THE WEST COAST OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 101 
of the odious traffic in slaves. His late majesty of Ashantee, 
although he said that he “ beloved and respected the English 
character; and nothing afforded him such high satisfaction as to 
see an Englishman in his country and do him honour / ’ could not 
consent to give up the slave-trade, “ as it afforded him his chief 
means of revenue, and he held his power by the observance of 
the time-honoured customs of his forefathers.” 
The present ruler and his neighbour of Dahomey, both con- 
tinue to carry on an active trade hi human beings, despite the 
remonstrances of all civilized nations ; and here it is that can- 
nibalism, fetish-worship, witchcraft, and all the horrors of 
barbarism still reign uncontrolled, notwithstanding the efforts 
of missionaries, traders, and progressive civilization. 
Leaving this land of promise, we shall request the reader to 
travel rapidly along the coast, which takes a bend southwards, 
and in so doing he will pass through Benin, and will cross what 
arc commonly called “ the Rivers ■” namely, the mouths of the 
Niger, the Brass, Bonny, and Calabar rivers, and the river 
Cameroons. Here he may breathe with greater freedom under 
the assurance that the terrible slave-trade is giving place to a 
legitimate traffic with Europeans, chiefly in palm oil, but also 
in ivory, gold, ebony, &c., and (from Benin) in palm nuts, which 
yield a fine description of palm oil. Passing on, we leave to 
the westward the island of Fernando Po, a Spanish settlement ; 
and travelling along the Bight of Biaffa, the district concerning 
which Consul T. J. Hutchinson has recently published such 
valuable information,* we soon arrive at the Gaboon river, where 
it will be necessary to pause for an instant. 
The banks of this river, and indeed the whole coast over 
which we have just travelled, are in the possession of native 
chiefs ; but on the north bank is a French colony, and on this 
river a considerable trade is earned on between the natives and 
various European nations, in ivory, red and white barwood, 
ebony, india-rubber, beeswax, gum-copal, &c. &c. To the 
north and south of the Gaboon are the rivers Muni, and the 
Fernand Yaz and Nazareth, forming-, according to Dn Chaillu, 
the mouths of the Ogobai. To the eastward, from 100 to 200 
miles inland, there run from north-west to south-east one or 
more ranges of high mountains, which extend with more or less 
regularity along the whole coast under consideration, and are 
called here the Sierra del Crystal. This is the region ren- 
dered famous by Du Chaillu, whose adventures have of late 
excited so much controversy; and here it is that the fierce 
gorilla, a gigantic anthropoid (or man-like) ape is said to roam, 
* “ Ten Years’ Wanderings among the Ethiopians.” T. J. Hutchinson, 
F.R.G.S. Hurst & Blackett. 1861. 
