FROM CAPE PALMAS TO AXIM.
I had no call to land at Cape Palmas. All my friends had passed away; the
Rev. C. E. Hoffman and Bishop Payne, both in America. Mr. Potter, of the
stores, still lives to eat rice and palm-oil in retirement; but with the
energetic Macgill departed the trade and prosperity of the place. Senator
John Marshall, of Marshall's Hotel, has also gone to the many, and the
stranger's only place of refuge is a mean boarding-house.
Much injury was done to the settlement by the so-called 'Grebo war.' These
wild owners of Cape Palmas are confounded by Europeans with the true
Krumen, their distant cousins. The tribal name is popularly derived from
_gré_, or _gri_, the jumping monkey, and it alludes to a late immigration.
A host of some 20,000 savages closely besieged the settlement and ravaged
all the lands belonging to the intruders, especially the fine 'French
farm.' Fighting ended with a 'treaty of peace and renewal of allegiance'
(_sic!_) at Harper on March 1, 1876, following the 'battle of Harper'
(October 10, 1875). The latter, resulting from an attack on Grebo Big
Town, proved a regular 'Bull's Run,' wherein the citizens lost all their
guns and ammunition, and where the Grebes slaughtered my true and trusty
steward, Selim Agha.
I must allow myself a few lines in memory of a typical man. Selim was a
Nubian of lamp-black skin; but his features were Semitic down to the
nose-bridge, and below it, like the hair, distinctly African: this mixture
characterises the negroid as opposed to the negro. In the first fourth of
the present century he was bought by Mr. Thurburn--_venerabile nomen_--of
Alexandria, and sent for education to North Britain. There he learned to
speak Scotch, to make turtle-soup, to stuff birds, to keep accounts, and
to be useful and valuable in a series of ways. Then his thoughts, full of
philanthropy, turned towards the 'old mother.' The murder of Dr. Barth's
companion, Vogel, in 1856, originated seven fruitless expeditions to
murderous Wadáy, and he made sundry journeys into the interior. I believe
that he took service for some time with Lieutenant (now Sir John H.)
Glover before he became my factotum between 1860 and 1865. When I left the
Coast he transferred himself to Liberia, where, he wrote, they proposed to
'run him for the presidency.' Selim joined the Monrovians during the Grebo
war as an assistant-surgeon, his object being to mitigate the horrors of
the campaign; and he met his death on October 9, 1875, during the
mismanaged attack on Grebo Big Town. Captain A. B. Ellis, in his amusing
and outspoken 'West African Sketches,' quotes from the 'Liberian
Independent' the following statement: 'Mr. Selim Agha was also overtaken
by the barbarous Greboes, and one of them, "Bye Weah" by name, after
allowing him to read his Bible, which he had by him in his pocket, and
which he made a present of to the barbarian, chopped his body all about,
chopped off his head, which he took to his town with eighteen others, and
threw the body with the gift into the swamp.' The account sounds
trustworthy, especially that about the Bible: it is exactly what the poor
fellow would have done. But many have assured me that he was slaughtered
by mistake during the rout of his party. R.I.P.
Another reminiscence.
Although it has melancholy associations, I can hardly remember without a
smile my last visit to good Bishop Payne. He led me to the mission-school,
a shed that sheltered settles and desks, tattered books, slates and
boards, two native pedagogues, and two lines of pupils sized from the
right, the biggest being nearest the 'boss.' We took our places upon the
bench, and the catechiser, when bade to begin, opened, after a little
hesitation, as follows:--
_Q_. Who he be de fuss man?--_A_. Adam.
_Q_. Who he be de fuss woman?--_A_. Ebe.
_Q_. Whar de Lord put 'em?--_A_. In de garden.
_Q_. What he be de garden?--_A_. Eden.
_Q_. What else he be dere?--_A_. De sarpint.
_Q_. What he be de sarpint?--_A_. De snake.
_Q_. Heigh! What, de snake he 'peak?--_A_. No, him be debbil.
