CHAPTER III 



West Coast of Africa Cape Coast Castle Krooboys New 

 Benin Nana Alluma Old Calabar Collecting butterflies 

 Driver ants. 



The Red Gods call me out and I must go ! RUDYAHD KIPLING. 



IN 1894, the spirit of unrest being still upon 

 me, I accepted the post of Private Secretary 

 to Sir Claude Macdonald, and accompanied 

 him in that capacity to Calabar, the capital 

 of what was in those days " The Oil Rivers 

 Protectorate," West Coast of Africa. 



At Cape Coast Castle we went ashore, my 

 chief having to pay a visit to the Governor. 

 Here all the cargo for that port had to be trans- 

 ported in surf boats, the bows and sterns of 

 which are both pointed, somewhat like those of 

 a whale boat, but infinitely larger and broader, 

 and managed by the native crews with remark- 

 able dexterity. The water is comparatively 

 shallow, but at times large " rollers," as they 

 are called, come in, and make communication 

 with the land practically impossible. 



On the occasion of our landing we had quite 

 an exciting experience, as the seas were coming 

 in in unbroken swells, which had not the char- 



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