Yet how many of these earnest people could one guarantee to have

completely cast out all their belief in Ju-Juism? If I were put upon my

oath to answer truthfully according to my own individual belief, I am

afraid my answer would be _not one_.

What an awful injustice the missionary preaches in the estimation of the

average native woman, when he advises the native of West Africa to put

away all his wives but one. Supposing, for instance, it is the case of a

big chief with a moderate number of wives, say only twenty or thirty, he

may have had children by all of them, or he may have had children by a

half dozen of them,--what is to become of those wives he discards? are

they to be condemned to single blessedness for the remainder of their

days? Native custom or etiquette would not allow these women to marry

the other men in the chief's house; they can't marry into other houses,

because they would find the same condition of things there as in their

own husband's house, always supposing Christianity was becoming general.

These difficulties in the way of the missionary are the Ju-Ju priests'

levers, which they know well how to use against Christianity, and which

accounts for the frequent slide back to Ju-Juism, and in some cases

cannibalism of otherwise apparently semi-civilized Africans.

The Pagan portion of the inhabitants of the Brass district have still

their old belief in the Ju-Ju priests and animal worship.

The python is the Brass natives' titular guardian angel. So great was

the veneration of this Ju-Ju snake in former times, that the native

kings would sign no treaties with her Britannic Majesty's Government

that did not include a clause subjecting any European to a heavy fine

for killing or molesting in any way this hideous reptile. When one

appeared in any European's compound, the latter was bound to send for

the nearest Ju-Ju priest to come and remove it, for which service the

priest expected a dash, _id est_, a present; if he did not get it, the

chances were the priest would take good care to see that that European

found more pythons visited him than his neighbours; and as a rule these

snakes were not found until they had made a good meal of one of the

white man's goats or turkeys, it came cheaper in the long run to make

the usual present.

It is now some twenty years ago that the then agent of Messrs. Hatton

and Cookson in Brass River found a large python in his house, and killed

it. This coming to the ears of the natives and the Ju-Ju priests, caused

no little excitement; the latter saw their opportunity, worked up the

people to a state of frenzy, and eventually led them in an attack on the

factory of Messrs. Hatton and Cookson, seized the agent and dragged him

out of his house on to the beach, tied him up by his thumbs, each Ju-Ju

priest present spat in his mouth, afterwards they stripped him naked and

otherwise ill treated him, besides breaking into his store and robbing

him of twenty pounds worth of goods. The British Consul was appealed to

for redress, and upon his next visit to the river inquired into the

case, but, _mirabile dictu_, decided that he was unable to afford the

agent any redress, as he had brought the punishment on himself. I don't

mention the name of this Consul, as it would be a pity to hand down to

posterity the fact that England was ever represented by such an idiot.

Besides the python the Brass men had several other secondary Ju-Jus;

amongst others may be mentioned the grey and white kingfisher, also

another small bird like a water-wagtail, besides which, in common with

their neighbours, they believed in a spirit of the water who was

supposed to dwell down by the Bar, and to which they occasionally made

offerings in the shape of a young slave-girl of the lightest complexion

they could buy.

The burial customs of this people differed little from others in the

Niger Delta, but as I was present at the burial of two of their

kings--viz. King Keya and King Arishima, at which I saw identically the

same ceremonial take place, I will describe what I saw as far as my

memory will serve me, for the last of these took place about thirty

years ago.

The grave in this instance was not dug in a house, but on a piece of

open ground close to the king's house, but was afterwards roofed over

and joined on to the king's houses. The size of the grave was about

fourteen by twelve feet, and about eight feet deep. At the end where the

defunct's head would be, was a small table with a cloth laid over it,

upon this were several bottles of different liquors, a large piece of

cooked salt beef and sundry other cooked meats, ship's biscuits, &c. The

ceiling of this chamber was supported by stout beams being laid across

the opening, upon which would be placed planks after the body had been

lowered into position, then the whole would be covered over with a part

of the clay that had been taken out of the hole, the rest of the clay

being afterwards used to form the walls of the house, that was

eventually constructed over the grave; a small round hole about three

inches in diameter being made in the ceiling of the grave, apparently

about over the place where the head of the corpse would lay. Down this

would be poured palm wine and spirits on the anniversaries of the king's

death, by his successor and by the Ju-Ju priests. This part of the

ceremony would be called "making his father," if it was a son who

succeeded; if it was not a son, he would describe it as "making his big

father"; though he was perhaps no blood relation at all.

Previous to the burial the body of the king lay in state for two days in

a small hut scarcely five feet high, with very open trellis work sides.

I believe they would have kept the body unburied longer if they could

have done so, but at the end of the second day his Highness commenced to

be very objectionable. The king's body was dressed for this ceremony in

his most expensive robes, having round the neck several necklaces of

valuable coral, to which his chiefs would add a string more or less

valuable according to their means, as they arrived for the final

ceremony. The Europeans were expected to contribute something towards

the funeral expenses, which contribution generally consisted of a cask

of beef, a barrel of rum, a hundredweight of ship's biscuits, and from

twenty to thirty pieces of cloth. Even in this there was a certain

amount of rivalry shown by the Europeans, to their loss and the natives'

gain. One knowing trader amongst them on this occasion had just received

a consignment of imitation coral, an article at that time quite unknown

in the river, either to European trader or to natives; so he decided to

place one of these strings of imitation coral round the king's neck

himself, and thus create a great sensation, for had it been real coral

its value would have been one hundred pounds. He had, however, not

counted on the king's very objectionable state, and when he proceeded to

place his offering round the king's neck, he nearly came to grief, and

did not seem quite himself until he had had a good stiff glass of brandy

and water. The news spread like wildfire of this man's munificence, and

soon the principal chiefs waited upon him to thank him for his present

to their dead king; the other Europeans were green with jealousy, though

each had in his turn tried to outdo his neighbour; unfortunately, there

was a Scotchman there "takin' notes," and faith he guessed a ruse, but

he was a good fellow and friend of the donor, and kept the secret for

some years, and did not tell the tale until it could do his friend no

harm.

The cannons had been going off at intervals for the last two days.

Towards ten o'clock of the second night after death the king was placed

in a very open-work wicker casket, and carried shoulder high round the

town, and then finally deposited in his grave. During this time the

cannons were being continually fired off, and individuals were assisting

in the din by firing off the ordinary trade gun. I and another European

concealed ourselves near the grave, and carefully watched all night to

see if they sacrificed any slaves on the king's grave, or put any poor

creatures down into the grave to die a lingering death; but we saw

nothing of this done, though we had been informed that no king or chief

of Brass was ever buried without some of his slaves being sent with him

into the next world; as our informant explained, how would they know he

had been a big man in this life if he did not go accompanied by some of

his niggers into the next?

The firing of cannon is kept up at intervals for an indefinite number of

days after the final interment; but there is no hard and fast rule as

to its duration as far as I have been able to ascertain, and I think

myself it is ruled by the greater or less liberality of the successors,

who are the ones who have to pay for the gunpowder.

Amongst other customs that are common to all these rivers and this river

is the killing of twin children; but since the mission has been

established here the missionaries have done their utmost to wean the

people from this remnant of savagery.

A curious custom that I have heard of in most of these rivers is the

throwing into the bush, to be devoured by the wild beasts, any children

that may be born with their front teeth cut. I found this custom in

Brass, but with an exception, _id est_, I knew a pilot in Twon Town who

had had the misfortune to be born with his upper front teeth through;

whether it was because it was only the upper teeth that were through, or

whether it was that the law is not so strictly carried out in the case

of a male, I was never able to make sure of; however, he had been

allowed to live, but it appears in his case some part of the law had to

be carried out at his death, viz. he was not allowed to be buried, but

was thrown into the bush, to fall a prey to the wild beasts, and any

property he might die possessed of could not be inherited by any one,

but must be dissipated or thrown into the bush to rot. I believe the

Venerable Archdeacon Crowther has been instrumental in saving several of

these kind of children in Bonny.

The women of Brass are, like their sisters in Benin river, moving on

towards women's rights; for though they have been for many generations

the hewers of wood and drawers of water, and made to do most of the hard

work of the country, they had commenced some years ago to enjoy more

freedom than their sisters in the leeward rivers. They still do most of

the fishing, and the fishing girls of Twon Town used to present a pretty

sight as some fifteen or twenty of their tiny canoes used to sweep past

the European factories, each canoe propelled by two or three graceful,

laughing, chattering girls; with them would generally be seen a canoe or

two paddled by some dames of a maturer age. Though _passee_ as far as

their looks were concerned, they could still ply their paddle as well as

the best amongst the younger ones, as they forced their frail canoes

through water to some favourite quiet blind creek where the currentless

water allowed them to use their preparation[83] for stupefying the fish,

and in little over three hours you might see them come paddling back,

each tiny canoe with from fifty to a hundred small grey mullet,

sometimes with more and occasionally with a few small river soles.

The Brass man, like his neighbours, had his public Ju-Ju house as well

as his private little Ju-Ju chamber, the latter was to be found in any

Brass man's establishment which boasted of more than one room; those who

could not afford a separate chamber used to devote a corner of their own

room, where might be seen sundry odds and ends bespattered with some

yellow clay, and occasionally a white fowl hung by the leg to remain

there and die of starvation and drop gradually to pieces as it

decomposed.

The public Ju-Ju house at Obulambri was not a very pretentious affair;

it consisted of a native hut of wattle and daub, the walls not being

carried more than half way up to the eaves, roofed with palm mats; in

the centre was an iron staff about five feet high, surrounded by eight

bent spear heads; this was called a tokoi, at the foot of it was a hole

about three inches in diameter, down which the Ju-Ju priests would pour

libations of tombo or palm wine, as a sacrifice to the Ju-Ju. I was

informed that this Ju-Ju house was built over the grave of the original

founder of Obulambri town. Behind the tokoi, on a kind of altar raised

about eighteen inches from the ground, were displayed about a dozen

human skulls; at the time I visited it the Ju-Ju man explained to me

that the greater part of these had belonged to New Calabar prisoners

taken in their last war with those people; besides the skulls were

sundry odds and ends of native pottery, as also a few bowls and jugs of

European manufacture. What part this pottery played in their devotions I

could never get a Ju-Ju man to explain, some of them appeared to have

held human blood. Stacked up in one corner were a few human bones,

principally thigh and shin bones.

