ords no safety to shipping. The proximity of Clarence Cove to the
coast of Africa, is also another important point in favour of the
object for which the establishment was formed.

The natives of Fernando Po are the filthiest race of people in the
whole world. They are different in their manners and appearance from
their neighbours on the coast, to whom the Landers had of late been
so much accustomed, and possess no single trait of character similar
to them, except that of pilfering. In point of civilization, to which
the natives of Brass Town have not the most distant pretensions,
these people have even still less; their language is totally
different, and they have no resemblance whatever to them. This in
itself affords a tolerable proof of the little intercourse they have
had with the world, for while the other islands of the gulf are
plentifully stocked with the same race of people as those of the
coast, Fernando Po which is so much nearer to it, is inhabited by a
totally different class. They are, generally speaking, a stout,
athletic, and well-made race of people, and peculiarly harmless and
peaceably inclined in their dispositions, although each individual is
generally armed with a spear about eight feet in length, made of a
hard wood, and barbed at one end. They appeared also to be a healthy
race of people, for although here and there one or two might be less
favoured by nature in their persons, no signs of the diseases so
common among the natives of Africa were to be seen amongst them.

They have already been described as a filthy race, but no words can
convey an idea of their disgusting nature. They have long hair, which
it is difficult to distinguish, from being matted together with red
clay and palm oil. The clay and oil are so profusely laid on; that it
forms an impenetrable shield for the head, and the long tresses,
which descend to their shoulders, are generally in a moist condition.
Although this covering is a complete safeguard to all inconvenience
from without, they still further adorn their heads with a kind of
cap, made of dry grass, ornamented round the border with the feathers
of fowls, or any other bird, carefully stuck into it apart from each
other. Some are so vain as to affix the horns of a ram in front of
this cap, which gives them a most strange and ludicrous appearance.
Finally, the cap with all its ornaments of feathers, horns, shells,
&c. is secured in its place with a piece of stick, which