FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 13 



It is very difficult to form an estimate as to the 

 numbers of any native population of a somewhat 

 migratory character and of a Protectorate — for we 

 must remember that Her Majesty's Settlements on 

 the Gold Coast are represented by " Colony " and 

 "Protected Territories" — the statements alone of 

 natives as to numbers being uncertain, and, I may 

 say, quite unreliable. 



Then again natives are peculiarly suspicious, and 

 would be disposed to be at once on their guard 

 against supplying information, which they would view 

 as intended to be directed against themselves in the 

 shape of taxation, perhaps conscription, as was fancied 

 at places in the Ashantee War, 1873-4. 



The population of the Gold Coast, with an estimated 

 area of 18,784 square miles, has, it would seem, not 

 yet been got within the range of " practical statistics." 

 It will be ideal to state that the people have been 

 repeatedly consigned to the estimate in round numbers 

 of 400,000, at least up to 1885, when the estimate 

 progressed to 651,000. 



The Gold Coast Colony — prior to the following date 

 — made up of the Settlements on the Gold Coast and 

 the Settlement of Lagos — comprises, according to 

 Letters Patent of 22nd January, 1883, all places, 

 settlements, and territories belonging to Her Majesty 

 the Queen in West Africa between the 5th degree of 

 W. longitude and the 5th degree of E. longitude. 

 These Settlements are divided by a strip of coast and 



