to the very stars . Hanno says their interpreterstold them that this great fire was the Chariot ofthe Gods . Three days more sai l ing South broughtthem to another bay

,cal led the Southern Horn . In this

bay they found a large i s land,in which again there was a

l ake with another is land in i t,having inhabitants who were

s avage , and whose bodies were covered with hair. Thesepeop le the interpreters cal led the Gorillae—some were capt u red and taken aboard

,but so savage and unmanageable

did they prove that they were ki l led and the skins preserved . A s most of the inhabitants of the Islands of theGoril lae seemed to be females

,and as these ladies had

made such a gal lant fight of it with thei r Carthaginian

236 EARLY TRADE IN WEST AFRICA CHAP

captors , Hanno kept thei r skins to hang up in the Templeof Juno on his return home , evidently intending tobe complimentary both to the Goddess and the Gorillaebut it is to be feared neither of them took it as i t wasmeant, for Hanno had no luck from the Gods afterthis , having to turn back from shortness of provisions , andfinally ending his career by

,some say

,being ki l led

,and

others say ex i led from Carthage on account of his havinga l ion so tame that it would carry baggage for him ;Punic publi c opin ion held that this demonstrated him to bea man dangerous to the State. The Gorillae seem to haveworked out thei r vengeance on white men by making i tmore than any man ’s character for truth i s worth to seeone of them— except stuffed in a museum ,

with a label on .

How far Hanno real ly went down South is not knownwith any certainty. M . Gossel in held he only reached theR iver Nu n

,on the Moroccoan coast. Major Rennel l fixed

his furthest point somewhere north of S ierra Leone, andheld the Island of the Gorillae to be identical with the I slandof She rboro ’

. Bougainvi l le bel ieved that he at any ratewent wel l into the Bight of Benin

,whi le others think he wen t

at any rate as far as Gaboon . I can n o t mysel f see whyhe should not have done so

,considering the winds and

tides of the locality and the time taken ; indeed , I shouldbe quite wi l l ing to bel ieve he went down to Congo, andthat in the most terrific of the fires he witnessed aneruption of the volcani c peak of Cameroon , a volcanonot yet extinct. Indeed the name given to thishigh fire “ that almost reached the stars ” by hisinterpreters—the Chariot of the Gods—i s not so veryunl ike the name the Cameroon Peak bears to this day ,Mungo Mah Lob eh , the Throne or Place of Thunder, an d


that magnificent Great Cameroon and Fernando Po ; an dHanno’s peop le were scared as they were never scaredbefore . Ye t , again , there are those fi res, which were in themain doubtless what that very wise and not half-appreciated missionary, the late Rev. J . Leighton W i lson

,says .

they were,namely, fi res made by the native burning down

the high grass at the end of a dry season to make his.farms . Now Hanno could have seen any quantity of thesealong parts of the shores of the Bight of Benin

,but is not

l ikely to have seen them to any alarming extent on theBiafran Bight, because the shores thereof are deeply fringedwith mangrove swamps

,and the native does not start

making farms in them . Hanno might have seen whatlooked l ike the smoke of innumerable fires on the s ides ofCameroon Mountain and Fernando Po . I myself haveseen the whole mighty forest there smoking as if beneathit smouldered the infernal regions themselves ; but i t i sonly columns and wafts of mist

,and so gives no blaze at

night i f you want to see a real land of flame with,over it

,a

pal l of cloud reflecting back its crimson l ight in a real lyterrify ing way, you must go south of Cameroon , southof Congo Francais , sou t h, unti l you reach the region of t heGreat Congo itself ; and there—on the grass -covered hil lsand plains of the Lower Congo lands—you wil l see a landof fire at the end of the dry season

,terrific enough to aw e

any man . Of course,i f Hanno passed the Congo and went

down as far as the fringing sands of the Kalahari desert,he

would certainly not have been able to get stores ; but also downthere he would not have met with an island on which therewere gori l las for even i f we grant that there was sufficientdense forest south of the Congo in his days for gori l las tohave inhabited

,and al low that in old days gori l las were

COMMERC IAL CONSIDERAT IONS 239

south of the Congo,which they are not now, sti l l , there is

no i s land near the coast . 5 0 I am afraid we cannot qu itesettle Hanno’s furthest point, and must content ourselvesby saying he was a brave man

,a good sai lor

,and a credi t

therefore to his country and the human race .After Hanno’s time I cannot find any record ofa regular set of trading expeditions down the WestCoast by the Carthaginians . From scattered observations it i s certain the commerce of the Carthaginianswith the Barbary Coast and the Bight of Benin waslong carried on ; but i t does not seem to have beencarried on along the coast of the Bight of Biafra andthe voyage in 1 70 B .C . may be cited in support of this ,showing that the voyage as far south as Eudoxus went wasthen considered as marvel lous and new. Sti l l , on the otherhand

,i t must be remembered that

,prior to our own day,

the navigator had no great inducement to tel l the rest ofthe world exactly where he had been indeed

,the navigator

whose main interest i s commerce is , to this day, not keenon so doing. He would rather keep l ittle geographicalfacts—such as short cuts by creeks

,and places where either

gold,or quicksi lver

,and buried ivory

,i s plentiful—to himself

,

than go explaining about these things for the sake of getting an u n repayin g honour . On e sees this so much instudying the next period of this history— the early Portugu e se and early French discoveries you wi l l find that oneof these nations knew about a place years before the othercame along, and discovered it, and claimed it as its ownwith disputes as a natural consequence .There has

,however, been one very interesting point

in the deal ing of the nations of higher culture withthe Africans , and that is the way thei r commerce


with them has had periods of abeyance . The Egypt ians have left us record of having been extens ively int ouch with the interior of Africa, via the N i le V al ley

,

then came a pause . Then came the Carthaginian commerce,— then a pause. Then the Portuguese, French, En gl ish

,Dutch, and Dane trading enterp rise, say, roughly from

1 340 to 1 700,—then a fal l ing off of this enterprise revived

during the Slave-trade days , fal l ing off again on its s u ppress ion

,and reviving in our own days . I suppose I ought to say

g reatly, but—wel l, we wi l l d iscuss that later. These pauseshave always been caused by the nat ions of higher cu lturegetting too busy with wars at home to trouble themselvesabout the African , al l the more so because the produce ofAfrica has fi l tered s lowly

,whether it was fetched by white

man or no, i nto their markets through the hands of the energeti c North African tribes and the Arabs . Whenever thewhite man has settled down with his home affairs

,an dhas had

time to spare , he has always gone and looked u p the Africanagain

,discovered him

,

”and he has always found him in thesame state of cu lture that the pioneers of the p revious Blu thperiod found him in . Hanno does not find down theWestCoast another Carthage—he finds bush fi res , and hears thetom-tom and the horn and the shouts . He finds peoples l ightly clad and savage . Then read A lu ise da Ca daMostro and the rest of Prince Henry’s adventures ; well ,you might—save that the old travel ler i s more interesting—almost be reading a book publ ished yesterday .

The only radical change made for large quantit ies ofAfri cans by means of white intercourse was made byexporting them to America. How this is going toturn out we do not yet know ; and whether or no ,after the p resent period of white exp l oitation of Africa,


there was a place cal led Tagaz z a,signifying a chest of

gold there large quantities of rock salt were dug from theearth every year and carried on camels by theArabs and theAz an agh i, who were tawny Moors ,1 i n separate companiesto Timb u k ,

and from thence to the Empire of Mel l i,which

belonged to the negroes having arrived there they disposedof thei r salt in the course of eight days

,at the rate of tw o

and three hundred m it igals the load (a mit igal a ducat) ,accord ing to the quantity thereof

,after which they re

turned home with the gold they had been paid in . The semerchants reckoned it forty days ’ j ourney on horsebackfrom Tagaz z a to “Timb u k as Mostro

,while from Tim

buk to Mel l i i t i s thi rty days ’ j ourney. Ca da Mostrothen inqu ired to what use the salt taken to Mel l i wasput ; and they said that the merchants used a certainquantity of it themselves

,for on account of thei r country

lying near the L ine, where the days and nights are of equallength

,at certain seasons of the year the heats were exce s

s ive,and pu t refied the blood unless salt was taken ; their

method of taking i t was to dissolve a p iece i n a porringerof water dai ly and drink it . When the remainder of thesalt reached Mel l i

,carried thither on camels

,each camel load

was broken u p into p ieces of a suitable size for one man tocarry. A large number of what Ca da Mostro cal ls footmenw hom we nowadays ca l l porters—were assembled at Mel l ito be ready to carry the salt from thence further away sti l li nto the heart of Africa.I have dwelt on this salt ’s wanderings because we1 Th e w rit ers of the fou rteen th an d fifteen th cen t u ries common ly

divide u p t he n at ive s of Africa in to—1 , Moors ; 2,Taw n y Moors ;

3 , B lack Moors , a t erm t hat lin gers t o th is day in ou r w ordB lackeymoor 4, Negroes .

THE SALT TRADE 243

have here a very definite description of a trade route ,and the importance of understanding these trade routesi s very great . We do not learn , however, exactly wherethe salt goes to beyond Mel l i ; but Mel l i seems to havebeen

,as Timbuctoo was

,and to a certain extent sti l l is ,

a trade focus and from Mel l i evidently the salt wentin many directions

,and it i s interesting to note Ca da

Mo s t ro’

s observations on the salt porters , who he says carryin each hand a long forked stick

,which when they are tired

they fix into the ground and rest thei r loads on so to-daymay you see the West African porters doing

,save that it

i s only the porters who have to pass over woodless plateauxon thei r journeys that carry two sticks .Speaking however further on the course of this salt tradeCa da Mostro says that some of the merchants of Mell igo with it unti l they come to a certain w at erfw he ther freshor salt his informant could not say ; but he holds itmost l ikely was fresh , or there would be no need ofcarrying salt there and it i s the opinion of the few peop lewho have of late years interested themselves in the matterthat this great water i s the N iger Jo liba. But be this asi t may, when those merchants from Mel l i arrive on thebanks of this great water they p lace thei r shares of salt i nheaps in a row, every one sett ing a mark on his own . Thisdone , the merchants retire ha l f a day’s journey ; then thenegroes, who wi l l not be seen or spoken with, and who seemto be the inhabitants of some is lan ds ,come in large boats

,

”andhaving viewed the salt lay a sum of gold on every heap andthen retire. When they are al l gone the negro merchantswho own the salt return

,and i f the quantity of gold p leases.

them they take it and leave the salt i f not,they leave both

and withdraw themselves again . The si lent peop le thenR 2


return , and the heaps from which they find the gold has beenremoved they carry away

,and either advance more gold to

the other heaps or take thei r gold from them and leave thesa l t. In this manner

,says Ca da Mostro

,from very anc ient

t imes these negroes have traded without either speak ingto or s eeing each other

,unti l a few years before

,when he

was at Cape Blanco among the Az an agh i, who supply thenegroes of Mel l i wi th thei r salt as aforesaid

,and who

evidently get from them goss ip as wel l as '

go ld. Theytold him that thei r fel low merchants among the blackMoors had told them that they had had serious trouble inconsequence of the then Emperor of Mel l i , a man whotook more general interest in affai rs than was commonin Emperors of Mel l i , having been fi red with a des ire toknow why these customers of his traders did not l ike beingseen ; he had commanded the salt merchants when theynext went to traffic with the s ilent peop le to capture someof them for him by digging p its near the salt heaps , concealin g themse lves there in and then rushing out and seizingsome of the strange people when they came to look at thesalt heaps . The merchants did not at al l rel ish the royalcommission

,for they knew, as any born trader would , that

i t must be extremely bad for trade to rush out and seizecustomers by the scruff of thei r necks whi le they werein the midst of their shopping. However

,much as the

command added to their commercial anxieties , the thinghad to be done

,or there was no doubt the Emperor wou ld

re l ieve them both of al l commercial anx ieties and the ir headsat one and the same time. So they carried out the royalcommand

,and captured four of their s i lent customers . Three

they immediately l iberated,thinking that to keep so many

would only increase the bad blood,and one specimen

OIL R IVER NAT IVES .

DR IV ING AWAY CUSTOMERS 245

wou ld be sufficient to satisfy the Imperial curios ity. U n

fortunately however the unfortunate captive they retainedwould neither speak nor eat

,and in a few days d ied and

so the salt merchants of Mel l i returned home in very - lowspiri ts

,feel ing assured that thei r Emperor would be actively

displeased with them for fai l ing to satisfy his curiosity, andthat the s i lent customers would '

b e too alarmed andangered with them for thei r unprovoked attack to dealwith them again . Subsequent events p roved them to becorrect in both surmises : his Majesty was highly disgustedat not having been able to see one of these people ; andnatural ly

,for the description given to him of those they had

captured was at least highly interesting . The merchantssaid they were a span ta l ler than themselves and wel lshaped

,but that they made a terrible figure because their

under l ip w as thicker than a man ’s fist and hung downon their breasts also that it was very red

,and something

l ike blood dropped from it and from thei r gums . Theupper lip was no larger than that of other people, and owingto this there were exposed to V iew both gums and teeth

,

which were of great size,particularly the teeth in the corners

of the mouth . Their eyes were of great ‘ s ize and blackness . As for the customers

,for three years went the

merchants of Mel l i to the banks of the great water andarranged thei r sal t heaps and looked on them for gold dusti n vain but the fourth year it was there and the merchantsof Mel l i bel ieved that thei r customers ’ l ips had begun toputrefy through the excessive heat and the want of salt,so that being unable to bear so grievous a distemper theywere compel led to return to their trade; Things w ere thenestabl ished on a fairly reasonable basis the merchants didnot again attempt to see their customers

,and they knew


from thei r experience with thei r capt ive that they were bynature dumb for had there been speech in him ,

wou ld he nothave spoken under the treatment to which he was subjectedAn d as for the Emperor of Mel l i he said right out he didnot care whether those blacks could speak or no

,so long

as he had but the p rofit of the ir gold .

This gold,I may remark , that was col lected at Mel l i

was divided into three parts : the fi rst was sent by theMel l i caravans to Kokhia on the caravan route to Syriaand Cairo ; the other two parts went from Mel l i to Timb u cto , where it was again d ivided up, some of i t goingto Toe t ,1 and from thence along the coast to Tun is , inBarbary. Some of it went to Hoden , not far from CapeBlanco

,and from there to Oran and Hona ; thence it

went to Fe z , Morocco , Az i la-Az as i, and Moosa , townsoutside the Straits of Gibraltar, whence it went i ntoEurope, through the hands of Ital ians, and other Christians

,who exchanged thei r merchandise for the wares of the

Barbary moors and the remainder of the gold went downto the West African Coast to the Portuguese at A rguin .

This description of the gold route i s by Ca da Mostro ,and is the first description of West African trade route Ihave found .

But I must tear myself from the fascination of goldand its trade routes and return to that s i lent trade. Thenext person after Ca da Mostro to mention it i s CaptainR i chard Jobson , who in made a voyageespecial ly to d iscover “ the golden trade ” of what hecalls Tombak , which i s our last author s Timb u k , byway of the Gambia, then held by many to be a mouthof the N iger.

1 Ato , accordin g t o th e vers ion given in Gryn aeu s .

248 EARLY TRADE IN WEST'

AFR ICA CHAP

offered too l ittle,they divide the merchand ise into tw o

parts,leaving near the gold as much as they are incl ined

to give for it, and then again depart . At their next returnthe bargain is fin ished

,for they either find more gold added

or the whole taken away,and the goods left on their hands .

A further confi rmation of the existence of this method of trad ing we find in that most interesting voyageof Claude Jan n equ in , S ieur de Rochfort, 1 639 . He says

,

“I n this cursed country —he always speaks of WestAfrica l ike that there i s no provis ion but fish driedi n the sun

,and maize and tobacco .

” The nat ives wi l lonly trade by the French laying down on the groundwhat they would give for the provis ions , and then goingaway

,on which the natives came and took the commodities

and left the fish in exchange . The regions he vis itedwere those of Cape Blanco .

To this day you wil l find a form of th is s i lent tradest i l l going on in Guinea . I have often seen on market roads in many districts

,but always wel l away from

Europeanised settlements , a l ittle space cleared by thewayside

,and neatly laid with plantain leaves

,whereon

were very tid i ly arranged various l ittle artic les forsale — a few kola nuts , leaves of tobacco , cakes ofsalt

,a few heads of maize, or a pi le of yams or

sweet potatoes . Against each class of articles so manycowrie shel ls or beans are p laced , and , always hangingfrom a branch above

,or sedately sitting in the middle of

the shop , a l ittle fetish . The number of cowrie shel ls orbeans indicate the p rice of the individual articles in thevarious heaps

,and the l ittle fetish is there to see that

any one who does not p lace i n the stead of the art iclesremoved thei r proper price

,or who meddles with the ti l l ,

OR IGIN OF THE SILENT TRADE 249

shal l swel l up and burst. There i s no doubt it i s a very easymethod of carrying on commerce.In what the s i lent trade may have originated it i s hardto say ; but one th ing is certain , that the dread andfear of the negroes did not result from the evi l effectsof the slave trade

,as so many of their terrors are

said to have done,for we have seen notice of it long

before this slave trade arose. Nevertheless , there canbe but little doubt that i t arose from a sense of personalinsecurity

,and has fetish in it

,the natives holding it safer

to leave so dangerous a thing as trafficking with unknownbeings—white things that were most l ikely spirits , with thesmell of death on them—in the hands of thei r gods . I n thecases of it that I have seen no doubt i t was done mostlyfor convenience

,one person being thereby enabled to have

several shops open at but l ittle working expense ; but Ihave seen it emp loyed as a method of trading betweentribes at war with each other.1 We must dismiss

,I fear,

bashfulness regarding l ips as being a real cause ; but Iwi l l not dismiss the bleeding l ips as a mere travel ler’s tale

,

because I have seen quite enough to make me understand what those peop le who told of bleeding thick l ipsmeant ; several , not al l of my Afri can friends , are a bitthick about the lower lip , and when they have beenpassing over waterless sun-dried plateaux or bits of desertthey are anything but decorative . The lips get swol lenand black , and Ca da Mostro does not go too far in h isdescription of what he was told regarding them .

1 M r. Lin g Roth kin dly in form s me of fu rth er in s tan ces of this

s ilen t t radin g t o b e fou n d in Lan a’ef s jou rn al , Lon d.

, 1 832 , iii. 16 1—1 63 ,

an d Forb es ’s Wan dering s of a Nat u ral is t,Lon d. 1 886

,w h ere it is

cit ed for the Ku b u s of Sumat ra. He s ays it als o occu rs amon g the

Veddah s , an d that there is in n o cas e an y fe t ish con t ro l .

CHAPTER XIFRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA

Con cern in g t he con troversy that is b etw een t he Fren ch an d the

Port u gu e se as t o w h ich of th em firs t vis it ed We s t Africa, w ithspecial referen ce t o th e fort at E lm in a.

WE wil l now turn our attention to the other p ioneers of ourpresentWest A frican trade, and commence with the French ,for we cannot disassociate our own endeavours in this regionfrom those of France

,Portugal , Holland , and the Branden

burgers ; nor are we the earl iest d iscoverers here. Whenwe Engl ish heard the West Afri can Coast was a regionworth trading with

,those great brick-makers for the archi

teets of England ’s maj esty,the traders

,went for it and

traded , and have made that trading pay as no other nationhas been able to do . However, from the fi rst we got cal ledhard names—pirates

,ru ffian s

,i nterlopers , and such l ike—in

fact, every bad name the other nations cou ld spare fromthe war of abuse they chronical ly waged against each other.The French claim to have traded with West Africa priorto the discoveries made there by the emissaries of PrinceHenry the Navigator.1 When on my last voyage out I was1 See th e firs t edit ion of H en ry the Navigator , by R . H . Major

,

w ho,w ith the en ormou s w eal th of h is kn ow ledge , vigorou s ly defen ds

the claim to Port u gu es e priority al thou gh I do n ot qu ite agree w ith

2 52 FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

honoured Portuguese , Diego and Lopez, should have beencal led microbes

,and I have no regrets about my fights for

the honour of the N iger for my own countrymen,nor for

my constant attempts to take the conceit out of my Frenchand Portuguese friends

,as a set-o ff for “ the conceit about

England ”they were always trying to take out of me,by

holding forth on what those Carthaginians had done onthe West Coast before France or Portugal were so much asdreamt of.The Portuguese discoveries you can easi ly read of in

Major’s great book on Prince Henry ; and as this book isful ly accepted as correct by the highest Portuguese au thorit ies , i t i s safer to do so than to attempt to hunt yourPortuguese hero for yourself

,because of the quantity of

names each of them possesses,and the airy indifference as

to what part of that name thei r national chroniclers use inspeaking of them . I have tried it

,and have severa l times

been in danger of going to my grave with the idea that Iwas investigating the exploits of two separate gentlemen ,whereas I was on ly deal ing with two parts of one gentleman ’s name ; nevertheless, i t i s a thing worth learn ingPortuguese for. An d

,in addition to Major’s book , we have

now,thanks to the Hakluyt Society, that superb thing , the

Chronicle of the Di scovery and Conquest of Guinea, byGomez Eanes de Zu rara—a work completed in 145 3 .

This work is one on which we are large ly dependent forthe details of the early Portuguese discoveries , becauseGomez Eanes spent the later part of his l i fe in tidying u p theTorre do Tombo—namely

,the national archives , of which

he was keeper—and his idea of tidying u p included thelady- l ike method of destroying old papers . I t makes onecold n ow to think of the things De Zu rara may have

X1 PR INCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR 2 5 3

destroyed but he evidently regarded himself,as does the

n ineteenth century spring-cleaner,as a human benefactor

and,strange to say

,his contemporaries quite took his view

indeed , this job was done at the request of the Cortes , andwith the Royal sanction . There is also an outstandingaccusation of forgery against Zu rara, but that is a minoroffence

,and is one we need only take into consideration when

contemplating the question as to whether a man capable ofdestroying early manuscripts and forgery might not bealso capable of leaving out of his Chronicle, in honour ofthe Navigator

,any mention of there being Frenchmen on

the Coast,when he sent out his emissaries to discover

what might lay hidden from the eye of man down in theSouthern Seas. I do not , however, think De Zu rara leftout this thing intentional ly

,but that he had no knowledge

of it i f i t didexist, for no man could have written as hewrote

,unless he had a heart too great for such a meanness .

Certain it is Prince Henry never knew,for these are the

five reasons given by Zu rara,in the grave , noble sp lendour

of his manner,why the Prince undertook the discoveries with

which his name wil l be for ever associated . I give the passagealmost in ful l because of its beauty.

“An d you should notew e l l that the nob le spirit of this Prince (Henry the Navigator)by a sort of natural constraint was ever urging him both tobegin and carry out very great deeds ; for which reasonafter the taking of Ceuta

,he always kept ships we l l armed

against the Infidel , both for war and because he also had awish to know the land that lay beyond the Isles of Canaryand that Cape cal led Bojador

,for that u p to hi s time neither

by writings nor by the memory of man was known withany certainty the nature of the land beyond that Cape .Some said indeed Saint Brandan had passed that way,

2 54 FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA CHAP.

and there was another tale of two gal leys rounding theCape which never returned and because the saidLord Infant wished to know the truth of this—s ince i tseemed to him if he

,or some other Lord , did not endeavour

to gain that knowledge,no mariners or merchants would

ever dare to attempt it, (for the reason that none of themever trouble themselves to sai l to a place where there i s n o ta sure and certain hope ofprofit ,) and seeing also that nootherprince took any pains in this matter

,he sent out his own

ships against those parts , to have manifest certainty of themal l

,and to this he was stirred up by his zeal for the service

of God,and of K ing Dom Du arto , his Lord and brother ,

who then reigned and this was the first reason of h isaction .

“The second reason was that i f there chanced to be inthose lands a population of Christians or some havens intowhich it would be poss ible to sai l without peri l , many kindsof merchandise might be brought to this nation which wouldfind a _ ready market, and reasonably so because no otherpeople of these parts traded with them

,nor yet peop le of

any other that were known and also the p roducts of thi snation might be taken there

,which traffic would bring great

p rofit to our countrymen .

”

“The third reason was that as i t was said that the powerof the Moors in that land of Africa was very much greaterthan was commonly supposed

,and that there were n o

Christians among them nor any other race of men,and

because every wise man is obl iged by natural prudence tow ish for a knowledge of the power of his enemy thereforethe said Lord Infant exerted himsel f to cause them to beful ly d iscovered to make it known determined ly how far thepower of those In fidels extended .

”

FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA CHAP.

next year again went down the coast as far as a gal leyshaped rock . This place they called Pedro de Gal l i , fromits appearance its present name is Pedra de Galla . Theirch ief achievement was the d iscovery of the Rio do Oura .

I t i s not an important river in itself, but only one of thosedeceptive estuaries common on the West coast . But itwas the fi rst West African place the Portuguese got golddust at

,hence i ts name. The amount of gold was appar

ently not considerable,and the chief cargo that expedition

took home was sea wolves’ skins they reported quantitiesof seals or sea wolves as they cal led them here

,and this

report was the cause of the next Portuguese exped ition ;for the Portuguese in those days seem to have alwaysbeen anxious for sea wolves ’ oi l and Skins and whetherthis be a survival or no

,i t seems to me curious that the

ladies of L isbon are to this day very keen on sealskinj ackets

,which their cl imate can hardly cal l for imperatively.

But,however this may be

,i t is certain that we have no

account of the Portuguese having passed south of the nextimportant cape South of Bojador, namely, Blanco , before1443. The terrible tragedy of Tangiers and politi cal troubleshindered thei r exp lorations from 1436 to and theFrench claim to have been down the West Coast trading not only before th is date

,but before Prince Henry

sent a s ingle expedition out at al l , namely, as early as1 346.

The French story is that there was a deed of associationof the merchants of Dieppe and Rouen of the date I 364.

This deed was to arrange for the carrying on to greaterproportions of thei r al ready ex ist ing trade with WestAfrica . The original of this deed was burnt, according to

1 Prin ce H en ry the N avigator ; Major.

XI A TRADE ASSOC IAT ION 2 5 7

Labat,at Dieppe , i n the con flagrat ion of How long

before this Association was formed that trade had beencarried on

,i t is a l ittle d ifficult to make out

,I find

,from

the usual hindrance to the historical study ofWest Africa,

namely,lack of documentary evidence and a p rofusion of

recriminatory lying. This association was under the patronage of the Dukes of Normandy, then Kings of England ;and its ultimate decay is p artly attributed to the pol it icald ifficulties these patrons became involved in . The Frenchauthorities say the Association was an exceedinglyflourishing affai r ; and i t i s stated that under itsausp i ces factories were establ ished at S ierra Leone, andthat a fort was bui lt at La M ina del Ore , or De l M i na ,the place now known as Elmina, as early as 1 382 . Now i tis round the subject of this fort that most controversywages

,for this French statement does not at al l agree

with the Portuguese account of the fort . The latterclaim to have discovered the coast—cal led by them La

M ina, by us the Gold—in 1470,with an expedition com

man ded by Joao de San tarim and Pedro de Es cobara.

The Portuguese , finding this part of the coast rich ingold , and knowing the grabbing habits of other nationswhere this was concerned

,determined to secure this

trade for themselves in a sound practical way,although

they were already guarded by a Papal Bul l . Theexped ition that discovered La M ina was the last onemade during the reign of Affonso V . ; but his son , w ho

succeeded him as Joao I I .,rapidly set about acting on the

information it brought homef This king indeed took anintel l igent interest in the Guinea trade

,and was wel l versed

in it ; for a part of his revenues before he came to the1 Lab at , Afr i

’

qu e occz'

a’

en tale, vol . iv . p . 8. 1 724.

S

2 5 8 FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA CHAP.

throne had been derived from it and its fisheries . Joao I I .

energetical ly pushed on the enterprise founded by his fatherA ffonso V . ,

who had in 1469 rented the trade of the Gu ineaCoast to Fern am Gomez for five years at 500 equ iz odas ayear

,

1 on the condition that 1 00 leagues of new coast shouldbe discovered annual ly

,starting from S ierra Leone , the

then furthest known part,and reserving the ivory trade to

the Crown . The expedition sent out by King Joao, comman ded by the celebrated Diego de Azambuj a, took withit,i n ten caravels and two smal ler craft, ready fashioned

stones and bri cks,and materials for bu i lding

,w ith

the intention of bui lding a fort as near as might be to aplace cal led Sama, where the previous expedition had t e

ported gold dust to be had from the nat ives . This fort wasto be a means of keeping up a constant trade with thenatives

,instead of depending only on the visits of sh ip s to

the coast. Azambuj a selected the place we know now asElmina as a suitable s ite for this fort. Having obtained aconcession of the land from the King Casaman ca

,on repre

senting to him what an advantage i t would be to him tohave such a strong p lace wherein he and his people cou lds eek security against thei r enemies, and which would act asa constant market place for his trade

,and a storehouse for

the Portuguese goods , Azambuj a lost no time in bui lding thefort with his ready-fashioned materials

,and not on ly the fort,

but a church as wel l . Both were dedicated to San Gorge daM ina, and a dai ly mass was instituted to be said thereinfor the repose of the sou l of the great Prince Henry theNavigator

,whose body had been laid to rest in November,

1 460. Indeed , one cannot but be struck with the wealtho f Portuguese information that we possess

,regarding the

1 Equ al t o n ear ly 30 En glish per an n um .

260 FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

considerable cargo of ready-dressed stones and materials formonuments

,and that from the quantity of discoveries these

expeditions made , the sixteenth century Portuguese homeward bound must have been fly ing as l ight as the Cardiffbound col l ier of to-day .

Sti l l i t is remarkable that with al l the wealth of detai lthat we have of these Portuguese discoveries in the fifteenthcentury there is no mention of the French being on the coastbefore Pedro do C intra reaches S ierra Leone and cal ls i t bythis name because of the thunder on the mounta ins roaringl ike a l ion

,and so on but he says nothing of French fac

tories ashore . Az amb uja gives quant ities of detai l regardingthe bui lding of San Gorge da M ina , but never says a wordabout there being already at this place a French fort ; yetSieur V illau lt , Es cu yer, S ieur de Be l lfon d,1 speaks of it withdetai l and certainty. A lso M . Robbe says that one of theship s sent out by the association of merchants in 1 382 wascal led the Virg in ,

that She got as far as Kommenda,and

thence to the place where M ina stands,and that next year

they bu i l t at this p lace a strong house , in which they keptten or twelve of their men to secure it ; and they were sofortunate in this settlement that in 1 387 the colony wasconsiderably enlarged

,and did a good trade unti l 141 3 ,

when , owing to the wars in France , the store of theseadventurers be ing exhausted

,they were obliged to qu i t not

only M ina, but thei r other settlements , as Sestro Paris ,Cape Mount , S ierra Leone, and Cape V erde .Villau lt

, who went to West Afri ca to stir u p the Frenchto renew the Guinea trade

, Openly laments the fol ly of the1 A Relation of t lze Coas ts of Afr ica cal led Gu in ea col lected by

Sieu r Vil lau l t , E scuy er , Sieu r de B el lfon d, in t lt e y ears 1 666—1 667 .

Lon don Joh n Starkey,1 670.

XI VOYAGERS FROM DIEPPE 26 1

French in ever having abandoned it owing to certain prej udices they had taken against the cl imate. His accounto f i t is that about the year 1 346 some adventurers ofDieppe, a port in Normandy, who as descendants of theNormans, were wel l used to long voyages, sai led along thecoast of the negroes, Guinea, and settled several colonies inthose parts, particularly about Cape Verde, in the Bay ofRio Fesco , and along the Melequ e ta coast . To the Bay

,

which extends from Cape Ledo to Cape Mount they gavethe name of the Bay of France ; that of Peti t Dieppe tothe vi l lage of Rio Corso (between Rio France and RioSestro) that of Sestro Paris to Grand Sestro, not far fromCape Palmas while they carried to France great quantitiesof Gu inea pepper and elephants ’ tusks

,whence the in

habitants of Dieppe Set up the trade of turning ivory andmak ing several useful works

,as combs

,for which they

grew famous,and sti l l continue so. Villau lt also Speaks of

a fair church sti l l i n be ing ” at E lm i na,adorned with the

arms of France,and also says that the chief battery to the

s ea i s cal led by the nat ives La Bat tarie de France and hespeaks of the affection the natives have for France, ands ays they beat thei r drums in the French manner. Barbotal so speaks of the affection of the natives for the French

,

and says that on h is last voyage in 1 682 the king sent himhis second son as hostage

,i f he would come up to Great

Kommon do , and treat about settl ing in his country, althoughh e had refused the Engl ish and theDutch. Barbot

,however

,

does not agree with V illau l t about the prior rights ofFrance to the d iscovery of Guinea he thinks that i f thesefacts be true it i s strange that there i s no mention

-of so important an enterprise in French historians , andconcludes that it would be unjust to the Portuguese to

FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA CHAP.

attribute the first d iscovery of this part of the world to theFrench. He also thinks it evidence against it that thePortuguese historians are S i lent on the point

,and that

Azambuj a, when he began to bu i ld his castle at Elmina in1484, never mentions there being a castle there that hadbeen buil t by Frenchmen in 1 38 5 . This

,however

, I thinkis not real evidence against the prior right of France . Take

,

for instance, the examples you get constantly when readingthe books of Portuguese and Dutch writers on Guinea. You

cannot fai l to be struck how they ignore each other’s existence as much as possible when credit is to be given indeedwere it not for the necess ity they feel themselves underof abusing each other

,I am sure they would do so alto

gether,but this they cannot res ist . Here is a sample

of what the Portuguese say of the Dutch That the rebels(meaning the Dutch) gained more from the blacks bydrunkenness

,giving them wine and strong l iquors

,than

by force of arms,and instructing them as ‘ministers of the

Devi l in their wickedness . But that their dissolute l ivesand manners

,j oined to the advantage which the Portuguese

at M ina,though inferior in numbers

,had gained over them

in some rencontres, had rendered them as contemptibleamong the blacks for their cowardice as want of virtue. Thathowever the blacks

,being a barbarous peop le, susceptible of

fi rst imp ress ions, readi ly enough swal lowed Calvin ’s poison(Protestantism) , as wel l as took off the merchandise whichthe Dutch, taking advantage of the Portuguese indolencesold along the coast

,where they were become absolute

p irates . ’ Then , again , the same author says , The quantityof merchandises brought by the Dutch and their cheapness ,has made the barbarians greedy of them

,although persons

of qual ity and honour assured them that they would

264 FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA CHAP.

quite agree with Vil lau l t about the quantity of wordsderived from the French that you w i l l find to this day amongthe native tongues

,and even in the trade Engl ish of the

Coast,and in districts that have not been under French

sway in the historical memory of man . On e of thesewords i s the word ju ju ,

”always regarded by the nativesas a foreign word . Their own word for rel igion

,or more

properly speaking for sacred beings,i s “bosum

,

” orwoka. They only say “

ju ju so that you wh ite manmay understand . The percentage , however, of Portuguesewords in trade English is higher than that of French .

After the fifteenth century it is not needful n ow to d iscussi n detai l the subj ect of the French presence inWest Africafor both Dutch and Portuguese freely own to the presencethere of the Frenchmen

,and openly state that they were a

source of worry and expense to them , owing to the waythe natives p referred the French to either of themselves .The whole subject of the French conquests in Africa isan exceedingly interesting one

,and one I wou ld gladly

l inger over,for there i s in it that fascination that always

l ies in a subject which contains an element of mystery . Theelement of mystery in this affai r i s

,why France Should have

pers isted so in the matter—why she should have spentblood and money on it to the extent she has

,does

,and I

am sure wi l l continue to do,without its ever having paid

her in the past, or paying her now,or being l ikely to pay

her in the future , as far as one can see . There are moments when it seems to me clear enough why she has donei t al l but these moments only come when I am in an atmosphere reeking of La Gloire or La France—a thing Iown I much enjoy ; but when I am back in the cold intell ectual greyness of commercial England

,France’s conduct

XI FRENCH ENTERPR ISE 265

in Africa certainly seems a l ittle strange and curious , andfar more inexplicable than it was when one was onesel f person ally risking one ’s l ife and ruin ing one’s clothes , after ab eetle in the African bush . I real ly think it is this Sportingi nstinct in me that enables me to understand France inAfrica at al l and which gives me a thri l l of pleasure whenI read in the newspapers of her iniquitous conduct inturning u p ,

flag and baggage,in p laces where she had no

l egal right to be,or

,worse sti l l

,being found in possession

of bits of other nations ’ hinterland when a representativeo f the other arrives there w ith the intention of d iscoveringi t

,and to hi s disgust and alarm finds the most prominent

object in the landscape is the blue to the mast, bloodto the last

,flag of France

,with a fire-and-flames Frenchman

under it, possessed of a pretty gift of writing commu n ica

tions to the real owner of that hinterland— a respectablerep resentative of England or Germany—communicationsthreatening him with immediate extinction

,and cal l ing

him a fi l ibuster and an assassin,and things l ike that. For

the l i fe of me I cannot help a “ Go it, Sal l , and I ’ ll hold

your bon n it ”feel ing towards the Frenchman . I t i s not myfault entirely . Gladly would I hold my own countryman’sbonnet, only he won ’t go it i f I do ; 5 0 1 have to contentmyself with the knowledge that England has made theWestCoast pay, and that she certainly did beat the Dutch andPortuguese off the Coast in a commercial war. Sti l l shew i l l never beat France off in that way

,because the French

interest in Africa is not a commercial one . France canand wil l injure our commerce in West A frica, in al l probabil ity she wi l l ultimately extinguish i t

,i f things go on

as they are going, while we cannot hit back and injure hercommercial prosperity there because she has none to inj ure .


There i s also another point of great interest, and that isthe different effect produced by. the governmental interference of the two nations in expansion of territory .

That the expansion of trade, and spheres of influenceare concurrent in this region is now recognised by ou r

own Government ; 1 although the Government somewhatflippan t ly remarks poss ibly too late. I t i s

,i n my opinion

,

certainly too late as regards both Sierra Leone and theGold Coast ; but yet we see smal l evidence of our Government taking themselves seriously in the matter

,or of thei r

feel ing a regret for having fai led to avai l themselves of thework done for England on the West Coast by some of thenoblest men of our blood . I have often heard it said itwas a sad thing for an Engl ishman to contemplate ourWest African possess ions , save one , the Royal N iger ;but I am sure it is a far sadder thing for an Engl ishwoman who is ful l of the pride of her race

,and who wel l

knows that that pride can only be j ustified by its men,

to see on the one hand the splend id achievements of MungoPark

,the two Landers , the men who held the Gold Coast

for England when the Government abandoned it afterthe battle of Kataman s u

,of Winwood Reade who , in the

emp loy of Messrs . Swanzy, won the right to the N igerbehind S ierra Leone, and many others and on the otherhand to see the map of West Africa to-day, which showso nly too clearly that the English Government’s last chanceof saving the honour of England l ies in their supportingthe Royal N iger Company.

I t seems that as soon as a West Coast region fal ls underdirect governmental control with us a process of pe t rification sets in

,and a pol icy of international amiabil ity and

1 Du ke of Devon sh ire ’s Speech at Liverpool , Ju n e , 1 897 .


Th is French settlement is to this day one of the mainFrench ports in Africa, and it has remained in ‘

their possession

,with the brief interval of fal l ing into the hands of the

Engl ish for a few months .The company that took over the enterprise of this Rouenand Dieppe Associat ion in 1 664 was cal led the Compagniedes Indes Occidentales ; i t paid for the stock and rightsof the previous association the sum of l ivres

,and

it had tremendous ambitions,for not only did i t buy up

the West African enterprise, but also the rights of thelords proprietors in the isles of Martinique, Guadaloupe, St .Christopher

, Santa Cruz , and Maria Galanta in the WestIndies . This company came to a sad end when it hadsti l l th irty years of i ts charter to run ; in 1 67 3 i t soldits remaining term of West African rights to a newcompany cal led d’

Afriqu e for 7 500 l ivres . I t s West I ndianpossessions the king seized in 1 674, and united them withthe Crown .

I t S'

s u cces sor, the Compagnie d’

Afriqu e , started with itsthirty years ’ charter

,and al l the great ambitions of its pre

decessor. The king gave it every ass istance in the way ofShips and troops to carry ou t its designs ; and it avai leditself of these

,for finding i ts trade incommoded by the

Dutch,who were then settled at An gu in and Goree in 1 677 ,

i t got the king to remove the Dutch nuisance from Goreeby an expedition under Count d’

Es t raS, and in 1 678 , by anexpedition of its own

,under M . de Casse, i t cleared the

Dutch out of Anguim.

This company also made many treaties with the nativechiefs . I n 1 679 , by means of treaty with the chiefs ofRio Fresco

,nowadays barbarously spelt Ru fisqu e , and

Portadali, now Port in dal,and Joal

,whose name is sti l l

uninjured,it acquired rights over al l the territory b e

x1 SAD CONDUCT OF THE GREAT 269

tween Cape Verde and the Gambia ; 1 an exclusion fromthere of al l . other traders

,and an exemption from all

customs ; and in addition to these enterprises it enteredinto a contract with the King of France to providehim with negroes per annum ”for his West IndianI slands , and as many more as he might require for use inthe gal leys . Shortly after this the Compagnie d’

Afriqu e

expired in bankruptcy, compounding with its creditors atthe rate of 5 s . in the A which I presume was paidmainly out of the l ivres for which it sold itsclaim to its successors . The successors were a l ittle difficult to find at fi rst

,for there seems to have been what one

might cal l distaste for West African commercial enterpriseamong the French publ ic just then . However

,a company

was got together to buy up its rights,accept its responsi

b ilit ies and carry on business in 1 68 1 .

I n the matter of the company that succeeded thed

’

Afriqu e , confusion is added to catastrophe, owing to thethen M inister of State , M . Seignelay, for some private end ,having divided u p the funds and created two separate compan ies ,

—one to have the trade from Cape Blanco and theGambia—the Compagnie du Senegal the other to hold therest of the Gu inea trade to the Cape of Good Hope , theCompagnie du Guinea. This arrangement, of course , leftthe Senegal Company with al l the responsibi l i ty of the compagn ie d

’

Afriqu e , and without sufficient funds to deal withthem and the Compagnie du Senegal comp lained , when , i n1 694, i t found its affairs in much confusion , throwing theblame on the Government ; but, says Astley, “ the greatare seldom without excuses for what “they do

,and the

1 An exten t of th irt y leagu es an d s ix leagu es w ithin the lan d.

Labat, p . 1 9 .


divis ion of the concession was persisted in,on the grounds

that when the company that succeeded d’

Afriqu e was intacti t fai led to fulfi l the Government contract of sendingnegroes annual ly to theWest Indies and also that it had notimported as much gold from A frica as it m ight have done

.

Against this the Di rectors remonstrated loudly,saying

that,during the two years and a half during wh ich they

had been responsible for exporting negroes to the WestIndies , they had supplied negroes

,that the register

of the M in t proved they had sent home in three years400 marks of gold , and that it had cost themlivres to re -establ ish the trade of the Compagnie d’

Afriqu e ,

for which they had already paid more than it was worth.

All they got by these complaints was an extension oftheir trade rights from Gambia to S ierra Leone anda confirmation of their monopoly in exporting negroesto the French West Indies

,and of thei r rights to

An gu in and Goree, that is to say, a promise of Government assistance if those Dutch should come and attemptto reinstate themselves to the incommodation of Frenchcommerce.All this however did not avai l to make the Compagnie da

Senegal flourish , so in 1 694 i t sold its remaining seventeenyears of rights for l ivres

,to S ieur d’

Apou gn y ,

one of the old Di rectors ; and this enterprising mansecured the ass istance of eighteen new Shareholders , andobtained from the Crown a new charter

,and started

afresh under the name of the “ Compagnie du Senegal ,Cap Nord e t Cote'd’

Afriqu e . I t did not p rosper ; nevert he les s i t may be regarded as having produced the founderof modern Senegal, for it sent out to attend to its affairs ,when things were in a grievous mess

,one of the greatest


t rol ler-general of the finance of France by a specious schemefor a bank

,an East India Company and a M ississippi Com

pany,by the p rofits of wh ich the French national debt was

to be paid off,a thing then in urgent need of doing

,and

every one connected with the affai r was to make theirfortunes

,an undertaking always in need of doing in any

country. The French Government gave him every en

cou ragemen t , and in 1 7 1 6 he Opened the bank ; in 1 7 1 9

the shares of that bank were worth more than eighty timesthe current Specie in France ; i n 1 720 that bank burst ,spread ing commercial ru in . To this may be ascribed theperiod of paralys is in the Senegal trade from 1 7 1 9 . TheCompagnie de Senegal had handed over their interest tothe M ississippi Company involved in John Law ’s bankscheme. After this

,up to 1 8 1 7 , France l ike F. M . the

Duke of Wel l ington anent playing upon the harp , hadother things to do ”than attend toWest Africa. During theNapoleonicWars England took al l the French possessions inWest Africa, but by the treaty of Paris of 1 8 14 she handedback those in Senegal , save the Gamb ia. The Frenchan d a fert ile in ven t ion ,”h e, w hen very you n g, recommen dedh im se lf t o.

t he Kin g’s min is ters in Scot lan d t o arran ge fiscal mat t ers , th en in some

con fu s ion from the u n ion of t he Kin gdom s . His sch eme , how ever,w as n ot adopt ed. Great at givin g o ther peop le good advice on mon eymat t ers

,he failed t o man age his ow n . After a gay career in Edin b u rgh ,

an d gain in g h ims e lf the t it le of “B eau Law ,

”h e got mixedu p in a du e l ,an d fled t o th e Con t in en t . He w as b an ish ed from Ven ice an d Gen oa

for drain in g th e you th of t h ose cit ie s of the ir mon ey,an d w an dered

ab ou t I taly, livin g on gamin g an d s in gu lar b et s an d w agers . He

propos ed h is sch eme t o the Du ke of Savoy,w ho s aw b y this sch eme

h e cou ld s oon , b y deceivin g h is s u bject s in this man n er, ge t th e w h o leof t h e mon ey of th e kin gdom in t o his pos se s sion ; b u t as Law cou ldn o t explain w hat w ou ld happen th en , h e w as repu ls ed, an d proceededt o Paris

,w h ere , u n der the pat ron age of th e Du c d

’o rlean s , th ey

fou n d favou r w ith Lou is XIV . Wh en h is crash came h e w as exiled,an d died in Ven ice in 1 729 .

X1 GENERAL FAIDHERBE 2 73

vessel sent out to take over the territory was the i l l-starredand i l l -navigated M e

’

du s e . Owing to her wreck i t was notunti l 1 8 1 7 that France rep laced oflicially her standard onthis Coast . On the 2 5 th of January of that year, and represented by Colonel Sma l tz , She again entered into possessionof Goree and St . Louis in the mouth of the Senegal , whichwas p ractical ly a l l she had , and that was in a very u n sat is

factory state. Colonel Smaltz , i n 1 8 1 9 , had to come to anagreement with the Ou lof chief of the St Louis distri ct topay him a su bsidy, but a mere catalogue of the wars b etween the French and the Ou lofs is not necessary here theywere mutua l ly unsatisfactory unti l there enters on the scenethat second great founder of the French power in Africa ,General Faidherbe , in 1 8 54. Faidhe rb e i s indeed the founder ;but had it not been for Sieur Briie and his travels far intothe interior

,and the evidence he col lected regarding the

riches therein,and of the general value of the country

,i t is

n o t l ikely that , as things were in 1 8 54, France would havetroub led herself so much about extending her power inS enega l .Faidherbe was also one of those men who get possessedby a bel ief in the future of West Africa

,regardless of any

s tate of di lapidation they may find it in,and who have the

power of infusing their enthusiasm into the minds of othersan d he roused France to the importance of Senegal , sayingp rophetical ly, Ou r possession on theWest Coast of Africai s possibly the one of al l our colonies that has before it theg reatest future , and it deserves the whole sympathy andattention of the Emp i re .These were words more l ikely to inspire France or any

o ther reasonable Power with a desire to give Senegal attention

,than those used by the p revious French visitor

274 FRENCH DI SCOVERY OF WEST AFRICA CHAP.

there , M . Sanguin , i n 1 78 5 , who, speaking of the islandof St . Louis

,says i t consists entirely of burn ing sands

on whose barren surface you sometimes meet withscattered fl ints thrown out among their bal last by ships

,

and the ruins of bui ldings formerly erected by Europeans ; but he remarks it i s not surpris ing the sandsare barren

,for the ai r i s so strongly impregnated with

salt, which pervades everything and consumes even iron .

i n a very short space of time . The heat he reports u np leasant, and rendered thus more so by the reflect ionfrom the sand . I f the i s l and were not al l i t might be

,one

might sti l l hope for better things ashore on the mainland ,but not according to M . Sanguin . The main land i scovered with sand and overrun with mangles , not thesort, you understand , that vu lgar l ittle English boys usedto state their mothers had sold and invested the moneyin a barrel organ

,but what we now cal l mangroves then

,

mentioning that the St . Louis water supply was the causeof most of those maladies which carry off the Europeansso rapidly

,that at the end of every three years the colony

has a fresh set of inhabitants,M . Sanguin discourses on the

charms of West African night entertainments in a mostfeel ing and convincing way, stating that there was an infinityof gnats cal led mosquitoes

,wh ich exist in incredible quan

tities . He does not mind them himself, oh dear no ! beinga sort of savage

,he says, total ly indifferent to the impres

s ion he may create in the fair sex,so that

,i f you p lease, he

smears himself over with butter,which preserves him from

the mosquitoes ’ impertinent stings . How he came by a s u fficien cy of butter for this purpose I won ’t p retend to knowbut he knew mosquitoes

,for impertinent i s a perfect word

for them . M . Sanguin , however, was not the sort of man ,


mismanagement that fol low ed Faidherb e ’

s rule in commercial and financial matters .The want of financia l success in her enterprise in West

Africa is a matter that has constantly i rritated France .She i s continual ly saying : “Engl ish possessions on thatCoast pay

,why Should not mine 1 ” I t i s not my business

to obtrude on her an answer, I merely dwel l on the subjectbecause I clearly see there are creeping nowadays into ourown methods of managing Africa , those very same causesof financial fai lure that have affl i cted her

,namely

,too h igh

tariffs,too exaggerated views of the immediate profits

to be got from those regions, and certain unfair methods ofdeal ing with natives .I n attempting , however, to account for the trade fromthe French possessions i n West Afr ica being p roportionately so smal l to the immense area of country

,the make

of the country and its native inhabitants must be takeninto cons ideration . Enormous d istricts of the Frenchpossessions are

,to put it mildly

,not ferti le , and capable of

producing in the way of a marketable commodity onlygum

,which is gathered from the stems of the acacia

horrida. I t i s an excel lent gum , and there is p lenty of thisacacia

,and other gum -y ielding acacias , but pickers are not

so plent iful,particu larly now French authori ties object to

native enterprise taking the form of raid ing districts forslaves to emp loy in the industry . Other enormous districts ,however

,are as ferti le as need be , and densely forested

with forests rich in magnificent timber and rubber wealth.

The inhabitants,a most important factor in the prosperity

or otherwise,of West African regions , are varied , but

roughly speaking,we may say France possesses the whole

X1 THE MOORS AND TIMBUCTOO 277

of the tawny Moors,and tawny Moors have their good

points and their bad . Their good point,from our

present point of view,i s thei r commercial enterp rise .

From the earl iest hi stori cal account we have of themto the p resent day, i t has been thei r habit to suck thetrade out of the rich and ferti le distri cts , carry it acros sthe desert

,and trade i t with the white Moors , who , i n

thei r turn,carried it to the Mediterranean and Red Sea

ports . The opening of the West Coast seaboard trade ,inaugurated by the Portuguese

,has acted as a commercial

loss to the tawny Moors during the past 400 years , andmu st be held

,i n a measure , accountable for the decay

of the great towns of Timbuctoo,Jenne

,Mele

,and so on

,

though only in a measure,for herein comes the bad point

of the inhabitants of the Western Soudan,from our

point of V iew,namely

,their devotion to rel igious dif

feren ces and po l i tics , which prevents their attending tobusiness . As this state of internecine war came on aboutthe same period as the opening to the black Moors andnegroes of a market d irect with European traders in theBight of Benin

,i t hurried the tawny Moors to commercial

decay. Timbuctoo never recovered the blow dealt herby the Moorish conquest in 1 5 9 1 . At the breaking u p

of the Emp i re of Askia the Great , revolt and war ragedthrough the region , Jenne revolted in the west

,an

example fol lowed by the Touaregs Fulah and Malin kas e

tribes . Both north and south were thrown into confusion , and Timbuctoo , their intermediary, finding hercommerce injured , rebel led in her turn . She was conqueredand brutal ly rep ressed by the Moorish conquerors in 1 5 94.

A terrible dearth provoked by a lack of rain visited thetown , and her inhabitants were reduced to eating the corpses


of an imals,and even of men . This was fol lowed by the

pestilence of but through this arose any quantity ofwars and upheavals of pol itical authority among the tawnyMoors in the early days of European intercourse with theWest African Coast . They assumed a more acute

,rel igious

form in our own century,or to be more accuratej ust at the

end of the eighteenth,when Shaz kh Utham Dan fodio

arose among the Fulahs as a rel igious reformer,and a warrior

missionary. He was a great man at both,but as a d isturber

of traffic sti l l greater, a thing that cannot be urged to sogreat an extent against the other great Mu s lam miss ionaryUmaru l ’Haji. Sti l l hi s gathering together an army of

men in 1 8 54—5 5 , and going about with them on a

series of proselytizing expeditions against any tribe inthe Upper N iger and Senegal region he found to be in anunconverted state

,was l ittle better than a nuisance to the

French authorities at that time . Dan fodio’

s affairs havefal len into the hands of England to arrange

,and very

effi ciently her great representative in West Africa, theRoyal N iger Company, has arranged them . But for ourDan fodio and his consequences , France has had twenty,and she has dealt with them both gal lantly and patiently.

But there w i l l always be,as far as one can see, trouble for

France with her tawny Moors, now that the sources oftheir support are cut off from them by many of the districtsthey once drew their trade from— the sea-board d istricts ofthe Benin Bight

,l ike S ierra Leone, the Gold Coast and

Lagos , in the Engl ish N iger—being in the hands of a nationwhose commercial instincts enable it to see the benefits oflower tari ffs than France affects . Even were our tari ffs to

1 For an in teres t in g accou n t of Timb u ct oo an d it s h is tory, s ee

Tin iou ctoo tae My s teriou s , by M . Fe lix Du b ois . 1 897 .

280 FRENCH DISCOVERY OF WEST AFR ICA CH . X1

ern Soudan make one of the grandest pages of al lEuropean efforts in Africa ; that the influence of Franceover the natives has been

,i s

,and

,I be l ieve

,wil l remain

good . Ou r intentions are pure and noble,our cause :

i s j ust,the future cannot fai l us

,

” said Faidherbe.So far as the natives are concerned , thi s has been thepol icy of France in Western Africa . So far as diplomaticrelations with ourselves

,humanly speaking, i t has not ,

but diplomacy is d ip lomacy, and the amount of probityj ustice—in dip lomacy is a thing that would not at anyperiod cover a threepenny-bit . I t i s a form of war thatshows no blood

,but which has not i n it those things

which sanctify red war,honour and chivalry. Never

t he les s,dip lomacy is an essential thing In this world ; i t

does good work,i t saves l ife

,i t increases prosperity, i t

advances the cause of rel igion and know ledge,and there

fore the Wor ld must not be hard on it for its being—what .

i t i s. Persona l ly, I prefer contemp lating other things , and ,

30 1 turn to Commerce .

282 COMMERCE IN WEST AFRICA CHAP.

t he Navigator. But the history of Portugal in WestAfrica from the days of the Navigator onwards wantswriting. Sir A. B . E l l is fortunately gives us

,in his history

o f the Gold Coast, an account of the part that Portugalplayed there

,but

,except for this region , you must hunt it

u p second -hand in the references made to it by p rejudicedrivals

,or in scattered Portuguese books and manuscripts .

Whi le as for the commerc ial history of Portugal in WestAfrica

,although it has been an unbroken one from the

fi fteenth century to our own t ime,it has so far not been

wr itten at al l . Th is seems to me al l the more deplorable,because i t is ful l of important lessons for those nat ionswho are now attempting to exploit the regions she firstbrought them into contact with .

I t must be noted,for one thing

,that Portugal was the

fi rst European nation to tackle Africa in what is nowby many people cons idered the legitimate way

,namely

,

by direct governmental control . Other nations left WestAfrican affairs in the hands of companies of merchanta dventurers and private ind ividuals for centuries . Nevert he le s s , Portugal is nowadays unpopular among the othernations engaged in exploiting Africa . I shrink fromembroi l ing myself i n controversy

,but I am bound to say

I think she has become unpopular on account of prejud ice , ’

coupled with that strange moral phenomenon that makesmen desirous of persuading themselves that a person theyhave treated badly deserves such treatment.The more powerful European nations have dealt

s candalou sly, from a moral standpo int, with Portugal inAfrica. This one could regard calmly

,i t be ing in the

natu re of powerful nations to do this sort of thing, wereit not for the a irs they g ive themselves and to hear them

XI I THE PORTUGUESE IN AFR ICA 283

talking nowadays about Portugal ’s part in African historyis enough to make the uninitiated imagine that the sweetinnocent things have no past of their own , and never knewthe price of black ivory.

Oh , but that is al l forgiven and forgotten , and Portugali s j ust what she always was at heart

,

” you say. Wel l,

P ortugal at heart was never bad,as nations go . Her

s laving record is,in the point of humanity to the cargo

,the

best that any European nation can Show who has a slavingWest African past at al l.The thing She i s taxed with nowadays mainly is that

she does not develope her possessions. DevelopingAfrican possess ions is the fashion

,so natural ly Portugal

,

who pers ists on going about in crinol ine and poke bonnets tyle , gets jeered at. This is right in a way, so long aswe don ’t cal l i t the high moral view and add to it l ibel .I own that my own knowledge of Portuguese possessionsforces me to regard those possessions as in an unsatisfactorystate from an imperial istic standpoin t ; a grant made bythe home government for improvements

,say roads

,has

a tendency to—wel l,not appear as a road . Some one

several people possibly— is al l the better and happ ierfor that grant ; and after al l i f you do not pay youroflicials regularly

,and they are not Englishmen , you must

take the consequen ces. Even when an honest endeavouris made to tidy things u p ,

a certain mal ign influence seemsto dodge its footsteps in a Portuguese possession . Fo r

example, when I was out in ’

9 3 , Portugal had been severelyreminded by other nations that this was the N ineteenthCentury. Bom Dios—Bother it

, I suppose i t i s—saysPortugal—must do something to smarten up dear Angola .

She i s over 400 now,and hasn ’t had any new frocks S ince

284 COMMERCE IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

the Slave trade days perhaps they are right, and it ’s t imethis dear chi ld came out. So Loanda, Angola, was orderedstreet lamps— styl ish things street lamps l— a telephone

,and

a water supply. Now,say what you p l ease, Loanda is not

only the finest,but the only

,city inWest Africa. Lagos

you ej aculate— you don ’t know Lagos . I know I have notbeen ashore there ; nevertheless I have contemp latedthat spot from the point of V iew of Lagos bar for morethan thirty solid hours

,to say nothing of seeing photo

graphs of i ts detai ls galore,and I repeat the above

statement. Ye t for al l that,Loanda had no laid-on

water supp ly nor publ i c street lamps unti l She was wel lon in her 400th year, which was j ust before I fi rst mether. During the past she had had her water broughtdai ly in boats from the Bengo R iver, and for street l ighting she rel ied on the private enterprise of her ci tizens.1The reports given me on these endeavours to developewere as fol lows . AS for the water in its laid-o n state , i t w asheld by the more aristocratic ci tizens to be unduly expe n s

ive ( 500 reis per cubic metre), and they grumbled . Thegeneral publ ic

,though holding the same Op in ion, did not

confine their attention to grumbl ing. Stand -p ipes had beenput up in suitable places and an official told off to eachstand -p ipe to make a charge for water drawn . Water inWest Africa is woman ’s palaver

,and you may say what

you please about the down- t rodden n es s of African ladieselsewhere

,but I maintain that the West African lady in

the matter of getting what she wants is no discredit to therest of the sex, black , white, or yellow. I n this case thel adies wanted that water

,but d id not go so far as wanting

1 Loan da has n ow a gas compan y, an d th e in s tal lat ion is w e l l u n derw ay, u n der B e lgian s u pervis ion .

X1 1 WATER AND GAS IN LOANDA 28 5

t o pay for it . I n the history given to me it was evidentt o an unp rej udiced observer that they first tried kindnessto the guardian officials of the stand-pipes , but these menwere of the St . Anthony breed , and i t was no good .

Checked,but not foi led

,in their admirable purpose of

domestic economy, those dear ladies laid about in theirminds for other methods

,and final ly arranged that one of

a party vis i ting a stand -pipe every morning shoulddevote her time to scratching the official whi le the restfi l led their water pots and hers . This ingenious plan wasin working order when I was in Loanda, but since leavingit I do not know what modification it may have undergone, only I am sure that ultimately those ladies wi l lwin

,for the African lady—at any rate the West coast

variety— i s irresistible ; as L ivingstone truly remarked ,“ they are worse than the men .

”I n the street lamp matter

I grieve to say that the story as given to me does notleave my own country blameless . Portugal ordered forLoanda ‘a set of street lamps from England . She sentout a set of old gas lamp standards . There being no gasin Loanda there was a pause unti l oi l lamps to put' onthem came out . They ultimately arrived , but the F.W.D.

fai led to provide a ladder for ' the lampl ighter. Hencethat worthy had to swarm each ind ividual lamp-post

,a

time-taking performance which normal ly landed him in thearms of Aurora before Loanda was l i t for the '

n igh t ; but

however this may b e,

'

I must own that Loan da’

s l ights atn ight a re a truly love ly s igh t , and its chimneya credit to the whole West Coast of Africa

,to say nothing

of its Observatory and the weather reports i t so faithfullyissues , so faithful ly and so scientifical ly that i t makesone deeply regret that Loanda has not got a cl imate that

286 COMMERCE IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP

deserves them,but only one she might write down as

dry and have done with it.The present position of the Angola trade is interesting

,

instructive,and typical . I only venture to Speak on i t

in so far as I can appeal to the statements of Mr.

N ightingale,who is an excel lent authority

,having been

long resident in Angola,and heir to the traditions of

English enterprise there,so ably represented by the

fi rm of Newton,Carnegie and Co . The trade of Ka

Kongo,the dependent province on Angola

,I need not

mention,because its trade is conditioned by that of its

ne ighbours Congo Francais and the Congo Belge.The interesting point—painful ly interesting— is the supplanting of Engl ish manufactures

,and the way in wh ich

the English shipping interest 1 at present suffers fromthe differential duties favouring the Portuguese l ine, theEmpreza Nacional de Navigacao a V apor. This l ine , onwhich I have had the honour of travel l ing

,and consuming

in l ieu of other foods enough oil and ol ives for the restof my natural l i fe

,is an adm irable l ine . I t Shows a calm

acquiescence in the ordinances of Fate,a general courteous

gentleness,combined with strong smel ls and the strain

of stringed instruments,not to be found on other West

Coast boats . I t runs two steamers a month (6 th and 23rd)from L isbon, and they cal l at Madeira, St . V incent,Santiago, Principe and San Thome I slands, Kabinda, SanAntonio (Kongo), Ambriz, Loanda, Amb riz z e t te , Novo Redondo, Benguella, Mossamedes and Port Alexander, every

1 Referrin g t o cot ton goods , th e Foreign Office report on th e t rade of

An gola for 1 896 ( 1 949) s ays th e s ame cot t on s comin g from Man ch es terw ou ld pay 2 50 reis per kilo in foreign b ot t oms

,an d 80 per cen t of 2 50

reis if comin g in Port u gu ese b ot toms an d n at ion al ised in Lisb on .

[To face pag e 2 87 .DONDO ANGOLA.

