PORTUGUESE CONECTION WITH WARRI: The landfall was described as follows:- The mouth of d Rio Formoso is very large, over a league across from point to point. The country to d South-East of it has a grove of trees so even in height dat no one tree seems higher than another; inside its mouth on d right is a very tall, branching tree which greatly overtops d rest, n beyond this tree are two other trees equally tall. The mouth of this river is shallow n full of hidden rocks; d depth is nowhere greater than two spans; d bottom is all loose mud, so dat a Ship can stay at half a fathom without receiving injury. This shallow extends to d sea two leagues, n d entrance n d channel are along d shore to d left; when you are inside d points where d channel is narrowest, beyond a sandy beach on d right, you can anchor at d mouth of a large canal. *Only one large settlement, TEBU, existed at d mouth of d Benin River at this time. Others were small villages. Today, Tebu, then d limit of navigation for larger Ships, is an Itsekiri village. Contemporary Portuguese information makes it clear dat settlements existed along d Benin River before d sixteenth century but whether these were under d Olu of Warri, we do not know. The Portuguese found d Escravos River too dangerous for navigation because it has shallows of hard sand running out nearly a league into d sea, with two n half fathoms of water over them n three fathoms at d deepest. The Forcados, on d other hand, although difficult to recognize from d sea, had a mouth wide enough for Ships. *The name Forcados is said to have been given to d river mainly because of d Large Birds found there with tails forked like those of Swallows, though d river itself is sufficiently forked to make this explanation unnecessary.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:19:56 +0000
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