In the Niger Country

mm ^ X >;{;:/' - THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES J2-f7 4^-/c' ^^".-4''>^/-:^ IN THE NIGER COUNTEY MAP OF THE NIGER COUNTRY IN THE NIGER COUNTRY BY HAROLD BINDLOSS WITH TWO MAPS WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXCVIII All Rights reserved —— B5I CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. IN EARLY DAYS. PAGE General characteristics of the Niger region and its inhabitants The fever belt—Moslem influence—The Sahara—Early eastern explorers—The advent of the European—Mungo Park, his successors . forerunners and . .1 CHAPTER II. ON THE WAY TO THE NIGER TENERIFFE AND SIERRA LEONE. Santa Cruz, Teneriffe—Repulse of Nelson—N.E. trades—Young factory assistants — Freetown, Sierra Leone — Influence of missionaries—Types of population . .15 CHAPTER III. THE BATTLE OP WEIMA. Emir Samadu—Konno and Sofa raiders—March of the West Indias—Attack on Weima—Fatal mistake—Defeat of the raiders ........ 29 CHAPTER IV. LIBERIA AND THE BEACHES OF THE KROO COUNTRY. A tornado — Monrovia — The black republic — Kroo labourers Kroo villages—Means of transport—Want of harbours . 41 ^ ^ /» /-» r-> ,^ r> — VI . CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. THE GOLD COAST COLONT AND DAHOMEY. Early settlements—Fantis and Shantis—Haussa constabulary Elinina and Cape Coast Castle, Accra—African surf—The French in . Dahomey . .54 CHAPTEE VI. LAGOS AND THE NIGER MOUTHS. Lagos roads and town—Colour-caste—Trade of Lagos, and its bar —First glimpse of Niger delta—Crossing the bar—Early traders and establishment of Koyal Niger Company . 66 CHAPTER VII. AKASSA. General aspect of Akassa—Salt and gin—Arab traders—European dwelling—The Chartered Company . .78 CHAPTER VIII. THE RAIDING OF AKASSA. The Nimbi tribe—Cause of hostilities —Attack on the factory Murder of Krooboys—Unexpected help—Cannibalism—De- struction of Nimbi . .91 CHAPTER IX. A BURNT VILLAGE. African bush—Native village—Down an African stream—The mantle of Ananias—Sunday evening on the Niger . 104 CHAPTER X. THE INLAND REACHES OP THE NIGER. Lower reaches—French policy—Moslem industries—Timbuktu The Sahara—Turning back of trading expeditions—Rise and fall of Songhay—The advent of the Fulah—Emir Othman and the rise of Sokoto * . 115 — CONTENTS. VU CHAPTER XI. IN FORCADOS RIVER. Commercial importance of this water-way—A negro pUot—Tragic story of French survey vessel—Forcados post-office—Her Majesty's mail on the Niger—Propitiating the powers of darkness ........ 126 CHAPTER XII. ON THE WAY TO WARRI. Mangrove swamps—Characteristic accident—Eamming the forest —Trade canoes—Warri and its Consulate^—How justice is ad- ministered on the Niger—Major Crawford . .138 CHAPTER XIII. WARRI. Yoruba troops—Palm-oil—How the trading agents live—Im- portation of fire-arms—Influence of the forest—End of Major Crawford—Red tape . .150 CHAPTER XIV. THE SLAVE-TRADE AND THE JU-JU SYSTEM. Heathen mythology—The Ju-Ju—Superstitious white traders The first of the slave trade—Bristol and Liverpool—Palm-oil ruffians—Domestic slavery ..... 163 CHAPTER XV. AT NEW BENIN. Benin river—New Benin—The building of a factory—Young trading clerks—The man who struck . .1/9 A Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. NEW BENIN. Seamen traders—A Niger headman—The Consulate and Govern- ment policy—Old Benin—Fetiche treasure—Earlj' Latin explorers—Unfortunate expedition—Characteristic episode— few climatic evils ...... 193 CHAPTER XVII. THE RISE AND FALL OF NANA. The evolution of a bush potentate—How Nana defied the Govern- ment—Sapelli palaver—The impregnable stockade—Futile attack on Brohemie—Destruction of Brohemie—Nana's ex- piation ........ 205 CHAPTER XVIII. SAPELLI. Mosquitoes—Early morning in a Niger factory—Silk hat and gun-case—General aspect of Sapelli—How trade is carried on —The fascination of the forest—The ways of the bush traders —Aggri beads ....... 217 CHAPTER XIX. DOWN THE SAPELLI RIVER. Government headquarters—The banks of an African river—The power of the Ju-Ju—The home of the fever—In chase of an alligator—Jack's diversions ashore .... 231 CHAPTER XX. ON THE BRASS RIVER. An unsuccessful venture—A refractory oil-launch—The police of the seas ........ 243 — CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XXI. A FUNERAL IN THE DELTA. The last journey—Englishmen in the tropics—A faithful minister —The ways of the fever—An incident at sea . 254 CHAPTER XXII. MISSIONARY INFLUENCE. Why some missionaries fail—Trading preachers—The power of faith—The Jesuits—Modern martyrs—Need of medical skill Missionary women ...... 264 CHAPTER XXIII. BONNY AND OPOBO. Bonny bar—Native squalor—How the Opobo men kept their guns —Beneficent missionary influence—The black man's bishop . 277 CHAPTER XXIV. THE OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE NIGER. The Protectorate of Sierra Leone—Source of the Niger—Native races—Moslem conquest—Northwards from the delta—Onitsha slave market—Lokoja camp—Our black soldiers . 