Chapter VI: Our Second Visit to the King

The morning of Monday saw me on foot betimes. At 6 A.M. I again ascended the Ake Hill, behind, or north of the Church Missionary compound, and proceeded to take, with prismatic compass, bearings of Abeokuta, which as yet has not been honoured with aught worthy the name of plan. My first thought was to measure by gun-sound, _secundum artem_, a base between Ake and Olumo. The timid English residents feared, however, lest his potent majesty the Alake might take umbrage at the shooting, and suspect sinister intentions.

The next motion was to meet the Akpesi or Prince of Eruwan, the second dignitary in the town, who had called on Commander Bedingfield previous to this day’s interview, for the purpose of communicating ideas of his own. As at Komasi, and in Great Benin city, it is not ‘etiquette’ for subjects to visit a stranger before the ceremony of presentation: that over, however, they call singly and in mass.

The Akpesi is a tall, thin, wrinkled senior, very plain, close-shaved, as usual, little ornamented, and poorly clad. He is one of the wise, who never bring forth their best clothes till after death. His discourse was sensible, and to the point. Amongst other things, he declared that Abeokuta did not want this, showing the backs of both hands placed side by side (hostility), nor this, one palm up and the other down (double- face or deceit), but rather this, and this only, both palms up (a sign of friendship). I took the opportunity of asking him if he could not procure me admission into one of the Ogboni lodges. He replied—a great man never says ‘No’—that it would require large fees. When the amount was demanded, he named twenty-two bags of cowries, two sheep, and two goats. As this did not seem to deter me he doubled the sheep and goats. The sum being acceded to he declared that there was much death to be seen in those places; and as this again failed, and he was driven into a corner, he requested me to ‘let it go’ at present, but that on some future occasion I should be satisfied. This was conclusive, but not satisfactory. It is astonishing how much Asiatics and Africans make of these mysteries, and how long it takes to fathom them. I was nearly five years in India before a Brahmin could be induced to invest me with the thread of the Twice Born; and my attempts to discover the secret of the Jatawalla[149] were all in vain. My plans of sketching the interior of an Ogboni lodge failed at Abeokuta, though Mr. Wilhelm, the catechist, did his best: a week was not sufficient. The last answer was, that their excellent friend Mr. Townsend had advised them never to admit a European. At Ikoradu, however, my friend Mr. M‘Coskry and I, happening to pass an Ogboni lodge, which was full of men and elders, quietly walked in, and stepped round the building before the assembly, stupefied by the sudden appearance of white faces, dropping as it were from the skies, found presence of mind to protest.

Mr. Bowen translates Ogboni, ‘a sort of freemasonry, a respectable, elderly man.’ It is neither one nor the other. Any naked boy, running about the streets, may, when ten years old, if a free-born Egba, of good repute—_integer vitæ scelerisque purus_—rise to this dignity. Nor is it in any way connected with European freemasonry—a favourite comparison with the uninitiated. Freemasonry, properly considered, is a faith _per se_—holding the grand tenets—1st, Monotheism, or the belief in one God, without which no man can become even an ‘entered apprentice;’ and 2ndly, Brotherhood, or the mutual fellowship of man, in all conditions and circumstances of life. It is evident that neither of these sublime ideas are indigenous amongst the Egbas. The Alake is superior to the chief of the Ogboni, and the others follow in their several degrees. They are elected by the people, and, together with the war captains, they form a council, whose powers are said to be unlimited. They rule during the long interregnums, and at all times they manage the revenue and the taxes. In emergencies they are assisted by companies of old and young men, representing the masses. The Ogboni have proved a serious obstacle to the progress of El Islam and Christianity, by their strict surveillance over the juniors, and by the inquisition which they exercise in the inner affairs of life. Consequently, some missionaries object to converts belonging to it. I have already alluded to its political influence.

