258 
Corisco. 
buildings and returned to the Gold Coast. When 
the Crown of Spain once more took possession 
of Fernando Po, it appointed a Governor for 
Corisco, but no establishment was maintained 
there. To its credit be it said, there was not 
much interference with the Protestant mission; 
public preaching was forbidden pro forma in 
i860, but no notice was taken of “passive re¬ 
sistance.” 
The native villages, exactly resembling those of 
the Gaboon, are all built near the strip of fine 
white sand which forms the shore, and upon the 
sweet water channels which cut deep into the lime¬ 
stones. They are infested with rats, against whose 
depredations the mango trees must be protected 
with tin ruffs ; yet there are six kinds of reptilia 
upon the island, including the common black 
snake and cobras, from six to seven feet long : 
these animals, aided by the dogs, which also 
persecute the iguanas, have prevented rabbits 
breeding. In Barbot’s time (1700) there were 
only thirty or forty inhabitants, who held the 
north-eastern point about a league from the wood¬ 
ing and watering places. “ That handful of blacks 
has much ado to live healthy, the air being very 
intemperate and unwholesome; they are governed 
by a chief, who is lord of the island, and they all 
live very poorly, but have plenty enough of cu¬ 
cumbers, which grow there in perfection, and many 