And so forth. The reading was much in the same style. The whole scene
reminded me of a naïve narrative [Footnote: _The Gospel to the Africans:
Narrative of the Life and Labours of the Rev. William Jameson._ London:
Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1861.] which gives the 'following account of the
fall of our First Parents from the lips of an aged negro at the
examination of candidates:'--
'Massa (God) said Adam must nyamee (eat) all de fruit ob de garden, but
(be out, except) de tree of knowledge. And he said to Adam, "Adam! you no
muss nyamee dis fruit, else you dead." De serpent come to say to Mammy
Eve, "Dis fruit berry good; he make you too wise." Mammy she take lillee
(little) bit, and bring de oder harf gib Daddy Adam. Daddee no will taste
it fuss time, but Mammy tell him it be berry good. Den him nyamee de oder
harf. Den Daddy and Mammy been know dat dem be naked. Dey go hide for
bush. Massa come from heaven, but Him no fin' Adam all about. Den Massa
strike Him foot on de ground and say, "I wage Adam been nyamee de fruit."
Massa go seek Adam and fin' him hidin' in de bush, and put him out ob de
garden. Then Daddy and Mammy dey take leaves and sew 'em for clothes.'
The Bishop looked on approvingly. We then spoke of the mysterious Mount
Geddia, the Lybian Thala Oros of Ptolemy. [Footnote: Lib. iv. 6, §§ 12,
14, 16, the home of the Thála tribe.]
The people say that it may be seen at times from Settra Kru, that the
distance by round road is some 200 miles, and that none have ascended it
on account of the intense cold. If this be fact, there is a Kilima-njáro
18,000 feet high in Western Africa. The glitter of the white cap has been
visible from great distances, and some would explain it by a bare vein of
quartz--again, Kilima-njáro. The best time to travel would be in October
or November, after the rains; and the Grebo rascals might be paid and
persuaded to supply an escort.
At Cape Palmas we engaged thirty so-called Krumen: only seven were ready
to accompany us, and the rest came nearly two months behind time. This is
the farming season, and the people do not like to leave their field-lands.
Jack Davis, headman, chief, crimp and 'promising' party, had been warned
to be ready by Mr. R. B. N. Walker, whose name and certificate he wore
upon a big silver crescent; but as _Senegal_ appeared on Sunday instead of
Saturday, he gravely declared that his batch had retired to their
plantations--in black-man's English, 'small countries.' We were compelled
to make an advance, a measure unknown of old, and to pay more than double
hire for working on the Gold Coast. These races, Kruboys, Grebos, and
their cognates, have not improved during the last score of years. Their
headmen were old hands approaching the fifties: now they are youths of
twenty-five. The younger sort willingly engaged for three years; now they
begin to notch their tallies for every new moon, and they wax home-sick
after the tenth month. Once they were content to carry home a seaman's
chest well filled with 'chow-chow' and stolen goods; in these days they
must have ready money to deal with the Bristol barques.
Having before described the 'Kráo' and the Kru republic, with its four
recognised castes, I need not repeat myself. [Footnote: _Wanderings_, &c.,
vol. ii. chap. vi., which ends with a short specimen of the language.] We
again admired the magnificent development of muscle, which stood out in
bunches as on the Farnese Hercules, set off by the most appropriate dress,
a coloured oblong of loin-cloth, tucked in at the waist. We marvelled too
at the contrast of Grecian figure and cynocephalous features, whose
frizzly thatch, often cut into garden-plots, is unnecessarily protected by
a gaudy greasy cap.
In morals too these men are as peculiar as they are contradictory. They
work, and work well: many old Coasters prefer them to all other tribes.
They are at their best in boats or on board ship, especially ships of war,
where they are disciplined. For carrying burdens, or working in the bush,
they are by no means so valuable and yet, as will be seen, they are highly
thought of by some miners in the Gold Mines. In the house they are at
their worst; and they are a nuisance to camp, noisy and unclean. Their
chief faults are lying and thieving; they are also apt to desert, to grow
discontented, to presume, and ever to ask for more. These qualities are
admirably developed in our headman, Toby Johnson, and his gang. I should
not travel again with Krumen on the Gold Coast.
