1859.] WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 103 to understand the foreign character, and speak the foreign language. If there be any foreign lady who will come to us, who will question us of the doctrine of Jesus, and who can take the foreign language, and teach it to us; if there be such good lady to come and teach us, we will be exceedingly glad, and desire Jesus to preserve this lady by the way continually, with fair wind and smooth water, until her arrival in Shanghai. The accomplishment of this piece of business is what all the scholars hope for." WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?-Is. xxi. 11. What of the night, watchman, what of the night? The thick shadows fall, and the night-bird's call What of the night, watchman, what of the night? But who, while others sleep, Is that little band, who together stand, All awake is the strained eye, And awake is the listening ear; For their Lord they wait, and watch at the gate, Long have they waited-that little band; And ever and anon, To fancy's eye the dawn seem'd nigh— And often through the midnight gale The sound of his train, and they listened again, Ages have rolled, and, one by one, Those watchers have pass'd away: They heard the call on their glad ear fall, And they hasten'd to obey. And in their place the children stand, They watch and pray for the dawn of day, For this is no time to sleep. What of the night, watchman, what of the night? Though the wintry gale sweeps by, When the darkest hour begins to lower Courage, ye servants of the Lord, The night is almost o'er; Your Master will come and call you home, To weep and watch no more. Songs of the Night. ( 104 ) OLD CALABAR, CENTRAL WEST AFRICA. [SEPT. THE West-African mail steamer, a few weeks ago, among other items of intelligence from the coast, brought word that "King Eyo Honesty, of Old Calabar, was dead." Of the multitudes who read that brief statement in the "Times" and other papers, both at home and abroad, com paratively few, probably, knew any thing about the person mentioned, or felt any interest in the matter, whether he died or lived. "A petty chief on the coast of Africa!" they would say: "it is a wonder they thought it worth while to mention his name at all." But the comparative few who knew something about him-not a small number on the whole-felt a deep interest in his life, and were much grieved at his death, for he was a somewhat remarkable and important man, and was certainly used by God as an instrument of much good in his generation. It has been suggested to me by an honoured friend, as one acquainted with the subject, to furnish your readers with a little information concerning him, his country, his people, and the work of God now being carried on among them. In the deepest recess of the Gulf of Guinea, called the Bight of Biafra, south-east of the mouths of the Niger, the Calabar river enters the sea, due north of the island of Fernando Po. Up that river, about fifty miles from its outlet, stands Duke Town, a place of perhaps about six thousand inhabitants; and seven or eight miles further, on a branch of the river, stands Creek Town, containing, it is said, about four thou sand inhabitants. These towns, though peopled by the same tribe, are the capitals of separate territories, the represensatives of different lines of policy, and the seats of different and heretofore rival kings, to one or other of whom all the other Calabar towns have allied themselves. King Eyo Honesty lived at Creek Town, was the friend and helper of Missionaries, and the leader of those in the country who were favourable to civilization and social improvement. Of a royal but decayed family, he commenced life in a small way, determined to repair its fortunes; and by indefatigable industry, great sagacity, unusual integrity, and a marvellous power of government, he accomplished his object, and attained a distinction far beyond that of all his competitors and predecessors. Reserving, for the present, some account of the origin and history of these distinct and rival sovereignties in one tribe, and so near each other, we shall notice, first, the circumstances attending the death of King Eyo, remarkable in several respects, but especially interesting as affording the most satisfactory evidence of the complete abolition of the old, barbarous, and bloody customs, which formerly belonged to the death and burial of the chief men of that country. Next to Ashanti and Dahomey, and scarcely inferior to them in that respect, Old Calabar had an infamous notoriety for the bloody atrocities enacted on such great occasions. One hundred or two hundred persons were usually sacrificed at the death of a king, from among his own people, or those of his friends, who killed their slaves for him as proofs of their sorrow, hurried by swift-footed murder after him, to bear him company in the lower world, where his rank, it was supposed, 1859.] OLD CALABAR, CENTRAL WEST AFRICA. 