[NOTE: Because of the time in which the book was written, it contains some outwardly racist, ethnocentric material. I am posting the book here not only because Hugh was my third great-grandfather, but also because it contains both historical and anthropological data.]

         [PAGE 50] THE object which brought me to Palmas was to enquire into the “coast labour traffic,” and this is one of the principal markets for labourers. All vessels trading on the coast, and most factories, employ labourers, boatmen, &c., (under the generic name of Kroomen,) from Sierra Leone, Monrovia, or Palmas. These men ship for sailors, and work by the voyage, at a rate of 10d. or 1s. a day, but for factory work, for a period of a year or two, for 15s. a month and rations. When factors require them they either send a “book,” or note, to the purser of the outward bound steamer to bring them down so many Kroomen; or they send a head Krooman up to select the men they want. The factor pays 30s. passage money for the Kroomen, and 6d. a day for provisions. But other Kroomen come on board beside those required for the ship, or going “to order.” These men go down the coast on speculation. If they find a factor wanting hands, they hire themselves to him if he pays their passage, but as the steamer turns round to come homewards, the officers of the steamers sooner than lose the passage money altogether, hire them out on the best terms they can. [PAGE 51] It appeared to me that there was an opening here for a slave trade to spring up in a new form unless it was watched.

         At Fernando Po, my attention was first drawn to the matter, by two Palmas lads complaining to me that they had landed six months previously against their will, and that they had ever since been virtually slaves, obliged to work without receiving anything but food and a little cloth to cover themselves. Taking their statement for what it was worth, I made further enquiries, and was told that the lads that came down looking for chance employment were sometimes given to the native chiefs in the oil rivers. Then, on boarding a mail streamer at Cape Coast, we found more than one hundred natives on board who were neither on the ships muster roll nor passenger list, and Lieutenant Sperling of the Coquette, found one with still more on board. The Administrator of the Gold Coast also informed me that the traffic was irregular and required looking into.

         I received a letter from Mr. Gibson, shortly after my arrival at Palmas, informing me that he had heard of the object of my visit, and expressing his satisfaction that some notice was at last taken of the labour traffic carried on by British streamers, and offering to give me information. But I found that the Governor had only to complain of the ill usage Kroomen passengers received on board the steamers. [PAGE 52] He admitted that there was no such thing as kidnapping, and that there were generally more men ready to go down the coast than the steamers would take, and that most of them returned with a fair amount of money, or money’s worth, in their possession. Still, he said, the local chiefs had complained to him that not a few of their people were never heard of again.

         Speaking to the captain of one of the steamers about the reason for not entering Kroomen on the passenger list, he said, they were so apt to be stolen or desert, that it would be impossible to keep a correct list.

         I asked Mr. Gibson to mention the particular ill-treatment he had heard Kroomen complain of. He mentioned a circumstance that had lately occurred. A streamer called off the port to discharge her Kroomen passengers; there was no cargo for her and she did not wish to stop, and as the canoes were some time coming off, the Kroomen with their baggage were forced overboard to swim to them, so as not to detain the steamer. He mentioned bad food, and other matters; but I must say, I have never heard complaints elsewhere on this subject, or from the Kroomen themselves, but our Kroomen whom I used as interpreters, were Sierra Leone men, and could not often understand Palmas men.

         I made my report to our Government through Commodore Commerell, and the trade will be watched.

         [PAGE 53] There is no doubt it is a great blessing to our coast trade to be able to employ these men, and if properly carried on, the Kroomen are equally benefited.

         We returned to Cape Coast on the 10th June [1872]. On landing I met the funeral of Mr. Bate, a Wesleyan missionary, who had died from an attack of dysentery that morning. The following was very large of men and women. The “trowser” [sic] men wore black frock coats, and white, or shiny black hats, and the “petticoat” ladies, nice black dresses and bonnets; the “clouty” men and women, who were many, looked none the less respectful and respectable. The rear of the procession was brought up by the chief’s umbrella, and stick bearers.

         The cemetery is not as nicely kept as might be expected, and I heard a complaint that the natives are given to mutilate head stones from a mere spirit of mischief.

