Palm Oil Is Produced In Large Quantities At Eboe;
But The People Are Chiefly Occupied In Slave-Hunting.
As may be expected,
their disposition is cruel and revengeful, - they live in the daily
practice of the most flagrant vice and immorality.
On the night of the 9th November, they departed from Eboe, and were
guided through the intricate and dangerous navigation by the light of a
brilliant moon. After two days they anchored about 15 miles from the
town. The river was here at least 3000 yards broad; and afterwards when
it had thrown off its two great branches, the Benin and the Bonny, was
about 1500 yards wide, divided by sandy islands overgrown with grass. One
of the vessels grounded, but after half-an-hour's hard labour was got
off. In the course of the same evening they were surrounded by canoes,
which brought goats, yams, plantains, and bananas for sale.
The effect of the climate and of their stay near the swamps now became
fatally manifest. In the Quorra, fourteen men died, and three in the
Alburkah. The disproportion of mortality in the two vessels, at this
period, is ascribed to the superior coolness of the Alburkah, which was
rendered more healthy in consequence of her iron hull diffusing through
her interior the coolness of the surrounding water.
They next anchored off Attah, a picturesque town, situated on the top of
a hill which rises nearly 300 feet above the river. The view from the
town is said to be grand and extensive. Here Mr. Laird saw an alligator
captured by two natives, in an ingenious and daring manner. "He was
discovered basking on a bank in the river, a short distance ahead of the
vessels. Two natives in a canoe immediately paddled to the opposite side
of the bank, and having landed, crept cautiously towards him. As soon as
they were near the animal, one of the natives stood up from his crouching
position, holding a spear about six feet long, which with one blow he
struck through the animal's tail into the sand. A most strenuous contest
immediately ensued; the man with the spear holding it in the sand as
firmly as his strength allowed him, and clinging to it as it became
necessary to shift his position with the agility of a monkey; while his
companion occasionally ran in as opportunity offered, and with much
dexterity gave the animal a thrust with his long knife, retreating at the
same moment from, without the reach of its capacious jaws, as it whirled
round upon the extraordinary pivot which his companion had so
successfully placed in its tail. The battle lasted about half an hour,
terminating in the slaughter of the alligator, and the triumph of his
conquerors, who were not long in cutting him into pieces and loading
their canoes with his flesh, which they immediately carried to the shore
and retailed to their countrymen. The success of the plan depended
entirely on the nerve and dexterity of the man who pinned the animal's
tail to the ground; and his contortions and struggles to keep his
position were highly entertaining."
They were now within the district of the Kong Mountains, which are of a
tabular form, and rise on both sides to between 2000 or 2500 feet.
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