X11 STEAMBOAT AND RAILWAY LINES 287

alternate steamer cal l ing at L iverpool . The other steamboatl ines that vis i t Loanda are the African and British-African.

of L iverpool,which run monthly

,in connection with

the other South-west African ports ; and the Woerman n

l ine from Hamburg. The French Chargeurs-Reunis starteda l ine of steamers from Havre via L isbon to Loanda ,Madagascar

,De lagoa Bay, touching at Capetown , when SO

disposed , but this l ine has discontinued cal l ing in onLoanda. The other navigation for Angola is done by theRio Quanza Company , which runs two steamers up thatriver as far as Dondo but this industry

,Dondo included ,

Mr. Nightingale states to be in a parlous state s ince theexten s IOn of the Royal Trans-African Rai lway Company 1to Cazengo, as al l the coffee which previously came viaDondo by means of carriers

,now comes by rail

,the

town of Dondo is almost deserted ; the house propertywhich a few years ago was valued at 75 sterling

,to-day

would not I may remark in this con

n ect ion however,not to raise the Brit ish rai lway-material

makers feel ings unduly,that al l th is rai lway’s rol l ing stock

and material is Belgian in origin . Th is seems to ? be ' thefate of African rai lways. I am told it is on account

,for one

thing, of the way in which the boi lers of the Engl ish locomotives are set in

,namely

,too stiffly

,whereby they s u ffer

more over rough roads than the more loosely hu ng togetherforeign-made locomotives ; and , for another, that Engl ishmade rol l ing stock is too heavy for rough roads

,and that

roads under the conditions in Africa cannot be otherwisethan rough, &c . I t i s not

,however

,Belgian stuff alone

An go la al s o has a smal l railw ay from Cat umb e l la t o Ben gu e l la,a dis tan ce of 1 5 kilom s . an dis con t emp lat in g con s tru ct in g an importan tlin e from e ither Ben gu el la or Mos samede s u p t o Cacon da.

2 88 COMMERCE IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

t hat is competing and ousting our own from the marketsof Angola. American machinery

,owing to the personal

e nterprise of several American engineering fi rms,is

supp lying steam-engines and centrifugal pumps for working salt at C u cu aco ,

and machinery for deal ing with sugarcane. Mr. N ightingale says the cul tivation of the sugarcane is rapidly extending

,for the sole purpose of making

rum . The ambition of every smal l trader,after he has

put a few hundreds of mi lreis together,is to become a

fazendeiro (planter) and make rum ,for which there is ever a

ready sale. But regarding the machinery,Mr. N ightingale

says : “Up to the p resent time no British fi rm has sent out

a repres en tat ive to this province. There is a fair demand forcane-crushing mil ls

,steam engines and turbines . A rep t e

s en tat ive of an American fi rm 15 out here for the thirdtime within four years

,and has done good business ; and

there is no reason why the British manufacturers Should notdo as wel l . The American machinery is inferior to Briti shmakes

,and cheaper but it sells well

,which is the principal

thin g.

”

I t i s the same story throughout the Angola trade . No

English matches come into its market. The Companhiade Mos s emedes

,which is only nominal ly Portuguese, and is

worked by German capital,has obtained from the Govern

ment an enormous tract of country stretching to theZambes i

,with rights to cure fish and exp lore mines .

Cartridges made in Hol land,and an iron pier made in

Belgium,an ext inct trade in soap and a fai l ing one in

Manchester goods,

1 and gunpowder, are al l sad items in Mr.

1 The import s in 1 896 from En glan d b ein g kilos , again s tin 1 89 1

—a differen ce of kilos again s t Man ch es ter.—Foreign Ofi ce An n u al Series

,Con s u lar Repor t , N o. 1949.

X1 1 TRADE STATISTICS 289

N ightingale’s lament . Small matters in '

them se lve s , youmay thin k

,but straws Show which way the wind blows , and

i t blow s against England ’s trade in every part ofnot u nder England ’s flag.

‘

I t would not, however, be fair-toput ' down to differential tari ffs alone our fai l ing trade -

in

Angola,because our successful competitors in hardware and

gunpowder are o ther nations who have ’ to' face the samedisadvantages—Germany, Hol land , and Belgium . Portugalhersel f is n Ow competing w i th the ’

Manchester ' goods .She

’ does so "w ithWe ll-made stuffs, but she is undoubtedlyaided by her tariff. The '

con s u lar report ( 1 949 ) says “Thefall ing

,Off - in Manchester co t ton '

s in ce 1 89 1 shows a dimin u t ion of 5 ,7 10ki los . Cotton , i f coming from Manchestervia dut ies 80 per cent, or 2 50 reis perki lo

,equal mi lreis (about cotton coming

from Portugal,

ki los , duties 2 5 reis per ki lo ,equal to dol lars

, 7 50 re is (about Showing adifference in the receipts for one year ofThere is in th is statement

,I own

,a certain obscurity

,

wh ich has probably got in to it from the editing of the homeoffi cials. ”

I‘do not know if the 10 ki los

,representing

the difference b etween what England shipped to An go lain

1 89 1 and what she ~

sh ipped in 1 896 , was suppl ied in thelatter y ears from : Portugal of Portuguese manufacture ;but assuming such to have been the case

,the position from

a ‘ tariff point of V iew w ould work o u t as . fol lows :

kilos of cottons from Manchester would payduty, at 2 50 ’ reis per ki lo

,milreis . Taking the ex

change at 3s . sterl ing per;milreis

,this amou n t s to

I f this quantity of Manchester-made cottons had g oneto , L isbon , and there become ' nationa l i sed

, fand ' sentforward to Angola in Portuguese steamers

,the duty would

U


have been 80 per cent . of 2 50 re is per ki lo, or saymilreis

,equal to but i f this quantity were

manufactured in Portugal,and shipped by Portuguese

steamers,the duty would be 2 5 reis per k i lo, equal toThe premium in favour of Portuguese

.

productionon this quantity is therefore a terrific tax on thePortuguese subjects of Angola

,for one year

,in one class

of manufactures only.

The deductions,however

,that Mr. N ightingale draws

from h is figures in regard to Portugal and her provinceare quite clear. He says

,

“There is no doubtthat the province of Angola is a very rich one .No advantages are held out for merchants to establ ishhere

,and thus bring capital into the place

,which

means more bus iness,the open ing up of roads , and

the development of industries and agricu lture . General lythe colony exists for the benefit of a few manufacturers inPortugal , who reap al l the profit.” Again

,he says

,

“Themerchants are much too highly taxed

,a good fourth part

of the ir capital is paid out in duties,with no certainty

when it wi l l be real ised again . Angola,w ith plenty of

capital,moderate taxes and low duties

,m ight in a few

years become a most flourishing colony.

”

Now here we come to the general problem of the fiscalarrangements su itable for an African colony ; and asth is is a subject of great importance to England in theadministration of her colonies

,and errors committed in

it are serious errors,as demonstrated by the late war

i n S ierra Leone,— the most serious even we have had formany years to deal w ith in West Africa,—I must beg tobe allowed to become di ffuse

,humbly stating that I do

not w ish to dogmat ise on the matter,but merely to

XI I OUR REASONS FOR BEING IN AFR ICA 29 1

attract the attent ion of busy practical men to the question of the proper system to employ in the administrat ion of tropical possess ions . This seems to me a mostimportant affair to England , now that she has taken upgreat territories and the responsibi l ities appertain ing - tot hem in that great tropical continent, Africa. There are!other parts of the world where the suitabi l i ty of the'

System of government to the conditions of the governedc ountry is not so important.I t seems to me that the deeper down from the surfacewe can go the greater is our chance of understand ing anymatter ; and I humbly ask you to make a dive andcons ider what reason European nations have for in terferi ng w ith Africa at al l . There are two distinct classes ofreasons that justi fy one race of human be ings interferingwith another race . These classes are pretty nearly in ext ricab ly m ixed but if, l ike Mark Twain’s horse and myself,you w ill

’

lean against a wall ' and thin k , '

I fancy yo u wi l lsee that primar i ly two classes of reasons exist therel igious reason

,the rescue of souls—a reason that is a

duty to the rel igious man as keen as the rescue of adrown ing man is to a brave one pressure reason s .These pressure reasons are d ivis ible into two sub-classes( 1 ) external ; (2) internal . Now of external pressure reasonsprimari ly we have none in Africa. The African h ive hasso far only sw armed on its own continent it has not sentoff swarms to settle down in the middle Of Civi l isat ion

,and

terrify, inconvenience, and sting i t in a w ay that wouldjustify C ivi l isation not only in destroying t he in vadings warm

,but in hunt ing up the original hive and smoking i t

o u t to prevent a recurrence of the nuisance,as the Roman

Empire was bound to try and do with its Barbarians .U 2

292 COMMERCE IN WEST AFRICA CHAP. .

Such be ing the case,1 we can leave this fi rst pressure reason .

- the war ju s t ificat ion—for interfering with the Africanon one s ide, and turn to the other reason, —the internalpressure reasons acting from w ith in on the Europeannations . These are roughly d ivis ible into three subclasses the necess ity of supply ing restless and ambitious sp irits with a field for enterprise during such timesas they are not wanted for the defence of the ir nat ionin Europe—France’s reason for acquiring Africa ; (2)populat ion pressure ; (3) commercial pressure. The tw ol atter have been the ch ief reason for the Teuton ic nations ,England and Germany, overrunn ing the lands of othermen . This Teuton ic race is a strong one

,with the

habi t,when in the least encouraged by Peace and Pros

perity ,of producing more men to the acre than the

acre can keep . Be ing among themselves a kindly, common-sense race

,i t seems to them more reasonable to go

and get more acres elsewhere than to ki l l themselvesoff down to a level which the ir own acres could support.The essent ial po int about the elsewhere is that itShould have a cl imate su ited to the fam i ly. Thesemigrations to other countries made under the pressure of'

population usual ly take place along the l ine of leastresistance

,namely, into countries where the resident

population is least able to resist the invasion,as in.

America and Austral ia ; but occas ional ly, as in the caseof Canada and the Cape

,they follow the conquest of an

European rival who was the pioneer in rescuing t he

country from savagery.

1 In sayin g this I am aw are of th e con du ct of Carthage an d of the

Barb aryMoors . Bu t n eith er of thes e w ere primarilyAfrican . The one

w as in s t igat ed by Greece , t he o ther by th e Van dal s an d th e Arab s .

294 COMMERCE IN WEST AFRICA CHAP. .

Cape. The vast regions of Africa from 30° N. to 20°

S.,

have long been known not to possess a cl imate su itablefor colonis ing in . Men ’s blood rapidly pu t rifie s under thetropic zone.” Tropical cond itions favour the growth ofpathogen ic bacteria —a rose cal led by another name .Anyhow

,not the sort of country attract ive to the father

of a family to found a home in . Ye t,as in sp ite of this

,

European nat ions are possess ing themselves of th is count rywith as much ardour as i f it were a health resort and agold mine in one, it is pla in they must have anotherreason

,and this reason is in the case of Germany and

England primari ly commerc ial pressure.These two Teutonic nations have the same hab it in theircommercial production that they have in their human production

,—the habit of overdoing i t for their own country ;

and j ust as Lancashire,for example

,turns out more human

beings than can comfortably exist there,so does She turn

out more manufactured articles than can be consumedthere ; and just as the surplus population created by astrong race must find other lands to l ive in

,so must the

surplus manufactures of a strong race find other marketsboth forms of surplus are to a strong race wealth .

The main difference between these things is that the :

surplus manufactured artic le i s i n no need of consideringcl imate in the matter of its expansion . I t stands in arelation to the man who goes out into the world with it ak into that of the w ife and fam i ly to the colon ist the traderwi l l no more meekly stand having his trade damaged thanthe colonist wi l l stand having his fami ly damaged but atthe same time

,the mere fact that the cl imate destroys trade

stuff is,wel l

,al l the better for trade

,and trade

,moreover,

l eads the trader to view the native population from

x11 TWO CLASSES OF CUSTOMERS 295

a d ifferent standpoint to that of the,colon ist . To that

family man the nat ive is a nuisance,sometimes a dangerous

one,at the best an indifferent servant

,who does not do his

work half so wel l as in a decent cl imate he can do i thimself. To the trader the nat ive is qu ite a d ifferent thing,a customer. A dense nat ive population is what the traderwants and on their wealth

,prosperity

,peace and industry,

the success of his endeavours depends .Now it seems to me that there are in this world twoclasses of regions attractive to the great European manufact u rin g nations, England and Germany, where in theycan foster and expand their surplus product ion of manufact u red articles . ( 1 ) Such regions as Ind ia and China.(2) Such regions as Africa . The necessity of mak ingthis d ivis ion comes from the d ifference between the nativepopulat ions; I n the fi rst case you are deal ing with apeople who are manufacturers themselves

,and you are

sel l ing your goods mainly aga inst gold . I n the secondthe people are n ot manufacturers themselves exceptin a very smal l degree

,and you are sel l ing your goods

against raw material . In a bustl ing age l ike th is thereseems to be a tendency here and in Germany tovalue the fi rst form of market above the second . I fai lto see that this is a sound valuation . The educationour commerce gives wi l l in a comparatively Short timetransform the people of the first class of markets intorival producers of manufactured articles wherewith tosupply the world ’s markets . We by our pacificat ion ofIndia have already made India a greater exporter than shewas before our rule there. I f China ‘ i s opened u p ,

thingswil l be even worse for England and Germany ; for theCh inese

,w ith their great power of production

,wil l produce


manufactured articles which wi l l fairly swamp the world ’smarkets for

,sad to say , there is l ittle doubt but they can

take out of our hands al l texti le trade,and probably

several other l ines of trade that England,Germany

,and

America now hold . I ndia and China being populated,

the one by a set of people at sixes and sevens witheach other

,and the other by a set of people who

,to pu t i t

m i ld ly,are not born warriors

,cannot

,except under the

domin ion and protect ion of a powerful European nation,

commercial ly prosper. But England and Germany are noteverybody . There is France. I could quite imagine France ,for example, in possess ion of Ch ina, managing it on s im i larl ines to those on wh ich she is now managing West Africa,but with enormously d ifferent results to herself and therest of the world . Her system of differential tariffs , be i tgranted

,keeps her African possessions poor

,and involves

her i n heavy imperial expenditure ; but the Chinaman ’sindustry would support the French system ,

and thriveunder her j ealous championship . This being the case, iti s of value to England and Germany to hold as close agrip as poss ible over such regions as India and China, eventhough by so doing they are nourishing V ipers in theircommercial bosoms .The case of the second class of markets— the trop ical

African—i s different . Such markets are of enormous valueto us they are

,especial ly theWest African ones , regions of

great natural ri ches i n rubber,oi l

,timber

,ivory

,and

m inerals from gold to coal . They are in most placesdensely populated with customers for England ’s manufact u red goods . The advantages of such a region to amanufactur ing nation l ike ourselves are enormous for notonly do we get rid there of our manufactured goods , but we

x11 IMPORTANCE OF TROPICAL MARKETS 297

ge t , What is of equal value to our manufacturing C lasses ,raw material at a cheap enough rate to enable the Engl ishmanufacturers to turn out into the markets of the civi l isedworld articles sufficiently Cheap themselves to competewith those of other manufacturing nations .The importance to us of such markets as Africa affordsus seems to me to give us one sufficient reason for takingo ver these tropical African regions . I do not use theword j ustification in the ' matter

,i t i s a word one has

n o right to use unti l we have demonstrated that ourinterference with the native populat ion and our em

deavou rs for Ou r own population have ended in unm ixedgood ; but it i s a sound reason , as good a reason aswe had in overrunning Austral i a and America. Indeed ,I venture to think it is a better one

,for the possession

o f a great market enables thousands of men,women and

chi ldren to l ive in comfort and safety in England , insteado f go ing away from home and al l that home means ; andthis commercial reason

,—for al l its not having a high

falutin sound in it ,—is the one and only expansion reasonw e have that in itself des ires the national peace and prosp erity of the native races with whom it deals .I t seems to . me no disgrace to England that hertraders are the expanding force for her in Africa . Thereare three classes of men who are powers to a State—thes old ier, the trader, and the scientist. Their efforts, whenco -ordinated and directed by the true statesman—the t e

l igiou s man in the guise of phi losopher and poet—makea great State . Being English, of course modesty p reventsmy saying that England is agreat State. I content myselfb y saying that she i s a truly great people , and wil l become agreat State when She is led.

by a l ine of great statesmen

298 COMMERCE IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

statesmen who are not only capable,as indeed most of

our statesmen have been,of seeing the importance of

India and the colonies , but also capable of seeing the equalimportance to u s of markets .England ’s democracy must learn the true value of themarkets that our fel low-countrymen have so long beenstriving to give her

,and must apprec iate the heroism those

men have displayed,on ly too often unrequited

,never hal f

appreciated by the sea-w ife,who breeds a breed of rovin ’

3men and casts them over sea. ’ Those who go to makenew homes for the old country in Austral ia and Americado not feel her want of interest keenly ; but those heroesof commerce who go to fight and die in fever-stricken lands.for the sake of the old homes at home

,do feel her want

of interest.I am not speak ing hasti ly, nor have I only West Africain my mind in this matter there are other regions wherewe could have succeeded better, w ith advantage to al lconcerned—Malaya, British Guiana, New Guinea

,the

West Indies,as wel l as West Africa. I f you examine

the matter I think you wil l see that al l these regions wehave failed in are possessed of unhealthy cl imates

,while

the regions we have succeeded with are those possessedof healthy cl imates . The reason for th is difference inour success seems to me to l ie main ly in our deficiencyof statesmanship at home. We real ly want the humidtropic zone more than other nations do ; a cl imate thateats up steel and hardware as a rabbit eats lettuces i s anexcel lent customer to a hardware manufacturing town

,810

A region densely populated by native populations wi l l ingto give raw trade stuffs in exchange for cotton goods , whichthey bury or bang out on stones in the course of washing

3 00 COMMERCE IN WEST AFRICA CH . XI I

t he Open market of the World . To me the l ifeblood of England is her trade . Her soul

,her brain i s

made of other things,but they should not neglect or

s purn the thing that feeds them—Commerce— any morethan they should undervalue the thing that guards themt he warrior.But

,you wil l say

,we wi l l not be tied down to th is com

mercial reason as England ’s reason for tak ing over theadm inistration of tropical Africa. My friend , I real lythink on the whole you had better—i t’s reasonable . I grantthat it has not been the reason why Engl ish missionaries andtravel lers have risked their l ives for the good of Africa

,or

of human knowledge, but as a ground from which todevelop a pol icy of adm in istering the country th is commercial one is good , because it requires as aforesaid theprosperity of the African populat ion ; and your laudablevan ities in the matter I cannot respect, when I observer ight in the middle of the map of Africa an enormousregion cal led the Congo Free State . I have reason tobel ieve that that region was opened up by EnglishmenL ivingstone, Stanley, Speke, Grant and Burton . If you hadbeen so truly keen on suppressing Arab slavery and nativeCannibal ism ,

there was a paradise for you ! Ye t,you hand

it over to some one else. Was i t because you thought someone else could do it better ? or—but we wil l leave that affairand turn to the cons ideration of the possibi l i ty of ad

ministering tropical Africa,governmentally

,to the benefit

o f al l concerned .

CHAPTER XI I ITHE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM

Wh erein it is s et dow n b riefly w hy it is n eces sary to en ter u pon th isdiscu s s ion at all.

NOW, you wil l say, Wherefore should the general publ ic inEngland interest itself in this matter ? Surely th ings arenow governmental ly adm in istered in England ’sWestAfricanColon ies for the benefit of al l part ies concerned .

Wel l,that is just exactly and precisely what they are

not. The system of Crown Colonies, when it i s worked byPortuguese

,does

,at any rate

,benefit some of the officials but

Engl ish offic ials are incapable of avai l ing themselves of theopportunities this system offers them and therefore

,as thi s

form of opportun ity is the only benefit the thing can giveany one

,the sooner the Crown Colony system is removed

from the sphere of practical pol itics and put under a glasscase in the South Kensington Museum

,label led “Extinct

,

1 ?

the better for every one .I beg you , before we go further in this matter, to lookround the world calmly

,and then

,when you have al lowed

the natural burst of enthusiasm concerning the extent andthe magnificence of the British Emp i re to pass , you wi l lobserve that in the more unhealthy regions England hasfailed . I say she has fai led because of the Crown Colony

302 THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP.

system—fai led with them even during days wherein She hashad to face nothing l ike what she has to face to -day fromthe commercial competit ion of other nations .I n order to justi fy myself for hold ing the V iew that it is poss ible for any system of Engl ish admin istrat ion to fai l anywhere

,I would draw your attention to the fact that the system

used by us for govern ing unhealthy regions is the CrownColony system . The two things go together , and we mustass ign one of them as the reason of our fai lure. You

may,i f i t please you , put i t down to the other th ing, the

unhealthiness . I cannot,for I know that no race of men

can battle more gallantly with cl imate than the Englishn o other race of men has shown so great a capacity aswe have to make the trop ics pay. Sti l l to-day we standface to face w ith financ ial d isaster in trop ical regions .I f you w i l l look through a l ist of England ’s trop icalunhealthy possessions , leaving outWest Africa, you wil l seenoth ing but depress ion . There are theWest Indies

,Brit ish

Guiana, and British Honduras . Al l of these are natural lyr ich regions and accessible to the markets of thew orld. Thereis not one of them hemmed in by great mountain chains orsurrounded by arid deserts, across which thei r productsmust be transported at enormous cost. They are al l ono u r h ighway—the sea ; nor are they sparsely populated .

Their population , accord ing to the latest Governmentreturns , i s and this estimate is acknowledged tobe necessari ly imperfect and insufficient. But w ith al lt hese advantages we find no prosperity there under ourru le. Nothing but poverty and discontent and nowpauperisat ion in the shape of grants from the ImperialExchequer . You say, Oh but that is on account of thes ugar bount ies and the majority of the population not be ing

THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP .

populat ion of and heaps of Sheep and a satis factorybudget .” I can say nothing against them

,and may possibly

be forced to adm it that for such a region, off Cape Horn ,

and with a population mainly of Sheep, the Crown Colonysystem may be a Heaven -sent form of administration .

But I think England would be w iser i f she looked careful ly at the West Indian group and recognised how l ike the irconditions are to those of the West African group

,for in

the ir d isastrous state of financial affairs you have an objectlesson teaching what wi l l be the fate of Crown Colon iesin West Africa—Gambia, S ierra Leone, the Gold Coastand Lagos—if she wil l be not warned in time to alter thesystem at present employed for governing these possess ions .I t is an object lesson in m in iature of what wi l l otherwise bean infin itely greater dra in on the resources of England

,for

West Africa i s immensely larger, immensely more denselypopulated

,and immensely more deadly in C l imate than the

West Indies . For one Engl ishman k i l led by theWest Ind iesWest Africa wil l want ten ; for everyand al l for what ? Only for the sake of a system—a

system intrinsical ly al ien to al l English ideals of government—a system that doddered along unt i l Mr. Chamberlainexpected i t to work and then burst out al l over in rows

,

and was found to be cost ing some 2 5 per cent. of theentire bulk ofwhite trade w ith West Africa a system that

,

let the land itsel f be ever so rich,can lead to nothing but

heart-breaking fai lure.Now I own the Crown Colony system looks wel l on paper.

I t consists of a Governor,appointed by the Colonial Office

,

supported by an Executive and Legislative Counci l (bothnominated) , and on the Gold Coast with two unoffic ial members in the legis lative body. These Counci ls, as far as th e .

XI I I THE COLON IAL OFFICE 30 5

influence they have,are dead letters

,and legislation is in the

hands of the Governor. This is no evi l in itself. You wi l l getnothing done in trop ical Africa except under the influenceof individual men but yourWest African Governor

,though

not control led by the Counci ls within the co lon y ,is control led

by a power outside the colony, namely the Colonial Office inLondon . Up to our own day the Colonial Office has been ,except in the detai ls of domestic colonial affairs

,a drag

chain on English development inWestern Africa. I t has noteven been indi fferent

,but d istinctly, del iberately adverse .

I n the year 1 86 5 a Select Committee of the House ofCommons inquired into and reported upon the state ofBritish establ ishments on the western coast of Africa .I t was a strong Committee , and the report was brief anddecided . Recognis ing that it i s not possible to withdrawthe British Government wholly or immediately from anysettlements or engagements on the West African Coast

,the

Committee laid down that al l further extension of territoryor assumption of government , or new treaties offeringany protection to native tribes

,w ould be inexpedient , and

that the object of our policy Should be to encourage inthe natives the exercise of those qual ities which mayrender i t possible for us more and more to transfer to themthe administration of al l the governments w ith a V iew tothe u ltimate withdrawal from al l

,except

, perhaps, S ierraLeone .”1Remember also this . This one in 1 86 5 was not the firstof those sort of fits the Colonial Office had in West Africanaffai rs . I t was just as bad after the Battle ofKataman s u in1 827 , and had it not been for the Engl ish traders our honour

1 See Lu cas’s fiis torical Geogr ap/zy of til e B rit is/z Colon ies , Oxford,

1 894.


to the nat ives we had made treaties with would have beendestroyed , and the Gold Coast lost whole and entire .This pol icy of 1 86 5 has remained the policy of the

English Government towards West Africa up to 1 894.

In Spite of it, the English have held on . Governor afterGovernor

,who

,as soon as he became acquainted w ith the

nature of the region,has striven to rouse offi cial apathy,

has been held in,and his sp iri t of enterprise broken by

offic ial snubs , and has been taught that keep ing qu iet waswhat he was requ ired to do. I t broke many a man ’s heartto do it but doing it worked no active evi l on the colonyunder his control

,the affairs of wh ich financ ial ly prospered

in the hands of the trad ing community so wel l,that not

only had no West African colony any publ ic debt , exceptS ierra Leone , which was a phi lanthropic station , but theGold Coast

,for example , had sufficient surp lus to lend

money to colonies in other parts of the world . But atl ast the t ime came when the aggression on Afri ca by theCont inental powers fulfi l led al l the gloomy prophecieswhich the merchants of L iverpool had long been utteringand one possess ion of ours inWest Africa after another feltthe effects of the activity of other nat ions and the apathyof our own . They would have fel t it in vain

,and have utterly

succumbed to i t, had it not been for two Englishmen . Sir

George Taubman Gold ie,who

,when in West Africa on a

voyage of exp loration , recognised the possibi l ities ofthe N iger regions , and secured them for England in the faceof great difficu lties ; and Mr. Chamberlain . Concerning SirGeorge Goldie ’s efforts in securing a most importantsection of West Africa for England

,I sha l l have occas ion

to speak later. Concerning Mr. Chamberlain , I may aswel l Speak now ; but be it understood , both these men ,


been working real ly against each other. Possibly the greatesttouch of irony in modern politics is to be found in a despatchdated March 3o th , 1 89 2 , addressed to the British Ambassadorat Paris , wherein it is said , “ The colonial pol icy of GreatBritain and France inWest Africa has been widely different.France from her basis on the Senegal coast has pursuedstead i ly the aim of establ ishing hersel f on the Upper N igerand its afflu e n t s this object She has attained by a large andconstant expenditure , and by a succession of mil i tary expedit io n s . Great Britain , on the other hand , has adop ted thepol icy of advance by commercial enterprise ; she has notattempted to compete with the mil itary operations of herneighbour .”1 I Should rather th ink she hadn ’t !~Le t alone thefact that France d id not expand mainly by mil itary operations

,but through magnificent explorers backed up by Sound

sense . While , as for Great Britain “ adopting the pol icy ofadvance by commercial enterprise” -well , I don ’t know whatthe writer of that despatch ’s ideas on “ adoption are

,but

suppression would be the truer word . Had Great Britaingiven even her countenance to “ commercial enterp rise ,”she

would have given it by now representation in her counci lsfor West Africa , a thing it has not yet got. True, there i sthe machinery for this representation ready in the Chambersof Commerce

,but these Chambers have no real power

whatsoever as far as West African affairs are concerned ;they are graciously permitted to send deputations to theColonia l Office and write letters when they feel SO disposed

,but practical ly that is al l .

Tru ly it is a ridiculous S i tuation,because West Africa

matters to no party in England so much as i t matters tothe mercanti le. I am aware I shal l be told that it i s

1 Parliamen tary Paper, C 670 1 , 92 .

xm POSIT ION OF THE MERCHANT 39 9

impossible that one section of Englishmen can have agreater interest in any part of the Empire than anothers ection

,and

,for example

,that West Africa matters quite

as much to the rel igious party as it does to the mercanti le .But

,to my mind

,neither Religion nor Science is truly

concerned in the political aspect of West Africa . I t

s hould not matter,for examp le

,to the missionary whether

he works under one European Government or another, ora purely native Government

,so long as he is a l lowed by

t hat Government to carry on his work of evangel isationunhindered ; nor, s imi larly, does it matter to the scientificman

,SO long as he is al lowed to carry on his work but to

the merchant it matters p rofoundly whether West Africais under English or foreign rule , and whether our rule thereis wel l ordered . For one thing, on the merchants of WestAfrica fal ls entirely the duty of supp lying the revenuewhich supports the government of our colonies there ;and for another, i t seems to me that whether theGovernment he is under is Engl ish or no does mattervery much to the English merchant. His duty asan Engl ishman is the support of the population ofh is own country, directly the support of its manufact u rin g c lasses . Everything that tends to al ienate hisinfluence from the service of his fel low-countrymen is adegradation to him . He may be individual ly as successful intrading with foreign-made goods , but as a member of theEng l ish State he is at a lower leve l when he does so hebecomes a mere mercenary in the service of a foreignpower engaged in adding to the p rosperity of an al ienn ation . Again , in this matter the difference between therel igious man and the commercial Shows up clearly . Le t

3 10 THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP.

the rel igion of the miss ionary be what it may,h is a im is

according to i t to secure the salvation of the human race .What does i t matter to him whether the section of thehuman race he strives to ' save be black

,white

,or yel low ?

Nothing ; as the noble records of missions wi l l Show you .

Therefore I repeat that West Africa matters to n o

party in the Engl ish State SO much as i t matters to themercanti le. With no other party are true Engl ish interestsSO closely bound up.

West Africa probably wi l l never be a pleasant placewherein to spend the w inter mon ths

,a hol iday

ground that wi l l serve to recuperate the jaded energies o four poets and painters

,l ike the A lps or I taly probably

,l ike

wise,i t wi l l never be a place where we can ship our overflow

population and for the same reason—i ts unhealth iness—itwil l be of no use to us as a mil itary academy, for troops arenone the better for soaking in malaria and operatingagainst i l l -armed antagonists . But West Africa is of

immense use to us as a feeding-ground for our man u fac

turing classes . I t could be of equal value to England asa healthy colony

,but in a reverse way , for it cou ld supply

the wealth which would enable them to remain in Englandin place of leaving it, i f i t were properly managed with thisdefinite end in V iew. I t i s id le to imagine that i t can beproperly managed unless commercial experts are repre

sented in the Government which controls i ts administration,

as is not the case at present . I t is no case of abusing the menwho at present strive to do their best with it. They do notset themselves up as knowing much about trade, and theyconstantly demonstrate that they do not. Armed withabsolutely no definite pol icy

,subsisting on official and non

3 1 2 THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP.

This is pretty much the same as saying that the Englishare deficient in statesmanship, and this is what I mean , andI am convinced that no other nation but our own could haveprospered with so much Of this imperfection but rememberi t is an imperfection

,and is not a thing to be p roud Of any

more than a stammer. External conditions have enabledEngland so far barely to feel her drawback , but now external conditions are in a di fferent phase

,and She must choose

between acquiring statesmanship competent to Cope withthis phase

,or drift on in her p resent way unti l the force

of her necess ities projects her into an European war. A

perfectly unnecessary conclusion to the pressure of commercial competit ion she is beginning to feel , but none theless inevi table with her present lack of statecraft.The second part of the reason ofEngland ’s trou ble inWest

Africa i s that other fal lacious half reason which our statesmen have for years been using to soothe the minds ofthose who urged on her in good time the necessi ty foracquiring the hinterlands of West Africa

,name ly

,

“Afteral l

,Eng land holds the key of them in hold ing the outlets of

the rivers . ’ An d while our statesmen have been saying this,

France has been industriou sly changing the lock on the doorby divertin g trade routes from the hinterland She has SO

gal lantly acquired , down into those seaboard districts whichshe possesses .

“Wel l , we l l , well , you wil l say, we have woke up atlast

,we can be trusted now. I own I do not see why

you should expect to he suddenly trusted by the men withwhose interests you have played so long. I rememberhearing about a miss ionary gentleman who was told along story by the father of a bad son

,who for years went

gal l ivanting about West Africa,bringing the fami ly into

XI I I THE PRODIGAL SON 3 1 3

disrepute,and running up debts in al l directions

,and final ly

returned to the paternal roof. Dear me how interesting,said the missionary ; quite the Parable of the Prodigal SonI trust

,My Friend , you remembered it, and killed the fatted

cal f on his return ? ” No, Sar,

”said the parent ; “ but Idam near k i l l that ar prodigal son .

”

CHAPTER XIVTHE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM IN WEST AFRICA

Wh ere in is s e t dow n b riefly in w hat man n er of w ays th e Crow n Co lon ysys tem w ork s evil in Wes t ern Africa.

I HAVE attemp ted to state that the Crown Colony systemi s unsuited for governingWesternAfrica

,an dhave attributed

i ts mal ign influence to its being a system wh ich primari lyexp resses the Opinions of wel l-intentioned but i l l - i nformedOfficia l s at home , i nstead Of being, according to the usualEngl ish type of institution , representative of the interests ofthe p eop le who are governed , and of those who have thelargest stake in the countries control led by it— themerchants and manufacturing classes of England . I t re

mains to point out how i t acts adversely to the prosperityOf all concerned ; for be it clearly understood there is n o

corrupt ion in it whatsoever : there is waste of men ’s l ives,

moneys,and careers , but nothing more at present . By

-andby it wil l add to its other charms and functions that of being

,

i n the early future , a sort of patent and successful incubatorfor hatching a fine l ively brood of l i ttle Englanders

, w ho

wil l cry out,

“What i s the good ofWest Africa ? and SO

forth and they wi l l seem sweetly reasonable,because by

then West Africa wi l l be down on the Engl ish rates,a

pau pen

3 16 CROWN COLONY SYSTEM IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

- frankly,I think that they

,in their generation

,were just i

fied in not tel l ing al l they could tel l about the Coast . Theyfound they could get on with it

,keep i t quiet and manage

the natives fairly wel l under the system Of Courts Of Equityin the R ivers

,and the Committee of merchants with a

Governor approved of by the Home Government, which wasworking on the Gold Coast up to 1 843 . I n 1 84 1 there arosethe affa ir of Governor Maclean

,and the inauguration of

the l ine of pol icy which resulted in the resolution of 1 86 5 .

The governmental officials having cut themselves Off fromt he traders and taken over West Africa

,fai led to manage

West Africa,and so resolved that West Africa was not

worth managing,

-a thing they are bound to do again .

The abuse showered on the merchants,and the terrific

snubs with which the Government peppered them,did not

make the traders blossom and expand , and shower information on those who cri ticised them— there are somenatures that are not sweetened by Adversi ty. Moreover

,

the Government,when affairs had been taken over by the

Offices in London , took the abhorrent form of Customs , anddi sp layed a l ively love of the miss ionary-made African , ashe was then

,—you can read about him in Burton 1— and for

the rest got up rows with the traders’ best customers,the

untutored African ; rows , as the traders held , unnecessaryin their beginning and feeble -handed in thei r termination .

The whole of this sort of thing made the trader sectionkeep al l the valuable information to itsel f

,and spend its

energies in eluding the Customs,and talking what Burton

terms Commercial Engl ish.

”

Then we come to the contribu tion made by theGovernment officials to the formation of an erroneous

1 Wan der ing s in Wes t Africa , vol . i. , 1 863 .

XIV THE OFFIC IAL V IEW 3 1 7

op in ion concern ing the state of affairs in West Africa .

This arose from the conditions that surrounded them there,

and the way in which they were unable,even if they desired

to expand their influence, distrusted natura l ly enough bythe trading community S ince 1 86 5 , held in continuously bytheir home instructions , and unprovided with a s u flicie n t

supply of men or money on shore to go in for emp i remaking

,and also V i l lainously badly quartered , —as you can

see by reading E l l i s ’s Wes t Af r ican Sketches . I t is smal lwonder and smal l blame to them that thei r account ofWest Africa has been a gloomy one, and such it mustremain unti l these men are under a different system : foral l the reasons that during the past have caused them t o

paint the Coast as a place of no value to England,remain

sti l l in ful l force,— as you can see by studying the disad

vantages that service in a West African Crown Colonypresents tod ay to a civil i an Official .Fi rstly, the cl imate is unhealthy, so that the usualmake of Engl ishman does not l ike to take his wife out t othe Coast with him . This means keep ing two homes , whichi s expensive , and it gives a man no chance of saving moneyon an income say of £600 a year, for the Official

’

s l ife inWest Africa is necessari ly, let him be as econom ical as hemay

,an expensive one and , moreover, things are not made

more cheerfu l for him by his knowing that i f he d ies therewi l l be no pens ion for his wife .Secondly, there being no regular West African Service ,there is no security for p romotion owing to the u n heal th iness of the cl imate i t i s very p roperly ordained that eachofficer shal l serve a year on the Coast, and then go homeon a s ix months ’ furlough . I t i s a fairly common thingfor a man to die before his twelve months ’ term is up

,an d

3 1 8 CROWN COLONY SYSTEM IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP.

a sti l l more common one for him to have to go on S ickleave . Of cou rse , the moment he is Off, some jun ior Offic ialhas to take h is place and do his work . But in the event oft he man whose work he does dying

,gain ing a position in

another region,or promotion

,the man who has been

doing the work has no reason to hope he wi l l step into theful l emoluments and honours of the appointment

,although

experience wi l l thus have given h im an ins ight into the work .

O n the contrary,i t too often happens that some new

man , either fresh from London or who has already held aGovernment appointment in some total ly d ifferent regiont o the West African , i s placed in the appointment . If thisn ew man is fresh to such work as he has to do

,the dis

placed man has to teach h im ; i f he is from a d ifferentregion

,he usual ly won ’t be taught

,and he does not help to

develop a spiri t of general brotherly love and affectionin the local governmental C i rcles by the frank statementthat he cons iders West African Officials “ j ugginses ” or“ muffs ,” although he fairly Offers to “ alter th is and Showthem how things ought to be done .Then again the civi l ian official frequently complains that

h e has no such recognition given him for his services asis given to the mil itary men in West Africa . I have sooften heard the complaint

, Oh ,i f a man comes here and

burns half a dozen vi l lages he gets honours ; wh i le I whokeep the vi l lages from wanting burning

,get nothing and

mind you,this is true . L ike the rest of my sex I suffer

from a chronic form of scarlet fever,and

,from a know

ledge of the country there,I hold i t rubbish to talk of the

brutal ity of mowing down savages with a Maxim gunwhen it comes to talking of West African bush fighting ;for your West African is not an unarmed savage, he does

320 CROWN COLONY SYSTEM IN WEST AFR ICA CHAP .

horrors of boredom suffused w ith irri tation to which the

Engl ish Official is subjected . More than half the quarrel l ingand discontent for which Engl ish Officials are celebrated

,an d

which are attributed to drink and the climate,s imply ar ise

from the domestic arrangements enforced on them in Coasttowns , whereby they see far too much of each other. If you

take any set of men and make them l ive together, day outand day in

,without sufficient exerc ise

,without interest in

outside affairs,without d ividing them up into regular grades

of rank,as men are on board ship or in barracks

,you are

s imply bound to have them d ividing up into cl iques thatquarrel the things they quarrel over may seem to an outs ider miserably petty

,but these quarrels are the characteristi c

eruption Of the fever discontent . An d may I ask you ifthe Opin ion of men in such a state is an Opinion on whicha sound pol icy wherewith to deal with so complex a regioncan be formed ? I think not

,yet these men and the next

class alone are the makers of our present pol icy—theinstructors Of home Official Opinion .

The next class is the phi lanthropic party . I t i scommonly confused with the m issionary

,but there is

this fundamental d ifference between them . The miss ion ary ,

pure and s imple,is a man who loves God more than

he loves himself,or any man . His service (I am speaking

on fundamental l ines,as far as I can see) i s to place in

God ’s charge,for the glory of God

,souls

,that according

to his bel ief,would otherwise go elsewhere . The

phi lanthrop is t i s a person who loves man ; but he or sheis frequently no better than people who ki l l lapdogs byover- feed ing, or who shut u p skylarks in cages, while i ti s quite conceivable to me

,for examp le , that a missionary

could ki l l a man to save his soul,a philanthropist ki l l h is

XIV PH ILANTHROPISTS AND M ISSIONAR IES 32 1

s oul to save his l ife,and there is in this a difference. I have

never been able to get up any respectfu l enthusiasm for theSO-cal led phi lanthrop ist, so that I have to speak of himwith calm care ; not as I have spoken of the missionary ,feel ing he was a person I cou ld not real ly harm by criticis inghis methods.I t is

,however

,nowadays hopeless to attempt to separate

t hese two Species,distinct as I be l ieve them to be and they

together undoubtedly consti tute what is cal led the M issionparty not only in England but in Germany. I believe thisal l iance has done immense harm to the true missionary

,for

to it I trace that tendency to harp upon horrors and generals ensational ism which so Sharply di fferentiates the modernfrom the class ic missionary reports . Take u p that nobles tory of Dennis de Carl i and M ichael Angelo of Gattina,and read it through

,and then turn on to wise

,C lear

headed Mero lla da Sorrento, and read him you findthere no sensational ism . Now and again

,when deeply

tried,they wi l l say

,

“ These people l ive after a beastlymanner

,and converse freely with the Devi l

,

”but you soonfind them saying

,

“Among these people there are someexcel lent customs,”and they give you ful l detai ls of them ,

with evident satisfaction . You see i t d id not fundamental lymatter to these early miss ionaries whether thei r prospective converts “ had excel lent customs ” or “ l ived after abeastly manner

,from a religious standpoint . No t one

atom—they were the sort of men who would have gone forPlato

, Socrates , and al l the Classics gai ly, holding that theywere not Christians as they ought to be ; but this nevercaused them to paint a distorted portrai t of the African .

This thing,I b e l ieve

,the modern phi lanthrop ist has induced

t he modern missionary on ly too frequently to do, and the

322 CROWN COLONY SYSTEM IN WEST AFRICA CHAP .

other regrettable element which has induced him to do it hasbeen the apathy of the English publ ic

,a publ ic wh ich unless

i t were stirred u p by horrors would not subscribe. Againthe blame is with England at home

,but the harm done is

paid for In West Africa. The portra it painted of theAfrican by the majority , not al l , but the majority of WestAfrican mission reports, has been that of a chi ld , natural lyinnocent

,led away and cheated by white traders and

grievously oppressed by his own rulers . I grant you,the

African taken as a whole is the gentlest kind Of real humanbeing that is made. I do not however class him with raceswho carry gentleness to a morb id extent

,and for govern

mental purposes you must not with any race rely on theirmain characteristi c alone for example

, Engl ishmen are

honest,yet sti l l we require the pol ice force .

The evi l worked by what we must cal l the missionaryparty is almost incalculable from it has arisen the estrangement of Engl ish interests , as rep resented by our reason foradding West Africa to our Empire at al l—the trader—an d

the Engl ish Government as represented by the CrownColony system and it has also led to our present pol icy ofdestroying powerful native States and the power of t heAfrican rul ing classes at large . Secondari ly it is the causeOf our wars inWest Africa. That this has not been and is notthe desi re of the m ission party it is needless to say that t heblame is directly due to the Crown Colony system it is asneedless to remark for any reasonable system of its agewould long ere ’ now have known the African at fi rst hand

,not

as it knows h im,and knows him only

,at its head-quarters

,

London , from second-hand vi tiated reports . I t has,

nowadays,at its service the common sense and humane

opinions of the Engl ish trade lords as represented by the

CHAPTER XV

MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM

Wherein is set dow n the oth er , or main , reason again s t th is sys t em .

HAVING attempted to explain the internal evi ls or whatone might cal l the domestic rows of the Crown colonysystem

,I will pass on to the external evi ls—which although

in a measure consequent on the internal are notentirely so

,and this point cannot be too clearly borne in

mind . Tinker it up as you may, the system wi l l remainone pro-eminently unsuited for the administration of WestAfrica.Yo u might arrange that official s working under it shouldbe treated better than the official now is

,and the West

African service be brought into l ine in honour with theIndian , and afford a man a good sound career. You mightarrange for the Chambers of Commerce

,rep resenting

the commercial factor,to have a place in Colon ial Oflice

counci ls . But if you did these things the Crown colonysystem would sti l l remain unsuited to West Africa

,because

i t i s a system intrinsical ly too expensive in men andmoney

,so that the more you develop it the more expensive

i t becomes . Concerning this system as appl ied to theWest Indies a West Indian authority the other daysaid it was putting an elephant to draw a goat chaise ;

CHAP. XV NECESSITY FOR REAL KNOWLEDGE 32 5

concerning the West African app l ication of it , I Shouldsay it was trying to open a tin case with a tortoise-shel lpaper knife. Of course you wi l l say I am no authority ,and you must choose between those who wi l l tel l you thatonly a l ittle patience is required and the result Of thepresent governmental system in West Africa wi l l blossominto philanthropic and financial successes

,and me who say

it cannot do so but must result in making West Africa adebt-ridden curse to England . Al l I can say for myselfis that I am animated by no disl ike to any set of menand without one farthin g’s financial interest in West Africa.I t would not affect my income if you were to put 100 percent . ad valorem duty on every trade article in use onthe Coast and flood the Coast with officials

,paid as men

should be paid who have to go there , namely, at least threetimes more than they are at present. My disl ike to thepresent state Of affairs is solely a dis l ike to seeing mycountry

,to my mind

,make a fool of herself

,wasting men ’s

l ives in the process and deluding herself with the idea thatthe performance wi l l repay her.Personal ly, I cannot avoid think ing that before you castyourself in a whole-souled way into developing anything youshould have a knowledge of the nature of the thing as it i s onscientific l ines . Education and development unless backedby this knowledge are l iable to be thrown away

,or to p roduce

results you have no use for. I remember a distressingcase that occurred inWest Africa and supports my Opinion .

A valued friend of mine , a seaman of great knowledge andexperience

,yet lack ing in that critical spirit which inquires

i nto the nature of things before p roceeding with them ,con

fide n t alone in the rectitude Of his own intentions,bought a

canary bird at a Canary Is land . He knew that the me n

MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP.

who sel l canaries down there are up to the samp l e de s cript ion of deceitful above al l things and desperately wicked .

SO he brought to bear upon the transaction a dea l of subtlety,but neglected fundamental facts , whereby his triumph athaving

,on the whole

,done the canary sel ler brown by getting

him to take in part val ue for the bird a box of Germancolonial-grown cigars

,was vanity. For weeks that gallant

seaman rubbed a wet cork up and down an empty whiskybottle within the hearing of the bird

,which is the proper

thing to do provid ing things are al l right in themselves,and

yet nothing beyond genial twitterings rewarded his exertions.So he rubbed on for another week with even greater feel ingand persuasive power

,and then

,to drop a vei l upon this

tragedy Of lost endeavour,that canary laid an egg. Now

,

i f that man had only attended to the nature of things andseen whether it were a cock or hen bird

,he would not have

been subj ected to this grievous d isappointment. S imi larly ,i t seems to me

,we are

,from the governmental point of V iew

,

l ike that sea cap tain— swimming about in the West Africanaffair with a lot Of subtle detai ls , in an atmosphere of goodintentions

,but not in touch with important facts we are

acting logical ly from faulty premises .Now

,let us grant that the Crown Colony system is not

ful ly developed in West Africa,for i f i t were

,you may say

,

it would work all right ; though this I consider a mostdangerous idea. Le t us see what i t would be i f i t werefu l ly developed .

Mr. S t . Loe Strachey 1 thus defines Crown ColoniesThese are possessions which are for the most part peop ledby non—European races of dark colour, and governed notby persons elected by themselves

,but by a governor and

1 I n du s trial an d Social Life of the Empire. M acmil lan an d Co .

328 MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP.

another hindrance or superfluous affair. Before takingany important steps the West African governor is supposedto consult the Officials at the Colonial Office ; but as theColonial Office is not so wel l i nformed as the governorhimself is

,this can be no help to him if he be a real ly able

man,and no check on him if he be not an able man . For

,

be he what he may,he is the representative of the Colonial

Office he cannot, i t i s true , persuade the Colonial Offi ce t ogo and involve itsel f in rows with European continentalpowers

,because the Office knows about them ; but if he

i s a strong-minded man with a fad he can persuade theColon ial Office to let him try that fad on the natives or thetraders

,because the Colonial Office does not know the

natives nor the West African trade .You see , therefore , you have in the Governor of a Wes t

African possess ion a man in a bad posi tion . He is aidedby no counci l worth having

,no regular set Of experts he

is held in by another counci l equal ly non-expert , except inthe d irection of continental pol itics . He may keep out ofmischief ; he could , i f he were given either time or inducement to study the native languages

,laws

,and general

ethnology of his colony,do much good but how can he do

these things,separated from the native population as he

necessari ly is,by his under oflicials , and with his time taken

up,j ust as every oflicial

’

s time is taken u p under the CrownColony system

,with a mass of red -tape cle rkw ork that is

unnecessary and intrinsical ly valueless ? I do not p retendto any personal acquaintance with Engl ish West AfricanGovernors . I only look on their affairs from outside , butI have seen some great men among them . On e of themwho is dead would

,I bel ieve

,had the cl imate spared him ,

have become a man whom every one interested in West

XV WEST AFR ICAN GOVERNORS 329

Africa would have respected and admired . He camefrom a total ly different region , the Straits Settlements .He found his West African domain in a lethargic mess ,and he hit out right and left

,fal l ing

,l ike the rain , o n

the just and the unjust. I do not wish you to take hisutterances or his actions as rep resenting him but from thesp i ri t of them it is clear he would have become a greatblessing to the Coast had he but l ived long enough . I amaware he was unpopular from his attempts to enforce thei l l-drafted Land Ordinance , but primari ly responsible forthis i l l -j u dged thing he was not.I n addition to Sir Wi l l iam Maxwel l there have been ,and are sti l l

,other Governors rep resentative of what is

best in England but,circumstanced as they are under this

system,continual ly interrupted as thei r work is by death

or furloughs home,neither England nor West Africa gets

one-tenth part of the true value Of these men .

In addition to the Governor,there are the other officials ,

medical,legal

,secretarial

,constabulary

,and customs . The

majority of these are engaged in looking after each otherand clerking. Clerking is the breath Of the Crown Colonysystem , and customs what it feeds on . Owing to the cl imatei t i s p ractical ly necessary to have a double staff in al lthese departments , —that is what the system would have ifi t were perfect ; as it is , some Official ’s work is always beingdone by a subordinate ; i t may be equal ly wel l done , buti t i s not equal ly w el l paid for

,and there is no continuity of

pol icy in any department, except those which are entirelyclerk

,and the expense of this is necessari ly great. The

main evi l of this want Of continuity i s of course in theGovernors—a Governor goes out

,starts a new l ine of policy,

goes home on furlough leaving in charge the Colonial


Secretary , who does not by al l means always feel e n th u s ias t ic towards that pol icy ; SO i t languishes . Governor comesback

,goes at i t again l ike a giant refreshed

,b u t by no

m eans better acquainted with loca l affairs for having beenaway ; then he goes home again , or dies, or gets a newa ppointment a brand new Governor comes out, he starts anew l ine of pol icy, perhaps has a new Colon ial Secretaryinto the bargain anyhow the thing goes on wavering

,not

a dvancing. The only descrip tion I have heard of ourpol icy in West African Colonies that seems to me todo i t j ustice i s that given by a medical friend of mine

,

w ho said it was a coma accompanied by fits .Of course this would not be the case i f the Colonial

Office had a definite deta iled pol icy Of i ts own,and merely

s ent out men to carry it out ; but this the Colonial Officehas not got and cannot have

,because i t has not got the

s cientific and commercial facts ofWest Africa in its possess ion . I t has therefore to depend on the Governors i t sendsout ; and these, as aforesaid , are men of d ivers minds . On e

Governor is truly great on drains ; he spends lots of money onthem . Another Governor thinks education and a cathedralmore important ; during his reign drains languish . Ye t an

other Governor comes along and says i f there are schoolswanted they should be under non- sectarian control

,but what

is wanted is a rai lway ; and SO i t goes on , and of course leadsto an immense waste of money. An d this waste of money isa far more serious thing than it looks ; for it i s from it that thepol icy has arisen , Of increasing customs dues to a point thatseriously hampers trade development

,and the far more

s erious evi l of attempting directly as wel l as indirectly to taxthe native population .

I am bound to s ay I believe any ordinary Engl ishman


the world ; but , as Sir Wi l l iam Maxwel l said,

“ I amconvinced that , from causes whol ly unpreventable, WestAfrica is and must remain a p lace with certain pecul iardangers of its own ”1 therefore it requires most careful

,

expert handling. I t is no use your trying to get its richesout by a set of hasty amateur experiments ; i t i s no use justdumping down capital on it and cal l ing these goings onDeveloping the resources

,

”or “Raising the African in theplane of civi l isation because these goings on are not thesethings

,they are but sacrifices on the altars of fol ly and

id leness .Properly managed , those parts of West Africa which ou rpast apathy has left to us are capable of being made into agroup of possessions before which the direct value toEngland , i n England , of al l the other regions that we holdin the world would sink into in s ign ifican ce .

Sir Wi l l iam Maxwel l , when he referred to causeswhol ly unpreventable

,

” was referring mainly to the u m

heal—th in es s of West Africa. There seems no escape fromthis great drawback . Every other difficulty connected withi t one can imagine removable by human activity andingenuity—even the labour difficu l ty—but, I fear, not SOthe fever

. Al though this is not a thing to discourageEngland from hold ing West Africa , i t is a thing whichcal ls for greater forethought in the administration of itthan She need give to a healthy region . In a healthyregion it does not matter so much whether there is an

excess over requ irements in the number of men emp loyedto administer it

,but in one with a death rate of at least

3 5 per cent. of white men it does matter.1 Forty-eigh th an n u al report Liverpool Chamb er of Commerce ,

1 898 .

xv WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE 333

I confess i t i s this excessive expenditure of men whichI disl ike most in the Crown Colony system ,

though I knowi t cannot he lp it ; i t is in the make of the thing. If thesemen were even employed in some great undertaking itwould be less grievous ; but they are many of thementirely taken up with clerk work

,and al l of them have to

waste a large percentage o f their time on it. Some of themen undoubtedly get to l ike this

,but it i s a morbid taste .

I know one of our possessions where the Officials evencarry on their personal quarrels with each other on governm ent paper in a high Official style, when it would bebetter i f they put aside an hour a week and went andpunched each other’s heads

,and gave the rest Of their

t ime to studying nat ive law and languages and potteringabout the country getting up information on i t at large

,so

that the natives would become famil iarised with the natureof Engl ishmen firs t -hand

,i nstead of being dependent for

their knowledge of them on interpreters and the set ofs ubordinate native Officia l s and native pol ice .I w ish that it lay in my power to place before you merelya set of figures that would show you the present state ofo u r West African affairs , but such figures do not ex ist.Practical ly speaking , there are no rel iable figures for WestAfrican affairs. They are not cooked , but you know whatfigures are—unless they be complete and in their properstations

,they are valueless.

The figures we have are those which appear in TheColonial Annual Series of reports . These are not annualfor examp le, the Gold Coast one was not published forthree years ; but no matter, when they are publ ished theyare mislead ing enough

,un less you know things not

334 MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP

mentioned in them but connected with them . However ,we wi l l just run through the figures publ ished for one WestAfrican Crown Colony. Fo r many reasons I am sorry t ohave to take those regarding S ierra Leone , but I must, as atp resent they are the most correct avai lable .Now the element of error wh ich must be al lowed for inthese arises from the prox imity Of the French colony ofFrench Gu inea

,which is next door to Sierra Leone. That

colony has been real ly developing its exports . Goodshave , up to last year, come out through our colo ny o f ’

Sierra Leone, and have been included with the exports of'

Sierra Leone i tself, though Sierra Leone has not dwelt onthis interesting fact. An d

,equal ly

,s ince 1 890 goods going

into French Guinea have gone in through S ierra Leone, andthough traceable with care

,have been put in with the total‘

of the imports . SO you see i t i s a l ittle diffi cul t to find outwhether it has been French Guinea or Sierra Leone that hasreal ly been doing the trade mentioned in the figures .Nevertheless

,i t has been customary to take these joint

,

mixed up figures and get happy over “ the increase of tradein S ierra Leone during the past ten years ” but a l ittle calmconsideration wil l prevent you from fal l ing into th is idleerror.Personal ly I think that i f you are cautious you wi l ltry and estimate the trade by the exports for among theimports there are Government stores

,rai lway material ,

things that wi l l have some day to be paid for,because it is

the rule not to ass ist a colony under the system unti l i t hasbeen reduced to a West Indian condition ; whereas theexports give you the buying power of the co lony, andshow the l imits Of the trade which may be expected to


constant unavoidab le error arising from the so -cal ledsmuggl ing done by the native traders in the h interland .

Remember that colonies which you see neatly enoughmarked on a map of West Africa with French

, Engl ish ,German

,are not real ly each surrounded by a set of Great

Wal ls of China. For example, under the present arrangement with France

,i f France keeps to that beautiful Article

IX. in the N iger Convention and does not tax Engl ishgoods more than she at present taxes French goods on theIvory coast—cottons of Engl ish manufacture wi l l be ableto be sold 10 per cent. cheaper in the French terri tory thanin the adjacent Engl ish Gold Coast.Up to the present time it has paid the native hinterland trader to come down into the Gold Coast and buyhis cotton goods

,for Engl ish cottons suit hisWest African

markets better than other makes,that is to say they have

a higher buying power ; and then he went down into theFrench Ivory Coast and bought his Spirits and guns , wh ichwere cheaper there because Of lower duty. Having gothis selection together he went off and d id business withthe raw material sel lers

,and sold the raw material he had

purchased back to the two Coasts from which he had boughth is select ion

,sendin g the greater part of i t to the best

market for the time being. Now you have changed that,

or,rather

,you have given France the power to change it by

sel l ing English cottons cheaper than they can be sold inyour own possessions

,and thereby rendered it unnecessary

for the hinterland traders to buy on the Gold Coast at al l .I t wil l remain necessary for him to buy on the Ivory Coast

,

for Spirits and guns he must have ; and if he can get hiscottons at the same place as he gets these

,so much the

better for him . I t i s doubtful,however

,whether henceforth

XV NAT IVE SMUGGLERS 337

i t wil l be worth his whi le to come down and sel l his rawmaterial in your possessions at al l . He may browse aroundyour interior towns and suck the produce out of them ,

but i t wi l l be to the enrichment of the French colony nextdoor ; and , of course , as things are even n ow ,

this sort ofthing

,which goes on throughout al l the various colonies o f

France, England , Germany and Portugal , does not tend

to give true value to the official figures concerning tradepubl ished by any one of them .

I have no int ention , however, of dwel l ing on the variousmethods emp loyed by native smugglers with a view toaiding their supp ression . I t may be a hereditary taint contracted by my ancestors while they sojourned in Devon , i tmay be private personal vi l lainy of my own but anyhow ,

I

never feel , as from an official standpoint I ought, towardssmugglers. I do not ask you to regard the African nativetrader as a sweet innocent who does not real ise the vi l lainyOf his doings

,—he kn ows al l about i t but only once did I

feel harshly towards him over smuggling. A native traderhad arranged to give me a l i ft, as i t were, in his canoe , andI noticed , with a flattered vanity and a feel ing of gratitude ,how very carefu l he had been to make me quite comfortablein the stem , with a perfect l ittle nest of mats and cloths .When we reached our destination and that nest was taken top ieces , I saw that what you might cal l the backbone of theaffai r was three kegs of gunpowder, a case Of kerosine , andsome packages of lucifermatches . That rascal fel low black

,

as Barbot would cal l him,had expected we should meet the

customs patrol boat, and , base ly encroaching on thechival ry of the white man towards the white womanjudged that I and my nest would not be overhauled . If

there had been a guardian cherub for the Brussels Con vention or for Customs doubtless I should have been blown sky


high and have afforded material for a moral tale cal led “ TheSmuggler’s Awful En d,” but there are no cherubs whowatch over Customs or the Brussels Convention in WestAfrica and I have no intention Of volunteering for such anappointment.But to return to the S ierra Leone finances and the t e

lat ion sh ip wh ich the expend iture of that colony bearsto the revenue . The increase in the imports is apparentlythe thing depended on to justi fy the idea that as the tradehas increased the governmental expend iture has a right todo so l ikewise. The imports increase in 1 896 i s given as

From this you must deduct for railway material,

and for the increased spec ie import,

which leaves you an increase of imports of from1 887—1 896, and remember a good percentage of this

remainder of belongs to French Guinea.

Now the expenditure on the government of S ierra Leonehas increased from in 1 8 87 to beingan increase at the rate of 99 1 per cent.

,whereas the

exports during the same period have increased at the rateof 348 per cent. , or from toIn other words

,whereas in 1 887 the government

expend iture amounted to 1 7 5 per cent. , the exports in1 896 amounted to 2 5 4 per cent . The sum of ofthis increase is credited to police, gaols , transport, andpubl ic works ; 1 and i f this is to be the normal rate of

In crease .

1 Expen dit u re on po lice an d gao ls , 1 8961 887

Expen dit u re on t ran sport 1 896

7 : n n1 887

Expen dit u re on pu b lic w ork s 1 896

1 887

Aggregate in crease


mineral of importance is i ron , of which the country appearsto contain a very large amount. There is a particularlyrich belt of titaniferous i ron ore in the hil ls behindS ierra Leone .Titaniferous iron is an excel lent thing in its way

,and

good for steel making ; bu t i t ex ists nearer home and incheaper worked regions than S ierra Leone .The soi l is grouped by the report into three classes1 . That of the plateaux and hi l ls above or some

times descending to feet,which is due to the d is

integration Of gneiss and gran ite rocks.2 . The red laterite which covers almost invariably al l‘

the lower hi l ls from the sea level to or feet.“

3 . The al luvium ,due e ither to the action of the man

groves along the coast,or to rivers and streams inland .

”

These soi ls are capable Of and do produce fine timber,rubber

,Oil and rice

,and the general tropical food stuffs

,

but these,except the three first

,are not very valuable export

articles . Whether it i s possible to enhance the agriculturalvalue of the al luvium regions by growing tobacco

,j ute

,

coffee,cocoa

,cotton and sugar

,for export

,is by some

authorities regarded as doubtful on account of the labourproblem but at any rate

,i f these industries . were taken in

hand on a large scale,a scale sufficient material ly to alter

the resources of a West African colony,they would require

many years of fostering,and it would be long before they

could contribute greatly to the resources of such a colonyas Sierra Leone , in the face of the organised production andcheaper labour

,wherewith the supply now in the markets

of Europe could be competed with .

I have had the advantage of associating with Germanand Portuguese and French planters of coffee and cocoa.

XV SO IL AND AGRICULTURE 341

These are the planters who up to the p resent have been"the most successful in West Africa. I do not say becauset hey are better men

,but because they have better soi ls

and better,

labour than there is in our colonies . By thesegentlemen I have been industriously educated in soi ls , &c.

and from what I have learnt about this matter I am boundregretfu l ly to say that most of the soi l Of the Englishpossessions is not real ly rich , taken in the main . There arein p laces patches Of rich soi l and the greater part of ours oi l wi l l be al l the better this day years hence butat present the soi l is main ly sour clay

,sl ime and skin soils ,

skin soils over rock,skin soi ls over sour clay

,skin soi ls over

water- logged soi l . We have,alas

,not got the rich volcanic

earth of Cameroon,Fernando Po

,and San Thome and

Principe. The natives who work the soi l understand itfairly well

,and negro agriculture is in a wel l -developed

state,and their farms are most careful ly tended and wel l

kept. The rule along the Bight of Benin and Biafra i s tochange the soi l of the farm at least every third year thisthey do by cutting down a new bit of bush

,burnin g the

b ush on the ground at the end Of the dry season,and

p lanting the crops . The Old farm is then al lowed to growbush or long grass

,whichever the particular d istri ct goes in

for,unti l the time comes to work back on that p iece of land

again,when the bush which has grown is in its turn cut

down and the ground rep lanted . This burning of the treesor grass is clearly regarded by the native agriculturist asmanuring ; i t is p ractica l ly the only method of manuringavai lable for them in a country where cattle in quantitiesare not kept. I t i s a wasteful way with t imber and rubberg rowing on the ground of course but not so wi ld ly wastefula s i t looks

,for your Negro agricu l turist “does not go to

MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP

make his farm on bits of forest that require very hard clearingwork . He clears as eas i ly as he can by means of col lectingthe great fluffy seed bunches of a certain tree which are

inflammable and add ing to them al l the other inflammablematerial he can get ; he then p laces these bonfires in thebit of forest he wants to clear and sets fi re to them on afavourable night

,when the proper sort of breeze is blowing

to fan the flames ; when the con flagrat io n is over, he fel lsa few of the trees and leaves the rest stand ing scorchedbut not ki l led . Moreover

,Of course an African gentleman

cannot go and make his farm anywhere he l ikes he has tostick to the land which belongs to his fami ly

,and work round

and round on that. This gives a highly untidy aspect to thefam ily estate

,you might think cons idering the extent of it ,

a very smal l percentage must be kept under cultivation andthe rest neglected . But this is not real ly so if you were togo and take away from him a bit Of the neglected land , youwould be taking his farm

,say for the year after next and

grievously inconvenience him,and he would know it .

