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Emerging from these reeds, one broad sheet of water presented itself to the eye, encircled by a low shore fringed with canes, bush, and palm-trees, and at its western extremity a range of hills rose out of the background. The lagoon receives several small streams, and empties itself into the sea by the Ebumesu river, its mouth being about half-way between Béin and the Ancobra.
Then we struck the valley of 'Ebumesu, winding water, whose approach, rank with mire and corded with roots, is the Great Dismal Swamp of Dahome in miniature. Here, seven and a quarter miles from the mouth, the stream measures about twenty yards broad, the thalweg is deep and navigable, and the water, bitumen-coloured with vegetable matter, tastes brackish.
Both have bad bars, especially the latter. I therefore can by no means agree with Mr. Walker's report: 'The western outlet of the Ebumesu, near the village of Eku Enu, or Ekwanu, is quite practicable for ordinary surf-boats during the dry season say half the year and even in the middle of June I found the bar smooth and safe. All the Aximites described the Ebumesu bars as practically impassable.
About sunset we hit the Ebumesu, or 'Winding Water. The people declare that it had a single mouth till the earthquakes of July 1862, which shook down Accra, raised a divide, and made a double embouchure.
For the present I hold the surf along shore and the Ebumesu bar to be equally dangerous. The land-tongue between the two streams is the favourite haunt of mosquitoes and sand-flies, and it produces nothing save mud and mangroves, miasma and malaria.
After 1,000 to 1,200 yards he struck the 'false coast, crossed a deep and fetid swamp, and, after a short rise, came upon the miry borders of the Ebumesu. He canoed 800 yards down-stream without difficulty; and, finding the water brackish while the ebb-tide ran strong, he considered that this part was rather a lagoon than a river.
This ended the 'true coast. The 'false coast' began close to the little settlement known as Ashankru. It shows a fine quartz-reef, striking north fourteen degrees east. The formation was shown by the normal savannah and jungle-strips. About noon we were ferried over the eastern arm of the Ebumesu, known as the Pápá. I have noted scanty belief in the bar of the Ebumesu proper, the western feature.
Not until a dozen yards from the shore were any signs of a stream discernible. Pushing aside some reeds, we entered a narrow lane of water, varying from three feet to eighteen feet in width, deep, and, according to the natives, navigable for three days by canoes. This stream is known by the name of Bousaha, and the lagoon by Ebumesu.
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