49S 



B I J U G A. 



ikjuga- Bassis, and Bissao, have usually been added to their 

 """"^ ' ' number, though, as we have said, we think they 

 should be separated from them. See Bissao. 



The people inhabiting the Bijuga islands are said 

 to be originally Papels, a tribe still dwelling on the 

 continent : they are above the middle size, muscular, 

 bony, well proportioned, and have the appearance of 

 great strength and activity. Their noses are flatter, 

 and their lips thinner, than those of the neighbouring 

 tribes ; their teeth, which they sometimes file to a 

 sharp point like a saw, arc good ; and their hair is 

 woolly. They cut their hair into many fantastic 

 forms, and always dress it with red ochre and palm 

 oil. They wear little clothing; a scanty girdle, and, 

 in the colder season, a goat's skin thrown over the 

 shoulders of the men, being their only covering : 

 That of the women is equally simple, consisting of a 

 girdle, six inches deep, of the shred of the palm 

 leaves, which forms a thick fringe. 



The Bijugas are a brave and warlike* race ; they 

 arc never at peace with the surrounding nations ; 

 and their chiefs, being endowed with uncommon in- 

 trepidity, are always to be dreaded. Captain Bea- 

 ver describes one of their kings, with whom he had 

 intercourse while on the island of Bulama. " Bell- 

 chore is the dread of the neighbouring people, and is 

 reckoned the greatest warrior that the Bijuga nation 

 ever produced. He still boasts of having set fire to 

 the town of Bissao, notwithstanding its strong fort 

 and numerous garrison ; and to others he will proba- 

 bly boast of his triumph over us at the western point 

 of Bulama. He is old, but upright and active, and 

 stands full six feet high ; his large black eyes, the lire 

 of which seventy rains have not yet extinguished, are 

 the most penetrating I ever beheld ; his nose is large 

 and projecting ; his teeth regular and white ; his 

 limbs are well proportioned ; his understanding is 

 clear and acute ; and in body and mind he stands pre- 

 eminent among his countrymen. Bat his courage, 

 his policy, his restless activity, his daring enterprizes, 

 and his love of war, which have rendered him the ad- 

 miration of his own countrymen, have procured him, 

 at the same time, the hatred and detestation of all 

 those nations that lie within the reach of his lawless 

 expeditions." Only a few days of the year are de- 

 voted by the Bijugas to their rude agriculture, in 

 preparing the ground for rice ; all the rest are occu- 

 pied in war and hunting. Their arms arc a long 

 buccaneer gun, a spear, and a Solingen 6\vord about 

 four feet in length, and literally a3 sharp as a razor ; 

 while in the left hand i3 carried a round convex shield, 

 formed of witheys interlaced) covered with the hide 

 of a buffalo. The Bijugas perfectly understand the 

 use of arms, and pride themselves in keeping them in 

 the most perfect order. Captain Beaver relates, that 

 their aim is so sure that they seldom miss their ob- 

 ject, and that he had seen a spear, from the distance of 

 twenty yards, strike a reed about ten inches long, and 

 as small as a tobacco pipe j he likewise witnessed their 

 extreme cxpertness at the broad sword. In war, af- 

 ter discharging their guns kneeling, and throwing 

 them down, they cast their spears, and then have re- 

 course to the sword. They approach in a squatting 

 posture to the attack, while the shield nearly covers 

 tlq wholy body. Its convex Eurm end strength are 



so well adapted for turning aside the shot of an ene. 

 my, that a musket ball will not pierce it. In 1G9G, 

 the Portuguese took 300 Bijugas into their service, 

 to aid an expedition against the Baknitcs, another 

 tribe of Africans ; but not anticipating the rainy 

 season about to commence, their arms were rendered 

 unserviceable, and they were defeated with great loss. 

 Their war canoes are of considerable size ; fortunate- 

 ly for their less enterprising neighbours, they do not 

 understand the use of sails, which is more surprising, 

 as the vessels visiting their islands are provided with 

 them. 



The Bijugas, in common with most African na- 

 tions, are cruel and treacherous, always ready to 

 seize advantages, and to overpower strangers. Those 

 who have intercourse with them cannot be too much 

 on their guard ; whence ships repairing to the Bi- 

 juga islands, for the purposes of traffic, never allow 

 more than the crew of a single boat to come on 

 hoard) and even then the guns are primed and matches 

 lighted. About 30 years ago, the crew of a French 

 vessel, % wrecked on the island of Yoko, were all 

 massacred or led into captivity. The inhabitants 

 of another island likewise endeavoured to seize M. 

 Delajaille, when surveying the coast, as Labarthe 

 informs us, and mortally wounded one of his com- 

 panions. More recently they treacherously cut oft' 

 somo of Captain Beaver's people, and would have ef- 

 fected his own destruction, had not his personal in- 

 trepidity, and a fortunate concurrence of circum- 

 stances, oftener than once prevented it. It has been 

 asserted, that suicide is common among the Bijugas, 

 and that the smallest chagrin will prompt them to 

 leap into the sea, or terminate their existence with a 

 dagger. 



All the Bijugas are idolaters ; they offer propitia- 

 tory sacrifices, and put implicit faith in divination. 

 If they form a treaty with a stranger, or are about 

 to undertake n warlike expedition, they sacrifice a 

 cock, from inspecting the gizzard of which conclu- 

 sions arc drawn of good or evil omens. M. Brue, 

 the French governor-general of Senegal, having an- 

 chored off the isle of Cazegoot, was visited by a 

 near relative of the king, with whom he carried on a 

 conversation, and supplied him with brandy, a li- 

 quor which these people will make every sacrifice to 

 obtain. Meantime a canoe from the island arrived, 

 and one of the natives came on board, holding a 

 cock in his left hand, and a knife in his right. Af- 

 ter kneeling before M. Brue, he arose and turned to 

 the east ; then cutting the animal's throat, he sprink- 

 led a few drops of blood at M. Bruc's feet, and af- 

 terwards performed the same ceremony at the mast* 

 and pump, which being finished, he presented thi, 

 cock to the French commander. When M. Brue 

 inquired into the meaning of the ceremony, the na- 

 tive told him, that the wise meu of his country view- 

 ed the whites as the gods of the sea j and that the 

 mast wa3 a divinity which made the vessel walk, 

 while the pump was a miracle raising the water up, 

 whose nature it was to fall down. The Bijugas like- 

 wise firmly credit the efficacy of gris-gris, or charms, 

 which consist of certain sentences of the Koran writ- 

 ten on paper by the Mandingo priests : They are neat- 

 ly sewed np iu cloth, or leather, and attached to dif- 



Bijuga^ 



