the quarrying of which will doubtless yield large profit to its inhabitants at no remote day.
They called the town very appropriately, "Abbeokuta," which means under a rock. It is now estimated to contain more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, and its population is fast increasing by accessions, not only from the surrounding tribes, who find in it greater security for life and property, but also from many of those, and their descendants, who were sold away as slaves.
Although the people have increased, one is at a loss to divine what has become of the chiefs of so many townships. One after another they have fallen off, and their successors have either never been appointed or are too insignificant to command attention. The treaty we concluded with the authorities of the place was signed by only seven chiefs, the king's signature not included. To them we were sent specially by the king, an act which seemed to indicate, either that they alone were of sufficient consequence to take part in such a matter, or that they, by common consent, were deemed the representatives of the rest.
The language of the Egbas, is the same as that of the Yorubas, Ijebus and other neighboring tribes, concerning which the author of "Polyglotta Africana" makes the following just remarks: "For the last few
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