Monday, Oct. 8th, 1827.—­Light airs and variable, with frequent heavy showers.  Land in sight, bearing N.E.  At noon calm and very hot.  Lat. 5 deg. 32’.  N. lon. 10 deg. 17’.  W. Cape Palmas E.S.E. 168 miles.  Hoisted in the pinnance, which we had been towing all the way from Sierra Leone, in consequence of the crowded state of the ship.

Tuesday, 9th.—­At noon, lat. 4 deg. 55’.  N. lon. 9 deg. 17’.  W. Cape Palmas S. 76 deg.  E. 83 miles.  At one a canoe came off to the ship, at this time we saw a remarkable rock, called the Swallow, or Kroo rock, which is detached from the main land, about two miles and a half from the entrance of the river Waffen.  There is a safe channel for vessels inside of this rock, with seven fathoms water, and a muddy bottom.  Nearly twenty leagues to the westward of the Waffen is the river Cestus,[20] in which river, Captain Spence, an old African trader, has had a timber establishment some years.

Being now off the Kroo country, I think it desirable to introduce a short description of it, and its inhabitants.

The Kroo country is situated on that part of the coast of Africa called the Grain Coast, the chief towns of which are Settra Kroo, Little Kroo, Kroo Barru, Kroo Settra, and King Will’s town.  It does not appear that it extends any distance inland.  The manners of the natives are sufficiently curious to merit some description.  They are pagans, and place much faith in charms, auguries, and oracles.  The most celebrated place for oracles is near the banks of the river Cavally, a little to the westward of Cape Palmas, and this spot is in as great repute amongst them, and the surrounding tribes (particularly those along the coast, even so far down as Cape Lahou), as ever that of Delphos was among the ancient Greeks, and so far as we can learn, imposes with equal success on the credulity and superstition of the poor ignorant natives.

The Kroomen, that is, the Kroo and Fish men, for they all come under the general denomination of Kroomen in Sierra Leone, are almost the only people on the coast who voluntarily emigrate, to seek for labour out of their own country.  They come to Sierra Leone, to work in any capacity in which they can obtain employment, until they are possessed of sufficient property to enable them to purchase several wives.  The object they propose to themselves in this increase of their domestic establishments, differs in some respects from the indulgences of the east.  The Kroomen compel their women to perform all the field-work, as well as the necessary domestic duties, in conformity with the usages of savage life, and when they can purchase a sufficient number of wives to fulfil all these employments, they pass the remainder of their days in ease and indolence.  Before they are able to accomplish this object, they are obliged to make several visits to Sierra Leone, as they do not like to be absent more than two or three years at a time from their own country.  The average duration