# Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 3/Chapter 5

Contents
CHAPTER V.
SOUTH SENEGAMBIA.
Gambia.
HE river Gambia might at first sight appear to be the most important waterway in West Africa for penetrating into the interior. Over the Senegal it enjoys the advantage of being much more accessible to shipping, its estuary opening on less stormy waters, while its bar at all times admits vessels drawing 10 feet. Its banks are also more fertile than those of the northern river, and may be cultivated as well in the dry season as after the floods. This artery is, moreover, navigable farther east than the Senegal, and affords direct access to the auriferous regions and fertile valleys of Futa-Jallon, inhabited by the industrious Fulah people. It represents the chord of the vast arc described by the Senegal.
In 1618 the Gambia was explored by Thompson, who ascended as far as the Tenda country, near the Futa-Jallon highlands; but he was murdered on the way, either by his followers or by the Portuguese. Two years afterwards the same route was followed by Jobson, and later by several other explorers, who reached the Barra-Kunda rocks, and unanimously reported that the Gambia was the most direct road to the Upper Senegal regions, and to the auriferous districts of Bambûk and Buré. At that time it was even supposed to be a branch of the Senegal itself, and even now Mitchinson asserts that during the floods the two rivers communicate with each other.
But despite all these advantages the Gambia has always remained greatly inferior to its northern rival in political and commercial importance, owing mainly to its more deadly climate, and partly also to the different character of the riverain populations, amongst whom are found neither the enterprising Berbers nor the industrious Toucouleurs.
Nor has this artery an area of drainage at all in proportion to the length of its course. From its source in the Futa-Jallon uplands to the estuary at Bathurst its winding channel develops a total length of about 720 miles, while the basin has a mean breadth of scarcely 40 miles, and a total area of no more than 20,000 square miles. In the southern districts, which have escaped the Mohammedan invasions, the population is reported to be tolerably dense, and the Mandingoes, ​Serers, and other Gambian tribes proper, probably exceed twenty thousand souls. Of these some fifteen thousand reside within the British territory, which comprises a group of fluvial islands and peninsulas with a total superficial extent of not more than 70 square miles.
Of all the streams rising in Futa-Jallon, by far the most copious is the Gambia, which drains nearly the whole of the central mass, Eastwards the main branch
encircles the loftiest summits, while on the west and north-west another branch, the Grey River of the English, collects nearly all the rainfall. Thus the head-streams of the Senegal and Niger, as well as those of the Geba, Rio-Gande, Cassini, and Kakrima, flowing farther south direct to the coast, derive their supplies mainly from the less elevated southern and south-western slopes.
The sources of the Gambia, which have been visited by Hecquard, Bayol, and ​FLORA OF GAMBIA. I73 Noirot, lie to the north of Labo, G miUvs from the large village of Tunturun, and close to the hamlet of Ort^-Dimnia, or " Head of the Diinnia," us the Fuhihs call the Gambia throughout its >vhole course. About a mile north of this point is a little reservoir forming the source of the Comba, which appears to be the farthest headstream of the Ilio-Grando, the chief fluvial basin south of the Gambia. The plateau whence both rivers flow seawards has an altitude of about 3,800 feet. After flowing east of the Futa-Jallou highlands for 120 miles northwards, the Gambia sweeps round to the west, forcing its way through a series of gorges down to the plains. At JSillakunda, above the last gorge, the channel, averaging 1,000 feet in width, still stands at an elevation of 500 feet. Even after reach in"- the plains its extremely tortuous course is interrupted by some boulders and ledges, such as the sill of Barra-Kunda, over 270 miles above the estuary. This point is accessible to light craft, during the dry season, the most favourable for navigation, the current being then weakest. But usually deep-sea vessels stop much lower down, opposite MacCarthy Island, 170 miles from the mouth, where the tide is still felt in the dry period. The mean discharge has not been accurately measured, but it is known greatly to exceed that of the Senegal, regard being had to the much smaller extent of its basin. But here the rainfall is heavier and more fre- quent, the period, espocially from July to September, being very wet. On August 9, 1861, there occurred a downpour of 9 inches in twenty-four hours, and in the same year two others of over 3 inches each. But despite the large volume of fresh water rolled dowit froni the upper reaches, the Lower Gambia is an estuary rather than a river, an inlet of brackish or salt water. Above the mouth its banks are over 6 miles apart, although the mouth itself is only 2 J miles wide, with a mean depth of 05 feet. Here the largest vessels can easily ride at anchor, fcr the bar, which has still 80 feet at low water, lies some 12 miles off the coast. Several winding branches penetrate far inland, one of which, Oyster Creek, shows by its very name that it is not a fluvial but a marine channel. Other tortuous creeks penetrate through the wooded alluvial tracts northwards to the Salum estuary. Flora and Fauna. Above the low-lying tracts about the estuary, the land assumes the appearance of a pleasant verdant region, gently undulating and dotted over with those clumps of trees and green thickets which have caused travellers to compare so many African landscapes to English parks. The riverain plains are much more wooded than those of the Senegal, presenting a far greater number of different species, such as the baobabs, several varieties of i)alm, and the remarkable shea, or butter-tree. But in many places the woodlands are diversitled with savannahs, where the grasses grow to a height of over 20 feet. Wild beasts still hold their ground within a short distance ot the linglish settlements; lions prowl about the outskirts of the villages, and the deep foot- prints of the elephants are constantly met along the muddy tracks. At the end of ​174 WEST AFRICA. the sixteentli century more ivory was still exported from the Gambia than from any other African river, and European vessels have often met herds of elephants swimming from shore to shore of the estuary. The river and neighbouring creeks are also frequented by the hippopotamus and crocodiles. Inhabitants — The Mandingans. Below the Fulah and Jallonke territories most of the riverain populations belong to the Mandingan Negro family, which is most numerously represented on the western slope of the hills in this basin, but which also penetrates into the Senegal region towards Bakel and Bafulabe, and into many districts in the zone of the southern rivers. In some parts of Senegambia this nation is best known by the name of Mali'nke, or " Mali-men," recalling the empire of Mali, or Melle, which formerly embraced the whole of the Upper Niger basin. Even after its destruction by the Songhais, the mansa^ or " emperor," long retained the venera- tion of his ancient Gambian subjects. According to the national traditions, the Mande or Mandingans (Mande-ngo, Mande-nga), came from the east in the sixteenth centurj% driving before them the aborigines, and breaking them up into a multitude of small ethnical groups such as are now found on the seaboard. The Mandingans are even still advancing, and penetrating northwards into the Serer country, where the royal families belong to their race. But while encroaching in one direction they lose ground in another, and in the east the Fulahs are continually gaining on them. In 1862 the Man- dingan marabouts, formerly called hushreens, destroyed hundreds of pagan villages and even " towns " along the right bank of the Gambia, and the inhabitants, here contemptuously called Soninkes, had to accept the new faith. The Mandingans are diversely described by travellers, which is due to their diverse interminglings with other Negro peoples, or with the Fulahs, and also to their different pursuits and other causes. On the Gambia they are distinctly Negroes, rather less black than the Wolofs, with less kinky hair, but a greater degree of prognathism, and broader nose crushed at the root, and with very wide oval nostrils. The expression is stern, almost harsh, although they are really dis- tinguished by great filial affection. " Strike me, but curse not my mother," is one of their sayings, popularised by Mungo Park. Their language, comprising a great number of dialects, has no written literature, since their conversion to Islam all instruction being communicated through the Koran, and all their spells being composed in Arabic. Mandingan grammars, however, have been composed by the Christian missionaries, who class the language with Wolof, as a suffixing or agglutinating tongue. The Mandingans possess a rich treasure of national myths, tales, and songs, and as musicians they take the first rank among the people of West Africa, possessing not only several kinds of drums and iron cymbals, but also the fiddle, guitar, and lyre. It was amongst the pagan Mandingans of the Gambia that the English first met the so-called Mombo-Jombo, or village executioners, who were armed with ​THE MANDINGANS. I75 tremondous powers to overawe and punish all violators of the "custom/' At present they are little more than clowns, the laughing-stock of the children. The Mandingans, who are now broken up into many rival petty states, are excellent husbandmen, but display their remarkable talents chiefly as traders. They have been compared to the Sarakoles, "the Jews of West Africa," but, unlike them, are chiefly wholesale dealers, carrying on a large caravan trade between Sierra-Leone and Timbuktu, and extending their expeditions from the Senegal to the lower Niger. Throughout West Africa they are also the chief preachers of Islam, and also command widespread influence as the disseminators of news and the champions of the new ideas, reporting to their brethren in the interior all the strange sights and the marvels of industry which they have witnessed amongst the Europeans of the seaboard. The Europeans. In the Gambia basin the European element is relatively very slight, and less influential than on the Senegal. Tn some years there are scarcely twenty European civilians in this so-called " Colony," and few officials reside long enough in the country to take an interest in the populations with whom they are brought into contact. The whites suffer chiefly from yellow fever, dysentery, and miasmatic infections, while the black soldiers from the West Indies fall victims to small-pox and consumption. It has been ascertained that the Jamaica Negroes resist the climate of the Gambia no better than the whites from the British Isles. Whole battalions have melted away in a few months, the average mortality of the troops being 480 per thousand. The half-caste element is also inconsiderable, not more than a few thousands being collectively classed as " Creoles," most of whom appear to be Catholic Wolofs from Goree and Rufisque, variously intermingled with Europeans, Mandingans, and Fulahs. Recently also African freedmen from the Niger, from the Slave Coast, and from Sierra-Leone have emigrated into the Gambia territory, where, being mostly Protestants, they hold aloof from the Wolofs, and compete severely with them, especially as retail dealers. Being hemmed in between the French Scnegambian posEessions and the southern rivers, the English trade in the Gambia basin is but of secondary importance, the exchanges not exceeding £160,000 altogether. Although the Gambia presents the shortest natural highway to the interior and to the Upper Senegal, it has, nevertheless, become a sort of cul-de-sac, affording but few means of communica- tion between the inland populations and the markets on the coast. The trade also, which since the middle of the century consists mostly of ground-nuts, has to a large extent fallen into the hands of the French, whose influence must necessarily increase whenever effect is given to the treaties concluded by the French Govern- ment with Futa- Jallon, and especially when the projected railway is constructed from Rufisque to Kaolak. Politically and commercially, the Gambia will then be encircled by territories subject to the suzerainty of France, "like a mouse in the jaws of a cat," as Mitchinson expresses it in " The Expiring Continent." In 1881 ​France even acquired the sovereignty of Bélé-dugu, a district on the Gambian slope where the Gambia and Falémé, with their auriferous affluents, are separated by a space of not more than 80 miles. Hence it has often been proposed to exchange the Gambia for some French territory nearer to Sierra-Leone or to Cape
Coast, whereby the Salûm seaboard would be politically united with that of the Casamanza.