The Brassmen do not often sacrifice human beings to their Ju-Jus, except

in time of war, when all prisoners without exception were sacrificed.

Their Ju-Ju snake occasionally secured a small child by crawling

unobserved into a house when the elders were absent or asleep. I once

was passing through a small fishing village in the St. Nicholas river,

when most of the inhabitants were away fishing, and hearing terrible

screams went to see what was the cause of the trouble, and found several

women wringing their hands and running to and fro in front of a small

hut. For several minutes I could not get them to tell me what was the

cause of their trouble; at last one of them trembling, with the most

abject fear and quite unable to speak, pointed to the door of the hut.

I went and looked in, but it was so dark I could see nothing at first,

so stepped inside; when, getting accustomed to the semi-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 sleeping. To snatch up the child and walk out was the work of a

moment. I then found that the woman who had pointed to the door of the

hut was the mother of the child--her gratitude to me for delivering her

child from certain death can be more easily imagined than described.

Upon asking why she had not acted as I had done, she replied she dare

not have interfered with the snake in the way I had done. I afterwards

asked several of the more intelligent natives of Brass if the Ju-Ju law

did not allow a mother to save her child in such a case. Some said she

was a fool woman, and that she could have taken her child away the

moment she saw it in danger; but others said had she done so, she would

have been liable to be killed herself or pay a heavy fine to the Ju-Ju

priests; and I am inclined to believe the latter version to be

correct.[84]

Amongst other curious customs these people make use of the feather

ordeal, to find out robbery, witchcraft, and adultery, &c. In this

ordeal it rests a great deal with the Ju-Ju man who performs it whether

it proves the party guilty or not. This ordeal is performed as

follows:--The Ju-Ju man takes a feather from the underpart of a fowl's

wing, making choice of a stronger or weaker one, according to how he

intends the ordeal shall demonstrate, then, drawing the tongue of the

accused as far out of his mouth as he can, forces the quill of the

feather through from the upper side and draws it out by grasping the

point of the feather from the under side of the tongue; if the feather

is unbroken the accused person is proved guilty, if on the contrary the

feather breaks in the attempt to pass it through the tongue it proves

the innocence of the person. It may be seen from this description how

very easy it was to prove a person innocent, the mere fact of the

feather breaking in the attempt to push it through the tongue being

sufficient; thus, when suitably approached, the Ju-Ju man could not only

prove a person's innocence, but also save him any inconvenience in

eating his mess of foo foo and palaver sauce that evening.

NEW CALABAR

The intervening rivers between the Brass and New Calabar Rivers are the

St. Nicholas, the St. Barbara, the St. Bartholomew, and the Sombrero;

the influence of the king of New Calabar may be said to commence at the

St. Bartholomew River, extending inland to about five or ten miles

beyond the town of Bugama. The lower parts of the St. Bartholomew and

the numerous creeks, running between that river and New Calabar are

mostly inhabited by fishermen and their families, their towns and

villages being without exception the most squalid and dirty of any to be

found in the Delta. Beyond fishing, the males seem to do little else

than sleep; occasionally the men assist their wives and children in

making palm-leaf mats, used generally all over the Delta in place of

thatch--not a very profitable employment, as the demand varies

considerably according to the seasons. After a very rough and

boisterous rainy season, the price may be two shillings and sixpence, or

its equivalent, for four hundred of these mats, each mat being a little

over two feet in length, but falling in bad times to two shillings and

sixpence for five to six hundred. A roof made with these mats threefold

thick will last for three years.

These people call themselves Calabar men simply because they live within

the influence of the Calabarese. In the upper part of these small

rivers, about a day's journey by canoe from the mouth of St.

Bartholomew, is the chief town of a small tribe of people called the

Billa tribe, connected by marriage with the Bonny men, several of the

kings of Bonny having married Billa women. These people are producers in

a small way of palm-oil, and though they are located so close to the New

Calabar people, prefer to sell their produce to the Bonny men, who send

their canoes over to the Billa country to fetch the oil, the latter

people not having canoes large enough for carrying the large puncheons

which the Bonny men send over to collect their produce in.

The New Calabar men are now split up into three towns called Bugama,

where the king lives; Abonema, of which Bob Manuel is the principal

chief; and Backana, where the Barboy House reside. Besides they have

numerous small towns scattered about in the network of creeks connecting

the Calabar River with the Sombrero River. Previous to 1880 these people

all dwelt together in one large town on the right bank of the Calabar

River, nearly opposite to where the creek, now called the Cawthorne

Channel,[85] branches off from the main river.

For some few years previous the chief of the Barboy House, Will Braid,

had incurred the displeasure of the Amachree house, which was the king's

house. For certain private reasons the king, with whom sided most of the

other chiefs, had decided to break down the Barboy house, which had

been a very powerful house in days anterior to the present king's

father, and tradition says that the Barboys had some right to be the

reigning house. Will Braid, the head of the house at this time, had by

his industry and honourable conduct raised the position of the house to

very near its former influence. This was one of the private reasons that

caused the king to look on him with disfavour.

When one of these West African kinglets decides that one of their chiefs

is getting too rich, and by that means too powerful, he calls his more

immediate supporters together, and they discuss the means that are to be

used to compass the doomed one's fall. If he be a man of mettle, with

many sub-chiefs and aspiring trade boys, the system resorted to is to

trump up charges against him of breaches of agreement as to prices paid

by him or his people in the Ibo markets for produce, and fine him

heavily. If he pays without murmur, they leave him alone for a time; but

very soon another case is brought against him either on the same lines

or for some breach of native etiquette, such as sending his people into

some market to trade where, perchance, he has been sending his people

for years; but the king and his friendly chiefs dish up some old custom,

long allowed to drop in abeyance, by which his house was debarred from

trading in that particular market. The plea of long usance would avail

him little; another fine would be imposed. This injustice would

generally have the effect desired, the doomed one would refuse to pay,

then down the king would come on him for disregarding the orders of

himself and chiefs; fine would follow fine, until the man lost his head

and did some rash act, which assisted his enemies to more certainly

compass his ruin. Or he does what I have seen a persecuted chief do in

these rivers on more than one occasion: that is, he gathers all his

wives and children about him, together with his most trusted followers

and slaves, also any of his family who are willing to follow him into

the next world, lays a double tier of kegs of gunpowder on the floor of

the principal room in his dwelling-house and knocks in the heads of the

top tier of kegs. Placing all his people on this funeral pile, he seats

himself in the middle with a fire-stick grasped in his hand, then sends

a message to the king and chiefs to come and fetch the fines they have

imposed on him. The king and chiefs generally shrewdly guessed what this

message meant, and took good care not to get too near, stopping at a

convenient distance to parley with him by means of messengers. The

victim finding there was no chance of blowing up his enemies along with

himself and people, would plunge the fire-stick into the nearest keg,

and the next moment the air would be filled with the shattered remains

of himself and his not unwilling companions.

Having digressed somewhat to explain how chiefs are undone, I must

continue my account of the New Calabar people and the cause of their

deserting their original town. This was brought about by Will Braid, on

whom the squeezing operation had been some time at work. He turned at

bay and defied the king and chiefs; this led to a civil war, in which he

was getting the worst of the game, so one dark night he quietly slipped

away with most of his retainers and took refuge in Bonny. This led to

complications, for Bonny espoused the cause of W. Braid and declared war

against New Calabar; thus in place of suppressing Will Braid they came

near to being suppressed themselves, the Bonny men very pluckily

establishing themselves opposite New Calabar town, where they threw up

a sand battery, in which they placed several rifled cannon, and did

considerable damage to the New Calabar town, from whence a feeble return

fire was kept up for several days, during which time the Calabar men

occupied themselves in placing their valuables and people in security,

and eventually, unknown to the Bonny men, clearing out all their war

canoes and fighting men through creeks at the back of their town to the

almost inaccessible positions of Bugama and Abonema. The Bonny 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 in the New Calabar town; on their return they

reported the town deserted. The Bonny men lost no time in following the

New Calabar men to their new position, but found Bugama inaccessible, so

turned their attention to Abonema, which they very pluckily assaulted,

but were repulsed with considerable loss, losing one of their best war

canoes, in which was a fine rifled cannon; at the same time the Bonny

chief, Waribo, who had most energetically led the assault, barely

escaped with his life, as he was in the war canoe that had been sunk by

the New Calabar men. This victory was very pluckily gained by Chief Bob

Manuel and his people, who were greatly assisted in the defence of their

position by having been supplied at an opportune moment with a

mitrailleuse by one of the European traders in the New Calabar river.

This defeat somewhat cooled the courage of the Bonny men; the war

however continued to be carried on in a desultory manner for several

months, until both sides were tired of the game, and at last all the

questions in dispute between the king and chiefs of New Calabar and Will

Braid, and the matters in dispute between the New Calabar men and the

Bonny men were by mutual agreement left to the arbitration of the king

and chiefs of Okrika, and King Ja Ja and the chiefs of Opobo. The

arbitrators met on board one of Her Majesty's vessels in Bonny River in

1881, King Ja Ja being represented by Chief Cookey Gam and several other

chiefs, the king and chiefs of Okrika being in full force. The result of

the arbitration did not give complete satisfaction to any party, owing

to the advice of Ja Ja on the affair not having been listened to in its

entirety. However, W. Braid returned to New Calabar territory and

founded a town of his own, assisted by his very faithful Chief Yellow of

Young Town. Thus ended the last war between the old rivals Bonny and New

Calabar. It is on record that these two countries had been scarcely ever

at peace for any length of time since New Calabar was first founded some

two hundred and fifty years ago, when, tradition says, one of the

Ephraim Duke family left Old Calabar and settled at the spot from whence

they retired in 1880.

Old traders I met with in the early sixties informed me that during one

of these wars, between the years 1820 and 1830, the king Pepple, then

reigning in Bonny succeeded in capturing the king of Calabar of that

time (the grandfather of the last king Amachree), and to celebrate his

victory and royal capture, made a great feast to which he invited all

the European slave traders then in his country. The feast was a right

royal one, the king had a special dish prepared for himself which was

nothing less than the heart of his royal captive, torn from his scarcely

lifeless body.

