I 



W. F. Daniell, Esq., on the Natives of Old Callebar. 315 



most in accordance with those views which maintain that 

 the tide of population had radiated first from Eboe, on the 

 Quorra ; and such appears to be borne out by several cu- 

 rious peculiarities which exist iA common, both in their phy- 

 sical structure and customs. 



The town, which all the natives concur in asserting to be 

 of the most ancient date, was, as the name implies, Old 

 Town, which is now but scantily populated. For several 

 centuries this place continued to be the metropolis, and 

 principal trading depot for merchantmen and slave-ships. 

 About 300 years ago, many of the natives, from the harsh 

 and cruel treatment of their rulers, emigrated to a sandy 

 district, within a creek, five miles distant, and there founded 

 Creek Town. Again, as this town increased in magnitude 

 and prosperity, so did its government become the more ar- 

 bitrary, and, from similar causes as the preceding, a troop 

 of emigrants passed from it, and, having purchased a piece 

 of land from the petty chief of Qua, settled down there, and 

 erected River Town, or Attarpah, which, from its eligible 

 site, proximity to the ocean, and other local advantages, 

 gradually arose, under the judicious control of several able 

 chiefs, to occupy that superiority which its rivals had origi- 

 nally enjoyed, and, with the exception of Creek Town, has 

 now the supreme government over all the towns and vil- 

 lages in its immediate neighbourhood. The natives of Old 

 Callebar, although of Eboe extraction, present some phy- 

 sical deviations, that serve to distinguish them from other 

 tribes of a similar derivation. The natives of the Bonny and 

 Nun, who are purely of Eboe descent, and therefore less 

 amalgamated with the people of other nations, may be taken 

 ..•as the typical illustration by which we may make the com- 

 parison. They are generally of a short stature, slight form, 

 and light yellow skin, differing in these respects from the 

 inhabitants of the Callebar towns. I am of opinion that 

 climate greatly modifies the physical and intellectual deve- 

 lopment of most African nations, and that people of different 

 localities, but originally from one common source, after the 

 lapse of some centuries, offer manifest alterations from 

 their progenital standard. A more convincing proof in 



