WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA 
 
 LIVERPOOL TO FERNANDO PO.

 
 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA 
 
 FROM 
 
 LIVERPOOL TO FERNANDO PO. 
 
 BY A F.R.G.S. 
 
 S2itfj fHap anS EDustratum. 
 
 TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. II. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE ST., STRAND. 
 
 1863. 
 
 
 [The Rigid of Translation is resewed.]
 
 LONDON : 
 BRADBUBT AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFBIARS.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. (continued}, 
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OP COCOA PALMS ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AT CAPE COAST CASTLE . . . 39 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 GOLD IN AFRICA 104 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A PLEASANT DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS . . . . 132 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. . .* 186 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BENIN NUN BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO Po 242
 
 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. (continued.) 
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF COCOA PALMS. 
 
 " Cape de las Palmas, a fair high land ; hut having on the eastern 
 side some low places by the shore which look like red cliffs, with white 
 streaks resembling highways, reaching the length of a cable." 
 
 Capt, JOHN LAKE, the first English visitor at this place in 1554. 
 
 16TH SEPTEMBER, 186 . 
 
 AFTER subscribing to the Cavalla Messenger,* and 
 taking leave of Mr. Hoffman, with gratitude for his 
 kindness, indeed highly pleased with the civility of all 
 after our short but sharp experience at S'a Leone, we 
 walked back to the Hotel, where we found a luncheon 
 provided for us by Mr. John Marshall. Our leave of 
 absence was soon ended ; we unfolded umbrellas a pre- 
 
 * It is published monthly at Cavalla, the head-quarters of Bishop 
 Payne. The printing, which is tolerable, is "done" by two native 
 youths. The subscription, payable in advance, is fifty cents (two 
 shillings) per annum ; or, including postage per steamer, seventy-five 
 cents.
 
 2 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 caution never to be disregarded in these latitudes, where 
 the more you know of the sun the more you respect him 
 and took our way to the boats. On the steps a docu- 
 ment was handed to me : it bore the novel direction : 
 
 For Nanpopo (Fernando Po), 
 
 MR. FRIDAY, 
 In the care of one* Crewman (Kruman). 
 
 The Consul had failed in recruiting men. " Nanny 
 Po/' was a word of fear to the Krumen ; they had been 
 made to work in gardens and on the roads, and they 
 complained most falsely, I afterwards found of "^toco 
 comer, mucho trabajo." Some of them had been engaged 
 for one year, not two, and had been kept for three the 
 usual time to the great sorrow of their mammies and 
 to the abiding resentment of themselves. Hearing the 
 Consul speak a few words of Spanish, they decided him 
 to be " a Tanyer," and resolutely refused, with charac- 
 teristic independence, to accompany him. One man 
 came down to the wharf and expressed willingness to 
 engage; he asked, besides passage to and from his country, 
 and food, clothes, and lodging, $4 and 2 pezetas per 
 mensem $2 being the usual wages. His terms were 
 agreed to, but he forgot to come on board. We also 
 failed in buying Kru canoes, which are useful for fishing 
 and for sending notes to ships in harbour. They are 
 usually plentiful, and sell for II. each; the people, 
 however, in actual sight of " siller/' declared that they 
 
 * The African language has no indefinite article : hence one is always 
 used for our a.
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 3 
 
 wanted all their craft, and I know the African too well to 
 waste time when he urges that plea and takes that stand. 
 Cape Palmas, called Bamnepo by the natives, is in 
 the county of Maryland, the easternmost of the five into 
 which the Liberian Republic is divided, beginning from, 
 the east Sinoe, Bassa, Mesurado, in which the capital 
 stands, and Kassa, the northernmost which contains the 
 much-vexed Gallinhas River. It was begun in 1834 by 
 the Maryland State Colonization Society, which granted 
 to it an annual sum of 2000^ from the treasury. The 
 Governor, or, as he is here called, the Superintendent 
 of Public Affairs at Cape Palmas Station, is Hon. 
 J. C. Gibson, who is under the present President of 
 Liberia, Hon. S. A. Benson, who succeeded ex-Presi- 
 dent Eoberts, a good working man, but as arbitrary as 
 democrats when in power are apt to be. There are two 
 senators Hon. J. Marshall, and Hon. J. Moulton. 
 Whenever a dispute arises between the colonists arid the 
 natives, a council, composed of the Superintendent and 
 the Senators, together with the African Headman, holds 
 "palaver" upon the subject. The Krumen have as 
 yet shown a rooted aversion to all taxation ; they prefer 
 to be plundered wholesale, at uncertain periods, by their 
 own people, than pay a certain and invariable, though 
 trifling assessment, for law, order, and protection. Con- 
 sequently Harper is rather depressed for want of means. 
 The principal income is from ships entering the harbour; 
 they are charged 3 Is. for anchorage and lighthouse 
 dues. Another tax might be put upon water, of 
 
 B 2
 
 4 . WANDEEINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 which there are good, but not abundant, springs at the 
 Cape. The number of Krumen who flock to this station 
 for employment seldom falls below 1500, and of course 
 it is made a source of profit to individual colonists. The 
 Republic desires that trade be restricted to six ports of 
 entry, of which Harper is one.* 
 
 The Methodists who, about eight years ago, established 
 themselves in these lands, number the largest body of 
 Christians in Liberia their annals, however, are a necro- 
 logy. The reader may see below the state of the Protes- 
 tant Episcopal Mission at the time of my visit.f In the 
 
 * Of these six, three are in one county, and one in each of the 
 others, viz. : 
 
 Roberts Port, J 
 
 Monrovia, I Mesurad County. 
 
 Marshall, \ 
 
 Buchanan, Bassa County. 
 
 Gxeenhill, Sinoe County. 
 
 Harper, Maryland County. 
 
 + " The Mission Field about Cape Palmas. 
 
 "It was a wise and merciful Providence which first directed the 
 Protestant Episcopal Mission, and others, to Cape Palmas and parts ad- 
 jacent. It was the healthiest of the settlements then made on the 
 coast. Unlike some other portions of the Liberian coast, the tribes 
 around had not been thinned or broken up by the slave trade and 
 domestic wars which it ever excites. While the Cavalla River, alive 
 with an active trade, opened a highway eighty miles into the interior. 
 
 "These favourable circumstances, made known by Dr. James Hall, 
 then Governor at Cape Palmas, and Rev. Dr. Wilson, who accompanied 
 him on his expedition to purchase land for the colony, determined the 
 Foreign Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church to commence 
 their missionary work at Cape Palmas. 
 
 " In the autumn of 1836, Rev. Dr. Savage arrived at Cape Palmas, 
 Mr. James M. Thomson, a Liberian, had been employed by the Foreign 
 Committee to make preliminary arrangements, and had so well
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 5 
 
 several settlements of Rocktown, Fishtown, and Springhill 
 there are about 130 catechumens, who are instructed by 
 
 occupied his time that when Dr. Savage arrived, the lot at Mount 
 Vaughan was partially cleared, and Mr. Thomson had gathered a small 
 native school in a thatched house on the premises. 
 
 "On July 4th, 1837, Rev. Messrs. Minor and Payne joined Dr. 
 Savage. By this time the first Mission House at Mount Vaughan was 
 so far completed that, by putting up curtains, we managed to make out 
 three rooms for the Mission family. 
 
 "In the Mission field they found Rev. Dr. Wilson and associates of 
 the American Board occupying Cape Palmas, Rocktown, Fishtown, and 
 Half Cavalla ; and Rev. F. Burns, of the Methodist Mission, regularly 
 in the colony. 
 
 "The field immediately about the Cape being so well occupied, the 
 Protestant Episcopal Mission at once directed its efforts towards the 
 interior. Accordingly, while Mr. Payne officiated for a small colonist 
 congregation, and occasionally at ' Joe War's Town ' (not Hoffman 
 station), Grahway and Perebo, Mr. Minor was sent to make arrange- 
 ments to open a station at DihnS (Dinnah), on the Cavalla, thirty miles 
 from its mouth. 
 
 "The lot had been selected for the building and the plan of the house 
 decided upon when the people of Bareke, a larger town midway between 
 Mount Vaughan and Dihne, insisted upon our having a Mission station 
 at their place before going beyond them. 
 
 " As they commanded the road, we could do no better than fall back 
 on Bareke. Here, again, Mr. Minor had gone and selected a Mission 
 lot ; and King Tedi Blia had visited Mount Vaughan to complete arrange- 
 ments for building, when suddenly war broke out between Bareke and 
 the colony, and our progress was again arrested. Soon after this, Dr. 
 Wilson, of the American Board, and associates determined to remove 
 their Mission to the Gaboon River, and their stations about Cape 
 Palmas were gradually transferred to the Protestant Episcopal Mission." 
 
 "General Statistics of the Protestant Episcopal Mission at Capes 
 Palmas and Parts adjacent. 
 
 "We give this month the general statistics of our Mission. We 
 shall be most happy to receive from our brethren the coast statistics of 
 their Mission, and any items of intelligence connected therewith.
 
 6 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 three Anglo- Americans and their families. With excel- 
 lent sense the missionaries employ their pupils for a 
 short time in reading and writing, ciphering, and 
 psalmody, and for a long time in learning trades and 
 handicraft. Education is cheap; the poor pay but 
 2 cents, the rich $5, a year. They thus form a Civili- 
 zation Society; whilst others, neglecting all things save 
 the cure of souls, are successful in producing, as the 
 phrase is, more convicts than converts. They possess 
 however a great advantage in the collaboration of a 
 coloured population, not from Jamaica, or from what 
 
 "Stations. Colonists, 6 ; natives, 15. Total, 21. 
 
 " These Stations extend 270 miles along the coast, from Monrovia to 
 Taboo ; and seventy-five miles interior, from Cavalla to Bohlen. 
 
 "Missionaries. Foreign, 4; colonists, 4. Total, 8. 
 
 "Catechists, Teachers, and Assistants. Foreign, 5; colonial, 8. 
 and native, 18. Total, 31. 
 
 " Baptisms (past year returns imperfect). Infant, 13; adult, 21. 
 Total, 34. 
 
 " Confirmations (past year), 37. 
 
 "Communicants. For eign and colonists, 211 ; native, 158. Total, 
 369. 
 
 "Boarding Scholars. Colonists, 37; natives, 104. Total, 140. 
 
 "Day Scholars. Colonists, 133 ; natives, 250. Total, 383. 
 
 "Sunday Scholars. Colonists, 334 ; natives, 150. Total, 484. 
 
 " Candidates for Orders. Foreign, 1 ; colonists, 4 ; natives, 2. 
 Total, 7. 
 
 "Field of labour of Liberia. Three counties, eight native tribes 
 aggregate population, 16,000. 
 
 "The Grebo language reduced to writing: Genesis, four Gospels, 
 Acts, Common Prayer Book (in part), Bible History, Life of Christ, 
 Hymn Book, Primer, Grebo History and Dictionary published in the 
 language. Also, printing press; paper the 'Cavalla Messenger' 
 published monthly,"
 
 SIX HOUES AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 7 
 
 may perhaps be worse, Barbadoes, but from the United 
 States. Civilized and perfectly capable of managing 
 and utilizing their wild congeners, the colonists appear 
 in a most favourable light after the semi-reclaimed Akus 
 and Ibos, their northern neighbours. They have even 
 proposed to take charge of S'a Leone ; and I doubt not 
 that, if permitted, they would soon effect important 
 changes. Liberia is a Republic, that is to say, she is 
 pretty far gone in the ways of despotism the only fit 
 government for " Africa and the Africans/' "Mort-e alia 
 constituzione !" (in these lands) I exclaim with the un- 
 happy Florentines, when they marched in arms through 
 their streets and put a forcible end to a system which 
 imposed upon them by an ambitious and unscrupulous 
 media ceto, a dynasty of doctors, lawyers, professors, and 
 professional politic-mongers, enslaved them to 1000 
 rogues in esse, instead of to possibly one. 
 
 Liberia is at present in trouble; we heard many 
 rumours of wars, and saw martial preparations when on 
 shore. The Spanish vice-consul of Accra, who was on 
 board, did not disembark at Cape Palmas. At S'a Leone 
 our Frenchman there is always one on board in these 
 steamers had blurted out something which might not 
 have pleased H,I.M.S.S. La Ceres. According to him this 
 gun-boat had sailed from Fernando Po to settle a dispute 
 touching the Gallinhas River. She had entered the 
 harbour and had attacked the " Quail/' generally known 
 as the " Lively Quail/' in the harbour of Monrovia, and 
 had sunk her and her crew, receiving but a single shot
 
 8 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 through her cabin door. The " Quail" is an old schooner, 
 now carrying three guns one 32 -pounder and two 
 12-pounder carronades. She was presented by the 
 British Government to assist in the suppression of the 
 slave trade. She is one of the two that compose the 
 "Liberian Navy;" the other vessel, a gift from the 
 United States, never puts out to sea. 
 
 Now all this was a canard. The facts proved to be as 
 follows. Of course there are two versions of the affair : 
 that of the Spaniards, and that of the Liberians. I will 
 give precedence to the former. 
 
 The Spaniards assert that a small vessel named the 
 "Buenaventura Cubano," touched, on her way from Tene- 
 rife to Fernando Po, at the Gallinhas River, and was cast 
 upon rocks inside the bar. That the master, seeing an 
 opportunity, began to trade for palm-oil, when the "Quail" 
 of Liberia attacked her, hauled down the Spanish flag, 
 plundered the cargo, and compelled the master and men 
 to fly from assassination. That the goelette "La Ceres " 
 was sent for the purpose of demanding satisfaction at 
 Liberia, where, finding batteries and ships prepared to 
 attack her, she fired into the " Quail" and retired. They 
 deny the right of Liberia to the Gallinhas waters, and 
 they assert that were the contrary the case, as they have 
 neither treaties nor established usages with Liberia, that 
 the latter cannot be allowed to molest their subjects. 
 Finally, they demand suitable reparation for the offence, 
 and indemnification for the loss of the cause of dispute. 
 
 The Liberiaiis, on the other hand, declare that Prince
 
 SIX. HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 9 
 
 Mannah, the Chief of Gallinhas, reported to head-quarters 
 that a Spanish ship was in the river with slave gear on 
 board, and collecting her live cargo. That the " Quail/' 
 having ascertained these facts, captured her on the 30th 
 May, 1861, and was about to tow her to Monrovia 
 for judgment at the Admiralty Court, when the officer 
 commanding Her Majesty's ship "Torch" sent the prize 
 crew away, and hauled down the (single) star-spangled 
 banner of the Republic, and on the 13th June, 1861, 
 burned the Liberian prize. That, so far from injuring 
 the Spanish subjects, they had been permitted to go 
 to S'a Leone, where there is a Spanish consul-general, 
 and to take with them all necessary supplies ; moreover, 
 that Prince Mannah had provided them with a large canoe. 
 That the "Ceres/' having recounoitered the harbour 
 of Monrovia, returned about fourteen days afterwards, 
 and steamed in under pretext of visiting the President. 
 That without any warning she began firing, on the llth 
 September, 1861, into the " Quail," when the batteries 
 gave her such a dose that she was glad to make her 
 escape.* That the Gallinhas is within the Republic's 
 jurisdiction, and she is- bound by treaties with Great 
 Britain to suppress slavery within her dominions. 
 Finally, that her weakness is her strength quoad the 
 great Powers of Europe ; that one of them has weakened 
 her authority with the aborigines, and that she is entitled 
 
 * The "Cavalla Messenger" confirms this: "The ' Ceres' received so 
 spirited a response from the ' Quail, ' which was anchored under the 
 fort's guns, that she withdrew, having suffered, it is said, considerably."
 
 10 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 to reparation for the attack of the " Ceres" and remunera- 
 tion for the legal prize burned by the British officer. 
 
 This great question evidently turns upon the owner- 
 ship of the Gallinhas waters. In 1842, block-houses 
 were recommended to the British Government for the 
 suppression of slave trade evidently showing that in 
 those days it was not Liberian territory. In 1848 took 
 place the after-dinner conversation between Lord Ashley 
 and Mr. Gurney with Mr. President Roberts, and the 
 wily negro persuaded them that by paying 2000, slavery 
 would be eradicated from the Gallinhas River and, 
 700 miles annexed to the Republic. In 1849, H.M.S. 
 " Albert," Commander Dunlop, broke up the slave 
 factories they had been previously injured by Captain 
 Denham, R.N. and carried off European traders and 
 1200 slaves to S'a Leone. The Republicans, however, 
 insist that the land and the several points known as 
 the Gallinhas were bought on the 13th April, 1850, 
 from Prince Mannah and the other chiefs. On the 
 other hand, it is believed that the Prince totally denies 
 the transaction. As has already been said, Africans 
 have no idea of permanently alienating land which is 
 common property, not that of the king or chiefs ; even a 
 written contract implies, according to their ideas, only that 
 the stranger has the rights of citizenship and of personal 
 occupancy.* A joint commission is, I believe, in orders 
 
 * Of course our popular writers in "Chambers" and so forth assert that 
 the native chiefs transferred the sovereignty of their country to the 
 Liberian Government, and general readers believe them. It is thus 
 that history is written. Evidently the natives should be consulted,
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 11 
 
 to settle the north-western limits of Liberia. Should 
 the Gallinhas fall to them, they purpose to establish 
 another port of entry either on that river or on the 
 Shebar, and where it would not be too near Roberts 
 Port, and to name it Gurney, after their late bene- 
 factor. 
 
 It would hardly be fair to leave Cape Palmas without 
 saying something touching its peculiar population. The 
 theme has been treated by every writer upon the subject 
 of this coast, Owen, Boteler, Smith, Wilson, Hutchinson, 
 and Durrant, not to mention dozens of others. Yet 
 there is more to say than has been said.* 
 
 The word Kru written Croo, Kroo, Krou, and, by 
 other writers, Carow and Crew, upon the principle that 
 Sipahi became Sepoy, or Seapie is a corruption of the 
 name by which the people call themselves " Krdo." It 
 is a small tribe, living about half-way between Cape 
 Mesurado and Cape Palmas, about seventy-five miles 
 above or to the north-west of the latter. The district 
 extends from twenty to thirty miles along the coast, and 
 
 and if the sale be bond fide it should be confirmed to Liberia, and vice 
 versd. At present, uncertainty causes much irritation, and the mer- 
 chants of Sierra Leone are preparing to assert their joint rights to the 
 Gallinhas by force if necessary. 
 
 * The following remarks concerning the origin of the Kru are derived 
 from information received from Bishop Payne, and from the Introduc. 
 lion to Ms Dictionary of the Grebo Language. New York : Jenkins, 
 Frankfort Street, 1860. 
 
 The little volume contains about 2500 words, or nearly half the 
 language. It is to be hoped that this excellent Minister of the Gospel 
 will soon publish his expected Grammar of the Grebo tongue.
 
 12 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 perhaps, as much into the interior. They had originally 
 five chief settlements, which, beginning from the north- 
 west, are Little Kru; Settra Kru the chief town, Krubah, 
 Nanna Kru, or Kru Settra, and King Will's Town. They 
 were the first to go to sea, and, as some twenty other 
 tribes, numbering, perhaps, 150,000 souls, followed their 
 example, all are now known by -the common name 
 Krumen. As Mr. M'Queen says, they never enslave one 
 another; yet they were the life and soul of the Spanish and 
 Portuguese slavers, and they proved themselves probably 
 the greatest kidnappers on the coast. They first began the 
 peculiar tattoo, which the adjoining tribes soon imitated, 
 and now they are in the habit of buying bushmen and 
 boy-slaves, and marking them like themselves, thus 
 transforming them to " Krumen," that they may be 
 engaged as seamen. When the slave-trade began to 
 decline, they preferred the service of ships of war and 
 merchantmen, they visited S'a Leone in considerable 
 numbers, and they became the Coolies and Lascars 
 of West Africa. They seem to be created purposely 
 for the oil trade. 
 
 The chief tribes that followed their example were the 
 people of Niffu, or Piccaninny Sess; the Bwidabe, or 
 Fishrnen; the Menawe of Grand Sess, the Wi&bo of 
 Garoway, the Babo below Cavalla River, the Plabo,* and 
 
 * On this part of the coast, all the places and tribes have double 
 names. The Cavalla River is called Dokrinyun ; Cape Monrovia, 
 Trubo ; Cape Mount, Chepe ; Drewin, Wayra ; St. Andrew's, Nisonti ; 
 and Settra Kru, Wete. Of individual names, more hereafter.
 
 SIX HOUES AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 13 
 
 others, extending to Cape St. Andrew's, and about forty 
 miles into the interior. Of these tribes, who are all 
 cognate, as their language and physique prove, the most 
 influential are the Grebos of Cape Palmas : the total 
 number, however, probably does not exceed 40,000. 
 Like the peoples generally upon the African coast, they 
 have lately come from the interior. Their own tradition 
 is, that a Kobo Kui, or foreign house no doubt some 
 European slave factory was found by them on arrival 
 at Cape Palmas. Their earliest settlements near the sea 
 were behind Berebi, sixty miles to the eastward. After 
 becoming too numerous for their narrow limits, a portion 
 of them determined, Irish-like, upon a kind of exodus 
 to the west. The movement was secretly managed, 
 because it was opposed to the wishes of the majority. 
 Whilst embarking, a number of canoes were capsized, 
 and those in them were left behind. They were called 
 Woribo, or the Capsized, from the verb Wore. The 
 others, who succeeded in bounding over the waves, took 
 the name of Grebo, from the jumping grey monkey, 
 Gre or Gri. 
 
 Proceeding up the coast, the Grebos landed detached 
 parties in the country now inhabited by the Bubos, at 
 Cavalla and at Cape Palmas, where they built small 
 temporary settlements. They continued their migration 
 as far as Grand Sesters, forty miles above Cape Palmas : 
 at length, directed by an oracle, they all gathered together 
 and built on the Cape of Cocoas a large town, called 
 Bwini, or Bwirnli. These wanderings account for the
 
 14 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 close analogy of the Grebo tongue and that of Sino 
 (written Siuori, or Sinoe), in N. lat. 5 l', or about 
 ninety miles to the north-west of Harper. At Grand 
 Sesters there are still large branches of the Grebo 
 family, and many merchant-ships prefer them as being 
 the best-conducted men. After them are the people of 
 Niffu, or Piccaninny Sesters. For fishing, the Fish- 
 men are the best servants. 
 
 Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call the Grebo 
 "Krumen." As, however, the people of this coast 
 readily converse together, hold constant intercourse, and 
 are remarkably like one another in physique, as in 
 morale, they may be described as one, and the best 
 name for them is that which custom sanctions 
 Krumen. 
 
 The peculiar contrast of feature and figure which dis- 
 tinguishes this people has already been described. 
 The features are distinctly African, without an ad- 
 mixture of Arab; the conjunctiva is brown, yellow, or 
 tarnished, a Hamitic peculiarity ; and some paint white 
 goggle-like ovals round the orbits, producing the effect 
 of a " loup." This is sometimes done for sickness, and 
 invalids are rubbed over with various light and dark 
 coloured powders. The skin is very dark, often lamp- 
 black ; others are of a deep rich brown or bronze tint, 
 but a light-complexioned man is generally called Tom 
 Coffee ; and people put waggish questions touching his 
 paternity. They wear the hair, which is short and 
 kinky, in crops, which look like Buddha's skull-cap ;
 
 SIX EOUES AT TEE CAPE OF PALMS. 15 
 
 and they shave when mourning for their relations : a 
 favourite "fash." is to scrape off a parallelogram behind 
 the head, from the poll to the cerebellum ; and others 
 are decorated in that landscape or parterre style which 
 wilder Africa and Germany love. The back of the 
 cranium is often remarkably flat, and I have seen many 
 heads of the pyramidal shape, rising narrow and pointed 
 high to the apex. The beard is seldom thick, and never 
 long ; the moustachio is removed, and the pile, like the 
 hair, often grows in tufts. The tattoo has been described : 
 there seems to be something attractive in this process 
 the English sailor can seldom resist the temptation. 
 They also chip, sharpen, and extract the teeth. Most 
 men cut out an inverted Y between the two middle 
 incisors of the upper jaw ; others draw one or two of 
 the central and lower incisors ; others, especially the St. 
 Andrew's men, tip or sharpen the incisors, like the 
 "Waliiao, and several Central African tribes. Odonto- 
 logy has its mysteries. Dentists seem, or rather seemed 
 to hold as a theory, that destruction of enamel involves 
 the loss of the tooth ; the Krumen hack their masticators 
 with a knife, or a rough piece of hoop iron, and find 
 that the sharpening, instead of producing caries, acts 
 as a preservative, by facilitating the laniatory process. 
 Similarly there are physiologists who attribute the pre- 
 servation of the negro's teeth to his not drinking any- 
 thing hotter than blood heat. This is mere empiricism. 
 The Arabs swallow their coffee nearly boiling, and the 
 East African will devour his agali, or porridge, when
 
 16 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the temperature would scald the hand. Yet both these 
 races have pearls of teeth, except when they chew lime 
 or tobacco.* The Krumen, like most other wild people, 
 always wash the teeth after eating. A cleanly race, and 
 never passing a day unless it be very cold without 
 bathing, the African fetor is not always perceptible, but 
 it exists. f The hands and feet are large and coarse, but 
 not such outrages to proportion as the races further south. 
 The Krumen show all that propensity to ape Euro- 
 peans which characterizes the African generally. A noble 
 savage enough in his semi-nudity, when a single shukkeh 
 covers his middle the women wear even less with a 
 bead necklace, and coarse iron, ivory, or brass rings round 
 his wrists and ankles ; he is fond of making himself 
 grotesque, as an old-clo' man. The hat is borrowed from 
 the sailor ; it is of every form chimney-pot, Kossuth, 
 skull-cap, naval casquette, red nightcap, straw or broad- 
 brimmed wide-awake ; not ^infrequently it surmounts a 
 bandanna, or some gaudy kerchief. A tooth-stick is in 
 every mouth, and not a few snuff or chew. The neck is 
 variously decorated, from the band of hairy skin to 
 the Popo, or Aggri bead,J which, on the Gold Coast, 
 
 * On the other hand, it is said of the Guanches at Tenerife that 
 "they drank nothing hut water, and that only at a certain period after 
 eating anything heated, for fear of destroying their teeth." 
 
 + The Persians find a similar fetor in the Jewish race, and call it hy 
 a peculiar name "bui shimit." This, however, arises probably not 
 so much from the conformation of the skin, as from the extreme impurity 
 of the race. 
 
 t Much has been written touching these beads, which are dug from
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 17 
 
 is more valuable than gold. The favourite ornaments 
 are strings of leopards' teeth, small chains of brass and 
 iron, and beads of every form and substance glass and 
 porcelain, white and black, blue, green, and yellow ; the 
 necklace is used to hold the clay dudheen, of European 
 make. The wrists bear from one to half a dozen ivory 
 bracelets, rings painfully cut out with a knife, and turned 
 with a wet cord rubbed to and fro ; the most pretentious 
 of these decorations have the wearer's name engraved 
 upon the ivory in coloured letters, or upon a brass-plate, 
 or expressed in metal tacks forming the words ; they are 
 at once passports and characters for future service. On 
 the arm, also, is the Gri, or Petish, leopards' teeth, or 
 the smallest deer-horns, with cowries and other " medi- 
 cine " bound on by a bit of string. Ligatures round the 
 ankles are similarly fetished, and some are drawn so 
 tight that the cord leaves a deep mark upon the skin. 
 I presume that, like the tribes of the Arab Bedouins, 
 these are intended for ligatures in case of snake bites ; 
 they are certainly the only alleviation when suffering from 
 cramp, a painful nervous disease in these lands, ever 
 liable to be induced by cold, wet, or confined positions. 
 They are fond of finger-rings, but care little whether 
 they are gold, silver, or brass. The pagne, or loin cloth, 
 is generally a cheque of white and pink or blue ; it is 
 tied round the waist, or tucked into a cord : and only 
 great swells have cricket, military, or elastic belts. Some 
 
 the ground. Many are found upon the Liberian coast, and cannot be 
 imitated in Europe. Some travellers have derived them from Egypt. 
 VOL. n. c
 
 18 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 carry sticks of peculiar shape, edged and notched like 
 certain Hindostani swordblades. The few women whom 
 we saw were shaven-pated and nude to their loins, which 
 were covered with the scantiest cloth : they showed a 
 decided steatopyga and the pulpy African development. 
 Their principal ornaments were massive brass anklets; and 
 all were at work, carrying upon their heads rice-bags in 
 wicker cradles, and freshly-caught fish in the bark band- 
 boxes described by Central African travellers. The chil- 
 dren are attired secundum naturam, except the mission 
 boys, who are decently clad in loose jackets and panta- 
 loons : they have all two "given names," <?. g., A. B. 
 Smith ; and the negrillons about the house are also 
 promoted to shirt and loin-cloth. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Wilson, late of the Gaboon Mission, 
 who, some thirty years ago, took so active a part in 
 purchasing land for the colony, has well and accurately 
 described in a book to which the reader is referred,* the 
 curious polity of this people. Like the Guanches of 
 Tenerife, and indeed most primitive people from Etruria 
 to India, the Kru Republic is divided into four classes, 
 which can hardly, however, be called castes. These are 
 the elders, the middle-aged men who form the sol- 
 diery ; the youth who aspire to become warriors ; and 
 the demon doctors, priests, and physicians. As amongst 
 
 * Western Africa ; its History, Condition, and Prospects. New 
 York : Harper and Brothers, 1856. Chap. 6 is the best treatise on the 
 Kru Republic that I know. Generally the work abounds in flaws, but 
 if properly edited it would form a good handbook of Western Africa.
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE GAPE OF PALMS. 19 
 
 the Wanyika of the Eastern Coast, there appears to be 
 a regular initiation to each step in rank.* The two 
 first classes meet in deliberative assembly when any mea- 
 sure touching the public interests is proposed ; the juve- 
 niles, however, are expected to be seen and not heard, 
 except when the subject discussed has special reference 
 to their own body. Oratory, as amongst all African 
 tribes, is greatly cultivated, and to judge from its effects 
 upon the audience, with success. A highly aristocratic 
 form is secured by the preponderance of the first class 
 in the commonwealth. The youths are hardly per- 
 mitted to hold property ; if they return wealthy from 
 beyond the sea their gains are systematically appropriated. 
 Nay, more : even an elder who presumes to excel his 
 fellows in riches or importance is at once reduced, for 
 "too much sass," to the general level. The "sauce- 
 wood," or red wood of the giddu tree, ordeal is fearfully 
 prevalent amongst them, killing its thousands ; the only 
 check is, that if the defendant survives the poisonous 
 draught, the plaintiff must drink it in his turn. Capital 
 punishment is rare, except in cases of murder or witch- 
 craft, where the criminal is beaten to death or drowned. 
 As usual amongst uncivilized people, even the Chinese, 
 little difference is made between wilful murder and 
 justifiable homicide : the object seems to teach the value 
 of human life. Adultery and theft are punished by fine, 
 
 * "Among the Wanyika the orders are three in number : Nyene, the 
 young ; Khanbi, the middle-aged; and Nfaya, the old." Zanzibar, and 
 Two Months in East Africa. Blackwood's Magazine, Feb., 1858. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and the informer is regarded with general contempt. 
 Another check upon crime is the system of headmen. 
 The eldest male member of the several families into 
 which the tribes are divided, is at once their representa- 
 tive in palavers, and their security for good behaviour. 
 Property is held as a kind of joint-stock, and from it 
 fines and other penalties for misdemeanors must be 
 paid. 
 
 The morale of this people appears to the European 
 exceedingly contradictory, not to say unintelligible. The 
 same, however, may be affirmed of all barbarous tribes, 
 where viewed with purely civilized eyes. For instance, 
 the Krumen have, for the last two centuries, been a race 
 of sailors ; they have chosen what is by no means an un- 
 dangerous profession, and they are accustomed to cross 
 the perilous bars, and to trust themselves to the mercy 
 of the sharks and the breakers. Yet they are arrant 
 cowards. When real firing begins on board ship, they 
 will run and hide themselves in the coal bunkers. 
 During the descent of the Niger, in 1859, \vhen the 
 hostile villages below Abo shot at the Government Con- 
 tract Steamer "Bainbow," Captain Creen, it was neces- 
 sary to drive the Krumen from their retreat behind 
 the paddle-boxes. They will desert their master upon 
 the least appearance of danger. It is impossible to 
 mistake their state of panic : if a roller strikes a boat 
 anexpectedly, they will lay oars by, gaze with a blank 
 face, and if the stick be not used, rise to spring over- 
 board. The least corporal punishment makes them
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 21 
 
 scream like women, and, unlike most Africans, they are 
 exceedingly sensitive to pain. Sickness afflicts them 
 mentally as well as bodily ; and if one of a boat's crew 
 be lost off a bar, or devoured by sharks, it is found 
 advisable to send the others home. The canoe men or 
 Guinea men on the other hand, if supplied with a gallon 
 of rum, will forget the mishaps by the next day. Kru 
 poltroonery is open and unaffected ; other African tribes 
 appear ashamed to show it; the Kruman, however, 
 boasts of it. If you ask him to fight, he replies uri- 
 blushingly that he has but one life, and wishes again to 
 see " we country." I have no doubt that excessive affec- 
 tion for their own land and for their parents especially 
 for the mother partly causes this loathing to face danger. 
 But though there are exceptions amongst them, and 
 some few are brave, even to ferocity, as a rule there is 
 110 mistaking their timidity. During the Indian mutiny, 
 it was proposed to levy a Kru battalion, and officers 
 were selected for that purpose. The project suddenly 
 fell to the ground, owing, it is said, to the contra- 
 dictory statements of the best authorities ; some recom- 
 mending the Krus as excellent food for powder, others 
 reporting them as far readier to run away than to do 
 battle. I made many inquiries upon the subject, and 
 after seeing much of the Krumen, and learning some- 
 thing of their language, I satisfied myself that they 
 would be quite useless as soldiers ; they would not fight, 
 they prefer ship-work to shore- work, and as their women 
 never travel, they would not willingly engage themselves
 
 22 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 for any length of time. " Un des plus grands malheurs 
 des honnetes gens" says a French author, with great 
 truth, "cest quils sontdes laches;" this, however, cannot 
 be applied to Krumen. Besides cowardice, their prin- 
 cipal fault is thieving, a disposition which they never 
 fail to evince ; and nothing comes amiss to them, from 
 wholesale robbery to petty prigging. Like the true 
 coward, too, they are bullies when they meet those more 
 timid than themselves. Some years ago they seized the 
 north-west part of Fernando Po, from the feeble Bubes, 
 plundered the people, carried off the women, and were 
 defeated only by the combined action of the natives by 
 land, and Governor Beecroft who attacked them from 
 the sea. When the Niger expedition was encamped at 
 Jeba, in 1857-58, the Kru seamen stole from them 
 about 140/. worth of cloth, cowries, mirrors, and small 
 ware. The robbery was discovered by the natives firing 
 the grass, and the whole was consumed. Fanaticism 
 ruined the unfortunate Niger expedition of 1841 Phi- 
 lanthropy and disputes that of 1857-62 : these rascally 
 Krumen were actually allowed to remain unflogged. Their 
 favourite style of thieving, however, is on the smallest 
 scale : knives, penknives, and scissors, will be taken 
 out of the master's room, turnscrews and brass-tipped 
 ramrods will disappear most inexplicably. They have 
 no hesitation in robbing from one another's boxes, arms, 
 and ammunition, wire, padlocks, and similar articles. 
 "When a crew is dismissed, the master usually insists 
 upon the large chests in which they have stowed away
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 23 
 
 their goods, being examined, and finds nothing: the 
 cunning villains have either trusted their spoils to a 
 comrade, or they have sent them on by another ship. 
 They never, except when soundly flogged, "peach" upon 
 one another ; and if one of a gang commits a robbery, 
 all expect to benefit by it. Similarly, if rations be given 
 to one out of twenty, he will share it with the other 
 score. Provisions are never safe from them. Goats 
 hungrily browsing will be brought in dead by them an 
 hour or two afterwards, strangled secretly, and made to 
 appear as if bitten by snakes. AYhen this is done, the 
 only way is to throw the body into the sea ; if buried 
 they will exhume and devour it. My plan was to dig a 
 hole, and after heaping the earth up, write upon it in 
 large letters, " Thou shalt not steal ! " Poultry can- 
 not be preserved from them. They are fond of drink, 
 and will suffer even bodily pain to obtain it. In various 
 journeys I have never drunk my own last bottle of cognac: 
 that operation has been performed by some Kruboy of 
 the party. The greatest robbers are the St. Andrew's 
 men; they are hard-working fellows; honesty, how- 
 ever, never seems to suggest itself to them. I have 
 no belief in punishment as regards the individual 
 punished, not a shade of faith in its ever doing him 
 good. As an intimidation to others, if properly 
 managed, it may possibly have its uses. Its real 
 objects, however, should be to repay society for the loss 
 that it has sustained, and to defend the body social from 
 further attacks by the same hand. But to manage it
 
 24 . WANDEEINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 properly, it must everywhere be modified. In England 
 we still practise the barbarous and useless system of 
 capital punishment in case of murder, and we make the 
 penalty lighter for theft. In most parts of Africa I 
 would treat the robber much more severely than the 
 assassin. 
 
 As regards morality, in its limited sense, the Krumen 
 are not bright in the scale of creation. Adultery is 
 punished, it is true, by a fine, and in the case of a 
 wealthy or powerful man, there may be a "great palaver." 
 The European stranger, however, travelling in their 
 country is expected to patronise their wives and daugh- 
 ters, and these unconscious followers of Lycurgus and 
 Cato feel hurt, as if dishonoured, by his refusing to 
 gratify them. The custom is very prevalent along this 
 coast. At Gaboon, perhaps it reaches the acme ; there 
 a man will in one breath offer the choice between his 
 wife, sister, and daughter. The women of course do as 
 they are bid by the men, and they consider all familiarity 
 with a white man a high honour.* 
 
 The Kruman believes in the "education of travel." He 
 leaves home early, learns a little waiting, and perhaps 
 makes a voyage to England ; he never, however, returns 
 there, dreading the cold. At the age of puberty he 
 ships under some headman, who began life in the same 
 
 * Dr. Livingstone, chap. 25, asserts, "I have heard women speak- 
 ing in admiration of a white man, because he was pure and never was 
 guilty of any secret immorality." This is amongst the Makololos : he 
 would have heard them speak in anything but an admiring way about 
 continence in these regions.
 
 HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 25 
 
 way, and who having learned a little English, and the 
 handling of a rope, engages a gang of youngsters. A 
 good headman takes as much from his dependents as 
 possible, stopping their pay on all occasions; he is 
 expected to defend the master's property from them 
 which often he does not do and to punish them 
 severely with his own hand. It is this comparative 
 energy and willingness to do work, which together with 
 their independent bearing, has given the Krumen such 
 a name on the coast ; bad as they are, all the rest are 
 worse. We are rapidly, however, spoiling these men. 
 About ten years ago they were happy to receive 5*. 
 per month, in goods, which reduced it to 3*. As in 
 India, however, so here, servants' wages are increasing, 
 till they threaten to become exorbitant. Now, on board 
 H.M/s ships they are paid the wages of ordinary able 
 seamen, 11. 10*. per month, or 18/. per annum. Be- 
 sides which, they are entitled to the rations of a white 
 man, and their compensation money will probably run 
 up to another 121. per annum. The pay might be re- 
 duced to $5 per month, and rice rations, with beef every 
 two days ; thus the cruisers would not injure the trade. 
 There is for them an inexplicable charm on board a man- 
 of-war. They are very proud of their uniform; which, 
 however, renders them effeminate and more subject to 
 disease, than those who are less clothed ; they would, I 
 think, look much better with shaven heads, red caps, 
 and short blue drawers. They treat with a certain 
 contempt the "river boys." Yet, African like, they must
 
 26 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 desert at times, especially after a good flogging from 
 the headman, for not keeping a bright look out. On 
 the other hand, a vessel of war wanting Krumen, has 
 only to give a hint to those of the nearest merchantman, 
 and they will be smuggled on board presently ; tin's has 
 been done by fellows, who wrapped up in navy shirts, 
 and with caps pulled over their faces, have passed out 
 unrecognised, even by captains of the mail steamers. 
 But a Kruman who has once served on board a ship of 
 war, is like a foreign domestic in an English family, 
 useless for all other purposes. When shipped at S'a 
 Leone for merchant service, their wages are more than 
 those who embark at Cape Palmas ; nominally the former 
 now receive 30*., the latter $2 per month in goods, 
 which reduce it to $1. Some picked gig-crews in the Oil 
 Eivers, receive $5, besides additional clothes and caps ; 
 the average pay, however, is from $3 to $4. A crew, 
 well picked out of a number of men, is wonderful to 
 look at ; their muscles stand out almost like those of 
 that caricature, the Farnese Hercules; they row at a 
 stretch 40 miles, pulling as if for dear life, and at the 
 end they seem as little fatigued as white ants. Generally 
 the headman's pay is double that of his boys, and coin 
 is never given. Their rations are 1 \ Ib. of rice or yams 
 a day, with salt meat or fresh steak once or twice a 
 week ; they usually eat three times, breakfast at 9, dine 
 at 2, and sup at 7 P.M. ; when working hard, they are 
 allowed a liberal allowance of rum. Tobacco depends 
 greatly on the master ; it is, however, a favour, not a
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 27 
 
 right; they expect to receive a clean cloth worth, 
 say ISd., every Sunday; it is more general, however, 
 to give them the Sunday cloth, as they call it, every 
 three weeks. They will ship for long voyages, but 
 scarcely ever engage themselves for more than three 
 years. On the other hand they dislike all shore work, 
 and will not act as servants for more than two years. 
 Their favourite period of engagement here, as in India, 
 steam navigation shortens service and prolongs furloughs 
 is " one time yam come up, twel' moon." If kept 
 beyond their limits, they begin by waxing surly, they 
 proceed to refuse work, and they end, African like, by 
 taking the law into their own hands. I have known 
 cases where they have threatened to fire a factory, and 
 many in which they have plundered the store, launched 
 a boat, and gone off no one knows where. 
 
 The object of the Kruman's expatriation is to make 
 money, with which he can return home the thing has 
 been done in England enact the gentleman, and marry 
 a wife ; when his purse is empty he sets out once more ; 
 not willingly, for to use his own phrase, he is " nigger 
 for ship, king for country ." After four or five voyages, 
 he has learned English enough to become a headman, 
 and by peculating in his turn, he lays the foundation 
 of a large family. Until then, he has ever been received, 
 as he returns, with noisy festivity, but his gains have 
 been appropriated by the family council, and applied to 
 the common stock. Now he spends his own money, 
 chiefly in purchasing wives. The whole superstructure of
 
 28 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Km society is built upon polygamy, which is much after 
 the Mormon principle, a division of labour.* Servants 
 do not exist, the language has no name for them, and 
 domestic slavery is very limited ; moreover, as no gentle- 
 man in Africa can demean himself by work, which he 
 considers in the light of convict labour, the institution 
 winds itself round every heart. He is a " small boy " 
 when yet unmarried ; he begins life with one wife, and 
 he hopes to end it with a dozen or two, when he retires 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Wilson remarks : " It is not a little singular, however, 
 that the females, upon whom the burden of this degrading institution 
 (polygamy) mainly rests, are quite as much interested in its continuance 
 as the men themselves. A woman would infinitely prefer to be one of 
 a dozen wives of a respectable man than to be the sole representative of 
 a man who had not force of character to raise himself above the one- 
 woman level." Western Africa, chap. 1-4. 
 
 There is nothing singular in this : the polygamy of the Latter Day 
 Saints derives all its force from the preference of the women. Were 
 they to oppose it, nothing could preserve the institution. 
 
 Moreover, it appears that in the various branches of the human 
 family, the relative development of the female to the male greatly 
 varies. In some, the Africans for instance, the woman's inferiority is 
 constant and salient. In others, as the Anglo-Saxon, there is a far 
 greater amount of equality between the sexes. We see the same thing 
 in the lower animals : whilst in the Gallinse the male has a marked 
 superiority over his mate ; in the Falconidfe the female is superior in 
 strength, size, and courage ; and in others the Canidse and Solidun- 
 gulse the powers are as equally balanced as possible. 
 
 It is, doubtless, this superior physical and mental development which 
 has placed the women of the Indo-Germanic family in their present 
 exalted position. Yet they willingly abdicate it. There are no more 
 submissive polygamiste than the Englishwomen at Great Salt Lake City, 
 except, perhaps, the Americans, who I speak only of those whose 
 fathers were born and bred in the New World are somewhat highly 
 coloured copies of their English cousins.
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 29 
 
 from business, a consummation most devoutly wished 
 for. This seldom happens before he has reached the 
 age of fifty. There is nothing peculiar in Km nuptials. 
 The girl-wife's mother is first propitiated with small 
 presents ; then the dowry is settled with her father and 
 his family, who are the real owners of the property. 
 The senior wife is the first in rank, and respectable men 
 always keep a separate establishment for each spouse. 
 On the husband's death, the wives become the property 
 of the brothers, who can transfer them if they please. 
 When a woman is ill-treated, she runs away to her 
 father's family, but a "big palaver" is sure to follow 
 this elopement. The children of course love the mother 
 better than the other parent, but they must follow their 
 father should a split take place between the tribes. 
 
 The religion of the Kruman is a fanaticism so vague 
 and undeveloped that no writer has, I believe, ventured 
 to treat upon it. It has been already mentioned that 
 they have Diyabo* sing. Diya or "Devil Doctors,'* 
 as Europeans call them, whose preparation for the mi- 
 nistry and position in the community is precisely that of 
 the North-American Indian's medicine-man. Their oracle 
 at the Grand Devil has also been alluded to. The common- 
 alty however appear to have few, if any, exercises which 
 can properly be called religious. During the whole of 
 the Niger expedition, from 1857 to 1862, only one case 
 was observed ; on the night of the " Dayspring's" wreck, 
 Grando, the second headman, stood near the bank, quite 
 
 * The syllable -bo means, I believe, a class.
 
 30 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 upright, with his face to the West, and howled till 
 dawn, occasionally waving the right arm. Two or three 
 sat around him, but no one joined with him. They will 
 not eat blood nor the heart of cattle; they swear, by 
 dipping the forefinger in salt, pointing to earth and 
 heaven, and then tasting the condiment. This custom 
 reminds one of the Salt Eaters, i.e., Rice Christians of 
 the Kongo River, and the various salt-incantations of 
 Asia. 
 
 When a man dies a fire is kindled every evening 
 before his house to warm his KU,* i.e., his ghost or 
 himself, and food is placed at his grave. He may 
 appear in one or in several children. Or leading the 
 goat or the bullock slain at his funeral, he may wend 
 his way to Menu of the Kwi Ghostland, which some 
 place at Gedeye, in the remote interior where, after con- 
 fessing his misdeeds, he will take rank according to the 
 sacrifice made and his means. But if a wizard, he must 
 wander about the gloomy swamp and fetid marsh for 
 ever. These ideas show a dawning of the " continuation 
 theory;" but the West African, unlike the Egyptian, who 
 probably invented the idea, has no conception of a 
 corporeal resurrection. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Bowen (" Central Africa '), asserts that 
 a Kruman who attempted to learn reading would be 
 
 * In Bishop Payne's Grebo Yocabnlary, Ku, plur. Kwi, is explained 
 devil, dream, departed spirit. Menu, or menuke, is the intermediate 
 place through which persons are said to pass to their final destiny, and 
 where they review all their past deeds, before going into Kwiya 
 Oran, the City of the Manes.
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 31 
 
 killed; this is far from being the fact now, if it was 
 then. Of all the Pagans on the coast, the Km have 
 been found the most difficult to convert on account of 
 the dishonour and expulsion from the tribe which such 
 conduct entails. Of late years there have been a few 
 cases, and in a future page the reader will see a fine 
 specimen of superior rascality on the part of the " divert." 
 In the neighbourhood of the mission stations, near 
 Cape Palmas, the more civilized Grebos do nothing on 
 Sundays; but, as I have said before, an African will 
 ever be most happy to practise as much idleness as you 
 choose to preach. 
 
 Like the negro race generally, the organs of language, 
 as well as of time and tune, are well developed in the 
 Krumen. They find no difficulty in picking up a few 
 words of English, though they speak it with a savage 
 accent ; of course, correctness or extent of vocabulary is 
 beyond their powers, yet they can distinguish a brogue or 
 a provincial accent, and they call Scotchmen " bush Eng- 
 lishmen" a definition that would come home to Dr. John- 
 son's own heart. They have no poetry, and few legends ; 
 whilst their music is monotonous to a degree. Yet they 
 delight in it, 'and often after a long and fatiguing day's 
 march they will ask permission to "make play," and 
 dance and sing till midnight. When hoeing the ground 
 they must do it at the sound of music ; in fact, every- 
 thing is cheered with a song. The traveller should 
 never forget to carry a tom-tom, or some similar instru- 
 ment, which will shorten his journey by a fair quarter.
 
 32 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 They are good mimics, and I have seen some laughable 
 caricatures of various European nations. "Chaff" is 
 with them as favourite an exercise as in civilised London, 
 and they can say the most biting and sarcastic things ima- 
 ginable. I have met fellows whose remarks, conveyed in 
 broken English, were as humorous as those of any Irish- 
 man. They are great at pantomime, and with some twenty 
 English words can tell a long story, as well as a Sioux 
 of the Prairies. There are no noisier people on the coast ; 
 in our stations they are relegated to outhouses, placed 
 well out of hearing. 
 
 The Kru language, as has been seen, possesses about 
 5000 vocables. The grammatical forms are simple, and 
 by no means numerous. Most writers declare the tongue 
 to be exceedingly difficult of acquisition. I found it quite 
 the contrary ; and the Liberiau colonists, if they cannot 
 speak it, are generally able to understand it. Mr. Smith,* 
 in a most amusing little work, asserts that every Kru 
 word is made to end in O; he has misconceived the 
 sign of the vocative to be an integral part of the word. 
 He also opines that the " Kroo language seems to be 
 composed of vowels only," whereas in few tongues are 
 there more explosive consonants, harsher gutturals, or 
 a stronger nasalization that half masters the articula- 
 tion. We find in it also the duplicated initial consonants, 
 as nn and mm, which an Englishman would pronounce 
 with a semi-elision of a prefixed indefinite vowel. Its 
 
 * Chap. 10, Trade and Travels in the Gulf of Guinea. By J. Smith. 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1851.
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 33 
 
 chief merit seems to be the facility with which a Kru- 
 man can make himself heard at a distance, when a 
 European would require a speaking-trumpet. The 
 Eev. Mr. Wilson, who discovers a similarity between 
 one-fifth of the words in the Mpongwe of the Gaboon 
 and the Kisawahili of Zanzibar and of the eastern 
 shores of the continent, detects none between the 
 Mpongwe and the Kru dialects.* Yet I cannot but 
 find most distinct resemblance, not so much in voca- 
 bulary, however, as in the grammar and the spirit of 
 the language. 
 
 " Blackmail's English," opposed to " high English," 
 or " deep English," in this part of the world is a litera- 
 ture whose professor has hitherto been the British 
 sailor. I leave to the reader's imagination the style 
 of expression which it has engrafted upon the African 
 mind. Queer tales are told of words starting up in the 
 presence of ladies words which, falling amongst an 
 English assembly, would act like a 10-inch shell. Every 
 traveller has made merry with the ridiculous names 
 which the Kru boys have borrowed for themselves from 
 the English, e.g., Nix, Black Trouble, Salt water, Bottle 
 o' beer, and Six-finger Jack.f Yet their own names are 
 by no means unpleasant or difficult to learn, nor can I 
 see the force of calling Kabwe, Kofa, Tiya, and 
 
 * Western Africa, chap. 4. 
 
 t On the Gold Coast, children born with six fingers are strangled : 
 amongst the Kru ai,d other tribes of Lower Guinea they are not 
 injured. 
 
 YOI.. II. D
 
 34 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Ndkti, Black Will, Two Glass, Seabreeze, and Tom 
 Brass.* 
 
 Eemains to consider the Kruman in the light of a 
 domestic servant. In this phase he does not shine a 
 more clumsy-handed, pig-headed clown could not be 
 found even in Europe. He steals anything he can lay 
 his hands upon ; he becomes idle to the last degree, and 
 though personally clean enough, his ideas touching that 
 virtue in respect to plate and porcelain are still embryotic. 
 He either breaks or he mislays everything entrusted to 
 him, and he never works except when the master stands 
 over him ; he never attends to an order, and he would see 
 all "master's" property eaten by white ants rather than 
 take the trouble to remove it. There are worse servants 
 on this coast even than the Kruman, I own; for in- 
 stance, the Camaroons and the Calabar men; yet even 
 with him, your house is as uncomfortable as fancy could 
 conceive. 
 
 About noon on the 16th August we set out once 
 more, and steamed down the coast, which was bright 
 with the delightful air of the fine season. "We had 
 shipped at Cape Palmas about 5000 worth of Krumen, 
 who were proceeding to the Oil Rivers ; they, or rather 
 their employers, pay for their diet and passage $10 per 
 head. Their supper on board was a study of savagery. 
 Their favourite food is ever rice, and they prefer it to 
 the best bread, and pine for it at times when they cannot 
 
 * At the end of this chapter the reader will find a specimen of Kru 
 vocabulary, kindly supplied to a friend by Bishop Payne.
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 35 
 
 obtain it. It must be far more nutritious than that of 
 India, for they eat it dry and get through an immense 
 amount of labour without other sustenance. A large 
 cauldron, containing a pint per man, was brought on 
 deck and portioned into five messes, around which, after 
 a furious chatting and gesticulating like excited ba- 
 boons, all squatted. They balFd the rice by squeezing 
 it with either hand, left as well as right, thrust it into 
 their mouths, looking like chickens being crammed, and 
 swallowed it almost whole with a powerful action of the 
 oesophagus. They did not drink till after the meal, as 
 is the custom of Asia ; when full they satisfied their 
 thirst at the tank. If meat appears, it is a signal for a 
 scuffle ; the strongest manage to snatch a few mouthfuls 
 each, and the weaker get none. 
 
 Though fresh from home they are in good spirits; 
 they love a change, and the world is all before them. 
 Eeturning after two years or so, they will be in the 
 state described as being "strung upon wires." They 
 have boxes to protect and their property will not be safe 
 from thieves and the ocean till it is lodged in their 
 huts. They have pitiably suffered in health, and are 
 allowed no medical luxuries on board; even a change of 
 diet is unattainable, and the attendance of a doctor is a 
 matter of personal humanity. Some of them by touch- 
 ing the railings have given to the passengers craw-craw, 
 and other horrid skin-diseases, which have found their 
 way into English homes. It is a touching sight to see 
 some poor fellow, with the death rattle in his throat, lying 
 
 D 2
 
 36 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 unheeded upon the deck, whilst all others are craning 
 their necks over the bulwarks, and stepping over his 
 almost unconscious body to get the first glimpse of " we 
 country." Should he die, the corpse must be taken 
 on shore, or there will be what the African dreads, a 
 "palaver." And when "Jack Kruman " reaches his hut 
 and greets the wives of his bosom, he cannot love them 
 till he has perfectly satisfied himself with the strictness 
 of their conduct during his absence. 
 
 Beyond Cape Palmas, the coast line is a beach of 
 bright white sand, from which the slave barracoons have 
 now disappeared ; in the foreground an occasional rock 
 or ledge rises awash from the level, and the background 
 is a deep strip of black forest, here and there broken by 
 tall trees. We are soon fairly beyond Liberia, formerly 
 called the Grain Coast. This ambiguous name has 
 caused many a mistake, but the grain in question is 
 not a cereal but a condiment rejecting, at least that 
 etymology, which supposes it to have been derived 
 from cochineal, which in those days was considered 
 not an animal but a vegetable. It is a real cardamom 
 (A. Grana Paradisi), of which many varieties grow 
 along the whole length of the western coast of inter- 
 tropical Africa. The flower is of great beauty on ac- 
 count of the glowing pink bracts ; the shrub is cane- 
 like, and the fruit, which appears close to the ground, is 
 a pyriform pod with crimson skin enclosing black brown 
 seeds, surrounded by a juicy placenta. Nothing is more 
 pleasant or reviving on a long, thirsty march, than a
 
 SIX HOURS AT THE CAPE OF PALMS. 37 
 
 handful of these cardamoms; the acidity of the pulp 
 contrasts most pleasantly with the pungency of the 
 spice. By the Dutch they were called Guinea 
 Grains; by the trade, Malaguetta pepper; and the 
 demand in Europe in the sixteenth century led to the 
 discovery of many ports on " the coast." It was then 
 principally used for giving fire and flavour in spirit- 
 uous liquors, and especially for adulterating beer. At 
 last its importation into England was forbidden, cases 
 of poisoning being attributed to it ; and Europeans in 
 these regions still believe that some species are injurious, 
 and that they were mixed with the true grains. The 
 natives use this cardamom extensively as a condiment 
 
 and a medicine : it is a stomachic, a carminative, and an 
 
 ' 
 
 external irritant. The people of the Gold Coast, when 
 suffering from headache, rub over the forehead a paste of 
 Malaguetta pepper. The powder is applied during the 
 hot fit of fever, as ginger is in India for rheumatism and 
 for fugitive pains. It is spirted out of the mouth over 
 the part affected, or a paste made with water is rubbed 
 on like a poultice, or applied in streaks. The dead also 
 are perfumed with this pepper and sweet scented plants. 
 Inasmuch as when bruised and soaked in sherry, it 
 makes excellent bitters, it will, once more, I believe, find 
 its way into the European markets. 
 
 NOTE. For the following specimen of the real Krao language, I am 
 indebted to the kindness of Bishop Payne :
 
 38 
 
 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 KKU AND ENGLISH. 
 
 N.B. The vowels are written after the system of Sir W. Jones, modified 
 as used in Lane, Richardson's Persian Dictionary, &c. : g is always 
 hard, as in get ; the letters c, q, x, and y are supplied by i, ks, and i. 
 
