BOOK V.

BRITISH SETTLEMENTS IN WESTERN AFRICA, INCLUDING SIERRA LEONE, THE GAMBIA, AND CAPE COAST CASTLE.

CHAPTER I.

LOCALITY-AREA-HISTORY-PHYSICAL

ASPECT-RIVERS

GEOLOGY-CLIMATE-VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL KINGDOMS

-POPULATION-GOVERNMENT-FINANCES-COMMERCE

SOCIAL STATE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS, &c. &c.

NONE of the colonies of England have been misrepresented more than those situate on the western coast of Africa; few surpass them in moral, commercial, and political interest. Unfortunately my limits compel brevity; but I trust before these pages be concluded, the reader will agree with me, that our possessions on the shores of Western Africa are an important and essential link in the maritime empire of Britain.

The trade between Western Africa and Europe commenced about the middle of the fifteenth century,

for we learn that in 1455, Prince Henry of Portugal built a fort on the island of Arguin. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the English, Spaniards, French, Danes, and Dutch had begun to send private ships to trade on this coast; but during the middle of this century the commerce of each nation was organized under the management of chartered companies, who formed establishments on different parts of the coast, built forts at the mouths of several rivers, and prosecuted an active trade, the greater part of which (as stated in my West India volume) was for slaves. The English settled chiefly at Cape Coast Castle; the French at the mouth of the Senegal and at Goree Island; the Dutch on the Gambia; the Portuguese at St. George del Mina; the Danes at Christianborg, &c. Each of these strong fortresses, mounting from fifty to sixty pieces of cannon, had subordinate posts and stations, several of which continue to this day. At the present moment our settlements are situate at Bathurst, on the Gambia, at Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, and Accra, and a brief description of the sea coast, followed by a succinct account of each settlement, will be therefore necessary.

PHYSICAL ASPECT, DESCRIPTION, AND HISTORY.— In general the coast of Western Africa, extending for 4000 miles along the Atlantic, with an average breadth of 300 miles, is along the ocean boundary a flat country, backed by ranges of lofty mountains, which in some places approach the sea, and as at Cape Verd, project in bold headlands. The great coast chain runs parallel to the coast from west to east, where, affording a passage for the disemboguing

waters of the Nun, one of the mouths of the Niger, tends towards the north-east to join or form the Gebel el Kumri, or Mountains of the Moon; some of the peaks of this range (those of Cameranca, near Benin) are said to be 13,000 feet in elevation. It is only, however, about the estuaries of the great rivers and along their banks that the country can be said to be flat, in other places it consists of gentle undulations and rising eminences, giving considerable beauty to the landscape, the most conspicuous feature of which are the numerous rivers that disembogue into the ocean, most of them arising in the chain of mountains above described, and running a tortuous course to the coast.

Among the principal rivers are the Senegal, Gam. bia, Rio Grande, Rio Nunez, Rokelle, Cameranca Mesurado, Nun or Niger, Congo and Coauzo. Beginning with the most northerly, the Senegal appears to rise in the Kong range of mountains (heights of Foota Jalloo), in nearly 10° north latitude, and 10° west longitude, where the Niger is thought to rise; the Senegal, about 15° north latitude, is joined by several tributary streams, viz. the Woolery, Faleme, Neriko, &c., and after passing Galam and the falls of Felu, makes a circuitous bend to the north-west along the borders of the desert, and falls into the Atlantic at Fort Louis, its course being 950 miles.

The Gambia has its source in the same mountain range as the Senegal, near the Faleme, one of the tributaries of the latter named river, and rolls a powerful and rapid stream, at first to the north-west and then westerly, falling into the Atlantic, after a course

of 700 miles, about 13° 13' north latitude. The country between the rivers Senegal and Gambia is called by the French the Sen-Gambia. The Rio Grande is, as far as we know1, a large stream, nor is any river equal to the Gambia met with until we arrive at the Bight or Gulf of Benin, where, for the space of above 200 miles, there is a succession of large estuaries, now ascertained (through the persevering enterprize of the Landers) to be the mouths of the long-sought Niger, whose origin we are still ignorant of, and whose course and embouchures are still to a great extent unexplored; the delta of this mighty stream stretching into the interior of Western Africa for more than 170 miles, occupies, it is supposed, a space of more than 300 miles along the coast, thus forming a surface of more than 25,000 square miles, being a considerably larger area than is embraced in all Ireland. Further south the Congo or Zaire pours its ample volume of waters into the broad Atlantic, 400 miles having been navigated during Captain Tuckey's unfortunate expedition, leaving its further course and source still involved in mystery. Of the Coauzo, though a large river, we

1 Captain Belcher, who surveyed the coast line here in 1830-32, in the Etna and Raven, says, that he thinks the whole of the space between the Nunez and Rio Grande is one great archipelago, and navigable, at high water, for vessels of four or five feet draught, and it is generally believed that canoes can navigate from Isles de Los to the Gambia, within the islands of this (supposed) huge archipelago. It is probable that a large river will yet be found here. The Compome, as far as explored, is a very extensive stream.

FRENCH SETTLEMENTS.

217

are not yet in possession of sufficient information to speak positively. With a knowledge of the foregoing leading physical features, we proceed to examine the coast more in detail as regards its social as well as geographical divisions, beginning on the north with the river Senegal, where the French established themselves upwards of a century since.

Fort St. Louis, the capital, is situated on an island in the river, a mere sandbank, without any water which can be drunk without being filtered, and dependent entirely for provisions on the southern coast, which, however, yields them in abundance. St. Louis never became a large settlement; Golberry, in 1786, reckons not above sixty Europeans settled there for the purposes of trade. The military and civil servants of government amounted to 600, the natives to 2400. The French lost St. Louis during the revolutionary war, but we restored it to them on the friendly peace which succeeded in 1814, under a treaty that Portendick was always to be open to us for the trade in gum; but which treaty the French violated'. The disastrous fate, however, of the expedition sent out in the Medusa frigate has been unfavourable to any attempt to restore and extend the prosperity of the colony. It is said, however, to have experienced an increase within the last few

1 The French recently took umbrage at one of the chiefs of the Trazars, brought him a prisoner down to Port Louis, tried him by a drum-head court martial, and shot him. The natives, of course, declared war against the French; the latter to force the natives into a compliance, contrary to the letter and spirit of our treaty, blockaded Portendick.