Topography.
Bathurst, or, as it was originally called, Leopold, capital of the English possessions, was founded in 1816, on the island of Saint-Mary, which forms the southern point of the lands at the entrance of the Gambia. The town was laid out with a certain elegance, houses and barracks being solidly built on a site conveniently ​DISTRICT OF KANTOR. 177 situated for trade, where vessels can lie at anchor close in shore in 70 or 80 feet of water. But the place is extremely unhealthy, the island being surrounded and intersected by pestilential channels and stagnant waters. At less than 3 feet from the surface brackish water is found everywhere, and the current is constantly threatening the very foundations of the town. Nevertheless, over three thousand Yolas or Felubs — that is. Coast Negroes — Mandingans, Serers, and Wolofs, are crowded together in this "water-logged" town. The British Government still pays a small yearly pension to the chief of the Combo Mandingans, who occupy the coast as far south as the Casamanza. The health resort lies in the Combo territory, 7 miles west of Bathurst, at Cape St. Mary, near the village of Bacoiv, on a cliff rising 50 feet above the sea. Here the invigorating marine breeze, jocularly called the " Doctor," prevails for several hours during the day, carrying off the exhala- tions from the swamps of the Gambia. It has often been proposed to remove the capital to Cape St. Mary, but the anchorage is bad, and the coast is here obstructed by sandbanks. North-east of Bathurst the batteries of Fort Biillen, erected at Barra Point, command the north entrance of the Gambia. All this part of the coast, for a width of over a mile, belongs to Great Britain, which, however, levies no dues, so that all produce is exported free of charge to the French ports in Senegal. The strip of British territory begins at the Jimak Creek, 9 miles north of Fort BuUen, and follows the right bank of the Gambia, thence to and beyond the Mandingan village of Jillifri {Gilfrai), near which place the English had their chief factory before the foundation of Bathurst. The trading station of Albreda still enjoys some importance, and was formerly a strategic point of great value, thanks to the gunS of Fort James, erected in mid-stream 20 miles above Bathurst. In 1698 Andr^ Briie founded a French factory at Albreda, w^hich, about the middle of this century, was ceded to England in exchange for Portendik, on the Berber coast. In the botanical world Albreda is famous for its magnificent fig-tree, forming a group of several stems with a joint circumference of 130 feet. Farther up, Elephant Island, at the chief bend of the lower Gambia below the large village of Yamiim, is the market for the Diara country. Georgetown, in MacCarthy's Island, some miles higher up, collects most of the produce from the Niani and Ulli districts in the north, from Diamaru and Tumane in the south. MacCarthy's Island corresponds on the Gambia to Fort Bakel on the Senegal, being occupied not by soldiers, but by a small body of police, the last established by the English in this basin. Some 25 miles farther inland are the ruins of Fisania, the village chosen by Mungo Park as his starting-point during his first voyage in 1796. Still higher up are the ruins of Medina, former capital of the Ulli Mandingans, and near it the trading station of Fatta Tenda, whence come the best ground-nuts. Boats ascend the river at all seasons to Yarhu Tenda, a little beyond this point. District of Kaxtor. One of the southern districts about the sources of the Casamanza bears the ​178 WEST AFKIOA. name of Kantora, recalling the market of Kantor, of which the early Portuguese writers speak as a centre of traffic rivalling Timbuktu itself. At that time the whole region of the Gambia was called by them the kingdom of Kantor or Kontor. At the time of Gouldsbury's visit in 1879, not a village remained in the district, which had been laid waste by the combined forces of the Bundu and Labe Fulahs, and most of the inhabitants carried into bondage. Above the Barra-kunda rapids, traders generally follow the land route towards Bondu and Bambuk, although the two large villages of Jalla-Kota ond Badi have their poits on the river. AdMI X ISTR ATION . Gambia has been under the direct administration of Great Britain only since 1821, before which year the factories were managed by a chartered company. The revenue, derived almost exclusively from customs, averages £25,000, and in 1886 there was not only no public debt, but a balance in hand equal to a year's income. The cost of Gouldsbury's important expedition was defrayed out of a surplus of revenue. Since 1870 no military forces are maintained in the settlement, and the police, 111 men, commanded by a European, are nearly all natives of Sierra-Leone. The volunteer corps charged with the defence of the territory has not yet had occasion to be called out. When a tribal war arises, the Government declares itself neutral, but the belligerents bear In mind that the English factories and river craft must be respected by both sides. All the schools are denominational — Protestant, Catholic, or Mohammedan — and as such independent of the civil power. N^evertheless most of the children attend regularly, except in the trading season, when they accompany their parents to the factories. Casamaxza Basin. The Casamanza, so named from the manza (mansa) or sovereign of the Casa (Cassa) people, is on the whole much more of an estuary than a river. Its sources, at the foot of the Khabu terraces, have not yet been visited, but they certainly do not lie more than 180 miles inland, as the bird flies, for the district farther east, traversed by Gouldsbiiry in 1881, already belongs to the Gambia basin. Confined north and south between the two parallel depressions of the Gambia and RIo-Cacheo valleys, the Casamanza basin has an area of probably not more than 6,000 square miles, with a population roughly estimated at 100,000. Since the middle of the sixteenth century the Portuguese have traded in this region. They were even early acquainted with inland trade routes, leading across the creeks and portages to the Salum, and some Portuguese terms surviving in the local dialects attest their former influence. But their chief trade being in slaves, they could scarcely venture much beyond the enclosures of their fortified ​CASAMANZA BASIN. I79 stations, and as the districts became depopulated they had frequently to shift the site of their factories. The English also founded some stations on the banks of the Casamanza, but never purchased any lands from the surrounding tribes. The French made their first acquisition in 1828, although no settlement was made in the island of Jogue, north of the estuary, which was at that time ceded to them. But in 1836 and 1837 they occupied the two islands of Carabane and Guimbering, commanding the southern entrance of the estuary, and also founded the station of Sedhiu, at the head of the deep-sea navigation. Since that time numerous treaties with the riverain tribes have secured to them the suzerainty or possession of nearly the whole basin, and the convention signed with Portugal in 1886 accurately defines the frontier line of the French and Portuguese territories between the Casamanza and Cacheo rivers. The station of Ziguinchor, the last remnant of Lusitanian power in the Casamanza basin, was then ceded to France, while eastwards the French domain was virtually extended across the unexplored wastes of Firdu and Khabu towards the Upper Gambia and Faleme. Thus the Casamanza is hence- forth regarded as belonging politically to the Upper Senegal basin. At Sedhiu, 105 miles from the sea, the estuary has still a mean breadth of at least 1 J mile ; but it is so shallow that craft drawing 6 feet have to proceed very cautiously, or follow a channel buoyed at intervals with branches of trees. Above Sedhiu boats penetrate for some 60 miles, to the village of Kolibanta ; below it the Casamanza is joined only by one large affluent, the Songrogu (probably the Portuguese Sam-Gregorio), which rises in a marshy district near the Gambia basin. Below the Songrogu confluence, which is nearly 3 miles wide during the floods, the lateral channels become more and more numerous, forming a navigable network of some hundred miles shifting with the seasons and years, rising and falling with the daily ebb and flow. The water is everywhere brackish as far as and beyond Ziguinchor, 45 miles from the coast. In the lower part of the delta the channels and backwaters communicate in one direction with the Gambia, in another with the Cacheo estuary. But notwithstanding all these inland crossings and intersections, the seaboard preserves a straight line from Cape St. Mary to Cape Roxo, where begin those intricate indentations so characteristic of all the coastlands in Portuguese territory. The bar of the Casamanza, which first breaks the regular shore-line, is very shallow, with scarcely more than 6 or 7 feet at low water and with three constantly shifting sills. The extensive riverain forests abound in game, and are infested by few rapacious animals. Inhabitants of the Casama^nza. In the upper reaches the dominant peoples are the Khabun'ke, or " Khabu- men," and the Mandingans, here also called Suzi, the Sossays of the early writers. Advancing constantly from the east, they have driven before them the aboriginal inhabitants ; but their progress has been arrested by the French, and they have now ceased to press upon the coast people, just as they .have themselves been ​relieved from the encroachments of the inland Fulahs. In the Casamanza basin the Mandingans form petty oligarchic states administered by two dignitaries, the alcaty (cadi), military chief, and the almany, spiritual head of the people.