 Ni-o-ju 
 
 Man Bla-bi 
 
 Sheep 
 
 Ni-o-no 
 
 Woman 
 
 Bok-er-o 
 
 Goat 
 
 Di-n-be 
 
 Child 
 
 
 
 Mi 
 
 Father 
 
 Na-ji-o 
 
 I see 
 
 Ni 
 
 Mother 
 
 Na-uo-i 
 
 I hear 
 
 Mi-e-jn 
 
 Brother 
 
 Na-u-ru 
 
 I speak 
 
 No-ra 
 
 Sister 
 
 Ma 
 
 Go 
 
 Ni 
 
 Water 
 
 Gi 
 
 Come 
 
 HI 
 
 Fire 
 
 Di-e 
 
 Eat 
 
 Ser-a 
 
 House 
 
 Na-ni 
 
 Drink 
 
 Bun-go 
 
 Door 
 
 Na-mn 
 
 Sleep 
 
 Bu-6m-bi 
 
 Window 
 
 Na-dub-i 
 
 Wash 
 
 Nam-bu-ri 
 
 Seat 
 
 Ma-na 
 
 Walk 
 
 Kri 
 
 Farm 
 
 Na-pin-de 
 
 Coo 
 
 Ku-o 
 
 Rice 
 
 Mu-ne 
 
 Carry 
 
 Kin-a 
 
 Oil 
 
 Na-nu-de 
 
 Make 
 
 To 
 
 Salt 
 
 Na-ni-em 
 
 Give 
 
 Po-pa 
 
 Bowl 
 
 Na-uk-be 
 
 Take 
 
 Ja-bi 
 
 Jar 
 
 Na-ti-e 
 
 Buy 
 
 Ja-bi 
 
 Boiler 
 
 Pu-ri-em-bu 
 
 Sell 
 
 Gi-u-ro 
 
 Sun 
 
 Bi-si-um 
 
 Thank 
 
 Tsho 
 
 Moon 
 
 Gi-rum 
 
 Love 
 
 Na-pi 
 
 Star 
 
 0-ro-de 
 
 Well 
 
 Ni-ba 
 
 River 
 
 Na-po-pa 
 
 I am sick 
 
 Ku-ra 
 
 Field 
 
 
 
 Tu 
 
 Tree 
 
 II 
 
 Yes 
 
 Bu-ru-a 
 
 Grass 
 
 le 
 
 No 
 
 Nne 
 
 Wood 
 
 So-na-to 
 
 To-day 
 
 So-ba 
 
 Stone 
 
 Po-pla-ka 
 
 To-morrow 
 
 Du-bo 
 
 Head 
 
 So-ra-ma 
 
 Yesterday 
 
 Nu-me 
 
 Bird 
 
 Kre-kre 
 
 Quickly 
 
 Ni 
 
 Fish 
 
 Da-ka 
 
 Long since 
 
 Song 
 
 Fowl 
 
 Gi 
 
 Above 
 
 Bi-li 
 
 Cow 
 
 Bre 
 
 Below
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 
 
 18iH SEPTEMBER, 186 
 
 " If you cannot swim, 
 
 Beware of Providence." 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 To the east of the Grain Coast in maps lies the 
 Ivory Coast, now a misnomer. Hardly a tusk has been 
 exported from it for the last score of years ; the animals 
 having been driven away by the "hot mouthed weapon." 
 The present Ivory Coast is the region south of the 
 Camaroons Mountains, extending to the Gaboon Eiver 
 and Cape Lopez. The old Ivory Coast had but four 
 settlements Fresco, Cape Lahou or Nifa, Jack-a-Jack, 
 Grand Bassam and Assini, the two latter French; 
 After passing these we enter the Gold Coast ; it was 
 once a celebrated region, which produced the GUINEA 
 for England ; now, all known about it by the public at 
 home is, that it is somewhere about Africa.' 56 ' How little 
 
 * That popular book, Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, is the best 
 proof. The ninth edition, published in 1860 by Mr. Moxon, informs us, 
 under the word "African Company," that "the rights vested in the 
 present company are by 23 George II., 1749," whereas that company 
 expired about forty years ago. Another well-known book Brookes' 
 "Gazetteer," revised by Mr. Findlay, and published 1861 omits the
 
 40 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 it deserves this neglect, and how much may be made of 
 it, will be shown in a following page. 
 
 There is a question of great interest touching the 
 discovery of this coast. The Portuguese have claimed 
 and secured the whole honour: in our encyclopedias 
 and school-books, which are copied one from the other, 
 no other nation is even mentioned. Their own account 
 of it* is that Fernao Gomes, a worthy and honest 
 citizen of Lisbon, obtained from the Portuguese Govern- 
 ment, in 1471, permission to trade on these coasts for 
 five years, with this proviso : that he should pay to the 
 Portuguese Government the annual sum of 44 9*. 
 Also that he should make annual voyages of discovery 
 from Sierra Leone along the coast to the distance of 
 300 miles ; so that, at the expiration of the stipulated 
 period of five years, 1500 miles should have been ex- 
 plored. In consequence of this agreement, El-Mina 
 
 date (Appendix, 926) at which the Gold Coast became an independent, 
 government. When shall we have in England a good set of popular, 
 and especially educational works, in which our youth will not learn that 
 of which they must unlearn half ? Not long ago I found some young 
 friends painfully impressing their brains with the fact that the United 
 States ' ' contained nearly thirteen millions of souls." 
 
 * This is quoted from "Six Years of a Traveller's Life in Western 
 Africa." By Francisco Travassos Yaldez. Two vols. Hurst and 
 Blackett, London, 1861. 
 
 The book should have been called " Voyager's Life." It is nothing 
 but a coasting from Lisbon to Loando and its dependencies, with an 
 occasional rddche at the islands on the way. The frontispiece of the 
 first volume is copied from M. Gamitto's " Muata Cazembe ; " the 
 frontispiece of the second is taken from the same. It is about a parallel 
 to Mr. Macbriar's "Africa and the Africans,"
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 41 
 
 was discovered, and also Cape Catherina, in 1 50' 
 south latitude and 9 2' west longitude. 
 
 On the other hand it has been seen that Norman 
 Knight conquered part of the Canary Islands in 1400, 
 and that M. Bouet-Willaumez has successfully inter- 
 preted the corrupted name, Boutou, on the Kru coast, 
 by referring it to the old Norman establishments which 
 were founded at " all the Bassas, great and little." The 
 Pere Labat, the Sailor Villaud de Belfons, and many 
 writers, of whom Barbot is the most known, claim for 
 the French, exclusively, the honour of being the first 
 explorers of this coast. According to them a company 
 of Dieppe merchants, in the reign of Charles the Fifth, 
 between 1364 and 1413 nearly a century before the 
 Portuguese entered upon their grander career of discovery 
 sent an expedition to the Gold Coast, which founded 
 commercial colonies at Goree and Cape Verde, at Sestro 
 Paris, now Grand Cestros, at Petit Dieppe, near Basa or 
 Bassa, on the mouth of the St. John's River, and at " the 
 Bay of France," now Rio Fresco. This is repeated in the 
 " M&moire sur le Commerce Maritime de Rouen, par Ernest 
 de Freville," who states the date to be November, 1364, 
 and the number of vessels to have been two of one hun- 
 dred tons each. In 1382 the merchants of Dieppe and 
 Rouen combined sent three exploring ships, of which one, 
 the "Virgin," reached Commenda and Mina, so called 
 from its " gold mines," from which the blacks brought 
 large supplies of the precious metal. In 1383 others say 
 1386 they built a strong factory, and left a garrison of
 
 42 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 ten or twelve men, and in 1387 the settlement, \vhich 
 had further been enlarged, was provided with a chapel. 
 Large imports of gold, ivory, and pepper, found their 
 way from these places to Trance, and an active trade 
 continued till the European war in 1413 caused them 
 all, after a career of fifty years, to be abandoned. Even 
 in Barbot's time (1700), one of the El-Mina castles 
 was called Bastion de Prance, and there was an old 
 inscription beginning with M.C.C.C. the rest defaced. 
 At Goree there were, it is said, similar remains. These 
 wars continued to agitate France till 1490, nearly eighty 
 years after the abandonment of their "West African 
 colonies. Meanwhile ihe Portuguese, who had learned 
 the way, had taken the place of the explorers, and have 
 ever since claimed the honour of discovery. 
 
 The Portuguese are naturally wroth at this attempt to 
 pluck a leaf from their laurels. Let me quote M. Val- 
 dez : " Respecting the early settlers, ridiculous follies 
 were propagated by Pere Labat, and the seaman Yillaut- 
 belle-fond (sic), but these were invented 270 years after 
 the Portuguese historian, Gomes Ennes d'Azurara,* who 
 was contemporary with the discovery of Canaga, or 
 Senegal, and who was honoured with the confidence of 
 the celebrated Infante D. Henrique ; and therefore we 
 
 * Chronica de Descobrimento e Conquista de Guine, escrita por 
 Mandado de El Rei D. Affonso V., pelo Chronista G. E. de Azurara, 
 precedida de una introduc9ao e illustrada com algumas notas pelo Vis- 
 conde de Santarem, 8vo., Paris, 1841. Also, Memoria sobre a prior- 
 jdade dos Descobrimentos Portugueses n' a costa d' Africa Occidental, 
 pelo Visconde Santarem, Paris, 1841.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 43 
 
 must believe ("/<? n'en voispas la ncessit"} the assertion 
 made by this writer in his ' Chronicle of the Discovery 
 and Conquest of Guinea/ that the Portuguese were the 
 first who discovered the entrance of the Senegal. The 
 claim of the Norman pirates of the fourteenth century 
 (N.B., this is hardly fair) to the discovery is supported by 
 an allegation that Norman words may be traced in the 
 language of the natives, and that an inscription has been 
 discovered as follows ' M.C.C.C.' ! ! ! Now I defy 
 the quickest ear to discover anything resembling the 
 Norman in the language of the Mandingoes, Jaloffes, 
 Cassangas, Bauhans, or Feloupes ; but he whose eye is 
 so clear as satisfactorily to decipher the inscription above 
 mentioned, may possess an ear capable of defining sounds 
 such as those referred to. So much for national enthu- 
 siasm and fanaticism ! " Such verbiage is by no means 
 satisfactory in face of M. Bouet-Willaumez. Nor is the 
 Eev. Mr. Wilson's remark at all more conclusive : 
 " This account of French discovery in Africa is not sus- 
 tained by any contemporaneous writers, either French or 
 Portuguese. The natives of Africa have no traditionary 
 knowledge of any such visitors to their country; and 
 what discredits the picture still more is, that Azembuja, 
 the man sent out by the Portuguese government to build 
 the castle at Elmina, found no traces whatever of any 
 fort or castle at that place." As if Africans in 1856 had 
 any tradition extending back for centuries, or as if a 
 Portuguese or any other official of those days, \vhen 
 ordered to erect a fort for his sovereign in the Land of
 
 44 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 .Gold Mines would confess priority of claim on the part 
 of another and a rival nation ! 
 
 It is to be hoped that a question of such historical 
 importance will not be dropped. A priori, the claims of 
 the French are strong, but they have been suffered to 
 rest in obscurity. Their weak point at present is the 
 absence of contemporary evidence. But the Bayeux 
 tapestry, a chronicle of far older date, has been found, 
 and perhaps some fortunate discoverer may alight upon 
 a document which shall set the question at rest. 
 
 The history of English transactions on the Gold Coast 
 is equally interesting. The first commercial voyage made 
 by our countrymen was in 1551, when Captain Thomas 
 Wyndham, who afterwards died of fever in the Benin 
 Eiver, after loading his ships with Malaguetta pepper 
 at the Cestos River, reached the Golden Land and re- 
 turned to England with 150 Ibs. of dust. On the 10th 
 January, 1662,the Royal Company, or Company of Royal 
 Adventurers of England trading to Africa, was incor- 
 porated under patronage of the Duke of York, afterwards 
 Charles II., and in the same year James Fort was built at 
 Accra. Its object was nearly entirely the carrying on of 
 the slave trade, and the attacks of the Dutch under the 
 great De Ruyter compelled it, in 1667, to surrender 
 its charter to government. The second, or Royal 
 African Company, was incorporated on the 27th Septem- 
 ber, 1672, with powers and privileges to maintain and 
 extend the African trade. It entered upon its functions 
 with vigour, and soon possessed fifteen forts and factories
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 45 
 
 on the coast, of which, however, Bosnian* gives a poor 
 account. Despite the Assiento contract the company 
 became indebted, and followed in the way of its prede- 
 cessor. In 1752-4 the "African Company" was estab- 
 lished with free trade^ on the Gold Coast to all His 
 Majesty's subjects : this bound them not to interfere as 
 before with private adventurers, or what was then called 
 "interlopers." This was the first blow to the prosperity 
 of the coast. The American Eevolution ensued; the 
 Abolition movement followed, and the establishment of 
 Sierra Leone struck the final blow. In 1821 the 
 African Company, being bankrupt, was abolished : the 
 British forts, settlements, and possessions on the Western 
 coast of Africa from 20 N. to 20 S. lat. were made 
 dependencies on the colony of Sierra Leone ; and the 
 bill passed through Parliament in 1821. In 1827, 
 owing to the expenses of Sir Charles McCarthy's 
 Ashantee war, the home government gave up the forts 
 to the merchants as factories on various conditions, 
 especially that Cape Coast Castle and James Fort, Accra, 
 should remain dependencies of Sierra Leone, and that 
 affairs should be managed by an African committee of 
 three merchants, and a paid secretary, resident in London 
 and appointed by government. A parliamentary grant 
 
 * William Bosman was chief factor for the Dutch at Elmina, in the 
 days of the Eoyal African Company, and he seems not a little to have 
 despised his neighbours. He was an active and most efficient man, 
 and his "Description of the Coast of Guinea," is equally valuable for 
 its observation, and amusing by its dry humour.
 
 46 WANDEEINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 of 4000 per annum was allowed for the repair of forts, 
 the maintenance of schools, and presents to the various 
 Eanti chiefs. The local establishments were a lieutenant- 
 governor and president of the council, a council, justices of 
 the peace, civil commandants at Annamaboo, British Accra 
 and Dixcove, and the officers of the guard 100 men 
 with surgeon, schoolmasters, and interpreters. Pending 
 these arrangements, Mr. John Jackson was made presi- 
 dent, but as it was considered desirable to choose an 
 officer wholly unconnected with trade, Mr. George Mac- 
 lean, who had served in the African corps, and had 
 accompanied, in 1826, Colonel Lumley as military secre- 
 ary to the Gold Coast, of him more anon, was 
 made lieut.-governor and president in 1830. The crown 
 resumed possession of the Gold Coast in 1844, and the 
 first governor was Commander Hill, E.N. 
 
 The East Indies and Western Africa both began to 
 attract the attention of England in the days of the 
 Virgin Queen. Her Majesty granted, in 1585, a patent 
 to Lords Leicester and Warwick, allowing them to treat 
 with the Barbary States for twelve years, and in 1600, 
 two hundred persons petitioned their sovereign to estab- 
 lish the Governor and Company of Merchants of London 
 trading with the East Indies. But West Africa is dis- 
 tant 3000, India 10,000 miles from England, and the 
 .difference enabled the company that ruled the land from 
 the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, though younger by 15 
 years, to outlive for 37 years the company that ruled 40 
 of intertropical Africa.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 47 
 
 The annals of the two great rivals are instructive: 
 British Africa being near home has been greatly 
 neglected, because mostly under home orders; it is, 
 and long lias been, a string of ruinous forts and 
 settlements. British India, on the other hand, being 
 beyond the range of interference from head- quarters, 
 soon became the most splendid possession ever held by 
 a European nation. 
 
 India, I may observe, has been conquered despite 
 of England. Had het steamers and the electric wires of 
 the present day been in operation a century ago, we 
 should still have had a comptoir at Calcutta, Madras, and 
 Bombay, with perhaps a strip of protected territory ; our 
 possessions, in fact, would have been like Bathurst, 
 Sierra Leone, and Cape Coast Castle. But happily for 
 England, a letter in those good old times took a year 
 before its answer came. Every new governor or gover- 
 nor-general was tempted to war by some native king 
 or chief ; perhaps he was not unwilling to distinguish 
 himself, and rich men rarely ran the risks of climate 
 he might sometimes have had an eye to profitable results. 
 Thus, hostilities were declared and duly reported to the 
 Court of Directors. At the end of a year arrived a loud 
 objurgation from those elderly ladies, rating at all aggres- 
 sive measures, repudiating a policy of territorial aggran- 
 dizement, and much " bunkum " of the same manner. 
 But it reached too late. A province, in which probably 
 you could wrap up Great Britain, had been in turn fought 
 down, well looted, and annexed with the tax-gatherer
 
 48 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 in full activity. Nothing more of course was to be said 
 about the matter. The Court of Directors saw before 
 them new patronage for sons and nephews, and the 
 Imperium in Imperio became great malgre lui. 
 
 I am now firm astride upon India, an old hobby which 
 will take the lead; in truth may the reader pardon me ! 
 India was once the "gorgeous East;" a bit of the "Arabian 
 Nights/' which home people delighted in, and highly 
 overvalued. This was followed by a reaction. The Indian 
 uncle died out : the old Nabob was found to look at 
 every sixpence. The Pagoda-tree, when struck, yielded 
 no rupees. Presently the Public shrewdly suspecting 
 that their Eastern Empire, far from being worth untold 
 sums, was actually in arrears, (despite all its gold bed- 
 steads and jewelled saddles,) some 2,000,000/. per an- 
 num waxed wroth, rose up, laid hands upon it, and, 
 after discussing the idea of giving it up, began to treat 
 it by administering to it homoeopathic doses of scientific 
 political economy. 
 
 Were Russia or France blessed with such a field for 
 labour, they would soon make it pay five or six millions 
 of pounds sterling, by some such "unconstitutional" 
 means as these : 
 
 They would at once clear off two governors, who are 
 mere head -clerks two commanders-in-chief, mere 
 major-generals and two councils, viz., those of 
 Madras and Bombay: in both these places 
 business could be transacted quite as effec- 
 tually by a secretary to the Supreme Govern-
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 49 
 
 ment and a major-general in command of sundry 
 brigadiers. 
 
 They would abolish the civilian system and its high 
 salaries, recruiting the ranks from military officers, 
 who could be eligible after suitable examinations. 
 They might retain Suddur and Supreme Courts, and 
 organise Cassations, and even Chancery Courts, at 
 the several Presidencies, for the benefit of wealthy 
 natives who wish to ruin themselves by law ; but 
 these luxuries should not extend beyond a radius 
 of fifty miles. 
 
 They would cherish the Panchayat, or native jury, 
 merely superintending it to obviate unjust decisions. 
 
 They would not inflict upon the natives their own 
 taxes, income-tax, licence-tax, stamp duties, heavy 
 import dues, and other hateful foreign appliances. 
 They would prefer the indigenous system of a capi- 
 tation or poll-tax, the house-tax, the Nazaranah or 
 succession duties, and benefices levied from each 
 Pergunnah, according to popular settlement, and in 
 due proportion, as did the English of the old day 
 when burghers were first returned to Parliament. 
 
 They would transform all their regular black army 
 into irregulars, and never allow an East Indian to 
 learn the scientific branches of the service artillery 
 and engineering. 
 
 They would systematically disarm the population, by 
 transporting all those who fabricated, and by impri- 
 soning all who possessed, weapons of war.
 
 50 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Finally, they would cleave to hereditary offices 
 which would create a conservative party in the 
 country, and confirm all tenures of "hak" or 
 vested rights. 
 
 But a constitutional people would not attempt even 
 the first of these measures. Its idea of economy and its 
 policy must be to cut down the pay and allowances of 
 the ensign and the assistant-surgeon, and to spend some 
 30,000 a year upon local governors, commanders -in- 
 chief, and members of council. 
 
 I now return to the Gold Coast. 
 
 During the night of the 1 8th August we steamed past 
 the mouth of that queer formation, called picturesquely, 
 and not unaptly, the Bottomless Pit. Here the great 
 bank of gradually shelving sand is split by a submarine 
 valley, funnel-shaped, and opening seaward. At the 
 head of this gully, close to the beach, there are twenty 
 fathoms of soundings, with a soft bottom of bluish mud. 
 At one mile off shore the breadth between the two sides 
 of the ravine is less than a quarter of a mile, with 100 
 fathoms of depth ; at three miles' distance it is about 
 one mile by 200 fathoms. As the lead brings up pieces 
 of coralline, and a madrepore formation is observable in 
 most places east of Accra to the river bottom, this valley 
 may be a depression, like the submerged Coral Islands 
 once known to exist near Zanzibar. 
 
 The next point of interest was Grand Bassam, a clump 
 of villages at the mouth of the Costa River, where the 
 Trench, in 1843, built Fort Nemours. According to
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 51 
 
 some, the experiment was a failure ; others declare that 
 a good business in gold is still done there. The same 
 may be said of Assini, or Fort Joinville, another Gallic 
 possession about twenty-seven miles east of the Costa 
 River. Three miles to the west of the latter is the 
 Gold River, which Bosman makes the western boundary 
 of the Gold Coast. Beyond Assini lie the Four Hills, 
 or Hummocks, of Apollonia, called by seamen Cape Apol- 
 lonia; the name reminds one of the Apollo Bunder, 
 which should be named Palawa, at Bombay ridiculously 
 classical. Here the English had a fort, which is now 
 crumbling to ruins. In 1848, Captain Winniett, who 
 succeeded Captain Hill as governor, attacked " Quawe 
 Accah," King of Apollonia, who had killed the French 
 Commandant of Assini, and took him prisoner, and 
 became Sir William Wiimiett. 
 
 We are now oil' the Windward, which is here the west- 
 ern division of the Gold Coast.* It extends from Cape 
 Apollonia (2 35' W. long.) to the mouth of the Secoom 
 River (0 3 '2" W. long.), about eight miles west of Fort 
 James, Accra, about 170 nautical miles. The leeward, or 
 eastern districts, begin at the Secoom Eiver, and stretch 
 to the mouth of the Volta, in 41' 2" of east longitude, 
 or 44-4 miles of direct distance. Thus, in modern times, 
 the Gold Coast, bounded by Cape Apollonia, and the 
 Volta River, has a sea front of 225 miles. In Bosnian's 
 
 * It is regrettable that geographers encourage this most ambiguous 
 style of moiuenclature. Thus the "Windward Islands in the West 
 Indies are the western ; in Eastern Africa, windward means eastern. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 WANDERINGS IN WEST 1 AFRICA. 
 
 day it had narrow limits ; " the Gold Coast, being a part 
 of Guinea, is extended about sixty miles, beginning with 
 the Gold River, twelve miles above Axim, and ending 
 with the village Ponni, seven or eight miles east of 
 Accra." 
 
 The gold export, and afterwards the slave-trade, 
 studded this coast with forts and factories \ twenty-five 
 are mentioned about one to each eight miles ; of these, 
 three were Danish, two Brandenburghers, and the rest 
 belonged to the English and Dutch. At present seven 
 English and four Dutch establishments are kept up ;* 
 
 * In the windward coast the English possessed, going from the 
 West, Apollonia, Dixcove, British Secundee and Commendah, Cape Coast 
 Castle, Annamboo, Fort Coroinantine, Tamtamquerry, Gumwah, Muin- 
 ford, and Winnebah. The latter place was destroyed in 1812, when 
 the frigate "Amelia," Capt. Irby, revenged the murder of the com- 
 mandant Mr. Meredith, who had been tortured to death by being 
 compelled to walk over burning grass and shrubs. The fort was blown 
 up, and "for many years afterwards, English vessels passing Winne- 
 bah were in the habit of pouring a broadside into the town, to inspire 
 the natives with the idea of the severe vengeance which would be 
 exacted for the spilling of European blood " (Mr. Brodie Cruikshank's 
 " Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast," London, 1853). To which may 
 be added, that they fired into the wrong place, the rearculprits being 
 the people of a neighbouring village, who remained unhurt. 
 
 On the windward coast the Dutch had Axim, Brandenburg, Hol- 
 landia, Accoda, Bootry, Tacorady or Tacorary, Dutch Commendah, 
 Chuma, Mouree, Dutch Coroinantine, Apam near the Devil's Hill, and 
 Barracoe. 
 
 On the leeward coast the British had only Fort James, Accra ; the 
 Dutch, Dutch Accra, Labaddi, Pona, Temma, and Prampram or 
 Kbupran, or Kpukpran ; whilst five belonged to the Danes, viz., 
 Christiansborg with its out-station Fredericksborg, Augustenborg 
 near Tesha or Tassy, Fredensborg at Great Ningo, Kongenslein at
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 63 
 
 the other fourteen issues for the life-blood of Africa 
 which these leeches sucked to some effect, have been 
 abandoned with the traffic which called them into being. 
 These deserted forts and ruined castles affect the voyager 
 with melancholy as he passes these sunny shores. And 
 even the posts, which are still maintained, appear ruinous 
 and squalid; really, for appearance' sake, Britannia 
 ought to look after this out-of-the-way corner of her 
 estate, or give it up altogether. Half of the sum 
 now wilfully wasted upon the Dover harbour, a work 
 pronounced practicable by those engineers who main- 
 tained the Suez Canal to be impossible, would pre- 
 vent our being ashamed of out-stations, than which 
 
 Adda on the Volta, and Prindsenstein at Quittah. Slavery being 
 abolished throughout their colonies by the Danes in 1803, these places 
 beeame useless. On the 17th August, 1850, the king of Denmark 
 sold his forts on the Gold Coast to the British Government for 10,0001. 
 England thus obtained exclusive possession of all the seaboard from 
 Accra to the Volta, a rich country, of which, hitherto, no use has been 
 made. 
 
 The real site for a settlement would be at Addah, near the 
 mouth of the Volta, and on its right bank, where the Danish fort is 
 fast falling to ruins. The river called by the Accras Shilau, by the 
 Akwimbas Ainza", by the Addas Job. or Firao, and by the Portu- 
 guese, on account of its windings, Rio Volta, is a good highway into 
 the interior. On '28th October, 1861, Lieut. Dolben, R.N., ascended 
 it in boats for 120 miles, until near theKpong Rapids, where he turned 
 back. He reported the couatry on the banks to be fertile and well 
 cultivated, and the people, though a slave trade was still established 
 amongst them, in the main, friendly. Lieut. Dolben was of opinion that 
 the rapids could be passed by a short portage, and that the upper 
 course of the river is of considerable length. Kow that Accra has 
 been ruined by the earthquakes of 1862, the head-quarters might b e 
 more easily transferred to Addah.
 
 54 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 at present even Portuguese India shows nothing more 
 wretched. 
 
 At sunrise we were off Cape Trespuntos, or Three 
 Points, an excellent land-mark, the three headlands of 
 which the central is the proper Cape lie, respectively, 
 fifty, forty-five, and forty miles from Cape Coast Castle ; 
 the two more distant from the stream are densely 
 wooded; the third, or nearest, is a bare "neat's 
 tongue," backed by a growth of forest. A little to the 
 west lies Axim Bay, where the Portuguese built Fort 
 St. Anthony, which soon fell into the hands of the 
 Dutch, who also became finally possessed of Fort Bran- 
 denburg, originally belonging to the Elector of that 
 name. In 1700 it was a large depot of gold trade; 
 now it is a crumbling rnin, perched on an eminence, 
 and backed by black bush and tree, which stand out 
 from the glistening white sea-sands on both sides. 
 East of the Cape is another Dutch ruin Acquidah, or 
 Accoda. The seas about Trespuntos were animated with 
 shoals of fish pursued by gulls, and fishermen with huge 
 straw hats were casting large seines from small 
 canoes. 
 
 After doubling the third point, we sighted Dixcove, 
 originally Dick's Cove. At this point begins the 
 Ahanta, or Anta Country, once rich in gold, which may 
 still be procured there, and ever gifted with a rich and 
 fertile soil. It extends to near Seconda, with about 
 forty miles of seaboard, and thirty of depth, being 
 backed by the equally rich, but turbulent, " "\Yassaw "
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 55 
 
 Country, which the English have named after "Thad- 
 deus of Warsaw." Behind that, again, lies the land of 
 Dinkira, whose early battles with the Ashantee kings were 
 famous in their day. Dixcove dates from 1681 j it was 
 finished in 1688, and became the strongest outpost on the 
 coast ; it has a territory totally independent of Ahanta, 
 about five miles of sea-shore, and twenty miles inland. 
 From the sea we could distinguish the large white- 
 washed building some ninety feet above the water, and 
 about the dwarf bay were some apparently fine houses. 
 The place contains an officer and four men, together with 
 an assistant-surgeon all supplied by the Gold Coast 
 Artillery, and the little garrison ever feels suicidal. It 
 is well backed with wood, which, however, the people 
 are unwilling to see felled ; and upon the glassy road- 
 stead floated a single French brig. The coast now 
 becomes a succession of settlements. Within sight of 
 Dixcove, and separated by a black islet and reefs, called 
 Sanco Stone, lays Boutry, upon whose ruins Fort Bar- 
 tenstein, an enceinte apparently half way up a hill, still 
 flies at times the Dutch flag. Five miles, going westward 
 placed us opposite Pompendi, a native town guarded 
 by a treacherous formidable reef, upon which the waves 
 dashed with a long swell. About six miles from Pom- 
 pendi was Takorady Point, a long, low tongue, dark at 
 this distance, but when nearer, red : a native town 
 appeared from the sea in the shape of a few huts ; a single 
 schooner composed the shipping, and the Dutch fort, 
 once a place of importance, could hardly be distin-
 
 66 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 guished. It was the scene of severe troubles in 1837, 
 when, on 23rd October, the Dutch military commandant 
 of Boutry and his assistant were treacherously slain by 
 one Bonsoo, chief of the Ahantas. The latter followed 
 up their success by attacking the Dutch troops at the 
 pass of Takorady, and killing many men and four or five 
 officers. In July, 1838, Governor Terveir revenged the 
 outrage by capturing Bonsoo, and dispersing his men. 
 Within the seaboard is the "Adoom country" of old 
 geographies. Another four miles placed us off Point 
 Secondee, where the whitewashed remains of Fort Orange 
 occupy a bold rocky cliff, some fifty feet above sea level. 
 The next point of interest was Chama, also written 
 Chumah and Essama, and by the people pronounced 
 Ishama. Its fort, St. Sebastian, built by the Portu- 
 guese, fell as usual into the hands of the stout Hol- 
 landers. We could plainly distinguish from our deck 
 a large and solid European building, overlooking a native 
 town. About a mile eastward of the fort, a sudden de- 
 pression in the long wavy curtain of cliff from seventy to 
 300 feet high, denotes the position of the two lagoons, 
 between which the Chumah, or St. John's River, finds its 
 way into the sea. The Chumah people call it Prah, and 
 prefix to it the word Bossum, meaning fetish, or sacred. 
 Little is known of this, the largest stream on the Gold 
 Coast, except that the bar at the mouth, being barely 
 two feet deep, renders it useless. Col. Stahrenberg, as 
 reported by Bowdich, ascended it for three days in a 
 canoe, till stopped by a large cataract, near which his
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 57 
 
 men would not venture ; and it is reported as flowing 
 through fertile plains, between banks clothed with mag- 
 nificent timber. The outfall discoloured with bubbly 
 green the pure blue waters off the mouth, and the bot- 
 tom was the soft mud, which navigators prefer to the hard 
 sand. They can plough a way through the former; the 
 latter, aided by the surf, s^)on breaks, by bumping, 
 the ship's back. 
 
 The Bossumpra River is the western boundary of the 
 Fanti people,* and separates them from their powerful 
 neighbours, the Santi or Ashantees. The former country 
 is now, like the Ionian Islands, under British protecto- 
 rate, the general nature of our tenure being a ground- 
 rent paid to Caboceers and headmen ; the former media- 
 torial influence, rendered necessary by the slave trade, has 
 of course ceased. Crossing the Prah, on the part of the 
 Ashantees, is considered equivalent to a declaration of 
 war, as passing the Border was in the olden time, when 
 England and Scotland amused themselves by invading 
 each other. It is the general opinion in the colony that 
 the Volta is an arm of the Prah ; if this be the case, 
 our maps require considerable alteration. Strange that 
 during two centuries of residence in these regions we 
 should not have taken the trouble to lay down so crucial 
 
 * The "Ethiopia Directory" (p. 390), asserts that "the Fanti 
 country, after a dreadful war of extermination, may be now consider^ 
 as incorporated with the kingdom of Ashautee," and that "in ]82i 
 the Fantis were nearly annihilated." They are still, however, a 
 powerful tribe, wholly independent of the Ashantees.
 
 58 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 a point. Should the Prah and the Volla prove to be 
 one, anastomosing at some place to the north-east of 
 Kumasi, the capital of Ashantee, and south of the Sarem 
 country, we have a gold country in equilateral-triangular 
 shape whose base is a sea-line of 150 miles, and whose 
 sides may conjecturally be laid down at 220 miles, or an 
 area of more than 15,00^0 square miles, of which the 
 greater portion is rich in hitherto partially exploited 
 gold. 
 
 The history of Ashantee wars, which began in 1807, 
 is that of the African coast generally. In these lands 
 there are two great axioms of native policy. The first 
 is never to admit strangers into the interior for trade, 
 which it is the interest of the maritime tribes to monopo- 
 lise, and they live in idleness at the expense of the 
 " Bushmen/' or people of the interior. For this point, 
 which is first in life to them, they will fight to the last, 
 and hence the main difficulty of opening up the " Dark 
 Continent." The second is the ambition of the inner 
 peoples to obtain a point d'appui upon the coast, where 
 they can sell their goods at their own price. This ex- 
 plains the frequent wars and irruptions of Ashantee and 
 Dahomey against the maritime people, and the want of 
 permanency in the latter. They become demoralised 
 by indolent living, intercourse with white men, the 
 disuse of arms, and the deleterious climate of the low- 
 lands, and thus they are less fitted to resist the hardier 
 and more warlike tribes that pour down upon them. 
 Dr. Livingstone (chap. 21) asserts "no African tribe
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 59 
 
 lias ever been destroyed." Nothing but the profoundest 
 ignorance could have dictated such a declaration. I 
 affirm, on the contrary, that from the Kru country to the 
 Gaboon, there is not an ancient people now settled on 
 the seaboard, including even Dahomey ; that they sup- 
 planted the races who formerly possessed those civilized 
 jseats ; and that many, the Mpongwe and the old Cala- 
 bar people, are likely to become extinct before the close 
 of another century. The margin of Africa, in fact, 
 like that of other solid bodies, is continually wearing off. 
 The Ashantees fought hard for their primal African 
 desideratum. Their first southerly movement, in 1807, 
 was headed, according to Bowdich, by Sai Tootoo Qua- 
 mina. Mr. Meredith ("Account of the Gold Coast") has 
 accurately described the siege of Annamaboo, in which, 
 though our countrymen showed the greatest possible 
 gallantry, the Ashantees had the upper hand, and Col. 
 Torrane's concessions encouraged them to repeat the 
 attempt. In 1811 they again defeated the Fantis at 
 Apam, and carried to Kumasi the bell of the Danish 
 Fort at Addah. In 1816 the Fantis were obliged to 
 own their supremacy, and to pay an annual tribute. 
 The mission of Messrs. James, Bowdich, and Hutchin- 
 son, in 1817, kept the peace by means of a treaty for 
 six years. On the llth March, 1822, Brigadier-Gene- 
 ral Sir Charles Macarthy, who had long served upon the 
 coast, returnee! to it as Governor of Sierra Leone and 
 its dependencies, and proceeded on board H.M.S. 
 "Iphigenia," Commodore Sir Robert Mends, to take
 
 60 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 possession of the forts on the Gold Coast. He encou- 
 raged the Fantis to resist the annual subsidy paid to the 
 King of Ashantee, and when that monarch marched 
 down with 15,000 warriors in January, 1824, he pro- 
 ceeded to meet him with about 1000 white soldiers and 
 a mob of native auxiliaries. The Governor seems to 
 have fallen into the mistake of despising his enemy. A 
 fight took place at Assamacow, near the Bossumpra 
 River, on the 21st January, and Sir Charles Macarthy 
 was killed, together with eight officers of the 2nd AYest 
 India regiment and the Cape Coast militia.* Accord- 
 ing to Major Eicketts ("Narrative of the Ashantee War"), 
 " his heart was eaten by the principal chiefs, that they 
 might imbibe his bravery; his dried flesh and bones 
 were divided amongst the Caboceers, who always carried 
 them about as fetishes for courage, and there is a local 
 tradition that his head, with his spectacles on, was ex- 
 posed upon a pole." The Ashantees ravaged the coast, 
 and through the year fought with British native forces 
 now successfully then with loss ; but failing to take the 
 castle, they were compelled by sickness and want of pro- 
 visions to retire. In 1826 they again advanced upon 
 the seaboard, but on the 7th August they were utterly 
 routed though they attacked on Monday, their lucky 
 day at the fatal field of Dodowah, so called from a 
 village on a bushy plain, about twenty-four miles north- 
 east of British Accra. According to Major Eicketts, 
 
 * As has appeared in a previous chapter ; the people of the Gold 
 Coast assign to their beloved Macarthy the fate of Cato.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 61 
 
 " among the sad trophies of the day was supposed to be 
 the head of Sir Charles Macarthy, which was sent to 
 England by Lieutenant-Colonel Purdon; it was taken 
 by the Aquapim chief. The king carried it always 
 with him as a powerful charm, and on the morning 01 
 the battle he poured rum upon it, and invoked it to 
 cause all the heads of the whites on the field to He 
 beside it. The skull was enveloped in a paper covered 
 with Arabic characters and a silk handkerchief, over all 
 was a tiger skin, the emblem of royalty." The skull, 
 however, was subsequently suspected to be that of the 
 King Tootoo Quamina, who perished in the action. The 
 people of Cape Coast Castle still swear by Karte 
 Ukuda, or Macarthy's Wednesday, a strong oath with 
 high penalties for perjury.* Finally, peace was con- 
 cluded with the Ashantees, and trade with . the interior 
 was reopened on the 27th April, 1831. 
 
 Since that time, though there have been many rumours 
 of wars, the Ashantees have remained at peace with us; 
 but, as in the case of Russia and Turkey, such a state of 
 affairs can hardly be expected to continue.t 
 
 East of Ishama lay a line of reddish cliffs, here 
 
 * All the tribes upon this coast have a different oath. The Ashan- 
 tees swear by Meminda Kormanti (Coromanti .Saturday), when their 
 great king Osai Tootoo was slain by the Akims. The Fanti chief of 
 Abra, by the "rock in the sea," near Annamaboo, where he took refuge 
 from the Ashantees in 1807. The Annamaboo chief, by Igwah, or Cape 
 Coast Castle, which protected him when he fled from the Ashantees. 
 
 t This was written more than one year ago ; 1863 provee the pre- 
 diction to be correct.
 
 62 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 patched with wood, there bare of forest?, springing from 
 a straight sea beach, in which baylets with dwarf arms 
 and shallow chords succeeded one another. About noon 
 we passed Commeuda Point, which before 1820 was an 
 important post to English and Hollanders ; the former 
 chose the eastern, the latter the western bank of the little 
 River Soosn. Native huts cluster around them both, and 
 a background of lagoon poisons the air. Viewed from the 
 westward, Commendah, or, as the natives call it, Ekky- 
 Tikky, some write Akataykin is backed by a high arm, 
 an insulated formation known by the promising name 
 of Gold Hill. One feels once more in " Californy." 
 
 At 1 P.M. we were abreast of the castle of St. George 
 del Mina, popularly known as Elmina, the first European 
 establishment upon the Gold Coast.* All the landing- 
 places upon these shores are infamously bad, causing 
 great loss of life, except at Elmina and Apam, both be- 
 longing to the Dutch. Here the little rwer Beyah 
 (Byham ?) allows light vessels to unload in safety under 
 the castle walls, and supplies good water ; the want of 
 which, causing dysentery and various diseases, has given 
 to Guinea what Bosman calls its " dreadful mortal 
 name." The lower fort, called St. George, stands ob- 
 liquely fronting the sea, on a black rock a little above 
 water level ; it has double walls and long batteries, 
 with rectangular towers instead of bastions, and a tall 
 
 * Built by the French in 1383, rebuilt by the Portuguese in 1481, 
 captured by the Dutch in 1637, and finally ceded to them with its 
 dependencies in 1641.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE 'COAST CASTLE. 63 
 
 dungeon-looking work in the rear. Above it, on a hill 
 about 100 feet high, and commanding both fortress and 
 tower, stands Fort St. Jago (St. James), a parallelo- 
 grammic whitewashed pile, with a single central tower, 
 and somewhat resembling a hospital with its chapel; it 
 is, however, strongly laid out. The large native town, 
 with its red-brown mud walls and bistre thatching, is 
 divided into two parts : one on the peninsula formed by 
 the embouchure of the little river, and under the guns ; 
 the other extends along the beach to the westward of 
 the stream. These defences have repeatedly resisted the 
 whole force of Ashantee. A single schooner, the 
 "Ionian," of Salem, lay off the port, which in the early 
 part of the eighteenth century exported 3,000,000/. of 
 gold. The settlement contains a governor, secretary, 
 and a commandant of troops, about seventeen white 
 officers, and sixty men, who are clad in blue dungaree. 
 They are by no means healthy; the high walls exclude 
 the air, " sopies" induce liver-complaint, and " personal 
 economy " is neglected. According to Dr. Robert 
 Clarke, late of H.M.'s Colonial Medical Service,* no 
 less than twelve officers died in the eight years between 
 1851 and I860. They are on the best of terms with 
 their neighbours of Cape Coast Castle, but intercourse 
 is necessarily rare. Animals being wanted wholly 
 
 * "Remarks en the Topography and Diseases of the Gold Coast : " an 
 excellent paper read before the Epidemiological Society, Monday, 
 7th May, I860, and partly published in No. II. of the Parliamentary 
 Reports of Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions, issued February, 1861.
 
 64 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 unable to live on this part of the coast they must call 
 upon one another in hammocks ; the distance along the 
 beach, only eight miles, thus takes three hours, and the 
 expense is about ten times that of a London Hansom. 
 Dr. Clarke calculates the expense of locomotion by 
 " dawk," that a journey of some ten miles on the Gold 
 Coast costs nearly as much as to travel by third-class 
 train from Aberdeen to London. 
 
 Beyond Elmiiia we passed a small bay, with its 
 country residences and farms, where the governor and 
 the principal merchants live, and the Sweet River and 
 its village that divides the English protectorate from the 
 Dutch. The country behind was a line of downs, a broken 
 surface of little wooded hills and intervening basins, 
 which tells distinctly its tale of gold, and which morning 
 fogs prove to be swampy. The mysterious malaria we 
 know is there, and men die off as if in a scurvied ship, 
 yet it shows no sign. The German traveller Monrad, 
 asserts that he never saw on this Costa Rica a European 
 past fifty. In such places all officials ought to be in 
 couples, one present, the other on leave in England ; nor 
 ought residence ever to be prolonged beyond three years. 
 This is the system which is gradually growing up in the 
 Oil Rivers further south, and until lands are drained and 
 water is distilled, it would be advisable to try it here. 
 
 Presently the profile of Cape Coast Castle became 
 
 "Distinct in the light clear air, with 
 
 A flood of such rich dyes 
 As makes earth near as heavenly as heaven."
 
 A DAY AT GAPE COAST CASTLE. 65 
 
 It charmed our senses after the foul, gloomy reek of 
 the S'a Leone coast. At a distance it was a long green- 
 grown tongue of reddish land, broken with dwarf cliffs 
 and scaurs, and lined below with clean sand. Upon the 
 outline appeared three projections : a fort at the root, a 
 second about the centre, and a castle with a mass of 
 native huts at the tip. The first, which lies north-west 
 of the settlement, is Phipps' Tower, alias Fort Yictoria ; 
 a martello thing, abandoned, but kept in repair, and so 
 placed in defiance of Vauban, that in the hands of an 
 enemy it would command castle and town. The second, 
 or central post, is Smith's Tower, now Fort William, 
 built by Mr. President Maclean, another artless martello, 
 pretty, but circular below, and, in defiance of all archi- 
 tecture, square above, mounting twelve guns, commanded 
 by No. 1, and commanding No. 3. It has a lighthouse, 
 1 92 feet above sea level, but skippers declare that the 
 light never fails to disappear at two A.M., and that a 
 harbour master being, like York, "wanted," the reflec- 
 tors will not reflect ; whereas those at S'a Leone, under 
 opposite conditions, have lost all their silver by over- 
 burnishing. Also a ball used to be dropped from the 
 castle's flagstaff at the instant of Greenwich mean solar 
 noon ; but since the death of the patron-saint of the 
 place, Mr. Maclean, few of the governors of Cape Coast 
 Castle have been addicted to astronomy. The principal 
 castle is upon the tip of the tongue and the native 
 town clusters behind it. 
 
 At two P.M. we anchored one mile off the landing-
 
 66 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 place ; the water was low, no bad condition, and tlie day 
 was that of the dry season. A local superstition, how- 
 ever, declares that the surf is always worst between the 
 new and full moon. Presently we were surrounded by 
 canoes, wall-sided rudderless troughs, from twenty to 
 forty feet long, with gunwales rather bending inwards 
 from the right angle. All had weatherboards in the bow, 
 planks raised two or more feet out to keep out the seas, 
 such as the forec'sle of the British navy in the days of 
 Henry VIII. Others are provided with a funnel of 
 woodwork at the fore, in the shape of a huge thimble. 
 The only danger of this craft is of their "turning turtle." 
 The paddles are small trefoils, short and stoutly made, 
 to lift the vessel over shallow water. In the smooth, 
 deep rivers of the South we shall find them with long 
 and broad lanceolate blades, the better to hold water. 
 The crew are Fantis, once a currish race, thoroughly 
 cowed by the more warlike Ashantees ; under our peace- 
 ful rule, however, they have waxed rather insolent. They 
 catch us dexterously from the dangerous ladder, and, as 
 they make for the shore, all sing " Whi* man cum agen," 
 White men come again, with remarks, in their ver- 
 nacular, doubtless highly personal. The great art of 
 landing without a sea is to watch when the wave 
 breaks, backing water, if necessary ; a calm interval is 
 found, all " clap on steam," and riding over the crest 
 of a billow, run upon the sand before the rise of the 
 next breaker. They all then tumble out, land the pas- 
 sengers upon their shoulders, and haul up the canoe.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 67 
 
 On this occasion, however, we did not escape well, there 
 were too many in the boat to be carried off pick-a-back 
 at one trip, and we were received upon the beach by a 
 host of starers. 
 
 The rollers are feared at Cape Coast Castle. The 
 landing-place is a small bay under the north-east 
 bastion, protected by a reef jutting out from a ledge of 
 rocks. The Harmattan season, December, January, 
 and February, shows the smoothest seas ; from May to 
 August there is generally a terrific surf, the fall violence 
 of the Atlantic rolling in from the south and west, and 
 for days together canoes cannot put out. An excellent 
 landing-place and a wet dock might be made behind the 
 main outcrop : it has often been proposed the excuse 
 is that there would be difficulties. The fact is, that, 
 after the sand has been removed, the rock would re- 
 quire a little blasting, which would be too much for 
 Cape Coast energy.* What can be expected, when a 
 colonial engineer passes some twenty years at a place, 
 and leaves, as the only memory, a temple of Cloacina, 
 already hastening to decay ? Again, at the disem- 
 barking place, about twenty yards from the castle and 
 sea-gate, lies a lot of thirty-two pounders. They 
 were landed here some fifteen years ago, and have 
 been left to rust away because no one had industry 
 enough to remove them. Throughout the castle indeed 
 I would rather fire with blank cartridge than with ball ; 
 
 * I am hrppy to say that mauy of these remarks are obsolete in 
 1863. .,
 
 68 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 paint fills up honeycombs, but is a poor protection 
 against gunpowder. 
 
 Ascending the few feet of ramp, we entered the long 
 gateway of the Cruizing Cape Castle.* The foundation 
 is called Tabara, alias Tahbil, alias Tabirri Rock, and 
 a similar solitary outcrop to the westward is known as 
 Tabara's Wife. The former is the supposed residence 
 of a great fetish, who comes forth at night white and 
 giant-like, to drive away malicious ghosts. During the 
 yam season, sacrifices of goats, fowls, and vegetables are 
 made to it, and they attract a multitude of " turkey- 
 buzzards." The material is a dark gneiss, through which 
 granite and quartz have protruded. It rises eighteen to 
 twenty feet above sea level, yet in violent storms, the 
 rollers, dashing clean over the rock, which echoes to 
 their thundering roar, sweeps heavy spray over the out- 
 lying batteries of the southern front up to the mess- 
 room windows, forty feet high. The castle is a most 
 irregular building, of quadrangular shape, if any, with 
 bastions at each angle, and batteries originally intended 
 for 100, but now mounting some sixty to seventy useless 
 old iron guns. It is comfortable enough as quarters, 
 
 * The Portuguese called it Cabo Corso, the latter a sea-term, mean- 
 ing a cruizing ; Bosnian uses the word Cabocors, and the English 
 ridiculously perverted it into Cape Coast Castle. (S. Lopez de Lima, 
 Ensaios sobre a Statistica das Possessaos Portuguezas, Libr. II. part i. 
 p. 7.) He also corrects the following English inaccuracies : Biafra, 
 St. Thomas, Annobona, Escardos, Chama, Axim and Cabo Lopez into 
 Rio das Maffras, San Thome", Annobom, Escraros, Sarna, Axem and 
 Cabo de Lopo Goncalves.
 
 A DAT AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 69 
 
 but useless for modern warfare; it has all the vastness of 
 Europeo-Oriental architecture in the olden time. Such 
 erections in these days are impossible. Probably built 
 piecemeal, it covers several acres of ground ; in parts it 
 is four stories high. The gateway leads into a large 
 triangular space, occupying the east of the enceinte, used 
 for drill, and adorned with two thirteen-inch mortars, 
 and five fine old Danish brass guns, lately brought from 
 Quittah. To the north of this terre pleine are double- 
 storied buildings, used as barracks and for other pur- 
 poses; on the south is a sea wall, twenty feet high 
 with the Tabara bastion mounting two mortars and 
 nine guns; which fortification unmistakeably wants 
 casemates. The west is flanked by a long transverse line 
 of double-storied buildings, that divide the castle into 
 two unequal parts : they contain the council chamber, or 
 the palaver hall, and the civil quarters. A double flight 
 of steps leads to this north and south range of buildings, 
 which are high, solid, and roomy, and are not destitute 
 of a certain magnificence. The western gallery is paved 
 with squares of black and white marble, like the Sayyid's 
 Palace at Zanzibar, and His Excellency still occupies the 
 office where President Maclean used to transact busi- 
 ness, at the head of a small staircase separating it from 
 the old observatory, a kind of cockloft, afterwards the 
 dressing-room in which Mrs. Maclean was found by her 
 servant lying dead across the door. Passing through 
 this central building by an arched gateway, guarded 
 by two cohorns, you enter a smaller triangular space
 
 70 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 called the spur battery ; casemates in its northern side 
 are used for stores, and in those opposite some of the 
 troops are lodged ; the centre is occupied by a guard- 
 room, built over one of the best tanks in the place, and 
 there is a gateway opening upon the town. 
 
 Before mess, which was at the unnatural hour of four 
 P.M., we went forth to attend a cause cetebre in the 
 Court-house. Walking along the main portion of the 
 building, which, fronting the sea, forms the conspicuous 
 curtain between the two bastions at the flanks, we 
 walked into the barracks, and found the men in a state 
 more merry than wise. This is the Yam Feast, or Black 
 Christmas ; a ceremonial intended, it is said, to impress 
 upon the native mind the risk of using the unripe, or 
 even the young vegetable whilst it continues soft and 
 waxy. It may not be gathered under severe pains and 
 penalties before the day appointed by the chief. On 
 such festivals the Kings of Ashantee and Dahomey put to 
 death a certain number of their subjects, the better to 
 teach Hygiene to the rest. The harvest-home is in Sep- 
 tember, at which time all who can afford it enter the 
 state known as "half-seas over." Armed companies, com- 
 manded by their captains, carrying their flags like regi- 
 ments in New York, promenade the streets, and faction 
 fights are disagreeably common. It has not been found 
 possible to abolish this system of "companies," which 
 causes great disorders on the Gold Coast. The barracks 
 are decidedly overcrowded, and than overcrowding no 
 fault can be more fatal in these lands. We saw, also, a
 
 A DAT AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 71 
 
 reading and billiard-room, the table of which was, at any 
 rate, superior to that of S'a Leone ; a better one, how- 
 ever, has been proposed. The officers' quarters are in 
 the northern line of buildings fronting the sea ; in the 
 basement of the same is the hospital, tolerably light and 
 well ventilated. The old slave dungeons are visited by 
 those only who enjoy such mild morbidities as slave mar- 
 kets and old barracoons. Dr. Clarke describes these black 
 holes as being under the south or sea battery, and 
 " access to them is obtained through a winding archway, 
 which opens into crypts formed by the divisional sup- 
 porting walls of the battery, being feebly lighted and 
 ventilated through grated apertures in the sea wall, 
 which reeks with dank ness from the percolation of 
 water." 
 
 The Court-house, or rather room, is at the eastern 
 extremity of the tall curtain fronting the sea; it is a 
 dirty little hole, thronged almost to suffocation with a 
 rough crowd busy as wasps. A certain captain of ma- 
 rines, lately appointed postmaster and receiver-general 
 of revenue at Cape Coast Castle, had fallen out with an 
 " African," formerly a tax-gatherer, then a civil com- 
 mandant, and now . The European called the 
 
 African an embezzler of customs revenue. The African 
 instituted a counter-charge against the European of 
 neglecting his duty, and began a civil action for defama- 
 tion of character; the result of which was, that the 
 Englishman was fined 25/. Of course the place was 
 split in two. ome declared that Japhet was rightly
 
 72 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 served for saying anent Ham things that could not be 
 proved. Others declared that a noted truth had been 
 twisted into a libel by men jealous, because a local ap- 
 pointment had been given out of the colony. Touching 
 juries at this place, the editor of the "West African 
 Mail," then published at Cape Coast Castle, thus con- 
 firms the assertion of his S'a Leone brother, and 
 being, as he says himself, " an African from scalp to 
 s*****m," he is entitled to belief and deference on the 
 part of a British public : 
 
 " JURIES. We must say a word about juries in Cape 
 Coast. We consider juries here a mistake ; the respect- 
 able people don't like to sit. If they can avoid it, they 
 won't sit. Often persons are summoned to sit as jurors 
 who are in fact mere ragamuffins. These never refuse. 
 Their verdict can be bought for a glass of beer or three- 
 penny worth of tobacco. We think it would be well for 
 the court to order a list of householders to be made out 
 and kept in the court, and when a jury is required, the 
 clerk of the court should be directed to summon some 
 dozen of these householders, whose names should be 
 written on slips of paper, and put into a hat or a box, and 
 then the names of six (the legal number of a jury on the 
 Gold Coast) drawn out. In a very important case that 
 was heard a few days ago, a man was put into the jury 
 box who was a notorious swindler and rogue. On one 
 occasion the defendant nominated all the jurymen, and 
 the court permitted this. It seems to us, that in all 
 this there is much that calls for reform ; but, unfortu-
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 73 
 
 nately, what is everybody's business is nobody's business. 
 There are now so many judges, and each judge is so 
 wretchedly paid, that we cannot be astonished if their 
 Honours decline to be bothered with more court work 
 than they can help/' 
 
 There is no part of the world, I may assert, where 
 there is a worse feeling between black and white than 
 upon the Gold Coast. The arrogance de part et d'autre 
 is most comical to a stranger. There are about 100 
 Europeans in the land : amongst these there are many 
 excellent fellows, but it is an unpleasant confession to 
 make the others appear to me inferior to the Africans, 
 native as well as mulatto. The possibility of such a 
 thing had never yet reached my brain : at last, in colloquy 
 with an old friend upon the Coast, the idea started up, 
 and after due discussion we adopted it. I speak of 
 morale ; in intellect the black race is palpably superior, 
 and it is fast advancing in the path of civilisation. It 
 cries for " regular lawyers," and is now beginning, even 
 at the out-stations to file schedules of bankruptcy. 
 
 We dined at the mess of the Gold Coast Artillery. 
 Hereabouts begins the compulsory semi-starvation which 
 afflicts "West Africa as far south as Loando. Food is 
 scarce, and what there is affords but little nutriment. 
 Moreover, cooks are detestable, and there is a terrible 
 sameness of diet. As a rule, it is all fowl, till the lean 
 poultry about the size of an English pigeon ends by 
 giving one the scurvy. Beef is not to be had, and the 
 tasteless goat's flesh must take the place of mutton.
 
 U WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Turkeys are sometimes brought from the neighbourhood 
 of Quittah ; and even fruit is rare. Fish, however, is 
 plentiful, and the older residents upon the coast adhere 
 mainly to this lenten diet. The country-made dishes are 
 good and wholesome, but somewhat too finely pounded 
 and too much worked to suit the English palate. 
 But, if rations were scarce, hospitality, Steinvvein, and 
 Moselle were not; and upon these we contrived to 
 rough it. The mess reminded the consul of the old 
 camping days at Kurrachee, in Scinde, or the Unhappy 
 Valley. 
 
