SECT. IV. DESCRIPTION of the COAST.

CHAP. I. CLIMATE.

The climate of the coast of Guinea, as of other countries, varies with the nature of the soil, its elevation or depression, the comparative state of its improvement, and other circumstances, perhaps not yet sufficiently investigated. The latitude of the place is by no means a certain criterion of its climate, since even in the midst of the torrid zone, we meet with all possible gradations of climate. The high lands of Camaroons in particular, though only between three and four degrees distant from the line, are covered with everlasting snow.

It is the general opinion, that the most unhealthy climates on the coast, are those of Senegal and Juda, or, as it is called by the English, Whidah. The neighbourhood of the banks of the River Gambia, however, which has lately been much frequented, hath been found to be as unhealthy as those just mentioned, especially during the great rains, and immediately after their cessation. In general it may be concluded, that low and marshy situations are very unfavourable to the health of the Europeans, who may expect the most fatal consequences from irregularity, or excess of any kind. But a due regard to temperance, and such moderate exercise as would not induce too violent a perspiration, would doubtless be the best means of guarding against the effects of a sudden change of climate. Thus the body would gradually accommodate itself to its new situation, as is actually experienced by every one who duly attends to these precautions; and this happy effect takes place sooner or later, according to the weakness or strength of the stranger’s constitution, as well as to the more or less manly education he may have received, and the habits he may have formed in the earlier part of his life. The intemperature of those climates may also be in some degree resisted, by fixing one’s habitation on an elevated spot during the unhealthy season of the year. For my own part, although I arrived on the coast during that season, I escaped all the diseases of the country. This I ascribe entirely to the cautious temperance I observed. During a mortality which raged at Senegal while I was there, not a single gentleman or officer on shore was attacked, but out of eleven sailors belonging to the vessel in which I returned to Europe, six were taken off in the space of a month. It must be observed, however, that seamen, by the tyranny or neglect of the captains, by a bad or scanty diet, and by the other hardships they undergo, are often exposed to many causes of disease, which do not affect persons living regularly on shore, and which will ever more or less attend the service of monopolizing Companies, or individual merchants, who, regardless of the lives of men, make gain the sole object of their speculations.[6] It is remarked, that Europeans of a slender habit are generally found to be the most healthy on the coast of Guinea.

From what I have been able to collect, it appears, that the rainy seasons follow the passage of the sun from the equator to either tropic, so as always to prevail in those places where the sun is vertical. East of Cape Palmas I am told they seldom set in before June, when the sun returns from the northern tropic; but to the westward of that Cape, and up the whole country, those seasons generally commence within the month of May, and continue for three or four months. In the beginning of this season, the earth being softened with the rain, the negroes till and sow their ground, and after the return of dry weather, they gather in their crops, an occupation they seldom abandon, even though allured by the most advantageous commerce. I have sufficient reason to believe, that were the coast cultivated to the extent of which the soil in general is susceptible, the climate would be much meliorated.

CHAP. II. Of the Soil.

The soil all along the coast is very unequal. From Cape Blanco down the coast, to the River Gambia, it is in general very sandy, but as the sand consists of broken shells, covered in many places with a rich black mould, it must be favourable to vegetation. The most barren places of this part of the country, except just on the sea shore, are covered with grass and bushes; and where the black mould is found, the vegetation is luxuriant, and the trees of vast dimensions. I have remarked, that the mountains are generally composed more or less of regular basaltes, exhibiting remains of most prodigious volcanoes, the eruptions of which greatly improve the soil around them. Hence the mountains and high grounds at Cape Emanuel, Goree, Cape Rouge, and other places lower down, are commonly very fertile. Where rice thrives best, the ground in general is low, marshy, and unhealthy.

CHAP. III. The Productions.