The New Calabar people, though said to be descended from the Old Calabar

race, have not retained any of the characteristics of the latter,

neither in their language nor dress, nor have they retained the

elaborate form of secret society or native freemasonry peculiar to the

Efik[86] race called Egbo.

Their religion is the same animistic form of Ju-Juism and belief in the

oracle they call Long Ju-Ju situated in the vicinity of Bende in the

hinterland of Opobo, common to all the inhabitants of the Delta; besides

the latter, they are believers in the power of a Ju-Ju in some mystic

grove in the Oru country. The peculiar test at this latter place is said

to have been established by some ancient dame having uttered some

fearful curse or wish at the spot where the ordeal is administered. The

descriptions of this are rather vague, as no one who has undergone it

has ever been known to return, that is, if he has really seen the oracle

work, for if it works it is a sign of his guilt and drowns him; if he is

innocent it does not work, so on his return he is not in a position to

describe it. But the proprietors of this interesting Ju-Ju have for very

many years found that a nigger fetches a better price alive than when

turned into butcher's meat; they have therefore been in the habit of

selling the guilty victim into slavery in as far distant a country as

possible; but occasionally one of these men have drifted down to the

coast again, but dare not return to his own country as no one would

believe he was anything else but a spirit. One of these "spirits" I had

the pleasure to interview on one occasion, and he told me that the only

ones who were actually drowned were the old or unsaleable men; when two

men went to this Ju-Ju or ordeal well, to decide some vital question

between them, the party taking best would want to see his dead or

drowned opponent; for this purpose the Ju-Ju priests always kept a few

of the old and decrepit votaries on hand to be drowned as required, but

the opponent was never allowed to stand by and see the oracle work, but

was taken up to the well and allowed to see a dead body lying at the

bottom, and after he had glanced in and satisfied himself there was a

drowned person there, he would be hurried away by the Ju-Ju priests and

their assistants. That these priests had the supernatural power to make

the water rise up in the well, this "spirit" thoroughly believed, and

when I offered the suggestion of an underground water supply brought

from some higher elevation, he scouted the idea and gave me his private

opinion thus: "White man he no be fit savey all dem debly ting Ju-Ju

priest fit to do; he fit to change man him face so him own mudder no fit

savey him; he fit make dem tree he live for water side, bob him head

down and drink water all same man; he fit make himself alsame bird and

fly away; you fit to look him lib for one place and you keep you eye for

him, he gone, you no fit see him when he go."

Which little speech turned into ordinary English meant to say that white

people could not understand the devilish tricks the Ju-Ju priests were

able to do, they could so disguise a person that his own mother would

not recognise him, this without the assistance of any make-up but simply

from their devilish science; that they could cause a tree on the banks

of a river to bend its stem and imbibe water through its topmost

branches; that they could change themselves into birds and fly away; and

lastly, that they could make themselves invisible before your eyes and

so suddenly that you could not tell when they had done so.

I asked him why the Ju-Ju man had not altered him, so that when he sold

him it would be impossible for any one who had known him in his own

country ever to recognise him if they saw him in another. His reply was:

"Ju-Ju man savey them man what believe in Ju-Ju no will believe me dem

time I go tell dem I be dem Os[=u]k[=u] of Young Town come back from

Long Ju-Ju. He savey all man go run away from me in my own country."

"Well," I said, "how about the people amongst whom you now are? they

believe in very nearly the same Ju-Jus that your own people do, what do

they say about you?" "Oh! they say I be silly fellow and no savey I done

die one time, and been born again in some other country." I then asked

him how they accounted for his knowing about the people who were still

alive in his own country and to be able to talk about matters which had

taken place there within the previous five or six years. Then I got the

word the inquirer in this part of the world generally gets when he

wishes to dive into the inner circles of native occultism, viz.,

"Anemia," which means "I don't know."

The chiefs in New Calabar in the days of the last king's father were an

extremely fine body of men, both physically and commercially; the latter

quality they owed to the strong hand the king kept over them, and the

excellent law he inaugurated when he became the king with regard to

trade, viz., that no New Calabar chief or other native was allowed to

take any goods on credit from the Europeans. His power was absolute, and

considering that he inherited his father's place at a time when the

country was in the throes of war with Bonny--his father being the king

captured by the king of Bonny mentioned previously--the success of his

rule was wonderful, for he pulled his country together and carried on

the war with such ability that Bonny ultimately was glad to come to

terms; a peace was agreed upon which lasted many years, until the old

king of Bonny died, and his son wishing to emulate his father re-opened

hostilities, but with such ill-success and loss to his country that it

eventually led to his being deposed and exiled from his country for some

years.

The New Calabar people are and have been always great believers in

Ju-Juism, the head Ju-Ju priest being styled the Ju-Ju king and ranking

higher than the king in any matters relating to purely native affairs.

The shark is their principal animal deity, to which they were in the

habit of sacrificing a light-coloured child every seven years. This used

to be openly and ostentatiously performed by a procession of a

half-dozen large canoes being formed up at the town of New Calabar, each

canoe being manned by forty to fifty paddlers; in the midships of each

canoe a deck some ten feet long would be placed on which the Ju-Ju

priests and a number of the younger chiefs and the grown-up sons of the

chief men would huddle together and keep up a continuous howling and

dancing, accompanied with the waving of their hands and handkerchiefs,

until they arrived down near the mouth of the river. When the water

began to be so rough that the singers and dancers could not keep their

feet, it was a sign the offering must be cast into the sea; the Ju-Ju

men and their assistants all supplicating their friend the shark to

intercede with the Spirit of the Water to keep open the entrance to

their river and cause plenty of ships to come to their river to trade.

Their Ju-Ju house in their original town was a much larger and more

pretentious edifice than that of Bonny, garnished with human and goats'

skulls in a somewhat similar manner, unlike the Bonny Ju-Ju house in the

fact that it was roofed over, the eaves of which were brought down

almost to the ground, thus excluding the light and prying eyes at the

same time; at either side of the main entrance, extending some few feet

from the eaves, was a miscellaneous collection of iron three-legged

pots, various plates, bowls and dishes of Staffordshire make, all of

which had some flower pattern on them, hence were Ju-Ju and not

available for use or trade--the old-fashioned lustre jug, being also

Ju-Ju, was only to be seen in the Ju-Ju house, though a great favourite

in Bonny and Brass as a trade article--at this time all printed goods or

cloth with a flower or leaf pattern on them were Ju-Ju. Any goods of

these kinds falling into the hands of a true believer had to be

presented to the Ju-Ju house. As traders took good care not to import

any such goods, people often wondered where all these things came from.

Had they arrived shortly after a vessel bound to some other port had had

the misfortune to be wrecked off New Calabar, they would have solved the

problem at once, for anything picked up from a wreck which is Ju-Ju has

to be carried off at once to the Ju-Ju house. I remember on one occasion

visiting this Ju-Ju house just after a large ship called the _Clan

Gregor_ bound into Bonny had been wrecked off New Calabar, and found the

Ju-Ju house decked both inside and out with yards of coloured cottons

from roof to floor; but the Ju-Ju priests did not get all their rights,

for some tricky natives on salving a bale of goods would carefully slit

the bale just sufficiently to see what were the goods inside, and

should they be Ju-Ju would not open them, but take them to their

particular friend amongst the European traders, and get him to send them

away to some other river for sale on joint account.

Every eighth day is called Calabar Sunday, the day following being

formerly the market day or principal receiving day for the white traders

of the native produce, which consisted principally, and still does, of

palm oil. The native Sunday was passed in olden days by the chief in

receiving visits from the white men and jamming[87] with them for any

produce he had the intention of selling the following day, or clearing

up any little Ju-Ju matters that he had been putting off for the want of

a slack day, not because it was his Sunday, but because that was a day

on which by custom he could not visit the ships. I remember it was on

paying a visit to old King Amachree, the father of the late king of the

same name, I saw for the first time a native sacrifice. I was then

little more than a boy as a matter of fact, I was under seventeen years

of age, but filling a man's place in New Calabar who had been invalided

home. The old king had taken me under his special protection and gave me

much good advice and counsel, which was of great use to me in my novel

position. My employers ought to have been very thankful to him, for

though I was the youngest trader in the river by some twelve years, I

held my own with them and got a larger share of the produce of the river

than my predecessor had done, all 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 well as my neighbours he would send off a

message to a small creek close to the shipping, where the natives used

to wait with their oil until it was jammed for, _id est_, agreed for,

and order three or four canoes of oil 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 little over six months, when, my senior

having returned, I had to go back to my duties in Bonny under the chief

agent of the firm, a Captain Peter Thompson, one of the kindest-hearted

skippers that ever entered Bonny river. In those days we all had some

nickname that we were known by amongst the natives, and another amongst

the white men. Amongst the former he was called Calla Thompson, because

he was short, in contradistinction to another Thompson who was tall,

called Opo Thompson; but his name amongst the white men was Panter

Thompson, owing to his inability to pronounce the "th" in panther during

a discussion as to whether we had tigers or only panthers on the West

Coast of Africa. Poor Panter, after a most successful voyage of a little

over two years, was preparing to return home, and had only a few more

weeks to remain in Bonny, when in stepping into his boat his foot

slipped and he fell into the river at a point known to be infested with

sharks. A brother skipper jumped into the boat, and actually clutched

him by his cap at the same moment poor Panter said "I am gone, Ned!" no

doubt feeling himself being drawn down by some hungry shark.

His son now commands one of the finest steamers of the African Steamship

Company, and seems to have inherited in a marked degree all the good

qualities of his father; so, travellers to West Africa, if you want a

comfortable ship and a thorough good fellow to travel with, take your

passage in the ship commanded by Captain Willie Thompson, R.N.R.

But this is digressing. I must get back to New Calabar and tell you what

I saw at my introduction to Ju-Juism under the auspices of dear old King

Amachree. The occasion was the swearing Ju-Ju with some people in the

interior, with whom they had only lately opened up commercial relations,

and they wanted them to swear they would trade with no other people but

them. The deputation, who represented the market people, looked as wild

a lot as one could wish to see, and, as far as I could make out, the

ceremony I was watching was a kind of preliminary canter to a more

impressive, and most likely more diabolical one to be carried out at

some future date in the stranger folks' country. On this occasion the

officiating Ju-Ju priest did not seem to address any of his words to the

strangers, who looked on with a certain amount of fear depicted in their

countenance.

