The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa

Toward the west, its boundary turns southward to within about twenty-five miles of Abeokuta.

(8) Ijesa, capital Ilesa. This state is situated to the southeast of Yoruba proper.

(9) Ife, capital of the same name, lies southwest of Ijesa.

(10) Ondo. This kingdom, with its capital at Ondo, is situated southeast of Ife.

In addition, there are several small states—or rather independent townships—consisting of a town and a few outlying villages. The principal ones are Egbado, Okeodan, Ado, Awori, and Igbessa, all of which lie south of Egba. Their inhabitants are Egbados, or Southern Egbas (Egba-odo, meaning "Egbas of the coast").

The inhabitants of all these states speak one language: Yoruba. The French call them "Nagos," while the English name them according to their political divisions, such as Egbas, Ibadans, Jebus, etc.

The lagoon system, which in the last volume of this series was noted as beginning a short distance west of the Volta River on the Gold Coast, extends along the entire coastline occupied by the Yoruba-speaking tribes, providing a continuous waterway from Porto Novo to Benin. The extension of the continent in a southerly direction—which I mentioned in the last volume as typical of the western half of the Slave Coast, and which can undoubtedly be attributed to the action of the Guinea Current closing former coastal inlets with sand—is equally noticeable here in the eastern half of the Slave Coast. Generally speaking, the country is...