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On the Natives of Old Callebar, West Coast of Africa. By 

 W. F. Daniell, Esq.* Communicated by the Ethno- 

 logical Society. 



Previous to entering into the ethnological details con- 

 nected with these people, it will be necessary for me to 

 briefly allude to that tract of country which they at present 

 occupy. The Rio Calbary, or Old Callebar, formerly desig- 

 nated " Oude Calburgh," by its earliest frequenters, the 

 Dutch, is one of the largest and most important of the rivers 

 in the intertropical regions of Western Africa. It is situ- 

 ated nearly in the central portion of the Bight of Biafra, be- 

 tween the river Bonny and the Rio Del Rey ; its embouchure 

 being in Lat. 4° 32' N., and Long. 8° 25' E. At the com- 

 mencement of this century, it constituted one of the ordinary 

 marts for the slave-trade ; but in proportion as this odious 

 traffic declined, a more lucrative, if not extensive, commerce 

 with this country has imperceptibly taken its place ; our cot- 

 ton and other home manufactures being received in exchange 

 for exports of native produce. The entrance of this river is 

 10 miles in breadth, but contracts in size as it proceeds to- 

 wards the interior, dividing, at 35 or 40 miles from its 

 mouth, into two divergent branches ; the first, or the one of 

 the greatest magnitude, known as Cross River, flows from 

 the northward for several hundred miles through a beauti- 

 ful and fertile country, richly studded with native towns and 

 villages, of which, and their various inhabitants, we unfor- 

 tunately possess but little or no acquaintance. The second, 

 or lesser branch, after a brief course of 50 miles, terminates 

 in a small creek, which becomes apparently lost amid the 

 almost interminable swamps that conceal its source. On 

 this branch are located the chief commercial towns that 

 carry on a mercantile intercourse with Europeans. They are 

 three in number ; Attarpah, or River Town, the metropolis ; 

 Abbutong, or Old Town ; and Occorotunko, or Creek Town ; 



* Read before the Ethnological Society, 28th January 1846. Mr 

 Daniell, who is a very enterprising and talented medical gentleman, is 

 again on an expedition to the West Coast of Africa. — Edit, 



VOL. XL. NO. LXXX. — APRIL 1846. * X 