Beside the Mandingans dwell the Fulah pastors and the Sarakolé agriculturists, who had both accompanied them on their advance from the interior, and who afterwards founded numerous settlements about the French stations. Here they contracted alliances with runaway female slaves, thus giving rise to the present half-castes.
Other districts were occupied by the Balanta intruders from the Geba basin, who, after laying waste certain parts of Budhié and Yassin on the north, have settled down on the south side of the Casamanza below Sedhiu, driving the
Bagnun aborigines farther west. A branch of the Bagnuns are the Cassa or Cassanga tribe, who give their name to the river, and whose former capital, Brikam, nearly destroyed by the Balantas, is still seen on the left bank, above the Songrogu confluence.
Beside the Mandingans dwell the Fulah pastors and the Sarakolé agriculturists, who had both accompanied them on their advance from the interior, and who afterwards founded numerous settlements about the French stations. Here they contracted alliances with runaway female slaves, thus giving rise to the present half-castes.
Other districts were occupied by the Balanta intruders from the Geba basin, who, after laying waste certain parts of Budhié and Yassin on the north, have settled down on the south side of the Casamanza below Sedhiu, driving the
Bagnun aborigines farther west. A branch of the Bagnuns are the Cassa or Cassanga tribe, who give their name to the river, and whose former capital, Brikam, nearly destroyed by the Balantas, is still seen on the left bank, above the Songrogu confluence.
poisoning those accused of bewitching men or animals. The old matriarchal usages still prevail among them, as among most of ^ the tribes along the coast. Rank and property are transmitted in the female line, and the women join in the village deliberations, often exercising a decisive influence on the issue.
The coast peoples, hemmed in by the invaders from the interior, have received from the Portuguese the collective name of Felups, and they certainly show a common affinity in their usages and language. But they have lost all national coherence, and are now broken up into a multitude of distinct clans, each with its tribal name and separate territory, mostly some island or peninsula in the delta. Westwards, near the sea, dwell the Aiamats, Yolas, Kabils or Karons; farther east, but north of the Casamanza, the Jigushes or Juguts, the Fognis, the Kaïmuts, and those Felups of the Songrogu, whose large heads have earned for them the Portuguese name of Yacas. South of the river follow the Banjiars, Fuluns, and Bayots, these being most distinguished by their speech and diminutive stature from all the Felup peoples.
From a former higher period of culture most of the Felups have preserved the art of erecting relatively large and comfortable dwellings, very substantial earth houses which resist the weather for years, and which are divided into several compartments in the interior. The Felups, on the right bank of the river, build very large and shapely canoes with the trunk of the bombax, and manufacture arrows, darts, and swords, which they use with much skill. But the social and political bonds are very loose, every hamlet, so to say, constituting a separate state. Even family ties are easily formed and as easily dissolved, and in some places the children are destined beforehand to serve in the household of the village chief.
Most of the Felups have the idea of a supreme being, who, for them, is at once the heaven, the rain, the wind, and the storm. Ruled by terror, they are a prey to the medicine-men, and nowhere else in Africa are the wizards more invoked and more hated. They are accused of killing by their malevolent arts and philtres, and they are at times themselves seized and tortured to death. But social changes are gradually taking place amongst the Felup populations settled in the neighbourhood of European factories, and employed by the traders as carriers.
Topography.
In the Casamanza basin the chief military and commercial station is Sedhiu, called also Frances-Kunda ("House of the French"), which since its foundation in 1837 on the right bank, at the head of the navigation, has become a real town with European buildings and extensive depots. Some native villages have sprung up round about, whence are obtained ample supplies of provisions of all sorts. Ziguinchor, the old Portuguese station ceded to France by the recent treaty, and situated on the left bank, below the Songrogu confluence, occupies a favourable position for the overland trade between the Gambia and Cacheo basins. On the ​182 WEST AFRICA. same side, but mucli lower down, lies Saint-Georges, in a fertile district exposed to the refreshing sea-breezes. But the largest place in the delta region is Carahane. at the northern extremity of the island of like name, which may be compared to Bathurst for its watery soil and insalubrious climate. Some six miles to the south-east of Carabane stands the old English factory of Lincoln, w^hich has become the wretched village of JElinkin, inhabited by the riff- raff of various populations, much dreaded by their neighbours. GuiNE — Portuguese Possessions in Senegambia. The geographical expression Gui:ie (Guinea) applied by the early Portuguese navigators to the whole of the West African seaboard, from the mouth of the Senegal to that of the Orange, has gradually lost this comprehensive signification. According as the coast-lands became better known they received more special designations, and in ordinary usage the term Guin^ is now restricted to the Portuguese possessions between the Casamanza and Componi basins. The recent convention with France has sharply delimitated these possessions, not by natural features such as rivers and mountains, but by degrees of latitude and longitude. The territory, if not already subjected to Portugal, at least assigned to her future sway, may be estimated at about 17,000 square miles, while in 1885 the portion really occupied did not exceed 30 square miles, with a total population of some 10,000. Even the inhabitants of the whole region cannot number much more than 150,000, notwithstanding the exaggerated statements of some Portuguese writers. At the same time there can be no doubt that millions might be supported in this fertile territory, which is abundantly watered by the rivers descending from the Futa-Jallon highlands. Portuguese Senegambia lies entirely wilhin the zone of fjord-like rivers and estuaries, carved out by the waves into numerous peninsulas and archipelagoes, still limited westwards by the ancient coastline. These various streams, rising on the uplands for the most part to the east of the Franco-Portuguese frontier, are very copious in proportion to the extent of their basins, and like the Casamanza and other northern arteries, may be ascended by shipping far into the interior. The Cacheo, northernmost of these streams, called also Rio de Farim and De Santo Domingos, runs nearly parallel with the Casamanza, from which it is separated by a gently undulating tract with a mean breadth of 24 miles. In their lower course the two estuaries intermingle their waters through an intricate system of channels and marshlands, beyond w^hich the Cacheo enters the sea through a wide mouth obstructed by a muddy sill. The Geba, south of the Cacheo, rises as the Ba-Diemba in the unexplored region limited eastward by the headwaters of the Gambia, flowing thence parallel with the Cacheo, but soon losing its fluvial aspect. For a space of over 60 miles it develops a wide estuary like a great arm of the sea, accessible to vessels of considerable draught and no less than 10 miles wide at its mouth. In front of this mouth are scattered the Bissagos islets and reefs, forming a vast labyrinth of ​channels dangerous to navigation, but which may be avoided by one of the lateral
passages communicating directly with the Geba. Farther ​184 WEST AFEICA. channels merges in the Rio- Grande estuary, less spacious than that of the Geha, although the latter appears to be much the smaller river of the two. The Rio-Grande. The Rio- Grande, called also the Guinala, appears to be the chief waterway in Portuguese Senegambin. It is supposed to rise on the same plateau as the Gambia, flowing not east but west, and under the name of the Ccmba collecting numerous torrents from the Futa- Jallon highlands. Of these the largest is the Tomine, which also gathers its first waters from the neighbourhood of Labe. One of the districts traversed by it is intersected by such a number of rivulets that it takes the name of Donhol, that is, " Land of Waters." Even in the dry season it has a discharge of over 350 cubic feet per second at 90 miles from its source, where it winds through a broad valley skirted on both sides by cliffs from 850 to 1,000 feet high, above which rise the escarpments of the granite rocks, presenting the appearance of superimposed bastions. Lower down the Tomine leaves the region of primitive rocks, trending northwards to the Ccmba through
rocky beds of wild mountain torrents. Below the Tomine-Comba confluence the united stream deserves its Portuguese name of Rio-Grande, for here it is already a " great river," as attested by Goulds- bury and other travellers, who crossed towards the head of the bend it describes from north to west, parallel with the Geba. But in this district a part of its course no less than 90 miles long remains still to be explored, so that it is somewhat doubtful whether the Comba discharges into the Rio-Grande estuary, or flows north- west to the Geba. But as figured on the maps the Rio-Grande would comprise the whole of the Tomine basin, with a total length of about 450 miles. The tides, which ascend 60 miles into the interior, convert the lower reaches into an intricate system of saline channels winding round a number of marshy alluvial islands, which are continued seawards by the Bissagos archipelago. Farther south the seaboard is broken into peninsulas and projecting headlands by several creeks or streams terminating in estuaries, and all flowing parallel to each other from north-east to south-west. Of these the Cassini alone deserves the name of river. Rising 120 miles from the coast in the hilly region west of the Tomine basin, it enters the sea through a funnel-shaped inlet accessible to the largest vessels for 30 miles. The Bissagos Archipelago. The Bissagos Islands, which were formerly attached to the mainland, differ from the other insular formations only in their more seaward position, and in the greater breadth of the intervening channels, which have not yet been thoroughly explored. The group, which is defended seaward by a line of dangerous breakers, comprises about thirty islets of various size, besides innumerable reefs, many of ​which are flooded or decomposed into secondary islets by the tides, which here rise 13 or 14 feet. Thus at low water Cagnabac forms continuous land with Porcosand Gumbana, while Gallinhas, Formosa, Ponta, Corbelha become attached to the neighbouring lands. The archipelago, the navigation of which is rendered extremely dangerous by the strong currents and shifting character of the channels, terminates southward in the isolated Alcatraz, or "Pelican" rock, round which hover dense clouds of aquatic birds. Fig. 77. — Bissagos Archipelago Orango, or Harang, largest member of the group, is mostly sandy, with a scant vegetation, whereas the others are generally covered with tall palms and gigantic baobabs, which from a distance seem to grow right out of the water. All the islands are low, and disposed in the direction from north-west to south-east parallel with the mainland. Belcher and the other early explorers described the group as volcanic, but the rocks supposed by them to be eruptive were probably ferruginous clays, analogous to those on the West African seaboard. The islands, mere fragments of the old coast, consist of the same formations and present identical features. Whether through erosion or slow subsidence, the sea has encroached on the land, converting peninsulas into islands, islands into reefs and banks, the lower reaches of the rivers into estuaries, and these into marine inlets. During these secular transformations numerous animal and vegetable species have had to adapt themselves to the slowly changing environment. Such is the hippopotamus, elsewhere rarely seen far from freshwater streams, but which Belcher met on the south-west coast of Cagnabac (Kanabak), over 30 miles from the coast rivers.
