“The oarsmen are a joyous race, such as is found all along the coast, singing songs in their broken English, and occasionally hitting the sides of the canoe with their paddles in cadence. They sing perhaps, “Man-o'-war come again, come again, come again,” with an occasional “whist,” and a long stroke of the paddle;––then “white man, good man, dash (give) a dollar, dollar, dollar,” “white offisher, dash dollar, big white dollar,”—and so on;––until they reach the more dangerous part of the surf, when the song is exchanged for a slow religious invocation, and at last we are landed on the beach. This we cross, take boat again upon the lagoon, and land at last in Badagry*.”
[African Proverbial Philosophy, Putnam's Magazine, October, 1857]

* Badagry, Lagos, Nigeria