1810.] 
hares, ant-bears, musk-cats, squirrels, 
alligators, monkeys, snakes, &c. &c. 
There is but little timber in this coun- 
try applicable to ship-building ; but there 
are several} kinds well adapted for house- 
building and cabinet ware, and other 
useful and ornainental purposes; though 
not in any great abundance. | Besides 
these, its chief vegetable productions 
_ are, maize (of which there are two crops 
inthe year), millet, yams, cassada, sweet. 
potatoes, plantanes, bananas, sugar- 
cane, rice, cotton, pepper, and pulse of 
various kinds, cabbages, ochra, eschal. 
lots, &c. besides oranges, pine-apples, 
and other tropical fruits, All these arti- 
cles are more or less cultivated by the 
Ratives of Agoona, Their land, how- 
ever, 1s for the most part capable of pro- 
ducing all other articles usuaily reared 
between the tropics. ‘Their present sys- 
tem of agriculture, indeed, is very rude 
and detective; but it might be greatly _ 
improved, by introducing among them 
horses ‘and horned cattle, and proper 
implements of husbandry, as well as use- 
ful seeds and plants; provided they had 
‘at the same time the benefit of the en- 
lightened example and instruction of 
intelligent Europeans, who might be 
induced to engage in agricultural pur- 
suits; and provided, also, their industry 
were excited and encouraged by suita- 
ble rewards. 
At present, all the land in the country 
forms,a common stock, and no part of 
it can be appropriated by any individual 
‘except during the time he actually culti- 
vates it. There are ex‘cnsive tracts of 
unoccupied land; not above a tenth part 
of the whole being in cultivation. Any 
native of Ayoona, who chooses to clear 
and cultivate any portion of this unoccue 
pied land, becomes the exclusive pos- 
sessor of it for the me; but if he should 
afterwards allow it to Jie waste, fe cea- 
ses to have any peculiar claim to‘it: it 
' may be occupied by any other indivi- 
dual. 
thing is pracused as the lease or sale of 
jands; except in the case of Europeans, 
who sometimes for five or six pounds may 
obtain the appropriation of a consider- 
able trace of land. Their title to lands 
so obtained is not likely to be disturbed ; 
but, in the present state of society, un- 
Jess they had the means of protecting 
themselves, if necessary, by force, the 
produce which they might raise could 
not be considered as altogether secure. 
Their best means. of protection would be 
to have a considerable number of hired 
Montaty Mac. No. 204, 
/ 
a District ef the Gold Coast. 
Among the natives, no such — 
217 
cultivators in constant pay, who would 
serve the double purpose of cultivating 
tbe soil, and proteciing the fruits of their 
labour from. pillage. 
easily be had at the rate of from ten shil- 
lings to twelve shillimgs and sixpence per 
month. . 
Agoona contains no navigable rivers 
but it is tolerably supplied with fresh 
water, by means of rivulets which flow 
through it, and branch off in a variety of 
directions. | ‘ 
The chief towns are Winnebah (or 
Simpa), Agoona, Bereac, and Fettah,. 
Their present extent and population fall 
very short of what they were before the 
late desolating expedition to the coast, 
which was made by the Asiantees.* In- 
deed, the whole population of the state 
cannot now be estimated at more than 
ten thousand souls, of which number 
seven thousand may be considered as 
women and children. The country, 
however, has begun to recover from the 
effects of that disastrous wer; and its 
population appears to be on the increase. 
Immediately on the sea-coast, the people 
derive their subsistence chiefly from fish 
ing; in the other parts of the country, 
from hunting and agriculture. A few, 
and only a few, gain their livelihood by 
trade. This trade chiefly consists in 
purchasing from Europeans, in exchange 
for gold and a few other articles, cowrics, 
Fast-India cottons, iron, lead, spirits, 
tobacco, tohacco-pipes, guns, gunpow- 
der, vessels of brass, and woollen and 
cotton goods of British manufacture, 
which they afterwards barter with their 
countrymen, or with persons from the 
interior, for gold, provisions of all kinds, 
palm wine, palm oil, &c. &c. Cowries 
and gold form the current medium of 
exchange: ‘forty cowries make a string; 
fifty strings a head, which is equal to one 
ackie of guld; and sixteen ackies make 
an ounce, the value of which is usually 
estimated at four pounds. They have ne 
‘fixed standard of weights and measures. 
As tothe means of increasing their 
trade, they obviously consist in opening 
a free intercourse with the interior; in 
introducing an improved system of agri- 
culture, and the arts of civilized life; in 
ALA | a ame 
* The Asiantees are a powerful peoples 
living in the interior, whose king, being pro- 
voked by. the consucc of the Fantees, en- 
tered their country about three years azo, 
with an army of not Jess than fifty or sixty 
thousand men, and spread ravage and devas- 
tation throughout a great part’of the Goid 
Coast. 
2F enlarging 
Labourers may- 
