MARKETS, &c 
325 
very little cloth, the Moorish traders supplying it so abundantly. 
The cattle we saw in Ashantee were as large as the English, unlike 
those on the coast, which resemble the Jersey. The sheep are 
hairy in Ashantee, but woolly in Dagwumba, an open country, 
where they manufacture a coarse blanket. The horses in Dag- 
wumba are generally small, some were described to be 15 hands 
high, but these were never parted with, and the Ashantees did not 
desire them, for I never saw but one who rode fearlessly. The 
horses I saw were like half bred galloways, their legs lathy, with a 
wiry hair about the fetlock, only requiring to be pulled. Their 
heads were large ; dun and mouse colours were said to be common; 
they were never shod, and their hoofs consequently in the eye of 
the European, though not in nature, disproportionate ; they were 
fed on guinea grass, occasionally mixed with salt, and sal-ammoniac 
was frequently dissolved in the water. The saddles were Moorish, 
of red leather, and cumbersome; the bridles of twisted black 
leather thongs, and brass hnks, with a whip at the end; the bit 
severe, with a large ring hanging from the middle, and slipped 
over the under jaw instead of a curb chain ; the stirrups were like 
large blow pans, and hung very short. Some of the Moors rode 
on bullocks, with a ring through the nose. 
The extent and order of the Ashantee plantations surprised us, 
yet I do not think they were adequate to the population; in a 
military government they were not likely to be so. Their neatness 
and method have been already noticed in our route up. They use 
no implement but the hoe. They have two crops of corn a year, 
plant their yams at Christmas, and dig them early in September. 
The latter plantations had much the appearance of a hop garden 
well fenced in, and regularly planted in lines, with a broad walk 
around, and a hut at each wicker gate, where a slave and his 
family resided to protect the plantation. 
