ABSTRACT
THE Gold Coast was one of the first portions of West Africa where Europeans attempted to settle, the first comers being probably the Portuguese in 1481. Then came the Dutch, and in 1872 the British took it over from the latter in return for concessions in the Java seas. Between the watershed which divides it from Ashanti and the sea are forests of acacias, palms, cotton - woods, and swamps, intersected by sluggish yellow rivers, and sprinkled with foul lagoons. Its climate is at least as unhealthy as the rest of the littoral, which is saying a good deal, and the predominant native races with whom we have to deal are the Fantis and Shantis. Both are tall and powerful negroes, the colour of some verging towards yellow, which may be due to the fact that the blood of Dutch or Portuguese, or perhaps that of some brown race from the north, is mingled in their veins. Once, so the traditions of the Fantis state, they dwelt
beyond the ranges in what is now called Ashanti, and the warlike Shantis on the more sterile coast. The latter drove them out, and ruled with bloodshed and fetiche cruelty inland, until, seeing the advantages of European trade, they desired to come back to the seaboard again, and it was a claim by King Coffee for the settlement of Elmina which partly led to the first campaign against them in 1873. Both are sturdy heathen, skilled in various arts, especially wood-carving and metal-work; but, as a rule, slothful, and apparently incapable of much mental development. Gold is everywhere to be found in this colony. It lies in the mud of each river-bed, and after an unusually heavy surf or torrential deluge the natives may be seen washing it out of the beaches or even the very streets. The quantity, however, does little more than pay for the labour, though now one or two British companies are obtaining fair results from the use of proper plant. There must be a great store of the precious metal somewhere in the hinterland, but hitherto hostile tribe, quaking swamp, poison, and pestilence have barred the way to the adventurous prospector. So much for the inland portion of this colony: what the coast-line is like we shall see.