105 would be judged of as on earth, by his following. Some of the elder wives used to be strangled, and the younger ones to be buried alive in the same grave with their departed lord. Then used to follow the po son ordeal, by means of a certain bean, called Esere, ground up with water, to be drunk, miscalled, in broken English, "Chop-nut," to determine who had killed the great man, the conviction being general that his death, unless in extreme old age by natural decay, had been caused by some enemy employing witchcraft. By this means many died, especially negligent or imprudent wives, unfaithful headmen, who may have been the executioners of their inferiors in the earlier tragadies, even freemen and gentlemen obnoxious by their intelligence, wealth, or power; in short, whoever, during the lifetime of the departed, had been offensive to him, and were not strong enough to resist his successors or executors. These horrid customs continued unabated, unrebuked, till the settlement there of Christian Missionaries from Scotland in 1846, after which they were certainly rebuked, frequently and publicly, and severely rebuked, and, it is probable, partly abated, though it is uncertain if they were wholly discontinued till this late remarkable occasion. Happily, there is complete proof that, on the death of King Eyo, not one person, man, woman, or child, by any means, or under any pretence, were put to death for him, and that by his own express injunctions, and the zeal of his eldest son, a Christian young man. Inferior men had indeed died and been buried at Creek Town, previously to this event, without the sacrifice of human victims, so far as could be ascertained, because King Eyo, supporting the Missionaries, had set his face against it. But that could hardly warrant favourable anticipations that the bloody rites would not be renewed in the case of his own death, which, however, every friend of humanity will rejoice to learn have not taken place. The following is a sketch of the proceedings previous to and on that oceasion, as detailed at great length by the Missionaries there, in their journals and letters. Two weeks before his death, King Eyo had been at one of his distant plantations superintending his work people. The Sabbath occurred while he abode there, and, as usual, he intermitted all work, and assembled his people to hear the word of God, which he called on one of the Christian youths in attendance to read and preach to them. That youth was one of those educated in the Mission-school, deemed a slave, but treated as free; and there, on the river-side in the woods, he preached to his master and fellow-servants from the words, "Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour," &c. The king had returned home the Sabbath following, but was sick and unable to attend church, and he sent his message to that effect, to the resident Missionary; for, though not a professed Christian, he always kept the Sabbath and attended church, and encouraged the Christian instruction of his people. In the course of the week he recovered so as to attend to business, and, among other things, had a long interview with the Missionaries of the different towns, who waited on him in a body, respecting the attempt then being made by the French ships to take away slaves from the country, under the disguise of free labourers. On that subject he gave them every satisfaction. Two nights afterwards he had 106 OLD CALABAR, CENTRAL WEST AFRICA. [SEPT. a number of his friends at supper, but felt unwell, and ate but little. They had left him, and he was rising to retire, when he fell backward on his sofa, and never spoke again. Within a few minutes he was a corpse. The consternation produced by the sudden death of the king was almost indescribable. With a few exceptions, his servants fled in silent horror. The exceptions were, native Christians, his house-steward, and others at tending on him. His house-people, fleeing down the stairs and through the yards, were followed by the yard-people into the streets, and thence to the bush, or whithersoever they could get a hiding-place. The people in the streets took the alarm and fled; the panic became general; many asked, and few could or dare answer, "What is the matter?" Before morning the town was deserted of all but "the gentlemen" left without attendants. Two or three women of his yard, Christian women, escaped to the Mission house, but in such terror they could hardly speak to say what had happened, nor could they be quiet, or feel safe, till they got into an inner room, and under the bed, where they lay concealed till morning. Many more found their way to the Mission house during the night, who, next day, made off, under the escort of armed men, to the farms. Why were his people thus terrified? It was the first impulse of the old feelings naturally urging them, as had ever been usual at such a time, to escape for their lives. Such a man as King Eyo had never passed out of this world in that country without multitudes of slain hurried after him to attend him in the next world. They knew, indeed, that he had opposed the barbarous practice for some years past, and had