NARRATIVE. 207 



to the climate, and encouraged by unusual progress, little doubt 

 can be entertained of his success. 



The black inhabitants of Banjole, are principally from the Joloff 

 country, and followed the English from Goree. They are even 

 more idle than their neighbours, and have no manufactures. I 

 was much struck with their insolent manners, for the Fantees, 

 whom I believe to be as bad as any black nation in Africa, were 

 kept in sufficient order by the small nvunber of Europeans at 

 Cape Coast, to shew at least an outward respect : they never 

 presumed to enter a white man's door without permission, and 

 always lowered the cloth from their left shoulder, as a salute when 

 you met themi. At Bathurst, you are liable to their intrusion 

 whenever they please, and if you meet them when walking, they 

 always expect you to turn out of the path for their accommo- 

 dation. This leveUing principle is contended for, as highly con- 

 tributive to civilization, and I would not pretend to offer my 

 opinion, where there are so many better qualified to judge ; but 

 I must urge, that the apparent results are extremely revolting to 

 European feeUngs. The manners of the people at Cape St. Mary's 

 are so entirely without restraint, that they cannot be ten minutes 

 in your room, without disgusting your senses or your dehcacy, and 



1 I would not be understood to place too high a value upon ceremonies of this 

 nature, but form goes a great way with barbarians, and when trifles are allowed, they 

 will soon tiy to take unpleasant freedoms. I have seen many proofs at the Gambia, 

 of the pernicious effects of the liberty allowed to the black inhabitants, and certainly 

 the feelings of an European female cannot escape some painful shocks. I hare now 

 visited the coast from Goree to Accra, and at the Gambia alone have witnessed what 

 could not be reconciled on the scores of barbarity and ignorance. I was the first 

 white woman who had ever been at the town of Naango, in the river Gabon, and 

 there had occasion to punish the insolence, not indecency, of the queen ; but once 

 was sufficient, and I was by all others treated with as much deference as if I had 

 been a divinity: of the Ashantees, whom I have received by twenties, when alone in 

 my house, I could not make the smallest complaint. 



