the above, such as the ruin of a man if a working majority could be got together against him. This society could work much more swiftly than the course adopted in other rivers to compass a man's downfall; vide Will Braid's trouble with his brother chiefs in New Calabar.
The country up the Cross River, which is the main stream into the interior, improves a very few miles after leaving Old Calabar; in fact, the mangrove disappears altogether within twenty miles of Duke Town, being replaced by splendid forest trees and many clearings, the latter being, in some instances, the farms of Old Calabar chiefs. On arriving at Ikorofiong, which is on the right bank of the river, you find yourself on the edge of the Ikpa plain, which extends away towards Opobo as far as the eye can see. I visited this place thirty-five years ago, and stayed for a couple of days in the mission house, the gentleman then in charge being a Dr. Bailey. At that time this was the farthest station of the Old Calabar mission; since then they have established themselves in Umon, and have done great service amongst these people, who were previously to the advent of the mission terribly in the toils of their Ju-Ju priests. The people of Umon speak a language quite different from the Calabarese. Umon is about one hundred miles by water from Old Calabar.
Twenty or thirty miles further up the Cross River you come to the Akuna-Kuna country, inhabited by a very industrious race of people, great producers and agriculturists, and having abundance of cattle, sheep, goats and poultry. These people received one of Her Majesty's consuls with such joy and good feeling, and so loaded him with presents of farm produce, that his Kroo boatmen suffered severely from indigestion while they remained in the Akuna-Kuna
