We now move southwards to the—
Gold Coast Settlements.—The climate of Western Africa requires notice. It suits the native, but destroys the European. Of the two settlements,[44] already mentioned, the Gambia is the most deadly; though Sierra Leone has the worst name. Both are on the coast; both, consequently, on the lower courses of the rivers, and both on low levels. The import of these remarks applies to the Negroes of America. At present, it ushers in a brief notice of the climate of the Gold Coast; this district being chosen for the purpose of description because it makes the nearest approach to the equator of any English settlement in Africa. Consequently, it may serve as a typical sample of the malarious parts of the coast in question.
From April till August is the rainy season, which gradually passes into the dry; heavy fogs forming during the transition. These last till the end of September. Occasional showers, too, continue till November. Then the weather becomes really clear and dry, until, towards the end of January, the dry parching wind, called the Harmattan, sets in, with its over-stimulant action upon the human system, and clouds of penetrating impalpable sand. If this is not blowing, the atmosphere is loaded with moisture; and this it is, combined with the heat of an intertropical sun, and the effluvia engendered by the decay of an over-luxuriant vegetation, which makes Western Africa the white man's grave. Not that the soil, even on the coast, is always swampy and alluvial.[45] About Cape Coast it is rocky and undulating. Still, it is inordinately wooded, as well as full of spots where water accumulates and exhalations multiply. Yet the thermometer ranges between 78° and 86° Fahrenheit—a low maximum for the neighbourhood of the equator; a high one, however, to feel cold in. Nevertheless, such is the case. "From this peculiarity of the atmosphere, the sensations of an individual almost invariably indicate a degree of cold, especially when sitting in a room, or not taking bodily exercise; so that, to ensure a feeling of comfortable warmth, it becomes necessary to dress in a thicker material than what is usually considered best adapted for tropical wear, and to have a fire lighted in one's bedroom for some time before one retires to rest."[13]
The chief Africans of these parts—and we now approach the great officina servorum—alone tolerant of the heats, and droughts, and rains, and exhalations are—
1. The Fantis.
2. The Ghans.
3. The Avekvom (?)
A. The Fantis.—Of the true natives of the country these are the chief.
The term Fanti, like the term Mandingo, has a double sense—a general and a specific signification.[46]
The particular population of the parts about Cape Coast is Fanti in the limited sense of the term.