THE FORT. 



b9 



ronacles lying piled to the right of the first 

 entrance, and as much neglected and worm- 

 eaten as though they belonged to our happy 

 colony, Cape Coast Castle. Amongst the guns 

 of different calibre we find a few fine old brass 

 pieces, one of which bears the dint of a heavy 

 blow. They are probably the plunder of Hor- 

 muz or of Maskat, where the small matter of 

 a £ piece of ham wrapped up in paper ' 1 caused, 

 in the middle of the seventeenth century, a 

 general massacre of the Portuguese.' 



The gateway is the usual intricate barbican. 

 Here in olden times, after the prayers of el Asr 

 (3 p.m.) the governor and three judges, patri- 

 archs with long grey beards, unclean white robes, 

 and sabres in hand, held courts of justice, and 

 distributed rough-and-ready law to peaceful 

 Banyans, noisy negroes, and groups of fierce 

 Arabs. The square bastion projecting from the 

 curtain now contains upper rooms for the Ba- 

 loch Jemadar (commandant). The ground-floor 

 is a large vestibule, upon whose shady masonry- 

 benches the soldiery and their armed slaves 

 lounge and chat, laugh and squabble, play and 

 chew betel. On the left of the outer gate is a 



1 Chap. 7. Captain Hamilton's ' New Account of the East 

 Indies. 5 