The native method ofmaking farms does not,indeed

,do SO

much harm in wel l-watered,densely-populated regions

l ike those of Sierra Leone or the Niger Delta but i t does doan immense amount Ofharm in regions that are denselypopulated and require to make extensive farms

,more particularly

in the regions of Lagos and the Gold Coast,where the ferti le

bel t is only a narrow ribbon,edged on the one Side by the

sand sea Of the Sahara, and on the other by the salt sea ofthe South Atlantic. Yo u can see the result of i t in thedistrict roundAccra

,which has always been heavily populated

for hundreds of years the forest has been kept down byagricu l tural enterprise. Consequences are

,the rainfal l is

now diminished to a point that threatens to extinguish


and an old establ ished one , as is shown by the exports ofhides mentioned in the writers of the seventeenth century .

Ye t it would be idle for the most enthusiastic bel iever inWest Africa to pretend that theWestern Soudan is com ingon to compete with Argentina or Austral ia in the export offrozen meat ; the cl imate is against it, and therefore thiscattle country can only be represented in trade in a hideand horn export. Wool—as the sheep won ’t wear it

,prefer

ring hair instead and that of poor qual ity—need not I thinkbe looked forward to from West Africa at al l .I have taken the publ ished accounts of Sierra Leone ,because , as I have said , they are the most complete . Theyare also

,in the main

,the most typ ical . I t is true that

S ierra Leone has not the gold wealth , nor the developingtimber industry of the Gold Coast ; but i f you ignore FrenchGuinea

,and include the things belonging to i t with the

Sierra Leone totals , you wi l l get a fairly equivalent result.Lagos has not yet shown a mineral export

,but it and the

Gold Coast have shown of late years an immenselyincreased export of rubber. Rubber

,oil

,and timber are

the three great riches Of our West African possessions,the

things that may be rel ied on,as being now of great value

and capable of immense expansion . But these th ings canonly be made serviceable to the markets of the world and asource of riches to England by the co -Operation of thenatives of the country . In other words

,you must so lve

the labour problem on the one hand,and increase the

prosperity of the native population on the other,in order

to make West Africa pay you back the value of the l ifeand money already paid for her. This solution of the labourproblem and this co -operation of the natives with you

,the

Crown Colony system wil l never gain for you,because it

XV A DISASTROUS POLICY 345

i s too expensive for you '

an d unj ust to them,not intention

ally, not vindictively nor wickedly, but just from ign or

ance . I t destroys the native form of society,and thereby

disorganises labour. I t has no power of re -organ ising it .You hear that peop le are leaving Coomassie and Benin ,instead of flocking in to those p laces , as they were expected to after the destruction of the local tyrannies .English influence in West Africa

,represented as it now

is by three separate classes Of Englishmen,with no common

object of interest, or aim in policy , is not a thing capableof re-organising so d ifficult a region . I have taken theS ierra Leone figures because

,as I have said

,they are the

most complete and typ ical , and the state Of the trade andthe expenditure on the Government are those prior to thehut t ax war. So they cannot be ascribed to it , nor can theplea be lodged that the expenditure was an enforced one.These figures merely show you the thing that led up to thehut tax war and the heavy enforced expenditure it has andwil l entai l

,and my reason for de taining you with them is

the conviction that a simi lar pol icy pursued in our othercolon ies wi l l lead to the same results—the destruction oftrade and the imposition on the colonies of a debt that thei rnatural resources cannot meet unless we are p repared to goin for forced labour and revert to the slave trade po l icy.I t seems clear enough that our present pol icy in theCrown Co lonies

,of a rapidly increasing expenditure in the

face of a steadily fal l ing trade,must necessari ly lead our

Government to seek for new sources of revenue beyondcustoms dues . New sources under our present system canonly be found in direct taxation of the native populationthe resul t of this is now known .

I wil l not attempt to deal ful ly with the figures we


possess for our remaining Crown Colonies in WesternAfrica

,—Gambia

,the Gold Coast

,and Lagos

,—but merely

refer to a few points regard ing them that have so far beenpublished . When the resu lt Of the pol icy pursued inthese colonies leads to the inevitable row

,and the figu res

are dealt with by competent men,there is

,to my mind

,n o

doubt that a state equal to that of S ierra Leone as a fool ’sparadise wi l l be discovered ; and the deplorable part Ofthe thing is

,that the trade palavers of the Chambers

and the Colonial Office wi l l give to hasty pol i ticians the ideathat West Africa is not worthy of Imperial attention , andlarge quantities of the blame for this fai lure of our colonieswi l l be p u t down quite unjustly to French interference .That French interference has troubled our colonies there ,no one wi l l attemp t to deny ; or that i f i t had been acting onthem when they were in a healthy state it would merelyhave had a tonic effect

,as i t has had on the Royal N iger

Company ’s territories but, acting ,on the Crown Colonies

in thei r present state , French influence has natu ral ly beenpoisonous . Even I , not given to sweet mouth as I am ,

shrink from saying what has been the true effect on theCrown Colonies of England of the pol icy pursued by ustowards French advance . This only wi l l I say, that theFrench pol icy is no discred it to France . Regard ing thefinancial condition of Gambia it is not necessary for us toworry ourselves . Gambia is a nuisance to France. She

loves to have high dues,and She cannot have them round

Gambia way. She has had to encyst it,or i t would be

to her Senegal and French Guinea possessions a regularmain to lay on smuggl ing. Knowing this she has encysted iti t pays better to smuggle from French Guinea into Gambiaor Sierra Leone than from Gambia or Sierra Leone into


Unfortunately there are no figures avai lable for theFrench Sudan which would represent the real value of thet rade ; the total value of trade i s , however, considerable .You must remember that in deal ing with French coloniesy ou are dealing with those of a nat ion not gifted withcommercial intel l igence and that, in spite of the perpetualhampering of trade in French colonies

,the granting of

concess ions to French fi rms who have not the capital towork them

,but are only able to prevent any one else

doing so,the high d ifferent ial tariffs

,in some cases 100 per

cent. , which up to the present time have been levied onEnglish goods, &c. the Engl ish traders nevertheless workin the markets of the French colonies

,and work mainly on

French goods. Of the representing the IvoryCoast trade for the first quarter of this year

,over

was Engl ish trade, and of the Dahomey for thesame period , I n reading the imports figures forthese French colonies in Upper Guinea, you must remember that those imports include material for the wel l d irected ,unamiable intention of France to cut us off from what sheregards as her own Western Soudan ; i t is a form ofinvestment far more p rofitable than our expenditure onrai lways , gaols , p risons , and frontier pol ice. I t i s one that,presuming this highly unl ikely thing—France becomingcommercial ly intell igent—would any year now enable herentirely to pocket the West African trade down to Lagosfrom Senegal . She may do it at any moment, though it i s avery remote poss ibi l ity. So we wi l l return to the GoldCoast finances

,though our authorities on them are at

p resent meagre .I n 1 892 the Gold Coast government was financial ly in a

fl ourishing condition . On the I s t Of January , 1 89 1 , there

XV GOLD COAST STAT IST ICS 349

was a sum of 4s . 4d. standing to the credit of thecolony

,which was increased to 2s . 3d. on the I s t of

January,1 89 2 , and to 1 6s . 7d. on the I s t of

January,1 89 3 , and the colony had no public debt . There

was no native direct taxation . The C u stoms dues werelower than they are now. The extremely careful officialwho drew u p the report shows evidence of real ising thatCus toms represent an indirect taxation on the native population

,for he says “ I n S ierra Leone and Lagos the

taxation per head is very much higher (than 2s . 5d. pe r

head) , in the former nine times , and in the latter seventimes .”1 However

,in al l three colonies

,apart from the

attempts at d irect taxation,the indirect taxation on th e

native has considerably increased by now.

The report for 1 894 shows the colony sti l l progressing rapidly

,the trade Of i t amounting in value to

1 9s . 9d. ,of which 8s . 10d. represented

the imports , and 10s . 1 1d. the exports. The

expenditure showed a large increase as compared withp revious years . I t amounted to l gs . 4d. ,

being1 3s . 7d. in excess of the revenue for the year, and7s . 1 1d. more than in 1 89 3 . The prin cIpal i tems

of increase were publ ic works,upon which the sum of

os . 3d. was spent, and the expedition in defenceof the p rotected district of At tab u b u against an Ashantiinvasion , which cost 1 1 s . The Gold Coast assetson 3 I s t of December , 1 894, stood at 8s . 7d.

2

Then came the last Ashanti war,regarding which I b eg

to refer you to Dr. Freeman ’s book .

3 N0 one can deny thathe has both experience and intel l igence enough to justi fy

1 Colon ial An n u al,No . 88

,Gold Coas t for 1 892 , pu b lish ed 1 893 .

2 Dit to,NO. 1 88 .

3 Ashan t i an djain an . Con s tab le , 1 898.

3 50 MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP.

him in offering his opin ion on the matter. I entirelyaccept his statements from my knowledge of native affairselsewhere in West Africa. Anyhow

,the last Ashanti war

absorbed a good deal of the assets of the Gold Coast .There is no publ ished authority to cite

,but I do not think

there is an asset now standing to the cred it of the GoldC oast Colony , unless i t be a loan .

The income for the Gold Coast Colony In 1 896 was6s . 7d.

,the expenditure 1 5 s . 9d. The ex

ports I 1,against in 1 89 5 but the imports

were against S ince 1 896 the Customsdues have risen but

, f or con tra,the expend iture has

also risen,in consequence of the expenses arising from the

occupation of Ashanti,and the Gold Coast rai lway. The

o ccupation of Ashanti and the rai lway must be looked on inthe l ight of investments— investments that wil l be profitable or unp rofitab le , according to thei r administration ,which one must trust wil l be careful

,for they are both

things you cannot j ust dump your money down on and bedone w ith

,for the u p -keep expenses of both are necessari ly

large.The subject ofWest African ra i lways is one that al l whoare interested in the future of our possessions there shouldstudy most careful ly , for two main reasons . Firstly

,that

there is poss ibly no other way in which money can bespent so u n profitab ly and extensively as on rai lways insuch a region . Second ly, because rai lways are in severald istricts there— districts with no water carriage possibil ities—simply essential to the expansion of trade . I n otherwords

,i f you make your rai lway through the right distri ct

,

i n the right way, i t i s a thing worth having, a sound investment. If you do not, i t is a thing you are better without


This Tarquah rai lway is estimated to cost per

mile . I t is to be financed by a loan , raised by the CrownColony Agents , of We have ample reason t obel ieve that this per mi le wil l not represent onethird of its final cost from demonstrat ions by the Uganda,Congo Belge

,and Senegal rai lways more particularly are

we so assured from the knowledge that the rai lw ay’s construction wi l l be in the hands of nominees of theCrownAgents , whose method of arranging for the constructionof these rai lways is curious . They do not invite tendersfor material or fre ight in the open market

,and they do not

give the taxed people in the country itsel f any opportunityfor contracting for the supp ly of as much local material aspossible— things it would be al ike fai r and business- l ike todo . Exceed ingly curious , moreover, is the fact that thenominees of the Crown Agents ’ employers are not subjectto the control of the local governmental authorities on t heCoast

,thei r sole connection with the affai r apparently

being confined to the pass ing of ord inances,as per in s t ru c

tion from the Colonia l Office, authoris ing loans for thepayment of the debt incurred by making the rai lway.

There i s no doubt that any Gold Coast rai lway whichis ever to pay even for its coal m u st run through a rich bitof the local gold reefs . S imilarly, there is no doubt thatthe gold mines of the Gold Coast have been terribly keptback by lack of transport faci l ities for the machinerynecessary to work them ; but there is , nevertheless ,evidently much that is unsound in the p resent rai lwayscheme. If the charge for it

,as some suggest

,were to be

thrown on the gold mines,i t would be as heavy a charge

as the old bad transport was , and they wou ld be no lesshampered . I f

,as is most l ikely

,the Charge for the rai lway

xv TRADE OF LAGOS 3 53

be thrown on the general finance of the colony, i t wi l l bea drain on other forms Of trade , w ithout in any way imp roving them ; in fact

,during its constru ction , i t wi l l

absorb labour from the general trade—Oil,rubber, and

timber—and,i f it extensively increases the gold-m in ing

industry, it wi l l keep the labour t ied to it chronical ly, tot he disadvantage of other tradesLagos , our next Crown Colony, is a very rich possess ion ,and under Sir Al fred Moloney, who discoveredthe use ofthe Kicks ia Africana as a rubber tree

,and Sir Gilbert

Carter, who fostered the industry and Opened the traderoads, sprang in a few years into a phenomenal prosperity.

Then came the French aggression on its hinterland,the

seizing of N ikk i,which was one of thosefoci of trade routes ,

though possibly, as many have said , a non-ferti le bit ofcountry in itself. To g ive you some idea Of the bound upin prosperity made by Lagos , the exports in 1 89 2 were

in 1 89 5 , The main advance has beenin rubber, which in 1 896 was exported from Lagos to thevalue of Early in this year, however, the stateof the Lagos trade was cons idered so unsatisfactory thata local commission to inquire into the causes of this stateo f affairs was appointed .

The publ ication of the Government Trade Returns for1 897 supported the long grumble that had been going onabout the bad state of trade in Lagos , the imports for 1 897Show ing a decrease on those of 1 89 5 by TheBoard of Trade jou rn al , quoting from the Lagos Weeh ly

Record of February 28 th ,1 898 , says , An examination of

the export returns affords a clue to the d irection ofsuch decrease. I t is to be noted that notwithstand ingthat the export of rubber in 1 897 shows an excess of

A A

3 54 MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP.

above that exported in 1 89 5 , yet in theaggregate of the total exports of the two years that of 1 897shows a decrease Of th is i s due to the greatfal l ing Off which is perceptible in the palm Oil and kerneltrade, wh ich together Show a decrease in 1 897 Of

as compared with the quantities exported in1 89 5 while as compared with the exports in 1 896 thedecrease amounts to £ 1 The returns show a steadyand increas ing decl ine in the exports of these products

,for

wh i le the decrease in 1 896 as compared w ith 1 89 5 wasonly the decrease had risen in 1 897 as compared with the prev ious year to as al readyintimated

,which impl ies that there has been a further

fal l ing off of the trade to the extent of nearlyThis man ifest excess ive diminut ion in what must beregarded as the staple commodities of the trade is u ndoubtedly a serious ind ication

,for though these commodities

come under the class ificat ion of jungle products they arenot l iable to exhaustion as are the rubber or timberindustries

,and hence they form the only rel iable com

modit ies upon which the trade must expand . Thed islocat ion of the labour system in the hin terland isno doubt respons ible in a large measure for the fal l ing offin the yield of these p roducts, wh i le in many instancesthey have been abandoned for the more remunerativerubber business. But, be the c ircumstances what they may,it i s evident that there has been an actual decrease Of

trade to the extent of over £ 1This was the state of affa irs the local committee was appo inted to deal with. I t s d iscussions were long and careful .I w i l l not attempt to drag you through its final report

,

wh ich a grossly ungrateful publ ic in Lagos sn iffed at because

356 MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM C I—IAP.

grave-digger is at i t from 6 am . to 6 p .m . every day ,Sundays included , for the Grim Reaper is ever busy. TheKeeper of the graveyards

,also

,has much to do for the

paltry salary he receives . I would earnestly appeal to theauthorities to do something to raise the burden of this overworked staff.”1 SO would I , but rather in the d irection ofg iving the “ Grim Reaper and the grave-d iggers fewerpeople to bury. I must also g ive you another beaut ifull ittle b it of local colour

,although it suggests further

expenditure . I t is satisfactory to note that the Chamberof Commerce intends to take up the question of the swampnear the petroleum magaz ine. S ince the Government madethe causeway leading to the dead -house and cut off the tidalinflow

,the upper portion of the swamp has been formed

into a most nox ious d isease-breeding s ink,into which

refuse of al l kinds is thrown , the stagnant waters andrefuse comb ining

,under the effects of the sun

,to em i t a

most formidable pesti lential efl‘l u via. I n the interests o fhumanity something should be done to abate th isnuisance .”2

However, I leave these local quest ions of Lagos town .

They just present a pretty p icture of the diflicu l t ie s thatsurround deal ing with a place that has by nature swamps

,

that must have dead—houses,grave-d iggers

,and extens ive

cemetery accommodation , and that is peop led by: nativeswho wil l instinct ively throw refuse into any hole ; withe vidently a large death rate in the native population anda publ ished death rate in whites of 1 5 3 per thousand . Le t

u s now return to the higher finance.The total expenditure of Lagos in 1 888 amounted to

1 Lag os S tan dard, Sept emb er 7 , 1 898 .

2 Lag os Weeh ly Record, Sept emb er 1 0,1 898 .

XV SUPERABUNDANCE OF OFFIC IALS 35 7

1 5 s . 1 1d. The expend iture has risen in 1 898 to

wh ich gives an excess of The totalcost of the staff in 1 888 was wh i le the presentcost amounts to which is an increase ofThis i ncrease

,apart from the augmentation in the Governor’s

salary,is mainly in respect to the fol lowing departments

Secretariat, Harbour Department, Constabulary and Pol ice,and the Publ ic Works Department. The cost of work ingthe secretariat has been increased by due to thefol lowing additional Officers z—Two ass istant colonialsecretaries

,a ch ief clerk

,and a first clerk. I t i s wel l

known that in 1 888 , when the department cost the colonyabout one-half its present expenses as regards the Europeanstaff

,the work was performed with effic iency and despatch

whi le at present i t is not only difficult to get business gotthrough

,but

,what is more

,if the business is not fol lowed

up w ith watchful care,it wi l l become lost in the super

abundance of assistants and clerks who crowd the department

,and the pract ical expression of whose work is more

d iscernible on the publ ic revenue than anyth ing else.”1The Lagos Record goes on to say

,

“There is room forretrenchment in the matter of expend iture on account ofthe European official staff.” I do not fol low it here. I t isroom for retrenchment in mere routine workers

,black and

white, that i s wanted , and the l iberation of the Europeansto do work worth thei r risking thei r l ives i n West Africafor. The percentage of black officials

,mainly clerks

excel lent and faithful to their dut ies—i s increasing in al lour colonies there too rapidly ; and the existence Of

poorly paid but numerous posts underGovernment with acertain amount of prestige , i s a dangerous al lurement to

1 Lag os Weekly Record, Au gu s t 27 , 1 898.

3 5 8 MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM CHAP

native young men,tempting them from nobler careers

,and

forming them into a sort of wal l—class between the Engl ishOfficial and the main body of the native population . Take ,for example

,the number of Government servants at the

Gold Coast,according to Sir Wi l l iam Maxwel l , 1 897

E u ropean Nat ive C ivilofficers . clerks . Hau s as . police .

Accra 3 5 206 432 I 05“ Cape Coast 8 69 O 47

E lmina 5 36 50 1 9

An awful percentage of clerks i s 3 1 1 for such a country ,more clerks than pol ice

,only 1 2 1 less Government native

clerks than soldiers in the army ; and you may depend uponi t the white Officials are Cl erking away

,more or less

,too. I

always think how very apposite the answer of an official wasto the criticism of excess ive expenditure Sir, there is noreckless expenditure every J pen has to be accountedfor !”NO

,I am quite unable to agree that anything bu t the

Crown Colony system is to blame,and that because it i s

engaged in administering a district w ith no possibi l itiesin i t for England save commercial matters

,i n which the

Crown Colony system is not well in formed . I have onlyquoted these figures to Show you that Lagos and the GoldCoast are merely keep ing l ine with S ierra Leone —in creasi ng their expenditure in the face Of a fall ing trade

,with a

dark trade future before them,on account of French activity

i n cutting them off from their in land markets,and of thei r

own mismanagement Of the native races .The trade and the p rosperity of West Africa depend onjungle products . There i s no more sol id reason to fear theextinction of West Africa’s j ungle products of oil , timber,

MORE OF THE CROWN COL‘

ONY SYSTEM CHAP.

wel l expect to get the funct ions of a State , good government,out Of these three d isconnected classes of Engl ishmen inAfrica

,as expect to know the hour of day from the parts of

a watch before they were put together.You wil l see I have humbly attempted to place th isaffai r before you from no sensat ional point of V iew, butfrom the commercial one—the value Of West Africa toEngland ’s commerce—and have attempted to Show youhow this is suffering from the adherence of England to aform of government that is essential ly u n -Engl ish . I havemade

'

n o attack on the form of government for such regionsformulated in England ’s more intel lectual though earl ierperiod ofE l i zabeth

,the Chartered Company system as repre

sented by the Royal N iger Company. I have neither sharesin

,nor reason to attack the Royal N iger Company

,wh ich has

in a few years,and during the period of the hottest French

enterprise,acquired a territory in West Africa immensely

greater than the terri tory acquired during centuries underthe Cr own Colony system it has also fought its necessarywars with energy and despatch

,and no call upon Imperial

resources it has not only paid its way,but paid its share

holders their 6 per cent. , and its b itterest enemies saydarkly

,far more. I know from my knowledge of West

Africa that this can only have been effected by i ts wise nativepolicy. I know that this pol i cy owes i ts wisdom and itssuccess to one man , Sir George Taubman Gold ie, a manwho

,had he been under the Crown Colony system

,could

have done no more than other men have done who havebeen Governors under i t ; but, not be ing under it, theterri tories he won for England have not been subjected tothe jerky amateur pol icy of those which are under theCrown Colony system . For nearly twenty years the natives

XV THE ROYAL N IGER COMPANY 36 1

under the Royal N iger Company have had the fi rm , wise ,sympathetic friendship of a great Engl ishman, who understood them

,and knew them personal ly. I t is the con

t in u ou s influence of one great Engl ishman , unhampered bynon-expert control

,that has caused England ’s exceedingly

strange success in the N iger ; coupled with the identityof t rade ~an d governmental interest, and the encouragementOf rel igion given by the constitution and admin istration ofthe N iger Company. This is a thing not given by al lChartered Companies ; indeed , I think I am right insaying that the N iger and the North Borneo Companiesstand alone in control l ing territories that have been essent ially trad ing during recent years . This associat ionOf trade and government is

,to my m ind

,an absolu tely

n ecessary res t rain t on the Charter Company form of government ; 1 but there is another element you must have toj usti fy Charters

,and that is. that they are in the hands of an

Engl ishman of the old type.I am perfectly aware that the natives of Lagos andother Crown Colon ies in West Africa are, and have longbeen , anx ious for the Chartered Company of the N iger tobe taken over by the Government

,as they pathetically and

frankly say,so that now the trade in their own d istrict is

so bad , i t may get a stimulus by a freer trade in the Niger,”and the nat ive traders not connected w ith the Company may rush in ; while Officials in the Crow n Colonieshave been equally anx ious

,as they say with frankness no

less pathetic, so that they may have chances of higherappo intments . I am equal ly aware that the merchants ofEngland not connected with the N iger Company, which is1 See In t rodu ct ion to Folh Lore of theFjort . R . E . Den n et t . David

Nu t t , 1 898.

MORE OF THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM . CH. XV

real ly an association of African merchants,desire i ts down

fal l yet they al l perfectly wel l know,though they do not

choose to advertise the fact,that three months Crown Colony

form of government i n the N iger territories wi l l bring war ,far greater and more destructive than any war we have yethad in West Africa

,and wil l end in the formation of a

debt far greater than any debt we n ow have in WestAfrica

,because of the greater extent of territory and the

greater power of the native States , n ow l iving peaceful lyenough under England , but not under England as m isrepresented by the Crown Colony system . I am not sayingthat Chartered Companies are good ; I am only sayingthey are better than the Crown Colony plan ; and that i fthe Crown Colony system is substi tuted for the CharteredCompany ,

which is d irectly a trad ing company, Englandwi l l have to pay a very heavy bi l l . There would be , Ofcourse

,a temporary spurt in trade , but it would be a flash

in the pan ,and in the end

,an end that would come in a

few “ years ’ time,the Brit ish taxpayer would be curs ing

West Africa at large , and the N iger territories in particular.Person al ly ,

I enti rely fai l to see why England should betied to either of these plans

,the Crown Colony or the

Chartered Company,for governing tropical regions . Have

we quite run out of construct ive abi l i ty in Statecraft ? I s

i t not possible to formulate some new plan to mark theage of V i ctoria ?

364 THE CLASH OF CULTURES CHAP.

a distress ing spl it between L iverpool and myself—whom I

am aware they cal l beh ind my back Ou r Aunt —and Iknow they regard me as a vexing, i f even a valued , form ofrelative.This spl it

,I may say (remembering Mr. Mark Twa in ’s

axiom,that people always l ike to know what a row is about) ,

arose from my frank adm irat ion Of both the Royal N igerCompany and France, ne ither of wh ich L iverpool at thattime regarded as worthy of even the admirat ion of t hemost insignifi cant ; so its jou rn al of Commerce went forme. The natural sweetness of my disposition i s mostclearly v is ible to the naked eye when I am qu ietly havingmy own way

,so natural ly I went for i ts jou rn al o f

’

Commerce. Providential ly no one outs ide saw th is deplorable family row, and Mr. John Holt put a stop to i t bysaying to me

, Say what you l ike, you cannot please al l ofus had it not been for th is I shou ld not have writtenanother l ine on the maladm inistrat ion Of West Africabeyond saying

,

“ Cal l that Crown Colony system you areworking there a Government England

,at your age

,you

ought to be ashamed of yourself But you see,as th ings

are,I am not speak ing for any one

,only off on a l ittle lone

fight of my own against a state of affairs wh ich I regard as adisgrace to my country.

Wel l but, you may say , after al l what you have saidpo ints to nothing disgraceful . You have expressly saidthat there IS no corrupt ion in the government there

,and

the rest Of the th ings—the change Of pol icy arising from thenecess ity for white men to come home at the least everytwelve months , the waste of money necessary to localex igenc ies , and the fact that Officers and gentlemen cannotbe expected to understand and look after what one might

xv1 EXPERTO CREDE 365

cal l domestic expenses—may be things unavo idable andpecul iar to the cl imate . To this I can only say, Given thecl imate

,why do you pers ist in ignoring the sol id mass of

expert knowledge of the region that is in the hands of themercanti le party

,and go on work ing your Governors from

a non—expert base ? You have in England an unused butg reat mass of knowledge among men of al l classes whohave personally dealt with West Africa—yet you do notwork from that

,organise it, and place it at the service of

the brand new Governors who go out far from it. I knowhardly any more pathetic s ight than the new official sudden ly appointed to West Africa buzzing round trying tofind out what the p lace is real ly l ike, you know. I knowpersonal ly one of the greatest of our Governors who havebeen down there

,a man with i ron determination and courage

,

who was not content with the information derivable from al ist Of requ is ites for a tropical c l imate, the Shorter Hausagrammar and a nice cheery-covered l ittle work on diseases—the usual fi l lets with which England binds the browsof her Sacrifices to the Coast—but went and read aboutWest Africa, al l by h imself, alone in the British Museum .

He was a success , but sti l l he always declares that theonly book he found about this particular part was a workby a Belgian, with a frontispiece depicting the author, onan awful river

,in the act, as per inscription, Of shouting

,

Row on , brave men of Kru which , as subsequent knowledge showed him that bravery was not one of the mainqual ities of the Kru men

,shook him u p about al l h is British

Museum education . SO i n the end he,l ike the rest

,had

to learn for himsel f, out there. Of course,i f the Governors

were careful ly pegged down to a West African p laceand l ived long enough , and were not by nature faddists ,


doubtless they would learn , and in the course of a fewyears th ings would go wel l ; but they are not peggeddown . No sooner does one Of them begin to knowabout the country he is in charge Of than Off he is wh iskedand depos ited aga in

,in a brand new region for wh ich West

Africa has not been a fitting introduct ionThen , as for the domestic finance

,why expect Officers

and lawyers,doctors and gentlemen from C lubland to

manage fiscal matters ? Of course they natural ly don ’tknow about trade affairs

,or whether the Public Works

Department is spending money, or merely wasting it. You

requ ire profess ional men in West Africa,but not to do

hal f the work they are now engaged on in connection withred tape and th ings they do not understand . Of course, errorsof th is k ind may be merely Fol ly

,you may have plenty more

men as good as these to replace them w ith,so i t may

matter more to their relations than to England i f they arewasted al ike in l ife and death , and you are so rich thatthe gradual extinct ion of your trop ical trade w i l l notmatter to your generation . But as a necessary consequentto th is amateurism , or young gentlemen ’s academy sy stem ,

the Crown Colony system , there is d isgrace in the injusticeto and dis integrat ion of the native races it deals w ith.

Now when I say England is behaving badly to theAfrican ,

I beg yo u not to think that the phi lanthrop ic partyhas Increased . I come of a generat ion of Danes whowhen the sun went down on the Wu lpen s an d were themen to make l ight enough to fight by with thei r Morning Stars ; and who , l ater on , were sold iers in the LowCountries and slave owners i n the West Indies , and I amproud of my ancestors ; for, whatever el se they were, theywere not humbugs and the generat ion that is round me now


by so do ing. This argument,however

,cannot be used in

favour Of ki l l ing down the African in trop ical Africa,more

particularly in Western Tropical Africa. I f you were tomorrow to ki l l every native there

,what use would the

country be to you ? N0 one else but the native canwork i ts resources ; you cannot l ive in i t and colonise it.I t would therefore be only an extremely interest ing placefor the zoologist, geologist, mineralogist, &c.

,but a place of

no good to any one else in England .

This view,however

,Of the profit derivable from and

just ifying war you w i l l refuse to discuss stating that suchprofit in your wars you do not seek that they have beenmade for the benefit of the African himsel f

,to free him

from his native Opp ressors in the way of tyrannical chiefsand bloody supersti tions

,and to elevate him in the plane

of c ivi l isation . That this has been the intention of ourWest African wars up to the S ierra Leone war, which wasforced on you for fiscal reasons

,I have no doubt : but

that a n y of them advanced you in your m iss ion to elevatethe African , I should hes itate to say . I beg to refer you toDr. Freeman ’s Op in ions on the Ashantee wars on thispoint

,

1 but for myself I should say that the blame of thefai lure Of these wars to effect their desired end has been dueto the want of power to re -organise native society after a war ;for example

,had the 1 87 3 Ashantee war been fol lowed by

the tak ing over of Ashantee and the strong handl ing of it,

there would not have been an 1 89 5 Ashantee war ; or, totake it the other way

,i f you had fol lowed up the battle of

Kataman s u in 1 827 , you need not have had an 1 874 wareven . Dr. Freeman holds

,that i f you had let the Ashantis

have a sea-port and general ly behaved fairly reasonably,you

1 Ashan tee an djaman,Freeman (Con s tab le an d Co .

,

XV I W ITH THE BEST INTENTIONS 369

need hardly have had Ashantee wars at al l . But,however

this may be,I think that a good many of the West African

wars of the past ten years have been the result of thehumbug of the previous sixty , during which we have proclaimed that we are only in Africa for peaceful reasons ofcommerce

,and religion

,and education

,not with any desire

for the African ’s land or property that , of course, i t i s notpossible for us to extend our friendship or our toleration topeople who go in for cannibal ism

,S lave- raid ing

,or human

sacrifices,but apart from these matters we have no desire

to meddle with African domestic affairs,or take away thei r

land . This,I own

,I bel ieve to have honestly been our in t en

tion,and to be our intention sti l l

,but with our sti ff Crown

Colony system of rep resenting ourselves to the African ,this intention has been and wil l be imposs ible to carry out

,

because between the true Sp i ri t of England and the spiri tof Africa i t interposes a d istorting medium . I t is

,remember

,

not composed of Engl ishmen alone , i t includes educatednatives

,and yet it knows the true nat ive only through

interpreters .But why cal l this humbug ? you say . Wel l , the presentpo l i cy in Africa makes it look SO . Frankly , I do not seehow you could work your original pol icy out unless i t werein the hands of extremely expert men , patient and powerfu lat that. Too many times in old days have you al lowedwhite men to be bul l ied

,to give the African the idea

that you,as a nation

,meant to have your way. Too

many times have you al lowed them to V iolate parts oftheir treaties under your nose

,unti l they got out of the way

Of thinking you would hold them to thei r treaties at a l l ,and then suddenly down you came on them

,not on ly

holding them to the ir s ide of the treaties,but not holding

B B

370 THE CLASH OF CULTURES CHAP

to your own,imposing on them restrictions and domestic

interference which those treaties made no mention of at al l .I have before me ' now copies of treaties with chiefs in theh interland of our Crown Colonies

,wherein there is not even

the anti -slavery clause—treaties merely of friendship andtrade

,with the undertaking on the native chief’s part to

hand over no part or right in his territories to a foreignpower without Engl ish Government consent . Ye t

,in the

d is tricts we hold from the natives under s u ch treaties,we

are contemplating direct taxation,which to the African

means the confiscation of the property taxed . We have,in

fact,by our previous pol icy placed ourselves to the African

with whom we have made treaties,i n the pos ition of a

friend .

“ Big friend,

” i t is true,but not conqueror or

owner. Ou r departure now from the “ big friend attitudeinto the position Of owner

,hurts his feel ings very much ; and

coupled with the feel ing that he cannot get at England , whoused to talk so nicely to him

,and whom he did his best to

please,as far as local c ircumstances and his l imited power

would al low,by giving u p customs she had an in com

prehens ible avers ion to,it causes the African chief to say

God is up,

” by which I expect he means the Devi l,and

give way to war, or sickness , or distraction , or a w i ld , hopeless

,help less , combination of al l three and then , poor fel low,

when he is only natural ly suffering from the dazzles yourWest African policy would give to an i ron post

,you go

abou t sagely referring to “ a general antipathy to civi l isationamong the natives of West Africa

,

” anti-white-man ’sJ )l eagues, “horrible secret societies

,

”and such l ike figme n t s

of your imagination and l ikely enough throw in as a dashfor top the statement that the chief i s “ a drunken slaveraider

,wh ich as the captain of the late s .s . Sparrow would


k I t i s the toxin p roduced by the microbe. I t is the cou sequ en ce of our attempt to introduce direct taxation , whichseems to me to be an affair identical with your greasedcartridges for India. Doubtless

,such people ought not to

Object to greased cartridges but , doubtless , such peop le aswe are ought not to give them

,and commit

,over again

,a

worthless blunder,with no bad intention be it granted

,but

with no common sense .I t has been said that the Sierra Leone hut-tax war is al ittle Indian mutiny”; those who have said i t do not seem tohave known how true the statement is , for these attacks onproperty in the form of d irect taxation are, to the African ,treachery on the part of England

,who

,from the first

,has

kept on assuring the African that she does not mean totake his country from him

,and then

,as soon as She is

strong enough, in his eyes , de l iberately starts do ing it.When you once get between two races the feel ing oftreachery

,the face of thei r re lationship i s altered for ever

,

altered in a way that no wholesome war,no brutal ity of ind i

vidu als , can alter. Black and white men for ever aftera national breach Of faith tax each other with treachery

,

and never real ly trust each other again .

The African , however, must not be confounded withthe Indian . Externally

,in his habits he is in a lower

culture state ; he has no fanatical rel igion that rea l lyresents the incurs ions of other religions on his mind ;Fetish can l ive in and among al l sorts and kindsof rel igions without quarrel l ing with them in theleast

,grievously as they quarrel with Fetish ; he has no

written l iterature to keep before his eyes a glorious andmythical past

,which

,getting mixed u p with his rel igious

ideas,is l iable in the Indian to make him take at times

XV I TRUE NATURE OF THE AFR ICAN 373

lobster- l ike backward springs in the d irection of thatpast, though it was never there , and he would not haverel ished i t if i t had been . Nevertheless , the true Negrois

,I bel ieve

,by far the better man than the As iatic ; he

is physical ly superior,and he is more l ike an English

man than the As iatic ; he is a logical , practical man ,with feel ings that are a cred it to him

,and are particularly

strong in the direction of property ; he has a way ofthinking he has rights

,whether he l ikes to use them or no ,

and wil l fight for them when he is driven to it. Fight youfor a rel igious idea the African wi l l not . He is not thestuff you make martyrs out of

,nor does he des ire to

Shake off the shackles of the flesh and swoon intoN i rvana ; and although he wi l l s i t under a tree to anyextent, provided he gets enough to eat and a l ittletobacco

,he won ’t s it under trees on iron spikes

,or hold a

leg u p al l the time , or fakiris e in any fashion for the benefitof his soul or yours . His make of m ind is exceedinglyl ike the make of mind of thousands of Engl ishmen of thestand -no-nonsense

,Engl ishman ’s-house- is -his -cast le type .

Ye t, withal , a law-abid ing man

,loving a l ive lord

,hold ing

loudly that women should be kept in their place , yet oftengrievous ly henpecked by his wives

,and l i ttle better than a

slave to his mother,whom he loves with a love he gives to

none other. This love of his mother is so dominant a factorin his l i fe that it must be taken into consideration inattempting to understand the true Negro . Concerning i t Ican do no better than give you the Reverend LeightonWi lson ’s words for this great miss ionary knew

,as probably

none Since have known,the true Negro

,having laboured for

many years amongst the most unaltered Negro tribes—theGrain coast tribes—and his words are as true to-day of


the unaltered Negro as on the day he wrote them thirtye ight years ago, and Leighton Wi lson , mind you , was noblind admirer of the African .

“Whatever other estimate we may form of the African ,we may not doubt his love for his 'mother. Her name ,whether dead or al ive

,is always on his l ips and in hi s

heart. She i s the fi rs t being he th inks of when awakeningfrom h is s lumbers and the last he remembers when closinghis eyes in Sleep to her he confides secrets which he wouldreveal to no other human being on the face of the earth .

He cares for no one else in time of S ickness , she alone mustprepare his food

,administer his medicine

,perform his

ablutions,and spread his mat for him . He fl ies to her in

the hour of his d istress,for he wel l knows i f al l the rest of

the world turn against him she wi l l be s teadfast in her love,whether he be right or wrong.

“I f there be any cause which justifies a man in using

violence towards one of his fel low men it would be to resentan

- insul t offered to his mother. More fights are occas ionedamong boys by hearing something said in d isparagementof their mothers than al l other causes put together. I t i s acommon saying among them

,i f a man ’s mother and h is

wife are both on the point of being drowned,and he can

save only one of them , he must save his mother, for theavowed reason i f the wife is lost he may marry another

,

but he wil l never find a second mother.”1Among the tribes of whom Wi lson is speaking above

,i t

i s the man ’s true mother. Among the N igerDelta tribes i t isoften the adopted mother, the woman who has taken himwhen

,as a chi ld,he has been left motherless , or, i f he is

a boughten Chi ld,the woman who has taken ' care of him .

1 Wes tern Africa , Wilson , 1 8 56, p . 1 1 6.

376 THE CLASH OF CULTURES CHAP

the farm,and the market— than go mooning about as those

men can . For another thing they go in for husbandpoisoning in a way I am unable to approve of.Wel l

,i t may be interesting to inquire into the reasons

that make the West African woman a factor against whitecivi l isation . These reasons are— firs t ly ,

that she does notknow practical ly anything about it and

,secondly, she has

the normal feminine disl ike to innovations. M issionary andother forms of wh ite education have not been g iven to theAfrican women to anything l ike the same extent that theyhave been given to the men . I do not say that there are notanyAfrican women who are not thoroughly ed u cated inwhiteeducation

,for there are

,and they can compare very favour

ably from the standpoint of thei r education with our normalwomen but these have

,I think I may safely say , been the

daughters of educated African men,or have been the women

who have been immediately attached to some mission station .

I have no hesitation in saying that,considering the very l i ttle

attention that has been given to the white education of theAfrican women , they give evidence of an abi l ity in duekeep i ng w ith that of the African men . But al l I mean tosay is

,that our white culture has not had a grasp over

the womankind of Africa that can compare with thati t has had over the men ; for o n e woman who has beenbrought home to England and educated in our schools

,

and who has been surrounded by English cu lture, &c. ,

there are 500 men . But into the possibi l i ties Of the Africanwoman in the white education department I do not meanto go I am getting into a snaggy channel by speaking onwoman at al l . I t is to the mass of African women

,u n

tou ched by white culture,but with an enormous influence

over their sons and brothers,that I am now referring as a

XVI THE FEM IN INE FACTOR 377

factor in the disl ike to the advance of white civi l isation ;and I have said they do not l ike i t because

,for one thing,

they do not know it ; that is to say, they do not know i tfrom the inside and at its best

,but only from the outside.

V iew ed from the outside in West Africa white civi l isation ,to a shrewd mind l ike hers

,i s an evi l thing for her boys

and girls . She sees i t taking away from them the restraintsof thei r native culture , and in a l l too man y cases leadingthem into a l ife Of diss ipation , disgrace, and decay ; or, i f itdoes not do this

,yet separating the men from their peop le.

The whole of this affai r requires a whole mass of elaborateexplanations to p lace it fairly before you , but I wil l merelysketch the leading points now. ( 1 ) The law of m iit t errech tmakes the tie between the mother and the Children farcloser than that between the father and them white culturereverses this

,she does not l ike that. (2 ) Between husband

and wife there is no community in goods under native laweach keeps his and her separate estate. White culturesays the husband shal l endow his wife with al l his worldlygoods this she knows usual ly means

,that i f he has any he

does not endow her with them,but whether he has or has

not he endows himself with hers as far as any law permits .S imilarly he does not l ike it either. These two whiteculture things

,saddl ing him with the support of the chi ldren

and endowing his wife with a l l his p roperty, p resents arepu ls ive s ituation to the logical African . Moreover

,white

culture expects him to think more of his wife and childrenthan he does of his mother and sisters

,which to the u n

cultured African is absurd .

Then again both he and his mother See the fearful effectsof white culture on the young women

,who cannot b e pre

vented in d istricts under white control from going down to


the coast towns and to the Devi l : neither he nor therespectable Old ladies of his tribe approve of this . Thenagain they know that the young men of thei r people whohave thoroughly al l ied themselves to white cul ture lookdown on thei r relations in the African culture state . Theycal l the ancestors of thei r tribe polygamists

,

”as if i t werea swear-word

,though they are a thousand times worse than

polygamists themselves : and they are ashamed Of thei rmothers . I t is a whole seething mass of stuff al l through andI would not mention i t were it not that i t i s a factor i n theformation of anti—white—cul ture Opin ion among the mass ofthe West Africans

,and that i t causes your West African

bush chief to l isten to the Old woman whom you may seecrouching behind him

,or you may not see at al l

,but who is

with him all the same,when she says

,Do not l isten to the

white man,i t is bad for you .

”He knows that the interpreter

talking to him for the white man may be a boughten man ,paid to advertise the advantages of white ways ; and heknows that the Old woman

,his mother

,cannot be bought

where his interest i s concerned : SO he l istens to her, andShe distrusts white ways .I am aware that there is now in West Africa a handfu lof Africans who have mastered white cu lture , who know ittoo wel l to misunderstand the inner Sp i ri t Of i t

,who are

men too true to have let i t cut them off i n e ither love orsympathy from Africa

,—men that

,had England another

system that would a l low her to see them as they are,would be of greater use to her and Africa than they noware ; but I wi l l not name them : I fight a lone fight, andwish to m ix no man

,white or black

,up in it, or my

heretical opinions . That handful of African men are nowfighting a hard enough fight to prevent the distracted ,


has placed within his reach . SO effectual ly has the heel ofthe w hite man been ground into the face of Perak andSelangor, that these native states are now only nomin allywhat their name impl ies . The white population outnumbersthe people of the land in most of the principal d is tricts

,and

i t is possible for a European to Spend weeks in either ofthese s tates without coming into contact with any As iaticssave those who wait at table

,clean his shirts

,or drive his

cab . I t i s possible , I am told , for a European to spendyears in Perak or Selangor without acquiring any profoundknow ledge of the natives of the country or of the languagewhich i s their special medium . This being SO

,most of the

white men who l ive in the p rotected native states are somewhat apt to d isregard the effect thei r actions have uponthe natives and labour under the common European inabi li ty to V iew natives from a native standpoint. Moreover,we have become accustomed to existing conditions ; andthus it is that few perhaps real ise the p recise nature Of thework which the British in the Peninsula have set themselvesto accompl ish . What we are really attempting

,however

,i s

nothing less than to crush into tw enty years the revolutionin facts and in ideas

,which

,even in energetic Europe , s ix

long ce nturies have been needed to accomplish . NO onewi ll

,of course

,be found to dispute that the strides made in

our knowledge of the art of government since the thirteenthcen tury are p rodigious and vast , nor that the generalcondition of the people of Europe has been immenselyimproved s ince that day ; but nevertheless one cannot butsympathise with the Malays who are suddenly and V iolentlytran slated from the point to which they have attained in thenatu ral development of thei r race

,and are required to l ive

u p to the standard of a ~

peop le who are s ix centuries in

XVI NEGRO AND MALAY 38 1

advance of them in national progress . I f a plant is madeto b lossom or bear fruit three months before its time it isregarded as a triumph of the gardener’s art ; but what thenare we to say of this huge moral forcing system we cal lp rotection ’

? Forced p lants we know suffer in the processand the Malay

,whose proper p lace is amidst the conditions

of the thirteenth century,is apt to become moral ly weak

and seedy and lose something of his robust self respect whenhe is forced to bear N ineteenth century fruit.”1Now

,the above represents the state Of affairs caused by

the clash of di fferent culture levels in the true Negro States ,as wel l as i t does in the Malay. These two sets of men ,widely different in breed

,have from the many points o f

agreement in their State - form ,evidently both arrived in our

thirteenth century . The African peoples in the central East,

and East,and South , except where they are true Negroes ,

have not arrived in the Thirteenth century,or

,to pu t i t in

other words,the true Negro stem in Africa has arrived at a

pol itical state akin to that of our own Thirteenth century ,whereas the Bantu stem has not this point

,however,

I need not enter into here .There are

,of course

,local d ifferences between the Ma lay

Peninsula and West Africa,but the main characteristi cs as

regards the State-form among the natives are s ingularlyal ike. They are both what Mr. Cli fford aptly l ikens to ourown European State-form in the Thirteenth century ; and theeffect of the white culture on the morals of the natives isalso al ike . The main difference betw een them results fromthe Malay Peninsula being but a narrow strip of land andthin ly peop led , compared to the .densely populatedsection of a continent we cal l West Africa. Therefore ,

1 E as t Coas t E tch ing s . H . C lifford, Sin gapore, 1 896 .


although the Malay in his native state is a superiorindividual warrior to the West African

,yet there are not

so many of him and as he is less guarded from whites by apesti lential cl imate

,his res istance to the white culture of

the N ineteenth century is inferior to the res istance whichthe West African can give .The destruction of what is good in the Thirteenth centuryculture level

,and the fact that when the N ineteenth century

has had its way the main result is seedy demoral ised natives,

i s the thing that must make al l thinking men wonderif,after al l

,such work is from a high moral point of V iew

worth the N ineteenth century do ing. I so often think whenI hear the progress of civi l isation

,our duty towards the

lower races, &c.

,talked o f, as if those words were in them

selves Ju Ju ,of that improving fable of the kind -hearted

she-elephant, who, while out walking one day, inadvertentlytrod upon a partridge and ki l led it, and observing close athand the bird ’s nest ful l of cal low fledglin gs , droppeda tear

,and saying I have the feel ings of a mother mysel f

,

”

sat down upon the brood . This is prec isely what Englandrepresenting the N ineteenth century is doing in ThirteenthcenturyWest Africa. She destroys the guardian institution

,

drops a tear and s its upon the brood with motherly in tentions ; and pesky warm sitting She finds it, what with thenature of the brood and the surrounding cl imate

,let alone

the expense of it. An dwhat profi t she is going to get out ofsuch proceedings there , I own I don ’t know . Ah you say

,

“ yes,i t i s sad

,but i t i s i nevitable . I do not think it is

inevitable,unless you have no intel lectual construct ive

Statecraft, and are merely in that l ine an automaton . I f

you wi l l try Science , al l the evi ls of the clash between thetwo culture periods could be avoided

,and you could ass ist


have sprung from a single pai r of human beings,and the

cond ition of a race to-day therefore to be to its own cred itor blame. I remember one day in Cameroons coming acrossa young African lady , of the age of twelve, who I knewwas enjoying the advantages of white tuition at a school .So ,i n order to open up conversation

,I asked her what she

had been learning . Ebb ery t in g ,

” she observed with agenial smi le . I asked her then what she knew,

so as toapp roach the subj ect from a di fferent standpoint forpurposes of comparison .

“ Ebb ery t in g,”

She said . Thishurt my vanity

,for though I am a good deal more than

twelve years of age,I am far below this state of knowledge

so I said , “Wel l , my clear,and i f you do

,you ’re the person

I have long wished to meet, for you can tel l me why youare black ” “

Oh yes ,”she said , with a perfect beam of sati sfaction

,one Of my pa’s pa ’s saw dem Pat riark Noah

w ivo u t his clothes . ’ I handed over to her a crimson si lknecktie that I was wearing, and slunk away , humb led bysuperior knowledge . This , of course, was the resul t of whitetraining direct on the African mind the story which youw i l l Often be told to account for the blackness and whitenessof men by Africans who have not been in direct touchwith European , but who have been in touch with Mu ham

medan,trad ition—which in the main has the same Semitic

source— i s that when Cain ki l led Abel,he was horrified at

himsel f, and terrified of God and so he carried the bodyaway from beside the altar where it lay

,and carried it

about for years trying to hide i t,but not knowing how

,

growing white the while with the horror and the fear unti lone day he saw a crow scratching a ho le in the desert sand ,and i t struck him that i f he made a hole in the . sand andpu t the body in , he could

. hide i t from God,so he d id but

XVI THE RACE QUESTION 38 5

al l his chi ldren were white,and from Cain came the whi te

races,while Abel ’s chi ldren are black , as al l men were

before the first murder . The present way of contemplatingdifferent races

,though exp ressed in finer language , i s

practical ly identical with these not only the rel igious V iew ,

but the V iew of the suburban agnostic . The rel igiou sEuropean cannot avoid regarding the races in a d i fferentand inferior culture state to his own as more deeplysteeped in s in than himself, and the suburban agnosticregards them as “ degraded ” or retarded ” either by en

viron me n t , or microbes , or both .

I openly and honestly own I s incerely detest touchingon this race question . For one thing

, Science has notfinished with it ; for another, i t belongs to a group ofsubj ects of enormous magnitude

,upon which I have no

Op in ion , but merely feel ings , and those of a nature whichI am informed by superior peop le would barely be acredit to a cave man Of the palaeol ithic periodf My

feel ings class i fy the world ’s inhabitants into Engl ishmen,

by which I mean Teutons at large, Foreigners , and Blacks .

Blacks I subdivide into two classes,Engl ish Blacks and

Foreign Blacks . Engl ish Blacks are Africans . ForeignBlacks are Indians

,Chinese

,and the rest . Of course

,

everything that i s not Teutonic is,to pu t i t m i ld ly, not up

to what is ; and equa l ly , of course , I feel more at homewith and hold in greater esteem the Engl ish Black : agreat

,strong Kruman , for examp le , with his front teeth

fi led,nothing much on but oi l

,hal f a dozen wives

,and

hal f a hundred jujus , is a sort of person whom I hold higherthan any other form of native

,let the other form dress

in s i lk,satin , or cashmere , and make what pretty things he

p leases . This is , of course , a general V iew but I am oftenC c


cornered for the detai l V iew, whether I can reconci le myadmiration for Africans with my statement that they area d ifferent kind of human being to white men . Natural lyI can

,to my own satisfaction

,j ust as I can admire an

oak tree or a palm ; but it i s an uncommonly difficul tthing to explain . Al l I can say is , that when I comeback from a spel l i n Africa

,the thing that makes me

proud of being one of the . Engl ish is not the mannersor customs up here

,certainly not the houses or the

cl imate ; but i t i s the thing embodied in a great ra i lwayengine. I once came home on a ship with an Engl ishman who had been in South West Africa for sevenunbroken years he was sane

,and in his right m ind. But

no sooner did we get ashore at L iverpool , than he rushedat and threw his arms round a pos tman , to that official ’sembarrassment and surprise. Wel l

,that is j ust how I feel

about the fi rst magnificent bit of machinery I comeacross : i t is the mani festat ion of the superiority of myrace.I n philosophic moments I cal l superiori ty d i fference , froma feel ing that i t i s not m ine to j udge the grade in thesethings . Careful scientific study has enforced on me

,as it has

on other students,the recognition that the African mind

natural ly approaches al l things from a spiritual point ofV iew . Low down in culture or high up

,his m ind works

along the l ine that th ings happen because of the act ion ofSpirit upon spirit it is an effort for him to think in terms ofmatter. We think along the l ine that things happen fromthe action of matter upon matter. I f i t were not for theAs iatic rel igion we have accep ted , it i s , I think, doubtfulwhether we should not be far more material isti c in thoughtform than we are . Th is steady sticking to the material

388 THE CLASH OF CULTURE CHAP.

In both Engl ish and Mohammedan Berber influence onthe African there is another factor

,apart from race difference

namely,that the two higher cultures are in a healthier state

than that of Rome was at the time it mastered the barbarianm ind in both cases the higher cul ture has the superior warforce.Th is seems to me simply to lay upon us Engl ish for thesake of our honour that we keep clean hands and a coolhead

,and be careful of Justice to do this we must know

what there is we wish to wipe out of the African,and what

there is we wish to pu t i n , and so we must not contentourselves by relying material ly on our superior wealth andpower

,and morally on catch phrases. Al l we need look

to is j ustice . Love for our fel low-man, p i ty, charity, mercy ,

we need not bother our heads about, so long as we arejust. These things are of value on ly when they are used asmeans whereby we can attain j ustice. I t i s no use sayingthat i t matters to a Teuton whether the other race hedeal s with is black , white, yellow—I can qu ite conce ive thatwe should look down on a pea-green form of humanityi f w e had the chance . Natural ly, I think this shows a veryp roper spiri t. I should be the last to alter any of our Teutonicinstitutions to please any race but when it comes to alteringthe institutions of another race

,not for the reason even of

p leas ing ourselves but merely on “the plea that we don ’t u nders tan d them , we are on d ifferent ground . If those ideasand institutions stand in the w ay of our universal right to goanywhere we choose and l ive as honest gentlemen

,we have

the power-right to al ter them but i f they do not we mustjudge them from as near a standard of pure Justice as w ecan attain to .

There are many who hold murder the most awful crime

XVI THE MURDER OF INSTITUT IONS 389

a man can commit, saying that thereby he destroys theimage of his Maker ; I hold that one of the most awfulcrimes one nation can commit on another is destroying theimage of Justice

,which in an institution is represented

more truly to the people by whom the insti tution has beendeveloped

,than in any al ien institution of Justice ; i t i s a

thing adapted to its environment. This form of murderby a nation I see being done in the destruction of what isgood in the laws and institutions of native races . I n someparts of the world

,this murder

,judged from certain reason

able standpo ints,gives you an advantage in West Africa

,

j udged from any standpoint you choose to take , i t givesyou no advantage . By destroying native insti tutionsthere

,you merely low er the moral of the African race

,stop

trade,and the culture advantages it brings both to England

an dWest Africa. I again refer you to the object lessonbefore you now

,the hut tax war in S ierra Leone . Awfu l

accusat ions have been made against the officers and men whohad the col lecting of this tax . I n the matter of the natives oldiery

,there is no doubt these accusations are only too

well founded,but the root thing was the murder of in s t it u

tions . The worst of the whole of this miserable affair isthat a precisely s imi lar miserable affair may occur at anytime in any of our West African Crown Colon ies—tomorrow, any day,—unti l you choose to remove the CrownColony system of government.I t has natural ly been exceed ingly hard for men whoknow the colony and the natives

,with the experience of

years i n an unsentimental commercial way,to keep civi l

tongues in thei r heads whi le thei r interests were beingwrecked by‘ the action of the government but whether orno the white officers were or were not brutal in their


methods we must presume wil l be shown by Sir DavidChalmers

’

s report . I am unable to be l ieve they were . Butthere is no manner of doubt that 'ou t rages have been commit t ed, disgraceful to England , by the set of ri ff-raff rascalBlacks

,who had been turned out by

,or who had run away

from,the hinterland tribes down into Sie rra Leone Colony

,

and there been turned,by an i l l - informed government

,into

pol ice , and sent back with power into the very d istrictsfrom which they had

,shortly before

,fled for thei r crimes.

I ent irely sympathise , therefore , with the rage of L iverpooland Manchester, and of every clear-minded common - senseEngl ishman who knows what a thing the hut tax war hasbeen . An d I want common-sense Englishmen to recognisethat a system capable of such fol ly

,and under which

such a thing could happen in an Engl ish possess ion , IS asystem that must go . For a system that gets Short ofmoney

,from its own want of business - l ike abi l i ty

,and then

against al l expert advice goes and does the most unscientificthing conceivable under the ci rcumstances

,to get more

,i s

a th ing that is a disgrace to England . Ye t the S ierraLeone Colony was capable of th is fol ly, and the people inLondon were capable of saying to L iverpool and Man

chester,that no difficulty was expected from the col lection

of the tax. If this is so in our O ldest colony,what reason

have we to bel ieve that in the others we are Safer ? An y ofthem

,in combination with London

,may to-morrow go and

do the most unscientific thing conceivable,and disgrace

England , in order to p rocure more local revenue , andfai l at that.The desire to develop our West African possess ions isa worthy on e i n its way , but better leave it total ly alonethan attempt it with your present machinery ; which the

CHAPTER XV I IAN ALTERNATIVE PLAN

Where in the s tu den t , havin g s aid divers harsh th in gs of those w ho

des troy b u t do n ot recon s t ru ct , recogn is es that , havin g attemptedde s tru ct ion ,

it is b u t s eem ly to s et forth some other w ay w h ereb yt he Wes t African co lon ies cou ld b e man aged.

WEST AFRICA,I own , is a make of country d ifficult for a

power with a d ifferent kind of culture,cl imate and set of

institutions,and so on

,to manage from Europe satis

factorily . But, as things go , I venture to think it presentsno especial d ifficulty ; that al l the d ifficulties that existin this matter are difficu l ties aris ing from m isunderstandin gsf —things removable, not things of essence, barringonly fever.Also I feel convinced that no one of our Engl ish governmental methods at present existing is su itable for itsadm in istration . I t is no use saying, Look at our Ind iansystem

,why not just introduce that into West Africa ? I

have the greatest admiration for our Indian system ; i t isthe right thing in the right place

,thanks to its having

healthi ly grown up , fostered by experts , mil itary and civi l .Nevertheless i t would not do for West Africa to-day .

What we want there is the sowing of a S imilar system ,not

the transplanting of the Indian in its perfect form, for that

i s to-day for West Africa infinitely too expens ive. If a

CH . XVI I COLON IES SHOULD PAY THEIR WAY 393

man before his fortune i s made spends a fortune , he endsbadly ; i f he measures his expenditure with his incomeand develops his opportunities , he ends as a mil l ionaire ;and we must never forget that great d ictum that the State isthe perfection of the individual man , and Should mouldour pol itics accord ingly .

I hold i t to be a sound and healthy idea of ours thatour possessions over-sea should pay thei r own way, and Itherefore distrust the cucumber-frame form of financ ialpol itics that at present holds the field in West Africanaffairs. I t has been the pride and boast of the WestAfrican colonies that they have paid thei r way ; let i tremain so . I t seems to me unsound that our colon iesthere should receive loans wherewith to carry on for

,for

one thing,i t makes them carry on more than is good for

them,and merely means a pi l ing up of debt ; and , for

another,i t gives West Africa the notion that i t is En gland ’s

business to support her, which to my mind i t d istinctly isnot for i f we wanted a lapdog set of colonies we could gethealthier ones elsewhere . Moreover

,it pauperises instead

of fostering the proper pride , without which nothing canflourish.

Apart from our Indian system , we have, for governingthose regions where our race cannot local ly produce asufficient population of its own to take the reins of government out of the hands of officialdom in England

,only two

other systems , namely, the Chartered Company and theCrown Colony. I beg to urge that i t i s high time we had athird system . Concerning the Crown Colony system forAfrica, I have spoken as tolerantly as I bel ieve it is possiblefor any one acquainted with its working in West Africa tospeak . If I were to say any more I might say something

394 AN ALTERNATIVE PLAN CHAP.

uncivi l,wh ich , of course , I do not wish to do. Concern ing

the Chartered Company system ,I n eed only remark that

there are two distinct breeds of Chartered Companies— theone whose attention is turned to the trade

,the other whose

attention is turned to the lands over which its charter givesit dominion . The fi rst kind is represented in Africa by theRoyal N iger Company, the second by the South African .

The second form of Chartered Company,that inter

e s ted in land , we have not in West Africa under thename of a Company but the present Crown Colony systemrepresents i t

,and I feel certain that whatever good the

South African Company may have done for the emp i re inSouth Africa, i t has done an immense amount of harm inWestern Africa . For some

,to me unknown

,reason the

South African Company has found favour in the sight ofOfficialdom in London ; and , fascinated by its success inSouth Africa , yet recognising its drawbacks , officialdom

has attempted to introduce what they regard as best i n theSouth African system into West Africa. I do not thinkany student can avoid coming to the conclus ion that thepolicy which is now driving the Crown Colonies in WestAfrica is one and the same w ith that of Mr. Rhodes . I donot mean that Mr. Rhodes , had he had the. handl ing ofWest Africa, would himsel f have used this form of pol icy.

He formulated it for South Africa ; but, with his carefulstudy of such things as local needs

,he would have formu

lated another form for West Africa,which is a total ly

d i fferent region .

To take only two of the differences , and state thembrutal ly . Fi rst, in West Africa the most valuable assetyou have is the native : the more heavi ly the district therei s populated with Africans

,and the more prosperous those

396 AN ALTERNAT IVE PL-

AN CHAP.

The Royal N iger Company has demonstrated its adaptation to its en vironment. Wi thout any forced labour

,

without any direct taxation , i t has paid . I venture to th ink,

though I have no doubt it would severely hurt the feel ingsof the that we may regard the Royal NigerCompany as representing the perfected system of nativegovernment in West Africa plus Engl ish courage andactivity. I bel ieve that on this foundation has been bu i l t i tssuccess . For say what you l ike , i f the Royal N iger had notgot on wel l with the natives in its terri tories—dealt cleanly

,

honestly,rational ly with them—it would never have ex

tended its influence in the grand way it has,represented

only by a mere handful of wh ite men,in what is

,as far as

we know,the most densely populated region with the

highest and most organised form of nat ive power i n al ltropical Africa. Had it not been to the natives it ruled aj ust , honourable, and des irable form of government, i t wouldlong ago have been stamped out by them

,or would have

been compelled to cal l i n England ’s armed support tomaintain it, as the Crow n Colony system has been compe lled to do in S ierra Leone and on the Gold Coast. I t

has not had to cal l in Imperial assistance,and it has paid

i ts shareholders— a sound,healthy conduct but

,n everthe

less , remember that al l the great debt of gratitude you andevery one of the Engl ish owe the Royal N iger Companyfor defending the honour of England against Continentalenterprise, for maintaining the honour of England in theeyes of the nat ive races with whom it had made treaties

,you

do not owe to the Chartered Company sy s tem ,but to Sir

George Gold ie, the man who had to use it because it was thehes t exist ing system ava i lable for such a region . Yo u havetoo much sense to give al l the honour to Lord Kitchener of

XVI I THE CHARTERED COMPANY SYSTEM 397

Khartoum ’s sword,though a sword is an excel lent thing . I

trust,therefore

,you have too much sense to give al l honour

to the Chartered Company,even when i t i s a trading

company . Trade is an excel lent thing, but, in the case ofthe Royal N iger, this very factor, trade , restricts the manwho uses the Chartered Company to a set of white men anda set of black. Therefore , never can I feel that either L iverpool Or the Brass men have profited by the R .N.C . as theywould have done i f there had been a better system avai lable for deal ing with what Mr. St Loe Strachey del icatelycal ls a dark-skinned population with an insufficient localwhite population at hand . Briefly, I should say that theChartered Company system keeps its ain fish -guts for itsain sea-maws too much . Therefore now

,when

,l ike many

before me who have laboured strenuously to reform,I have

given up the idea that reformation is possible for the ind ividual on whom they have expended their powers

,and

have decided that there are some people whom you canonly reform with a gun , I wil l start reforming myself, andsay the Chartered Company system is not good enough

,

taken al l round as things are,for West Africa for these

reasons .Fi rst, a Chartered Company cons ists of a band of

merchants,rul ing through

,and by

,a great man . I f that

great man who expands the influence and power of theCompany l ives long eno u gh to establ ish a form of pol icy

,

wel l and good . I have sufficient trust in the common senseof a band of Engl ish merchants, provided thei r interest iscommon

,to bel ieve they wi l l adhere to the pol icy ; but

suppose he does not, or suppose yo u do not start with agood man

,you wi l l mere ly have a mess

,as has been

demonstrated by the perpetual fai lures of our French


friends ’ Chartered Compan ies . By the way , I may remarkthat although France is no great admirer of the Charteredsystem wi th us

,she is devoted to it for herself

,sprinkl ing

all her West African possessions with them freel y,only

unfortunately, as thei r names are usual ly far longer thantheir banking accounts

,they do not grow conspicuous ; even

apart from these private and subsid ised Chartered Compan ies in French possessions , France fol lows the charteredsystem imperial ly in West Africa by keep ing out nonFrench trade with d ifferential tari ffs

,and so on . But , after

al l , in this matter she is no worse than Engl ish critics ofthe Royal N iger ; and i t is a common trait of al l WestAfrican palavers that those who criticise are amp ly wellprovided themselves with the very faul ts they find sorepuls ive in others— i t’s the cl imate.Secondly, the Chartered Company represents Engl ishtrade : interests in sections

,i nstead of completely ; English

honour,common sense

,mil itary abi l ity

,and so on

,the

Royal N iger under Sir George Goldie has represented moreperfectly than these things have ever been represented inWest— or

,I may safely say

,Africa at large but the trade

interests of England i t has only represented partially, orin other words

,i t has only represented the trade interests

of its shareholders and the natives i t has made treatieswith

,and what we want is something that w i l l represent our

trade interests there completely. Therefore , I do not advocate it as the general system for West Africa, for underanother sort of man it might mean merely a more rapidcrash than we are in for with the Crown Colony system .

