“Do you go out into the bush much to shoot birds and deer?”
This being explained to him, he said to Ansah:—
“Does this white man think that I am a common fellow to have to work for my living?” and got up and went out in great dudgeon.
It is needless to say that the Ashantis have no idea of sport.
We left Yancoomassi Assin early next morning and reached Mansu about 5 p.m. There we found Lieutenant Swinburne, R.M.A., one of the Governor’s retinue, who, while the others had been looking after squads of Kroomen, had come across country from Accra by unknown paths on foot, a feat never before performed by a European. As the maps of the tract that he had crossed had been compiled from imagination and native reports, he was able to rectify many startling errors.
We were off again early next morning, reaching Dunquah about 4·30 p.m. The sun had been exceedingly powerful, and as the forest terminates a short distance out of Mansu, giving place to the shadowless bush, we had had our heads well roasted, for it is impossible to wear a helmet in a hammock, and the awning, formed of a single piece of thin calico, affords no real protection. The water at Dunquah, which is obtained from shallow wells, is notoriously bad even for the Gold Coast, being of the colour of weak coffee, and filtering has no visible effect on it. On our upward journey we had experienced some of the ill effects resulting from drinking this beverage; but now we had with us a scientific surgeon who assured us that he knew how to purify it, and, while dinner was being prepared, he set to work at an earthen-pot full of muddy water. When we sat down to our meal we were agreeably surprised to find our tumblers full of clear water, and it was such an unusual luxury that we each seized a glass and raised it to our lips. The result was startling: the Commissariat officer jumped up, ejecting the fluid from his mouth and exclaimed:—
“Good heavens—I’m poisoned.”
I had a most horrible taste in my mouth, and tried to say, “What’s the matter?” but found I could only make a sound like “mum—mum—mum”; while the others demanded an immediate explanation and an antidote from the man of science.
He said it was nothing: it was only something he had put in the water to purify it: it was quite harmless.
That was all very well, but it had made us all feel ill, and what he had used was such a violent astringent that I could not partake of any of the dinner except the soup, and that I had to take through a straw. The surgeon appeared very proud of his achievement, though it seemed to me that it was not of much use to purify water for drinking purposes if it was made undrinkable in the process. I have no liking for such theoretical scientists.