The Bijugas, in common with most African na tions, arc cruel and treacherous, always ready to seize advantages, and to overpower strangers. Those who have intercourse with them cannot be too much on their guard ; whence ships repairing to the Bi juga islands, for the purposes of traffic, never allow more than the crew of a single boat to come on board, and even then the guns are primed and matches lighted. About SO years ago, the crew of a French vessel,, wrecked on. the island of Yoko, were -all massacred or led into captivity. The inhabitants of another island likewise endeavoured to seize M. Delajaille, when surveying the coast, as Labarthc informs us, and mortally wounded one of his com panions.. More recently they- treacherously cut. off somo of Captain Beaver's people, and would have ef fected his own destruction, had not his personal in trepidity, and a fortunate concurrence of eircum, stances, oftener than once prevented it. It has beat asserted, that suicide is common among the Bijugas, and that the smallest. chagrin will prompt them to leap into the sea, Or terminate their existence with a_ dagger.
All the Bijugas are idolaters ; they offer propitia: tory sacrifices, and put implicit faith in divination. If they form a treaty with a stranger, or are about to undertake n warlike expedition, they sacrifice a cock, from inspecting the gizzard of which conclu sions are drawn of good or evil omens. M. Brue, the French governor-general of Senegal, having an chored off the isle of Cazegoot, was visited by a near relative of the king, with whom he carried on a. conversation, and supplied him with brandy, a li quor which these people will make every sacrifice to obtain. Meantime a canoe from the island arrived, and one of the natives came on board, holding a cock in his left hand, and a knife in his right. Af ter kneeling before M. Brue, he arose and turned to the cast ; then cutting the animal's throat, he sprink led a few drops of blood at M. Brae's feet, and af terwards performed the same ceremony at the and pump, which being finished, he presented tilt, cock to the French commander. When M. Brue inquired into the meaning of the ceremony, the na tive told him, that the wise men of his country view ed the whites as the gods of the sea ; and that the mast was a divinity which made the vessel walk,, while the pump was a miracle raising the water up, whose nature it was to fall down. .The Bijugas like
wise firmly credit the efficacy of gris-gris, or charms, which consist orcertain sentences of the Koran writ ten on paper by the Mandingo priests : They are neat ly sewed up is cloth, or leather, and attached to ferent parts of the body. A, lucrative traffic is car ried on in these gris-gris, which the fabricators will assert render Nvh.ever wears them invulnerable ; and should any one accidentally escape an impending evil, the priest preparing the charm is esteemed far supe rior to any of his fraternity.
A traffic is carried on in the Bijuga archipelago, 'chiefly by small vessels from the Portuguese settle ment of Bissao, and the English to the southward, for slaves and hides. The slaves being prone to re volt, and commit acts of desperation, commanders of ships are obliged to take more than usual precaution in securing them ; for, on the slightest neglect, the slaves will murder them, seize the vessel, and run her ashore. M. Delajaille gives a list of all the articles suitable for the Bijuga islanders.
It has been so peculiarly the interest of the Portu guese to repel all strangers from that part of the African shores, that other nations are very imperfect lv acquainted with the history of the native tribes. In 1687, while a Frenchman, named Delafond, was trading with the isle of Cazegoot, the natives stole some of his property : A favourable opportunity of retaliation immediately occurring, by the arrival of a French ship of war, he induced the commanderto engage with him in pillaging the whole island. Ac cordingly 200 men were landed, who invested the town, and burnt the king in his hut ; but, except ten or twelve, the whole population, consisting of 2.000 or 3000 people, fled to the woods, and escaped their sanguinary invaders. The French, however, had the address afterwards to conciliate the natives, and carry on a friendly traffic with them. More lately, during the projected settlement of Bulama, Captain Beaver, in 1792, made an amicable treaty with two of the kings, from whom he purchased that island for a quantity of goods. See Beaver's Afri can Memoranda. Durand's Voyage to Senegal. Delajaille, Voyage au Senegal. (c)