The Ogboni lodge, which thus resembles the Muanza of East Africa, the Purrah of the Susu Timni and Bulloms near Sierra Leone, and the Endowment House of the City of the Saints, is found in every town. Supported by the fees paid every seventeenth day by the members of the lodge, it is a long, low building, only to be distinguished by the absence of loungers, fronted by a deep and shady verandah, with stumpy polygonal clay pillars and a single door, carefully closed. The panels are adorned with iron alto-relievos of ultra-Egyptian form; snakes, hawk-headed figures, and armed horsemen in full front, riding what are intended to be horses in profile; the whole coloured red, black, and yellow. The temples of Obatala are similarly decorated.[150] A gentleman, who had an opportunity of overlooking the Ogboni lodge from the Ake church steeple, described it to me as a hollow building with three courts, of which the innermost, provided with a single door, was that reserved for the elders, the holy of holies, like the Kadasta Kadastan of the Abyssinians. He considered that the courts are intended for the different degrees. The stranger must, however, be careful what he believes concerning their mysteries. The Rev. Mr. Bowen asserts that the initiated are compelled to ‘kneel down and drink a mixture of blood and water from a hole in the earth.’ The Egbas deny this: moreover, they charge Mr. Bowen with attempting to worm out their secrets for the purpose of publication. As all are pledged to the deepest reticence, and as it would be fatal to reveal any mystery—if any there be—we are hardly likely to be troubled with over-information.

The Alake had summoned us to audience at the early hour of 10 A.M. We went punctually, and were met at the door by Beri, his Majesty’s M.C., who informed us that his master was then unprepared, but would let us know when visible. We left the palace not unamused by this second attempt at, and success in, ‘doing dignity,’ and we sauntered about in the shade outside. Two of the trees showed a peculiar fruit. One had a brace of skulls with tenpenny nails through the forehead, and bits of brown skin, like dry fig-peel, still sticking in patches to the half- bleached bone. These had been women who, according to one account, had been executed for attempting to poison their master, a native Christian merchant; according to others they had been sold by the said Christian merchant for sacrifice. Another tree showed seven of these relics: one of them was almost mummified, and the lower jawbone was still attached by remnants of cartilage. His Majesty the Alake—who had soon heard of our visit to the place—afterwards informed us that four of these belonged to Egbas who had been executed for kidnapping their friends and allies the Ijaye. The Tyburn trees were distinguished by the clothes, probably the attire of the dead, wrapped round the boles up to the branches. I amused myself with sketching the blossoms that grew on those boughs, and—the scene was quite Dantesque—I could not but wish that M. Doré had been there to borrow from it certain details.

Returning to Mr. Wike’s house, we were shown a small collection of industrial specimens prepared by the Commercial Association of Abeokuta for the Great Exhibition of 1862. There was some poor líf, or palm-tree fibre, used as a sponge throughout Africa; specimens of the silk-cotton from the bombax; and _someye_, or native silk produced by a worm that feeds upon a fig-leaf. This article may some day become valuable. Beans were in great abundance, of several varieties—purple, the common kind, red-peckled, yellow (_Calavances_), white haricots, black, pink, whity- brown, and some large red, like our kidney-beans. I recognized, for the first time, the Njugu ya mawe (_Voiandzeia subterranea_) of East Africa, which is there regarded as the tiger-nut of the western regions. Besides which there was a soft, useful chalk dug up near the town, and farm- grown piper cubebs, whose oil, like that of the ricinus, when not rancid, is much prized for sauces. I defer an account of the cotton to a future page.

At 11·15 A.M. we were again summoned to the palace, and, entering, we found all _in statu quo ante_, except that there was a greater gathering than before, and that the curtains relieving the majestic form of his Majesty were a fine green velvet and a striped silk. He receives, it is said, unofficial visitors far less formally, and the cooking in his verandah is not interrupted. The same old deal table and native body- cloth, the same jugs and basins, glasses and case-bottles, stood before the presence, and he was fanned by a young wife, who, perceiving the admiration excited by _ses appas_, veiled her bosom with a bit of velvet. Behind me sat a handsome young Alufa,[151] or Moslem, who told me that he was an Arab, born at Burnu: he certainly spoke the purest Semitic. ‘And how about the Jihad?’ I inquired, in his vernacular. ‘Give those guns and powder to us,’ he replied, with a gleaming eye, ‘and we will soon Islamize these dogs!’ The Alake grunted out that he did not understand ‘dat mouf,’ and a sign to the Alufa caused him to rise and depart.

