Chapter I · (continued 2)

An officer in this service, who resided at Lagos three years, and is the only European resident who has survived of those who have made the attempt, enables me to correct the following errors. The Pelican bank is much smaller than it appears on the charts; the Doo island (which lays N.W. and not N. of Lagos town) where the natives go to make fetish, is not more than one mile in circumference; and there is no river of that name. The beach over which the Portuguese and French (who never cross the bar, where there are 3 fathoms water) transport their goods to the canoes, is not more than 100 yards wide, instead of one mile. In Norris’s map prefixed to Dalzel’s History, the Lagos river is made to cross the path to Dahomey near Torë. In the Sailing Directions for the Coast of Africa, to which Mr. Dalzel was the chief contributor, and who revised the work, we find, “River Lagos is the mouth not only of the river of that name, which runs to the eastward from Ardrah,” &c. and the river Mr. Norris crossed near Torë, which he calls pretty deep and rapid, but with a bridge over it, is by the account of other gentlemen, officers in this service, who have been to Dahomey, no more than a marsh. The gentleman before mentioned to have resided three years in Lagos, informs me the grand branch of that river flows from the northward of the island, where the pretended river Doo is placed, he found it so wide on entering it, that being in the middle, where there are 10 fathoms water, he could scarcely see the land on either side. The current is impetuous, and floating islands, and large masses of alluvial matter come down with such force, in the rainy season, as to trip vessels from their anchors in the English road. De Lisle makes the Lagos river flowing from the N., and the French are allowed to be much better acquainted with this part of the coast. That called the West river in Norris’s map, is only a creek; and what he calls the Lagos river, and draws running close to Bădaggry, Ardrah, and passing Torë, is the Western river. Bădaggry is not more than 5 or 7 miles from the beach, instead of 15, and the tide only ebbs and flows so far. Ardrah is from 25 to 30 miles from the beach, instead of 18; and the river is crossed at about one-third of the distance from the sea: this is what we call Porto Novo, for there is not more than beachmen’s huts on the shore opposite the anchorage. The natives call Ardrah Aratakassee, or Allatakassee, and the country Essaäm, or the great. The river continues its course not more than 100 yards from the sea, at Whydah, and proceeds equally close (indeed frequently the ridge between them is covered with water) until passing Quitta, it falls into the Volta near the mouth.

The above mentioned gentleman proves the informant of Adams’s editor incorrect, in stating that the Houssa traders were constantly to be met with at Lagos, previous to the abolition of the slave trade, for it has always been the policy of Kosie, a kingdom on the eastern bank of the river, and about 60 miles inland from the mouth, to prevent all intercourse between the traders of the interior, and those of Lagos, to secure to themselves the exorbitant profits they made as the brokers or medium. The Europeans who traded at Lagos, once meditated forcing a passage up the river in armed boats, and a vessel of 18 guns was got over the bar, and anchored close to Lagos town; but the project was abandoned as too perilous. Sometime afterwards the King of Kosie desired a European might visit him, to gratify his curiosity, and that of his people; but no one being willing, a mulatto, named Peter Brown, was dressed up and sent. This man, being now at Cape Coast, I have questioned. Several armed men were sent to conduct him, and relays of canoe men sufficient to continue brisk pulling; which they did from the evening till the next day, before he left the river to proceed by land; it was still very wide, and more than 4 fathoms deep; considerably, for aught he knew, for the bamboo poles of that length, with which the natives push the canoe forward, when they get close enough to the banks to do so, would not touch the bottom in the middle. Relays of hammock men then carried him at a brisk pace until evening, when he reached Kosie, which he described as a town of great extent, and the buildings to resemble those in the drawings of Coomassie. The King gave orders that the crowd should not intrude themselves into his house, treated him very handsomely, and dismissed him after three days. He only heard the people of Kosie speak of two great nations, the Hios, and the Awissees.

The gentleman before mentioned has an impression, from all the enquiries he recollects to have made, of the slaves of the interior, that the merchants convey them by water the greater part of the way; and their reports were strengthened by his having an opportunity of seeing canoes brought from Kosie to Lagos, and purchased from the slave merchants of the interior. They were very superior in size and convenience to those of the coast, were covered in, with a distinct apartment for the trader and his wives, and would hold a hundred slaves. I never heard any slaves speak of being brought any part of the way by water, but I have not seen any who were brought to Kosie or Lagos.

The Karhala is the only large river likely to communicate with, or to form that of Lagos; possibly the Karhala might run to the large lake in Hio, which Snelgrave says (from the information of the Portuguese mulatto he found at Abomey) “is the fountain of several large rivers which empty themselves into the Bay of Guinea.” The Lagos river may flow from this lake, but this is mere conjecture. The gentleman to whom I am indebted, places the Mahees north of Dahomey, instead of north-west as in Norris’s map, which is allowed to be far from discriminate in the interior parts, in the preface to Dalzel’s History, and this is also more probable, because about nine years ago, the King of Hio entirely conquered the Mahees, and upwards of 20,000 of them were brought for sale to Lagos.

The Joös, inconsiderately reported to Adams’s editor as being, with the Anagoos and Mahees, the principal nations on the journey to the Niger, and nearer to the coast, avoiding Dahomey, are probably the Jaboos, who are about 40 miles westward of Kosie, and not behind Cradoo, as in Norris’s map. They are celebrated for the cloths of their name, of which the Portuguese have shipped such large quantities. The Anagoos, or Nagoos, are the north westward neighbours of Dahomey.

The extent of Fantee is corrected from the conjectural enlargement of it by Mr. Meredith, and, with that of Ashantee, Akim, Assin, Warsaw, Ahanta, &c. &c. is sufficiently distinct in the present map. A more enlarged, and particular map of Fantee, &c. would not be interesting to the public, but as it might be desirable to geographers, I shall keep it in view as a duty, and, at some future time, endeavor to add to the observations of latitude and longitude which have been already made on the coast.

I may not conclude without acknowledging the guidance, and assistance, which Major Rennell’s previous investigations have afforded me; without impressing, that had not some sketches of the interior been collected by the industry of the emissaries of the African Association, and afterwards connected and formed into a general outline, blended with the feeble lights of the ancients, my enquiries would neither have been excited or directed; and this present small contribution to our slender knowledge would have perished an embryo. When I reflect on the creative researches of the genius of D’Anville, and the acumen and erudition of Major Rennell, it is my greatest anxiety to make my deference in investigation, as manifest as the public duty which exacted the involuntary presumption; and I cannot conclude more appropriately, than by addressing the latter in the expressive lines of Virgil:

“Nec calamis solum æquiparas sed voce magistrum

Fortunate—tu nunc eris alter ab illo.

Nos tamen hæc quocunque modo tibi nostra vicissim

Dicemus.”