native of St. Helena, he fought for the Northerners in the American war,
and proved himself a first-rate rifle-shot. He traded on the Congo, and
travelled like a native far in the interior. Now he has married a wife
from Cape Palmas, and is the leading man at Tabú.

This place, again, is a favourite labour-market. The return of the Krumen
repeats the spectacles of Sinou, and war being here chronic, the canoe-men
come off armed with guns, swords, and matchets. After a frightful storm of
tongues, and much bustle but no work, the impatient steamer begins to
waggle her screw; powder-kegs and dwarf boxes are tossed overboard, and
every attention is bestowed upon them; whilst a boy or two is left behind,
either to swim ashore or to find a 'watery grave.'

Presently we sighted the bar and breakers that garnish the mouth of the
Cavally (Anglicè Cawally) River: the name is properly Cavallo, because it
lies fourteen miles, riding-distance, from Cape Palmas. Here Bishop Payne
had his head-quarters, and his branch missions extended sixty miles
up-stream. On the left bank, some fifteen or sixteen miles from the
_embochure_, resides the 'Grand Devil,' equivalent to the Great God, of
Krúland. The place is described as a large caverned rock, where a
mysterious 'Suffing' (something) answers, through an interpreter, any
questions in any tongue, even English, receiving, in return for the
revelations, offerings of beads, leaf-tobacco, and cattle, which are
mysteriously removed. The oracle is doubtless worked by some sturdy knave,
a 'demon-doctor,' as the missionaries call him, who laughs at the beards
of his implicitly-believing dupes. A tree growing near the stream
represents 'Lot's wife's pillar;' some sceptical and Voltairian black was
punished for impious curiosity by being thus 'translated.' Skippers who
treated their 'boys' kindly were allowed, a score of years ago, to visit
the place, and to join in the ceremonies, even as most of the Old Calabar