Attacked by Fever--Death of my Servant--Mr. Hutton--Buildings
in Progress by him--Indolence of the Natives--Cheapness of
Living--The Fantees--Their Superstition--Description of their Idol
or Fetish--Their Customs or Holidays--Native Music--Rum, their
favourite Liquor--Proceedings on occasion of a Death--Mode of
Burial--The King’s Custom or Holiday--Character of the King--My
Reception by his Majesty--Comparatively neglected by the British
Government--Fetish Houses--Native Funerals--Want of Natural
Affection--The Yam Custom--The Fantees, the worst of the African
Tribes--Their Power of Imitation--Wild Animals--The Patakoo--Granite
and Sandstone--The Dutch Settlement of Elmina--A fine Field for
Botanists--State of Agriculture--Excessive Heat--Message to the King
of Ashantee--Cattle--Artizans much wanted--Murder of an Ashantee Woman.
I had the good fortune to be lodged in the best quarters at Cape
Coast, where I remained till the most favourable season for travelling
had come on, and also till I had gone through my seasoning fever,
with which I was attacked a few days after my arrival, as well as
my servant, who, poor fellow! sank under it. Although the greatest
attention and medical aid was afforded to him, he died on the 4th of
August, 1844, at a time when I was so ill myself that Mr. Hutton
would not allow my attendants to make me acquainted with it till four
days after it occurred. Of my own illness, though it was very severe,
I can scarcely remember any thing, as I slept nearly the whole of the
time. The late Governor, Mr. Maclean, who at the time had not left Cape
Coast, was remarkably kind and attentive to me. His departure was very
much regretted, as he had given great satisfaction to the merchants
while he was Governor.
During my stay there, Mr. Hutton was building two very fine houses, one
at Cape Coast, and the other in the wood-land tract about two miles
to the north of it, on a spot commanding a beautiful prospect over a
salt lake, about three quarters of a mile distant, with the sea, near
Elmina, beyond it.
In this country, where manual labour is requisite, the greatest
difficulty is experienced in getting the people to perform it as they
ought. My attention to these undertakings for the space of two months
gave me a very good opportunity of forming a fair estimate of the
character and habits of the natives at Cape Coast.
Mr. Hutton had, at the time of my arrival, about one hundred hands
employed, and I can conscientiously affirm that fifteen Englishmen
would have done considerably more work in any set time than these
hundred Fantees. The men are, without exception, of all the Africans
I have yet seen the laziest and dirtiest. They seem in every respect
inferior, both in body and mind, to their neighbours, the Ashantees.
They are remarkably dull of comprehension, and, unless constantly
watched, will lie down and do nothing. Even if one of the party is
appointed as foreman to the rest, he will be just as idle as the
others. They seem to have no idea of anything like conscience.
Some time ago Mr. Hutton supplied his labourers with wheelbarrows to
convey the stone from the quarry to the building they were working at;
but instead of wheeling the barrowful of stones, they put it upon their
heads, declaring it was harder work to wheel the barrow than to carry
it. They will go the distance of a mile to the quarry, and come back,
perhaps twenty in a gang, with one stone, not weighing more than nine
pounds each, upon his head, so tedious is their manner of building,
nor will they be put out of their own way on any account. As they can
live almost for nothing, their only motive for working is to procure
what they consider luxuries, such as rum, tobacco, and _aatum_, the
name they give the cloth tied round their waist. They can live at the
rate of a penny a-day upon yams or cassada (manioc) and fish, which is
remarkably cheap. This penny, and now and then a shilling, is earned by
one of their wives, of whom they have sometimes several. The wife goes
into the thickets with a child tied upon her back, and returns with
a bundle of wood upon her head, which she sells in the town. All the
drudgery, in fact, is done by the women, while their lazy husbands lie
stretched outside of their huts smoking.
The Fantees are very superstitious, and one party or another is daily
making Fetish[2] (performing a religious service) either for the
advancement and success of some business in which they are interested,
or invoking a curse upon some person who may have thwarted the effect
of their fetish. For instance, if any person fall sick, the head
fetish-man summons all his relations to meet on a certain day, at a
certain time, to try by their fetish whether the sick man will recover;
but if a surgeon attending him is successful in making a cure, they
invoke a curse upon him for causing the fetish to lie. At Cape Coast
their fetish sometimes consists of a bundle of rags bound together
like a child’s doll; at other times a little image of clay, rudely
fashioned, somewhat in the human shape, is placed in some public spot,
frequently by the roadside. These images, or fetishes, often remain in
the same position and on the same spot undisturbed for a fortnight or
three weeks.
