The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-11-09
NATIVES OF THE GOLD COAST-THE NE
GR0ES OF AFRICA

The natives stand in ignominious contrast to the
overpowerlng wealth of the scenes in which they
live beneath the blaze of the fierce tropical SUM-
and through forests in which the very trees are gor
geousy clothed with orchids hcaped about in bril-
liant festoons He bears on his head an earthen
vessel OF pal m OIL or carries two three quils of
gold dust, the result of his industry in washing
the sands after the rains His sole article of cloth
ing is Manchester renal, or length of checkered
cotton, girded round his loins. But he knows the
value OF his own merchandise and of that for which
he intends to exchange it. He is a bird by no
means to be caught with chaff. He will not change
his palm oil for bunch of feathers nor his gold for
string of beads; neither does he affect any article
of European clothing, nor banker after any produce
of European civilization He wants rum-the
strong, coarse American rum-and he knows to a
spoonful how much he ought to get oft. He wants
from time to time new renal, also cloth or blan-
ket to throw over his shoulders on state occasions
and musket to make row with and fire off when
he keeps custom. But he wants no food, because
the maize springs up for him almost without cult
vatlon, and his women pound it between two stones
and add water to make paste which he calls kan
Eee, and on this he gorges himsefwth great relish.
Sometimes his soul lusteth for meat, and then the
black snas of the forest, as big as a fist furnish
him with soup of which palm oil is also an essen
tal ingredient. The provident housewife threads
these snails a bit of grass and dries them in the
sum- thus saving her lord and master from the toll of
putting out his hand to take them. The long, black
haired monkey also provides him with bounteous
repast Pity the sorrows of European travelling
through He DuSn anu pdrlaklnH OF the hospitality the
will have to pay handsomely for it ola native when,
delicacy reserved for him, there is fshed up out
of the big pot of soup black head with the lips
drawn back, and the white teeth grnning, and such
painful resemblance of the faces around him that
for moment he wonders which of the Younger
members of the family has been sacrificed to the ex
igencies of the occasion But he is treasured, and
discovers that he is not eating man, but monkey.
The natives of the Gold Coast has no desire to buy
house, to build house, nor to live in house.
He does not wish to add field to field, or to make
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 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 duckng under the waves, waiting for big
one; and then, the crest of it, you 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 Jumps of kankee, brought to them by the
mothers. The paternal domain is, for the most
part, circular hut, under the mud-foor of which
the ancestors of the family have been buried for
many generations.-Dickens' Household Words.