XU INTKODUCTION. 



three or four distinct species are common on the interior plains. Some of them produce large fruit, 

 but too dry and insipid to be valuable. 



African travellers have erroneously reported that various plants, as the castor-oil bean, sesame, red 

 pepper, cotton, &c., are indigenous in Africa. The mistake has arisen from seeing such plants on deserted 

 farms, overgrown with bushes, and perhaps far away from any place which is now inhabited. The 

 existence of indigenous coffee is doubtful. I have seen the so-called native coffee-trees in gardens, and 

 the leaves were certainly nari-ower and yellower than those of the plants introduced from the West 

 Indies. But a tree in the forest which was triumphantly pointed out as coffee happened to be in flower, 

 and inspection proved at once that it belonged to a totally different family. The probability is that the 

 slavers of former days planted coffee-trees, wliicli are now found occasionally growing in the woods. 



Among cultivated plants we may mention Indian corn of the variety grown in our Southern States, 

 and yams similar to those of the West Indies, as staple articles of food. The yam is indigenous, and all 

 the cultivated varieties have been reclaimed from the forests where they still grow. It is a traditional 

 saying that yams were the primitive food of man. The first man made an attempt to eat a raw yam, but 

 pronounced it unfit for human food. Afterwards one, accidentally lying near his fire, became roasted ; 

 and this was the first discovery in the important art of cooking. Indian corn is said to have been brought 

 from beyond the Niger by a yellow monkey. It may not be irrelevant to remark that the natives 

 sometimes call foreigners monkeys by way of derision. When a white man appears in the streets of 

 Abeokuta, the children usually cry out, Oibo akiti agba ! The white man is an old baboon ! Maize is 

 called in the Yoruba language, agbado (agba odo), what is beaten or cleansed in a mortar. 



The other articles of food are, Guinea corn or sorghum, of four varieties, called baba, bomo, gero, and 

 maiwa; sugarcane; several kinds of beans ; pea-nuts, both oily and mealy ; sweet potatoes ; onions; and 

 various herbs of little value. The fruits are, oranges, limes, pawpaws, plantains, bananas, and a few 

 pine-apples. The oro, or mango, and a frnit called osuij, arc almost the only wild fruits that can be eaten. 



Most farmers plant a little cotton for home consumption, and some attempt to raise tobacco ; but 

 neither of these plants succeeds well. The cotton fails, to use a planter's phrase, by " running to 

 weed," i. e. the joints of the branches where the pods appear are much too far apart, and the blooms arc 

 often fruitless. The defect of the tobacco is a want of strength and flavor. The weeds attendant on 

 cultivation are similar to those of our Southern States ; so much so, indeed, that a careless observer would 

 scarcely perceive a difference between a corn-field in Yoruba and one in Georgia or Alabama. 



As the inhabitants of Yoruba are all crowded together in towns, and derive their support fron) circum- 

 jacent farms, at least two thirds of their fine region is given up to wild beasts. A broad belt of country, 

 once populous but now totally desolated by war, extends from near the sea to the Niger, running to the 

 eastward of Abeokuta, and to the westward of Idzaye, Oyo, and Ogbomoso. Between the towns there 

 are other desert regions, some of which are twenty miles in breadth. As these partially wooded prairies 

 are covered with grass from eight to twelve feet in height, and the people are not addicted to hunting, the 

 numerous population of the country has not greatly diminished the abundance of animal life. Hyenas 

 prowl around the walls of large towns, and people are sometimes attacked and killed by leopards in the 

 adjacent farms. Even the chase-loving Anglo-Saxon would find it impossible to extirpate the wild 

 animals on the plains of Yoruba, so long as they remain covered with grass, which impedes the progress 

 of the horseman. 



The following brief sketch may give some idea of the animals known to exist in this part of Africa. 

 The monkey tribe aft'ords several interesting species, some of which I have not seen in the Zoological 

 Gardens of London, or in any other collection. The most remarkable of these creatures is the well known 

 Chimpanzee, wliich is found in several of the larger forests of Yoruba. The full-grown male is nearly 

 four feet in height. His weapons of defence are his tusks, whicli are truly formidable ; and his strength 

 is so great, that the negroes consider him as more tlian a match for a man. He never defends himself with 

 sticks or stones, never walks upright, and never builds a shelter or so much as a nest to defend himself or 

 his young against the weather. He is generally seen on the trees, making prodigious leaps from branch to 

 branch, and exhibiting all the habits of other monkeys. The face of the young Chimpanzee is 

 remarkably human-like ; but after the appearance of the tusks, it becomes disgustingly prognathous. 



Hyenas are rather common, but I was not able to detei'mine by examination whether or not they dift'er 

 from those of northern Africa. The adzako, or wild dog, is a noiseless creature which prowls in solitude. 



According to the statement of the natives, which is confirmed by Lander, lions are common in Barba 

 and northern Yoruba; but I have never heard of one's being seen east of the Ogui) river. Leopards are 

 common evervwhere. Though not so fierce here as in the forests of Liberia, they sometimes, as 

 remarked above, seize men even on the Ikrins. In 1855, an instance of this kind occurred within three 



