After They Had Gone Up About
Thirty Miles, The Banks Had An Appearance Of Greater Consistency, And The
Beautiful, But Deadly Mangrove Tree Was No Longer Visible.
The river was
now about 300 yards broad, and from four to five fathoms deep.
They met
with no obstruction from the natives, till they came to Eboe, where an
unfortunate quarrel took place, which seems to have arisen from a mere
misunderstanding. The discharge of a gun had been agreed upon as the
signal from the Alburkah for the Quorra to anchor; which being fired
after dark, before the village, alarmed the natives, who opened a brisk
discharge of musketry from the banks. The voyagers found it necessary to
put a stop to this attack, by the discharge of their great guns, and in
about twenty minutes the musketry from the shore was silenced. At
day-break they made farther reprisals, and in order to terrify the
natives, landed and set fire to the village - an act of barbarity which
appears to have been entirely gratuitous and uncalled for. After they had
passed the scene of this unfortunate rencontre, the river increased in
breadth to one thousand yards; the banks were higher, and the woods were
more frequently diversified with plantations of bananas, plantains and
yams. Soon after they anchored off Eggaboo, to take in a supply of wood;
it was the first town which they had observed built at a short distance
from the river, and not upon its margin. It contained about two hundred
houses, each of which was surrounded with a bamboo fence about nine feet
high. They gratified King Obie by a visit, who gave them various
presents, and also visited the steamers in state, escorted by upwards of
sixty canoes, seven of which were of great size, and were each manned by
crews of seventy men. Palm oil is produced in large quantities at Eboe;
but the people are chiefly occupied in slave-hunting. As may be expected,
their disposition is cruel and revengeful, - they live in the daily
practice of the most flagrant vice and immorality.
On the night of the 9th November, they departed from Eboe, and were
guided through the intricate and dangerous navigation by the light of a
brilliant moon. After two days they anchored about 15 miles from the
town. The river was here at least 3000 yards broad; and afterwards when
it had thrown off its two great branches, the Benin and the Bonny, was
about 1500 yards wide, divided by sandy islands overgrown with grass. One
of the vessels grounded, but after half-an-hour's hard labour was got
off. In the course of the same evening they were surrounded by canoes,
which brought goats, yams, plantains, and bananas for sale.
The effect of the climate and of their stay near the swamps now became
fatally manifest. In the Quorra, fourteen men died, and three in the
Alburkah. The disproportion of mortality in the two vessels, at this
period, is ascribed to the superior coolness of the Alburkah, which was
rendered more healthy in consequence of her iron hull diffusing through
her interior the coolness of the surrounding water.
They next anchored off Attah, a picturesque town, situated on the top of
a hill which rises nearly 300 feet above the river. The view from the
town is said to be grand and extensive. Here Mr. Laird saw an alligator
captured by two natives, in an ingenious and daring manner. "He was
discovered basking on a bank in the river, a short distance ahead of the
vessels. Two natives in a canoe immediately paddled to the opposite side
of the bank, and having landed, crept cautiously towards him. As soon as
they were near the animal, one of the natives stood up from his crouching
position, holding a spear about six feet long, which with one blow he
struck through the animal's tail into the sand. A most strenuous contest
immediately ensued; the man with the spear holding it in the sand as
firmly as his strength allowed him, and clinging to it as it became
necessary to shift his position with the agility of a monkey; while his
companion occasionally ran in as opportunity offered, and with much
dexterity gave the animal a thrust with his long knife, retreating at the
same moment from, without the reach of its capacious jaws, as it whirled
round upon the extraordinary pivot which his companion had so
successfully placed in its tail. The battle lasted about half an hour,
terminating in the slaughter of the alligator, and the triumph of his
conquerors, who were not long in cutting him into pieces and loading
their canoes with his flesh, which they immediately carried to the shore
and retailed to their countrymen. The success of the plan depended
entirely on the nerve and dexterity of the man who pinned the animal's
tail to the ground; and his contortions and struggles to keep his
position were highly entertaining."
They were now within the district of the Kong Mountains, which are of a
tabular form, and rise on both sides to between 2000 or 2500 feet. The
change of prospect was most grateful to those who had spent two months in
a flat, marshy, and uninteresting country. These mountains lie in the
direction of W.N.W. and E.S.E., where they are intersected by the Niger.
Their outlines are extremely bold, and they appear to be chiefly composed
of granite. The navigation of the channel between them is full of danger,
as large fragments of granite have fallen into the stream, and produced
eddies and shoals. At a little distance beyond this point, a noble
prospect opened before the Voyagers. "An immense river, about three
thousand yards wide, extending as far as the eye could reach, lay before
us, flowing majestically between its banks, which rose gradually to a
considerable height, and were studded with clumps of trees and brushwood,
giving them the appearance of a gentleman's park; while the smoke rising
from different towns on its banks, and the number of canoes floating on
its bosom, gave it an aspect of security and peace." Here the vessel ran
aground with a violent shock, and they experienced the greatest
difficulty in relieving her.
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