Beyond this point the river passes through the Atam district, a country inhabited, so I was informed, by the most inveterate of cannibals. Not having visited these people, I am not able to speak from personal experience; but as I have generally found in Western Africa that a country bearing a very bad character does not always deserve all that is said against it, I shall give this country the benefit of the doubt, and say that once the natives get accustomed to having white people visit them, and have got over the fearful tales told them by the interested middlemen about the ability of the white men to witch them by only looking at them, then they will be as easy to deal with, if not easier, than the knowing non-producers.
I know of one interior town, not in Old Calabar, where the principal chief had given a warm welcome to a white man and allotted him a piece of ground to build a factory on, which he was to return and build the following dry season. Before the time had elapsed the chief died, without doubt poisoned by some interested middleman. When the white man went up to the country according to his agreement, the new chief would not allow him to land, and accused him of having bewitched the late chief. The white trader was an old bird and not easily put off any object he had in view, so stuck to his right of starting trade in the country, and by liberal presents to the new chief at last succeeded in commencing operations, with the result that the new chief died in a very short time and the white man, who was put in charge of the factory, was shot dead whilst passing through a narrow creek on his way to see his senior agent, this being done in the interior country so as to throw the blame upon the people he was trading with. No one saw who fired the fatal shot, and the body was never recovered, as the boys who were with him were natives belonging to the coast people and in their fright capsized the small canoe he was travelling in, so they reported; but some months after the white man’s ring mysteriously turned up, the tale being it was found in the stomach of a fish.
I will here describe one other very practical custom that used to be observed all over the Old Calabar and Cross River district, but which has disappeared in the lower parts of the river, owing no doubt to the efforts of the missionaries having been successful in instilling into the native mind a greater respect for their aged relatives than formerly existed. If it ever occurs nowadays in the Calabar district it can only take place in some out of the way village far away in the bush, from whence news of a little matter of this kind might take months to reach the ears of the Government or the missionary; but this custom is still carried on in the Upper Cross River, and consists in helping the old and useless members of the village or community out of this world by a tap on the head, their bodies are then carefully smoke-dried, afterwards pulverised, then formed into small balls by the addition of water in which Indian corn has been boiled for hours—this mixture is allowed to dry in the sun or over fires, then put away for future use as an addition to the family stew.
With all the cannibalistic tastes that these people have been credited with, I have only heard of them once ever going in for eating white men, and this occurred previous to the arrival in the Old Calabar river of the Efik race, if we are to trust to what tradition tells us. It appears that in 1668-9 four English sailors were captured by the then inhabitants of the Old Calabar River; three of them were immediately killed and eaten, the fourth being kept for a future occasion. Whether it was that being sailors, and thus being strongly impregnated with salt horse, tobacco and rum, their flesh did not suit the palate of these natives I know not, but it is on record that the fourth man was not eaten, but kindly treated, and some years after, when another English ship visited the river, he was allowed to return to England in her. Since that date, as far as I know, no white men have ever been molested by the Old Calabar people.
There has been occasionally a little friction between traders and natives, but nothing very serious, though it is said some queer transactions were carried on by the white men during the slave-dealing days.
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.