are the most wretchedly poor and miserable of any in Guinea, and yet so very haughty, that they are perfectly ridiculous ...  They are all excessively fond of brandy and other strong liquors of Europe and America ...  If they fancy one has got a mouthful more than another, and they are half drunk, they will soon fall a-fighting, even with their own princes or priests ...  Their exceeding greediness for strong liquors renders them so little nice and curious in the choice of them, that, though mixed with half water, and sometimes a little Spanish soap put into it to give it a froth, to appear of proof by the scum it makes, they like it and praise it as much as the best and purest brandy.”  Captain Boteler remarks, in 1827:  “The women do not speak English; though, for the sake of what trifles they can procure for their husbands, they are in the habit of flocking on board the different vessels which visit the river, and will permit them to remain; and the wives are generally maintained in clothing by the proceeds of their intercourse with the whites.”  He further assures us, that mulatto girls thus born are not allowed to marry, although there is no such restriction for the males; and elsewhere, he concludes, that never having seen an infant or an adult offspring of mixed blood, abortion is practised as at Delagoa and Old Calabar, where, in 1862, I found only one child of mixed blood.  If so, the Mpongwe have changed for the better.  Half-castes are now not uncommon; there are several nice “yaller gals” well known on the river; and the number of old and sick speaks well for the humanity of the tribe.

Devoted to trade and become a people of brokers, of go-betweens, of middle-men, the Mpongwe have now acquired an ease and propriety, a polish and urbanity of manner which contrasts strongly with the Kru-men and other tribes, who, despite generations of intercourse with Europeans, are rough and barbarous as their forefathers.  The youths used to learn English, which they spoke fluently and with tolerable accent, but always barbarously; they are more successful with the easier neo-Latin tongues.  Their one aim in life is not happiness, but “trust,” an African practice unwisely encouraged by Europeans; so Old Calabar but a few years ago was not a trust-river,” and consequently the consul and the gunboat had little to do there.  Many of them have received advances of dollars by thousands, but the European merchant has generally suffered from his credulity or rapacity.  In low cunning the native is more than a match for the stranger; moreover, he has “the pull” in the all-important matter of time; he can spend a fortnight haggling over the price of a tooth when the unhappy capitalist is eating his heart.  Like all the African aristocracy, they hold agriculture beneath the dignity of man and fit only for their women and slaves; the “ladies” also refuse to work at the plantations, especially when young and pretty, leaving them to the bush-folk, male and female.  M. du Chaillu repeatedly asserts