8 THE GOLD COAST, ASHANTI, AND KUMASSI 



suffered so many crushing defeats from the Ashantis that they 

 have lost their national spirit, and are regarded both by the Brit- 

 ish and by their hereditary enemies as arrant cowards. Land 

 is held by individuals and families in severalty under well recog- 

 nized rules, but boundary disputes are frequent, and are gener- 

 ally determined by the memory of the oldest inliabitants. The 

 Fantis are good artisans and make musical instruments (instru- 

 ments of torture they seem to the white man's ear), and iron 

 imi)lements for agricultural purposes, and they weave handsome 

 cloths in narrow strips, which are sewn together so as to make 

 them of au}^ size required. Children go naked up to their nintli 

 or tenth year. Men of the upper and middle classes wear robes 

 of Manchester cotton, in exactl}^ the same manner as the Romans 

 wore the toga. INIarried women expose the upper half of the 

 bod}'^ and wear capacious cloths, which are deftl}^ fastened about 

 the waist and hang below the knees. Maidens cover the breast, 

 and are much given to personal adornment. 



As the shore is difficult of access from the sea, so Kumassi 

 and the interior are difficult of access from the coast. The 

 country lies in the forest belt of the continent, and the white 

 man travels with difficult3^ The native can wend his way along 

 the narrow path, sleeping wherever nightfall may find him, and 

 eating from his own supply of kenke, fuful, or plantain. But 

 the white man must provide himself with hanimockmen, if he 

 would spare himself, and carriers to transport his food supplies 

 and paraphernalia; in fact, the necessary prei}arations for a trip 

 of a few hundred miles through the average African hinterland 

 are quite as extensive as for a trip around the Avorld b}^ the regu- 

 lar routes of travel. For a week after landing at Cape Coast 

 Castle in January of last 3''ear, I devoted my entire time to en- 

 gaging carriers, hanimockmen, and attendants. In this I was 

 assisted by a Fanti 3'outh of sixteen years, Amoah l\v name, who 

 sj)oke fair English and a dozen native dialects in addition to his 

 own tongue. His grandfather, a great war chief, enjoyed a pen- 

 sion of seven pounds a month from the British government for 

 services rendered the colony in the Ashanti war of 1873-74, and 

 this distinction gave Amoah superlative standing both in his 

 own estimation and that of his friends. 



The distance from Cape Coast Castle to Kumassi is 142 miles, 

 and I i)ursued the identical route taken b}^ the expedition of 

 1874 under Sir Garnet Wolsele}'. Prahsu, a town of not less 



