ness of Sir Claude and Lady MacDonald I remained
in Calabar River from January until May, collecting
fish mainly through the kindness of Dr Whitindale,
and insects through the kindness of Mr. Cooper, then in
charge of the botanical station. Most of my time was spent
puddling about the river and the forest round Duke Town
and Creek Town, but I made a point on this visit to Calabar
o f going up river to see Miss Slessor at Okyon, and she
allowed me to stay with her, giving me invaluable help in the
matter of fetish and some of the pleasantest days in my life.
This very wonderful lady has been eighteen years in Calabar ;
for the last six or seven living entirely alone, as far as white
folks go, in a clearing in the forest near to one of the principal
villages of the Okyon district, and ruling as a veritable white
chief over the entire Okyon district. Her great abilities,
both physical and intellectual, have given her among the
savage tribe an unique position, and won her, from white and
black who know her, a profound esteem. Her knowledge of
the native, his language, his ways of thought, his diseases,
• his difficulties, and all that is his, is extraordinary, and the
amount of good she has done, no man can fully estimate.
Okyon, when she went there alone— living in the native
houses while she built, with the assistance of the natives, her
present house— was a district regarded with fear b y ' the
Duke and Creek Town natives, and practically unknown to
Europeans. It was given, as most of the surrounding districts
still are, to killing at funerals, ordeal by poison, and
perpetual internecine wars. Many of these evil customs she'
has stamped out, and Okyon rarely gives trouble to its
nominal rulers, the Consuls in Old Calabar, and trade passes
freely through it down to the sea-ports.
This instance of what one white can do would give
many important lessons in West Coast administration and
development. Only the sort of man Miss Slessor represents
is rare. There are but few who have the same power of resisting
the malarial climate, and of acquiring the language, and
an insight into the negro mind, so perhaps after all it is no.
great wonder that Miss Slessor stands alone, as she certainly
does.
After returning down river, I just waited until the Batanga,
my old friend, came into the river again, and then started for
my beloved South West Coast. The various divisions of the
West Coast of Africa are very perplexing to a new comer.
Starting from Sierra Leone coming south you first pass the
Grain Coast, which is also called the Pepper or Kru Coast, or
the Liberian Coast. Next comes the Ivory Coast, also known
as the Half Jack Coast, or the Bristol Coast. Then comes
the Gold Coast; then the old Slave Coast, now called the
Popos ; then Lagos, and then the Rivers, and below the Rivers
the South West Coast. In addition to these names you will
hear the Timber Ports, and the Win’ard and Leeward Ports
referred to, and it perplexes one when one finds a port, say
Axim, referred to by one competent authority, i.e. a sea-
captain, as a Win’ard port, by the next as a Timber, by the
next as a Gold Coast port. It is just as well to get the matter
up if you intend frequenting the Bights of Biafra and Benin.
I will just give you, as a hint to facilitate your researches, the
information that the Bight of Benin commences at Cape St.
Paul and ends at Cape Formosa; and the Bight of Biafra
commences at Cape Formosa and ends at Cape Lopez.
The Windward Coast is that portion between Cape Apollonia
and the Secum River, just west of Accra. A t this river the
Leeward Coast begins, and terminates at the Volta.
When I was on the coast in 1893, Cameroons River was
regarded in nautical circles as a River. Now, alas for m e ! it is
not, and getting from Calabar to Cameroons is a thing you
ought to get a medal for, for the line of vessels that run
from Liverpool to Calabar goes no further than the latter
place. In former days they used to call in at Calabar,
then go across to Fernando Po and into Cameroons, calling
steadily at ports right down to Sant. Paul de Loanda, which
was a highly convenient and beautiful arrangement, but I
presume did not p a y ; so the South West Coast boats, that is
to say boats calling below Calabar, now call at Lagos, and
thus ignore the Rivers, going straight on into Cameroons River.
So you see, if you have providentially kept your head clear
during this disquisition, I had to go on a homeward bound
boat up as far as Lagos Bar and then catch a South Wester