CHAPTER FOUR
Two planting seasons had passed since the python-slaying incident. It was noon and the sea breeze was gentle. Seabirds flew low over the calm ocean, trying to feast on the harvest of the waters.
Docked at a port near Calabar was the Andronicus, a British steamship that had just arrived from Fernando Po with over fifteen soldiers on board led by a Major Leonard. Inscribed on the massive ship was the number IS45:14.
The ship was there in pursuance of the resolutions of the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885, during which the map of Africa was placed on a roundtable so Africa could be partitioned like a cake amongst the different European nations.
The British had annexed the coastal areas of the regions along the Bight of Biafra, which had been the territories shared to them.
