THE WESTERN COASTi 
their houses, their furniture, and domestic uten- 
sils, as well as their manner of eating* The po- 
verty of their language, and the paucity of their 
ideas, deprive them of the pleasures of lively and 
variegated conversation, and this deficiency will 
not be supplied by the prevalent practice of poly- 
gamy. The purity of the air, the goodness of the 
water, the fertility of the soil, and the aversion of 
the natives to war, and to the slave-trade, render 
the country extremely populous. Their religion 
is a kind of idolatry, confused, and void of re- 
gular principles. Their fetiches change with 
their caprice, and seem to be regarded by many 
as a mere species of household furniture. A 
negro told Villault, that white men worshipped 
God, but black men prayed to the Devil, to avert 
the evil which he caused. When Snoek inquired 
what religion the inhabitants of Cape Monte pro- 
fessed, they answered, that it consisted in obeying 
their chiefs, without troubling themselves about 
what was above them. The sun is the general 
object of their adoration, but their worship is 
voluntary, and unaccompanied with magnificent 
ceremonies. This description of a people is fa- 
vourable, if compared with some of the adjacent 
regions, " where,** to use the plain expressions of 
Loyer,* who visited Issini, on the Gold Coast, in 
* Godfrey Loyer, apostolical prefect of the Jesuit Missions 
tb the Coast of Guinea, published at Paris, in 1714?, a Relation 
