Preface. 
IX 
We were all soundly abused by the negrophile ; 
the multitude cared little about reading “ unpopu¬ 
lar opinions and then, when the fulness of time 
came, it turned upon us, and rent us, and asked 
why we had not spoken freely concerning Ashanti 
and Fanti, and all the herd. My “ Wanderings in 
West Africa” is a case in point : so little has it 
been read, that a President of the Royal Geogra¬ 
phical Society (African section of the Society of 
Arts Journal, Feb. 6, 1874) could state, “If 
Fantees are cowardly and lazy, K rumen are brave 
the latter being the most notorious poltroons on 
the West African seaboard. 
The hostilities on the Gold Coast might have 
been averted with honour to ourselves at any 
time between 1863 and 1870, by a Colonial Office 
mission and a couple of thousand pounds. I 
need hardly say what has been the case now. 
The first steps were taken with needless disasters, 
and the effect has been far different from what we 
intended or what was advisable. For a score of 
years we (travellers) have been advising the English 
statesman not to despise the cunning of barbarous 
tribes, never to attempt finessing with Asiatic or 
African ; to treat these races with perfect sincerity 
and truthfulness. I have insisted, and it is now 
seen with what reason, that every attempt at de¬ 
ception, at asserting the “ thing which is not,” will 
presently meet with the reward it deserves. I 
