530 . THE TROPICAL WOULD. 



him the largest bribe, and a cruel punishment awaits the wretch 

 who has nothing but his innocence to plead in his favour. The 

 accused is either obliged to undergo the ordeal of swimming 

 across a creek, where he becomes the sure prey of the alli- 

 gator or the shark ; or he is led to execution on a sandpit at 

 its mouth, where he is bound at ebb tide to two poles fastened 

 in the sand. One limb after another, proceeding from the 

 hands and feet to the shoulders and hip joints, is now separated 

 from the bleeding trunk which is finally hewn down from the 

 stake. While this horrid scene is performing, the impatient 

 alligators already protrude their monstrous jaws out of the 

 water, and the sharks are also in attendance waiting till the 

 returning flood brings them their share of the feast. At the 

 next ebb the sea has washed away every trace of the disgusting 

 spectacle. 



Sometimes a cruel sacrifice is offered to the sea. As the 

 Bonnians chiefly subsist by their trade with the Europeans, 

 which enables them to procure provisions from the interior, the 

 arrival of the foreign ships is to them of the greatest importance. 

 But large vessels are in the dry season often prevented for weeks 

 together from passing the bar by low water, fogs, calms, or con- 

 trary winds. A sufficient depth of water across the bar is 

 therefore the great desideratum of the traders or ' gentlemen,' as 

 they call themselves, of Bonny. To obtain this they sail with 

 several large canoes down the river close to the bar, where they 

 throw several of their best male and female slaves into the 

 water as a propitiatory offering to the sea, so as to induce it to 

 rise, or, as they call it, to make 'big water.' 



The aspect of the capital town of Bonny, or OkoUoma, which 

 may contain about 5,000 souls, corresponds with the barbarous 

 state of its inhabitants. On account of its low situation, scarcely 

 elevated above high-water mark, the streets are constantly 

 muddy, so that a stranger visiting the place is obliged to be 

 carried over the worst places on the unctuous back of a negro, 

 the only vehicle in OkoUoma. The streets or rather lanes form 

 a complete labyrinth, as every man erects his hut where he 

 thinks proper, without any regard to regularity. The clay floor 

 of these dwellings, which, though varying in size, are all built on 

 the same plan, is raised about a foot above the level of the 

 streets, and is undermined in all directions by a multitude of 