Commander Bedingfield opened the palaver by asking explanations concerning our being sent back from the ‘palace.’ Fault was thrown upon Beri, the M.C., and we had the grace to accept this apology for a designed impertinence. This time it was business ‘and no mistake.’ The Akpesi of Eruwan was the king’s orator, and he spoke well, dividing his speech topically, touching upon all the interesting heads, quoting proverbs, monopolizing attention like a diner-out, and exciting us against his enemies. He began by saying, after the usual compliments—the Arabic _afiyah_, health, was repeatedly used, and the reply was _amin_, or amen—that he must be allowed to give us a detailed account of the events that had lately happened. On our consenting, he commenced a good two hours’ speech, talking ten minutes at a time, and then resting whilst his words were interpreted to us by Lagos Williams, who, assuming all the tone of a Methodist preacher, spun out his words to the finest length, lest his African brethren might suspect him of ‘skipping’ or ‘fudging.’ The assembly was hushed, except when some chief vociferated ‘silence!’ or some sycophant drawled out ‘don’t die!’ The ‘mad dogs of Ibadan,’ we were told, had repeatedly rejected the king’s messengers, had bought ammunition at Lagos, had declared their intention of first shaving the forehead, then the back of the head, _i.e._, of destroying, as a preliminary, Ijaye, their neighbour, and afterwards Abeokuta; and they had threatened, in case of interference, to blacken every Englishman’s face as cloth is dyed with indigo. ‘These,’ he said, pointing to six seniors squatting in the opposite verandah, three brown as Mulattos, and all the half-dozen naked to the waist, with the various appurtenances of chiefdom—cowrie-bags, chauris, gun-barrel walking- sticks, and huge broad-brimmed beavers, trimmed with half a foot of faded gilt lace—‘these are the kings of cities which have fallen into the hands of the Yorubas,[152] and which we will recover before we rest.’ He scouted the report that the people of Ijaye had been sold off by their allies, the Egbas; the cry had been raised at Lagos by the Yorubas to excite the English against innocent Abeokuta; and in disproof of it he pointed in the direction where four men’s heads had been taken off for kidnapping. He explained the notorious disappearance of the Ijayans by the fact that the Are, their king, had made sale the penalty of _fainéance_ in war, and that the people, pressed by hunger, had been compelled to dispose of their slaves and children, their wives, and even themselves, for two bags, or about one pound sixteen shillings each. All of which was plausible, but not true. He then slipped into another subject, declared that Mr. Sam. Crowther, jun., should never again enter the gates of Abeokuta, protesting, as the cause of the people’s wrath, that Europeanized Egba’s spite against the Rev. Mr. Townsend, an excellent man, ever their friend, who kept five hundred kegs of powder ready for the defence of their city. Waxing aggrieved, he entered into a complaint touching the conduct of the acting governor of Lagos, who had written insulting letters to them, and the late Captain Jones, who, bribed with four hundred bags by the Ibadans, had not only broken his promise to bring up from Lagos, for the purpose of drilling the Abeokutans, a detachment of ten men from the West India regiment, but had also attempted to visit their very enemy—that scum of the country—who was sworn to dye white men black, as with indigo. He concluded with the apposite remark that all of public had now been said, and that what remained must be spoken in private. This was the gist of an harangue which did not cease till men began to yawn; many followed the example of the farmer-king and snored, a few rose to depart, and all appeared to be tired. Even the palaver soon wearies the cobweb brains of these Africans.

