Cactus of different kinds, and the prickly pear, grow here in great abundance; the cashew nut, which produces much fruit, is also common, as well as oranges, limes, bananas, plantains, and pine-apples, with another very delicious fruit, not very common on this coast, called the Coromantine, or Cromantine apple, from the Dutch settlement bearing that name near Annamaboe. Its native name, however, is Arombobgway. It is about the size of a hen’s egg, and has nearly the shape of a pear. Its colour, when ripe, is a dark yellow; its skin smooth, with an oblong grain. Its sweetness is mixed with a slight acidity. The natives prize it highly as a preventive against sea-sickness. Its seeds are four in number, oblong, and about three quarters of an inch in length, very thin towards the edge, gradually thickening towards the centre to three-eighths of an inch. In colour it is similar to the horse-chestnut; the inner part is of a pale yellow, and easily separated in the middle.
The natives of Accra are allowed, by all other people from Cape Coast to Benin, to be the greatest and most expert thieves along the whole coast; but my experience does not enable me to perceive any great difference in this respect, for I have found them all a great deal more dexterous than was convenient, white men being always considered as lawful prey in all cases. Even in the market they will always ask four times the proper price from an European. The population is much mixed here as well as at Winnebah; but there are considerably more mulattoes in proportion to the respective population of the two places. This, no doubt, arises from their having had more intercourse with Europeans. Circumcision is practised by a considerable number. This custom was introduced by some of the slaves brought from the interior; as I observed the same practice in several towns on the banks of the Niger when there in 1841. In Accra this operation is performed upon the children generally at the age of ten or eleven years, after which a square grass mat, about the thickness of coarse canvass, is worn by the boy till the wound is healed, by which those who have undergone the operation are easily distinguished from others.
Many of the natives, both male and female, go entirely naked, till they are twelve or thirteen years old; and all, when grown up, except a very few, have the upper part of their bodies entirely naked, as well as their legs and feet. The women invariably carry their child upon their back while in the performance of their domestic duties, and even on their long journeys into the bush to buy provision, either for their families or for sale in the market. All laborious duties fall on the wives; fishing, planting corn or manioc, is the only work performed by the husband. The child, as before stated, is carried on its mother’s back or hips, resting upon a kankie—a sort of pad in the shape of a half moon, fixed tightly round the loins, and protruding at least six inches. The child is seated on this sort of pad or saddle, with a strip of country cloth round the upper part of its body, as well as its mother, to keep it in its proper place. When the child requires the mother’s breast, you will often see it reaching its head round to the front, and catching hold of the breast with both hands, to support itself while sucking, the mother continuing her pace unaltered, with perhaps a hundred-weight of yams and fruit on her head, during a journey of twelve or fifteen miles. The women’s breasts are generally much larger and looser than those of an European, and frequently hang down as low as the waist, which is very convenient for the infant when seated in its saddle.
During the dry season the natives very seldom sleep in their houses in any part of the west coast of Africa, but lie on a thin grass mat outside of their houses, without any covering. Country cloths are manufactured at Accra, but not extensively. Drip or filter stones are made from an excellent stone found here, superior to any other for that purpose. The same stone is also used for building. Fish is very abundant generally, amongst which is one of a very peculiar flavour, much esteemed, and not found on any other part of the coast, called by the natives pogie. The fish is generally dried in the same fashion as at Winnebah. Quantities of these fish are sent into the interior, even to Ashantee.
The landing is difficult at certain seasons, owing to a great many ridges of rocks. In the rear of the town is a salt lake of considerable magnitude, frequently broken in upon by the sea, which washes away the sand-bank, separating the one from the other. Three or four miles behind the town is fine land for cultivation, but between that distance and the town the soil is sandy, mixed with shells and other marine substances, leaving no doubt that the sea, at a former period, covered the surface. Gaming and drinking are prevalent here to a great extent. Cards, and a game called Adjito, are the principal games. Draughts are also played in Dutch Accra.
English Accra, according to my estimation, contains about seven thousand inhabitants. Stock of different kinds is abundant; and if any attention were paid to it, it might be wonderfully improved, but the Africans pay no attention either to domestic or wild animals; even the dog or horse, the two most sagacious of all the animal creation, excite in them no interest whatever. If not driven to it, they will suffer a horse to stand for days, tied up without food or water. In fact, in no case do they exhibit any feeling either of regard or affection, to merit even a comparison with any of the lower animals, being also selfish in the extreme, in every point where no traces of education are found.
February 11th.—I sailed from Accra, for Ahguay, accompanied by Mr. Hutton, on board the St. Helier of Jersey, Master, Deslands. This vessel being consigned to Mr. Hutton, with goods for his factories on the leeward coast, gave me a good opportunity of visiting each place where his factories are established, as well as many of the principal towns and markets in the neighbourhood.
On the 12th, at ten A.M., we were boarded by the Cygnet, brig-of-war, the same vessel in which I was ordered a passage from England, previous to my being transferred to the Prometheus steamer. Only a short time previous, she had run a large Spanish slaver on shore, much larger than herself, and well armed. She was then on the look-out for a felucca, which was afterwards taken by the Hydra steamer. On the 13th, we were boarded by the Star, Captain Dunlop, off Popoe, a town of slave-trading notoriety.
On the same evening we anchored off Ahguay, another of the greatest slave-marts on the coast of Africa; and on the following morning went on shore in one of Mr. Hutton’s canoes, which we brought from Cape Coast, as well as a crew of canoemen, as there is great difficulty at times when shipping slaves in obtaining them, for they are generally themselves slaves, and their masters invariably slave-dealers, Spaniards and Portuguese. In fact, all the natives here who can afford it are all concerned in this traffic.
After landing, we proceeded to Mr. Hutton’s factory, on the south side of the town, facing the sea, distant half a mile, over a bed of loose dry sand, and always very hot. The sea-breeze, however, renders it less distressing. Upon nearing the factory, we were met by the caboceer, a tall fat man, with bloodshot eyes. He appeared to be a complete specimen of the drunken sot, which I found to be truly the case. He wore a country cloth round his loins, and a light blue hat, too small for him. On his wrists he had heavy iron bracelets, rudely manufactured. On this occasion he was attended by his principal captains, or headmen, but what in any civilized country would be called a disgusting rabble. About twenty or thirty had old Danish muskets, with which they kept up an irregular fire when the guns were inclined to go off, which was seldom the case more than once out of four times. A great many, however, never broke silence, running round their chief like so many loose hounds, and performing the most ludicrous and disgusting gestures, to show, as they imagined, their great superiority to strangers.