334 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY the forts which protected it. The nearer to the coast the worse was the native type. Barbot, who was of course himself a slave-dealer, tells his readers pathetically that '''Tis hard to conceive what patience is required to deal with these brutes." They were all gross pagans, worshipping snakes, consecrated trees, the sea, and many lesser objects. This was the fetishism which had been driven southwards at an early period from Gao, Daura, Kano, and other towns in the northern territories. We find here also in the seventeenth century — as at the present day — traces of the paganism which was expelled by the Mohammedans from Ghana in the eleventh century. " Almost every town or village has near to it a small consecrated grove to which the governors and people frequently resort to make their offerings." And here too we find, in the so-called monumental stones carved to represent half a human figure, which are revered to the present day, a reminiscence of the Teraphim of ancient Egypt. The people of Benin were in the seventeenth century ** the most genteel and polite of the coast." Barbot gives a very interesting account of their capital town. But on festive occasions human sacrifices were made on a vast scale.

At the back of Cape Verde, between the Senegal and the Gambia, the Fulani had a ''little empire" inland, and the natives reckoned their king to be the **most potent prince in all those countries." It was said that he could put from 40,000 to 50,000 men into the field. The coast was, however, densely wooded, and swarmed with wild beasts. The character given by Barbot of the coast natives at this district has been already quoted. Sorcerers, idolaters, robbers, and drunkards, they were indeed **no better than their country." At the back of the Gambia the natives were *' very savage, cruel, and treacherous;" they were ''gross pagans, said to worship demons more than any other blacks ; " and a cannibal people, driven southwards about the year 1505 — which we may remember was the date