 The G. C. A., which initials, by-the-by, the facetious 
 grumbler interprets Great Curse of the Army, because 
 promotion is so easily obtained in it, dates from 1851 ; 
 in that year it succeeded the Royal African corps of 
 three companies, each 100 men, stationed at S'a 
 Leone, the Gambia, and Fernando Po. This artillery 
 corps began with 300 men, commanded by seventeen 
 European officers, and it was further increased by a band 
 of fifty supernumeraries. About 120 are stationed at 
 head-quarters ; the same number at and about Accra ; 
 whilst the rest are scattered over the out-stations, and 
 are supposed to co-operate with the Pynims petty head 
 men, who act as police. The main object of the levy 
 was to act as a preventive to slavery and human sacri- 
 fice, which is effected by breaking through the influence 
 of the chiefs ; and so far have we been successful, that 
 even the Okros, or Fetish boys, are no longer put to 
 death. The cost, however, cannot be less than 20,000^.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 75 
 
 per annum, and I suspect that Irregulars would cost 
 much less, and be equally efficient. The men are chiefly 
 runaway serviles, for whom a compensation of $40 is 
 paid to the owners another proof, if aught were needed, 
 how difficult it is to avoid slave-dealing, and the sol- 
 dier's price is deducted by instalments from his pay. The 
 men have a standing grievance touching salary ; they 
 receive Id., whereas the West Indian private's pay is 1*. 
 a day; moreover, they are liable to "cuttings," and their 
 uniform is a useless expense to them. They are armed 
 with an efficient Enfield carbine and sword-bayonet, and 
 they wear the Zouave uniform. Though often ragged 
 and incomplete, wanting stockings, for instance it 
 looks gorgeous near the blue tuft and yellow facings of 
 the Dutch. It is, however, cumbrous, comfortless, and 
 unhealthy, admirably adapted for Tripoli, equally ill- 
 suited to the Tropics. Sad tales are told of their state 
 of discipline, and few expect to see the corps live long.* 
 
 * Since this was written, an open mutiny broke out. On the 3rd 
 October, 186 , the troops, after vainly attempting to murder certain of 
 the officers, fled to Napoleon, an out-station distant about four miles. 
 Two days afterwards, the place was visited by H.M.S. " Wye," and on 
 the 7th, Major De Ruvignes, civil commandant at Accra, whose energy 
 probably saved the Coast, sent up some 50 suspected men in H.M.S. S. 
 "Brisk" and "Mullet." The Europeans, 15 in all, not to mention 
 six or seven mulatto gentlemen, were in the fort, and the mutineers 
 had entrenched themselves in their new quarters. The serjeant-major 
 was sent to them, but they refused all terms. Being hated like poison 
 by the natives, and aware that the chiefs and people generally would 
 unite to destroy them, they gave up their arms on the 9th, and on the 
 next day they were persuaded by Mr. Usher of the commissariat, to
 
 V6 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 It would scarcely be fair to judge of the morale of men 
 who are almost in open mutiny ; these Fantis, however, 
 are said at times to have fought pretty well at least 
 not worse than their neighbours. With very few 
 exceptions, such as the Bijugas, the Ashantees, and 
 the Dahomans, there is no more timid race than the 
 maritime tribes of Western Intertropical Africa; even 
 the three above mentioned are not more remarkable for 
 valour than the Hindu, who, " meak and mild/' as we 
 called him, could prove himself a tiger at a pinch. It 
 is otherwise on the Eastern Coast, and I attribute the 
 difference to the intermixture of Arab blood. 
 
 The officers of the Cape Coast army expect a com- 
 pany after a period of three years' service from the date 
 of lieutenant's commission, and after six years of actual 
 service they are entitled to a majority; moreover, a 
 captain may retire upon 150/. a year. This is being 
 liberal of promotion with a witness : the least precaution 
 
 embark for trial at S'a Leone. Capt. Lace of H.M.S. "Brisk," 
 carried between 80 and 90 to their destination ; of these one was shot 
 at S'a Leone, and another was landed for the same purpose on the 
 day when I left Cape Coast Castle (13th Nov. 186). For protection 
 against farther outrage, Capt. Luce left in the castle a party of 21 
 marines, with Lieut. Ogle, Royal Marine Artillery. They had rations 
 for five weeks, and were confined to barracks between 9 A.M. and 
 4 P.M. Great care was taken of them, and the only loss was one 
 man, by an accidental fall from a window. No subsequent outbreak 
 occurred. The only danger, in these cases, is the first " flare-up." 
 Thus ended the great Gold Coast mutiny, which, though almost blood- 
 less, should methinks be a standing warning against employing men in 
 their own country. We know it in England and Ireland ; in Africa 
 they have still to learn this simple wisdom.
 
 A DAT AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 77 
 
 that should be taken would be to make all colonial officers 
 of the scientific branches pass examinations before 
 entering the home establishments. The Dutch have 
 made six years their minimum term of service on the 
 Gold Coast : after twelve years an officer retires on full 
 pay. Their system is in some points superior to ours. 
 A man will not interest himself in the progress of a place 
 where he pitches tent for a short time ; he retires before 
 learning a sentence of the language, or becoming at all 
 acquainted with the people, much less with the capa- 
 bilities of the country. To these short periods of 
 service I ascribe the undeveloped, or rather the wholly 
 neglected, state of the Gold Coast, whose resources are a 
 matter of mystery ; and such will be the probable effects 
 of frequent furloughs to the future Anglo-Indian. On the 
 other hand, there is the climate, against which English- 
 men, apparently by reason of their habits, are unfitted 
 to contend. "Whilst Americans, Germans, and Ham- 
 burghers have passed safely through years of residence 
 in the Island of Zanzibar, it has not a single English 
 house, the difficulty being, to speak plainly, that of 
 finding a man who will not drink. In these days of 
 monthly steamers and circulating libraries, breaking the 
 monotony of existence, when the semi-starvation of which 
 men whose vital powers are lowered by a tropical 
 climate, die, can now be replaced by generous living ; 
 when it is known that quinine, liberty, and constant 
 occupation rob the most dangerous climate of half its 
 risk ; the climate of the Gold Coast has lost nothing of
 
 78 
 
 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 its sting or of its victory. Bosnian's remark still, I fear, 
 applies to the English : " Their forts are very meanly 
 garrisoned, as if it were sufficient to build forts, furnish 
 them with cannon and necessary provisions, without men, 
 in which the English are everywhere deficient." Besides 
 which, he adds, that in those days our people took six 
 years to build a fort. 
 
 No one lands at Cape Coast Castle without pil- 
 grimaging to the "last resting-place of the poetess 
 ' L. E. L./ " and, of course, without inquiring into her 
 " sad, eventful history," which has, however, nothing of 
 
 romance. For " L. E. L." is known where Miss Lan- 
 don is not, and her fate has been the subject of curiosity 
 to many that have never read the " Improvisatrice," or, 
 " Eomance and Reality." The graves of Mrs. Maclean 
 and her deeply-injured husband are on the large trian- 
 gular drill-ground of the Castle. It is a local practice to 
 bury the dead in dwelling-houses, and the custom is
 
 A -DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 79 
 
 not confined to Pagans ; the floor of the surgery, the 
 kitchen, and the medical store-rooms of the colonial 
 hospital have all been used for interment. The tramp- 
 ing of soldiery upon the pavement had well nigh 
 defaced all the traces of the tombs,* when the pious 
 hand of Governor O'Connor restored them. The 
 graves now lie parallel to each other as in p. 78 : 
 the St. Andrew's Cross denotes the nationality of the 
 deceased. 
 
 On the wall of the north and south buildings a Latin 
 inscription, on a neat tablet of white marble, records the 
 death and the survivor's grief. I had always believed 
 that upon the groundwork of a statue intended for 
 Washington the Great, and representing a more than 
 half-nude figure, extending its arm towards the Capitol, 
 as if the latter had been a barber-surgeon intent upon 
 phlebotomy, I had discovered the very worst Latin in- 
 scription in the world. My natural exultation at the 
 success was justified by a sentence beginning with 
 " monumentum istud " ending with faciebat. But 
 great is the use of travel. Cape Coast Castle sup- 
 plied me with a further bathos of Latinity in the 
 neat tablet above alluded to. 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Wilson, in "Western Africa," curiously says, "that 
 Governor Maclean and his distinguished partner lie side by side under 
 the cold sod of this African fort." This reminds one of Sir William C. 
 Harris's description of Eve's grave at Jeddah, being a green sod, -where 
 there is not a patch of grass. I much wonder what these gentlemen 
 understood by sod ?
 
 80 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 " Hie jacet sepultum 
 
 Omne quod mortale fuit 
 
 Letitiae Elizabeths Maclean, 
 
 Quam egregi omatum indole," &c., &c. 
 
 There was a sister tablet a few yards off, placed, 
 I believe, in honour of Mr. Swaiizy, here a well known 
 colonial name. It was shivered by the shock of the 
 huge mortar fired in front of it. 
 
 The true history of Mrs. Maclean's death is known 
 to many, but who, in writing the life of " L. E. L.," 
 would dare to tell it ? Owning that de mortuis nil 
 nisi verum should be our motto, how would it be possible 
 to publish facts whilst actors in the tragedy are still 
 upon the stage of life ? And after their death it will 
 be forgotten. The author of a certain report on the 
 Gold Coast, during his short and feverish residence as 
 Commissioner, a guest of President Maclean, succeeded 
 in casting upon his host's public efficiency a serious slur, 
 which was afterwards satisfactorily removed by a select 
 committee of the House of Commons. On the other hand, 
 the author of "Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast," 
 showed himself an injudicious friend, far worse than any 
 foe, by asserting that, after a certain esclandre, the house- 
 hold was very successful. But enough of these private 
 matters. Mr. Forster, M.P. for Berwick, the warmest 
 of President Maclean's well-wishers, openly asserted 
 that the flood of calumny poured upon him arose from 
 the enmity of an individual in the Colonial Office, who 
 was pettily jealous because affairs at the Gold Coast,
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 8] 
 
 with a miserable pittance of 400 0, were managed 
 far more effectually than at the pet S'a Leone, where 
 economy has never been the order of the day. Hence 
 the "President of the Council of Government/' than 
 whom a better servant of Government was never known 
 on this coast, was charged with having encouraged 
 slavery under the local name "pawning" a fatal accusa- 
 tion in those days and with neglecting official duty for 
 private correspondence. 
 
 Standing over the graves we heard the story of Mrs. 
 Maclean's death, and nothing could be less probable 
 than the popular version. A homeward-bound vessel 
 was preparing to sail. At 7 A.M. she left her hus- 
 band's room, and proceeded to write letters before 
 dressing in the little room opposite, once used as an 
 observatory. A Mrs. Bailey, her servant, had been 
 sent to the store-room to fetch some article; she re- 
 turned after a few minutes, and found against the door 
 a weight, which proved to be the corpse of her mistress. 
 The servant distinctly asserted what has been since 
 denied, that a phial was still in the dead woman's hand, 
 and that the phial contained a preparation of prussic 
 acid. But here comes the rub. The authoress's 
 spirits had been weakened, she had ceased to play at 
 ball, and she was suffering from a heart disease which 
 produced fits or spasms. The local account, however, is, 
 that she was in the habit of taking prussic acid to stimu- 
 late her energies, a use probably unknown to Scheele. 
 At any rate, calumny found its way home, and the
 
 82 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 President was reduced to the secondary position of Judi- 
 cial Assessor at Cape Coast Castle. There he died in 
 May, 1847, to the deep and lasting regret of the whole 
 population, black and white. 
 
 The " balance," as Yankee Doodle says, of the twenty- 
 four hours, was pleasantly spent at the quarters of Mr. 
 Usher, a commissariat officer, who was serving out his 
 two years de rigueur upon the coast of Western Africa. 
 The profound quiet of a tropical night, derived a stillness 
 deeper still from the contrast with the noisy rattle of the 
 tiller-chains, whose perpetual jiggerty-jig made one long 
 for a mild anaesthetic of turpentine. 
 
 Betimes in the next morning we sallied out to see the 
 town. After 10 A.M. a European becomes a prisoner at 
 home for the day, until his jailor, the sun, has disappeared. 
 As there are no riding animals, and hammocks conceal 
 the view, we used what I have heard called " Shanks his 
 mare." We issued from the gateway at the north of 
 the western, or spur battery, and slowly sauntered into 
 the open. Opposite the gate is the esplanade, a cleared 
 space for parading ; from this a broad street, lined with 
 ragged umbrella-trees, a kind of ficus, runs towards 
 the north, dividing the town into two parts. Imme- 
 diately on our left was the unfinished Protestant church, 
 of which 600. were granted by the Colonial Office and 
 the War Department. This Africo-Gothic aspires to 
 the honour of consecration by the Eight Reverend the 
 Bishop of Sierra Leone, and meanwhile much resembles 
 the porter's lodge in the new style of cemetery. A large
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 83 
 
 room in the upper part of the castle's northern range, or 
 sea front, was formerly used as a chapel ; it was, how- 
 ever, secularized into officers' quarters by the recommen- 
 dation of a sanitary report published by the Commission- 
 ers 30th June, 1857. At the upper end of the main 
 street, which rises gently, is the substantial and sober 
 looking meeting-house of the Wesleyaus, a body that is 
 owned to have done some good in this part of Africa 
 by abstaining from politics, and by teaching, not only 
 Christianity, but trade. The sides of the highly irre- 
 gular street are incongruous mixtures of whitewashed 
 houses and red-brown clay huts, some double storied, 
 and of superior dimensions, after the fashion of the 
 olden times, but most of them palpably native ; those of 
 Europeans may show green jalousies, but the earth walls 
 and dingy roofs of dull grey thatch, are like the Africans. 
 The right, or east side of main street, is a straggling 
 line of habitations that slope down into a rugged rocky 
 hollow, and thence upwards to the side of a correspond- 
 ing eminence. The shape of the native house is a hollow 
 square; here, however, the form is undeveloped, com- 
 pared with what we shall see at Abeokuta and Benin. 
 As in all tropical countries, there are attached com- 
 pounds where women do domestic work and where chil- 
 dren gambol under the umbrella-tree. On the Gold 
 Coast intermural sepulture has reached its climax. The 
 pernicious practice of burying in the basement of the 
 dwelling places, renders any improvement of the town 
 a matter of the greatest difficulty. The custom appears 
 
 G 2
 
 84 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 to have arisen from a barbarous vain-glory ; the corpse 
 is placed in the handsome abode which it built for itself, 
 and survivors point to the last home of a wealthy man. 
 "With the dead body, which is sprinkled with gold dust, 
 are interred pearls, precious metals, and ornaments, 
 Aggri, or Popo beads, and clothes of the greatest value ; 
 thus, Lombard Street being in the future, whilst the 
 material exists everywhere, these tombs become banks 
 of deposit, as it were, and the family, especially the 
 eldest son, draws from them when required. The idea 
 of burying treasures with the dead dates from the 
 earliest days of history, and the Jews, whose rites and 
 ceremonies show distinct traces of African fetissism, 
 long preserved the custom. The wise king placed 
 treasures in his father David's grave, and when Asa 
 died, he was " laid in the bed which was filled with sweet 
 odours and divers kinds of spices, prepared by the 
 apothecaries' art." On the Gold Coast, even when the 
 family vault is exhausted, they are as unwilling to part 
 with the tomb -home, as a wild Irishman with his wretched 
 shanty on the hill-side. The material of the walls is 
 sun-dried brick, or more often swish, clay puddled with 
 water; this red mixture is built in courses which are 
 allowed to harden before others are added, and they 
 easily dry during the hot season. They require, how- 
 ever, a substantial thatch and overhanging eaves, other- 
 wise they are cut and channelled by the rain, and in 
 damp places the foot of the walls should be protected by 
 stone work, or by cactus, from burrowing animals. As
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 85 
 
 timber is not used, it is no wonder that the habitations, 
 after a heavy downfall, subside like the puddle palaces 
 of Scinde. 
 
 The floors are of mud, daubed over strong lathing, 
 the equivalent of our English "post and plaster;" 
 the rooms are dark, damp, rarely washed, and ill-venti- 
 lated ; foul linen lies upon the bed or hangs against the 
 wall ; offals, and bits of putrid fish strew the ground and 
 encumber the corners ; whilst outside, dirty green pools, 
 and all manner of refuse taint the air. The houses are 
 over-crowded, there are 6000 to 7000 souls in the place, 
 and they are not sufficiently scattered. The usual 
 number inhabiting a small two-storied tenement will be 
 twenty; and as lodging is scarce, respectable people 
 must live separated by a thin party-wall, if any, from 
 some disreputable fellow, drunk all day and half the 
 night with cheap spirits from the United States or the 
 Brazils. Cloacinse, public and private, are unknown ; 
 and the Galinazo and the Pariah dog are hardly 
 numerous enough to remove the garbage about the huts. 
 There are municipal corporations both at Cape Coast 
 Castle and at Accra; there are also detailed police 
 regulations for the removal of such impurities. They 
 are, however, a dead letter, and the nuisance cannot be 
 abated without the direct interference of the authorities, 
 who stop their noses and say no more about it. A walk 
 through the north-east of the town at once shows the 
 cause of its high death rate. Those who are curious 
 to see what an hotel may be, have only to visit Dick's or
 
 86 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 Sam's the locanda of the Apennines is a palace com- 
 pared with them. 
 
 The men I do not speak of the "native gentle- 
 men " are dressed after the African fashion, in a loin 
 cloth and a larger sheet, both of cotton. The latter is 
 removed from the shoulders on meeting or addressing a 
 superior, and its picturesque folds assume the shape of 
 the Roman toga. They are a tall and not ill-formed 
 race, when they have no skin diseases, with chocolate 
 coloured skins, noses rather high at the bridge, and a fair 
 development of the facial angle which escapes the quasi- 
 gorillahood of the real " nigger." The women would 
 not shine in Mr. Barnum's beauty show ; when young, 
 however, they have the usual leautt du dlable, and if 
 their features are not Grecian, their limbs are. I wish 
 " figures" might be added ; unfortunately their bosoms 
 are unsupported, and as they wear the same dress as the 
 men, defects become painfully prominent. The Fantis 
 are perhaps the most civilized people on this coast; 
 unfortunately El Islam has not yet taught womankind 
 the propriety of veiling their bosoms. Under the loose 
 cloth all wear the " Shim " smallest of " languti" or T- 
 bandages, secured round the waist by a string of large 
 gold beads when the wearer is wealthy, of glass or clay 
 when the contrary is the case. These articles are hung 
 in numbers about the houses, and often puzzle strangers. 
 When due attention is paid to this article it must be 
 beneficial to health. They have the feminine ornaments 
 usual ill semi-civilized and half-clad lands, ear-rings,
 
 A DAT AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 87 
 
 necklaces, bracelets, armlets, finger and toe rings of brass, 
 if not of gold, and metal anklets, oval shaped, and 
 drooping over instep and heel. There are, however, in 
 their toilettes, two very decided novelties to an English 
 eye whether to be recommended or not to the Hebes 
 at home, the reader may judge. The head-dress in 
 married women is that described by Park among the 
 "ladies of Karta and Ludamar." The hair, which, 
 though curly, grows eight to eleven inches long, is shaved 
 or cleared away round the head to remove straggling pile, 
 and to define the line of departure. The rest of the 
 locks, well combed and greased, are drawn tightly up 
 to a tall ridge, either wholly natural or blown out with 
 padding. There is a back comb of gold or jewellery, 
 if possible, and some coiffures have a terminal top-knot, 
 whilst others end abruptly like a pillow turned upon its 
 edge.* Women of rank would be ashamed if this mon- 
 strous Ckinoise were not exaggerated to the utmost. In 
 the fifteenth century, however, our ancestresses must have 
 been as much troubled. The other nouveaute is a " nice 
 thing" in "bussles." The "cankey," as it is called, is a 
 huge pincushion, a stuffed oblong of calico, provided with 
 two tapes, and so fastened round the waist that the two 
 loose corners and the edge between them stand shelving 
 upwards from the owner's back. It thus forms a con- 
 tinuation to the person suggesting that the caudal region 
 has been very lately suppressed. This racing-like pad 
 
 * At S'a Leone, when people suffer from scurvy and relaxed uvula, 
 they tie a bunch of ha,ir, en toupet, tightly on the top of the head.
 
 88 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 is supposed to act as a saddle for the baby to ride upon ; 
 unfortunately for the explanation, it is worn by little 
 misses hardly in their teens. I therefore attribute it 
 not purely to fashion, but to that natural and instinctive 
 admiration of Steatopyga from which the Authoress of 
 Crinoline does not appear to be free. 
 
 We passed one of the two graveyards lying to the 
 windward of the castle. These enclosures are, as usual, 
 foul places of wet sepulture, dank with fetid vegetation, 
 and poisoning the air of the houses and huts around 
 them. The other, I am told, is equally badly situated, and 
 also surrounded by a dense population. Besides these 
 cemeteries, which are appropriated to Christians, graves 
 for Pagans are dug about the beach, and the slaves, 
 when not thrown into the sea, are buried " promis- 
 cuously " along the lanes or pathways of the faubourgs. 
 Dr. Clarke recommended "that the Christian burial- 
 ground should be closed up, and that cemeteries should 
 be opened to the leeward of the town, where there is 
 abundance of land lying waste suitable for the purpose, 
 and where a piece of ground might also be set apart 
 wherein to bury the dead of the Pagan and slave popu- 
 lation." 
 
 Leaving this burial-ground stained and dreary, we 
 passed out of the town into the bush, where gamboge 
 trees, with flowers like hollyhocks, were conspicuous, and 
 we breasted the rough ascent leading to Tort Yictoria. 
 The soil was a reddish-brown argile, thinly clothed with 
 quartz nodules, mica flakes, and feldspar; in places
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 89 
 
 thin rivulets had furrowed the surface, and bands of 
 quartzose rock crossing the course, would have conveyed 
 an intelligible hint to a Californian or Australian 
 prospector. Ascending the eminence, which is about 
 a mile from the castle, we found an extensive pro- 
 spect, bounded southwards by the sea, and northwards, 
 or inland, the horizon was a wavy mass of little hills, 
 paps, and hummocks, all bushy, and prolonged in 
 crescent-shape towards the Atlantic. A few were 
 rounded at the summits, others had table-tops; none, 
 however, showed signs of cultivation, being shaggy and 
 with trees between ; and the only road in sight was the 
 narrow ribbon winding through the valleys, and taking 
 the direction of Kuuiasi. It is now easy to follow in 
 the path of Bowdich, Dupuis, and Hutchinson. The 
 King of Ashantee, however, can hardly be visited 
 without a dash of at least 100, for which he will 
 probably return 40 in gold dust, and, as has been 
 said, hammock travelling, especially over mountains and 
 on long journeys, is very expensive. Besides which, 
 an unknown visitor is compelled to await at the 
 frontier permission to visit the capital, and etiquette 
 will not allow this to arrive for some days, when in 
 Kumasi, various pretexts will prevent you seeing the 
 king till a second delay ceremonious has taken place. 
 And, lastly, it is said that his Majesty has invariably 
 refused a transit northward to all travellers, fearing lest 
 they should make some arrangements for trade with the 
 "people on horses," probably Moors or Africo- Arabs,
 
 90 WANDERINGS IN WEST 'AFRICA. 
 
 who, the tradition is, are impatiently expecting the 
 arrival of white men. It was the same at Dahomey, 
 and the reader will readily remember the difficulty with 
 which Mr. Duncan* penetrated into the interior from 
 Abomey. A large lake, and other geographical curi- 
 osities, are reported to exist between Ashantee and the 
 " Kong Mountains." The country is described as con- 
 sisting of rich grassy plains and savannahs, contrasting 
 with the thick bush-forest of Ashantee, and the people 
 are said to furrow the land with ploughs. Perhaps, in 
 these days, by proper management and by liberal pre- 
 sents, the interdict might partially be removed, and the 
 explorer permitted to advance under an escort of the 
 king's guards. 
 
 On our left, or northward of the castle, Tort Macarthy 
 occupies the crest of a detached little hill. Below us, 
 and about one mile north-west of the city, lies a lagoon, 
 like those which deform the environs of James Fort and 
 Christiansborg, a " silver liquor " to the bird's-eye view, 
 but nearer a pond prevalent with foulness and fever, 
 and full of crabs more than suspected of anthropophagy. 
 This intensely salt " marigot," which in the dry season 
 is about one mile in length by half that breadth, is sepa- 
 
 4 
 
 * Mr. Duncan was sent as Vice-Consul to Aboraey in the days of 
 Gezo, father of the present sovereign. He was an adventurous traveller, 
 but by no means an educated man or a man of the world, and the 
 Dahoman used to say of the Englishman that he wished the King of 
 England would "send him a man with a head." Gezo was, although we 
 consider him a barbarian, a very remarkable man, dignified, and gifted 
 with uncommon penetration : as my informant, who was on friendly
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 91 
 
 rated from the Atlantic by a narrow strip of sand. 
 During the rainy season, when freshened and swollen 
 by the drainage of the hills, and the streams that flow 
 from the spongy and reedy morass at its landward 
 extremity, it partially discharges itself into the ocean. 
 Warping will be difficult, and drainage impossible here ; 
 the sole's level is below the sea. Kurrachee has its 
 " Clifton," and similarly this lagoon has been provided 
 with a " Mount Edgcumbe," a pigmy scaur overhanging 
 the impure lake. Another bad formation calling 
 loudly for reform is impartially placed at the east end of 
 the town and intersecting part of the suburbs a deep 
 fiumara cribbled with water-holes and gold-diggers' 
 pits, strewed with animal and vegetable refuse, and 
 dammed by a sand-bar across the mouth. Whilst these 
 things continue in loco, Cape Coast Castle must expect to 
 retain as evidence maladies which, like dracunculus and 
 dysentery, are sporadic at deadly Bathurst and S'a 
 Leone. It can hardly wonder that scrofula, ulcers, kra- 
 kra,* herpes, noli-me-tangere, leprosy, and foul defce- 
 
 terms with him, said, he could tell a visitor's calibre in half an hour. 
 His son, Badahong, the present ruler, gave promise of superior civilisa- 
 tion, but he has followed in the ways of his ancestors. How little the 
 general public at home know of this class of people may be gathered 
 from this fact : An enthusiastic lady I will spare her name wrote, 
 strongly urging me to take her with me to the City of the Amazons. 
 She intended, by a magic lantern, and by pronouncing some words iu 
 the vernacular (the list desired was duly specified), to terrify the king 
 into abolishing human sacrifices to become a Christian and a Iloinan 
 Catholic ! It is incredible, but it is true. 
 
 * A bad kind of scabies, commonly written Craw Craw. It is not
 
 92 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 datious, are rather the rule than the exception. For 
 the unusual frequency of ophthalmia, deafness, land- 
 scurvy, and elephantiasis, the people have mainly to thank 
 their own indolence. Medical men find the atmosphere 
 surcharged, they say, with that specific poison which 
 breeds "Yellow John" at S'a Leone and the Gambia. I 
 should be astonished if it were otherwise. Yet even 
 here Nature, as is her wont, has planted a remedy where 
 she has placed the poison. " Connor Hill," or " One- 
 tree Hill," on the north-east of the town, is said to be 
 a sanitarium ; there, and there only, Europeans should 
 be stationed. There is a dwarf platform on the summit 
 which is capable of accommodating all the Europeans in 
 the station, and if the castle is ever to be defended, this 
 is the position for a strong battery of Armstrongs. Were 
 I governor of Cape Coast Castle, my hut should be built 
 there during the first month. 
 
 Returning homewards, we passed, on another emi- 
 nence to the west of the town, a house and school 
 belonging to the "Wesleyan establishment ; both appeared 
 neat and clean. Standing upon the balcony was his 
 Reverence Prince John, alias Usu Ansali, who, with his 
 cousin Kwantibisa, son of the King of Ashantee, were 
 given as hostages to Mr. Maclean in 1830. The youths 
 were forwarded to England for education. When they 
 returned to Africa in the Niger expedition, they settled 
 
 confined to mankind ; goats, and other animals, often die of it a 
 few days after arrival at Fernando Po ; it is most easily communicated, 
 and on board ship it has run through the whole crew.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 93 
 
 at Cape Coast Castle, where Prince John remained as 
 " interpreter, class-teacher, and local preacher." He 
 appeared in the shape of a very black man with a white 
 necktie, more Africano; as Mr. Paul says of the Maori,* 
 he looked " snobbish, so to speak, when clad in European 
 costume." I could not but admire the vastness and the 
 barbarous splendour of the houses, built by residents in 
 the days before steamers, when men expended hundreds, 
 whereas they now grudge a "flimsy." They reminded 
 me of Richard Lander's description of Mr. Hutchinson's 
 style of living at Annamaboo, " His silken banners, his 
 turreted castle, and his devoted vassals recalling, the 
 manners and way of life of an old English baron." 
 One stone pile, " Gothic Hall," built by Mr. Hutton, 
 would be considered a handsome residence even near 
 London. The two stags on the columns flanking the 
 gate, and wearing crowns around their necks, are in the 
 style of a certain tall house near Rotten Row, in the 
 palmy days of those honoured animals. 
 
 Under the western walls of the castle women were 
 panning the sand of the shore for gold ; as in Ashantee, 
 this washing is the peculiar office of the weaker sex. 
 They shovelled up with their hands the finer " stuff" 
 the metal sinks through the coarse material and filled, 
 with three parts of it to one of sea water, a calabash, a 
 wooden bowl, or a metal pan. The implement was then 
 whirled, as in California, Australia, and all gold-washing 
 
 * New Zealand, as it was and as it is. By E. B. Paul, M.A., late 
 Archdeacon of Nelson. London : Stanford, 1861.
 
 94 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 countries, to and fro, with and against the sun. The 
 lighter contents were thrown out by dexterously canting 
 up the vessel, and after repeated washings, the precious 
 metal appeared in flakes and dots, with an occasional 
 grain shining out of the black emery that remained at 
 the bottom. At Cape Coast Castle the scarlet beans of 
 the Alrus precatorius, used from Senegal to Calcutta by 
 goldsmiths Ca da Mosto observed them in 1454, 
 are the customary weight. Bosnian calls them Dambas.* 
 In Ashantee they still employ for the purpose little 
 figures of labourers and mechanics, the "Fetishes" of the 
 old Dutch writers. At the end of five minutes one of 
 the women produced a small pinch of gold, which she 
 sold to us for sixpence. 
 
 After that I lost all patience with Cape Coast Castle. 
 Will our grandsons believe that in these days a colony 
 which cannot afford 150 per annum for a stipendiary 
 magistrate, that men who live in a state of poverty, nay, of 
 semi-starvation, are so deficient in energy as to be con- 
 tent with sitting down hopelessly whilst gold is among 
 their sands, on their roads, in their fields, in their very 
 walls? That this Ophir that this California, where 
 every river is a Tmolus and a Pactolus, every hillock 
 is a gold hill does not contain a cradle, a puddling- 
 
 * He makes 1 damba = 2 stivers, 
 
 24 = 1 angel, 
 16 or 20 angels = 1 ounce. 
 
 There is also mention made of black and white beans heavier than 
 the above, and called Tacoes.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 95 
 
 machine, a quartz-crusher, a pound of mercury ? That 
 half the washings are wasted because quicksilver is 
 unknown, and that pure gold, selling in England for 
 Si. 17*. to 1., is here purchasable for 31. 12*.? That 
 whilst convict labour is attainable, not a company has 
 been formed, not a surveyor has been sent for? I 
 exclaim with Dominie Sampson, " Pro-di-gious ! " 
 
 The population of the Gold Coast is rudely estimated 
 at 400,000 souls, scattered over a surface of 8000 
 square miles; its scantiness and its slow increase are 
 attributable to the destructive slavery of the last, and 
 the bloody wars during the first decennia of the present 
 century, with other minor causes, uncleanliness, drunk- 
 enness, neglect of hygienic precautions, and the mis- 
 management of children. Their occupations are agri- 
 culture, mechanics, and fishing, and the wealthier 
 classes are acute traders. The principal manufactures 
 are cloth weaving, mat and basket making, and working 
 in metals ; their goldsmith craft, however, is not to be 
 compared with the rudest East Indian work. Native 
 rings and watch-chains are bought by Europeans as 
 curiosities ; their only value, however, is in the weight 
 of metal. They can pan salt, mould bricks, and many ' 
 have learned the arts of masonry, carpentering, and 
 cabinet work. In these trades they are far superior 
 to the Krumen and other wilder races, but they yield 
 to the S'a Leone men, because the latter have 
 more European tuition. The fishermen use hand- 
 seines and deep-sea lines, and as canoe-men they are 
 
 V
 
 96 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 valued at Lagos and other places on the southern 
 coast. 
 
 There is sufficient civilisation to produce a very marked 
 distinction of classes. Bosman divides the people into 
 five orders, viz. : 
 
 1. Kings or captains, synonymous words : under our 
 protectorate, however, this class naturally languishes. 
 Krensil, for instance, is the reigning chief of Cape Coast 
 Castle, but the people describe him as a poor devil. 
 
 2. The Headmen, or civil fathers, called Caboceros, or 
 Caboceers, from the Portuguese Caboceiros, with the 
 Pynims, or sub-chiefs, policemen, who promulgate edicts 
 and who act as criers. The former are the hereditary official 
 representatives of towns, who keep order, appease tumults, 
 direct the operations of their subordinates, and lead in 
 the superstitious rites which each season brings round 
 with it. They issue summonses by peons, who carry 
 message-canes long staves, with gold or silver heads, 
 and corresponding with the chob of Hindostan or by 
 way of token they bear their master's gold-handled 
 sword. These men have large households, consisting of 
 three classes blood relations, dependants and slaves, or 
 pawns ouvriers litres. 
 
 3. Those enriched by inheritance or trade: though 
 slaves, they are treated by the better class as a, rich 
 Pariah by a Brahman, who risks pollution for profit. 
 Bosman thus quaintly derides the authors who call this 
 class noblemen: "It will not a little redound to my 
 honour, that I have for several years successively been
 
 A DAT AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 97 
 
 waited on by these noblemen in the capacity of a foot- 
 man, without having the least respect to his nobility." 
 
 4. Peasants and mechanics. 
 
 5. Slaves, either sold by their relatives or taken in 
 war, or come so by poverty. As Sir Benjamin Pine,* 
 then Governor of the Gold Coast, justly denned it, the 
 whole social fabric, " woof and warp," is slavery. The 
 mutual relation of master and servant, especially in case 
 of the home-born, is much the same as in the days 
 of Abraham; the slave may accumulate wealth, and 
 theoretically what is his is his master's. Popular custom 
 draws a broad line, and desertion in case of cruel usage 
 is a never -failing remedy. The bush slaves, called 
 Donkos, are brought mostly from the country north of 
 Ashantee ; they are brave and hardy, and their services 
 in the "Krobo campaign' 1 of 1858, and the troubles 
 in Abrah (1859), proved them to be superior to the 
 Fantis, their proprietors. Some wealthy men have great 
 numbers of these chattels, and cases have been known 
 in which claims wholly without foundation have been 
 set up by individuals to whole families. As has been 
 said, the okra is no longer slain; arid the custom of 
 Panyarring,t seizing one man for the fault of another 
 once common along the whole western coast is sys- 
 tematically discouraged. 
 
 The Fanti of Cape Coast Castle, or, as purists write 
 
 * It is no small satisfaction to the Gold Coast that the brother of 
 this excellent officer now holds the same position. 
 
 t The word is said to be Portuguese, but I have been unable to 
 trace it. 
 
 VOL. II. H
 
 98 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 the wore!, Fante, are a cognate race to the Ashantee.* 
 The tradition of their separation is as follows. When at 
 war with the Akim country, a great famine occurred in 
 the land. The Fanti lived on fan, herbs or cabbage, 
 hence they were called, from didi, to eat, Fanti. The 
 others were eaters of son, barn stores, Indian corn, 
 yam, &c., hence Sandidi, Santi, Ashanti. The connec- 
 tion between the races now separated by such fierce 
 feuds is proved by community of language the Oji, or, 
 as others write it Otyi. The Fanti dialect, however, is, 
 less soft and agreeable than the Ashantee. It has all 
 the characteristic features of the Ga of Accra tongue, 
 the Ewe of Dahomey and the Yoruban families, and it 
 belongs to the Hamitic class, which extends, with many 
 varieties, from south of the Sahara to the Cape of Good 
 Hope. The other countries in which the Oji is spoken 
 are Akim, Akwapim, and Akwam, called by the English 
 Akwambu. As usual in these African languages which 
 delight in individualising general ideas, their proverbs 
 form an extensive and curious literature.t 
 
 The habits of the people have been greatly modified 
 by the century and a-half which elapsed since Bosman 
 
 * I have not thought it advisable to change such words as Ashantee, 
 Accra, and others, which have been naturalised amongst us by long 
 residence, ntterly incorrect as they are. Bosman and the other 
 travellers write, with comparative accuracy, Asianti. The proper 
 form is Asante, in which we first converted the difficult palatal aspira- 
 tion into Ashante, and then added another error, Ashantee, accenting 
 like absentee the ultimate instead of the penultimate vowel. 
 
 f " Grammatical Outline of the Oji Language." By Rev. H. N. Riis 
 of the Basle Missicn. Bas'.e: C. Ditloff, 1854. Pp 111-136.
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 99 
 
 described the " Fantynean negroes," who " so horridly 
 plagued the English/' though to meet jaerfide Albion 
 was like " going to the devil to be confessed." Many 
 of the old Hollander's descriptions, however, are still to 
 be recognised. The mass of the people are pestilent 
 pagans, and, considering their intercourse with us, few of 
 them speak English. The sexes eat separately, and both 
 are equally fond of tobacco. All who can afford the 
 luxury are polygamists, and the first wife rules the 
 roast ; but all are equally the absolute property of the 
 husband. The men are jealous of one another, and 
 fatal quarrels often arise. The boys are circumcised 
 before puberty.* This rite, however, is confined to cer- 
 tain families, arid is performed with peculiar ceremonies. 
 At Accra, for instance, a rock rising from the sea is the 
 proper spot. The sister's son inherits to the prejudice 
 of direct descendants, telling with a fatal significance 
 that it is a wise child indeed that knows its own father. 
 There are various ceremonies for girls arriving at a mar- 
 riageable age,, and for women about to become mothers 
 for the first time. During gestation there is a complete 
 separation of the sexes, not only here, but almost every- 
 where up the AYest African coast. When a woman dies 
 in childbed, the body is cast out into the bush. The 
 funeral customs resemble the wakes of the Jews and the 
 Irish ; there are hired prseficse, and the men shave the 
 head in token of mourning. For some time the shoulder 
 
 * For curious information upon this subject, see Dr. Clarke's " Sierra 
 Leone," p. 49. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 bone of a sheep, slaughtered to make the funeral feast, 
 is placed upon the new grave. If a man die insolvent, his 
 body is kept above ground till his debts are paid, and 
 this often happens in a country where the legal interest 
 is fifty per cent, per annum, or per diem. Travellers on 
 the Gold Coast have often remarked corpses placed on 
 platforms, and covered with a cloth, till reclaimed by the 
 debtor-heirs. No one would bury a chance corpse, 
 because, though such Samaritan inherits the property of 
 the deceased, he also becomes liable for all the liabilities. 
 Nothing would be easier than to do away with so 
 barbarous a practice "East Lynne" informs us that 
 England is not wholly free from it by a promise of 
 indemnity on the part of Government to the debtor. 
 ^ itch craft is exceedingly common, especially the form 
 called "putting into Fetish," which is rendered penal by 
 Government. To these spells they attribute death and 
 all manner of diseases, including the much dreaded 
 " broke back/' for which that part of the body must be 
 treated by aphrodisiacs. The charge of sorcery must 
 be purged by ordeals, of which there are many; amongst 
 them the corsned, or consecrated cake, of our Anglo- 
 Saxon progenitors. An infusion of the mellay tree, 
 or a decoction of the Edum bark, are swallowed by the 
 accused, who if they escape are pronounced guiltless. 
 
 The religious ideas of the Fanti are, as usual in Africa, 
 vague and instinctive. Each person has his Saman 
 literally a skeleton or goblin a private Fetish, an idol, 
 rug, fowl, feathers, bunch of grass, bit of glass, and so
 
 A DAY AT CAPS COAST CASTLE. 101 
 
 forth : to this he pays the greatest reverence, because it 
 is nearest to him. The Bosoms are imaginary beings, 
 probably of ghostly origin, called " spirits " by the mis- 
 sionaries. Abonsam is a malevolent being, that lives in 
 the upper regions ; Sasabonsam is the friend of witch and 
 wizard, hates priests and missionaries, and inhabits huge 
 silk-cotton trees in the gloomiest forests ; he is a mon- 
 strous being of human shape, of red colour, and with 
 long hair.* Ny ant upon, t or Nyame, is the supreme 
 deity, but the word also means the visible firmament or 
 sky, showing that there has been no attempt to separate 
 the ideal from the material. This being, who dwells in 
 Nyankuponfi, or Nyankuponkru,J is too far from earth 
 to trouble himself with human affairs, which are com- 
 mitted to the Bosoms ; this, however, is the belief of the 
 educated, who doubtless have derived something from 
 European systems, the vulgar confound him with sky, 
 rain, and thunder. Kra, which the vocabularies translate 
 "Lord," is the Anglicised okro, or ocroe, meaning a 
 
 * The reader will not fail to remark the similarity of Sasabonsam 
 to the East Indian Kakshasa, the malevolent ghost of a Brahman, 
 brown in colour, and inhabiting the Pipal tree. 
 
 t Mr. Beecham ("Ashantee and the Gold Coast," pp. 171-2) explains 
 this word to mean greatest friend, a poetical and phonetical misappre- 
 hension. Mr. Riis derives it from Poii (pong), a common termination 
 in Oji words, and signifying high, great ; and from Nyari, to rise, raise ; 
 the whole meaning the very great, or the most high. 
 
 J The vocabulary explains these words to mean Heaven, the house, or 
 habitation, of God, and of the departed spirits of good men ; opposed to 
 Abonsamkru, hell, where the devil Aboiisam rules over the wicked. I 
 suspect these to be purely European imported ideas.
 
 102 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 favourite male slave, destined to be sacrificed with his 
 dead master, and " sunsum/' " spirit," means a shadow, 
 the man's umbra. The Fantis have regular days of rest- 
 Tuesday for fishermen, Friday for bushmen, peasants, 
 and so on. 
 
 The first missionaries to the Gold Coast were the 
 Portuguese ; about a century ago they were followed by 
 the Moravians, but of these ancient establishments there 
 is now not a trace. The first English missionary in 
 these diggings was the Rev. Thomas Thompson (1751). 
 After cultivating the field for four years he returned to 
 England, taking home with him several natives for 
 education at Oxford. Of these, Philip Quako occupied 
 for fifty years the chaplaincy of Cape Coast Castle, and 
 died in the savour of Fetishhood. In the autumn of 
 1834, the committee of the Wesleyan Missionary Society 
 sent the Eev. Joseph Dunwell, a man spoken of as highly 
 as Brainerd and Martyn, to the Gold Coast. He died 
 there in 1835, and was followed by Mr. Thos. Freeman 
 in 1838 ; but this is entering upon modern times, when 
 the men who "make history" still survive. The Wes- 
 leyans have extended themselves on the sea coast of the 
 Gold Region, and they monopolise the field as do the 
 Church Missionaries at Sierra Leone and Abeokuta; 
 the American Episcopals at Liberia and Cape Palrnas, 
 and the Baptists at Fernando Po and the Camaroons. 
 Besides \Yesleyans there are Basle Missionaries about 
 Accra and Akim, and Bremen men to the east and 
 north of the River Volta. Mr. East ("Western Africa,"
 
 A DAY AT CAPE COAST CASTLE. 103 
 
 p. 289), speaking of his own sect, says, " The beneficial 
 effects of this mission are very conspicuous." It requires 
 a perspicacious and microscopic eye to discern them. 
 
 On the evening of the 19th August, after taking 
 kindly leave of our good hosts, we soon passed over, 
 under a full head of steam, the seventy miles between 
 Cape Coast Castle and Accra. I could think of nothing 
 but gold, and perhaps the reader may not be unwilling 
 to receive a few details concerning the precious metal, 
 in a continent which, when opened up, will supply us 
 with half-a-dozen Californias.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GOLD IN AFEICA. 
 
 " Slave of the dark and dirty mine : 
 What vanity has brought thee here ? " 
 
 Leyden. 
 
 " Gold ! gold ! gold ! gold ! 
 Bright and yellow, hard and cold ; 
 Molten, graven, hammer' d, and roll'd ; 
 Heavy to get and light to hold." 
 
 Hood. 
 
 BARON HUMBOLDT first announced the theory, that 
 gold is constant in meridional ranges of the paleozoic 
 and metamorphic formation. In this he was followed 
 by Sir E. Murchison, and he was not followed by 
 Professor Sedgwick. The latter "has no faith what- 
 ever in the above hypothesis, though it led to a happy 
 anticipation," which followed erroneous premises. He 
 continues, "what we seem to know is, that gold is 
 chiefly found among paleozoic rocks of a quartzose 
 type," and, moreover, that, "some of the great physical 
 agencies of the earth are meridional, and these agencies 
 may probably and in a way we do not comprehend 
 have influenced the deposit of metals on certain lines of 
 bearing." He thinks, however, it would be a " hypo- 
 thetical misdirection " to say that a quartzose paleozoic 
 rock cannot be auriferous, because its strata is not north
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 105 
 
 and south/' and that <e experience must settle this point." 
 The supporters of the meridional theory may quote as 
 instances East African Ghauts, the Oural Mountains, 
 the Sierra Nevada of California which includes the 
 diggings in British Columbia the Australian Cordillera, 
 the New Zealand ranges, and the Western Ghauts of 
 India. On the other hand, there are two notable ex- 
 ceptions the Central Indian region, in which Sir E. 
 Martin and others, as long as thirty years ago, were 
 convinced that the natives washed for gold; and, still 
 more remarkable, the highly productive African chain, 
 which, for want of a better name, we still call the Kong 
 Mountains.* 
 
 The fact is, that gold is a superficial formation, and 
 has been almost universally distributed over the surface 
 of earth's declivities. This want of depth, Sir R. 
 Murchison is fond of illustrating by the hand with the 
 fingers turned downwards; these represent the golden 
 veins, whilst the palm denotes the main deposit. It is 
 
 * A similar imperfect generalisation is the old theory, that gold per- 
 tains not to islands. Malachi wore a collar of Irish gold, probab'y 
 from Wicklow. It has been found in Cornwall and other parts of 
 England, and in Scotland ; and there are few Californians who do not 
 believe that Queen Charlotte's Island will form rich diggings. 
 
 Another remark has lately been made, which pretends to no more 
 than to discover a curious coincidence. The Oural chain lies 90 west 
 of the Australian diggings, and the Californian Sierra Nevada 90 west 
 of the Oural. But, on the other hand, the fourth quadrantal division 
 falls into the Atlantic between Western Africa and the Brazils ; and 
 Eastern Africa, a highly prolific metallic region, is 20 west of the 
 Oural, and 120 east of California.
 
 106 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the contrary with other metals. Gold mines, therefore, 
 are now rare except in newly explored or exploited lands 
 of primitive formation, where it is common, nay almost 
 universal ; the article, whose utility was early recognised, 
 soon disappeared from the older workings. The Californian 
 digger, provided with pick, pan, and shovel, made $10 
 per diem in 1852; in 1862 he still makes $2'50 
 and in 1872 he probably will make $0. The anciently 
 auriferous countries, especially Arabia, have been stripped 
 of their treasures, perhaps before the dawn of what is 
 called true history ; * and if they linger in Sofala, it is by 
 reason of the people's ignorance ; t they never traced 
 the metal to its matrix. 
 
 * I allude to the Hammaenm littus of Pliny, which appears to coin- 
 cide with the modern Hazramant. Perhaps, however, the gold f of 
 Arabia is not wholly exhausted : it is difficult to believe that the rude 
 appliances of savages and barbarians can extract anything but the 
 coarsest particles from the dirt. 
 
 Some years ago, an English traveller, who had seen gold dust brought to 
 Cairo from tbe coast of Western Arabia, north of Yambu, applied to Dr. 
 Walne, then Her Majesty's consul, for facilities of exploring the place. 
 The sage reply of that official was, that gold appeared to be becoming 
 too common. Other officials, equally sage, have since made the same 
 remark. I refer them to the end of this chapter for my reply. 
 
 } In Eastern, as in parts of Western Africa, the natives have a 
 curious superstition, or, rather, a distorted idea of a physical fact. 
 They always return to the earth whatever nuggets are found, under 
 the idea that they are the seed or mother of gold, and that if removed 
 the washing would be unprofitable. They refuse to dig deeper than the 
 chia, for fear of the earth ' ' caving in ; " and quartz-crushing and the 
 use of quicksilver being unknown, they will not wash unless the gold 
 appears to the naked eye. As late as Mohammed Ali Pasha's day an 
 Egyptian expedition was sent up through Fayzoghlu in search of the 
 precious metal, brought dowu.by the eastern tributaries of the Nile : it
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 10f 
 
 Setting aside the vexed question of the identity of 
 Ophir and Sofala, and the fact that in early times gold 
 was brought down from the eastern regions of the upper 
 Nilitic basin, Western Africa was the first field that 
 supplied the precious metal to Europe. The Trench 
 claim to have imported it from El Mina as early as 
 A.D. 1382. In 1442, Goncales Baldeza returned from 
 his second voyage to the regions about Bojador, bringing 
 with him the first gold. Presently a company was 
 formed for the purpose of carrying on the gold trade 
 between Portugal and Africa ; its leading men were the 
 
 D f O 
 
 navigators Lanzarote and Gilianez, and the great Prince 
 Henry did not disdain to become a member. In 1471, 
 Joao de Santarem and Pedro Escobar reached a place on 
 the Gold Coast to which, from the abundance of gold found 
 there, they gave the name of Oro de la Mina, the present 
 El Mina. After this a flood of gold poured into the lap 
 of Europe, and at last, cupidity having mastered terror 
 of the Papal Bull, which assigned to Portugal the exclu- 
 sive right to the Eastern hemisphere, English, French, 
 and Dutch adventurers hastened to share the spoils. 
 
 The Portuguese, probably foreseeing competition in 
 the Atlantic waters, but sure of their power in the 
 
 failed, because the ignorant Turks expected to pick up ounces where 
 they found only grains. There are many traditions still extant in 
 Egypt, of mysterious travellers floating down the Nile in craft of antique 
 build, accompanied by women of blackest colour, but with Grecian or 
 Abyssinian features, and adorned with rings, collars, and bracelets of 
 pure gold, in shape resembling those found in the tombs of ancient 
 Egypt.
 
 108 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Indian seas, determined, about the middle of the 1 6th 
 century, to seek gold, of which those who preceded them 
 had heard, in Eastern Africa. The Rev. Father Joao 
 dos Santos, of the order of San "Domingo, has left us, in 
 his " History of Eastern Ethiopia/' a detailed account of 
 the first disastrous expedition. According to him, Dom 
 Sebastian was scarcely seated on the throne of Portugal* 
 before he sent to Sofala an expedition under command of 
 Francis Baretto, who, " penetrating into ' Macoronga 'f 
 and 'Manica/ discovered mines of gold in these kingdoms, 
 of which, by his prudence and valour he made himself 
 master." Baretto, having successfully passed through, 
 despite a harassing warfare, the territories of the Qui- 
 teva or sovereign of Sofala, who fled from his capital, 
 Zimboo, and having contracted with the ^Moorish or 
 Arab sultan J of Manica a treaty of amity, which included 
 
 * Don Sebastian, grandson of Don Joao III., was born July 20th, 
 1554, and at three years of age ascended the throne of Portugal. His 
 subsequent romantic history is well known. 
 
 "t* Mr. Cooley ("Geography of Ifyassi," p. 16) has confounded the 
 " Mucaranga" with the "Monomoezi." Captain Burton (" Lake Kegions 
 of Central Equatorial Africa," pp. 228-9) found the Wakarau^a, a people 
 wholly distinct from the Wanyamwezi : the former being a small tribe 
 living near the Tanganyike Lake, south of the Wajiji. Mr. Cooley 
 still, I believe, keeps his own opiaion, and persists in writing these 
 tribal names with an initial, M or Mu, which, being an abbreviation 
 of Mtu, a man, signifies only the individual. 
 
 I In the " Periplus" attributed to Arrian (A. D. 64-210), chap. 16, we 
 are told that Rhapta, probably Kilwa (Quiloa), and the adjacent regiots 
 were held by colonists from Muza, i.e., Bundar Musa, near Aden. Gold 
 is not mentioned amongst the exports, which are confined to ivory, 
 rhinoceros' horns, and tortoiseshell.
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 109 
 
 the article that the King of Chicanga should admit the 
 strangers to trade throughout his territories for gold dust 
 and other merchandise, reached at length the goal of his 
 ambition. His proceedings are told as follows : * 
 "The Portuguese were enchanted at having in so 
 
 D O 
 
 short a time concluded a treaty of such advantage to 
 their sovereign, and so beneficial to the realm; they, 
 moreover, flattered themselves with the hope of acquiring 
 store of gold, with which to return enriched to their 
 country ; but when they saw what toil was requisite for 
 extracting this precious metal from the bowels of the 
 earth, and the danger incurred by those who worked in 
 the mines, they were speedily undeceived, and no longer 
 regarded their fortunes as instantaneously made. At the 
 same time they were induced to reflect that the labour 
 and risk of digging the gold from the abysses whence it 
 is drawn, are such as to stamp that value on it which 
 it bears from its consequent rarity. 
 
 " These people have divers methods of extracting the 
 gold, and separating it from the earth with which it is 
 blended ; but the most common is to open the ground, 
 and proceed towards the spot where, from certain indi- 
 cations, ore is supposed to abound. For this purpose 
 they excavate vaults, sustained at intervals by pillars, 
 and notwithstanding they make use of every possible pre- 
 caution, it often happens that the vaults give way, and 
 bury the subterranean sappers beneath their ruins 
 
 * Dos Santos, "History of the Ethiopians," Book II, chap. 1-3.
 
 110 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 When they reach the vein in which the gold is found, 
 mixed with the earth, they take the ore as it is, and put 
 it into vessels full of water, and by dint of stirring 
 about k the water the earth is dissolved, and the gold 
 remains at bottom. * 
 
 " They likewise take advantage of heavy rains, which, 
 occasioning torrents, carry before them whatever loose 
 earth they meet in their way, and thus lay open the spots 
 where gold is embedded in the ravines. This the Caffres 
 collect, and wash with care to purify from the grosser 
 parts of its earthy admixture. 
 
 "Those people, also, however unpolished they may 
 seem, yet possess a secret peculiar to themselves for dis- 
 covering the gold concealed in certain stones, which they 
 likewise have the ingenuity of extracting, constantly 
 observing the same practice of washing it well to separate 
 all earthy particles from the metal, and thus rendering 
 it equally lustrous with that obtained from the earth. 
 This gold is, however, much cheaper than the other, 
 either owing to its being more common, or to its being 
 obtained with more facility and at less expense than that 
 exfodiated from the bowels of the earth. 
 
 " It is a matter of fact, that this country is rich in 
 gold and silver mines, but these metals are not so easily 
 obtained as is imagined \ for the Caffres are prohibited, 
 under penalty of death and the confiscation of their 
 
 The reader will remark that at all times, and in all places, gold 
 has teen washed or procured in the same way a fair instance of the 
 instinctive faculty in mankind.
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. Ill 
 
 property, from discovering the site of the mines, either 
 to their neighbours, or to those who pass through their 
 country. "When a mine is discovered, the persons finding 
 it make wild outcries, to collect witnesses round them, and 
 cover the spot, above which they place some object to 
 denote the site; and far from being susceptible to be 
 prevailed upon by strangers to point out these spots, 
 they avoid encountering them as much as possible, for 
 fear they should even be suspected of such a deed. 
 
 " The motive of the sovereign for enacting these pro- 
 hibitory laws, and for exacting a declaration to be made 
 to the Court of all mines discovered, is that he may take 
 possession of them,* and by preventing the Portuguese 
 from becoming masters of one portion, give no room 
 for succeeding warfare on their part to seize on the 
 remainder." 
 
 * The same was the practice of the Indian Kajahs. Whenever a 
 ryot discovered either treasure or gold in situ, he was most cruelly 
 treated, to compel him to confess and to give up what he had secreted. 
 As, of course, he bad secreted a part of his trouvaille, it was a hard 
 struggle between his cupidity and the ruler's bastinado. About 1840, 
 some peasants near Baroda, in Gmerat, found lumps of gold, which they 
 carried before His Highness the Gaikwar, and received in return a 
 terrible flogging. The Hindu, with that secretiveness which has ever 
 been his shield against the tyranny of rulers and conquerors, resolved 
 for the future to keep his good fortune to himself. The quantity of 
 gold which from time to time has appeared amongst these people, made 
 the shrewder sort of European suspect. But the inertness, or, rather, 
 the terror of new things, that possessed the then rulers of the land, 
 "threw cold water" upon all attempts to trace the diggings, which, 
 accordingly, were worked by the people till the present year. This is 
 the simple history of " gold mining in the Deccan."
 
 112 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 The melancholy fate of this expedition deserves men- 
 tioning After passing through Zimboe,* where the 
 Quiteva received him with open arms, Baretto returned 
 to Sofala. Being now on good terms with the sovereign 
 of that place, and Chicanga, he resolved to open a road 
 into the kingdom of Mongas, the dominions of the 
 Monomotapa, who opposed him with a large army. 
 