The Ju-Ju priest was clothed (?) in a superb dark-coloured and

greasy-looking rag about his loins, barely sufficient to satisfy the

easiest going of European Lord Chamberlains; but from the expressive

grunts of satisfaction which greeted his appearance in the Ju-Ju house,

I was led to suppose his dress was quite correct and proper for the

occasion. His head was shaved on the right side, and all down his right

side and leg he had been dusted over with some greyish-white native

chalk. He said a few words in an undertone to one of his assistants, who

went out of sight for a moment or so and quickly returned with a very

fine almost milk-white goat, the poor beast seeming to anticipate its

fate from its fearfully loud bleating. The Ju-Ju priest seized the poor

beast by its muzzle with his left hand, and dexterously tossing its body

under his left arm, forced its head back towards his left shoulder until

the neck of the beast formed an arc, his assistant handing him at this

moment a very sharp white-handled spear-pointed knife, which he drew

across the animal's throat, almost severing its head from its body.

Quick as lightning he dropped on one knee and held the bleeding animal

over a receptacle, having the appearance of a large soup plate,

fashioned in the clay of the ground immediately in front of the altar

arrangement. In the centre of this plate was a hole down which the

quickly coagulating blood slowly trickled; after the interval of what

appeared to me minutes, but was in fact most likely less than a minute,

the Ju-Ju man laid the lifeless body of the goat down with its neck over

the opening in the plate, leaving it there to drain. At the moment of

the sacrifice various gongs and old ship bells were struck by young men

stationed near them for that purpose--a wrecked ship's bell being

generally presented to the Ju-Ju house, though not as in the case of

Ju-Ju goods by law prescribed. New Calabar people had been fairly well

observant of this custom, and the wrecks numerous, judging from the

number of ships' bells in the Ju-Ju house. At every movement of the

Ju-Ju priest the king and chief would grunt out a noise very much

resembling that auld Scotch word "ahum."

The Ju-Ju house had amongst its possessions several ill-shapen wooden

idols, and scattered about the affair that represented an altar were

various small idols looking very much like children's dolls; also

several large elephant's tusks, and two or three very well carved ones,

with the usual procession of coated and naked figures winding round

them.

The present king of New Calabar[88] is a son of my old friend King

Amachree, and is called King Amachree also, but has shown little of the

ability of his late father, being completely led by the nose by his

brother George Amachree, who practically rules both king and people.

The former is a small, quiet, and rather amiable man, but of a

vacillating and unreliable character; his brother and prime minister is,

on the contrary, a tall and very fine specimen of the negro race,

endowed by nature with a very suave and not unmusical voice, a very able

speaker, clear and logical reasoner, but of a very grasping nature--an

excellent and successful trader and exceedingly nice man to deal with,

as long as he has got things moving the way that suits him and his

policy; but when thwarted in his designs, trading or political, he

becomes a difficult customer to deal with, and a very unpleasant and

objectionable type of negro "big man." Nevertheless, had he had the

fortune to have been born in a civilised Africa, I feel confident his

natural abilities, assisted by education, would have made him a man of

eminence in whatever country his lot might have been cast.

Most of the New Calabar chiefs bear a very favourable repute amongst the

white traders, and compare very favourably intellectually with the

neighbouring chiefs of the Niger Delta.

Another chief of no mean capacity is Bob Manuel, of Abonema, exceedingly

neat, almost a dandy in appearance, a very shrewd trader, clear and

concise in his speech, honourable in all his dealings, of a very

reserved temperament; but a charming man to talk with, once started on

any topic that interests him or his visitor.

Owing to some peculiarities in their dress, the New Calabar chiefs are

very different to the chiefs in other parts of the Delta. They never

appear outside of their houses unless robed in long shirts (made of real

india madras of bold check patterns, in which no other colour but red,

blue and white is ever allowed to be used) reaching down to their heels;

under this they wear a singlet and a flowing loin cloth of the same

material as their shirts. Of late years, during the rainy season, some

of them have added elastic-side boots and white socks, but the most

curious part of their get-up is their head-gear, for since about 1866

they have taken to wearing wigs. These are only worn on high days and

holidays and at special functions, but the effect sometimes is so

utterly ridiculous as to be more than strangers can look at without

laughing. Imagine an immensely stout and somewhat podgy negro with

elastic-side boots, white stockings, long shirt, several strings of

coral hung round his neck and hanging in festoons down as far as where

his waistcoat would end, did he wear one, a Charles II. light flaxen

wig, the latter topped up by an ordinary stove-pipe black silk hat!

This fashion of wearing wigs, I am afraid, was unconsciously inaugurated

by me, having taken with me in 1865 to New Calabar some wigs that I had

used in some private theatricals in England. A chief named Tom Fouche

saw them, and was enchanted with a nigger's trick wig, the top of which

could be raised by pulling a hidden silk cord, and eventually he became

the proud possessor of my stock, and produced a great sensation the

first public festival he appeared at. Previous to this I never saw a wig

in New Calabar; as a matter of fact, they have no excuse for them, a

bald-headed native being an almost unheard-of curiosity, and grey or

white heads are very scarce. Alas! like all pioneers, I did not reap the

reward I should have done, as I left the New Calabar river before the

fashion had caught on, and Messrs. Thomas Harrison and Co., of

Liverpool, became the principal purveyors of wigs to the Court of New

Calabar.

These people are remarkable for the bold stand they have made against

the persecution of their neighbours almost from the day their founder

planted his foot on the New Calabar soil, or mud rather, I should say;

besides their wars with the Bonny men, they were often attacked by the

Brass men, allies of Bonny. With the Okrika men they were almost

constantly at war. This latter was a kind of guerilla warfare carried on

in the creeks, and consisted in seizing any unprotected small canoe with

its crew of two or three men or women and cargo, the latter generally

being yams or Indian corn, the custom being on both sides to eat these

prisoners.

The Church Missionary Society established a mission here in 1875, but

during the war of 1879 and 1880 the missionary had to leave. Their

success had not been brilliant up to this date, owing, no doubt, in some

measure, to the immense power wielded by the Ju-Ju priests in New

Calabar.

It was not until 1887-8 that the missionaries were able to again

commence their labours amongst these people, and then not in the

principal town. Archdeacon Crowther, however, succeeded about this time

in getting a plot of ground in Bob Manuel's town, Abonema, for the

purpose of building a mission station. As to the success of this last

effort I can't speak from personal observation, as I left this river

shortly afterwards myself; in fact, it was on my last visit to Abonema

that I conveyed in my steamer, the _Quorra_, the missionary and his wife

to their new home from Brass. They were a young couple of very well

educated and most intelligent Sierra Leone natives.

BONNY AND THE PEPPLE FAMILY

This river was the most important slave market in the Delta, as a matter

of fact surpassing in numbers of slaves exported any other single

slave-dealing station on the West or South-West Coast of Africa.

According to Mr. Clarkson, the historian of the abolition of the

slave-trade, this river and Old Calabar exported more slaves than all

the other slave-dealing centres on the West and South-West Coasts of

Africa combined.

It is a well-known fact that for about two hundred years the average

annual output of slaves through the Bonny River was about 16,000 (this

included the shipments from New Calabar), totalling up to the immense

number of 3,200,000 souls taken out of this part of Africa during two

centuries.

The above figures do not represent the total depletion this part of

Africa suffered during this time. To the above immense number of slaves

exported must be added the number of lives lost in the raids made on the

Ibo villages for the purpose of capturing the people to sell as slaves;

we must also add the number that died on their way down from the

interior to the coast, and to these again must be added the slaves

refused by the European trader by reason of any defect, malformation,

or incipient signs of disease. The fate of these poor souls was sad; but

perhaps many of their brethren envied them their quick release from the

cares of this world. The native slave-dealer was too practical a man to

burden himself with mouths to fill that he could not immediately turn

into cloth, rum, gunpowder or coral, so oftener than otherwise he would

simply tell his own niggers to drop their canoe astern of the slave

ship, cut the rejected slaves heads off, and cast their bodies into the

river to feed the sharks, this often taking place within sight of the

European slaver.

A very moderate allowance for loss of life between the interior and the

slave-ship from the above-mentioned causes would be at the least 40 per

cent.; thus totalling the immense number of 4,480,000 souls sent out of

this one district in about two centuries. The greater number of these

were Ibos, a slave much sought after in the olden days by planters in

the West Indies and the Southern States of America.

I have mentioned these latter facts here to point out to my readers that

the so-called benevolent domestic slavery as practised on the coast of

Western Africa and tolerated in Her Britannic Majesty's West African

Colonies, must, as a natural consequence, lead to a deplorable loss of

life, though not in so wholesale a manner as the export of slaves led to

in former days.

The Bonny people claim to be descended from the Ibo tribe, but I should

be inclined to think that their proper description to-day would be a

mixture of Ibos, Kwos, Billa, and sundry infusions of blood from

inter-marriage with the female slaves brought down by the slave-dealers

from places lying beyond and at the back of the Ibo people.

Whatever their origin may have been, a commercial spirit is, and has

been since their first intercourse with Europeans, a very highly

developed trait in their character. As I have already shown, they were

the greatest slave traders in Western Africa, and when that, for them,

lucrative trade was finally put a stop to by the treaty signed on the

21st of November, 1848, between Her Britannic Majesty's Consul and King

Pepple, whereby King Pepple was to receive an annual present of $2,000

for six years--[previous to this, one, if not two treaties had been

signed by King Pepple, with Her Britannic Majesty's representatives,

with the same object; but the greed of gain had been too much for his

dusky Majesty, combined with the continued presence on the coast of the

Spanish slave-dealers; one of the latter being established at Brass as

late as 1844]--they then turned their whole attention to the legitimate

trade of palm oil, and soon became the largest exporters of that article

on the West Coast of Africa. Their trade in this article had not been

inconsiderable since 1825, at which date the Liverpool merchants had

seriously turned their attention to legitimate trade.

In 1837-38, the export of palm oil was already about 14,200 tons, all

carried in sailing vessels principally owned in Liverpool, and mostly by

firms that had been in the slave trade.

Like the natives of Brass, many of these people have embraced the

Christian faith, the Church Missionary Society having placed one of

their stations here in 1866, some two years earlier than the Brass

Mission was commenced.

