[ [29] ] The following extract from the letter-book of the late African Company, throws considerable light upon this subject:
'Cape Coast Castle, 30th January, 1783.
'Captain Lawson, who has been lately at the islands of Princes and St. Thomas, says that the Governor, who was inimical to the English, is returned to Portugal; he hired to the Spaniards at Fernando Po, one hundred soldiers to make reprisals on the English, in consequence of Captain Ragan having endeavoured to cut out of the island a Spanish packet, which was there in March and April last. Captain West of his Majesty's ship Champion, cruized off Fernando Po, two days in July last, in order to fall in with a frigate of thirty guns, and a sloop of fourteen, but, being both in the harbour, they would not come out. These two vessels remained in St. Thomas's in October last, where they had carried 200 troops, the only remains of 3000 that had originally been sent to Fernando Po, where the Spaniards had made a settlement, and landed a great quantity of brass cannon, and all kinds of military stores; but the natives were so disgusted with the Spanish Government, that they poisoned the water, which caused a great mortality and obliged the survivors to go away. However, previous to their departure, they dismounted and buried the cannon and all the stores; and, after they were gone, the natives demolished all the fortification, and threw the stones into the sea. A few Portuguese natives of St. Thomas's who for misdemeanors had been sold to the Spaniards by the Portuguese Government, are now remaining in the island ready to shew where the cannon and stores are buried; and, from what Captain Lawson has heard, the natives seem to wish that the English would come and settle among them, promising to render us every assistance in their power in erecting a settlement there. The importance of the trade carried on to Leeward having already been represented to you, I shall not add on the subject.'
[ [30] ] The Diadem arrived in the bay a few hours before us.
[ [31] ] The calabashes are taken down, and replaced by others, every morning and evening.
[ [32] ] We have met with some hooks made from the part of the solid wood of a prickly tree, or shrub, whence the thorn grows, and which process formed the pointed part of the hook.
[ [33] ] Wood is seldom found to be desirable for building in a hot country, from the numerous ants and other insects that assail it, particularly where the changes are so frequent from very dry to very moist weather, if we had had time, it would have been much better to have erected our buildings with brick or stone. There is, indeed, plenty of fine clay for the former; but building stones are scarce in that neighbourhood, and we had not sufficient lime,—as we had to procure burnt lime from Sierra Leone, or shells from Accra, both of which we obtained for the building of an armourer's shop and a bakehouse. Indeed, we were obliged to use the utmost exertion to get any thing erected to shelter the Europeans and African soldiers, before the rainy season set in. As for the African mechanics and labourers, they built their own huts, in certain lines, that we called streets.
[ [34] ] "The river Nun, or First Brass River, is the main branch of the Quorra, from whence you pass (in about two hours) through a creek, in an easterly direction, into the Second Brass River, which is also a large branch of the Quorra."—Lander, vol. iii. p. 224. "Brass, properly speaking, consists of two towns of nearly equal size, containing about a thousand inhabitants, and built on the borders of a kind of basin, which is formed by a number of rivulets, entering it from the Niger, through forests of mangrove bushes. One of them is under the domination of a noted scoundrel called King Jacket, who has already been spoken of; and the other is governed by a rival chief, named King Forday. These towns are situated directly opposite to each other, and within the distance of eighty yards, and are built on a marshy ground, which occasions the huts to be always wet."—Lander, vol. iii. p. 234.
[ [35] ] "A place, called Pilot's Town by Europeans, from the number of pilots that reside in it, is situated nearly at the entrance of the First Brass River (which, we understand, is the Nun River of Europeans), and at the distance of sixty or seventy miles from hence. This town acknowledges the authority of both kings, having been originally peopled by settlers from each of their towns."—Lander, vol. iii. p. 234.
[ [36] ] It is the custom here to bury their dead in their own houses.