Corisco Bay & Its Surroundings

Citation: Drawings of Western Africa, circa 1820-1850, Accession #14357. Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, VA Corisco Bay, Equatorial Guinea/Gabon, mid-19th century drawing #21 in collection Pencil and crayon. Captioned by the artist Corisco Bay & its surroundings 40 miles from North to South. 20 miles from East to West. A rough map of Corisco Bay from Cape Esterias and the Gabon River in the south to Cape St. John and Batanga Bay in the north. Corisco Island (today part of Equatorial Guinea, formerly called Rio Muni) is in the center of the bay, between Cape St. John and Cape Esterias, with the two Elobi (Alobi,Elobey, Eloby) islets about 11 miles to the northeast. A French fort (established in 1842 or 1843) and a Presbyterian mission station, identified as ABCFM (i.e., American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions), established in 1842 among the Mpongwe people, are shown on Cape Esterias, at the northern estuary of the Gabon River; by present-day Libreville. An inset drawing in the lower left gives a view of Corisco Island, as seen from the west. Several mission stations are identified: from left to right, Alingo (Alongo, Elongo), Itåndeluku, and Evangasimba; the small island of Laval is located approximately a mile distant. In 1850, the American Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions) established a mission on Corisco Island in the belief that the island would be safer from disease than the mainland. Its first station was at Evangasimba, on the islands western side; this was followed not long after by Ugobi, two miles away toward the southern end, and then Elongo, three miles distant on the islands northern end. Sources: Historical Sketches of the Missions under the Care of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia, 1891), pp. 20-21; Mary Kingsley,Travels in West Africa (London, 1897), pp. pp. 384-409; Robert H. Nassau, A History of the Presbytery of the Corisco (Trenton, N.J., 1888), pp. 5-11); Robert H. Nassau, Corisco Days: The First Thirty Years of the West Africa Mission (Philadelphia, 1910); John L. Wilson, Western Africa (New York, 1856), chapter 5. See other image references “UVA” on this site. For background to this and other UVA images, see image reference UVA01. http://slaveryimages.org/details.php?categorynum=1&categoryName=Maps:%20Africa,%20New%20World,%20Slave%20Trade&theRecord=31&recordCount=34 Contains images from the coastal areas of West Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Gold Coast, the Bight of Benin, the Cameroons and Corisco Bay. Both the life and customs of the Africans, and incidents and places associated with the slave trade are rendered in detail, with penciled annotations. Scenes depict slave factories including Cape Coast Castle and Elmina; a palisaded village; dwellings for Liberated Africans; Kru people; locations and structures of various Christian missions including the house of Jacob Rambo; African customs including execution of a witch; a burial, and mourning; occupations; dwellings; weapons, furniture, baskets, and other implements of daily life; edible plants; and maps and topographical drawings. Drawings (which are unsigned and undated), apparently by at least two artists, have been attributed, on the basis of uncertain evidence, to John Revey, a freeborn African American, who served several mission stations under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. Revey, who died in 1842, did have drafting abilities and is credited with two maps currently in the Maryland Historical Society. Internal evidence on at least two of the drawings indicate dates later than 1849 and 1850. Three of the drawings have been printed as engravings in missionary accounts. 32 drawings : watercolor, crayon, ink; 58 x 76cm. and smaller.