restrained others disposed to it; but they also knew that some of his own family still favoured the old bad ways, and who was there now to restrain them? The fright which emptied the town that night, though not unnatural, was happily unfounded. The Christian converts in immediate attendance on the deceased sovereign, as already stated, had not fled; and the Christian women of his yard, who, on the first alarm, had run to the Mission house to hide, next day returned to their own houses. They were not without fear, they said afterwards, but they trusted to God to preserve them, and held to their posts as in duty bound, to perform the last sad offices to their old master. Young Eyo, or Eyo Ita, the eldest son of the deceased, whom his father had some time before declared his heir and successor, is a Christian, a member of the church, as is also a younger son, Eshen Eyo. He being present at his father's decease, encouraged his fellow-Christians to stand by him and help him in this extremity, pledging himself for their safety. So the little band of native disciples, sons and servants, brethren in Christ, dug the grave deep under his palace, and interred their king. The gentlemen of the town, of course, were there to observe certain formalities of sepulture; but the Christian servants were the only ones who maintained their ground, and did their duty to the last, though the time was not long past when the grave would have been soaked with their blood. Of the town slaves who fled during the night, some betook themselves to the farms, propagating the most dreadful rumours of what was going 1859.] OLD CALABAR, CENTRAL WEST AFRICA. 107 on, and terror spread through the country like fire; for every one, remembering the terrible slaughters of former times, was ready to believe every tale of horror. Others seized their guns and cutlasses, and mustered for self-defence at a village near the town, commanding both the high road to the farms and one of the king's powder-magazines. There they entered into a covenant-the most binding known in the country, a covenant of blood-by each one tasting his fellow's blood, and thus swearing brotherhood, that they would stand by each other and defend each other, and secure the lives of all before disbanding. These people had right on their side, even legal right; for the chiefs of the country had by law, at the instance of the Missionaries and captains of ships and supercargoes, some years before, forbidden the making of human sacrifices for the future; and the slaves now armed only in their own just defence against whosoever would violate the law. But they were perfectly peaceable. They had no fears, they said, of the king's two sons already mentioned, but they mistrusted some others of his family, especially two or three of his brothers, now with increased powers of doing evil, who had always opposed the king's enlightened reforming measures. The king himself seems to have mistrusted them, for, some time before his death, he made a solemn stipulation with his eldest brother and two other great chiefs next to himself in authority, in whom he could confide, that whoever of them should die first, the others would neither kill their slaves for him, nor suffer any one else to do so. He had thus secured the safety of his people, but they knew not of it. The Missionaries and young Eyo went among these armed bands to allay their fears, and induce them to disperse and return to their avocations. But while they believed their young master, for himself they would not disperse indeed their numbers were constantly being augmentedtill the king's brothers and other chief men of the town had met them and sworn to them by the most fearful and binding country oath, that no person should be killed. This being done, they went every man to his own place, some to the towns, and others to the farms, in the most peaceable manner. The danger seeming to be past, Inyang, the eldest daughter of the late king, a large woman, proud and imperious-a heroine, had she not been a fury-was displeased that terms had been made with the slaves, and that none had been put to death for her father; and she complained before the rulers of the town of such base compliances with foreign customs, saying that it had never been known in Calabar that such a man as her father had been allowed to go out of the world unattended. They repulsed her, indeed, but her words were overheard and reported among the slaves, and her having seized and chained two women, suspected to be for the purpose of sacrificing, was reported also; and in a few days the slaves mustered, again armed as for war, every man with his musket and cutlass, to the number of nearly a thousand. This time they did not remain in the outskirts, but poured into the town, and filled the main street, taking their places in perfect order and perfect quietness. Tom Eyo, the patriarch of the family, and now chief ruler of the town, together with young Eyo, and other headmen, met, and peaceably inquired the cause of such a gathering. The chief speaker of |