bilmh’s son. 
231 
neighbours, which would be detrimental to the legiti- 
mate commerce he professed the disposition to pro- 
mote, and he tried to awaken in him the better prin- 
ciples of charity and good-will towards his neighbours. 
The chief said he would willingly make peace with 
them, if they would pay him eight hundred “ coppers f 
which it was not likely they would agree to, as they did 
not admit his claim of supremacy. However, Captain 
Allen said he would try and settle that “ bob” for him. 
He next turned with equal vehemence to an alleged 
infraction of an agreement with the English agent at 
Fernando Po, who had engaged thirty or forty of his 
“ boys” to work at a stipulated price ; but he said, ^ 
they could not get payment, and were frequently 
flogged, some were even put in prison. We gave 
passage to ten of these men, who had been working at 
Clarence, but would remain no longer as they could 
not obtain their wages. One of these told us, that 
Billeh buys annually one hundred slaves at the town 
of Rumbia, in the Bamboko country, on the western 
base of the Camaroons Mountain. Some of these he 
used to sell to the Spaniards, and the rest he kept to 
“ make him strong.” The Spaniards, however, had 
not been here for more than a year, in consequence of 
the presence of our cruisers in the vicinity. Ejbh, son 
of the chief, a remarkably fine young man who had 
been sent to Clarence to remonstrate, related the re- 
sult of his mission with much grace and energy ; and 
being nearly naked, his attitudes, though sometimes 