Animal. The cattle on the coast are smaller than those of Europe, and not so fat as those of England or Holland; yet their flesh is very nourishing, and they give milk in abundance. Their inferiority appeared to me to be the effect of the careless and unskillful management of the negroes. I once saw four oxen sold for eighteen livres. They must be raised on the coast, as foreign cattle do not thrive. Even those from the Cape de Verd Islands do not answer on the coast. The whole coast is abundantly stocked with sheep, hogs, and all sorts of poultry, which propagate with astonishing rapidity. Fishing and hunting are most eagerly pursued by the negroes, who have, however, but a very gross idea of any mechanical means of facilitating those employments. Of the prodigious shoals of numberless kinds of fish, I could have formed no idea without having seen them with my own eyes. Spermaceti whales abound on the coast. In passing from Goree to the Continent, distant about five miles, I have often rowed through shoals of them, and have been under no small apprehensions of their oversetting any canoe. Lower down the coast the English and Portuguese carry on a considerable fishery of those whales; and ambergris is found in such quantities on the coast, that I have more than once seen the negroes pay their canoes with it. Till lately the learned were at a loss to which of the kingdoms of nature this production was to be referred, but they are now pretty generally agreed, that it is the excrement of the spermaceti whales.

Vegetable. The grass is thick, and grows to a great height. The natives are often obliged to burn it, to prevent the wild beasts from harbouring in the fields, but it soon springs up again. Millet, rice, potatoes, pulse, and many other excellent vegetables, are cultivated on the coast with very little trouble, and in a profusion perfectly astonishing to an European. Such indeed is the plenty which prevails on the coast, that all the European ships are victualled, without the smallest inconvenience to the inhabitants. There is also abundance of the most wholesome and delicious fruit; articles of no less consequence than those just mentioned. Sugar-canes grow wild in many places, which with a little cultivation might be rendered extremely valuable and productive. The same may be said of the tobacco-plant. Several species of cotton are also spontaneously produced by this excellent soil; one of them may be spun without being carded, and almost without any preparation. The negroes spin it into very fine yarn, of which they make a good but narrow cloth.[7]

Indigo of different kinds also grows wild, and in such quantities, as to be a very troublesome weed in the rice and millet fields. What a strange inversion of nature does not man, actuated by the most extravagant and most ridiculous selfishness, every where labour to effect? What necessity is there for exiling this plant from the soil and climate which nature has assigned it, in order to transplant it into a country, where it is far from thriving so well as in its native place, and where it fails every third or fourth year? Dyers, who have tried the African indigo, affirm, that it is better than that which is produced in Carolina and in the West-Indies. The specimens of cotton and indigo, which I have brought with me from the coast, have been carefully examined by people of skill, and found to be of the best quality.

Gum is another valuable article, and is not as some imagine produced in the neighbourhood of Senegal only; it is also found on most parts of the coast, though the negroes have not yet got into the practice of collecting it, which they might do with very little trouble. My fellow-traveller, Dr. Sparrman, extracted a large quantity of the sap of a small but most juicy tree, which grows in great abundance on the coast, and exposing it to the sun for a few hours, had the satisfaction to find it converted into an elastic gum, equal in all respects to that which is known by the name of Indian rubber. The coast also produces a great variety of the most valuable and beautiful woods, many of which are scarcely known even to our botanists. I brought with me samples of fourteen species, including one remarkable for its colour, which is a very beautiful red. Among the different plants, which grow on the coast, is a kind of aloes, of which the negroes make most excellent ropes. Of several sorts of roots and leaves they make mats and baskets, and their manufactures of this kind are really elegant;—this being the principal art in which they appear to equal if not to excel the Europeans.

Minerals.——Except some trifling and unsuccessful attempts, made by Chevalier de la Brue, in the beginning of this century, the Europeans have never made any particular search for Minerals on the coast, which, however, it would be well worth while to attend to, especially as it is well known in what abundance gold is found in the inland parts, notwithstanding the negroes are very unskillful in collecting it. An exact and regular examination of the metallick productions of the mountains, particularly those of Sierra Leona, and the adjacent country, would certainly be an object of great importance. In Gallam is found a very tough and excellent kind of iron, and the negroes work it with much ingenuity.[8]