THE WESTERN COAST. 
tary, and unaccompanied with magnificent ceremo- 
nies. This description of a people is favourable, 
if compared with some of the adjacent regions, 
" where," to use the plain expressions of Loyer, * 
who visited Issini, on the Gold Coast, in 1701, 
*' we meet with kingdoms whose monarchs are 
" peasants, towns that are built of nothing but 
" reeds, sailing vessels formed out of a single tree : 
" — where we meet with nations who live without 
" care, speak without rule, transact business with- 
" out writing, and walk about without clothes : — 
¥ people, who live partly in the water like fish, 
% and partly in the holes of the earth like worms, 
" which they resemble in nakedness and insensi- 
f bility." The length of the river Mesurado is 
unknown, but it originates in a rich country, which 
the negroes term Alam, or the Country of God. 
What the benevolent Wadstrom was unable to 
accomplish, was effected by the Danes, through 
the indefatigable exertions of Dr Isert. The mass 
of information, concerning Africa, which he had 
accumulated, appeared to be so interesting to the 
Danish ministry, that he was directed to return, 
* Godfrey Loyer, apostolical prefect of the Jesuit Mis- 
sions to the Coast of Guinea, published at Paris, in 1714, a 
Relation of a Voyage to the Kingdom of Issini, or Assinee, 
on the Gold Coast of Guinea, with a description of the coun- 
try^ the temper, manners, and religion of the natives, 