         We did not stay at Cape Coast, but sailed immediately for Lagos, calling at intermediate ports. At Jellah Coffee we again replenished our live stock. Then we passed alongshore looking in at Porto Seguro, Great Popo, Whydah and Appi, at all of which places we found sailing vessels loading or discharging cargo. They were chiefly French. The pea-nut is taken to Marseilles by these vessels to produce the best “olive oil!” At popo a large English barque had been wrecked in a gale that had occurred a few weeks previously. A [PAGE 54] gale of wind is a very rare event in the Bights, and vessels are induced to anchor too close to the shore for safety, to facilitate loading operations. The natives had plundered this wreck of her cargo and materials, considering it as a godsend, and, we were told, asked also for a “Dash” for saving the crew! The merchant to whom the cargo belonged was too wise to ask for a man-of-war to punish the natives in the usual manner for this outrage, contenting himself with a much more profitable and satisfactory manner of recouping his loss in the ordinary course of business.

         The landing is very bad all along this coast, and must be done at all times in the usual surf boat. The coast is low, and immediately within the strip of sand forming the sea shore are large lagoons of shallow water, which render it a most unhealthy place for Europeans to live in. From Accra on the Gold Coast, until the Cameroon mountains are reached, this is so, a distance of more than 500 miles. This may be called the country of the Delta of the Niger, for there is a probability that all the lagoons and rivers that enter the sea within these limits are connected with that great river.

         On the 16th June [1872] we anchored off Lagos bar. There were about 20 merchant vessels in the roads, but we were told trade was very dull, owing to a tribe in the interior having become hostile to us, and they had established a kind of internal blockade, locally termed [PAGE 55] “Stopping the roads.” Captain Glover, R.N., who had ably administered the government of this settlement for many years, had left for England on the previous day, and Mr. Hennessy was in Lagos.

         The Torch drew too much water to cross the bar; so Lieutenant Larcom was good enough to come out in H.M.S. Pioneer, which was, on our arrival, at anchor off the town, to take me in. The bar has a frightful appearance, as it is approached. It is a mass of foaming breakers, stretching apparently from one side of Lagos river to the other, at least three miles. But there are passages through it by which skilled pilots can take small vessels in and out, but the channels are constantly changing. Once inside the bar, a fine expanse of smooth water is reached with a deep channel. If the bar could be deepened by artificial means this would become one of the finest harbours on the coast.

         The late season had been very unhealthy, and there were so few white persons left in Lagos, that Captain Glover had been obliged to ask Lieutenant Larcom temporarily to perform the duties of Colonial Secretary and Treasurer. To show how trade had been affected by the blockade I have spoken of, and by the prohibition of Governor Glover to export guns or powder to the native tribes who had “stopped the roads,” Mr. Larcom told me that he found three shillings and sixpence in the Colonial chest when he took office, and on his resignation a fortnight afterwards it contained 14s. 9d! [PAGE 56] The annual revenue of the settlement had, I was informed, once reached to nearly £40,000.

         I remembered Lagos as a native town surrounded by mangrove swamp, and the head quarters of the slave trade in the Bight of Benin. This, in 1850. I was truly astonished to find it what it is. It is situated on an island, very low of course, but the mangrove has been cleared a long way back, and it is no longer a swamp. As we steamed towards Government house in the Pioneer we passed several handsome villa residences, and the grand stand of a race course!

          We found the Governor and chief officials had gone to breakfast with King Docemo, whose family ruled in Lagos before it fell into our hands, and who receives an annual pension from the Colonial chest. I believe he performs some judicial functions in native disputes. His breakfast I heard pronounced a success; he adopted as nearly as he could the European style of giving it, but he could not make European cooks or waiters out of native materials.

         Government house is neither the most imposing nor commodious in the place, and not to be compared to that at Cape Coast in this matter, showing that past Governors had not paid so much attention to their own comforts as to the improvement of the settlement. The town is certainly a great and standing credit to them. The Marina, facing the water, is more than a mile long. A well kept road shaded by trees goes along its whole [PAGE 57] extent; wooden wharves, alongside which ships were laying, project from it into the sea, and on the land side, separated by neat gardens from the road, were stucco houses of two or three stories, with green verandahs round them. The shops and stores were well stocked, and the market well supplied. The native town is separated from the more fashionable quarter where Europeans reside, and contains about 30,000 inhabitants.

         The officials and merchants of Lagos are famed for their hospitality, and we enjoyed our short visit to them. There was again a great want, although not an entire absence of ladies’ society, but Lagos climate is a bad one, - much worse than Cape Coast.