Their endeavours have certainly met with considerable success in

prevailing upon a large number of the natives to give up many of their

Ju-Ju practices; amongst others, the worship of the iguana, an immense

lizard, which from time immemorial had been the Bonny man's titular

guardian angel. They not only got them to give up worshipping this

saurian, but also, to mark a new departure in their religious ideas, the

missionaries prevailed upon the people to organise a general iguana

hunt; so, following the old saying of "the better the day, the better

the deed," one Easter Sunday, about the year 1883 or 1884, or about

twenty-two years after the establishment of the mission, the bells of

the mission church rang out the signal for the wholesale slaughter of

these reptiles. To such an extent and with such good will did the people

work that day, that by evening time not one was left alive in the town.

That day it was everybody's job to kill these reptiles, but it was

nobody's job to clear away the dead bodies, there being no County

Council in Bonny to see to the scavenger work after this animal St.

Bartholomew; the consequence was the stench was so great from the

decaying bodies that every European predicted a general sickness would

be the natural outcome of it all; but no such unlucky event happened,

and the natives did not seem to notice the extra strong perfume very

much--one of them observing, to a growl about it by a white man, that

"it be all same them trade beef you sell we people for chop."

The Bonny men until late years were steeped in all the most vile

practices of Ju-Juism--sacrificing human beings to their various Ju-Jus,

and eating all their prisoners captured in war, certain of their Ju-Ju

practices demanding an annual human sacrifice. If at this time they

happened to be at peace with their neighbours, and consequently without

any prisoner to be sacrificed, the Ju-Ju men would disguise themselves

in some fantastic dress (some Europeans have said they disguise

themselves as leopards; I have never seen this disguise used, and doubt

it very much), and prowl about the town and its byeways, seizing for

their purpose in preference some stray stranger that might be staying in

the town; failing a stranger, some noted bad character belonging to the

town in whose fate no one would be greatly interested would be seized

upon. To say these practices are completely stamped out would be,

perhaps, not quite the truth; but that they are being stamped out I feel

convinced, and considering what believers in Ju-Ju these people have

been, I think I may say fairly quick.

The common sense of the people is assisting very much, and the women are

showing themselves capable of something better than what their former

state condemned them to. The final decision to slaughter the iguana some

years ago was brought about by them in a great measure on solid common

sense grounds, for had not the iguana been their mortal enemy for years

by eating their fowls and chickens before their eyes, thus destroying

about the only means a woman of the lower class, or one who had ceased

to please her lord and master, had of making a little pin money.

The Ju-Ju house of Bonny, once the great show place of the town, has now

completely disappeared and its hideous 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 native earthenware that had done duty for

many generations in the Bonny Ju-Ju House.

A description of this Ju-Ju house may be interesting to some of my

readers. It was an oblong building of about forty feet long by thirty

broad, surrounded by mud walls about eight or ten feet high; one portion

over where the altar stood had had sticks arranged, as if the intention

had been at some time to roof it over; at the end behind the altar the

wall had been built in a semicircle; the altar looked very much like an

ordinary kitchen plate rack with the edges of the plate shelves picked

out with goat skulls. There were three rows of these, and on the three

plate shelves a row of grinning human skulls; under the bottom shelf,

and between it and the top of what would be in a kitchen the dresser,

were eight uprights garnished with rows of goats' skulls, the two middle

uprights being supplied with a double row; below the top of the dresser,

which was garnished with a board painted blue and white, was arranged a

kind of drapery of filaments of palm fronds, drawn asunder from the

centre, exposing a round hole with a raised rim of clay surrounding it,

ostensibly to receive the blood of the victims and libations of palm

wine.

To one side, and near the altar, was a kind of roughly made table fixed

on four straight legs; upon this was displayed a number of human bones

and several skulls; leaning against this table was a frame looking very

like a chicken walk on to the table; this also was garnished with

horizontal rows of human skulls--here and there were to be seen human

skulls lying about; outside the Ju-Ju house, upon a kind of trellis

work, were a number of shrivelled portions of human flesh.

Whilst writing about the wholesale slaughter of iguanas I forgot to

mention that this was not the first time an animal that was Ju-Ju and

held in high veneration had had a general battue arranged for it. The

monkey used to hold a place in Bonny equal with the iguana, but for some

reason or another it fell from its high estate, and was as ruthlessly

slaughtered by its quondam worshippers.

Other Ju-Jus were the shark and the Spirit of the Water, or supposed

guardian angel of the Bar. The bull was at one time worshipped, but not

of late years; but still fresh beef was Ju-Ju, and twenty years ago no

Bonny gentleman would touch it.

Like fresh beef, milk of cows or goats was never used by natives,

neither were eggs eaten by Bonny men or any of the neighbouring coast

tribes.

Native houses in Bonny are very little different to the general run of

native houses along this coast, as far as the external appearance goes;

but inside they are perfect Hampton Court mazes to the uninitiated. A

noticeable peculiarity is that the entrance door and all the other

doorways in a native house have a fixed barrier about eighteen inches

high between each room from whence start the doorways proper. This forms

a very favourite seat of the master of the house or his wife, but one

must never step over them while any one is sitting on them; a man

stepping over one while a man is sitting there means "poison for eye,"

as the natives express it, which means to say your action will cause

them sickness. A man doing the same when a female is sitting in this

position has a much more significant meaning, and for a slave would

entail a good flogging.

No community of natives demonstrates the peculiar workings of domestic

slavery so well as these people, for in no other place on the coast can

any one find so many instances of the rapid rise of a bought slave from

the lowest rung of the slave ladder to the topmost.

The bought slave was quite a different class to the son of a slave born

in Bonny of slave parents; for outside the direct descendants of the

Pepple family, the freemen of Bonny could be counted on one hand;

therefore, a slave born in Bonny was looked upon as being almost equal

with a freeman. These were called Bonny free; and the Bonny free, though

they boast of their birth, can't boast of the most brains, for the most

intelligent men of these people--especially during the last fifty

years--have been bought slaves, with few exceptions.

In 1837, the then reigning King Pepple had to get Captain Craigie of

H.M. Navy to assist him in asserting his rights, a slave of his having

usurped his place. A few years after, in 1854, this same King Pepple was

deposed by his chiefs for making continuous war on New Calabar, and thus

draining the wealth of the country, as well as for his cruelties to his

own people; they, at the same time, found out another charge against him

that he was an usurper, as there was a young man named Dapho Pepple, a

son of his elder brother, who was entitled to the throne, and, with the

assistance of the late Consul Beecroft, the change was made and the

fighting King Pepple was taken away to Fernando Po, and eventually found

his way to England in 1857; there he resided four years, was carefully

looked after by the temperance party, and eventually became a convert to

Christianity. Several sets of verses were strung together for and about

him by the goody goody papers of the time. He made strong appeals to the

British public for L20,000 to establish a mission in his country; but in

this matter I am afraid he was not successful, as the mission was never

started by him, and on his arrival home in Bonny River, in August, 1861,

there was a dearth of current coin in the royal pockets.

The following is King Pepple's address in verse, which, he asserted, he

spoke when seeking funds to establish a mission in his country. He only

asked for a modest L20,000. I never heard what he got, but one thing I

do know, whatever he did get, he never expended a shilling of it for the

purpose it was given him:--

Beloved bretheren,

Young and old,

I come to day to ask for gold

To help the missionary Coons

Who brave Bonny's hot simoons.

Tooralooral! Rich and poor,

A pewter plate is at the door!

Now why must each of you decide

Your heart and purse to open wide?

It is because the imbued sin

That e'en now lurks each heart within

Tooralooral! with all its might

Is prompting you to close them tight.

And then it must not be forgot

That Hell is wide and awful hot,

And gibbering fiends around us grin

With joy to see us tumble in.

Tooralooral! don't forget

The Devil he may have you yet.

But would you from destruction turn,

Nor 'mid sulphurous vapours burn,

But each become a blessed spirit,

And kingdom come with joy inherit.

Tooralooral! tip us a bob,

To help us on our holy job.

Remember, friends, we are but dust,

And die in course of time we must.

To show the seeds have taken root

By yielding up the proper fruit,

Tooralooral! are you willing

To subscribe another shilling?

If you will help to save the nigger

Your crown of glory shall be bigger,

More white your robes, your sandals smarter,

When we shall meet above herear'ter

Tooralooral! Psalms and Hymns,

Cherubs sweet and Seraphims.

Fields of glory, floods of light,

Sweet effulgence, Angels bright,

Sounds symphoneous, jewels rare,

Sheets of gold and perfumed air.

Tooralooral! fellow men,

Hallelujah! and Amen.

By what specious reasoning he succeeded in prevailing upon the

authorities at the Foreign Office to countenance his return to Bonny, or

what he described as his dominions, I know not. The fact, however, is on

record that he did get this permission, and that he found some good

friends in London to assist him with sufficient cash to pay L900 down on

account of the charter of the _Bewley_, a small vessel of only about 180

tons register, which was to carry him and his consort, the Queen

Eleanor, better known in Bonny as Allaputa, and their royal suite, which

consisted of nine English men and two English women; amongst the former

he had nominated the following officials, viz., premier, secretary, an

assistant 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 English woman was to act as a maid of honour to the Queen

Eleanor. All these people had agreements for salaries varying from L60

to L600 per annum, some of them with an allowance of L15 for uniform;

several of the agreements contained a clause that stipulated that the

king was to supply them with suitable apartments in the royal palace.

On arriving in the Bonny river, these poor people had a rude awakening,

for they found that the king 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 their passages home; they

had some reason for their action, for the old king still had a strong

party friendly to him in the town. The king funked landing amongst his

late subjects, and he remained on board the _Bewley_, until the 15th of

October, landing at last with many misgivings. Strange to relate, the

same day the walls of the Bonny Ju-Ju house crumbled to bits, caused, no

doubt, by the heavy rains, but the king looked upon it as an omen boding

no good to him.

When the king landed, the captain of the _Bewley_ gave the European

suite notice that he could not supply them with food any longer, as the

king was not able to pay him what he owed the ship.

