ABSTRACT
At eight o’clock in the evening of the 9th of November, we left Eboe, and by the light of a splendid moon threaded our way through a very intricate navigation until two o’clock in the morning of the 10th ; when, being in very shoal water, we came to anchor about fifteen miles from the town. This was the widest part of the river that we had yet seen,—its breadth cannot be less than three thousand yards; and here the river throws off its great branches,—the Benin and Bonny. * We crossed the Benin branch, and found it about eight hundred yards wide, with a depth varying from ten feet to six fathoms. The Bonny branch appeared to run out in a south south-east direction; but as we were some distance from it, I cannot speak from personal knowledge of its size and depth. On the sandy point that formed its entrance were a great number of temporary barracoons, and nine or ten canoes, one or two of which had trade puncheons in them : they were evidently trading for palm-oil, the bank being covered with immense quantities of the gourds in which the natives collect it.