Another of their remarkable characteristics is the fine union of the
quarrelsome with the cowardly. Like the Wányamwezi of East-Central Africa,
they will fight amongst themselves, and fight furiously; but they feel no
shame in telling their employers that they sell their labour, not their
lives; that man can die but once; that heads never grow again, and that to
battling they prefer going back to 'we country.' If a ship take fire all
plunge overboard like seals, and the sound of a gun in the bush makes them
run like hares. Yet an English officer actually proposed to recruit a
force of these recreants for field-service in Ashanti. He probably
confounded them with the Wásawahili, the 'Seedy-boys' of the east coast, a
race which some day will prove useful when the Sepoy mutiny shall repeat
itself, or if the difficulties in Egypt be prolonged. A few thousands of
these sturdy fellows would put to flight an army of hen-hearted Hindús or
Hindís.
We left Cape Palmas at 5 P.M., and duly respected the five-fathom deep
'Athole Rock,' so called from the frigate which first made its
acquaintance. The third victim was the B. and A. s.s. _Gambia_ (Captain
Hamilton). [Footnote: Curiously enough a steamer carrying another fine of
palm-oil has come to grief, owing, as usual, to imperfect charts.] She was
carrying home part of the 400 puncheons exacted, after the blockade of
1876, by way of fine, from Gelelé, King of Dahome, by the senior naval
officer, Captain Sullivan, the Dhow-chaser. The Juju-men naturally declared
that their magic brought her to such notable grief.
We then passed Grand Tabú (Tabou), in the middle of the bay formed by
Point Tahou--a coast better known fifty years ago than it is now. The only
white resident is Mr. Julio, who has led a rather accidented life. A
native of St. Helena, he fought for the Northerners in the American war,
and proved himself a first-rate rifle-shot. He traded on the Congo, and
travelled like a native far in the interior. Now he has married a wife
from Cape Palmas, and is the leading man at Tabú.
This place, again, is a favourite labour-market. The return of the Krumen
repeats the spectacles of Sinou, and war being here chronic, the canoe-men
come off armed with guns, swords, and matchets. After a frightful storm of
tongues, and much bustle but no work, the impatient steamer begins to
waggle her screw; powder-kegs and dwarf boxes are tossed overboard, and
every attention is bestowed upon them; whilst a boy or two is left behind,
either to swim ashore or to find a 'watery grave.'
Presently we sighted the bar and breakers that garnish the mouth of the
Cavally (Anglicè Cawally) River: the name is properly Cavallo, because it
lies fourteen miles, riding-distance, from Cape Palmas. Here Bishop Payne
had his head-quarters, and his branch missions extended sixty miles
up-stream. On the left bank, some fifteen or sixteen miles from the
_embochure_, resides the 'Grand Devil,' equivalent to the Great God, of
Krúland. The place is described as a large caverned rock, where a
mysterious 'Suffing' (something) answers, through an interpreter, any
questions in any tongue, even English, receiving, in return for the
revelations, offerings of beads, leaf-tobacco, and cattle, which are
mysteriously removed. The oracle is doubtless worked by some sturdy knave,
a 'demon-doctor,' as the missionaries call him, who laughs at the beards
of his implicitly-believing dupes. A tree growing near the stream
represents 'Lot's wife's pillar;' some sceptical and Voltairian black was
punished for impious curiosity by being thus 'translated.' Skippers who
treated their 'boys' kindly were allowed, a score of years ago, to visit
the place, and to join in the ceremonies, even as most of the Old Calabar
traders now belong to the 'Egbo mystery.' But of late years a village
called Hidya, with land on both banks, forbids passage. Moreover, Krumen
are not hospitable. Masters and men, cast ashore upon a coast which they
have visited for years to hire hands, are stripped, beaten, and even
tortured by women as well as by men. The savages have evidently not learnt
much by a century's intercourse with Europeans.
