CHAPTER XIV. 



" A land of darkness, as darkness itself, and of the shadow of 

 death ; without any order, and where the light is as darkness." 



Job. 



The Volta. — The appearance of the Coast. — Lagos Eoads. — 

 The bar. — Sharks. — The landing of the Governor. — The aspect 

 of the town. — Missionaries. — "White man's fetish." — The 

 situation of the town. — Climate. — Fearful mortality. — The 

 value of the colony. — Red tape. — The worthless settlements on 

 the Coast. — Injudicious policy. — The diseases peculiar to the 

 Coast. 



Soon after leaving Accra, we passed the embou- 

 chure of the Volta, a large river (at the entrance 

 of which is a bar navigable only for boats and 

 small craft), which flows through a fertile, undula- 

 ting, and comparatively healthy country. Then 

 we left Little Popoe, Great Popoe, and Whydah, 

 formerly the great centre of the slave trade, and 

 from this the aspect of the coast changed, and the 

 whole line of beach resembled a low sand-bank, 



