FOOTNOTES:
[80] “Shake-hand” was a present given by a trader each voyage on his arrival on the coast to the king and the chiefs who traded with him; the Europeans themselves gradually increased this to such an extent that some of the kings began to look upon it as a right, which led to endless palavers; if it is not completely abolished by now, it ought to be.
[81] “Dashing”—native word for making presents. This word is a corruption of a Portuguese word.
[82] Brohemie, founded by the late chief Alluma between fifty and sixty years ago. Chinomé, a powerful chief, fought with Allumah in 1864-5 for supremacy; the former was conquered, and died some few years after. Chief Dudu, not mentioned in the text, founded in 1890 Dudu town, and is to-day a most loyal and respected chief. Chief Peggy died in 1889. Chief Ogrie died in 1892, Chief Bregbi also died some years ago.
[83] This preparation is made from the pericarp of the Raphia Vinifera pounded up into a pulplike mass, which they mix in the water in their canoes and then bale out into the water in the creek.
[84] One good thing the missionaries have done since they have been in Brass, and that is, that, of persuading the natives, or at least the greater part of them, to give up the worship of this snake; and this part must have included the most influential portion of Brass society, for since about the year 1884 the Ju-Ju snake is killed wherever seen without any disastrous consequences to the killer.
[85] As an evidence of how secret the natives of these parts have always tried to keep, and have to a great extent kept, the knowledge of the various various creeks from the white men since the abolition of the slave trade, I may point to this creek, which is clearly marked and the soundings given in the old charts, circa 1698, but was quite unknown to the present generation of traders, until Capt. Cawthorne, of the African Steamship Company rediscovered it about 1882-4. I well remember this creek being carefully described to me by Bonny men in 1862 as the haunt of lawless outcasts from Bonny and the surrounding countries, cannibals and pirates. About this time I was stationed in New Calabar, and in roaming about the creeks looking for something to shoot, I came across this beautiful wide creek and followed it until I sighted Breaker Island; but being only in a small shooting canoe I was forced to turn back the way I had come. The next morning I was favoured by the visit of King Amachree, the father of the present king, who said he had heard from his people that I had been down this creek, and he had come to warn me of the danger I ran in visiting that creek, giving me the same description that the Bonny men had done some months earlier. I laughed and told him I had heard the same yarn from the Bonny men. Later in the same year I mentioned my visit to an old freeman in Bonny, named Bess Pepple. He being a little inebriated at the time, let his tongue wag freely, and informed me that it was a creek often used by the slavers during the time the preventive squadron was on the coast, to take in their cargo. In one instance that he remembered he said there were five slavers up that creek when two of Her Majesty’s gunboats were in Bonny, about the year 1837. About this time (1862) a mate of a ship who was in charge of a small schooner running between New Calabar and Bonny was forced by stress of weather to anchor inside the seaward mouth of this creek, and was attacked during the night by some natives, carried on shore, tied to a tree and flogged, the cargo of the schooner plundered, and the Kroomen also flogged. Complaint being made to the kings of New Calabar and Bonny, they both replied with the same tale: “We no done tell you we no fit be responsible for dem men who live for dem creek; he be dam pirate.” This was true they had, but the mate swore he recognised some Bonny men amongst his assailants.
[86] Efik race—the inhabitants of Old Calabar, said to have come from the Ibibio country, a district lying between Kwo country and the Cross River.
[87] Jamming, a trade term, meaning making an agreement to buy or sell anything at an agreed price.
[88] This king is now dead, he was the last of the kings of New Calabar, the country being now ruled over by a native council under the direction of the Niger Coast Protectorate officials.
[89] This is an error into which the late Consul Hewett no doubt led Mr. Johnston, as Ja Ja had been since 1861-2 a chief in Bonny and recognised as one of the regents of that place; originally a slave, I will admit, but not a runaway one.
[90] This failing is called diplomacy in civilised nations.
[91] Monopolies have led Europeans on the West Coast of Africa to be equally as unscrupulous and bitter enemies of any one, white or black, who have attempted to dispute their trade monopolies.
[92] Established in Old Calabar in 1846.
[93] It is called blowing Egbo because notice is given of the Egbo law being set in motion against any one by one of the myrmidons of Egbo blowing the Egbo horn before the party’s house.