These poor people now found themselves in a sad plight, but the

Liverpool supercargoes in the river gave them quarters in their

different sailing vessels and hulks. Those who wished to try their luck

in some other place on the coast had their passages paid by the

supercargoes of the river; Miss Mary, the queen's maid of honour, was

about the first to be sent home, the gardener and his wife left in

November, and by the end of December the last of the king's white suite

left the river. None were ever paid their arrears of wages, the king

being with difficulty made to find L10 towards the passage money of the

doctor. Strange to relate, though these eleven white people could not be

said to have passed their time in Bonny river under the best conditions

for health, being cooped up on board a vessel of only 180 tons

register, yet only one of them died, that one being the king's valet.

All had remained more than two months in the river, some four months, at

a time, when, according to some authorities, the coast climate is most

to be dreaded.

King Pepple never regained his ancient sway over the Bonny people, and

after lingering in very indifferent health a few years, during which

time he was every now and again springing some new intrigue on his

people, he passed away at Ju-Ju Town, where he had been living almost

ever since his return to his native land, for his health's sake, he

asserted, but rumour had it that he felt himself safer away from the

vicinity of his more powerful chiefs.

After his death, the affairs of Bonny went back into the hands of the

four regents, as they had been since the death of King Dapho up to the

time of King Pepple's return in 1861, and in a great measure remained

during the few years Pepple lived.

These regents had originally been appointed by the late Acting Consul

Lynslager on the 1st of September, 1855, and were the heads of the

following houses:--

_Name of House._ _Native Name of Chief in_ _Name of Chief in_

_Possession in 1855._ _Possession in 1869._

Annie Pepple Elolly Pepple Ja Ja.

Captain Hart Apho Dappa Still alive.

Adda Allison Generally called Addah. " "

Manilla Pepple Erinashaboo Warrabo.

Oko Jumbo } Advisers to the regents, Still alive.

Jim Banago } both wealthy men. Squeeze Banago.

The above lists show in a very marked manner the favourable side of

domestic slavery; every one of the above chiefs were bought slaves or

the sons of bought slaves, and in that case would be Bonny free. Ja Ja

was bought by Adda Allison, and by him presented to Elolly Pepple, the

name Ja Ja signifying a present in some native language in the

hinterland of Bonny. Oko Jumbo was a slave bought by Manilla Pepple.

Captain Hart was a slave bought from the Okrika people, and had been

head slave of the late King Dapho. The others I am not sure about, but

Squeeze Banago and Warrabo may have been Bonny free, though I have my

doubts, but in no case from 1855 up to this date, 1869, had a son

inherited from his father. I don't wish to be understood never did;

because cases have occurred, and did occur during this time, where the

son followed the father, but in these six principal Houses the chief was

not the son of the former head of the House. A House, in native

parlance, meant a number of petty chiefs congregated together for mutual

protection, owning allegiance generally to the richest and most

intelligent one amongst them, whom they called their father, and the

Europeans called a chief. A House could be formed as Oko Jumbo formed

his. He, as I have said above, was a bought slave, yet, by his superior

intelligence and industry, he amassed, in early life, great wealth, was

able to buy numerous slaves, some of whom showed similar aptitude to

himself, to whom he showed the same encouragement that his master had

shown him, and allowed them to trade on their own account. These men in

their turn bought slaves, and allowed them similar privileges. This kind

of evolution went on with uninterrupted success until Oko Jumbo, after

twenty years' trading, found himself at the head of five or six hundred

slaves; for, according to country law, all the slaves bought by his

favoured slaves (now become petty chiefs or head boys) belonged to him

as he belonged to Manilla Pepple; but owing to his accumulated riches

and numerous followers he was beginning to take rank as a chief and head

of a House. One must not think that the assistance given by an owner of

slaves to here and there one, as described above, is all pure

philanthropy; it is nothing of the kind, for for every hundred pounds

worth of trade the slave does on his own account nowadays means L25 into

the coffers of his master. In the early sixties this profit was not so

great, but it represented in those days a ten to fifteen per cent.

commission to the head of the House.

There were five kinds of commission paid by the European traders to the

heads of Houses. There were Ex Bar, Custom Bar, Work Bar, Gentlemen's

Dash and Boys' Dash, and as a slave who had been allowed to trade by his

master rose in the social scale he marked the different stages he passed

through by being allowed gradually to claim these various commissions on

his own oil from the Europeans; thus at first he would get only the

boys' dash, = 1 pes of small Manchester cloth, value about 2s., and a

fisherman's red cap, worth about 3d. The latter was supposed to go to

his pull-away boys to buy palm wine. The second stage in his progress

would be marked by his being allowed to take the gentlemen's dash,

consisting of two pes of cloth, value 2s. 6d. each. The third he would

be allowed to receive a portion of the work bar on his oil, sometimes

only a third, gradually increasing until he would be allowed to claim

the whole work bar. On arriving at this latter stage he would be

expected to provide a war canoe and men and arms for the same, ready at

any moment to turn out and fight for the general good of the country or

to take part in any quarrel between his master and any other chief in

Bonny, or to attend his master with it when he wished to visit any small

country and make a little naval demonstration if these people had been a

little slack in paying their debts. In course of time, this man, having

supplied a war canoe, would aspire to being recognised as a chief, and

thus be entitled to wear an eagle's feather in his hat. To arrive at

this stage he would have to make some payments to the principal Ju-Ju

men of the town, and if he never had been at war, and thus missed the

opportunity of cutting an enemy's head off, he must purchase a slave for

this purpose and cut the poor creature's head off in cold blood in the

Ju-Ju house. This function was rigorously insisted upon by the Ju-Ju

men, and under no circumstances would they allow a man to become 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 public

meeting, to all the other chiefs, and the next day several brother

chiefs would accompany him round to the various trading ships in the

port, to intimate to the Europeans that he was a full chief, and

entitled to receive all the work bar, ex bar, gentlemen's dash and boys'

dash that a chief was entitled to. I have previously mentioned custom

bar; this originally was paid only to the king, and consisted of one

iron bar upon every puncheon of oil bought by the European trader; in

early days the king used to put a boy on board each ship to collect this

toll, but in course of time found that he was more sure to be honestly

dealt with if he left the white man to pay him occasionally what was due

to him, than to receive it daily through his bar-boy. On the deposition

of King Pepple, the custom bar was collected by the four regents, whose

descendants demanded it as a right, even after the return of the king,

and continued to get it, until a few years ago, when all these bars were

abolished in Bonny by mutual consent, and in their place was paid

"topping," varying from time to time, according to the saneness of the

white traders, from twenty to thirty per cent. on the price of the oil,

gentlemen's and boys' dash still being continued.

Referring back to the head-cutting ceremony, I must here mention a

curious fact, when one remembers the savage state of these people, that

I have known many Bonny men who were in a position to be made chiefs,

and had conformed to all the preliminary forms, but who shirked the head

cutting in cold blood, preferring thus to continue head boys only, until

forced by the chiefs (generally instigated by the Ju-Ju men) to complete

the ceremony. One in particular, named Jungo, I remember, who at the

time of the civil war in Bonny in 1869 had been for some time eligible

to become a chief, yet shirked the head cutting; he was amongst those

who followed Ja Ja in his retreat to the Ekomtoro, afterwards called the

Opobo; it was not until some years after arriving in the Opobo that some

Ju-Ju priest remembered that Jungo had not distinguished himself during

the war, and that he had yet to perform his head cutting. Poor Jungo was

one of the mildest natured black men I have ever known, and tried all

kinds of schemes to get out of the ordeal, even offering to give up some

of his acquired rights, but public opinion and the Ju-Ju priests were

too much for him, and the slave to be sacrificed was bought, and the

ceremony carried out by Jungo; but he was such a poor performer that he

unintentionally caused considerably more pain to his victim than

necessary, for Jungo tried to do the terrible deed by striking with his

face turned the other way, the victim absolutely cursing him for his

bungling. This latter episode may, perhaps, be put down as a traveller's

yarn, but it is not at all to be wondered at, when it is known that

these poor wretches are made drunk previous to being decapitated.

Having described how a slave might become a chief, I will now describe

how one became the head of a House or chief, and afterwards made himself

a king, and one of the most powerful in this part of Africa.

When Elolly Pepple died (some say he was poisoned), shortly after the

return of King Pepple in 1861, the Annie Pepple House was for some time

left without a head. The various chiefs held repeated meetings, and the

generally coveted honour did not seem to tempt any of them; by right of

seniority a chief named Uranta (about the freest man in the House, some

asserted he was absolutely free), was offered the place, but he, for

private reasons of his own, refused. After Uranta there were Annie

Stuart, Black Foobra and Warrasoo, all men of some considerable riches

and consideration, but they also shirked the responsibility, for Elolly

had been a very big trader, and owed the white men, it was said, at the

time of his death, a thousand or fifteen hundred puncheons of oil,

equivalent to between ten and fifteen thousand pounds sterling, and none

of the foremost men of the house dare tackle the settlement of such a

large debit account, fearing that the late chief had not left sufficient

behind him to settle up with, without supplementing it with their own

savings, which might end in bankruptcy for them, and their final

downfall from the headship. At this time there was in the House a young

man who had not very long been made a chief, 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 to strictly adhere to any promise he made in trade

matters. This young chief was Ja Ja, and though he was one of the

youngest chiefs in the house, he was unanimously elected to fill the

office. He, however, did not immediately accept, though his being

unanimously elected amounted almost to his being forced to accept.

He first visited _seriatim_ each white trader, counted book (as they

call going through the accounts of a House), and found that though there

was a very large debit against the late chief, there was also a large

credit, as a set off, in the way of sub-chief's work bars and the late

Elolly's own work bars. At the same time, he arranged with each

supercargo the 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 if he settled according to promise they would get their

successor to give him an equal amount of credit that they themselves had

given the late Elolly. A few days after, at a public meeting of the

chiefs of the Annie Pepple House, he intimated his readiness to accept

the headship of the House, distinctly informing them that, as they had

elected him themselves, they must assist him in upholding his authority

over them as a body, which would be no easy task for him when there were

so many older and richer chiefs in the House who were more entitled than

he was to the post. The older chiefs, only too delighted to have found

in Ja Ja some one to take the responsibility of the late chief's debts

and the troubles of chieftainship off their shoulders, were prepared,

and did solemnly swear, to assist him with their moral support, taking

care not to pledge themselves to assist him in any of the financial

affairs of the House.

