The General has taken a Consa, which by the Negroes is understood a temporary Wife, because she is not obliged to leave the Country, which is looked on as Slavery: She is a Mulatto Woman, begot by a Dutch Soldier at Des Minas, by whom he has four Children, of fair, flaxen Hair and Complexion. Her Negro Friends and Relations add Interest and Power to him, and he again can back their Injustice in the Pawns irregularly procured to the Garrison. He dotes on this Woman, whom he persuades now and then to our Chappel-Service, and she complies without Devotion, being a strict Adherer to the Negrish Customs. I attended the Illness of one of her Children; and afterwards on the General himself, who on both Occasions, I found, was so weak or so wise, as to give the preference of Fetishing to any Physical Directions of mine, wearing them on his Wrists and Neck. He was a Gentleman of good Sense, yet could not help yielding to the silly Customs created by our Fears, and shews the Sway it bears in the Choice or Alteration of our Religion.
He cannot persuade this Woman to leave the Country, tho’ he has stole or forced her Consent for all the Children, in regard to their Education; she still conforming to the Dress of her Country, being always barefoot and fetished with Chains and Gobbets of Gold, at her Ancles, her Wrists, and her Hair; to alter which in England, she thinks would sit awkard, and together with her Ignorance how to comport her self with new and strange Conversation, would in all likelihood alienate her Husband’s Affections.
The General, besides being a kind Husband and Father, is a good Servant to the Company; assiduous and diligent, maintaining his Authority against the Dutch at Des Minas: Mr. Butler, the Dutch Director-General there, and he, having frequent Controversies and Demands upon one another; sometimes on account of pretended ill-usage to the Relations of his Consa, oftner upon Trade. Yet the Dignity he is to preserve in this petty Sovereignty, and the accustomed fawning Submission of the Negroes to it, has made his Carriage haughty towards all under him. He resides for ever within his Battlements; his Subjects and he resembling the Giant and enchanted Castle. He is seen no oftner than is necessary; and when he vouchsafes an Invitation to his Table, you must keep a good Look-out, or lose your Dinner; he never descending so much from State as to ask after you, tho’ he knows there is no Victuals any where else. A Project indeed is lately set on foot, for the Company’s importing Irish Beef and Pork, to be issued at 19 and 12lib. an Accy, wished for by those who love their Meat without Sauce. I was six Weeks attending the Trials of the Pyrates at this Castle, and treated very civilly.
The Factory have every now and then a large Demand for Salt, made and brought hither from Accra. The Sale appears like a Fair in the Castle, and many of those Negroes whose Ivory or Gold would not purchase half a Bushel, I was told had travelled some hundred Miles; they chusing to go in Bodies when Seed-time is over, as a better Protection from wild Beasts, and their wilder Countrymen, who frequently make Incursions from several parts of the Coast, and sieze them for Slaves, when few and defenceless.
The Castle is a large Quadrangle, built by the Portuguese; for tho’ the French first discovered this Part, their Civil Wars hindred Settlements first made by them; who erected Forts, from whom the Dutch seized their’s, and we from them again. Vice-Admiral Holmes in 1664, after reducing New-York and Long Island from the Dutch, coming here by order of the Duke of York, then Lord-Admiral, and dispossessing them of most Places; it certainly being as reasonable on our side as it was on their’s; or more, because they would have excluded all others from the Trade, making Prize of our Ships, and imprisoning the Men. Admiral Ruyter seized them from us again the next Year, without Declaration of War, which engaged us to a Reprizal on their Bourdeaux Fleet. These Transactions, and the pressing Instances of the Parliament, who voted, the King should be addressed to redress the Wrongs and Injuries of the Dutch on our Trade in Africa and India to a vast Value, occasioned a War, which concluded with our Right of Privilege.
The Height of the Walls is the Strength of this Fort; sufficient against any Negro Power, as they lately experienced in an Attack the Fantins made upon the Castle’s Dependants, who found their Security under the Walls; for here are some potent Neighbours, such as the Emperor of Fantin, the Kings of Santie, Akim, and Aquemboe, between whom and the Company’s Negroes, happen frequent Occasions of Quarrel, from unwarrantable Practices in Trade. The common way to evade the Stroke, or push it in the Company’s favour, is giving a Dashee of 5 or 600lib. in Goods to one of them, to fall on the Adversary; a Trick used alternately by the Dutch, and us also, to counterplot one another’s Interests.
In the Area of this Quadrangle, are large Vaults, with an iron Grate at the Surface to let in Light and Air on those poor Wretches, the Slaves, who are chained and confined there till a Demand comes. They are all marked with a burning Iron upon the right Breast, D. Y. Duke of York.
Tanks (Reservatories of Water) are in the Castle, vaulted and terrassed, capable of holding 100 Tuns or more: The Pavement leans from all parts towards them, to drain off the Rain; Water being scarce in dry [24]Seasons, and great quantities wanted. There is only one, nasty, muddy Pond, of ill Taste, in the Neighbourhood, from whence Ships are supplied, swum off to the Boats with a great deal of trouble by the Negroes.
Within the Castle is a Smith’s Shop, a Cooperage, Store-houses, a Chappel, and Houses for the Officers and Servants. The General’s Lodging communicates with the Chappel, a capacious Hall, which serves to preach and dine in, pray or drink, serve God or debate on Trade; hence they can over-look what the Company’s Servants are doing, and how comply with their respective Duties. A Bastion runs out from it that has a very pleasant Prospect to the Sea, discerning with a Glass the Ships coming down the Coast, and very distinctly all those in the Road at Des Minas.
Having done with the Factory and Castle at present, I come now to the Natives, who from a long Acquaintance with Europeans, are much the best Negroes of the whole Continent.