To my dying day I shal l honour that great Trade Company, the Royal N iger, for representing England , that is ,England properly so-cal led

,to the world at large, during


The region I am citing is not so unhealthy for wh itesas West Africa. Sti l l , i t has a stiff death-rate of its owneven nowadays , when it has pulled that death-rate downby Science—a thing

,I may remark

,you never trouble your

head about in West Africa,or think worthy of your serious

attention .

I wi l l not insult your knowledge by tel l ing you whereth is system is working to-day

,or who works it

,and all that.

The same cons ideration also bars me from applying for apatent for this system ; for although I lay i t before youaltered to what I think suitable for West Africa, the mainl ines of the system remain . The only thing I confessthat makes me shaky about its being appl ied to WestAfrica is , that this system requires and must have expertsblack and white to work it

,b oth at home in England

and out in West Africa. Sti l l , you have a sufficientsupp ly of such experts , i f only you would not leave thingsso largely in the hands of clerks and amateurs ; who ,with t he ass istance of faddists and renegade Africans

,

break up the native true Negro culture state,leaving

you l ittle sound stuff to work on in the regions now underthe Crown Colony system .

Before I proceed to sketch the skeleton of the othersystem

,I must lay before you briefly the present political

state of West Africa in the words of the greatest l ivingexpert on the subject

,as they are given in a remarkable

article in the Edin hu rgh Review for October, 1 898 .

“The weighty utterance of Sir George Goldie shou ldnever be forgotten

,Central African races and tribes have ,

broad ly speaking,no sentiment of patriotism as understood

in Europe . There is , therefore , l i ttle difficulty in inducingthem to accept what German jurisconsul ts term ‘Ober

XVI I S IR GEORGE GOLDIE’S V IEW 40 1

Hoheit,’ wh ich corresponds with our interpretation of ourvague term ‘Protectorate.’ But when complete sover

eign ty or ‘Landes Hoheit,’ is conceded , they invariablystipulate that their local customs and systems of government shal l be respected . On this point they are , perhaps ,more tenacious than most subj ect races with whom theBritish Empire has had to deal ; while thei r views and ideasof l ife are extremely difficult for an Engl ishman to understand. I t is therefore certain that even an imperfect andtyrannical native African administration , i f i ts extremeexcesses were control led by European supervis ion , wouldbe in the early stages product ive of far less discomfort toi ts subj ects than well - intentioned but i l l -directed efforts ofEuropean magistrates

,Often young and headstrong, and

not invariably gi fted with sympathy and introspectivepowers. If the welfare of the native races is to be cons idered ,i f dangerous revolts are to be obviated , the general pol icyof rul ing on African principles through native rulers mustbe fol lowed for the present. Ye t i t is desirable that con s idcrable districts in suitable local ities should be admin isteredon European principles by European officials

,partly to

serve as types to which the native governments maygradually approximate

,but principal ly as cit ies of refuge

i n which individuals of more advanced views may find al iving if nat ive government presses unduly upon them

,j ust

as in Europe of the M iddle Ages men whose love of freedomfound t he iron-bound system of feudal ism intolerable

,

sought eagerly the comparative l iberty of cities.”1There are a good many points in the above class icpassage on wh ich I would fain become diffuse

,but I

1 Preface by Sir George Goldie t o Van deleu r ’s Campaign ing on the

Upper N ile an dN iger , 1 898 .

D D

402 AN ALTERNAT IVE PLAN CHAP.

forbear merely begging you to note careful ly the word ingof that part concern ing government by natives rul ing onAfrican principles , because here is a pitfal l for the hasty.

You w i l l be told that th is is the present pol icy in CrownColonies—but i t i s not. What they are do ing is rul ing onEuropean principles through nat ives

,which is a horse of

another colour ent irely and makes i t hot work for the u n

fortunate nat ive catspaw ch ief,and so al l round u n sat is

factory that no real ly self-respect ing native ch ief wi l l takei t on .

Wel l , to return to that other system what i t has got todo is to uni te Engl ish interests—adm inistrative

,commerc ial

and educat ional—i nto one sol id whole,and comb ine these

with nat ive interests ; briefly, to be a system where theEngl ishman and the African co -operate together for the irmutual benefit and advancement

,and therefore it must be

a representative system,and one of those groups of repre

s en tat ive systems which form the British Empire.Fo r reasons I need not d iscuss here it must be a dupl icatesystem ,

with an Engl ish and an African s ide,these two

united and respons ible to the Engl ish Crown,but both

having as great a share of individual freedom in Africa asposs ible. By and by the necess ity for the dupl icate systemmay disappear, but at present i t i s necessary.

I wi l l take the English s ide fi rst. There should be inEngland an African Counc i l , i n whose hands is the powerof voting suppl ies and of appointing the Governor-General ,subject to the approval of the Crown

,and to whom fi rms

trad ing in Africa should be answerable for the actions oftheir representat ives . This counci l should be of nominatedmembers

,from the Chambers of Commerce of L iverpool ,

Manchester, London , Bristol, and Glasgow. Of course,


of inspection , during which he must be access ible al ike t othe European and native . He may

,i f he sees fit, spend

more than s ix months out there ; but it is not advisablehe shou ld reside there permanently

,for if he does so

,he

wi l l assuredly get out of touch with the Grand Counci l,of

which he should ex ofi cz'

o be chairman or president. Thisgrand counci l with its sub-counci ls i s al l that is required inEngland for the government of West Africa. I t i s not, asyou see

,an expensive system per s e : with its power to raise

suppl ies,i t could vote itself suffic ient to carry on its out

of-pocket expenses in the matter of clerks and goods inspectors . The connecting l ink between i t and Africa is theGovernor-General between it and England

,the Chief

Secretary for the Colon ies—not the Colonial , or Foreign , orany other existing Office : things it should be equal with ,not subject to .Ou t in Africa, the Governor-General should be therepresentative of the English mj— the Ober Hoheit ofEngl and—and the head of the system of Landes Hoheit ,represented by the African chiefs ; in him the two mustjoin . Under h is control , on the European side, must bethe few European officials required to administer thecountry local ly. These must be careful ly p icked , expe rien ced men , provided with suffic ient power to enforcetheir rule with promptitude when it comes to deta ils butthe pol icy of the Ober Hohe it should be the policy of theGovernor and Grand ‘Council

,not of the ind ividual official .

Immediately in grade under the Governor-General shouldcome a set of district commissioners or governors , one foreach of the present colonies . These men should be theresident representatives of the Governor—General , andrespons ible to h im for the affai rs

,trade and political , of

xvu DISTR ICT AND SUB-COMM ISSIONERS 405

their d istricts . These district commiss ioners should be paida year each

,and have a term of res idence on the

Coast of twelve months, with s ix months ’ furlough at homeon half pay

,the other half of the pay going to the men

Who represent them during their absence at home—thesenior sub-commiss ioners of thei r d istricts .1The next grade are the sub-commissioners . These areon ly required in the districts now termed Protectorates theEuropeanised coast tow ns to be under a d ifferent system Iw i l l sketch later. Well , these Protectorate districts shouldbe divided up among sub-commiss ioners , who should eachreside in his al lotted district. They should be responsibled ire ctly to the d istrict commissioner, and they shouldrepresent to him constantly the chiefs ’ counci l of the subdistrict and the trade , and on the other hand represent tradean d the Ob erHoheit things to the native chiefs . These men ,therefore

,wil l be the backbone of the system , and primarily

on them wi l l depend its success ; so they must be expertmen—wel l acquainted with the native cultu re state

,and with

the trade. Each of these sub-comm iss ioners should have1 Th e t ime w h ich a man ou gh t to b e expected to remain in Wes t

Africa is difiicu l t to de termin e—represen tat ives of tradin g firms are

expect ed t o remain ou t tw o years , an d th e mortal ity amon g them is

certain ly n o h igher than amon g the offi cials w ith their tw e lve mon th s ’s ervice . I t is con ten ded by the commercial part y that it takes a mans everal mon th s aft er ret u rn in g from fu rlou gh t o ge t in to w orkin g orderagain , that u n der the tw e lve mon th s

’sys tem n o soon er has h e don e

th is than he is off on fu rlou gh again , in sh ort that the sys tem is fool ishan d w as tefu l in the extreme . On the oth er han d the advocates of t hesh ort service p lan con t en d that a man is n o t fi t for w ork at all aftertw e lve mon th s in We s t Africa, an d that if he is n ot defin ite ly il l, h ehas at an y rate los t al l en ergy. Person al ly

,I fan cy it depen ds on th e

individu al , an d that w ith a defin ite policy th e short s ervice plan w illb e qu ite safe .


in his district,his own town , from which he should frequently

make tours of inspection round h is district at large ; butthis town should be what Sir George Goldie cal ls “ a townof refuge.’ Engl ish law should rule in it abso lutely

,

administered by an official,one of the c lass of men

approved by the legal sub-counc i l of the Grand Counci l .The sub-comm iss ioner should also have in h is town amed ical staff of three men

,nominated by the med ical s ide

of the sub-counci l of the G rand Counc i l . These three(chief med ical , assistant medical , and dispenser) shou ldhave a hospital provided

,where they can carry on their

work properly. Also in th is town should be the mi l itaryforce suffic ient to enforce rule in the district—e ither togo and prevent one chief bagging another chief’s b elongings

,or to assist a chief in a domestic cris is . I t i s

impossible to say how large a mil itary staff a sub-commissioner would require ; some districts would require n omore than fi fty sold iers

,while another might requ ire 200.

Detail s of this kind the Governor-General must decide ; butwhatever s ize this force may be

,i t should be composed

of troops under effic ient mi l itary control . I bel ieve theWest Indian troops to be the best for this service ; buthere again you wil l meet

,i f you take the trouble to inquire

of people who ought to know,the greatest haz iness of

mind comb ined w ith an enormous difference of opin ion .

Some wi l l tel l you that the '

Wes t Indians are no good,

that they are coward ly and unfit for bush work,and

requ ire as many carriers as a white regiment. Others saythe oppos ite, and ho ld forth on the evi l of using rawsavages as troops in such a country

,and plac ing men who

h ave been cast out on account of crime into pos itions ofpower and authority in the very d istricts where in a l l the


should be al lowed them to bring him to h is bearings,and

i f at the expiration of this time they fai l to do so, withoutany further delay the sub-comm iss ioner should step in .

I n a very short time the ch iefs ’ counci l would see theadvisabi l ity of keeping th is from happen ing, and also seethat i t can only be prevented by enforc ing good governmentamong themselves .Wel l

,this West Ind ian guard should of course be under

i ts proper m i l itary officers , and at the disposal of thesub-commiss ioner

,and wel l instal led in barracks

,and made

general ly as happy as circumstances wi l l perm it.Then again in each town which forms the centre of a subcomm iss ioner’s d istri ct there should be representatives ofany firms who may wish to trade there. They can each havetheir separate factories

,or form a local assoc iat ion for

work ing the trade of the d istrict as i t p leases them . I thinki t would be advisable that in each of these towns away in theinterior there should be aw arehou se ,w here to al l goods com ingup for the separate trading fi rms should be del ivered

,and

wherein al l exports ready for transport to 'the coast shouldbe lodged , and the figures concerning these things ascert ain ed. This should be the business of the sub-commiss ion er

’

s secretary, and he can be aided in it by a blackclerk . But it would not be a custom -house

,because

customs, l ike nat ive regiments , do not exist out there underthis system .

If any of the fi rms l ike to establ ish sub-factories in thed istrict outside the town

,they should have every faci l ity

impartial ly afforded them to do so. An y attack made onthem by the natives should be promptly revenged , butouts ide the town in al l trade matters the native lawshould rule under the administration of the local ch ief,

XVI I THE DISTR ICT COMM ISSIONER 409

w ith a power ( in important cases—say, over 75 20 i nvolved)o f appeal to the chiefs ’ counc i l , and from that , i f need beto the sub-commissioner.Now in this town , acting with and directing the counci l of

chiefs , you wi l l have al l that the h interland districts inWestAfrica at present require for their adm inistration anddevelopment, except, you w i l l say, rel igion and education .

A s for the first,as represented by the missions , I think

they wil l do best away from the rest , as I wi ll presentlyattempt to explain . As for education

,that wi l l be in their

hands too,and with them . The missionary stations about

the district, however, w i l l be under the d irect control andprotection of the sub-comm iss ioner and his town . No gaolwi l l be required there or elsewhere in West Africa ; thes ort of thing a gaol represents is better represented by ahalter and convict labour gang. So much , as old PeterHey lin would say, for the sub-commission .

The district commissioner for a colony and its h interlands hould have a residence at one of the ch ief towns on thecoast

,making tours round to his sub-commiss ioners as

o ccas ion requires and he should always be access ible bothto his sub-commiss ioners and to the d istrict chiefs. At hishead town should be the headquarters of the mil itary forcerequired by h is colony

,and the headquarters of the labour

service.We wil l now turn to the administration of the coast towns

,

places that have been long in our possess ion and have asuffi c ient white and Europeanised African population toj u stify us in regarding them as English possess ions in theLandes Hoheit sense. These towns should be governedby mun icipal ity , and should be under Engl ish law,

havingaccred ited magistrates approved of by the Grand Counc i l


and paid,not by the municipal ities

,but by the Grand

Counci l .Each municipal ity should occupy in the system an iden t ical position to that occup ied by the sub-commissioner in histown

,and communicate with the district commiss ioner

direct,receive al l goods

,and make returns of them to him .

They should each have and be respons ible for hospitals andschools within the town

,and for its po l ice

,l ighting , an d

san itary affai rs . Each mun icipal ity should be paid by theGovernment the same pay as a sub-commiss ioner

,a

year. They should get their extra resources from a chargeon the trade of the town at a fixed‘

rat e made by the GrandCounc i l for al l mun ic ipal ities under the system .

This system would do away with the d ivis ion of ourpossessions

,at present so mislead ing and vexatious and

unnecessary,i n to Colonies and Protectorates ,an d subst itute

for that d ivis ion the j ust d ivis ion into regions under ourLandes Ober Hoheit (municipal ities) , and those under ourOber Hoheit— (sub—commissioners’ d istricts). Both al ikewould be under the Governor-General as representing the

Grand Counci l .There sti l l remains one important new development inour West African methods—the organ isation of nativelabour. ‘The institut ion of a regular and rel iable laboursupply seems to me one of the most vital things for theprogress of West Africa . There is undoubtedly in WestAfrica an enormous supply of labour

,and that the true

negro can work and work wel l the Krumen have amplydemonstrated . All that is required is method and organisat ion . Th is you could easi ly supply. If

,for example, you

were to d irect those energies of yours which are now employed in rais ing native regiments in the hinterland to rais ing

4 1 2 AN ALTERNAT IVE PLAN CHAP.

shou ld also have power to enrol any labour volunteer recru it s that might come into the town , provided the ch iefscould not show a satisfactory reason aga inst their so doing.

This labour army should be d ivided up into suitably s izedgangs

,with a head man elected by his gang

,and be em

ployed in the transport work requ ired by the Government,

or let out by the Government to private individuals requ iring labour w ith in the d istrict

,or drafted to other Engl ish

colonies on the Coast, i f occas ion requ ired, to do certainjobs—I do not say for certain spaces of time

,because piece

work is the best system for West Africa. An attemptshould be made gradually to induce the hinterland chiefs toadopt the Kru social system

,where in every man serves so

many years as a labourer,then

,about the age of thirty ,

jo ins the army and becomes a compound sold ier-policeman ,end ing up in honour and glory as a local magis trate . Buti t must be remembered that domestic slavery is not a greatinstitution among the Kru tribes

,as i t i s amongst the

hinterland tribes in our colonies ; the Kru system couldnot

,therefore

,be immed iately introduced .

We n ow come to the question of where the revenue is tocome from to support this system . There is no d ifficultyabout that in itsel f ; the d iffi culty comes in in the method tobe employed in its col lection . When one has a charteredtrad ing company it is

,of course

,a s imple matter when you

have a Crown Colony it is done by means of the customhouse system . The alternative system ,

however, is not achartered company ; under it ind ividual firms

,so long as

they can show sufficient cap ital and good fa ith , would workthe detai ls of their trade out there as freely and privatelyas in England. I think every effort should be made to doaway in West Africa with the custom-house system as it

XVI I REVENUE FROM TRADE TAX 41 3

exists in English Crown Colonies . I n Cameroon it isbetter, but in our Crown Colonies and also in the N igerCoast Protectorate i t i s ruinous to the tempers of sh ipmasters and shippers

,and the cause of a great waste of

time—decidedly one of the main causes of the unduelength of voyages to and from the Coast.I t seems to me that the revenue of our West Africanpossessions must be a charge on the trade ; and thatthis charge should

,as much as possible

,be col lected in

Europe from the shippers instead of from their repre

s en tat ives ' on the Coast. I f I were king in Babylon,I

would make al l the trade to West Africa pass throughL iverpool

,and pay its customs there to a custom -house

of the Grand Counci l,or through the Engl ish ports of

the other chambers represented on the Grand Counci l- each chamber being responsible for the trade of its port.I am aware that this would cause d ifficulty w ith the increasing continental trade ; but this would be obviatedby affiliat in g Hamburg and Havre to the Counci l andgiving into their hands the col lections of the dues at thoseports . The Grand Counci l should fix annually the amountof the trade tax

,and it should have at its disposa l for this

matter the figures sent home by the separate districtcommissioners in West Africa. The sub-commissioner ofa distri ct should know the amount of trade h is district wasdoing

,and be paid a commission on it to stimulate h is

interest. If the goods used in his d istrict were del iveredat one warehouse in his town , he would have l ittle difficultyin getting the figures , wh ich he should pass on to thed istrict commissioner

,who should forward them to the

Grand Counci l with report in dupl icate to the GovernorGeneral

,so that that officer might keep h is finger on the


pulse of the prosperity of each d istrict ; s imilarly, themunicipal ities should report to him the trade done in thetowns under thei r control .I n addition , the Government, that is to say, the GrandCounci l , should take over the monopoly of the tobaccoimport and the timber export. By us ing tobacco in thesame way as European governments use co inage

,an im

mense revenue could be very cheaply obtained . The GrandCounci l should sel l the tobacco to the individual traderswho work the West African markets , allow ing no othertobacco to be used in the trade this revenue also could becol lected in Europe.The timber industry should

,I think

,be under govern

mental control , both for the sake of provid ing the Government with reven ue and for the sake of protecting theforests from destruction in those d istricts where forestdestruction is a danger to the common weal

,by weaken

ing the forest barriers against the Sahara.The return that the Government should make for thesemonopol ie s to the independent trader should be, amongother things , transport . I n the course of a few years theGovernment would have in hand a sufficient surplus to builda pier across the Gold Coast surf. I t is possible to buildpiers across theWest Coast surf

,for the French have done it.

I would not advocate one great and mighty p ier,that

ocean -going steamers could go alongside,for al l the Gold

Coast ports , but a set of T-headed p iers where surf boatsor l ighters could discharge

,and the employment of stout

steam tugs to tow surf boats and l ighters to and frobetween the l ighters and the p ier.Then again

,every mile of avai lable waterway inland

should be uti l ised,and patrol led by Government cargo

416 AN ALTERNAT IVE PLAN CHAP. .

best of the chiefs to emu lat ion ; i t wil l by every sel frespecting chief, be regarded as styl ish to have clean widestreets and shops

,a telegraph and post-office

,and things

l ike that . Seeing that his elder brother,the sub-com

missioner,has a l ine of telegraph connect ing him with the

district comm ission town , he w i l l want a l ine of telegraphtoo . By al l means let him have it let him have the electricl ight and a telephone

,i f he feel s he wants i t

,and wi l l pay

for i t but don ’t force these things,let them come

,natural

l ike . The great thing, however, i n the sub-commiss ioner’stown is that i t should be so ruled and governed that i tdoes not become a th ing l ike our Coast towns now

,s ink

—holes of moral iniqu ity,that st ink in the nose of a

respectable African— things he hates to see h is sons anddaughters and people go down into .

Secondly, I depend on municipal Government on the l inesI have laid down for the Coast towns . The Government ofthese munic ipal ities would be in the hands of the repres e nt at ives of the trading firms

,and the more important native

traders—people,as I hold , perfectly capable of deal ing w ith

affairs,and having a commun ity of interests .

The great d ifficulty in arranging any system for thegovernment of West Africa l ies not in the true difficul tiesthis region presents

,but in the fictitious difficulties that

are the growth of years of mutual m isunderstand ing andm isrepresentation . That great mass of mutual d istrust

,so

that to-day down there white man d istrusts white manand black

,black man distrusts black man and white

,

may seem on a superfic ial review to be justified . But ifyou go deeper you wil l find that this d istrust i s the mereproduct of fol ly and ignorance

,and is therefore removable .

The great practical difi‘icu l ty l ies in arranging a system

XVI I COMPET ITION 41 7

whereby the white trader can work on every legit imatel ine absolutely free from governmental hindrance. I

have too great a respect for the West Coast traders topubl ish any criticism on them . I hold that the competition among them is too severe for them to face thepresent state of West Africa and prosper as men shouldwho run so great a risk of early death as the West Coasttrader runs . I should l ike to know who p rofits by thei rinternecine war ; I think no one but the native buyers ofthei r goods . Again now

,under the present Crown Colony

system,the traders , knowing they are the people who have

paid for the Government for years,who have‘ff-given it the

money it l ives on,natural ly ask for someth ing back in the

way of local improvements . The Government has nowno money to carry out these improvements

,unless it

borrows it. The Government as at p resent ex i sting mustnecessarily waste that borrowed money just as i t has was tedthe money the traders have paid i t ; therefore the consequences of improvements under the present systemmust be debt

, .wh ich the traders must pay in the end . I

would therefore urge the traders to abandon a policy ofdemanding improvements and protection in their traderelationships with the natives

,such as ordinances against

adulteration of produce , &c. , and to real ise that by gain ingthese things they are but enslaving themselves in thefuture . Le t them rather adop t the pol icy of altering theform of government before they proceed to urge furthergovernmental expenditure.If the traders require a dry-nurse system

,let them

formulate one in place of the one sketched above. I donot

,however, think they want anything of the kind , unless

they are indeed degenerate ; but, if they do , I beg them toE E

41 8 AN ALTERNAT IVE PLAN CHAP.

bear in m ind that you cannot have an Alexandra feed ingbottle and a latch key they must choose one or the other.At p resent, the Crown Colony system gives ne ither.Under it the trader is treated l ike a child , a neglectedchi ld

,one of those interesting but unfortunate chi ldren

who have to support an elderly relat ive,who wou ld be al l

the better for a cheap funeral .Upon the m iss ionary and educational s ide of the system

I have advocated I need not enlarge. Just as trade shouldgo on under i t free, so should miss ion effort there shouldbe no governmental forcing of either

,but it should be steadi ly

borne in mind that the regenerat ion of the considerableamount of broken up stuff which ex ists in the Coast townregions—the Africans who have lost their old cul ture andtheir old Fetish regulat ion or conduct without being comple te ly Europeanised—i s a work that can only be effectedby the missionary

,and therefore in the hands of the missions

should be placed the whole education department,w ith the

one demand on it from the Government that in thei r schoolsevery scholar should have the opportunity of acqu iring asound education in the rudiments of Engl ish reading

,writing

and arithmetic. Give him this knowledge,and your bri l l iant

young African has demonstrated that he can rise to anyexam ination such as an European univers ity offers h im .

Under the system I advocate there need be no l imitationas to colour in the officials employed in the mun icipal ities.I n the sub-commissioners ’ towns the head officials must beEngl ishmen , but among the regions under the LandesHoheit in the h interland

,Africans educated as doctors or

as traders could have grand careers provided they didhonest work .

The cons ideration of the African s ide of this system of

C H A P T E R XV I I I

AFRICAN PROPERTY

Wh ere in some at t emp t is made to s et dow n th e divers k in ds of propertythat exis t amon g th e peop le of t he t ru e Negro race in Wes ternAfrica

,an d the law w h ereb y it is govern ed.

IN speaking on the subject of African p roperty and thelaws which guard it in i ts native state

,I must, i n the space at

my disposal here,confine myself to speaking of these th ings

as they are in one divis ion of the many different races ofhuman beings that inhabit that vast continent of Africa ;and

,- in order to present the affai r more clearly

,I must take

them as they ex is t in their most highly developed state,

namely,among the people of the true Negro stock

,for it is

among these people that pure African culture has reachedso far its ful lest state of development.The distribution z o n e of this true Negro stock cannot yetbe

fixed with any approach to accuracy, but we know that theseaboard of the regions inhabited by the true Negro is thatvast stretch of the AfricanWest Coast from a point sou th ofthe Gambia R iver to a po int j ust north of Cameroon R iver,i n the region of the Rio del Rey . We can safely say, withinthis region you wil l find the true Negro

,but we cannot safely

say how far inland,or how far down south of the Rio del Rey

we shal l find him . That this stock extends through up to

422 AFR ICAN PROPERTY CHAP.

to me,he has in the regions he has conquered in Southern

and Central Africa, adopted Bantu , and much the samething has happened , and is sti l l happening, there, as happened in Southern and Central Europe. Just as thepowerful barbarian stocks adopted Latin in a way thatmust keep Priscian ’

s head sti l l in bandages and to this dayseriously mar his happiness in the E lysian fields

,so have

the true Negroes adopted the flex ible Bantu languages .But i t would be as unscientific to regard a Span iard or aFrenchman as a ful l-blooded anc ient Roman

,as to regard

many of the Negro tribes now speak ing Bantu language asBantu men .

The Negro has, moreover, not on ly adopted Bantu languages in some regions

,such as the Mpongwe

,for examp le ,

but he has also adopted to a certain extent Bantu culture .I am sure those of you who have l ived among the trueNegroes and true Bantu , wil l agree with me that these cu ltures differ material ly . Africa , so far as I know it, namely,from S ierra Leone to Benguela, smel ls general ly ratherstrong, but particularly so in those districts inhabited by thetrue Negro . This pre-em inence the true Negroes attain toby leaving the san itary matters of vi llages and towns in thehands of Providence . The Bantu culture looks after thecleaning and tidying of the vi l lage streets to a remarkabledegree

,though by no means more clean in the houses ,

which,i n both cultures

,are quite as clean and tidy as you

wil l find in England . Again,in the Bantu culture you wil l

find the slaves l iving in vi l lages apart inside the true Negrothey l ive with their owners and there are other points whichmark the domestic cultures of these people as being different from each other

,which I need not detain you with

now. Al l these points in Bantu domesti c culture the true


was when he fel l in with the Ghagas . Wel l,these Ghagas ,

Andrew Battel and the Portuguese historians say, were afearful people, who came from beh ind Sierra Leone, andwhen the Kingdom of Congo was discovered by DiegoCaO in 1484, the Ghagas were attacking i t so severely that,but for the timely arrival of the Portuguese and the helpthey gave Congo

,there wou ld in a very short time have

been no Kingdom of Congo left to discover ; and to thisday Dr. Blyden , who went there on a Government mission ,says that up by Fallaba

,in the S ierra Leone hinterland ,

you wil l now and then see a Gb aga—a man feared,a man

of whom the country peop le do not know where his homeis,nor what h e eats or how he lives , but from whom they

shrink as from a superior terrible form of human being— a

remnant,or remainder over

,of those peop le whose very name

struck . terror throughout Centra l Equatorial Africa in the1 sth century, when , for some reason we do not know,

theymade a warl ike migration down among the peaceful feeb leBantu .

I f you wi l l carefu lly study the account given of theorganisation of the Ghagas and also of the organisation ofthe Kingdom of Congo

,I think you wil l see that in the

Ghagas you have a true Negro State form ,while in the Congo

Kingdom you have something different ; somethin g that isnowadays cal led Bantu . What became of the Ghagas whenfoi led by the Portuguese in destroying the Kingdom ofCongo is not exactly known

,but there is a definite ground

for thinking that,modified by intermarriage and a dif

feren t environment , they sp l i t up, and are now representedby the warl ike South African tribes and East African tribes,such as the Matabele, and the Massai , and so on . The

modificat ion of th is portion of the true Negro stem in t he

XVI I I NEGRO AND BANTU STOCKS 42 5

south and the east is akin to the modification the stem hasundergone nearer to its true home on the West Coast ofAfrica

,where to the north of S ierra Leone and behind the

coast regions of the Ivory,Go ld

,and S lave Coasts it has , by

admixture with the Berber tribes of the Western Soudan ,produced the Black Moors , namely the Mandingo, the Hausa ,and Ou llaf. These Black Moors of the Western Soudanhave attained to a high p itch of barbaric cu l ture it appearsto be a further development of the true Negro culture, butit i s so suffused with the Mohammedan idea and law that itis not in this state that we can best study the nativecu lture of the pure Negro . Neither can we study it wel l inthose south and east regions where it has adopted Bantulanguage and culture to a certain extent .I wil l not

,however

,attempt to enter here upon the

question of the continental d istribution of the Negro andBantu stocks I wi l l merely beg observers of Africantribes to note careful ly whether thei r tribe is given tostreet-cleaning

,to keeping slaves in separate vi l lages

,or to

venerating a great female god . If i t is,i t has got a Bantu

cu l ture if, in addition , it has a regular mil itary organisation ,or a keen commercial spirit

,or a certain abi l ity to rule

over the tribes round it,I beg they wil l suspect Negro

blood and do their best to give us that tribe ’s migrationhistory ; and then we may in future times be able to settlethe question of race d istribution on better l ines than ourpresent state of knowledge al lows of. Having said thatthe law and institutions of the true Negro stock cannotbest be studied in those regions where they are adulteratedby alien cultures , i t remains to say w here they can best bestudied . I think that undoubtedly this region is that ofthe Oil R ivers.

AFR ICAN PROPERTY CHAP.

The thing you must always bear in mind when observinginstitutions and so on from Sierra Leone down to Lagos, isthat the ferti le bel t between the salt sea of the Bight of Ben inand the sand sea of Sahara is but a narrow band of forest andferti le country

,while

,when you get below Lagos—Lagos

itself is a tongue of theWestern Soudan coming down to thesea—you are in the true heart ofAfrica

,the Equatorial Forest

Belt and that i t is in this belt that you wi l l get your materialsat thei r purest. Therefore take the regions inhabited by thetrue Negro . I n the regions from Sierra Leone to the GoldCoast

,you have

,it is true

,not much white influence or

adulteration,mainly because of the rock -reefed shore be ing

dangerous to navigators . There is in this region undoubtedlya great and yearly increasing s o-cal led Arab

,but real ly

Mohammedanised Berber, influence working on the trueNegro . The natives themselves have their State-form in astate of wreckage from the destruction of the ' old Emp ireof Mel i , which fel l , from reasons we do not know,

some timein the l 6th century. We have

,however

,miserably l ittle

information on this particu lar region of Sierra Leone, thePepper and Ivory Coasts , owing to its never having beenworked at by a competent ethnologist but the accounts wehave of it show that the secret soc ieties have here gotthe upper hand to an abnormal extent for the Negrostate . Then we come to the Gold Coast region whichhas been so excel lently w orked at by the late Sir A. B .

E l l is . Here you have a heavy amount of adulterationin idea, and, moreover, the long-continued white influence

143 5—1 898 —has decided ly tended to a d isorganisation

of the Negro State- form ,and to an undue develop

ment of the individual ch ief ; nevertheless the law-formnow ex istent on the Gold Coast is

,when tested against a


am acquainted w ith , is firmly governed and is d ivis ible intothree kinds . Fi rstly, ancestral property connected with theoffice of headman ship , the Stool , as this office is cal led inthe true Negro state, the Cap, as it is cal led down in BasCongo secondly

,family property, in which every member

of the family has a certain share,and on which he

,she

,or

it has a claim thirdly,private property

,that which is

acquired or made by a man or woman by their personalexertions, over and above that which is earned by them inco—Operation with other members of their fami ly whichbecomes family property, and that which is gained by giftsor made in trade by the exercise of a superior trading ab ilit-y .

Every one of these forms of property is equally sacred inthe eye of the African law. The property of the Stoolmust be worked for the Stool working it wel l , increasing it,adds to the importance of the Stool , and makes the kingwho does so popular ; but he is trustee , not owner, of theStool p roperty, and his fami ly don ’t come in for thatproperty on his death

,for every profit made by the work

ing of Stool p roperty is l ike this itself the property of theStoo l , and during the king’s l i fe he cannot legal ly al ienateit for his own personal advantage , but can only administeri t for the benefit of the Stool .The king’s power over the property of the family andthe p rivate property of the people under his rule, consists inthe right of Ban , but not arriere Ban . Family property ismuch the same as regards the laws concerning it as Stoolproperty. The head of the fami ly is the trustee of it. If heis a spendthrift, or unlucky in its management, he is removedfrom his position . An y p rofit he may make with theassistance of a member of his own fami ly becomes familyproperty ; but of course any profit he may make with the

XV I I I PRIVATE PROPERTY 429

assistance of his free wives or wife,a person who does not

belong to his family, or with the ass istance of an outsider,may become his own . Private property acquired in theways I have mentioned i s equal ly sacred in the eyes ofthe law. I do not suppose you could find a singlehuman being

,slave or free

,who had not some private

property of his or her very own . Amongst that veryinteresting and valuable tribe, the Kru , where the familyorganisation is at its strictest, you can see the anxiety ofthe individual Kruman to secure for himsel f a l ittleport ion of his hard-earned wages and save it from the handsof his family elders . The Kruman ’s wages are paid tohim

,or changed by him , into cloths and sundry merchand ise,

and he is not paid off unti l the end of his term of work .

So he has to hurry up in order to approp riate to himsel f asmuch as he can on the boat that takes him back to hisbe loved “We country

,and industriously make for himself

garments out of as much of his cotton goods as he can ; foreven a man ’s fami ly, even in Kru country, wil l not takeaway his shirt and trousers

,but I am afraid there is prec ious

l i ttle else that the Kruman can save from their rapacity.

What he can save in addition to these, he informs me, hegives to his mother

,or fai l ing his mother

,to a favourite sister

,

who looks after i t and keep s it for him ,she being

,woman- l ike

,

more fi t to quarrel i f need be with the family elders than heis himself. But al l p rivate property once secured is sacred ,very sacred

,i n the African State-form . I do not know from

my own investigations , nor have I been able to find evidencein the investigations of other observers

,of any king

,

priesthood,or man , who would openly dare interfere with

the private property of the veriest s lave in his district,

diocese,or household . I know this seems a risky thing to


say,and I do not l ike to say it because I feel that if I were a

betting man I cou ld make a good th ing over betting on it,

for experience has taught me that every t ime an African ’sproperty is taken by a fel low African » u n der native law

,and

in times of peace, it is taken after it is confiscated by itsoriginal owner

,either in bankruptcy or crime. You wi l l

hear dozens of accounts of how everything an Africanpossessed was seized on

,etc.

,but i f you look into them you

w i l l find in every case that the ind ividual so cleaned outowed it al l

,and frequently far more, before he or she fel l

into the hands of the Official Receiver, the local chief.On e of the most common causes of an individual ’s enti reestate being se ized upon is a conviction for witchcraft.Every form of property in Africa is l iable to be cal led on tomeet its owner’s debts

,and the witch ’s i s too heavy a

debt for any ind ividual ’s private estate to meet and leave asurplus . For not only does the witch owe to the family ofthe person

,of whose murder he or she is convicted

,the

price of that l ife,but i t is felt by the Community that the

w itch has not been found out in the first offence,and so

every m iscel laneous afliict ion that has recently happened isput down to the convicted witch ’s account. M ind you

,I

do not say al l these cla ims are sa tisfied out of the estate ofthe witch deceased , (witches are always deceased by theauthorit ies with the utmost despatch after con vict io n ) b ecau sethe said property has during the course of the trial got intothe hands of Officialdom and has a natural tendency to stopthere. But one thing is certain

,there is no residuary estate

for the witch’s own relations. No t that for the matter ofthat they would dare claim it in any case

,lest they should

be involved with the witch and accused as accomp l ices .Sti l l , legal ly, the witch’s relations have the consolation of

432 AFRICAN PROPERTY CHAP.

not even turn up to supply the said debtor w ith food , letalone attempt to buy him off by discharging his debt.I n p lace of them ,

however, one by one the Cameroontraders came to cal l on the Calabar merchant

,al l in an

exceed ingly am iable state of mind and very civi l . Theysaid i t gave them pleasure to observe h is brisk method ofdeal ing with that man

,and it was a great rel ief to thei r

minds to see a rel iable man of wealth l ike himsel f tak ingcharge of that debtor’s affairs

,for now they saw the chance

of seeing the money they had years ago advanced,and of

wh ich they had not,so far

,seen a fraction back

,ne ither

capital nor interest. The Calabar man grew pale andanxious as the accounts of the debts he had made himselfrespons ible for came in

,and he knew that i f the debtor d ied

on his hands,that is to say in the imprisonment he had

consigned him to,he would be obl iged to pay back al l those

debts of the Cameroon man,for the German Government

have an intel l igent knowledge of nat ive law and carry itout in Cameroon . Sti l l the Calabar man d id not l ike cl imbmg down and letting the man go

,so he supplied h im with

food and worried about his state of health severely. This thatvi l lain ous Cameroon fel low found out

,and was therefore

forthwith smitten with an obscure abdominal comp laint, afai rly safe thing to have as my esteemed friend Dr. Pleh n wasabsent from that stat ion

,and therefore not able to descend

on the mal ingerer with nauseous drugs . I t is needless to saythat at th is juncture the Calabar man gave in

,and let the

prisoner out,freeing himsel f thereby from responsibi l ity be

yond h is own loss,but returning a poorer and a wiser man

to his own markets,and more assured than ever of the

vi l lainy of the whole Dualla tribe .I n a n y case legal ly the relatives of a debtor se ized or

XV I I I REDEMPT ION OF DEBTORS 433

pawned can redeem ,i f they choose

,the person or the body

by paying off the debt with the interest, 335 per cent . perannum

,to the common rate. Great sacrifices and exertions

are made by his fami ly to redeem almost -every debtor, andthe family p roperty is strained to its utmost on his or herbehalf ; but in the case of a witch i t is d ifferent, no set ofrelatives wish to redeem a convicted witch, who, reducedby the authorities to a body

,and that mostly in bits and

badly damaged,i s not a thing des irable. No they say

Society has got him and we are mora l ly certain he musthave been i l legitimate

,for such a thing as a witch

never happened in our family before,and if we show the

least interest in the remains we shal l get accused ourselves .Of course if a man or woman’s l ife is taken on any otherkind of accusation save witchcraft

,the affai r is on a differ

ent footing. The family then forms a higher estimate of thedeceased ’s value than they showed signs of to him or herwhen livmg, and they try to screw that value to the uttermost farthing out of the person who has ki lled their kinsman . Society at large only regards you for doing this as afool man to think so highly of the departed

,whose true value

it knows to be far be low that set on him . I n the case of al iving man taken for debt

,he is a s lave to his creditor

,a

pawn slave,but not on the same footing as a boughten slave

he has not the advantages of a true slave in the matter ofsucceeding to the wealth or position of the house

,but

against that he can be a free man the moment his debts arepaid . This may be a theoretical possibi l ity only, j ust as i twould be theoretical for me to expect my family to bai l meout i f the bai l were a question of a mil l ion sterl ing, butin legal principle the redemption is p racticable.I n the case of taking a dead body another factor i s

F F

434 AFR ICAN PROPERTY CHAP .

i ntroduced . By taking charge of and interring a body,you

become the executor to the deceased man ’s estate . I haveknown three sets of relatives arrive with three coffins forone body

,and a consequential row

,for a good deal can be

made by an executor ; but i f you make yourself l iable forthe body’s liabi l ities care is needed

,and there is no reckless

buying of bodies with whose private affairs you are notconversant

,in West Africa. I t i s far too wi ld a speculation

for such qu iet commercial men as my African friendsare. Hence it comes that a Negro merchant on a trad ingtour away from his home

,overtaken by death in a town

where he is not known , i s not buried , but dried and careful lyp u t outside the town , or on the road to the market, the roadhe came by

,so that any one of his friends or relations

,who

may perchance come some time that way, can recognise theremains. If they do they can take the remains home andbury them if they l ike

,or bury them there, free and welcome,

but the local County Counci l wi l l do nothing of the kind .

A nice thing a set of respectable elders , or as thei r Fanti ,name goes Paynim

,would let themselves in for by burying

the body of a gentleman who happened to have fourmurders

,ten adultery cases

,a crushing mass of debt

,and

no earthly assets save a few dilapidated women,bad ones

at that,and a whole pack of chi ldren with the Kraw Kraw

,

or the Guinea worm,or both together and including the

Yaws .This brings us to another way besides witchcraft wherebya gentleman in West Africa can throw away a fin e fortuneby paying his debts

,n ame ly ,

the so -cal led adultery. Adulteryout there

,I hasti ly beg to remark

,may be only brushing

against a woman in a crowded market p lace or bush path, orraising a hand in defence against a V i rago. I t

’

s the wrong


B ight we have also , as in India, the custom of col lectingdebts by Dharna. I n West Africa the creditor who sits atthe debtor’s door is bound to bring with him food for oneday

,this is equivalent to giving notice ; after the first day

the debtor has to supp ly him with food , for were he to diehe would be answerable for his l i fe and the worth thereof inaddition to the original debt. If I mention that there isno community of goods between a man and his wife (womenowning and holding property under identical conditions tomen in the eye of the law) , I think I shal l have detainedyou more than long enough on the subject of the laws ofproperty in West Africa. You will see that the thingthat underl ies them is the conception that every person isthe member of some family

,and al l the other members of

the family are respons ible for him and to him and he tothem and every fami ly is a member of some house

,and al l

the other members of the house are responsible for and tothe famil ies of which it is composed .

The natural tendency of this is for property to be »

come joint property,family p roperty, or to be absorbed into

family property. A man by his superior abi l ity acquires,it

may be,a considerable amount of p rivate p roperty, but at

his death i t passes into the hands of them

family . There areWi l l s

,but they are not the rule

,and they more often refer

to an appointment of a successor in position than to a disposal of effects. The common practice of gifts there suppl ies the p lace ofWi l ls with us a rich man gives his friendor his favourite wife

,chi ld

,or slave

,things during his l i fe ,

while he can see that they get it,and does '

f'

n o t leave thematter ti l l after his death. The good point about theAfrican system is that it leaves no person -uncared for ;there are no unemployed starving poor

,every ind ividual is

XV I I I FAM ILY PROPERTY 437

responsib le for and to his fel low men and women who belongto the same community

,and the natural ly strong instinct

o f hospital ity,joined with the knowledge that the stranger

within the gates belongs to a whole set of people who wil lm ake palaver i f anything happens to him

,looks well after the

safety ofw anderers i n Negro land . The bad point is, ofcoursethat the system is cumbersome

,and

,moreover, i t tends,

with the operation of the generalAfrican law of mn t terrec/ei,

the tracing of descent through females,to prevent the

build ing up of great famil ies . For examp le, you have a greatman

,wise

,learned

,just

,and so on he is esteemed in his

generation,but at his death his property does not go to the

sons born to him by one of his wives,who is a great woman

of a p rincely l ine, but to the eldest son of his s ister bythe same mother as his own . This sister’s mother and hisown mother was a slave wife of his father’s this

,you see

,

keeps good blood in a continual state of di lution with slaveblood . The son he has byhis aristocratic wife may comein for the property of her brother, but her brother belongs toa different family , so he does not take u p his father’s greatness and carry it on with the help his father’s wealth couldgive him in the father’s fami ly. I do not say the system isunjust or anything l ike that

,mind I merely say that it does

not tend to the production of a series of great men in onefamily .

Nevertheless , when once you have mastered the S implefundamental rules that underl ie the n ative African idea ofproperty they must strike you as just, elaborately just andthere is another element of simplicity in the thing

,and that

is that al l forms of property are subject to the same law,

land , women , china basons , canoes , slaves , i t matters notwhat

,there is the law.

AFRICAN PROPERTY CHAP.

You wil l ofter hear of the vast stretches of country inAfrica unowned

,and open to al l who choose to cultivate

them or possess them . Wel l , those stretches of unownedland are not in West Africa . I do not pretend to knowother parts of the continent. I n West Africa there is notone acre of land that does not belong to some one

,who is

trustee of it,for a set of people who are themselves only l ife

tenants, the real owner being the t ribe in its past, p resent,and futu re state

,away into eternity at both ends . But as

West African land is a thing I should not feel,even if

I had the money, anxious to acquire as freehold , and asyou can get under native law a safe possession of m in ingand cultivation rights from the representatives l iving of thetribe they belong to

,I do not think that any interference

is urgently needed with a system fundamental ly just.After having said so much on African native property ,i t may be as wel l to say what A frican property consists of.I t is not necessary for me to go into the affai r very ful ly ,b u t you wi l l rememb er, I am sure , the old statement ofwomen and slaves constitute the wealth of an African .

”

The African himself would tel l you n ine times in ten thatwomen and slaves caused him the lack of it. Sti l l they areundoubted ly a factor in the true Negro ’s wealth

,but to con

sider them property i t is necessary to consider them asp roperty in different classes . Here and n ow I need onlydivide them into two classes—wives properly s o-cal led

,and

male and female slaves . The duty of the slave is toincrease d irectly the wealth of his or her owner—that ofthe wife to increase i t also

,but in a d ifferent manner,

namely,by bringing h er influence to bear for his advantage

among her own family and among the people of thed istrict she l ives in . A big chief wi l l have three or more

APPENDIX I

A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE NATIVES OF THE

NIGER COAST PR'

OTECTORATE, WITH SOME

ACCOUNT OF THEIR CUSTOMS, RELIGION ,

TRADE, &c. BY M . LE COMTE C . N . DE CARDI .

IT is w i th some difl‘iden ce I attempt this task , becausemany more able men have written about this country, withwhom occasional ly I '

shal l most l ikely be found not quitein accord bu t i f a : long residence in and connection with acountry entitles one to be heard , then I am fully qua l ified,for I first went to Western Africa in 1 862

,and my last

voyage was in 1 896 .

Previous to 1 89 1 , the date at which this Coast (Benin toOld Ca labar) was formed into a British Protectorate underthe name of the Oil R ivers Protectorate , now the N igerCoast Protectorate, each of the rivers frequented byEuropeans for the purpose of trade w as r u led over more orless intel l igently by one , and in some cases by two , sab lepotentates , who were responsible to Her Britannic Majesty’sConsu l for the safety and wel l-being of the white tradersalso for the fostering of trade in the hinterlands of thei rdis t rict

, ,

f0r which good offiCeS they were paid by the whitetraders a duty called comey , w hich amounted to about2 5 . 6d. per ton on the pa lm oil exported . When the palm

444 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

kernel trade commenced it was general ly arranged thattwo tons of palm kernels should be counted to equal oneton of palm oi l so far as regards fiscal arrangements . Theday this duty was paid was looked upon by the king,or kings i f there were two of them

,as a festival ; in

earl ier years a certain amount of ceremony was alsoobserved .

The king would arrive on board the trader’s hulk orsail ing ship (some firms doing their trade without theassistance of a hu lk) to an accompaniment of war horns ,drums

,and other savage mus ic. W i th the king would

general ly come one or two of his chiefs and his Ju -Ju man ,but before mounting the gangway ladder a bottle of spiritor palm wine would be produced from some h idden re

ceptacle , one of the smal l boys, who always fol low thekings or chiefs to carry thei r handkerchiefs and snuff-boxes ,would then draw the cork and hand a wine-glass and thebottle to the Ju -Ju man , who would pour himself out aglass

,saying a few words to the Ju -Ju of the river, at the

same time spi l l ing a l i ttle of the l iquor i nto the water ; hewould then drink u p what remained in the glass , handglass and bottle to the king, who would then p roceed ast he Ju -Ju man had done, being followed on the same l inesby the chiefs who were with him .

The irdevo t ion s having thus been duly attended to , the king,ju -Ju man and his attendant chiefs would mount the ladderto the deck of the vessel . The European trader would

,as

a ru le,be there to receive him and escort him on to the

poop, where the king would be asked to sit down to asumptuous repast of p i ckled pork , salt beef, tinned salmon ,pickles and cabin biscuits . There would be also roastfowls and goat for the trader and his assistants , and for


pawns,bars

,coppers or crues accord ing to the currency of

the particular river.But t he “ shake hand 1 i s n ow to be got through , and thedashing ”2 to the king ; his friends who are with him wanttheir part

,and it would surprise a stranger the number of

wants that seem to keep cropping up in aWestAfrican king 3mind as he wobbles about your Ship

,unti l , finding he has

begged every mortal thing that he can,he suddenly makes up

his mind that further importunity wi l l be useless he decidesto order his people into his canoe

,which in most cases they

obey with surpris ing alacrity,brought about

,I have no

doubt,by the thought that now comes their turn .

Arrived at the gangway,his majesty

,i n the most natural

way imaginable,notices for the fi rst time that his boys

are al l naked,and turning with an appealing look to the

trader,he po ints out the bareness of the royal pu l l -away

boys , and intimates that no white trader who respects h imself cou ld think o f al lowing such a state of things to cont in u e a moment longer. This meant at least a further dashof four dozen fishermen

’

s striped caps and “ about twelvep ieces of Manchester cloth .

On e would suppose that this was the last straw,

but before his maj esty gets into his canoe several morel ittle wants crop u p , amongst others a tot of rum each forhis canoe boys

,and perchance a few fathoms of rope to

make a new painter for his canoe , unti l sometimes the1 Shake-han d”w as a pres en t given by a t rader each voyage on h is

arrival on th e coas t t o t h e kin g an d t he ch iefs w ho t raded w ith h im

t he E u ropean s th ems e lve s gradu al ly in creas ed this t o s u ch an exten t

t hat s ome of th e kin gs b egan t o look u pon it as a righ t , w h ich led to

en dles s palavers ifit is n ot comp le t e ly ab o l ishedby n ow ,it ou gh t t o b e .

2 “Dash in g”—n at ive w ord for makin g pres en t s . Th is w ord is a

corru p t ion of a Port u gu es e w ord.

THEIR CUSTOMS, RELIG ION AND TRADE 447

white trader almost loses his temper. I have heard of onewho did on one occasion

,and being an I rishman

,he thus

apostrophisedone of these sable kings , Be j abers , king, Iam th inking i f I dashed you my ship you would be afterwanting me to dash you the boats belonging to her

,and

after that to supp ly you with paint to paint them with forthe next ten years . ’ There was a glare in that I rishman ’seye

,and that king noticed it , and decided the time had

come for him to scoot , and history says he scooted . I n

the early days of the palm oi l trade, the custom inauguratedby the slave traders of receiving the king on his vis it to theship was by a salute of six or seven guns; and another ofequal number on his departure , the latter be ing an intimation to al l whom it might concern that his majesty hadduly received his comey ,

and that trade was open with thesaid ship . This was continued for some years , but as thesecurity of the seas became greater in those parts thetrading ships gave u p the custom of carrying guns , and theintimation that t he king “ done broke trade ” wi th thelast arrival was effected by his majesty sending off a canoeof oi l to the ship

,and the sending round of a verbal

message by one of the king’s men .

S ince the year 1 89 1 the kings of the Oil R ivers havebeen rel ieved of the duty of col lecting comey

,as a regular

government of these rivers has been inaugurated byH .E.M . Government , comey being rep laced by importduties .

448 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP"

NATIVE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IN BENIN , AND

RELIGION

THOUGH there i s a great sim i larity in the native form ofgovernment in these parts

,i t would be impossib le to convey

a true descript ion of the manners and customs of the variousp laces if I did not treat of each river and its peop le separately I shal l therefore commence by describing the peopleof Benin .

The Benin kingdom , so far as this account of it wi l l go ,was said to extend from the boundaries of the Mah incountry (a district between the British Colony of Lagosand the Benin R iver) and the river Ramos ; thus on thecoast l ine embracing the rivers Ben in

,Escravos , and

Forcados,also the hinter land

,taking in Warri u p to the

Yoruba States .For the purpose of the work I have set myse l f

,I shal l

treat of that part of the kingdom that may be embracedby al ine drawn from the mouth of the river Ramos u p t o

the town ofWarri,thence to Benin City

,and brought down

to the coast a l ittle to the north of the Benin R iver. Th istract of country is inhabited by four tribes

,viz .

,the Jekri

tribe,the dominant people on the coast l ine ; the Sobo‘

tribe,a very tim id but most industrious people

,great pro

du cers of palm oi l , as we l l as being great agriculturists ;an unfortunate people p laced as they were between theextort ions of the Jakris and the slave raiding of the BeninCity k ing for his various sacrificial purposes ; the thirdtribe are the Ij os , inhabiting the lower parts of the Escravos ,Forcados

,and Ramos rivers ; this latter tribe are great

canoe bui lders and agricu l turists in a small way, produce

NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

Their rel igion , l ike that of al l the neighbouri ng pagans ,admits of a Supreme Being, maker of al l things , but as hei s supposed to be always doing good , there is no necessityto sacrifice to him .

x They,however, impl ici tly bel ieve in a mal ignant spi rit,

to w hom they sacrifice men and an imals to satiate its thirstfor blood and p revent i t from doing them any harm .

Some of the pagan customs are of a sanitary character.Take

,for instance

,the yam custom . This custom is more

or less observed al l along the West Coast of Africa,and

where it is unattended by any sacrificing of human oranimal l ife

,except the latter be to make a feast, i t should

be encouraged as a kind of harvest festival . When I sayth is was a sanitary law

,I must exp lain that the new yarns

are a most dangerous artic le of food if eaten before theyarn custom has been made

,which takes place a certain

t ime .after the yarns are found to be fit for taking out ofthe ground .

The new yams are often offered for sale to the Europeansat the earl iest moment that they can be dug up

,some weeks

in many cases before the custom i s made the consequencei s that many Europeans contract severe attacks of dysenteryand fever about this time .The wel l-to-do native never touches them before theproper time , but the poorer classes find i t diffi cu lt to keepfrom eating them , as they are not only very sweet, butgeneral ly very cheap when they fi rst come on the market.The king of Benin was assisted in the government of hiscountry and his tributaries by four principal offi cers th reeof these were civi l officers ; these officers and the Ju -ju

men were the real governors of the country,the king be ing

l ittle more than a puppet in thei r hands .

GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION IN BEN IN 45 1

I t was these three offi cers who decided who should beappo inted governor of the lower river, general ly cal led New

Benin .

Thei r choice as a rule fel l upon the most influentialchief of the d istrict

,thei r last choice being Nana, the son

of the late chief A lumah,the most powerfu l and richest

chief that had ever been known amongst the jakri men .

I shal l have more to say abo u t Nana when I am dealingwith the jakri tribe .Amongst the p rincipal annual customs held by the kingofO ldBen in , were the customs to his predecessors, general lycal led making father” by the English-speaking native oft he coast.The coral custom was another great festival ; besidesthese there were many occas ional minor customs he ld top rop itiate the . spiri t of the sun

,the moon

,the sky ,

and theearth . At most of these, if not al l , human sacrifices weremade .Kings of Ben in d id not inheri t by right of birth ; thereigning king feel ing that his time to leave this earth wasapproaching, wou ld select hi s successor from amongst hissons

,and cal l ing his chief civi l officer would confide to him

the name of the one he had selected to fo l low him .

Upon the k ing’s death this Officer wou ld take into hisown charge the p roperty of the late king , and rece ive thehomage of al l the expectant heirs ; after enjoying theposition of regent for some few days he would confide hissecret to the chief war minister

,and the chosen p rince

would be sent for and made to kneel , whi le they dec laredto him the wi l l of his father. The p rince thereupon wouldthank these two oflicers for thei r faithful services

,and then

he was immed iately proclaimed king of Benin .

G G 2


Now commences trouble for the non -successfu l claimants ; the king’s throne must be secure, so they and theirsons must be Suppressed . As it was not al lowed to shedroyal blood

,they were qu ietly suffocated by having their

noses,mouths and ears stuffed w ith cloth. To somewhat

take the sting out of this cruel proceeding they were givena most pompous funeral .Whi lst on the subj ect of funerals I think I had bettertel l you something about the funeral customs of theBen in ee se .

When a k ing dies , i t is said , h is domest ics sol icit thehonour of being buried with him , but this is only accorded to afew ofhis greatest favourites ( I quite bel ieve th is to have beentrue

,for I have seen myself Slaves of defunct chiefs appealing

to be al lowed to join thei r late master) these Slaves are letdown into the grave al ive, after the corpse has been placedtherein . Graves of k ings and chiefs in Western A fricabeing nice roomy apartments, generally about 1 2 feet by 8by 14, but in Benin , I am told , the graves have a floor about1 6 feet by 1 2

, with s ides tapering to an aperture that can beclosed by a single flag-stone . On the morn ing following theinterment

,this flag-stone was removed

,and the people down

below asked i f they had found the K ing. This questionwas put to them every successive morn ing

,unti l no answer

be ing returned i t was concluded that the slaves had foundthei r master. Meat was then roasted on the grave-stone andd istributed amongst the people with a plenti fu l supply ofdrink

,after which frightfu l orgies took place and great

l i cence al lowed to the populace—murders taking place andthe bodies of the murdered people being brought as offeringsto the departed , though at any other t ime murder wasseverely pun ished . Chiefs and women of dist inction are

454 NAT IVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

was restored,but by flogging i f the thief was unable to

make restitu tion .

Murder was of rare occurrence . When detected it waspunished with death by decap itation

,and the body of the

cu lpri t was quartered and exposed to the beasts and birdsof p rey.

I f the murderer be a man of some considerable pos it ionhe was not executed

,but escorted out of the country and

never al lowed to return .

I n case of a murder committed in the heat of pass ion,

the culp rit could arrange matters by giving the dead person asuitable funeral

, paying a heavy fine to the three chief offi cersof the king and supplying a slave to suffer in his p lace .I n this case he was bound to kneel and keep his foreheadtouching the s lave during his execution .

I n al l cases where an accusation was not clearly proved, theaccused wou ld have to undergo an ordeal to p rove his gu i lt Orinnocence . To ful ly describe the whole of these would fi l lseveral hundred pages, and as most of them could be managed by the ju -Ju men in such a way, that they could p rove aman gui lty o r innocent according to the amount of presentthey had received from the accused ’s friends

,I wi l l pass on

to other subj ects .Adultery was very severely pun ished in whatever classi t took p lace in the l ower classes a l l the property of thegui l ty man passed at once to the inj ured husband

,the

woman being severely flogged and expel led from herhusband ’s house.Amongst the middle class this crime could be atoned forby the friends of the gui lty woman making a money presentto the injured husband and the lady would be restored toher outraged lord ’s favour .

GOVERNMENT AND RELIG ION IN BEN IN 45 5

The upper classes revenged themselves by having thetwo culprits instantly put to death , except when the malecu lpri t belonged to the upper classes then the punishmentwas general ly reduced to banishment from the kingdomof Benin for l ife.Amongst these people one finds some pecul iar customsconcerning chi ldren . Amongst others, a ch i ld is supposed tobe under great danger from evi l spirits unti l i t has passed itsseventh day. On this day a smal l feast is p rovided by theparents st i l l i t i s thought wel l to propitiate the evi l sp iritsby strewing a portion of the feast round the house where thechild is .Twin chi ldren

,according to some accounts

,were not

looked upon w ith the same horror in Benin as they a rein other parts of the N iger Delta as a fact, they were lookedupon with favour, except in one town of the kingdom ,

thename of wh ich I have never been able to get

,nor have I

been able to locate the spot but wherever it is, I am in

formed both mother and chi ld ren were sacrificed to ademon

,who res ided in a wood in the neighbourhood of th is

town .

Th is law of ki l l ing twin chi ldren,l ike most ju -Ju l aws ,

could be got over if the father was h imself not too deeplysteeped in Ju -ju ism ,

and was sufficiently wealthy to bribethe ju -Ju priests . The law was always merci lessly carriedout in the case of the poorer class of nat ives—the aboverefers solely to the part of Benin kingdom d irectly underthe king of Old Benin , and does not hold good withregard to the Sobos , Jakris , or Ij os.

ORIGIN OF THE BENIN CITY PEOPLE

According to C lapperton the Benin people are descendants of the Yoruba tribes

,the Yoruba tribes being de

scended from s ix brothers,al l the sons of one mother .

Thei r names were Ike lu ,Egba

,Ij ebu , Ife, Ibin i (Benin) ,

and Yoruba .

According to the late Su ltan Bel lo (the Fou lah ch ief ofSokoto at the time of Captain C lapperton ’

s vis it to thatcity), the Yoruba tribes are descended from the chi ldren of

Canaan,who were of the tribe of N imrod .

In my Op inion there is room for much speculat ion onthis statement of the Su l tan Bel lo .

I t is a very curious fact that the people of Ben in C ityhave been , from the earl iest accounts we have of them ,

great workers in brass . M ight not the ancestors of thi speople have brought the art of working in brass w ith themfrom the far d istant land of Canaan Moses

,when speaking

of the land of Canaan,says

,

“ out of whose hi l l s thoumayest dig brass (Deut . vi i i . Here we must understandcopper to be meant ; because brass i s not dug out of theearth , but copper is , and found in abundance in that partof the world .

Ye t another curious subj ect for reflection,from the fi rst

information that European travel lers give us (circa 148 5 )in thei r descript ions of the c ity of Ben in

,mention has in

variably made of towers,from the summits of which

monster brass serpents were suspended . Upon the entryof the pu nitive exped ition into Benin City in the monthof February, 1 897 , Benin City sti l l possessed one of theseserpents in brass , not hanging from a tower, but laid uponthe roof of one of the king’s houses .


The Jakris were the brokers , and would not al low eitherof the above-named tribes to trade direct w ith the wh itemen .

The principal towns of the jakri men were -Brohemie 1

(destroyed by the English in this town was general ly cal led Nana ’s town of late years . Nana was Governorof the who le of the country lying between a l ine drawnfrom the Gwato Creek to Wari and the sea-coast ; h isgovernorship extending a l itt le beyond the Ben in R iver,and runn ing down the coast to the Ramos R iver. Thisappointment he held from the k ing of Ben in

,and was

offiCially recognised by the Brit ish Consu l as the headman of the Jakri tribe , and for any officia l bus iness inconnection with the country over which he was Governor.Jeboo or Chief Peggy’s town , s ituated on the waterwayto Lagos jaqu ah town or ChiefOgrie ’

s town . The abovetowns are al l on the right bank of the river.On the left bank of the river are found the fol lowi ng towns z—Bat eri, or Chief Numa’s town , lying abouthalf an hour ’s pul l in a boat from Déli Creek .

Chief Numa,was the son of the late Chief Ch in omé, a

rival in his day to A l lu mah,the father of Nana, the late

Governor ; Chin omé was the son of Queen Doto of Wari,who years ago was most anx ious to See the white man ather town

,and repeatedly advised the white men to use the

1 B roh emie , fou n ded b y th e lat e ch ief Al luma b e tw een fifty an d

s ixty years ago . Ch in omé, a pow erfu l ch ief, fou gh t w ith Al lumah in

1 864 5 for s u premacy th e former w as con qu ered, an d died s ome few

years aft er. Ch ief Du du , n ot men t ion ed in th e text , fou n ded in 1 890

Du du tow n , an d is to-day a mos t loyal an d respected ch ief. Ch iefPeggy died in 1 889 . Ch ief Ogrie died in 1 892 , Ch ief Bregb i also dieds ome years ago.