Climate—Flora—Fauna.
The climate of Guiné differs in no respect from that of the Gambia and Casamanza, except that the mean temperature is higher and subject to greater extremes, which is doubtless due to the proximity of the hilly uplands in the interior. Near the coast the glass falls at night sometimes to 53° F., oscillating in the cold season, from November to January, between 53° and 59° F. after sunset, and in the day rising to 77°, 86°, and even 110°. But at other times the temperature is much more uniform, showing for the whole year a mean of 78° at Bissao. The rainfall, not yet accurately measured, is very considerable, the wet season, accompanied by frequent thunderstorms and heavy downpours, lasting for nearlv five months, from the middle of May to the end of September.
Notwithstanding this copious rainfall the forests are less dense and continuous than in the tropical regions of the New World. Extensive tracts, even in the Bissagos Islands, are crowned by campinas, or savannahs of tall grasses or reeds, above which rises here and there in isolated' majesty a solitary giant, in one place a palm, in another a baobab or a butter-tree. Behind the mangrove-fringed banks of the estuaries begins the forest proper, including a great variety of species, such as acacias, date and oil palms, and the so-called "rain-tree," whose foliage, especially at sudden falls of temperature, collects the night dew and precipitates it as rain in the morning.
The fauna, richer than that of Senegal, belongs to the zone of equatorial Sudan, including numerous species of the ape family, amongst which the chimpanzee is said to be found. Several large animals, such as the giraffe, zebra, and apparently the elephant, have disappeared, although the hippopotamus, wild ox {hos brachyceros), leopard, and crocodile still abound. Birds are very numerous, and nowhere else in Africa do the termites build such large compact ant-hills, mostly pyramidal in shape and hard as stone. All the creeks and estuaries are well stocked with fish, yielding abundant supplies of food to the natives.
Inhabitants.
These natives form a perfect chaos of small groups, each with its distinctive name, but otherwise without any ethnical value, and liable to constant fluctuations with the changes brought about by migrations, alliances, and conquest. Hence the discrepancies in the statements of travellers who have visited the country at different periods. Of the nine distinct nations mentioned by De Barros, three only, the Biafars, Papels, and Bujagos, are comprised entirely within the Portuguese possessions. The Fulahs and Mandingans are intruders from the east, while the Felups, Balantas, Bagnuns, and kindred Buramos (Brames) are met also on the Casamanza, and the Nalus in the Rio Nunez and Cassim basins.
Besides the Fulahs proper, this region has been invaded by the half-caste Fulas pretos, or "Black Fulahs," resembling the Toucoulours of French Senegambia. Of the indigenous peoples, the Balantas, occupying most of the space between the ​middle Casamanza and the Geba estuary, are the most valiant, and might form a
powerful nation but for their numerous and often hostile tribal subdivisions. Each ​188 WEST AFEICA. village forms an independent petty state ruled by tlie wealtliiest family. Tte Balantas are distinctly black, but smaller and less symmetrical than the Wolofs, with very long skulls, retreating forehead, and small bloodshot eyes. Of all the natives they are the most addicted to plunder, and as theft is a capital crime, they are especially proud of the "heroic" valour displayed by them on predatory excursions. Special professors are appointed to teach the noble art of robbery, and the village youth are not regarded as men until they have distinguished them- selves as footpads or marauders. The Papels or Burnes are centred chiefly in the district between the Cacheo and Geba estuaries to the west of the Balantas, whom they closely resemble in physical appearance and social usages. Like them, they bury the dead with great pomp, and at least, until recently, their chiefs were accompanied to the other world by several maidens buried alive. Even in 1860 human flesh still formed part of the " baked meats " at funeral banquets in some remote districts. The Papels are, however, distinguished by their artistic taste, and to their designers are due the ornaments with which the native earthenware and culabashes are embellished. Although showing no kind of respect for their dead, the Biafars, or Biafadas, are the mildest and most pacific of all the Guine peoples. The Nalus, their southern neighbours beyond the Eio- Grande estuary, are also distinguished for their sociable habits. Amongst them marriages are exogamous, and when a young man selects his bride from a neighbouring tribe, he sends his sister to her brother by way of compensation. The Bujagos or Bijugas, who occupy the Bissagos archipelago and a part of the opposite coast, are a fine Negro race, proud, intrepid, and from infancy accustomed to endure physical pain unflinchingly. They were long dreaded by the Europeans as formidable corsairs, being the only people on this seaboard who ventured on the high seas to any distance from the coast. In their warlike expe- ditions the men smeared themselves with ochre and decked their heads with plumes and metal ornaments ; but they soon learnt to exchange their primitive bow and arrows tipped with poisoned fish-bones for swords of European make. Their fetishes, representing men and animals, are carved with singular truth to nature, and compared with similar objects elsewhere in West Africa may be regarded as genuine works of art. In some of the Bissagos islands matriarchal rites still prevail among the Bujagos. Islam is spreading amongst all the coast tribes, and in the Nalu county Mus- sulman communities already reach all the way to the sea. In pre-Mohammedan times the natives were mostly devil- worshippers, considering it useless to pray to the good spirits, and reserving their supplications only for the maleficent genii. Where these views still survive the people assemble at some china, or sacred spot, such as a great tree, the seashore, or the chiefs dwelling, and here sacrifice an ox, a goat, or a fowl, reading the pleasure of the demon in the entrails. If the prescribed rites have been faithfully performed it is always favourable, and the evil one betakes himself elsewhere. To circumvent the minor spirits, w^ho bring ​
Amongst these populations trees, rocks, animals, colours, sound, everything assumes a favourable or sinister aspect; hence all objects of ill-omen are tabooed, whole districts being at times interdicted. Anyone penetrating into such places
would be immediately punished with death by poison. This practice prevails especially amongst the Felups and other tribes of the Geba basin, where the poisoned cup either produces vomiting or fatal convulsions, thus proving the guilt or innocence of the accused. These barbarous populations are ruled by the dread of the unknown. But as human nature cannot endure a perpetual state of terror, violent reactions set in, during which they frequently give themselves up to the wild delights of music and the dance.
The European race is here represented by about fifty persons, including soldiers, traders, and a few convicts. Nevertheless the Portuguese have, in the course of ​centuries, acquired considerable influence over the native populations, and the general medium of intercourse is the so-called Papel, a jargon or lingua-franca of Portuguese origin, which is variously affected by Negro elements, according to the predominant speech of the several districts. Like all such "pidgin " languages, it has a very limited vocabulary and a rudimentary structure, discarding gram- matical gender and modifying the verbal senses by means of invariable auxiliaries.
Topography.
The six thousand or seven thousand natives directly subject to the Portuguese administration are scattered over an extensive space, along the banks of the estuary and throughout the Bissagos Islands. In the Cacheo basin the only stations are Farim in the Balanta territory, about 120 miles from the coast, and Cacheo (Cachea) on the south side of the estuary, here accessible to vessels drawing 10 feet. Bisscio, in the island of like name at the north entrance of the Geba, consists of a fort, round which are grouped six native villages, each with its regulo or head man.
But the most important settlement is Bolama, capital of Guiné, residence of the governor and headquarters of the troops. The little town lies on a creek dry at low water, and separating the island of Bolama from the mainland at the north entrance of the Rio-Grande. This place was occupied in 1792 by two hundred and seventy-five English settlers, who were soon reduced by famine and sickness to a handful of wretched survivors, saved from certain death by returning to England. Since then the possession of Bolama formed the subject of litigation between Great Britain and Portugal, the question being decided in 1870 by the United States in favour of the latter power. But the trade of the place is in the hands of French houses, which export ground-nuts, and copal collected at the foot of the trees and said to be the finest in the world. The port, lying to the south-west of the town, is well sheltered, and the island, formerly overrun by herds of elephants, now produces some corn, sugar, and vegetables.
In the Rio-Grande estuary the two chief Portuguese stations are Bisasma and Buba, both on the south side, the former near the entrance, the latter at the head of the navigation. Farther inland are Guidali, a little fort recently captured by the Portuguese from the Fulahs, and Kade, on the great curve of the Comba below the Tomine confluence, a place much frequented by Mandingan traders. In the neighbourhood dwells the peaceful and un warlike Tiapi agricultural tribe, speaking a peculiar language totally distinct both from the Fulah and Mandingan.