Leaving Cavally, the last place where Kruboys can be shipped, we coasted
along the fiery sands snowed over with surf and set in the glorious
leek-green growth that distinguishes the old Ivory Coast. The great Gulf
Stream which, bifurcating at the Azores, sweeps southwards with easting,
now sets in our favour; it is, however, partly a wind-current, and here it
often flows to the west even in winter. The ever-rolling seas off this
'Bristol coast' are almost clear of reef and shoal, and the only storms
are tornadoes, which rarely blow except from the land: from the ocean they
are exceedingly dangerous. Such conditions probably suggested the Bristol
barque trade, which still flourishes between Cape Palmas and Grand Bassam.
A modern remnant of the old Bristolian merchant-adventurers, it was
established for slaving purposes during the last century by Mr. Henry
King, maintained by his sons, Richard who hated men-of-war, and William
who preferred science, and it is kept up by his grandsons for legitimate
trade.
The ships--barques and brigs--numbering about twenty-five, are neat,
clean, trim craft, no longer coppered perpendicularly [Footnote: Still
occurs sometimes: the idea is that as they roll more than they sail less
strain is brought on the seams of the copper.] instead of horizontally
after the older fashion. Skippers and crews are well paid for the voyage,
which lasts from a year to fifteen months. The floating warehouses anchor
off the coast where it lacks factories, and pick up the waifs and strays
of cam-wood, palm-oil, and kernels, the peculiar export of the Gold Coast:
at times a tusk or a little gold-dust finds its way on board. The trader
must be careful in buying the latter. Not only have the negroes falsified
it since the days of Bosnian, but now it is made in Birmingham. This false
dust resists nitric acid, yet is easily told by weight and bulk; it blows
away too with the breath, whilst the true does not. Again, the skippers
have to beware of 'fetish gold,' mostly in the shape of broken-up
ornaments of inferior ley.
The Bristolians preserve the old 'round trade,' and barter native produce
against cloth and beads, rum and gin, salt, tobacco, and gunpowder. These
ship-shops send home their exports by the mail-steamers, and vary their
monotonous days by visits on board. They sail home when the cargoes are
sold, each vessel making up her own accounts and leaving 'trust,' but no
debts. The life must be like making one's home in a lighthouse, plus an
eternal roll; and the line gives a weary time to the mail-steamers, as
these never know exactly where the Bristol barques will be found.
After hugging the coast and prospecting Biribi, we sighted the Drewins,
whose natives are a powerful and spirited race, equally accustomed to
either element. There are no better canoe-men on the coast. They ship
only on board the Bristol ships, and they have more than once flogged a
cruel skipper caught ashore. Passing King George's Town, we halted (11
A.M., January 23) opposite the river and settlement of Fresco, where two
barques and a cutter were awaiting supplies. Fresco-land is beautified by
perpendicular red cliffs, and the fine broad beach is feathered with
cocoas which suggest _kopra_--the dried meat of the split kernel. At 3.15
P.M. came Grand Lahou--Bosman's Cabo La Hoe--180 miles from Cape Palmas.
The native settlements of nut-brown huts in the clearings of thick forests
resemble heaps of withered leaves. The French have re-occupied a fort
twenty miles up the pretty barless river, the outlet of a great lagoon; it
was abandoned during the Prusso-Gallic war. Nine Bristol barques were
lying off Three Towns, a place not upon the chart, and at Half-Jack, 205
miles from the Cape. Here we anchored and rolled heavily through the
night, a regular seesaw of head and heels. Seamen have prejudices about
ships, pronouncing some steady and others 'uncommon lively.' I find them
under most circumstances 'much of a muchness.'
