Thursday, Oct. 18th.—Passed through the market this morning, which is always held at an early hour, where the articles for sale consist principally of fruits and vegetables. The sales here are conducted by barter, the merchants generally exchanging tobacco and other goods for the articles they want to purchase.
I visited to-day an English school for native girls (21 in number) the expense of which is defrayed by the Government. These children were not all black, for there were a few very pretty Mulattoes amongst them. A custom that must appear strange and immoral to my own countrymen, but which is not held so at Cape Coast, prevails, in reference to these girls, when their education has been completed. Although none of them are regularly affianced, some of them are taken from the school into the household of resident English gentlemen, where they perform all the domestic duties in an anomalous capacity, combining all the responsibilities of the married state, without its legal bond. A previous engagement, and clear understanding is entered into with the parents of the girls, to the mutual satisfaction of all parties, and their offspring is afterwards provided for according to circumstances. These young women usually receive the elements of a good education, and constitute the only female society which an Englishman can enjoy here, as the climate is so debilitating to English ladies that they cannot reside in the place for any length of time. This, indeed, is the only excuse that can be offered for a custom, which it must be granted does not admit of an apology beyond the mere necessity of the case. The girls are excellent managers in domestic concerns, and good and careful nurses, qualities that are exceedingly valuable in such a situation.
Friday, 19th.—Being on the point of taking leave of my friends at Cape Coast, I cannot better occupy a few pages than with some general retrospective observations.
Colonel Lumley, Lieutenant-Governor of Sierra Leone claims my first attention. I had the good fortune to make his acquaintance at the seat of government, and during the whole time I had the pleasure of knowing him, I always found him to be actuated by a most zealous devotion to the many important duties which his situation imposed upon him. Nor was his high character as a public officer more praiseworthy, than his estimable qualities us a man. I shall always look back with pride and satisfaction to the period of our intimacy, which was clouded only with the apprehensions I entertained of the fate that awaited him. Perhaps the prophetic forebodings with which he was impressed might have led me to such gloomy anticipations; for he often observed to me, he felt convinced that if he should ever be attacked by the fever, it would prove fatal, as it unfortunately did, not very long after I left the colony: and I was informed he caught it from a young friend whom he was kindly attending, and who fell a victim to the disease.
With Captain Ricketts, the commandant of the fortress, I also had the pleasure of enjoying an intimate acquaintance. Captain Ricketts has served many years on this coast, and was engaged with the Ashantees at the battle of Essamacow, where Sir Charles McCarthy lost his life. On that occasion he had a most miraculous escape, both in, and after the battle, particularly on his return to the coast, where he was obliged to follow the course of rivers, traverse the jungle and forests alone, to evade the murderous Ashantees. He subsequently became commandant of Cape Coast Castle, in which capacity he acquired so much influence with the natives as to succeed in prevailing on them to build a market-place, to lay out several new lines of streets, and otherwise improve the town; but above all, to induce them, after a great deal of persuasion, and perseverance, to take down all the houses adjoining, and in the immediate vicinity of the castle walls, a measure which must have greatly interfered with their religious prejudices, as they were obliged to remove the remains of their relatives, who are always buried under the apartments they inhabit, and to carry them to their new habitations to be deposited in a similar manner. He had also succeeded with the King and carboceers in getting them to cut away all the jungle from the suburbs of the town, for three or four miles distant, and in fact his influence was so great, and the positive utility of the works he designed so obvious, that the natives of Cape Coast almost adored him. The castle, which is a fine building, was kept in the best order under the superintendence of this active and useful officer.
It is astonishing that the Portuguese, who have been so enterprising, and expended so much money on their early discoveries in the erection of fortresses, many of which may still be considered good modern fortifications, should now allow most of their foreign possessions to go to decay, and even to fall into ruins. Look at the once celebrated city of Goa on the Malabar coast, dwindled into insignificance, and proverbially called a city of priests and beggars. What is the cause of this decadence? Is it a just visitation for the unjust means they practised to acquire those possessions? All for the thirst of gold! Or is it that the active spirit of the Portuguese ceases with the acquisition of novelties, and that they are destitute of those persevering qualities which improve and foster the possessions that are originally obtained by enthusiasm and energy?
We had frequent heavy showers during our stay at Cape Coast, although this was not the regular rainy season, for these showers were what are called the after-rains, which last about a fortnight.
When the weather clears up after very heavy rains, many of the poor people, principally old women and children, take up the mud from the gutters, and wash it well in calabashes, when they generally find a few grains of gold for their pains. This is also the case after a very heavy surf has subsided which, during the violence of the storm, generally throws up a great quantity of black mud on the shore.
There is a strange exhibition to be witnessed every morning on the sea-shore, which, however, I shall forbear to describe.
There is a singular old man, upwards of 60 years of age, at Cape Coast Castle, who is well known by the name of Dr. Saguah, and who acts in the capacity of a native doctor. This person excites a great deal of attention, not only by the peculiarity of his manners, but by the circumstances through which he has reached a station of some consideration. He was originally a slave to the African Company at Cape Coast, and having been accidentally placed in the house of the medical establishment, he learned to compound medicines. In the duties which he performed in this capacity he rendered himself very useful, and continued at the pestle and mortar until Sir Charles McCarthy's arrival, when the African Company was dissolved, all their slaves liberated, and the new charter proclaimed, (for Sierra Leone and Cape Coast) on March 29, 1822. Having received his freedom, he now assumed a position of some importance, and was retained on the medical establishment as dispenser, with a small salary. His excellent conduct and judgment in the discharge of his new office procured him the general respect and confidence of Europeans, and his reputation, when I was at Cape Coast, stood so high that he was frequently consulted on the diseases of the climate in preference to medical gentlemen from Europe. He is in the habit of making daily visits to all the European residents, whether they require his services or not, and they generally invite him to take some refreshment, handing him at the same time the keys of their celeret or cupboard, that he may help himself to spirits, or wine. He sometimes avails himself of their offer, chiefly for the sake of gratifying his vanity, by shewing to the servants the confidence that is reposed in him; for no other native, perhaps, except himself, would be entrusted with the keys of any place where wine and spirits are kept. Trade was very dull during my stay at Cape Coast, and had been so for some time; the merchants, however, looked forward to its revival, in consequence of the prospects of peace with the Ashantee people, who were very desirous to terminate hostilities, for the sake of being enabled to resume their commercial intercourse with the English, and other Europeans on the coast. During the war it was believed that they had accumulated a great quantity of gold and ivory, which are the principal articles they barter for goods of European manufacture, and for which they had no sale while hostilities lasted, except in some few instances, where individuals risked the hazard of embarking in smuggling transactions.