 * De Barros, describing the ruins of Zimboe, mentions an inscription 
 over the gateway of a fort built with well-cut stones anl no lime, whose 
 surface was twenty-five palms long and a little less in height. Around 
 this building, which, like the Raabah, might have been a pagan Arab 
 temple, are bastions also of uncemented lime and the remains of a 
 tower, seventy feet high. The inscription was probably in the Himyaritic 
 character, as "Moors well versed in Arabic" could not decipher it. 
 This was repeated to Mr. Lyons M'Leod (" Travels in Eastern Africa," 
 Vol. I., chap. 10) at Mozambique. Dr. Livingstone ("Travels in South 
 Africa," chap. 29) discovered Zumbo in lat. 15 37' 22" S., long. 
 30 32' E., about 8 W.N.W. of Kilimani. At the confluence of the 
 .Loangwe and Zambezi, he found the remains of a church, a cross, and 
 a bell, but no date and no inscription. The people of Seni also state 
 that there are remains of large edifices in the interior ; unfortunately 
 they place them at a distance of 500 leagues, which would lead them 
 nearly to the equator north, and to the Cape of Good Hope south. 
 
 f Dr. Livingstone ("Travels in South Africa, " chap. 30) explains the 
 word Monomotapa successfully, I think, to mean the " Lord (mone, 
 muene, mona, mana, or morena, are all dialectic varieties, synonymous 
 with the Kisarahili muinyi, which means master, sir, kyrios, &c.), and 
 Motapa," the proper name of the chief. The ancient Portuguese 
 assigned to the Monomotapa the extensive regions between the Zambezi 
 and the Limpopo rivers, 7 from north to south. The African traveller, 
 however, is not so successful in explaining the corrupted term, Mono- 
 moizes, Monemuiges, and Monomuizes for which, see Journal of 
 Koyal Geographical Society (Vol. XXIX., pp. 166 et seq.) 
 
 Dr. Beke ("On the Mountains forming the Eastern side of the Basin 
 of the Nile," p. 14) defends, against Mr. Cooley and Captain Burton, 
 M. Malte Brun's "Mono-emugi, ou scions un orthographic plus
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 113 
 
 Baretto signally defeated the " Caffres," and reached 
 Chicona, where he found no gold mines. An artful 
 native, however, buried two or three lumps of silver, 
 which when discovered brought large presents to the 
 cheat and dreams of Potosi to the cheated.* Baretto, 
 in nowise disheartened by discovering the fraud, left 
 two hundred men in a fort at Chicona, whilst he and 
 the remainder of his forces retired upon Sena, on the 
 Zambezi. The Caffres then blockaded the fort, and 
 having reduced the gallant defenders to a famine, 
 compelled them to make a sortie, in which every man 
 was slain. 
 
 The ruins of Mani9a, north-west of Sofala, and west 
 of and inland from the East African ghauts, are described 
 as being situated in a valley enclosed by an amphi- 
 theatre of hills, having a circuit of about two miles. 
 According to Mr. Macleod, the district is called Ma- 
 
 authentique Mou-mimigi." The defence is operated by enclosing after the 
 latter, in italics, another version in parenthesis, and with an interrogation, 
 thus [Nimougi ?] ; and the French geographer's orthography " being 
 fortunately based on the theoretic root," is pronounced " more authentic 
 than any hitherto proposed in its stead." How often will it be 
 necessary to repeat, that Mono-emugi and Mou-nimigi are merely 
 corruptions of M'nyamwezi, a man or individual of the Land 
 Unyamwezi ? 
 
 * A French adventurer tried a similar trick upon the Imam Sayyid 
 Said, father of the present Prince of Zanzibar. He melted a few- 
 dollars and ran the fluid upon bits of stone, which were duly shown to 
 His Highness. But the old Imam, whose cupidity was equalled only by 
 bis cunning, took them to his friend, Colonel Hamerton, Her Majesty's 
 consul, who, finding the matrix to be coralline, had no difficulty in 
 detecting the fraud. 
 
 VOL. n. i
 
 114 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 touca (the Matuka of Dr. Livingstone's map), and the 
 gold washing tribes Botongos.* The spots containing 
 the metal are known by the bare and barren surface. 
 The natives dig in any small crevice made by the rains 
 of the preceding winter, and there find gold dust. These 
 pot-holes are rarely deeper than two or three feet, at 
 five or six they strike the ground-rock. In the still 
 portions of the rivers, when they are low, the natives dive 
 for nuggets that have been washed down from the hills. 
 Sometimes joining together in hundreds, they deflect the 
 stream, and find extensive deposits. Mr. M'Leod 
 heard of mines 400 to 500 miles from Sofala, where the 
 gold is found in solid lumps, or as veins in the rocks 
 and stones. 
 
 The result of Dr. Livingstone's travels is, that whilst 
 he found no gold in the African interior, frequent 
 washings were met with in the Mashinga mountains! 
 and on the Zambezi river ; no silver, however, was met 
 with, nor could the people distinguish it from tin, which, 
 however, does not establish its non-existence ; he heard 
 from a Mashinga man, for the first time, a native name 
 for gold, "Dalama/'t The limits of the auriferous 
 
 * Dr. Livingstone places the Batonga people west of Zumbo, and 4 
 to 5 N.W. of Matuka, or Manisa. 
 
 f These elevations are on the western frontier of the great Marave 
 people. 
 
 J In Kisawahili they have but one word for gold, Zahabu, which is 
 palpably derived from the Arabic >--*}. None of the people living 
 in the interior, or even the tribes beyond the coast line of Zanzibar, are 
 acquainted with the precious metal : they would prefer to it brass or 
 copper. The appreciation of gold on the part of the BO called " Kafir "
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 115 
 
 region are thus laid down : "If we place one leg of the 
 compasses at Tete, and extend the other 3 30', bring- 
 ing it round from the north-east of Tete by west, and 
 then to the south-east, we nearly touch or include all the 
 known gold-producing country." This beginning from 
 the north-east would include the Marave country,* the 
 now "unknown" kingdom of Abutua, f placed, however, 
 south of the Zambezi, and coming round by the south- 
 west, Mashona, or Bazizulu, Maniga, and Sofala. Gold 
 from about Manica, is as large as wheat grains, whilst 
 that found in the rivers is in minute scales. The pro- 
 cess of washing the latter is laborious. " A quantity of 
 sand is put into a wooden bowl with water, a half ro- 
 tatory motion is given to the dish, which causes the 
 coarser particles of sand to collect on one side of the 
 bottom. These are carefully removed with the hand, 
 and the process of rotation is renewed until the whole 
 
 races points to an extensive intercourse with Arabia, if not to a con- 
 siderable admixture of Arab and Asiatic blood. 
 
 * Dr. Livingstone gives six well-known washing-places, east and 
 north-east of Tete, viz. : Mashinga, Shindundo, Missala, Kapeta, 
 Mano, and Jawa. 
 
 + Mr. Cooley ("Geography of N'yassi") questions whether there be 
 such a kingdom as Abutua, or Butwa. He derives it from Batua plur. 
 of Motua (in Kisawahili wdtu plur. of M'tu), signifying men. The 
 Amazulu, when they attacked Delagoa Bay, were called by the same 
 name ; but the Portuguese throwing back the accent changed that 
 word to Viltua, of which Captain Owen made Fetwah. So, in 1822, 
 the tribe that fell upon the Bachwani (Bechuana) were, we are told, 
 called Batua, but the missionaries recognised the meaning of the word. 
 Though it is "now unknown," Dr. Livingstone has inserted it into his 
 map. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 of the sand is taken away, and the gold alone remains.* 
 Mercury is as usual unknown. Formerly 130 Ibs. of 
 gold were submitted to the authorities at Tete for taxa- 
 tion, but when the slave trade began, the Portuguese 
 killed the goose with the golden eggs, and the annual 
 amount obtained is now only eight to ten pounds. 
 
 It is evident that gold is by no means half worked in 
 Eastern Africa. As in California, it appears to be found 
 in clay shale, which for large profits requires " hydrau- 
 licking." The South African traveller heard that at the 
 range Mashinga, the women pounded the soft rock in 
 wooden mortars, previous to washing; it is probably 
 rotten quartz, and the yield would be trebled by quick- 
 silver and crushers. 
 
 It is highly probable that the gold formations in 
 those East African ghauts, which Dr. Beke is com- 
 pelling to become the " Lunar Mountains/' are by no 
 means limited to the vicinity of the Zambezi. In gold 
 prospecting, as every geologist knows, the likeliest 
 places often afford little yield and sometimes none. 
 The author of " The Lake Eegions of Central Africa," 
 describes a Cordillera which he struck, about 100 
 miles from the Eastern coast, as primitive, quartzose, and 
 shaly ; unfortunately time and health hindered him from 
 exploring it. The same writer, in " First Footsteps in 
 East Africa" (p. 395), indicates such formation in the 
 small ghauts, and on the western side of that range he 
 
 * This is absolutely the present practice on the Gold Coast, and 
 perfectly agrees with Slungo Park's descriptions.
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 117 
 
 is reported to have found gold. What steps he took 
 do not appear ; he was probably disheartened by the 
 reflection that all his efforts would be opposed with 
 might and main in official circles. Possibly he feared the 
 fate of Mr. Hargreaves, of Australia, who obtained a 
 reward of 10,000^., when 1 per cent, of export would 
 have made him master of eight millions. Local jealousies 
 at Aden also certainly would have defeated his plans, if 
 permitted to be carried out ; and the Court of Directors 
 had already regarded with a holy horror his proposal 
 to build a little fort, by way of base upon the sea- 
 board near Berberah. Leaving, however, these consi- 
 derations, we are justified by analogy of formation and 
 bearing in believing that at some future time gold 
 may be one of the exports from Eastern Intertropical 
 Africa.* 
 
 Returning to "Western Africa, we find in Leo Afri- 
 canus, who is supposed to have died about 1526, that 
 the King of Ghana had in his palace " an entire lump of 
 gold " a monster nugget it would now be called not 
 cast nor wrought by instruments, but perfectly formed 
 by the Divine Providence only, of thirty pounds weight, 
 
 * I cannot, however, understand the final flourish of Dr. Beke's 
 paper above alluded to. He declares that the discovery of gold in his 
 "Mountains of the Moon" will occasion a complete and rapid revo- 
 lution, and ends thus : " We shall then,, too, doubtless see in Eastern 
 Africa, as in California and in Australia, the formation of another new- 
 race of mankind." We have seen nothing of the kind in Western 
 Africa, where for four centuries the richest diggings have been known. 
 In fact, they have rather tended to drive away Europeans. Why then 
 expect this marvel from Eastern Africa ?
 
 118 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 which had been bored through and fitted for a seat to 
 the royal throne.* The author most diffused upon the 
 subject of gold, is Bosnian, who treats, however, solely 
 of the Gold Coast. 
 
 The first region which he mentions is Dinkira, under 
 which were included the conquered provinces of "Was& 
 (our Wassaw, or Warsaw), Encasse and Juffer, each 
 bordering upon one another, and the last upon Commany, 
 (Commenda). There the gold is fine, but much alloyed 
 with "fetishes," oddly shaped figures used for orna- 
 ments, and composed sometimes of pure mountain gold, 
 but more often mixed with one-third, or even half, of 
 silver and copper, and filled inside with half weight of the 
 heavy black earth used for moulding them. The second 
 was Acanny, the people of which brought the produce 
 of their own diggings and of their neighbours of Ashantee 
 and Akim : it was so pure and fine, that the negroes called 
 all the best gold " Acanny Sika," or Acanny gold. The 
 third was Akim,t which " furnishes as large quantities 
 of gold as any land that I know, and that also the most 
 valuable and pure of any that is carried away from this 
 coast; it is easily distinguished by its deep colour." 
 The fourth and fifth are Ashantee and Ananse, a small 
 province between the former empire and Dinkira. The 
 sixth and last is A wine, our Aowin, % which formerly used 
 
 * Similarly, the king of " Buncatoo " had a solid gold stool, which 
 caused his destruction at the hands of his neighbours of Ashantee. 
 + It still supplies gold, and will be alluded to in a future page. 
 I The old traveller, however, is wrong, when he savs, ' ' I take it
 
 GOLD IN AFEICA. 119 
 
 to export large quantities of fine and pure gold, and 
 they " being the civilest and the fairest dealers of all the 
 negroes," the Dutch "traded with them with a great deal 
 of pleasure." They were, however, finally subdued by 
 the Dinkiras. 
 
 According to Bosman (Letter vi.) " the illustrious 
 metal " was found in three sites. The first and best was 
 " in or between particular hills :" the negroes sank pits 
 there and separated the soil adhering to it. The second 
 " is in, at, and about some rivers and waterfalls, whose 
 violence washeth down great quantities of earth, which 
 carry the gold with it. The third is on the sea shore, 
 near the mouths of rivulets, and the favourite time for 
 washing is after violent night rains.* The negro women 
 are furnished with large and small troughs or trays, 
 which they first fill full of earth and sand, which they 
 wash with repeated fresh water till they have cleansed it 
 from all its earth ; and if there be any gold its pon- 
 
 ( A wine) to be the first on the Gold Coast, and to be far above Axim.'' 
 Aowiu is the region to the west of the Assini river, whereas Axim is 
 to the east of the Ancobra river ; thus the two are separated by the 
 territory of Apollonia. He apologises, however, in the same page for 
 any possible errors. ' ' I cannot inform you better, because the negroes 
 cannot give any certain account of them (the various diggings), nor do 
 any of our people go so far ; wherefore I must beg of you, my good 
 friend, to be contented." Despite which, however, he may yet be 
 right, and his critic wrong. 
 
 * So, " in Coquimbo of Chili," says Sir Richard Hawkins, " it 
 raineth seldom, but every shower of rain is a shower of gold unto 
 them, for with the violence of the water falling from the mountains, it 
 bringeth from them the gold."
 
 120 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 derosity forces it to the bottom of the trough, which, if 
 they find it, is thrown into the small tray, and so they 
 go on washing it again, which operation generally holds 
 them till noon ; some of them not getting above the 
 value of sixpence ; some of them pieces of six or seven 
 shillings, though not frequently ; and often they entirely 
 lose their labour." 
 
 The gold thus dug is of two kinds, dust gold and 
 mountain gold. The former is " fine as flour," and the 
 more esteemed because there is no loss in melting. 
 The latter, corresponding with our modern " nugget," 
 varies in weight from a farthing to 200 guineas ; it 
 touches better than gold dust, but it is a loss from the 
 stones adhering to the stone. 
 
 The natives, in Bosnian's day and to the present 
 time were "very subtle artists in the sophisticating of 
 gold." The first sort was the Fetish before alluded to.* 
 They also cast pieces so artificially, that whilst outside 
 there was pure gold thick as a knife, the interior was cop- 
 per, and perhaps iron then a new trick and the most 
 dangerous, because difficult to detect. The common 
 " false mountain gold " was a mixture of the precious 
 metal with silver and copper, extremely high coloured, 
 and unless each piece was touched, the fraud passed un- 
 detected. Another kind was an artificially cast and 
 
 * We are also informed that the same Fetishes were cut by the 
 negroes into small bits, worth one, two, or three farthings, and the 
 people could tell their value at sight. These Kakeraa, as they were called, 
 formed the small change of the country, as our 3c?. and id. bits do now.
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 121 
 
 tinged powder of coral mixed with copper filings : it be- 
 came tarnished, however, in a month or two. 
 
 The official tests of gold were as follows : If offered 
 at night or in the evening large pieces were cut through 
 with a knife, and the smaller nuggets were beaten with 
 a stone, and then tried as above. Gold dust was cast 
 into a copper brazier, winnowed with the fingers, and 
 blown upon with the breath, which caused the false gold 
 to fly away. These are not highly artificial tests. 
 Bosman, however, strongly recommends them to raw, 
 inexpert people (especially seafaring men), whom he 
 bids to remember the common proverb, that " there is 
 no gold without dross." These greenhorns, it seems, 
 tested the metal by pouring aquafortis upon it, when 
 ebullition or the appearance of green proved it to be false 
 or mixed. " A miserable test, indeed ! " exclaims old 
 trunk-hose, justly remarking that an eighth or tenth 
 part of alloy would produce those appearances, and that 
 such useless niceness, entailing the trouble of drying, 
 and causing the negroes to suffer, is prejudicial to 
 trade. 
 
 With respect to the annual export from the Gold 
 Coast, Bosman reckons it in peaceful times, when trade 
 
 They were current all over the coast, and seemed to pass backwards and 
 forwards without any diminution. The reason for this was, that they 
 sold in Europe for only 40s. the ounce : the natives mixing them with 
 better gold tried to palm them upon the purchasers, but the clerks were 
 ordered to pick them out. A similar custom down the coast, was to cut 
 dollars into halves and quarters, which thus easily became florins and 
 shillings.
 
 122 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 is prosperous, to be " 23 tun." The 7000 marks are 
 disposed of as below.* Mr. M'Queen estimates this 
 exportation at 3,406/275. The English trade has now 
 fallen to 360,000 to 400,000 per annum.f 
 
 The conclusion of Bosnian's sixth letter may be 
 quoted as highly applicable to the present day. "I 
 would refer to any intelligent metallist, whether a vast 
 deal of ore must not of necessity be lost here, from 
 which a great deal of gold might be separated, from 
 want of skill in the metallic art ; and not only so, but 
 I firmly believe that large quantities of pure gold are 
 left behind, for the negroes only ignorantly dig at 
 random, without the least knowledge of the veins of the 
 mines. And I doubt not but if this country belonged 
 to the Europeans, they would soon find it to produce 
 much richer treasures than the negroes obtain from it ; 
 
 * The Dutch West India Company yearly exported, Marks 1500 
 The English African Company . ,, 1200 
 
 The Zealand interlopers as much as the Dutch, viz. ,, 1500 
 The English interlopers about 1000, usually, which 
 
 they have doubled . . . . . . ,, 1000 
 
 The Brandenburghers and Danes together, in times 
 
 of peace ,, 1000 
 
 The Portuguese and French, together . . . ,, 800 
 
 Which makes 7000 
 
 For several years before Bosnian's time, the Dutch export had been 
 reduced by one-half (750 marks). Mr. Wilson, however ("Western 
 Africa," chap. IV.)> is evidently in error, when he makes Bosman to 
 estimate the "amount of gold exported from the Gold Coast at 800 
 marks per annum." 
 
 t Dr. Clarke ("Remarks," &c.), gives 100, 000 ounces. This was the
 
 GOLD IN AFEICA. 123 
 
 out it is not probable that we shall ever possess that 
 liberty here, wherefore we must be content with being so 
 far masters of it as we are at present, which, if well 
 and prudently managed, would turn to a very great 
 account." 
 
 In several countries, as Dinkira, Tueful, "Wasd,* and 
 especially Akim, the hill region lying due north of 
 Accra, the people are still active in digging gold. The 
 pits, varying from two to three feet in diameter, and 
 from twelve to fifty feet deep, are often so near the 
 roads that loss of life has been the result. " Shoring- 
 up" being little known, the miners are not unfre- 
 quently buried alive. The stuff is drawn up by ropes 
 in clay pots, or calabashes, and thus a workman at the 
 bottom widens the pit to a pyriform shape : tunnelling, 
 however, is unknown. The excavated earth is carried 
 down to be washed. Besides sinking these holes, they 
 pan in the beds of rivers, and in places collect quartz, 
 which is roughly pounded. The yield is very uncertain, 
 
 calculation of Mr. Swanzy before a parliamentary committee in 1816. 
 Of course it is impossible to arrive at any clear estimate. Allowing 
 the African Steam Ship Company a maxinmm of 4000 ounces per 
 month, we obtain from that source 48,000 ounces. But considerable 
 quantities are exported in merchant ships, more especially for the 
 American market. Whilst, therefore, some reduce the total to 60,000 
 ounces, others raise it to half a million of money. 
 
 * Wasa (Wassaw, Warsaw, Wossa, Wasau, &c., &c.) has been worked 
 both by Dutch and English ; they chose, however, sickly situations, 
 brought out useless implements, and died. The province is divided into 
 eastern and western, and is said to be governed by female chiefs 
 Amazons?
 
 124 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and the chief of the district is entitled to one-third of 
 the proceeds. During the busy season, when water is 
 abundant, the scene must resemble that described by 
 Dr. Livingstone near the gold-diggings of Tete ; as in 
 California and Australia, prices rise high, and gun- 
 powder, rum, and cotton goods soon carry off the 
 golddust. During the repeated earthquakes of July, 
 1862, which laid waste Accra, the strata of the Akim 
 hills were so much shaken and broken up, that, ac- 
 cording to report, all the people nocked to the 
 diggings and dispensed with the shafts generally sunk. 
 There are several parts of the Gold Coast where the 
 precious metal is Fetish, and where the people will not 
 dig themselves, though perhaps they would not object 
 to strangers risking their lives. One of the most 
 remarkable is the Devil's Hill, called by Bosnian, Monte 
 de Diablo, near Winnibah, in the Aguna (Agouna) 
 country. In his day, a Mr. Baggs, English agent, was 
 commissioned by the African Company to prospect it. 
 He died at Cape Coast Castle before undertaking a 
 work which, in those days, would have been highly 
 dangerous. Some authorities fix the Seecom river as 
 the easternmost boundary where gold is found. This 
 is so far incorrect that I have panned it from the sands 
 under James Fort. Besides which it is notorious that 
 on the banks of the upper Volta, about the latitude 
 of the Krobo (Croboe) country, there are extensive 
 deposits, regarded by the people as sacred. 
 
 The Slave Coast is a low alluvial tract, and appears to
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 125 
 
 be wholly destitute of gold.* According to the Eev. 
 Mr. Bowen, however, a small quantity has been found 
 in the quartz of Yoruba, north of Abeokuta; but, as in 
 the Brazils, it is probably too much dispersed to be worth 
 working. And the Niger, which flows, as will presently 
 be seen, from the true auriferous centre, has at times 
 been found to roll down stream-gold. f 
 
 The soil of Fanti and the seaboard is, as has been 
 seen, bat slightly auriferous. 
 
 As we advance northwards from the Gold Coast the 
 yield becomes richer. In Ashantee the red and loamy 
 soil, scattered with gravel and grey granite, is everywhere 
 impregnated with gold, which the slaves extract by 
 washing and digging. It is said that in the market- 
 place of Kumasi there are 1600 ounces' worth of gold 
 a treasure reserved for State purposes. The bracelets 
 of rock-gold, which the caboceers wear on state 
 occasions, are four pounds in weight, and often so 
 heavy that they must rest their arms upon the heads of 
 their slave boys. 
 
 In Gaman, the region to the north-west of the 
 capital, the ore is found in large nuggets, sometimes 
 weighing four pounds. The pits are sunk nine 
 feet in the red granite and grey granite, and 
 
 * Some years ago the late Consul Campbell, of Lagos, forwarded to 
 Her Majesty's Foreign Office bits of broken pottery, in which he detected 
 gold. When submitted to the School of Mines, the glittering par- 
 ticles proved to be mica. 
 
 t Silver is also said to be found near the Niger, but of this I hare 
 no reliable notices.
 
 126 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the gold is highly coloured. From 8000 to 10,000 
 slaves work for two months every year in the bed of the 
 Barra river. There, however, as on the Gold Coast, 
 the work is very imperfect, and in some places where 
 the metal is sacred to the Fetish, it is not worked at all. 
 Judging from analogy, we might expect to find the 
 precious metal in the declivities inland and northwards 
 from Cape Palmas, and in that sister formation of the 
 East African ghauts, the "Sierra del Crystal." The 
 late Captain Lawlin, an American trader, settled on an 
 island at the mouth of the Eernan Yaz, carried to his own 
 country, about the year 1843-44, a quantity of granular 
 gold, which had been brought to him by some country 
 people. He brought back all the necessary tools and 
 implements to the Gaboon River, but the natives became 
 alarmed, and he failed to find the spot. Finally, 
 according to the tradition of native travellers, the 
 unexplored region called Ruma,* and conjecturally 
 placed south of the inhospitable Waday, is a land 
 of goldsmiths, the ore being found in mountainous 
 and well-watered districts. It is becoming evident 
 that Africa will some day equal half-a-dozen Cali- 
 fornias. 
 
 Mungo Park supplies the amplest notices of gold in 
 the regions visited by him north of the Kong Moun- 
 tains. The principal places are the head of the Senegal 
 
 * This may be the "Runga," of our maps, with whose position 
 Ruinu corresponds. My informant wrote down the name from tie 
 mouth of a Waday man at Lagos.
 
 GOLD IN AFEICA. 127 
 
 river, and its various influents; Dindiko, where the 
 shafts are most deep, and notched, like a ladder; 
 Shronda, which gives two grains from every pound of 
 alluvial matter;* Bambuk and Bambarra. In Kong- 
 kadu, the "mountain land," where the hills are of 
 coarse ruddy granite, composed of red feldspar, white 
 quartz, and black shale, containing orbicular concretions, 
 granular gold is found in the quartz, which is broken 
 with hammers ; the grains, however, are flat. The dig- 
 gings at present best known are those of Handing. 
 The gold, we are told, is found not in mines or veins, 
 but scattered in sand and clay. They vary from a pin's 
 head to the size of a pea, and are remarkably pure. 
 This is called Sana Manko, or gold-powder, in contradis- 
 tinction to Sana birro, or gold stones, nuggets occasionally 
 weighing five drachms. In December, after the harvest- 
 home, when the gold-bearing Fiumaras from the hills have 
 shrunk, the Mansa or Shaykh appoints a day to begin 
 Sana Ku gold-washing. Each woman arms herself with 
 a hoe, two or three calabashes, and a few quills. On 
 the morning before departure a bullock is slaughtered 
 for a feast, and prayers and charms are not forgotten. 
 The error made by these people is digging and washing 
 for years in the same spot, which proves compara- 
 tively unfruitful unless the torrent shifts its course. 
 
 * This would be 3^3 (avoirdupois), -whereas the cascalhao, or alluvium, 
 of Brazil is ^j^, and remarkably rich and pyritical ores in Europe 
 give zs^iw- Yet M. D'Aubrie estimates the gold in the bed of Father 
 Rhine at six or seven millions of pounds sterling.
 
 128 WANDEEINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 They never follow the lead to the hills, but content 
 themselves with exploring the heads of the water-courses, 
 which the rapid stream denudes of sand and clay, leaving 
 a strew of small pebbles that wear the skin off the finger- 
 tips. The richest yield is from pits sunk in the height 
 of the dry season, near some hill in which gold has 
 been found. As the workers dig through the several 
 strata of sand and clay, they send up a few calabashes 
 by way of experiment for the women, whose peculiar 
 duty it is to wash the stuff, and thus they continue till 
 they strike the floor-rock. The most hopeful formation 
 is held to be a bed of reddish sand, with small dark 
 specks, described as "black matter, resembling gun- 
 powder," and called by the people Sana Mira, or gold- 
 rust : it is possibly emery. In Mr. Murray's edition of 
 1816, there are illustrations of the various positions, and 
 along description (Vol. I. p. 450, and Yol. II. p. 75) of 
 the style of panning. I will not trouble the reader 
 with it, as it in no way differs from that now practised 
 on the Gold Coast and Kaffir lands. There is art in 
 this apparently simple process. Some women find gold 
 when others cannot discover a particle; and as quick- 
 silver is not used, at least one-third must be wasted, 
 or rather, I may say, it is preserved for a better 
 day. 
 
 The gold dust is stored in quills, stopped with cotton, 
 and the washers are fond of wearing a number of these 
 trophies in their hair. The average of an industrious 
 individual's annual collection may be two slaves. The
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 129 
 
 price of these varies from nine to twelve minkali,* each 
 of 12*. Qd., or its equivalent in goods, viz., eighteen 
 gun-flints, forty-eight leaves of tobacco, twenty charges 
 of gunpowder, a cutlass, and a musket. Part of the 
 gold is converted into massive and cumbrous ornaments, 
 necklaces, and ear-rings, and when a lady of consequence 
 is in full dress, she bears from 50 to 80. A propor- 
 tion is put by to defray expenses of travelling to and 
 from the coast, and the greater part is then invested 
 in goods, or exchanged with the Moors for salt and 
 merchandise. 
 
 The gold is weighed in small balances, which the 
 people always carry about with them, and they make, 
 like the Hindus, but little difference between gold 
 dust and wrought gold. The purchaser always uses his 
 own " tilikissi," beans, probably, of the Abrus, which are 
 sometimes soaked in Shea butter, to increase their weight, 
 or are imitated with ground -down pebbles. In smelt- 
 ing gold, the smith uses an alkaline salt, obtained from 
 a ley of burnt corn stalks. He is capable, as even the 
 wildest African tribes are, of drawing fine wire. When 
 rings the favourite form in which the precious metal 
 is carried coastward are to be made, the gold is run 
 without any flux in a crucible of sun-dried red clay, 
 which is covered over with charcoal or braize. The 
 smith pours the fluid into a furrow traced in the ground, 
 by way of mould. When it has cooled, he reheats it, 
 
 * May not this word be an old corruption of the well-known Arabic 
 weight, miskdl ? 
 
 VOL. II. K
 
 130 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and hammers it into a little square ingot or bar of the 
 size required. After a third exposure to fire, he twists 
 with his pincers the bar into a screw shape, lengthens 
 out the ends, and turns them up to form the circle. 
 
 It must now be abundantly evident to the reader that 
 the great centre of West African gold, the source which 
 supplies Manding to the North, and Ashantee to the 
 South, is the equitorial range called the Kong. What the 
 miueral wealth must be there, it is impossible to estimate, 
 when nearly three millions and a half of pounds sterling 
 have annually been drawn from a small parallelogram be- 
 tween its southern slopes and the ocean, whilst the other 
 three quarters of the land without alluding to the equally 
 rich declivities of the northern versant have remained 
 as yet unexplored. Even in northern Liberia colonists 
 have occasionally come upon a pocket of $50, and the 
 natives bring gold in from the banks of streams. 
 
 Mr. Wilson* remarks upon this subject, " It is best 
 for whites and blacks that these mines should be worked 
 just as they are. The world is not suffering for the 
 want of gold, and the comparative small quantities that 
 are brought to the sea-coast keep the people in con- 
 tinual intercourse with civilised men, and ultimately, no 
 doubt, will be the means of introducing civilisation and 
 Christianity among them." 
 
 I differ from the reverend author, toto coelo. Tor 
 such vain hope as that of improving Africans by Euro- 
 
 * "Western Africa," Chap. X.
 
 GOLD IN AFRICA. 131 
 
 pean intercourse, and for all considerations of an " ulti- 
 mately "vaguer than the sweet singer of Israel's "soon/' 
 it is regrettable that active measures for exploration and 
 exploitation are not substituted. And if the world 
 including the reverend gentleman is not suffering for 
 the want of gold, there are those, myself for instance, 
 and many a better man, who would be happy at times to 
 see and to feel a little more of that " vile yellow clay." 
 
 K 2
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A PLEASANT DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS.* 
 
 20TH SEPT., 186. 
 
 VERY early in the morning of Friday we arose, 
 and walked the quarter-deck, wihsing to see as much as 
 possible of the coast of gold. The land about "Win- 
 nibah, " the Forest Country," as it is called, extending 
 as far west as Cape Apollonia, is a curtain of undulating 
 rocky hills, none apparently above 200 or 800 feet in 
 height, with deep grassy valleys, swampy, and dis- 
 charging little rills. The vegetation, which clothes 
 almost every foot of soil, is of that dense oily kind 
 most fit to sustain life under alternations of excessive 
 humidity and of extreme drought. We could easily 
 distinguish from the quarter-deck acacias and mimosas, 
 wild dates, adansonias, and guinea palms. Most con- 
 spicuous in the morning grey was the Devil's Hill, 
 a tall cone between Apam and "Winnibah, a celebrated 
 mining locality, dignified by many a local legend. Then 
 came the woody hill, on whose seaward flank is the 
 
 * I cannot swear that Accra means the Land of Ants, nor that 
 Mnyarawezi signifies the Land of the Moon, still there is a certain 
 significance about them both which justify me in using them, at least, 
 when not writing a report to the Eoyal Geographical Society.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 133 
 
 ancient Dutch port of Barraco. Lastly, Cook's Loaf, 
 much in the shape of a petit pain, introduced us to the 
 shallow bay of Accra, where we cast anchor at nine A.M. 
 The scenery was a yellow shore, dotted with green, and 
 backed with pale blue hills. For landing on this coast, 
 there are no worse months than July, August, and 
 September. Fortunately for us it was a dull day, and 
 the wind had not power to raise the dreaded surf. 
 Eyes were cast anxiously towards the edge of the beach 
 at times, as thin white froth appeared above the 
 smooth but undulating sea, with its livid leaden tints, 
 but a glance was sufficient to satisfy us that in lauding 
 we risked nothing but wet jackets. 
 
 Seen from the offing, Accra is imposing, in its own 
 way. A jotting of azure blue hill, the threshold of the 
 Aquapim highlands, distant from sixteen to twenty miles, 
 rising 1500 to 2000 feet above the sea, and forming an 
 amphitheatre for the plain below, appears upon the 
 far horizon. The old capital of the leeward districts 
 stands upon a red beach, which pronounces itself, not 
 condescending to a slope, and its base is lined with 
 black rocks and ledges that chafe by opposing the in- 
 vading tides. The centre of attraction is James Fort, 
 a picturesque old building, which must have been re- 
 garded with awe in the days of falconets and culverins. The 
 "negro quarters," which spread out to the north-east 
 and north-west of the fort, do not show from this 
 offing, which confines our view to the large square and 
 parallelogramic houses that take open distance along the
 
 134 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 sea frontage. There are two which attract every eye: 
 westward the castle-like pile called the Commodore, and 
 nearer to the fort, the Big House. Here and there a 
 wind-wrung cocoa, forming a natural vane, whilst bent 
 away tremblingly from the bullying south-west wind, 
 broke the somewhat bald and monotonous scatter of 
 habitations. On the eastward, or to the right of James 
 Port, lies the Dutch Crevecceur why it should so be 
 called I have not yet discovered, as an order to capture 
 it ought not to break a man's heart sedulously white- 
 washed, and more protentous in appearance than its 
 English neighbour; and further still, after a long narrow 
 strip of yellow sward, surmounted by a stratum of equally 
 bright green verdure, appears upon a jutting rock the 
 once magnificent castle of Christianborg. It rises boldly 
 from a black rock, at whose feet the tides ceaselessly 
 surge, and beyond it is a ledge upon which the waves 
 incessantly break in the calmest weather. 
 
 Landing in a canoe, with high weatherboards the surf 
 here is a litle worse than at Cape Coast Castle we made 
 for a dark reef to the westward of the fort, and we 
 passed behind it through a little channel which might 
 easily be improved; there is, however, a better place 
 nearer the fort. The sea-horses reared and shook their 
 foamy manes outside the rocks, inside we had nothing 
 more than a high tide at Dover or Weymouth. "We 
 were seated in chairs in the fore part of the canoe the 
 usual place in these landings and as she touched the 
 sands, our "pull-a-boys" springing into the water, carried
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 135 
 
 us all out high and dry. A dollar is well laid out 
 on such occasions ; a moment's delay may often see the 
 stern of the canoe half swamped by a breaker. Ascend- 
 ing the unclean bank by a stiff rampart or tranchee of red 
 clay, banded with strata of what is about to be sandstone, 
 we entered upon the Parade- Ground, or Esplanade, 
 an open space between James Fort and the white- 
 washed stone-box called the hotel. The "Grande 
 Place " did not look well : a rough square, with a few 
 gutters for drains, strewed with bits of brick and bottles, 
 and backed by negro quarters and shabby huts facing 
 the sea. Like Stamboul, the capital of the Leeward 
 Districts of the Gold Coast, loses all its picturesqueness 
 by closer inspection, and the place has the quiet, hope- 
 less, cast-down look of a veteran bankrupt. 
 
 Mr. Addoe, the African proprietor of the British 
 Hotel, was civil and obliging : the interior of his estab- 
 lishment was in Anglo-Indiau style, combining mena- 
 gerie with old curiosity-shop, and not without a touch of 
 Booksellers' Row, as I belie ve Putea-Sancta Street is now 
 called. In the unswept yard was sunk a large tank of 
 solid masonry, with mildewed walls, and a surface over- 
 grown with a broad-leaved duck-weed, which is supposed 
 to keep water sweet. Dysentery, according to Dr. 
 Clarke, is " by far the most fatal disease on the Gold 
 Coast, both to the European and native," and the 
 people consider it highly contagious.* I ceased to 
 
 * It is dangerous in the tropics to despise popular opinions touching 
 the contagiousness of a disease, which is notably not so in colder
 
 136 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 wonder at this being the case; after tasting the water, 
 and a month or two subsequently spent in the country 
 
 climates, such as phthisis in Italy, and "morbus gallicum" without 
 actual contact in Persia. Central African travellers have also remarked 
 that in those old homes and birth-places of small-pox, it falls upon 
 a village or a caravan like a plague, and the Portuguese of Goa will 
 not pass to leeward of a house where a confluent case is known to be. 
 
 It may be presumptuous in a non-medical man to offer an opinion 
 upon such a point. I cannot, however, but concur in all the advice which 
 Dr. Clarke offers upon the treatment of the West African scourge, dysen- 
 tery. He informs us, p. '67 : " That whereas European medical officers 
 almost always prescribe soups, slops, and farinaceous substances ; the 
 natives diet the patient with dry and nutritive aliments, in fact, animal 
 food. And this," says Dr. Clarke, "is the secret of the great success 
 attained by the people of the country." In my experience, I always found 
 the same thing. The vital powers of the sufferer being greatly lowered, 
 he requires as much support as possible : good meat, beef tea, but no 
 slops, essence of meat, fresh fruit, and mild stimulants, port or cham- 
 pagne. These will not create acidity, the invariable effect upon a de- 
 ranged stomach of vegetable food ; moreover the latter does not support 
 the patient sufficiently. In all dysenteric cases, however, the first 
 point for consideration is the existence or non-existence of hepatic 
 complications, If these be absent, and the disorder be entirely 
 local, opium may be used ; it is a fatal treatment when an organic 
 derangement of the liver has given rise to the disease. Above all 
 things, relapse is to be guarded against. 
 
 In dysenteric cases the natives have another adjunct to their multi 
 farious simples and tisanes. The patient is directed to rise at daybreak, 
 and to sit wholly undressed in the cool and pleasant morning breeze 
 until 6 A. M. He is then washed in a cold unstrained infusion of mace- 
 rated plantain-roots, lime-tree leaves, cassava plant, and roots of the 
 water-lily ; the skin is anointed with Shea butter ; "pampa," a gruel 
 of Indian corn, is given to drink ; and the process is generally followed 
 by a sound and refreshing sleep. This cold "air-bath" is a form of 
 cleanliness which has yet to be adopted in England ; it will doubtless 
 follow in the wake of the Turkish bath. Its merits have long since 
 been discovered in India, where, after the sensation of living in a poul- 
 ticethe effect of European clothing the exposure of the skin is 
 greatly enjoyed.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 137 
 
 convinced me that the fatality of the climate might be 
 greatly diminished by a distilling machine. Mr. Addoe 
 does a little business in stock. Accra is better provided 
 than most part of the coast with supplies : small but 
 good turkeys are brought from the breeding-places 
 at the mouth of the Volta, Jellakofi, usually called 
 "Jelly-coffee," and Quittah, with its now deserted 
 fort. They are bought here for 6*., and a little down 
 the coast are worth at least $2 : at Fernando Po 
 one of them has cost a pound sterling. Pigs and 
 poultry are bred at head-quarters. The interior sup- 
 plies excellent farm laud, and a man might soon 
 make a small fortune by breeding sheep and goats, 
 and by selling milk and vegetables to mail-steamers and 
 cruisers. But " sun he be too hot, mas'er ! " There 
 are also curios at the British Hotel monkey-skins for 
 dames' muffs there are inland some pretty specimens, 
 jetty black, with pure white beard and whiskers ; they 
 are worth $1 per dozen. A fierce dog-faced baboon or 
 two, with a strong propensity for a bite at your tendon- 
 Achilles,* amuses himself in captivity with perambulating 
 a rail; and dozens of Guinea parrots little valued 
 because they cannot speak, though they want the 
 voicelessness for which the Greeks envied the wives of 
 the Cicadas twist and turn upon their perches on the 
 
 * It is this tendency in the monkey that induced the learned and 
 Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his "Commentary on the Bible," to propose 
 that the ape should take the place of the old serpent in the Book of 
 Genesis, that most curious of cosmologies.
 
 138 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 ground-floor piazza ; wLilst an eagle is chained to a post 
 in the yard corner. 
 
 Not much prepossessed by the appearance of the 
 establishment, where precocious urchins, hardly in their 
 teens, were chewing sapo,* and laying the cloth for break- 
 fast, the consul and I prepared for a walk round the 
 town. We were accompanied by poor Hollingworth, of 
 H.M/s ship " Prometheus/' one of the best and kind- 
 liest fellows that ever wore a blue jacket. Six months 
 afterwards he fell a victim to the deadly climate of 
 Lagos. Before setting out we had a palaver with a 
 "cook-boy," as Anglo-Indian ladies persist in calling 
 him, who was willing to engage himself for " Nanny Po." 
 The cook-boy, however, owning to a proclivity for 
 " sucking the monkey," and demanding as wages 5 
 per mensem, we did not subject him to expatriation, 
 In most parts of India a stranger, if wise, would have 
 hesitated to expose himself to the sun at 10 A.M. On 
 this coast, however, even Europeans enjoy immunity 
 from sun-stroke :f the natives, as the black-skin every- 
 where seems to do, enjoy themselves in the living "lowe." 
 
 * A bunch of fibres of the plantain and other trees, which, like the 
 lif of Egypt, is used as a sponge ; a mouthful is chewed to clean the 
 inner part of the teeth, and is then applied outside like a tooth brush. 
 Some of these fibres are bitter astringents, and doubtless beneficial. 
 
 + Dr. Clarke attributes this immunity to the relaxation of the 
 system, by which profuse perspiration follows the least exertion, 
 thereby equalising the circulation and preventing local congestions. This 
 is true : it is dangerous to sit, though not to walk, in the sun. But I 
 would also suggest that the humidity of the atmosphere, forming at all 
 seasons a veil for the sun's rays, greatly mitigates the absolute heat.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 139 
 
 Our first walk was to the British. Salt Lake, as the 
 Accra Lagoon, lying west of the town, is called. These 
 formations are of two kinds, which I may term longi- 
 tudinal and latitudinal. The former is disposed at an 
 angle, more or less rectangular, to the coast; it is 
 usually in a sink between two waves or tongues of high 
 land, the lower bed of some watercourse, which flows 
 only during the rains, and which, being below sea- 
 level, is fed by percolations through the raised sand 
 strip which acts as its embankment. The latitudinal 
 is generally the formation of a permanent river, which 
 spreads out over the depressions on either side of its 
 bendings : the Yolta river offers the perfection of this 
 feature. Nothing can be worse than British Salt Lake, 
 which runs far into the interior ; it is historic ground, 
 the fatal field of Dodowah lying near its head. Though 
 fetid with decomposed mud, and haunted by sand- 
 flies and mosquitoes, it is the favourite walk and ride 
 with the Europeans of Accra. Between it and the sea 
 are a number of pits, where the natives fair and not fair 
 bathe in a touching approach to the pure Adamical 
 costume. Turning inwards past "the Commodore" 
 as the large and well-built pile belonging to the Bau- 
 nerman family its tank contains the purest water in 
 the place is called, we walked towards the north, and 
 had a fine view of the Aquapim and other hills, of 
 which two cones, named Mount Bannerman to the west- 
 north-west, and to the north-east, Kwabenyang, called 
 on our charts Mount Zahrtman, are the most conspicuous,
 
 140 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 The nearer country was adorned with the Palmyra, the 
 French Bonnier, and it is everywhere a tree of good 
 omen. The roads were bordered with datura fortu- 
 nately the people ignore its poisonous narcotism and 
 with thick hedges of prickly pear, whose only fault is a 
 proclivity to extend itself unduly : the fruit is eaten by 
 children, but the whites have not yet learned to appre- 
 ciate the Maltese favourite.* The people whom we met 
 on the road were mostly she-"pawns," sauntering towards 
 the plantations; they did not, however, neglect to address 
 us with the normal Heni odse where thou comest 
 from ? To which we were taught to reply Ble-e-e-o 
 meaning softly tout doucement it is peaceful here. 
 At some distance from the town, stood Garden House, 
 once a shooting-box, whence sportsmen issued to slay 
 leopards and moose-deer probably the Koodoo. It 
 was a fine old building, but, like the rest, dark, deserted, 
 and sadly ruinous, whilst the grounds around it were 
 a mere waste of bush. We strolled into the cemetery, 
 whose hingeless, rusted gate offered no obstruction, and 
 found it on a par with the habitations of the living. 
 Returning by the north-east of the town, we passed by 
 the Big House, another stately pile, that belongs to the 
 Hansen family ; it is even more broken down than " the 
 
 * On the Mediterranean shores it is considered cooling and whole- 
 some, especially in summer. Englishmen at first dislike its insipidity, 
 but they soon accustom themselves to it. The only difficulty about it 
 is removing the thorny peel, which cannot be done without much 
 practice.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 141 
 
 Commodore." Mr. Addoe has married one of the 
 daughters of the house, which, as usual, has a burial- 
 ground on the lowest or ground-floor. Query, how is it 
 that these houses are never haunted ? What can become 
 of the ghosts ? It is said to have cost 12,000, in a 
 place where money is worth double what it is in England, 
 and the original proprietor died before he had carried 
 out his plans of purchasing and clearing the frontage. 
 A little beyond it was the French factory, and the Wes- 
 leyan Mission-house, bought from old Mr. Bannerman. 
 In the town the women had their legs stocking' d and 
 striped, like a clown's face, with some whitish, clayey 
 substance; they were "making custom." The men 
 as we passed bared themselves to the waist, which is 
 equivalent to a cavalry-man dropping his right arm. 
 All appeared civil and respectful : they are said to enjoy 
 English rule, and to wish that we were sole possessors of 
 the land a great contrast to the East Indian. The 
 pot-bellied children never appeared without a lump of 
 native bread in their hands, a circumstance which ac- 
 counts for the inordinate mortality of these juveniles 
 about one in three arriving at the years conventionally 
 termed "of discretion." The alleys streets they could 
 not be called were dirty and slovenly ; sweeping seemed 
 to be unknown; and the lank, sharp-snouted, long- 
 legged pigs that haunted the heaps, were engaged in 
 anything but rooting up truffles. This nuisance can 
 hardly be abated : at times private orders are issued to 
 cut short the days of Paddy's friend, as Pariah dogs aie
 
 142 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 slaughtered in India ; but the people attributing it to a 
 porcine pestilence, send their pets into the country for 
 change of air. The houses were of the hollow square 
 form, more preserved than those of Cape Coast Castle, 
 but less so than the Yoruba habitations. In most court- 
 yards a female slave was bending, with pendent bosom 
 and perspiring skin, over a stone roller, which, working 
 along a concave slab, reduced the maize and obdurate 
 holcus to a fine flour. Nothing can be more gloomy 
 than these mud huts ; their never whitewashed walls and 
 seedy brown thatches are sad to behold. A few yards 
 placed us once more upon the parade-ground. 
 
 Be-entering the hotel, we refreshed ourselves with 
 brandy-pawnee, the pawnee being Patent Quinined 
 Water, which has a high local reputation. After a discon- 
 solate glance at the interior, and a gloomy anticipation of 
 breakfast, a bright thought suggested itself. "We walked 
 over to the fort, passed inside despite the lowering 
 glances of a shoeless Zouave, whose chestnut-coloured 
 stockings, not unmatched with toes protruding through 
 the tips, gave his legs the appearance that the English- 
 woman in Paris seems to love of two large chocolate 
 Sticks, and introduced ourselves to the Civil-Com- 
 mandant, Major De Euvignes, who, whilst finishing off 
 business for the forenoon, welcomed us most kindly. 
 He had brought to Africa a goodly stock of East Indian 
 campaigning experiences, and we found ourselves in for 
 pleasant day, when we had no right to expect any such 
 thing.
 
 A DAT IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 143 
 
 I must break the thread of my tangled discourse to 
 moralise "some," as Jonathan, or rather the two 
 Jonathans, have it. In extensive travel there is catho- 
 licity of experience, especially in the cuisine. Pew 
 races, except the Esquimaux, the Hottentots, and the 
 Australians, possess not a dish or two that might pro- 
 fitably be naturalised at home ; whilst we in England 
 have too many, which might, equally advantageously, be 
 changed for others. Nor is the subject one of light 
 import. L'homme d' esprit seul salt manger. Only fools 
 and young ladies care nothing for the carte. Who but 
 the idiot would affront his polarity (as Mr. Emerson, if 
 I rightly understand him, terms man's individuality) by 
 adhibiting to powers exhausted in a tropical climate, a 
 refreshment of boiled mutton (proh pudor !} and caper 
 sauce,* or a stuff invented, when meat was dear, to choke 
 off appetite, and for which the speech of Europe hath no 
 name " pudding ?" " Religion," says the sage Soyer, 
 " feeds the soul, Education the mind, Pood the body." 
 La destinee des nations depend de la maniere dont elles 
 se nowrissent is the wisdom of another wise man. This 
 age of high progress is beginning to suspect a fact 
 of which it never doubted in its days of barbarism 
 namely, that the babe at the breast imbibes certain pecu- 
 liarities according to its nutrition. 
 
 * Well do I remember, in days of youth, our "elegant" and chival* 
 rous French chef at Tours, in fair Touraine, who at once retired from 
 the service because he was ordered to boil a gigot " Comment, madame t 
 un gigot 1 cuit & Veau, Jamais t Neverre ! "
 
 144 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 These reflections, philosophical as good gastronomy is 
 the truest philosophy, emanate from the memories of 
 that day's breakfast. The people of Accra are notoriously 
 good cooks ; but, as amongst unpolished races, the men, 
 who in civilisation attain heights of excellence to which 
 the humbler sex may not aspire, are here notably inferior 
 to their partners. The best of cuisinieres are, of course, 
 those of birth and breeding, and in their places Madame 
 can direct the actions of her slave girls without compro- 
 mising herself, as would be the case in an English kitchen, 
 
 where we find Mrs. A , with arms akimbo, ruling the 
 
 roast, and brooking no rival luminary in her firmament. I 
 can name and describe the qualities of the dishes to which 
 we paid more particular attention, but their composition 
 is complicated and tasteful enough to puzzle the brains 
 of the lady who writes the cookery book. " Kankie" is 
 native bread : the flour, at first not unlike the " yaller 
 male" of the Land of Potatoes, must be manipulated 
 till it becomes snowy white : after various complicated 
 operations soaking the grain, pounding, husking, 
 triturating, and keeping till the right moment, it is 
 boiled or roasted and packed in plantain leaves. It is 
 as superior to the sour, brown, sodden mass tasting 
 of butter-milk like palm-wine and mildew, used by 
 Europeans on this coast and called bread, as a Parisian 
 roll to the London quartern loaf. "Fufu" is composed 
 of yam, plantain, or casava ; it is peeled, boiled, pounded, 
 and made into balls, which act the part of European 
 potatoes, only it is far more savoury than the vile tuber,
 
 A DAT IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 145 
 
 which has potatofied at least one nation, and at which 
 no man of taste ever looks, except in some such 
 deep disguise as a maUre d'kotel. There were also 
 cakes, seasoned with the fresh oil of the palm kernel, 
 but they had a fault, over richness. En revanche, the 
 fish and stews were admirable ; the former is the staple 
 supply of the coast, and old residents live upon it.* 
 " Kinnau " is fish opened, cleaned, stuffed with mashed 
 green pepper, and fried in palm oil. The oil used for 
 these purposes must be freshly made, thoroughly purified 
 by repeated boilings, till free from water and fibre ; the 
 sign of readiness is a slight transparent yellow tint, 
 supplanting the usual chrome colour. "Palaver sauce " 
 is a mess of vegetables, the hibiscus, egg-plant, tomato, 
 and pepper, boiled together, with or without fowl or 
 fish. "Palm-oil chop" is the curry of the Western 
 coast, but it lacks the delicate flavour which turmeric 
 gives, and suggests coarseness of taste. After some time 
 Europeans begin to like it, and there are many who 
 take home the materials to Europe. Besides palm-oil, 
 it is composed of meat or fowl, boiled yam,f pepper, 
 
 * The fish is mostly a kind of herring, of -which large quantities are 
 cured and sent to the interior, even as far as Ashantee. Turtle is 
 turned in the Hamattan season, beginning with December : after March 
 they breed, and are unfit for food. 
 
 f* The West African yam is of two kinds white and yellow . the 
 former is sweet, the latter bitter, and consequently preferred by the 
 Datives and by old hands amongst the whites. It never has the internal 
 light purple tinge, nor the drug-like flavour which renders this 
 vegetable anything but a favourite in India. The best yams in thia 
 part of the world are grown by the Bubes of Fernando Po. 
 
 VOL. II. L
 
 146 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and other minor ingredients. I always prefer it with 
 rice; pepper, however, is the general fashion. The 
 best and only sensible drink with this "chop," is palm 
 wine, but the article is seldom to be procured sweet, and 
 it mixes very badly for the digestion with all other 
 fermented liquors. Next to it claret, but by no means 
 Burgundy, which would recall a flavour, perhaps already 
 too strong. And I advise the young beginner to con- 
 clude his " palm-oil chop," especially when eaten at a 
 native house, with a "petit verre" The last dish which 
 shall be mentioned it affects the palate of reminiscence 
 with a pleasant humidity is " kickie," a most intricate 
 affair of finely minced and strongly flavoured fish or 
 fowl ; it is served up in Accra-made pots of black porous 
 clay, into which the pepper sinks so thoroughly that 
 after a few months it heats its contents. It has the one 
 great advantage, like the West Indian " pepper-pot/' of 
 always coming up to table fresh from the fire. 
 
 After the dejeuner dinatoire, not without aliqito mero, 
 we walked round poor old James Tort, which dates from 
 the days of Charles the Martyr. It is an irregular 
 square, flanked by bastions, and provided with two 
 stories ; the eastern side contains, or rather contained, 
 a large saloon used for business purposes, and on the 
 ground floor are the dungeons in which prisoners were 
 immured. The sides of the fort proper are about 145 
 feet long ; outside the gateway, however, there are the 
 courts, surrounded by loopholed walls, and separated by 
 a tumble-down building called a court-house. It is
 
 A DAT IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 147 
 
 built upon the outer extremity of Accra Point, on a 
 rocky foundation, about 36 feet above sea level. A low 
 ledge of reef projects far into the sea, and at an expense 
 of 5000/. 20,OOOJ. being annually wasted upon a local 
 corps a breakwater of rough stone might easily be 
 made there. It has been repeatedly recommended, and 
 it was even expected to be undertaken : but who cares 
 for Accra on the Gold Coast? This place, once the 
 great ambition of Europe, has now fallen fallen 
 fallen even from the memory of the Gazetteer. In 
 Brookes and Fiiidlay (MDCCCLI.) we read, for all informa- 
 tion 
 
 * "AGRA, or ACCARA," neither spelling admissible "a territory 
 of Guinea on the Gold Coast, where some European States have forts, 
 and each fort its village. N. lat. 5 25', W. long. 10'." 
 
 A fine -looking massive building it must have seemed to 
 the eyes of its own generation. It was the furthermost 
 of their works upon this Coast, which will never look 
 upon its like again. When I first saw it, however, the 
 gateway was bending humbly forwards, the walls were 
 lezardes, by rain dripping through the mortarless inter- 
 stices, the ramparts were in holes, the rooms ruinous, the 
 old iron guns, of some dozen various calibres, were scaly 
 as the armadillo, and the whole place wore the tristest 
 aspect of desolation. Some 1000<?. per annum would 
 have kept all these places Cape Coast Castle, Accra 
 Dixcove, and Christiansborg in proper order ; no great 
 addition to an expenditure of 24,0 DO or 30,000 per 
 annum. Now all is ruin. Books tell us that the coast,- 
 
 L 2
 
 148 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 from El-Mina to Benin is still rising, and that rocks 
 and ledges, before below, are now flush with the water. 
 The earthquake of 1858 tended to hasten the growth.* 
 
 No one visits Accra without inspecting its neighbour, 
 Christiansborg. Our coach and six presently appeared 
 at the door; a quaint contrivance, a four-in-hand of 
 negroes to the fore, holding little cross-bars, and two 
 pushing in the rear. The late Lieutenant Forbes, of 
 Dahomian celebrity, used to wax extremely wroth at 
 this degradation of men to cattle. I regret to own that 
 it felt very refreshing after the banalities of hammocks, 
 palanquins, and sedans. Horses, which die at Cape Coast 
 Castle after a few months, here live for years : their 
 owners, however, are careful not to take them into the 
 bush. The reason generally given there is, that they 
 catch complaints which are fatal. I cannot, however, 
 but think that it is the tzetze, or some kindred fly, which 
 destroys them. Wherever the bush and the tall grass 
 are cleared away, these noxious animals, whose poison 
 seems to be derived from the rank vegetation surrounding 
 them, disappear. They are no longer upon the actual 
 seaboard, which, perhaps, has been too much denuded 
 of trees, Nature's screen-work against the malaria of 
 
 * About April, 1862, seventeen distinct shocks, extending through 
 six weeks, added increment to it, and on the 10th of June, 1862, when 
 the rolling of the ground split eveiy stone house in Accra, I distinctly 
 saw that the level of the rock ledge had been upraised from the sea. 
 The same day, however, was fatal to the three forts ; and the clerk 
 of the works, sent from England to report upon the state of those 
 belonging to us, declared that it was useless to attempt repairs.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 149 
 
 the inner marshes. Within five miles north of Accra, 
 I was severely stung by a large brown gadfly, of which 
 specimens were secured. They were unfortunately lost ; 
 but though without books of reference and preserved 
 specimens it is impossible for me to identify the animal, 
 my impression is that it is the true tzetze, which Dr. 
 Livingstone has limited to the southern branch of the 
 Zambezi. The author of the " West Regions of Central 
 Africa," brought home with him a fine large glossina, 
 which was pronounced at the British Museum to be the 
 true G. morsitans. Mules and asses might succeed 
 even where horses fail. The only trouble in keeping 
 these animals is the difficulty of finding proper attend- 
 ants. Nothing can be more inhuman or neglectful than 
 the West African stable-boy; he mounts his charge 
 when unobserved, and rides him like a beggar, wears 
 the cloths by night, and unless the master is present 
 robs the grain and kankie with which his charge is fed. 
 Besides which the fellows seem constitutionally unable 
 to keep a horse clean, and to ride an animal out of con- 
 dition and one quarter groomed is to drink Romane glace 
 out of a tin pannikin both lose all their pleasure. 
 