OR IG IN OF BEN IN C ITY PEOPLE 459

Forcados for their p rincipal trading station but the oldChief A llumah was against any such exodus , and as hewas a very big trader in palm-oi l , he of course carried theday

,and the white men stuck to their swamp at the mouth

of the river Benin .

Close to Numa’s town his brother Fragon i has establ isheda smal l town . At some l ittle distance from Bat eri i sBooboo

,or the late Chief Bregb i’s town . Galey

,the

eldest son of the late Chin omé, has a smal l town in theDel i Creek . This man , though the eldest son of the lateChief Ch in omé, is not a chief, though his younger brotherNuma is . Here is a knotty point in Jakri law of inheritance

,which differs from the Benin C ity law on the subject

.

Wari,the capital of jakri, though almost if not actual ly

as old a town as Benin City, has never had the bad reputat ion that the latter city has always had . I attributethis to the fact that the lad ies of Warri have always beena power in the land .

Sapele is a place that has come Very much in to notices ince the country has been under the j urisdiction of theN iger Coast Protectorate, and is without doubt one of thebest stations on the Benin territory. I am glad to say thatthe Europeans have at last deserted to a great extent thei rfactories at the mouth of the Benin R iver

,and are n ow

principally located at Sapele and Wari .The jakri tribe claim to be of the same race as thepeople of Benin C ity and kingdom . This I am incl ined todispute ; I think they were a coast tribe l ike the Ij os .Tradition says that Wari was founded by peop le fromBenin kingdom and for many years was tributary to theking of Benin, but in I 7 78 Wari was reported to be quiteindependent . They may have become almost the same

NAT IVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

race by intermarriage with the Benin people that went toWari ; but that they were original ly the same race Isay no .

The rel igion of the Jakri tribe and the native laws andsystem of ordeals were

,as far as I have been able to as

certain,identical with those of the Ben in k ingdom ; with

the exception of the human sacrifices and thei r law ofinheritance which does not admit the right of p rimogeni ture—fo l lowing in this respect, the laws of the Bonnymen and thei r neighbours . Twin chi ldren are usual lyki l led by the jakris , and the mother driven into the bushto d ie.The Jakri tribe are , without doubt, one of the finesti n the N iger Coast Protectorate ; many of their presentchiefs are very honest and intel l igent men

,also excel lent

t raders . Their women are noted as being the finest andbest looking for m i les round .

The jakri women have a l ready made great stridestowards thei r comp lete emancipation from the low statei n which the women of neighbouring tribes st i l l findthemselves

,many of them being very rich and great

traders .The Sobo tribe have been kept so much in the background by the jakris that l i ttle is known about them . Whatl itt le i s known of them is to thei r credit .We now come to the Ijo tribe,or at least, that portionof them that l ive within the N iger Coast Protectorate ;these men are reported by some travel lers to be cannibals,and a very turbulent peop le this character has been giventhem by interested parties . Their looks are very muchagainst them as they disfigu re thei r faces by heavy cutsas tribal marks

,and some pick up the flesh between thei r


had been sent after them,as evidenced by the wales I saw

on their backs,the canoe was at last manned

,and I took

my seat in it under a very good mat awning which nearlycovered the canoe from end to end

,and thanking my stars

that now my troubles had come to an end I hoped at leastfor a t ime . I was

,however

,a very big bi t too p remature ,

for before the old chief would let the canoe start, he ihformed me he must make ju -Ju for the safety of h is canoeand the safe return of i t and al l his boys

,to say nothing

of my individual safety.

On e of the fi rst requ irements of that parti cular ju -ju

cost me further delay,for a bott le of g in had to be pro

cured,and as the dai ly market i n that town had not yet

opened,and no publ i c house had yet been establ ished by

any enterpris ing Ijo ,i t took some time to procure.

On the arrival of the art icle,however

,my friend the old

chief proceeded in a most impress ive manner to repeat ashort p rayer, the p rincipal portion I was able to understandand which was as fol lows : “ I beg you , I beg you , don’tcaps ize my canoe . I f you do

,don’t drown any of my boys

and don ’t do any harm to my friend the white man .

” Thiswas addressed to the spiri t of the water ; having fin ishedthis l i ttle prayer

,he next sprin kled a l i tt le gin about the

bows of the canoe and in the river,afterwards taking a

drink himself. He then p roduced a leaf with about anounce of broken-u p cooked yam mixed w ith a l ittle palmoi l , which he careful ly fixed in the extreme foremost pointof the canoe.At last this ceremony was at an end and we started off,but alas my troubles were only just beginning. We hadbeen started about half an hour

,and I had qu ietly dozed

off into a pleasant sleep,when I was awakened by feel ing

ORIGIN OF BEN IN C ITY PEOPLE 463

the canoe rol l ing from s ide to side as if we were in roughwater j ust then the boys al l stopped pu l l ing, an d on myremonstrance they informed me Ju -ju no wi l l ,”id es t , thatthe Ju -ju had told them they must go back. I used gentlepersuasion in the form of offers of extra pay at fi rst

,then

I stormed and used strong language , or at least, what l itt leIjo strong language I knew , but al l to no avai l . I thenbegan to inquire what Ju -Ju had spoken , and they pointedout a Small bird that j ust then flew away into the bush ;i t looked to me something l ike a kingfisher . The headboy of the canoe then explained to me that this Ju -jub ird having spoken

,id es t

, chirped on the right-hand sideof the canoe

,and the goat’s skul l hanging up to the fore

most awning stanchion having fal len the same way (thisornament I had not previously not iced) , sign ified that wemust turn back . So turn back we d id , though I thoughtat the t ime the boys d id not want to go the j ourney

,owing

to the almost cont inual state of quarrel l ing that had beengoing on for years betw een the Ij os and the Bras smen . I

was not far wrong,for when we eventual ly d id arrive at

Brass,I had to hide these Ijo people in the hold of my

sh ip,as the very sight of a Bras sman made them shiver .

The following morning the same performance was gonethrough ; we started , and at about the same point Ju -Juspoke again again we returned . My old friend the chiefwas very sorry he said , but he could not b lame his boysfor acting as they had done, Ju -Ju having told them toreturn . He wou l d not l i sten when I told him I fel t confiden t his boys had assisted the Ju -ju by mak ing the canoerol l about from side to side .However, I thought the matter over to myself duringthat second day

,and decided I would make sure on e part


of that Ju -Ju shou ld not speak against me the next morning

,and that was the goat’s skull , so dur ing that n ight

after every Ijo was fast asleep , I v is ited that skul l andcareful ly secured it to its post by a few turns of very finefish ing l ine in such a manner that no one could noticewhat I had done, i f they d id not special ly examine it. I

dare not fix it to the left, that being the favourable s ide ,for fear of i t be ing noti ced

,but I fixed i t straight up and

down,so that i t could not demonstrate against my journey.

I retired to my Sleeping quarters and s lept the sleep ofthe j ust

,and next morning started in the best of sp irits

,

though continual ly haunted by the fear that my l ittlestratagem might be discovered . We had got about thesame distance from the town that we had on the twoprevious mornings when the canoe began to osci l late asusual

,caused by a combined movement of al l the boys in

the canoe, I was perfectly convinced , for the creek we were

in was as smooth as a mil l pond . Many anx ious glanceswere cast at the skul l , and the canoe was made to rol lmore and more unti l the water Slopped over into her, butthe sku l l d id not budge, and , strange to relate , the b ird ofi l l omen did not Show i tsel f or ch irp th is morning, so theboys gave up making the canoe osci l late and commencedto paddle for al l they were worth, and the fol lowing even ingwe arrived at my ship in Brass . We cou ld have arrivedmuch earl ier

,but the Ij os d id not wish to meet with any

Bras smen,so we waited unti l the shades of night came on ,

and thus passed unobserved severa l Brass canoes,arriving

safely at my ship in time for d inner.I careful ly questioned the head boy of the Ijo boys al labout this bi rd that had given me so much trouble . He

explained to me that once having passed a certain point in

NAT IVES OF THE N IGER COAST

to have been impressed by the downfal l of the ir brethrenin neighbouring d istri cts . Though they were wel lacquainted with al l that was passing around them . Thusthe fal l of Ashantee in 1 87 3 was wel l known to the Kingof Dahomey, yet he continued on his way and could notbel ieve the French could ever upset him . Nana

,the

governor of the lower Benin or jakri, could not see in thedown fal l of Ja ja that the Briti sh Government were not tobe t rifled with by any petty king or governor of theserivers though Nana was a most intel l igent native

,he had

the temerity to Show fight against the Protectorate offi cials,

and of course he qu ickly found out his m istake,bu t alas !

too late for his peace of mind and happiness he is now aprisoner at large far away from his own country

,stripped

of al l h is ri ches and position . Here was an obj ect lessonfor Ab u Bini

,the King of Benin , right at h is

’

ow n door,

every detai l of which he must have heard of, or at least hisJu -Ju priests must have heard of the disaster that hadhappened to Nana, his satrap .

Nothing daunted Ab u Bin i and his ju -ju priests cont inn ed their evi l practices ; then came the frightful Beninmassacre of Protectorate officials and European traders

,

besides a number of Jakris and Kru boy s i n the employment of the Protectorate .

The fi rst shot that was fired that january morn ing, 1 897 ,by the emissaries of King Ab u Bini

,sounded the downfal l

of the C ity of Ben in and the end of al l its atrocious an dd isgusting sacrificial ri tes

,for scarcely three months after

the punitive expedition camped in the King’s Palace atold Benin .

The two expedi tions that have had to be sent to Ben inR iver with in the last few years have been two unique

OR IGIN OF BEN IN C ITY PEOPLE 467

specimens ofwhat Brit ish sai lors and soldiers have t o copewith whilst protecting British subj ects and their in terests ,no matter where situated .

I do not suppose that there are in England to-day onehundred peop le who know,

and can therefore appreciate atit s true value , the risk that each man in those two expedit ions ran . I n the attack on Nana’s town the Brit ish sai lorshad to walk through a dirty, disgusting, s limy mangroveswamp

,often S inking in the mud hal f way u p their thighs ,

and this in the face of a Sharp musketry fi re coming fromunseen enemies careful ly hidden away, in some cases notfive yards o ff

,in dense bush

,with occas ional d ischarges of

grape and canister. But nothing stopped them , andNana’s town was soon numbered with the things that hadbeen .

I t was the same to a great extent in the attack on Benin ,only varied by the swamps not being qu i te so bad as atNana’s tow n , but the distance from the water s ide was muchfarther in the former case one m ight say i t was only a matterof minutes once in touch with the enemy in the attack onBenin city it was a matter of several days marching throughdense bush, where an enemy could get w ith in five yards ofyou without being seen

,and in some places nearer. A lmost

constantly under fi re, besides a sun beating down on youso hot that where the so i l was sandy you felt the heatalmost unbearable through the soles of your boots

,to say

minor troubles of being very short of drinkingn d at night not being able to s leep owing to theof sand-flie s and mosquitoes getting n ow andperfume wafted under your nostri ls

,in comparison

with which a London sewer would be eau de Cologne.I was once under fire for twelve hours against European

H H 2


trained troops , so know something about a sold ier’s work ,and for choice I would p refer a week ’s s imi lar work inEurope to two hours West African bush and swampfighting

,with its aids

,fever and dysentery.

Before I quit Benin I want to mention one thing moreabout Ju -Ju . When the attack was made on Benin city

,

the fi rst day’ s march had scarcely begun when two whitemen were ki l led and buried . After the column passed on

,

the natives came and dug the bodies u p , cut thei r headsand hands o ff, and carried them u p to Benin city to theJu -ju priests , who showed them to the king to proveto him that his Ju -ju ,

managed by them,was greater than

the white man’s ; i n fact, the king, I am told , was beingShown these heads and hands at the moment when the firstrockets fel l i n Ben in city. Those rockets proved to himthe contrary , and he left the city quicker than he had everdone in his l ife before .To point out to my readers how al l the nat ives of the

Delta bel ieved in the power of the Benin Ju -ju ,I must

tel l you none of them believed the Engl ish had real lycaptured the King unti l he was taken round and shownto them

,the bel ief be ing that

,on the app roach of danger,

he would be able to change himsel f into a bird and thusfly away and escape.

BRASS R IVER

Brass R iver is then the fi rst river we have to deal withon the Niger Coast Protectorate

,to the eastward of the

Royal N iger Company’s boundary.

The inhabitants of Brass ca l l their country N imbé andthemselves N imbé mungos

,the l atter word meaning peop le .


town on the N iger ; being afterwards j oined by somesim i lar adventurers from Bonny R iver . The three peop leare closely connected by fami ly ties at this day.

As a rule these people have always had the character ofbeing a wel l behaved set of men ; i t i s a notable fact intheir favour that they were the only people that

,once

having signed the treaty with Her Majesty ’s Governmentto put down slavery

,honestly stuck to the terms of the

treaty ; unl ike their neighbours , they did so, though theywere the only people who did not receive any indemnity.

They,however

,have occasional ly lost their heads and

gone to excesses unworthy of a people with such a goodreputation as they have general ly enj oyed .

Their last escapade was the attack on the factory of theRoya l N iger Company at Akassa some few years ago , andfor which they were duly punished ; their dual mud andthatch capital was blown down , and one smal l town cal ledFish t ow n destroyed .

Impartial observers must have pitied these poor peop ledriven to despai r by being cut off from thei r tradingmarkets by the fiscal arrangements of the Royal N igerCompany . The latter I don ’ t blame very much , they aretraders ; but the l ine drawn from Idu to a point midwaybetween the Brass R iver and the Nu n entrance to theN iger R iver, as being the boundary line for fiscal purposesbetween the Royal N iger Company and the N iger CoastProtectorate, was drawn by some one at Downing Streetwho evidently looked upon this part of the world as acheesemonger would a cheese .I n 1 8 30 i t was at Ab o on the N iger where Lander thetraveller met with the Bras smen

,who took him down to

Ob u lamb ri, but no ship being in Brass R iver, they took

BRASS R IVER 47 1

him and his peop le over to Akassa , at the Nu n mouth ofthe N iger

,to an English ship lying there . H istory says he

was anything but we l l received by the captain of thisvessel

,and that the Bras smen did not treat him as wel l as

they might ; however, they did not eat him ,as they no

doubt would have done cou ld they have looked into thefuture. Whatever their treatment of Lander was , i tcould not have been very bad

,as they received some reward

for what assistance they had given him some time after .I t was amongst these peop le that I was enabled to studymore closely the inner working of the domestic slavery ofthis part of Western Africa, and where it was carried onwith less hardship to the Slaves themselves than any p laceelse in the Delta, unti l the N iger Company’s boundary l inethrew most of the labouring populat ion on the rates , atleast they would have gone on the rates i f there had beenany to go on

,but unfortunately the municipal arrange

ments of these A frican kin gdom le t s had not arrived atsu ch a p itch of civi l i sation ; the consequence was manydied from starvation

,others hired themselves out as

labourers , but the demand for their services was l imited , asthey compared badly with the fine

,athletic Krumen

,who

monopolise a l l the labour in these parts . Then came thepunitive expedition for the attack on Akassa that wipedoff a few more of the population , so that to-day the Brassmen may be described as a vanishing peop le .The various grades of the people in Brass were the kings ,next came the chiefs and their sons who had by thei r ownindustry

,and assisted in thei r fi rst endeavours by thei r

parents , worked themselves into a position of wea l th , thencame the Winna-boes

,a grade most ly supp l ied by the

favourite s lave of a chief,who had been h is constant


attendant for years,commencing his career by carrying his

master ’s pocket-handkerchief and snuff-box,pockets not

having yet been introduced into the native costume aftersome years of this duty he would be promoted to goingdown to the European traders to superintend the del ivery ofa canoe ofo il

,seeing to its being tried

,gauged

,&c. This fi rst

duty,i f p roperly performed , would lead to his being often

sent on the same errand . This duty required a certainamount of s erver

,as the natives cal l intel l igence , for he had

to so look after his master’s interests that the pul l-awayboys that were with him in the canoe d id not secrete anyfew gallons of oi l that there might be left over after fi l l ingu p al l the casks he had been sent to deliver nor must heal low the white trader to under-gauge his master ’s casks bycarelessness or otherwise . I f he was able to do the latterpart of his errand in such a dip lomati c manner that he d idnot raise the bi le of the trader, that day marked thecommencement of his upward career, i f he was possessedof the bump of saving. All having gone off to the satisfact ion of both parties

,the trader would make this boy

some smal l p resent according to the number of puncheonsof oi l he had brought down

,seldom less than a piece of

cloth worth about z s . 6d. , and , i n the case of canoes contain ing ten to fifteen puncheons

,the trader would often

dash him tw o pieces of cloth and a bunch or two of beads .This p resent he would , on his return to his master’s house ,hand over to his mother (id es t , the woman who had takencare of him from the time when he was fi rst bought by hisBrass master) . She would careful ly hoard this and allsubsequent bits of m iscel laneous property unti l he had inhis foster-mother’s hands sufficient goods to buy an an gbarof oi l— a measure containing thi rty gal lons . Then he would


he was possessed of, includ ing any wealthy Win n ab oe s hemight have .

Some writers have said this class could purchase theirfreedom with thi s I don ’t agree. The only chance aw in n ab o had of getting his freedom was

,supposing h is

master d ied and left no sons behind him old enough orcapable enough to take the p lace of their father, then thew in n ab o might be elected to take the place of his defunctmaster : he would then become ips o facto a chief, and bereckoned a free man . If he w as a man of strong character,he would hold unti l his death al l the property of the housebut i f one of the sons of his late master shou ld grow u p anintel l igent man

,and amass sufficient riches to gather round

him some of the other chief men in the town,then the

question was l iable to be re -opened , and the w in n abo mighthave to part out some of the p roperty and the peop le hehad received upon hi s appointment to the headship of thehouse

,together with a certain sum in goods or oi l , which

the elders of the town would decide shou ld represent theincrement on the portion handed over . I have never knownof a case where the whole of the p roperty and people havebeen taken away from a w in n ab o in Brass but I haveknown it occur in other r ivers

,but only for absolute mis

use,misru le

,and misconduct of the party.

Egbo-boes are the niggers or ab solute lower rank of

s laves,who are emp loyed as pul l-away boys in the oi l

canoes and gigs of the chiefs,and do al l the menial work or

hard labour of the towns that i s not done by the lowerranks of the women S laves .The lot of these egbo-boes is a very hard one at times ,especial ly when their masters have no use for them in thei roi l canoes . At the best of times thei r masters don ’t p rovide

BRASS RIVER 47 5

them with more food then is about sufficient for one goodsquare meal a day but

,when trade is du l l and they have

no use for them in any way,thei r lot is dep lorable indeed .

This class has suffered terribly during the last ten yearsowing to the comp lete stoppage of the Bras smen

’

s trade inthe N iger markets .This class had few chances Of ris ing in the social scale ,but i t was from this class that sprang some of the best tradeboys who took thei r masters ’ goods away up to Ab o andoccasiona l ly as far as On it sa, on the N iger .Cases have occurred of boys from this c lass rising to asgood a pos ition as the more favoured Win n aboe s ; b u t forthis they have had to thank some white trader

,who has

taken a fancy to here and there one of them,and getting

his master to lend him to him as a cabin boy—a positiongeneral ly sought after by the sons of chiefs

,so as to learn

white man ’s mouth,

”otherwise Engl ish .

The succession laws are simi lar to those of the otherCoast tribes one meets with in the Delta , but to understandthem it requ ires some l i ttle exp lanation . A tribe is composed o f a king and a number of chiefs . Each chief has anumber of petty chiefs under him . Perhaps a better defin ition for the latter would be

,a number of men who own a

few s laves and a few canoes of their own,and do an inde

pendent trade with the white men , but who pay to theirchiefs a tribute of from 20 to 2 5 per cent . on thei r tradewith the white man . I n many cases the white man stopsthis tribute from the petty chiefs and holds i t on b eha l f ofthe chief. This collection of petty chiefs with thei r chiefforms what in Coast parlance is denominated a House .

The House may own a portion of the principal town ,say Ob u lamb ri, and also a portion in an y of the smal l towns


in the ne ighbouring creeks , and it may own here and thereisolated pieces of ground where some petty chief hassquatted and made a clearance either as a farm or to placea few of his fami ly there as fishermen in the same way thechief of the house may have squatted on various plots ofground in any part of the d istrict admitted by the neighb ou rin g tribes to belong to his tribe . A l l these parcels andportions of land belong in common to the House—that is ,supposing a petty chief having a farm in any part of thedistrict was to die leaving no male hei rs and no one fi t totake his place

,the chief as head of the house would take

possession,but would most l ikely leave the s laves of the

dead man undisturbed in charge of the farm they had beenworking on

,on ly expecting them to del iver him a portion

of the p roduce equivalent to what they had been in thehabit of del ivering to their late master, who was a pettychief of the house .

The head of the house would have the right of disposalof al l the dead man ’s wives , general ly speaking the youngerones wou ld be taken by the chief, the others he would d ispose o f amongst his petty chiefs i f, as general ly happens ,there were a few aged ones amongst them for whom therewas no demand he would take them into his own establ ishment and see they were provided for.AS a matter of fact , al l the peop le belonging to a defunct

petty chief become the property of the head of the houseunder any circumstances but i f the defunct had left anyman capable of succeeding him ,

the head chief would al lowthis man to succeed without interfering with him in anyway

, p rovided he never had had the misfortune to raise thechief’ s bi le in the latter case , i f the chief was a very powerfu l chief

,whose actions no one dare question , the chances


of a claim for five female slaves that may have been wrongful ly taken possess ion of by some former chief of a house ,this case perhaps is kept warm ,

waiting the right momentto put i t forward

,for thirty years

,the claim then becomes

not only for the original five women,but for their chi ldren ’s

chi ldren and so on .

RELIGION

The Brass natives to-day are divided into two camps asfar as religion i s concerned : the miss ionary would no doubtsay the greater number of them are Christians , the ord inaryobserver would make exactly the opposite observation , andjudging from what we know has taken place in the ir townswithin the last few years

,I am afra id the latter wou ld be

right.The Church M i ss ionary Society started a m iss ion herein 1 868 i t i s sti l l working under another name , and isunder the superintendence of the Rev. ArchdeaconCrowther, a son of the late B ishop Crowther.The ir success

,as far as numbers of attendants at church ,

has been very considerable ; and I have known cases amongstthe women who were thoroughly imbued with the Christianrel igion

,and acted up to its teaching as conscientious ly as

thei r white s isters these however are few .

Wi th regard to the men converts I have not met withone of whom I could speak in the same terms as I havedone of the women .

Wh i lst ful ly recognis ing the efforts that the miss ionarieshave put forth in this part of the world

,I regret I can ’t

bear witness to any great good they have doneThis m ission has been worked on the usual l ines that

RELIGION OF BRASSMEN 479

Engl ish missions have been worked in the past , so I musta ttribute any want of success here as much to the system.as anything.

On e of the great obstacles to the spread of Christianityin these parts is in my op in ion the custom of polygamy ,together with which are mixed u p certain domestic customsthat are much more difficult to erad icate than the teachingsof Ju -ju ,

and require a special mission for them alone.A lmost equal to the above as an obstacle in the way of

C hristianity is what is cal led domestic slavery Europeanswho have vis ited Wes tern Afri ca speak '

o f this as a k indo f slavery wherein there is no hardship for the Slave theypoint to cases where slaves have risen to be kings andchiefs

,and many others who have been able to arrive at

the position of petty chief in some big man ’s house. I

grant al l thi s,but al l these peop le forget to mention that

unti l these s laves are chiefs they are not safe ; that anygrade less than that of a chief that a slave may arrive todoes not secure him from be ing sold i f his master sowished .

Further, domesti c Slavery gives a chief power of l i fe anddeath over his slave ; and how often have I known caseswhere promising young slaves have done something to vextheir chief their heads have p aid the penalty, though theseyoung men had already amassed some wealth

,having also

several wives and children .

People who condone domestic slavery,and I have heard

many kindly-hearted people do so, forget that however mi ldthe s lavery of the domestic slave is on the coast

,even under

the m ildest native it i s sti l l s lavery ; further, these slavesare not made out of wood , they are flesh and blood , they inthei r own country have had fathers and mothers . During

480 NAT IVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP .

my lengthened stay on the coast ofA frica I never questioneda slave about his or her own country that I did n Ot fin d

they much preferred their own country far away in theinterior to thei r new home . Some have told me that theyhad been travel l ing upwards of two months and had beenhanded from one slave dealer to another

,in some cases

changing the ir owner three or four times before reachingthe coast . On questioning them how they became S laves

,

I have only been told by one that her father Sold herbecause he was in debt ; several t imes I have been toldthat thei r elder brothers have sold them , but these caseswould not represent one per cent. of the slaves I havequestioned the almost general reply I have received hasbeen that they had been stolen when they had gone tofetch water from the river or the sp ring, as the case m ightbe

,or while they have been straying a l itt le in the bush

paths between thei r vi l lage and another. Sometimes theywould describe how the slave-catchers had enticed theminto the bush by showing them some gaudy piece of clothor offered them a few beads or negro bel ls , others had beencaptured in some raid by one town or V i l lage on another.Therefore domestic slavery in its effect on the interiortribes i s doing very near the same amount of harm nowthat it d id in days gone by. I t keeps up a constant fearof strangers, and causes terrible feuds between the vi l lagesi n the interior.What is the use of al l the missionaries ’ teaching to theyoung girl s laves so long as they are only chattels

,and

are forced to do the bidd ing of thei r masters or mistresses ,however degrading or fi l thy that bidding may beThe Ju -Ju ism of Brass i s a sturdy p lant, that takes agreat deal of up rooting. A few years ago a casual observer

48 2 NAT IVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

fact that the bishop never came back for the p lanks he hadbegged of me

,caused me to make some

‘in qu irie s , and Ifound that the church had been p lenti ful ly supp l ied withbenches by the poorer portion of the congregation .

Ye t how many of these earnest people could oneguarantee to have completely cast out a l l thei r be l iefin ju -Ju ism ? I f I were put upon my oath to answertruthfully according to my own individua l belief

,I am

afraid my answer would be n ot on e.

What an awful injustice the missionary p reaches in theestimation of the average native woman

,when he advises

the native of West Africa to put away a l l his wives butone . Supposing, for instance, i t i s the case of a big chiefwith a moderate number of wives , say only twenty orthi rty

,he may have had children by all of them

,or he

may have had chi ldren by a half dozen of them,— what

i s to become of those wives he discards ? are they to becondemned to single blessedness for the remainder of thei rdays ? Native custom or etiquette would not al low thesewomen to marry the other men in the chief’ s house ;they can ’t marry in to other houses, because theywould find the same condition of things there as inthei r own husband ’s house , always supposing Christianitywas becoming genera l . These difficu lties i n the way ofthe missionary are the ju -ju priests ’ levers, which theyknow well how to use against Christ ianity, and whichaccounts for the frequent sl ide back to Ju -Ju ism ,

and insome cases cannibal ism of otherwise apparently semicivi l i zed Africans .The Pagan portion of the inhabitants of the Brass districthave sti l l thei r old bel ief in the ju -Ju priests and anima lworship.

RELIG ION OF BRASSMEN 483

The python is the Brass natives ’ titu lar guardian ange l .So great was the veneration of this Ju -ju snake in formertimes

,that the native kings wou ld Sign no treaties with

her Britannic Majesty’s Government that did not include aclause subjecting any European to a heavy fine for ki l l ingor molesting in any way this hideous repti le . When oneappeared in any European ’s compound , the latter wasbound to send for the nearest ju -ju p riest to come andremove it

,for which service the priest expected a dash , id

es t,a p res ent ; i f he did not get i t the chances were the

priest wou ld take good care to see that that European foundmore pythons vis ited him than his neighbours ; and asa ru le these snakes were not found unti l they had madea good meal of one of the white man ’s goats or turkeys ,i t came cheaper in the long run to make the usual present .I t i s now some twenty years ago that the then agent of

Messrs . Hatton and Cookson in Brass R iver found a largepython in his house

,and ki l led it. This coming to the

ears of the natives and the ju -ju p riests , caused no l itt leexcitement ; the latter saw thei r opportun ity , worked u p

the peop le to a state of frenzy, and eventual ly led them inan attack on the factory of Messrs . Hatton and Cookson ,seized the agent and dragged him out of his house on tothe beach , tied him u p by his thumbs , each Ju -Ju p riestpresent Spat in his mouth , afterwards they stripped himnaked and otherwise i l l treated him

,bes ides breaking into

his store and robbing him of twenty pounds worth of goods .The British Consu l was appealed to for redress , and uponhis next vis i t to the river inquired into the case

,but

,

mirabile dicta, decided that he was ' u nable to afford

the agent any redress,as he had brought the punishment

on himsel f. I don ’t ment ion the name of this Consul,as

I I 2


i t would be a p i ty to hand down to posteri ty the fact thatEngland was ever represented by such an idiot .Besides the python the Brass men had several other se

co n dary ju -Jus amongst others may be mentioned the greyand white kingfisher

,also another smal l b ird l ike a water

wagtai l,besides which

,i n common with thei r neighbours

,

they bel ieved in a spiri t of the water who was supposedto dwel l down by the Bar

,and to which they occas ional ly

made offerings in the shape of a young s lave-girl of thel ightest complex ion they could buy.

The burial customs of this people di ffered l ittle fromothers i n the N iger Delta , but as I was present at theburia l of two of thei r kings—viz . King Keya and KingA rishima

,at which I

,s aw identical ly the same ceremonia l

take p lace , I wil l describe what I saw as far as my memorywil l serve me , for the last of these took p lace about thi rty.years ago .

The grave in this instance was not dug in a house,but

on a p iece of Open ground close to the king’s house , butwas afterwards roofed over and joined on to the king’shouses . The size Of the grave was about fourteen bytwelve feet

,and about eight feet deep . At the end where

the defunct ’s head would be,was a sma l l table with a cloth

laid over it , upon this were several bottles of d ifferent l iquors ,a large p iece of cooked salt beef and sundry other cookedmeat s , ship ’s biscuits , &c. The cei l ing of this chamber wassupported by stout beams being laid across the opening,upon which would be p laced p lanks after the body hadbeen lowered into position , then the whole would be coveredover with a part of the c lay that had been taken out of thehole

,the rest of the c lay being afterwards used to form the

wal ls of the house,that was eventual ly constructed over


however , not counted on the king ’s very objectionable state,

and when he p roceeded to place his offering round theking’s n eck

, he nearly came to grief, and d id not seemquite himself unti l he had had a good sti ff glass of brandyand water . The news sp read l ike wi ldfi re of this man ’ sm u n ifice n ce

,and soon the p rincipal chiefs waited upon him

to thank him for his present to thei r dead king ; the otherEuropeans were green with j ealousy

,though each had in

his turn tried to outdo his neighbour unfortunately,there

was a Scotchman there “ tak in ’ notes,

” and faith heguessed a ruse

,but he was a good fel low and friend of

the donor,and kept the secret for some years

,and did

not tel l the tale unti l i t cou ld do his friend no harm .

The cannons had been going off at intervals for the lasttwo days . Towards ten o ’clock of the second night afterdeath the king was placed in a very open-work wickercasket

,and carried shoulder high round the town , and then

final ly depos ited in his grave . During this time the cannonsw ere being continually fi red o ff

,and individuals were ass ist

i ng in the d in by fi ring off the ord inary trade gun . I andanother European concealed ourselves near the grave , andcareful ly watched al l night to see i f they sacrificed anysl aves on the king ’s grave , or put any poor creatures downinto the grave to d ie a l ingering death but we saw nothingof this done

,though we had been informed that no king or

chiefof Brass was ever buried without some of his slaves beingsent with him into the next world as our informantexp lained , how would they know he had been a big manin this l i fe if he d id not go accompanied by some of hisn iggers into t he nextThe firing of cannon is kept u p at intervals for an indefinite number o f days after the final interment but there

RELIG ION OF BRASSMEN 487

i s no.hard and fast rule as to its duration as far as I have

been able to ascertain,and I think myself i t is ru led by the

greater or less l iberal ity of the successors,who are the ones

who have to pay for the gunpowder .Amongst other customs that are common to al l theserivers and this river is the ki l l ing of twin chi ldren ; butS ince the mission has been established here the missionarieshave done thei r utmost to wean the peop le from this remnant of savagery.A curious custom that I have heard of in most of theserivers is the throwing into the bush , to be devoured by thewi ld beasts

,any chi ldren that may be born w ith their

front t eeth cut. I found this custom in Brass,but w i th an

excep tion , id es t,I knew a pi lot in Twon Town who had

had the misfortune to be born with his upper front teeththrough ; whether i t was because it was on ly the upperteeth that were through

,or whether it was that the law is

not so strictly carried out in the case of a male, I was neverable to make sure of however

,he had been al lowed to

l ive,but it appears in his case some part of the law had to

be carried out at his death,viz . he was not al lowed to be

buried , but was t hrown into the bush , to fal l a prey to thewild beasts , and any property he might die possessed ofcou ld not be inherited by any one

,but must be dissipated

or thrown into the bush to rot. I believe the V enerableA rchdeacon Crowther has been instrumental in savingseveral of these kind of chi ldren in Bonny .

The women of Brass are l ike their s isters in Benin river,

moving on towards women 5 rights for though they havebeen for many generations the hewers o f wood and drawersof water

,and made to do most of the hard work of the

country , they had commenced some years ago to enjoy


more freedom than the i r s isters in the leeward rivers . Theysti l l do most of the fi shing

,and the fishing girls of Twon

Town used to p resent a p retty sight as some fi fteen ortwenty of thei r tiny canoes used to sweep past the Europeanfactories , each canoe propel led by two or three gracefu l ,laughing, chattering girls with them would gen e ral lv beseen a canoe or two paddled by some dames of a maturerage . Though pas s e’e as far‘ as their looks were concerned ,they could sti l l p ly their paddle as wel l as the best amongstthe younger ones

,as they forced thei r frai l canoes through

water to some favourite quiet bl ind creek where the currentless water al lowed them to use thei r preparation1 for stupefy in g the fish, and in l ittle over three hours you might seethem come paddling back, each tiny canoe with from fiftyto a hundred smal l grey mul let

,sometimes with more and

occas ional ly with a few smal l river soles .The Brass man

,l ike his neighbours , had his public Ju -ju

house as wel l as his private l i ttle ju -Ju chamber, the latterwas to be found in any Brass man ’s establishment whichboasted of more than one room those who could not afforda separate chamber used to devote a corner of thei r ownroom

,where might be seen sundry odds and ends b e

spattered with some yel low clay,and occasional ly a white

fowl hung by the leg to remain there and die of starvationand drop gradua l ly to p ieces as it decomposed .

The public Ju -Ju house at Ob u lamb ri was not a verypretentious affair i t consisted of a native b u t of wattle anddaub

,the wal ls not being carried more than half way u p to

the eaves,roofed with palm mats in the centre was an i ron

1 This preparat ion is made from the pericarp of the Raphia Vin iferapou n ded u p in to a pu lplike mas s , w h ich th ey m ix in the w at er in their

can oes an d then b ale ou t in t o th e w at er in the creek .


went and looked in,b u t i t was so dark I cou ld see nothing

at fi rst, so stepped ins ide when , getting accustomed to thesemi-darkness

,I saw a large python , some ten or twelve feet

long,hanging from the ridge pole of the hut immediately

over a child about two years old that was calmly S leeping .

To snatch up the chi ld and walk out was the work of amoment . I then found that the woman who had pointedto the door of the hut was the mother of the chi ld—hergrati tude to me for del ivering her chi ld from certain deathcan be more easi ly imagined than described . Upon askingwhy she had not acted as I had done , she repl ied she darenot have interfered with the snake in the way I had done.I afterwards asked several of the more intel l igent nativesof Brass i f the ju -ju law did not a l low a mother to saveher chi ld in such a case . Some said she was a fool woman

,

and that she could have taken her chi ld away the momentShe saw it in danger but others said had she done so

,she

would have b een l iable to be ki lled herself or pay a heavyfine to the ju -Ju p riests and I am incl i ned to believe thelatter version to be correct.1Amongst other curious customs these people make useof the feather ordeal , to find out robbery, w i tchcraft, andadultery

,&c. I n this ordeal i t rests a great deal with the

ju -ju man who performs it whether i t p roves the partygui l ty or not . This ordeal is performed as fol lows — Theju—ju man takes a feather from the underpart of a fowl ’swing

,making choice of a stronger or weaker one

,according

1 On e good th in g t he m is s ion arie s have don e s in ce th ey have b eenin Bras s , an d that is , that , of pers u adin g the n at ives , or at leas t t he

great er part of th em , t o give u p the w orsh ip of this s n ake ; an d th is

part mu s t have in clu ded t he mos t in flu en t ial port ion of Bras s s ociety,

for s in ce ab ou t th e year 1 884 the ju -Ju s n ake is kil led wh erever seenw ithou t an y dis as t rou s con s equ en ces t o th e kil ler.

NEW CALABAR 49 :

to how he intends the ordeal Shal l demonstrate,then

,draw

ing the tongue of the accused as far Ou t of his mouth as hecan , forces the qui l l of the feather through from the uppers ide and draws it out by grasp ing the point of thefeather from the under side of the tongue ; i f the featheri s unbroken the accused person is p roved gui lty, i f on thecontrary the feather breaks in the attempt to pass it throughthe tongue it proves the innocence of the person . I t maybe seen from this description how very easy i t was top rove a person innocent , the mere fact of the feather b reaking in the attemp t to push it through the tongue beingsufficient thus, when suitably approached , the Ju -Ju mancould not only p rove a person ’s innocence , but also savehim any inconvenience in eating his mess of foo foo andpalaver sauce that evening.

NEW CALABARThe intervening rivers between the Brass and New

C alabar R ivers are the S t . N i cholas , the St . Barbara, theS t . Bartho lomew,

and the Sombrero ; the influence of theking of New Calabar may be said to commence at the St .

Bartholomew R iver , extending inland to about five or tenm i les beyond the town of Bugama. The lower parts ofthe St . Bartholomew and the numerous creeks runningb etween that river and New Calabar are mostly inhabitedby fishermen and their fami lies , their towns and vi l lagesbeing without exception the most ’ squa l id and dirty of anyto be found in the Delta. Beyond fishing

,the males seem

to do little else than sleep occasionally the men assist theirwives and chi ldren in making palm- leaf mats , used general ly al l over the Delta in place of thatch—not a veryp rofitable employment , as the demand varies considerably


according t o the seasons . After a very rough and b o is terous rainy season

,the p rice may be two Shi l l ings and six

pence, or its equivalent , for four hundred of these mats,each mat being a little over two feet in length

,but fal l ing

in bad times to two shi l l ings and S ixpence for five to s ixhundred . A roof made with these mats threefold thickwil l last for three years .These peop le cal l themselves Calabar men simply b ecause they l ive within the influence of the Calabarese . In

the upper part of these smal l rivers,about a day’s journey

by canoe from the mouth of St . Bartholomew,i s the chief

town of a smal l tribe of people cal led the Bi l l a tribe,con

n ected by marriage with the Bonny men , several of thekings of Bonny having married Bil la women . These peop leare p roducers in a smal l w ay of palm -oi l

,and though they

are located so close to the New Calabar people,prefer to sel l

thei r produce to the Bonny men , who send thei r canoes overto the Bi l la country to fetch the oi l , the latter peop le nothaving canoes large enough for carrying the large puncheonsw hich the Bonny men send over to col lect thei r p roduce in .

The New Ca labar men are now spl it up into three townscal led Bugama, where the king l ives Abonema

,of which

Bob Manuel i s the principal chief ; and Backan a, where theBarboy House reside . Besides they have numerous smal ltowns scattered about in the network of creeks connectingthe Calabar R iver with the Sombrero R iver. Previous to1 8 80 these peop le al l dwelt together in one large town onthe right bank of the Calabar R iver

,nearly opposite to

Where the creek , now cal led the Cawthorne Channel ,1branches off from the main river .

1 As an eviden ce of h ow secre t th e n at ive s of the se part s have al w ayst ried t o keep, an d have t o a great ext en t kept , t h e kn ow ledge of the


other chiefs,had decided to break down the Barboy house

,

which had been a very powerful house in days anterior tothe p resent king’s father, and tradition says that the Barboys had some right to be the reigning house . W i l l Braid

,

the head of the house at this time,had by his industry and

honourab le conduct raised the position of the house to verynear its former influence . This was one of the privatereasons that caused the king to look on him with disfavour .When one of these West African kinglets decides thatone of thei r chiefs is getting too rich

,and by that means

too powerful , he cal l s hi s more immediate supporters toge ther,an d theydiscuss the means that are to be used to compass the doomed one’s fal l . I f he be a man of mettle

,with

many sub—chiefs and aspiring trade boys , the system re

sorted to is to trump u p charges against him of breaches ofagreement as to p rices paid by him or his peop le i n theIb o markets for p roduce , and fine him heavi ly. I f he paysW i thout murmur, they leave him alone for a time but verysoon another case is brought against him either on the samel ines or for some breach of native etiquette

,such as send

ing his people into some market to trade where , perchance ,he has been sending his peop le for years but the king andhis friendly chiefs dish up some old custom

,long allowed

to drop in abeyance , by which his house was debarred fromtrad ing in that particular market . The p lea of long usancewould avai l him l ittle another fine would be imposed . Thisinjustice would general ly have the effect desired

,the doomed

one would refuse to pay ,then down the king would come

on him for d isregarding the orders of himself and chiefs ;fine would fol low fine , unti l the man lost his head and didsome rash act

,which assisted his enemies to more certainly

NEW CALABAR 49 5

compass his ruin . Or he does what I have seen a persecutedchief do in these rivers on more than one occasion that is ,he gathers a l l his wives and chi ldren about him

,together

with his most trusted followers and slaves,also any of h is

family who are wi l l ing to fol low him into the next world ,lays a double tier of kegs of gunpowder on the floor fo thep rincipal room in his dwell ing-house and knocks in the headsof the t op tier of kegs . Placing al l his peop le on this funera lp i le , he seats himself i n the middle with a fire -stick grasped inhis hand

,then sends a message to the king and chiefs to come

and fetch the fines they have imposed on him . The king andchiefs genera l ly shrewdly guessed what this message meant

,

and took good care not to get too near,stopping at a con

ven ien t distance to parley with him by means of messengers.The victim finding there was no chance of blowing up hisenemies along with himself and peop le, would plunge thefire -sti ck into the nearest keg, and the next moment the ai rwould be fi l led with the shattered remains of himself andhis not unwi l l ing companions .Having digressed somewhat to exp lain how chiefs areundone, I must continue my account of the New Calabarpeop le and the cause of thei r deserting thei r origina l town .

This was brought about by Wi l l Braid,on whom the

squeezing operation had been some t ime at work. He turnedat bay and defied the king and ch iefs this led to a civi l war

,

in which he was getting the worst of the game,so one dark

night he quietly sl ipped away with most of his retainers andtook refuge in Bonny. This led to compl ications

,for Bonny

espoused the cause of W. Braid and declared war againstNew Calabar ; thus in place of suppress ing Wi l l Braid theycame near to being suppressed themselves, the Bonny menvery pluckily establishing themselves opposite New Calabar


town,where they threw up a sand battery

,i n which they

placed several rifled cannon, and did considerable damage tothe New Calabar town , from whence a feeble return fi re waskep t u p for several days , during which time the Calabarmen occup ied themselves In placing thei r valuables andpeop le in security, and eventual ly, unknown to the Bonnymen

,clearing out al l thei r war canoes and fighting men

through creeks at the back of thei r town to the almostinaccessible positions of Bugama and Abonema . TheBonny men continued the bombardment

,but finding there

was no reply from the town , despatched , during the night,some scouts to find out what was the position of things inthe New Calabar town ; on thei r return they reported thetown deserted . The Bonny men lost no time in fol lowing theNew Calabar men to their new position , but found Bugamainaccessible

,so turned thei r attention to Abonema

,which

they very plucki ly assaulted, but were repulsed with cons iderab le loss , los ing one of their best war canoes , in whichwas a fine rifled cannon at the same time the Bonnychief

,Waribo , who had most energetical ly led the assault ,

bare ly escaped with his l i fe, as he was in the war canoe thathad been sunk by the New Calabar men . This victory wasvery p luck’i ly gained by Chief Bob Manuel and his people ,who were greatly assisted in the defence of their positionby having been supp l ied at an opportune moment with amitrai l leuse by one of the European traders in the New

Calabar river. This defeat somewhat cooled the courage ofthe Bonny men ; the war however continued to be carried onin a desultory manner for several months

,unti l both sides

were tired of the game,and at last a l l the questions i n

d ispute between the king and chiefs of New Calabar andWi l l Braid

,and the matters in dispute between the New


dress,nor have they retained the e laborate form of secret

society or native freemasonry pecu l iar to the Efik 1 racecal led Egbo .

Their rel igion is the same animistic form of ju—ju ism andbel ief in the orac le they cal l Long Ju -ju situated in thevicin ity of Bende in the hinterland of Opobo, common toa l l the inhabitants of the De l ta b esides the latter, they areb el ievers in the power of a ju -ju in some mystic grove inthe Oru country . The pecul iar test at this latter p lace issaid to have been estab l ished by some ancient dame havin guttered some fearful curse or wish at the spot where theordeal is administered . The descriptions of this are rathervague

,as no one who has undergone it has ever b een known

to retu rn,that is

,i f he has rea l ly seen the orac le work , for

i f i t works it is a Sign of his gu i lt and drowns him if he i sinnocent i t does not work

,so on his return he is not in

a position to describ e it. But the proprietors of thisinteresting Ju -ju have for very many years found that anigger fetches a better p rice a l ive than when turned intobutcher ’s meat ; they have therefore been in the habit ofse l l ing the guilty victim into slavery in as far distant acountry as possible ; but occasiona l ly one of these men havedrifted down to the coast again

,but dare not return to his

own country as no one would bel ieve he was anything elsebut a sp i rit . On e of these “ sp i rits ” I had the p leasure tointerview on one occasion

,and he told me that the on ly

ones who were actua l ly drowned were the old or unsaleab lemen when two men went to this ju -Ju or ordeal we l l , todecide some V ita l question between them

,the party taking

1 Efik race— t h e in h ab itan t s of Old Calab ar,said t o have come

from th e Ib ib io cou n try, a dis t rict lyin g b etw een Kw o cou n t ry an d th eCros s River.

NEW CALABAR 499

b est would want to see his dead or drowned opponent ; forthis purpose the ju—Ju p riests a lways kept a few of the o ldand decrep i t votaries on hand to b e drowned as required ,b u t the opponent was never al lowed to stand by andsee the oracle work

,b u t was taken u p to the we l l and

allowed to see a dead b ody lying at the b ottom , and afterhe had glanced in and satisfied himse lf there was a drownedperson there , he wou ld b e hurried away by the ju -ju priestsand thei r assistants . That these priests had the supernatural power to make the water ri se u p in the we l l , thisSp i ri t thorough ly bel ieved , and when I offered thesuggestion of an underground water supp ly b rought fromsome higher e levation

,he scouted the idea and gave me

his private opinion thus : “White man he no b e fit savey a l ldem deb ly ting ju -Ju p riest fit to do he fi t to change manhim face so him own mudder no fit savey him he fit makedem tree he l ive for water side

,bob him head down and

drink water al l same man he fi t make himself alsame birdand fly away ; you fit to look him l ib for one p lace andyou keep you eye for him ,

he gone,you no fit see him when

he go .

”

Which l i tt le speech turned into ordinary Engl ish meantto say that white peop le could not understand the devi l ishtricks the ju -ju p riests were able to do , they could sodisguise a person that his own mother would not recognisehim , this without the assistance of any make—u p b u t

Simply from their devi l ish science ; that they cou ld causea tree on the banks of a river to bend its stem and imb ibewater through its ’ topmost branches that they cou ldchange themselves into birds and fly away and lastly

,that

they could make themselves invis ible before your eyes andso sudden ly that you could not tel l when they had done so .

K K 2


I asked him Why the Ju -Ju man had not altered h im ,so

that when he sold him it would be imposs ible for any onewho had known him in his own country ever to recognisehim if they saw him i n another. His reply was : “

Ju -Ju

man savey them man what bel i eve in ju -Ju no wi l lbel ieve me dem time I go tel l dem I be dem Osaka ofYoung Town come back from Long Ju -Ju . He savey al lman go run away from me in my own country.

” “Wel l,

I s aid,

“ how about the people amongst whom you noware ? they bel ieve in very nearly the same Ju -ju s that yourown people do

,what do they say about you ? Oh !

they say I be s i l ly fel low and no savey I done die onetime

,and been born again in some other country.

”I then

asked him how they accounted for his knowing about thepeople who were sti l l al ive in his own country and to beable to talk about matters which had taken place therewithin the previous five or s ix years . Then I got theword the inquirer in this part of the world general lygets when he wishes to dive into the inner circles ofnative occultism

,viz .

,Anemia

,

” which means “ I don ’tknow.

”

The chiefs in New Calabar in the days of the lastking’s father were an extremely fine body of men

,both

physi cal ly and commercial ly the latter qual ity they owedto the strong hand the king kep t over them ,

and theexcel lent law he inaugurated when he became the kingwith regard to trade

,viz .

,that no New Calabar chief or

other native was al lowed to take any goods on cred itfrom the Europeans . His power was absolute

,and con

s iderin g that he inherited h is father’s p lace at a time whenthe country was in the throes of war with Bonny—hisfather being the king captured by the king of Bonny

NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP .

Their ju -Ju house in their original town was a muchlarger and more p retentious ed ifice than that of Bonny ,garnished with human and goats ’ skul ls in a somewhatS imi lar manner

,unl ike the Bonny Ju -Ju hOu s e in the fact

that it was roofed over,the eaves of which ' were brought

down almost to the ground,thus exclud ing the l ight and

p rying eyes at the same time ; at ei ther s ide of the mainentrance , extending some few feet from the eaves , was amiscel laneous col lection of i ron three- legged pots, variousp lates , bowls and dishes of Staffordshire make , al l ofw hich had some flower pattern on them

,hence were ju -ju

and not avai lab le for use or trade— the old-fashionedlustre ju g , being also ju -Ju ,

was only to be seen in theju -ju house, though a great favourite in Bonny and Brassas a trade article— at this time al l printed goods or clothwith a flower or leaf pattern on them were ju -ju . An y

goods of these kinds fal l ing into the hands of a truebe l iever had to be presented to the ju -ju house . As

traders took good care not to import any such goods,

peop le often wondered where al l these things came from .

Had they arrived Shortly after a vessel bound to someother port had had the misfortune to be Wrecked off NewCa labar

,they would have solved the p roblem at once , for

anything picked u p from a wreck which is ju -ju has to becarried off at once to the Ju -Ju house . I remember onone occasion vis iting this ju -Ju house just after a largeShip cal led the Clan Greg or bound into Bonny had beenwrecked off New Calabar

,and found the ju -Ju house

decked both inside and out with yards of colouredcottons from roof to floor ; but the ju -ju p riests d idnot get a l l thei r rights

,for some tricky natives on salving a

bale of goods would careful ly s l i t the bale just sufficiently

NEW CALABAR 503

to see what were the goods inside,and Should they be Ju

Ju would not open them ,but take them to thei r particular

friend amongst the European traders , and get him to sendthem away to some other river for sale on joint accoun t .Every eighth day is cal led Calabar Sunday, the dayfollowing being formerly the market day or principalreceiving day for the white traders of the native produce ,which consisted principal ly

,and sti l l does

,of palm oi l . The

native Sunday was passed in olden days by the chief inreceiving vis its from the white men and jamming 1 withthem for any p roduce he had the intention of sel l ing thefo l lowing day

,or clearing u p any l ittle ju -Ju matters that

he had been putting off for the want of a s lack day, notbecause it was his Sunday, but because that was a day onwhich by custom he cou ld not visit the Ships . I rememberit was on paying a visit to old King Amach ree , the fatherof the late king of the same name , I saw for the firsttime a native sacrifice . I was then l ittle more than a boyas a matter of fact

,I was under seventeen years of age

,

but fi l l ing a man ’s p lace in New Calabar who had beeninva l ided home . The o ld king had taken me under hisspecial p rotection and gave me much good advice andcounse l

,which was of great use to me in my novel position .

My emp loyers ought to have been very thankful to him ,

for though I was the youngest trader in the river by sometwelve years

,I he ld my own with them and got a larger

share of the produce of the river than my predecessor haddone

,a l l owing to the old brick of a king

,who would come

and see how I was doing on the big trade days,and if he

thought I was not doing as wel l as my neighbours he would1

jamm in g, a t rade t erm , mean in g makin g an agreemen t t o b u y or

s el l an yth in g at an agreed price .


send off a message to a smal l creek close to the Shipping ,where the natives used to wait with their oi l unti l it wasj ammed for

,id es t

,agreed for

,and order three or four

canoes of oi l to be sent off to me,though I had not seen its

owner to agree with him as to what he was to get for it . I

held this appointment for a l ittle over s ix months , when ,my senior having returned

,I had to go back to my duties

in Bonny under the chief agent of the fi rm,a Captain

Peter Thompson,one of the k indest-hearted skippers that

ever entered Bonny river . In those days we al l had somenickname that we were known by amongst the nat ives ,and another amongst the white men . Amongst the formerhe was cal led Cal la Thompson

,because he was Short, in

contradistinction to another Thompson who was tal l , cal ledOpo Thompson ; but his name amongst the white menwas Panter Thompson

,owing to his inabi l i ty to pronounce

the “th

” in panther during a discussion as to whetherwe had tigers or on ly panthers on the West Coast ofAfrica . Poor Panter

,after a most successful voyage of a

l ittle over two years,was preparing to return home , and

had only a few more weeks to remain in Bonny , when instepping into his boat his foot s l ipped and he fel l into theriver at a point known to be infested with Sharks . A

brother skipper jumped into the boat, and actual ly clutchedhim by his cap at the same moment poor Panter said “ I

am gone,Ned !

” no doubt feel ing himself being drawnd own by some hungry Shark .

His son now commands one of the finest steamers ofthe African Steamship Company, and seems to have inherit ed in a marked degree al l the good qual ities of hisfather ; so, travel lers to West Africa , i f you want a comfo rtab le ship and a thorough good fel low to travel with


beast by its muzzle with his left hand , and dexterous lytossing its body under his left arm

,forced its head back

towards his left Shoulder unti l the neck of the beast formedan are

,his assistant handing him at this moment a 'very

Sharp white-handled spear-pointed kni fe , which he drewacross the animal ’s throat

,almost severing its head from

its body . Quick as l ightning he drop ped on one kneeand held the bleed ing anima l over a receptacle , havingthe appearance of a large soup p late , fashioned in the clayof the ground immediately in front of the altar arrangement. I n the centre of this plate was a hole down whichthe quickly coagulating blood slowly trick led ; after theinterval of what appeared to me minutes , but was in factmost l ikely less than a minute

,the ju -Ju man laid the

l i feless body of the goat down with its neck over theopening in the p late , leaving i t there to drain . At themoment of the sacrifice various gongs and old Ship bel lswere struck by young men stationed near them for thatpurpose— a wrecked ship ’s bel l being general ly p resentedto the ju -ju house , though not as in the case of Ju -Ju

goods by law p rescribed . New Calabar people had beenfai rly wel l observant of this custom

,and the wrecks

n umerous,j udging from the number of Ships ’ bel ls in the

ju -Ju house. A t every movement of the ju -Ju p riest theking and chief wou ld grunt out a noise very much re

sembl ing that au ld Scotch word ahum .

”

The ju -Ju house had amongst i ts possessions severa li l l -shapen wooden ido l s

,and scattered about the affai r that

rep resented an altar were various smal l idols looking verymuch l ike chi ldren ’s do l ls ; a lso severa l large elephant ’stusks

,and two or three very we l l carved ones

,with the usua l

procession of coated and naked figures winding round them .

NEW CALABAR 507

The present king of New Ca labar 1 is a son of my o ldfriend King Amach ree

,and is ca l led King Amach ree also ,

but has shown l ittle of the ab i l ity of his late father, beingcomp letely led by the nose by his brother George Amach ree ,

who practica l ly rules both king and peop le .The former is a smal l

,quiet

,and rather amiab le man ,

but of a vaci l lating and unrel iable character ; his brotherand prime minister is

,on the contrary

,a tal l and very fine

specimen of the negro race , endowed by nature with avery suave and not unmusica l voice

,a very able speaker,

clear and logical reasoner,but of a very grasp ing nature

an excel lent and successfu l trader and exceed ingly niceman to deal wi th

,as long as he has got things moving the

way that suits him and his po l i cy but when thwarted inhis designs

,trading or poli tica l

,he becomes a difficul t

customer to deal with,and a very unp leasant and objec

t ion ab le type of negro “ big man .

”Nevertheless , had he

had the fortune to have been born in a civi l ised Africa , Ifeel confident his natural abi l ities

,assisted by education ,

would have made him a man of eminence in whatevercountry his lot might have been cast .Most of the New Calabar chiefs bear a very favourablerepute amongst the white traders , and compare veryfavourab ly intel lectual ly with the neighbouring chiefs ofthe N iger Delta .

Another chief of no mean capacity is Bob Manuel , ofAbonema, exceedingly neat , almost a dandy in appearance

,a very shrewd trader

,clear and concise in his speech .

honourab le in al l his dealings,of a very reserved tempera

1 Th is kin g is n ow dead, h e w as th e las t of th e kin gs of N ew Calab ar,t he cou n t ry b e in g n ow ru led over by a n at ive cou n ci l u n der th e

direct ion of th e N iger Coas t Prot ect orate official s .


ment but a charming man to talk with,once started on

any top ic that interests him or his V is i tor.Owing to some pecul iarities in thei r dress , the New Cala

bar chiefs are very different to the chiefs i n other parts ofthe De lta . They never appear outside of their housesunless robed in long shirts (made of real india madras ofbold check patterns , i n which no other colour but red ,blue and white is ever a l lowed to be used) reaching downto their heels under this they wear a singlet and a flowingloin cloth of the same material as their sh irts . Of lateyears , during the rainy season , some of them have addedelastic-side boots and white socks

,but the most curious

part of their get-u p i s thei r head -gear, for s ince about 1 866they have taken to wearing wigs . These are only worn onhigh days and hol idays and at special functions

,but the

effect sometimes is so utterly rid iculous as to be more thanstrangers can look at without laughing. Imagine an immen s e ly stout and somewhat podgy negro with elastic- sideb oots , white stockings , long shirt , several strings of coralh iin g round his neck and hanging in festoons down as faras where his waistcoat would end

,did he wear one

,a

Charles I I . l ight flaxen wig,the latter topped u p by an

ord inary stove-p ipe black s i lk hat !This fashion of wearing wigs

,I am afraid

,was u n co n

s ciou s ly inaugurated by me, having taken with me in 1 86 5

to New Calabar some wigs that I had used in some privatetheatricals in England . A chief named Tom Fou ché sawthem

,and was enchanted with a n igger’s trick wig

,the top

of which could be raised by pull ing a hidden si lk cord , andeventual ly he became the p roud possessor of my stock ,and produced a great sensation the fi rst publ ic festiva l heappeared at . Previous to this I never saw a wig in New

5 10 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP .

last effort I can ’t speak from personal observation , as I

left this river shortly afterw ards myse lf ; in fact, i t wason my last V is i t to Abonema that I conveyed in mysteamer

,the a rra

,the missionary and his wife to their

new home from Brass . They were a young coup le of verywel l ed u cated and most intel l igent Sierra Leone natives .

BONNY AND THE PEPPLE FAM ILY

This river was the most important s lave market in theDelta

,as a matter of fact surpassing in numbers of s laves

exported any other single s lave-deal ing station on the,West or South-West Coast of Africa .

Accord ing to Mr. Clarkson,the historian of the abo

lit ion of the slave- trade,this river and Old Ca labar

exported more slaves than al l the other s lave-deal ingcentres on the West and South-West Coasts of Africacombined .

I t i s a wel l-known fact that for about two hundredyears the average annual output of slaves through theBonny R iver was about (this inc luded the shipments from New Calab ar) , total l ing u p to the immensenumber of sou ls taken out of this part of Africaduring two centuries .The above figures do not represent the total depletionthis part of Africa suffered during this time . To the aboveimmense number of Slaves exported must be added thenumber of l ives lost in the raids made on the Ib o vi l lagesfor the purpose of capturing the peop le to sel l as slaveswe must also add the number that d ied on thei r way downfrom the interior to the coast

,and to these again must be

added the slaves refused by the European trader by reason

BONNY AND THE PEPPLE FAM ILY 5 1 1

of any defect,malformation

,or incip ient signs of disease.

The fate of these poor souls was sad but perhaps many oftheir brethren envied them their quick release from thecares of this world . The native s lave-dealer was toopractical a man to burden himself with mouths to fi l l thathe could not immediately turn into cloth

,rum , gunpowder

or coral,so oftener than otherwise he would simp ly t e l I

his own niggers to drop their canoe astern of the s laveship

,cut the rejected slaves heads off

,and cast their

bodies into the river to feed the sharks , this often takin gp lace within sight of the European slaver.A very moderate al lowance for loss of l ife between theinterior and the slave-ship from the above-mentionedcauses wou ld be at the least 40 per cent . ; thus totall ingthe immense numb er of souls sent out of thi s onedistrict in about two centuries . The greater number of thesewere Ibos

,a slave much sought after in the o lden days

by p lanters in the West Indies and the Southern State s ofAmerica.I have mentioned these latter facts here to point out tomy readers that the s o - cal led benevolent domestic slaveryas practised on the coast of Western Africa and to leratedin Her Britannic Majesty’s West African Colonies

,must

,

as a natural consequence,lead to a deplorab le loss of l i fe

,

though not in so wholesale a manner as the export ofs laves led to in former days .The Bonny peop le claim to be descended from the Ibotribe

,but I should be inclined to think that their proper

description to-day would be a mixture of Ibos , Kw o s,

Bil la,and s u ndry infusions of blood from inter-marriage

with the female slaves brought down by the slave-dea lersfrom places lying beyond and at the back of the l bo peop le .


Whatever thei r origin may have been,a commercial

sp i rit i s , and has been s ince thei r first intercourse withEuropeans

,a very highly developed trai t in their character.

As I have already shown,they were the greatest s lave

traders in Western Africa,and when that

,for them

,

lucrative trade was finally put a stop to by the treatyS igned on the 2 1 5 t ofNovember

,1 848 , between Her Britann ic

Majesty ’s Consul and King Pepple,whereby King Pepple

was to receive an annual present of for s ix years[previous to this , one, i f not two treaties had been signed byKing Pepple

,with Her Britannic Majesty’s representatives ,

with the same object ; but the greed of gain had been toomuch for his dusky Majesty

,combined with the continued

presence on the coast of the Spanish s lave-dealers one ofthe latter being establ ished at Brass as late as 1 844]they then turned the ir whole attention to the legitimatetrade of palm oi l , and soon became the largest exportersof that article on the West Coast of Africa. Their tradein this article had not been inconsiderable since 1 82 5 , atwhich date the L iverpool merchants had seriously turnedtheir attention to legitimate trade.I n 1 837

-

38 , the export of palm o i l was already abouttons

,al l carried in sai l ing vessels principal ly owned

in L iverpool , and mostly by fi rms that had been in thes lave trade.L ike the natives of Brass , many of these people haveembraced the Christian fai th

,the Church M i ss ionary Society

having placed one of thei r stations here in 1 866 , some twoyears earl ier than the Brass M iss ion was commenced .

Their endeavours have certainly met with considerablesuccess in prevai l ing upon a large number of the nativesto give up many of their Ju -ju practices amongst others ,

5 14 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

(some Europeans have said they disgu ise themselves as

l eopards ; I have never seen this d isguise used , and doubti t very much), and prowl about the town and its byew ay s ,se izing for the ir purpose in preference s ome stray strangerthat m ight be stay ing in the town fai l ing a stranger,some noted bad character belonging to the town in whosefate no one would be greatly interested would be seizedupon . To say these practices are completely stamped outwou ld be

,perhaps

,not qu ite the truth ; but that they are

be ing stamped out I ‘feel convinced,and considering what

bel ievers in ju -Ju these people have been , I think I maysay fairly qu ick .

The common sense of the people is ass ist ing very much,and the women are showing themselves capable of someth ing better than what their former state condemned themto. The final dec is ion to slaughter the iguana some yearsago was brought about by them in a great measure on sol idcommon sense grounds

,for had not the iguana been their

mortal enemy for years by eating thei r fowls and chickensbefore their eyes , thus destroy ing about the only means awoman of the lower class , or one who had ceased to pleaseher lord and master

,had of mak ing a l ittle p in money.

