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Updated: June 20, 2025
Here your mother may dwell in safety, and here shall your father's skull be reverenced as it ought to be. Come then, lay aside your fears, and lead us on against your enemies." These enemies were in the bush, and hovering near Badagry, when Adooley and his generous friends sallied out against them.
Here many of them had grown rich, and a considerable proportion had been converted to Christianity. Among them was a man named in their language Adgai, but called in English Crowther. He had been embarked as a slave on board of a slaver at Badagry in 1822. That slaver was captured by one of our cruisers, and taken to Sierra Leone.
It might be the mere effect of female curiosity, to ascertain what kind of a man's visage could possibly be concealed under such a preposterous hat, or it might be for any other purpose, which his penetration could not discover, but certain it was, that ever and anon a black visage, with white and pearly teeth, and an expressive grin of the countenance, somewhat similar to that of the monkey in a state of excited pleasure, protruded itself under the canopy of straw, which protected his head, but he, who had withstood the amorous advances of the widow Zuma, or of the fat and deaf widow Laddie, could not be supposed to yield to the fascinations and allurements of a Badagry houri.
"In the event of your falling in with any of his Majesty's ships of war on the coast of Africa, previously to your arrival at Cape Coast Castle, you will prevail on the master to use every endeavour to speak with such ship of war, and to deliver to the officer commanding her, the letter of which you are the bearer, and which is to require him to convey yourself and your brother to Badagry, to present you to the king, and to give you such assistance as may be required to enable you to set out on your journey.
They ascended this creek for about a mile and a half, and then landed on the western bank, at a place called Bawie, where a market is held for the people of Badagry and the adjacent towns. The very first night, they were guilty of a fatal imprudence.
The houses, which are neatly constructed of bamboo, and thatched with palm leaves, contain several rooms; almost all have yards attached to them, to the cultivation of which some little attention is paid. On the night of the 31st March they set sail from Badagry in the chief's war canoe, which was about forty feet long, and propelled by poles.
He prefaced his wish by saying, that he wished to inform them of his intention, to detain them at Badagry a day or two longer, the "path" not being considered in a fit state for; travelling, rather than his reputation should suffer by leading them into danger, which would undoubtedly be the case, if he had not adopted his present resolution.
They accordingly adjusted all their little matters to the apparent satisfaction of all parties, nor could they help wishing, for the sake of their credit, that they might never meet such needy and importunate friends as pestered them during their residence at Badagry.
This kind of coroner's inquest appeared most strange to the travellers, when it was well known to them that the king of Badagry, so far from following the example of other kings, who are so extremely anxious about the life of their subjects, often amuses himself with chopping off two or three hundred heads of his subjects, in order that the path to his apartments may be paved with their skulls; and should there not be quite a sufficient number to complete the job, the deficiency is made up with the same indifference, as a schoolboy strikes off the heads of the poppies in the corn fields.
An extraordinary instance of mortality is here mentioned by Richard Lander, who says, "that not less than one hundred and sixty governors of towns and villages, between this place and the seacoast, all belonging to Youriba, have died from natural causes, or have been slain in war, since I was last here, and that of the inhabited places through which we have passed, not more than half a dozen chiefs are alive at this moment, who received and entertained me on my return to Badagry three years ago."
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