The South Senegambiax Rivers ("The Southern Rivers").
The whole seaboard stretching north-west and south-east for 240 miles in a straight line between Portuguese Guine and the British territory of Sierra-Leone, has been named the "Southern Rivers," as if the mouths of the rivers visited by traders and mariners had alone any value in their eyes. This region has ​THE SOUTH SENEGAMBIAN EIYEES. I9I been frequented since the fifteenth century, and English, Portuguese, and German factories established at various points. But the trade is chiefly in the hands of the French, whose political suzerainty over all the coastlands and river basins has been recognised by recent conventions. Yet this territory can scarcely be described as a colonial possession, beino- utilised only fur trading purposes, and seldom visited by merchants except durino- the fis-e months from December to April, for the purchase of oil- seeds, sesame, caoutchouc, gums, wax, skins, gold dust, and other produce. But, notwithstanding its great fertility and boundless resources, the whole region is very little known, except in the Xuiiez and Scarcies basins. The lower courses are still doubtful of the rivers whose sources have been discovered in the Futa-Jallon uplands. 'Nor is it easy to determine the extent of the territory assigned to France, which, however, at an average depth of about 120 miles between the seaboard and Futa-Jallon, may be roughly estimated at 24,000 square miles. The native popu- lation being relatively dense on the coastlands, may be rated at not less than two hundred thousand. The petty states of Koba and Kobitai, on the Sangarea estuary, have alone over thirty thousand inhabitants. Like the Portuguese Guine, the whole seaboard is broken into peninsular for- mations, which, at high water, are converted into a labyrinth of islets. But the estuaries seldom penetrate far inland, as the ground here rises somewhat rapidly towards the Futa-Jallon highlands. The northernmost stream, known at its mouth as the Componi (Campuni), and higher up as the Cogon, sends down a con- siderable volume, which in the estuary ramifies into several branches. One of these encloses on the west the island of Tristam, which is the first French territory on this seaboard, and which still bears the name of the Portuguese navigator, Nuno Tristam, who discovered it in 1445. The Rio Nunez (Nunez), the Nuno of the Portuguese, is also named from the same mariner who first explored it, and here perished in a conflict with the natives. The Kakundi, as it is locally called, is less copious than the Componi, but of more commercial value, being unobstructed by any bar, and accessible to large vessels for about 40 miles inland. Here the tides, the highest on the coast, rise to over 20 feet high, and rush at times with a velocity of 5 or 6 miles an hour far up the estuary. South of the Nunez follows the Katako, of difficult access, and some 60 miles farther on the Pio Pongo (Pongos, Pongas) whose headstreams have their source in the south western valleys of Futa-Jallon. Its estuary ramifies into numerous secondary branches, developing for a space of 15 miles an extremely intricate system of channels navigable at high water. But the bar is most dangerous on this coast, and during the floods the ebb tide rushes down at the rate of 8 or 9 miles an hour, which seems to imply a considerable discharge. But, judging from its upper course, a still more copious stream is the Kakriman (Kakrima), which has its source in the same uplands as the Gambia, Pio-Grande, and Senegal. Where it was crossed by Olivier, 1,400 feet above sea-level, its discharge was at least 1,800 cubic feet per second, and it cannot be forded even ​in the dry season, although rendered unnavigable by falls and rapids. For a stretch of 120 miles in a straight line below these obstructions its course has been surveyed by no explorer, so that it is still somewhat uncertain whether the Kakriman is the upper course of the Brameya, which enters the sea midway between the Pongo and the Mallecory at the broad estuary of the Sangarea. According to the natives the Brameya is navigable for one or two hundred miles by craft
drawing 10 feet; but the current is interrupted by a series of dangerous rapids within 36 miles of the sea.
The Los Islands.
In the interior the hills and plateaux disposed in successive terraces and at some points approaching the coast, enjoy a salubrious climate suitable for European settlements. Mount Kakulima, near the east side of the Sangarea estuary, rises to a height of 3,000 feet above the surrounding savannahs and palm-groves. It ​THE LOS ISLANDS. I93 is of perfectly conic shape, apparently terminating in a crater, and according to the natives at times emitting a light column of smoke. But no European has yet been permitted to ascend the " sacred mountain," m that its volcanic character is still doubtful. Towards the south-west the heights are continued through the long peninsula of Konakri and the island of Tumbo, which project westward in the direction of the Los archipelago. These " Islas de los Idolos," or " Islands of the Idols," are so called from the sacred images here found by the early navigators. They are certainly of volcanic origin, the two principal members of the group exceedino- 600 feet in height and disposed in the form of a vast and ruined crater encircling a central cone-shaped islet. The prevailing' formations are blue and yellowish lavas surrounding large masses of porphyry. The Mallecory {Mellacore) river south of the Konakri peninsula, is little more than a marine estuary, like the neighbouring Manea, Morebia, and Forekaria ; but it is of more commercial importance, giving access to a better-known region. A little farther south follow the Great and Little Scarcies, the Eios dos Carceres of the early Portuguese writers, which are true rivers, sending down a consi- derable body of water. The Little Scarcie especially, despite i+s name, is a large stream fed by copious affluents, one of which, the Fala, rises on a low saddleback within 24 miles of the Niger. The two Scarcies, flowing from Futa- Jallon and the neighbouring uplands south of Timbo, gradually converge towards each other, discharging in the same island-studded bay. Since 1882 their lower course, with the adjacent coast, belongs to Great Britain, the Anglo-French frontier here following the parting line between the Mallecory and the estuary of the Great Scarcie. The neighbauring islet of Matacong belongs to France, while the Los Islands are British territory. Climate, Flora, and Fauna. The climate, flora, and fauna differ little from those of north Senegambia. During the hot rainy season calms alternate with storms accompanied by frequent waterspouts and torrential downpours, while in the relatively cool season the trade winds are weaker and less regular than in the north. Instead of blowing from the normal north-east direction, they take a southerly course, or else follow the shore-line, or are even deflected towards the interior of the Continent. But in January the true north-east wind, that is, the Saharian harmattan, resumes the ascendancy, often charged with the desert sands and attended by dense and insalubrious morninsr foo^s. Plants yielding caoutchouc abound in the forests of the Rio Nunez. The coffee of the same region, well known in commerce, has a smaller berry but scarcely less flavour and aroma than the Mocca variety. A still more valuable plant is the oil-palm {Elceis guineensis), which here first acquires the importance of an economic product. The Mallecory basin is also a chief centre of the kola nut [Sterculia acuminata) industry. The kola flourishes best in a dry ferruginous soil exposed to periodical rains, where it attains a height of 65 or 70 feet. The nut ​194 WEST AFEICA. is very bitter, but after tasting it all water, however foul, acquires an agreeable flavour. The juice of the fruit rubbed into the body also affords complete protection against mosquitoes, and by the natives the same fruit, richer in theine than tea itself, is regarded as an almost universal specific. There are two varieties, one yielding red the other white nuts, the latter being a symbol of peace, the former of bloodshed, when sent by a chief to his neighbour. Inhabitants. Here as elsewhere throughout West Africa the more civilised populations are those of the interior, who by continually advancing westwards have broken up the ethnical cohesion of the coast tribes. In the north the chief people thus encroached upon are the Bagas, from whom this region takes the name of Ba- gatai. In the last century Adans.n called them Yagres, a name probably identical with that of Cape Verga, the most advanced promontory on the coast. South of this headland dwell the Sapes or Sumbas, akin 'to the Bagas, and of much lighter complexion and less Negroid features than most of the other coast tribes. A marked phj'sical peculiarity, which at once strikes all observers, is the almost geometrical horizontal position of the plane connecting the neck with the chin. The Baga men are generally well clothed, whereas the women wear little beyond a thread on which are strung rags, pearls, rings, wood or metal ornaments. The rich also insert a ring in the cartilage of the nose, and all pierce the lobe of ihe ear for the insertion of rice-straw. Field operations are performed by the men, who are very industrious and of peaceful habits, so that the Bagatai territory is regarded as a place of refuge, in which all natives go unarmed. Till recently every Baga village formed an independent petty state ; but tho French Govern- ment has now brought all at least in the Nuuez basin under the jurisdiction of the king of the Nalus, himself subject to the military commander of Boke. The Landumans, also brought under the s.;nie rule, occupy both banks of the IS'unez above the estuary. Notwithstanding their stout resistance to the Fulah invaders, they would probably have succumbed like so many others, but for the timely intervention of the French. They appear to be closely related to the Bagas, resembling them in type, usages and speech. They 'have hitherto turned a deaf ear to the Mohammedan preachers, although showing great respect for the Fulah marabouts, whom they regard as more potent wTzards than their own fetish men. But the more civilized Nulus have alread)^ embraced the faith of Islam. Throughout the whole of this region the dominant speech is that of the Su-Sus, who occupy both slopes of the hill}^ country between the Scarcies and Rio Pongo. Some of their tribes even penetrate farther north, intermingling with the Nalus and Landumans ; eastwards they come in contact with the Fulahs, towards the west with the Bagas, and in many places reach the coast. The Su-Sus are akin to the Mandingans, and also claim brotherhood with several other West- African peoples, such as the Sangaras (Sankarans) of the Upi^er Niger. During the course of long migrations they have become scattered over a vast domain, and it ​was a Su-Su tribe that in the thirteenth century seized Timbuktu, whence they were driven westwards a hundred years later. Then it was that they overran the regions between the Upper Niger and the sea, after which the limits of their domain frequently fluctuated during their struggles with the neighbouring peoples. Thus they have ceased to hold the Nuñez basin, while the Fulahs pressing forward from the east, have dispossessed them of many districts in the Futa-Jallon uplands, When the French acquired the political supremacy in the Rio Pongo and Mallecory basins, most of the Su-Su kings had already become tributary to the Fulah chief of Futa-Jallon. At present these petty states are practically independent, their
vassalage towards France implying little more than the acceptance of a nominal protectorate.
