42 O'CONNOR. [Feb. 25, 1856. 



3. Despatches from Governor O'Connor, dated May 22, 1855 re- 

 porting his Visit to the Island of Bulama, on the W. Coast of 

 Africa. 



Communicated by the Colonial Office. 



The island of Kanabak, or Canabec, situated in lat. 11° 16' N., long. 

 15° 38' 30" W., has been and is the most important of the group forming the 

 Bissago or Bijuga islands. In 1792 Mr. Dalrymple and a party of adventurers 

 from England landed in Bulama, and induced the kings of Kanahak, 

 " Jaborem," and "Bellehore" to cede the island to the British; but the 

 natives of Kanabak attacked the settlers, carried off some women and 

 Grumittas (blacks), and Mr. Dalrymple and the greater portion of his party 

 returned to England. 



Captain Beaver then took charge ; but after struggling with many diffi- 

 culties, having a weak and miserable material as colonists, and being under 

 constant apprehension of invasion from his warlike neighbours, the Kanabaks, 

 he abandoned the island, and sailed for Sierra Leone towards the close of 

 1793, 10,000Z. having been expended in the attempt to colonise Bulama. 

 , After this, the island became a principal depot for slaves carried down the 

 Jeba, Compance, Nuilez, and other rivers, and finally fell under the imme- 

 diate control of a Senhor Gaetano Nazzalini, a notorious slave-dealer, whose 

 family retains the remains of his property, houses and stores, which I found in 

 charge of a Portuguese Jew. The British and Portuguese have from time to 

 time disputed the sovereignty of Bulama, and played a singularly unprofitable 

 game, the British and Portuguese ensign being hoisted alternately. The im- 

 pression of the Captain-General of the Cape de Verde Islands and the officials of 

 Bissao at the present time is, " that Bulama belongs to the Crown of Portugal 

 by the prior claim of cession and settlement." 



The island is about 15 miles in length by 5 in breadth, clothed with 

 timber trees, but not densely wooded ; a belt of palms extends along the sea 

 beach for several miles, which is composed of hard, firm, red sand, and trench- 

 ing gradually up towards the land. 



The king only had a strip of cloth on him ; the chiefs and people wore 

 a clout of dressed deer or goat skin, the women using nothing but a cincture 

 of grass or palm fibre over their hips. The natives are tall, athletic, with 

 high regular features — the women particularly so ; the colour a jet black ; 

 their bodies variously tattooed ; but few wore charms or gre-gris on their 

 persons. 



A walk of 2 miles through a. rich, open, arable country, with fine forest 

 trees, and among many beautiful flowering shrubs and plants, novel to me, 

 brought us to three of the principal kraals or settlements. 



As is always the case in Western Africa, the king's chief village was placed 

 beneath the shade of stupendous silk cotton, pullam, and other lofty trees : 

 the huts were circular, larger, far better built, and neater thatched than any 

 I had yet seen in Africa. A piazza enclosed each hut : the entrances were 

 numerous, and singular devices were painted on the walls in blue, red, black, 

 and yellow colours. 



The Kanabaks are said to be descended from the fierce Giagas, and are Pagans ; 

 they rule over all the adjacent islands, have large war canoes, and are armed 

 with bows and arrows, spears, swords, and muskets — the last of foreign and 

 very old manufacture. 



Kanabak is capable of yielding wax, hides, honey, rice, com, ground nuts, 

 and other produce in abundance. The cattle are of the finest kind among 

 the Bijugas ; and there is an inexhaustible material in palm oil. An adjacent 

 island is prolific in cocoa-nut trees. 



