CAPE COAST CASTLE, WEST COAST OP AFRICA, _March 18, 1860_.
On our departure from Sierra Leone, we proceeded down the coast of
Liberia, and landed at Harper, Cape Palmas. I found the Rev. Mr. Ramba
in charge of the Missionary Establishment. There were two young ladies
who had recently arrived from the United States. One of them had not
recovered from the African fever. I found there, in the little town,
many manumitted slaves from Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland, with
whom I conversed; also, some of the recaptured slaves from the brig
Echo, which were sent out by the frigate Niagara. The United States
Government pay one year’s schooling, and those unable to take care
of themselves are apprenticed. I was invited to dine by the family
who occupy the Asylum buildings, erected by the Protestant Episcopal
Society of the United States. The position is most commanding and
elevated, on a promontory bathed by the rolling surf, with tropical
fruits and flowers in the background. But notwithstanding its
advantageous location, the malignant fever of Africa finds its way.
Being in a country where no distinction is made in color, I find
myself at table with white and black missionaries and their wives,
reminding me of my peregrinations in the island of Hayti, where my
table companions in some outside villages were only of the sable hue.
You are aware that the English and French are unlike the Americans in
their prejudices in this particular. On board our steamer, we have had
in the first cabin, and at table, practical amalgamation. Foreigners
have native wives, and you find children running about of every dye. It
goes even further, in the marriage of white women with black men.
Liberia, you are aware, is a republic, having its President, Senators,
and Representatives. The towns are mostly occupied by the native
population, whose wants are quite limited, as is the case with the
black race generally in this country, whose dress consists at most
of a small handkerchief or a string of pearls about the loins. The
incentive to labor is slight, and the efforts of the missionaries
meet with little success; and unless through some special providence,
this benighted coast can make but little progress. An intelligent
mulatto woman came down with us to Cape Coast Castle, in the cabin.
She was from Savannah, Georgia. She had come over with her husband, to
visit her father and mother, who had emigrated to Liberia, and died
with fever. She had lost her husband by the same disease, and wished
herself back again. She remarked, that at times she had hopes for the
Colony, and then again felt discouraged, as many of the manumitted
slaves, instead of showing an example to the heathen, fell into their
vices. The trade of Liberia is very limited; and, were it not for the
Colonization Society, their case now might be hopeless. They have a
small war schooner, presented by the British Government; one schooner,
called the Monrovia, was in port, which trades with the United States.
I must here mention a circumstance which occurred in sending over a
parcel of manumitted negroes from New Orleans. A philanthropic captain
offered to bring over the party for a nominal sum; he supplied himself
with water casks well filled, and abundant provisions for a long
voyage, and returning with ample berth accommodations. Of course he
obtained his clearance for such a benevolent object without difficulty,
landed the released blacks, ran down the coast, filled up with slaves,
and landed his cargo of human flesh on the island of Cuba!
We proceed along, down to the Dutch town and fort of Elmina, and the
English fort and town of Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast. The surf
and breakers along this coast at times are frightful; but the naked
natives, in boats dug out of the trunks of trees, containing from ten
to fifteen persons, with side oars or paddles, not unlike huge wooden
shovels, swarm around the ship, and carry you ashore through the
foaming billows. Once the beach struck, they jump in the water to draw
the boat up, and then carry you on their backs to dry land. The Dutch
Governor, six miles above here, has just visited the English Governor,
and held what is termed a Palaver with the Queen of Assin, who was
escorted by bands of nearly naked negro troops or subjects, with the
most wild and discordant music from tom-toms or kettle-drums, reed
flutes, frightful sounding gongs, ringing of small bells, etc., amid
the yells and shouts of this maddened crew. Another body of Bushmen,
who were going to war with a neighboring tribe, were congregating with
their muskets, which they are all provided with; they had been parading
with a white umbrella over the captain’s head, under a vertical sun,
with as much veneration as the carrying of the Host over the head of
the Pope, in the church ceremonies of Rome. At length they bivouacked
under the shade of a wide-spread mango tree, where rum, the usual
beverage of the natives, was passed around, amid the shouts, laughter,
and war songs of these half savages, much to the edification of a half
dozen slave girls, who were peeping over a wall adjoining.
Ships come down to the coast of Guinea from Boston and New York, loaded
with the two staples of negro luxury, rum and tobacco; but I am sorry
to learn that some of those people who cry out so strongly against our
domestic institution of the South, and would willingly sacrifice our
beloved Union, lend themselves to the slave trade, in furnishing empty
rum casks to slavers, which are filled with water, and get a clearance
from the Custom House, as if engaged in legitimate traffic; thereby
enabling them to run along the coast for the sale of articles without
suspicion, when they fill up with slaves and start for Cuba.
The soil here abounds with particles of gold, which the natives wash
when their daily wants require small means, but they are destitute of
the merit of perseverance unless forced to it. The white population
consists here of only a few officers in the fort, supported by native
or apprenticed soldiers. The native houses or huts are of wicker or
reed work, plastered with mud and covered with palm leaves or branches.
The Wesleyan missionaries have a fine, eligible establishment. I found
three of their number here present, as also some native preachers and
teachers. One of the number is the nephew to the king of the Ashantees.
He had been sent to England for an education. They were well provided
with the good things of this life in eating and drinking, which they
are entitled to in this barbarous country.
I saw sheep and goats on the grounds--some monkeys chattering about;
large numbers are found in the woods; the natives are fond of them, and
their skins are an article of exportation, for ladies’ muffs.
We have had a melancholy duty to perform: one of our fellow passengers,
who-occupied a state room opposite to me, died night before last. He
was a physician, who could not heal himself according to the command
in Scripture. Our number of passengers was now reduced to four. He had
supped with us, and two hours after was a corpse. I felt it a duty to
assist in performing the last rites of a Christian burial, not knowing
but others might be called upon to perform a similar service for one
seven thousand miles from home. The ship carpenter made a rude pine
coffin, which was covered with the English union jack. We solicited the
offices of a missionary, but whether from the sudden shock, or fear
of fever, I know not, but I found myself the only passenger among the
group following his mortal remains to the white man’s little graveyard,
carried upon the shoulders of negroes. The captain, purser, first
engineer, and myself, stood with white umbrellas under a broiling sun,
the parched earth almost blistering our feet, until the burial service
was read by the officiating Episcopal clergyman in his white robes.
It was the mournful sight of a Christian burial in strong contrast
with the listless, idle, and gazing groups of dark, naked figures,
which curiosity had attracted to the spot. A civil engineer in the
Government employ, was the only resident who joined us in the funeral,
and to whose house we adjourned after the ceremonies were over; we were
provided with refreshments, which we stood in need of.
Many forts along the coast, which once amounted to thirty, have fallen
into decay; they were used for slave factories, and were in the
possession of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, and the English, to
provide the Colonies with slaves.
We proceed to Acra, further along the coast, in possession of the Dutch
and English, and thence to the territory of the king of Dahomy, who is
now waging war to procure slaves for the annual sacrifice, and I may be
able to give you some of these barbarous statistics.