HUTCHINSON'S IMPRESSIONS OF WESTERN AFRICA. *
Mr. IturcirrNsori is known for his narrative of an Exploration up the Niger and sonic of its tributaries, in 1854. That narrative was published in the Traveller's Library ; and the expedition was mainly remarkable for the resistance offered by the crew to the
• Impressions of Western Africa. With Remarks on the Diseases of the Cli- mate, and a Report on the Peculiarities of Trade up the Rivers in the Bight of Sian. By Thomas J. Hutchinson, Esq., her Britannic Majesty's Consul for the Bight of Biafra and the island of Fernando Po. Published by Longmans and Co. influence of malaria, owing to the precautions adopted. This journey was not Mr. Hutchinson's first appearance in African waters ; he had resided on the coast for four years previously ; he has since filled the office of Consul for the Bight of Biafra and Fernando Po. He is thus well acquainted with the whole coast, both from study. and actual observation. The Impressions present the author's gleanings along this region, less as travel than as the results of travel, and are more useful for the completeness of their notices and information, when the scheme of the book is understood, than for much in the shape of narrative or incident. After one of his voyages from Liver- pool is described and dismissed, Mr. Hutchinson commences his account with the river Senegal and the trading French settle- ments, next proceeding to the Gambia and the English town of Bathurst. Naming the lesser rivers as he passes along, the de- scriber arrives at Sierra Leone ; upon which colony he enters with comparative fulness ; goes on to Liberia—of which he does not speak so highly as some other voyagers ; notices Cape Coast Castle and some smaller settlements, till he arrives at the two deadly Bights of the Gulf of Guinea. The first of these is commemorated in nautical doggrel for its fatality- " Bight of Benin,
One comes out where twenty go in";
and the Bight of Biafra, not less unhealthy perhaps, but geogra- phically remarkable for its network of rivers, including the em- bouchure of the yet mysterious Niger. These two indentations are described with a fulness proportioned to their commercial im- portance and scientific interest. They also exhibit the scheme of the author in its full extent, as the highest animal of a class best displays the principle of the "sub-kingdom's" organization ; and Mr. Hutchinson's plan, fully developed, is the history of the set- tlement or of the discovery of the region, the present character- istics of its people, the external features of the place and its de- grees of unhealthiness. From the continent the author passes to Fernando Po and Princes Island, and winds up with some ob- servations on the origin, nature, and treatment of the prevalent diseases of this Western coast, especially of the so-called Niger fever ; not that it is peculiar to the river, but that the public associations of its fatality have all been connected therewith. Mr. Hutchinson holds a lively pen, and the great extent of country he passes over gives a species of largeness and variety to his subject. Something of the compiler may be occasionally felt, though there is a good deal of actual knowledge. To any one wishing for a summary view of the past history and present con- dition of the places mentioned the utility of the book is obvious. The most remarkable feature is the character of the people, es- pecially of the two Bights where no European settlements are found. The morale of Europeans who seat themselves down in these regions is not generally rated very high, though it has probably improved in externals, like the world in general. But wherever there is anything like a regular settlement, even though the sprinkling of official and military men may be small, the effect is to raise the conduct of the natives ; and at a place like Sierra Leone, where the infusion of what may be termed the professional class is rather considerable, as likewise the power of government, it is raised very greatly. In point of morality the Liberians are far superior to the native Africans, but the want of White energy seems apparent even at an outside glance.
"The British Government made to the Liberian authorities, some years past, a present of a schooner, which at the time of mit first visit was lying
useless and dismasted in the harbour. • • " The city is erected on an eminence which you can ascend from the shore by either of three or four rugged pathways, past the church, a hotel, and the President's house, until you find yourself in some place which one tries to realize into the fact of a street. But it cannot be done. Houses are jotted down as if they had been dropped out of the sky ; flowers of the richest hue are in the gardens ; but there is a stillness, with an absence of spirit or busi- ness in the place, that made me at first wonder where I was. I looked up at the President's house,—the chilliest, most prison-looking building at which I have ever gazed,—then up at the mammoth pepper-castor, then down the street ; yet no sign of life was anywhere."
It is in the Gulf of Guinea, and especially in the two Bights already mentioned, that the Negro appears in the most degraded and indeed disgusting light,—sensual, superstitious, yet cun- ningly ready to turn superstition to account, systematically bloody, and cruel if the idea of cruelty is conceivable to a Native mind. The slave-trade with its accompanying infamies may add to the demoralization of the people, and the swampy nature of the soil—fever-breeding, and scarcely cultivateable without imple- ments and greater skill than they possess, may account for their physical wretchedness. But neither slave-dealing nor marsh mal- aria causes human sacrifices, or gross superstitions accompanied by grosser crimes. Mr. Hutchinson pronounces the Brass people " naturally not brutal," because they do not practise human sa- crifices, save an Albino child now and then —that is, apparently, 'when they get one. It is offered up " at.the bar of the river, for the purpose of appeasing the 'u-)'u of the surf, so as to permit vessels to come in." At Old 'Calabar, some hundred and fifty miles off, the same custom prevails ; and as they do not receive the praise of the Brass Town Negro, we suppose they have some other sacrifices too.
