'Three white men, they told me, had visited their village—Captain Dudley in 1876, judging from the age of a child who was born at the time of his visit; Captain Grant and Mr. Gillett, in 1878, I afterwards learnt, were the other two. None of them went further into the interior.
'After breakfast we crossed the lagoon, passing on our way several canoes fishing in the middle. The water was very clear and blue, and of considerable depth, judging from a stone dropped in. Unfortunately I had no other means of sounding. Not until a dozen yards from the shore were any signs of a stream discernible. Pushing aside some reeds, we entered a narrow lane of water, varying from three feet to eighteen feet in width, deep, and, according to the natives, navigable for three days by canoes. This stream is known by the name of Bousaha, and the lagoon by Ebumesu. After two hours' hard paddling in a northerly direction we stopped to walk to the village of Níbá, a large place, principally engaged in raising food for the coast fishing-villages and Béin, and also in elephant-hunting.
'Elephants at the time of my visit were reported in large numbers two days' journey in the bush, and the villagers were then organising a party for a hunt. Outside the village I came across the skull of a young elephant, from which I extracted the teeth. The only report of a white man having been here before was long ago, when, some of the old men told me, he came from Assini direction, but turned back again. The village was neatly laid out in streets and was beautifully clean.
'Another three hours' pull, still bearing northwards, brought us to the village of Essuati, a smaller place than Níbá, but very prettily laid out with trees, surrounded by seats in its central street. The people here, as at Níbá, were mainly engaged in agriculture.
'Crowds came to see the "white man," many of the women and children never having been to Axim, the nearest place where whites are to be found, and, consequently, had never seen one before.
'After a few days' stay here I returned to the coast. While there I came across a curious fish-trap, a description of which may not be uninteresting. Across a stick planted in the river-bed a light piece of bamboo was tied, and at its further extremity was suspended a string carrying fish-hooks. Above these a broad piece of wood, suspended so as to be half in and half out of the water, acted as a float and spindle. Above this again were tied four large shells, so that when a fish is hooked the shells begin to jingle, and the fishermen, hid in the bush, immediately rush out and secure the fish.'
CHAPTER XVIII. — THE IZRAH MINE—THE IKYOKO CONCESSION—THE RETURN TO AXIM.
The next day (February 2) showed me my objective, Izrah, after a voyage of nearly three months. The caravan, now homeward-bound after a fashion, rose early, and we hammocked in the cool and misty morning along shore to Inyenápoli—the word means Greater Inyena, as opposed to Inyenachi, the Less. In the house of Mr. J. Eskine I saw his tradesman bartering cloth for gold-dust. The weighing apparatus is complicated and curious, and complete sets of implements are rare; they consist of blowers, sifters, spoons, native scales, weights of many kinds, and 'fetish gong-gongs,' or dwarf double bells.