 Our novel go-cart dashed through the streets at full 
 speed. We passed through the Salt Bazaar, a kind of 
 market, where women were sitting, before them were 
 stores of fish and vegetables, ground-nuts, and palm-oil, 
 and large flat baskets filled with the infinity of small cheap 
 articles chiefly required in barbarous life. This led us to 
 another square. On its seaward side stands the Dutch
 
 150 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 fort Creve-cceur, \vhich M. Bouet-Willaumez described as 
 an " abandoned ruin." It is a large pile of building, 
 at the edge of the cliff, with a tall turret and a large 
 courtyard. Being freshly whitewashed it wore an 
 aspect somewhat superior to our ruin, but during the 
 earthquakes it fared much worse, which was bad indeed. 
 A Dutch negro soldier or two sat at the door, but never 
 ventured upon the least sign of salute, eyeing us with all 
 the repose which marks the caste of Canaan bin Ham. 
 We also found a Wesleyan chapel, standing solitary at 
 the landward side of a square, not unlike the parade- 
 ground. Its style of architecture was that of the olden 
 meeting-house, generally copied from that useful but 
 not ornamental tenement, a barn. It disdained steeple, 
 and being a week-day the doors were of course shut. 
 Under its shade a small party of young negresses were 
 enjoying their favourite relaxation of a dance. Nothing 
 is more grotesque than their style of saltation. A 
 couple stands up vis-a-vis, and raising the foot alternately 
 both stamp upon the ground as bears are taught to do. 
 This presently becomes a leap in the air, during which 
 the hands are thrown out, palms forwards, and are met 
 by the partner opposite. If there is any failure the 
 couple breaks off with loud shouts of laughter, and 
 another set stands up in their stead. On great occasions 
 at Accra there are, I believe, dances which are as ceremo- 
 nious as the East Indian Nautch ; we had not, however, 
 time to see them. 
 
 Presently we emerged from the town upon a level high
 
 A DAY IN THE LAbD OF ANTS. 151 
 
 road of no despicable construction. Originally the work 
 of the merchants at Accra, it is now kept in order by 
 the civil commandant. The hard red clay, often the 
 debris of ant masonry, dispenses with the necessity of 
 metalling, though riot with that of repairing at the end 
 of the rainy season. The avenue of umbrellas and 
 tamarinds which, bending to the N. E., acted as natural 
 waves, gave it almost a south-European look. The 
 country around, although in the heart of the dry season, 
 afforded me an unexpected pleasure. Not a trace of 
 bush, jungle, or mangrove swamp around: in the 
 yellow daylight the rolling surface, here gently swelling, 
 there sinking with a graceful curve, was clothed with 
 golden grass ; and here and there a tall tree, a " motte " 
 of underwood, a solitary cactus, or a clump of evergreen 
 woo'd the traveller to its green shade. Herds of cattle 
 browsing in the distance gave it a pastoral appearance, 
 and beyond the prairie formation of the lowlands rose 
 forest, not primeval, as Dr. Daniell calls it, but rather 
 land that has lain fallow for some scores of years. The 
 people call this Ko, as opposed to Na, the grassy 
 savannah. The consul had never seen so many ant- 
 pyramids since leaving the Somali country : they studded 
 the land ; tall broken cones of red ferruginous earth, tho 
 favourite building material of the white termes belli- 
 cosus, the bug-a-bug of S'a Leone, which gives to the 
 region a mistaken name.* There is game to be found 
 in the land "horse-deer/' 13 to 14 hands high, ante- 
 
 * Accra is derived, through the Portuguese, from Inkran, or
 
 152 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 lopes, the noble African partridge, and the "bush- 
 turkey," which I believe to be a floriken : the animals, 
 however, take to cover at once, and cannot be dislodged 
 without curs. There is a kind of wild cattle, called on 
 the Gaboon river, Nyara : it seems to exist everywhere 
 in the maritime region I found the same animal on 
 the Gold Coast. Mr. Thompson (" Palm Land, or West 
 Africa," p. 168) mentions it in the grass plains near 
 Sherbro, and Mr. Yaldez calls it Empacasso in Portu- 
 guese Africa, Empacasseiros are the huntsmen who 
 make a profession to kill it. Leopards are only too 
 numerous. Hippopotami and crocodiles are plentiful in 
 the Volta river. Spur-fowl exist in the bushes. I 
 prefer, small as they are, the delicious curlews that pace 
 the sands. Wild geese appear at certain seasons ; the 
 meat is fat, rich, and juicy. Elephants must exist in 
 the interior, as the people are plentifully supplied with 
 scrivellos and tusks of moderate dimensions. The only 
 drawback to a gallop over this fine open country is the 
 number and size of the crab holes, which rival the 
 biscacheros of the South American pampas. During 
 the rains, when verdure invests these charming slopes, 
 and a thicker herbage clothes the woodland, the view 
 must be a repose to the eye.* The horizon in the 
 north showed a distant line of fading blue hill, the 
 
 " drivers," not white ants. Others say it was so called on account of 
 the ant-like swarming of its numerous population. 
 
 * Compared with S'a Leone the rains in Accra are light, averag- 
 ing a little above 80 inches. They are sufficient, however, to flood the
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 153 
 
 threshold of Ajumanti, Akim, and Ajuapim. In the 
 latter, Akropong, the king's residence, and Abude, are 
 now stations of the Basle mission : the distance is laid 
 down at 20 to 30 miles from Accra, the height is 2000 
 to 2500 feet above sea level, and the climate is described 
 to be delightful. The Ajumanti range is a day's ham- 
 mock march from James Town, and being drier, is pre- 
 ferred by many to Akropong or Abude : the air is deli- 
 cious, the water pure, and abundant stone and timber 
 everywhere, whilst mechanics and supplies, at slightly 
 advanced prices, are readily procurable from Accra. On 
 the seaward slopes there is still a Danish ruin, bearing 
 the inscription 
 
 Frederiksgave 
 
 VI. 
 
 1832. 
 
 and intended as a sanitarium for the officers of Christians- 
 borg. The fine estate around it, called the Queen's 
 Plantations, has been granted to Major De Ruvignes, the 
 civil commandant, on consideration of his paying annu- 
 ally a pine-apple quit-rent. Anything from coffee 7 to 
 cotton would grow here, and will grow well, whilst the 
 air is pure and cool, and the mosquito plague of Accra is 
 unknown. At the foot of the range is Abokobi, another 
 station of German missionaries, and in the hills various 
 farms and plantations belonging to the merchants of 
 Accra. Coffee has been grown there, but all has now 
 run wild. Mr. Freeman has been much more successful 
 
 lowlands, and as the soil is clayey, to stop travelling. The best season 
 for excursions into the interior is the Harmattan.
 
 154 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 near the Secoom river : at this time he has, I suppose, 
 10,000 plants. The German missionaries in Ajuapim 
 also attempted it, but want of gardening skill made their 
 efforts vain. Cotton was tried, and succeeded admirably. 
 Mr. Swanzy, an eminent merchant, laid out large sums, 
 and produced an excellent staple ; since his day, however, 
 the trees have been entirely neglected. The Accra copal 
 is of poor quality, and fetches in the market far lower 
 prices than that of Angola, Beuguela, Kongo, or S'a 
 Leone. Guinea grains are procured spontaneously 
 everywhere in the hills, but this once celebrated spice, 
 like the Balm of Meccah, has now become a weed. 
 The mountain land of Akim lies about a week's easy 
 travel to the north, with a little westing from Accra j 
 it is divided into two districts, the eastern, of which 
 Ojadan is the capital, and the western, whose capital is 
 Ciiebi. The people, who know, though they cannot 
 avail themselves of, their country's resources, are de- 
 sirous of seeing it colonised by Europeans. Two very 
 rich diggings have lately been discovered in Akim. 
 There is no doubt that by paying a certain per-centage 
 to the king and his Pynims, Europeans would be 
 allowed to work them. It is described as a beautiful 
 region, abounding in fruits and flowers : its botany 
 would doubtless instruct Europe, but where are the 
 botanist, the geologist, and the student of natural 
 history on the Gold Coast ? The great industry through- 
 out Akim is gold. According to travellers the local 
 fetish is called Kataguri ; it appears in the shape of a
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 155 
 
 large brass pan, which dropped down from heaven ; in 
 token of its high descent it is secured with all mystery in 
 a fetish house, and is surrounded by drawn swords 
 and axes overlaid with gold.* 
 
 After a two miles' drive through a country which it 
 was a pleasure to look at, we reached the outposts of 
 Christiansborg. The first sign was a cemetery, where the 
 missionaries lie apart from " dee hayden" with whom they 
 have associated during life. Ensue some quasi-European 
 houses in which the " consort," such is the ambiguous 
 term which the native " housekeeper " enjoys in these 
 lands, is located by the absent "householder." A 
 martello tower, once considered a strong defence, stands 
 sentinel on this approach to the main work. Around 
 it, and to the northwards, clusters a native town, rising 
 phcenix-like from it ruins. It was bombarded to correct 
 a mutinous tendency, in 1854, by H. M. S. Scourge, 
 followed by a squadron of six English vessels, and a large 
 native force, which had collected, was easily dispersed. 
 Unfortunately the lines of streets have been carelessly laid 
 down, and, as has been explained, it is more difficult to 
 remove a Gold Coast town than a West Africo-English 
 
 * At Accra the commandant showed me some of these swords, which 
 had been sent in token of submission by one of the chiefs of Krobo, a 
 highland about 60 miles north-east of James Town. They were short, 
 broad, and heavy falchions, apparently of rusty hoop iron, in shape some- 
 what like the dreaded Turkish scimitar of the olden time now known 
 only in pictures but adorned with open work near the end, like f sh- 
 slicers or Highland dirks, the handles and pommels being thinly 
 plated with worked gold sewn together, and hammered close to the wood.
 
 156 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 settlement. The holes from which the earthen material 
 of the houses was excavated are allowed to remain, and, 
 filled by every rainy season they must be small hotbeds 
 of malaria. The native town showed us a peculiar sight. 
 " Can the Ethiopian change his skin ? " is a question 
 which has been asked some time ago, in distinct expec- 
 tation of a negative reply. My day at Accra enables 
 me modestly, but decidedly, to reply that he can. Outside 
 a hut sat a strange-looking being, a spotted man, such as 
 we read of in books that treat of ethnology and of skin- 
 diseases. The ground-colour of his superficies was an 
 unwholesome pink white, and the rest was a series of 
 deep black splotches. He was well-known to all in the 
 place; a few years before he had been a negro; he 
 gradually changed to a white man, and when we saw him 
 he was again recovering his rete mucosum. I saw 
 another anthropological curiosity at Accra. The Albino 
 in Africa has been noticed by every traveller, the semi- 
 Albino has not. My specimen was a man with features 
 and cranium distinctly belonging to the "poor black 
 brother." His complexion, however, was cafe au lait, 
 his hair a dull dead yellow, short and kinky as that of 
 all his tribe, and his eye-pupils were of a light and lively 
 brown. I afterwards saw many of the same temperament 
 at Benin, and one the chief Sandy at Batanga : my 
 little "Travellers' Library," however, does not allude to 
 this lusus naturae. 
 
 Near the entrance of the old Danish castle there are 
 some large whitewashed quarters, occupied by the Basle
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 157 
 
 Mission's Gesellschaft, and a number of white-haired 
 children broke the monotonous prospect of little wad- 
 dling niggers and long-legged trotting pigs. This 
 Mission holds the hill-country, and by combining 
 commerce with Christianisation, has succeeded in esta- 
 blishing half a dozen stations. The members arrive in 
 Africa like timid sheep, very humble ; they wax bolder in 
 time, as the fox in that fable where he met the lion, 
 and they end by being as offensive to the community as 
 were the frogs to King Log. An abominable charge 
 was brought by their superior against a highly respect- 
 able English merchant at Accra: an action for libel of 
 course ensued, the cause came into court, and the de- 
 fendant altogether failed to substantiate his calumny. 
 Yet the jury partly negroes and partly whites, lower in 
 the scale of creation than black men brought in the 
 peculiar verdict that the accusation was a libel, but 
 that it had been made without malicious intent. These 
 Germans carry matters with a high hand. An English 
 brother happening to come under their displeasure, they 
 took from him his wife and children by a process of 
 divorce which they had no right to pronounce and 
 actually married her to one of their own number. I 
 will not mention names unless the truth of this assertion 
 be disputed by the culprits, in which case I will. 
 
 Christiansborg Castle, like its brethren Creve-coeur and 
 James Eort, is founded upon a rock, and bears upon its 
 walls the date of erection, A.D. 1094. This strong 
 point, flanked on both sides by sandy bays, stands some
 
 18 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 thirty-five feet above sea-level ; it is fronted by scattered 
 ledges and outliers, upon which at most seasons, a heavy 
 surf breaks, consequently the landing is fit only for 
 canoes. Built by degrees, it has grown into a large but 
 irregular building, a square of 190 feet on each side, 
 with a variety of party-walls, ramparts, bastions, and 
 outworks, all of solid stone masonry, which must have 
 cost a " pretty penny." The first room is a fine 
 salon, called the council-chamber, enlivened with 
 bright blue bands of paint; under it, however, are 
 noisome dungeons. Besides this there is a chapel, now 
 closed, a hospital, sundry store-rooms, and officers' 
 quarters. It is garrisoned by a detachment from Accra, 
 and so scanty are supplies, that the Europeans never 
 miss mail-day, and generally dine away from home; no 
 skipper can pass the place without being mulcted in a 
 bit of fresh beef, or, that failing, salt pork. The air is 
 damp and unwholesome ; articles hung against the walls 
 generally mildew, and the human animal fares even 
 worse. The fort was built originally by the Portuguese, 
 but after repeatedly changing masters, it was confirmed 
 to the Danish crown in the year inscribed upon its 
 walls. In 1850, the King of Denmark, as has been 
 said, sold all his northern provinces for the sum of 
 10,000^., to the English. I should have preferred pay- 
 ing these moneys for the archives ; they were, however, 
 removed with the establishment. The Danish trace is 
 still met with in the interior, although the names of the 
 towns do not end in by. You meet, however in out-
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 159 
 
 of-the-way villages, with Miss Hesse, Miss Engmami, 
 and other unmistakeable signs of the Danes. 
 
 The view from the ramparts is extensive and pic- 
 turesque. Under the north-eastern walls of the Fort is 
 a clump of cocoa-nut trees, where the " wa 'ful waddie " 
 is erected when required. A little beyond it is a lagoon, 
 or rather a hole of stagnant water, fit only for croco- 
 diles, and well accounting for the unsanity of the 
 place. Looking eastward, about two and a-half miles 
 along the sandy tract which runs uninterrupted as far 
 as Sandy Bluff, the western point of the Volta's embou- 
 chure, we see a clump of trees on rising ground, denoting 
 the site of a well-known village, Labaddi, by the natives 
 called La, and the seat of the Great Fetish La-Kpa. 
 The people are fierce and fanatic, and show a dis- 
 position to be troublesome. The commandant had 
 pointed out to me, within the enceinte of St. James 
 Fort, the grave of a Labaddi fetishman, who had been 
 lately hung for a barbarous murder. The operation, 
 owing to the struggles of the patient, had been long and 
 severe, and the corpse had been buried and kept under 
 surveillance in James Fort, lest the people should be- 
 lieve in a local Resurrection. The fellow had declared 
 under the death-tree that he would return and haunt 
 the man who caused his destruction, and there are those 
 who believe that he has returned once at least. Three 
 miles beyond Labaddi is a country whose prettiness is 
 difficult to describe ; in a charming stretch of park land, 
 tapestried with grass, and relieved by clumps and scat-
 
 160 WANDEEINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 tered trees, lies Tesha, or Tassy, properly Tesi, once 
 guarded by Augustenborg, a Danish fort. But no more 
 shall European eyes view these charming scenes from 
 that point de vue ; the inexorable earthquake came, 
 shook Christiansborg down to the rock, and breaking 
 the head of an assistant-surgeon, compelled the garrison 
 to camp out upon the plain. 
 
 Bidding adieu to this "Castle o' Balwearie," we 
 walked to tlie north and entered a large building, not 
 unworthy of comparison with the Commodore and the 
 Big House. The owner was not at home, so we as- 
 cended the stairs, and sitting in the saloon, made our- 
 selves comfortable with cocoa-nut water, " laced " with 
 cognac. The house, which had all the qualifications for 
 a Governor's palace, belonged to a Mr. Richter, a Danish 
 merchant, one of the wealthiest. His portrait still 
 hangs upon the wall, a kitcat, showing a mild and 
 gentlemanly unmoustachioed face, supported by a swathe 
 of muslin, around which was a high horse-collar, that 
 formed part of a blue cloth coat, and brass buttons ; as 
 the intelligent reader will have anticipated, a bunch of 
 seals hung from the fob. And yet this quiet old gen- 
 tleman must have been a terrible Turk skeletons have 
 been found in his under-ground dungeons, and his name 
 is like that of " Draque " in the New World. 
 
 After this we walked still further north for about half 
 a mile, to the old Frederick sborg. On the road we passed 
 a most forbidding-looking German missionary, who was 
 driving before liim a herd of little negroes, habited in
 
 A DAT IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 161 
 
 striped calico. Not a hand was raised to the hat: in a 
 country "croom" not a soul would have passed us without 
 a kindly greeting. It is one of the worst points in these 
 Christianisers that they are ever endeavouring to raise 
 man against man ; their theory is " love one another," 
 their practice is jealousy and hate. After a quarter of an 
 hour we came upon the outskirts of the place, where our 
 men began to tread cautiously. Serpents in exceptional 
 numbers come forth to bask in the burning sun, and 
 some are so full of fight, that, instead of running away, 
 they will, it is said, rise and fly at an intruder. The land 
 also is covered with a tall growth of spear-grass, which 
 at once works its way through serge, and hooks its barbed 
 points into the flesh ; crede experto, and never travel in 
 the inner Gold Coast without antigropelos (is that rightly 
 spelt ?) or top-boots. Frederiksborg contained only two 
 stone houses, but they were handsome and well built of 
 cut slabs. They are now uninhabitable; the material 
 has been filched by the garrison at Christiansborg, and a 
 wall half-pulled down in these regions is soon level with 
 the ground. It was not safe to enter the debris ; we 
 therefore contented ourselves with an outside view. The 
 Gold Coast has already more remnants of antiquity than 
 the American Republic, where the Nauvoo Temple is the 
 only ruin between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. 
 
 We then remounted our coach and six, and proceeded 
 at a spanking pace, which spoke well for the wind and 
 bottom of our cattle, towards James Town. The beauty 
 of the view, the contrast of ruin and perennial growth^
 
 162 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the terrible sereneness of Nature, unchanged, inexorable, 
 so utterly beyond the emmets, black and white, that 
 burrow and nest upon earth's surface, filled my mind 
 with a sudden and profound sadness. Like the builders 
 of these deserted homesteads, I have sought this coast, 
 determined to show what can be effected by energy not 
 undirected by intellect. And now, under that glowing 
 sun, and with that ever-smiling prospect before me, a 
 voice seems to say that all my efforts shall be vain, per- 
 haps even vainer than theirs. I felt relieved when we 
 had plunged into the alleys of James Town. 
 
 A succulent dinner prepared us for the ever-increas- 
 ing disette of the A. S. S. We are now lapsing into 
 tropical diet, beef that looks like dead horse, fowls 
 barely the size of pigeons, and turkeys whose breast- 
 bones pierce through their skins. The gallant captain 
 of the " Blackland" began to bang his pop-guns before 
 the ground-nut soup was off the table the only object 
 of which proceeding was to double-shot a 24-po under, 
 in case he might be disposed, contrary to contract, to 
 give us the slip. Nothing so unpleasant, however, 
 occurred. We dined in peace ; and I bade adieu to my ex- 
 cellent host with a regret, lightened only by his promise 
 to accompany me, at the first opportunity, to Kumasi, 
 capital of Ashantee. A rush through the breakers, and 
 a frantic paddling ; in half an hour more we were on 
 board. 
 
 The tribes of the eastern Gold Coast, Accras, Krobos, 
 Krepis, Agotiins, Awunahs, and Addahs, differ greatly
 
 A DAY IN TEE LAND OF ANTS. 363 
 
 from the Akan, or western races, in morale and physique. 
 There the people are larger and finer men than on 
 the windward coast ; I have never seen such tall, mus- 
 cular, and powerful negroes as at Addah. The women 
 are equally well-grown, and withal remarkably hairy. 
 Their complexion is rather a dark red than black. 
 Placed between the two great despotisms of Ashantee 
 and Dahomey, they are free even to anarchy, and though 
 fierce as cogs de combat they are disunited, or rather 
 hostile. According to Bowdich, the people of Accra, 
 like those of Mombas, rose up against the Portuguese, 
 they had settled here in 1492, and were guilty of great 
 cruelties, executed the governor and the garrison on 
 the spot where they still take the earth to rub on a 
 new-born child, in memory of the event. They show 
 considerable improvability. The children on the Gold 
 Coast are named after the days on which they are 
 born. Kwashi, or Sunday, our well-known Quashie; 
 Kajjo (Cudjoe), Kwabino, Kwako (Quacco), Kwaw, Kofi, 
 and Kwamina, or Saturday. The same is the case in 
 Ashantee, where the king's last name is the birthday, 
 which necessarily returns once a week, and the first is 
 the title Sai or Osai, borne also by the principal nobles. 
 Here the first-born son is Tete, the corresponding 
 daughter Dede ; the second pair are Tete masculine, and 
 Koko feminine; the third, Mesa and Mansa; fourth, 
 Anan and Tsotso; fifth, Anum and Mauum; sixth, 
 Nsia and Sasa ; seventh, Ason, masculine and feminine ; 
 eighth, Botfe ; ninth, Akron ; tenth, Badu. The three 
 
 M 2
 
 164 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 latter are common to both sexes. "With few exceptions, 
 they are taken from Oji numerals, as amongst the 
 Romans, Quintus, Decimus, &c. European officials get 
 a native prenomen from the day on which they land ; 
 the real nomen is some nickname, which the witty 
 knaves choose with peculiar felicity. Thus an esteemed 
 friend of mine rejoices in the style and title of Kajjo 
 (Cudjoe) Frafra "Monday Ratface." They respect 
 Europeans beyond their fellows; there is no personal 
 risk in travelling through the wildest parts of the 
 country, and the people would willingly see our power 
 extended. In the smallest crooms, or country villages, 
 a house is cleared for the traveller, and in the larger 
 settlements there is always a guests' room set apart for 
 strangers. Where the chief resides he will prepare an ex- 
 cellent breakfast of pepper-soup, kankie, and native stews, 
 and the table will be loaded with champagne and claret, 
 gin and cognac. If they find any fault with our policy, 
 it is the lax hand with which the reins of government 
 are held ; they respect the Dutch, because these treat 
 them with greater severity. Under President Maclean 
 the Krobo troubles would have been settled in six weeks, 
 now they have lasted four years.* These shortcomings 
 
 * Krobo is a protected territory, a mass of highlands about 10 
 miles west of the Yolta, and 45 from its mouth. There are two main 
 divisions of the mountain, eastward or near the river, including Kpong 
 (Pong) and Mamya, is under the chief Odonko Azu. Westward i g 
 Tilau, the capital of the chief Ologu Patu. The troubles began in 
 1858, with a turmoil between the rivals, arising, it is said, from a 
 dance at a festival, in which a neighbouring village interfered, and they
 
 A DAY IN TSE LAND OF ANTS'. 165 
 
 On our part are doubtless owing to the frequency of 
 " gubernational changes," necessitated by the nature of 
 the climate.* 
 
 It is not a little curious that on this coast several 
 heathen tribes practise circumcision, f whilst their neigh- 
 are not settled. Odonko Azu and his principal chiefs were taken 
 prisoners, and kept for nine months in captivity. They escaped from 
 Christiansborg by the unjustifiable carelessness of the officer who had 
 charge of them, and who escaped all injury concerning a transaction 
 which would have cost him in India his commission. 
 
 * The following is a list of the governors and the acting governors 
 up to the present time : 
 
 1. Commander Worsley Hill, R.N., made in 1844. Lived to return 
 to England. 
 
 2. Dr. Lilly (acting), 1845. Superseded. 
 
 3. Commander afterwards Sir William Winniett, 1846. Returned 
 home. 
 
 4. J. C. Fitzpatrick, Esq., Jan. 1849. Superseded. 
 
 5. Sir William Winniett, Jan. 1850. Died at his post. He wag 
 one of the best of governors, and steadily pursued his favourite scheme 
 of making the colony self-supporting, till it was cut short by death. 
 
 6. J. Bannerman, Esq. (acting), Oct. 1851. Superseded. 
 
 7. Major G. J. Hill, Dec. 1851. Returned to England. 
 
 8. J. C. Fitzpatrick, Esq. (acting), June 1853. Superseded. 
 
 9. B. G. Cruikshank, Esq. (acting), Aug. 1853. Ditto. 
 
 10. Major G. J. Hill, Feb. 1854. Returned home. 
 
 11. Henry Connor, Esq. (acting), Dec. 1854. Ditto. 
 
 12. Sir Benjamin C. C. Pine, March 1857. Ditto. 
 
 13. Col. Bird (acting), 14th April, 1858. Superseded. 
 
 14. E. B. Andrews, Esq., 20th April, 1860. Returned to England. 
 
 15. W. A. Ross, Esq. (acting), 14th April, 1862. Superseded. 
 
 16. Mr. Pine, 20th Sept., 1862. Still tfiere. 
 
 Thus it will be seen there have been 16 governors, commanders-in- 
 chkf, and vice-admirals in 18 years ; and the almost total disorganisa- 
 tion of the colony, or rather the garrison for colony it is not can hardly 
 be wondered at. 
 
 t The rite is called Eeteafo, or shortening. It is practised by both
 
 166 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 bours do not. A similar circumstance of sporadicity in 
 the rite is noticed by a late traveller in the Lake Regions 
 of Central Africa. Morality, despite the precaution, 
 appears to be at a low ebb. The morbzcs gatticum and its 
 varieties are almost universal in some places, delirium 
 tremens is by no means rare, poisoning is common, and 
 abortion is generally resorted to, when a woman nursing, 
 contrary to the custom of the coast and the dictates 
 of Nature, is threatened with once more becoming a 
 mother. There is no difficulty in procuring a tem- 
 porary native wife, locally called a " consort," by the 
 week or " by the run," as it is termed. The principal 
 diseases are dysentery, fever, and dracunculus.* Owing 
 
 Ga and Adanme tribes, and is in the keep of a certain family, though 
 not directly connected with religion. The boys not the girls, as some 
 authors represent are circumcised about 13 years of age. The mis- 
 sionaries believe this to point out a Hebrew or a Moslem origin ; I think 
 not. They should bear in mind that the Jews derived the rite from 
 Egypt, that is to say Africa, where it had been used for ages im- 
 memorial, and that in the very depths of the Dark Continent, where 
 Jew or Arab never penetrated, it is practised under a variety of 
 modifications. 
 
 * The Vena Medinensis was called from this coast the "Guinea 
 worm." The natives deny that it is produced by drinking impure water, 
 and they are right. It is doubtless the product of some animal which 
 deposits its ova in the skin. The Gold Coast people say that it prefers 
 those with sweet flesh, avoiding acid and acrid skins. The great proof 
 of its external origin is that the legs and feet are the parts most 
 affected, cases occur most frequently during the rains, when the lower 
 extremities are liable to be wetted, and those who sleep on the ground or 
 on mats are more liable to the disease than those who use cots. The 
 people, according to Dr. Clarke, believe in a male and a female Guinea- 
 worm ; the former is the thickness of a crow's quill, the latter of a 
 stout linen thread. The only part of the body not liable to dracuuculua
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 167 
 
 to the relaxing nature of the climate, unexciting life, un- 
 nutritious and unchanged dietary, unwholesome water, 
 and absence of cold weather, a man once " down " 
 remains so for a long time. 
 
 A rude native smith-craft is the favourite industry at 
 Accra, where zodiacal rings may be found upon every 
 one's finger. The gold is first melted and reduced .to 
 proper size ; it is polished by a mixture of nitrate of 
 potash, soda, and water, boiled together in a large 
 limpet shell (Achatina). The mould is cut out in 
 the soft part of the dead cuttle-fish, and the ring, when 
 made, is polished with borax and lime-juice, forming a 
 weak acid. They also make studs, watch-chains, and 
 other ornaments, which, to say the truth, are utterly 
 destitute of artistic beauty. The sonmesi, or black- 
 smith's shop, as in parts of Europe, is a weird place, 
 where thieves are detected, wounds healed, and so on. 
 The land is full of tales and legends of gold-dust and 
 doubloons buried under trees, and the people are 
 credulous upon this point as the Hindus. 
 
 The Accra English is superior to "Black-man's 
 mouf" generally. In addressing them it is not neces- 
 sary to use, for comprehension, the horrid jargon of the 
 S'a Leone man or the Kruboy. There are, however, 
 
 is the hairy scalp. Some persons have been known to have 30 Guinea- 
 worms at the same time. The average time of cure is laid down at 
 three months, but if the worm be broken, it will last six. Lameness 
 is sometimes caused by it, the Tendo Achilles and other sinews becoming 
 permanently fixed and contracted by the inflammation.
 
 168 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 many English expressions which no Englishman would at 
 first understand. " Put him in log," means fasten his 
 leg to a log ; a " house master " is the proprietor of the 
 house; to "put in fetish," is equivalent to our old 
 excommunication ; to " make customs/' is to mourn for 
 and wake the dead ; and, to quote no more specimens of 
 tlu's quaint and queer old trading English, a " tail-girl " 
 is a young woman whose only dress is a T-bandage, 
 with a long extremity pendant behind. It is, say 
 Europeans, as usual wrongly, a sign of fetish.* All 
 such names of places as Accra or Jamestown, Dutch 
 Accra, Christiansborg, Labaddi, Tassy, and others have 
 their native duplicates in Ga, Kinkd, Osu, La, and 
 Tesi, and the names are mostly significant ; the latter 
 would mean, for instance, " stone land." 
 
 The languages, or rather dialects, spoken upon this 
 leeward coast are, like the Eanti, of Hamitic origin, and 
 cognate with the tongues of Ashantee, Dahomey, and 
 Yoruba. As all the family, they have no peculiar 
 character, and they were probably never written till 
 Moslems and Europeans appeared. Of late years 
 speeches, histories and legends, proverbs and tales, of 
 which there are thousands, have been published by mis- 
 
 * Girls amongst the Accras and eastern tribes are not properly 
 allowed to wear any cloth but a narrow strip. When marriageable, 
 they are taken home, kept from work, highly fed, well dressed, and 
 profusely ornamented. After many ceremonies, they are exhibited in 
 the town by the advertisements of finery, dancing, and playing ; thus 
 it is pretty mnch the same in barbarous Medidsiasikpong (Africa) as 
 in civilised England.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 169 
 
 sionaries and others. So extensive is this literature, 
 that the people have a name for a single branch, e.g., 
 Anansesem, or spider-stories.* This insect (ananu) 
 plays a principal part in animal fables; it has a bad 
 influence upon children sleeping in the same room, it 
 speaks through the nose like a malignant ghost, and its 
 hobbling gait, and other fancied peculiarities, are cor- 
 rectly imitated by the gestures of the relater.f On 
 moonlight nights, when men, like other animals, feel 
 gay and frisky, they sit in circles, and listen to these 
 wild tales, which are recounted with an appropriateness 
 of gesture, a power of imitation, and an amount of fun 
 worthy of Mathews and Robson, The people are fond 
 of singing, and compose extempore, whilst playing, 
 dancing, or working, the African can do nothing 
 without a chant, short sougs, often highly satirical, 
 and much relished by the listeners. The children in 
 
 * See a "Grammatical Sketch of the Akra or Ga Language," by 
 the Rev. J. Zimmerman. Stuttgart : J. F. Steinkopf, 1858. It is a 
 useful publication, but ineffably tedious, as such German "sketches'* 
 ever are, and not without a fair share of linguistic arrogance another 
 Teutonic peculiarity. The spelling is abominable, in parts unintelli- 
 gible ; but what can be expected from Stuttgart English ? 
 
 f There is a large Arachnis upon this coast, which may become of 
 commercial importance. It is black with a broad golden band down 
 the back, and the web is not circular, but in long lines thrown from 
 tree to tree, as if it did not prey upon flies. The thread is a deep 
 yellow, stronger than silk, moreover a single insect easily produces more 
 than the largest cocoon. There is no reason why this spider should not 
 be naturalised in Europe, and though my specimens of spider-silk have 
 hitherto been lost, I still hope to send home sufficient for a veil or a 
 lace shawl.
 
 170 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the Krobo mission schools are said to have extem- 
 porised little hymns sung to very sweet native tunes. 
 This shows linguistic powers which few European 
 children possess. Perhaps, however, I am not pre- 
 pared to support the thesis, precocity of intellect, as 
 a rule, results in inferiority in later life. 
 
 There are two main languages upon the leeward 
 coast, Ga proper, and its mother tongue, the Adanme ; 
 the general language, however, is called the Ga family, 
 and is spoken by about 100,000 or 120,000 out of 
 400,000 souls. 
 
 The G Akpa, or Ga Proper, is the speech of the 
 sea-towns, from the Sakumofio or Secoom, west of Accra, 
 to the town of Tesi, about five miles east of Christiaus- 
 borg. It is spoken by about 40,000 or 50,000 people, 
 and is bounded on the east by the Adanme, on the west 
 by the Oji of the Akan tribes. 
 
 The Adanme, or Ada-gbe, " voice," or " language of 
 the 'Add people," extends from Tesi on the west, east- 
 wards, to the Yolta; northwards, its area includes 
 the Krobo country and towns at the foot of the Aqua- 
 pirn mountains : to the north-east, on the Volta's 
 left bank, it is spoken by three towns of the Agotim 
 people. It is used by 50,000 or 60,000 souls; but, 
 though more extensively spread, it is by no means so 
 important a tongue as the Ga, which is the speech of 
 tribes enjoying both moral and political supremacy. 
 The missionaries found their assertion that the language 
 of 'Ada is the mother dialect of the Ga, upon these
 
 A DAT IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 171 
 
 reasons : it is harder and shorter, purer, and unmixed 
 with Oji ergo, it is more primitive. The difference is 
 described to be as great as that between the Saxon, or 
 High Deutsch, and the German of Switzerland or 
 Suabia. 
 
 The missionaries thus briefly state the theology of 
 the Ga tribes. God, called "Nyonmo" and other 
 names, is the highest being, the only one, Creator of 
 heaven and earth. The Fetishes (Wodsi) are spiritual 
 and personal beings, either sub-deities who govern, or 
 demons who disturb, the world. There are such Fetishes 
 e.g. earth, air, and sea common to all men; others, 
 as rivers and trees, peculiar to distinct tribes, towns, 
 families, or individuals. A person may possess a Fetish, 
 or bai^cov, and is called Wontse, which is translated 
 by Fetish man or priest. Or he may be possessed by 
 some one, which possession is called Wonmomo, or 
 Fetish-fury.* Besides these there are innumerable 
 things sacred to, belonging to, or made effectual by a 
 Fetish.f Such tilings are cords (wonkpai) tied about 
 
 * Cases of this affection are frequently seen even in the streets of 
 Accra. If hysterics denoted possession in modern, as epilepsy did in 
 olden times, what ahigh development of demonism Europe would present ! 
 
 f This is poorly explained. The West Africans, like their brethren in 
 the East, have evil ghosts and haunting evestra, which work themselves 
 into the position of demons. Their various rites are intended to avert 
 the harm which may be done to them by these Pepos or Mulungus, 
 and perhaps to shift it upon their enemies. When the critical moment 
 has arrived, the ghost is adjured by the Fetish -man to come forth from 
 the possessed, and an article is named a leopard's claw, peculiar beads, 
 or a rag from the sick man's body nailed to what Europeans call the
 
 172 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the body or the house, teeth, skins, rings, chains, and 
 other similar articles, which gave, rise to the absurd 
 belief that the African makes everything, even a rag or a 
 bit of glass, his god ; and the missionaries assert that 
 "a comparison with religious things" I presume that is 
 Stuttgart English for "relics" "and superstitions in 
 the heart of Christendom, would have fully explained the 
 matter, without casting the Africans together, no more 
 with men, but with brutes." * 
 
 I am ready to concede that the people of the Gold 
 Coast have emerged from the utter atheism which 
 characterises the so-called Kafirs and other tribes of 
 Eastern Africa. But as yet their ideas are too vague, 
 and connected with material objects, to rank them with 
 deistical peoples. They have neither a personal and local 
 Deity like the heathens, nor the atomic gods of Epicurus. 
 " Nyonmo " is their word for the Almighty, but the 
 same means the sky, the rain, and even thunder and 
 lightning ; thus they say God drizzles or God knocks, 
 i.e., it thunders. The missionaries explain this by the 
 people considering God to be the "spirit or soul of 
 heaven, or heaven the face or outward appearance of 
 
 " Devil's Tree," in which, if worn about the person, the haunter will 
 reside. It is technically called Kehi or Keti, a "chair" or " stool." 
 See "Zanzibar and two Months in East Africa," Black wood's Magazine, 
 February, 1858, pp. 220, 221. 
 
 * The preceding note will illustrate the difference between the two 
 absurdities, the African Fetish-chain and the European relic. It must 
 ever be borne in mind that the former is haunted by an evil influence, 
 whereas the latter carries with it a blessing.
 
 A DAT IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 173 
 
 God." This, however, sounds much like applying 
 German metaphysics to the absurdities of heathen 
 fable. When men associate in language and idea the 
 material with the immaterial, the former is the real 
 thing worshipped. Thus we also find " Sikpon," 
 earth, considered a personage, and adored as well as 
 "Nyonmo," sky, perhaps with more reason, as the 
 former exists, whereas the latter does not. There is the 
 usual African tradition to account for the superiority of 
 Japhet over Ham. God, say the people, made two men, 
 one white, the other black. To these he presented for 
 choice a calabash full of writing materials, and another 
 full of gold it is needless to say how the selection was 
 made, and what the results were. For this reason the 
 people of the Gold Coast always consider the precious 
 metal their peculiar property, and resent all attempts 
 on the part of foreigners to work it without some 
 royalty. And they mightily despise the mulatto the 
 "white blackman," they say, is silver and copper, not gold. 
 In the land of the Akan and Ga races there is a 
 curious dawning of a belief, not in metempsychosis, but 
 in transmigration, not of soul, but of life. The 'Kla 
 or 'Era* of a person is the principle which animated a 
 
 * The word is better known as Okla or Okra, which some authors 
 write Occro or Ocro, and translate Fetish or Sanctified boy. It is a 
 slave chosen by his master to be his companion in this life, and to be 
 sacrificed over his grave, that he may accompany him, not in the world 
 to come, but in that state in which man exists if I may use the word 
 after death. Most Africans are real Swedenborgians as regards 
 "continuation." I cannot but reflect with horror upon our future
 
 174 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 relative or other person before dead. When parents 
 have lost several children, they sometimes cast the 
 body of the child that died last into the bush, any con- 
 genital deformity or defect in the next infant, which 
 they believe to be the same child whose corpse is thrown 
 away, is attributed to injuries received from wild beasts 
 or other influences in the jungle. Hence, children born 
 with supernumerary fingers or toes, have been strangled 
 or burned alive. When one or two infants have been 
 lost by death, they mark the next born by making one 
 indelible cut on each cheek. If that fails, they make 
 one vertical and three transverse incisions, and so on. 
 The pregnant woman always visits the Fetish-priest, and 
 asks the 'Kla of her child that is to be; the priest 
 summons it, listens to its voice, and answers her ques- 
 tion. A man's 'Kla is considered partly himself and 
 partly not ; it is a being like the demon of Socrates, 
 who gives him good advice, and receives thanks and 
 thank-offerings as a Fetish. Moreover, every person has 
 two 'Kla, male and female, the former of a bad, the 
 
 prospects, if we are to be for ever liable to a summons from Mr. Hume, 
 if we are doomed to communicate with friends by rapping, and if we 
 are, like Shakspeare and Milton in their ghostliness to rap out the 
 feeblest nonsense imaginable. Revenantz in Africa are at any rate 
 dreaded. In Europe the " spirit " becomes a thoroughly contemptible 
 being, whose knuckles must supply the want of tongue, and who has 
 apparently a mania for prophecy despite perpetual self-stultification. 
 
 After all, superstition, like happiness of which perhaps it is a 
 branch is equally divided amongst men, and the civilised, generally, 
 Lave not a tittle of right to deride the most ignorant or the most 
 barbarous of their brethren.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 175 
 
 latter of a good disposition. This recals to mind the 
 Jewish and Muslem Kiram el Katibin, the two mysterious 
 beings who, sitting upon man's right and left shoulder, 
 whisper their virtuous or vicious suggestions into his 
 ears. For El Islam, despite the sublimity of its truths 
 and the higher law of unselfishness, which is its real 
 spirit, has retained as all of human must some old 
 leaven of superstition, directly derived from man's 
 earliest dawn of belief in things unseen Fetishism. 
 
 The Yara, or funeral customs of the Gold Coast are 
 not less barbarous than those of their neighbours. They 
 consist of washing, dressing, and providing necessaries 
 for the corpse, which is then interred by the burial 
 women, or "Klageweider" (Keeners). Weeping and 
 lamentation, singing and dancing, all accompanied with 
 copious rum drinking, are kept up sometimes for weeks 
 together, and at certain stated periods are repeated. 
 Formerly 'Klas and wives were slaughtered on the graves 
 of people of importance a custom almost universal 
 amongst barbarians from the days of Homer down- 
 wards. So the ruffian Achilles, addressing the ghost of 
 Patroclus, promises him that 
 
 AoiSeKa t*.(v fptatav 
 Tons a.fj.0, <TOL iravTas irvp 
 
 It is now as difficult and dangerous 
 
 Sati in Hindostanj yet it is secretly practised whenever 
 
 found possible. 
 
 The principal festival in the year is the Yams Custom, 
 which Europeans call native, or black Christmas. It is
 
 176 TTANDEEINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 celebrated at the end of August or the beginning of 
 September, and at the same time their New Year's Day 
 occurs. The first eating of that vegetable is connected 
 with many ceremonies; the Fetish must begin, then 
 the king, and so on.* This is called Yereyelo. Pol- 
 
 O' / 
 
 lows Homowo, literally the " outcrying" or " mocking of 
 hunger;" a harvest-home, celebrated on the coast with 
 gun-firing, singing, dancing, music, eating, drinking, 
 and merrymaking, in the interior with the human sacri- 
 fices now familiar to Europe. 
 
 I proceed now to discuss the three great obstacles to 
 improvement on this coast, the presence of the Dutch, 
 the peculiar style of taxation, and the use of a military 
 instead of a police corps. 
 
 The forts and stations of the British and Dutch govern- 
 ments closely intersect one another from Apollonia to 
 Accra, and this causes endless troubles. Our Nether- 
 landish neighbours have not much improved since the 
 days of Jonathan Swift ; they are still in Africa at 
 least the most selfish and obstinate of colonists. If 
 the English place a duty of 2 to 2'50 per cent, upon 
 the invoice price of landed imports, the Dutch establish 
 a free port. Overtures have, it is said, been made to 
 give up our windward for their leeward territories; 
 though heavily in our debt, they have turned a deaf 
 
 * The custom has been explained as a hygienic measure ; and Fetish 
 law generally is resorted to when some measure beneficial to the com- 
 monwealth is to be strictly carried out ; such as the prohibition of 
 eating pork, cutting down trees, or collecting gold.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 177 
 
 ear to all our proposals, and have even prepared to 
 re-occupy their deserted posts. Whilst the English 
 make 7000 per annum, and expend nearly 30,000^. a 
 year a little more than the Maynooth grant upon 
 their possessions in this quarter of the world, the Dutch, 
 defended by the moral influence of our squadron and 
 troops, require only two officers, commanding 200 
 negroes in " blue baft," and including their civil depart- 
 ment, maintain themselves for 6000/. to 8000 per 
 annum. Tree trade would evidently not dislodge 
 them. 
 
 At Accra, where the British Jamestown and the Dutch 
 Kinka are dovetailed into one another, only an imagi- 
 nary line separating St. George and Tricolor, the work- 
 ings of the two systems become apparent. After Dutch 
 Accra had been captured by us, the Netherlands were 
 allowed as a favour to rebuild their factory, but not to 
 appoint a commandant. When old Mr. Hanson, origin- 
 ally Hansen, a Danish mulatto, who at one time had 
 charge of both factories, died, our rivals began to exer- 
 cise jurisdiction, and we "let it slide." At present they 
 claim almost all Jamestown, except a few houses near 
 the fort, because Kajjo, the king of Dutch Accra, is 
 king over the kinglets of Ga, Osu, Krobo, Akim, and 
 Aquapim. They keep a commandant, a sergeant, and 
 four to six men. English ships are charged SI., and 
 foreign bottoms 3^. 18*. 4< for wharfage at British 
 Accra. The Dutch take 12., but there is neither wharf- 
 age due nor import- tax ; ships therefore naturally prefer
 
 178 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the Dutch roads.* Our merchants are charged even 
 for imported machinery, here more wanted than in 
 America : it is a suicidal policy. t Of course they are 
 unable to compete with their Dutch rivals, whose free 
 ports are frequented by Akims, Ashantees, and the 
 inland tribes generally, who would rather travel a month 
 than waste a dollar. They have even rejected all pro- 
 posals to co-operate in the imposition of duties, and 
 they are contented to remain a thorn in our side, and to 
 collect occasionally a heavy fine, as $12,000, which was 
 lately imposed on the occasion of a manslaughter. 
 
 Were the Dutch to be removed, even at the price of 
 100,000^ our deficit of 23,000/. would soon change to 
 a surplus of 50,000^. The duties on rum, spirits, arms, 
 and ammunition might gradually be raised to 50 per 
 cent. : a measure a hundredfold more beneficial to the 
 natives than even to ourselves, and gold exploiting might 
 commence in real earnest. 
 
 And now for taxation. In April, 1852, a council of 
 British officials and native chiefs was assembled at Cape 
 Coast Castle, to " take into consideration the advantages 
 
 * The Dutch roads, however, are not so safe as the English. South 
 of Fort James, according to the Directory, there are eight or nine 
 fathoms water with very soft clay, which requires a light anchor, as a 
 heavy one could not be drawn up from the ground. 
 
 f There are men who object to using labour-saving contrivances in 
 Africa, because these would foster the indolence of the people ; the 
 idea appears to me exceedingly absurd, Methinks it is better that 
 men who will not work much, should work a little rather than not 
 work at all. But possibly this is not an "elevated view" of the 
 case.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 179 
 
 which the country derives from the protection afforded 
 to it by Her Majesty's Government, by submitting, from 
 time to time, to pay such taxes as may be determined on 
 by the majority of chiefs assembled in council with His 
 Excellency the Governor." Hence the poll-tax on fami- 
 lies, of which the " house-master," or the pater-familias, 
 was made responsible for each member after the fashion 
 of Mahommed Ali in Egypt. It began with the Good 
 Intentions which are said to pave the way to a Certain 
 Place. " The revenue derived from the tax, after paying 
 the stipends of the chiefs, and other expenses attending 
 its collection, shall be devoted to the public good, in the 
 education of the people, in the general improvement and 
 extension of the judicial system, in affording greater 
 facilities of internal communication, in increased medical 
 aid, and in such other measures of improvement and 
 utility as the state of the social progress may render 
 necessary." A poll-tax collector at Christiansborg in- 
 formed Mr. Consul Hutchinson (" Impressions of 
 "Western Africa"), that he had received in 1855 about 
 337 ounces of gold, at the rate of a shilling a head, and 
 that in the Akim districts the people would pay more if 
 they received for it value in protection or information. 
 
 As our fine words buttered no parsnips, the natives 
 began to murmur. In the earlier Italian railways there 
 was little to gain because of the impossibility of finding an 
 honest employe. So on the Gold Coast, the poll-tax was 
 collected, but instead of going to judges, schoolmasters, 
 and roads, it restored bankrupts to wealth and position.
 
 180 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Letters upon the poll-tax and taxation in general appeared 
 in the local papers, headed with the safe but not novel 
 reflection on the part of a writer, who signs himself, 
 " Tours obediently, an African," " a nation is only the 
 aggregate reflex of 'the man's a man,' the minutial agglo- 
 meration of a nation." It "Lord Grey's pet tax" 
 is described to be an " oppressive, invidious and ill- 
 managed impost, signifying thraldom and oppression, 
 causing children to be sold or pawned." As regards the 
 promises of the local Government, they are stated to be 
 "false and deceptive as moonshine." The consequence, 
 however, of the " dwarfish demon convention " was that 
 the native towns of Christiansborg, Labaddi and Tesi 
 were demolished by bombardment in 1854 ; that in 1855 
 Accra was threatened with the same fate, because she also 
 would not pay; that in 1856 a commissioner, sent to 
 inquire into the state of affairs, reported that although 
 Kajjo (Cudjoe), King of Kinka, and his subject chiefs, 
 were all loyally disposed towards our Government, they 
 would not pay poll-tax, and that in 1857 a mob plun- 
 dered the Trench factory at James Town. 
 
 However presumptuous may be the supposition, one 
 is almost disposed to think that our AYilsons and Laings, 
 so admirable in the algebra, have not mastered the 
 elemental arithmetic, of tax-gathering. Mr. Wilson left 
 his home, after enunciating in many a postprandial 
 oration the farcical sentiment, that " what is good for 
 England is good for the world." Mad as a hatter, he 
 gave India an income tax and a flood of paper money.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 181 
 
 No subaltern in a native corps would have made such a 
 blunder. Peace to his manes, for 
 
 " To his iiatal shore, 
 Enriched with knowledge, he returned no more," 
 
 dying just in time to escape seeing the failure he had 
 made. 
 
 The true art of taxation, allow me to say, is honestly 
 to speak out what you want, and less to regard the 
 theoretical excellence of the tax than the practice which 
 the people have had in paying it. For taxation shows 
 the genius of a nation quite as much as its ballads : 
 what men have imposed upon themselves, they will 
 prefer to the political economy of the stranger, however 
 cunning. There are those who like indirect taxation, 
 which to others seems the dealing of a vampire that 
 sucks your blood whilst you sleep. In my humble 
 opinion, the main, if not the only, injury which Ame- 
 rican Secession has done to the world, is that it has 
 prevented the trial on a gigantic scale in a highly 
 civilised and commercial people of direct, and the total 
 abolition of all other, imposts. In the meantime the 
 items must be sedulously studied and subjected to the 
 local popular system. The Hindu, I have said before, 
 will contribute half his income in the familiar forms of 
 poll-tax, succession dues," benevolences," and local imposts 
 raised in the Pergunnahs. The African will pay fifty 
 or perhaps cent, per cent, upon imports of arms and 
 ammunition, salt and tobacco, whilst rum is his incense
 
 182 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and his eucharist, without which the necessaries of 
 worship cannot be supplied to him. 
 
 To conclude with police considerations. I will not 
 insult the reader's, understanding by treating upon the 
 inapplicability of soldiers to police purposes under an 
 English Government. Two companies of any West 
 Indian regiment would be amply sufficient for the general 
 military wants of a colony like this ; besides which, the 
 police corps might be armed, drilled, and trained to 
 working the guns of the several forts. The present 
 expense of the Gold Coast Artillery, including all 
 charges, cannot be less than 20,000 per annum. For 
 this we have seventeen European officers and 300 men, 
 who are worse than useless for protection duties. Being 
 regularly enlisted soldiers, it is difficult to punish them, 
 and the jealousy of rival departments has enabled them 
 to show a bold front to the Colonial Secretary, who on 
 this coast stands next in rank to the Governor. The 
 officers who fail in securing civil appointments naturally 
 prefer a sick certificate for England or Tenerife to living 
 a wretched, starveling life at Cape Coast Castle or Accra; 
 and though the warrant under which they obtain pro- 
 motion requires them to serve three years on the Gold 
 Coast, it is generally considered enough to have served 
 for that period in the Gold Coast Corps. 
 
 The following distribution of, and estimate for, a police 
 corps of 355 officers and men was drawn up by a friend 
 whose judgment and experience justify my introducing 
 it to the public.
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 183 
 
 The distribution would be as follows : 
 Stations. Head Constbls. Constables. Sub-constables. Policemen. 
 
 1 Dixcove .... 1 1 3 30 
 
 2 Cape Coast Castle .1 2 6 90 
 8 Annamaboo ... 1 1 8 20 
 
 4 Winnebah ... 4 6 25 
 
 5 Accra, &c 1 3 6 90 
 
 6 Addah . .1 4 6 35 
 
 Total ... 5 15 30 290-300 
 
 A grand total of 855.* 
 
 At five of these stations Cape Coast Castle does not 
 require one there would be commandants acting as 
 magistrates and collectors of customs. Addah has been 
 included, because it now equals Whydah in slave expor- 
 tations. There are shiploads hid in the town, even 
 within cannon-shot of our cruisers. It is a pity that this 
 fine port is not taken up by some English company ; it 
 is the only point from which a future can be expected. 
 
 The annual estimate for the commandants and the 
 
 police force would be as follows : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1 Chief Civil Commissioner, including table allowance . 600 
 
 Ditto, ordinary travelling allowance . . . 150 
 
 5 Commandants (each 350Z. per annum) . . . 1750 
 
 Ditto, ordinary travelling allowance (each 751.) . 375 
 
 5 Head Constables (each 30Z. per annum) . . . 150 
 
 15 Constables (each 181.) 270 
 
 30 Sub-Constables (each 1BI. 10s.) . . . . 405 
 
 300 Policemen (each 91.) 2700 
 
 Clothing, at rate of three suits each man . .1000 
 
 House rent . 100 
 
 Total .... 7500 
 
 * In these sickly climates there must always be supernumeraries : I 
 allow, therefore, five extra officers and ten men.
 
 184 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Eor complete efficiency this police corps should be 
 placed entirely under the civil power, which has ample 
 jurisdiction to punish those offences plundering the 
 natives and living upon threats of accusation which are 
 now committed with all impunity on the outstations. 
 The five commandants should transmit monthly estimates 
 for the pay of their establishments to the Chief Civil 
 Commissioner ; the latter, after checking and signing 
 them, would forward them to the Colonial Secretary, who, 
 in his turn, would submit them to the Governor. This 
 functionary should not, of course, be commander of the 
 corps, as he is Commander-in-chief of the Coast, but he 
 should be charged with drawing up a code of regulations 
 for the force. 
 
 I am certain that by such happy changes order would 
 soon grow out of confusion and misrule upon the Gold 
 
 Coast. 
 
 ##**## 
 
 At Accra we left our Spaniard, who, suffering severely 
 from sea-sickness, appeared nothing loth to quit us. 
 He was a gentleman fond of his bed and also of his 
 Madeiran wicker-work arm-chair. He read a little; 
 but, when excited, which was rare, he would declaim 
 loudly against the practice of "lecture" as worthless, 
 touching the main enjoyments of human life eating, 
 drinking, visiting friends, and attending the theatre. 
 According to him the summum lonum of human life 
 was to lie upon his back smoking cigarettes a7id look- 
 ing at the moon or at all the stars. He once, but
 
 A DAY IN THE LAND OF ANTS. 185 
 
 only once, gathered energy to sermon me upon the 
 subject of over-curiosity. I had remarked that the 
 thermometer stood unusually high. " To me," quoth 
 
 Don , "it is hot when I am hot; it is cold 
 
 when my body feels cold. What do I want to know 
 more?" Perhaps that Don was not so far wrong. 
 
 As the "Blackland" steamed along the coast we 
 could see a long succession of open grassy savannahs 
 backed by dark curtains of bush and forest, and many a 
 tongue of land, forming by its gentle rise little valleys 
 which would become swamps during the rains. About 
 three to four miles beyond Tesi, on the eastern end of 
 a little ledge, stands a small black boulder Greenwich 
 Rock : it transported us in thought far enough north 
 of the Gold Coast. During the night we passed Cape 
 St. Paul's, the western boundary of that ill-omened 
 region the Bight of Benin. And whilst sleep sealed 
 our eyes, the indefatigable ship how superior is her 
 continual diligence to the best of travelling even by 
 railroad was bearing us past the infumtus regions of 
 Little Popo, Great Popo, and Whydah.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS, 
 
 WHERE 
 
 " In July you mast die, 
 August go you must ; 
 In September remember, 
 October it's all over." 
 
 Old Rhyme describing Rainy Season. 
 
 FORMERLY the great centres of the export slave trade 
 from Africa were these three : 
 
 1st. The Semiticised and often Moslem negroes, ex- 
 tending from the Gambia and Senegal, as far inland as 
 Takrur or Sokotu. They were principally Mandengas, 
 Jolofs, and that pseudo-punic tribe of Africa whom 
 men have derived from the lost Cyrenaican Psylli 
 or Psulloi, and called by a variety of names Peul, Pula, 
 Puloh,:Fula, Phiila,Pulbe or Fulbe, Felatah and Fellani * 
 All these people drove the heathen negroes of the 
 Sudam to the coast, although they did not sell or 
 enslave their brother religionists. 
 
 * M. Koelle ("Polyglotta Africana") calls the language Pulo, and the 
 people Pula, which is properly an adjective, "yellow," or "brown." 
 Fulbe is the plural of Pulo ; Fulanl is the plural of the Hausa name 
 Fuladsi, and Fulatah is Bornuese. The original home of this people is 
 said to have been near Futa Toro, and in the eighteenth century they 
 moved to Hausa, and built Sokotu.
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 187 
 
 2nd. The despotisms of Ashantee and Dahomey, 
 Yoruba and Benin, large pagan states, which maintained 
 standing armies well armed and disciplined, and used 
 chiefly for the purpose of forays and slave commanders ; 
 all, except Dahomey, have fallen from their former 
 power, and Dahomey will, by self-exhaustion, if not 
 by a foreign blow, follow their example. 
 
