Online Encyclopedia

BRASS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 433 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRASS  , a

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river,
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town and
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district of
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southern
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Nigeria,
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British West Africa . The Brass river is one of the deltaic branches of the Niger, lying east of the Rio Nun or main channel of the river . From the point of divergence from the main stream to the sea the Brass has a course of about too m., its mouth being in 6° 20' E., 4 35' N . Brass town is a flourishing trading settlement at the mouth of the river . It is the headquarters of a district
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commissioner and the seat of a native court . Its most conspicuous
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building is a
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fine church, the gift of a native chief . The capital of the Brass tribes is Nimbe, 30 M . Up river . The Brass river, called by its Portuguese discoverers the Rio Bento, is said to have received its
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English name from the brassrods and other brass utensils imported by the early traders in
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exchange for palm-oil and slaves . The Brass natives, of the pure negro type, were noted for their savage character . In 1856 their chiefs concluded a treaty with
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Great Britain agreeing to give up the slave-trade in exchange for a duty on the palm-oil exported . Finding their profitable business as middlemen between the up-river producer and the exporter threatened by the appearance of
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European traders, they made ineffective complaints to the British authorities .

The

establishment of the Royal Niger
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Company led to further loss of trade, and on the 29th of
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January 1895 the natives attacked and sacked the company's station at Akassa on the Rio Nun, over
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forty prisoners being killed and eaten as a sacrifice to the fetish gods . In the following month a punitive expedition partially destroyed Nimbe, and a heavy fine was paid by the Brass chiefs . Since then the country has settled down under British administration . The trade regulations of which complaint had been made were removed in 1900 on the establishment of the
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protectorate of Southern Nigeria (see NIGERIA) . Valuable information concerning the country and
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people will be found in the Report by
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Sir John Kirk on the Disturbances at Brass (Africa, No . 3, 1896) .

End of Article: BRASS
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