         I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Mrs. Davis, formerly Miss Bonneta Forbes, a god-daughter of her Majesty, and whom she had had educated in England. She had been taken out of a captured slaver by Captain Forbes and taken to England, or brought from Dahomy by him after his visit to the king, - I forget which. She bears on her cheek the mark made on Dahoman slaves. Captain Davis, her husband, appears a prosperous merchant, and their house is furnished with much taste. He, also, is an African native.

         Bishop Crowther is well known in this country. At home he is a simple, pleasant, and obliging gentleman. He was enthusiastic about the capabilities of [PAGE 58] the Niger country, and the capacity of that noble river for a large trade. He spoke in very high terms of the increasing friendliness of the river tribes, and was very sanguine about the progress of missionary enterprise in that region. He told how, in a recent overland journey he had made from a place on the Niger to Lagos, his party received presents from the native chiefs valued at no less than £400. Missionaries connected with different Protestant societies are established at Lagos, and there are several churches. A very large Episcopal church was in course of construction, and I visited a pretty one in which the Bishop officiated, beside which the old building, built after the native fashion, is still used.

         Horses thrive very well at Lagos, and some neat traps are to be met driving about its streets. Altogether, Lagos has a more civilized air about it than any town we visited, between Dâkar and St. Pauls de Loando.

         Mr. Porter, the agent for Messrs. Banner Brothers, informed me that he had resided for a considerable time in the large native town of Abbeokuta, whose walls are seventeen miles in circumference. Abbeokuta is not far from Lagos, inland, and in a healthier climate. Day by day its demands for European goods are increasing, and it is likely to become a good English customer, when paths are open, and our policy better understood.

         There are one or two out stations of importance in [PAGE 59] the Lagos settlement of which Badagry to the west is the chief, and the trade prospects of the settlement are so good, if peace can be established on its borders, that it is likely to go on increasing in wealth and political importance and to become the Liverpool of the Coast.

         On the 19th we sailed for Old Calabar. We had occasional heavy showers, but not every day, and seldom of any length. Average maximum of therometer 86º. It was difficult to recognise one mouth of the Niger from another, they are all so much alike between the Benin and the Nun. The shore is covered with mangrove trees; occasionally, some of another species intrude themselves, and an umbrella tree may be seen rising above the rest at long intervals, as the only variety to the scene on the most monotonous coast man ever looked upon. After passing Cape Formosa the mud deposited by the rivers forms shoals miles out to seaward, rendering it unsafe for ships to approach too close to the land.

         We fell in with H.M.S. Druid off the Bonny, and received orders from Captain Nelson to visit Gaboon and other ports, and to return to Cape Coast.

         On the 24th June [1872] we anchored off the Old Calabar river, the rain falling in torrents. The weather did not clear until the afternoon of the 25th, when we could make out the marks for entering the river. “Tom Shot’s breakers” are eight miles from the entrance, and within them are many dangers to navi- [PAGE 60] gation, and a strong tide. A few buoys have been put down by the merchants interested in the trade of the river to mark the turning points, but the sounding lead is the great guide. Curiously, there is hard bottom on one side of the channel and soft bottom on the other; so, if the soundings decrease, you know at once on which side of deep water you are. The river is several miles wide for the first 40 miles, but it then narrows to a considerable stream not less than a mile across until Duke town is reached. We did not arrive there that night, the tide not suiting; but early on the 26th we went up with the flood tide at a great pace. We only remained a few hours whilst I got through some business with Consul [Charles] Livingstone [elder brother of Dr. David Livingstone], who was residing at the Scotch Missionary Station. This is built on some high ground overlooking the river. The site is a lovely one and the premises well kept. The house is as comfortable as could be wished. I cannot say much for the external beauty of the church, which has a round roof of galvanized iron like a railway goods depot. Mr. [Charles] Livingstone showed me some great natural curiosities - fish with eyelids. They were about four inches long, of a light colour, and capable of giving a palpable electric shock - they were alive, and swimming about in a basin.

         The merchants resided on board large hulks, roofed over with galvanized iron, moored in the river. Trade - palm oil - appeared very brisk; two steamers were [PAGE 61] loading, and the river looked busy with large canoes and cargo boats.

         We left again before noon at high water, and reached Fernando Po during the night. There we coaled, and took the Pioneer in tow as far as Cape Lopez. She then went on to the Congo and we entered the Gaboon.