The natives have a great many customs or holy days in the course of
the year, during which it is unbearable to live in the town, such is
the noise and uproar of the rabble. Their yells, roaring, and discord
are indescribable. They have a sort of rude drum, about four feet in
length, and one in diameter, called _tenti_ or _kin Kasi_. This is
carried on a man’s head in a horizontal position, and is beaten by
another man walking behind him, who hammers away like a smith on his
anvil, without any regard to time. This huge drum is accompanied by
horns and long wooden pipes, the sound of which resembles the bellowing
of oxen. The procession parades up and down the town nearly the whole
day, and keeps up an irregular fire of musketry. On all these occasions
an immense quantity of rum (which is only threepence per pint) is
drunk. If any person of note dies, the relatives and neighbours
assemble in front of his house, and continue drinking and smoking,
yelling and firing off guns nearly the whole of the day; and one of the
family invariably sacrifices a dog, to procure a safe passage to Heaven
for the deceased. If none of the deceased’s relations happen to have a
dog in their possession, they sally out in a party and kill the first
dog they meet.
They are very superstitious also respecting burial, and frequently bury
the gold rings and trinkets worn by the deceased along with his body,
so that the graves are frequently opened again for the sake of the
property contained in them. An instance of this occurred while I was
there. A Mrs. Brown, the widowed mother of a mulatto so named, who had
been employed as interpreter on board the _Albert_ steamer in the late
Niger expedition, died in consequence of a blow from a younger son.
The elder brother, having been much straitened in his circumstances
through misconduct, ordered his mother to be interred in the same grave
as one of her daughters, who had been buried with all her trinkets upon
her. Brown, as an excuse, declared that it was customary to bury the
parent below, and the sons and daughters above. Thus the sister was
disinterred and stripped of her ornaments, which he put, as he no doubt
thought, to a better use than leaving them for the worms.
The King’s custom, or solemnity in honour of the King of Cape Coast, is
kept annually for fourteen days, in which interval none of his subjects
are allowed to fire off a gun, or beat a _kin kasi_, (drum), nor are
any dogs, sheep, or goats allowed to be seen in the streets, or in
any public place, on pain of death. This commemoration is tolerably
observed, but though King Agray’s black flag is kept flying during the
whole period, I am convinced that it is more for the gratification
of his people, than from any wish of his own that such a ridiculous
observance is continued; for he is a very intelligent venerable old
man, highly civilized and polite in his manners, and very well disposed
towards the English. His character is very much admired by all the
merchants established there, as well as by his own subjects. From what
I could learn, he is ever ready to patronize any effort on the part of
the English to civilize and improve his people. In person he is a tall,
thin, muscular, old man, though his years number upwards of threescore
and ten.
A few days previously one of his messengers called upon me in great
haste, to inform me that his Majesty was very anxious to see me in
the dress of the First Life Guards that day. It happened that a short
time before, the troops from Cape Coast having been ordered out for
exercise, I was requested to accompany them in uniform, and in less
than ten minutes the King was acquainted with the fact. Like the other
kings in this country, he has spies to carry to him all news of however
little importance.
His Majesty received me with all the politeness of an English courtier.
After being seated, he asked me many important questions--when, at
his request, I performed the cavalry sword-exercise in his presence,
he noticed the differences arising from the late alterations in that
exercise, supposing that I had made some mistakes.[3] He talked a good
deal about the King of Ashantee, and reprobated much their horrid
practice of sacrificing human beings. He seemed to have obtained a very
correct idea of railroads, and to be strongly impressed with a sense
of the advantages and disadvantages derived from them by the English
nation. He can read and write well, and is, as I before observed, a
clever, intelligent old man. The King’s house is furnished in the
European style, plain though pretty good.
It is to be lamented that the English Government should have neglected
so good a man as Agray, while much is lavished on such a villain as the
King of Ashantee, who in fact is only led by it to suppose that the
British Government fears him.
On my road yesterday for several miles through the wood, in search of
birds and plants, of which there is abundance, I passed several fetish
houses or temples, in the form of a long grotto, formed by a vast
number of running and creeping plants, at the farther extremity of
which is sometimes found a large mass of stone or granite rock, which
they say is related to some other fetish not far distant; and they
even assert that, early in the mornings, this very stone may be seen
in a human shape, going to visit his wife (a similar block of stone).
They are also superstitious about our copper money; they call an Irish
halfpenny a devil’s coin, on account of the harp upon it, which they
call the devil; and they will not on any account take it in payment of
anything.
