CLVIII.
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.