 3rd, and last. The whole coast about the mouth of 
 the Kongo River, one of the great African four, the 
 others being the Nile, the Niger, and the Zambezi, and 
 without any exception the most neglected. Known to 
 the natives as the Zaire, its name is to be traced, I 
 believe, in Claudius Claudianus, . himself an African, 
 born at Alexandria, and who wrote about A.D. 400. 
 
 " Gir, ditissimns amnis 
 Jthiopium simili mentitus gurgite Nilum." 
 
 De Laudib. Stilich. lib. i. T. 252. 
 
 For dit- some read not " notissimus," but not so 
 
 correctly ; at any rate, it is far from being the superlative of 
 " notus " now. The name again occurs in a Latin form. 
 
 " Domitorque ferarum 
 Guirrseus, qui vasta colit sub rupibus antra, 
 Quiramos ebeni, qni dentes vellit eburnos." 
 
 Idyl. iv. v. 20. 
 
 And be it further remarked that the Zaire still gives the 
 best ebony a tree which does not extend beyond 4 
 north latitude : thus rendering the common theory 
 which identifies it with the Nt'yetp or Ni'ytp, untenable 
 that river notoriously wanting ebony. Pliny (Nat. Hist.
 
 188 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 lib. v. 10) makes the Nile, after an underground march 
 of twenty days, spring again from the source called 
 Nigris, and form the limit between Africa and Ethiopia. 
 He adds : " cui quoque e.tiamnum Giris, ut ante, nomi- 
 natus per aliquot millia, et in totum Homero .zEgyptus 
 aliisque Triton." A modern writer identifies Giris or 
 Gir, with Wed Mzi or Djidi of the Sahara, but 
 nothing can be more unsatisfactory than his remarks.* 
 The negroes on this part of the coast are savage and de- 
 graded, and, as in northern Guinea, are settled in small 
 independent communities of 1000 to 5000 bodies. The 
 first treaty between England and Portugal restricted our 
 squadron to the north of the equator, and enabled the 
 export trade, assisted by an admirable waterway, to 
 recruit itself from the very heart of the continent. 
 
 These three great centres are now reduced to two, 
 which, separated by a long interval, are incapable of 
 mutual support. The first is the Bight of Benin, still 
 
 * I allude to the Rev. Mr. Tristram's "Great Sahara," appendix I., 
 p. 262. Barbarously as eastern languages are treated, the exceeding 
 cruelty of this gentleman's practice beats belief. Who could believe 
 that Beni Yssou could mean Beni Isa, sons of Jesus ? When the Arab 
 "looked sadly disconcerted "at his hearer's want of sympathy, and his 
 assurance that Inglez mafish hinne arrkua "that the English never 
 would come here " the expression of countenance must have been that 
 of utter despair. What would even an English guide understand by 
 " English there is none eer (for here) I go away ? " And so through- 
 out the book, the names of animals : e.g., Nemeur, for Nimr, a 
 leopard ; and el Guett' ha, for KatA, a sand-grouse ; and hundreds of 
 other horrors are perpetually offending ears and eyes. Had not the 
 reverend gentleman a spare hour for submitting his cacography to any 
 one who has read Arabic for a few months ?
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 189 
 
 appropriately termed the Slave Coast, and extending from 
 the Cape of St. Paul's to the Nun outlet of the Niger, a 
 coastal length of 3oO miles. The root of the evil lies 
 between Little Popo and Whydab, which are separated 
 by not more than thirty miles. Public attention has 
 been drawn to it, and it is now in a fair way of being 
 extirpated. During the last year steps have been 
 taken in the right direction, the bombardment of Porto 
 Novo, and the annexation of Lagos with its old depen- 
 dency, Badagry. The next year, I hope, will see the 
 submission or the capture of Whydah and the two 
 Popos.* The Kongo river still awaits modern explora- 
 tion, and the difficulties thrown in the way are so great, 
 that without assistance from Government it would be 
 vain to attempt it. 
 
 The slave coast offers peculiar facilities for shipping 
 cargoes. Low, marshy and malarious, it could hardly 
 be held by foreign garrisons. The dreadful surf which 
 beats upon the shore defends the barracoons from land 
 
 * At Great Popo there is an inlet which leads up the lagoon to 
 Whydah direct. If it be proved the point, however, is not yet settled 
 that there is a beach between the Victoria Lagoon of Lagos and the 
 water that passes Whydah, this entrance, distant only ten hours from the 
 great slave market, will be the best line of attack. 
 
 Whydah is perfectly protected from the sea by a strip of land half a 
 mile broad, and it lies north of the lagoon, which is here four feet deep. 
 It is within shot. The people show as Fetish a cannon-ball, fired by a 
 British cruiser seventeen to eighteen years ago, and embedded in earth. 
 Shipping must lie outside the sand-bank when the surf is very heavy. 
 The town is described as poor and squalid, and the people suffer from 
 intermittent fever.
 
 190 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 attack, and can be safely braved in canoes only. The 
 bush and jungle conceal the movements of those on 
 land, and the succession of lagoons forming natural 
 canals along the seaboard, enables the trader in human 
 flesh and blood to ship his cargo where and when least 
 expected. The Trench and English, Spaniards, Portu- 
 guese, and Brazilians established themselves there in old 
 times, and by rich presents persuaded the " tyrant " of 
 Dahomey to supply them with the fruits of his annual 
 raids. In 1842, Captain Broadhead saw "thirteen 
 vessels lying in the roads of Whydah at one time." Of 
 late years the vigilance of the cruisers has tended ma- 
 terially to check the traffic, and nothing can now be 
 done openly. Still shipments take place. But lately 
 a large vessel, the "African," carrying 500 to 700 
 negroes, ran the gauntlet of the coast-guard, passing the 
 African steam-ship " Armenian." Her captain politely 
 raised his hat to his agent, M. Soarez, who, the late 
 Lt. Hollingworth told me, was so delighted with the 
 
 * Her Majesty's Commissary Judge, Havana, -writing in Februnry, 
 1861 (Class A. "Correspondence with the British Commissioners"), 
 estimates that the safety of one adventure amply repays the loss of 
 ten empty, or five full ships. These are the figures : 
 
 Cost of vessel and provisions . . . $25, 000 
 
 Cost of 500 negroes at $50 . . . 25,000 
 
 Ten per cent, mortality .... 2,500 
 
 Wages and presents to master and crew . 30,000 
 
 Expenses of landing 450 slaves, at $120 each 54,000 
 
 Total $136,500
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 191 
 
 present prospect of lOOjOOO/.,* the normal profit of a 
 full cargo, that he offered to " stand champagne " to 
 all on board. 
 
 The English and Dutch had formerly fortified facto- 
 ries, which still await our return to Whydah, Some 
 years ago the French restored their establishment, and 
 used it as a palm-oil store. They have missionaries 
 there,* and according to our Frenchmen, the King of 
 
 Brought forward .... $136,500 
 Add one year's interest, ten per cent. . . $13,650 
 
 Total expenditure . . . . $150,150 
 Sale of 450 slaves, at $1200 ahead . . $540,000 
 
 Profit on the adventure . . . $389,850 
 
 The loss of an empty slaver is estimated at $27, 500 only, the cost of the 
 ship, provisions, and interest thereon ; the wages, &c., being contingent 
 on success. If the negroes are on board, it would amount only to 
 $55,000, These figures perfectly account for the continuance and per- 
 sistency of the traffic. 
 
 * "Annalesd'Afrique," Nos. XI. and XII., of November and Decem- 
 ber, 1861. Lettre de M. Frangois Borghero, supe'rieur de la Mission 
 de Dahomey, a M. Planque, supe'rieur du Se'minaire des Missions 
 Africaines, a Lyon. ' ' Whydah, 28th April, 1861. We learn that the 
 reverend fathers were well received by what they call the Jevoghan 
 (Yavogar) of Whydah, and celebrated their first mass on the 21st inst., 
 in the long-abandoned Portuguese Fort, before a hundred men." An 
 old steeple with two bells, and ornamented statuettes in the sanctuary, 
 showed that Fetishism had not quite won the day. The people of Whydah 
 were estimated at 20,000, of whom 300 have been baptised ; but they 
 live in utter ignorance, ' Quomodo audient sine predicante ? ' The snake- 
 worship is well described, and it will be remarked that whilst the men 
 of Whydah worship, those of France curse ' 1' abominable animal.' 
 May not the poor serpent, when he speaks, exclaim with Friday 
 
 ' Je n'ai merite' 
 Ni cet exces d'hommage ni cette indignit^.'
 
 192 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Dahomey had sent two of his ' l sons " * for education to 
 Marseilles. 
 
 About midday on Saturday/ the 21st of September, 
 we were off Porto Novo, sixty miles distant from Lagos, 
 and separated from the sea by the lagoon and sandbank. 
 This town and the little province around are called 
 " Ajashi : " properly speaking " Newport" is the name of 
 a factory, barracoon, and village built upon the shore by 
 the celebrated, or rather the notorious successor of Da 
 Souza, who died in 1849, the Brazilian, Domingo Jose 
 Martinez, who used to receive at times from the King of 
 Dahomey a present of 600 negroes, a bakshish worth a 
 " plum." The town itself was founded on the south-east 
 frontier of Dahomey, by Huenbomu, a younger brother of 
 Takudumu, the first recognised Dahomian King, and the 
 
 At Great Popo, we are told, the boa, like the Irish pig, is allowed 
 to eat small children. Poison is said to be profusely used. Of the 
 "roi Badou" i.e., Badohong, the present king a great truth is told, 
 "Quandnous lui demanderons de permettre a ses sujets d'erabrasser le 
 Christianisme, nous anrons autour lui les feticheurs, devant lesquels le 
 roi lui-meme doit se courier." The King of Dahomey has no more 
 power to prevent human sacrifice than the Prince of Wales has to for- 
 bid morning service on Sunday. These customs are admirably described 
 by the superior as "usages consacre's par des siecles, fonde's sur 
 des croyances reMigieuses, et soutenus par un puissante hierarchic 
 d'imposteurs." On the other hand, the number of victims is 
 ridiculously estimated to be 3000, from which at least one ought to 
 be struck off. 
 
 * The King's sons, in African parlance, probably means some of his 
 slavelings. In Europe they will doubtless become "African princes" 
 by the blessings of the black skin. The "princess" is also an 
 institution on this coast : two friends of mine have married prin- 
 cesses.
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 193 
 
 capturer of Abomey, who loved the senior as little as 
 such junior usually does. It is distinctly despotic, 
 orderly, and subordinate, even when surrounded by the 
 turbulent semi-republics of Lagos, Badagry, and others. 
 The people prostrate themselves in the streets when the 
 messenger, bearing the king's cane, passes. The land 
 is of fine soil, rich, loamy, and well filled for agriculture, 
 and the natives are fond of fishing and trade. The 
 population is estimated at 12,000 to 20,000. It was 
 attacked by Abeokuta in 1839; and in 1810 the Eglas 
 again assaulted Adu, a Popo town, tributary to Porto 
 Novo, and lying on the road between the two capitals. 
 Hence the old enmity between Dahomey and Abeokuta, 
 which ten years afterwards resulted in the destruction 
 of Ishagga, and in the crucifixion of the S'a Leone mis- 
 sionary Doherty. 
 
 The coast about Porto Novo showed a strip of land, 
 backed by a thick bush. A single house or barracoon, 
 with a flag flying, against the higher lands, marks the 
 situation; and the town, which is some distance from the 
 beach, is denoted by a grove of tall trees, appearing 
 through an opening in the foreground. 
 
 It is said that Great Britain is never without her little 
 war ; as far as West Africa is concerned, this dictum is 
 certainly true. And why not ? She can no more expect 
 to be at peace with her thousand neighbours, than a man 
 of 50,000/. per annum in landed property, to be with- 
 out a dispute or lawsuit. These little wars cost less 
 than Aldershotts, and are ten times better schools for.
 
 194 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 soldiering; the military nations of Europe, France and 
 Russia, always keep up their tilting-lists, Africa and the 
 Caucasus. These considerations arise from the view 
 of a place where lately was fought the battle of Porto 
 Novo. It happened after this wise : 
 
 The late lamented Mr. Foote, Her Majesty's consul at 
 Lagos, in February, 1861, visited, in H.M.'s S. tender 
 " Brune," Lieutenant Stokes, R.N., commanding, the 
 town of Porto Novo, where oil belonging to British sub- 
 jects had been seized. The object of the consul was to 
 add a few more stringent clauses to the already-existing 
 treaty of 1852; but the King " Soji," backed, it is sup- 
 posed, by Dahomey, behaved with great insolence, re- 
 fusing to come on board or to treat upon the subject of 
 slavery, which ten years before he had stipulated to abolish. 
 After some va-et-vient, "Brune " fired a shot, first over, 
 then into, the town. The people replying with energy, 
 the crew of Krumen sensibly betook themselves to the 
 coal-bunks and behind the paddle-boxes, whence they 
 were with difficulty removed by their energetic com- 
 mander Lieutenant Stokes. The gun-boat found it 
 necessary to retire upon Badagry. The Porto Novians, 
 after African fashion, danced, drank, sang out their 
 " strong names," and swore that if she ever appeared 
 again, they would convert her into a war-canoe for their 
 king. The European population of Lagos, mostly 
 veteran slave-traders, condemned by hard times to such 
 grovelling work as selling palm-oil, exulted over our 
 retreat, and fondly hoped to see the operation repeated.
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 195 
 
 From Badagry, Mr. Consul Foote, who could obtain 
 no concessions from the king, applied for assistance to a 
 "big brother/' and this time tilings were better arranged. 
 On the 26th April, Commodore Edmonstone, of H.M.S. 
 "Arrogant/' then commanding the West African 
 squadron, accompanied by Mr. Foote in the " Brune," 
 and followed by the hired steamer "Fideliter" the 
 "Bloodhound/' drawing too much water, found herself 
 aground proceeded with two divisions, of five boats 
 each, armed with howitzers and rockets, up the Ossa 
 River, or Victoria Lagoon, whose mouth is nearly oppo- 
 site Lagos. Above Badagry they were stopped by a 
 barrier composed of two rows of stakes and floating 
 green islets between showing that the Porto Novians 
 had not been idle. The work of six weeks, however, 
 was demolished by the " Fideliter" and the boats in two 
 hours and a half, and the fragments threatened to injure 
 the navigation of the lagoon. Then appeared the 
 vaunted Isso canoes, and their fighting owners, who, 
 according to the croakers of Lagos, were to eat up the 
 Englishmen for breakfast. Each long, narrow, and 
 shallow barque carries two fellows, one paddling or 
 poling with a spear, the other occupied with a bunch of 
 shillelaghs and javelins, that are placed at his feet. 
 They hurl the club, and when the adversary " ducks " 
 his head, he is then transfixed with the assagai. The 
 Isso are a tribe subject to Dahomey, and are located to 
 the west of Porto Novo. They acted as a contingent 
 against Badagry in 1851 1854. They are a fierce and 
 
 o 2
 
 196 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 lawless brood, originally, it is said, fugitives from Da- 
 homey, and joined by kindred ruffians, the kidnappers and 
 pirates of the coast. Their villages, which are mostly 
 on the sea-side of the Lagoon, are described as embryo 
 Venices, huts of bamboo and grass thatch, perched upon 
 poles four to five feet above the level of the tide, and 
 forming a boat-house below. They are remarkable for 
 nothing but their teeth, blackened with snuff. They act 
 as fishermen in peaceful times, and, like the Arabs of 
 maritime Oman, they plunder when they can. A few 
 rockets easily dispersed these braves, who preferred 
 paddling into the rushy shore to standing up in the open. 
 At 7 A.M. on the next day the flotilla reached Porto 
 Novo, which had never seen such an armada before. 
 After a hot, but harmless, shower of balls, which all 
 dropped short, both divisions replied with shot, shell, 
 and rocket, doing awful damage. The Porto Novians, 
 especially the Moslems, were no cowards; there were 
 men in white turbans here called " white-cap chiefs " 
 but I believe no Russians amongst them ; they fought only 
 too well, willing to be slain in the vain hope of killing 
 some whites. The brave Isso retired beyond gunshot, and 
 philosophically contemplated the disasters of their friends. 
 After an hour or so, the town and the king's palace 
 were on fire, the flames rising high. Captain Raby, Y.C., 
 of H.M.S. " Alecto," and commanding one of the boat 
 divisions, landed in his gig, with two men, and spiking 
 a gun, caused it to explode, singeing his face. It is 
 curious how often experienced men will try this green
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 197 
 
 trick : when you nail up a gun, please do not place your 
 nose within a few inches of the touch-hole. The Com- 
 modore then sent, under command of Captain M f Arthur, 
 of the Marines, and A. T. Jones, of the " 2nd "West " 
 a promising young officer, now, unhappily, deceased 
 some fifty blue-jackets and small-arms men, to fire the 
 well-built houses which were still standing. This pro- 
 ceeding, on his part, won for Captain Edmonstone the 
 lasting resentment of certain Europeans at Lagos, who 
 deferred a proposed picnic, because they wanted no such 
 smashing guest. 
 
 After this harmless little brush, the heroes, fasting, re- 
 embarked at 11.30 A.M., to became heroes full. Dinner 
 being over, at the German hour of 1 P.M., and fresh 
 ammunition having been served out to all hands, Captain 
 Baby's division formed in line within twenty yards and 
 abreast of a point where the natives had made an am- 
 buscade. These negro strategists expected us to land, 
 another verdant trick, often tried by Englishmen, even 
 where guns can be brought to bear. An action which 
 begins with artillery, which proceeds with infantry 
 charges, and which ends with a rush of cavalry, has 
 never been unsuccessful in India. Victory under such 
 circumstances being inevitable, we can hardly wonder 
 that the plan has not been universally adopted, common 
 sense being uncommon. Finding themselves discovered, 
 the natives, who were in force, kept up a brisk fire from 
 the reeds and rushes. They were soon mowed down by a 
 feu d'enfer of grape and musketry, case and canister,
 
 198 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 rockets and howitzer-shells, and many fugitives were 
 killed whilst retreating. Captains Raby, M'Arthur, 
 and Jones then landed, spiked another gun, carried off a 
 white flag ; and the West Indian shot with his revolver 
 the only man killed in the hand-to-hand fight. The firing 
 afterwards became desultory, and when the place was 
 destroyed, even the metal heads of the king's canes were 
 melted, the flotilla disappeared, and the men rejoined 
 their ships outside Lagos bar. Thus ended the battle of 
 Porto Novo, in which we lost but one seaman, of the 
 "Alecto," killed by a shot through the brain, and had 
 five or six others slightly wounded. The number of the 
 enemy was estimated at 10,000 well-armed soldiery, and 
 their casualties, which were ridiculously exaggerated, 
 were doubtless numerous :*an officer present in the action 
 old me that he had counted twenty bodies lying within 
 a few yards. It was rumoured that a white man was 
 found amongst the slain, and that another had been seen 
 directing the operations of the enemy. Perhaps these 
 might have been Brazilian mulattos, whom the King of 
 Dahomey it will be observed, that this great bugbear 
 never killed a white man, nor did his father occa- 
 sionally orders to his capital rolled up like cigars, or, 
 if recalcitrant, walking barefooted. But there is no folly 
 which excited eyes will not see, and cause others to see, 
 and of late years it has been the fashion to report the 
 presence of hostile white men from China to Morocco. 
 On the 13th June the king reluctantly signed the treaty 
 permitting to all Porto Novians free trade with the
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 199 
 
 British. The town people were, as usual, middlemen 
 between the merchant and the producer, consequently 
 they are ever opposed to extension of traffic. Old Soji's 
 palace had suffered the most, and all his property was 
 lost. His people confessed to having had a bellyful, 
 the African, unlike the Asiatic, will own to a "thrashing," 
 although he says, with some truth, that the English 
 cannot fight on shore, and promised to be for the future 
 a good boy.' Mr. M'Coskry, Acting- Governor of Lagos, 
 kindly promised to procure for him new sticks. The de- 
 struction of this noted slave depot has already borne fruit. 
 Other towns for instance, Adu wavering between Da- 
 homey and Lagos they are all nests of slavery now 
 request permission to " come in/' and treaties are being 
 prepared for them. Thus, by degrees, the black Spartans 
 of "Dah's Belly" will be shut out from the sea, the 
 greatest calamity that can befal an African power, and 
 will be broken up by foreign attack, or will abandon 
 their annual breaches of the peace. Finally, the gallant 
 members of the little expedition had the high honour of 
 being grossly abused by a portion of the Manchester 
 press, from which officers and gentlemen have nought to 
 fear save praise. 
 
 Mr. Consul Foote died before he heard of this 
 "crowning mercy." A most energetic and useful 
 officer, he had seen long and hard service in the tropics, 
 India, China, the Mosquito Coast, Greytown; and Salva- 
 dor. After passing 
 
 " Per varies casus, par tot discrimina rerum,"
 
 200 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 he was appointed to the Slave Coast in September, 1860, 
 on the death of Mr. Consul Brand. Lagos seems to 
 claim a good man and true every year. Like many 
 others that have passed safely through pestilential lands, 
 he imagined himself fever-proof. He who wants to live, 
 so far from waxing careless, will gain at every step 
 increased respect for the sun, the dews, and the night 
 breeze. Mr. Foote entered without delay upon a course 
 of bodily and mental work, most trying to new comers in 
 these regions. The " Brune " grounding in the lagoon 
 above Lagos, he set out, though unwell, in an open 
 canoe to reach his post in time for writing by mail, 
 exposed himself to the night air and the rain, and sank 
 under a complication of fever and dysentery on the 17th 
 May, 1861. 
 
 Mr. Foote was presently followed by Captain Jones, 
 of whom more at a future time. 
 
 Along the straight dull coast we steamed eighteen 
 miles, from Porto Novo to Badagry. By lagoon it is 
 reckoned forty, and may be done in six to eight hours. 
 Travellers usually avoid the sun by starting at night, 
 and thus lose the beautiful scenery of the Ossa River, 
 or Victoria Lagoon. This breakwater is one of the 
 many that extend from the Volta, the westerly end of 
 the Bight of Benin, to the Bonny River, in the Bight 
 of Biafra. They form a huge reservoir, into which the 
 streams from the upper country discharge themselves, 
 and during the rains they burst through the sand em- 
 bankments, which at other seasons defend them from
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 201 
 
 the Atlantic. As a rule, they are river-like streams, 
 rather brackish, and therefore garnished with mangroves. 
 In places there are depressions in the land, causing 
 widenings of the bed, with larger lakes ; such are, 
 beginning from the west, the Avon waters, the Denham 
 waters,* and the Ikoradu, so called from a mart north 
 of Lagos, and by us corrupted into Cradoo. I reserve 
 a more particular description of these lagoon streams 
 till we find ourselves upon one of them. 
 
 There is no landmark to show the position of Badagry 
 save the mound which appears as a pyramidal clump of 
 bushy trees. There were but three canoes and three 
 merchant ships lying off this once lively, now dull and 
 deserted place, where the landing is detestable and where 
 the surf never seems to rest. It was founded by refugee 
 Popos in 1727, when the King of Dahomey had con- 
 quered Whydah. It is therefore not directly mentioned 
 by Bosman, who also ignores Dahomey, t whilst he dwells 
 at length upon Fida, our "Whydah, and upon Ardra, 
 which Mr. Lamb calls Ardah. It was the landing- 
 
 * Captain Denham. who gave his name to one lagoon, in chart xv. 
 places on it " City of Styche," probably a mistake, or a misprint for 
 Stakes (fishing). 
 
 f In Letter twenty, however, Bosman speaks of a " potent kingdom 
 farther inland," which uses certain customs of war well-known in 
 Abyssinia, and " strikes such a terror into all the circumjacent negroes, 
 that they can scarcely hear it mentioned without trembling ; and they 
 tell a thousand strange things of them." This must be Dahomey, whose 
 king Takudumu, Chief of Fohi, captured the present capital about 
 A.D. 1700. The intercourse between the Dahornians and Europeans is 
 supposed to have begun hi 1724,
 
 202 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 place of the two Landers, who, in 1830, made their 
 celebrated discovery of the Niger's true mouth. The 
 picturesque narrative of what reception they met there, 
 of King Adooly, of the tetrarchy of Mr. Hutton of Cape 
 Coast Castle, and of the terrible Fetish tree, which caused 
 the traveller to fall senseless into the arms of " Jowdie, 
 his faithful slave," are fresh in the memory of this gene- 
 ration. Presently Badagry became so unsafe for Euro- 
 peans, and kidnapping in the sandy streets, when the 
 victim was noiselessly seized, gagged, or garotted, and 
 carried off to the canoe, became so common, that in 
 1843 Mr. President Maclean and Commodore Foote 
 thought right to hoist the British flag for the protection 
 of the English. About that time Badagry became a 
 large missionary establishment; and in 1861 it under- 
 went the fate of Lagos at the hands of 
 
 The web-footed lion that swims ev'ry sea. 
 *-,.:.*,.*;'..* 
 Evening placed us in the roads of Lagos. A mild 
 evening : the wind was hushed, and the heat oppressive. 
 It is said to average 10 Fah. hotter at this place than 
 in Lagos town. Against the purple-black surface of the 
 eastern sky the bar was smoking forth a white vapour, 
 as if afraid to break, and we could hear from afar the 
 muffled roar of the sullen surf. We and our fellow- 
 sufferers, six or seven merchantmen, lay broadside on, 
 with a monotonous ceaseless roll, which seems to drive 
 comfort out of a ship. Many must pass months in 
 this most unpleasant swing-swong till they have taken
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 203 
 
 in cargo. "We are lying in the French roads,* four 
 miles eastward of the entrance or English roads. As 
 night was near, not a canoe would put off from the 
 shore. I spent my soiree in the study of bars. 
 
 The bar is a notable formation in Western, as in 
 Eastern Africa. It seems placed by Nature one of her 
 many contrivances to favour the pristine barbarity of 
 the people. Many rivers are provided with one, the 
 chief exceptions being the Gambia, the Rokel, the 
 Cacheo, the Rio Grande, and the Kongo. A majestic 
 stream like the latter will not tolerate such puny 
 obstacles ; others, on the other hand, like all the rivers 
 between the Brass and the New Calabar branches of the 
 Niger, are rendered useless by them. In riverless places, 
 like Cape Coast Castle and Accra, the surf is sometimes 
 dreadful as the upright walls of water on the Cornish 
 coast, but it will not pile up a bar. 
 
 The favourite seat of a bar is at the mouth of a river 
 or an outfall which is liable to be much swollen by the 
 rains. From the inland comes a mass of matter me- 
 chanically suspended, and sometimes floating islets, which 
 will trip vessels from their anchors ; when the emission 
 meets the tide, deposition takes place, and goes on in- 
 creasing. Some bars are therefore of mud; others, 
 where the sea has greater power, are sand hard as stone. 
 The heaviness of the ocean swell is attributed by certain 
 writers to distant storms; others, especially Captain Fish- 
 
 * These names are now obsolete on the coast.
 
 204 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 bourne, to a "want of hydrostatic equilibrium." As the 
 sun shifts its place, the rarefaction of the atmosphere 
 produces an ascending and relieving movement, inducing 
 "a wave from the point of greatest to that of least 
 pressure." This hypothesis is favoured by the general 
 belief in the exceptional warmth of the air about Lagos 
 roadstead, but it is hardly borne out by the generality of 
 the coast. The seas at S'a Leone are worst between 
 December and April; in the Bights of Benin and Biafra, 
 from April or May to October or November; and in As- 
 cension from February till June ; at the latter place the 
 rollers cease in September, and in December they come 
 from the north. 
 
 Lagos bar or rather bars, for, as usual, there are t\vo, 
 an outer and an inner, the latter of which is little 
 feared is the best study on this part of the coast, 
 with the exception, perhaps, of Benin. It is the bugbear 
 of the Bights, and really dangerous. The average deaths, 
 not including whites, are fourteen per annum ; in 1858 
 there were forty-five casualties. This year nine were 
 drowned in three months ; amongst them, an English- 
 woman, the wife of a merchant-captain, who preferred 
 risking his life to paying a few dollars by steamer. 
 Escapes are rare, and yet the Acting-Governor has been 
 capsized in it three times. The principal danger to a 
 strong swimmer is the shark. It is not every squalus 
 nor every tiger that will attack a man. I have seen a 
 sailor picked up unhurt from amongst a school of them 
 in Suez harbour. This plague is not others say rarely
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 205 
 
 found in the waters off Badagry and Porto Novo. But 
 in places like the sacred Dwarka in Western India, where 
 dead Hindu pilgrims are cast into the bay, and at 
 Lagos, where the corpses of slaves are allowed to float 
 down the river, the shark never hesitates to seize a live 
 man. The crocodile and alligator are to be beaten off 
 by gouging or "purring," as the Lancashire inventors 
 of a practice, supposed to be purely Transatlantic, call 
 the operation. The shark, here at least, is far more ter- 
 rible ; even when he wriggles himself up to the beach 
 sand, apparently for the purpose of scratching off para- 
 sites, all the people run away from the glare of his dull, 
 ferocious, pale-blue eye, whilst the beast, as if conscious 
 of power, never thinks of retiring till the desideratum 
 has been leisurely completed. Tew men survive a shark 
 bite, and when seized, they usually lose their hands by 
 snatching mechanically at the limb first hurt. I spare 
 the reader some horrid cases which have come under my 
 immediate notice. There is a small blue shark, which, 
 when young, is eaten by the people. They do not, how- 
 ever, like the Arabs of Sur and Maskat, relish a tough 
 old patriarch, whose taste is something between bull beef 
 and tunny. To end with the shark, this evil might ' be 
 diminished by spearing and poisoning the animals, and 
 especially by rendering it penal to throw a corpse night 
 is the favourite time into the Ossa. And the little 
 " Advance " has already, it is said, done much towards 
 frightening them from their haunts. 
 
 Lagos is the largest permanent break in the long line
 
 206 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 of coast between the Yolta and the Benin Rivers, and 
 the greater part of the waters collected during the rains 
 find their way in a tumultuous current through the sand- 
 spit that parts the lagoon from the Atlantic. The 
 safest months are December, January, and February, 
 when at times it is smooth as glass. The most dan- 
 gerous are those of the rainy season it begins to be 
 bad in March, and it wages war from May to October. 
 The epochs of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes ac- 
 cording to some, the days when the mail arrives accord- 
 ing to others, are the worst; some declare that the 
 new moon, others that the moon at her full and change, 
 exasperates the bar. One may always expect bad bars 
 during the violent rains in June, July, and August, when 
 the struggle between the inner inundation and the outer 
 surf is tremendous, closing ingress and egress sometimes, 
 though rarely, for a fortnight. High tide is the safest 
 time for attempting passage ; then half-tide ; and the 
 worst of all is low water. "The African Pilot"* reckons 
 the rise of the tide five to six feet at the full and 
 change on the bar, and says that within the river one foot 
 must be allowed in the dry and three in the rainy sea- 
 son. The people of Lagos assert that three to four feet 
 is nearer the truth, and that there is little difference 
 between the inside and the outside of the bar. The 
 capricious and treacherous rollers will curl in five 
 fathoms and break in three, and even four fathoms, on 
 
 * P. 175.
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 207 
 
 the radius of a mile from the middle of the entrance. 
 The height of the wave may be fifteen feet when the 
 surf is bad, and it breaks when perhaps you least expect 
 it. The shifting sand of the bar is ever changing place 
 and dimensions. On the 26th July H.M.S. " Prome- 
 theus " found but eleven feet under her bow off the 
 eastern spit, where she had most unadvisedly been run : 
 to-day we hear that there are eighteen feet, and that the 
 spit has been nearly washed away; and this time next 
 year there will be a hollow, bounded by a dwarf sand- 
 bank upon the place where the good old ship was re- 
 ported to have broken her back. Tor the same reason 
 the breadth of the entrance is ever varying ; the "African 
 Directory (1855) " gives it from 500 to 600 yards; the 
 "African Pilot (1856)," half a mile from point to point. 
 When I first saw it the width was not more than half a 
 mile, but soon afterwards it greatly increased. The 
 length is calculated to be 300 yards. The outer or sea 
 bar is separated from the inner by a distance of six 
 cables ; both are of the hardest sand. 
 
 Across this pleasant formation there are three high 
 ways : the canoe passage, which hugs Le Greslie or 
 the eastern point ; it is very dangerous, but sometimes 
 practicable when the other entrances are not. The 
 perils of the Calemars or Kaz de Maree, however, are 
 greatly increased by the strong easterly current, which 
 often carries small craft down the dangerous and inhos- 
 pitable coast. The boat or central passage comes next : 
 many accidents have happened from the use of gigs
 
 208 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 manned by Krumen, who drop their oars and are ready 
 to spring on board the moment there is a chance of 
 swamping. Why the Masoolah surf-boats used at Ma- 
 dras are not introduced here I puzzle my brains to 
 conceive. Large ships lay at Beecroft or the western 
 point abreast, and then turning to the north-north-east, 
 make for the entrance. The landmarks, however, of 
 course change with the bar every year, and without a 
 pilot no one but a madman or those interested in barra- 
 try would attempt to run in. Usually the entrances are 
 two, the ship or western, and the canoe or eastern 
 passage. 
 
 No one seems to visit Lagos for the first time without 
 planning a breakwater. About three years ago an 
 American company proposed to make floating break- 
 waters, upon the condition of receiving the harbour dues 
 for twenty years ; Jonathan, however, was refused. But 
 as from Ningo on the Gold Coast to Gamaroons, there 
 is hardly a pebble upon the loose sands, and no stone 
 for many miles inland, the construction will probably 
 keep till the wealth of the place enables it to afford a 
 floating work. It is dangerous to meddle with such 
 formations. About 1856, a little iron steamer from 
 Benin sank whilst attempting to raise the guns which 
 had been thrown overboard by Her Majesty's steam-sloop 
 " Hecate ;" and the bar, it is said, became worse in con- 
 sequence. Walling the sides, especially the eastern, with 
 a small " stone fleet/' might be tried, but the measure 
 would probably do no good ; the outpour, strengthened
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 209 
 
 by narrowing the mouth, would soon cut a new channel. 
 The experiment, tried at Charleston, is said to have im- 
 proved the passages there : here there are other forces at 
 work. Some have tried landing upon other parts of the 
 coast, but they have generally fared worse from the 
 heavy breakers on the shore ; consequently, the bar has 
 become a necessary calamity. The merchants of Lagos 
 were much pleased when they heard that a harbour- 
 master had been appointed, expecting to see buoys laid 
 down ; at the end of the year, however, they had to 
 congratulate themselves only upon a perch stuck in the 
 sands of Beecroft Point. Loath, however, to break 
 through a time-honoured custom, I venture to propose 
 a system of "camels," by which the violence of the 
 breakers would be greatly broken. We turned in early, 
 hoping that the morrow would not prove a rainy day. 
 
 Betimes on Sunday morning we were visited by the 
 "Advance," an iron steamer owned by Mr. McCoskry, 
 now acting as Governor. Built as a tug for the 
 Clyde, her tonnage is 120 tons, she draws six feet, 
 with horse power variously estimated at 80 to 160, 
 and her cost was G000 The mails no longer require 
 to be headed up, an operation which recalls to mind the 
 now classical English pipe-office. She is nearly lost 
 about once a year, and the engineers cannot be kept 
 alive even by drink. Still she makes shift to ply for 
 papers and cargo whilst other vessels cannot. The 
 tender " Brune " lost her funnel shortly after our de- 
 parture ; the " Handy " is pronounced unhandy to cross
 
 210 WANDEEINaS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the bar; and the " Investigator" does not appear to relish 
 the process of investigating. Besides which, the former 
 is a "screw/ 1 and when these craft show their stern 
 keels to the sky, the violent jerk almost always injures 
 the gear. So the stout "Advance" is really in advance 
 of Admiralty ships, and is a great boon to those who 
 visit Lagos. 
 
 After breakfast the consul and I prepared to land by 
 the ship passage. The "Advance " steamed steadily on, 
 under the hands of two helmsmen ; the wheel is on the 
 bridge, the favourite station for travellers who do not 
 like the look of the sea from the quarter deck. After 
 getting the direction and breasting the smooth waters 
 outside, we prepared for the run in. This time the much- 
 dreaded bar disappointed me; on certain subsequent 
 occasions it did not. The rapids of the St. Lawrence 
 must be grand enough in an Indian "birch," which 
 shows the wonderful ridge of waters cylindrically piled 
 up in the centre of the stream. Nothing can be tamer 
 when looked down upon from the first floor of a large 
 floating-house river-steamer. I can imagine their emo- 
 tion men with a triple coat of brass round their prse- 
 cordia who first attempted this bar in the dinsry of a 
 caravel or in a wretched cutter. Indeed, even from the 
 vantage ground of the bridge, where we stood high 
 raised to see and sketch, we looked up as it were at the 
 light-green foam -fringed waves swelling, rising, and 
 towering like a concave wall about to tumble in and poop 
 us, whilst the send of the break drove us forward as if
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 211 
 
 lifted in strong men's arms, and required all the force of 
 the helmsmen to prevent, as the seas combed under the 
 quarter, the little steamer broaching broadside on 
 the great danger when crossing a bar. The background 
 to this fierce ocean was a black and lowering surface of 
 younger breakers, the nearer rushing like the waters 
 above Niagara to the fray, and the more distant sub- 
 siding into the surface .of a horizon where the slaty 
 heavens mingled with the leaden-coloured sea. 
 
 After shuddering and staggering over the first bar, 
 which is about 900 feet long, and enduring the normal 
 break of three which may be thirty seas, the brave 
 little " Advance " fell into deep water, four fathoms or 
 so, and I did not condescend to sketch the second or 
 inner, which outlies the entrance. And now the set- 
 tlement, before veiled by smokes, as fogs in these regions 
 . are called, began to appear. Upon Le Greslie, or 
 Eastern Point, a low sandy formation, capped with 
 stunted bush and bearing a few palms, stood a few out 
 factories, looking very like negro barracoons. Twenty years 
 ago boats floated over this Clifton of the Slave Coast. A 
 flag was hoisted to inform the town that the bar was 
 practicable. Two tide gauges had been set up, one at 
 Le Greslie Point, the other inside the river, opposite 
 the house of a M. Carrena, that the maximum rise might 
 be indicated by signal. As we passed Beecroft Point, 
 where curlews and plovers rose screaming wildly, and 
 passed alongside of the shrimp stakes, the town came 
 up to full view. It was a striking illustration of the 
 
 p 2
 
 212 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 difference between the pro-pyroskaphian and the epi- 
 pyroskaphian settlement; no fort, no gothic hall, no 
 big house, nothing but the plain bungalow built for an 
 inn, not for a house. Here, as at Zanzibar, flagging 
 appeared to be the custom ; every factory flies a bit of 
 bunting, and some fly two. 
 
 The site of the town, four miles from the entrance, is 
 detestable ; unfortunately, there is no better within many 
 a league. It occupies the western side of an islet about 
 three miles and a half long from north-east to south- 
 west, by one broad from north to south ; it is formed 
 by two offsets from the Ikoraclu (Cradoo) coast, namely, 
 the Ossa River, opposite, and Five Cowrie Creek behind 
 the settlement. 
 
 The first aspect is as if a hole had been hollowed 
 out in the original mangrove forest that skirts the 
 waters, where bush and dense jungle, garnished with 
 many a spreading tree, tall palms, and matted mass of 
 fetid verdure rise in terrible profusion around. The 
 soil is sandy, and in parts there are depressions which 
 the rains convert into black and muddy ponds; the 
 ground, however, is somewhat higher in the interior, 
 where the race-course lies. The gap of the Ossa or 
 Bad agry Lagoon, is nearly opposite the town; and on the 
 other side there is low, swampy ground, a clay forma- 
 tion, which retains the water, and which adds something 
 more to the evils of the place. The thin line of European 
 buildings that occupy the best sites, fronting the water, 
 are, first, the French comptoir, prettily surrounded with
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 213 
 
 gardens; then a large pretentious building, white and 
 light yellow, lately raised by M. Carrena, a Sardinian 
 merchant it is said to be already decaying ; then the 
 Wesleyan Mission-house; the Hamburghers' factory; the 
 Wesleyan chapel, with about five times its fair amount 
 of ground ; the British Consulate, like that at Fernando 
 Po, a corrugated iron coffin or plank-lined morgue, con- 
 taining a dead consul once a year ; the Church Mission- 
 house, whose overgrown compound caused such pretty 
 squabbles in days gone by, and which, between whiles, 
 served as a church ; another Sardinian factory ; a tall 
 whitewashed and slated house, built by Mr. McCoskry ; 
 and at the furthest end, another establishment of Ham- 
 burghers, who at present have more than their share of 
 the local commerce : these are the only salient points of 
 the scene. They are interspersed with tenements of less 
 pretensions, " suam quisque domum spatio circumdat" a 
 custom derived by the Anglo-Indians through the Eng- 
 land and the Germany of Tacitus' s day ; and the thin 
 line is backed by a large native town, imperceptible from 
 the sea, and mainly fronting the Ikoradu Lake. Some 
 of the houses extend their grounds to the back, and the 
 cumbered sands are alive with impurities ; the Acting 
 Governor, however, has wisely determined to have one 
 decent walk. He persevered in clearing a broad line along 
 the water, fitted for riding or driving, despite the insolent 
 opposition of sundry liberated or rather licensed Afri- 
 cans. One fellow who calls himself Captain, upon the 
 strength of having bought a condemned hull, has gone
 
 214 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 so far as to drive away the workmen : he has been 
 threatened with a special constable, in the shape of a 
 fighting doctor, and as usual with these people, who have 
 got to produce their John Hampden, he subsided. The 
 only ships inside the bar are H.M.S. " Prometheus," 
 Prometheus Vinctus now the tender, " Brune," and a 
 small Hanoverian steamer. The two former are re- 
 quired to defend the new occupants, and the town is in 
 a considerable state of excitement. 
 
 For Lagos was born in the British family, the young- 
 est member of her colonies, on the 6th day of August, 
 A.D. 1861. Commander Bedingfeld, R.N., after a hard 
 bumping on the bar off the east spit, had by high direc- 
 tion entered into a palaver with Docemo, King of 
 Lagos, and after "jamming heads" excuse the phrase, 
 but the " Captain," as the earnest and Rev. M. Monk* 
 insists upon calling him usque ad nauseam, piques 
 himself exceedingly upon a very moderate knowledge of 
 the coast informed him that permanent occupation (a 
 nicer word than annexation) was determined upon, and 
 that he, Docemo, was to be pensioned, and become one 
 of the many kings lately "retired from business." That 
 barbarous person, curious to say, was not delighted by 
 the intelligence. In fact, he made some difficulties. 
 He proposed to meet Her Majesty's consul, " the 
 Captain," and all the British merchants at Palma, a 
 Trench station some thirty miles east of Lagos, where 
 
 * See prolegomena to Dr. Livingstone's letters, and ask "the Captain " 
 what he thinks of them.
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 215 
 
 he probably intended to give them something more than 
 a bit of his mind. They politely declined a trip so far 
 out of the range of the Promethean fire. The caboceers 
 and chiefs also demurred, and foreseeing an embargo 
 upon their bribes and presents, waxed surly. At the 
 bottom of the discontent were the liberated Africans, 
 
 "Sharp rogues all, both great and small," 
 
 as the Cape Coast Castle song hath it. The worst by far 
 were the S'a Leonites ; they were in debt to the natives, 
 and debt under English is a very different thing from debt 
 under native rule. Besides which, all of them had slaves, 
 and most of them, when occasion served, were slave- 
 dealers. Mr. Consul Foote, shortly after his arrival, 
 had summoned before him some of these pets of philan- 
 thropy. When the nice point of domestic slavery was 
 mooted, and they were asked touching their nationality, 
 the popular answer declared King Docemo of Lagos and 
 the Alake of Abeokuta to be their sovereigns. They 
 at once began to make mischief at another of our pets, 
 Abeokuta how can learned Professor Kingsley in 
 " Westward Ho ! " call it "Christian Abeokuta/' when 
 it numbers barely one " professor " to 500 heathen? 
 They hinted, not obscurely, that wherever an English- 
 man plants his foot the people of Scinde said the same 
 when they pelted off Sir Alexander Burnes he makes 
 the land his own. Abeokuta took the hint with all the 
 readiness of the suspicious African. Distant but sixty 
 miles from the sea, she once wanted a road ; presently
 
 216 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 she became curiously incurious about any communica- 
 tion more direct than the winding but defensible river ; 
 and she ended next year by violently expelling a British 
 vice-consul, threatening if he followed the example of 
 "Monsieur Qui-se-Leve," that they would "burn the 
 house about his ears," or its African equivalent. 
 
 So matters ran till the 5th of August, when a flag- 
 staff was slipped and rigged near the British consulate, 
 and Commander Bedingfield landed with his marines. 
 A crowd of people and some chiefs were assembled at 
 the palaver-house. The king, when civilly asked to 
 sign away his kingdom, consented and refused, as the 
 negro will, in the same breath. On the next day he 
 affixed his mark, for of course he cannot write ; and 
 there is no African king who will not, in full view of 
 a gallon of rum, " put his name for book," no matter 
 what that book may be, provided that he ignores its 
 contents. In so doing he of course concludes that a 
 bit of paper so easily cut through with a pair of scissors 
 can have no binding force, and a few hours afterwards 
 he will tell you that he can tear it to pieces. Without 
 awaiting, however, the ceremony of signature, possession, 
 nine-tenths of the law, was at once entered upon. 
 The " Captain " read out an English proclamation, very 
 intelligible to the natives, confirming "the cession of 
 Lagos "and its dependencies " a pleasantly vague fron- 
 tier. ' Then followed a touching scene. One Union 
 Jack was hoisted in the town, another on the beach. 
 Prometheus Vinctus" saluted with twenty-one guns.
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 217 
 
 The marines presented arms, three hundred fetish, or 
 sanctified boys, as the convert people call them, sang a 
 hymn, headed by their missionaries. It was not 
 
 " Dies iies, dies ilia, &c." 
 
 And as we Englishmen must celebrate every event with 
 a dinner I believe that if London were to follow 
 Lisbon's suit, Londoners would dine together amongst 
 the ruins of " Willis's " or the " Tavern " forty-four 
 Oyibos, Europeans, and Africo- Europeans, officials 
 and merchants, sat down to meat upon the quarter- 
 deck of the "Prometheus/' and by their brilliant 
 speeches and loyal toasts added, as the phrase is, eclat 
 to the great event. Thus Lagos rose.* 
 
 * The following is the official announcement of 
 
 THE CESSION OF LAGOS. 
 
 "Foreign-Office, Sept. 19. 
 
 "Earl Russell, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign 
 
 Affairs, has received a despatch from Mr. McCoskry, the Acting British 
 
 Consul at Lagos, dated the 7th of August, enclosing a treaty concluded 
 
 by him and Commander Bedingfeld, R.'N., commanding Her Majesty's 
 
 sloop 'Prometheus,' with Docemo, King of Lagos, for the cession of 
 
 the isle and port of Lagos to Her Majesty. The treaty is as follows : 
 
 ' ' ' Treaty between Norman H. Bedingfeld, Commander of Her Majesty's 
 
 sloop " Prometheus," and senior officer of the Bights Division, 
 
 and William McCoskry, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's Acting 
 
 Consul, on the part of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, 
 
 and Docemo, King of Lagos, on the part of himself and chiefs. 
 
 " ' ARTICLE i. 
 
 " ' In order that the Queen of England may be the better enabled to 
 assist, defend, and protect the inhabitants of Lagos, and to put an end 
 to the slave-trade in this and the neighbouring countries, and to pre- 
 vent the destructive wars so frequently undertaken by Dahomey and
 
 218 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 King Docemo was persuaded, on the next day, by a 
 guard of marines, who grounded arms with a most 
 ominous rattling in his presence, to be duly mediatised. 
 He was also assured of a pension amounting to some- 
 thing less than 2000. per annum, This sum is 
 
 ethers for the capture of slaves, I, Docemo, do, . with the consent and 
 advice of my council, give, transfer, and by these presents grant and 
 confirm, unto the Queen of Great Britain, her heirs and successors, for 
 ever, the port and island of Lagos, with all the rights, profits, terri- 
 tories, and appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging, and as well 
 the profits and revenue, as the direct, full, and absolute dominion and 
 sovereignty of the said port, island, and premises, with all the royal- 
 ties thereof, freely, fully, entirely, and absolutely. I do also covenant 
 and grant that the quiet and peaceable possession thereof shall, with all 
 possible speed, be freely and effectually delivered to the Queen of Great 
 Britain, or such person as Her Majesty shall thereunto appoint, for her 
 use in the performance of thia grant ; the inhabitants of the said 
 island and territories, as the Queen's subjects, and under her sove- 
 reignty, crown, jurisdiction, and government, being still suffered to 
 
 live there. 
 
 " 'ARTICLE n. 
 
 ' ' ' Docemo will be allowed the use of the title of king, in its usual 
 African signification, and will be permitted to decide disputes between 
 natives of Lagos, with their consent, subject to appeal to British laws. 
 " 'ARTICLE in. 
 
 " ' In the transfer of lands the stamp of Docemo affixed to the docu- 
 ment will be proof that there are no other native claims upon it ; and 
 for this purpose he will be permitted to use it as hitherto. 
 
 " ' In consideration of the cession, as before mentioned, of the port 
 and island and territories of Lagos, the representatives of the Queen of 
 Great Britain do promise, subject to the approval of Her Majesty, that 
 Docemo shall receive an annual pension from the Queen of Great Britain 
 equal to the net revenue hitherto annually received by him : such 
 pension to be paid at such periods and in such mode as may hereafter 
 be determined. 
 
 [Here follow the signatures.] 
 
 '"Lagos, Aug. 6.'"
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 219 
 
 equivalent to his annual revenue, but it is subject to 
 revision. He ungratefully forwarded, on dit, an expos- 
 tulation to Europe; so did his chiefs. On the other 
 hand, the merchants of all nations were highly pleased 
 with the result. Thirteen of them, foreigners as well as 
 Britishers, signed a petition praying the " Prometheus " 
 to remain inside the bar, for the protection of English 
 life and property. She was nothing loath : her copper 
 had been scraped off, her deck had an interesting but 
 suspicious convexity about the middle region, and the 
 divers brought up some tubes nearly sixteen inches 
 long, with which the Teredo navalis had lined his dwel- 
 ling-place. She was subsequently reported not sea- 
 worthy; an obstinate man, Mr. Master Scudamore, 
 thought otherwise, and she reached home safely, where 
 she will die of a respectable old age. The " Captain " 
 took a lively interest in the baby colony, and perhaps 
 cherished an idea that his various merits might pro- 
 mote him to the proud position of being its nurse. 
 Calumny declared him guilty of a plebiscite, but I can 
 hardly believe this. He was disappointed in this coup 
 d'etat, but he was duly promoted, as every man who 
 loses, or who nearly loses, his ship ought to be. A 
 French naval officer presently entered the harbour, and 
 when he heard of the cession, departed in a pet, which 
 was not raisonnable. The decennial treaty with our old 
 rivals, in which the " high contracting powers " pledged 
 themselves to refrain from picking and stealing further 
 territory in Africa, expired in 1855. The Gaul will, it
 
 220 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 is reported, lay main forte upon the Benin River. 
 Tant mieux ! The civilisation of the coast, or rather its 
 redemption from a worse state than the merest savagery, 
 can be effected only by its passing into the hands of 
 Europe. Japhet must not only live in the huts of 
 Ham, he must gird his loins for a harder task than he 
 has ever dreamed of in the idle tents of his brother 
 Shem. 
 
 Before landing at the dwarf pier in front of the Con- 
 sulate no mean precaution where the crocodiles are so 
 uncommonly " spry/' we accompanied poor Holling- 
 worth on board the " Prometheus," for a visit of 
 ceremony. We were received with that condescension 
 which sits so gracefully upon the shoulders of Greatness, 
 and hurried off to the shore. The ship had enjoyed 
 remarkably good health under an experienced and active 
 surgeon ; only three men out of her hundred whites had 
 died during the last year. We little guessed, however, 
 that of those sturdy fellows only sixteen would be left 
 all the rest had been carried off by fever (twenty actual 
 deaths), or had been sent sick to Ascension at the end 
 of March, in four months. Thus, after long indemnity, 
 she eventually found herself no exception to the rule of 
 the Coffin squadron. Mr. McCoskry was fortunately at 
 home, and I had the pleasure of making an acquaintance 
 which I hope may become a friendship. 
 
 After an excellent dinner, in which the presence of 
 palm-oil chop argued the old "African/' I was shown a 
 symbolical letter, which, on August 24th, had found its
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 221 
 
 way from Dr. Baikie's camp at Mount Patta, near 
 Laird's Town, and opposite Igbebe, at the confluence of 
 the Kwara and the Binue.* This style of writing has 
 been described by Mr. Crowther as being common on 
 the Lower Niger, and Miss Barber, of the " Coral 
 Fund," has obliged the public with a sketch of it. It 
 is inferior to the Mexican symbols, the rudest form of 
 correspondence, showing a great gulf between the 
 African mind and that of the lowest Asiatic. The 
 " letter" consisted of two pockets from an old pair of 
 Calico pantaloons, and a "flap," from which the but- 
 tons had been removed ; it was empty, and significant 
 enough. There was a little bundle of twine, European 
 and native wound together, to show that white and 
 black, even in their poverty, were not divided. An Arab 
 Taawiz, or talisman here barbarously called Grigri, 
 hinted that the bearer was a Moslem, and little pellets 
 of paper containing writing, and whipped round with 
 
 * I -would propose to brother Fellows that the river below the conflu- 
 ence retain the classical name, Niger Joliba is Park's name for the 
 upper waters, and its extension ; that the western influent be called, as 
 by the Kanuri named, Kwara ; and the eastern, Binue, a term well 
 known to the Hausas, "Chadda," founded only upon the misconcep- 
 tion that the stream drains Lake Chad, should be formally dismissed 
 from our vocabulary. Lake Chad, like the Tanganyika, the Caspian, 
 and many others, receives many tributaries, and sends forth none eva- 
 poration does all the work of drainage. This is hard to instil into the 
 mind of the theorist, who determines, despite the direct evidence of 
 Lake Chad, that all such formations, if undrained, must be salt. The 
 natives have, of course, no general name for the stream, save Water, 
 or Great ^Yater, which, as usual in such cases, varies with every dialect.
 
 222 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 string, showed that the path was dangerous. Three 
 broken cowries, loose and scattered, insinuated that the 
 sooner a fresh supply was sent the better; half a 
 Malaguetta pepper, or Cardamom, gave comfort, showing 
 that the traveller's heart was still warm. The thing 
 had all the savage ingenuity that goes to making an 
 assagai and a war-club. Whilst upon this subject it 
 may be as well to state that the confluence of the 
 Kwara and the Binue is distant only twenty days of 
 quiet marching from Lagos, without running the risk of 
 climate and the now hostile villages that fringe the 
 banks below the apex of the Delta. It will be the 
 favourite route of explorers. At present the Egbas are 
 fighting one of those ridiculous fights they almost put 
 to shame the earlier Yankee battles with the Ibadans, 
 their northern neighbours. 
 
 The afternoon was devoted to inspecting the town, 
 which is native to the last degree. Is is said to be five 
 miles in circumference, and containing 30,000 inhabi- 
 tants, of whom 700 to 800 are Moslems. Like the 
 people of Badagry and Porto Novo, the Lagosans are of 
 Popo race, and many of them are originally Beninese. 
 The eastern is here the "west end/' and there have 
 been the usual quarrels for frontage, each factory and 
 mission-house wishing to secure for itself as much, and 
 to leave its neighbour as little, as possible. The native 
 town, which is divided into sundry quarters, Okofaja, 
 Obebowo, Offi, and Egga, which contains the palace 
 of the now destitute Docemo, is to the west of the
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 223 
 
 " Garden Reach/* and stretches over the interior of the 
 island. The streets want only straightening, widening, 
 draining, and cleaning. Ibrahim Pasha's excellent 
 means of confiscating a house that would not keep its 
 environs clean should be applied here at once. There 
 are irregular buildings intended for market-places, and 
 called, I suppose, squares, into which the narrow 
 lanes abut ; they are dotted with giant heaps of muck 
 and mixen, and in hot weather wooden pattens are 
 required. The houses, not the factories, are of switch 
 or puddled clay, built in courses, and fished- out of the 
 river : apparently they are all roof, a monstrous thatch, 
 like that of Madagascar, making, as it were, the brim too 
 broad for the face. These things burn like tinder when 
 Shango the fire-god pays a visit to Lagos ; so fast, in 
 fact, that little harm is done to the interior. Europeans 
 prefer, for the same reason, slates and tiles. Even the 
 garden-walls must be protected by a weather-thatch of 
 palm-leaves, or they would be washed away. Everything 
 has the squalid, unclean look of an idle people, and what 
 can be expected from men to whom Pomona has been so 
 indecently kind, whose bread and butter, whose wine and 
 oil, grow for them in the trees around? The redeeming 
 feature was the mixture of country with town, the vestigia 
 runs, which all admire. Like Jericho, it is a city of 
 palms : the cocoa grows almost in the salt water ; the 
 broad-leaved bread-fruit, introduced from the far Poly- 
 nesian lands, has taken root like an indigen; and in 
 the branches of the papaw nestle amadavats, orioles, and
 
 224 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 brilliant palin-birds. The people struck me as being of a 
 lower caste than those of the Gold Coast, more approach- 
 ing the typical genuine nigger of the Southern republic. 
 They suffer much from cutaneous complaints, krakra, 
 yaws (frambcesia), lepra, elephantiasis, and a phagoedenic 
 ulcer common at Fernando Po, and from which even Euro- 
 peans have no immunity.* The other diseases are fever, 
 dysentery and dracunculus ; they have not yet had an 
 attack of true vomito, but it is gradually on its way down 
 from S'a Leone. This yellow fever differs but little in 
 quality from a violent bilious remittent, and the peculiar 
 feature from which it derives its Spanish name, seldom 
 appears till dissolution approaches : the course is rapid, 
 fever, delirium, cramp, convulsions, emetism, death. At 
 times the place becomes a charnel-house. This mangy 
 people appeared to me a merry race of pagans ; even at 
 this early hour I saw a man sitting upon the little raised 
 step of clay, the East Indian chabutarah, and shamelessly 
 making himself drunk with "hashish." The instru- 
 ment is a calabash with tubes and clay chillam or head, 
 and, as usual, the leaf is inhaled through water. This 
 smoking Diamba or Liamba, as the local European 
 name is, is a practice which has probably spread from 
 the East Egypt and her neighbours. There are 
 travellers who contend that in Western Africa cannabis, 
 
 * It is often fatal. 'Amputation must be resorted to, and the patient, 
 who has probably suffered from dysentery and other debilitating diseases, 
 cannot support the shock : sometimes there is an oozing of blood from 
 the cut bone.
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 225 
 
 or bhang, never grows wild, and that, like the lotus, it is 
 an exotic which, without much care, would die out. 
 This may be true touching the lands about the Gaboon 
 River's mouth ; the plant, however, is certainly an indi- 
 gene of the African continent, the Moroccans have their 
 fasukh, the Hottentots their dakha, the Eastern people, 
 mbangi, and the Western, diambd. 
 