Commander Bedingfield saw his opportunity, and sensibly declared that as they had had their say he also must have his. As regards the war with Ibadan, it was their own affair, their loss and not ours; we wanted not Abeokuta, but peace and plenty of cotton; and although we might aid her in defence, we should never abet her in offensive war. With respect to the man Crowther, he also was entitled to a fair hearing; and although the Alake had a right to banish a foreigner offending against the laws of the land, still allegations against a British subject holding property in the place should be substantiated before being acted upon. Captain Jones’s letter to government—it had, by its entire truth, given great offence at Abeokuta to white men as well as to black—might contain a few expressions better omitted, still excusable in so young an officer; but no one wearing her Majesty’s uniform was capable of receiving a bribe (as this was stated with indignation, the Akpesi rose and explained that the bribe had been given by the Ibadans to the Ijebus). Moreover, it is an European practice for a non-combatant to visit both armies in the field. An allusion was then made to a human sacrifice, whose object was good fortune in war against the enemy, offered up, on the 12th October, 1861, outside the Ijaye gate, with the permission of the Egbas, by the people of Ikesi and Ife, the town destroyed, it is said, by the Ibadans four or five years ago. An Ibadan prisoner, who had long been in chains, of which he showed marks, was led out, loaded with cowries, and made contented with rum; a crowd collected round him, sending messages to their departed friends, and begging the victim to remember their wants, children for the women and wives for the bachelors. The captive, at first, made some objections, but presently became in excellent humour, and sang his epicedium with a will. Mr. Stone, an American Baptist missionary, had heard what was to take place, but did not arrive in time. The man was duly decapitated, and the usual ceremonies followed the death, such as entreating the ghost not to be wrath with, or to haunt his slayers. This was the tale palmed upon us: it was a systematic falsehood. The Alake had become possessor of an Ife idol,[153] and the chiefs had told him that a man should be offered to it for peace. The job was given to the Ife people because the idol was from their country, and the rite was performed outside the gate to throw dust in European eyes. ‘The captain’ reprobated all such proceedings, and concluded by informing the Alake that H.E. the acting governor of Lagos, who had offended them, had done so under orders, and that, as he was acknowledged by the home authorities, he must be treated with respect. Whereupon a form of written apology was passed to Mr. King, a coloured missionary sitting hard by.

But kidnapping and human sacrifice are still sore subjects with the West African. Presently we had a scene. The old Alake had ceased to doze, and gradually his one eye lighted up, he forgot to fan his under-arms, to swab his face, to snuff, and to drink. As he insisted upon breaking silence, many chiefs, turbulent and unvenerative as Africans ever are, left the assembly, audibly declaring that, as their king would speak, they washed their hands of the consequences. His Majesty began by telling us fiercely that he himself had written the letter to the acting governor of Lagos without the knowledge of his councillors, and that since the time of the Ado war, he had ever known him as a merchant and as an enemy. He then entered upon the subject of the war, his voice changed from a low sing-song recitative to a louder tone, he lashed himself into a rage—the listeners half applauding—and finally he rose upon his feet and bellowed like a rickety old bull. He was rather an effective figure; a tall, large, aged man, amply clad—only his left eye, the bright side, showing. He thumped his breast, and not being over-firm upon his legs, he leaned back so much that his wives were compelled to hold on his white-topped, blue-fringed, scarlet velvet cap. ‘Never,’ he exclaimed with violence, ‘will my word be for peace as long as Ibadan holds the graves of our fathers, our homes, and our ancestral farms!’ And he foamed at the mouth with the idea. Some of my companions thought the display natural. I was too much at home with African customs—the scene is by no means unfamiliar to Europe—to mistake the movement, but I judged from it that our mediation would not be highly acceptable. At last the Alake, who had gradually left his cage, sank back into it, the curtain fell amidst shouts of applause, and the assembly—warned by the cold gusts and the lively dust that a tornado was at hand—prepared to break up. We drank a little peppermint, and as we were told that the king would meet us outside, Mr. Eales and I left the palace. Commander Bedingfield, however, more sensibly sent in a message that he must shake hands with and be duly dismissed by the Alake, who, after some delay, returned smiling in fresh clean robes, and hobnobbed with his ‘distinguished visitor.’

