VILLAGERS ALARMED. 
185 
time. We named the island, round which we were 
navigating, after H.M.S.V. ‘ Wilberforce.’ The scenery 
was even more beautiful than that we had left, though 
the vegetation was very similar. The trees grow close 
to the water, and are covered wdth parasites, in great 
variety, hanging in graceful festoons, some of them 
bearing flowers and fruit. The cultivated parts shewed 
bananas, sugar-cane, cassada, maize, cocoa-palms, and 
yams. 
In the afternoon, a village was passed on the right bank 
— Otua — containing about five hundred inhabitants. 
The huts appeared to be made entirely of clay. The 
people could be seen moving out of their huts with a 
celerity quite unusual for negroes. They were evidently 
suspicious of our intentions towards them ; and with the 
exception of one “ headman,” — who came on board with 
fear and trembling, yet pretending all the time to be 
much at his ease — none of the many vociferous invita- 
tions repeated by our “ Brass” interpreter wxre attended 
to. We noticed a species of Elephantiasis in two 
individuals w’ho came the nearest to the ship. 
The men in the canoes were fine robust fellows. 
They, as w'ell as most of the natives who visited us this 
day, had a line or mark down the forehead, reaching to 
the bridge of the nose. 
The hair-dressers of the village were, apparently, 
allowed more latitude for their exuberant taste than in 
politer circles. The wool of some was twisted into a 
number of small bunches, which certainly did not much 
