the French Colony. 
7 
ciceroni around Le Plateau. The landing is good ; 
a reef has been converted into a jetty and little 
breakwater; behind this segment of a circle we dis¬ 
embarked without any danger of being washed out 
of the boat, as at S’a Leone, Cape Coast Castle, 
and Accra. Unfortunately just above this pier 
there is a Dutch-like jar din d' StS —beds of dirty 
weeds bordering a foul and stagnant swamp, while 
below the settlement appears a huge coal-shed : 
the expensive mineral is always dangerous when 
exposed in the tropics, and some thirty per cent, 
would be saved by sending out a hulk. The 
next point is the Hotel and Restaurant Fischer— 
pronounced Fi-cherre, belonging to an energetic 
German-Swiss widow, who during six years’ exile 
had amassed some 65,000 francs. In an evil hour 
she sent a thieving servant before the “ commis- 
saire de police ; ” the negress escaped punishment, 
but the verandah with its appurtenances caught 
fire, and everything, even the unpacked billiard- 
table, was burnt to ashes. Still, Madame the Brave 
never lost heart. She applied herself valiantly as 
a white ant to repairing her broken home, and, 
wonderful to relate in this land of no labour, ruled 
by the maxim “festina lente'j all had been re¬ 
stored within six months. We .shall dine at her 
table d'hote . 
Our guide led up and along the river bank, 
where there is almost a kilometre of road facing 