Ja Ja had not been many months head of the Annie Pepple House before he

began to show the old chiefs what kind of metal he was made of; for

during the first twelve months he had selected from amongst the late

Elolly's slaves no less than eighteen or twenty young men, who had

already amassed a little 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 men

from five to ten puncheons worth of goods, he himself standing guarantee

for them. This operation had the effect of making Ja Ja immediately

popular amongst all classes of the slaves of the late chief. At the same

time, the slaves of the old chief of the House began to see that there

was a man at the head of the House who would set a good example to their

immediate masters. Some of these young men are now wealthy chiefs in

Opobo, and as evidence that they had been well chosen, Ja Ja was never

called upon to fulfil his guarantee.

Two years after Ja Ja was placed at the head of the House the late

Elolly's debts were all cleared off, no white trader having been

detained beyond the date Ja Ja had promised the late chief's debts

should be paid by. In consideration for the prompt manner in which Ja Ja

had paid up, he received from each supercargo whom the late chief had

dealt with a present varying from five to ten per cent. on the amount

paid.

From this date Ja Ja never looked back, becoming the most popular chief

in Bonny amongst the white men, and the idol of his own people, but

looked upon with jealousy by the Manilla Pepple House, to which belonged

the successful slave, Oko Jumbo, who was now, both in riches and power,

the equal of Ja Ja, though never his equal in popularity amongst the

Europeans. Though there was a king in Bonny, and Warribo was the head of

the Manilla House, _id est_, the king's House, Oko Jumbo and Ja Ja were

looked upon by every one as being the rulers of Bonny. The demon of

jealousy was at work, and in the private councils of the Manilla House

it was decided that Ja Ja must be pulled down, but the only means of

doing it was a civil war. The risks of this Oko Jumbo, Warribo and the

king did not care to face, as though the Oko Jumbo party was most

numerous, each side was equally supplied with big guns and rifles up to

a short time before the end of 1868, when two European traders, on their

way home, picked up a number of old 32 lb. carronades at Sierra Leone,

and shipped the same down to Oko Jumbo. This sudden accession of war

material, of course, put him in a position to provoke Ja Ja, and he cast

about for a _causus belli_, but Ja Ja was an astute diplomatist, and

managed to steer clear of all his opponent's pitfalls. A very small

matter is often seized upon by natives as a means to provoke a war, and

in this case the cause of quarrel was found in "that a woman of the

Annie Pepple House had drawn water from some pond belonging to the

Manilla Pepple House." This was thought quite sufficient. A most

insulting message was sent to Ja Ja, intimating that the time had come

when nothing but a fight could settle their differences. His reply was

characteristic of the man; he reminded them that he had no wish to

fight, was not prepared, and, furthermore, that neither he, nor they,

had paid their debts to the Europeans. The latter part of the message

was too much for an irascible, one-eyed old fighting chief named Jack

Wilson Pepple, so off he marched to his own house, and fired the first

round shot into the Annie Pepple part of the town, and civil war was

commenced. It was a bit overdue, the last having taken place in 1855. As

a rule, they come round about every ten years, like the epidemics of

malignant bilious fever of the coast.

The Annie Pepple House was not slow to reply, but Ja Ja knew he was

over-matched, both in guns and numbers of fighting men, so he only kept

up a semblance of a fight sufficiently long to allow him to make a

retreat to a small town called Tombo, in the next creek to the Bonny

creek, only about three miles from Bonny by water, less by land.

From here he was in a better position to parley with his opponents, and

make terms if possible, but he soon saw that no arrangement less than

the complete humiliation of himself and people was going to satisfy his

enemies, for besides the jealousy of Oko Jumbo, the young King George

Pepple, son of the gentleman who had been to England and brought out the

European suite, had not forgotten that the Annie Pepple house,

represented by the late Elolly, had been the chief opponents of his late

father when he returned to Bonny in 1861 after his exile.

This young man had been educated in England, and I must say did credit

to whoever had had charge of his education. He both spoke and wrote

English correctly, and had his father been able to hand over to him the

kingship as he had received it in 1837, he might have blossomed into a

model king in West Africa; but, alas! the only thing he inherited from

his father beyond the kingship was debt--king only in name, receiving

only so much of his dues as the principal chiefs liked to allow 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

ability of such men as Oko Jumbo and Ja Ja to make a position for

himself, he became but a puppet in the hands of his principal chiefs; a

fate, I am afraid, which has generally befallen the native of these

parts who has attempted to retain any of the teachings of Christianity

on his return amongst his pagan brethren.

Few people can understand the reason of this. It is simply another proof

of the wonderful power of Ju-Ju amongst these people, for it is to that

occult influence that I trace the general ill-success of the educated

native of the Delta in his own country,--unless he returns to all the

pagan gods of his forefathers, and until he does so many channels of

prosperity are completely closed to him.

I am afraid I have wandered a little from my subject, but in doing so I

hope I have made some things clear that otherwise might have appeared a

little mixed from an European point of view, so will now return to Ja

Ja.

From Tombo Town Ja Ja communicated with the Bonny Court of Equity, and a

truce was arranged, native meetings followed, and after several weeks of

palavering, no better terms were offered Ja Ja than had before been

offered to him. The white men interested themselves in the matter, and

held meetings innumerable, until at last they were as divided as the

natives. With the exception of one or two at the outside, they

understood so little of the occult workings of native squabbles that

they could do little to smooth matters over. In the meantime, Ja Ja had

been studying a masterly plan of retreat from Tombo Town to a river

called the Ekomtoro, also called the Rio Conde in ancient maps.

Once in this river, by fortifying two or three points he would be able

to completely turn the tables on his enemies by barring their way to the

Eboe markets, but to get there he would have to pass one, if not two,

fortified points held by the Manilla Pepple people. Besides this, what

would his position be when there, if he could not get any white men

there to trade with? Luckily for him, there dropped from the clouds the

very man he wanted. This was a trader named Charley, who had been in the

Bonny River some years before, and was now established at Brass on his

own account. At an interview with Ja Ja, that did not last half an hour,

the whole plan of campaign was arranged. Charley returned to Brass and

confided the scheme to his friend, Archie McEachan, who decided to join

him. Thus Ja Ja had the certainty of support in his new home if he could

only get there, and get there he did.

Being shortly after joined by these two white traders trade was opened

in the Ekomtoro, and on Christmas Day, 1870, Ekomtoro was named the

[)O]p[)o]b[=o] River, after [)O]p[)o]b[=o], the founder of the town of

"Grand Bonny," as Bonny men delight to call their mud and thatch

capital.

The name of [)O]p[)o]b[=o] was chosen by Ja Ja himself. To students of

the peculiar relationship existing between a bought slave and his

master, the latter looked up to and called father by his slave, this

choice of the name of a man who had been a great man in his father's

house, _id est_, his master's, demonstrates in a striking manner the

veneration a bought slave, under the system of domestic slavery in these

parts, in many cases displays, equalling in every respect that of the

free-born direct descendant.

The tables were now turned with a vengeance, and Ja Ja remained the

master of the position, and for several years kept the Bonny men out of

the Eboe and Qua markets; eventually agreeing to have the differences

between himself and the Manilla Pepple people settled by the arbitration

of the New Calabar and the Okrika chiefs with Commodore Commerell and

Mr. Charles Livingstone, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Bights

of Benin and Biafra, as referees.

Evidently the arbitrators considered that Ja Ja was in no way to blame

for the civil war that had taken place in Bonny, for in the division of

the markets that had been common property when Ja Ja and his people had

formed an integral part of the Bonny nation, the greater part was given

to Ja Ja and his right to remain where he had established himself fully

recognised.

Immediately on this settlement being come to, Her Britannic Majesty's

Consul entered into a commercial treaty with Ja Ja recognising him as

King of Opobo. This treaty was signed January 4th, 1873, the deed of

arbitration having been signed the day previous.

In giving my readers the history of this man up to this point, I have

always had in my mind the question of domestic slavery, being anxious to

give its most favourable side as fair an exposition as its unfavourable.

I have in previous pages mentioned some of the latter, but those remarks

only dealt with the early stages of the slave's condition after capture

in the interior and his risks of arriving alive at his destination. I

have now to deal with 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 manifold, his life until he gets his foot on

the first rung of the ladder of advancement is terrible; he never knows

from one moment to another when he may be re-sold, he is badly fed, in

fact, some masters never feed their slaves at all when they are not

actually employed pulling a canoe or doing other labour such as making

farm, cutting sticks for house-building, &c. Failing these employments,

the slave has all his time to himself. His chances of putting this time

to any profit are very few in the Oil Rivers; and should he by chance

get some employment from a white man, his owner takes good care to

receive his pay, the only thing the slave getting out of it being three

full meals a day for a few days, making the starvation fare he is

accustomed to the harder to bear afterwards. Were it not for their

adopted mother, _id est_, the woman they are given to on being bought,

their state would be absolutely unbearable in times of forced idleness;

but these women almost invariably have considerable affection for their

numerous adopted children, and though their means may be very limited,

they generally manage to supply them with at least one meal a day in

return for the many little services they perform for them, such as

fetching water, carrying firewood in from the bush, selling their few

fowls and eggs to the white men, and doing any other little matter of

trade for them.

Even those slaves who have been lucky enough to fall into the hands of a

master who sees that they at least do not starve, have along with their

less lucky brethren to put up with the ungovernable fits of temper which

some of these black slave owners display at times, in many cases

inflicting the most terrible punishment for trivial offences, as often

as not only on suspicion that the slave was guilty. Amongst the numerous

punishments I have known inflicted are the following.

Ear cutting in its various stages, from clipping to total dismemberment;

crucifixion round a large cask; extraction of teeth; suspension by the

thumbs; Chilli peppers pounded and stuffed up the nostrils, and forced

into the eyes and ears; fastening the victim to a post driven into the

beach at low water and leaving him there to be drowned with the rising

tide, or to be eaten by the sharks or crocodiles piecemeal; heavily

ironed and chained to a post in their master's compound, without any

covering over their heads, kept in this state for weeks, with so little

food allowed them that cases have been known where the irons have

dropped off them, but they, poor wretches, were too weak to escape, as

they had been reduced to living skeletons; impaling on stakes; forcing a

long steel ram rod through the body until it appeared through the top of

the skull. The above are a few of the punishments that even to this day

are practised, not only in the Niger Delta, but in the outlying

districts of the West African colonies. It is very rare that the

Government officials get to know anything about them; and when they do,

it is difficult to procure a conviction owing to the fear natives have

to come forward and act as witnesses.

