Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/330



Abeokuta, the great republican city on the banks of the Ogun, is one of the largest places in Africa, being probably exceeded in population by Cairo and Alexandria alone. Most travellers estimate at over one hundred thousand, and some missionaries at two hundred thousand, the number of inhabitants residing within the enclosures, which are formed by an earth wall 8 to 10 feet high and an outer ditch 10 feet deep and over 20 miles in circumference. This capital of the Egba nation, which is over 4 miles long by 2 broad, presents a remarkable appearance, covering an undulating plain strewn with granitic boulders of different heights. The highest of these, called the "Rock," in a pre-eminent sense, and regarded by the natives as their tutelar deity, rises 300 feet above the mean level of the plain, which is itself some 560 feet above sea-level. All these eminences present the greatest diversity of form, some being rounded off like domes, others terminating in points sharp as needles, or else serrated like the teeth of a saw or disposed like a regular wall, while one resembles the shell of a huge turtle. The houses are pleasantly grouped at the foot of these rocks, whose grey granite walls present a striking contrast to the verdure of numerous clumps of trees dotted over the plain. Hence this place has been well named Abeokuta, that is, "Under the Rocks." The Egba metropolis is of recent origin, dating only from 1825, when the inhabitants of several villages, leaving the open plain, took refuge amid this labyrinth of rocks from the raids of the slave-hunters. They were soon joined by the persecuted and outcasts from all the surrounding districts, and in a few years Abeokuta became one of the great continental cities, strong enough to resist the attacks of undisciplined and rudely armed forces frequently sent against it by the people of Ibadan and the king of Dahomey. The inhabitants, uniting for the common defence, have constituted themselves in a free confederacy of some sixty distinct communities, each retaining the usages, religions, privileges, dialects, and the very names of their original villages. Amongst them are many thousands of Mohammedans, and a few hundred Christians grouped round the chapels founded by the missionaries. For some years these stations were tolerated, but beins: afterwards regarded as the centres of religious propaganda, they were all sup- pressed and the missionaries banished, while the converts were permitted the free exercise of their religion. Recently some fresh Protestant and Catholic stations have been founded in Abeokuta.

During the floods large boats ascend the river Ogun to the Aro rapids, within 2 miles of the city, but at low water they can get no farther than the bridge of Agbameya, and have sometimes to stop at Igaon, a little above Lagos, which is 80 miles by water from Abeokuta.

The chief magistrate of the Egba republic, who bears the title of king, is chosen for life from one of the four chief tribes ; but if his subjects are dissatisfied with his rule he is invited to abdicate. Formerly he was requested to go to sleep, whereupon he withdrew to his harem, and a few days afterwards it was announced that the "royal sleep" had begun, from which he never woke.