The Ju -Ju house of Bonny, once the great Show placeof the town

,has now completely d isappeared and its

h ideous contents are scattered strange to say, I saw,

only a few weeks ago,in the house of a lady in London ,

one of the sacrificial pots of nat ive earthenware that haddone duty for many generations in the Bonny Ju -ju House.A description of th is Ju -ju house may be interesting tosome of my readers . I t was an oblong bu i ld ing of aboutforty feet long by th irty broad , surrounded by mud wal l sabout e ight or ten feet h igh one portion over where the altar


stood had had sticks arranged,as if the intention had been

at some time to roof i t over ; at the end behind the altarthe wal l had been bui lt in a semicircle ; the altar lookedvery much l ike an ord inary kitchen plate rack w ith theedges of the plate shelves picked out with goat skul ls.There were three rows of these

,and on the three plate

shelves a row of grinning human skul ls under the bottomshelf

,and between i t and the top of what would be in a

k itchen the dresser,were eight uprights garnished with

rows of goats ’ skul ls,the two middle up rights being sup

plied with a double row ; below the top of the dresser,Wh ich was garn ished with a board painted blue and white

,

was arranged a kind of drapery of fi laments of palmfronds

,drawn asunder from the centre

,exposing a round

hole with a raised rim of clay surrounding it,ostens ibly to

rece ive the blood of the V i ctims and l ibations of palm wine.To one side, and near the altar, was a k ind of roughlymade table fixed on four straight legs ; upon this wasd isplayed a number of human bones and several sku l ls ;l ean ing against this table was a frame looking very l ike achicken walk on to the table ; this also was garn ishedwith horizontal rows of human skul ls—here and there wereto be seen human skul ls lying about ; outside the Ju -Juhouse

,upon a kind of trel l is work

,were a number of

shrivel led port ions of human flesh.

Wh i lst writing about the wholesale slaughter of iguanasI forgot to mention that this w as not the fi rst time ananimal that was Ju -ju and held in high veneration hadhad a general battue arranged for it. The monkey usedto hold a place in Bonny equal with the iguana

,but for

some reason or another i t fel l from its h igh estate,and

was as ruthlessly slaughtered by i ts quondam worshippers .L L 2


Other ju -ju s were the shark and the Spirit of theWater,or supposed guard ian angel of the Bar. The bul l was atone time worshipped , but not of late years ; but sti l l freshbeef was ju -Ju ,

and twenty years ago no Bonny gentlemanwould touch it.L ike fresh beef

,m i lk of cows or goats was never used

by natives,neither were eggs eaten by Bonny men or any

of the neighbouring coast tri bes .Native houses in Bonny are very l i ttle di fferent to thegeneral run of native houses along this coast

,as far as the

external appearance goes ; but ins ide they are perfectHamp ton Court mazes to the un init iated . A noticeablepecul iarity is that the entrance door and al l the other doorways in a native house have a fixed barrier about eighteeninches high between each room from whence start thedoorways proper. This forms a very favourite seat of themaster of the house or his wife

,but one must never step

over them whi le any one is s itting on them ; a manstepping over one whi le a man is S itt ing there meanspoison for eye

,

”as the natives exp ress i t, which means tosay your action wi l l cause them sickness . A man doingthe same when a female is s itting in this pos ition has amuch more S ign ificant meaning, and for a s lave woulden tai l a good flogging.

No community of natives demonstrates the pecul iarworkings of domest ic s lavery so wel l as these people

,for

in no other place on the coast can any one find so manyinstances of the rap id rise of a bought slave from thelowest rung of the slave ladder to the topmost.The bought slave was quite a different class to the sonof a slave born in Bonny of s lave parents for outs ide thed irect descendants of the Pepple family

,the freemen of

5 1 8 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

he asserted,he spoke when seeking funds to establ ish a

m iss ion in h is country. He only asked for a modestI never heard what he got

,but one th ing I do know

,what

ever he d id get,he never expended a shi l l ing of it for the

purpose it was given himBe lovedb reth eren ,

You n g an d old,

I come t o day t o ask for go ldTo h e lp th e m is s ion ary Coon sWh o b rave Bon n y’s hot s imoon s .

Tooralooral Rich an d poor,A pew t er p late is at t he door

N ow w hy mu s t each of you decide

You r h eart an d pu rse t o open w ide ?I t is b ecau s e t h e imb u ed Sin

That e ’en n ow lu rk s each heart w ith in

Tooralooral w ith al l it s m igh tI s promp t in g you to close th em t ight.

An d then it mu s t n ot b e forgo t

That He l l is w ide an d aw fu l hot,

An d gibb erin g fien ds arou n d u s grinWith joy t o see u s t umb le in .

Tooralooral !don’t forge t

The Devi l h e may have you ye t .

B u t w ou ld you from des t ru ct ion t u rn ,Nor

’mid s u lph u rou s vapou rs b u rn ,B u t each b ecome a b les s ed Spirit ,An d kin gdom come w ith joy in herit .

Tooralooral t ip u s a b ob ,

To h e lp u s on ou r h oly job .

Rememb er, frien ds , w e are b u t du s t ,

An d die in cou rs e of t ime w e mu s t .

To show th e s eeds have taken root

By yie ldin g u p the proper fru it ,Tooralooral are you w il lin gTo s u b scrib e an other sh il lin g ?


If you w il l he lp to save th e n iggerYou r crow n of glory shal l b e b igger,More w h it e you r rob es , you r s an dals smart er,When w e shal l mee t ab ove h erear’ter

Tooralooral Psalms an d Hym n s,

Ch eru b s sw eet an d Seraph ims .

Fie lds of glory, floods of ligh t ,Sw ee t efi

’

u l gen ce , An ge ls b righ tSou n ds symphon eou s , jew e ls rare ,Sheet s of go ld an d perfumed air.

Tooralooral fe l low men ,Halle lu jah an dAmen .

By what spec ious reasoning he succeeded in prevai l ingupon the authorities at the Fore ign Office to coun tenanceh is return to Bonny, or what he described as h is domin ions ,I know not . The fact, however, is on record that he d idget this permiss ion , and that he found some good friends inLondon to assist him with sufficient cash to pay £900down on account of the charter of the Bew ley ,

a smal lvessel of only about 1 80 tons register

,wh ich was to carry

h im and h is consort, the Queen E leanor, better known inBonny as Allapu ta, and their royal su ite, wh ich cons istedof nine English men and two Engl ish women ; amongstthe former he had nominated the fol lowing officials

,viz . ,

premier,secretary , an ass istant secretary, three clerks , and

one doctor,a farmer

,and a valet for himself. Mrs . Wood

,

the gardener’s wife,was to be schoolmistress

,and the other

Engl ish woman was to act as a ma id of honour to theQueen E leanor. All these people had agreements forsalaries varying from £60 to £600 per annum ,

some ofthem with an al lowance of £ 1 5 for uniform severa l of theagreements contained a clause that stipulated that the kingwas to supply them with su itable apartments in the royal


palace . On arriving in the Bonny river,these poor people

had a rude awakening,for they found that the k ing was

not wanted by his people,had no royal palace , and no

revenues . However,they did not immediately quit the

service of the dusky monarch,but held on in the hope of

getting sufficient arrears of pay out of him to pay thei rpassages home they had some reason for the ir action , forthe old king sti l l had a strong party fr iendly to him in thetown . The king funked land ing amongst his late subjects ,and he remained on board the B ew t'ey ,

unt i l the 1 st h ofOctober, land ing at last with many m isg ivings . Strangeto relate

,the same day the wal ls of the Bonny ju -Ju house

crumbled to bits,caused

,no doubt

,by the heavy rains, but

the k ing looked upon i t as an omen boding no good to him .

When the k ing landed,the captain of the B ew ley

gave the European su ite notice that he could not supplythem with food any longer

,as the king was not able to pay

h im what he owed the ship .

These poor people.

now found themselves in a sad pl ight,

but the L iverpool supercargoes in the river gave themquarters in their different sa i l ing vessels and hulks . Thosewho wished to try the ir luck in some other place on thecoast had their passages paid by the supercargoes of theriver ; M iss Mary, the queen ’s maid of honour, was aboutthe fi rst to be sent home

,the gardener and his w ife left in

November,and by the end of December the last of the

k ing’ s white suite left the river. None were ever paidthe ir arrears of wages

,the king being with difficulty made

to find £ 10 towards the passage money of the doctor.Strange to relate, though these eleven white peop le couldnot be said to have passed thei r time in Bonny river underthe best conditions for health

,be ing cooped up on board a


above ch iefs were bought s laves or the sons of boughtslaves , and in that case would be Bonny free . Ja Ja wasbought by Adda A l l ison

,and by him presented to E lo lly

Pepp le, the name Ja Ja s ignifying a present in some nativelanguage in the hinterland of Bonny. Oko Jumbo wasa slave bought by Manil la Pepple . Cap tain Hart was as lave bought from the Okrika people , and had been headS lave of the late King Dapho . The others I am not sureabout, but Squeeze Banago and Warrabo may have beenBonny free

,though I have my doubts

,but in no case from

1 8 5 5 u p to th is date, 1 869 , had a son inher ited from h isfather. I don ’t wish to be understood never d id ; becausecases have occurred

,and d id occur during this t ime

,where

the son fol lowed the father,but in these s ix p rincipal

Houses the chief was not the son o f the former head of theHouse. A House

,i n . native parlance

,meant a number of

petty ch iefs congregated together for mutual protect ion ,owning al legiance general ly to the richest and mos tintel l igent one amongst them

,whom they cal led their

father, and the Europeans cal led a ch ief. A House cou ldbe formed as Oko Jumbo formed h is . He

,as I have said

above,was a bought slave

,yet

,by his superior intel l igence

and industry, he amassed , i n early l ife , great wealth, wasable to buy numerous slaves

,some of whom showed

simi lar aptitude to himself,to whom he showed the same

encouragement that h is master had shown him,and

al lowed them to trade on thei r own account. These menin their turn ' bought slaves

,and al lowed them simi lar

privi leges . This kind of evolution went on with u n

i nterrup ted success unti l Oko Jumbo, after twentyyears ’ trading

,found himsel f at the head of five or six

hundred slaves ; for, accord ing to country law,all the

BONNY AND THE PEPPLE FAM ILY 5 23

s laves bought by his favoured slaves (now become pettychiefs or head boys) belonged to him as he belonged toMani lla Pepple ; but owing to his accumulated riches andnumerous fol lowers he was beginning to take rank as achief and head of a House. On e must not think that theas s istance g iven by an owner of s laves to here and thereone

,as described above

,is al l pure phi lanthropy ; i t i s

nothing of the kind,for for every hundred pounds worth of

trade the s lave does on his own account nowadays means£2 5 into the coffers of his master. In the early s ixt iesthis profit was not so great, but it represented in those days aten to fi fteen per cent. commission to the head of the House .

There were five kinds of commiss ion paid by theEuropean traders to the heads of Houses . There were ExBar

,Custom Bar

,Work Bar

,Gentlemen ’s Dash and Boys ’

Dash,and as a slave who had been al lowed to trade by his

master rose in the social scale he marked the differentstages he passed through by being al lowed gradual ly toclaim these various comm iss ions on h is own oi l from theEuropeans thus at first he would get only the boys ’ dash

,

I pes of smal l Manchester cloth,value about and a

fisherman’

s red cap, worth about 3d. The latter wassupposed to go to h is pul l-away boys to buy palm wine .The second stage in his progress would be marked by h isbeing al lowed to take the gentlemen ’s dash

,consisting of

two pes of cloth , value 2 5 . 6d. each . The th ird he wouldbe allowed to receive a portion of the work bar on his oi l

,

sometimes only a third , gradually increasing unti l hewould be allowed to cla im the whole work bar. On

arriving at this latter stage he would be expected toprovide a war canoe and men and arms for the same , readyat any moment to turn out and fight for the general good


of the country or to take part in any quarrel between h ismaster and any other chief in Bonny

,or to attend his

master with i t when he wished to vis i t any smal l countryand make a l i ttle naval demonstration i f these peop le hadbeen a l ittle slack in paying their debts . I n course oftime , this man , having supplied a war canoe , would aspire tobe ing recognised as a chief

,and thus be ent itled to wear an

eagle’s feather in his hat . To arrive at th is stage he wouldhave to make some payments to the principal Ju -Ju menof the town

,and i f he never had been at war

,and thus

m issed the opportunity of cutting an enemy’s head off,he

must purchase a slave for th is purpose and cut the poorcreature’s head off in cold blood in the Ju -Ju house . Thisfunction was rigorously insisted upon by the Ju -Ju men ,and under no circumstances would they allow a man tobecome a chief who had not cut a man ’s head off

,either in

war or in cold blood . After this ceremony,the new-made

chief would be duly introduced,at a publ ic meeting, to al l

the other chiefs,and the next day several brother chiefs

would accompany him round to the various trad ing Shipsi n the port

,to intimate to the Europeans that he was a ful l

ch ief,and e ntitled to receive al l the work bar

, ex bar,

gentlemen ’s dash and boys ’ dash that a chief was entitledto. I have previously mentioned custom bar thisoriginal ly was paid only to the k ing

,and consisted of one

i ron bar upon every puncheon of oi l bought by the

European trader in early days the king used to p u t a boyon board each ship to col lect this tol l

,but in course of time

found that he was more sure to be honestly dealt with i f heleft the white man to pay h im occasional ly what was dueto him

,than to receive it dai ly through his bar-boy. On

the deposition of King Pepple,the custom bar was


v ictim than necessary,for Jungo tried to do the terribl e

deed by striking with his face turned the other way,th e

victim absolutely cursing him for his bungl ing. This latterepisode may

,perhaps , be put down as a travel ler’s yarn ,

but i t is not at al l to be wondered at, when it is known thatthese poor wretches are made drunk previous to beingdecapitated .

Having described how a slave might become a chief,I

w i l l now describe how one became the head of a House o rchief

,and afterw ards made himsel f a king

,and one of the

most powerful in this part of Africa .

When B lol ly Pepple died (some say he was poisoned) ,shortly after the return of King Pepple in 1 86 1

,the Annie

Pepple House was for some time left without a head . The

various chiefs held repeated meetings,and the general ly

coveted honour did not seem to temp t any of them ; byright of sen iority a chief named Uran ta (about the freestman in the Ho u se

,, s ome asserted he was absolutely free) ,

was offered the place, but he , for private reasons of h isown

,refused . After Uran ta there were Ann ie Stuart,

Black Foob ra and Warrasoo , al l men of some cons iderabler iches and cons iderat ion

,but they also shirked the re spon

s ib ility ,for Elo lly had been a very big trader, and owed

the white men,i t was said

,at the time of his death

,a

thousand or fi fteen hundred puncheons of oi l,equivalent t o

between ten and fifteen thousand pounds sterl ing,and none

of the foremost men of the house dare tack le the settlementof such a large debi t account

,fearing that the late chief

had not left sufficient behind him to settle u p with, withoutsupplementing it with thei r own savings

,which might end

in bankruptcy for them,and thei r final downfal l from the

headship. At this time there was in the House a young

BONNY AND THE PEPPLE FAM ILY 527

man who had not very long been made a ch ief,though he

had,for a considerable number of years

,been a very good

trader,and was much respected by the white traders for

his honesty and the dependence they could place in him tostrictly adhere to any promise he made in trade matters .This young chief was Ja Ja, and though he was one of theyoungest chiefs in the house, he was unan imous ly electedto fi l l the office.

.He , however, did not immediately accept ,

though h is being unanimously elected amounted almost tohis being forced to accept.He first V is ited s eriat ine each wh ite trader, counted book

(as they cal l going through the accounts of a House), andfound th at though there was a very large debi t against thelate ch ief

,there was also a large credit, as a set off, in the

way of sub ch ief s work bars and the late Elo l ly ’s own workbars . At the Same time , he arranged with each supercargothe order in which he would pay them off

,commencing

with those who were nearing the end of their voyage,and

getting a promise from each that i f he settled according topromise they would get the ir successor to give him anequal amount of credit that they themselves had given thelate B lol ly. A few days after

,at a publ ic meeting of the

chiefs of the Annie Pepple House,he intimated his

readiness to accept the headship of the House, distinctlyinforming them that

,as they had elected him themselves

,

they must assist him in upholding his authority over themas a body

,which would be no easy task for him when there

were so many older and richer ch iefs in the House whowere more entitled than he was to the post. The olderch iefs

,only too del ighted to have found in Ja Ja some one

to take the respons ibi l ity of the late chief’s debts and thetroubles of chieftainsh ip off the ir shoulders

,were prepared ,

NAT IVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP .

and d id solemnly swear,to assist him with the ir moral

support,taking care not to pledge themselves toass ist h im

in any of the financ ial affairs of the House .Ja Ja had not been many months head of the Annie

Pepple House before he began to show the old ch iefs whatkind of metal he was made of for during the first twelvemonths he had selected from amongst the late E lo l ly ’

s

s laves no less than e ighteen or twenty young men,who

had already amassed a l ittle wealth,and whom he thought

capable of being trusted to trade on their own account,bought canoes for them

,took them to the European

traders , got them to advance each of these young menfrom five to ten puncheons worth of goods

,he himsel f

stand ing guarantee for them . Th is operat ion had theeffect of making Ja Ja immediately popular amongst al lclasses of the slaves of the late ch ief. At the same t ime ,the slaves of the old chief o f the House began to see thatthere was a man at the head of the House who would set agood example to thei r immed iate masters . Some of theseyoung men are now wealthy chiefs in Opobo , and asevidence that they had been wel l chosen

, Ja Ja was nevercal led upon to fulfi l h is guarantee.Two years after Ja Ja was placed at the head of the

House the late Elo l ly ’

s debts were al l cleared off, no wh itetrader having been detained beyond the date Ja Ja hadpromised the late ch ief’s debts should be paid by. I n

cons ideration for the prompt manner in which Ja Ja hadpaid up

,he received from each supercargo whom the late

chief had dealt w ith a present varying from five to ten percent. on the amount pa id .

From th is date Ja Ja never looked back , becom ing themost popular chief in Bonny amongst the white men , and


paid thei r debts to the Europeans . The latter part of themessage was too much for an irasc ible

,one-eyed old

fighting chief named Jack Wi lson Pepple,so off he

marched to h is own house,and fired the fi rst round Shot

into the Ann ie Pepp le part of the town , and c ivi l war wascommenced . I t was a b it overdue

,the last hav ing taken

place in 1 8 5 5 . As a rule,they come round about every

ten years,l ike the epidemics of mal ignant b i l ious fever of

the coast .The Annie Pepple House was not s low to reply

,but

Ja Ja knew he was over-matched , both in guns andnumbers of fight ing men

,so he only kept up a semblance

of a fight suffic iently long to al low h im to make a retreatto a smal l town cal led Tombo

,in the next creek to the

Bonny creek,only about three miles from Bonny by water

,

l ess by land .

From here he was in a better pos it ion to parley withh is opponents

,and make terms i f poss ible

,but he soon

saw that no arrangement less than the complete hum i l iat ion of h imself and people was go ing to sat isfy h is enemies

,

for bes ides the jealousy of Oko Jumbo,the young K ing

George Pepple,son of the gentleman who had been to

England and brought out the European su ite , had notforgotten that the Ann ie Pepple house

,represented by the

late B lol ly,had been the chief opponents of h is late

father when he returned to Bonny in 1 86 1 after hisexi le.This young man had been educated in England

,and I

must say d id credit to whoever had had charge of hiseducation . He both spoke and wrote Engl ish correctly,and had h is father been able to hand over to h im thek ingship as he had rece ived it in 1 837 , he might have


bl ossomed into a model king in West Africa ; but , alas !the only th ing he inherited from his father beyond thek ingship was debt—king only in name

,receiving only so

much of h is dues as the p rincipal chiefs l iked to al low him ,

not having the means of being a large trader,looked upon

with scant favour by the Europeans,and owing to his

English education lacking the rude abi l ity of such men asOko Jumbo and Ja Ja to make a position for himself, hebecame but a puppet in the hands of his principal chiefsa fate

,I am afraid , which has general ly befal len the native

of these parts who has attempted to retain any of theteachings of Christian ity on his return amongst his paganbrethren .

Few people can understand the reason of this . I t iss imply another proof of the wonderfu l power of Ju -Ju

amongst these people,for it is to that occul t influence that

I trace the general i l l -success of the educated native of theDelta in his ow n country, —unless he returns to al l thepagan gods of his forefathers

,and unti l he does so

many channels of prosperity are completely closed to him .

I am afraid I have wandered a l i ttle from my subject,

but in do ing so I hope I have made some th ings clear thatotherwise might have appeared a l i ttle mixed from anEuropean point of View,

so wi l l now return to Ja Ja.

From Tombo Town Ja Ja commun icated with theBonny Court of Equity

,and a truce was arranged

,native

meetings fol lowed,and after several weeks of palavering,

no better terms were offered Ja Ja than had before beenoffered to him . The white men interested themselves inthe matter, and held meet ings innumerable, unti l at lastthey were as d ivided as the natives . With the except ionof one or two at the outs ide

,they understood so l ittle of

M M 2


the occul t work ings of native squabbles that they could dol ittle to smooth matters over. I n the meantime

, Ja Ja

had been studying a masterly plan of retreat from TomboTown t o a river cal led the Ekomt oro

,also cal led the Rio

Condé in ancient maps .Once in this river, by forti fying two or three po ints hewould be able to completely turn the tables on h is enemiesby barring the ir way to the Eboe markets

,but to get

there he would have to pass one,i f not two

,fortified points

held by the Man i lla Pepple people . Besides this , whatwould his posit ion be when there

,i f he could not get any

white men there to trade with ? Lucki ly for him,there

dropped from the clouds the very man he wanted . Thiswas a trader named Charley

,who had been in the Bonny

R iver some years before , and was now establ ished atBrass on his own account . At an interview with Ja Ja,that d id not last half an hour, the whole plan of campaignwas arranged . Charley returned to Brass and confidedthe scheme to his friend

,Archie McEachan

,who decided

to join him . Thus Ja Ja had the certainty of support inh is new home if he could only get there

,and get there he

d id .

Be ing shortly after j o ined by these two whitetraders trade was opened in the Ekomtoro

,and on

Chr istmas Day ,1 870,

Ekomt oro was named the OpoboR iver, after OpobO, the founder of the town of “ GrandBonny

,

” as Bonny men del ight to cal l the ir mud andthatch capital .The name ofOpobo was chosen by Ja Ja himself. Tostudents of the pecul iar relationship existing between abought slave and his master

,the latter looked up to and

called father by his slave,this choice of the name of a man


slave’s cond ition after capture in the interior and h is risksof arriving al ive at his dest inat ion . I have now to dealwith him as a chattel of one of the petty chiefs

,chiefs or

kings of Western Africa,admitting that his chances of

improving his condition are man ifold,h is l ife unti l he

gets h is foot on the first rung of the ladder of advancement i s t errible ; he n ever knows from one moment toanother when he may be re -sold

,he is badly fed

,in fact

,

some masters never feed thei r s laves at al l when they arenot actual ly employed pull ing a canoe or do ing otherlabour such as making farm

,cutting st icks for house

build ing, &c. Fai l ing these employments

,the s lave has

al l his time to himself. His chances of putting th is t imeto any profi t are very few in the Oil R ivers ; and shouldhe by chance get some emp loyment from a white man ,his owner takes good care to receive his pay

,the only

thing the slave getting out of it being three ful l meals aday for a few days

,making the starvation fare he is

accustomed to the harder to bear afterwards . Were i t notfor thei r adopted mother

,id es t

,the woman they are g iven

to on being bought, their state would be absolutely u nbearable in times of forced idleness ; but these womenalmost invariably have considerable affect ion for theirnumerous adopted children

,and though the ir means may

be very l im ited,they general ly manage to supply them

with at least one meal a day in return for the many l i ttleservices they perform for them ,

such as fetching water,carrying fi rewood in from the bush

,sel l ing their few fowls

and eggs to the white men,and doing any other l ittle

matter of trade for them .

Even those s laves who have been lucky enough to fal linto the hands of a master who sees that they at least do

BONNY AND THE PEPPLE FAM ILY 5 35

not starve , have along w ith their less lucky brethrento put up with the ungovernable fits of temper which someof these black sl ave owners disp lay at times, in manycases infl icting the most terrible pun ishment for trivialoffences

,as often as not only on suspicion that the slave

was gui lty. Amongst the numerous pun ishments I haveknown infl icted are the fol lowing .

Ear cutting in its various stages , from clipp ing to totald ismemberment ; crucifixion round a large cask ; extraction of teeth suspension by the thumbs Chi l l i pepperspounded and stuffed up the nostri ls , and forced into the eyesand ears ; fastening the victim to a post d riven into thebeach at low water and leaving him there to be drownedwith the ris ing tide

,or to be eaten by the sharks or croco

d i les piecemeal ; heavily ironed and chained to a post intheir master’s compound

,without any covering over their

heads, kept in this state for weeks, w ith so l ittle foodallowed them that cases have been known where the ironshave dropped off them

,but they , poor wretches , were too

weak to escape,as they had been reduced to l iving

skeletons ; impal ing on stakes ; forcing a long steel ramrod through the body unti l it appeared through the top ofthe skul l . The above are a few of the pun ishments thateven to th is day are practised , not only in the Niger Delta ,but in the outlying d istricts of the West African colonies .I t i s very rare that the Government ofl‘icials get to knowanything about them ; and when they do, it is diflicu lt toprocure a conviction owing to the fear natives have tocome forward and act as w itnesses .Besides the punishments enumerated above , there aremany others

,some of wh ich are too horrible to be described

here.


On e often hears people who know a l ittle about WestAfrica talk about native law

,b u t they forget to mention ,

i f they happen to know it,that in a powerful chief s house

there is only one exponent of the law,and that is the

chief for him native law only begins to have effect whenit is a matter between h imself and some other chief, or acomb inat ion of ch iefs

,whose power is equal or superior to

his own .

As an instance of the form which nat ive justice sometimes takes

,I wi l l relate what took place some years ago

in one of the oi l rivers . An old and very powerful chiefhad a young wife of whom he was immoderately jealous .Amongst h is favourite attendants was a young male s lave,a mere boy

,to whom he had given many tokens of his

favour ; but the demon of jealousy whispered to h im thathis young slave boy was looked upon with too much favourby his young wife— hersel f l ittle more than a chi ld . Thata slave of his should dare to cas t his eyes on his wife wasmore than this terrible old ch ief could stand

,so he decided

to put an end at once to the love dreams of his slave,and

at the same time point out to any other enterpris ing slaveof his how dangerous it was to asp ire to the forbiddenfavours of a chief’s wife. So he ordered his young w ifeto cook him a special ly good palm oi l chop , a nat ive dishof great repute

,for his breakfast the fol lowing morning.

The next morn ing when he sat down to his breakfast h isfavourite slave was behind his chair in attendance ; h isyoung wife was present to see her lord and master wasproperly served— the wives do not sit at table w ith theirhusbands—when suddenly the ch ief turned in his chairand ordered his young slave to sit at table with h im .

Natural ly the S lave hesitated to accept such an unheard


ch iefs in the N iger Delta are cruel monsters , but they al lhave power of l ife and death over the ir slaves the m i ldestof them occasionally may find themselves so placed that theyare compelled in conform ity with some Ju -Ju right tosacrifice a slave or two . The ord inary pun ishments fortheft and insubord inat ion pract ised amongst these peopleare often terribly cruel and unnecessari ly severe.Of course the Government of the N iger Coast Pro tec

torat e i s steadi ly break ing down these savage customs,

wherever and whenever they hear of them being p ractisedw ith in the ir jurisd iction but the formation of the country

,

the dense forests,and the superst ition of the people

,al l

ass ist in keep ing most cases from com ing to their knowledge.Before taking leave of the Bonny people

,I must not

omit to mention that the custom of destroying twinchi ldren and ch i ldren who had the misfortune to be bornwith teeth was

,and is

,a custom sti l l observed amongst

them . Another custom prevalent amongst these people,

and common more or less to al l other nat ives in the Delta,

was the destroying of any woman if she became themother of more than four ch i ldren .

ANDONI R IVER AND ITS INHAB ITANTS.

This river l ies a few miles to the east of Bonny R iver.The inhabitants of the lower part of the river are cal ledAndon i men , and during the slave-deal ing days thesepeople were as wel l known to Europeans as the Bonny men ,but

,owing in a great measure to the much deeper water at

the entrance to Bonny R iver than was to be found on theAndon i bar, the former river offering thus more faci l ities

ANDON I R IVER AND ITS INHAB ITANTS 5 39

for deep-draughted ships,the traders gradual ly deserted

the Andoni altogether,though these people were

,I bel ieve ,

the original owners of the land now claimed by the Bonnypeople as forming the Bonny kingdom . The Andoni men ,being deserted by the European traders

,gradual ly became

a race of fishermen and smal l farmers . The Bonny men,

having become the dominant race,and not al lowing the

Andonis an y intercourse with the white traders in theirriver, the Andoni men protested against this treatment ,and waged war against the Bonny men on many occas ionsi n the early part of this century. The last war betweenthese two peoples continued for some years ; the Bonnymen not always getting the best of these encounters

,were

very glad to come to terms with them in 1 846 , a treatybeing then signed between the two tribes

,Where in the

Andoni men were secured equal rights with the Bonnymen

,but the commercial enterprise of these people seems

to have died out. Ye t the King of Doni Town,as the ir

principal town is cal led in old maps,was reported by

t raders , who visited him in 1 699 , as be ing a man of someintel l igence

,speaking the Portuguese language fluently

,

and having some knowledge of the Roman Cathol ic faith,

y e t sti l l adhering to al l the customs of Ju -Ju ism ,further

more describing the peop le as being such impl icit bel ieversin their Ju -Ju that they would ki l l any one who touchedan y of the idols in their Ju -Ju house.Th is may have been true at the t ime

,but about five and

t wenty years ago I vis ited the town of Don i , as also theirJu -Ju house, and handled some of their idols , and theyshow ed no irri tation at my so doing. I had

,of course

,

asked perm iss ion to do so of the Ju -Ju man who wasshowing me round . I have no doubt they would resent


any one interfering with them without the ir permission .

When I vis ited these people they gave me the idea thatthey had never seen a white man

,or had any communi

cation with him,for I vainly searched for any evidence that

the wh ite 'man had ever been establ ished in their river.From al l I was able to gather of their manners and customsI found that they differed l i ttle from any of the ir neighbours

,though they are always described by interested

parties as being inveterate cann ibals and dangerous peoplefor strangers to vis it.

OPOBO RIVER .

After leaving Andoni , and continu ing down the coastsome ten or fi fteen mi les

,the Opobo discharges itsel f into

the sea. This river, marked in ancient maps as the RioCondé and Ekomt oro , i s the most direct way to the Ib opalm -oi l-producin g country.

This river was wel l known to the Portuguese andSpanish slave traders, but as Bonny became the greatcentre for the slave trade

,this r iver was completely

deserted and forgotten to such an extent that,though an

opening in the coast l ine was Shown on the Engl ish chartswhere this river was supposed to be, it was never thoughtworth the trouble of naming

,and remained quite unknown

to the Engl ish traders unti l i t came suddenly into repute,

owing to Ja Ja establ ishing h imself here in 1 870.

The people here are the Bonny men and their descendants who followed Ja Ja’s fortunes , therefore their mannersand customs are identical with those of Bonny.

The physical appearance of these people i s somewhatbetter than that of the Bonny men

,owing

,I think

,to the

OPOBO RIVER 541

position of their town,which is bui l t on a

' better soi l , andraised a few feet higher than that of Bonny from the levelof the river

,also thei r un interrupted successful trade s ince

their arrival in this country has doubtless not a l ittlecontributed to their improved condition , while, on the otherhand

,the Bonny men suffered severely during the years

from 1 869 to 1 87 3, owing to Ja Ja barring their way to themarkets

,and they seem never to have recovered themselves .

Trading stations of the wh ite men are at the mouth ofthe river and at Egu an ga, the latter a station a few mi lesabove Opobo town .

Opobo became,under K ing Ja Ja ’s firm rule , one of the

largest exporting centres of palm o i l in the Delta,and for

years King Ja Ja enjoyed a not undeserved populari tyamongst the white traders who vis ited his river, but a timecame when the price of palm o i l fel l to such a low figurein England that the European firms establ ished in Opobocould not make both ends meet

,so they intimated to King

Ja Ja that they were going to reduce the price paid in ther iver, to which he rep l ied by Shipp ing large quantities ofhis oi l to England

,al lowing his people only to sel l a

portion of their produce to the wh ite men . The latter nowformulated a scheme amongst themselves to divide equallywhatever produce came into the river, and thus do awaywith competition amongst themselves . Ja Ja found thatsend ing his oi l to England was not qu ite so lucrative as hecould wish , owing to the length of time it took to get hi sreturns back , namely, about three months at the earl iest,whilst by sel l ing in the river he could turn over h is moneythree or four times during that period. He therefore triedseveral means to break the white men ’s combination

,at

last h itting upon the bright idea of offering the w hole of


the river’s trade to one. Engl ish house. The mere fact ofhis being able to make this offer shows the absolute powerto which he had arrived amongst his own people. His

bait took with one of the European traders ; the lattercould not resist the golden vision of the yel low grease thusd isplayed before him by the astute Ja Ja,

who me taphori

cal ly dangled before his eyes hundreds of canoes laden withthe coveted palm oi l . A bargain was struck , and one finemorn ing the other white traders in the river woke up tothe fact that thei r combination was at an end

,for on taking

thei r morning spy round the river through their binoculars(no palm o i l trader that respects himself being without apai r of these and a tripod telescope, for more minuteobservation of h is opponents ’ doings) they saw a fleet ofover a hundred canoes round the renegade ’s wharf

,and for

nearly two years th is trader scooped al l the trade. Thefat was fairly in the fi re now

,and the other white traders

sent a notice to Ja Ja that they intended to go to h ismarkets . Ja Ja repl ied that he held a treaty, s igned in1 87 3 , by Mr. Consul Charles L ivingstone , Her Britann icMajesty’s Consul

,that empowered him to stop any wh ite

traders from establ ishing factories anywhere above Hippopo tamu s Creek

,and under which he was empowered

to stop and hold any vessel for a fine of one hundredpuncheons of oi l . In June

,1 88 5 , the traders applied to

Mr. Consul White,who informed King Ja Ja that the

Protectorate treaty meant freedom of navigation andtrade.So the traders finding their occupation gone , decidedamongst themselves to take a trip to Ja Ja ’s markets , theonly sensible thing they had done since the trouble commen ced. This was a step in the right d i rection

,namely

,


keep wh ite men from proceeding to his markets,he got

himself entangled in a number of disputes which culmin at ed i n his being taken out of the Opobo R iver i nSeptember, 1 887 , by Her Britann ic Majesty’s Consu l

,Mr.

H . H . Johnston , C .B .,now Sir Harry Johnston , and conveyed

to Accra,where he was tried before Admiral Sir Hunt

Grubbe,who condemned him to five years ’ deportation to

the West Indies,making him an al lowance of about £800

per annum and returning a fine of thirty puncheons ofpalm o i l

,value about £450 i n those days , which the late

Consul Hewett had imposed upon him,a fine that the

Admiral d id not th ink the Consul was warranted in havingimposed .

Poor Ja Ja d id not l ive to return to h is country andhis people whom he loved so wel l

,and whose cond ition

he had done so much to improve,though at times his rule

often became despotic . On e trait of his character mayinterest the publ ic j ust now

,as the L iquor Question in

West Africa is so much en eviden ce, and that is , that he

was a strict teetotaler h imself and inculcated the sameprinciples in al l his chiefs . I n his e ighteen years ’ rule asa king in Opobo he reduced two of his chiefs for drunkenness—one he sent to l ive in ex i le in a small fishing vi l lagefor the rest of h is l i fe

,the other, who had aggravated his

offence by assaulting a wh ite trader, he had deprived of al loutward S igns of a chief and put in a canoe to paddle as apul l -away boy w ithin an hour of his committing theoffence.During the Ashantee campaign of 1 87 3 Sir GarnetWolseley sent Cap tain N i col to the Oil R ivers to raise acontingent of friendly natives ; on his arrival in Bonnyhe was not immed iately successful , so continued on to

OPOBO RIVER 545

Opobo , where he was the guest of the wri ter. UponCaptain N i col explain ing his errand

, Ja Ja furnished himwith over sixty of his war-boys

,most of whom had seen

considerable fighting in the late war between Bonny andOpobo . The n ews reaching Bonny of what Ja Ja haddone

,put the Bonny men upon their mettle

,and when

Captain N i col reached Bonny on h is way back toAshantee

,he found a further contingent waiting for him

from the Bonny chiefs .This combined contingent did good work against the

Ashantees,being favourably mentioned in despatches .

Poor Captain N icol,who raised them

,and commanded

them in most of their engagements with the enemy,was

,

I regret to say, ki l led whi lst gal lantly leading them on inone of the final rushes just before Coomassie was taken .

I n recognition of the above"services of his men,Her

Most Gracious Majesty Queen V ictoria presented KingJa Ja with a sword of honour, the King of Bonny receivingone at the same time.Shipwrecked people were always sure of kindly treatment if they fel l into the hands of Ja Ja’s subjects , for hehad given strict orders to his people dwel l ing on the seashore to assist vessels in d istress and convey any onecast on shore to the European factories

,warning them at

the same time on no account to touch any of theirproperty. He was also the first k ing in the Delta torestrain his people from plundering a wrecked ship ,though the custom had been from time immemorial thata vessel wrecked upon thei r Shores belonged to them byrights as being a gift from thei r Ju -Ju— an idea held bysavage peop le in many other parts of the world .

I t seems a pity that a man who had so many goodN N


qual ities should have ended as he did . He was a manwho

,properly handled . could have been made of much

use in the opening up of his country. Unfortunately,the

late Consul Hewett was prejud iced against Ja Ja fromhis first interview with him

,finding in th is n igger k ing a

man of superior natural abi l ities to his ow n .

Had the l ate Mr. Consu l Hewett had the fi ftieth partof the abil i ty in deal ing with the natives his sub andsuccessor

,Mr. H . H . Johnston , showed , there would never

have been any necess ity to deport Ja Ja. Unfortunately,between Ja Ja ’s stubbornness and the late Consul Hewett’sbungl ing

,matters had come to such a pass that some

decis ive measures were actual ly necessary to uphold thed ignity of the Consular Office .When Mr. H . H . Johnston succeeded the late Mr.

Consul Hewett,the Opobo palaver was in about as

muddled a state as it was possible for it to have got into.

Matters had been in an unsatisfactory state for someyears between King Ja Ja and the late Consu l . Ja Jahad over-stepped the bounds of p ropriety in more waysthan one . He tried the same tactics with Mr. Johnston

,

w ho to look at,is the mildest- looking l ittle man you can

imagine,and therefore did not fi l l the nat ive ’s eye as a

ruler of men ; but Mr. Johnston very soon let Ja Ja andthe natives general ly see he was made of di fferent stuffto his predecessor

,and the fi rst attempts on Ja Ja’s part

not to act up to the l ines he laid down for him settledhis fate . Mr. Johnston offered him the choice of del ivering himself up qu ietly as a prisoner or being treatedas an enemy of the Queen

,his town destroyed and himsel f

eventual ly captured and exi led for ever. He elected t o

give h imself up,was taken to Accra and there tried and


are exposed . He is a b itter and unscrupulous enemy 1 ofal l who attempt to d ispute his trade monopol ies

,and the

five British fi rms whose trade he has almost ruined duringthe past two years .A complaint often made against the Government bymerchants establ ished on the West Coast of Africa iswant of offic ial protect ion and assistance ; in many casesin the past this has been the case ; but they certainlycould not make this complaint during the few monthsthat Mr. Consul Johnston was at the head of the Consularservice in the Oil R ivers . I wil l here give a summary ofwhat exertions were made by the Government to ass istthe merchants in their pra iseworthy attempts to get beh indthe middlemen in this one river

,where Ja Ja was always

given the credit of be ing the head and front of theobstruction

,nothing ever being said about the king and

chiefs of Bonny,who were equal ly interested with Ja Ja

in keep ing the white men out of the markets , thei r principal markets being on the R iver Opobo.

Owing to the energetic representations of Mr. Consul H .

H. Johnston , the British Government placed at his d isposalfor the settlement of the market question and the Ja Japalaver the fol lowing Government vessels , viz . , the Wa tch

f u l , the Gosnaw /r, the Alecto, the Acorn,the R oy aiis t , and

the Ralezgn , the latter bringing Admiral Sir Hunt Grubbeu p from the Cape of Good Hope for the trial of KingJa Ja.

Result : Wi thin a very Short time after the deportationof Ja Ja, al l the firms who had been so anx ious to establ ish

1 Mon opo lies , have led E u ropean s on t h e Wes t Coas t of Africa t ob e equ al ly as u n scru pu lou s an d b it t er en emies of an y on e , w hite or

b lack , w ho have at t emp t ed to dispu te th eir t rade mon opolies .

KWO IBO 549

i n the interior markets and thus get behind the middlemen (without doubt the curse of the Oil R ivers and everypart of Africa where they are tolerated) gave up tradingat the interior markets that had caused the Governmentso much trouble to open for them

,and made an agreement

with the middlemen,represented in this case by the Bonny

men and Opobo men,that they would not attemp t to

trade any more in the interior markets i f the middlemenwould promise to trade with no European firm thatattempted to trade in the interior markets . On the writer’slast visit to the Opobo in 1 896 there was only one fi rmtrading in the interior markets

,and that firm was not

one of those that were in the river at the time of theclamour for the removal of Ja Ja and the opening of theinterior in 1 887 .

KWO IBO.

This river was first vi sited in modern days in 1 87 1 bythe late Mr. Archie McEachan ,

who found the peop le verytroublesome to deal with

,and d id not long remain there .

No doubt the people were not so easy to deal with asthose natives that have been for some hundreds of yearsdeal ing with Europeans but as he was at the same timeposing as a friend and supporter of Ja Ja, and the oi l hegot in Kwo Ibo was being diverted from Ja Ja’s markets ,the latter no doubt exerted a certain amount of pressureon his friend

,and aided

,i f he did not actual ly cause him

to decide to withdraw from KWO Ibo .

Kwo Ibo lay fal low for some time,- then one or two

S ierra Leone men attempted to trade there , but with l i ttlesuccess

,owing to the influence King Ja Ja had in the

country. I t was not unti l 1 880—1 that any sustained


effort was made to trade in this river ; but about thistime a Mr. Watts establ ished a smal l trading station there

,

and succeeded in creating a trade,though he had a very

diffi cult task to combat the oppos ition of King Ja Ja, whoconsidered he was being defrauded of some of his s u pposed just rights . Had Mr. Watts pushed his way intothe interior markets and dealt d irect with the producers

,

he would deserve the united thanks of every merchantconnected w ith the trade in the N iger Delta ; but he didnot , and contented himsel f with buying his produce on al i ttle better terms than he could have done in Opobo orOld Calabar

,and created another set of middlemen

,who

to-day consider they,l ike thei r neighbours

,are justified

i n doing their utmost in keeping the European out of theinterior. Mr. Watts eventual ly sold out his interest in thetrade of this river to the combination of river fi rms nowknown under the name of the African Association ofL iverpool .A mission has been establ ished here for some yearsand I had the pleas ure of meeting the missionary in charge

,

some two years ago,on his way home after a long sojourn

in the Kwo Ibo ; his description of the people and of thesuccess of his m ission work was most interesting. If hehas returned to the seat of his labours and is sti l l al ive

,I

can only wish him every success in the work in whichevidently his whole heart was centred .

The name Kwo Ibo,which has been given to this river

,

gives one the idea that the inhabitants are a mixture ofKw o s and Ibos . This to a certain extent may be a verygood description as regards the inhabitants of the upperreaches of the river

,which takes its rise

,so it is supposed ,

i n a lake in the Ibo country , afterwards passing through

5 5 2 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP.

to-day,steeped in Ju -Ju ism ,

w itchcraft,and thei r attendant

horrors .The KWO people

,whose country l ies on both sides of the

Kwo Ibo,and behind the Ib e n os , are the tribe from whom

were drawn the suppl ies of Kwo or Kwa slaves knownunder the name of the Mocoes in the West Indies .

OLD CALABAR .

I now come to the last river in the N iger Coast Protectorate

,both banks of which belong to England

,the next

river being the Rio del Rey ,of which England now only

claims the right bank,Germany claim ing the left and “ al l

the terri tory south to the river Campo,a territory almost as

large as,i f not equal to

,the whole of the N iger Coast Pro

t ectorat e , which ought to have been English , for was i t notEngl ish by right of commerc ial conquest

,i f by no other

,

and for years had been looked upon by the commanders offoreign naval vessels as under Engl ish influence ?Owing to some one blundering, this n ice s l ice ofAfricanterri tory was al lowed to sl ip into the hands of the Germans

,

hence my account of the Oil R ivers ought to be cal led anaccount of the Oil R ivers reduced by Germany.

I n speaking of the inhabitants of th is r iver,I must also

include the people who inhabit the lower part of the CrossR iver. This explanation would not have been necessarysome few years ago

,but I n o t ice the more recent hydro

graphers make the Cross R iver the main river and the OldCalabar only a tributary of that river

,

-which is,without

doubt,the most correct .

The principal towns are Duke Town (where are to befound nowadays the headquarters of the N iger Coast

OLD CALABAR 5 53

Protectorate,the Presbyterian M i ss ion , and the principal

trading factories of the Europeans), Henshaw Town,

Creek and Town ; besides these, the various kings andchiefs have numberless smal l towns and vi l lages in theenvirons . I n the lower part of the Cross river are manyfishing vi l lages

,the inhabitants of which are looked upon

as Old Calabar peop le , and owing to the latter being thedominant race they have to-day lost

,or very nearly so

,

any trace of thei r forefathers,who I bel ieve to have

been Kw os with a strong strain of Andoni blood .

These vi l lages did,in days anterior to the advent of the

European traders , an immense business with the interior indried shrimps , the latter being used by the natives , not onlyas a flavou rin g to their stews and ragouts , but as asubstitute for the al l necessary salt.The original inhabitants of the d istrict now occupied bythe Old Calabar people were the Akpas , whom theCalabarese drove out, and to a great extent afterwardsabsorbed . This immigration of the Calabares e is said tohave taken place very l ittle over one hundred and fiftyyears ago . Original ly coming from the upper Ibibiod istrict of the Cross R iver

,they belong to the Efik race

,and

Speak that language , though nowadays , owing to numerousintermarriages with Cameroon natives and the greatnumber of s laves bought from the Cameroons d istrict

,they

are of very mixed b lood . Most of the kings and chiefs ofOld Calabar owe their rank and pos ition to d irect descent ,some of them being of ancient l ineage

,a fact of which

they are very proud . I n this respect they differ in a greatmeasure from thei r neighbours in Bonny and Opobo, where,oftener than otherwise

,the succession fal ls to the most

influential man in the House,slave or free-born .


The principal town of these people boasted , some few yearsago

,of many very nice vi l la residences

,belonging to the

chiefs,bui lt of wood

,and roofed with corrugated i ron ,

mostly erected by a Scotch carpenter, who had establ ishedhimself in Old Calabar, and who was in great requestamongst the chiefs as an architect and bui lder. Un fort u

n at e ly ,these houses being erected haphazard amongst the

surrounding native-built houses did not lend that ai r ofimp rovement to the town they might otherw ise have donei f the chiefs had studied more un iformity in the bu i ld ing ofthe town

,and arranged for w ide streets in place of al ley

ways,many of which are not wide enough to let two

Calabar ladies of the higher rank pass one another withoutthe risk of their finery being daubed with streaks of yel lowmud from the adjacent wal ls .The native houses of the better classes are certainly an

improvement upon any others in the Protectorate, Showingas they do some artistic taste in their embel l ishments .They are general ly buil t in the form of a square or severalsquares

,more or less exact, according to the extent of

ground the bui lder has to deal with and the number ofapartments the owner has need for. I n some cases

,I have

seen a native commence h is bui ld ing operations by markingout two or three squares or oblongs , about twenty feet byfifteen

,round which he would bu i ld his various apartments

or rooms . I n the centre of the inner squares,which are

always left open to the sky , you almost invariably find atree growing

,either left there purposely when clearing the

ground,or planted by the owner ; occasional ly you wil l

find a fine crop of charms and Ju -Jus hanging from thebranches of these trees .The inner wal ls

,especial ly of the courtyards

,are in most


captain of one of the mail s teameis describe th is job asletting in a graving piece down the back .

”

On e of the customs pecul iar to the O ld Calabar people ,p ractised general ly amongst al l classes, but most strictlyobserved by the wealthier people , i s for a girl about tobecome a bride to go into retirement for several weeks justprevious to her marriage

,during which time she undergoes

a fatten ing treatment,s imi lar to that practised in Tunis .

The fatter the bride the more she i s admired . I t is saidthat during this seclus ion the future bride i s in i tiated intothe mysteries of some female secret society. Many of thechiefs are very stout

,and given to en zoonpoin t , a fact of

which they are very proud .

The lower-class women are not troubled with too muchclothing

,but sti l l ample enough for the country and

decency’s sake . As one strol ls through the town to seethe market or pay a visi t to some chief, one oftenencounters young girls

,and sometimes women

,i n long,

l oose,flowing robes

,fitting tight round the neck

,and on

inquiring who these are,the reply general ly comes

,Dem

young gal be mission gal,dem tother one he be Saleon e

woman .

”

The mission here i s the United Presbyterian M ission ofScotland ,1 and a great deal of good has been done by it forthese people

,and is being done now

,and great hopes are

expected from thei r industrial m ission , started on ly a fewyears ago

,therefore

,i t would be unfair to make further

comment on the latter i t i s a step in the right d irection .

Some of the miss ionaries to Old Calabar have p u t i nabout forty years of active service

,most of it passed on the

coast . Amongst others who have l ived to a great age in1 Es tab lish ed in Old Calab ar in 1 846.

OLD CALABAR 5 57

this miss ion should be mentioned the Rev. Mr. Anderson ,who l ived to the advanced age of between eighty andn inety years

,greatly respected by both the European and

native population . Amongst the lady missionaries thename of M iss Sle s sor stands out very prominently, and ,considering the task She has set hersel f

,viz .

,the saving of

twin chi ldren and p rotection of their mothers , her successhas been marvel lous

,for the Calabare s e i s , l ike his neigh

bours,sti l l a great bel iever in the custom that says twin

chi ldren are not to be allowed to l ive. This lady haspassed about twenty years in Old Calabar, a greater partof the last ten years al l alone at Okyon ,

a d istrict which thepeop le of Duke Town and the surrounding towns preferrednot to vis it

,if they could manage any business they had

with the people of Okyon without going amongst them .

Many of these Old customs wi l l now be much more quick lystamped out than in the past

,owing to the fact that i t i s in

the power of the Consul -General to pun ish the nat ivesseverely who practise them . The preaching and exhor

t at ion of the missionaries to the people in the past wasmet by the very powerful argument, in a native’s mind ,that “ it was a custom his father had kept from timeimmemorial

,and he did not see why he should not continue

i t,

”the Ju -Ju priests being clever enough to point out tothe natives that

,though the miss ionaries p reached against

Ju -Ju ism ,they could not punish its votaries . But that i s

al l changed now,and even the Ju -Ju p riests begin to fee l

that the power of the Consul-General is much greater thanthat of the ir grinning idols and trickery.

Though these peop le have been in communication withEuropeans for at least two centuries , and under Britishinfluence for upwards of sixty years

,and a mission has


been establ ished in thei r principal town for the best partof fi fty years , i t was a common thing to see human fleshoffered for sale in the market within a very few years ofthe establ ishment of the Briti sh Protectorate .I n judging the result of missionary effort in this rive r,or, in fact, any other part of Western Africa, one is apt toexclaim

,

“What poor results for so much expenditure inl ives and money !” The cause is not far to seek i f o n eknows the native

,and has sufficiently studied his ways and

customs as to be able to understand or read what is workingin his brain .

The upper or dominant classes , consisting of the kings ,the chiefs

,the petty chiefs and the trade boys (the latter

being the traders sent into the far d istant markets to buythe produce for their masters

,and it is from this class .

that many of the chiefs in most of these rivers spring)are al l

,to a man

,working either openly or secretly against

the missionaries . Even when they have become convertsand communicants

,i n very many cases they are as much

an opponent as ever of the missionary. I can fancy Isee some enthusiastic missionary j umping up with in dignation depicted in every feature to tel l me I am nottel l ing the truth about his particular converts . We l l , as Iexpect to be cal led a l iar

,I have taken care to admit that

a very few converts are not opposed to the miss ionary,in

order that I may say to any missionary that particularlywishes to wipe the floor with me that perchance h isspecial converts are included in the minority that is represented by the very few cases where the convert is whol lyand solely for the miss ion .

What are the causes that lead these people to workagainst the m iss ions ? Fi rst and foremost is Ju -Ju and its


every case amongst themselves and in some cases w ith theEuropeans . Of course , I don ’t say that the educated negroor coloured m iss ionary w i l l do it with Europeans , butmany of the educated natives wil l do it with the u n

educated native,and this custom is that your native host

wi l l never offer you food or drink without fi rst tasting itto Show you it is not poisoned . Whi le I am on this topic

,

let me give any would -b e travel lers amongst the Pagans ab it of advice . Once they strike in amongst the purelynative

,always fol low this custom ; i t wi l l do no harm

and may save them from unpleasant experiences .Thirdly

,the native instinct of self-p reservation is as

much the fi rst law of nature to the negro as i t is to therest of mank ind . At fi rs t s ight it m ight be said

,Where

is the l ink between sel f-preservation and m issionary effort,and how comes it to work aga inst the missions ? ” I wil lt ry ,to explain this point as clearly as poss ible.Natural ly the fi rst people the missionary came in contact w ith were the coast tribes . These people , i n almost i fnot every case

,are non-producers

,being simply the brokers

between the wh ite man and the interior in not a few casesbehind the coast tribes are other tribes who are again nonproducers and are the brokers of the coast brokers

,or

make the coast brokers pay a tribute to them for passingthrough their country . No place so wel l i l lustrated thissystem as the trade on the lower Niger as it used to beconducted by the Brass

,New Calabar and Bonny men .

Previous to the advent of the Royal N iger Company inthat river, these people paid a smal l tribute to perhaps adozen different towns on thei r way up to Abo on theN iger—some of the Brass men used even to get as far asOnicha or On itsha. Now that the Royal Niger Company

OLD CALABAR 56 1

i s trading on the Niger, none of these peop le can go tothe N iger to trade. Wel l , there you have one of the greatobjections to mission effort. Each of these smal l tribeswho were non-producers have lost the tribute they used toexact from the Brass , Bonny and New Calabar nativebrokers

,therefore al l the non-producers are averse to the

white man passing beyond them , be he missionary ortrader. Of course , the greatest objectors to the white manpenetrating into the interior are the coast middlemen , fori t strikes at once at the source of al l thei r riches

,al l the

grandeur of their chieftainship , and for the rising generat ion al l hope of their ever arriving to be a chief l iketheir father or thei r masters , and have a large retinue ofs laves

,for the favourite slaves are in no way anx ious to

see slavery abol ished , because with its aboli tion they onlyforesee ruin to their ambitious views.Thu s you wi l l understand me when I point out to youthe weak spot in nine-tenths of the mission effort. Theyhave been trying to look after the negro’s soul andteaching him Christian ity, which in the native mind iscutting at the root, not only of al l thei r ancient customs ,but actua l ly aims at taking away thei r l iving without at

tempting to teach them any industrial pursuit which mayhelp them in the struggle for l i fe

,which is dai ly getting

harder for our African brethren as it is here in England.

When I am speaking of miss ion effort I ought to includeGovernment effort in the older colonies. No attemp t hasbeen made

,as far as I am aware of

,to open technical

schools or to ass ist the natives to learn how to earn theirl iving other than by being clerks or petty traders .

562 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP,

SECRET SOCI ETIES AND FESTIVALS IN OLD

CALABAR—AND THE COUNTRI ES UP THE

CROSS RIVERTo describe al l the customs of the Old Calabar peop lewould take up more space than I am al lowed to monopolisei n this work .

They have numerous plays or festivals,i n which they

del ight to disgu ise themselves in masks of the mostgrotesqu e ugl iness . These masks are

,i n most cases

,of

native manufacture,and seem always to aim at being as

ugly as possible . I never have seen any attempt on thepart of a native manufacturer of masks to produce anythingpassably good looking.

Egbo, the great secret society of these people, i s a sort offreemasonry

,hav ing

,I bel ieve

,seven or nine grades . To

attempt to describe the inner working of th is society wouldbe imposs ible for me

,as I do not belong to i t. Though

several Europeans have been adm itted to some of thegrades , none have ever, to my knowledge , succeeded inbeing initiated to the higher grades . The uses of this:socie ty are manifold

,but the abuses more than outwe igh

any use i t may have been to the people . AS an example ,I may mention the use which a European would make ofhis having Egbo , viz . , i f any native owed him money or itsequivalent

,and was in no hurry to pay

,the European

would blow1 Egbo on the debtor,and that man could not

leave his house unti l he had paid up. Egbo cou ld be,and

was,used for matters of a much more serious nature than

1 I t is cal led b low in g Egb o b ecau s e n ot ice is given of the Egb o lawb ein g s e t in mo t ion again s t an y on e b y on e of th e myrm iclon s of Egb o

b low in g t he Egb o horn b efore th e part y’s hou s e .


country. A l i ttle farther u p the river is the town ofUngwana, a mile or SO beyond which is now to be found amission station . This d istri ct is cal led Iku—Morut

,and a

few years ago the inhabitants were never happy unless theywere at war with the Akuna-Kuna people. This state Of

things has been much modified by the presence in thecountry of protectorate Officials .About s ixty miles by river beyond Iku -Morut is the town

Ofurekpe,i n the Apiapam district. This p lace , i ts chief

and people are everything to be desired,the town is clean

,

the houses are commodious , the inhabitants are friend ly,and their country is del ightful . They are a l i ttle given tocannibal ism

,but

,I am very credibly informed

,only

practise this custom on thei r prisoners of war.Beyond this point the river passes through the Atamdistrict

,a country inhabited

,so I was informed

,by the

most inveterate of cann ibals . No t having vis ited thesepeople

,I am not able to speak from personal experience

but as I have general ly found in Western Africa thata country bearing a very bad character does not alwaysdeserve al l that is said against i t

,I shal l g ive this

country the benefit of the doubt,and say that once

the natives get accustomed to having white people vis i tthem

,and have got over the fearful tales told them by the

interested middlemen about the abi l ity of the white men towitch them by only looking at them

,then they wil l be as

easy to deal with,i f not easier

,than the knowing non

producers .I know of one interior town , not in Old Calabar, wherethe p rincipal chief had given a warm welcome to a whiteman and al lotted him a p iece of ground to bui ld a factoryon

,which he was to return and build the fol lowing dry

SECRET SOC IETIES AND FEST IVALS 565

season . Before the t ime had elapsed the chief died , withoutdoubt poisoned by some interested middleman . Whenthe white man went u p to the country according to hisagreement

,the new chief would not al low him to land

,and

accused him of having bewitched the late chief. Thewhite trader was an old bird and not easi ly put off anyobject he had in V iew

,so stuck to his right Of starting trade

in the country,and by l iberal presents to the new chief at

last succeeded in commencing Operations,with the resu lt

that the new chief d ied in a very short time and the whiteman

,who was put in charge of the factory

,was Shot dead

whilst passing through a narrow creek on his way to seehis senior agent

,this being done in the interior country so

as to throw the blame upon the people he was trading with .

No one saw who fired the fatal shot,and the body was

never recovered,as the boys who were with him were

natives belonging to the coast peop le and in their fright caps ized the smal l canoe he was trave l l ing in

,so they reported

but some months after the white man ’s ring mysteriouslyturned u p , the tale being i t was found in the stomach Of afish .

I wi l l here describe one other very practical custom thatused to be observed al l over the Old Calabar and CrossRiver district , but which has disappeared in the lower partsof the river

,owing no doubt to the efforts of the missionaries

having been successful in insti l l ing into the native mind agreater respect for their aged relatives than formerlyexisted . I f i t ever occurs nowadays in the Calabar districti t can on ly take p lace in some out of the way V i l lage faraway in the bush

,from whence news of a l i ttle matter of

this kind might take months to reach the ears of theGovernment or the missionary ; but this custom is sti l l

566 NATIVES OF THE N IGER COAST APP. I

carried on in the Upper Cross R iver, and consists in helpingthe o ld and useless members of the V i l lage or communityout of this world by a tap on the head

,thei r bodies are

then careful ly smoke-dried,afterwards pulverised

,then

formed into smal l bal ls by the addition of water in whichIndian corn has been boiled for hours— this mixture isal low ed to dry in the sun or over fi res

,then put away for

future use as an add it ion to the family stew.

W i th al l the cannibal istic tastes that these people havebeen credited w ith

,I have only heard of them once ever

going in for eating white men , and this occurred previous tothe arrival in the Old Calabar river of the Efik race

,i f we

are to trust to what tradition tel ls us . I t appears that in1 668—9 four Engl ish sailors were captured by the theni nhabitants Of the Old Calabar R iver ; three of them wereimmediately kil led and eaten

,the fourth being kept for a

future occasion . Whether it was that being sai lors , and thusbeing strongly imp regnated w ith salt horse , tobacco and rum ,

their flesh did not sui t the palate of these natives I know not,

but it i s on record that the fourth man was not eaten,but

kind ly treated,and some years after

,when another English

ship vis ited the river,he was al lowed to return to England

in her. S i nce that date , as far as I know,no white men

have ever been molested by the Old Calabar people.There has been occasional ly a l i ttle friction betweentraders and natives

,but nothing very serious

,though it is

said some queer transactions were carried on by the whitemen during the S lave-deal ing days .

APPENDIX I I

PART I

A VOYAGE TO THE AFR ICAN OIL RIVERS TWENTY

FIVE YEARS AGO. BY JOHN HARFORD

IT was in the month of December, 1 87 2 , when I withseventeen others left our good old port of Bristol bound forone of the West African Oil rivers on a trad ing voyage. I t

was a sp lendid morning for the time of year : bright, fine,and clear

,when we were towed through our old lock gates

,

with the hearty cheers,good -byes

,and God-speed-yous from

our friends ringing in the air ; and although there weresome of us made sad by the part ing kiss , which to manywas the last on this earth , there was one whose heart fel t soglad that he has often described the day as being one ofthe happiest in h is l i fe , and that one was your humbleservant

,the writer. Ou r first start was soon delayed

,as we

had to anchor in King Road and wait a fair wind . An d nowa word to any hearers who may be about to start on a newventure . A lways wait for a fair wind—when that comesmake the best use you can of it. Ou r fair wind cameafter some tw o weeks , and lasted long enough for us to getclear of the English land but before we were clear of theI rish , we encountered head winds again . Being too far out toreturn

,we had to beat our ship about under close reefed

568 THE AFR ICAN O IL R IVERS APP.

topsai ls for another week . This was a rough time for al l onboard . At last the wind changed

,and we this time

succeeded in clearing the Bay of Biscay and then had afairly fine run unti l we reached St . Antonia , one of the Capede V erde I s lands . This we sighted early one morning ,and in the bri l l iant tropical sunshine i t appeared to mealmost a heavenly sight. We soon passed on , the l ittlei s land disappeared , and once more our bark seemed to bealone on the mighty ocean . After a week or so wesighted the mainland of that great and wonderful continentAfrica—wonderful

,I say

,because it has been left as i f i t were

un known for centuries,while countries not nearly its equa l

i n any way have had m i l l ions spent upon them . Ou r fi rstl and fal l was a port of L iberia. L iberia , I must tel l you , i spart of the western continent with a seaboard of somemi les . I t was taken over by the American Republ ic andmade a free country for al l those s laves that were l iberatedin the time of the great emanc ipation brought about bythat good man Wi l l i am E . Channing. Here , on thei r ownland , these people , who years before had been kidnappedfrom thei r homes

,were once more free.

