184 
A RUNAWAY SLAVE. 
to compare them with some of the pure Accra tribe ; 
these latter were perhaps of better stature and de- 
velopement, but not better featured. Indeed, with the 
exception of some few whose lineaments are tolerably 
pleasing, they both have, in the words of Isert the 
Danish traveller, “ commonly something apish” about 
the face. 
We stopped to put a few questions to a runaway 
Bornu slave from Kumassi, who was sitting under a 
shed, merrily occupied in weaving a narrow cotton 
cloth of brilliant colours. He said, his country was 
very mountainous, though no names could be recog- 
nised but Wangara, of which he spoke with evident 
delight. It was, however, very difficult to understand 
him. He remembered a large fresh water lake, and 
one of salt water ; the latter was the larger. He 
could give no intelligible account of the route by 
which he had reached Ashanti, nor of that country ; 
but he seemed perfectly happy at having exchanged 
masters. This is a proof, among many others, of 
the great difficulty there is in making out an itinerary 
from the accounts of natives, who have generally been 
kidnapped and carried off as slaves in their youth ; and 
consequently can hardly be supposed capable of remem- 
bering the names even of the towns they have passed 
through, still less can they give them seriatim, with 
the distance between each; especially as their journeys 
to the coast are sometimes extended over a period of 
many years. 
