88 
he is still in England. I visited what is by courtesy — a 
Botanical Garden. It is situated some distance from the town, and 
is the most abject, forlorn, and neglected looking place it is possible to 
conceive. . It is, in fact, a barren wilderness, unproductive, uninviting. 
On my way I saw hundreds of those black ants similar to those that 
came deti Serge an case to Kew some time ago. ey are very von i 
here are very heavy, a fact sufficiently indicated by the deep 
сЕ киа watercourses which are everywhere to be seen. ha 
ome personal experience of their character, for it being yet the rainy 
season I encountered one tremendous driving storm of rain in going 
back to the shi 
After leaving Sierra Leone we kept the coast continually i in sight, and 
many times I thought of Monteiro’s description of it in his book 
** Angola and the River Congo." ‘The coast-line is low, flat, depressing ; a 
no hills or cliffs rise to break the dreary monotony, and this coast is 
ashed by a tremendous mit a long white line of Beating surf being 
visible for miles. e ne xt place I went ashore at was Accra (accent 
on the second syllable), and рае |. had extreme boe: of landing 
for the first time on a surf-beaten shor The sensation is grand, 
exciting, perilous. The surf bón shoots ойду я ‘the midst of the 
boiling surf. The natives seize you an bear you on their shoulders 
high and dry to the beach. І have not much to say about Accra. It is 
made up principally of native im huts, with the addition of some 
ouses of European residents. I paid a visit to the Rev. Mr. Freeman, 
a retired missionary, who, at one time, was a gardener in England. He 
is now living in patriarchal nm surrounded by children and grand- 
children. In his little garde n as vines, tomatoes, garden egg, 
см dreariness. Looking at this interminable Cg ee 
prospect one sighed for the bold cliffs, the verdurous hills and pleasant 
smiling valleys of Madeira ; ovely eira, “ where ev "ak prospect 
pleases and ouly man is vile," and man is sometimes very vile in this 
earthly paradise 
It was on Wednesday, October 9th, that I landed at Akassa. The 
passage out was a quick one, occupying 26 days, and was not marked by 
any episode of more than usual interest. 
Akassa is the depót through which everything passes on its way up 
river. It consists of two dwelling-houses, one for the white men and 
one for the black clerks, and a long line of stores, and a billiard room. 
Here I spent 10 days, waiting to be sent up d and on Sunday, 20th, 
I started on board the steamer “ Kuka.” ‘The r Niger was now at 
its full tide. It was the close of the rainy ; season, ne the river had 
risen 40 feet from its level in the dry season, The er delta сона 
а 
inundation ; enormous volumes of water een out by every. аи 
ereek and river, and it is here that the mangrove swamps abou he 
mangroves give a weird, fantastic appearance to the jungle ; their white 
interlacing stems and roots forming an а barrier, through 
which no human being could foree his wa 
The navigation ofa tbis delta is a теь zen intricate. The 
creeks run into each other and co nicate ery imaginable 
manner, forming a maze, a n sees "asr eet АЕ h which it 
es a careful pilot and an experienced one to find his way. A stranger 