The next morning carried us forty miles along the Bassam country and
villages, Little, Piccaninny, and Great, to Grand Bassam. It is a regular
lagoon-land, whose pretty rivers are the outlets of the several sweet
waters and the salt-ponds. Opposite Piccaninny Bassam heads, with its
stalk to the shore and spreading out a huge funnel eastward and westward,
the curious formation known as the 'Bottomless Pit.' The chart shows a
dot, a line, and 200 fathoms. In these days of deep-sea soundings I would
recommend it to the notice of the Hydrographic Office. We know exactly as
much about it in A.D. 1882 as in A.D. 1670, when Ogilvy wrote, 'Six miles
beyond Jak, in Jakko, [Footnote: Bosman's _Jaqui-Jaqui_] is the
_Bottomless Pit_, so called from its unfathomable deepness, for the
seamen, having Sounded with their longest Lines and Plummets, could never
reach the bottom.' It would be interesting to know whether it is an area
of subsidence or a volcanic depression. The adjacent Gold Coast suffers
from terrible earthquakes, as Accra learnt to her cost in 1862.
At 10 A.M. we made Grand Bassam, where the French have had a _Résidence_
for many years. Here the famous Marseille house of Régis Frères first made
fortune by gold-barter. The precious ore, bought by the middlemen, a
peculiar race, from the wild tribes of the far interior, appears in the
shape of dust with an occasional small nugget; the traders dislike bars
and ingots, because they are generally half copper. We have now everywhere
traced the trade from Gambia to the Gold Coast, and we may fairly conclude
that all the metal comes from a single chain of Ghauts subtending the
maritime region.
Grand Bassam is included in the French _Côte d'Or_, but not in the English
Gold Coast, which begins east of the Ivory Coast. The Dutch was even
narrower, according to Bosnian: 'Being a part of Guinea, it is extended
about sixty miles, beginning with the Gold River (Assini) twelve miles
above Axim, and ending with Ponni, seven or eight miles east of Accra.'
Grand Bassam has only two European establishments. Eastward lies the
'Blockhouse' of M. Verdier, 'agent of the Government at Assini,' so called
from its battlemented roof. It is the old Fort Nemours, built in 1843. The
'Poste,' abandoned during the war of 1870, was let to Messieurs Swanzy; it
is a series of ridge-roofs surrounded by a whitewashed stockade. Both have
been freely accused of supplying the Ashantis with arms and ammunition
during the last war. Similarly the Gambia is said to have supported the
revolteds of Senegal. The site is vile, liable to be flooded by sea and
rain. The River Akbu or Komo (Comoe), with its spiteful little bar, drains
the realms of Amatifú, King of Assini. It admits small craft, and we see
the masts of a schooner amid the trees. The outlet of immense lagoons to
the east and west, it winds down behind the factories, and bears the
native town upon its banks. Here we discharged only trade-gin, every
second surf-boat and canoe upsetting; the red cases piled upon the beach
looked like a bed of rose-buds. The whole of this coast, as far as Axim,
is so dangerous that men land with their lives in their hands. They
disembark when outward-bound and re-embark when homeward-bound, and in the
interim they never tempt surf and sharks.
The _Senegal_ left Grand Bassam at 5.30 P.M., to cover the eighty-five
miles separating us from our destination. The next important feature is
the Assini River, also the outlet of enormous navigable lagoons, breaking
the continuity of forest-backed sands. It lies fourteen to fifteen miles
(which the chart has diminished to seven) west of the French settlement,
of old Fort Joinville. The latter shows a tiled and whitewashed
establishment, the property of M. Verdier, outlying the normal ant-hill of
brown huts. In 1868 Winwood Reade here found a _poste_ and stockade, a
park of artillery, a commandant, a surgeon, and a detachment of
_tirailleurs sénégalais_ levied amongst the warlike Moslem tribes of
Senegambia. Like Grand Bassam it was under the station admiral, who
inspected the two once a year, and who periodically sent a gunboat to
support French interests.
