'314 W. F. Daniell, Esq., on the Natives of Old Cattehar. 



all of which are erected on sandy declivities of a moderate 

 elevation. 



The different tribes of people inhabiting the most of that 

 maritime tract of country comprehended between the Rio 

 Formosa, in the Bight of Benin, and the Old Callebar River, 

 have unquestionably derived their origin from one common 

 stock. A slight and cursory investigation into their physical 

 character, language, customs, mode of life, and other na- 

 tional peculiarities, would readily point out many remark- 

 able analogies that exist between them and their early pri- 

 mitive progenitors, and at the same time could not fail ta 

 throw some light on the characteristics of those petty na- 

 tions that populate the shores of this portion of Western 

 Africa. The great parental source from which most of them 

 have emanated, are the prolific Eboes of the Nun or Quorra, 

 which, for the sake of perspicuity, it will be necessary to 

 separate into three distinct classes. 



1. The Eboes Proper, which comprise part of the natives 

 of the Rio Formosa, the natives of Warree Island, Rio Escla- 

 Tos, Brass Town, and the Quorra. 



2. The Eboes of the table-land between the Quorra and 

 Cross River, which comprise the inhabitants of New Calle- 

 bar, the Bonny, and a portion of the natives of the River 

 Andony. 



3. The Eboes in the country between the Andony and Old 

 Callebar Rivers, which include the natives of the coast, of 

 the several towns of Old Callebar, and of Cross River at its 

 entrance. This arrangement, although somewhat deficient 

 in numerical outline of the various tribes, will, nevertheless, 

 be sufficiently correct to answer the purposes of this paper, 

 taking into due consideration the great paucity of informa- 

 tion that exists respecting them and their locale. 



The early history of Old Callebar, like most of the other 

 inhabited regions of "Western Africa, is involved in much 

 obscurity. Among the natives, little is known concerning 

 the primary colonization of their river ; and all the informa- 

 tion I could glean upon this subject was, that their ances- 

 tors, many centuries since, had emigrated from a distant 

 country up Cross River. This statement is the one perhaps 



