Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/213

Rh not even at meal-times, our men suffering the canoe to pass down the stream, whilst they were eating their food. At live in the afternoon they all complained of fatigue, and we looked around us for a landing-place, but could find none. Every village which we saw was behind large thick morasses and bogs, through which, after various provoking and tedious trials, we found it impossible to penetrate; we were therefore compelled to continue our course on the river. The day had been excessively warm; but, as we saw signs of an approaching storm, we endeavoured to land. This was impossible, in consequence of the swampy banks; and we were buffetted about during the whole night, in imminent danger from the water, and also from the herds or shoals of hippopotami which came snorting about the boat.'

'At ten on the 17th of October, we passed several mountains of singular and picturesque appearance, which are situated a few miles beyond the borders of the fiver to our left, and shortly after we came in sight of other mountains yet more interesting and romantic; but these were very elevated, and so far a-head of us, that they could hardly be distinguished from faint blue clouds. At the island of Gungo, which we had Passed, the natives were in their canoes, and leaving it, in consequence of their village being overflown, so high was the water of the river. At the island of Tofó, where we stopped on the 18th October, we found the cocoa-nut (not the tree, but the fruit) for the first time since leaving the Yarriba count On the 19th we observed and passed a river of considerable size, which entered the Quorra from the north-west.' (This was the Coodoonia, which Richard Lander had crossed on his former return journey from Soccatoo; and it may be observed, as a remarkable instance of the accuracy of the present and former route, that the coincidence falls within a mile or two.) 'Very elevated land appeared on each side of the Quorra as far as could be seen.'

'Egga, the next town we came to, is upwards of two miles in length, and we were struck with the immense number of bulky canoes which lay off it, filled with trading commodities, and all kinds of merchandize common to the country. The course bf the fiver was here about E.S.E. Benin and Portuguese clothes are worn at Egga by many of its inhabitants; so that it would appear some kind of communication is kept up between this place and the sea-coast. The people are very speculative and enterprising, and numbers of them employ all their time solely in trading up and down the river. They live entirely in their canoes, over which they have a shed, which answers completely every purpose for which it is intended; so that, in their constant peregrinations, they have no need of any other dwelling or shelter than that which their canoes afford them.