" A curious superstition is connected with Parrot island, and is observed with religious punctuality by the natives of Old Salabar, on the occasion of need arising for its performance. Whenever a scarcity of European trading- ships exists, or is apprehended, the Duketown authorities are accustomed to take an Albino child of their own race and offer it up as a sacrifice at Parrot Island to the God of the White man. This they do because the island is in view of the sea, or big Watery,' (to use their own phraseology,) over which the God of the nations that sent them articles of European manufacture is supposed to preside. The last sacrifice of this kind was made within the
past year ; and every one must regret that the increasing trade of the coun- try, together with the teachings of the missionaries and supercargoes, has not put an end to this brutality."
It is curious to observe how similar practices have prevailed widely over the world at different periods, under different cir- cumstances of mechanical art, and probably in different stages of civilization of the same blood. The following funeral proceed- ing, which we stigmatize as ignorant foolishness, would resemble, had the Negro skill to construct an enduring vault, the tombs of the Egyptians and Etruscans, whose exhumed stores have thrown such a flood of light upon their manners and arts.
"The most ridiculous superstition of the Kalabarese is that connected with the obsequies for the dead. At the deaths of Iron Bar, a very respect- able trader, and of the late King Archibong, I saw the absurdity of these rites carried out to their fullest extent. At Iron Bar's, as I went into the yard, there was a dense crowd gathered round what was supposed to be his grave ' • which was made in the room where he died, and sunk to a depth of ten or twelve feet, that it might hold all the things put into it for his use in the next world. At the head of the grave a palm-oil light was burning with a livid flame, and cast a dim shade over a man who had descended into it for the purpose of arranging his furniture—brass pans, copper rods, mug, jugs, pots, ewers, tureens, plates, knives and forks, spoons, soap, looking- glasses, and a heap of Manchester cloth, all impaired in their integrity by a slight fracture or a tear.
In the evening I visited the place again. The grave was filled up and levelled. Over it was placed a number ef mats, on which were squatted a score of women. In all the apartments of the court numbers of the soft sex were in a like position, and kept up the most dismal and dolorous mourning it is possible for the imagination to conceive. I find it out of my power to convey any idea of the sensation it communicated to me. It was not harsh, it was not loud, it was not crying, nor was it shrieking ; it bore no resem- blance to an Irish wake or to the squalling of a congregation of cats ; but it was a puling, nauseating, melancholy howl, that would have turned my stomach long before it could have affected my brain. "Over the grave and suspended by a stnng from the roof was a living cock tied up by his legs, with his beak pointed downward. There is always a hole left in the side of the grave, through which, from time to time, rum or nimbo is poured for the spirit's refreshment."
In like manner, the ordeal, which extensively prevails among the Negro tribes, was practised among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors as well as their kindred tribes, and indeed came down well into the middle ages. Nay, in the form of " trial by battle" it has only been legally abrogated in our day. In Africa, Mr. Hutchin- son charges gross abuses upon the working of the superstition; but probably the clergy of the dark ages were not altogether free from criminal partiality.
" It might be said that these plans of trial have a beautiful trait of sim- plicity about them, free from all the paraphernalia and technicalities of law courts in civilized countries, did we not know what an extensive power and influence the Abiadiong faculty possesses in their dispensation. Under the influence of a bribe, one of this class will fix upon any person obnoxious to a great man, as being the cause of his illness. By the same impelling power he can modify the action of -the poison-nut by mixing an emetic properly with it—can wink at the boiling palm-oil test--put the snake's teeth in a man's eyes so as they are sure to tumble out—insert a sharp needle through the lobe of any one's ear without suffering it to fracture—and make a chim- panzee turn its head to the white or the black line as he pleases."
The trade of the Quorra or Niger and its tributaries is rather technically dealt with in an appendix. The nature and treat- ment of Niger fever involve a discussion as to its origin and pre- vention; the last chiefly consisting of regular doses of quinine, and hygienic precautions in respect to cleanliness, dress, ex- posure, diet, &c. The medical part has substantially appeared al- ready in the Exploration of the Niger, along with some other matter. Indeed, this reprinting is carried too far, considering the size of these " Impressions " and the extreme accessibility and small price of the " Exploration."
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