Major Leonard disembarked from the ship with nine men, leaving the rest onboard. They made a brief stop at Calabar, where they regrouped with forty black soldiers of Ijaw and Efik origin, who for paltry gifts as looking glasses, umbrellas and the white man’s gin, took up arms against their fellow Africans.
Though subdued as a people by gunboat influence, those who joined the white man’s army did so willingly, some of them receiving expert training as marksmen.
After falling into formation, the men marched down a footpath lined on both sides with palm trees, going towards the land of the rising sun. Derbyshire shivered at the sounds of monkeys and birds in the trees. Though armed with a dane gun like the other soldiers, he was nevertheless afflicted by a fear of the unknown. He focused hi