288 CHAPTER XXY. THE EVOLUTION OF THE BLACK TRADER AND HIS MERCHANDISE. The seaboard negro—How the bush trader begins—Negro method of dealing with competition—Chopping oil, a new method of collecting accounts—Products of the Niger basin . 300 — X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVI. RUBBER-GATHERING. Expansion of the rubber trade—Rapid development of West African commerce—A rubber forest—How rubber is gathered —Devious ways of native traders—A field for the adventurer —How Johnson searched for rubber . .311 CHAPTER XXVII. FAREWELL TO THE NIGER. Hauling out from Warri—Good-bye—Vanquished by malaria Funerals at sea—Training of Englishmen—A necessary sacri- fice—What we look for . 324 Index ........ 337 IN THE NIGEE COUNTRY. CHAPTEK I. IN EARLY DAYS. Between two lines drawn roughly north and south from Sierra Leone to Bojador, and the Bight of Biafra to Fezzan, there lies a vast quadrangular tract of northern Africa, through the heart of which the Niger flows. The story of this region is more or less bound up with that of the great river, for throughout the greater portion of a thousand years rumours of the fertility and wealth of the Niger basin led adventurous explorers, first from the ancient East and then from the young West, onwards into the wilds of the Sudan. Many races, differing widely in origin, character, and mode of life, dwell there, and for the clearer understand- ing of its aspect and history it may be divided into three zones. Starting at a point some two hundred miles from A 2 IN THE NIGER COUNTRY. the mouth of the Gambia, a Hne rumiing approx- imately parallel to the sweep of surf- fringed beach as far as Lokoja on the Lower Niger would enclose what may be termed the coastwise strip. This is the tract with which Europeans are best ac- quainted, though even now, after trading there for four hundred years, portions of it still lie beyond their knowledge. It is a land of heat and steam, dense forests of cotton-trees and oil-palms, muddy rivers and wastes of quaking swamp. The shadow of the pestilence hangs heavily above it, and throughout the greater portion Ju-Ju superstition reigns supreme. White men suffer many climatic ills, or die by scores of malarial fever, while the native tribes are decimated by infectious sicknesses. Its inhabitants are generally of pure negro type, and, with the exception of Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Gold Coast, and Lagos, where some have been civilised with a vengeance, are for the most part degraded savages, worshippers of devils, and par- ticipators in horrible fetiche rites. There are ex- ceptions ; but, generally speaking, the classification holds good, for contact with Europeans has done little after all to change the character of its swarm- ing peoples, neither has Christianity touched more than the fringe of this mass of dark humanity. North of this line, and in places south of it also, the fever - haunted primeval forest commences to melt through gradations of acacias and groves of IN EARLY DAYS. 3 precious gums into a drier and more healthy land of yellow plume -grass and isolated woods, which rolls away league beyond league until these in turn are lost in the barrens of the Sahara—and much of this is still a region of romance and mystery. The colour of its inhabitants fades from jet black through various shades of colour ; and here the older civilisation of the East and the faith of Islam, pro- claimed with fire and sword, have done what the milder teachino- of the Cross has hitherto failed to do. The people are staunch Moslem, dwelling in strong, walled towns with their mosques and markets, practising many arts, and combined in powerful military organisations. Emir, sultan, wazzeir, and sheik rule, and, it would seem, rule wisely too, though with an iron hand, in places amid a mingling of barbaric and Eastern splen- dour which recalls the tales of the 'Arabian Nights ' and the days of Saladin. Some of these potentates are said to maintain household cavalry dressed in beautifullv wrouo-ht chain-mail and armed with silver axes. In others, they are known to be mere leaders of coffee-coloured slave-raiders ; but there is always a wide gulf between them and the coast -wise negro. With all its imperfections, the doctrine brought from Arabia has set an in- delible stamp upon two - thirds of Africa, casting out drunkenness and degradation, and raising the negro from the condition of a savage into a state 4 IN THE NIGER COUNTRY. of partial intellectual development at least. Pos- sibly this is because the fear of death possesses considerable persuasive power, and the tribesman who might risk a future retribution finds it wise to keep the law when the sword hangs visibly above his head. Farther yet, and beyond the latitude of Tim- buktu, the Sahara stretches north, an undulating waste of sand and sun-scorched ranges, until the foothills of the Atlas roll the desert back.

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