^ Pepper and Gold 



be very foul and long, hanging down low like the udder of 

 a goat." ■ 



Here the mariners bought grains of Paradise and tusks 

 of ivory in exchange for basins, iron manillas, and '* margarits " 

 (beads). After a time the headman of the place seems to 

 have made a corner in grains of Paradise, and tried to raise 

 the selling price, with the result that they suspended trade for 

 a bit, and went off to visit a village in the interior and see 

 something of the Hfe of the country. Captain Towerson noticed 

 the iron work which was being carried on, the making of 

 arrow-heads, for example. The only domestic animals were 

 goats, fowls, and dogs. He comments on the unending forest 

 and the mangroves, which he compares to enormous pea-stalks. 

 He even collected a few words and sentences of the language ; 

 but these are no longer recognisable, except that they seem 

 to be tinged with a Portuguese jargon. After buying more 

 grains of Paradise along the coast, and passing Cape Palmas, 

 he stopped at the River Cavalla (which he does not name), 

 and this river was entered in boats in order to obtain fresh 

 water. The bar at its mouth seems to have been fully as 

 bad then as it is at the present day. It is interesting to note 

 that although the actual palm trees on Cape Palmas are not 

 described, other palm trees are, near the mouth of the Cavalla, 

 and the description of these given by Captain Towerson is such 

 as to identify them with the Borassus, and not with the 

 coconut : " Their stems are very high and white-bodied, 

 straight, and biggest in the midst. ^ They have a round bush 

 at the top of them." From these palms he says that the 

 natives get their principal supply of palm wine. 



After going on to the Gold Coast, the two ships turned 



^ The ventricose swelling which occurs near the middle of the stems of most 

 Borassus palms. It is met with also in some Hyphaene palms— never in the 

 coconut. 

 VOL. I 65 5 



