Lander_, vol. iii. p. 234.

CHAP. XI.

Reverence for Beards--Native Shields--Petty Thefts--Tornado Season--
Author departs for Calabar--Waterspout--Palm-oil Vessels--Visit
to Duke Ephraim--Escape of a Schooner with Slaves--Calabar Sunday--
Funeral of a Duke's Brother--Egbo Laws--Egbo Assembly--Extraordinary
Mode of recovering Debts--Superstition and Credulity--Cruelty of the
Calabar People to Slaves--Royal Slave Dealer--Royal Monopoly--Manner
of Trading with the Natives--Want of Missionaries--Capt. Owen's
Arrival--Visit Creek Town with King Eyo--The Royal Establishment--
Savage Festivities--Calabar Cookery--Old Calabar River

_Thursday, 14_.--ARRIVED in Maidstone Bay, at ten o'clock, when we
learnt that Commodore Collier, in the Sybille, with the Esk and
Primrose, had been in the bay, and left it only on the preceding day. We
also heard of the decease of Captain Clapperton, Richard Lander, who was
the bearer of the melancholy tidings, being on board the Esk, for a
passage to England. Received some letters and papers from England, that
had been left for me by my old friend Captain Griffenhooffe, of the
Primrose, and whom I was unfortunately doomed never to meet again in
this sublunary scene; for having suffered from fever, he was invalided,
and died at Ascension, on his way home. We found the Diadem transport
here, which had arrived a few days before, with government stores from
Cape Coast Castle. A remarkable occurrence took place between the agent
(Lieutenant Woodman) and the natives, on their first interview. That
gentleman had, like Captain Owen, and some of his officers, allowed his
beard to grow from the time he had left England, having been induced to
do so for the sake of the advantages, which, from experience. Captain
Owen considered were to be derived from it. In the first place, all the
Arabs wear long beards, and they are held in much respect wherever they
sojourn among the various African nations: not altogether for their
beards, but from their intelligence; however, the beard is naturally
identified with their character. They also command respect, because they
are generally worn by the old men of their own country, and, on our
first arrival, the chiefs of Fernando Po advanced with delight to rub
beards, with all those among us who wore them. When Lieutenant Woodman
left the island for Cape Coast, his beard was of considerable length,
but meeting with Commodore Collier at Accra, that officer would