CHAPTER IV 



West Coast of Africa (continued) Crocodiles Manatee May- 

 flies Natives Ju-ju Hausa troops Trip after Elephants. 



So man, striving boldly but blindly, 

 Ground piecemeal in Destiny's mill, 



At his best taking punishment kindly, 

 Is only a chopping-block still. 



ADAM LINDSAY GORDON. 



1 



Calabar River swarms with croco- 

 diles, some of them huge brutes, who 

 account for a large number of natives 

 in the course of a year. The water is always 

 more or less discoloured, and very deep at 

 a short distance from shore. Crocodiles that 

 prey on human beings and on land animals have 

 a habit of lying in wait to seize their prey at 

 drinking-places and where the natives are in the 

 habit of washing clothes. 



The sufferings of a victim after the first wild 

 fright must be soon over, for they are drowned 

 in the course of a minute or two. 



I have always loathed these brutes, and when 

 crossing rivers invariably had a dread of being 

 seized by one of them. It is not a comfortable 

 feeling when fording a stream, say, two hundred 

 yards wide, the water being nearly up to one's 



44 