Their funerals much resemble the Irish wake. As soon as the party is
dead, the body is washed, and dressed in all its best clothes, which
are very few. A party of the most intimate friends of the deceased is
then invited. A goat, sheep, or dog is sacrificed, human sacrifices
being now prohibited by the British authorities as well as by King
Agray. After drinking a good deal of rum, the company begins to cry or
howl hideously, and wishing a good journey and plenty of servants in
the other world to the deceased (who is always seated in the circle as
one of the party, being fixed in a rude sort of arm chair), the corpse
is lowered into the grave, which is always under the floor in the
centre of their dwelling. They also pretend to bury with him a quantity
of rum as well as all his trinkets. The rum, however, is generally
well diluted with water.
Though they seem to have no parental or filial affection, they have a
strong attachment to the house in which they were born, and can rarely
be persuaded to leave it. Were they not prevented by our laws, parents
would very readily sell you any of their children, or even husbands
their wives. A woman, who is considered as very respectable, and keeps
a stall in the market, was repeatedly offered to me for sale by her
husband, and was herself very anxious for such a change, so as actually
to take possession of my bed one night when I was absent. I ordered
my servant to turn her out, and also sent her affectionate husband
an intimation that if he hawked his wife to me any more, I should
certainly punish him; this ended the affair.
The yam custom, or holiday, is another annual ceremony, kept up to
prevent people from using yams before they are ripe, as they are then
deemed unwholesome; and also to compel the people to use all the old
ones, in order to guard against the consequences of failure in the
yam crop of the following year. On this occasion all differences are
settled and crimes punished; but no sacrifices are offered up here, as
at Ashantee. The propensity for thieving is found in all the natives,
high and low; they are also, generally, void of all gratitude, and deem
it part of their duty to rob white men whenever they can. In the market
they invariably ask you four times as much as they will take. If your
servant is unwilling to connive at their swindling tricks, they open a
full battery of abuse upon him; but servants in this country seldom put
them to that test.
Of all the African tribes I have met with, I consider the Fantees
the worst. It is remarkable that one-eighth of the population is
either actually crippled or suffering from a loathsome disease called
_craw-craw_, which bears some resemblance to the mange in dogs or
horses. In appearance and personal strength they are much inferior to
most other Africans; probably from their great indolence and want of
exercise. The wives are treated with great harshness by their husbands,
in case they offend them.
They have no ingenuity, but a considerable power of imitation. Some
of our British manufactured articles in wood or gold they can imitate
very fairly, but when closely examined, their work will always be found
to be defective. They seem never to improve by their own ingenuity,
but always remain stationary in any art or trade which they have
learnt. They seem to have no idea of a straight line, and cannot build
a wall straight, or make a hedge in a direct line; nor in the whole
neighbourhood of Cape Coast is there a footpath in a straight line for
the distance of twenty yards, although the ground is quite level. They
certainly possess many strange ideas.
There are in the neighbourhood of Cape Coast some strange animals,
among which is the Patakoo, a very large species of wolf. These are so
ravenous as frequently to come down into the town and carry away pigs,
sheep, and goats. They pay nightly visits to the beach, and seize on
dead bodies which have been buried in the sand. As their slaves have
no relations in the town or neighbourhood, as soon as they die their
corpses are tied up in a coarse grass mat and thrown into a hole in the
sand, without any ceremony; but on the same or following night, they
are snatched up by the Patakoos, for whom they make a glorious feast.
This beast has great strength, its size considered. When Governor
Hill’s horse died, the officers of the First West India Regiment,
stationed at Cape Coast, determined to leave part of its carcase on the
beach, in order to attract the Patakoos, and it could not have lain
there more than an hour before it was removed by a single Patakoo,
though it was two men’s work to carry it.
There is plenty of excellent granite and sandstone at Cape Coast; yet
nearly all the houses are built of clay, as the people are too lazy to
fetch the stone. Elmina, which is only eight miles distant, is a much
superior settlement, and has likewise plenty of excellent sandstone, of
which a great number of its houses are built. This place belongs to the
Dutch, and carries on much trade, both with the interior and along the
coast. It has a fine lake, connected with the sea by a narrow channel,
which might with very little trouble be converted into a convenient
harbour, which would be important, as the swell along the Gold Coast is
always very heavy, and great difficulty is experienced in shipping and
unshipping goods. I visited several of the most influential merchants
at Elmina, and found them, as well as the governor, very hospitable.
The abundance of new plants in this country would give plenty of
employment to a botanist. A small shrub of the laurel tribe, bearing a
white delicate flower, shaped like the blossom of the pea, grows here
very plentifully, as also beautiful jasmines and honeysuckles, and
several sorts of sensitive plants. Some very fine grasses, also in this
neighbourhood struck me, but I did not observe many small annuals.