After a week ’s buffeting about with cross currents andvery l i ttle wind we at last reached the noted headland ofCape Palmas

,a port of L iberia we anchored here for one

n ight and next morning were under way again . This time ,having a fair wind and the currents with us

,we soon made

our next stopping p lace , which was a l i ttle vi l lage on thecoast- l ine cal led Beraby . Here we had our first gl impseof African l i fe . Di rectly we dropped anchor a s ightalmost indescribable met the eye of what appeared to behundreds of large blackbirds in the water. We had not longto wait before we knew it was something more than black

5 70 THE AFRICAN O IL RIVERS APP.

mahogany that is now be ing exported from there,a wood

that has revolution ised the furniture industries of th iscountry—it has also enabled the thrifty men and women ofEng land to make their homes more bright and cheerful bygiving them the very cheap and beautiful furn iture theycould not have dreamed of years ago

,when the only

mahogany p rocurable was the black Spanish , which was fartoo expens ive for ord inary persons to think about. Axim

,

in addition to this great export of wood,is the port Of

departure for the West African g old mines , and they w i l lI have no doubt

,i n time prove of great value . The

An cob ra R iver empties itself here . Axim being at itsmouth, this river would be very usefu l in helping to developthe interior of this part, were i t not that the mouth was soshallow and dangerous

,two Obstacles that the science of

the future wi l l,I expect

,remove. We are now passing some

of the finest specimens of coast scenery it is possible to see.I can better describe it by comparing it somewhat to ourNorth Devon and Cornwal l coasts , such splendid rocks andheadlands and land that I ve n t u re to say wi l l eventuallyprove very valuable.We next come to the important town of E lmina, oneof the departure ports Of the Ashantee country

,and also

where al l noted p risoners are kep t . King Prempeh ,late

of Ashantee , is now awaiting her Majesty’s p leasure theremany others have found E lmina their home of detentionafter attempting to d isobey our gracious Queen ’s commands .Cape Coast Castle is our next noted p lace. This is thechief departure port for the Ashantee country , and was atone time the Government seat for the Gold Coast Colony.

I t i s a very fine rock-bound port, and from the sea its

I I CAPE COAST CASTLE AND ACCRA 5 7 1

squ are-topped,white-washed houses

,and its Castle on the

higher p romontory , form an imposing- looking p i cture . I t

i s second to Accra for importance in this part much goldcomes from here. I t i s also a celebrated p lace for theAfrican-made gold jewellery

,some of which is very beauti

ful in design and workmanship . The grey parrots form agreat artic le of barter here. Hundreds of these birds arebrought to L iverpoo l every week , I may almost say al lfrom this p lace . The people are chiefly Of the Fanteetribe

,and a fine and intel l igent race they are . They have

good schools,and many of the younger men Ship Off to

other parts of the coast as c lerks, &c. Good cooks maybe engaged from here

,which is a fact I think wel l worth

mentioning.

An d now we sai l on to the present seat of Governmentfor the Gold Coast Colony

,Accra. This is a fine country

,

a flat,table—l ike land along the front

,with the hi l l s of the

hinterland rising in the background . The landing here issomewhat dangerous in the rough season

,and great care

has to be taken by the men handling the surf-boats toavoid them caps iz ing. Many l ives have been lost here indays gone by.

'I to ld you before why we cal led at the Kroo vi l lageBeraby ,

and the port of Half Jack. We now anchored atAccra to engage our black mechanics

,for which the place

i s noted . Here you may p rocure any kind of mechanicyou may mention coopers , carpenters , gold -and si lversmiths

,blacksmiths , &c. In those early days the coopers

and carpenters were engaged to assist - our Bristol men,

but to-day the whole of the work is done by the nativesthemselves . I do not think you would find a white cooperor carpenter in any of the lower ports , some of the natives

5 72 THE AFRICAN O IL RIVERS APP

being very clever with thei r tools . We also engaged ourcooks

,steward

,and laundry men

,which any establ ishment

of any s ize in these parts must keep . For al l these tradesthe natives have to thank chiefly the Basel M iss ion

,

which is,I bel ieve

,of Swiss origin . This mission started

years ago to not only teach the boys the word of God,but

to teach them at the same time to use their hands andbrains in such a way that they were bound to become ofsome use to thei r fel low men

,and command ready emp loy

ment. This miss ion,I cannot help feel ing

,has been one

of the greatest blessings they have ever had on that greatcontinent. I t has sent out hundreds of men to al l parts

,

and to-day the whole of the West Coast is dependent uponAccra for i ts sk i l led labour. This way of instructingthe nat ives is now

,I am pleased to say

,being fol lowed by

nearly al l our missionary societies,and i t is certainly one

of the best means of civi l is ing a great people l ike theAfricans are.

_ No t to take powder and shot and shoot them downbecause they don ’t understand our Christian law

,but teach

them how to make and construct,that they in time may

become useful citizens,and that they may be better able to

learn the value of the many valuable products growing inthei r m idst

,they wi l l be ever thankfu l to us and bless our

advent among them . These Accra people are a very finerace

,clean

,and distinctly above the ordinary type of

negro,clearer cut features

,wel l -bu i l t men and women .

The women,especially

,are superior to any of the West

Africans I have met with up to the present. They , l ikethei r husbands

,are fond of dress

,and

,l ike thei r husbands

too,are hard -working and industrious this was Shown by

the read iness of these people to undertake the porterage

5 74 THE AFR ICAN O IL R IVERS APP .

After being some four or five days cross ing the Bight ofBiafra

,we sighted the island of Fernando PO. Here our

captain having to do a l ittle business,we anchor for the

n ight in the harbour of Santa I sabel . The l ittle island ofFernando Po once belonged to us

,but we exchanged it

some years ago with the Spanish Government for anotheri sl and in the West Indies

,which our Government thought

of more value . This , as far as the West Coast was concerned

,was a pity

,because at the t ime I am speaking of

the island was a flourishing place,with about hal f-a-dozen

or so Engl ish merchants , and a fairly good hotel but notso now

,for whi le there is sti l l business going on

,the p lace

is not advancing,and a place that does not advance must

go back . The chief merchants there to-day are Engl ish .

This the Span ish would not have if they could help i t , butbeing under certain Obligations to them they suffer themto remain .

The fi rst view of Fernando PO when you arrive in thebay is a perfect p icture ; i t makes one almost feel theyWould never l ike to leave there its white houses al l roundthe front on the higher level

,i ts wharves and warehouses

at the bottom,and its beauti ful mountain ris ing magn ifi

cen t ly in the background . I t s whole appearance i s verys imi lar to the island of Teneri ffe . I t seems strange thathere

,almost in the middle of the tropics

,i f you have any

desire to feel an Engl ish winter,you have only to go to

the top of the Fernando Po mountain , which can eas ily bedone in two days

,or even less

,for while at the foot the

thermometer is registering 8 5 ° or 90° i n the shade,on the

top there is always winter cold and snow .

Now,I think we had better continue our j ourney . We

took a few passengers on board,and then set sai l for the

u KING BELL’S TOWN 5 7 5

Cameroon R iver. This being only fi fty or S ixty mile s d istant,

we were not long before we came to anchor Off what iscal led the Dogs ’ Heads . Here we had to wait the flood

,and

almost three-quarter tide , to enable our ship to pass safelyover a shal low part of the river cal led the flats . Now wecome in sight Of the then noted K ing Bel l ’s Town

,cal led

after a king of that name . Here our ship is moored withtwo anchors

,and here she has to remain unti l the whole of

her cargo has been purchased . This was done,and is

even to—day,by barter

,that is exchanging the goods our

Ship has brought out for the products of the country,

which at that time consisted only of palm oi l,ivory

,and

cocoa—nuts ; but before we commence to trade the shiphas to be dismantled— top spars and yards taken down ,and careful ly put away with the rigging and running gearspars are then run from mast to mast

,and bow to stern

,

forming a ridge pole ; then rafters are fastened to thesecoming down each s ide , supported by a plate runningalong the side

,supported by upright posts or stanchions

the rafters are then covered with spl i t— bamboos,over

these are p laced mats made from the bamboo and palmtrees. I t takes

,of course

,some thousands of mats to

cover the ship al l over, but this is done in about a month ,and al l by natives who are engaged for that particularwork and belonging to that place . Ou r ship now beinghoused in

,al l hands who have not been sent to assist in

tak ing another sh ip to England are given thei r differentduties to assist the captain in carrying on the trade.

5 76 THE AFR ICAN O IL R IVERS APP.

TRADING IN THE CAMEROONSEach ship in those days had what was then cal led a caskhouse, that was a piece of land as nearly Opposite as poss ibleto where the Ship lay moored. This land was always keptfenced round with young mangrove props or sticks

,forming

a compound ins ide this compound would be two, perhaps

three , fairly good sized stores or warehouses, and also anopen shed for emp ty casks which had to be fi l led with palmoi l and stowed in the ship for the homeward voyage. Now

the first work to be done after the ship was made ready fortrading

,was to land as much of her cargo as was not im

mediately requ ired for trad ing pu rpos e s , s u ch as salt, caskage ,earthenware

,and al l heavy goods . Salt in those days , as

in the present,formed one of the staple articles of trade

,

therefore a ship would general ly have from 200 to 300 tonsof this on board

,al l of which would have to be landed into

one of these store houses. At that time that meant a lot oflabour, as every pound had to be carried by the nativesfrom the boats to the store in baskets upon the head , overa long flat beach . TO-day al l this is altered

,the salt is

sent out in bags,and each store has a good iron wharf

runn ing out into the river with trol ly l ines laid upon it,which runs the goods right into the store

,and so saves an

immense amount of labour. After the sal t came the casks,

packed in what are cal led shooks that is,the cask w hen

emp tied at home here , i s knocked down and made into asma l l close package and in that condition only taking upan eighth part of the room i t would take when fi l led withthe palm oi l

,thus enabl ing the ship to carry, in addition to

her cargo,enough casks to fi l l her up aga in comp letely

5 78 THE AFRICAN O IL RIVERS APP.

requirements there . SO the work would go on from day today

,and month to month

,unti l the whole of the ship ’

s

cargo had been bought,then the mat roof was taken off

,

masts and spars r igged u p , sai ls bent and the ship madeready to sai l for Old England . This

,I must tel l you

,was a

happy time for al l on board , after lying, as we Often d id,

some fourteen or fifteen months in the manner I havedescribed . During these long months many changes tookplace some of our crew fel l i l l with fever

,and worst of a l l

dysentery,one of the most terrible diseases that had to be

contended with at that time. Three of our number,one

after the other,we had to fol low to the grave

,while

others were brought down to a shadow.

Here I experienced my fi rst attack Of African fever,

which laid me low for some two weeks . I remember quitewel l getting out of my bed for the fi rst time I had no ideaI had been so i l l I could not stand , so had to return to myberth again . This was a rough time for u s—w e had nodoctor

,and very little waiting upon

,I can tel l you . If the

constitution of the sufferer was not strong enough to withstand the attack he general ly had to go under

,as i t was

impossib le for the captain to look after the sick and do histrade as wel l

,and as he was the only one supposed to know

anything about medicine,i t was a poor look out. ( I have

known,after a ship had been out a few months , not a white

man able to do duty out of the whole Of the crew. ) Thesewere our hard times

,as

,in addition to work ing al l day

,the

white crew had to keep the watch on board through the night,while the Kroo boys d id the same on Shore. So that whenany of our men were i l l

,the watch had to be kept by the two

or three that were able . Many a night after a hard day’s workI have fal len fast asleep as soon as I had received my in

11 TRADING IN THE CAMEROONS 5 79

s t ru ct ion s from the man I re l ieved . I fear my Old captaingot to know this

,for he used to come on deck a lmost always

in my watch,and sometimes ask me the time

,which I very

rarely could te l l him . On e night he caught me nicely. I

was fast asleep,when suddenly I felt something very

peculiar on my face . I pu t my hands u p to rub my eyesas one does when just awakening, and , to my horror, myface was covered with palm Oil

,our captain standing at the

cabin door laughing aw ay . What is the matter ? he said“has anything happened ? ” “Ye s

”I rep l ied ; “ you have

given me the contents of the oi l-can . I need scarcely tel l youI did not sleep much on watch after that. The wonder tome now is that we did not lose more l ives during thattrying time.Rumours of wars

,as they were called

,amongst the natives

occasional ly reached us,but we were left pretty much u n

molested . On e day the cap tain and I had a free fight withfifty or sixty natives

,some of whom had stolen a cask from

our store,which I happened to discover. We got our

cask back and a few of them had more than they bargainedfor. Another time while I was on board a ship fitting outfor home

,the captain of her saw a native chief coming

alongside who was heavily in his debt,so he made up his

mind,without saying a word to any one

,to make him a

prisoner,so he invited him downstai rs to have a glass of

wine,leaving the forty or so people who had accompanied

their chief in his canoe on deck . The captain then quietlylocked him u p ,

the chief shouted for assistance,his people

rushed down and the tables were soon turned,for they took

the captain p risoner and nearly kil led him into the bargain ,one man striking him with a sword nearly severed his handfrom his arm

,the two or three whites on board were powerless .

P P 2

5 80 THE AFRICAN O IL R IVERS APP.

The natives having taken complete charge of the ship,we

managed to hoist our flag for assistance,which was soon at

hand,but too late to be of any use

,for as soon as they had

l iberated thei r chief from his imprisonment,they al l made

off as quick ly as they could to their own vil lage . Thecaptain was of course greatly to blame for not saying aword to any of us of his intention and for so underratingthe strength of the chief’s people . The ch ief was eventual lybrought to justice

,how ever

,by our own Consul .

O n e other l ittle break occurred to me to vary the monotony of those long months . Attached to our ship was a smallcutter wh ich used to run down to smal l vi l lages outs ide theCameroon R iver. To one cal led V i ctoria I journeyed oncewith the mate and our l ittle craft on a smal l tradingventure . V ictoria is s ituated at the foot of the sp lend idCameroon mountain

,which

,l ike its neighbour at Fernando

PO,always has snow at the peak i t is over feet high

and at that time only one or two men had ventured to thesummit—one w as

,I bel ieve , the late Sir R i chard Burton“

S ince then several others have succeeded , amongst them thep resent Sir Harry Johnston , who d id a lot of travel l ing whenhe was V i ce—Consul , in those parts . V ictoria is a snugl ittle place. I t was founded some years ago by a very oldmissionary

,a Mr. Seagar, a man who d id a great work in

h is time and whose name w i l l never be forgotten in theCameroon R iver. I t l ies in what is cal led Ambas Bay

,which

is sheltered somewhat from the south—west winds by twosmal l is lands . On one of these a British Consulate waserected a few years ago . The whole of this part as wel l asthe Cameroon R iver is now a portion of the German Colony.

We soon completed our business here and returned oncem ore to our duties in the river. Between V ictoria and

THE AFR ICAN OIL RIVERS APR. 1 1

glad to get out of the r iver, and did not envy us poorfel lows who had to go through al l the Old duties over againwithout a bit Of change. However

,we entered upon our

work with cheerful hearts . We had a good captain,and

had no intention of leaving him as long as he remained out.Perhaps a word or two about the natives ’ trade tricks mightinterest you

,then you wil l see a mate ’s l i fe on an African

trad ing ship was not altogether a bed of roses and hehad to be pretty sharp to catch them

,otherwise our wily

friends would be sure to have him . For instance , they hada happy knack Of hal f-fillin g their casks with thick wood ,secured in such a way to the inside of the heads that

,instead

of there be ing fifty gal lons of Oil in the cask which i t wouldmeasure by the gauging rod

,i t would possibly not contain

more than twenty-five ; water, too, was very Often introdu ced to make up a deficiency

,and if you happened to tel l

our friend his Oil contained water,you were told not water

,

i t is rain . Another dodge was to m ix a certain kind ofherb with the Oil

,which caused it to ferment

,SO that hal f

casks could very easi ly be made to look ful l ones . Di rt aswell was freely used by the natives when they thought theycould get i t passed

,so one had to keep one ’s eyes open .

APPENDIX I I

PART I I

PIONEERING IN WEST AFRICA ; OR ,

“THE

OPENING UP OF THE QUA IBOE RIVER

IN the year 1 880, I was asked by a L iverpoo l firm toundertake certain work in connection with one of thetrading establishments on the Old Ca labar R iver. TheOffer came at a very opportune time . Being anxi ous to improve my position , l ike most young fel lows , I accepted , andwas soon on the way to my new undertaking. My _

~firs t

business was to take an old ship , that had seen the best ofher days

,and had been lying there in the stream for

many years as a trading hulk , now being considered u n

safe to remain longer afloat. I had to place her on thebeach in such a way that she could sti l l be used as atrading establ ishment . This was not a smal l matter

,as

the beach upon which she had to be p l aced was not agood one for the purpose . However

,I found that i f I

could get her to l ie on a certain spot I had careful lymarked out

,there was every possibi l ity of a success but

I fear I was the only one that thought so,as it was fu l ly

twelve months before my senior would let me undertakethe venture at last I got his consent

,an d in a very Short

time the vessel was landed safely,an d,

I am p leased to say,did duty for over ten years . I t was whi le waiting for this

PIONEERING IN WEST AFRICA APP.

consent that the beginning of the events I am going tonarrate took p lace .Business was somewhat quiet in the Old Calabar

,so our

senior thought he would go for a bi t of an excursion to aplace cal led Qua Iboe

,which was supposed to be a smal l

tributary of the great river of Old Calabar,but which he

found to his astonishment was some tw enty-five mileswestward of the mouth of the Old Calabar, and ninetymiles from our main station at Calabar ; however, he didnot l ike to return without seeing the place

,so he and his

crew went,and after two or three days ’ journey

,they

suddenly found themselves in the midst of breakers,and

i t was only by luck they got washed into the mouth of theriver Qua Iboe

,half-dead with fright

,so much so that our

senior would not venture back in the boat,but preferred

walking overland .

After being absent seven or eight days,he returned to

headquarters with a very l ively recol lection of what hehad gone through . No t being accustomed to the sea

,the

knocking about Of the smal l boat very much upset him ,

then the long overland journey back took al l the p leasureout of what he had intended to be a l ittle hol iday. Co n se

quently,on his return he had but l ittle to say about the

river he had gone to see ; and not being of a talkativedispos ition

,had I not pressed him on the subject

,I think

,

as far as our establ ishment was concerned,the Qua Iboe

would have been a blank space on the map to-day,as

many more fine places are in that great continent.So while we were at dinner , an evening or SO after hisreturn

,feel ing very anxious to hear something about his

excursion , I remarked that we had not heard him saymuch about the new river. “ No

,

” said he ; “ for the

5 86 PIONEER ING IN WEST AFR ICA APP.

had the reputation of being as bad a lot as were to bemet with anywhere on the West Coast. Anyhow

,I

thought they would have to be pretty bad i f I could notmake something of them

,so I sai led my boat flying up

the river to t hefi rst vi l lage,which was supposed to be the

senior one in the river,and was always cal led Big Town .

I t was just dusk when we arrived . We dropped anchor,and decided to rest for the night ; but I found the vi l lagersvery excited

,and not l iking at al l my advent among them ,

as they had just had news from the u p-country informing

them that i f they al lowed a white man to remain in theirriver

,King Ja Ja,

who was the very terror not only ofthis place

,but of some fi fty or s ixty mi les al l round , had

threatened to burn thei r towns down he laying claim toal l this country

,al lowed no one to trade there but

himself.The advice I had from these people was that I hadbetter go back and leave them and thei r river to themselves . But I said

,No

,I am not going back . I have come

to Open a trad ing station and to remain with you , andthat King Ja Ja, or any one else but our British Consul ,would never drive me from that river al ive. I saw

,

though,i t was useless taking any notice of these frightened

people,SO I u p anchor the next morning, and sai led up

the river ; near the next vi l lage I saw a suitable spot forour establ ishment. I at once anchored our boat

,landed

our people with house and everything we had brought,put u p a bit of a shanty to sleep under for the time , andset to work to build our house this

,I may te l l you

,did

not take long,for by the end of the week we had a fin e

looking p lace up , such a one had never been seen in thatpart before . The house complete

,my next work was to

I I OPEN ING UP OF QUA IBOE R IVER 5 87

get goods for the natives to buy from us . This meant aj ourney for me.Ten days after our fi rst arrival

,our house and store

were up and built,and I was away to the Old Calabar in

our boat with some of my people to get goods to startour trade with the remainder stayed to pu t the finishingtouches to our bui ld ing and to clear the land near.I w as soon back at my post again and trade started .

After this I had to make several j ourneys to keep oursupply good

,and all went wel l for about three months

,

with the exception of continuous rumours as to whatKing Ja Ja intended to do ; these I took no notice of, asI did not anticipate he wou ld molest me or my people .However

,my peaceful occupation was not to last for long

for whi le I was away at Old Ca labar replenishing ourstock

,a day or two previous to my return King Ja Ja s

with about a thousand of his men,pounced down u n ex

pectedly on these Qua Iboe peop le, burnt down sevenv i l lages

,took one hundred p risoners, and drove the re

main de r of the population into the woods , cutting downevery p lantain tree , and destroying everything in the wayo f food stuff that was growing in the p lace . I arrived o ff

the bar the day after this terrible business had taken place .When I left the river I left twelve of my people there .The head man had instructions that as soon as they s aw

me off the bar,when the tide was right for me to come in

,

to hoist a white flag.

The day I arrived,after wa iting unti l I knew high water

must have passed , I took my glasses , but there was not as oul vis ible. No t caring to risk our l ittle vessel withoutthe s ignal , I took a smal l boat we had with us and startedo ver the bar into the river . What my surprise was you

5 88 PIONEERING IN WEST AFR ICA APP.

wil l read i ly understand when,arriving at the store

,I found

only one man,hal f-dead with fright

,and crying l ike a

chi ld al l I could get out of him was that Ja Ja had beenthere and ki l led every one in the place . The first thing Id id “was to at once return to the vessel

,and bring her in

with the remainder of my peop le. We landed al l ourstores

,then I immediately hoisted our Engl ish ensign on

the flag-staff. I prayed to the A lmighty to defend us andthe country from the tyranny Of these dreadful men whohad caused so much misery for these poor people . Thei rwretchedness I was soon brought face to face with.

The morning after my arrival,i f ever a man ’s heart was

softened mine was,and the tears came to my eyes when I

saw crawl ing into the house from the woods a poor,half

starved cripple chi ld,covered with sores

,and in a dreadful

state. We took it in at once and cared for it. Then Isent my people into the woods to see i f they chanced tocome across any one

,and to te l l them to come in under

our flag,and I would see that no harm again befel l them .

I n this we were very successful , for one after the otherthey arrived , more dead than al ive , unti l some 700 ofthem were in and around our house . The next thing tobe thought about was food for them . My last cargofortunately was al l rice and biscuits . This rel ieved mesomewhat, and I felt we could at least manage for aShort time.To find food for such a great number gave me

,as

you may suppose, serious thought, for there was not ascrap left in the d istrict ; the land in this particular partbeing of a poor nature

,the food grown at the best of

times was very smal l,and this l itt le had al l been de

stroyed . But we had not to wait long before witnessing

590 PIONEER ING IN WEST AFR ICA APP.

al l swore to stand by us to a man,and to keep themselves

free from Ja Ja’s tyrannical rule. After making this roundwe returned to the mouth of the river and turned ourattention to the defence of the new vi l lages that were aboutto be built .A l ittle acc ident occurred to us whi le leaving the lastvi l lage

,cal led Ikoropata, that may be worth mentioning as

a warning to others who might be p laced in a simi larS i tuation . We had just started after having a long palaverwith the chiefs

,our men

,about twenty

,marching in s ingle

fi le,I near the lead ing man . Al l at once I noticed he was

carrying his gun in a very alarming and unsui table way .

Had i t gone o ff by accident, which is not an unusualoccurrence

,the man behind him was bound to receive the

contents,with perhaps fatal results . Having stopped them

and explained the danger of carrying guns in this positionwe started Off again

,every man with his weapon to h is

shoulder. Strange to say, a few minutes after the veryman’s gun I had noticed at first blew off into the air with atremendous report. Had th is happened before, I fear wemight have had to take one of our comrades back moredead than al ive. The escape was a marvel lous one

,and

not easi ly forgotten by any of us .Now being back amongst our own people

,we set about

to get al l the guns we could together,and al l able bodied

men I told off for gun practice and defence dri l l . This Icarried on day after day , unti l we had quite a l ittle band ofwel l- trained men . Al l this time we were continual lyreceiving rumours from the Opobo side as to what Ja Ja’snext intentions were

,and to keep up the excitement he

sent about 200 men as near the mouth of the river as hedared . They settled themselves in a creek two or three

11 RUMOURS OF WAR 59 1

miles away from us,and here they used to amuse them

selves by letting Off n ow and again a regu lar fusi lade ofguns . This general ly occurred in the middle of the nightwhen every one but the watchmen had gone to sleep

,and

had such an effect on the frightened Ib u n os that Often twothirds of them would rush Off to the woods under theimp ression that the Opob os were again making a raid uponthem . This went on for weeks , so much so that I wasa lmost losing heart, and sometimes thought I should neverget confidence in the peop le . At las t , t o mygreat surprise o n eevening in walked to my house the whole of the chiefs

,

who had just held a meeting in the vi l lage and passed a lawthat no person should again leave the town . They saidthey had come to tel l me they felt ashamed Of themselvesfor running away so many times and leaving me a lone an dunprotected in their country

,and had decided to leave me

no more,but that every man should stand and die i f needs

be for the defence Of their towns . Whether Ja Ja’s peopleheard of this resolution I don ’t know

,but they soon dropped

their gun firing at night,and eventual ly left their camp ing

ground . Their next move was to get into the Ib u n o s ’markets

,and worry them there . This I was determined

should not be done if I could help it. I t was a long timebefore there was any real d isturbance

,although I could see

that the Ib u n o s were dai ly getting more frightened thatthe Opobo peop le would monopolise their markets , and inthat case they knew there would be very l ittle chance forthem .

At last news came down the river that the Opob o shad that afternoon sent a canoe to a market or town calledOkot for the purpose of starting a trade with the natives .Now Okot was at that time one of the best markets the

592 PIONEERING IN WEST AFR ICA APP.

Ib u n o s had,and for them to be suddenly deprived of this

trading station would be a terrible calamity to us al l . I

did not know what was to be done . The Ib u n os would notgo to the market to face the Opob o s , neither w ould they gofurther up the river for fear of being molested by them .

The only thing to do was to go myself and start a stationat the same p lace , and which would enable me to keep aneye on their movements

,so I at once made ready to start

the same evening,and by five O

’clock next morning Ilanded at Okot

,and found the Opobo canoe there also, but

l ike al l Africans,time not being an object to them

,they

had not gone to the k ing or the owner of the land at theland ing p lace. We did not w ake the Opobos up on ourarrival

,b u t I immediately started for the vi l lage

,and at

dayl ight walked into the presence of the king of that part ,who was so surprised to see a white man in his vi l lage thatit took him some t ime to bel ieve his eyes. Poor old chap !I fear he must have wished several times afterwards that hehad never seen a white man

,for he was taken prisoner by

the Government in 1 896 or 1 897 for ins isting, I bel ieve , incarrying out some human sacrifice at one of the feast times

,

and died in prison . But to return to my mission . I soonmade him understand that I had come to start a tradingstation at his beach, but before doing this I had to securethe land at the landing place for the purpose . This heread i ly consented to , tel l ing me at the same time thatalthough the land at that particular spot d id not belong tohim he would instruct the owner of i t to sel l me al l Iwanted . SO after paying the usual comp l iments to the Oldking

,I started back for the landing place with the owner,

who had already sold his right to me,and was n ow only

coming to show us the extent,which was the whole of the

594 PIONEER ING IN WEST AFRICA APP.

half m i les down from Okot, was the landin g beach of Eket.Here there is a ris ing cl iff about fifty feet high

,and I had

often remarked when pass ing this spot,If I were going to

bui ld a house to l ive in here I should l ike to build it on thishi l l . The situation was so good

,as it was right in an

elbow of the river,and from the top of the hil l you had a

view of the river branching Off both up and down at rightangles . An opportun ity occurring for me to start a houseat Eket

,I went and saw the people

,who were very pleased

for me to come among them . SO a l ittle house was built,and a young coloured assistant named Wi l l iam Sawyerplaced in charge

,who proved to be one of the best men I

ever had in the country. He needed to be,too

,for the

Eke t s were the most try ing of any of the peoples we hadto deal with. I never left my stations for any length of

t ime . Once or tw ice a week I vis ited them ,but no matter

how Short a t ime I was away there was always a grievanceto be settled at Eket. Poor Sawyer had a terrible timethe people had an idea they could do as they l iked with thefactory keeper

,and would often walk Off with the goods

without paying for them,which Mr. Sawyer natural ly

objected to,usual ly end ing in a free fight

,sometimes my

people coming off second best . The trade at that time atEket was not large, although it was a good one, and I didnot want to give it up i f it could be helped . But mypatience came to an end when I arrived upon the scene oneday and found Mr. Sawyer had been terribly handled theday before. There had been a big row

,and I could see by

his face he had had very much the worst of the fight. I

felt I could not al low this any longer,so summoned a

meeting of al l the chiefs and peop le. We had a very largemeet ing

,one of the largest I ever remember

,and after

1 1 AT EKET 59 5

explain ing to them my reason for cal l ing them together,

told them it was my intention to close the l ittle house andgo to some people higher u p the river, who would bep leased for us to come among them ,

and would not i l l -usemy peop le as the Eke t s were doing, and showing them howbadly they had treated Mr. Sawyer, who had done nothingmore than his duty in trying to protect the p roperty thatwas under his care

,and which they seemed to think they

had a better right to than he. When they had heard mycomplaint and warn ing to close the house

,the old and ever

respected chief of al l the Eke t s rose to his feet. The peopleseeing this

,there was s i lence in a moment (which every one

know s who has happened to have been p resent at anAfrican palaver is indeed a rarity) , he being much lovedand reverenced in his own town . As soon as he started Ifel t we were going to hear something worth hearing

,and we

did,for i f ever there was a born statesman this was one .

He said , We have heard with sorrow of the way in whichyour people have been so i l l—used by our peop le , and it is ashame to us a stranger should be SO treated who is tryingto do his best to bring business among us . No t only haveyou brought a business to us

,where we can come and

exchange our produce for our requirements,but you have

Opened our eyes to the l ight, as it were, and we have nointention that you should leave us . You have been sentto us by Ab as sy (which means God) , and he wi l l never letyou leave us . Your trade wi l l grow in such a way that youwi l l see here on this beach far more trade than you wil l beable to cope with , so cast away from your mind the thoughtof leaving us . The disturbances that have been going onwe wil l stop . I t is not our wish that it has been so i t i sthe young boys of the vi l lage who know no better. We

Q Q 2


wil l put a stop to i t in such a way that you wil l find yourpeop le from this time wi l l have but l ittle to complain about.”After such a speech you may be sure I gave u p al l thoughtof leaving the Eket people

,and I need scarcely tel l you that

this same spot has become the centre of the whole of thetrade of this river. The words spoken by the venerableand

,I bel ieve

,good old ch ief came as true as the day . We

d id see often and often more trade than we could copewith

,and the establishment grew in such a way that the

natives themselves Often used to wonder. I never hadanything to do w ith a more prosperous undertaking inAfrica

,and to-day there are few establ ishments on theWest

Coast that can surpass i t,either in its quiet

,steady trade or

heal thy cl imate. I used to say one could l ive as long asthey l iked . On the hil l there is a very fine house

,with

acres and acres of good land at the back of it,while at the

foot of the hi l l are al l the stores and the shop where thedai ly work and trade goes on year in year out .Several very remarkable incidents happened here . On e

evening,j ust as we were going to dinner

,a woman came

and stood a l ittle way from the house . I could see thatshe was crying bitterly and evidently in great d istress .What is the matter ? ”I said . Affya (that i s her brother)i s dying

,and I want you to come and see him before it is

too l ate . Now Affya was one Of the finest young fel lowsat Eket

,and one whom I felt would be a sad loss to a people

who wanted so much lead ing and governing,as it were . SO I

lost no time,but went Off at once w ith the woman to see i f

I could do anything. On our arrival at the house thingslooked bad enou gh

,and I feared the worst when I saw him

laid out,as every one there thought

,for dead— the finest

y oung fel low at Eket . I fel l on my knees by his S ide and


the night. The l ittle thing woke u p many times , but wassoon off to s leep againWhen I had patted and spoken toi t. The next day we had her seen to

,the steward boy set

about and made her s ome'

dre s s e s,and after a warm bath

and p lenty of food , i n a few days the l i ttle girl was thel i fe of our house . The poor l i ttle thing had been leftwithout father or mother

,and had become dependent

upon an uncle , or some other relative , who had i l l-usedher in such a terrible manner that he had left her fordead . How she ever found strength to get to our housewas almost a mystery.

After being with us for twelve months,some other

relatives laid claim to her,and as I was just leaving for

England,I al lowed them to take her

,but not without

making four or five of the principal chiefs respons ible forher welfare . She wi l l now be a grown woman

,but wi l l

look back upon those happy months with p leasure , I feels ure .Another incident may be of interest— quite a change ofscene— showing you how you may be as kind and as goodtoa people as i t is possible to be , yet you must always beready to defend yourself at a moment’s notice

,which wi l l

be seen from the following circumstances . We had beentroubled for some time past with night robberies , not veryserious at first

,but they became more frequent than I

cared about . I gave the matter serious attention,but we

could not trace the thieves,do what we would ; the

strange thing was,that as soon as a robbery had been

commit ted, a native , a sort of hal f S lave, was sure to beseen about the beach putting on what seemed to me asort of bravado manner ; but , of course, he never knewanything about the people who had been tampering with

I I TH IEVES 599

the premises,and he always appeared to be surprised to

think that any one should do such a thing,but at last

matters came to a cl imax ; our plantain trees had beencut down

,and a whole lot of fine plantains stolen

,as wel l

as a lot of wire fencing. I was vexed to the extremewhen this dastardly work was brought to my notice .But what was my surprise

,no sooner had my lad reported

the matter to me,when along walked the very man I have

j ust described,looking as bold as brass . Said I to

myself,

“ If you have not done this steal ing you knows omething about it

,and you wil l have to give an account

o f your movements before you leave these premises.” So

I sent orders to have him immediately put under arrest,

which was done,and he was given to understand that

unti l the thieves,whoever they were

,had been brought to

justice,he would have to remain under arrest.

This was an unexpected blow for my friend , but hep roved one too many for my peop le. He managed to getthe best side of his keeper

,and sl ipped next morning we

had no prisoner,the b ird had flown . I knew he would

work no good for us in the vi l lages,neither d id he ; he

went from vi l lage to vi l lage,right through the Eket

country,tel l ing the people the most dreadful things

,and

the most abominable l ies,of what had been done to him

the short time he was our prisoner ; SO much so, that hegot the peop le quite furious against me and my people .J ust as an agitator wi l l work up stri fe in England i f he isnot checked

,so i t was with this man he got every V i l lage

to declare war against me . This went on for three or fourdays

,unti l he got them al l to concentrate themselves .

They were al l brought one night to within a quarter of amile of our establ ishment here they had thei r war dances

600 PIONEER ING IN WEST AFRICA APP.

al l night,yet I did not think there was any l ikel ihood of

thei r attacking us. Sti l l , for a couple of days things didnot appear right, the people seemed strange in theirmanner ; so I thought it not wise to be caught napping,and I made some preparations for an attack i f we wereto have one

,and had the Gatl ing gun placed in 'position

at the rear of the house. Th is I fel t was quite enough todefend the house

,i f I could but get a fair chance to use

it,although I was in hope I should not be cal led upon to

do so .

We had not long to wait,for at in the morning

after a continuous beating of drums al l n igh t , I got upand walked out on the verandah

,wh ich was my usual

custom,not th ink ing we were going to be attacked

,but

when I looked round,the wood and bush seemed to be

al ive w ith people,and some Of them were already ad

van cin g towards the house, while one chief, more daringthan the others

,came on near enough for me to speak to

h im . Seeing this unexpected development of affairs , andthe susp icious look of my friend near at hand

,I cal led to

my boy,who was near

,to bring my revolver

,and no

sooner had the chief got within twenty paces or so of thehouse

,when I cal led upon him to stop and tel l me what

was thei r m ission so early in the morning. He said theyhad come to talk over the matter Of the man I had imprisoned . But I said this is not the time of day weusually talk over matters we may have in dispute—theafternoon being always the recognised time . “Yes

,

”saidmy friend

,

“ but we want to sett le matters now.

” “ Al l

right,

”I said

,and with that I held my revolver at his

head,and ordered him to stand

,and not move an inch

,or

I would shoot him dead on the spot. The people at the

602 PIONEERING IN WEST AFR ICA APP .

way connected with the affair ? I had not my evidencewas purely suppos itional . Th is ended the matter. I wasin the wrong

,therefore I had no alternative but to put a

fine upon mysel f,which I did

,and was very pleased to

end what had nearly cost me my life,and probably also a

number of my people . After this affairs went on merri lyat Eket.There was a p lace cal led Okon some few miles up theriver from Eket

,and here I proposed to start another

establ ishment,so had made al l preparations at Ibuno for

that purpose,and left the latter place with my boat, people ,

provis ions and materials . We arrived at Okot overnight,intending to sleep there

,as i t was the nearest beach to

Okon . All went wel l unti l the next morning,when we

were p reparing to start. My factory keeper at Okot cameto me in the most serious manner poss ible

,wanting to know

if I real ly meant going to Okon . I said “ Certainly, wehave come up for the purpose . “Wel l

,

”he said , I th inkyou had better not go there are very nasty rumours abouthere that it is intended to do you some harm if you shouldattempt to open up at Okon ; in other words , men havebeen appointed to take your l ife.” All right, I said “wemust take our chance we shal l not turn back unti l we havetried . SO away we went

,I in a smal l boat w ith a few

boys , the others in another boat with the etceteras . We

arrived at Okon and landed our goods,but we found a

number of Ja Ja’s people had arrived before us . I took nonotice of them any more than pass ing the time Of day.

However , I must confess I did not l ike thei r demeanourNothing was said and our provisions were safely housed ina native shanty. Here I i ntended to remain whi le buildingour own house . The timber

,i ron and other goods were

u AT OKON 603

placed on the spot we intended to occupy. This done,I

started Off with a coup le of boys to acquaint the king andthe peop le Of the V i l lage of our arrival , and to get the kingor some Of his chiefs to come down and al lot me the land Irequ ired . We had been in the vi l lage some l ittle time , andmatters were wel l-nigh settled , when al l at once there wasa general stampede from the meeting house

,and just at that

moment I heard a regular fusi lade of guns,and in came

running one of my people from the beach,nearly frightened

to death. Massa,massa

,come quick to the beach Ja Ja’s

men have burnt down the house and want to shoot us al l,

and all our goods are in their hands . By this time a lot ofJa Ja’s men were in the vi l lage , and I was left absolutelya lone with the exception of my own boys and the one thathad run u p from the beach . Every native had rushed tohis compound as soon as the firing had commenced . I

turned to my boys,told them not to fire

,but to keep cool ,

do as I told them,and be ready to protect themselves i f

any one attacked them,not else . So down we S lowly

walked to the beach. Here was a s ight for me ! Al l mygoods thrown to the four winds

,my house burnt to the

ground,and about a hundred or more of Ja Ja’s or Opobo

men arranged u p in l ine , every man with his rifle and cutlass

,ready to fight

,which they evidently anticipated I

should do as soon as I appeared on the scene but this Ihad no intention of doing. To a ttempt to Show fightagainst such odds would have been simply su icidal

,so I

made u p my mind to Show the best front possible underthe ci rcumstances; cal led my boys , placed them in equalnumbers on either s ide of me

,with our backs to the bush

and facing our would -b e enemies . I’

the n i nqu ired whatthey wished to do . Drawing my revolver, which was a s ix

604 PIONEERING IN WEST AFR ICA APP

chambered one,I he ld i t up .

“I f you want my l ife you mayhave it

,but

,FIRST , let me tel l y ou ,

in s ide tb is smal l g u n I

b old s ix men’

s l ives ; tnos e s ix men I WI LL nave,then you

may have me . No t a word was uttered . Then I said,

“If

you do not want that , I an d my people wi l l leave youhere in possession of these goods and the house that youhave already partly destroyed . Wi th this I ordered myboys to the boats

,to which we went quietly and in order

,

l eaving our Opobo friends dumbfounded and baulked Of

the main object of thei r miss ion .

When we had got wel l clear Of the beach I was thankfulindeed

,for never was a man nearer death than I was at that

time,I think . We went down to Ibuno as fast as our boats

could go,our boys singing as Kroo boys can sing when

they feel themselves free from danger. I only stayed a fewhours at Ibuno. As soon as the tide served I made rightaway to O ld Calabar to lay the whole affair before H .M .

Consul . After this I felt I had done my duty in the matterof the Opobo business . The affai r was, of course , settledagainst the Opob os , and they had to leave the Okon beachto us absolutely .

I must not deal with the rough s ide only of pioneer l i fein West Africa

,so I think I wi l l just touch upon one of the

many kindnesses shown to me by the Ib u n os during thesetroublous times . The Qua Iboe bar

,l ike many others

along the coast,more so in this particular part

,is very

treacherous,being composed of quicksand . I t is always on

the move,SO the channel changes from place to place.

Sometimes you go in and out at one s ide,sometimes at the

other,and sometimes straight through the centre. These

moving sands require a great dea l of careful watching andconstant surveying

,which I used to invariab ly see to and


we did not Openly show it, we gave none the less heartythanks from our inmost hearts . After land ing we rightedour boat and paddled off up river to our factory. Here w earrived before any of the natives knew what had happened .

Ou r boys soon put the news about,as they felt they had

had a marvellous escape . Mr. Wi l l i ams and I drank asmuch brandy as we could manage

,then I j umped into bed

and remained unti l the next morning. I believe he d id thesame too . At daylight I awoke and felt

,to my surp rise , as

wel l as I ever felt in my l i fe . Being so long in the water, Iful ly anticipated a severe attack of fever next day

,but i t

wasn ’t so,and I was about my business as though nothing

had happened . I don ’t think I should have thought anymore about it had not the Ib u n os so forc ibly reminded meof the danger we real ly had passed through . After havingso many narrow escapes th is one appeared to pass as amatter of ord inary occurrence . Not so to them the afternoon Of the day after the accident, while I was out aboutthe work

,I saw an unusual number of natives going to the

house,each l ittle contingent carrying baskets of yarns and

fish. I had not long to wait before one of my boys cameto tel l me the Ibuno people w ished to speak with me at thehouse . I went to them at once . Here was my diningroom ful l of natives

,and in the centre a pi le of yams two or

three feet high,and fish

,the very finest that had been caught

that day,as wel l as some very beautiful dried fish

,enough

to last me and my people,I should think

,a month or more .

This sight took me rather by surprise,not quite knowing

what was about to take place . I took the chair which wasplaced for me and waited . Al l being quiet

,one of the

chiefs rose u p and said , “We know you are somewhatsurprised to see a l l us vi l lagers here to-day

,and also the

I I CONGRATULATIONS 607

food we have brought with us which is now in front of you,

but we have come to tel l you how sorry we al l were,men

,

women and chi ldren throughout our vi l lages,when we

heard you had been thrown into the sea,and al l had such a

narrow escape of losing your l ives . We are al l the moresorry to think that not one of our people were able torender you the sl ightest assistance. Had we seen you orknown what was taking place every canoe would have cometo your aid

,but we did not, and while we were s itting

comfortably in our houses you were struggling in the water.To us this has been a grief

,and to Show you how thankful

we are to think you have been preserved to us through thisdanger and many others

,we have brought for your accept

ance the best we can offer you . We are but poor,as you

know,but these gifts come from our hearts as a present to

you and a thank-offering to our Father in Heaven who hasbeen p leased to restore you to us unhurt. We are , we musttel l you

,thankful in more ways than one for your del iver

ance,because had you bee

nlost our great enemy Ja Ja

would at once have said his Ju Ju had worked that i t sho uldbe so.

” Wi th this he sat down .

For me to attempt to express what I felt at that moment would be impossible ; I must say I fel t a veryunp leasant feel ing in my throat , and I don ’t know butthat some of the water I had had too much of the daybefore was having a good try to assert itself. If i t had ,i t was not to be wondered at for any one would have tohave been hard indeed if such kindness d id not touchthem ; even the strongest of us are bound sometimes togive way for a moment. I d id not attempt to hide fromthem the fulness of my heart

,and the gratitude I felt for

such kindness,where I least expected it. I told them I

608 P IONEER ING IN WEST AFR ICA APP .

had not thought much of the accident,but I was thankful

to think my l ife and my people had been spared , and I

only hoped I should l ive to show them how their greatkindness would ever be remembered by me , and wouldnot be forgotten as long as l i fe lasted . After generalthan ks our meeting broke up and ended

,but has never

been forgotten .

After we had got fairly wel l establ ished and our tradebegan to develop i tself, our fi rm at L iverpool chartered asmall brig

,with a general cargo of goods for us

,which in

due time I was notified of. Now this w as a great event,not only for us

,but for the river

,as this would be the fi rst

sai l ing ship that had ever entered the Qua Iboe to bringin and take out a cargo d irect . Everything that had beendone before this was by smal l craft

,and transhipped at

one of the main rivers ; so I was very anx ious that thearrival of this ship should be made as complete a successas possible . I knew it would be next to impossible tobring her in right over the bar, as deeply laden as shewould be from England

,as our depth of water was not

more than 8 ft. 6 in . to 9 ft. at spring tides, and th is vesselwould draw from 10 to 1 1 ft. at the very least.I n due time the l i ttle sh ip was s ighted off the bar. As

soon as the tide made, I pu t off to her to receive herletters

,and to give the captain instructions as to what I

wished him to do . On arriving alongside,the fi rst th ing I

found was that her draft of water was 1 1 ft .,so I told the

captain he could not poss ibly go into the river with thatdraft

,so we decided to l ighten her al l we could ; I left

again for the shore to make al l the necessary arrangements to this end . The next morning our boats werestarted off out ; the day being fine they al l got alongs ide

6 10 PIONEERING IN WEST AFR ICA APP.

good survey of the bar,so as to get every inch Of the

water i t was possible . This careful ly done, we arrivedalongside the sh ip

,and no one was more surprised than the

captain,when I told him I had come out to take his ship

into the river,if he was ready.

“Yes ,” he said “ i f you

w i l l undertake to do it.” “ I wil l,

”I said .

“You workyour sh ip as I tel l you

,and we shal l get in al l right

,I feel

confident ”The order was given to loose al l sai ls and heaveanchor

,wh ich was done in a very short t ime. AS the

tide was near to being high,there was no time to be lost .

We were soon under way,and our l i ttle craft

,w ith al l sai ls

set,bounding for the bar. I had my channel to a n icety

over we went,to my aston ishment

,without a touch . Th e

rel ief I felt when this was passed,I am unable to describe .

I n a short t ime the first ship that had ever entered QuaIboe R iver from England d irect was anchored Off ourfactory . The natives crowded down to see this , to them ,

wonderfu l sight,and when I landed I was immediately

carried on the shoulders of some of the crowd up to myhouse . The del ight in the river that even ing was greatindeed ; so much so , that I shal l not eas i ly forget thatevent.Sti l l , my troubles were not qu ite at an end , for whilewe had the sh ip in

,we had no one to discharge her cargo

but necess ity being the mother of invent ion,

”I cal led the

ch iefs of the V i l lage together,and told them of my posit ion .

On e boy was all I had , and the cargo must come out ofthe ship . Al l right ,” they said , “ show our people whathas to be done ; we wil l d ischarge the ship .

”Next

morning our beach was al ive with people,and by the

evening of the next day she was comp letely d ischarged

1 1 OVER THE BAR 6 1 1

and ready for homeward cargo. We could now afford totake more time. The next thing was to commenceloading ; th is we had got wel l on with, when our peoplereturned . After this we were not long in getting ourship ready for going out over the bar again

,which was

done as successful ly as she was brought in . Aftergetting her clear we ran her to Old Calabar to comple te her loading for England. This ended our firstship

,others fol lowed after

,one of Which got left on the

bar a wreck,and another turned back and was con

demn ed in the river. We soon gave up the idea ofworking sail ing ships . A smal l steamer was bought

,and

after th is th ings went fairly well.

R R 2

APPENDIX I I I

TRADE GOODS USED IN THE EARLY TRADE WITH

AFRICA AS GIVEN BY BARBOT AND OTHER

WR ITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY .

BY M . H . KINGSLEY

Those used in trade by the Senga Company of Senegalat St . Lewis and Goree and thei r dependent factories ofRu fis co

,Camina

, Ju ala, Gamboa (Gambia), circa 1 677 .

For the convenience Of trade between the French at theSenega and the natives, al l European goods are reduced toa certain standard

,viz .

,hides, bars, and Slaves

,for the

better understanding whereof I give some instances . On e

bar of iron is reckoned as worth 8 hides , 1 cu t lace thesame

,1 cluster of bugles weighing 45 lbs. as 3 hides, 1

bunch of false pearls 20 hides , 1 bunch of Gallet 4 h ides ,1 hogshead of brandy from 1 50 to 1 60 hides . Bugles arevery smal l glass beads

,and mostly made at V enice

,and

sold in strings . and clusters . At Goree the same goodsbear not quite so good a rate , as , for example, a hogsheadof brandy brings but 140 hides, 1 lb. of gunpowder 2 h ides

,

1 p iece of eight 5 hides, I oz. of coral 7 or 8 hides, 1 oz . ofcrystal 1 hide , an ounce of yellow amber 2 hides .

“A slave costs from 1 2 to 14 bars of iron, and sometimes1 6 , at Porto d’

Ali 1 8 to 20, and much more at Gamboa ,

6 14 EARLY TRADE WITH AFRICA APP.

province of B rit tany , al l short and thin , which is cal led inLondon narrow flat iron , or half flat i ron in Sweden, buteach bar shortened or cut o ff at one end to about 1 6 to1 8 inches , so that about 80 of these bars weigh a tonEnglish. I t is to be observed that such voyage-iron

,as it

i s cal led in London , is the only sort and s ize used throughout al l Nigrit ia, Guinea, and West Eth iopia in the way oftrade. Lastly, a good quantity of Cognac brandy, both inhogsheads and rundlets

,s ingle and double

,the double

being 8,the s ingle 4 gal lons .

“The principal goods the French have in return for thesecommodities from the M oors and Blacks are slaves, golddust

,elephants ’ teeth

,beeswax

,dry and green h ides , gum

arabic,ostrich feathers

,and several other Odd th ings, as

ambergris,cods of musk

, tygers’ and goats ’ Skins

,provisions

,

bul locks,sheep

,and teeth of sea-horses

The main trade o f the Senga or Senegal Company seemsto have been gum and slaves in these regions . Gold dustthey got but l ittle of in Senegal , the Portugu ese seem ingto have been the best people to work that trade . Theivory was

,according to Barbot

,here mainly that picked up

in woods,and scurfy and hollow

,or

,as we should cal l it

,

kraw kraw ivory,the better ivory coming from the Qua

Qua Ivory Coast. H ides,however

,were in the seventeenth

century,as they are now

,a regular l ine i n the trade of

Senegambia, and the best hides came from the SenegalR iver

,the inferior from Ru fisco and Porto d’

Ali. Barbotsays : “They soak or dye these hides as soon as they areflayed from the beast

,and presently expose them to the

air to dry ; wh ich, in my opin ion , i s the reason why,wanting the true first season ing

,they are apt to corrupt

a n d breed worms i f not looked after and often beaten with

I I I GAMB IA TRADE 6 1 5

a stick or wand,and then laid up in very dry store houses .

I have no doubt Barbot i s right, and that there is note nough looking after done to them now a days

,so that the

worms have their own way too much,

The African hides were held in old days inferior to thoseshipped from South America, both in th ickness and s ize ,and were used in France ch iefly to cover boxes with ; butin later times, I am informed , they were sought after andspl it careful ly into two sl ices, serving to make kid forFrench boots .

“ The French reckoned the trade of the Senga Companyto yield 700 or 800 per cent. advance upon invoice of the irgoods , and yet their Senga Company, instead of thriving ,has often brought a noble to ninepence. Nay , i t has brokentwice in less than th irty years, which must be occasionedby the vast expense they are at in Europe

,Africa, and

America, bes ides i l l-management of the ir business but th isi s no more than the common fate of Dutch and Engl ishAfrican Companies, as wel l as that to make rather lossthan profit

,because thei r charges are greater than the trade

can bear,in maintaining so many ports and other forts and

factories in Africa , wh ich devour al l the profits.” I quoteth is Of Barbot as an interesting th ing, considering thepresent state ofWest Coast Colonial finance .

GAMBIA TRADE,1 678 .

The factors of the Engl ish Company at James Fort, andthose of the French at Albreda and other places, drive avery great trade in that country al l along the river inbrigantines

,Sloops

,and canoes

,purchasing

E lephants ’ teeth, beeswax,slaves

, pagn os (country-made

6 1 6 EARLY TRADE W ITH AFRICA APP.

clothes), hides , gold and si lver, and goods also found in theSenga] trade.I n exchange they give the B lacksBars of i ron

,drapery of several sorts

,wool len stuffs and

cloth,l inen of several sorts

,coral and pearl

,brandy or

rum in anchors,fire locks

,powder

,bal l and shot

, Sley s iger

l inen,painted callicoes of gay colours

,sh irts

,gi lded swords

,

ordinary look ing-glasses,salt

,hats

,Roan caps , al l sorts and

Sizes of bugles , yel low amber, rock crystal , brass pans andkettles

,paper

,brass and pewter rings, some of them gi lt,

b ox and other combs , Du tcn earthen cans,false ear-rings

,

satalaes,and sabres or cu t laces , smal l i ron and copper

kettles,Du tcn kn ives cal led B osman s , hooks , brass

trumpets,bi l ls

,needles

,thread and worsted of several

colours .’ Th is selection practical ly covered the trade upto Sierra Leone .

SIERRA LEONE,1 678 .

Exports.—E lephants ’ teeth, Slaves,santalum wood a

l ittle gold , much beeswax with some pearls , crystal , longpeppers

,ambergris, &c. The ivory here was considered the

best on theWest Coast, being, says Barbot, very white andlarge

,have had some weighing 80 to 1 00 lbs .

,at ' a very

modest rate 80 lbs . of ivory for the value of five l ivresFren cn money, in coarse knives and other such toys .The gold purchased in Sierra Leone, the same authoritystates

,comes from Mandinga and other remote”: countries

towards the N iger or from South Gu inea by the R iverMitomba. The trade selection was : French brandy orrum , i ron bars, wh ite cal licoes , Sley s iger l inen , brass kettles ,earthen cans

,al l sorts of glass buttons

,brass rings or

6 1 8 EARLY TRADE WITH AFR ICA APP.

in other districts,mainly the Gold Coast the Ivory Coast

cloths come from inland districts, those sold at Cape LaHo u are of Six stripes , three French ells and a half long,and very fine ; those from Corby La Hou of five stripes

,

about three el ls long,and coarser. They also made

“ clou ts of a sort of hemp,or plant l ike it

,which they

dye handsomely, and weave very artificial ly.

THE GOLD COAST.

Th is coast has , from i ts discovery in the 1 5 th centuryto our own day

,been the chief trade region in the Bight

of Ben in and Barbot states that the amount of gold sentfrom it to Europe in his day was value perannum .

The trade selection for the Gold Coast trade in the1 7 th and 1 8 th centuries is therefore very interesting

,as it

gives us an insight into the manufactures exported byEuropean traders at that time , and of a good manydifferent k inds ; for Engl ish , French, Portuguese, Dutch,Danes and Bran de n b u rghers were al l engaged in the GoldCoast trade , and each took out for barter those th ings hecould get cheapest in h is own country.

TheFren cli common ly ,

”say s Barbot, carry more brandy,

wine,iron

,paper, fire locks , &c.

,than the Eng l isn or Du tcn

can do,those commodities be ing cheaper in Fran ce

,as

,on

the other hand,they (the E ng l isn and B a teli ) supply the

Guinea trade with greater quantities of l inen , cloth, bugles,copper basons and kettles , wrought pewter, gu npowder,sayes

, perpe t u an as , chintzs , caw ris,Old sheets , &c.

,because

they can get these wares from Eng lan d or Hol lan d

“The Fren cn commonly compose thei r cargo for the Gold

I I I THE GOLD COAST 6 1 9

Coast trade to purchase slaves and gold dust ; Of brandy,white and red wine

,ros sol is

,fire locks

,muskets

,fl ints

,

i ron in bars,wh ite and red con t ecarbe , red frize, looking

glasses,fine coral

,sarsapari l la

,bugles of sundry sorts and

colours and glass beads, powder, sheets , tobacco, taffeties ,

an d many other sorts of s i lks w rought as b rocarde ls,vel

vets,shi rts

,black hats

,l inen , paper, laces of many sorts ,

shot,lead

,musket bal ls

, callicoe s , serges, stuffs, &c., besidesthe other goods for a true assortment, which they havecommonly from Hol lan d

“The Du tc/i have Coesveld l inen , Sle z siger lyw at , oldSheets

,Leyden serges, dyed indigo-blue, perpe t u an as ,

green,blue and purple

,Kon ing s

-K leederen, annabas, large

and narrow,made at Haerlem Cypru s and Tu rkey stuffs,

Tu rkey carpets , red , blue an d yellow cloths, green , red andwhite Leyden rugs , si lk stuffs blue and wh ite, brass kettleso f al l s izes

,copper basons, Scotc/i pans , barbers ’ basons ,

some wrought, others hammered , copper pots , brass locks ,brass trumpets , pewter, brass and iron rings , ha ir trunks ,pewter dishes and plates (ofa narrow brim ), deep porringers ,a l l sorts and sizes Of fishing hooks and lines, lead in sheetsand in pipes

, 3 sorts of Du tcn knives , Ven ice bugles andglass beads of sundry colours and sizes

,sheep skins

,i ron

bars,brass p ins long and short, brass bel ls , i ron hammers,

powder, muskets, cu t laces , caw ris, chintz , lead bal ls and

shot,brass cups w ith handles, cloths of Cabo Verdo

, Qu a

Qu a ,Ardra and Rio Forcaaa, blue coral , al ias akory from

Benin,strong waters and abundance of other wares

,being

near 1 60 sorts , as a Du tcnn zan told me .I am sorry Barbot broke down just when he seemedgoing strong with this l ist, and I was out of breath checking the indent

,and said other wares

,

” but I cannot help

EARLY TRADE W ITH AFR ICA APP.

i t , and beg to say that this is the true assortment for the GoldCoast trade in 1 678 . The Engl ish selection besidesmany of the same goods above mentioned have t apseils ,broad and narrow

,n ican ees fine and coarse

,many sorts of

chintz or I n dian callicoes printed , tal low,red painting

colours, Can ary wine, sayes , perpe t u an as i nferior to the

Datca and sacked up in painted t ille t s with the Eng l isn

arms,many sorts of white cal licoes , b lue and white l inen ,

C/zin a satins , Baroadoes rum ,other strong waters and

sp irits,beads of al l sorts

,b u ckshaw s

,Wels /z plain

,boy

sades, romb erges , clouts , gin garu s , taffeties , amber, brandy,

flower,Hamou rgn brawls , and white, blue and red

chequered l inen,narrow Gu in ea stuffs chequered , ditto

broad, Old hats , purple beads . The Dan es , B ran den ou rg ners

and P ort ug u es e provide thei r cargoes in Hol lan d commonlycons ist ing of very near the same sort of wares as I haveobserved the Du tcn make u p thei rs , the two former havinghardly anything of their own proper to the trade of theGold Coast bes ides copper and si lver

,either wrought or in

bul l ion or in p ieces of eight, which are a commodity a lsothere.The P or t ug u es e have most of thei r cargoes from Hollan d

under the name i ezvs residing there,and they add some

things of the product Of B raz il,as tobacco

,rum

,tame cattle

,

S t . Tome cloth,others from R io Forcado and other ci rcum

jacent places in the Gul f of Guinea.”

USE MADE OF EUROPEAN GOODS BY THE NATIVES

OF THE GOLD COAST . BARBOT .

The broad l inen serves to adorn themselves and thei rdead men ’s sepulchers w ithin , they also make clouts thereof.The narrow cloth to p ress palm oi l in Old sheets they wrap

622 EARLY TRADE W ITH AFR ICA APP.

but are l iable to pay a capitation fee Of one shi l l ing per headfor the l iberty of passing down to the sea-shore either totraffic or attend the markets with their provisions or othersorts of the product of the land

,and pay nothing at their

return home,goods or no goods

,unless they by chance leave

thei r arms in the vi l lage,then the person so do ing is to pay

one shi l l ing.

The collectors account quarterly with their kings,and

del iver up what each has received in gold at his re

spect ive post, but the fifth part of the fish they collectis sent to the k ing as they have it

,and serves to feed his

fami ly .

NO fisherman is al lowed to d ispose of the first fish he hascaught ti l l the duty is paid

,but are free to do it aboard

ships,wh ich perhaps may be one reason why so many of

them daily sel l such quantities of their fish to the seafaringmen .

Barbot,remark ing on this Gold Coast trade , says The

Blacks of -the Gold Coast,having traded with Europeans

ever since the 14th century, are very wel l sk i l led in thenature and proper qual ities of al l European wares andmerchandize vended there but in a more particular man ners ince they have so Often been imposed on by the Europeans

,

who in former ages made no scruple to cheat them in thequal ity, weight and measures of their goods which at firstthey received upon content

,because they sayi t would never

enter into thei r thoughts that white men,as they cal l the

Europeans, were so base as to abuse their credulity andgood opinion of us . But now they are perpetua l ly on

,

their guard in that particular, examine and search verynarrowly al l our merchandize

,piece by p iece, to see each

the quality and measure contracted for by samples ; for

111 THE GOLD COAST 623

instance,i f the cloth is wel l made and strong

,whether dyed

at Haerlem or Leyden—if the knives be not rusty—if thebasons

,kettles

,and other utensils of brass and pewter are

not cracked or otherwise faulty, or strong enough at thebottom . They measure iron bars with the sole of the footthey tel l over the strings Of con tacarb e l

,taste and prove

brandy,rum or other l iquors , and wil l presently discover

whether it is not adulterated with fresh or salt water orany other mixture , and in point ofFrench brandy wil l preferthe brown colour in it. I n short they examine everythingwith as much prudence and abil ity as any European cando .

”

“ The goods sold by Eng l isn and Du tcn,Dan es

,B ran

den bu rgners , &c.,ashore, out of these settlements are

general ly about 2 5 per cent. dearer to the Blacks than theyget aboard ships in the Roads the supercargoes of the shipscommonly fal l ing low to get the more customers and makea qu icker voyage, for which reason the forts have veryl ittle trade with the Blacks during the summer season

,

which fi l ls the coast with goods by the great concourse ofships at that time from several ports of Europe ; and as thewinter season approaches most of them withdraw from thecoast

,and so leave elbow room for the fort factors to trade

in their turn during that bad season .

“ In the year 1 682 the gold trade yielded hard ly 45 percent. to our French ships , clear of any charges ; but thatmight be imputed to the great ‘

m u mb er of trading Ships ofseveral European nations which happened to be at that timeon the coast

,whereof I counted 42 in less than a month’s

time had the number been half as great that trade wouldhave appeared 60 per cent. or more, and i f a cargowere p roperly composed it might Wel l clear 70 per


cent . in a smal l ship sai l ing with l i ttle charge, and th evoyage directly home from this coast not to exceed 7 or 8months out and home

,i f wel l managed .

”

These Observations of Barb o t ’s are al ike interesting andinstruct ive

,and in princ ip le appl icable to the trade to

day. DO not imagine that Barbot was an early member of theAborigines ’ Protection Society when he holds forth on theway in which Europeans in former ages ”basely dealt withthe angel ic confidence of the Blacks . On e of his greatcharms is the d ifferent opinions on general principles

,

&c.,he can hold without noticing it himsel f : of course

this necessitates your reading Barbot right through,and

that means 668 pages fol io in double column,or some

thing l ike pages Of a modern book ; but that’sno matter

,for he is un ifo rmly charm ing and reeks with

information .

Wel l,there are other places in Barbot where he speaks

,

evidently with convictions,of “ this rascal fel low Black

,

”&c .

and gives long accounts Of the way in which the black mancheats with false weights and measures

,and adulterates ;

and i f you absorb the whole of his information and test i tagain st your own knowledge

,and combine it with that o f

others , I think you wil l come to the conclusion that i t is notnecessary for the phi lanthropist to fidge t about the way theEuropean does his s ide to the trade the moral ist may dropa large and heavy tear on .both white and black

,but that

is al l that is required from him . Unfortunately this is notal l that is done nowadays : the black has got hold ofGovernmental Op in ion , and just when he is more than keeping his end u p in commercial transactions , he has got theGovernment to hand icap his white fel low—trader with a massof heavy dues and irritating restrictions

,which wi l l end most


large coral earrings,cu t lace s gi lded and broad , s i lk scarfs

large u mb re l lors , pieces of eight, long pyramidal bel ls .”Al l the above-mentioned goods are also proper for thetrade in Ben in

, R io Lagos and al l along the coast to R ioGabon .

BENIN TRADE GOODS.

