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Updated: June 1, 2025
The kind old ship's captain whose guest I was, and who was transfigured to poetry in my sense by the fact that he used to voyage to the African coast for palm-oil in former days, led me all about the town, and showed me the Custom-house, which I desired to see because it was in the preface to the Scarlet Letter.
I notice that here the people pound tobacco-leaves in a mortar after they have undergone partial fermentation by lying in the sun, then they put the mass in the sun to dry for use. The reason why no palm-oil trees grow further east than Pambété is said to be the stony soil there, and this seems a valid one, for it loves rich loamy meadows. 1st May, 1867.
The courtyard of the station was already full of casks of palm-oil, which augured well. Immediately on my arrival I received a visit from the Avogal, the King of Dahomey's governor at Widah, a big healthy-looking negro, with whom the only conversation I had was of the most commonplace description.
It produces likewise a species of pepper of great strength, not inferior to any of that which the Portuguese bring from Calicut, under the name of Pimienta del rabo, or Pepe dalla coda, and which African pepper resembles cubbebs, but so powerful that an ounce will go farther than a pound of the common sort; but its exportation is prohibited, lest it should injure the sale of that which is brought from Calicut . There is also established on this coast a manufacture of an excellent kind of soap from palm-oil and ashes, which is carried on for the king's account.
We boarded a brig of that nation to-day, and found her full of natives, with whom a very brisk business was going forward. Some brought palm-oil, and others gold, which they exchanged principally for guns, cloth, and powder. We here saw the gold tested by the "blackstone;" a peculiar kind of mineral, black, with a slight tinge of blue.
We bought a dozen casks of palm-oil at a fair price, calculating the value of the goods we gave in return. The people said if we would come back they would have a further quantity with which to supply us. We warned them about the Wasp, and gave them a minute description of her, so that should she appear they might avoid being entrapped.
The fire had been raging for some time with terrible fury, and had already got full possession of two large warehouses, each five or six floors in height, all connected by means of double iron folding-doors, and stored from basement to roof with spirits, tallow, palm-oil, cotton, flax, jute, and other merchandise, to the extent of upwards of two millions sterling in value.
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.
Captain Luke told a straight enough story, and the fact that his messenger had not got to me before I started did not prove that he lied. Moreover, he went on to say that if I had not got down to the brig he had meant to leave my fifty dollars with the palm-oil people at Loango, and that sounded square enough too.
Palm-oil fills its place with the Asiatics in part; but the olive has no peer in this respect, and we lose greatly in our general distaste for this form of food. The liking for it should be encouraged as decidedly as the liking for butter.
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