VOYAGE TO THE NIGER. j 39 
corn, Bananas, Plantains and Yams, were conspicuous, but 
no Holcus (!) From the Indian corn they prepare a very 
sour bread, which with Bananas, constitutes their chief food. 
Palm-soup, a native dish, when made of boiled Paln-nuts 
only, is very well flavoured. They pick the nuts off those 
young stems of the Elais Guineensis which have not yet lost 
any of the leaves, and consider these as superior to the fruit 
of older plants, and cut them also down, to collect palm-wine. 
Besides this Palm, there is the Cocoa; which frequently 
assumes a singular aspect from the multitude of birds’ 
nests appended to the mid-rib of the leaves, and which 
might be taken at a distance for fruit, and had formerly 
puzzled me in drawings. The birds hang their nests in this 
position to protect them against the cats! The Fan-palm 
grows too at Cape Coast Castle, but apparently is less 
frequent, To judge by parts of the stems which I met 
with, Calamus must occur further in the interior. 
Another excursion was about six or seven miles inland, to 
Orange Town and Quowprath. Here the soil was fertile, 
with good vegetable mould and extensive plantations of Indian 
corn; Bromelias skirting the former plantations. The best 
habitations of the natives resemble those of the Ashantees, 
and have a square court in the middle, its four sides 
surrounded by buildings. 
Itis almost impossible to travel in European clothes ; espe- 
cially during this season, when the water collected in the 
roads reaches often up to the middle, Besides, great exer- 
tion orexposure to the sun is dangerous, and occasionally 
fatal to new comers. The residents go out in small carriages, 
drawn by four negroes, or travelling-chairs carried by two. The 
former can only be used on tolerably good roads, and the latter 
have also their inconveniences. For instance, I was myself 
upset in the middle of a puddle ; because my bearers slipped ; 
but I happily fell on an adjacent dry grass-plot. It is a great 
inconvenience for persons who, like me, travel er pn ofesso, 
that at such places as Cape Coast Castle, it is impossible to 
hire the necessary vehicles, but you must be dependant on 