Exports,1 67 8 : cotton cloths l ike those of Rio Lagos ,

women slaves,for men slaves (though they be al l fore igners ,

for none of the natives can be sold as such) are nota l lowed to be e xported

,but must stay there ; j asper

stones,a few tigers ’ or leopards ’ skins

,acory or blue coral ,

elephants ’ teeth , s ome piemin to ,or pepper . The blue

coral grows in branch ing bushes l ike the red coral at thebottom of the rivers and lakes i n Benin

,which the natives

have a pecul iar art to grind or work into beads l ikeol ives

,and is a very p rofitable merchandise at the Gold

C oast,as has been Observed .

“The Benin c loths are of 4 bands striped blue and white ,an el l and a hal f long

,only proper for the trade at Sabou

r iver and at Angola,and cal led by the blacks monpon ogu a

and the blue narrow cloths ain oas is ; the latter are muchinferior to the former every way

,and both sorts made in the

in land country .

“ The European goods are these : cloths of gold and si lver,

scarlet and red cloth,al l sorts Of cal icoes and fine l inen

,

Haerle7n stuffs with large flowers and wel l starched,i ron

bars,strong spirits

,rum and brandy, beads or bugles of

several colours,red velvet

,and a good quantity of Boejie s ,

caw ries as much as for the Ardra (Fida) trade bein g themoney of the natives

,as wel l as them false pearls , Dutch

1 11 NEW AND OLD CALABAR TRADE 627

cans with red streaks at one end , bright brass large ringsfrom 5 to 5 5 ounces weight each, earrings of red glass orcrystal

,gilt looking glasses , crystal , &e .

”

OUWERE (NOW CALLED WARR I ) TRADE, AND THE

NEW CALABAR TRADE,1 678 .

Exports mainly slaves and fine cloths from New

Calabar district and Ou w ere .

‘The p rincipal thing thatpasses in Calabar as current money among the natives isbrass rings for the arms or legs

,which they cal l bookie

,

and they are so nice in the choice of them,that they wi l l

Often turn over a whole cask before they find 2 to p leaset hei r fancy .

’

The E ng l ish and Du tc/z import there a great deal Ofcopper in small bars

,round and equ al

,about 3 feet long ,

weighing about I i lbs . , which the blacks of Calabary workwith much art

,spl i tting the bar into 3 parts from one end

to the other,which they polish as fine as gold

,and twist

the 3 p ieces together very ingenious ly into cords to makewhat form of arm rings they p lease .”

OLD CALABAR TRADE,1 678 .

The most current goods of Europe for the trade of OldCalabar to purchase Sl aves and elephants ’ teeth are iron bars ,i n qual ity and chiefly

,copper bars

,blue rags

,cloth and striped

Gu in ea clouts of many colours , horse bel ls , hawks ’ bel ls ,ran goes , pewter basons of I , 2 , 3 and 4 lbs . weight, tankardsofditto of 1

,2,and 3 lbs . weight, beads very smal l and glazed

yel low , green , purple and blue, purp le copper armlets or armrings of Angola make , but this last sort of goods is pecul iarto the Port ug u ese.

”

S S 2

628 EARLY TRADE W ITH AFRICA APP.

The blacks there reckon by copper bars , reducing al lsorts of goods to such bars ; for example, 1 bar of iron

, 4

copper bars ; a man slave for 38 and a woman slavefor 37 or 36 copper bars .

TRADE OF RIO DEL REY, AMBOZES COUNTRY,

CAMARONES R IVER, AND DOWN TO R IO

GABON.

The Du tch have the greatest share in the trade here inyachts sent from M ina on the Gold Coast

,whose cargo con

s ists mostly of smal l copper bars of the same sort a s ment ion ed at Old Calabar, i ron bars, coral , brass bason s , of therefuse goods of the Gold Coast

,bloom coloured beads or

bugles and purple copper armlets or rings made at Loan dain Angola ,

and presses for lemons and oranges . I n exchangefor which they yearly export from thence 400 or 500slaves

,and about 10 or 1 2 tons weight Of fine large teeth

,

2 or 3 of which commonly weigh above a hundredweight ,besides accory ,

javel ins and some sorts of knives whichthe blacks there make to perfection , and are proper for thetrade of the Gold Coast.”

Amboz es country, s ituated between the Rio del Rey andR io Camaron es

,is very remarkable for the immense height

of the mountains i t has near the seashore,which the

Spaniards cal l Al ta Tierra de Amhoz i, and reckon some ofthem as high as the P ihe of Ten erif fe (this refers to the greatCamaroon

,feet) . Trade in teeth , accory and slaves , for

iron and copper bars , brass pots and kettles, hammeredbugles or beads

,bloom colou r purple , orange and lemon

colour,ox horns

,steel fi les

,&c.

”

The trade in the Rio Gabon at this time was inferior to

630 EARLY TRADE W ITH AFRICA APP.

hats,shirts

,and al l sorts of si lks out Of fashion in E u rope,

hooks, &c.,

of each sort a l ittle in proportion .

”

In connection with this now but l ittle considered island ofSan Tomé, so cal led from having been discovered in theyear 147 2 , under the direction of Henry the Navigator, onthe feast day of the Apostle Thomas, there is an interest ingbit of h istory

,which has had considerable bearing on the

cu lture of the Lower Congo regions .The Portuguese, Observing the ferti l ity of the soi l of thisisland

,decided to establ ish a colony there for the con

ven ien ce of trading in the Gu inea regions but the cl imatewas so unwholesome that an abundance Of men died before itwas wel l settled and cultivated . V iolent fevers and cho licksthat drove them away soon after they were set a-shore .”The first design of settl ing there was in the year 1486

but perceiving how many perished in the attempt, and thatthey could better agree with that of the conti nent on thecoast Of Guinea

,i t was resolved by King JaO I I . Of

Portugal that al l the Jews within his dominions,which were

vastly numerous,should be obl iged to receive baptism ,

orupon refusal be transported to the coast of Guinea , wherethe Portuguese had al ready several considerable settlementsand a good trade , considering the time since its fi rstd iscovery.

“A few years after such of those Jews as had escaped themalignant air

,were forced away to this Isle Of San Tomé

these married to black women , fetched from Angola in greatnumbers

,with near men of the same country.

“From these Jews married to black women in process of

time proceeded mostly that brood of mu lattos at this dayinhabiting the island . Most of them boast of being descended from the Portuguese and thei r constitution is by

I I I CONGO AND CABENDA 63 1

nature much fitter to bear with the ma lignity of the air. (Fo ra ful l account Of this matter see the H is tory of P or t ugal byFaria y Sousa, p .

San Tomé is now very flourishing,on account of its so i l

being su ited to cocoa and coffee, and there are tod ay therep lenty of ful l -blooded Portuguese but the Old strain ofJewish mulattos sti l l ex ists and is represented by individualsthroughout al l the coast regions ofWest Africa . Moreover

,

these mulattos secured in the seventeenth century a monopoly for Portugal Of the slave trade in the Lower Congo ,and I largely ascribe the prevalence of customs identical withthose mentioned in the Old Testament that you find amongthe Fjort tribes to their influence , although you always findsuch customs represented in al l the native cultures in WestAfrica (presumably because the West African culture i swhat the Germans would cal l the but I fancy in noculture are they so developed as among the Fjort s .

1

TRADE GOODS FOR CONGO AND CABENDA,1 700 .

Blue bafts,a piece contain ing 6 yards and of a deepalmost black colour

,and is measured either with a stick of

27 inches, of which 8 sticks make a piece , or by a lesserstick

,1 8 inches long, 1 2 of which are accounted a p iece ,

Gu in ea stuffs , 2 p ieces to make a p iece, taps eils have thesame measure as blue bafts .Nican ee s , the same measure.Black bays

,2 5 yards for a p iece, measured by 5 sticks of

1 8 inches each .

An n abas ses , 10 to the piece.1 For th e reason s for th e u n health in es s of th is is lan d see Travel s

in Wes t Africa (Macm il lan ), p . 46 ,


Painted callicoes , 6 yards to the piece.Blue paper S les ia, 1 p iece for a piece. Scarlet, 1 stick of

1 8 inches or 5 a yard is accounted a piece.Muskets , 1 for a piece.Powder, the barrel or rundlet of 7 lbs . goes for apiece.Brass basons

,10 for a piece . '

We carry thither thelargest .Pewter basons of 4, 3 , 2 and 1 lb . The NO . 4 goes 4 tothe piece

,and those of 1 lb. 8 to a piece .

Blue perpe t u an as have become but of late in greatdemand

,they are measured as blue bafts

,6 yards making

the piece .Dutch cu t laces are the most valued because they have

2 edges,2 such go for a piece .

Coral,the biggest and largest is much more acceptable

here than smal l coral,which the Blacks value so l ittle

that they wil l hardly look on it,usual ly 1 5 oz . is computed

a piece .M emoran du m . A whole piece Of blue bafts containscommonly 1 85 yards , however some are shorter and othersexceed .

P en tadoes . Commonly contain 9 or 9 5 to the piece .Taps eils . The p iece usual ly holds I 5 yards .N ican ees . The piece is 9 '

Or 9 5 yards long.

”

The main export of Congo was slaves and elephants ’teeth and grass clothes cal led Tib on ges , were used by thePortuguese as at Loan do in Angola. Some of them s inglemarked with the arms of Portugal

,and others double

marked,and some unmarked .

The single marked cloth was equal in value to 4 unmarked ,equal to about 8 pence .

INDEX

A

ABIABOK ,1 63 , 1 80

—1 84Ab iadion g, 1 80

Ab on ema (see N ew Calab ar)Ab rah

,oracle at , 1 72

Admin is trat ion (s ee Crow n Co lon y)Adult ery law s , 434, 454, 5 36African

acclimat is at ion of,In dian s

, 5 3—54

agricu lt u re , 341n at u re of, 63 , 1 24, 1 68 , 1 77

Alemb a rapid fet ish , 1 77Alumah

,Kin g, 458

Amachree,Kin g, 500 , 503 , 505

Amomu m, 56

An amaqu oa, 82

An ces t or Worship , 1 3 1 1 3 5An don is 5 38

—5407 5 53

An go la, 1 96, 283An imal deit ie s , 5 1 3 ,

Sn ake an d Shark)An t s

Driver, 2 5—33My riaica moles ta

, 33 , 34Apot hecary, 1 80—1 84Ashan t ee , 1 1 5 , 144, 368

As s in i, 73 , 83

At lan t is , 227Ayz in go , 108

Az amb u ja, 2 58

Wes t

5 1 5 (see

BAFANGH ,1 5 2

Bakele , 1 86Ban t u , 23 1 (see N egro)Bar, cu s t om, 5 23

Barb ot, 46, 69 , an dAppen dix I I I .

Bas e l mis s ion , I IOBas t ian , 1 37 , 1 54Bath s , medical , 1 82 , 1 83Ben ce I s lan d, 363 6 118 3 5 90, 1 5 3Ben gu e l la, 2 10, 286—287Ben in , Bigh t of, 4

fe t ish of,141 - 144 (s ee Ap

pen dix I )n at ive s of kin gdom , 448

-

468

B in ger, 83Bob Man u e l , Kin g, 507 , 509Bon n y, 142 ) 495

—509 : 5 10)

“free,

5 1 6, 540

B rahman ism,1 19

Bras s River,140, 468

—49 1

Bris t ol,83

Broh emie, 45 8

Briie Sieu r,27 1—273

B u rial C u s t om s,144

—1 50, 45 2—45 5

B u sh figh t in g, 3 1 9s ou l

,208

,209

C

CABINDA,1 1

,1 86

Calab ar, 54, 140

—142fe t ish

,144

his tory, 5 5 2—56 1New

, 49 1

Cameroon s,8 1

,23 1 ,

Can oes, 99

—10 1Catfish

, 96, 97Cen t ipedes , 8 1

Chamb erlain,Rt . Hon b le . J.

,

Chamb ers of Commerce, 323

Charms,163—169

Chiloan go, 108—1 1 2

INDEX

C lerk s, 329, 3 5 7 ,

C oin age , n at ive, 82Co lon ial Office

, 30 5 , 324—330

Comey, 444, 447 , 5 23C ompe t it ion , 41 7Com te , 1 1 5Con go

B e lge , 54River

,1 02

,238

Cookey Gam ,Kin g, 497

Corisco,89—90

Crab s,105

Crocodiles,2

w orsh ip of,1 40

Crow n Co lon y, 3 1 7 , 3 1 9, 326, 36 1 ,

366 , 390. 41 7—41 8

s tat is t ics , 348, 3 5 7Crow th er

Bishop, 48 1

Archdeacon , 487 , 509Cu stom s

,

”n at ive , 45 1 (see Fet ish )

fi scal, 408, 410, 4 1 3 , 444, 447

DAHOMEYfet ish

,144

fi scal, 347

—348

Dan fodio,278

Dash, 446

De Bros s es , 1 14Deb t ors , 43 1 , 433Den n e t t

,R . E. , 1 54, 1 83 , 1 86, 1 92

De Zu rara, 2 5 2 , 2 5 3Dieppe , 2 56, 26 1

—263Diplomacy

,280

Direct taxat ion, 33 1

Diseas e (see Doct or)agu e , 1 84b ois i

,1 84

fvuma,1 84

hys teria, 1 88

leprosy, 1 84malign an t me lan cho ly

,1 88

pn eumon ia,1 88

small -pox, 1 84—1 88s ou l

,diseases of, 1 99 , 209 , 2 1 3

w orm s, 1 84

yaw s,1 87

Doct or (see Apothecary)clin ical

,1 99—2 19

w itch,1 63, 169, 1 80, 1 82 , 2 1 3

Dream-s ou l,205 , 207

Drum fi sh,108

Du ppy, 68Du tch

,262

,268

Dye w ood, 78

E

E BOES,1 38 (see Ib o)

Eb on y, 7 8

Eb um t u p , 2 14Edin hu rgh Review ,

1 57Egb o (see Law God)E lectrical fi sh , 1 07E l lis

, Sir A. R,1 1 5—1 1 6

,1 32 ,

1 34- 1 39

E lmin a,2 57

Eman equ et t a, 57Expen dit u re (see Crow n Co lon y)Export s , 334

F

FACE,th row in g t he , 1 6 5—1 67

Familiar spirit s , 1 6 1

Fan garee charm s,1 64

Father,makin g , 1 46—148, 45 1Fe t ish

,1 1 2—1 79

“cu s t om s

,

”1 73 , 1 76, 450

days,1 7 1 , 1 74

defin it ion s of,1 1 3 , 1 I 6, 1 1 9,

1 7 1

derivat ion of th e w ord, 1 1 4

gods an d godde s s e s

Ab as si-b oom , 1 5 5M b u iri, 1 1 8N kala, 1 1 8Nyan ku pon g, 1 5 5N zamb i 1 1 8 , 1 37 , 1 54N zamb i Mpu n gu , 1 5 5Sasab on s um ,

1 1 7Srahman t in

,1 37

Hou s e,de script ion of

,1 70,

5 1 4Man

,1 68 , 1 7 1

Schools of, 1 37Calab ar

,144, 1 5 1 , 1 60

Mpon gw e , 1 5 1 , 1 54, 1 60Nkis s ism

,1 54

—1 63T sh i an d Ew e an dYoru b a

,

1 39Fiscal arran gemen t s , 290 (s eeCrow n Co lon y)

Fish, qu al ity of, 9 5 , 1 06—109

638 INDEX

Maxw e ll , Sir Wm . , 329M elegu et ta Coas t , 5 1

- 6 1

Me l li, 244—245 , 426M en di, 1 64M erolla,M in s tre ls , 149M is s ion ary

, 320 , 478 , 509 , 5 1 2 , 5 56

M ohammedan ism an dFe t ish , 1 26

Mon rovia, 46

Mon t eiro , 1 96Mpon gw e , 1 5 1M u n go Mah Lob eh , 236

M u rder, 454

M u s ic, 64—66

M u t terrech t, 437

NASSAU , Dr. , 89, 1 30, 1 5 2—1 5 3 ,

1 5 9Nan a

, 45 1 , 458

Negro , 420—423Ngan ga b ilon go (see Apoth ecary)N iger Compan y, 279 , 306, 360, 394N kala

,1 1 8

Nkis s ism,1 54

- 1 5 5 , 1 63Nyan ku pon g , 1 5 5N zamb i

,1 1 8

,1 37 , 1 54

—1 5 5 , 1 59N zamb i Mpu n gu , 1 1 8, 1 5 5

O

OBEAH , 1 39 , 140, 2 1 9Ogi, 1 38

Ogow é, 45 , 79, 1 02

Oko J umb o,Kin g, 5 22, 5 29

—532

Omb u iri,1 1 6

Opob o , 142, 5 32, 540—549

Ordeal,160

,1 6 1 , 490

Oru,1 60

Ou lof,273

Ou w ere,143, 630

P

PALM Oil,1 5 (see Appen dix I )

Pan avia,1 5 2

Paradise grain s , 56—5 7Parliam en tary re s o lu t ion ( 1 86

Pepple , Kin g, 497 , 5 1 0, 5 1 2 , 5 1 7Pepper coas t (see Grain )Phoen ician s

,227 (see Han n o )

Po lice, 333, 407

Poorah,1 39

Port u gu es e , 1 14, 2 52—2 56, 28 1 , 290

s t on e mon umen t s,2 59

Po s t -mort em,2 1 1

Pries t s,1 40—141 , —1 70, 499,

505 (see Fe t ish Man )Property

an ces t ral, 428

family, 428

privat e, 428—429St oo l

, 428

R

RAILWAYS,287 , 3 50

Re ligion , n at ive (see Fe t ish )Reven u e

, 309 , 41 3 (see Crow n

Co lon y)n at ive

, 444 447 , 5 23

S

SAI LS,I OO—I O I

Sataspes , 228

San An drew ,Rio

, 5 8, 70, 73San gu in , 274Sas ab on s um

,1 1 6—1 1 7

Scorpion , 80, 8 1 , 1 85Sen egal, 27 3, 2 7 5Shadow -s ou l

,200

,207—208

Shake b an d, 446

Shark, 50 1

Sierra Leon e, 36, 1 39, 1 49, 344

res ou rce s Of, 339

Sisa,202

Sleep diseas e , 1 89—1 93s tages of, 1 92

—193Smal l-pox, 1 86—1 88Smalt z

,273

Sn ake w orsh ip, 140, 483—490, 456Sob o

, 45 7Societ ies , Secre t , 1 39 , 1 70, 5 56—566(see Law God)

Son g-n et,149—1 50

Sou l , 1 99—200Fe t ish View of the , 1 29

—1 3 1Divis ion of th e H uman , 200

204

INDEX 639

Sou th Africa; 394 V

Spiders , 140Spin oza 1 1 2—1 1 3 , 1 20 VEGETATION, 32

—33

Spirit an dMat t er, Nat ive View V irt u e , Nat ive idea of, 1 78

1 29—1 30 V o lta, 96

Spirit s , C las s es of, 1 30 Vou dou , 1 39—140

Familiar, 1 6 1Tou ch of, 1 33

Srahman daz i, 146, 1 5 1 , 202 WSrahman t in

,1 37

Stat esman sh ip , 3 1 1 WANGA (Ob eah ) , 1 39—140, 2 1 9Stat is t ics , 348

—35 7 War , 37 1

Warri, 143, 459 , 630Weal th

, 438

T We ll-dispos ed on es , 1 32

We s t Africa, Po lit ical aspect of,TCHANGA (Voudou ) , 1 39 3 10

Th em,

”1 32 We s t I n dies , 302 , 324

Th eopompu s , 226 Wil l Braid, 493

—497

Timb er, 73—80 Wil ls , 436

Timb u ct oo , 277 Win n ebah,1 7 5

Tom -t om s , 64 Win n ab oes , 47 1—474Toppin g, 5 2 5 Witchcraft , 1 5 7—1 68T orn adoes

,1 8—1 9 , 47

—48 law , 430 (see Fet ish )

Trade (s ee Crow n Co lon y)go ld, 241—246, 2 57Palm oil

, 3 54-

3 59 Xru b b er, 3 5 3s al t

,242—248, 339 XYLOPHON IC in s trumen t s , 65

t imb er, 7 8

t ob acco , 248 , 339T sh i

, Y

Tw in s , t reatmen t of,148

Tylor, Profes sor, 1 1 5 YAM cu s tom,1 74

- 1 7 5 , 450Yaw s

,1 87

UKUK IWE,160

Umaru l’Haji, 278 ZAIRE

,102

THE END

R I CHARD CLAY AND SONS , L IM ITED, LONDON AND BUNGAV .

PRESS 0PIN!ONS

DAIL Y CHRON I CLE . There is somethin g so qu ain t abou t MissKin gs ley

’

s diction , s o irresis tib ly comical is her w ay of looking at thin gs , so

kind and gen t le an d w oman ly is she throu gh it all , that the b ig volume b eforeu s can scarcely fai l to p lease an ybody, w hile it w il l b e the book of trave l ofthe season for n early everybody.PALL MALL GAZE TTE . On e of the b righ tes t , cleveres t , and mos t

en tertain in g books of t rave l that has appeared for a very lon g time.

”

DAIL Y NEWS.—“ No w ork on West African life , cu stom, religion ,

man n ers , character, an d avocat ion s , an d n at u ral scen ery, is so fu l l of variou sIn format ion as M iss Kin gs ley’s , or bet ter w ri t ten .

”

ST. jAMES’S GAZE TTE . Miss Kin gs ley seems to have met w ith a

marvel lou s n umb er of s u rprisin g adven t u res , an d alw ays to have fal len on her

feet . I n describ in g these adven t u res she is vivaciou s , humorou s , an d

audaciou s , an d con trives to impress her person ality on almos t every page .

We b elieve that it w il l ear n a perman en t p lace in the literatu re dealing w ith

Wes t Africa, an d it is a really deligh tfu l book .

”

STANDARD. A p leasan t volume, fu l l of in teres tin g and importan tformation , w hich w il l appeal t o a large circle of readers .

”

SCOTSMAN —“ On e of the mos t graphic, lively, an d en tertain ingrecords of trave l in Africa.

”

M ORN ING POSTI—“ That Miss Kin gs ley w ou ld w rite an in terest in gbook everyon e fel t su re , b u t that she w ou ld give u s so in s tru ctive, as w el l as sohumorou s a volume, was scarcely expected.

”

AFRI CAN RE VIE I/V. I t possesses , to a high degree, b oth solid valu ean d artis tic charm. I t is decidedly the b es t modern book of t ravels w e haveever read. M iss Kin gs ley is j u s t an d sh e is fran k . She has an in seein g min d,an d w hat sh e sees an d perceives is w el l w orthy the at ten tion of everyon ein teres ted in Wes t Africa.

”

LEEDS MER CUR Y. We have seldom read a more fascin at in g book ofAfrican t rave l an d adven tu re, an d the pleasan t w it an d shrewd ob servat ion of

the w riter assert themselves on almos t every page.

”

GLASGOWHERALD. Qu ite the b es t book of trave ls w e have seen

for a lon g t ime .

SPE OTATOR .—A very s trikin g an d origin al b ook of travels . A very

fascin atin g piece of w ork . A more readab le book of travels it w ou ld indeedb e hard to n ame.

”

GUARDIAN Miss Kin gs ley’

s book con tain s 736 pages , an d n o on e

w ith an y sen s e w ou ld w ish it w ere shorter. I t con tain s also an immen se dealthat

‘

is amu sin g an d in s tru ctive. Mis s Kin gs ley has don e thin gs w hich n o

w oman , an d probab ly very few men , ever did b efore . Her w ritin g an d h er

ju dgmen t s Show u nmistakab ly a h igh ly t rain ed in te l ligen ce an d great n atu ralpow er of Ob servat ion . What sh e has to say, therefore , on an y s u bject con n ectedw ith Wes t Africa is w orth seriou s con sideration .

”

SPEAKER—Miss Kin gs ley is an ob server of the firs t ran k , and her bookis fu l l of ethn ological , botan ical , geo logical , an d social details an d an ecdotes ,al l served u p w ith a sau ce of h umou r w hich makes th em deligh tfu l readin g foreven the leas t scien tific of readers . Perhaps the mos t in terestin g, as it

certain ly is the freshes t an d raciest , recordof African experien ces pu b lished inrecen t years .

”

SATURDA Y RE VIE I/V. On e of the mos t amu sin g, in stru ctive, an ddeligh tfu l b ooks of travel w h ich the Dark Con t in en t has ever given u s .

”

MACM ILLAN AND co .,Lm

,LONDON.

. S OME

NEW BO

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CONTENTS

W e s t African S t u dies ,B y MARY H . KINGSLEY . 2 1 5 . n e t

Nat ive Trib e s o f C e n t ral Au s t ral ia .By B ALDWIN SPENCER ,

M .A. , an d F . G I LLEN 2 1 5 . n et

I n t h e Au s t ralian B u sh an d on t h e C oas t o f t h e CoralS ea .

B y R . SRMON . 2 1 5. n e t

Th e Val l ey of Ligh t . .By W . BASILWORSFOLD. 105. 11e t

Th e Ph ilip p in e is lands an d t h eir Pe oiol e .

’ By D.I C .

WORCESTER .

N in e Y e ars at t h e Gold Coas t ,By REV . D. KEM

'

P. 1 2 5 .

'

6d. n e t

Th e S ou l of'

a P eop le .By H . q

'

am e . 1 45 .

M em orial s—r-Fam il y a n dPers on al ,Pers on al an dPol it ical ;B y ROUNDELL EARL OF SELBORNE . 2 part s . 2 5 5 . n e t each

L ife an dLe t t ers ofH . C . Ra'

ik es . ByH . s r . J . R u m . 1 05 . n e t

Baron B ramw e ll . o f He ver an d h is Op inion s .By

C . FAIRFIELD. 1 05 . n e t

Th e M edieval Emp l r e .By H . FI SHER . 2 1 5 . n e t

Roman Socie t y in t h e Las t C e n t ury of t h e W est ernEmpire ,

By S . DI LL . 1 2 5 . n e t

l

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8vo‘

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S “ A FR I C AN

STUD I E S

MARY“

iH. K I NGSLEYAUTHOR o r

“TRAVELS I N w as r AFRICA

WI TH I LL USTRATIONS

fl u n h on

MACM I L L AN AND'

EOA L MM T M )

NEW YORK : THE MACM I LLAN COMPANY

1 8 9 9'

Al l . r ight s reserv ed

C ONTEN T S

CHAPTER I . I n trodu ctory—I I . Sierra Leon e an d it s surroun din gs .I I I . African Characteristics—I V . Fishin g m WestV .

'— Fetish .

—V I . Schoo ls of Fe t ish —V I I . Fetish and .W itch

craft. —V I II . African Medicin e .

— IX. The W itch .

Doctor.X.

-Early Trade in West Africa .

—XI . Fren ch Discovery of

W est Africa.

—XII . Comm erce in We s t Africa —!XI I I The

C rown Co lon y Sys tern .—XIV. The C row n Co lon y,

Sys tem in

Wes t Africa—XV . More of the C rown Co lon y Sys tem .

XV I . The!

C lash' of C u l tu res —XV I I ; An Alternat ive PlanXV I I I . African Property .

APPEND IX.

—I . A short des cript ion of the Natives of the N ige r CoastProtectorate , w ith som e accou n t of their C u s torn s

, Rel igion ,

Trade , &‘

c. By M . le Com te C . N . de C ardi . '—I I . A Voyage t o

t he African Oil R ivers tw en ty-five years ago . By John Harford.

I II . Trade goods used in the early trade w ith Africa as g ivenby Barbot an d other Writers of th e Seven teenth Ce n tu ry. ByM . H . Kin gsley .

INDEX .

w e l l . Ethn o logists of'

difi'

eren t theories '

have been en ab led t o u se

such facts as they saw fi t ; b u t on e of the greatest of ethn o logis ts hasgrumb led at me , n ot for n ot givin g a theory ,

b u t for om ittin g t o

show the in ter re lation ship of certain groups of facts , an in terw e lat ionship his acu ten ess en ab led h im t o kn ow existed. Therefore I heregive the key to a good deal of this in ter re lat ion ship by dividin g thedifferen t class es of Fetishism in to four s choo l s . I n order to do thisI have n ow t o I

p lace before you a good deal of material that w as

e ither crowded o u t of th e other w ork or. con sidered by me to requirefurther inves t igation an d comparison . As fer t he n ew . statemen tsI make , I have been en ab led t o give them here . from the con s tan t

in formatio n an d an swers t o qu estion s I receive from West Africa.

For the res t of the Fetish I remain a m ere photographic p late.Regardin g the other section s of this book , they are t o ; me all

su b s idiary in importan ce to I the Fetish, bu t they be lon g t o it Theyrefer t o i t s env ironmen t, w ithou t a kn owledge of w h ich you can n ot

kn ow t he the ory . What Mr . Macmil lan has t icke ted ,as In trodu ctory—I cou ld n ot fi n d a name fo r it at al l—has a certain bearin g o n West

African affairs , .a5 showin g the l ife On aWe st C oast boat . I mayremark it is a '

sect ion c row ded ou t of my p rev ious book ; so , thoughyou may n ot b e glad t o see it here , you mu st b e glad it w as n ot there .

The fi shin g chapter w as also cas t ou t of Travels I n lVes t Afr zcaC ritics w hom I respect said it w as w ron g of me n ot t o have exp lain edhow I cam e by my fishes . This'.made me fear that they thou ghtI had sto len them , s o I pu b l ished the art icle prompt ly In th e Nat ion al

Review , an d, by the k in dn ess of its editor, Mr. M axs e , I reprin t itI t Is the on ly reprin t in this book .

The chapter o n Law con tain s all the material I have b een s o farab le t o arran ge on this importan t s tu dy . The material on C rim in alLaw I must keep un ti l I can go ou t again t o W e st Africa, an d readfu rther In the min ds of m en in t he African For’est Be lt region ; for In

them , in that region ,is t he origin al text. The con n ect ion betw een

Rel igion an d Law I have n o t reprin ted here , it b e in g availab le , than ks .

to the courtesy of the H ibb ert Trustees , in the Nation al Review .

I have left my stiffes t b it of exp lan ation an d apo logy t il l the last,n ame ly, that re latin g to t he C row n Co lon y system , wh ich is the thin gthat makes m e beg you to disas sociate from m e every frien d I have ,

an d deal w ith me alon e . I am alon e respon s ib le for it , the on ly thin gfor w hich I may be regarded as sharin g the responsib i lity with othersbe in g the stat istics from Govern men t s ources .I t has been the most diffi cu lt thin g I have ever had to do . I wou ld

have given my right han d t o have don e it w e l l , for I kn ow w hat itm ean s if th in gs go on as they are . Alas I am hampered w ith mybadme thod of express ion . I can n ot sh ow yo u an yth in g clearly an d

n eat ly . I have t o show you a serie s of p ictu re s of thin gs , an d hopeyou wil l ge t from tho s e pictu re s the impres sion w h ich Is the t ruth.

I would n ot have m en tion ed this affair at al l , did I n ot.

clearly se ethat ou r presen t m ethod of deal in g w i th trop ical poss ess ion s u n der

t he C row n C o lon y sys tem w as dan gerous fi n an cial ly , an d b rou gh tw ith it s u fferin g t o the n ative races an d disgrace to En gl ish gen t lemen , w ho are b ou n d t o ob ey an d carry won t the orders given them byt he system .

Now Ready . 800. 2 1 3 . n et .

1

.e , l

NATI E'

tJT

NTRALI I AU

BY

BALDWIN SPENCER, M.A.

.I . SOMET IMIE r s LLow or

I 'I I .;s Rors s s0R oqjs lono cx IN THE . umvs as n y h o‘r MELBOURNE

. ’I

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,SPEC lAL

:MAGISTRATE AND SUB-PROTECTOR IOF THE

IABOR IGINES

ALICE SPRINGS, SOUTH AUSTRAL lA ,

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314011 11011"

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'CONTENTS '

CHAPTER I

.I i—I n t rOdn ct ion JI I .

-The'Social O rgan isat ion of the Tr ibes .I I I .

-Certa in ceremon ies Concerned w ith marriagetogether w ith a d iscu ss ion regard in g t he

. Same .

STRAL

V .—The Chur inga or Bu l l -Roarers of the Aruntaand other Tr ibes .

V I'. —I n t ichiu,ma ceremon ies

VI I .—Imiti-at idn ceremon ies.

VI I I .—I n it iat ion ceremon ies (cont inued) . The

En gw u ra ceremony.

IX.—The :En gw u ra

i

-ceremopy‘

X.—Trad it ions deal in g w ith the or igin of the

Al che r in ga ancestors of the Arunta Tr ibe ,and w ith part icular customs .X-I .—Trad it ions deal ing '

w ith '

the orig in of theAl cher inga ancestors of t he Arunta Tribe ,and w ith part icular customs (cont inued) .The Udn irrin git a Totem .

XI I .—Custom s concerned w it h knock ing out of

t eeth n os e-bor ing ; growth of breasts ;blood , blood-l ett ing , blood-g iving, blooddr ink in g ; ha i r ; ch i ldb i rth ; food re s t ric

t ions ; cann ibal ism . Knock ing out of teethXI I I .

—The customs of Kurda it cha and I llapu rinjaand the 'aven gin g‘r

‘

p‘

arty iorA t n in ga .

XIV .—Cu stoms relat ing to burial and mourn ing.

XV .—The I ru n t arin ia and Aru mb u rin ga, or sp iri t

ind ividuals .XV I .

—The mak ing and . the p owers of med ic inemen var ious’ forms of magic .XVII—Methods of obta in ing w iv‘es.XV I I I .

—Myths relat ing to s u n , moon , ecl ipses , etc .XIX.

—C loth ing, weapons , implements , decorat iveart , etc .

PPENDIX A.—The names of th e nat ives .

B .- The Wilyaru Ceremony of th e Urab u n n a

Tr ibe,together . w ith “ references f t o Mr .

Gason’

s account of the Dier i (Dieyer ie)Tribe .

MACM ILLAN AND co . , Lm'

, LONDON

CONTENTS

I I .

— Off to the Burnett .I I I—First Clamping. E xperience.IV .

— The Au'b u rri Camp, :V .—The Departure of the B lacks .

V IA

—TheFlood.

VI I I .

—My Return to theBurnett .IX.

—I n the Main Camp on the Boyne .X.

—Th e;. Orig in al Popu lat ipn :ofAustral ia .XI .

— The North-East Coast Of Austral ia fromB risbane to Cape York .

XI I .

—Th 'ursday I sland and Torres’

Straits .

XI I I .-New Gu inea from Yule I s land to the SouthCape .

XIV —New Gu inea : Fi om the South ‘

Cap‘

e to theEas t C ape

XV .

— ] ava .

'

XTVILflP- Er'

o-mjava to Arr-ib o n zzby‘

C e l'

ebes‘

an d f t he

Northern Mo lu cc-as .XViI iLJ—AmI-abyn a.

XVI I I .—From'Amb '

On to 'Ban d'a an d Journ ey Home ;APPENDIX.

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C O N TE N T S

CHAPTER I .-THE PR I N C I PLE OF C ON T RAST .

I I .

l LUX LhC ET I N TENE B R I S .

I I I .—T ORR E PELL I C E .

IV .- SAN G I OVANN I .

V .—TH E YEAR OF THE MASSAC RES .

V I .

—LUSE RNA .

V II .-TH E VALLEY OF AN GROG NA .

V I I I .

—PRA D EL TORNO .

IX.—TI I E SC H OOL OJ

“T HE BARBES .

I f

X.

—BOBB IO

XI .

—THE ET ERNAL H I LL S .

XII .—T HE VALLEY OF SAN M ART I NO .

XI I I .

—TH E BALS I LLE .

XIV .

—FE NESTRELLE AND M OUNT ALEERG IAN .

XV .

—T II E VALLEY OF RORA .

XV I .

—TH E EMAN C IPAT I ON JUB ILEE .

MACMILLAN AND co , Lm ,LONDON

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I .—THE PH I L I PP INE I SLANDS IN H I ST ORY

I I .—MAN I LA

I I I .

—GENERAL DESC R IPT I ON OF TH E ARC H IPELAGO

IV .—FI RST V I S I T T o PALAW AN

V .

—SEcONDV I S IT T o PAL‘

AWAN

V I .—BALABAC , C AGAYAN FSULU

'

;-M I NDANAO'

,AND BAiS ILAN

V I I .-SE COND V I S I T To M I N DANAO— THE M OROS

VI I I .-SULU

IX.

— TAW I TAW I

X.—PANAY AND GU I MARAS

XI .

—NEG ROS

XI I .—S I QUI J OR

XML— CEBU

XIV .

— SAMAR

XV .

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AND M ARIN DUQUEXVI .

— FI RST V I S I T T o M I ND OROXVI I .

—SE COND AND TH I RD V I SI TS TO M INDOROXV I I I .

-LUZONXIX.

—ROM BLON TABLAS , AND SI BUYANXX.

—CUL I ON AND'

BUSUANGA'APPENDIX

OP IN IONS OF THE PRESS

PALL MALL GAZETTE .—“ Th is b ook is a res u l t of tw o American s cien t ific

expedit ion s to t h e Ph ilippin es in w h ich it s au thor t ook par t . I n th e firs t (1 8 87 -8)h e , w ith tw o o th er former s t u den t s o f Dr. B . S t eere , accompan ied th e Doctor ;

th e s econ d ( 1 890-2 ) w as u n der take n an d carried th rou gh b y t w o of t h e se fou r ,

M r . Worces ter an d Dr . B ou rn s , fi n anced'

by t he gen eros ity of M r . Lou is F .

M en age Of M in n eapo l is . Th ey vis ited L u z on , Palaw an , M in dan ao , M in doro ,

Negros , Masb ateL—b u t w h at 1 3 th e u se Of con tin u in g the lis t I t w as on ly w or th

w h ile to b egin it t h at it s mean in gles s n es s t o almos t every r eader migh t forcib lys u gges t how lit t le I s gen eral ly kn ow n ab ou t America

’

s n ew acqu is it ion . Span ish

con ten t ion s t hat America , in C laim in g t h e S u lu Arch ipe lago , w as askin g fors ome th in g qu ite n ew ove r an d ab ove th e Ph ilippin es have probab ly produ ceda gen eral impres s ion t hat th e Su lu I s lan ds are far aw ay amon g th e Caro lin e s or

[ 12

somew h ere . From al l s u ch m is takes the in valu ab le map here in cl u ded w il l infu tu re save th e reader w hile n o Ph ilippin e n ames w il l ever b e mean in gle s s againafter a peru sal of t h is splen did book , as fu l l of en ter tain men t as of in format ion .

I t w as w ith a view t o b ird-skin s an d scien ce gen erally that th es e Ame rican s

exp lored th e is lan ds ; th ey n ever dreamt th at w ith in a few years circu ms tan ce s

w ou ld cal l for a b ook from on e of th eir n u mb er of u n ivers al in teres t an d of grea*

valu e to their Govern men t . B u t th at is w h at has h appen ed, an d h en ceforth t h i

vol ume an d Foreman’

s admirab le w ork w il l b e t h e t w o in dispen s ab le com

p lemen tary au thorit ies on th e Ph ilippin e s . Th e il lu s t rat ion s , w e may add, ar

n u merou s an d good. W ith tw o or th ree co l u m n s at ou r disposal , w

cou ld fi ll‘

th em w ith firs t rat e scis s orin gs of th e h u mou rs , discoin fort s , an

dan gers of th ese t rave ls , w h ich are qu ite u p t o t h e b e s t s tan dard.

”

ACADEM Y. We h eartily regre t t hat th e mys t eriou s law u n der w h ich bookOf great valu e are pu b l ish ed n eck-an d-n eck in th e early w in termake s it impos s ib lfor u s to fo l low M r . Worces ter th rou gh page s w h ich are Often of en th ral lin

in t ere s t . Th e h u n t in g experie n ce s of h is par ty are some t imes sheer roman ce , an

th e w h o le n arrative is gay an d il lumin at ive . As for th e Span ish ru le , it s charact e

is de liciou s ly in dicated in M r . Worce s t er’

s accou n t of t h e t rou b le w h ich h e an

h is party had to ge t t h eir baggage pas s ed t h rou gh t h e cu s tom s -hou s e .

\GLASGOW HERALD. Th e vo lu me w il l b e read w ith in t en se in teres t i

America , w here it is of special valu eat t h e pre se n t momen t . B u t it is certain t

at tract a large amou n t of at t en t ion in th is cou n t ry al so , s in ce it Open s u p a fie l

of res earch w h ich h as h ith erto b een left almo s t un t ou ch ed. Th e b ook i

han ds ome ly prin ted an d has an imm en se n u mb er Of exce l len t il lu s t rat ion s .

"

THE TIMES A very re liab le con t rib u t ion t o ou r s len der s tock of kn ow ledgOf the great arch ipe lago w h ich th e American people h ave u n dertaken to reclai

from th e cu mu lat ive effect s of cen t u ries Of mis ru le A p leas an t er an d mmreadab le vo lu me Of t rave l s w e have s e ldom me t w ith . Amids t al l t h e hardship

an d dan gers h e e n cou n t ered Profes s or VVOrce s t er’

s American s en s e of h u mor

s eem s n ever t o have fors ake n h im. H e is a s hrew d an d carefu l an d w ithal kin d]ob s erver . Th e i11u s t rat io

'

n s ,

‘

from photograph s taken Oft en u n der con dit ior.

of con s iderab le diffi cu l ty an d dan ger , are exce l len t .

DAILY NEWS . As a gu ide t o t he comprehen s ion of th e Ph ilippin e

qu es tion , M r . Worces ter’

s b ook is in t ere s t in g an d valu ab le j u s t b ecau s e it

material w as origin al ly pu t toge th er w ith ou t an y pos s ib le referen ce to th e w e

w h ich has j u s t open ed a n ew chapter in th e h is tory of th e Eas t an dWes t I n die

M r . Worces t er’

s book is provided w it h a good map , an d a large n u mber

il lu s trat ion s . I t is a w e l l-w rit t en , Wel l -informed, t ime ly pu b lication .

MACMILLAN AND CO LTD., LONDON .

Nozn'

R‘

el

ady . 8 710. Price 1 23 . 6d.

'

n et

N INE YEARS

G OLD COAST

BY THE

REV . DENNIS KEMP

LATE .GENERAI. SUPERINTENDENT WESLEYAN M ISSIONS

COLD COAST DiTTTTTT

WITH A MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS

SLIIIIDBII

MACM I L LAN AND C O . , L I M I T E D


1 8 9 8

o f locu s ts Lib erty , Frat ern it y, Equ ality —Th e Go ld Coas t Board OfEdu cat ion—Difficu l t ies in b u ildin g—Th e t ran sport qu es tion—Kru boysto the re scu e .

CHAPTER XI I IImproved locomotion In ou r jou rn eyin g—Th e arrival Of M is s A. I . Jackman ,

an d h er lamen t ed death—M is s M ary H . Kin gs ley—M is s ion ary me th odsan d M is s ion ary con vert s an d th eir crit ics—Th e devo tion Of B as leM is s ion aries—An il lu s trat ion of the pow er of the Gospe l .

CHAPTER XIV

The B rit ish occu pat ion of Ash an t i—A respectfu l t rib u te to th e B rit ish Armyan d Navy as agen t s t h at make for' j u s t ice an d mercy—An accou n t o f

a jou rn ey t o Ku mas i.

CHAPTER XV

The las t voyage to th e Coas t , in compan y w ith kin dred Spirit s—A b rief

s u mmary of M iss ion w ork , an d refere n ces t o th ree M is s ion ary-made

men .

"

PRESS OPINIONS

NATURE . We w il l take N in e Years at the Gold Coas t firs t , both on

accou n t of it s excep t ion al charm , an d Of it s b ein g the lon ge s t record of

experien ce t here w h ich has b een p u b lish ed s in ce C ru ickshan k ’

5 great b ook .

Al l w h o kn ow W e s t Africa kn ow t hat th e Rev . Den n is Kemp is on e Of th e

great AfI ican mis s ion aries , th e man w h o by th e pow er of h is person ality an d

h is Skil l I n organ is at ion h as made the Wes leyan M is s ion at t h e Go ld C oas t

on e of t h e mos t th rivin g an d s u cce s sfu l mis s ion s in Africa . I t is n eces sary t om

'

en t ion th is , b ecau s e you ge t n o h in t of t h e fact direct ly from M r .

’

Kemp .

M r . Kemp's b ook als o con tain s an in t eres t in g descript ion of t h e Ashan t ee

cou n t ry an d of man y jou rn eys made in to t h e b u sh , an d t o t h e man y tow n s Oft h e Go ld C oas t , an d it ab ou n ds w ith an ecdotes o f person al experie n ce . Al l

t h e se toge th er go t o give u s a vivid pict u re of life I n t hat region . makin g t h eb ook at on ce in t eres t in g t o th ose w ho n eed n o t go t h ere , an d h igh ly u s efu l toth os e w ho mu s t .

SOUTH AFRI CA A high ly in teres t in g repor t of th e experien ce s of th eau th or . Th e book 1 5 in teres t in g alike t o th e ph ilan th ropis t an d th e

commercial man .

’

GLOBE . H is b ook makes very good readin g , an d con tain s an ab u n dan ce

of u sefu l in formation , from w h ich may b e glean ed mu ch th at is of val u e t o

th o se w h ose labo u r may differ I n Character from h is ow n !

ACADEM Y Theyreader w il l find a n u mb er of in t ere s t in g th in gs I n th is

vo lu me an d s ome exce l len t il lu s t rat ion s .

”

METHODI ST TIMES On e reader at leas t h as failed to fin d a du l lsen ten ce in t h is fresh an d fascin at in g b ook . . A b ook w h ich mu s t b e read

b y al l w h o w an t to u n ders tan dWes t Africa,Or to ren der it an y service .

M r . Kemp’

s'

b righ t an d b eau tifu l lydl lu s t ratfl

ed book may b e t aken~as a t ru s t

w or th y gu ide On al l th es e prob lems of m i s s ion ary life , an d everyon e may b e

con fiden t ly en cou raged t o read it th rou gh from b egin n in g to en d.

"DAILY MAIL . An in teres t in g an d u sefu l record. . Th ere is mu ch

in th is fran k an d s imp le accou n t Of life In We s t Africa t ch w il l b e Of he lp tofu t u re w orkers In the same fie ld.

"PALL MALL GAZETTE . A s tory Of qu ie t , u n con sciou s h eroism , s ad

den ed b y it s tale of s u fferin g an d death ,yb righ t en ed b y h u mou r an d in viricib leop t imism

—a s t ory th at n on e can readw ith ou t fe e lin gdraw n tow ards it s w rit er .

’

GLASGOW HERALD. Of very great in tere s t .

SHEFFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH . E n tertain in g as w e l l as in s tru ct ive . Hearty praise mu s t al so b e given t o th e il lu s trat ion s .

MACMILLAN AND C OL,LTD. , LONDON

Now Ready . Second Edition . 8 170; Price 1 43 .

THE

SOUL OF A

H . F I E LD I NG

‘For t o see t h in gs in th eir beau ty is to s ee t hem in t heir t ru th

MATTHEW ARNOLD

it dn h on

MAC M I L LAN AN'

D C O . ,L I M I T E D

NEW'

YORK : THE MACM ILLAN COMPANY

1 8 9 8

EXTRACT FROM ‘

PREFACEI N mos t of t h e qu o t at ion s from B u rm e s e books co n

t ain in g t he l ife o f t he B u ddha I am in deb t ed,if n o t

for t he exact w ords, ye t for t h e s en s e

,t o B ishop

B igan det’

s t ran s lat io n .

Th e s t ory of M a Pa Da has appeared

b efore,b u t -my vers IOn Is t aken en t ire ly

'

friom‘t he

B u rm e s e son g. I t is,

as I have said,kn ow n t o

n ear ly every B u rman .

I w an t ed t o w rit e o n ly w hat t he B u rme s e t hem

s e lve s t hou gh t ; w h e t h er I have su cceeded or n o t,

t h e reader can ju dge .

PRESS OPINIONS

ATHENE UM . Th is is in s everal w ays a n o t ew o r th y b ook . I t is al l too

u n common to fin d a E u ropean o ffi cial displayin g appreciat ive , eve n admir ab le ,

s ympathy w it h t h e re ligiou s b e lie f an d life of an Orien tal peop le wh om h e h as

h ad to govern . M oreover , t h ou gh of late b ooks on t he Th eory of B u ddIsm

h ave b een more n u merou s t han origin al , it is a w e lcome n ove l ty t o fi n d th e

creed il lu s t rat ed an d adorn ed b y t h e pract ice s of it s fo l low ers o f to-day .

ACADEM Y—“ An exce edin g ly in t eres t in g b ook , by o n e w h o h as spen t

h is official exis ten ce amon g t h e B u rmes e , an d h as learn ed t o love an d

u n ders tan d th em as o n e love s an d u n ders tan ds a charmin g family w ith w h om

o n e has b een lon g dome s ticat ed. M r . Fie ldin g regards t he B u rme se re l igionas th e bas is of th e B u rme s e charact er ; an d h e open s h is b ook w ith a chap t er

on B u ddh ism . I t is n o t , h ow ever , a mere recapit u lat ion of t h e scien t ific

s t u dies of B u ddh ism w h ich th e reader can fin d for h ims e lf in man y w orks .

I t is an a t temp t t o p u t t oge t h er a syn op s is o f B u ddh ism as t h e w rit er h as

act u al ly ob served it amo n g th e B u rm es e to give an accou n t of B u ddh ism as

a w orkin g creed. He declare s t hat h e h as omit ted al l mere ly official t each in gs ,

a n d h as con fi n ed h im s e lf t o th os e feat u res w h ich h e fou n d act u al ly emb odied

in th e lives an d vital b e lief of t h e peop le . M r . Fie ldin g’

s pos it ion is pecu liar ,an d ren ders h is accou n t of pecu liar valu e . H is sympat h y for th e peop les eems to h ave led h im in to sympat hy for t he ir creed. So far as o n e can

j u dge , h e w ou ld appear to have adop t ed a certain pract ical B u ddh ism as

t h e mos t s at is factory t h eory of exis t en ce . We w ish w e h ad space t o

qu o te th e ab u n dan t in s t ru ct ive an d fascin at in g in format ion con tain ed in t h is

charm in g b ook . Se ldom has a p eop le b ee n s t u died w ith s u ch lovin g in t imacyby a foreign er . Le t t h e reade r con s u l t t h e b ook a t firs t h an d, an d h e w il lp robab ly , for the res t of h is life , b e l

h au n t ed b y th e . de s ire t o s pen d a yea r

o r so as a n at u ralis ed B u rman in a vil lage of t h e B u rme se j u n gle .

"MORN ING POST . Th e b ook '

s e t s o n e t h in kin g ; every chap ter is

[ 1 8

THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE

cours e , w ork at fie ld labou r. They.

u s u ally learn

to , read an d'

w rit e at home , an d they w eave , an d

many will draw Wat er. For 'to draw w ate r is to go

to the w e ll, an d the w e ll . is the great mee t in g-

place

of the village . As they fill the ir jars they lean o ve rthe cu rb and talk, and it is he re that is told

“

the

late s t n ew s , the lates t flirtat Ion , the lit t le s can dal of

theplace . Very few men or boys come for w at e r ;

carrying is n ot their du ty, an d there Is a proper place

for flirtation . So the girls have the w e ll almos t to

thems e l vesAlmost e very girl can w eave. In man y hou s e s

the re are looms w here the girls w eave their dre s s e san d those of the ir paren ts ; an d man y girls haves talls in the bazaar. Of th is I w ill speak lat er .

Othe r du t Ie s are the h u skin g of rice an d the makingof che root s .

.Of cou rs e , in richer hou s eholds there

w ill b e s e rvan ts to do all th l S but‘

eve n in them the

dau gh t er w ill frequ e n t ly w eave e ithe n for hers e lf or

her paren t s .

’

Almos t“

e very girl'

w ill'

d o s ome thin g,if o n ly to pas s the t ime .

You s ee , they have n o accomplishme n t s . They do

n ot s in g , n or p lay, n or pain t .-I t mu s t n ever be for

go t te n that theircivilization Is re lat ive ly a thou s and

years b ehin d OII rs . Accomplishme n ts are part of thepo lish that a civilizat ion gives , an d this they haven ot ye t reached. Accomplishme n ts are also the

means to fill u p t ime o therw is e u n occu pied ; b u t very

few Bu rme s e girls have an y t ime on their han ds .

There is .n o leis u red clas s , an d there are very few

MACMILLAN AND LTD. ,LONDON

Now ready. With Portraits . 4 Volw‘

mes .

‘

Demy 8vo .

Part I,2 Vols . p rice 25 3 n et . Part I I , 2 Vols . p rice 25 s

“

n et

PART I . FAMILY AND PERSONAL

1 7 6 6 - 1 8 6 5

PART I I . PERSONAL AND POLI TICAL

1 8 6 5 -1 8 9 5

BY

ROU NDELL PALMER

EARL OF SELBORNE

i o n b o n

MACMILLAN AND CO.,LIMITED

NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1898

NOTICE

THESE Memorial s are a Tru s t an d therefore it has

b een my aim,how ever imperfect ly

'carried ou t,

s imply t o"fu lfil my Father’

s in ten tion -I‘egardin g

them,t o the bes t Ofmy know l edge an d Judgmen t .

SOPHIA M.

‘ PALMER.

PRESS OPINI ONS OE PART I .

“

TIMES—Q I n.

th ese early memorials th e cu riou s an d perseve ripg reader'

w ill fin d vivid an d in t imate sketch es of a n otab le family, Of a h appy boyhood,of sch oo lboy days divided betw een Ru gby an d Win ch es ter , of a b rillian tacadem ical career , an d of an early man h ood marked by s eriou s aim s an d

h igh pu rpos es tobe In th e sequ el ab u n dan t ly an dcon scien t iou s ly fu lfi l led.

Fu l l of varied in terest ; an d, if space perin it t ed‘, w e shou ld fi n d it easy an d

p leasan t t o make copiou s ext ract s . Du rin g th e five years ,’

as h e s ays , oi'

my s ervice as on e of th e law offi cers , th e mos t importan t part of ou r du t ies

w as to advis e t h eG overn me nt u pon in t ern ation al qu es t ion s arisin g ou t of th eLoi d Sel born e

’s commen t s on th es e topics are n oAmerican Civil WaI .

in sign ifican t con tribu t ion to the‘

polit ical an d in t ern ation al h is tory of th e t im e .

Th e cas e of th e Alabama is , of cou rse , th e mos t famou s an d th e mos t impor

tan t ; b u t. several oth ei s are fu l l of in t ere s t , an d Lord SelbOI n e t reat s th eiIh is tory w ith con spicu ou s c

'

an dou r and impartiality” Theyabou n d in

sou rces of gen eral an d peI s on al in t eI e s t . I n l iteI ary execu t ion , moreoveI ,

th eir merit is con s iderab le . . We sh al l av.a1 t th e s equ e l of th es e tw ovolumes w ith n o l it t le in teres t . I n th e mean w h ile w e may say th at n ot th e

leas t skilfu l ly w rou gh t an d at tractive of Lord Sel borne ’

s pages are th os e in

w h ich h e es t imat es th e ch aracteris tics of s ome of h is leadin g polit ical an d

profes sion al con t emporaries .

”

MORNING POST.

'I t exh ibit s from th e I n n e r side a s in gu laI ly s t eadfas t ,

in du s triou s , an d uprigh t life , that can n o t fail to comman d admiration

Sh e is to b e con grat u lated on h avin g s o far accomp lish ed h er laboriou s taskin a man n er th at I s eviden t ly I n accordan ce w ith Lord Selborn e ’

s w ish es .

”

STANDARD. I n al l th at Lord Selborn e recal ls of h is Oxford life an d of

th e great religiou s con t rovers ies w h ich w ere j u s t th en begin n in g, th ere is a

fresh an d a livin g pers on al e lemen t , w h ich :dis t in gu ish es th es e volumes veryfavou rab ly from man y oth ers of th e s am e kin d.

”

DAILY NEWS . Loi d SelbOrn e ’s de scI i

'

pt ion of h is gian dfath er an d

h is u n cles is fu l l -oi in t eI es t , an dg u ms .u s‘

cu l ion s s ide glimp s e s in t o th eactu al h is tory of each s u cceedin g year ; an d som e of th es e w ere theyears of

th e great Fren ch Revolu t ion , an d of th e career Of Napoleon B u on apart e an d

th e Res toration of th e Mon arch y . Al l that re lat es to Lord Sel born e ’s

family s tory mu s t b e read w ith th e deepes t in t eres t . On e goes throu gh

th ese volu mes as if h e w ere pas s in g th rou gh a s tately portrait gal lery. We

are glad th at th ere are oth er volume s tofcom e—an oth er portrait gal lery to beopen ed.

ST. JAMES ’S GAZE TTE . LadySoph iaPalmer has don e the w ork

of preparin g th ese memorials for the press w ith con scien t iou s care .

SPEAKER . I t h as a very h igh h is torical valu e as w e‘l l as a biograph ical

in teres t—th e lat teI in t eres t in clu din g some gI aph ic sketch es of emin en tcon temporaries

- and on certain h is tOI ical poin t s it promises to be an

au th ority oi'th e high es t importan ce .

’

THE L IFE AND LETTERS

OF

HENRY CEC IL RAIKESLATE

HER MAJESTY'

S POSTMASTER-GENERAL

BY

H E N R Y S D JC HHQ R A I KE S

fl an h an


f898

‘PRESS O PINIONS

DAILY CHRON I CLE . A con n ected ,an d en tertain in g ske tch of a man

w h o p layed an importan t part in pu b lic life and de served a h igh er p lace I n h is

party than h e received. Th e n u merou s le t ters qu oted are th e b es t reve lat iono f w hat M r . Raike s .w as . I t is a p leasan t ly told s tory of

HSCOTSMAN . The s tory Of an act ive , b u sy , an d u sefu l career

w e l l an d j u diciou s ly to ld by M r . Raikes ’

s son .

GLASGO,W HERALD I t s ecu res th e reader; sympathy from th e firs t ,

an d re tain s it Even tbs mos t serIon s . an d’ ‘

s olid part s are

r e lieved by remin iscen ces an d an ecdo tes , w h ich are ap t ly in t rodu ced an d

s kilfu l ly to ld.

”

ST. 39 4MES'S GAZETTE . T h e task of s e lect in g from w hat w as

apparen t ly a large an d h e terogen eou s mas s of material has b een carried ou t by

M r . Raikes's son w ith con spicu ou s t act an d good tas te , an d th e vo lu me w il l

t ake it s place as a j u diciou s an d agreeab le con trib u t ion to th e records of ofi cial

l ife u n der Qu een Victoria.”DAI LY TELEGRAPH M r . He n ry S t . Joh n Raikes h as don e w e l l to

w rite th is b iography of h is father , w h ich con tain s a good man y an ecdo tes of

political in teres t , an d presen t s u s w ith a carefu l ly-draw n por trait of on e w ho

w as a. typical ly En glish po lit ician .

SATURDAY RE VI EW. The record is w rit t en w ith good tas t e an d good

t emper , an d w ith n o more part iality than is gracefu l w h en a son u n dertakes toe s t imate a fath er

’

s career .

WORLD. Man y in teres t in g an d in s tru ct ive glimp ses of th e in n er life of

p o lit ics du rin g the G lads ton e an d B eacon sfie ld régz’

mes an d the fi rs t an d secon d

S alisb u ry Governmen t s are to b e ob tain ed in The Life and Letters of Hen ry

C ecil Raikes , in t ch M r . H en ry St . joh n Raikes has provided an accep tab lememoir of an ab le po lit ician an d admin is trator , w h o in h is day did exce l len ts ervice t o th e State an d t o th e C on s e rvat ive party . G lads ton e , Dis rae li,a n d the me teoric Ran do lph —of w hos e Charact eris t ic at tit u de tow ards h is

c o l leagu e s an d fo l low ers t h e vo lume co n tain s some amu s in g s u gges t ion s—are

ch ief amon g th e h is toric figu res w ho people th es e at tract ive pages .

”

WEEKL Y 5 UN A valu ab le record of a M in is t er w h o did importan t

w ork in con n ection w ith th e Pos t Offi ce . The b iography has b een w rit ten

ju diciou s ly by h is s on . an d t h e s e lect ion from h is le t t ers add t o it s valu e .

Th ere are al s o in tere s t in g s torie s of w e l l-kn ow n po lit ical men .

YORKSH IRE DAI LY POST—3 This life is capab ly w rit ten , is marked bydiscre t ion , an d con veys a vivid pict u re n ot on ly ,

of its .

~s u bject , b u t of theParliamen tary life of h is day .

"

MACM ILLAN AND Co ., LTD . , LONDON .

Now Ready ; 8 110. P rice m t

SOMEACCOUNT OF'

GEORGE WILLIAM W ILSHERE

BARON BRAMW‘

EL‘

L

OF HEVER.

AND H I S OP I N I ONS

B

'

r

CHARLES FAIRFIELD

W ITH A PORTRAIT

I ) ’

l u n h u n

MACMILLAN AND CO .,L IM ITED


.x898

PRESS OPINIONS

TIMES . He has s et abou t h is task very th orou gh ly , con s u ltin g th e origin alau th orities as w el l as th e recen t w riters . Readers pos s es s in g a fair

acqu ain tan ce w ith th e facts of th e period w il l fin d it s legis lation an d it s fi n an ce

excel len t ly s ummarised l n Mr . Fish er’

s chapters .

”

SCOTSMAN .—“Learn ed an d valu ab le Deserves th e at ten t ion of al l

w ho are in teres ted in it s s u bject Al l s eriou s research es in to th e mat t ers of

w hich th e book t reat s mu s t be material ly ligh ten ed by Mr . Fish er’s eru dition ,

an d by h is clear , ab le , an d in teres t in g s tatemen t of re su l ts . Th e w ork reflect sa

'

h igh credit u pon it s au th or’s learn in g an d on his skil l in marshal lin g

a mu l titu de of fact s in to good order . I t forms a valu ab le con trib u tion t o

h is torical literat u re , an d can n ot bu t be read w ith profi t by everyon e con cern ed

to have an in t imat e kn ow l edge of medieval in s titu tion s .

MACMILLAN AND CC .,LTD.,

LONDON

BOOK 4

THE TENACITY OF PAGANI SM

CHAPTER I .

-THE PAGAN ARI STOCRACY AND THE CONFUSI ON OF PARTI ESI I .—THE LAST CONFLI CTS OF PAGANI SM WITH THE CI IRI STM N EMPI E

'

.I I I — S . AUGUSTINE AND OROSIUS ON THE CAPTURE or ROME

IV.—"SOME cAu

'

SES or THE VITALITY OF THE LATER PAGANI SM

ROCK"II

SKETCHES O F WESTERN SOCIETY, FROM

SYMMACHUS TO SIDONIUS

CHAPTER I .—THE. INDI CTMENT OF HEATHEN. AND CHRI STIAN MORALI STS

I I .

—THE SOCIETY OE Q. AUREL IUS 'SYMMACHUSI II .—THE

'

SOCIETY OF AQUI TAINE IN THE TIME OF AUSONIUS

I V .- THE SOCIETY OF APOLL INARI S SIDONIUS

'

BOOK I I I

THE FAI LURE OF ADMINI STRATION AND THE

RUINS OF THE M IDDLE CLASS, AS REVEALED

BY THE THEODOSIAN CODE

CHAPTER I .

—THE DI SORGAN I SATI ON OF THE PUBLI C SERVICE

I I .

—THE DECAY OF THE M IDDLE CLASS AND THE AGGRANDI SEMENT OF

THE ARI STOCRACY

B OOK IV

THE BARBARI '

ANS'

AND‘T HE FUTURE OF '

THE EMPIRE"

CHAPTER . I .—THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INVASI ONS

I I .—ROMAN FEELING ABOUT THE INVASI ONS AND THE FUTURE OF

EMP IRE

I I I .—RELA-TIONS or ROMANS WI TH THE INVADERS

BOOK V

CHARACTERI STICS OF ROMAN EDUCATION ANDCULTURE IN THE FIFTH CENTURY

'l",’ 7

'i

7 ,

$ 9

’ 9

9 ,

PRESS OPINIONS

ACADEMY. MI . Dil l ’s w ork is w e l l w orthy to s tan d beside M. BOiSSieI ’ sLa Fin da Pagam sme

,an d h igh er praise w e h ave n ot t o give . His

'eru dit ion

does'

n ot cumber h im : h is s ty le is lu cid an d at tract ive,h is ju dgm en t is

impart ial an d sympath et ic, h e gives life an d real ity to a mos t crowded; variou s ,p u z z lin g pas sage of t ime .

”

LI TERATURE“ An d w e n ow w elcome a n importan t book on th e Empire

of th eWes t ; a Special s tu dy Of social life In th e fifth Th e book I S

t horou gh ly satis factory , an d I s like ly to be regarded in fu tu re as I n dispen sabl e

for th e s t uden t of th is period.

”

MACMILLAN AND LTD.,LONDON

St. Ies - Forgotten Books

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