Agriculture has made little progress here, probably owing to the want
of horses, which cannot live more than a few weeks, and from the
indolence of the natives. Stock sufficient for the consumption of
the garrisons along the coast might be raised with a little care and
exertion. The number of troops along the whole of the west coast is at
present very small. Were their numbers doubled, there would not be too
many, and they might be employed alternately in cultivating the farms
and mounting guard in the forts. Yams, manioc, Indian corn, rice, and
all sorts of vegetables, for the garrison and ships of war cruising
on the coast, might in this way be easily obtained, and much expense
avoided. This would also be useful as a pattern to the natives. The
troops are paying at present one shilling per pound for meat, which
could easily be raised at one-fourth, and the cattle might be employed
on the farm instead of horses. An establishment of this sort would be
very beneficial here, and I have no doubt would answer the purpose
well. Unfortunately at present there seems to be no European at Cape
Coast who either knows or interests himself in anything relating to
agriculture. With the exception of Mr. Hutton, not a single English
merchant at Cape Coast has even a garden, although the progress of
vegetation is incredibly rapid. Some seeds of the vegetable marrow and
water melon, given to me by Dr. Lindley of the Horticultural Society in
London, which were sown on my arrival at Cape Coast, had grown to the
extent of twenty-four feet in two months, and the fruit of the water
melon was as large as a man’s head.
The heat of the month of November is excessive. On the 8th, the
quicksilver in the thermometer, in my bedroom, which is considered to
be cool, stood at 88°; and in the sun it rose to 115°; yet, thank God!
I was so well accustomed to it, that I felt very little inconvenience,
though generally out the whole day, and exposed to the sun. I was then
daily expecting a messenger from Ashantee, for one of the soldiers from
the fort had been despatched by the governor, to ask whether the King
would allow me to pass beyond his kingdom towards the Kong Mountains.
During the interval I was engaged in laying out the ground for Mr.
Hutton’s model farm.
The breed of cattle here is very handsome though small, but it might be
greatly improved, and this would repay the expense very well, as the
price of meat is so extremely high. Gold dust, unfortunately, seems to
be the only thing thought of on the coast.
Schools of industry and agriculture are wanted on this coast more
than any thing else. As land can be got for nothing anywhere on the
coast,--land capable of growing any thing,--a few hundred pounds
expended on a farm of three hundred acres would be very profitably
laid out. There are plenty of men who can read and write, begging for
employment; and ten times their number, from the bush, such as might be
deemed capable of learning, might be apprenticed to different kinds of
trades for four or five years.
It is worthy of remark, that on the whole coast, from Cape Palmas to
Accra, there is not a single shoemaker, although no trade seems to be
so much wanted. Even the natives in the interior complain much of the
want of shoes. Nor is there a tailor, a cabinet-maker, a wheelwright,
or a blacksmith who can weld a piece of iron with any neatness in the
whole settlement. Such articles, if manufactured on the coast, would
draw trade from the interior, and excite the natives to industry; and
thus British manufactures would be soon in great demand in the interior
also. This would greatly reduce the Slave trade, as the minds of the
people would be directed to agriculture and manufactures, particularly
as it is well known that even in the Ashantee country the population
is not on the increase. The Ashantees have indeed, for the last two
months, been at war with the tribes to the north of them, bordering
on the Kong Mountains, and have lost a great number of men, as their
enemies, who have no fire-arms, no doubt did also.
The merchants of Cape Coast, Annamaboe, and Accra, experience great
loss and inconvenience, in consequence of the trade being stopped
between Ashantee and the coast. This was occasioned by the murder of
an Ashantee woman by a Fantee, on her return from a trading journey to
the coast. She had occasion to stop a little behind her companions,
and was then robbed and murdered by this Fantee who overtook her. Her
companions missing her, went back, and found her with her head nearly
severed from her body. This took place in the Fantee country, between
Cape Coast and Ashantee. The murderer, however, was seized and brought
part of the way back to Cape Coast by a soldier from thence, on his way
with the letter to the King of Ashantee, from Governor Hill, which I
mentioned above.
Mr. Chapman, who had resided as missionary at Coomassie, the capital of
Ashantee, for the last twelve months, arrived at Annamaboe on the 26th
of November, 1844, with the intelligence that all the King required was
that the murderer should be punished according to the English law. The
King at that time expressed a great desire to see me in Ashantee, and
promised me complete protection in his country; but said nothing about
allowing me to go further.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] _Fetish_ is corrupted from the Portuguese _feitiço_, witchcraft,
conjuring.
[3] His Majesty had served several years on board a British man-of-war,
previously to attaining his sovereignty.