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Updated: June 22, 2025
A private on a shilling a day will eat three fowls, each worth 9d. to 10d., and drink any taken amount of palm-wine. There are no means of punishment, or even of securing a criminal; the colony cannot afford irons or handcuffs; there is no prison, and a Haussa, placed under arrest in a bamboo-hut, cuts his way out as easily as a rat from a bird-cage.
The bride-money goes partly to the father, and partly to the nearest relations; every one of whom has an equal interest. If there should be many of them, almost nothing remains for the father, who has to give a great feast, on which occasion much palm-wine is drunk.
Miller, great quantities of small black dogs, with erect pointed ears, which they fatten and eat. Toddy or palm-wine they drink copiously at their feasts. The houses are built with frames of wood, with the sides of boards, and roof covered with iju. They usually consist of a single large room, which is entered by a trap-door in the middle.
Some young women, in particular, came off to the boat, bringing a calabash of palm-wine in each hand, and treading the water so soon as they were out of their depth. These they contrived to deliver safe, without the wine becoming in the slightest degree impregnated with the briny wave.
The New Hollanders, near the sea, subsist on fish eaten raw, or nearly so; should a whale be cast ashore, it is never abandoned until its bones are picked; their substitute for bread, and that which forms their chief subsistence, is a species of fern roasted, pounded between stones, and mixed with fish. The general beverage of the negro tribes is palm-wine.
From the same tree, palm-wine and sugar are made, and the common thatch for houses formed of the leaves lasts six or seven years without removal. Close to the town I noticed the foundation of a ruined house below high-water mark, indicating recent subsidence. Earthquakes are not severe here, and are so infrequent and harmless that the chief houses are built of stone.
After a repast shared in common, and washed down by copious draughts of palm-wine, mats are streched on the floor; the lamps large shells, fitted with rush wicks are extinguished, and the occupants of the hut fall asleep together.
Temporary huts are erected in the forest, and men and boys remain by their respective trees day and night; the nuts, fish, and wine, being their sole food. The Portuguese use the palm-wine as yeast, and it makes bread so light, that it melts in the mouth like froth. Beyond the marsh the country is higher, and has a much larger population.
The ceremony concluded by drinking palm-wine. Monday, Nov. 26. A circumstance unfortunately occurred to-day to interrupt the good understanding so lately established.
Having finished his repast, he took a draught from a large calabash of palm-wine, which he then presented to us, having, however, previously poured some into another vessel, which he gave to his wife.
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