A respectable man, the chief of French-town, was tried by the ordeal of the cap a short time since, for having, it was alleged, accepted a bribe of the Lagos chieftain to destroy Adooley by poison. The fatal cap was no sooner put upon his head than it was observed to move slightly and then to become more violently agitated. The criminal felt its motion, and was terrified to such a degree that he fell down in a swoon. On awakening, he confessed his guilt, and implored forgiveness, which was granted him by Adooley, because, it was said, of his sorrow and contrition, but really, no doubt, of his birth and connexions.
During the stay of the Landers at Badagry, the thermometer of Fahrenheit ranged between 86° and 94° in their hut, but being oftener stationary nearer the latter, than the former.
CHAPTER XXXI.
It was on Tuesday, the 31st March, that the Landers bade adieu to the chief of Badagry, and during the whole of that day they were employed packing up their things preparatory to their departure. They repaired to the banks of the river at sunset, expecting to find a canoe, which Adooley had promised should be sent there for their use; but having waited above two hours, and finding it had not arrived, they placed their goods in two smaller canoes, which were lying on the beach. These soon proved to be leaky, and as no other resource was at hand, they were fain to wait as patiently as they could for the canoe promised them. Every thing betrayed the lukewarmness and indifference of the chief, who had received so much from them, and who expected so much more, but they had answered his purpose, and therefore he took no further notice of them. In two more hours, Hooper made his appearance in Adooley's war canoe, which he had prevailed on him to lend them. This was placed directly between the two others, and their contents speedily transferred into it. It was between ten and eleven o'clock at night that they were fairly launched out into the body of the river. The canoe was above forty feet in length; it was propelled through the water by poles instead of paddles, and moved slowly and silently along. It was a clear and lovely night; the moon shone gloriously as a silver shield, and reflecting the starry firmament on the unruffled surface of the water, the real concave of heaven with its reflection seemed to form a perfect world. The scenery on the borders of the river appeared wild and striking, though not magnificent. In the delicious moonshine it was far from uninteresting: the banks were low and partially covered with stunted trees, but a slave factory and, a fetish hut were the only buildings which were observed on them. They could not help admiring at some distance ahead of their canoe, when the windings of the river would permit, a noble and solitary palm tree with its lofty branches bending over the water's edge; to them it was not unlike a majestical plume of feathers nodding over the head of a beautiful lady.
Proceeding about ten miles in a westerly direction, they suddenly turned up a branch joining the river from the northward, passing on the left the village of Bawie, at which Captain Clapperton landed. They saw several small islands covered with rank grass, interspersed in different parts of the river. They were inhabited by myriads of frogs, whose noise was more hoarse and stunning than ever proceeded from any rookery in Christendom. As they went up the river the canoe men spoke to their priests, who were invisible to them, in a most sepulchral tone of voice, and were answered in the same unearthly and doleful manner. These sounds formed their nocturnal serenade. Notwithstanding the novelty of their situation and the interest they took in the objects, which surrounded them, they were so overcome with fatigue, that they wrapped a flannel around them, and fell fast asleep.
The hard and uncomfortable couch, on which they had reposed the preceding night, made their bodies quite sore, and occasioned them to awake at a very early hour in the morning. At six o'clock A.M. they found themselves still upon the river, and their canoe gliding imperceptibly along. From half a mile in width, and in many places much more, the river had narrowed to about twenty paces; marine plants nearly covered its surface, and marsh miasmata, loaded with other vapours of the most noxious quality, ascended from its borders like a thick cloud. Its smell was peculiarly offensive. In about an hour afterwards, they arrived at the extremity of the river, into which flowed a stream of clear water. Here the canoe was dragged over a morass into a deep but narrow rivulet, so narrow indeed that it was barely possible for the canoe to float, without being entangled in the branches of a number of trees, which were shooting up out of the water. Shortly after, they found it to widen a little; the marine plants and shrubs disappeared altogether, and the boughs of beautiful trees, which hung over the banks, overshadowed them in their stead, forming an arch-like canopy, impervious to the rays of the sun. The river and the lesser stream abound with alligators and hippopotami, the wild ducks and a variety of other aquatic birds resorting to them in considerable numbers. In regard to the alligator, a singular fraud is committed by the natives of the coast, who collect the alligators' eggs in great numbers, and being in their size and make exactly resembling the eggs of the domestic fowl, they intermix them, and sell them at the markets as the genuine eggs of the fowls; thus many an epicure in that part of the world, who luxuriates over his egg at breakfast, fancying that it has been laid by some good wholesome hen, finds, to his mortification, that he has been masticating the egg of so obnoxious an animal as the alligator.