         Unlike the Congo, this magnificent river has numerous dangers at its entrance, and the tide runs in almost as fast as it runs out. In the Congo the flood tide, although there is an equal rise as at Gaboon, seldom even checks the force of the surface current.

         The French settlement is on the north bank of the river, and consists of a small dockyard with storehouses and coal sheds, barracks, hospital, church, schools, and official residences. Stores and private residences are scattered about, but they are few and of no great pretension.

         We anchored on the 29th June [1872]. The Acting-Governor was the Captain of the receiving hulk, the Admiral commanding on the station not having arrived from France. He is ex-officio Governor of Gaboon and the protectorate of Grand Bassam. Gaboon is situated a few miles north of the equator. The climate is one of the pleasantest on the coast, but the commander of the Pygmée informed me that the river was very unhealthy as it was ascended. Where the settlement is, the land rises considerably, and there are no mangroves near it, and the inhabitants get the full [PAGE 62] benefit of a delicious sea breeze every afternoon. The river is entered by a deep channel, but it becomes too shoal for vessels of more than a very light draught at a distance of 25 miles from its entrance. Small steamers can navigate its numerous branches, some of them for at least 150 miles. It is not yet thoroughly surveyed, and the trade of the river is quite in its infancy.

         There are two large and interesting missionary establishments. The French one, presided over by a Bishop, receives support from government. The children educated here are taught to cultivate the various agricultural products that flourish in the country. They are also taught how to prepare these articles for market. The gardens are very extensive, well kept, and well stocked. Among other thing, I was shown coffee, cocoa, palm of varieties, mango, bread fruit, banana, orange, and lime trees; sugar canes and grape vines of several varieties, pine apples, papaws, and cotton bushes, all flourishing. Rice is cultivated on a strip of land near the river. Vegetables grow remarkably well, and fine cabbages, lettuce, celery, beetroot, turnips, carrots, onions, and marrows were shown. Potatoes have been grown but do not do well. The sweet potato there is no difficulty about. The gardens are artificially irrigated in the dry season, but there is not much trouble in doing this where labour is so cheap, and these gardens prove what the soil is capable of.

         [PAGE 63] There were 150 boys in the schools, and the Sisters of Mercy educated a number of girls at another place. Some of the boys are taught trades, such as blacksmiths, carpenters, and coopers; how to manage cattle and rear poultry, and how to use machines for sugar making and extracting oil from cocoa nuts and seeds. They are also educated in the French and native (M’Pongwe) languages, and taught mathematics if required. The more intelligent lads are sent to Senegal or France to be educated for the priesthood. The church is provided with an organ, stained glass windows, and is well appointed.

         The other missionary station is that belonging to the American Board of Missions and situated two miles further up the river at Glass town. It is a beautiful spot, on ground much above the river, with a magnificent view. The Rev. Mr. Bushnell is at its head, and his wife has resided here with him for many years; other American ladies were also at the station. The houses, schoolrooms, stores, and church were all one storied buildings, thatched with palm leaves and surrounded by shady verandahs. The gravel walks were lined with trimmed hedges, the gardens bright with oleanders and roses; and the fields in which the cows were grazing had quite a homely look. Mrs. Bushnell succeeded in making butter, solid butter, from her cream, and this on the equator! The children educated here were also taught to be useful, and to produce from [PAGE 64] the soil its wonderful latent wealth. Of course religious and secular knowledge was taught in the schools, and Mr. Bushnell stated that many of the lads taught there were doing well in America and Africa. It is an unfortunate fact, though, that educated natives find a better opening for their abilities out of Africa than in it!

         We enjoyed some pleasant walks during our stay, the path being hard, and trees shady. The native female dress was remarkable. The cloths were of brighter colour than usual and more ample. The hair was done into still more fantastical shapes than on the Gold Coast, and the bracelets of large beads reached sometimes to the elbows, and leglets from the ankle to the knee. Ivory ornaments seemed the fashion also for men and women. I believe each locality has its own pattern of bead, and certain families on the South Coast keep to one pattern cloth.

