Po” ladies are celebrated for their beauty all
along the West Coast, and very justly. They
are not however, as they themselves think, the most
beautiful women in this part of the world. Not
at least to my way of thinking. I prefer an
Elmina, or an Igalwa, or a M’pongwe, or—but
I had better stop and own that my affections have
got very scattered among the black ladies on the West
Coast, and I no sooner remember one lovely creature
whose soft eyes, perfect form and winning, pretty
ways have captivated me than I think of another.
The Nanny Po ladies have often a certain amount of
Spanish blood in them, which gives a decidedly greater
delicacy to their features— delicate little
nostrils, mouths not too heavily lipped, a certain
gloss on the hair, and a light in the eye. But
it does not improve their colour, and I am assured
that it has an awful effect on their tempers, so I
think I will remain, for the present, the faithful
admirer of my sable Ingramina, the Igalwa, with the
little red blossoms stuck in her night-black hair,
and a sweet soft look and word for every one, but
particularly for her ugly husband Isaac the “Jack
Wash.”
CHAPTER III. VOYAGE DOWN COAST.
Wherein the voyager before leaving the Rivers discourses
on dangers, to which is added some account of Mangrove
swamps and the creatures that abide therein.
I left Calabar in May and joined the Benguela off
Lagos Bar. My voyage down coast in her was a
very pleasant one and full of instruction, for Mr.
Fothergill, who was her purser, had in former years
resided in Congo Francais as a merchant, and to Congo
Francais I was bound with an empty hold as regards
local knowledge of the district. He was one
of that class of men, of which you most frequently
find representatives among the merchants, who do not
possess the power so many men along here do possess
(a power that always amazes me), of living for a considerable
time in a district without taking any interest in
it, keeping their whole attention concentrated on
the point of how long it will be before their time
comes to get out of it. Mr.
Fothergill evidently
had much knowledge and experience of the Fernan Vaz
district and its natives. He had, I should say,
overdone his experiences with the natives, as far as
personal comfort and pleasure at the time went, having
been nearly killed and considerably chivied by them.
Now I do not wish a man, however much I may deplore
his total lack of local knowledge, to go so far as
this. Mr. Fothergill gave his accounts of these
incidents calmly, and in an undecorated way that gave
them a power and convincingness verging on being unpleasant,
although useful, to a person who was going into the
district where they had occurred, for one felt there
was no mortal reason why one should not personally
get involved in similar affairs. And I must here
acknowledge the great subsequent service Mr. Fothergill’s
wonderfully accurate descriptions of the peculiar
