THE WESTERN GOAB¥. 
287 
to make observations on the country. His report 
was so favourable, that he was then empowered to 
pitch upon an eligible situation for a colony, and 
to make the experiment, if he should deem it to 
be practicable. Dr Isert intended to have made 
his first attempt on a large and beautiful island in 
the river Volta ; but, being opposed by the na- 
tives, through the machinations of the white slave- 
traders, he fixed upon the mountains of Aquapim, 
sixty miles above Acra, at the same distance from 
the western bank of the Volta, which is navigable 
to the latitude of the colony, and about thirty 
miles from the river Pony, which is navigable for 
canoes. The situation is reckoned disadvantageous 
for commerce, but more salubrious than any other 
part of the coast. Dr Isert, in his letters to his 
father, published in 1788, declares, that the na- 
tives of Aquapim live in a state of social harmony, 
which inspired him with the idea of paradisaical 
happiness and simplicity, and that the soil yielded 
the most luxuriant crops with very little labour. 
Guinea corn, millet, and cotton, have been culti- 
vated by the colonists with great success, and the 
Danish government sent out a skilful farmer to in- 
troduce the plough. The exertions of Dr Isert 
having terminated in his death, Lieutenant- Colo- 
nel Roer, who, to great botanical knowledge, add- 
ed much experience in West Indian cultivation, 
was appointed to succeed him. Mr Flint, who 