The palaver was well managed, and in one sense successful: it seemed to promise an early, though not a satisfactory, adjustment of a very complicated affair, which however was not fated to be. As the explanation throws light upon the customs and politics of this part of the world, I will enter upon it at some length.

The war between Abeokuta and Ibadan, which formed the subject of the late palaver, began ‘twenty moons ago,’ _i.e._ in May, 1859, and in 1863 it is far from settled.[154] It is an old quarrel. As early as Richard Lander’s day that mysterious race the Fulas[155] were driving the pure Yorubas southwards, and they in their turn were ousting the Egbas. As has been shown, the dispersion of the Egbas was mainly brought about by the Ijebus and the Ibadans, who, being warlike and quasi-Moslems, took possession of the rich farm lands north of comparatively barren Abeokuta, and have now made them their own. There has long, therefore, been bad blood. The origin of the last quarrel is stated to be that the Ibadans slew the wealthy mother-in-law of Murummi, Are or chief of Ijaye, who seized the murderers, and refused to give them up without ransom. Whereupon Ibadan marched against Ijaye, and the latter threw themselves into the arms of Abeokuta. On the other hand, it is generally believed that the Ijebu Remo and Dahome, those ever-watchful enemies of the Egbas, supported Ibadan. The quarrel has lately been complicated by the threats of Dahome, who is preparing his sacrifices: the arrangements usually begin in September and October, and the attack takes place in December and January. To make matters worse, the Mohammedans of Ilori, to the north of Ibadan, thinking, I suppose, that when Kafirs fall out Moslems come in, have promised aid and comfort to Abeokuta. The war has produced great scarcity, trebling the price of many articles in Yoruba, besides causing a serious deficiency in palm-oil and other products. It was generally supposed that both were weary of the affair, but that they would not cease without the intervention of a third party. Further experience, however, has proved the error of the supposition.

There was, moreover, a deeper cause of quarrel than old and obsolete animosities, and this was carefully kept concealed. To an African power, direct connection with the seaboard is a necessity. Dahome was unknown in the last century until she had conquered and absorbed the maritime kingdom of Whydah. The Ashanti wars in the earlier part of the present century were waged against the Gold Coast races and ourselves with the same object; and at the present moment there are actual hostilities for the same end. The possession of a port gives two great advantages. The first is a power of exportation and importation without paying the heavy African transit dues. The second is the right to claim such transit dues from neighbours and nations dwelling inland. The African ever aspires to the condition of a middleman, when, Jew-like, he can live gratis and labourless by the sweat of another’s brow. Such is the condition of the whole of this coast, a broken line of broker settlements, some numbering, like Grand Bonny, nine thousand souls, and such has from time immemorial been the condition of the shores of Eastern Africa. Abeokuta having obtained by means of the Ogun a direct communication with the sea, is determined to charge a heavy transit duty upon the produce of Ibadan and the inland kingdoms. And those who can find no other direct road will fight till they can obtain access to the ocean. This greed of gain—not the pious and patriotic aspiration to recover the lands of their forefathers—has sustained the Abeokutans in a four years’ conflict with the Ibadans.[156]

It remains to consider the causes of complaint brought by the Egbas against the Crowthers and Captain Jones—they are as instructive as the causes of the war. Mr. Sam. Crowther, like his brother Mr. Josiah, had made himself wonderfully unpopular at Abeokuta. He had refused to pay certain fines leviable on certain offences. His accusations against Mr. Townsend were the _cheval de bataille_ of the Abeokutans. But as before, so here, the true cause of complaint lay much deeper. Mr. Sam., like his respected father who was proposed for a bishopric, had been witness to and an active hand in promoting a treaty, upon which the Alake, his chiefs, and his subjects, soon learned to look in its real light, and were seized with violent indignation.