The Su-Sus are a powerful, broad-shouldered people of distinct Negro type, combined with a certain softness of expression. The women especially are noted for their graceful carriage and great love of finery, paying great attention to the toilette, decking themselves with gold earrings and. coral necklaces, and dyeing their teeth, nails, and palms with the red juice obtained by chewing the leaves of native plant. Although required to work with the slaves in the fields, they are better treated than most of their African sisters, are excellent housewives, and bring up their children with great care. A rare phenomenon in African society are the old maids frequently met in the Su-Su country — women who have declined the husband intended for them, and whose decision in this matter is always respected. ​European visitors are struck by the great courtesy shown by the Su-Sus towards each other. At the sight of an aged person bearing a burden, the young man always hastens to relieve him for a part of the way, and strangers casually meeting never fail to inquire after each other’s health and welfare. The speech itself, although monotonous, is soft, very pliant, and easily understood, whence its widespread use as the language of general intercourse among all the native populations of the country. It is a Mandingan dialect, marked by the absence of grammatical gender and the use of prefixes, reduced to writing by the missionaries,
and already possessing some works on grammar, vocabularies, and translations from the Bible and other Christian writings.
While many Su-Su communities have accepted the doctrines of Islam, others are still pure fetichists. Some again call themselves Mohammedans, and observe the fast of Ramadan, but remain pagans at heart, while others are animated by the same religious zeal as their Fulah neighbours. On the other hand, some of the tribes near the European factories pass for Christians, wearing medals and scapularies, and abstaining from work on the Sabbath. Slavery is still a universal institution, and warlike excursions are even made into the interior to capture slaves, who are afterwards sold at an average price of £8 per head. Most of the industries, such as those of the smith, jeweller, and carpenter, are left to the slaves, although some of the free Su-Sus also display great skill at wood and leather work. In a material sense they are rapidly being civilised, and the coast ​SIEERA-LEONE. I97 people now mostly wear European clothes, and build themselves houses with separate compartments and ventilating passages, fitted with foreign bedsteads, strong boxes, and the like. In this region there are scarcely any European settlers, the dangerous climate obliging most foreigners to depart after transacting their business with the utmost despatch. Hence the influence of the whites is felt rather indirectly, and especially through the Senegalese coloured people and the Wolof traders, by whom the Euro- pean commercial houses are represented in all the coast villages and far inland. Topography. The most remote European station in the Nunez basin is the pleasant hamlet of Bohe, perched on the slope of a verdant hill on the left bank, some 50 miles from the mouth of the estuary. Here is a monument to the memory of Rene Caillie, who started from this place in 1827 on his famous journey to Timbuktu. East of Kakendl, as Boke was then called, and on the route to Futa-Jallon, follow the two large villages of Bamhaya and Konsotomi, lying in a delightful and salu- brious district, where the orange groves, banana, coffee, and tobacco plantations are watered by perennial sparkling streams. The district, inhabited by friendly Fulahs, offers every prospect of success to European settlers. Vakaria, residence of the Landuman kings, lies a short distance below Boke, near a "sacred" wood, affording a retreat to the "Simons," or wizards, who can change themselves into lions to destroy their enemies. Near Yakaria till recently was to be seen the " gallows of death," where the wretched victim, with broken arms and legs, was left to be slowly engulfed in the waters of the rising tide, unless his sufferings were shortened by a passing shark or crocodile. About twelve miles lower down over against the French station of Bel-Air, stands Kasasocobuli, another capital, where the Nalu '*' king of kings " still holds his court. Victoria^ a factory founded by the English, lies on the right bank, at the point where the tortuous E-io Nunez merges in the broad marine estuary. Of the numerous factories on the Eio Pongo the most important is Boffa, which is also a customhouse and a Roman Catholic missionary station. In the Mallecory basin the only place of any note is Beuty, lying in a comparatively healthy district on the left bank of the river. Although Beuty is the official residence of the Administrator- General, and occupied by a French garrison, English, introduced by the Sierra-Leone traders, continues to be the current language of intercourse. On the Tombo headland, facing the Los Archipelago,, has recently been founded the station of Konakri, which promises to rapidly increase as a port of call for passing steamers. It is also one of the stations of the Atlantic cable connecting Europe with the Gold Coast and the Gaboon. The Los Islands, which the native chiefs have leased to English traders, have in recent times lost much of their commercial importance. Sierra-Leone. Like so many mountains in other parts of the world, one of the crests of the ​198 WEST AEEICA. cliain overlooking Freetown presents the vague outlines of a croucliing lion. From this faint resemblance the hill, with all the neighbouring coast, the Bulombel or Romarong of the natives, may possibly have received from the Portuguese the name of 8ierra-Ledn, whence the present strange hybrid form, Sierra- Leone —half Spanish, half Italian. Or is it due to Pedro de Cintra, who on landino- here in 1467 met a lion, or more probably a leopard, in the forest, and wished to commemorate the encounter by naming the locality from the king of beasts? Another conjecture refers it to the thunder-claps, which re-echo in the hills when the storm clouds burst on their summit, and when, as Cadamosto writes, the roar of the tempest is heard " forty or fifty miles out at sea " off the coast of " Serre-Lj'onne." As a political designation this name is now applied collectively to all the British possessions between the French territory of South Senegambia and the Negro colony of Liberia, answering very closely to the region known to the early Portuguese navigators as Mitombo. The seaboard of this political domain, taken in a straight line, has a length of 210' miles, which is nearly doubled by the thousand indentations of the coast. Tn some places English jurisdiction extends landwards a distance of 120 miles, while in others it is limited to the coastlands, or even to the shore-line. Absolutely independent communities occupy the immediate vicinity of the seaboard at Krim, near the Liberian frontier. East- wards the territory reserved for the colonial expansion of England is virtually limited by a convention yielding to France the right of future annexations iu the Upper Niger regions. But regarding as already British territory the whole of the Rokelle basin, as well as those of the other streams flowing to the sea, thence to Liberia, its total area may be estimated at about 30,000 square miles, while the actual possessions have an extent of no more than 1,200 square miles, with a population in 1881 of 60,550. Were the whole region peopled iu the same proportion, it would contain over 1,500,000 inhabitants, and in any case at least half a million are centred on the seaward slope. The Sierra-Leone seaboard comprises two distirct sections, differing greatly in their conformation. The southern presents a uniform coastline, drawn with almost geometric precision, and diversified by veiy slight eminences. The coast of Sherbro Island continues that of the mnnlanrl as far as Cape St. Ann, termi- nating in a sharp spit, and for a distance of over a hundred miles the shore-line follows an almost rigidly straight course. This regular beach has no doubt been partly detached from the continent by a marine inlet and a long creek ; still the spit indicates the original coastline, which is connected with Cape Roxo between the Cacheo and Casamanza by submerged banks and a chain of reefs and islets, of which the Biss igos archipelago is the chief surviving fragment. North-west of Sherbro the banks extend to a great distance, rendering the Sierra-Leone coast as dangerous as that of the Portuguese Guine, especially in the rainy season, when the horizon is veiled in mist. At some points of their course pilots are obliged to keep sixty miles ofE the seaboard. North of Sherbro the coast, carved by maiine erosion into gulfs and inlets, ​bristles with capes and headlands. Of these promontories the largest is that specially known as Sierra-Leone, at the northern extremity of which stands the capital of the British possessions. During spring tide and heavy rains, this
