The climate of the Guinea Coast is very fatal to Europeans; for the muddy creeks and inlets, the putrid swamps, and the mangrove jungles that line the banks of the rivers are all productive of pestilence and malaria.
There are two seasons, the wet and the dry. In the more southern portions the rainy season begins in March, but at Sierra Leone and farther north it begins a month later.
The vegetation is not only very luxuriant but varied. One of the most important trees is a species of palm. The covering of the seed, or nut, of this tree is used for the extraction of the palm oil of commerce.
A bunch of red and yellow fruit will often have a thousand oil-yielding plums, and weigh in some cases half a hundredweight.
It is no uncommon thing for several thousand tons to be exported in a year to English ports, as Liverpool, London, and Bristol.
The palm-oil tree is native to the country between the Gambia and the Congo, and is found in great abundance. The oil from the nuts, however, is manufactured chiefly in the country of the Gold and Slave coasts.
Nearly all the remarkable animals of Africa are found in the country along the Gold Coast. The domestic animals are mostly of an inferior order; but of the wild animals we find an abundance, as elephants, hippopotamuses, monkeys, lions, leopards, together with crocodiles, serpents, and parrots.
The principal minerals of the country are gold and iron. The chief exports are palm oil, ivory, gold, wax, and various kinds of timber, as well as spices, gums, and rice.
The population consists of a few European colonists and a variety of negro nations. These, though bearing a strong physical resemblance to one another, and holding many customs in common, differ widely in their dispositions and characters.