I quote this instructive instrument _in extenso_ below.[157] It speaks for itself: it is sublime in its impudence. If carried out it would create a system of _fueros_ more exceptional than any that Mexico has yet seen: it would found an _imperium in imperio_, bringing into the heart of the country a wholly irresponsible race. There is no possible guarantee for Art. 3. Whence is ‘the intelligence’ to come, and what may be its measure? Moreover, though signed by eight names, of whom half died before the end of 1861, it was never submitted to the greater chiefs and to the Ogboni lodges, or Upper and Lower Houses of the land, and it degrades the people because it places their freedom in the bands of a king and of a few chiefs. The reader has already seen that the Alake of Abeokuta is no autocrat.

That needy and greedy coloured fugitives from the western world should enter into such speculations is no wonder. That the late Sir Culling E. Eardley, Bart., of Bedwell Park, should ‘heartily recommend’ the scheme in a preface to Mr. Campbell’s _brochure_, and call upon Manchester to second the movement, _is_, as I have already shown, the error of those who make Africa a no-man’s land. Land quarrels caused the old Egba troubles, and nothing but agrarian wars could result in the haven of refuge opened to his brethren by the Pilgrim to his Motherland. What would Sir Culling E. Eardley have replied to a deputation of gipsies, who proposed to settle themselves as a free republic under the spare shades of Bedwell Park? Yet that is what he advocates for Egba- land.[158]

Meanwhile, the Alake and chiefs, far more acute than the English philanthrope, declare that, whilst perfectly ready to admit settlers subject to the British authorities at Lagos, and amenable to English law, they will have nothing to do with these irresponsible adventurers, who, in time, may become too strong for them. They have already tasted the sweets of a negro immigration from Sierra Leone, and they are by no means willing to see anything more of the Oibo dúdú, white-blacks, or trouser-white-men, as they call their guests. They therefore adopt the African, I may say the universal plan, of denying the transaction in toto. The Alake was half asleep when he affixed his mark; moreover, ‘black and white’ does not bind firm and fast in these lands. The chiefs assert with truth that they have no power to execute such instrument without the full permission of the Ogboni lodges. The people declare that they know nothing of the matter which most concerns them. And I venture to opine that, as a mere act of justice, we should allow the Egbas to do what they like with their own.

Mr. Consul Foote had applied for a detachment of two hundred soldiers of the Second West India Regiment, to instruct the Egbas in military matters. The idea was not brilliant. These negro troops naturally despise ‘niggers,’ and are not willing to serve with them: the men, however, were forwarded to Lagos, were kept there till they became troublesome, and were sent back to head-quarters. Meanwhile, Capt. A. T. Jones, of the same corps—the son of a well-known military name—was a young officer of considerable talent and energy, of an ardent temperament, strong in body, but unfortunately in ill-health. He was directed to obtain ‘military information touching the resources of the country, and the means the Abeokutans may have of carrying on offensive war.’ Delayed by a fever caught on the Osa Lagoon during the affair at Porto Novo, he left his detachment of ten men at Lagos, reached Abeokuta on the 11th May, 1861, and was graciously received by the Alake. After stating his object, he was forwarded to the seat of war with an escort and introductions to the chiefs. On the 20th of May he arrived at Okomeji, the camp of observation, distant thirty miles from Abeokuta, and he visited its commander, the late Ogubonna, who, ten years before, had repulsed the Dahoman attack. He then proceeded forty miles northwards to Ijaye, and on the 22nd of May he started for the front. The enemy, hearing from spies of the white man’s arrival, resolved to waylay him: however, by hard riding, and by preceding his escort, Captain Jones entered the Egba lines that same evening. On the next day—operations were hurried by both parties, who were anxious for the fetish of the white man’s presence—took place the battle of Ijaye. Captain Jones placed himself near the first rank of the Abeokutan army, about three hundred yards from the enemy, and watched the tactics of both parties. He withdrew only when his interpreter was wounded in the thigh by his side, a bullet grazed his own leg, and a third ball struck the tree against which he was leaning, a few inches above his head. When the action, which proved a drawn battle, ended, he retired to the Egba lines, and returned to Abeokuta on the 31st of May.

