of the Gold

Cultivation is carried on to a very limited extent in the Cultivation Gold Coast, especially in the sea-board towns, and this is prin- coast. cipally owing to the limited supply of rain and the barrenness of the coast lands. In the interior, however, the natives work well; but their mode of cultivating the soil is as unscientific as in the other parts of the coast already described. There are no extensive plantations to be seen anywhere near the seacoast towns, except, perhaps, in the plains of Winnebah. At Accra, through the exertions of the Basle missionaries and Mr Freeman, systematic plantations are in existence, which serve as models to those parts of the coast. Several thousand coffee trees are at present under proper cultivation. Mr Freeman has got vines, pine apples, cotton, coffee, cabbage, &c., under skilful and civilised management in his plantation at Beula, which supplies Accra plentifully with green vegetables.

Of the green vegetables used on the Gold Coast by the natives, an anonymous writer in the African Times* gives the following:-"First, though not foremost, there is the wild cabbage (called by the Fantees Empompo"), the leaves of which make a capital salad, or, dressed as greens, make a good substitute for the savoy. It is to be had in perfection from the end of May to the end of February, i.e., nine months in the year. Second, the wild cucumber, little inferior, indeed, to the cultivated one; it makes a good salad, and eats well also stewed with a little melted butter. Then we have the samphire, the sea-kale, or mirenchie, growing even down to the very beach. Purslane is also very abundant, and very wholesome, and grows everywhere and anywhere. Spinach, also, which the natives call kotú betlow; and the love apple (tomato), or enkrooma, for seasoning soups, or making stews, roasting, frying, &c. The green papaws, served with boiled mutton and dressed as turnips, are by no means a bad substitute for that excellent vegetable, garden mallows, or vegetable marrow. Cabbages of very fair quality, from the tree cabbage, to be had at most of the native farms. Sweet potatoes, green corn, or

* Vol. iv. No. 37, p. 22.

young corn dished up as green peas, makes a very respectable appearance. Beans, calavanças, mazagan, and haricot; these are to be seen daily in the market at Cape Coast, dressed up in some native dish, but the European can get the raw article and dress it as he pleases. The leaves of the Capsicum annuum, or pepper plant, make a good salad; and when boiled and served up as spinach, they make a very palatable dish. Palm cabbage, which is the top or head of the palm tree; it makes a very choice and delicious vegetable, and eats well with fish, flesh, or fowl. There are several kinds of yams, with as great a difference between the varieties as between the haricot and the Windsor bean. There is the kökóé (cocoe of the West Indies), or yam cabbage; the leaves make a good cabbage, and are used as such by the Africans; the root resembles the yam, but is more spherical, the yam being oblong; the flavour partakes something of a nice mealy potato, or a roasted chestnut. The cassada, when its meal is mixed in equal proportions of flour, makes a pastry, light, wholesome, and easy of digestion, and well adapted for invalids. Plantains, roasted, fried, or boiled, make a very good vegetable. Bananas, when just full grown, but not yet turned to ripening, make a passable imitation of carrot. There are mushroom, shallots, chicory, and pumpkins, all good vegetables,” and can be obtained in various quantities and quality.

The population of the Protectorate Territory of the Gold Coast has been laid down at 400,000 souls, but there has not been any census taken. The inhabitants occupy small towns or villages, numbering from 40 to about 8000. In no one town, croon, or village, so far as my experience extends, can we find over 10,000 persons. The native huts are huddled together, pell-mell, without any plan; there are scarcely any streets or proper lanes, but, as a whole, only crooked by-paths. Cape Coast presents but a poor exception to this rule, where a few streets properly so-called are discernible; but that confused system of building, as seen in purely native towns, is conspicuous even here.

and sewage.

There is no regular system of drainage on the Gold Coast; Drainage the country being hilly, and the quantity of rain falling in the rainy season being small, the soil is generally dry. The native population are very primitive in their style; they go out in the fields, or on the sandy beach, to answer the calls of nature, and these fæcal matters go to fertilise the soil, or are washed away by the booming waves of the sea. The effluvia from these ochletic poisons are extremely disagreeable, and in many cases blow to the teeth of the town. Colonel Conran has prevented these nuisances from being done indiscriminately in every part of the town, and has made several public privies in the various suitable localities in the outskirts of the town. Among the higher classes, the use of privy cesspools, made by digging deep into the earth, such as are found in the houses and premises at Sierra Leone, is unknown; they use closed chambers, which are emptied into the sea once or twice every day, and are consequently free from the reeking poison which is constantly generated from that source. At Accra and its neighbourhood, where there are low-lying lands, a plentiful accumulation of water, in stagnant pools during and after the rains, always occurs. There are no proper drains here, and the country very much requires them.

