My conviction was, that this apparent neglect was the result of a preconcerted arrangement, in order to give the Dahoman soldiers an opportunity of exhibiting their skill as engineers. I proposed to swim my horse and self across, but this was opposed by the caboceer, on account of the rapidity of the stream. Besides, how were the officers’ wives, who carried their baggage, and also my own carriers, to get across? For this purpose I proposed rafts to be made from branches of trees, cut into lengths and lashed together and passed across by a rope, formed from the long fibres which grow downwards from the branches of the large trees on this bank, resembling hundreds of ropes of various thickness. These extraordinary fibres are sometimes thirty and forty feet long, according to the height of the branches from which they grow, and are extremely tough. They are pliable and of great strength. When they reach the ground, they insert themselves to some depth, and again take root, from which other trees spring upwards. They frequently form a colonnade of considerable extent along the banks of rivers, and resemble mangroves. My proposition was not approved of, and a council of officers being held, it was in a short time determined to adopt rather a novel method, which it may be interesting to describe. As I have already stated, large trees, of a species which I have previously mentioned, grew on the banks on either side of this river. A number of small trees were cut, each of the private soldiers cutting with his short sabre, or knife, till a sufficient number were thus obtained. These poles newly cut were tied to the long fibres hanging perpendicularly from the branches of the larger trees, and were then attached in succession, horizontally, till they reached the hanging fibres of the trees on the opposite bank. After having fixed two lines of poles across, in the manner I have described, about one yard apart, short pieces of wood were cut and placed across, and small boughs, and grass or reeds, placed on the top, so that a suspension-bridge was thus simply constructed in the short space of half an hour. The whole party then passed over in safety. I was informed, in reply to a question, that this is by no means an invention of the Dahomans, but has long been practised in Central Africa, especially in time of war, and where the rivers are not too wide. Floating bridges are also constructed in a similar manner, where the above method cannot be adopted.