essential ingredient. The provident housewife
threads these snails on a bit of grass,
and dries them in the sun, thus saving her
lord and master from the toil of putting out
his hand to take them. The long black-haired
monkey also provides him with a bounteous
repast.

Pity the sorrows of a European, travelling
through the bush and partaking of the
hospitality (he will have to pay handsomely
for it) of a native; when, as a delicacy
reserved for him, there is fished up out of
the big pot of soup a black head with the lips
drawn back, and the white teeth grinning,
and such a painful resemblance to the faces
around him that, for a moment, he wonders
which of the younger members of the family
has been sacrificed to the exigencies of the
occasion. But he is reassured, and discovers
that he is not eating man, but monkey.

The native of the Gold Coast has no desire
to buy a house, nor to build a house, nor to
live in a house. He does not wish to add
field to field, or to make a name in the land.
His chief and only desire in life seems to be
to eat when he is hungry, to drink whenever
he can, and to sleep in the interim. He has
no anxiety for himself, and certainly none
for his offspring; who have neither to be
educated nor clothed; nor has he any
misgiving about their future prospects. They
run about in the bush if he lives inland, or
he turns them into the sea, if he lives on
the coast. You may watch them in any number
and of all ages, from two to twelve,
diving and ducking under the waves, waiting
for a big one; and then, on the crest of it,
you see the little shining black bodies, tossed
over and over and round and round, till,
screaming with pleasure, they are washed up
on the sand, like a tangle of black seaweed.
Then slowly, and with much noise, they
unravel themselves and crawl back to the
water and continue this sport the whole day
long, with the exception of the time occupied
in consuming huge lumps of kankee brought
to them by the mothers. The paternal
domain is, for the most part, a circular hut,
under the mud-floor of which the ancestors
of the family have been buried for many
generations.

The African of the Gold Coast is, in fact,
a difficult subject for us. Nature has
provided so bounteously for him, that we cannot
teach him to want anything—he has got too
much already—and then, also, we seem to be
not well able to get at him.

Wherever there are Englishmen there are
courts of justice, and whatever we may be,
we certainly are representatives of law, that
is, of a certain just measure of order. Thus,
although the Gold Coast is not a colony, but
a settlement, and the British Government
has no possessions, saving garrisons and
fortifications; we need not be surprised at
finding that the great effort to civilise the
Africans of the coast has apparently been
made through the establishment of courts; in
which English law is administered by English
oflicers of justice, as far as is compatible with
the institutions of the country; and we hold
no insignificant position in the eyes of the
natives; who will travel hundreds of miles
to secure an adjustment of their quarrels by
white men.

All magistrates were formerly English,
but now there are several native magistrates
holding English commissions of the peace.
Their countrymen, however, have not so
much confidence in them apparently as in the
white men; or else white men have tradition
in their favour.

The court-house is, in general, a rough but
tolerably commodious stone building. Jn the.
interior is an arm-chair for the presiding
officer of justice, surmounted by the royal
arms carved in oak. On each side of this are
benches for the magistrates; and, to the left,
sits the clerk of the court: often a mulatto,
educated in England. By his side is the
interpreter, an African, pure blooded. The
box for the jury is to the right of the
magisterial benches.

All cases are heard in the Fantee language
(the Fantees are a coast tribe), and are
interpreted to the presiding magistrate or judicial
assessor; even though both plaintiff and
defendant can speak English. "When addressing
the judge or any superior, the native lowers
the cloth or blanket, worn on state occasions,
from the left shoulder, baring his breast.
Questions of right to land, theft, or murder,
form but a small proportion of those brought
before our courts; the majority having
reference to slaves, either held by right of
ownership, or temporarily as pawns. The
most embarrassing cases on which a
magistrate is called to adjudicate are those
referring to matrimonial grievances; for, the
peculiar notions on the subject, entertained
by the parties concerned, and the
extraordinary language in which these notions are
couched, often render the whole matter all
but unintelligible.

It is seldom that the persons about to
appear in court have sufficient confidence
in the interpreter to trust the statement of
their case with him. At least, I imagine that
the invariable habit of going to a professed
letter-writer in the village, originated in
distrust. This letter-writer, a native, puts
down, in what English he can, the facts
communicated to him, and thus a preliminary
statement, from both plaintiff and defendant,
reaches the presiding officer. What would
any worshipful magistrate of the county of
Middlesex say to the following epistle;
an exact copy of one now lying before
me?

SIR, I beg leave to acquaint your honour to say
that wouldn't be no offences.

The man whom called Groarkoo has been and took