Possibly women at Baragu where Burton and his party 'spent a right merry evening' on Friday 8 November on the return from Abeokuta: 'the fairer sex ... still displayed the vis superba formae - in figure, not in face ... Our hosts were perfectly civil and obliging, and so were our hostesses - rather too much so I could prove, if privileged to whisper into the reader's ear. But what would Mrs. Grundy say?' (Abeokuta, II, pp. 11-12)
The deleted inscription appears to refer to the crew of Commander Bedingfield's Prometheus stationed off Lagos: 'out of ninety-eight English crew, H.M.S. 'Prometheus' had lost during twenty-three months only two men from fever ... Immediately after the appearance above noticed, the sick began to flock in apace ... twelve bad cases were reported' (ibid., p. 19)