Offices, and they were found particularly
useful in making fires, preparing food, &c. for the whole of the
party.
Their journey throughout the whole of this day was extremely
pleasant. At one time the path ran in a serpentine direction through
plains covered with green turf, at another it led them amidst large
groves of stately trees, from whose branches a variety of playful
chattering monkeys diverted them by their mischievous tricks, and the
grey parrot, with its discordant, shrill scream, and other beautiful
birds, "warbled their native wood notes wild."
The chief of Chow, who received and entertained Captain Clapperton,
had been dead some time, and was succeeded by a humble, good natured,
and active individual, who treated the white men more like demi-gods
than human beings. At the time of their arrival, he was engaged in
superintending the slaves at his corn and yam plantations, but he
hastened to them the moment he was informed of the circumstance. He
possessed a number of horses, one of which was the smallest and most
beautiful animal they ever beheld.
In the evening, the chief visited them again with a present of
provisions, and a few goora nuts. Richard Lander took the opportunity
of playing on a bugle horn in his presence, by which he was violently
agitated, under the supposition that the instrument was nothing less
than a snake.
For the first time since their landing they observed the loom in
active operation; the manufacture of cotton cloth is, however,
carried on exclusively by women, the men appearing too slothful and
indolent to undertake any labour, which might subject them to
fatigue.
On the following day the path wound through a country charmingly
diversified by hill and dale, woods and open glades, and watered by
streams flowing over beds of fine white sand. A horseman from Katunga
met them about ten o'clock in the morning, whose dress and
accoutrements were highly grotesque. He neither stopped nor spoke,
but couched his lance as he gallopped past them. It was supposed that
he was the bearer of a message to the chief of Jenna, from the king
of Katunga, and that it had some reference to themselves, but whether
it was an act of caution or of compliment could not be ascertained.
They met a number of people of both sexes in the path, who were
returning from Egga to Chow, and several naked boys on their way to
the coast, under the care of guardians. These were slaves, and would
be most likely sold at Badagry. Some of the woman bore burdens on
their heads, that would have tired a mule and broken the neck of a
Covent Garden Irish woman, and children not more than five or six
years old trudged after them with loads that would have given a full
grown person in Europe the brain fever.
They departed from Chow before sunrise; a surprising dew had fallen
during the night and distilled from the leaves and branches in large
drops. They passed during the forenoon, over three or four swampy
places, covered with reeds, rushes, and rank grass, which were
inhabited by myriads of frogs of prodigious size. On crossing the
streams, they were invariably saluted by a loud and unaccountable
hissing, as if from a multitude of serpents. They could not account
for this extraordinary noise in any other way, than by supposing it
to have proceeded from some species of insects, whose retreats they
had invaded.
With very trifling manual labour, the path, which was little better
than a mere gutter formed by repeated rains, might be converted into
a good and commodious road; and were a tree simply thrown over them,
the streams and morasses might be crossed with ease and safely. But
the natives appeared to have no idea whatever of such improvements,
and would rather be entangled in thick underwood, and wade through
pools of mud and water, than give themselves any trouble about
repairing the road. But the native, however, says to himself, and not
unjustly, cui bono? neither in England or in Africa are
individuals to be found, who will undertake a work of difficulty and
fatigue gratuitously, merely for the benefit and accommodation of
others; characters of that description are very rarely to be found,
and perhaps the interior of Africa is the last place in the world
where we should look for them. An Englishman might find it to be his
interest to repair the roads on which he is frequently obliged to
travel; but what benefit can accrue to the uncivilized African, and
particularly the slave, who has not a blade of grass under the canopy
of Heaven, which he can call his own, to trouble himself about the
repair of a road, on which he might never have occasion to travel,
and which, with the great uncertainty which is always hanging over
his future condition in life, he may never fee again. Trees not
unfrequently fall across the pathway, but instead of removing them,
the people form a large circuit round them, even a small ant hill is
an object too mighty to be meddled with, and it is left in the centre
of the narrow road, to be jumped over, or to be travelled round,
according to the option of the traveller.
Several women, with little wooden figures of children on their heads,
passed them in the course of the morning; they were mothers, who,
having lost a child, carry these rude imitations of them about their
persons for an indefinite time, as a symbol of mourning. Not one of
them could be induced to part with one of these little affectionate
memorials.
They entered Egga, which is a very large town, in the early part of
the afternoon.
