Ten Years of Wanderings Among the Ethiopians by Thomas J. Hutchinson

Author:Thomas J. Hutchinson [Hutchinson, Thomas J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology, History
ISBN: 9781136978692
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-10-11T04:00:00+00:00

“DEAR SIR,—I have entered into an agreement with Her Majesty's Government to keep up a communication by steamers between the mouth of the River Niger and its confluence with the Chadda, for three years, commencing from the 1st August next.

“I engage to make, if not prevented by unforeseen accidents, or the hostility of the natives in the Delta, three voyages annually—two as high as the confluence and one to Onitsha, and to keep a floating depot at the mouth of the river, which will be visited by the mail-packet monthly.

“It is my wish to make this arrangement available to liberated Africans returning to their native countries on the banks of the Niger and Chadda; and in order to do so, I propose to charge a fixed rate of ten dollars per head for deck passengers of the negro race, finding their own provisions, to all parts between the mouth of the river and the confluence, and to take goods for them at the rate of five pounds per ton weight or measurement for the river freight, and to arrange with the African Mail Company to take passengers and goods from any part of the coast, at their printed rates of freight and passage money, in addition to the above. By this arrangement, the passage money from Sierra Leone to the Niger would be twenty dollars, from Lagos fifteen dollars; so that one payment should clear passengers or goods.

“Passengers can only be received under the conditions specified in the clause marked in the table of fares by the African mail-packets annexed. Each adult passenger will be allowed to take 28Ibs. of personal luggage free of freight.

“I think the best plan to encourage this return of liberated Africans and their descendants, would be for the Church Missionary Society to form a committee of natives of the countries bordering on the Niger, resident at Sierra Leone and Lagos—to select such applicants as they deem suitable—to send out and report to them, either personally or by letter, on the advantages and disadvantages of such a return to the interior; and if any assistance is given intended emigrants, it should be confined to paying their passage money; and I object strongly to any being invited to go until accounts are received of the safe passage of the steamer through the Delta, and the permanent pacification of that district, which I hope will be accomplished this season.

“All persons settling on the banks of the Niger must clearly understand that they do so at their own risk, both of person and property; that they must conform to the laws of the country in which they locate themselves; and that the British Government does not undertake to protect them: in this respect they will be exactly in the position of those liberated Africans who have settled at Abbeokuta and other parts of the Yoruba country.

“I have no doubt Mr. Crowther will send full reports, on his arrival at Onitsha, of the prospects for emigrants returning to Central Africa

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.