By night we passed New Town, not on the charts, but famed for owning a
fine gold placer north of the town-lagoon. After my departure from the
coast it was inspected by Mr. Grant, who sent home specimens of bitumen
taken from the wells. Then came the two Assinis, eastern and western, both
places of small present importance. The 'Assini Hills' of the chart lie to
the north, not to the south of the Tando water; and by day one can easily
distinguish their broken line, blue and tree-clad. The Franco-English
frontier has been determined after a fashion. According to Mr. Stanford's
last map, [Footnote: Gold Coast, November 20, 1873. A foot-note tells us,
'The whole coast belongs to the English, the French having withdrawn since
1870 from Grand Bassam and Assini' (Winwood Reade). This is obsolete in
1882. The limits of Ashanti-land are immensely exaggerated by this map.]
the westernmost point was in west long. 2º 55' (G.) Thus our territory
begins between Great Assini and New Town, the latter being included in the
Protectorate. This position would reduce the old Gold Coast from 245
direct geographical miles of shore-line between the River Assini (W. long.
3º 23') and the Volta mouth (E. long. 0º 42') to some 217 or 220 in round
numbers. Inland the limit should be the Tando valley, but it has been
fancifully traced north from the Eyhi lagoon, the receptacle of the Tando,
on a meridian of W. long. 2º 50' (G.) to a parallel of N. lat. 6º 30', or
ninety-eight miles from the coast about Axim (N. lat. 4º 52'). Thence it
bends east and south-east to the Ofim, or western fork of the Bosom Prah,
and ascends the Prah proper, separating Ashanti-land (north) from
Fanti-land (south).
It should be our object to acquire by purchase or treaty, or both, the
whole territory subject to Grand Bassam and Assini. The reasons may be
gathered from the preceding pages.
By night we also passed Cape Apollonia and its four hummocks, which are
faintly visible from Axim. The name has nothing to do, I need hardly say,
with Apollo or his feasts, the Apolloniæ, nor has it any relationship
with the admirable 'Apollinaris water.' It was given by the Portuguese
from the saint [Footnote: Butler's _Lives_ gives 'S. Apollonia (not
Appolonia, as the miners have it), v.m. February 9.' This admirable old
maid leaped into the fire prepared for her by the heathen populace of
Alexandria when she refused to worship their 'execrable divinity.' There
are also an Apollonius (March 5), 'a zealous holy anchorite' of Egyptian
Antinous; and Apollinaris, who about A.D. 376 began to 'broach his
heresy,' denying in Christ a human soul.] who presided over the day of
discovery. In the early half of the present century the King of Apollonia
ruled the coast from the Assini to the Ancobra Rivers; the English built a
fort by permission at his head-quarters, and carried on a large trade in
gold-dust. Meredith (1800) tells us that, when his Majesty deceased, some
twenty men were sacrificed on every Saturday till the 'great customs' took
place six months afterwards. The underlying idea was, doubtless, that of
Dahome: the potentate must not go, like a 'small boy,' alone and
unattended to the shadowy realm. The 'African Cruiser' [Footnote: _Journal
of an African Cruiser_, by an officer of the U.S. navy. Edited by
Nathaniel Hawthorn. Aberdeen: Clark and Son, 1848.] speaks of the royal
palace being sumptuously furnished in European style; of gold cups,
pitchers, and plates, and of vast treasures in bullion. When the King died
sixty victims were slain and buried with their liege lord; besides a
knife, plate, and cup; swords, guns, cloths, and goods of various kinds.
The corpse, smeared with oil and powdered _cap-à-pié_ with gold-dust,
looked like a statue of the noble ore.
As the _Senegal_ advanced under easy steam, we had no rolling off this
roller-coast, and we greatly and regretfully enjoyed the glorious Harmatan
weather, so soon about to cease. The mornings and evenings were cool and
dewy, and the pale, round-faced sun seemed to look down upon us through an
honest northern fog. There was no heat even during the afternoons, usually
so close and oppressive in this section of the tropics. I only wished that
those who marvelled at my preferring to the blustering, boisterous weather
of the Northern Adriatic the genial and congenial climate of West Africa
could have passed a day with me.