six weeks at several villages, which are situated on the banks of the rivers and creeks in the interior, and to which the traders of Bonny resort to purchase them.

The preparation necessary for going to these fairs generally occupies the Bonny people some days. Large canoes, capable of carrying 120 persons, are launched and stored for the voyage. The traders augment the quantity of their merchandize, by obtaining from their friends, the captains of the slave ships, a considerable quantity of goods on credit, according to the extent of business they are in the habit of transacting. Evening is the period chosen for the time of departure, when they proceed in a body, accompanied by the noise of drums, horns, and gongs. At the expiration of the sixth day, they generally return, bringing with them 1,500 or 2,000 slaves, who are sold to Europeans the evening after their arrival, and taken on board the ships.

The Heebos, to judge by the immenșe

number annually sent into slavery, inhabit a country of great extent, and extremely populous, the southern boundary of which may be comprised between Cape Formosa and Old Calabar; and it is very probable that the towns at the mouths of the rivers along the coast, including New Calabar and Bonny, were peopled originally from the Heebo country: in fact, Amacree, the King of New Calabar, and Pepple, King of Bonny, are both of Heebo descent, as well as many of the principal traders at both these places.

These towns were probably first built and occupied for the purpose of obtaining salt by the evaporation of sea-water; because the country, from the sea-board to fifty miles into the interior of it, is a vast morass, heavily timbered, and unfit, without excessive labour, to produce sufficient food, but for a very scanty population; and as the trade in slaves increased, these towns, particularly Bonny, grew into importance.

The language, also, spoken at these places varies but little from that spoken by the Heebos, which proves a common origin.

The country inhabited by a nation called Ibbibby, or Quaw (the Mocoes of the West Indies) bounds it on the east. To this nation the Heebos express a strong aversion, and call them cannibals. They certainly have a ferocious aspect, and their appearance and disposition would cause a person to suppose, that in their own country they lead a wild, predatory life. Whenever insurrection has taken place on board of a slave ship at Bonny, they have always been found to be the ringleaders, and often the only slaves concerned in it, the Heebos remaining passive spectators. Contrary to the latter, they have very black skins, and their teeth filed so as to resemble those of a saw. The females are equally mischievous and ferocious as the men.

The Heebos, in their persons, are tall and well formed, many of the women sym

metrically so; and may be distinguished from the other tribes of Africans by their skins having generally a yellow, bilious cast, although varying, in some instances, to a deep black. Their dispositions are naturally timid and desponding, and their despair on being sent on board of a ship is often such, that they use every stratagem to effect the commission of suicide, and which they would often accomplish, unless narrowly watched: they, however, by mild treatment, soon become reconciled to their floating prisons.

A class of Heebos, called Breeché, and whom many have very erroneously considered to be a distinct nation, masters of slave-ships have always had a strong aversion to purchase; because the impression made on their minds, by their degraded situation, was rendered more galling and permanent from the exalted rank which they occupied in their own country, and which was thought to have a very unfavourable influence on

their shipmates and countrymen in misfortune.

Breeché, in the Heebo language, signifies gentleman, or the eldest son of one, and who is not allowed to perform in his own country any menial office. He inherits, at his father's death, all his slaves, and has the absolute controul over the wives and children which he has left behind him. Before attaining the age of manhood, his forehead is scarified, and the skin brought down from the hair to the eye-brows, so as to form a line of indurated skin from one temple to the other. This peculiar mark is distinctive of his rank, the ordinary mark of the Heebo being formed by numerous perpendicular incisions on each temple, as if the operation of cupping had been often performed.

Combined with timid dispositions, these people have delicate constitutions, on which disease acts powerfully. Dysentery, to which they seem peculiarly liable, and which is