         As this is the Gorilla country, I expected to hear something of the animal. None of the French officers had ever seen one alive, although one officer had been nearly three years on the station and many months in the interior. Mr. Bushnell during a residence of more than 25 years had seen two young ones, dead. They are evidently not common. There are many leopards in the country, and they are nuisances to stock-keepers. I saw traps for taking them - strongly built wooden houses, closed by a heavy door, by the animal touching [PAGE 65] a spring when it enters. A kid or a pig is used as a bait. It is put alive into an inner chamber, fenced by iron railings from the outer. Large nails were driven into the sides of the trap I saw, and into the roof, to prevent the animal jumping against the cage when it finds itself entrapped, and so forcing its way out.

         I saw the horns of some large antelopes that had been shot close to, and was told that there was feathered game to be had under the usual difficulties. Elephants did not come nearer than the Chrystal Mountains. A priest of the mission who had resided there for some time told me they were very numerous. It is about 50 miles from the settlement, and a great part of the journey can be made by water.

         The M’Pongwe language is one of the most perfect on the West African Coast. Mr. Bushnell and the French priests have reduced it to writing and published a grammar for school use, and translated portions of the Bible and other books into it, but it appeared to me very cumbersome.

         In the race between the French and English languages in this district, I think the English will win, for nearly all the trade is carried on by our merchants. Palm oil, dye and hard woods, and India rubber, are the exports; the imports are usual - guns, powder, cloth, rum, gin, and trash.

         I left Gaboon on the 6th July [1872] and paid another visit to Corisco. It was a busy time with the traders, [PAGE 66] the rains inland having ceased, and the Bushmen were bringing India rubber, wax, ivory, and dye woods to market. I went on board a hulk at the entrance of the Muni, the fore part was crowded with produce being prepared for shipment to Europe, and India rubber and oil are not cleanly looking things; but the after part of the ship was comfortably and coolly furnished, and the usual hospitable reception ready from its occupiers. They reported trade improving and natives less troublesome. The natives look to be an inferior race. The canoes with which they bring down produce from the interior are hollowed out of very large trees, some of astonishing size. I saw some like them at Gaboon which had been captured formerly by French men-of-war, taking slaves to the island of St. Thomas, and I was informed had sixty men in each.

         Our stay was very short. As we proceeded out of the bay, we sent a boat to examine the wreck of the Macgregor Laird, whose funnel alone was to be seen above water. While the oat was pulling round the wreck, a cask came suddenly to the surface. It was branded “Pale Ale, Bass and Co., Burton-on-Trent!” It was brought on board as a prize, and its contents directed to be issued to the men, the ownership of the cask being very doubtful. But alas for anticipated pleasure! The contents were very foul smelling and apparently bilge water!

         On the 8th we arrived at Fernando Po. Coaling is [PAGE 67] never a pleasant operation, but here least of all. The heat was the greatest we ever experienced on the coast, 94° in the shade, and coal dust penetrated everywhere. Going on shore to escape being choked by it, I found the heat even greater, and the numerous insects almost as annoying as the coal dust. It was astonishing to see the great weights of coat the Kroomen will carry at a time. I saw one of our men, Jack Smart, carry two bags, or 400-lbs, on his head at one time from the shed to the boat, a distance of 70 yards. These Kroomen are fine fellows for coast work. They are not exactly sailors, although some of them learn to be, but good boatmen, and useful labourers, accustomed to the sea. On board a man-of-war they wear the usual seamen’s uniform, and it is their pride to keep their kits in first-rate order. They live on the upper deck by themselves, and have a head Krooman as a petty officer over them. They require very little punishment, are quite amenable to discipline, and work hard. Among themselves they speak their own language, but they understand orders given to them in English. Some speak excellent English. They are entered on a ship’s books when they first join the service by some English name, which they keep while they remain. Among ours were Tom Dollar, Tom Peter, Sodawater, Black Will, and Bottle o’ Beer, and similar names. We carried twelve of these men, - some large ships have thirty.

         They are seldom drilled to the guns or the use of [PAGE 68] small arms, but when they are they become expert, and for Africans are passing brave. They are very clever canoemen and capital swimmers. They canoe they use is a light shapely one for two or four paddlers, who have to squat on their knees in a most uncomfortable position to paddle; they can bring these canoes off shore through a heavy surf on their own coast, which is a little south of Sierra Leone. They have some curious fashions of their own, - among others, it is considered rather well bred to have nine toes, and they will sometimes injure one of the little ones on purpose to have it amputated. They will worry the doctor also to pull their front teeth out. They are fond of taking medicine, but have no faith in its efficacy unless there is plenty of it, and it is very nasty!

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