MR. HUTCHISON'S DIARY. 
381 
CHAPTER XIL 
Mr. Hutchison s Diary. 
September 26. After we left the palace this morning, Apokoo 
invited me home to take some refreshment. He entered into a 
long conversation concerning the slave trade: he heard, he said, 
that an English vessel had arrived at Cape Coast, and had brought 
out a letter from the King of England to the Gov ernor-in- Chief, 
ordering a renewal of the slave trade, and asked me, if I had re- 
ceived any letter. I said I had not, but if such a thing had taken 
place, I thought I should have early accounts. He enquired what 
were the objections we had to " buy men?'' I told him what I 
conceived to be proper ; he laughed at our ideas, and enquired if 
the king of Dahomey had not sent a " book four moons ago to 
Cape Coast, inviting the EngHsh to trade again, in his kingdom.'' 
I replied there was a message sent, but I could not say exactly in 
what words, as I was at Dix Cove at the time. " England," he 
said, " was too fond of fighting, her soldiers were the same as 
dropping a stone in a pond, they go farther and farther:" at the 
same time he described an enlarging circle with his hand, and 
shook his finger and head significantly at me. He was anxious 
for me to write a " proper book'' on the slave trade, many slaves, 
he told me, had revolted, and joining the Buntokoo standard were 
to fight against them ; there were too many slaves in the country, 
(an opinion I tacitly acquiesced in), and they wanted to get rid of . 
