OF DR. J. R. T. VOGEL. 609 



excursion were slaves, for the Danes still have slaves, but 

 they seem well off, and were merry and cheerful beings. 

 On the whole, I found in the short period of my acquaintance 

 with them, no difference in their behaviour or dealing 

 from the free negroes at Cape Coast Castle, except 

 that the latter are shameless in demanding money for drink. 

 At Cape Coast, it is absolutely necessary to keep an immo- 

 derate number of servants ; and on an excursion from thence, 

 our train of attendants consisted of thirty-six persons. There 

 is no difficulty in this, for the blacks go as servants merely 

 for food and clothing, which in this climate costs little; 

 or they are sent as boys by their fathers to an Eu- 

 ropean, that they may in this way learn something. The 

 houses of Europeans here are very large, roomy, and well 

 built, raised high above the ground to make them airy, 

 and furnished with open verandahs for the same purpose. Eu- 

 ropeans, however, do not in general remain long, since the 

 climate on the coast is not suitable to their constitution. 

 The few who are here seem to lead a miserable life j the 

 society is very limited and monotonous, and their wishes con- 

 fined principally to making money, in which many fail. At 

 Cape Coast, the small white shells which we use for orna- 

 menting horses' bridles, are given in exchange as coin ; they 

 are called cowries ; a thousand of them are worth about a 

 gueldre ; in the interior they are worth more ; we have with 

 us whole sacks of them. Gold-dust also appears at first a 

 very curious medium of exchange ; it is used especially in 

 Cape Coast and Accra, where it is washed from the sand of 

 the river banks which flows through the town. Every one of 

 the market people carries a small pair of gold-scales, 

 with which he weighs out for a silver-groscben, or perhaps for 

 a sechser, its worth of gold-dust; they then take these very 

 small grains with them, wrapped up in a piece of rag. All 

 these market people are natives, and sell palm-oil, cocoa-nuts, 

 different kinds of fruit, fish, home-woven cotton, &c. The 

 clothes of the men consist simply of a napkin round the loins ; 

 or in addition, a long piece of cloth passed under one arm 



v OL. V. Y Y 



