The Bubis or Edeeyah of Fernando Po. 237 



exposed to such temptations as few Africans can resist, and 

 yet not betray the confidence placed in them. 



In Lieutenant Botelar's narrative of the survey under Cap- 

 tain Owen, in H.M.S. Leven and Banacouta, he says, — " Our 

 intercourse with savages of various tribes and nations, for the 

 last four years, has far exceeded that which generally falls to 

 the lot of navigators or travellers overland, yet never did we 

 meet with a people more savage in appeai'ance, or more sin- 

 gular in their customs, than the people of Fernando Po. In 

 stature, they were generally low, yet of perfectly symmetri- 

 cal form, and, in many cases, of Herculean mould. In hue 

 they varied much, some being black, and others of a copper 

 colour. Their features were all of exactly the same cast, so 

 that I cannot imagine the latter had sprung from intercourse 

 with the white.'' — " Their features were pregnant with intel- 

 ligence." Again, he says, — " In no place that we visited did 

 the natives appear to be in a state of such barbarism as at 

 Fernando Po ; yet they manifested the greatest horror of 

 theft, which would have done credit to people more advanced 

 in civilisation ;'' and " they made signs that the person Avho 

 had committed the theft should atone for it by the loss of 

 one or both hands." 



Botelar also says, p. 464, — " The further insight into the 

 character of the Fernando Po people, gained on our second 

 visit to the island, tended to shew that, however barbarous 

 they appear to strangers, yet among themselves they have 

 very salutary regulations, not less apparent in their civil go- 

 vernment than in a military point of view." 



Neither foreign nor domestic slavery is tolerated; indeed, 

 a spirit of independence is discernible in their very bearing 

 and look. The Spanish colonists were driven from the 

 island during the end of the seventeenth century, for en- 

 deavouring to carry on the slave-trade, and to entrap the in- 

 habitants. Each town and village has its king or chief, who 

 with the head men and jiiju men, or Buyeh-rupis, settle all dis- 

 •putes. The only acknowledgment made to the more powerful 

 chiefs is that respect whicli their superior power ensures. 

 They have no traditionary account of their origin or settle- 

 ment on the island. 



Tlie religion of these strange people is paganism ; while at 