 An unexpected pleasure was in store for me. Lagos 
 
 contains, as has been said, some 800 Moslems, though 
 
 not yet 2000, as it is reported. Though few, they have 
 
 already risen to political importance; in 1851 our 
 
 bravest and most active opponents were those wearing 
 
 turbans. Among these are occasionally found " white 
 
 Arabs." One had lately died at Ekpe, a village on the 
 
 " Cradoo waters/' where the ex-king Kosoko, lives, and, 
 
 though a pagan, affects the faith. I was presently 
 
 visited by the Shaykh Ali bin Mohammed El Mekkawi. 
 
 The reverend man was fair of face, but no Meccan; he 
 
 called himself a Maliki, as indeed are most Moslems in 
 
 this part of El Islam, and I guessed him to be a Morocco 
 
 pilgrim, travelling in the odour of sanctity. He was 
 
 accompanied by the Kazi Mohammed Ghana, a tall and 
 
 sturdy Hausa negro, with his soot-black face curiously 
 
 gashed and scarred : he appeared to me an honest man 
 
 and good Moslem. The dignitaries were accompanied 
 
 by a mob of men in loose trousers, which distinguished 
 
 them from the pagan crowd ; one of them, by trade a 
 
 tailor, had learned to speak Portuguese in the Brazils. 
 
 Yery delightful was tliis meeting of Moslem brethren, 
 
 VOL. II. Q
 
 226 WANDEEINaS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 and we took " sweet counsel " together, as the missionaries 
 say. The Shaykh AH had wandered from Tripoli south- 
 wards, knew Bornu, Sokotu, Hausa, and Adamawa 
 the latter only by name, and he seemed to have suffered 
 but little from a long journey, of which he spoke 
 favourably. He wished me to return with him, and 
 promised me safe conduct. I refused, with a tightening 
 of the heart, a little alleviated, however, by the hope that 
 Fate may spare me to march at some future day through 
 Central Africa homewards. And in that hope I purified 
 my property by giving the Zakat, or legal alms, to the 
 holy man, who palpably could not read nor write, but who 
 audibly informed his followers that " this bondsman " is 
 intimately acquainted with Jcull'ilm omnis res scililis. 
 
 The Shaykh then presented me with a handful of kola 
 nuts,* which have been called the African coffee. They are 
 the local " chaw/' the succedaneum for tobacco, betel nut, 
 mastick, and sweet earth. The tree, which grows every- 
 where in the damp and wooded regions of the tropical 
 seaboard, and on the islands of West Africa (where, 
 however, the people ignore its use), is a kind of sterculia, 
 in leaf not unlike the magnolia, but a stunted scrubby 
 tree ; the flower is small and white, with a polypetalous 
 corolla, and the fruit is a large pod, like a mis-shapen 
 cucumber. The edible parts are the five or six beans, 
 which are compared to Brazilian nuts, and to horse 
 
 * The Kola (Sterculia acuminata) is written in many ways Cola, 
 Colat, Khola, Gura, Goora, and Gooroo ; the latter three are the names 
 given by the older travellers.
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 227 
 
 chestnuts ; they are covered with a pure white placenta, 
 which must be removed with the finger-nails, and then 
 appears the rosy pink skin some varieties are yellow 
 which gradually becomes rusty by exposure to the air. 
 The nut is easily divided into several, generally four 
 sections, of which one is eaten at a time. The taste 
 is a pleasant bitter, and somewhat astringent. Water 
 drunk " upon it," as the phrase is, becomes, even if before 
 offensive, exceptionally sweet. It must be a fine tonic in 
 these relaxing climates. I am not aware of an extract 
 having been made from it : if not, it would be as well to try. 
 Travellers use it to quiet the sensation of hunger and to 
 obviate thirst. In native courts eating kola nuts forms part 
 of the ceremony of welcoming strangers, and the Yorubas 
 have a proverb : "Anger draweth arrows from the quiver: 
 good words draw kolas from the bag." It is held to be 
 aphrodisiac of these half the African, like the Asiatic, 
 pharmacopeia is composed and like the betel to be 
 
 " A detergent, and a kindler of Love's flame that lieth dead." 
 
 A powder, or an infusion of the bark and leaves, 
 promptly administered, is used on the Gold Coast as a 
 cure of snake bites. There, also, kola powders finely 
 ground are drunk in a wineglassful of limejuice by those 
 who do not wish to become mothers. And a decoction 
 of the leaves, like the terebinthinate palm vine, acts as a 
 substitute for copaiba. 
 
 On the morning of the 23d September the fair-weather 
 flag was not hoisted at the beach : to go or to lose one's 
 
 42
 
 228 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 passage became the serious question. In due time, 
 however, the bit of bunting flew up, and the " Tender 
 Brune," Lieut. Forrest, R.N., was under steam. After 
 taking a temporary leave of our kind host, we transferred 
 ourselves on board, and ran merrily down the Lagos 
 waters, past the tide-rip of the influent Badagry Lagoon, 
 and past the three salient points Bruce, Beecroft, and 
 Le Greslie. The bar was like that of yesterday, half angry, 
 but it is easier, methinks, and safer to front these forma- 
 tions than to turn back upon them. Although the wind 
 was dead ahead we shipped only four seas, of moderate 
 dimensions the danger is of their putting out the fires 
 and the soundings were never less than eleven feet. 
 
 At Lagos we dropped our Frenchman a typical 
 Frenchman in all points but one, he avoided all mention 
 of the fair sex. A Gascon and a Jesuit, bound for the 
 Whydah mission, he represented himself, for what reason 
 beyond "keeping his hand in" no one knows, as a clerk 
 in the establishment of Messrs. Regis & Co., Marseille. 
 A thorough miso-Albion, he was our favourite butt. 
 Being of a serious turn of mind he dwelt long and 
 loudly upon the revolting selfishness of the British 
 Government ; the unscrupulousness with which it carries 
 out even its plans of philanthropy, and the grinding 
 tyranny inflicted upon the wretched Roman " Cats." He 
 said it was a horror that priests were not paid like 
 les ministres Protestants, by le Government, and that 
 Ireland is not permitted to send members to le Parla- 
 ment. French tobacco was superior to English, French
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 229 
 
 manufactures beat the world ; la France was the cream 
 of creation, and Paris was the cream's cream. Monsieur 
 had travelled leaucoup and knew the world ; he had even 
 visited Switzerland, and therefore, as in the case of the 
 "Fall of Kars," he could tell you all about China. 
 Londres was le plus sale endroit that he had ever seen, 
 and as for Liverrepoule he would only exclaim with 
 
 M. de P , "Ah ! bah! poof!" He wore one shirt 
 
 apparament from Madeira to Lagos ; he never removed 
 his hat or cap in the salon probably to show his con- 
 tempt for ces Anglais and he walked the quarter-deck 
 bareheaded. We parted, however, on the best of 
 terms ; he promised me un diner in case of my visiting 
 Whydah, and I, as the Yankee saith, " re-ciprocated." 
 
 At Lagos, too, we parted with another queer lot our 
 slavers. They are dark, but European or Brazilian ; they 
 speak Portuguese, travel under aliases to-day Soarez, 
 to-morrow Pieri and they herd together. One claims 
 to have been a lieutenant in some royal navy. They 
 have visited England to lay in a further stock of money 
 for the next cargo of casimir noir, and with a view to 
 medical assistance. They are worn out by excessive 
 devotions at the shrine of Venus, and they seem to live 
 chiefly on tobacco smoke. Part of their game is to 
 supply naval officers with champagne and excellent 
 cigars; to ask them to dinner, and to affect equality 
 with them, as if both were of the same trade. The new 
 comer on the coast sometimes associates with them, 
 thinking he will discern their secret, whilst they are
 
 230 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 reading his, and are persuading the natives that he is in 
 league with them. I should strongly exhort officers to 
 be very wary of such society, and certainly not to trust 
 ihemselves to a dinner on shore, where a cup of coffee 
 would materially assist the departure of a cargo. As for 
 the fiction that they are to be treated like gentlemen, 
 whilst plying a trade which our law makes felony, it is 
 easily disposed of. The pickpocket or the burglar might, 
 with equal reason, claim equal respect for his "profession." 
 
 About midday we found ourselves on board the 
 "Blackland," and we entered slowly upon the short 
 stage of about 100 miles which separated us from our 
 next station, the Benin river. 
 
 Lagos, according to native tradition, was founded by 
 a body of Beninese warriors, sent by their king, who 
 claimed suzerainty over these parts, to reduce the rebels 
 of Ogulata, or Abulata, a place on the mainland north 
 of the islet. Their leader whose name is not quoted 
 having failed in his enterprise, and fearing to return, 
 settled upon the then desert bit of sand, made friends 
 with European travellers, and rejected all promises of 
 pardon. Islands in Western, as in Eastern, Africa 
 are ever the favourite places of settlements; they are 
 defended by the sea, and the habit of fishing raises a 
 generation pf canoe-men who have many advantages 
 over the inland peoples. Presently the Ogulata people 
 recognised the chief, and the King of Benin made Lagos 
 a dependency, with annual tribute, which ceased when 
 the slave dealers had strengthened it to resist the
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 231 
 
 mother city. Hence the island's native name, Aonin, or 
 Awani, corrupted to Oni by Europeans, alluding to its 
 connection with Ini, Bini, Ibini, or Benin. There is 
 another name, Daghoh, mentioned by the slave Abu- 
 beko ; but is probably a native corruption of " Lagos " 
 the Lakes a name given by the Portuguese, probably 
 in memoriam of their Lusitanian home. The old chart- 
 names for the islands Curamo and Ikbekou are not to 
 be met with here. The town is known to its population 
 and throughout Yoruba as Eko, of which some make 
 Ichoo. The settlement must be modern : it is not 
 mentioned by Bosman in 1700. 
 
 The great development of the slave trade at Lagos took 
 place about the beginning of the present century. In 
 1839-41, emigrants to Abeokuta, 265 in number, were 
 plundered and maltreated by the people. In August, 
 1845, Kosoko (Co9ioco), cousin of the King, a power- 
 ful slave-trading chief, after twenty-four days' fighting, 
 drove out the liege lord Akitoye, who favoured the 
 English, and murdered, in the market place, his brother 
 Letida and two of the Chief Aduli's sons. Akitoye, 
 a weak man and a foolish, fled to Abeokuta, but the 
 great warrior Shodeke was dead, and the encampment at 
 the town of Adii was broken up. Several missionaries 
 remained at Badagry, the road to Abeokuta, their 
 destination, being unsafe. The first who entered " Un- 
 derstone " was the Rev. T. B. Freeman, on Sunday, the 
 llth December, 1842, and he was not followed until 
 the 27th July, 1846, when Messrs. Townsend and
 
 232 WANDEEINQS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 Crowther were enabled to reach it. A coalition between 
 Lagos and Porto Novo, backed by Dahomey, threatened 
 the British establishments at Badagry. Under Kosoko, 
 who ruled at Lagos for six years, an attack was actually 
 made upon the place ; it was, however, beaten back by the 
 Egbas and their General Shomeye, who afterwards became 
 principal captain of war at Abeokuta. This outrage, which 
 took place in June and July of 1851, led to reprisals. 
 
 On the 25th November of the same year, a force of 
 260 men, in twenty-three boats, under the command of 
 the late Commander Forbes, Her Majesty's ship "Phi- 
 lomel," preceded by the late Mr. Beecroft, carrying a 
 flag of truce, entered the river. About 5000 armed 
 men were assembled, they kept up a sharp fire from 
 behind the houses and trees. Our men landed; but 
 they were soon compelled to retreat, with the loss of two 
 killed and several wounded. The Rev. Mr. Bowen 
 (" Central Africa"), who was near the scene, and shows 
 scant regret at the English being " whipped," we were 
 risking our lives for the pretection of him and his, 
 describes it as a pretty considerable (John) Bull's run. 
 
 Being somewhat more enthusiastic about slave- 
 trade matters in those days, we determined effectually 
 to scotch the serpent at Lagos. On the 26th and 
 27th December, 400 men, from four ships, and 
 headed by the commodore, Captain R. W. Bruce, 
 Her Majesty's ship "Penelope," his name is pre- 
 served in Bruce Island (Iddo), a green spot in the 
 " Cradoo Waters " to the north of the town, attacked
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 233 
 
 the place. Kosoko had prepared it with stockades, 
 cannon, and all the material for a determined resistance. 
 The principal fighting was a little beyond the house 
 occupied by Mr. M'Coskry ; here the walls of vegetation 
 enabled the defenders to fire unseen upon the assailants. 
 We lost sixteen men killed and seventy-one wounded, a 
 fair proportion out of 400 ; the destruction of the natives 
 was much greater. Kosoko and his party, after doing 
 their best to no purpose, fled to Jjebu, where he re- 
 mained four years, and his cousin Akitoye was rein- 
 stated. The latter was not fated to live without troubles. 
 In July, 1853, two slave chiefs Aginia and Pellu 
 rebelled, and joined their master Kosoko ; and on the 
 5th of August was fought a drawn battle, during which 
 the English Branch Mission and School House was 
 burned. In September of the same year Akitoye 
 poisoned himself at midnight, in the presence of two 
 slave boys the local custom when the King ceases to 
 give satisfaction to his subjects. 
 
 Through the influence of the late Mr. Campbell, Her 
 Majesty's Consul, Docemo succeeded his father in 1853, 
 to the/ prejudice of Kosoko. This fine old chief event- 
 ually took up his abode at Ekpe, upon the Ikoradu 
 Lagoon, and at periods filled the mind of Lagos with a 
 panic. In 1852, the English residents at Badagry, con- 
 quering their alarm, visited Lagos, and were followed in 
 a few weeks by the Church and the Wesleyan Missions, 
 the Baptists remaining to till the field. In 1855, most 
 Europeans believed that a plot had been made to murder
 
 234 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the Consul and all opposed to tlie slave trade. Docemo, 
 however, proved himself superior to his father, and not 
 unfriendly to the stranger. But the wheel of Fate 
 revolves at Lagos as elsewhere ; kings' heads, according 
 to the Arab saying, now touch the stars, then are 
 under the stones. Docemo was dethroned on the 6th 
 of August, 1861, and Kosoko, for years the horror and 
 lete noire of Consul Campbell and the missionaries, 
 is again growing into favour ; it has even been thought 
 of readmitting him to his country. 
 
 As late as the year of grace 1851, when Mr. M'Coskry 
 first came to Lagos, there were thirty Portuguese, and 
 but four English: not one of the whole number, save 
 himself, survives, or at least has remained here. Those 
 were merry days ; the slavers had nothing to do but sleep 
 and smoke, with an occasional champagne tiffin on the 
 beach. The trade-man made all the bargains ; the doctor 
 examined the " contrabands ; " they were shipped off by the 
 captain and crew, and in due time came a golden return. 
 Then followed, in 1851, the palmy days of palm-oil. Ten 
 gallons were then bought for two and a half heads of 
 cowries = five shillings, and sold per ton of 300 gallons 
 at 4:01. Every year the price has increased, owing to 
 concurrence, jealousy, and want of combination among 
 the traders, who enjoy " cutting one another's throats," 
 as the phrase is. The oil has now risen from 2'5 to 10 
 heads, and threatens to rise still higher.* The Lagos oil 
 
 * The cowrie currency, assuming the dollar at 4*. 6d, its normal 
 price in these regions, is as follows :
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 235 
 
 is celebrated as the best and clearest upon the "West African 
 coast, and the tree extends to at least sixty miles in the 
 interior. The " puncheon " is not, as in the " Oil Rivers," 
 of a fixed size ; it may be anything, from a breaker up- 
 wards. The amount of oil exported from Lagos this year is 
 about 3,800 tons, worth (at 40 per ton) some 152,000^., 
 and here, as elsewhere, the trade is only in its fitful infancy. 
 Lagos is a young and thriving place. Its position 
 points it out as the natural key of this part of Africa, 
 and the future emporium of all Yoruba, between the 
 Niger and the sea. It cannot help commanding com- 
 merce : even under the wretched management of the 
 native princes, it attracted the whole trade of the Benin 
 country. In proper hands it will be the sole outlet of 
 trade from Central Guinea and the Sudan,* lands teem- 
 ing with various wealth palm-oil, cotton, shea-butter, 
 metals, native cloths, sugar, indigo, tobacco of good 
 quality, and ivory; in the neighbourhood of Ilorin, 
 about eight days' journey north of Abeokuta, it is not 
 worth their while, on account of the heavy tolls, to export 
 their tusks. At present the bar is an obstacle to im- 
 
 40 cowries = 1 string = 3 farthings to Id. 
 5 strings = 1 bunch = 3d. to 6d. 
 
 10 bunches = 1 head = Is. 9^d. to 2s. 
 
 10 heads = 1 bag = 18s. to $4 = 16s. 8d. 
 
 The bag contains 20,000 cowries, and the rates are exceedingly 
 various. 
 
 * Sudan properly means negroes : it is an ellipsis for Bilad el Sudan , 
 i.e., negroland. Moslem nations call the negroes of the interior, the 
 Sudan : thus the negroland of Egypt lies south, and that of Lagos 
 north.
 
 236 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 provement ; time, however, will remedy that. The roads 
 require attention, but they are hardly so important to 
 Africa as people at home suppose. In these prairie 
 lands a path is easily cut, and soon becomes a rut im- 
 practicable to an Englishman or a horse, but perfectly 
 fitted for the African. Were you to give him the finest 
 highway in Europe, after a year he would have worn a 
 deep track by marching in Indian file, and the rest 
 would be a bright expanse of verdure. These remarks 
 will apply to the special fund of 200, of which an ad- 
 vertisement, " Aquapem Mountain Road," appears once 
 per month in the "African Times," a methodistical 
 publication, whose tone and spirit, venerable cant, and 
 worn-out declamation, take us back to the days of 
 A.D. 1800. 
 
 I should like to see, but have very little chance of 
 seeing, Lagos (now that she has become part and parcel 
 of the empire upon which Dan Phoebus must be some- 
 what weary of gazing) become a model colony. We 
 have learned " what to avoid " in West Africa : as the 
 subjoined extract from the returns of expenditure for the 
 year ending December 31, proves, S'a Leone barely 
 pays itself, whilst Gambia shows a deficit of one-third, 
 and the Gold Coast of nearly half. 
 
 PAYMENTS FOB SLAVE AND TONNAGE BOUNTIES. 
 
 s. d. *. d. 
 
 To officers and crew of H. M.S. Viper - 4,22310 
 ,, ,, Spitfire - 2,674 10 
 
 ,, Plato - 4,382 
 
 Carried forward .... 11,180 Q . 0.,
 
 A DAT AT LAGOS. 237 
 
 s. d. g. d. 
 
 Brought forward .... 11,180 
 
 To officers and crew of H. M.S. Archer - 2,00710 
 
 Triton - 5,609 10 
 
 Arrogant 946 
 
 ,, ,, Alecto 1,375 
 
 To Colonel Hill, Sierra Leone - - 1,610 
 
 To Mr. Pike, harbour master, Ditto - 170 
 Transferred to Civil Contingencies in 
 repayment of advances on account of 
 
 votes for the service - - - 8,69810 
 
 20,416 10 
 
 31,596 10 
 
 Paid for support and conveyance of captured negroes - 19,388 18 11 
 Paid to Commissioners for suppression of the slave 
 
 trade, including Commissioner at Loando, 1,300Z.; 
 
 arbitrator, SOOZ. ; clerk, 400Z. - - - . 10,750 
 
 Total expenses of slave suppression - 61,735 8 11 
 COLONIAL REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE, 1860. 
 
 Sierra Leone Expenditure - 29,146 
 
 Revenue - - - 29,912 
 
 Gambia Expenditure ... 15,273 
 
 ,, Revenue .... 10,190 
 
 Gold Coast Expenditure - - - 9,55.8 
 
 Revenue - - - - 6,004 
 
 Total expenditure over revenue ... 8,871 
 
 SPECIAL SERVICE. 
 
 Niger Dr. Baikie, salary - . - 500 
 Expenses at the Confluence ... 1,000 
 
 1,500 
 
 ESTIMATE OF CONSULS' SALARIES, &c., FOR THE YEAR, 
 1862. 
 
 Lagos Consul (allowance, 200Z.) - 500 
 Abeokuta Consul (allowance, 100Z.) - 400 
 Fernando Po Consul (allowance, 20W.) 500 
 Sherbro Consular agent -' 250 
 
 Quillimane Consul .... 500 
 
 2,650 
 
 Grand Total 74,756 8 11
 
 238 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 It wants a Civil Governor, who should be a mili- 
 tary or a naval man; a secretary ditto, ready to act 
 as principal when necessary; a staff surgeon, with 
 a relief ready at home when required; a harbour- 
 master a lieutenant R.N., if possible; a surveyor; 
 and, without ambition of shining as a politician, a 
 civil engineer to lay out the town; three police ma- 
 gistrates; but, in the name of all that is name- 
 able, no civil courts, no courts of appeal, no " regular 
 lawyers," no lawyers' clerks. The one thing needful is 
 a military force, sufficiently strong, not for offence, but 
 to back our authority, and to keep the peace amongst 
 a number of petty, quarrelsome tribes around. A force 
 of 200 men has been proposed ; it is about one-third of 
 what is required. Some have advocated Sepoys, who would 
 not live here a month ; what is unhealthy to the Euro- 
 pean would be doubly so to them. Hindus of caste 
 would die on .the voyage ; Moslems shortly after arrival. 
 Chinese would be excellent, but their day on this coast has 
 not yet come ; we are only beginning to learn their value 
 as soldiers in their own land. Others advocate West 
 Indians, the refuse of Jamaica and S'a Leone, fellows 
 little calculated to resist climate, and despised by the 
 black people because of themselves ; their conduct in 
 camp is complained of, and only the bravery of their 
 officers enables them to behave even tolerably in the 
 field. The Hottentots might be tried, but, as Captain 
 Speke's imprudent example shows, they are not to be 
 relied upon out of their own country, and little even
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 239 
 
 there. The best men would be from the Gold Coast 
 mixed with Moslems from the north, Horins, Fulas, 
 and Gambari, or Hausamen : the greater the mixture 
 and the further the soldier's country, the better. The 
 military establishment requires one small troop of horse 
 artillery, armed with rockets and Blakeley's guns; 
 another troop of eighty cavalry, and a weak regiment of 
 400 infantry. The latter would be divided into half 
 companies, and besides mere drilling and parading, should 
 fortify the place and make military roads ; so shall we 
 escape the sight of those soldier-drones that now infest 
 the colonies. The error to be avoided lies in the multi- 
 tude of officers : the forces should be irregulars, with a 
 commandant, a second in command, an adjutant, a quar- 
 termaster, a full surgeon, and an assistant surgeon no 
 captains, lieutenants, nor ensigns ; if these are wanted 
 they might be kept at home as duplicates. 
 
 The custom-house officers would be two in number 
 and the taxes at once changed. To the present time 
 the only impost levied by the King has been export duty 
 of 2' 5 per cent, on ivory and oil; and of these the place, 
 probably never exported more than 180,000^. per annum, 
 whilst now, in consequence of the protracted war, it 
 exports still less. This is a truly suicidal proceeding : 
 the only possible tax for the present is 2'5 per cent, on 
 imports, which, assuming them at 190,000^. per annum, 
 already realises 47 97/. a year,* without causing the 
 
 * Mr. Consul Campbell reported in 1858 that Lagos exported 4,612 
 tons of palm oil (184,4802.), 5,776 Ibs. of ivory (1,5002.), and 2,108
 
 240 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 natives to feel it. The Gold Coast has warned us 
 against a poll-tax, and though the whole seaboard is 
 virtually in our hands, it would hardly be prudent as 
 yet to lay a duty of fifty per cent, on arms, ammunition, 
 and alcohol, a consummation which I most devoutly 
 desire may become universal in Western Africa. We 
 might, however, begin with ten per cent. 
 
 The town of Lagos is certainly one of the most un- 
 healthy spots on these malarious shores, but the climate 
 may be mitigated. As the people do not bury in their 
 ground-floors, it is here easy to remove a house. Broad 
 streets, admitting free currents of air, and perfectly drained, 
 should run the whole length of the settlement parallel with 
 the Lagoon, and at right angles to these, cross ways from 
 the water side to the interior would supply ample venti- 
 lation. The site has a good slope towards the flowing 
 stream which is a ready-made cloaca maxima, and very little 
 cutting would draw off the rains, which now stand long 
 upon the stiff hardened sand. Another abuse calls loudly 
 for correction. The town is filled with deep holes, from 
 which the sand mixed with swish for walls has been dug 
 Clapperton found Sokotu in the same state; these 
 become favourite stores for offal and rubbish, and the 
 
 bales weighing 263,500 Ibs. of cotton (5,912Z. 10s.) The total of 
 export in that year was, therefore, 191,892Z. 10s. Although shea- 
 butter had appeared in the market, the native chiefs had organised a 
 powerful opposition to the palm-oil trade, hoping a return to the old 
 state of things. In 1859 the deficiency in the whole export trade of 
 palm oil from the Bight of Benin was expected to reach at least 
 10,000 tons.
 
 A DAY AT LAGOS. 241 
 
 hot weather fills them with putrefaction. And, finally, 
 the natives should be taught, or rather forced, to learn 
 something like purity in their habits. 
 
 With this little establishment, and with such simple 
 precautions, I am certain that Lagos, when ten years old, 
 will be able to provide for itself, and that in ten more it 
 would become the emporium of the great and rich 
 Yoruba and Dahomian countries, whose natural adit and 
 issue it is.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BENIN NUN BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 
 " Ye banks and braes o' Bonny - " 
 
 24iH SEPTEMBER, 186 . 
 
 IT is September, and one whole month from home 
 how short a time, and how great a change ! Within 
 that limited period we have passed through summer, 
 autumn, winter, and spring, and now we are in the 
 brumal season once more. A cold and drizzling Irish 
 rain, driven by the wind across decks, makes every- 
 thing comfortless. As yet, however, we have been 
 unable to complain of heat. The " unapparent fount of 
 glory " is shorn of his beams by the gaseous steamy air, 
 which fends off the heat from earth. So different is ra- 
 diation in the dry air of the desert, that, after an expe- 
 rience of Scinde and Aden, the consul declared he had 
 not yet felt a hot day ; the climate is that of Naples 
 during the sirocco. Touching the four seasons which 
 we have endured within the last thirty days, it is usual 
 to make in West Africa a very different distribution of 
 the year, little intelligible to the pure European, e. g. y 
 the dries, the tornadoes, the early rains, the little dries, 
 the later rains, the later tornadoes, and the smokes. Yet,
 
 BONNY EIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 243 
 
 by minute inspection, he can discover something of the 
 mechanism of the European year. The decay of old, and 
 the substitution of new growths, even in a land of ever- 
 greens, show a distinct demarcation. Spring opens with 
 its thunder-storms in October and November ; the hot 
 dry summer lasts till May ; and from June till late in 
 September, autumn and winter fill up the year. 
 
 At 8 P.M. on Tuesday, the 24th September, we find our 
 pop-guns off the mouth of the Benin river, or Great 
 Bio Formoso, conspicuous by its high north-western 
 bank. The vessels were rolling in the long surf, which is 
 here worse than even at Lagos. We took in two passen- 
 gers, Doctor and Mrs. Henry little thought we at 
 that time that she was destined to an untimely death ! 
 As the steamer never touches here on her way home, 
 passengers from Benin must perforce endure a long and 
 dangerous week's trip round the " Oil Rivers." Benin 
 assumes the dignity of almost classic ground. It was 
 visited in 1485 by the Portuguese Affonso de Aviro, 
 who returned home, bearing a demand for Christian mis- 
 sionaries on the part of the King. Fernao de Poo, after 
 discovering the " Beautiful island " which has taken his 
 name, sailed up the "Great River Beautiful," which he 
 probably so named from the family likeness of the 
 scenery : he founded a settlement at Gwato, and it 
 speedily numbered one thousand converts. According to 
 Barbot, who takes, as will be seen, the story from 
 Merolla, the King of Great Benin City offered, for the 
 very small consideration of a white wife, to drive all his 
 
 a 2
 
 244 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 subjects into the pale of the Church. At the island of 
 San Thome, "a strong appeal/' to use Mr. Wilson's 
 words,* "was made to the Christian feeling of the sister- 
 hood, one of whom had the courage to look the matter 
 in the face, and actually accepted the hand of his sable 
 Majesty. She ought to have been canonized, but it is 
 not known that this deed of self-sacrifice ever received 
 any special notice from the Father of the Church." I 
 may add, that if the then King was as fine-looking a 
 negro as the present occupant of the " Stool/' which 
 here is synonymous with the "Throne/' the young 
 lady lost little by exchanging him for an ex -sanguined 
 white of San Thome.f Here, however, the matter ended, 
 the country was found unwholesome, and at last, after 
 many a struggle, Christianity died out. Benin was visited 
 by Captain Thomas Wyndham in 1553, and in 1823, 
 
 * "Western Africa," p. 192. 
 
 *( Bosman, Letter XX., calls San Thome the Dutch churchyard, and 
 attributes the excessive mortality to three causes : the scorching heat, 
 the "thick and stinking mists," and, thirdly, the " excessive phle- 
 botomy of the Portuguese;" adding, "they have recourse to this on 
 the very least occasion, some of them letting blood above five times in 
 a year, and this it is which I believe makes them look more like 
 walking ghosts than men ; and this practice, the longer continued, 
 must necessarily the more weaken the constitution, for the nature of the 
 country is not snch as to supply them with hasty recruits of new blood." 
 Captain Owen ("Narrative of Voyages," Vol. II. p. 383) asserts that 
 during his whole experience on the African coast, there was not one 
 instance of perfect recovery after a liberal application either of the 
 lancet or of calomel " decidedly the most deadly enemies in a tropical 
 climate." And yet, in the same page, he recommends these two 
 destroyers, the one as a prevenlative, and the other as a restorative. 
 " I pray you avoid them."
 
 EONNY RIVEE TO FERNANDO PO. 245 
 
 Belzoni of the Pyramids left his bones near its banks. 
 The lowlands are rich in palm-oil ; a little gold is found 
 in the uplands, despite the theory which limits the pre- 
 cious metal to the Secoom river, west of Accra, and 
 the interior exports a few ivories; piper cubebs and 
 Malaguetta pepper grow wild, and the soil might be 
 taught to bear coffee and cocoa, indigo, sugar, and cotton. 
 At present it is a mere waste. 
 
 I had no opportunity of entering the Benin river. At 
 the time piracy and murder had been reported, the people 
 of Eishtown had slaughtered a Kruboy or two, belong- 
 ing to the Messrs. Harrison. A cruizer was hourly 
 expected by the natives to " break town," and they had 
 prepared for it by running all their valuables into the 
 bush. The fault, as usual, lies with the traders, who 
 will not " pull together." There is no " king" 
 Africanice for "head native" in the lower river. Benin 
 was in old times divided into two separate states, Benin 
 Proper and Wari (Warree). The royal family of the 
 former place becoming too numerous, divided, and settled 
 at the latter, which was of course tributary and depen- 
 dent, till the Portuguese persuaded it to throw off the 
 yoke. Some years afterwards, one of the Wari family, 
 or according to others, a slave of the King of Benin, 
 founded a town on the Jakwa (Jackwaw) creek, 
 which also, in due time, became independent. Alusa, 
 the King of Wari, died in 1848; Jambra, the present 
 sovereign of Benin, has little power, and " Governor 
 Jerry," of Jakwa, is an effete old man. The state of
 
 246 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the river is that of perfect anarchy. Some Europeans 
 sigh for the order and the responsibility of a single 
 ruler others, and they are in the majority, prefer not 
 to pay the comeys or customs which royalty would 
 demand and enforce. 
 
 I inquired of an intelligent fellow-passenger con- 
 cerning the Joemen, or Ijomen, to whom Mr. Consul 
 Hutchiuson has given, by hearsay, so vile a reputation. 
 Next to the tribes of Fernando Po, they are the best 
 abused race in this part of Africa, and both deserve a 
 better fate. Lieut. Forbes* calls them the Joh pirates, 
 and makes them the chief carriers of the human cargoes 
 exported from the Beninese interior to Lagos. A refer- 
 ence to Mr. Henry, of Benin, enables me to deny that 
 Mr. Henry had ever asserted that the " Ejoemen " had 
 eaten two Kruboys, that had deserted from a Liverpool 
 ship. It has not been proved that the Ijos ate the two 
 young officers of Captain Denham's ship, who impru- 
 dently boated up the river without sufficient force. ISor 
 can it be established that the West Indian, Carr, who in 
 1841 (SecondNiger Expedition) was returning to Aboh, on 
 the Niger, via Bonny, was "killed by these people, or King 
 Boy, an Ejoeman."t He was most probably murdered by 
 the Ibos, at the suggestion of some Christian trader. 
 
 Cannibalism is an interesting, though somewhat morbid 
 subject. Once, all anthropophagous tales were greedily 
 swallowed ; they are now fastidiously rejected. The pages 
 
 * "Dahomey and the Dahomians," chap. 1. 
 
 t " Ten Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians," chap. 5.
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 247 
 
 of many African travellers show so much hearsay and 
 little eye-sight, they supply, moreover, such ridiculous 
 details, that the public is justified in doubting anything 
 but personal evidence. But to deny, as some very silly 
 philanthropists of the Ethnological Society have denied, 
 its existence in West Africa, is to maintain, like the old 
 African, the impossibility of water becoming hard because 
 he had never seen it so. 
 
 After leaving Lagos, the low lands become a " false 
 coast," the gift of the Niger, whose western branches 
 extend as far as our new colony. Eastward, the furthest 
 limit is the Bonny, and possibly its eastern neighbour 
 the Andoni River, and the Ahombola ( Humballah) creek, 
 an inlet not named, though placed, in our charts.* 
 Nothing is more simple than to sketch the view as seen 
 from the sea. Above, an azure space based upon a 
 band of dull and bright greens, resting upon a thin line 
 of golden sand, and in the foreground a little deeper 
 ultramarine than in the air. In the rainy season, change 
 the blue above to a heavy mass of clouds, reposing upon 
 the land, and the blue below to a brown olive. Where 
 a river gap exists it will be denoted by an uneven notch 
 in the land, and as a rule the proper right point, that 
 is to say, the western, will be somewhat higher than the 
 other. The apparent continent will be found divided 
 into islands, and sub-divided into islets, by river-like 
 
 * The direct connection of the Bonny River with the true Niger is 
 still a subject of geographical speculation : I hope to solve the problem, 
 despite all its difficulties.
 
 248 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFEICA. 
 
 mangrove-haunted creeks, which I prefer to describe 
 when upon them. 
 
 About noon, on the 24th of September, we were off 
 the " Escravos," Slave river, corrupted to " Escrados," 
 the first stream lying southward of the Benin : it has a 
 bad bar, and is shallow, fit only for the humbler sort 
 of slavers. Next to it is the Eio dos Porcados " of 
 Galley- Slaves/'* a bathos it is called by our pilots, 
 with scanty reason, the " Warree river." "With a bar 
 that carries thirteen feet at low water, some say 
 twenty feet, and with a very narrow slope, this noble 
 estuary is wholly neglected. Its next neighbour is the 
 Kamos, or Bough river, which has twelve to fifteen feet 
 on the bar. Up this stream there are fine clay banks, 
 raised twenty to twenty-five yards above the water, and 
 bearing noble trees ; the people, contrary to the usual 
 habits of the "Creekmen/' cultivate the ground. Of 
 the Dodo I could hear nothing, and will not quote the 
 Directory. Next in order is the Pennington river, 
 so called from the young officer of Her Majesty's ship 
 "Avon," surveying the coast under Captain Denham, 
 in 1846, who was treacherously murdered by the afore- 
 said Creekmen. The Middleton is as unimportant and 
 little known as the Dodo ; it was christened after the 
 assistant-surgeon of the " Avon." The next is the 
 Winstanley outfalls, so called from another murdered 
 man here, as in the prairies of North America, death 
 
 * These descriptions, as far as the Niger, are mere hearsay : I have 
 not visited the mouths of the above-mentioned streams.
 
 SONNY EIVEE TO FEENANDO PO. 249 
 
 seems to be the only thing that can be recorded of 
 localities belonging to the " Avon " : the people pro- 
 bably supposed her to be a slaver, awaiting opportuni- 
 ties of capture, and fought accordingly. It was too late 
 for vision when we were off the Sengana, or Sengma, 
 the westernmost direct outlet of the Niger, and it was 
 midnight before we steamed across the mouth of " Black- 
 lands' Nile." 
 
 The obvious projection of the land at the base of the 
 immediate delta, has been called by old travellers, w r hose 
 eye for beauty appears to have been keen, " Cabo 
 Eormoso ; " with us it is " Cape Formosa," upon the 
 principle that the prima donna is ever saluted with Bray- 
 vo, and geographers differ as to whether it is to the east 
 or to the west of the river's mouth. The Nun, or Non, 
 was possibly so called by the Portuguese, who seem 
 to have denoted by a negative the several ne plus ultras 
 of their course from Lisbon to Australia.* It was pro- 
 moted to the dignity of principal outlet within our 
 memory; the last century and the first quarter of the 
 present, held four theories touching the course and issue 
 of the mighty Niger. 
 
 1. The ancients,t who, unlike the moderns, made 
 their chief explorations by land, and not by sea, held 
 
 * Cape Non, in Morocco, may be derived from the Arabic Has Nun 
 of Fish as Jonah is called Zu'l N6n, master of the fish. 
 
 f Pliny shows a certain knowledge of the Nigir, Nigeir, or Nigris, ita 
 divergence into many streams (OCTCTTCS, as Ptolemy says), and its rise, 
 like the Nile, after tropical rains. Ptolemy adds some remarkable 
 details, which, if mere coincidences, deserve to be considered marvellous.
 
 250 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 that the Niger flowed from past the centre of the conti- 
 nent to the eastward, losing itself in a great central 
 reservoir, like the Caspian Sea, called Wangara, or 
 Ghana,* where it was lost in the sands or evaporated 
 by the sun. This theory became popular after the first 
 journey of Mungo Park, whose very short experience had 
 only taught him that the course of the Niger was easterly. 
 This theory had one merit, it anticipated the discovery 
 of the Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa, con- 
 cerning which the geographical world is now so curious. 
 
 2. Others opined that the Niger terminates in the 
 White Nile, which D'Anville had then traced to the 
 south-south-west of Senaar. Mr. Grey Jackson, of 
 Moroccan celebrity, published the interesting fact, that 
 in 1780, seventeen native travellers from Tinbuktu 
 reached Cairo by water the whole way in eighteen 
 months, passing 1200 towns and cities. Major Rennell, 
 by a comparison of Mr. (Darfur) Browne's altitudes, 
 found this to be physically impossible. 
 
 3. Mr. George Maxwell, an experienced African trader, 
 who had lived long at the mouth of the Kongo, and who 
 had planned a boat exploration of the river, persuaded Mr. 
 Park contrary to his better judgment, we must hope 
 that the Zaire, or Kongo river, is the mouth of the 
 Niger.f Many objections were raised to this theory, e. g., 
 that it would make the stream cut the " Kong Moun- 
 
 * In Captain Tuckey's map the Zaire, or Kongo, is also made to issue 
 from a great marsh. 
 
 t Park, writing to Sir Joseph Banks, makes his Kasson guide state
 
 BONNY EIVEE TO FEENANDO PO. 251 
 
 tains " which it does and give the Niger a course of 
 4000 miles, or 500 longer than the Amazon. The theory, 
 however, led to the fatal expeditions of Park and Tuckey. 
 4. The two latter were pre-eminently English and erro- 
 neous opinions ; the fourth was French, and correct. 
 M. Reichard ("Ephemerides Geographiques," Weimar, 
 1808) was sanctioned in 1813 by the great Malte- 
 Brun ("Precis de la Geographic Universelle," vol. 4, p. 
 635), in opining that the Niger falls into the Gulf of 
 Guinea by a great delta, the Rio del Rey being the 
 eastern, and the Great Rio Formoso, or Benin,* being 
 its western, limits. This remarkable hypothesis, right 
 in the main, whilst wrong in detail, and characterised at 
 the time as " hazardous and uncertain," was probably 
 suggested by native testimony, the coasts of the Gulf of 
 Guinea being well known to French traders. It is hard 
 indeed to comprehend how an intelligent sailor could 
 pass by these shores without suspecting them to be the 
 delta of some great stream. Caillie, the much-abused 
 discoverer of Tinbuktu, wrote in 1828 these remarkable 
 words " If I may be permitted to hazard an opinion as 
 to the course of the River Dhioliba, I should say that it 
 
 that the Niger, after passing Ivashna, runs directly to the right hand, 
 or southwards, and that he was certain that it did not end anywhere 
 near Kashna or Bornu. This shows a glimmering of light. 
 
 * I quote the above memoriter. If correct, the limits of the 
 Nigrotic delta thus given are totally incorrect. The Rio del Eey is 
 wholly unconnected with the Niger ; even the nearer Calabar and Cross 
 rivers do not flow from it. The same is the case with the Benin river : 
 its source was placed by Mr. Beecroft in the highlands to the westward 
 of the Niger.
 
 252 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 empties itself by several mouths into the Gulf of 
 Benin." In 1829 longo intervatto Mr. Macqueen, 
 after collecting a large amount of evidence on the sub- 
 iect, recommended a careful examination of the rivers 
 between the Rio Formoso and Old Calabar, neither of 
 which, by the bye, are directly connected with the Niger. 
 I have given below* a summary of northern West 
 
 * In 1553, Capt. Thomas Wyndbam, the Portuguese Anes Pinteado, 
 entered the Benin river. 
 
 In 1558, Mr. Thompson reached Tenda by the Gambia, and was 
 followed there in 1620 by Robert Jobson, 
 
 In 1637, Jannequin ascended the Senegal. 
 
 In 1670, Paul Imbart attempted Tinbuktu via Morocco. 
 
 In 1698, the Sieur de Brue visited Galam on the Senegal. 
 
 In 1715, M. Compagnon reached Bambuk vid St. Louis de Senegal. 
 
 In 1723, Stables reached Bambuk vid the Gambia ; the same journey 
 was repeated by Moore in 1731. 
 
 In 1742, M. de Flandre reached Bambuk by St. Louis, and he was 
 followed in 1749 by the celebrated M. Adanson. 
 
 In 1748, M. Follier reached Bambuk by the Cape Nun Coast. 
 
 In 1785, MM. Sanguier and Brisson made the same journey. 
 
 In 1786, M. Ruband reached Galam via St. Louis. 
 
 In 1786-7, M. de Beauvois explored Benin and Wari. 
 
 In 1787, M. Picard struck Futa Toro vid St. Louis. 
 
 In 1791, Major Houghton ascended the Gambia river, and died at 
 Jarra in Ludamar. 
 
 In 1794, Messrs. Yates and Winterbottom reached Timbo by the 
 Rio Nunez. 
 
 In 1795-7, Mungo Park's first journey to Silla on the Joliba or 
 Kwara river. 
 
 In 1804, Mr. Nicholls died in the interior of Old Calabar. 
 
 In 1805, Mungo Park's second expedition : all his 44 companions, 
 including Lieut. Martyn, and Messrs. Anderson and Scott, died. 
 
 In 1809, M. Roentgen reached Busa vid Mogador. 
 
 In 1810, Robert Adams, alias Benjamin Rose, an American, was 
 carried prisoner to Tinbuktu.
 
 BONNY RIVEE TO FERNANDO PO. 253 
 
 African, including Nigritic, exploration, brought down 
 to the present date. The reader may see, by casting his 
 
 In 1815, Mr. James Riley, another American, master and supercargo 
 of the brig "Commerce," reached Tinbuktu by the western coast. 
 
 In 1816, Capt. Tuckey, R.N., accompanied by Lieut. Hawkins, Mr. 
 Fitzmaurice, master and surveyor, Dr. McKerrow, with petty officers 
 and marines, besides supernumeraries ; Professor Smith, botanist ; Mr. 
 Cranch, zoologist ; Mr. Tudor, anatomist ; and Mr. Lockhart, gar- 
 dener ; visited the lower Kongo ; of his 54 white men, a party of 30 
 set out on the land journey beyond the cataracts, and of these only 
 nine returned home. 
 
 In 1817, Major Peddle and Capt. Campbell reached Kakondi via the 
 Nunez river. 
 
 In 1817, M. Bandia reached Panjikot vid Egypt. 
 
 In 1817, P. Rouzie travelled into the interior. 
 
 In 1818, M. Mollieu reached Timbo vid St. Lotus. 
 
 In 1818-19, Capt. Gray, Royal African Corps, reached Bulibani, the 
 capital of Bondu. 
 
 In 1819, M. Dochard reached Yamina vid the Gambia. 
 
 In 1819, Mr. Bowdich visited Kumasi in Ashantee. 
 
 In 1820, M. Cachelot reached Wad Nun by the west coast of Africa. 
 
 In 1822, Major Laing reached Falaba vid Sierra Leone. 
 
 In 1822-5, Major Denham and Lieut. Clapperton explored Mandara 
 and Sokotu of the Sudan, losing Dr. Oudney and other Europeans. 
 
 In 1825-6, Captains Clapperton and Peace and Dr. Morrison lost 
 their lives in penetrating from the Bight of Benin ; Richard Lander 
 being the sole white survivor. 
 
 In 1827-8, Ren6 Caillie visited Tinbuktu and returned vid Morocco, 
 and in the same year Major Laing was murdered on his way from 
 Tinbuktu. 
 
 In 1830-1, Richard and John Lander entered Africa vid Badagry, 
 and discovered the embouchure of the Niger. 
 
 In 1832-4, the first, or Liverpool merchants' expedition, under the 
 late Messrs. Laird and Oldfield, and accompanied by Richard Lander, 
 ascended the Kwara to Rabba, and the Binue (Chadda) to Dagbo. Of 
 the 49 European crew in the steamers Qworra and Alberkah the latter 
 is Anglo- Arabic for a blessing only nine lived to return. Richard 
 Lander was shot with a bullet in the groin, by some people of Anjama,
 
 254 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 eye upon the map, that discovery has but begun. At 
 present, as in Arctic travelling, there is a lull, but it cer- 
 
 in the Oru country, as he was descending the river in a canoe full of 
 cowries, and died at Clarence, Fernando Po. 
 
 In 1836, 1840, and 1845, the late Mr. Beecroft, under Mr. Jamieson 
 of Liverpool, ascended in the "Ethiope" the Benin, Wari, Niger, Old 
 Calabar, and Cross rivers : he reached within 30 miles of this side of 
 Busa. 
 
 In 1841, the Government expedition under Captain the late Admiral 
 H. D. Trotter, in the "Albert," and Commander W. Allen in the 
 *' Wilberforce," accompanied by the "Soudan," Commander B. Allen> 
 ascended to Egga, 150 miles above the confluence, losing in 64 days (the 
 " Soudan " remained only 40) 48 out of 145 white men. The late Mr. 
 Consul Beecroft ran up the river in the "Ethiope," and succeeded in 
 saving the "Albert," conveying her to Fernando Po. 
 
 In 1845, the late Mr. Duncan visited Abomey. 
 
 In 1852, the African Steam-Ship Company was formed, and in 1856- 
 57 an intercolonial steamer was sent to promote the establishment of a 
 regular steam communication between Fernando Po and the confluence 
 of the Kwara and Binue rivers. 
 
 In 1854, the Chadda mixed expedition, sent by the late Mr. M. 
 Laird, who received 5000Z. from the Admiralty for the expenses of the 
 voyage, under Dr. Baikie, R.N., the senior Government officer after the 
 death of Mr. Consul Beecroft, Mr. D. J. May, master R.N., Dr. Hutch- 
 inson, Mr. Taylor, afterwards vice-consul at Abeokuta, representing 
 Mr. Laird (the reader has probably perused Dr. Baikie's "Journal"), 
 explored in the little steamer "Pleiad," built by Mr. J. Laird, 
 on the lines of the yacht " America" 150 miles of virgin ground, and 
 remained in the river 118 days, with 54 Europeans, of whom not a man 
 died ; a new era in African exploration. 
 
 In August, 1857, the Niger mixed expedition, missionary, scientific, 
 naval, and commercial, began under Dr. Baikie, Mr, D. J. May, mas- 
 ter, Lieut. Glover, Dr. Davis, Mr. Barter, botanist (dead), and Mr. 
 Dalton, zoologist. In opposition to this Government party was Mr. 
 Laird's commercial venture, Captain Alexander Grant (died at Benin), 
 supercargo, Mr. Howard (dead), purser, and Dr. Berwick. The "Day 
 Spring," which carried them, was lost on a ledge near the Jebba rock, 
 16 miles above Rabba. Her commander, by means of his steward,
 
 BONNY EIVER TO FEENANDO PO. 255 
 
 tainly will not last. The Niger, as has been M r ell 
 observed, is not a lottery in which men may win for- 
 
 Selim Agha, returned overland to Lagos in February, 1858, recruited 
 outfit, and once more made the camp. 
 
 In 1858, the African Steam-Ship Company's ship "Sunbeam," Capt. 
 Fairweather, went to Fernando Po. Lieut. Glover made a second over- 
 land journey to Lagos, and finding the ship to draw nine feet of water, 
 despaired, and once more returned to the camp. The "Sunbeam" was 
 successfully taken up to Rabba, in July, 1858, by Capt. Fairweather and 
 Mr. May, master R.N., an excellent officer. At the end of September, 
 1858, came out the African Steam-Ship "Rainbow," Capt. M'Nivan, and 
 the latter returning home, she was commanded by Capt. Walker, whose 
 interesting narrative may be found in the Blue Book of 1861. 
 
 In April, 1859, Dr. Baikie and Mr. Baiter, followed during the next 
 month by Mr. Dalton, Lieut. Glover, and Selim Agha, rode up to 
 Rabba, and descended the Niger in the "Rainbow" and the "Sun. 
 beam " to the Confluence, where Dr. Baikie has remained ever since. 
 
 In Nov. 1859, Lieut. Glover, during the "battle of the depart- 
 ments," left the Niger, having "differed in opinion" with, or been 
 differed with by, every other in the river. 
 
 In 1860, Mr. Macgregor Laird, the main-spring of the Niger move- 
 ment, died ; he had not reaped where he had sown, and his executors 
 have, it is said, resolved to end the present expedition before the spring 
 of the year 1862. Meanwhile there is little doing. Dr. Baikie is 
 still at the confluence, and his only white companion, Mr. Dalton, was 
 preparing to return to England ; the "Sunbeam," Capt. Walker, was 
 also about to leave; H.M.S. "Espoir," Commander Douglas, is said 
 to be hard and fast near Tuesday Island, about 80 miles from the 
 mouth, and on dit H.M.S. " Bloodhound," Lieut. -Commanding Dolben, 
 though drawing 10 feet of water, will be sent up with supplies for her. 
 
 It is to be hoped that Dr. Baikie will not remain unsupported. 
 Knowingly or unknowingly he has adopted the true plan of civilising 
 Africa, by abandoning the deleterious and impracticable coast to mis- 
 sionaries, and by settling in the interior. He has collected a large 
 town around him, and with a constitution which seems proof against 
 any hardship, privation, or fatigue, he remains there, maturing fresh 
 plans for opening up the African interior. 
 
 Without entering into lengthy details touching the produce of the
 
 256 WANDEEINaS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 tunes, but a field of labour in which they may earn 
 them. It is directly connected with the twenty or thirty 
 
 Nigerian regions, I may be allowed to quote the following list of the 
 Central and Western African articles sent by him and others to the 
 Exhibition of 1862, extracted from the Catalogue : 
 
 AFRICA, CENTRAL. 
 
 Under Staircase, near Central Entrance to Horticultural Gardens. 
 Baikie, Dr. W. Balfour, R.N. 
 
 I, 2. Striped men's cloth, from Hausa. 
 
 3, 4. Cloth made of fibres of the wine-palm and cotton, from the 
 right bank of Kwarra. 
 
 5. A tobe, poorest quality, made in Nupe. 
 
 6. A tobe of finer quality. 
 
 7. A white tobe with plaits, from Nupe. 
 
 8. Striped trowsers, Nupe or Hausa make. 
 
 9. 10. Common cloth, for women from Bonu. 
 
 II. A woman's wrapper, made in Nupe. 
 
 12. A woman's wrapper, from Nupe. 
 
 13. A woman's wrapper, not made up, called " Locust's tooth." 
 
 14. A wrapper containing red silk, called Maizha'n baki, or "red 
 mouth." 
 
 15. An inferior wrapper, from Nupe. 
 
 16. Blue and white cloth, from Nupe. 
 
 17. 18. Cloth made in Yoruba. 
 19, 20. Cloths from Nupe, 
 2125. Cloths from Yoruba. 
 
 26. Small cloth for girls, from Nupe. 
 
 27. Bag from Onitsha. 
 
 28. Mat, from right bank of Kwarra. 
 
 29. Tozoli (sulphuret of lead), applied to the eyelids. 
 
 30. Man's wrapper, from Ki, in Bonu. 
 
 32. Woman's head-tie, or alfuta, from Nupe. 
 
 33. Bags for gunpowder, from Onitsha. 
 
 34. 35. A calabash and ladle. 
 
 37. Red silk, or " Al harini," of Hausa. 
 
 38. Sword hangings, or " Amila," made at Kano, in Hausa. 
 
 39. Siliya, or red silk cord, from Kano. 
 
 40. Rope, from Onitsha. 
 
 41. 42. Bags.
 
 SONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 257 
 
 millions of people in the Sudan ; the centres of trade 
 are upon the stream, yet the long and terrible caravan 
 
 43. White cloth, or fari, made in Nupe and Hausa. 
 
 44. White cloth, from below the confluence. 
 
 45. A white tobe, from Nupe. 
 
 46. Four calabashes, for pepper, &c. 
 
 47. A small calabash and lid, for food. 
 
 48. 49. Pinnae of leaves of the wine-palm, dried and used for 
 thatching. 
 
 50. Fruit of a leguminous plant, which buries its fruit like Ara- 
 chis hypoycea. 
 
 51. Grass cloth, of wine palm. 
 
 52. Two cloths, from Okwani. 
 
 53. White cloth, from below the confluence. 
 
 54. White perforated cloth, from the Ibo country. 
 
 55. Mats from Onitsha. 
 
 56. Large man's wrapper, from Nupe. 
 
 1. A white mat of leaves of the fan-palm, from Bonu. 
 
 2. Mats of the fan-palm, from Bonu. Fan -palm mats, called guva, 
 or, "Elephant mats." 
 
 3. Fine mats and hats, of leaves of the Phcenix spinosa, dyed. 
 Circular mats of the same material, used by chiefs, from Nupe. 
 
 AFRICA, WESTKBN. 
 
 Northern Courts, under Staircase, near Central Entrance to Horti- 
 cultural Gardens. 
 Commercial Association of Abeokuta. 
 
 1. Oils : Of beni seed, obtained by fermentation and boiling. 2. Of 
 Egusi, from wild melon seed. 3. Of palm, for home consumption ; 4. 
 for exportation, obtained by beating, pressing, and boiling the fruit. 
 6, 7. Of palm nut, for home consumption ; 6. for exportation. 11. 
 Shea butter. 10. Egusi, or wild melon, fruit. 8. Beni seed. 9. Fruit 
 of the Shea butter tree. 
 
 1. White cotton thread ; 2. Dyed ; 3. Blue. 4. Fine spun cotton. 
 5. Coarse strong spun cotton, called "Akase." 6. Akase cotton, 
 cleaned and bowed ; 7. In seed. 8. Seed itself of Akase cotton. 9, 
 10. Ordinary native cotton. 11, 12, 13. Ordinary green, black, 
 and brown seeded cottons. 14. Silk cotton. 16. Country rope of bark. 
 
 VOL. II. S
 
 258 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 march of four months still supplies articles more cheaply 
 than we can afford to sell them, via the Niger. Hitherto 
 all has been mismanagement. Government favoured the 
 African Steam-ship Company, which excited the jealousy 
 
 17. Palm fibre. 18. Red dyed native silk, from Illorin. 20. Fibre used 
 for native sponge. 23, 24, 25. Native silk, from a hairy silk-worm at 
 Abeokuta. 26. Leaves of the cotton tree. 27. Pine-apple fibre. 29. 
 Bow-string fibre. 30. Jute. 
 
 15. Long black pepper. 22. Senna. 21. A sample of native anti- 
 mony, from Illorin. 
 
 Sundry native manufactures. 
 