Besides the punishments enumerated above, there are many others, some of

which are too horrible to be described here.

One often hears people who know a little about West Africa talk about

native law, but they forget to mention, if 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 when it

is a matter between himself and some other chief, or a combination of

chiefs, whose power is equal or superior to his own.

As an instance of the form which native justice (?) sometimes takes, I

will relate what took place some years ago in one of the oil rivers. An

old and very powerful chief had a young wife of whom he was immoderately

jealous. Amongst his favourite attendants was a young male slave, a mere

boy, to whom he had given many tokens of his favour; but the demon of

jealousy whispered to him that his young slave boy was looked upon with

too much favour by his young wife--herself little more than a child.

That a slave of his should dare to cast his eyes on his wife was more

than this terrible old chief 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 enterprising slave of his how dangerous it was to aspire to

the forbidden favours of a chief's wife. So he ordered his young wife to

cook him a specially good palm oil chop, a native dish of great repute,

for his breakfast the following morning. The next morning when he sat

down to his breakfast his favourite slave was behind his chair in

attendance; his young wife was present to see her lord and master was

properly served--the wives do not sit at table with their husbands--when

suddenly the chief turned in his chair and ordered his young slave to

sit at table with him. Naturally the slave hesitated to accept such an

unheard-of honour as to sit at table with his master; quickly scenting

something terrible was going to befall him, he attempted to leave the

apartment, but other slaves quickly barred his way, and he was brought

back trembling with fright, the beads of perspiration rolling down his

face and body in little rivulets, and placed in a chair opposite his

master, who, all this time had not displayed any signs of anger;

gradually the boy began to regain somewhat his scattered senses. Finding

his master displayed no signs of anger, he began to do as he was

ordered, the chief at the same time plied him with repeated doses of

spirits, till at last the boy began to chatter, and attacked the food

with a will. At length, having eaten and drunk till he could scarcely

stand, his master asked him had he enjoyed his young mistress's cooking.

On his replying yes, the chief called for a revolver, and telling him it

was the last thing he ever would enjoy of his young mistress, he emptied

the six chambers of the revolver into the poor lad's head; then having

ordered his body to be thrown into the river, went on with the usual

occupations of the day, never having once mentioned the reason of his

act to his people nor explaining his meaning to his young wife.

To the native mind the chief's actions spoke as plainly as possible; but

not having spoken, his wife's family could not, had they wished, have

made a palaver about his wife's good fame; for though the chief was

originally a bought slave or nigger himself, his young wife was country

free, her family being sufficiently powerful to have made things

uncomfortable for him if he had accused her without proof of guilt. Had

she been a slave, the chances are she would have been slaughtered.

I do not wish to convey to my readers the idea that all chiefs in the

Niger Delta are cruel monsters, but they all have power of life and

death over their slaves; the mildest of them occasionally may find

themselves so placed that they are compelled in conformity with some

Ju-Ju right to sacrifice a slave or two. The ordinary punishments for

theft and insubordination practised amongst these people are often

terribly cruel and unnecessarily severe.

Of course the Government of the Niger Coast Protectorate is steadily

breaking down these savage customs, wherever and whenever they hear of

them being practised within their jurisdiction; but the formation of the

country, the dense forests, and the superstition of the people, all

assist in keeping most cases from coming to their knowledge.

Before taking leave of the Bonny people, I must not omit to mention that

the custom of destroying twin children and children who had the

misfortune to be born with teeth was, and is, a custom still observed

amongst them. Another custom prevalent amongst these people, and common

more or less to all other natives in the Delta, was the destroying of

any woman if she became the mother of more than four children.

ANDONI RIVER AND ITS INHABITANTS.

This river lies a few miles to the east of Bonny River. The inhabitants

of the lower part of the river are called Andoni men, and during the

slave-dealing days these people were as well known to Europeans as the

Bonny men, but, owing in a great measure to the much deeper water at the

entrance to Bonny River than was to be found on the Andoni bar, the

former river offering thus more facilities for deep-draughted ships,

the traders gradually deserted the Andoni altogether, though these

people were, I believe, the original owners of the land now claimed by

the Bonny people as forming the Bonny kingdom. The Andoni men, being

deserted by the European traders, gradually became a race of fishermen

and small farmers. The Bonny men, having become the dominant race, and

not allowing the Andonis any intercourse with the white traders in their

river, the Andoni men protested against this treatment, and waged war

against the Bonny men on many occasions in the early part of this

century. The last war between these two peoples continued for some

years; the Bonny men not always getting the best of these encounters,

were very glad to come to terms with them in 1846, a treaty being then

signed between the two tribes, wherein the Andoni men were secured equal

rights with the Bonny men, but the commercial enterprise of these people

seems to have died out. Yet the King of Doni Town, as their principal

town is called in old maps, was reported by traders, who visited him in

1699, as being a man of some intelligence, speaking the Portuguese

language fluently, and having some knowledge of the Roman Catholic

faith, yet still adhering to all the customs of Ju-Juism, furthermore

describing the people as being such implicit believers in their Ju-Ju

that they would kill any one who touched any of the idols in their Ju-Ju

house.

This may have been true at the time, but about five and twenty years ago

I visited the town of Doni, as also their Ju-Ju house, and handled some

of their idols, and they showed no irritation at my so doing. I had, of

course, asked permission to do so of the Ju-Ju man who was showing me

round. I have no doubt they would resent any one interfering with them

without their permission. When I visited these people they gave me the

idea that they had never seen a white man, or had any communication with

him, for I vainly searched for any evidence that the white man had ever

been established in their river. From all I was able to gather of their

manners and customs I found that they differed little from any of their

neighbours, though they are always described by interested parties as

being inveterate cannibals and dangerous people for strangers to visit.

OPOBO RIVER.

After leaving Andoni, and continuing down the coast some ten or fifteen

miles, the Opobo discharges itself into the sea. This river, marked in

ancient maps as the Rio Conde and Ekomtoro, is the most direct way to

the Ibo palm-oil-producing country.

This river was well known to the Portuguese and Spanish slave traders,

but as Bonny became the great centre for the slave trade, this river was

completely deserted and forgotten to such an extent that, though an

opening in the coast line was shown on the English charts where this

river was supposed to be, it was never thought worth the trouble of

naming, and remained quite unknown to the English traders until it came

suddenly into repute, owing to Ja Ja establishing himself here in 1870.

The people here are the Bonny men and their descendants who followed Ja

Ja's fortunes, therefore their manners and customs are identical with

those of Bonny.

The physical appearance of these people is somewhat better than that of

the Bonny men, owing, I think, to the position of their town, which is

built on a better soil, and raised a few feet higher than that of Bonny

from the level of the river, also their uninterrupted successful trade

since their arrival in this country has doubtless not a little

contributed to their improved condition, while, on the other hand, the

Bonny men suffered severely during the years from 1869 to 1873, owing to

Ja Ja barring their way to the markets, and they seem never to have

recovered themselves.

Trading stations of the white men are at the mouth of the river and at

Eguanga, the latter a station a few miles above Opobo town.

Opobo became, under King Ja Ja's firm rule, one of the largest exporting

centres of palm oil in the Delta, and for years King Ja Ja enjoyed a not

undeserved popularity amongst the white traders who visited his river,

but a time came when the price of palm oil fell to such a low figure in

England that the European firms established in Opobo could not make both

ends meet, so they intimated to King Ja Ja that they were going to

reduce the price paid in the river, to which he replied by shipping

large quantities of his oil to England, allowing his people only to sell

a portion of their produce to the white men. The latter now formulated a

scheme amongst themselves to divide equally whatever produce came into

the river, and thus do away with competition amongst themselves. Ja Ja

found that sending his oil to England was not quite so lucrative as he

could wish, owing to the length of time it took to get his returns back,

namely, about three months at the earliest, whilst by selling in the

river he could turn over his money three or four times during that

period. He therefore tried several means to break the white men's

combination, at last hitting upon the bright idea of offering the whole

of the river's trade to one English house. The mere fact of his being

able to make this offer shows the absolute power to which he had arrived

amongst his own people. His bait took with one of the European traders;

the latter could not resist the golden vision of the yellow grease thus

displayed before him by the astute Ja Ja, who metaphorically dangled

before his eyes hundreds of canoes laden with the coveted palm oil. A

bargain was struck, and one fine morning the other white traders in the

river woke up to the fact that their combination was at an end, for on

taking their morning spy round the river through their binoculars (no

palm oil trader that respects himself being without a pair of these and

a tripod telescope, for more minute observation of his opponents'

doings) they saw a fleet of over a hundred canoes round the renegade's

wharf, and for nearly two years this trader scooped all the trade. The

fat was fairly in the fire now, and the other white traders sent a

notice to Ja Ja that they intended to go to his markets. Ja Ja replied

that he held a treaty, signed in 1873, by Mr. Consul Charles

Livingstone, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul, that empowered him to stop

any white traders from establishing factories anywhere above

Hippopotamus Creek, and under which he was empowered to stop and hold

any vessel for a fine of one hundred puncheons of oil. In June, 1885,

the traders applied to Mr. Consul White, who informed King Ja Ja that

the Protectorate treaty meant freedom of navigation and trade.

So the traders finding their occupation gone, decided amongst themselves

to take a trip to Ja Ja's markets, the only sensible thing they had done

since the trouble commenced. This was a step in the right direction,

namely, by attempting to break down the curse of Western Africa _id

est_, the power of the middle-man.

The names of the four traders who first attempted to trade in the Ibo

markets of King Ja Ja deserve to be recorded, for their action was not

without great risk to themselves. They were:

Mr. S. B. Hall }

Mr. Thomas Wright } English

Mr. Richard Foster }

Mr. A. E. Brunschweiler--Swiss.

To these must be added the name of Mr. F. D. Mitchell, who, though not

in the first trip to the markets, joined in the subsequent attempt to

establish business amongst the interior tribes. Their reception at the

markets was not altogether a success, owing to the reception committee,

or whatever represented it in those parts, being packed with either Ja

Ja's own people or Ibos favourable to him.

This good beginning was continued under great difficulties by these

first traders with little profit or success for about two years, owing

to the great power of Ja Ja amongst the interior tribes and the pressure

he was able to bring to bear on the Ibo and Kwo natives.