94 Geogi-aphical Notices. 



Delany's observations, the British government seized the little 

 island of Lagos, which is the key to the rich Yoruba lands. 

 Since the seizure, various explorations have been made of the 

 adjacent country. It is not the place to discuss here the po- 

 litical objects of these investigations, but they are well worthy 

 of notice. 



3. Captain Eichard Burton, the well known traveler, having 

 returned to England from his visit to Salt Lake City, Utah, has 

 been appointed British Consul at Fernando Po. His energy and 

 his practical acquaintance with the difficulties of African travel 

 will enable him to help forward efficiently, from that post, in- 

 vestigations of the interior. He has signalized the beginning of 

 his consulship by visiting Abeokuta, and making in connection 

 with Captain Bedingfield, a minute survey of the River Ogun, 

 on which the town is situated. His visit was made in October 

 and November last. The mouth of the Ogun or Abeokuta be 

 found very much choked up by the delta deposits and the growth 

 of grass,— but beyond he found the main river, a goodly stream 

 one hundred yards broad, skirted by fine forests and little 

 affected by the tide. A brief account of his journey was com- 

 municated in a letter to Dr. Norton Shaw and printed in the 

 Proceedings of the London Geog. Soc, vol. vi. no. 2. His 

 impressions of Abeokuta were not very agreeable, but he con- 

 firms the estimate of its immense size, saying that travelers have 

 underrated its population at 100,000,— it is probably 150,000. 

 Dr. Delany estimates the number of inhabitants at 110,000 ; Mr. 

 Bowen, in his "Central Africa," at from 60,000 to 100,000. The 

 extreme circumference of the walls is about 27 miles. We make 

 one extract from Burton's short and rambling letter. 



I chiefs. I would here correct a mistake, universally made by 

 those who have written upon the subject. The land is not, as stated by 

 Mr. Campbell and others, common property, nor will the people allo^^' 

 strangers to take it. Litigation upon the subject is quite as genera! a? 

 in England ; and if, as Sir Culling Eardley proposes, free negroes ;ui ' 

 mulattos were sent here from America, there would follow the agrarinn 

 wars and troubles of New Zealand. Even in the towns a stranger caiiuot 

 obtain building ground, except it be granted with the understanding that 

 it is not alienated in perpetuity, but shall revert, when no longer in use, 

 to the original proprietor. 



If you want a colony in West Africa, send it to me, near the Came- 

 roons. At some future time I will (D. V.) enter fully into the subject. 

 Suffice it to say for the present that Lagos requires a sanatorium — the 

 nearest now being Teneriffe and Ascension : and the Oil rivers want a 