The report written by Captain Jones, after his return to Lagos, caused great umbrage at Abeokuta. The older missionaries were vexed to see the place ‘shown up,’ and declared that it had been malignantly described. The natives, influenced by one Turner, a coloured man, now living with the King of Ijebu, were loud in their complaints. They declared that Captain Jones had appeared their friend, that he had made all manner of promises, and that he had deliberately broken them for the worst of purposes—all of which was of course false. Perhaps he was a little hot and hasty in his expressions touching the lukewarmness with which our offer of auxiliaries was received, and the ‘scorn and indifference’ manifested by the Abeokutans in neglecting certain useless pieces of artillery sent to them from England. But, on the whole, his report was perfectly truthful, and redounded greatly to the credit of this young and promising officer.

Captain Jones remained at Lagos for a few days, suffering from fever. He then set out _viâ_ Ijebu for Ibadan, taking with him a servant, an interpreter named Thomas, and a messenger or mihmandar from King Dosumo. Falling ill on the way, he was advised to return, and at last he was carried in a hammock from the landing-place at Ijini, twenty miles down the Lagoon, to his canoe. The breeze being against him, he was delayed there for some time, and he breathed his last—Europeans say from congestion of the lungs, natives say from poison—on the Ikoradu Waters, within sight of Lagos, 7th July, 1861.

Monday’s evening was as gloomy as its morning; the tornado, after exhausting its electricity, poured down a slow, steady rain, which effectually confined us to in-door amusements. The _séjour_ was becoming _bien triste_. On Saturday the Ake converts and those of Abaka had a prayer-meeting for general purposes, for the success of Commander Bedingfield’s mission. Sunday was of course a ‘day of rest’ (7 A.M., native service and school; 10·30 A.M., English service, followed by school; and 4·30 P.M., native service—such is ‘rest’). On Monday afternoon there was a monthly prayer-meeting of all the churches and chapels for the forwarding of peace—a custom, I believe, originating with the Loodhianah Mission in Northern India; and on Tuesday, it being the 5th of the month, there will be a gathering for the benefit of the natives; ministers, schoolmasters, and native agents all meet, and the converts are expected to attend. It is evident that the Abeokuta mission cannot be accused of neglecting its duties.

[Footnote 149: The Jatawalla worships Shiva, and is so called from his jata, or huge mop of hair, which he twists in the shape of a turban. I have found the length, by careful measurement—passing my thumb-nail down it to detect plaiting, if possible—six feet and upwards. If there be any secret in this, what a fortune it would make, even compared with the ‘incomparable oil, Macassar!’]

[Footnote 150: The doors have distinct panels, upon which are seen a leopard, a fish, a serpent, and a land tortoise. The horseman is also common. Mr. Bowen remarks, that one of the carvings was ‘a female figure, with one hand and one foot,’ probably a half Obatala, or the female principle of Nature; ‘and the monster was remarkable for having a queue of very long hair (which no negro can have), with a ball or globe at the end.’ Opposite to this were the symbols of the Lampsacan god, or rather the Yoni Lingam, in juxtaposition. I differ from Mr. Bowen in the opinion that no negro can have long hair; the Fans of the Gaboon River, to mention no other tribe, often wear it falling upon their shoulders.]

[Footnote 151: ‘Alpha’ is the usual English way of writing the word, which I presume is a corruption of the Arabic Árif.]

[Footnote 152: Yoruba Proper, Ibadan, and Ilori, is here alluded to.]