peninsula is said to be completely surrounded by water, the two creeks partly Separating it from the mainland being then united in a single channel. Even during the dry season a portage of a few miles is the only obstacle to the complete ​200 WEST ATEICA. circumnavigation of the peninsula, which has an area of 290 square miles, and is mostly occupied with a range of gently rounded hills, culminating in a cloud- capped sugarloaf 2,300 feet high. The peninsular mass terminates northwest- wards in Cape Sierra-Leone, and southwards in Cape Shilling, or False Cape, con- tinued seawards by the Banana Islands and a few other islets. The Sierra-Leone hills are often stated to be of igneous origin, and to the still pent-up gases have been attributed the earthquakes that have here taken place, notably those of the years 1858 and 1862. But this hypothesis is not justified by the nature of the rocks occurring in the neighbourhood of the town, which are sandstones like those of the mainland. According to Matthews, there are numerous symptoms of subsidence on the coast, where some islands in the estuary of the Scarcies have been converted into sandbanks, covered by 13 feet of water. The site of a fort erected by the Portuguese at the mouth of the Rio Gallinas would also appear to be now submerged in 40 feet of water, six miles from the shore. But these statements would require to be verified by a careful series of contemporary observations. Along the Sierra-Leone coast, as everywhere on the Senegambian seaboard, the argillaceous soil overlies a subsoil of coarse and ferrugineous sandstone, which is easil}^ cut with a hatchet, but which rapidly hardens in the air, thus forming an excellent building material. On the surface are strewn boulders of blue granite and other crystalline rocks, nearly all rounded and blackened by the action of the sun and atmosphere. The presence of these erratic blocks, brought from distant mountains, seems to suggest that even these equatorial regions may have also had their glacial period, so that the fjord-like form of the coast between Capes Roxo and St. Ann might itself be due' to the action of glaciers formerly descending from the Futa-Jallon highlands. Numerous streams, fed by a copious rainfall, flow' from the hilly watershed across the Sierra- Leone territory. The Rokelle, the first large watercourse occurring south of the Scarcies, mingles its headstreams with those of the Upper Niger, and after a south-westerly course trends westwards to a broad and winding estuary, forming the eastern branch of the Gulf of Sierra-Leone. South of the Rokelle, -the Bansakolo, an equally copious stream, rises within a few miles of the sources of the Niger, and after escaping through deep gorges westwards pursues a still unexplored course to the coast, either falling into Yawry Bay as the Kamaranka, or more probably merging as the Bagran or Barguru in a funnel-shaped estuary to the east of Sherbro Island. Climate. Although Freetown, capital of the British possessions, is 270 miles nearer the equator than Sedhiu on the Casamanza, its mean temperature is not more elevated, and is even rather lower than that of Boke, on the Rio Nunez. This is due to its position on the coast, where it is completely exposed to the marine breezes. The cli- mate is extremely equable, with no alternations of seasons, except such as are due to the succession of dry and rainy periods, the glass varying scarcely more than seven ​degrees, from 75° F. in August, to 82° in April, with a mean of about 78° F. at
Freetown. The sea-breezes prevail along the coast during the hottest part of the ​202 WEST AFRICA. day ; but the whole coast lies beyond the influence of the regular trade winds, and Freetown lies altogether in the zone of monsoons, calms, and variable winds. The harmattan from the Sahara prevails for a few days in December and January, bringing with it the impalpable dust of the desert. The rainfall is heavier on the Sierra-Leone coast than in any other part of West Africa, although varying to a surprising extent from year to year, falling, for instance, from 320 inches in 1829 to less than 40 in 1858. A mean of nine years gives for Freetown about 134 inches, while exceptional downpours have been recorded of 4, or even 8, inches in the twenty-four hours. During these heavy rains, hail not unfrequently falls on the tops of the mountains. The wet season begins generally early in May, or a month sooner than in Senegal, and is usually ushered in with a few local cyclones, caused by the clash of opposing winds. Despite its relatively moderate temperature, the climate of Sierra-Leone is one of the most deadly in the world, and of the whole region the cajDital is the most dangerous as a residence for Europeans. In the neighbourhood are some still undrained marshy tract^s, while muddy banks are left exposed at every tide. The poisonous exhalations rising from these places are confined as in a cauldron by the vast amphitheatre of hills encircling the bay. Even on the slopes the nature of the soil contributes to the insalubrity of the climate during the rainy season. The water absorbed by the ferruginous sandstones is rapidly evaporated, filling the atmosphere with heavy dank vapours, like those of a hothouse for* tropical plants. On arriving in the bay the European admires the picturesque form of the hills, the exuberant vegetation, the lovely shores of the gulf, ramifying in creeks and narrows ; but he cannot shake off the ominous impression caused by the expres- sion, "White man's grave," commonly applied to the country; and he also remem- bers that the cruisers employed to suppress the slave-trade in these waters were known as the " Coffin Squadron." Epidemics of yellow fever are frequent, generally sweeping off a third or even a half of the whites unable to escape in time, or compelled by their duties to remain in the country. Some medical men even assert that this scourge is endemic in Sierra-Leone, and that the peninsula is the hotbed of the epidemics that at times ravage the Senegambian regions. The mortality of the English officers stationed at Freetown rises occasionally to one-half, and in 1881 it exceeded a third for all Europeans, although most of them occupy well-ventilated houses on the slope or crest of the hills, and seldom expose themselves to the pestiferous miasmas of the early morning. The black troops constituting the colonial military force suffer far more than the European garrisons, and the vital statistics for the whole population show a continual increase of mortality over the birth-rate, amounting to 1,248 for the five years ending in 1875. Animals introduced from the north, as well as horses imported from the interior of the continent, perish rapidly. European dogs take the fever like their masters, while animals which resist undergo great transformations. All lambs are born with black heads, which may perhaps be a return to a primitive type ; dogs change their coats, lengthen their ears, and cease to bark, while cats turn grey and acquire longer jaws and legs. ​SIERKA-LEONE. 203 Inhabitants. The dominant race in the interior of Sierra-Leone is the powerful Tirani (Tirnani, Temne) nation, numbering about two hundred thousand persons, divided into several tribes and into as many " kingdoms " as there are villages. It was a Timni chief who sold to the English the Sierra- Leone peninsula ; but the old owners of the land did not entirely acquiesce in the transaction, and during the early period of the occupation the British were frequently attacked by the natives. Defeated on the continent, and driven in their turn from their palisaded villages, they have lost heart although not yet completely subdued. So recently as 1885 a village near Waterloo, some 25 miles south-east of Freetown, was surprised, some men killed, and some women and children carried away into captivity. The Timni are centred chiefly in the plains between the Rokelle and Little Scarcie rivers. They are a fine vigorous race with pleasant features and proud bearing, at least in the more remote districts, where they have not yet been brought under the " civilising " influences of the capital. Industrious tillers of the soil, they raise enough rice, cocoa-nuts, and other produce, to supply the wants of Freetown. The Timni language, widespread as the common medium of intercourse in the Rokelle basin, has been carefully studied, especially by Schlencker, who has pub- lished a good grammar and complete dictionary. Collections have also been made of the national myths, proverbs, and tales, and several religious works have been translated into this idiom, which resembles the Su-Su, and still more closely the Landuman dialect. The Timni have hitherto lesisted Mohammedan and Christian influences, although firm believers in the efficacy of crosses and Moslem amulets. The tribal government is monarchical, but the regal office may at times prove fatal to candidates for the post. In some places the future subjects of the king have the right of beating him on the eve of the election, and this is occasionally done so energetically that he does not always survive the infliction. The real power belongs to the so-called purra, or porro, an association which judges both ruler and ruled, and to which even slaves are admitted on terms of perfect equality. It is a sort of freemasonry analogous to the boll of the Su-Sus, and to similar secret societies widely diffused throughout West Africa, all with their special language, tattoo marks, and symbols, forming a powerful religious and political state within the state. But amongst the Timni tribe they are most potent for good or evil. When their mandates are issued all wars and civil strife must cease, a general truce is established, and bloodshed stopped, offending com- munities being punished by bands of armed men in masks. Strangers cannot enter the country unless escorted by a member of the guild, who is recognised by pass- words, symbolic gestures, and the like. Their secret rites are celebrated at night in the depths of the forest, all intruders being put to death or sold as slaves. In these societies the wizards command great influence, but at times fall victims to their mutual jealousy. Crocodiles and rapacious beasts are also regarded as ​magicians, and when they carry off a human being the village of the victim is given to the flames in order to avert the evil omen. But when a member of the tribe dies a natural death a solemn inquest is held over his remains, his supposed murderer being killed in his turn, or else enslaved with all his family.
Other close neighbours of the English settlement of Freetown are the Bulloms or Bullams, who have been broken by the pressure of the more powerful Timni into two distinct fragments, the northern Bulloms, a small tribe occupying the coast between the Mallecory River and the Sierra-Leone estuary, and the Mampuas,
or Southern Bulloms, of Sherbro Island and the neighbouring district. The Bullom language, much affected by foreign elements, belongs to the same stock as the Timni. The forest districts east of the Mampuas, near the Liberian frontier, are held by the Mendis (Mendés), who, however, reject this name as implying the idea of slavery, and call themselves Kossa (Kossu), that is, according to Winwood Read, "Wild Boars." The Mendis, who speak a distinct language, are a warlike people, by whom, either alone or in alliance with the English, the Timni have often been defeated. ​North-east of the Timni the cone-shaped huts of the Limbas occupy the crests of all the hills about the middle course of the Little Scarcie. The Limbas are a powerful tribe, who often close the trade route through their territory. They show great respect for their dead, burying them in an upright position, as if about to resume the journey through life in the after-world.