LAGOS AND THE BIGHTS.

the Bights,

The several stations in the Bights of Biafra and Benin are Lagos and composed principally of alluvium intermixed with sand. The soil of. strip of land which runs from between the lagoon and the sea, extending from the Volta to the Niger, and including Lagos, had its origin primarily from immense quantities of coral forming their beds on the border of the ocean, and gradually raising that portion until it forms extensive reefs or breakers; these, by being constantly filled up with sand, debris, and deposits from the river, and washings from the soil during the rains, ultimately becomes rescued from the ocean. The sand is porous and white, and allows the accumulation of surface water, and during the rains forms beds for the swamps. "The

formation of land," says Dr Rowe, "is well shown in these lagoons, and may be traced through all its stages, in ascending scale, from the first step in the process to the existence of solid land. Not unfrequently, from the same point in clear water in the middle of the current, we see the growths from the bottom which perform the first step in the process; next to them, water lilies and other floating plants on the surface; long grasses come next as we approach the bank, and when once these have gained a footing, the work of solidification proceeds rapidly. Acres of shallow water are grown over with this grass, and from its margin, by the force of the current and the rise of water-level during the rainy season, are detached large masses, forming floating islands." This is a fair description of the surface formation; but the groundwork must be looked for to the incessant working of the madrepore corals, centuries ago, with which this part of the coast abounds. In the interior, the soil consists in some parts of dark clay, whilst in others, the clay is red; large blocks of granite are to be found in several places, and in most parts the soil is ferruginous. The inhabitants of this part of the coast, especially those in and popula- Yorouba, are very industrious, and cultivate extensively the land. Plantain, banana, papaw, oranges, limes, custard apples, mangoes, guavas, cashew nuts, pine apples, melons, and small cucumbers or ghirkins, tomatoes, onions, garlic, water-cresses, various kinds of spinach, bread fruits and bread nuts, edible yam, cassada (from which farina is made), pumpkins, maize, and small Chili pepper, sugar cane, are all to be obtained in large quantities in this part. "The vegetable productions adapted for supplies to the troops are maize, the Indian corn of the country, rice of good quality, yams, and cassada. The corn is used entirely by the natives. It is found cheaper to import flour than to buy and grind the corn. The natives, for use, soften it in water, beat it in a wooden mortar, and after boiling the pulp, which has been carefully separated from the husks, eat it either dry as a paste, or boiled up into gruel. It forms the morning meal of the population. It is a very

Cultivation

tion.

wholesome dish, but tastes a little acid from the fermentation which has taken place in the corn while soaking to soften. The meal of cassada, or cassava root, is the staple food of the natives. It is carefully prepared by washing, drying, and roasting, and is mixed, before eating, with hot water, when it swells into a mass. It is generally eaten warm, and with such vegetables, palm oil, fish, or meat, as their means permit. Meat is a luxury but seldom indulged in, except by the wealthier. Smoked fish are used largely; they are simply exposed, in an earthen pot with a few holes in it, to the smoke of a wood fire.” The inhabitants are scattered all over the country in small towns, except in Abeokuta, where the population has lately increased to 100,000. In Ibadan the population is also large, but in all the other towns it ranges from 100 to 8000. The natives live in low mud huts, with thatched Native huts. roofs, with a well-worked, hardened mud floor. Each hut has a verandah before and behind it. They are built in groups on

four sides, enclosing a quadrangular space. The huts are generally kept very clean.

and sewage.

The drainage of the country around is most imperfect. In Drainage fact, there is no drain whatever. During the rains the water freely accumulates in different parts, and is left to be dried up by the sun, which by no means improves the healthy condition of the place. The sewage is scattered all over the town and streets, consisting of the excrement of men and animals, and increased by the filthy habits of pigs, which are let loose everywhere here. The effluvia from it is very sickening and destructive, and consequently the inhabitants are very short lived. Lagos and Abeokuta are greatly in advance in these respects. In most of the towns the streets are narrow and very crooked, but here and there in the outskirts, in open spaces, shaded by numerous cocoa-nut plants, men, women, and children may be seen parading about.

supply.

Good water, but slightly brackish, is abundantly obtained. Water Shallow wells from two to four feet in depth, and funnelled by a cask to fit, open on both ends, give a continual supply of water.