[Footnote 153: The Rev. Mr. Crowther informs us that all kinds of idols are to be had at Ife, and that celebrated gods are frequently purchased there by the people of other tribes.]

[Footnote 154: The style of fighting will be described in a future chapter.]

[Footnote 155: ‘Fula,’ a word said to signify brown or yellow, has been traced back to the Psylli, or Psulloi, of the classical authors; and others make them descendants of the shepherd kings. They are known by a variety of names—Poul, Poulh, Peul, Pheul, Pholey, and Phoulah: in Hausa and Yoruba they are known as Filani and Falani; in Burnu as Filata or Fillatah; and their country is called Fuladú. The race is said to come from Masina, near Tinbuktu, and to have inhabited the three Fula countries which are derived from Phut, the grandson of Noah. About a century ago, their celebrated Shaykh Usman (_alias_ Danfodio) built Sokoto in the woods of Ader, organized an empire, and marched under a white flag to the Jihad. He conquered Hausa, Kubbi, Yaori, Nupe, and Moslem Burnu, and became Amir el Muminin over followers that have now spread from the Senegal River to the Ibos, at the head of the Niger Delta,—an extent of country larger than Russia in Europe.]

[Footnote 156: The missionaries, headed by Mr. Townsend, take an opposite view of the affair. According to them, the Ibadans seized Ido and Ilugun, stopped the trade road to Ijaye and Isehin, and drove the Abeokutans out of their farms. Her Majesty’s Consul at Lagos, and the British merchants, sent deputations to Abeokuta and Ibadan, to prevent the war: at the former place it succeeded, at the latter it failed. My belief is, however, that the Abeokutans were, and are still, the aggressors.]

[Footnote 157:

TREATY.

This treaty, made between His Majesty Okukenu, Alake; Somoye, Ibashorun; Sokenu, Ogubonna, and Atambala, chiefs and baloguns of Abbeokuta, on the first part; and Martin Robinson Delany, and Robert Campbell, of the Niger Valley exploring party, commissioners from the African race of the United States and the Canadas in America, on the second part, covenants—

ART. 1.—That the king and chiefs, on their part, agree to grant and assign unto the said commissioners, on behalf of the African race in America, the right and privilege of settling, in common with the Egba people, on any part of the territory belonging to Abbeokuta, not otherwise occupied.

ART. 2.—That all matters requiring legal investigation among the settlers be left to themselves, to be disposed of according to their own custom.

ART. 3.—That the commissioners, on their part, also agree that the settlers shall bring with them, as an equivalent for the privileges above accorded, intelligence, education, a knowledge of the arts and sciences, agriculture, and other mechanic and industrial occupations, which they shall put into immediate operation, by improving the lands, and in other useful vocations.

ART. 4.—That the laws of the Egba people shall be strictly respected by the settlers, and in all matters in which both parties are concerned, an equal number of commissioners, mutually agreed upon, shall be appointed, who shall have power to settle such matters. As a pledge of our faith, and the sincerity of our hearts, we each of us hereunto affix our hand and seal, this twenty-seventh day of December, Anno Domini One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.

His mark X OKUKENU, ALAKE.

His mark X SOMOYE, IBASHORUN.

His mark X SOKENU, BALOGUN.

His mark X OGUBONNA, BALOGUN.

His mark X ATAMBALA, BALOGUN.

His mark X OGUSEYE, ANABA.

His mark X NGTEBO BALOGUNOSO.

His mark X OGUDEMU, AGEOKO.

(Signed) M. R. DELANY.

(Signed) ROBERT CAMPBELL.

(_Witness_) SAMUEL CROWTHER, JUN.

(_Attest_) SAMUEL CROWTHER, SEN.

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[Footnote 158: With similar simplicity, Mr. Abraham Lincoln proposed shunting off his spare contrabands into the Republics of Central America, who, as might be expected, gratefully declined the boon, declaring, like the Abeokutans, that they are ready to receive emigrants of every colour, but not those who appear as an independent power.]