The trees and branches of the shrubs were inhabited by a colony of monkeys and parrots, making the most abominable chattering and noise, especially the former, who seemed to consider the travellers as direct intruders upon their legitimate domain, and who were to be deterred from any further progress by their menaces and hostile deportment. After passing rather an unpleasant, and in many instances an insalubrious night, the travellers landed, about half-past eight in the morning, in the sight of a great multitude, that had assembled to gaze at them.
Passing through a place, where a large fair or market is held, and where many thousands of people had congregated for the purpose of trade, they entered an extensive and romantic town, called Wow, which is situated in a valley. The majority of the inhabitants had never before had an opportunity of seeing white men, so that their curiosity, as may be supposed, was excessive. Two of the principal persons came out to meet them, preceded by men bearing large silk umbrellas, and another playing a horn, which produced such terrible sounds, that they were glad to take refuge, as soon as they could, in the chief's house. The apartment, into which they were introduced was furnished with a roof precisely like that of a common English barn inverted. In the middle of it, which reached to within a few inches of the floor, a large square hole had been made to admit air and water to a shrub that was growing directly under it. The most remarkable, if not the only ornament in the room, were a number of human jaw bones, hung upon the side of the wall, like a string of onions. After a form and ceremonious introduction, they were liberally regaled with water from a calabash, which is a compliment the natives pay all strangers, and then they were shown into a very small apartment. Here Richard Lander endeavoured to procure a little sleep having remained awake during the whole of the preceding night; but they were so annoyed by perpetual interruptions and intrusions, the firing of muskets, the garrulity of women, the unceasing squall of children, the drunken petition of men and boys, and a laugh, impossible to describe, but approximating more to the nature of a horse-laugh than any other, that it was found impossible to sleep for ten minutes together.
The market of this place is supplied abundantly with Indian corn, palm oil, &c., together with trona, and other articles brought hither from the borders of the Great Desert, through the medium of the wandering Arabs. According to the regulations of the fetish, neither a white man nor a horse is permitted to sleep at Wow during the night season: as to the regulations respecting the horses, they knew not what had become of them; they were, according to the orders of Adooley, to have preceded them to this place, but they had not then arrived. With respect to themselves, they found it necessary, in conformity to the orders of the fetish, to walk to a neighbouring village, and there to spend the night. Their course to Wow, through this creek, was north-by-east; and Badagry, by the route they came, was about thirty miles distant.
A violent thunder-storm, which on the coast is called a tornado, visited them this afternoon, and confined them to the "worst hut's worse room" till it had subsided, and the weather become finer. At three p.m. they sallied forth, and were presently saluted by hootings, groanings, and hallooings from a multitude of people of all ages, from a child to its grandmother, and they followed closely at their heels, as they went along, filling the air with their laughter and raillery. A merry-andrew at a country town in England, during the Whitsuntide holidays, never excited so great a stir as did the departure of the travellers from the town of Wow. But it is "a fool's day," and, no doubt, some allowance ought to be made for that. They had not proceeded more than a dozen paces from the outskirts of the town, when they were visited by a pelting shower, which wetted them to the skin in a moment. A gutter or hollow, misnamed a pathway, was soon overflowed, and they had to wade in it up to their knees in water, and through a most melancholy-looking forest, before they entered a village. It was called Sagba, and was about eight miles from Wow. They were dripping wet on their arrival, and the weather still continuing unpleasant, it was some time before any one made his appearance to invite them into a hut. At length the chief came out to welcome them to his village, and immediately introduced them into a long, narrow apartment, wherein they were to take up their quarters for the night. It was built of clay, and furnished with two apertures, to admit light and air into the room. One end was occupied by a number of noisy goats, whilst the travellers took possession of the other. Pascoe and his wife lay on mats at their feet, and a native Toby Philpot, with his ruddy cheek and jug of ale, belonging to the chief, separated them from the goats. The remainder of the suite of the travellers had nowhere whatever to sleep. The walls of their apartment were ornamented with strings of dry, rattling, human bones, written charms, or fetishes, sheep skins, and bows and arrows. They did not repose nearly so comfortably as could have been desired, owing to the swarms of mosquitoes and black ants, which treated them very despitefully till the morning.