 N.B. Cotton is obtainable in any quantity, and is now grown 
 extensively throughout the Yoruba country, especially to the east and 
 north. Great quantities of cotton cloths, of a strong texture, are 
 annually made, finding their way to the Brazils, and into the far 
 interior. To obtain a largely increased supply of cotton, it is only 
 necessary to open roads, and bring money to the market. Upwards of 
 2000 bales have been exported this year, and the quantity would have 
 been doubled or trebled if the country had been at peace . The present 
 price is 4Jd. per Ib. The other fibres are not at present made for 
 exportation, though, doubtless, some of them jute, for instance 
 frould be, if in demand. Of the native manufacture, the grass cloths, 
 made from palm fibre, and the cotton cloths, are most prominent. 
 Very nice leather work is done. The art of dyeing Morocco leather 
 iifferent colours has been introduced from the interior. Indigo is 
 ilmost the only dye which can be obtained in considerable quantities. 
 The natives manufacture all their own iron implements, and the 
 quality of the metal is considered good. 
 
 2. McWilliam, the late Dr. C. B. 1. Cloth, from the Confluence of 
 the Niger and Tchadda. 2. Eaw silk from Egga. 3. Cotton from 
 the confluence. 4. Fishing spear, used by the natives of Kakunda. 
 5. Spoons, from Gori market. 6. A curved horn for holding galena, 
 used to paint the eyelids. 7. Cloths, from towns on the Gambia. 8. 
 Grass mat, from Angola. 9. Grass mat, from Binguela. 
 
 3, Walker, R. B. Gaboon. A collection of mats, fibres, commercial 
 products, skins, native arms, musical instruments, &c., of the Ba Faa 
 tribes.
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 259 
 
 of others, especially the traders of the Brass river, who 
 urged the villagers in the lower course to acts of direct 
 hostility. The last 40(W. a year, however, have been 
 granted, and a much larger subsidy, say 9000/. or 
 10,000, should take its place. Mixed expeditions have 
 been sent out only to fail : where naval officers, mission- 
 aries, and mercantile men are all urging their several 
 interests, success can hardly be expected. The quarrels 
 between the members of the last expedition completely 
 crippled it : moreover, it was managed on Exeter Hall 
 principles. Captain Trotter frightened his sailors to 
 death by chalking up, it is said, "PREPARE TO MEET 
 THY GOD," and similar consolatory recipes, in the 
 largest letters, all about the ship. The next exploration 
 allowed the Krumen to rob what they pleased, and the 
 lieutenant who managed nav^l matters is said to have 
 encouraged slaves to desert from their masters a pro- 
 ceeding sufficient to account for any failure, 
 
 We shall never drop the Niger : the main artery of 
 Western Africa north of the Line must not be neglected. 
 All agree that it will pay pounds, where pence are now 
 collected, though people differ as to the means of making 
 it pay. After many a long " talk " with those whose 
 opinions are worth most, I propound the following as 
 the directest way of opening up the stream. A large 
 armed hulk, manned by Krumen, under military or naval 
 law, and carrying an outfit like that sent to the Brass 
 river, would be stationed at Akassa, within the Nun 
 bar. The next measure would be to make treaties with
 
 260 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 the hostile chiefs of the delta, settling a certain Comey* 
 upon them : the want of this is the principal cause of 
 disturbances. The great requisite would be a comman- 
 der ready to act with energy, and not " mickonary ;" 
 two gunboats would be safer, in case of grounding, than 
 one, and they should not enter the river later than the 
 first of June. After making or forcing a peace, postal 
 and intercolonial steamers might begin plying; they 
 should visit the river every month or six weeks, and 
 steam as high as the Confluence, where they could run all 
 the year round, if built after the American fashion, flat- 
 bottomed, drawing two to three feet, with stern wheels, 
 and with walking-beam engines ; the furnaces should be 
 able to burn wood, the bulwarks high and musket- 
 proof, and the armament wall-pieces, and a few culverias. 
 After the steamers would come depots and trading- 
 houses, at the five following points : 
 
 1. Anjama, at the head of the lower delta. 
 
 2. Aboh, at the head of the upper delta. 
 
 3. Oricha, midway between the sea and the Confluence. 
 
 4. Idda, between the Onicha and the Confluence. 
 
 5. Ibegbe, or the Confluence of the Kwara and Binue. 
 Thus, and thus only, can considerable collections of 
 
 cotton be made upon the Niger ; and thus the traffic of 
 the Great Artery, which injured, it is to be feared, the 
 fortunes of the intrepid explorer, will, after a few years, 
 become of importance to England. 
 
 On the morning of the 25th September I inspected, 
 en passant, what is supposed to be the " Beautiful Cape/'
 
 SONNY EIVEE TO FERNANDO PO. 261 
 
 To the leeward, or eastward, is " Cape Filana," by the 
 English called Palm Point, a fine clump of feathery trees 
 springing from a thin line of the blondest sand. Here 
 was the old Portuguese town of Akassa, long since in 
 ruins : it is said that a tomb was lately found there, 
 bearing the date A.D. 1635. If this be the case, the 
 Portuguese must have known the upper Niger centuries 
 before we did, and must have kept it a mystery as pro- 
 found as the Kongo is in the year of grace 1861. Point 
 Trotter, a blue line of tree-clad bluff, rises within Filana, 
 and opposite the latter, or to the westward, is Cape Nun, 
 which we know as " West Point." The bar is said to be 
 one of the best on this coast : it has shifted, however, 
 since the date of the last chart. 
 
 We are now fairly inside the Bight of Biafra, or 
 Biaffra, an English corruption from the Portuguese Rio 
 de Maffras, a name which they gave to one of the rivers. 
 It is the innermost part of the Guinea Gulf, extending 
 from Cape Formoso, or the Delta of the Niger, in N. lat. 
 4 16' 17" to Cape St. John, in N. lat. 1 9' 7". A 
 straight line, uniting both these promontories, and 
 passing near Prince's Island, would measure about 450 
 miles along the coast about 650. It is divided into two 
 very distinct sections by the mass of mountains called 
 the Camaroons. The country to the north of that 
 glorious pile is a false coast, a succession of continental 
 islands and land in a state of formation. The expanse 
 of mud and mangrove forms a fit habitation for the 
 iguana and crocodile, with flats and fetid lagoons haunted
 
 262 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 by crabs and craw-fish ; whilst a few villages, at long 
 intervals, lurk at the bottom of blind channels and tidal 
 inlets, where they can preserve themselves by fight or 
 flight. The creeks and rivers, outspread as a network 
 over the mass of dense and rotten vegetation, are kept 
 in loco by the strong and steady tides which dredge the 
 beds without sweeping away the mangroves that hedge 
 them in. A glance shows you that all around is literally 
 a young country, which, perhaps, in ages to be may con- 
 stitute a Nigrotic empire. To the south, beginning even 
 at the Camaroons river, there is a change : the banks 
 are high and clayey, the palm-oil tree (Elseis Guineen- 
 sis) becomes rarer, yielding in traffic to ivory, and 
 the people are, though wilder, a finer race than those 
 of the Delta. This gradual improvement continues 
 through the Gaboon river to Angola, where provisions 
 are procurable, horses will live, and human life has some 
 enjoyment. The southern section of the Bight of Biafra 
 contains, also, two little coves, known in charts as the 
 Bights of Pannavia and Bata; the words, however, are 
 now little used. Pannavia lies to the north of the 
 Batanga country, whose river, the Elobe, forms its 
 southern extremity. The Bight of Bata is between the 
 Campo and the Benito rivers ; it is the seat of those 
 remarkable foundations the Seven Hills or Sisters. 
 
 Of the twenty-five streams which discharge themselves 
 into this great Bight, there are six Oil Rivers viz., the 
 Nun, or Niger, the New Calabar, Bonny, Old Calabar, 
 Camaroons, and Malimba : those to the south are visited
 
 EONNY EIVEE TO FERNANDO PO. 263 
 
 for ivory, gum-elastic, and timber, especially ebony, 
 African cedar, and mahogany, cam-wood and dye-wood. 
 As yet nothing is known of the interior. 
 
 At 7 A.M. on the 25th September we found ourselves 
 off the Brass river.* In this part of the coast every 
 stream appears to have received, from its christeners 
 Diego Cam, or Fernao de Poo as many names as that 
 Portuguese hidalgo to whom, as the old Spanish story 
 relates, the innkeeper refused to open his gates, stating 
 that he could not accommodate so many people. The 
 Brass is called Second River, because in old times ships 
 bound for the New Calabar and Bonny estuary used to 
 coast down the six rivers, along the 60 to 70 miles east- 
 ward from the Nun or Niger. It is also known to the 
 English as St. John ; to the Portuguese as Hio Beuto; and 
 some books call it the Oddy, Fonsoady, and Malfonsa. 
 
 The land is mangrove, the sky cloudy nimbus and 
 cumulus disposed meridionally, as they love to be in the 
 tropics, necking patches of a pale milk-and-water blue 
 and the dangerous bar chafes and seethes across a dwarf 
 indent, whose bluff and wooded banks open like portals 
 into the azure region within. The next, passed at almost 
 an equal distance ten to eleven miles with surprising 
 regularity of shelve, one fathom of depth representing 
 one mile of distance off shore, is the St. Nicholas, Filana 
 or Tilana, Sempta or Lempta,f Juan Diaz, or Third 
 
 * It was so called from the then favourite object of traffic "Nep- 
 tunes " or brass pans. 
 
 t Some apply the last two names to the Fourth River, the Santa 
 Barbara.
 
 264 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 River; its double bar, which breaks right across, was 
 afterwards crossed by the Consul and Lieutenant Dol- 
 ben, H.M.S. " Bloodhound/' under direction of the late 
 Captain Alexander Grant; they found this stream to 
 be a branch of the Brass river, and there is a well- 
 known creek which threading the " Mosquito Country/' 
 as it is called, leads into the New Calabar. Leaving the 
 St. Nicholas, whose coast projects somewhat seawards, 
 we made the broad Santa Barbara, Meas, or Fourth 
 Eiver, another fine study of a bar. The Consul and 
 Lieutenant Dolben were nearly swamped in an attempt to 
 cross it, but escaped, much to the regret of certain gentry 
 on board H. M. S. "Bloodhound," who would willingly 
 have quitted the Bights and the Oil Rivers for the 
 " South Coast Station." 
 
 It was almost too far to distinguish the gap 
 of the half-way stream, Rio San Bartolomeo, or the 
 Fifth River. The glass, however, showed us from the 
 southwards an island in mid-channel, formed by two 
 narrow arms ; and the bar was seen bursting with rollers, 
 whose "wall-like sides and hairy heads" looked peculiarly 
 unprepossessing. Then came the Rio Sombreiro, also 
 called the Rio dos Tres Irmaos, of the Three Brothers 
 and Sixth River : the first name is derived from a patch of 
 trees on the bluff western entrance, resembling a priest's 
 shovel-hat ; they have of course disappeared long ago. 
 Another seven miles took us to our present destination, 
 the broad estuary of the New Calabar, or Kalabar, alias 
 Rio Real, alias Calbarine, alias Neue Calborgh, alias.
 
 BONNY EIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 265 
 
 Calbary.* The brother stream, Bonny, or Grand Bonny, 
 is at least as rich in nomenclature. f Its present popular 
 English name is doubtless derived through the native 
 word " Obani." The contrast between name and nature 
 must have rendered the easy corruption a fashionable 
 pleasantry nothing can be more categorically unbonny 
 and possibly the foul sky, fouler water, and foulest 
 land, may have reminded some irate Scotchman of Bonny 
 Dundee, thereby giving so debonnaire a sound to so 
 ungodly a hole. " Grand " it is in abominations, moral 
 and physical. 
 
 The approach to the Bonny from the west is denoted 
 by Fouche, or Foche, Gap, a deep indentation in the 
 wooded seabank, three miles to westward of the estuary. 
 Then comes the village and the Point Fouche. Barbot 
 calls the former Foko, and says that the Dutch named it 
 " Wyndorp," on account of its abundance of palm wine : 
 he places it on an island and numbers 309 houses. Dr. 
 Daniell reckons above 300 souls, pilots and fishermen. 
 They are under King Amakree, of New Calabar (from 
 
 * The name is said to date from almost two centuries back, when one 
 of the Ephraim Duke family from old Calabar settled here. 
 
 t Barbot, 1678-1 706, calls it Bandy, or Great Bandy river. The 
 people's own word is Okoloma ; the Ibos call it Obani, Ibani, and 
 Okoloba ; and the Abo tribe of Ibos call it Osiminika. 
 
 All is changed since 1826, when H. M. S. ' ' Barracouta " surveyed 
 it. Sualo Island, east of New Calabar mouth, is now covered with 
 trees, and is growing to be part of the main land. Monkey Creek and 
 Young Town are not laid down at all ; Breaker Island is laid down as 
 a mere shoal it is now overgrown with vegetation, and is rapidly 
 rising from the sea.
 
 266 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 whose rule, however, they would willingly escape), and 
 they want a lesson, as do most of the negroes in these 
 parts; but, ten to fifteen years ago, the "Juju-king" 
 Awanta was deported to Ascension Island for firing 
 upon ships' boats. "We passed the mouth of the New 
 Calabar, about one mile broad, and divided from the 
 Bonny by the Middle Bank, or Calabar Flat. "We then 
 crossed over, passing by Breaker Island in the centre 
 to near Rough Corner, the east end of the estuary : 
 Barbot places his Bandy Point four leagues east of 
 Fouche Point ; it is usually reckoned seven miles across. 
 The proper Bonny mouth is two to three miles broad, 
 bounded by Rough Corner, which from its clump of 
 trees the Portuguese called Fanal, or the Light- 
 house, and Breaker Island, a low sandy bushy patch, 
 distinctly above high water, and commanding a fine view 
 of the outer bar. Portuguese Channel and Man-of-"War 
 Channel being unbuoyed, are left to starboard ; they are 
 never used by the mail steamers. There are three chief 
 banks, the Western, the Baleur, connected by a sandpit 
 with the former, and separated by deep water from the 
 third or Portuguese Bank. The shifting of the swash- 
 ways and channels makes this river, even with the best of 
 lead and look-out, a place of cold perspiration to ship- 
 owners ; and so it will remain, until some acute oificial 
 fines the negroes 100 puncheons, and buoys the entrance. 
 The A. S. S. Company is most unwise in stationing its 
 large steamers within this river, whose adit presents more 
 dangers than all the rest of the voyage together, whilst
 
 ONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 267 
 
 the salt water affects the ships' bottoms, and materially 
 interferes with their rate of progress. 
 
 At 1 P.M., when we prepared to run in, the amphi- 
 theatre of bar and breakers roaring, foaming, and burst- 
 ing everywhere ahead of us, and on both sides looked 
 uncommonly threatening. We followed, however, the 
 usual rule, avoided the Baleur bank, by keeping Peter For- 
 tis, or Peterside, a village on the river's right bank, a sail's 
 breadth open from Juju Point, a projection of the left 
 shore. The buoys were in good order ; we left the outer 
 one on our left, the "Red JSun" and the "Black Can" 
 a little bucket-like affair on our right, and we looked 
 vainly for the Black Beacon of the charts. We carried 
 five feet of water clear over the outer bar, which is not 
 so long as that of Lagos ; and the inner, here, as in all 
 other African rivers, presents no terrors. Rough Corner 
 is known by an unwhitewashed framework, representing 
 the fanal. A native house or two subsequently added 
 represent embryo defences against possible Yankee pirates. 
 When troubles with America M r ere expected, the super- 
 cargoes proposed raising a battery at Eough Corner, to 
 command the run in; the clear way was, however, 
 nearly three miles broad, and would require at least a 
 floating battery. The bar was not unduly violent : per- 
 haps the annual little girl had just been sacrificed to it.* 
 Behind the low, jagged line of trees, called Breaker Island* 
 
 * According to Dr. Madden (Parliamentary Report, 1842), this bar- 
 barous custom was kept up as late as 1840, and it is more than probable 
 that the sacrifice is still privately performed.
 
 268 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 a giant cloud, purple with wrath, usurped one quarter of 
 the heavens, and threatened trouble. 
 
 The Bonny fleet then drew in sight, tall ships that are 
 pleasant to look at little profitable, however and seven- 
 teen in number. There were seven or eight hulks, four 
 of them beached, all whitewashed and thickly thatched 
 over ; the most conspicuous was the " William Money," 
 an old Indiaman, teak -built and Dutch-like ; she is about 
 seventy years old, and now acts coal-hulk to the A. S. S. 
 Company. The merchantmen rode high up the stream ; 
 lower down, in the men-of-war anchorage, lay a single 
 paddle-wheel,which proved to be H. M. S. "Bloodhound," 
 Lieut.-Commanding Dolben, bound for the Niger, with a 
 cargo of two score black missionaries, male and female, 
 who managed to oust him from his cabin, and to beg 
 provisions till he had not the heart to refuse. As we 
 passed Rough Corner on our starboard side we remarked 
 the excessive deuseness of the bush ; near the framework 
 of whitewashed scantling that acts landmark, is a small 
 platform, where it is said sporting skippers have spent the 
 night, waiting for leopards, here called " tigers." Euro- 
 pean sailors were seen perambulating the sands ; it was 
 low tide then; at the flow this "marine parade" is under 
 water, and decks form the only promenade. Within 
 Hough Corner, and separated by a mile of bend, or 
 baylet, lies Juju Point the white man's grave before the 
 cemetery was removed to the former place : now it is oc- 
 cupied by witch houses and holy trees. From this point 
 three giants of the forest, rising side by side, mark the
 
 BONNY EIVEE TO FERNANDO PO. 269 
 
 site of Bonny Town one smells it, however. Traces 
 of old barracoons are shown on the other side of the 
 creek, which leads up to Juju Town; occasionally a 
 ship's gig, with a white face in the stern, and six Krumen 
 rowing, may be seen stealing along like cat on house- 
 top that way. " The sex " is not fetish at Juju Town, 
 and King Jack is a &on enfant, a Gunjisk i tildi, or 
 " Golden Sparrow," as the Persians call it. A little 
 beyond this lies Srnoke Town, so called from the curls of 
 vapour that alone denote its existence ; there were, how- 
 ever, sundry palms, everywhere in Africa the symbol of 
 population. On the other side of the broad channel is a 
 low dark bank of vegetation, " Deadman's Island/' thus 
 grimly called from the feud between the Bonny people and 
 the New Calabars. We pass in succession Tallifer (1000 
 souls), half hidden by bush; Fishtown, and the village 
 of Peter Portis, the latter opposite the Bonny creek. 
 But, where is Bonny itself? The experts reply by 
 pointing to a few rugged wash-houses on the beach, and 
 by telling you that the town, being in a hollow, shows 
 only the top of its smoke to the river. 
 
 Prom the sixteenth century almost to the present day, 
 Bonny was the great slave market of the Bights, seldom 
 exporting less than 16,000 souls a year. According to 
 the philanthropic Clarkson (" History of the Abolition 
 of the Slave-Trade "), this river and Old Calabar 
 exported as many " contrabands " as all the, rest of the 
 coast together. Hence the " Eboe " (Ibo) woman of 
 the United States. This lasted till 1832, when it came
 
 270 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 abruptly to an end; from 1825 it had begun to 
 decline. There are still men on the river who can re- 
 member the blockade of boats at the mouth, and tell with 
 gusto how the jolly slavers often managed to make a 
 run. The fate of Bonny is now changed. The old slave 
 river has now become the great centre of the palm-oil 
 trade, seldom exporting less than 16,000, and some- 
 times 18,000, tons per annum, or nearly three-quarters 
 of a million of pounds sterling, to be divided amongst 
 ten or twelve houses.* 
 
 An old collier-like craft, painfully bluff, looked sadly 
 misplaced near the noble Bonny fleet. She proved to 
 be the brig " Bewley," Captain Le Marquand (Jersey 
 man), of 184 tons new register, twenty -eight years old, 
 and hardly worth 400. Messrs. Gammon, Sons, and 
 Carter, coal merchants at Ratcliffe, chartered her, with a 
 crew of twelve articled seamen, for the snug sum of 
 200 per mensem receiving 900 in advance to the 
 King Pimento of these Cannibal Lands, who has come 
 to his own again. On the 18th August, 1861, his 
 Majesty reached the river, without a poet-laureate, but 
 accompanied by nine men a premier, a secretary, an 
 assistant-secretary, three clerks, and one doctor, who, 
 before leaving home, expressly stipulated that he was to 
 " hold his proper position at court," a farmer to trim 
 mangroves, and a valet for the royal person. The 
 salaries varied from 600 a-year, plus 15 for naval 
 
 * The Bonny puncheon is thirty-eight inches in head, and forty-two 
 in stern, and contains 240 gallons.
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 271 
 
 uniforms, to 60, and some of these imprudent green- 
 horns were men with families at home, and perhaps in 
 want. I regret to say that there were two English- 
 women, Mrs. Wood, the gardener's wife, who was to 
 act schoolmistress, and " Miss Mary," a servant girl, 
 who became maid-of-honour to Eleanor, alias Allaputa 
 Queen Pimento. The suite, on seeing the real state of 
 affairs, became highly indignant ; they were half-starved 
 on board, and when they reached the unbonny 
 river, the store of doubloons, supposed to be concealed, 
 was not forthcoming ; nor was the sum of 12,000, owed 
 by the King of Calabar, paid. One of them was too 
 glad to compromise a debt of 120 on the receipt of 
 half-a-sovereign, the only specie in the royal exchequer. 
 The captain wanted 1829, arrears of pay, and retained 
 the king's kit, which royalty valued at 1676, the last 
 figure removed would probably be nearer truth. Mean- 
 while there was a scene on board the " Bewley " that 
 would hardly bear describing; the less said about the 
 "inner life of an African king," and his suite also, the 
 better. 
 
 About eighty or ninety years ago, an Ibo chief settled 
 with his slaves on the Bonny river. This Opubo, or 
 Obullo, the " Great Man," was grandfather of the present 
 chief : his son took the name of Pepper, which he now 
 spells with a change, and married a woman from the 
 Abilli (Billa) country, west of the New Calabar river. 
 Their progeny, the "king," in the African accepta- 
 tion of the word, also espoused a bush-woman. He
 
 272 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 is one of the three free men in this part of the river, 
 the others being Ben Pepple, a half -idiot, and our 
 friend Jack Brown, of Juju Town ; this is a small pro- 
 portion to about 9000 serviles, of whom some few are 
 " Bonny free," but none "proper free."* This popu- 
 lation of Ibo slaves speaks the Okoloma, or Bonny 
 language; but all the slave "gentlemen" know a kind 
 of English. On the 21st November, 1848, he made a 
 treaty for the suppression of slavery with Captain Eden, 
 of Her Majesty's ship " Amphitrite," for an annual pre- 
 sent of $2000 till 1854. In 1853 a stroke of paralysis, 
 induced by over-indulgence, crippled King Pimento's 
 right side, and from this hemiplegia he has never 
 recovered. Two of his men, Ishakko, alias Fred 
 Pepple, and Yanibu, were then appointed as chiefs and 
 regents. On the 23rd January, 1854, Mr. Consul 
 Beecroft, at the request of all the native chiefs and 
 traders, deposed his Majesty, who was ruining the river 
 by his wars with Calabar, and substituted for him 
 Prince Dappa, or Dapho, son of Pimento's elder brother, 
 and therefore rightful heir to the stool. Pepple was 
 carried to Fernando Po, and his protector died there. 
 At last it was resolved by Commodore Adams and Mr. 
 Acting-Consul Lynslager to send the king, with Alla- 
 puta, his wife, and his family, to Ascension Island. On 
 the 7th of December, however, he fled into the bush 
 
 * The population of Bonny is calculated to be 5000 to 6000 ; of 
 Juju Town, 1500 ; Tallifer, 1000 ; and the rest are less. New Calabar 
 numbers some 4000.
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 273 
 
 a la Charles, and sat under two large trees surrounded 
 by bushwood. The royal oak, however, was not here, 
 and Pimento was sent off the next day on board Her 
 Majesty's ship " Pluto," Commander Clavering, begging 
 hard that if he died his body might be headed up in a 
 cask of rum, and sent to lie near his fathers. Since 
 that time he has enjoyed the memory of Ascension, 
 which he has learned to call his St. Helena. 
 
 Prince Dapho died 13th August, 1855, surgeons say 
 of iuter-susceptio, others of poison, administered by 
 friends of the ex-king. Fred Pepple and Yanibu were 
 saved with difficulty from the fury of the mob by Cap- 
 tain Witt, of the " Ferozepore," when a shocking 
 massacre commenced; 600 to 700 friends of the "king" 
 were murdered; many blew themselves up; the white 
 man's house used by the court of equity, and also as 
 a chapel was razed to the ground, and trade was 
 stopped by the people, because the supposed poisoners 
 were carried by Mr. Acting-Consul Lynslager to Fer- 
 nando Po. On the 1st September, 1855, the same 
 official visiting the river in Her Majesty's ship 
 " Philomel," Commander Skene, appointed four regents, 
 viz., Annie (alias llola) Pepple, Captain Hart (alias 
 Affo Dappa ?), Ada Allison,* and Manilla Pepple. 
 
 * These ridiculous names are taken from English ships. The slave 
 chiefs have all their own native names, e.g., Manilla Pepple is known 
 as Erinashaboo. All were the property of old King Pepple, who, when 
 dying, appointed Annie Tepple as guardian of his son's wealth. He 
 fought with Manilla Pepple, was beaten, took to drink, and died. 
 His son is the present Annie Pepple. 
 
 YOL. II. T
 
 274 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Meanwhile, King Pimento was so persevering a 
 petitioner that he was allowed, in November, 1855, to 
 quit Ascension for S'a Leone, where he arrived some 
 time in 1856. After another bout of correspondence he 
 reached London in 1857 ; there he resided four years, 
 was baptised, and became a temperance man, sitting 
 under the great George Cruikshank. He abandoned 
 his favourite dish, a boy's hand-palms, and was admitted 
 to the Upper House, where doubtless he graced les 
 nobles lords as much as Sir Jung Bahadur does the 
 Christian Knights of the Bath. He became very pious; 
 he begged 20,000 to raise a missionary establishment 
 the traders declare it is the one thing wanted for total 
 ruin to the river, and he roughed it in champagne and 
 sherry. The application for a mission was celebrated by 
 a missionary periodical in some fearful verse, beginning 
 with 
 
 " Oh, who shall succour Benny's King ? " 
 
 lie seemed to me, however, to have a little neglected his 
 English. The answer to my question touching her 
 sable majesty's health, was "He lib \" meaning thank 
 you, she is quite well. 
 
 Pimento, permitted to return home, arrived in the 
 Bonny river on the 18th of August. Instead of land- 
 ing at once, as expected, he lingered coward-like on 
 board till the 15th of October, although several of the 
 supercargoes had offered to accompany him. Instead of 
 going to the Juju-House, it fell, by-the-by, a terrible 
 bad omen, on the day of his disembarkation he used
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO, 275- 
 
 to send for supercargoes to read the Scriptures to him. 
 By way of contrast, he despatched his assistant-secretary 
 and chief clerk, in naval uniforms, swords included, to 
 invite the four regents and chiefs on board the " Bewley." 
 The influential slave, Ilola, alias Annie Pepple, whose 
 father was a confidential chattel of the former king, 
 whose body is buried in his house, and Affo Dappa, 
 head slave to the late Prince Dapho, and one of the 
 four regents, steadily refused. 
 
 After two or three meetings, King Pimento sent his 
 ship's captain, with the same gentlemen one of these 
 had been twenty-eight days in Paris, vainly trying to ne- 
 gotiate a French treaty armed with revolvers, to fetch 
 Ilola by force, if necessary. Seven of the Manillas 
 were combined against Pimento, about seventeen for 
 him, and by striking this blow at Ilola, all would 
 have been brought round. The white men went to the 
 black man's house, and offered a document for signature, 
 which was refused. Presently a pistol dropped out of a 
 certain pocket. About fifty negroes had assembled, but 
 Ilola quietly promising to return, left the house and 
 quitted the town. He had hemiplegia of the left side 
 shortly afterwards, and died, probably poisoned. 
 
 When King Pimento landed, all his whites were dis- 
 missed. The unhappy doctor, who had stipulated about 
 his "position at Court," was only too glad to take a free 
 passage to Fernando Po, and his majesty was with 
 difficulty persuaded to pay the fare. The supercargoes 
 most kindly contributed 10 to remove the unfortunate 
 
 T 2
 
 276 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 Englishwomen from the pollution of such a position. 
 " Miss Mary " left in October, on board the " Golden 
 Age." Mr. "Wood and his wife followed a month after- 
 wards, in the " Star of the Sea," and the premier, the 
 head secretary, and the last of the clerks disappeared 
 in December. The wretched valet was the only one per- 
 manently left, a rosy-faced English William ; he had died 
 of semi-starvation and discomfort. Yet Pimento has done 
 nothing towards recovering power. Perhaps it is better 
 he should not ; he has learned a trick or two in Europe, 
 and he only awaits his opportunity ; he threatens with 
 the lawyer or the missionary on all occasions. He 
 lately asked permission to establish a consul for Bonny 
 in London, at a salary of 500<. : and he gave as a reason 
 for the indulgence, that he had always permitted Her 
 British Majesty's consul to visit his dominions in 
 the Bights of Benin and Biafra. This is not bad for an 
 individual who dares not stir a cannon shot from his 
 townlet, and whose name and fame amongst his fellow 
 chiefs are about equal to the area of his territories. Of 
 course the strings of this poor old black puppet are 
 pulled by gentlemen " quifont T Industrie " nearer home. 
 The African Steam Ship " Blackland," was to re- 
 main two days at Grand Bonny, we therefore took the 
 opportunity of visiting its celebrated Juju House. 
 Taking heart of grace, and stuffing our noses with 
 camphored cotton, we rowed up the river ; it was neap 
 tide, and the waters had left a terrible sight of bare mud 
 and naked slime. The stream runs apparently north
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 277 
 
 and south ; it is foul and feculent as Father Thames of 
 the Tom cats, and the atmosphere around it forms a 
 bouquet d'Afrique, worse than that of a London ball- 
 room, which I had hitherto believed to be the ne plus 
 ultra of supportable decomposition, animal and vege- 
 table. Reaching a creek about four miles from the 
 mouth, and connected with the Andoni, corrupted from 
 San Antonio, and the Kom Toro, or Kom river, whose 
 place is marked in our hydrographic charts, but remains 
 nameless,* returned to the east, and fronted the town of 
 Bonny, or as the people call it, Kalomi. It was rising 
 from its ashes, having been burned down about one month 
 before. This is the north or west end, the site is best de- 
 scribed by a former observer to be "all water, mud banks, 
 and mangroves mangroves, mud banks, and water." 
 The houses are Africanised models of the Swiss cottage, 
 the sharpest gables, the most acutangular ridge roofs, 
 with all the exaggerated goniology of the last Neo- 
 Gothic. The roofs are of dirty thatch, sometimes with 
 a misplaced glass window half way up, and the sides 
 are smeared with a sickly yellow clay taken from the 
 creek. There were some fine canoes, matted over against 
 the sea and rain, and provided with a sand hearth 
 for fire, when cold is felt. Some of them are sixty to 
 seventy feet long, and easily carry twelve puncheons of 
 palm oil ; there may be 100 pull-a-boys, or paddlers, of 
 whom fifty will be fighting men, and the sides bristle 
 
 * In old maps the Andoni is called Rio de San Domingo, Loitomba, 
 or Laitomba : the Kom Toro (or Kan Toro) is called Bio.
 
 278 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 with swords, falconets, and wall pieces, whilst a long 
 carronade is lashed to strong cross-pieces in the bow. 
 We turned into a much smaller back-water, which leads 
 a few yards to the south ; at low water it will be a sheet 
 of putrifying slime, in which a man would sink knee 
 deep, and in places women and boys were washing them- 
 selves with their waist clothes, which they will presently 
 wring out and restore. It was the most squalid of 
 sights ; no relieving feature but a few large cotton-trees 
 and masses of parasites, which hem in the other side of 
 Bonny. Nothing easier than to find a better site for 
 Bonny, but it is " Bonny fash " to stick to Bonny. 
 We forced the boat upon this sewer, and soon reached 
 the landing-place, a rude scaffold of rough round tree- 
 trunks lashed to uprights, and leading up the slippery 
 clay embankment. After this spectacle of filth, I re- 
 solved to avoid even the 'Nda, or Bonny salmon, of 
 which writers speak so highly. 
 
 Landing, M e observed the effects of the fire, which has 
 been highly beneficial in removing scorpions, centipedes, 
 and whip-snakes, the myriads of mosquitoes and sand- 
 flies, which, too minute almost to be seen, cannot be 
 guarded against. The houses were rising rapidly. The 
 chiefs collect, on such occasions, their families and 
 dependents, and dividing them into companies, apply 
 them to different work in rebuilding. Some cut 
 stakes in the bush, others sharpen and plait them with 
 withies and wattles, others apply the dab, whilst the 
 rest prepare beams and thatching for the roof, or
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 279 
 
 break up old boxes to make doors and shutters. 
 The floor is of tamped earth. Small houses have 
 but three compartments, kitchen, salon, and Juju-room, 
 or private chapel. Great men have most intricate estab- 
 lishments, all a congeries of rooms, oubliettes, cuts de 
 sac, and passages, more like a labyrinth than a dwelling- 
 house. The outer entrances and the interior doors 
 which must serve as chimneys are fortified with strong 
 staked thresholds, eighteen inches high. They are pos- 
 sibly intended to keep out animals; the "housemaster" 
 is fond of sitting there, and if you cross the step whilst 
 he is so doing, he will have a sickness, and complain of 
 " poison for eye/' that is, you have bewitched him. The 
 women's and the men's apartments are distinct, and fur- 
 niture, such as it is, is always either of the commonest 
 kind or broken by the awkward slaves. The wealthy 
 make their houses Old Curiosity Shops, everything, in 
 fact, from gold cloth to a penny print. The greater 
 part of their wealth, however, is packed up in boxes, 
 huddled into a lumber room, or buried, so that it never 
 lasts long. The bed is a grass mat, and a fire of embers 
 enables men to dispense with bedding. Every gentle- 
 man must have his "Juju-room," and every little 
 rentier his altar. The Lares and Penates are anything 
 between a sheet of Punch and a tobacco pipe. This pri- 
 vate chapel is a favourite place for stowing away things, 
 especially rum, as no one will then steal it. Kings 
 and chiefs are buried in the grand Juju-houses. 
 
 After walking through the rising town, we pursued
 
 280 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 our way towards the " Grand Juju." Nothing worse 
 than the streets, narrow, filthy, pool- dotted paths, that 
 wound between the houses and the remnants of rank 
 bush. Some of the people there met, were curiously 
 fair, when compared with the coal-black Ejo men, and all 
 were scantily clad, even adult girls had not a trace of 
 clothing. The slaves wore a truly miserable appear- 
 ance, lean and deformed, with krakra lepra and fearful 
 ulcerations. It is in these places that one begins to 
 feel a doubt touching the total suppression of slavery. 
 The chiefs openly beg that the rules may be relaxed, in 
 order that they may get rid of their criminals. This is 
 at present impossible, and the effects are a reduplication 
 of misery we pamper our convicts, Africans torture them 
 to death. Cheapness of the human article is another 
 cause of immense misery to it. In some rivers a canoe 
 crew never lasts three years. Pilfering "Show me 
 a black man and I will show you a thief," say the 
 traders and debauchery are natural to the slave, and 
 they must be repressed by abominable cruelties. The 
 master thinks nothing of nailing their hand? to a water- 
 cask, of mutilating them in various ways many lose 
 their eyes by being peppered, after the East Indian 
 fashion, with coarsely powdered cayenne their ears are 
 cut off, or they are flogged. The whip is composed 
 of a twisted bullock's or hippopotamus's hide, sun-dried, 
 with sharp edges at the turns, and often wrapped with 
 copper wire; it is less merciful even than the knout, 
 now historical. The operation may be prolonged .fur
 
 EONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 281 
 
 hours or for a whole day, the culprit's arms being tied to a 
 rafter, which keeps them at full stretch, and every fifteen 
 minutes or so, a whack that cuts away the flesh like a 
 knife, is administered. This is a favourite treatment for 
 guilty wives, who are also ripped up, cut to pieces, 
 or thrown to the sharks. If a woman has twins, or 
 becomes mother of more than four, the parent is 
 banished, and the children are destroyed. The greatest 
 insult is to point at a man with arm and two fingers 
 extended, saying at the same, Nama Shubra, i.e., one of 
 wins, or a son of some lower animal. When a great 
 man dies, all kinds of barbarities are committed, slaves 
 are buried, or floated down the river bound to bamboo 
 sticks and mats, till eaten piecemeal by sharks. 
 
 The slave, as might be expected, is not less brutal 
 than his lord. It amazes me to hear Englishmen plead 
 that there is moral degradation to a negro bought by a 
 white man, and none when serving under a black man. 
 The philanthropists, doubtless, think how our poorer 
 classes at home, in the nineteenth century, would feel 
 if hurried from liberty to eternal servitude by some 
 nefarious African. But can any civilised sentiments 
 belong to the miserable half-starved being, whose one 
 scanty meal of vegetable per day is eked out with 
 monkey and snake, cat and dog, maggot and grub ; 
 whose life is ceaseless toil, varied only by torture, and 
 who may be destroyed at any moment by a nod from his 
 owner ? When the slave has once surmounted liis dread 
 of being shipped by the white man, nothing under the
 
 282 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 sun would, I believe, induce him willingly to return to 
 what he should call his home. And as they were, our 
 "West Indian colonies were lands of happiness compared 
 with the Oil Rivers ; as for the " Southern States/' the 
 slave's lot is paradise when succeeding what he endures 
 on the west coast of Africa. I believe these to be 
 facts, but tant pis pour les faits. Presently, however, 
 the philanthropic theory shall fall, arid shall be replaced 
 by a new fabric built upon a more solid foundation. 
 
 The Juju-house, now a heap of ruins, was a wattle 
 and dab oblong of 30 to 40 feet. At the head of the 
 room rose a kind of altar, with mat eaves to throw off 
 the rain, and concave, bulging out behind. Across the 
 front, underneath the roofing, in lines impaled together, 
 were fleshless human skulls, often painted and decorated : 
 one had a thick black imitation beard, doubtless a copy 
 of life. Between these two rows were lines of goat's 
 heads, also streaked with red and white, whilst an old 
 bar shot, probably used as a club for felling the victims, 
 hung from a corner. Near the ground there was a 
 horizontal board, striped like the relics, and a sweep of 
 loose thatch from below it formed a base to the altar, 
 and left a central space in which was a round hole, with 
 a raised rim of clay, to receive libations and the blood 
 of victims. There were scattered skulls and spare rows 
 of crania, impaled like Kababs, and planted with their 
 stakes against the wall. As there had been no prisoners 
 of late, I saw none of those trunkless heads "which 
 placed on their necks, with their faces towards the Juju-
 
 BONNY EIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 283 
 
 house, present a dreadful and appalling appearance, as of 
 men rising from the ground." To a small framework 
 of sticks outside, were nailed those relics \vhich the 
 Abyssinians prefer as trophies. The foul iguana, as 
 appropriate to this land as is the shark to these waters, 
 crawled about all this wreck of humanity with perfect 
 fearlessness. Some years ago the monkey was Juju, but 
 he was degraded for theft, a battue took place, and all 
 were " chopped." So these people not only eat each 
 other's gods, but, like certain Christians, their own god. 
 The iguana has since been in favour, and the stranger 
 who maltreats one would be roughly handled. White 
 cloth is also Juju, and the Fetishman's caprice can 
 invent as many other such ordinances as the religion of 
 the place may require. 
 
 There is apparently in this people a physical delight in 
 cruelty to beast as well as to man. The sight of suffer- 
 ing seems to bring them an enjoyment without which the 
 world is tame ; probably the wholesale murderers and tor- 
 turers of history, from Phalaris and Nero downwards, 
 took an animal and sensual pleasure all the passions 
 are sisters in the look of blood and in the inspection of 
 mortal agonies. I can see no other explanation of the 
 phenomena which meet my eye in Africa. In almost 
 all the towns on the Oil Rivers, you see dead or dying 
 animals fastened in some agonising position. Poultry is 
 most common, because cheapest eggs and milk are Juju 
 to slaves here they are tied by the legs head down- 
 wards, or lashed round the body to a stake or a tree,
 
 284 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 where they remain till they fall in fragments. If a 
 man be unwell, he hangs a live chicken round his 
 throat, expecting that its pain will abstract from his 
 sufferings. Goats are lashed head downwards tightly to 
 wooden pillars, and are allowed to die a lingering death ; 
 even the harmless tortoise cannot escape impalement. 
 Blood seems to be the favourite ornament for a man's 
 face, as pattern-painting with some dark colour like 
 indigo is the proper decoration for a woman. At fune- 
 rals numbers of goats and poultry are sacrificed for the 
 benefit of the deceased, and the corpse is sprinkled with 
 the warm blood. The headless trunks are laid upon 
 the body, and if the fowls flap their wings, which they 
 will do for some seconds after decapitation, it is a good 
 omen for the dead man. When male prisoners of war 
 are taken, they are brought home for sacrifice and food, 
 whilst their infants and children are sometimes sup- 
 ported by the middle from poles planted in the canoe. 
 The priest decapitates the men for ordinary executions 
 each chief has his own headsman and no one doubts 
 that the bodies are eaten. Mr. Smith and Dr. Hutchin- 
 son both aver that they witnessed actual cases. The 
 former declares that when old Pepple, father of the 
 present man, took captive king Amakree, of New Calabar, 
 he gave a large feast to the European slave-traders on 
 the river; all was on a grand scale, but the reader 
 might perhaps find some difficulty in guessing the name 
 of the dish placed before his Majesty at the head of the 
 table. It was the bloody heart of the King of Calabar,
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 285 
 
 just as it had been torn from the body. He took it in 
 his hand and devoured it with the greatest apparent 
 gusto, remarking, " This is the way I serve my 
 enemies ! " 
 
 Shortly after my first visit, five prisoners of war were 
 brought in from the eastern country. I saw in the Juju- 
 house their skulls, which were suspiciously white and 
 clean, as if boiled, and not a white man doubted that 
 they had been eaten. The fact is that they cannot afford 
 to reject any kind of provisions, and after a year or two 
 amongst the people, even a European would, I suspect, 
 look somewhat queerly upon a fat little black boy. 
 Living at Bonny is exceedingly expensive, and at the 
 end of the season a cloth worth 3*. has been known 
 to fetch only three small yams. Of course if a stranger 
 asks about their anthropophagy they will invariably 
 reply anemea I don't know ! 
 
 The climate of the Bonny is exceedingly debilitating ; 
 like that of Baghdad and Zanzibar, it is celebrated for 
 developing latent diseases. The Harmattan, or dry season, 
 locally called Ikringa, begins in early December, and lasts 
 three months ; old stagers usually find it the most un- 
 healthy ; it is invigorating, however, to the stranger, who 
 admires the cool grey look of the sky, and the sensation 
 of dry cold which reminds him of the north. March, 
 April, and May are the healthiest months, calm and serene, 
 with pleasant breezes, and highly fitted for travelling. The 
 rainy season sets in about latter May, and continues till 
 the end of September ; during July and August it rains
 
 286 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 almost incessantly, except for an hour or two in the 
 middle of the day. September is a fine month, and iu 
 October and November begin the tornadoes, which con- 
 tinue till the Harmattan sets in. 
 
 The Bonny, like all regions on this coast, is subject 
 to periodical epidemics, which clear off almost all the 
 white population. Such a year has just happened. 
 The tornadoes had been scanty, and it was observed that 
 the land wind had taken the place of the sea breeze. 
 A typhus, which was rather a yellow fever, soon deve- 
 loped itself. The first case happened on the 14th March, 
 1862, and was speedily followed by a crisis in May. 
 The last cannot be said to have occurred. Yet, between 
 the middle of March and July, out of a total of 278 to 
 300 Europeans, there died six supercargoes, five doctors, 
 five clerks, and 146 men, a total of 162. One ship, the 
 "Osprey," lost all her crew sixteen to seventeen men 
 except the master. During that fatal year the vomito, 
 of late confined to Northern Guinea, Gambia, and 
 Sierra Leone, descended the West African coast as far 
 as Fernando Po, and extended northwards to Tenerife. 
 It was not confined to Europeans, the Bonny men died by 
 hundreds. The "coffee-grounds" and the yellow colour 
 of the corpse showed what the disease was. And in 
 some places it was followed by a typhus of exaggerated 
 type, the patient sinking at once, and dying after a few 
 hours of low muttering delirium. 
 
 The usual Bonny working day is simple. The "gentle- 
 man" comes on board as early as possible after daylight,
 
 BONNY EIVEE TO FERNANDO PO. 287 
 
 and begins the usual process of "round trade/' chaf- 
 fering and dodging with all his might, now "ryling up" 
 the agent, then sawdering him down, but never going to 
 extremes. He breaks his fast when he can. lounges 
 
 9 O 
 
 about, sitting as if at home, using tobacco, and occa- 
 sionally begging for this, that, and the other thing. 
 After the forenoon thus profitably and energetically 
 spent, he disappears about midday, and is seen no more 
 till the morrow. 
 
 The holiday is one of unmixed laziness : the gentle- 
 man dozes till late in front of the dead fire that 
 went out before " Cockerappeak." Sending back his 
 night companion to the women's apartments, he passes 
 into a court, sits upon the high threshold and enjoys an 
 air bath, chewing the while pieces of fibrous wood or 
 the plantain fibres, called sapo in the dialect of the Gold 
 Coast. This is followed by the tooth stick, now be- 
 coming used in England; it has the advantage over the 
 brush that every separate tooth obtains a careful attention, 
 inside as well as outside, "Whilst thus cleansing mouth 
 and throat from the hesternal fumes of tobacco and palm 
 wine, he cracks his joints and equivalent to European 
 stretching he twists his neck as much as possible with- 
 out dislocation. 
 
 The whole fabric of society is naturally founded on 
 polygamy. Some of the head chiefs have as many as 
 fifty wives all, as usual, under the head wife or queen, 
 who is usually the daughter of some great house. 
 There is the customary anxiety for a numerous off-
 
 288 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 spring; yet, contradictorily enough, there are many 
 ways of limiting propagation, such as for instance the 
 destruction of twins, and the banishment of the too 
 prolific mother. 
 
 The gentleman presently steps into his bathing room, 
 and undergoes, in the hands of his favourite wives, a 
 thorough soaping from head to foot. The apartment 
 has usually a strong floor of raised rafters, which allow 
 the water to drain off, and the seat is an empty box or a 
 block of wood. There are neither baths nor tubs ; cala- 
 bashes of cold water are poured upon the head, after the 
 fashion of the East Indian "Ghara," and hands are 
 used as flesh brushes to rub the back. He then indulges 
 in a practice popularly known as " wash um belly." 
 During these operations audiences are given to favourites 
 and other persons coming on business. 
 
 After being duly scrubbed the gentleman proceeds to 
 his robing court, where sundry large boxes, like sea 
 chests, contain his dresses and ornaments. He is ex- 
 tremely fastidious about the choice of his toilette, open- 
 ing, and perhaps tying on, a dozen cloths before one 
 suits his fancy. He will kiss it in token of admiration 
 or respect if it has belonged to his ancestors. A silk 
 pocket handkerchief is then folded triangularly and 
 passed through a loop in the knife scabbard like the 
 British sailor they are abandoning the clasp knife for 
 the bowie form which is thus attached to the right 
 side. His skin is then polished up with a little palm 
 oil, and his neck, wrists and ankles are adorned with
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 289 
 
 strings of coral or beads, and substantial metal or ivory 
 rings, sometimes decorated with his English name cut 
 out, or " fixed " in various coloured tacks. Finally, his 
 wool is carded, -with a comb made of bamboo, whose* 
 three or four long prongs are fit only for a horse's mane, * 
 and a casquette of broadcloth supplants the scarlet 
 night-cap, fashionable in former days. The kerchief 
 intended for hand use is hung, cravat or scarf-like, 
 round the neck or wrist. Here, as in the Highlands, 
 pockets are wanting. 
 
 The toilette being thus finished, breakfast is served. 
 It is a little dinner, ordinarily consisting of obeoka, nda, 
 fufu, fulu and tomeneru, Anglice, fowl, fish, mashed 
 yam, soup i.e. (the liquid in which the stews have 
 been boiled), and tombo, or palm-wine, the latter, how- 
 ever, hard, tasting like soapsuds, and very intoxicating. 
 The cooking is excellent, when English dishes are not 
 attempted. All families have some forbidden meat, 
 which Captain Owen and Dr. Livingstone call motupo 
 and Boleo ki bo, such as fowl or fresh beef. The race, 
 however, is carnivorous, eating, when wealthy, fish, 
 poultry, goats, deer, elephant, tortoise and crocodile, 
 the two latter of which are said to be not unlike turtle. 
 Most of the dishes are boiled, and copiously peppered 
 with cayenne and green chili pods to induce thirst. There 
 are many savoury messes of heterogeneous compounds, 
 fish, fresh and dried, oysters, clams, and cockles, poultry, 
 goat and deer, salt beef or ship's pork, yams, plantains, 
 and palm oil. Smoked shrimps are pounded in a
 
 290 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 wooden pestle and mortar, with mashed yam for con- 
 sistency, and are put into the soup like forcemeat 
 balls. * 
 
 The meal always concludes with an external application 
 of soap and water. 
 
 After the breakfast tombo is drunk, the warm and 
 savoury nature of the food requiring copious draughts. 
 It is a diuretic, and promotes perspiration, so many a 
 gallon will disappear in the course of a day. "When the 
 natural appetite fails, they suck slices of the acid lime, 
 or chew kola nut, or eat ossessossa, a tasteless yellow 
 berry, with a large stone and little pulp, which is said to 
 increase intoxication. When half-drunk the gentleman 
 retires to a cool room, where, fanned by young girls 
 in a state of nature, he sleeps away the sultry hours 
 of noon. 
 
 After the siesta he receives or pays visits to his 
 friends, being careful not to appear without armed slaves 
 carrying his large Juju and his snuff-box. He does not 
 dip linger and thumb into the latter, but pours it into 
 the palm of the hand, and leisurely makes up a pinch. 
 Whenever he meets a white man he shakes hands, or 
 rather cracks fingers, holding the crackee's index be- 
 tween the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, the 
 left is devoted to another purpose, and loosing snaps 
 them together. It is a knack somewhat difficult to 
 acquire properly. The inferior chiefs and upper slaves 
 are devoted to gambling ; all cheat when they can, and 
 a man after losing his supplies, which represent coin, will
 
 SONNY EIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 291 
 
 part with his beads, armlets, and anklets, next follow his 
 knife, red nightcap, and loin cloth, and lastly his wives, 
 relations, and himself. Some of them have proved adepts 
 at European games, especially draughts. "When the 
 gentleman stays at home, he performs upon some native 
 instrument, grinds a barrel organ, or enjoys a musical 
 box, a throng of his wives and children peeping through 
 the doorway. Or he looks at conjuring tricks, and per- 
 chance jokes with his jester, some slave, whose dry 
 humour, sharp tongue, salt wit, and power of mimicry 
 have made him a favourite. Africans are uncommonly 
 keen in perceiving and in caricaturing any ridicule; they 
 have never, however, attained the dizzy height of Art in 
 the days of Thespis. 
 
 A dinner similar to breakfast is eaten at 4 to 5 P.M. 
 Soup and stews are the favourite mnu, and mashed 
 yam acts substitute for bread. It is also made into a 
 spoon by a deep impression of the thumb, and thus it 
 carries a thimblefull of soup with every mouthful of yam. 
 The evening is passed by the aid of music, chatting with 
 the women, and playing with the children. It is wound 
 up by smoking and drinking tombo, to which, however, 
 at this hour, the "damned distillation" is preferred, and 
 the gentleman turns in drunk at midnight. 
 
 The women and children pass their day in a far 
 humbler manner : they begin at dawn by washing in 
 the creek ; they then repair to the artistess who performs 
 the mysteries of body painting. The favourite colour is 
 blue, red, however, is also used. The tints are the indi-
 
 292 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 genous indigo and dye wood, laid on with a hard, flat, 
 sharp-pointed stick. They do not, as our sailors do, 
 depict ships, animals, or figures ; they prefer the chequer 
 pattern, and the arabesque, curves and scrolls, beginning 
 and ending with the finest hair strokes, and swelling 
 out, leech-like, to half an inch in the middle. The head 
 woman, whose face and body, arms and legs, have thus 
 been decorated, dresses herself in beads and shawls, or 
 fine cloths, and sallies out after breakfast to see her 
 friends. Sometimes she is received with a nautch, than 
 which no cancan can be grosser : the more literal it is, the 
 more she enjoys it. Men and women prance promiscu- 
 ously, and the children look on with uncontrollable 
 delight. 
 
 Women of the poorer sort pass their time in making 
 nets, hats, fishing-lines, and little mats. During the 
 greater part of the forenoon, and again in the afternoon, 
 they sit in the market-place, selling rum, yams, and 
 plantains. Those who are trusted by their husbands 
 are put in charge of the villages on the banks of the 
 river, and of the " small countries/' eight to ten miles in 
 the interior, where superfluous goods and valuables are 
 kept, beyond the reach of bombardment or fire. Some- 
 times the King invites white traders to his " seat/ 3 for 
 the purpose of shooting bullocks that have run wild. 
 The sport is exciting, but as there are no riding animals 
 over-fatigue will probably induce fever. There are, it is 
 said, horses a few days' journey in the interior, and be- 
 yond that point they are used as beasts of burthen.
 
 BONNY RIVER TO FERNANDO PO. 293 
 
 Once a year every great house with its chief repairs to 
 the bush, and makes a surround of men and boys to 
 trap gazelles and antelopes : at times they catch a tar- 
 tar, in the shape of a leopard, and as few are armed 
 with anything but clubs, a hole is opened in the human 
 ring-fence, allowing it to pass. The evening of the 
 battue is spent in devouring its proceeds and in hard 
 striving with strong drinks. 
 
 Ladies who are not favourites with the lords their 
 husbands, and all wives of poor men, perform servile 
 work, fetching water, cutting and carrying fuel, fishing 
 with seines, and smoking and drying the proceeds. The 
 younger children are kept at home ; after a certain age 
 they resort for education to the streets, or accompany 
 their fathers on business, and when ten years old they 
 are as wise, touching most things and one thing in 
 particular, as their parents. 
 
 After this hurried but by no means exaggerated sketch 
 of Bonny Town and the Bonnymen, the reader will 
 perhaps join me in admiring the 'cuteness (Dred, p. 17) 
 which has laid open " the wonderful and beautiful 
 development locked up in the Ethiopian race/' 
 * * * * * 
 
 The A. S. S. "Black! and," left this African Styx 
 precisely at her contract time, 4 P.M. on the 26th 
 September. Early on the next morning, when we ap- 
 peared on deck, all eyes were turning towards the beau- 
 tiful Peak of Fernando Po, which, after the dull swampy 
 scenery through which we had passed, appeared of giant
 
 294 WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA. 
 
 dimensions. Separated by a narrow channel of nineteen 
 miles from its still more glorious sister, the Camaroons, 
 or, as the savages more poetically call it, the " Mountain 
 of Heaven," it forms the western staple of a Gate that 
 stunts to a nothing the columns of Hercules. The 
 distance-dwarfed grassy cone, superimposed upon the 
 huge shaggy shoulders of the towering ridge, glowed 
 sweetly rosy in the morning sun, and night still brooded 
 in the black Caldera, or chauldrou, which, sheer falling 
 for thousands of feet, breaks the regularity of the ascent 
 on the north-eastern side. Upon the flanks, where dark 
 and umbrella-shaped trees rose tier by tier in uninter- 
 rupted succession from the base to the foot of the 
 highest crater-cone, heavy white mists, gently rising in 
 the morning air, clung like flocks of cotton to a quickset 
 hedge. We are now entering the tornado season, when 
 the views are almost without atmosphere, and conse- 
 quently without distance ; one supposes the Peak three 
 or four miles off; by directest route it is a good dozen. 
 
 I had eyes for little else that morning. The " Black- 
 land " lay in Clarence Cove, a small semicircular bight, 
 with a brace of islets at the mouth, and a perpendicular 
 seabank of stiff yellow clay, ninety-eight feet, ascended 
 by a double and diverging Jacob's ladder, and showing 
 to the sea front a scattered line of about a dozen white- 
 washed and thatched bungalows. The background was 
 a glorious host of palms, with cotton woods and African 
 cedars, the noblest of their noble family. 
 
 Enfin we are here. This is our destination ; the Ilha
 
 BONNY EIVEE TO FERNANDO PO. 295 
 
 Formosa, or Beautiful Island, afterwards called after its 
 Portuguese discoverer, Fernao de Poo, and lately known 
 as the "Madeira of the Gulf of Guinea," or the 
 " Foreign Office Grave." It is vain to attempt fixing 
 its locality in the public brain. The secretary of the 
 Hakluyt Society is perhaps capable of telling you 
 that it is a modern discovery. Sundry friends asked 
 the new Consul how he liked the prospect of the 
 Pacific Coast of South America ; he was puzzled, till he 
 remembered that as all have read Kobinson Crusoe so 
 all must have heard of Juan Fernandez. I may add 
 that the name is infamous in civil and military exami- 
 nations ; when a coup de grace has to be administered, 
 young Bceoticus is questioned touching Fernando Po. 
 He returns " plucked " to his papa, who, equally per- 
 plexed, employs himself for that day in asking his friends, 
 " Who the deuce is Fernando Po ? " to which the natural 
 answer comes ' ' How the devil should I know ? " 
 
 So closed my voyage outward-bound. Arriving in 
 these outer places is the very abomination of desolation. 
 I drop for a time my pen, in the distinct memory of our 
 having felt uncommonly suicidal through that first night 
 on Fernando Po. And so, probably, did the Consul. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON: BRADBURY AND BTAUS, PRINTERS, wuiTE7p.iAR?.
 
 University of California 
 
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