The communications between Sierra-Leone and the Upper Niger are also occasionally endangered by the Saffrokos and Konos, who dwell more to the south in the hilly regions, about the sources of the coast streams. Still more warlike
are the Gallinas of the Gallina and Manna rivers on the Liberian frontier, who till recently barred all European access to the interior. Even since the suppression of the slave-trade they have continued their hereditary feuds with their Kossu neighbours on the north and the Vei people on the south-east, and have even waged war against the "American" Negroes of Liberia. Lately, the queen of one of their most powerful tribes became the ally of the English, who through her interposition are now the supreme masters of the whole country. These Gallinas are in some respects well qualified to cultivate the arts of peace as well as of war. ​206 WEST AFEICA. They are noted especially for their aesthetic taste, and amongst them are many skilful goldsmiths and woodcarvers endowed with considerable original talent. Of all the coast peoples they have been most influenced by Islam, and are at present in the transitional state between Animism and Mohammedanism. They claim to be of Eastern origin, and on the seaboard form the van of the Mandiugan tribes pressing forward from the interior. As in Senegambia, this general pressure of the inland on the coast peoples is continually going on. In the north-east the Hubus (Fulahs) are thus gradually encroaching on the inhabitants of the Scarcies rivers ; in the east the Mandingan and Sarakole traders are in the same way gaining on their neighbours, and introducing them to a more advanced civilisation. Since the middle of this century the Hubus here constituted a state independent of the Timbo chief, escaping subjection by migrating from the Upper Bafing basin south-westwards, to the hilly district about the sources of the Scarcies. But this movement has given rise to incessant conflicts with the surrounding tribes, the cause of Islam still serving as the cloak for incursions and pillage. Their very name is derived from the burden of their warlike songs. Hit, bu : " We love the prophet, united in his love ! " Of the indigenous tribes several have remained pagans, and these differ little in their social state from the neighbouring Limbas, Saffrokos, and Konos. Such are the Kurankos, who hold the valleys stretching east of the Timni to and beyond the sources of the Niger. Here they are grouped in oligarchic communities, recognising a chief, but governing themselves by a council of elders, who settle disputes according to established usage, and who determine an equitable award between crime and punishment, wrong and its retribution. The vendetta still prevails, the victim's family claiming blood for blood, but the murderer of a slave escaping with slavery unless ransomed by payment of the full value. The Solimas, akin to the Su-Sus and Senegalese Jallonkes, are more cultured than the Kurankos, although like them still despised by the Mandingans and Hubus as foes of Islam. They dwell between the Hubus and Kurankos in the picturesque region of hill and dale about the sources of the Scarcies, and thence to the Joliba. Like their neighbours, they speak a Mandingan idiom, and also resemble the Gambian Mandingans in their love of music. They wage incessant war against the Fulahs, decorating the great battle-drum round about with the beards of the slain, each inscribed with the name of its former bearer. Nevertheless the pagan Solimas are amongst the most polished peoples of West Africa. Comfort is widely diffused, their fields are carefully tilled, their towns well ordered, and their minute code of etiquette rigorously observed b}^ all. Strangers are always welcome amongst them, and Laing, Eeade, Zweifel and Moustier have spoken in high terms of the generous hospitality accorded to them by these pagan highlanders. But there is a dark side to the picture, and Reade was informed that at his accession the new king gives his youngest daughter to the sacred crocodiles, thereby bearing witness that for his people's sake no sacrifice will be held too great. Mandingan traders are numerous in Freetown, and thanks to them, Islam is ​SIEEEA-LEONE. 207 daily gaining ground in this Negro town, founded by the English and Christian missionaries. In 1886 the Moslem community already numbered three thousand adherents, who were wealthy enough to erect a sumptuous mosque in the place. Here are represented all the races of West Africa, and a hundred and fifty lano-uao-es were current in this town, which the English cruisers had made the general depot of the captives rescued from the " slavers." After having long been a hotbed of the traffic in human flesh, Sierra-Leone thus became an asylum for the fugitives, a land of liberty for the emancipated Negroes. The English company who in 1713 had obtained the privilege of furnishing the Spanish- American possessions with slaves, transported in exceptional years as many as sixty thous.ind, the product of wars in which at least twice as many victims perished. But it was also at Sierra-Leone that in 1787 Granville Sharp and Smeathman acquired from tlie Timni chiefs a strip of territory to be converted into a land of freedom. A first group of black colonists was here established, and at the close of the American War of Independence these were joined by other refugees from Nova Scotia. Most of them perished of hunger and misery, but were replaced bv others from Canada and Jamaica, and after the official abolition of the slave-trade in 1807, the British Government replaced the Sierra-Leone Company as masters of the peninsula, using it not only as a home for rescued freemen, but also as a con- vict station for mutineers from its other tropical possessions. This intermingling of peoples of diverse speech and origin has produced a hybrid population unlike any other on the west coast, where they bear a bad name for greed, hypocrisy, and degraded morals. Nevertheless, the Sierra-Leone.^e are an industrious, enterprising people, and their blacksmiths, carpenters, and other artisans are highly valued in all the seaboard towns. Some even profess to teach, if not English, at least an English jargon to all the coast tribes, notably those of the Su-Sus of the Pongo Blver. Descendants of the freemen are met as far inland as the Niger basin, where they are generally known as potii^ or "whites," not merely because many are half-castes, but more especially because they represent a higher culture, and by their very presence recall such events as the suppression of the slave-trade, and the emancipation of the Negro. Some tribes have even been induced by their example to abolish servitude, and in the Scarcles basin a petty state has been founded, consisting entirely of fugitive slaves, whose courage and free bearing have secured for them the respect of their neighbours. The diverse origin of the Freetown Negroes has compelled them to adopt Eng- lish as the common medium of intercourse, but In their mouths this language has been so strangely transformed that no European Englishman would understand it at first, although consisting of but a very limited number of words. The Mora- vian Brothers had translated the Testament Into this jargon ; but the style and Mords necessarily used by the translators seemed so whimsical that, through a feeling of reverence for the sacred text, the volume had to be destroyed. It bore the name of "Da Njoe Testament, translated Into the Negro- English language by the Missionaries of the Unitas Fratrum," British and Foreign Bible Society, London, 1829. ​The emancipated Sierra-Leonese are supposed to be all Protestants of various denominations; nevertheless, many traces of the old heathendom survive amongst them, and some sects, mostly from the Slave Coast, still worship fire, thunder and lightning. In the "colony" nearly all children attend school, the young men continuing their studies in the secondary establishments, and in the Furah Bay College attached to the University of Durham.
At the census of 1881 the white population numbered only two hundred and seventy-one, and at times of sickness it often falls below a hundred. The Italian "mercanti" resist the climate best, and almost every steamer brings a few of these pedlars, mostly from Naples, who bravely tramp with their packs of glass beads
and coral from village to village, living like the natives, and enduring hardships and privations such as would kill any European unaccustomed to such an existence. Thanks to these intrepid dealers, the retail trade has acquired a certain importance, while wholesale transactions have declined since Freetown has ceased to be the capital. of all the English West African possessions. The policy followed by the Government towards the tribal chiefs has also proved ruinous to the trade of the country. Faithful to their theory of armed non-intervention, the English send no troops inland, but they subsidise the chiefs on the condition of their keeping the routes open. These subsidies, however, are mostly devoted to the purchase of arms and munitions of war, with the result that conflicts are constantly breaking ​out among the petty chiefs. Villages are burnt, fields wasted, captives sold to the
Mandingans, the routes get blocked, and the produce of the interior — palm-oil, kola nuts, caoutchouc, ginger — reaches Freetown in very small quantities. ​210 WEST AFEICA. Topography. The roadstead of Freetown, sheltered off Cape Sierra-Leone by the imposing Carpenter's Rock, presents a delightful prospect whenever the encircling hills are free from the clouds that enshroud them for most of the year. The primeval forest, largely cleared by fire, is disposed in clusters of majestic trees with inter- vening grassy or bushy spaces. On a neighbouring headland rises a clump of gigantic baobabs, forming a conspicuous landmark for vessels bound for the road- stead ; charming dells open between the softly rounded hills, above whose crests are seen the summit of the " Lion Mountain." Houses in the European style are scattered along the beach, Freetown appearing in the background between the Furah and Krooboy inlets. Granville, the first capital of the Negro colony, had been founded in a neigh- bouring plain, but after its destruction by a French squadron in 1794 it was never rebuilt. Unfortunately, choice was afterwards made of the unhealthy bay of Freetown, instead of some site more removed from the marshes and more exposed to the sea breezes. However, the higher parts, even of Freetown, are relatively salubrious, and the yellow fever has often visited the lower quarters without attacking the barracks, erected on a hill 400 feet high. Freetown, which covers a space of four square miles, contains some fine buildings, schools, churches, and Government offices. But some of the streets are in ruins, and many dilapidated structures are overgrown with grass or shrubs. Freetown is the chief West African market for wild animals, and here the agents of the European menageries come to purchase snakes, carnivora, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Besides this city of some thirty thousand inhabitants, there are no towns properly so called in the British possessions, although the peninsula is dotted over with villages bearing English names, such as Aberdeen, Wilhcrforce, Wellington, Regent, York, Hastings, and Waterloo. In the interior Port Lokko has acquired some importance from its position on the Lokko River, which flows to the Rokelle estuary. Kamhia, lying farther north, is the chief agricultural centre in the Great Scarcie basin. Siiniata, near the source of the same river, and bej^ond the British frontier, is a rallying-point for caravans proceeding to Futa-Jallon. On the Kabba, a northern affluent of the Little Scarcie, lies the busy market of Samaija, capital of the Tambakka, or Tambuchi (Su-Su) tribe. In the Limba territory the chief places are Biimha and Bamhadi (Big and Little Bumba). Kahalla is the residence of the most powerful Kuranko potentate, and Faleha, also in the Little Scarcie basin, is the capital of the Solima nation. It is a prosperous place near the depression leading to the Upper Niger, and, according to Blyden, marks the most convenient site for the construction of a railway from Sierra-Leone to the Joliba. Towards the Liberian frontier well-known places for holding " palavers " are Baharma and Bandasuma, capital of the queen of the Barri tribe in the Sulima
Administration.
The colony of Sierra-Leone is administered by a governor, assisted by a council, and paid from the colonial revenues, which are derived chiefly from customs, and exceed £80,000 a year. The garrison consists of Negroes and half-castes from the West Indies, commanded by European officers, all highly paid. The police service is entrusted mainly to the Egbas, and to some other natives from the Niger and the Slave Coast. A period of eighteen months' service in this fever-stricken region entitles all officers to a twelve months' leave of absence on full pay. They have also the advantage of health resorts, such as Madeira, the Canaries, and the neighbouring Banana Island.
Foreigners cannot purchase land in the settlement without first becoming naturalised.