606 MEMOIR OF THE LIFE 



damp insinuates itself to such a degree, that I am compelled 

 to redry them. This is very troublesome ; and on board a 

 ship, especially a man of war, there is no especial place for 

 preparing or preserving plants. I am quite a nuisance to 

 my messmates when I unpack them, and so is the servant 

 who announces breakfast, lunch, &c, for the table must be 

 cleared. I must be off, and then I try to work on deck ; but 

 there the wind and rain attack me, so that I have to contend 

 with all the elements. I am here quite amongst the negroes, 

 for there are few white persons in the town, and during my 

 excursions I frequently do not see one, during the whole 

 day. I cannot, however, say that this seems altogether 

 strange to me, for on our voyage outward, we had many 

 black sailors in our ship, and their number has gradually 

 been increased in the course of our progress." 



From Cape Coast Castle roads, where the ships belonging 

 to the expedition arrived on the 24th of July, Vogel writes 

 as follows : " Our passage from Sierra Leone hither has 

 been rather tedious. We set out from that port with but 

 little fuel, and were therefore necessitated twice after we left 

 Monrovia (Liberia), viz. at Grand Bassa and Cape Palmas, 

 to cause wood to be felled, to enable us to proceed. Our 

 voyage has been constantly along the coast, so that we have 

 had ample opportunity for observing the remarkable nation 

 of the Kroo, a people which dwell scattered along the coast, 

 and often undertake long coasting voyages in small canoes. 

 These canoes are built almost exactly in the same way as 

 the little skiffs, which we called at Berlin Seelen-verkaufer ; 

 but made of a single piece only. The natives sit in them 

 generally naked, they use broad oars and a very small 

 rudder ; and do not trouble themselves if the craft upsets, 

 for they have commonly nothing to .lose, and if they carry 

 garments with them, they are soon dried. They have mostly 

 a piece of cloth, bound round the head, which, when they 

 come on board, they place round the loins, and think them- 

 selves full dressed with great ivory rings round the ankles, 

 and belts or chains round the foot or arm. We had many 



