From Their Masts Fluttered A Great Number Of European Flags Of Various Nations, Among Which The British Union Bore A Prominent Place; Some Had Also Figures On Them Of A Man's Leg, Chairs, Tables, Decanters, Glasses, &C. The Crews Were Chiefly Dressed In European Clothing.

As the travellers came up separately, the canoes of each were attacked and plundered.

Their lives were in jeopardy, and at length they were compelled to proceed to the town of Kirree. Here, however, several of the well-disposed and more respectable inhabitants espoused their cause, and that part of the stolen property which could be recovered was ordered to be restored. It was at last decided that they should be brought down the river, and placed at the disposal of Obie, the king of the Eboe country. During the attack, Richard Lander's journal was lost, but his brother John's notes were fortunately preserved. The most valuable part of their property was likewise gone, and among the rest their wearing apparel, Mr. Park's gun, all their other weapons, their compass and thermometer, and their cowries and needles, so that they were left completely destitute.

As the Landers were carried down the river, the country on the banks completely changed its appearance, being low and swampy, covered with vast entangled forests, which completely concealed the towns and villages, of whose existence the travellers were nevertheless apprised by the number of inhabitants who came to the beach to trade with the canoemen. The people subsisted chiefly on the produce of the banana, the plantain, and the yam, and on the fish which they caught in the river. The chief article of traffic was palm-oil.

As they drew near to Eboe, they sailed through a large lake on the river, which branched out into three broad streams, which take different directions towards the south-west; whence they felt assured that they were rapidly approaching the termination of the river's course in the Gulf of Guinea. The pleasure which they felt in the hope of soon solving the mysterious problem which had been hid for so many ages, was however damped by the thought of their precarious situation, and the hostile reception which they might meet with at Eboe.

They came to an extensive morass, intercepted by narrow channels in every direction. Passing through one of these, they got into clear water, and arrived in front of Eboe town. Here they found hundreds of canoes, some of which were much larger than any they had hitherto seen, being furnished with sheds and awnings, and affording habitations to a great number of the people, who constantly reside in them. The travellers say that one of these canoes, hollowed out of a single trunk, may accommodate seventy individuals. The houses of the people of Eboe are of a superior kind, and are constructed of yellow clay plastered over, thatched with palm leaves, and surrounded by plantations. The people are a savage and dissolute race, and the bad expression of their countenances is a true index of their character.

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