The Memorial Edition of the Works of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton (Volume 3)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. WE ENTER WHYDAH IN STATE. The necessity of sending on a messenger to the King, who was preparing for his own Customs, and for my reception at Kana, detained H.M.S. Antelope till December 8th, when a special invitation returned to Whydah. For some days the weather had been too dark to permit a fair view of a country so much extolled by old travellers, and which Captain Thomas Phillips1 has described as the "pleasantest land in Guinea." But even under the clearest sky, with the present deadening influences, when the hand of the destroyer has passed over its towns and villages and fields, the traveller must not expect to find, like his brotherhood of the last and even the present century, the " champaigns and small ascending hills beautified with always green shady groves of lime, wild orange, and other trees, and irrigated with divers broad fresh rivers." And of the multitude of little villages that belonged to Whydah in the days of her independence, it may be said that their ruins have perished.2 1 Journal of a Voyage to Africa and Barbadoes. By Thos. Phillips, Commander of the "Hannibal," of London, 1693-94. It s a quaint old log-book, and supplies a good account of independent Whydah. 2 Mr. Duncan (vol. i. p. 185) found fine farms, six to seven miles from Whydah, with clean and comfortable houses, chiefly the work of Foolah and Eya (Oyo?) captives returned from the Brazils. "This."--says that traveller,--"would seem to prove that to this country slavery is not without its good as well as bad effects." VOL. I. 2 We landed as ceremoniously as I had embarked. The Commodore had dwelt long enough in Africa and amongst the Africans, properly to appreciate the efficacy of "apparatus" in the case of the first Government mission. Commander Ruxton, R....