Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/311

TRADE OF THE GOLD COAST. 255 sanguinary " customs," and Kpong, favourably situated on a great bend of the Volta, which is here navigable and connected by a trade route with Accra, Kpong is the port of the little state of Krobo, whose capital, Odumaasi, lies on the Accra route at the foot of an isolated hill rising 820 feet sheer above the sur- rounding plain. On this acropolis and sacred mountain of the nation nearly all the Krobo girls are educated for six years under fetish priests and priestesses. Below Krobo follow, on the right side of the Volta, the towns of Battor^ Aggravi, governed by a fetish priest, and near the bar the ports of Ada {Adda) and Riverside (Adftfo). To overawe the lawless populations on this part of the coast, the colonial Government has placed a strong garrison in Queitah [Keta), the old Danish Fort Prindsenstecn, near Cape Saint Paul, between the sea and lagoon. Agriculture. — Industries. — Trade. — Administration. After long industrial and commercial stagnation, the coast populations have lately made rapid progress, despite the forebodings of the proprietors whose slaves were emancipated and whose " pawns " (debtors) were released after the Ashanti war. The outer v raised by the spectacle of soldiers purchased as captives and of thousands of enslaved female porters accompanying the British troops, resulted in the formal abolition of slavery in 1874. Since then the natives work more willingly for Europeans, and the extent of cultivated land has considerably increased. In many places the palm forests have been replaced b)^ regular plantations, and more care is now bestowed on the coffee and tobacco crops. The cacao and other alimentary plants have been introduced from America ; attention is given to the production of caoutchouc, especially in the Krobo country, while the natives of Krebi already raise large quantities of cotton. The industries have also been developed, thanks to the numerous artisans trained by the Basle missionaries and to the Mohammedan craftsmen who have settled in all the towns along the banks of the Yolta, and who already occupy a whole quarter in Accra. But jewellery, formerly the staple industry, received a great blow by the destruction of Cumassi. Amongst the treasures taken from the King of Ashanti and removed to England may be admired many remarkable objects, such as bracelets, rings, gold and coral ornaments, chased metal plates, and fantastic animals whose forms remotely suggest those of the old Egyptian jewellery. Notwithstanding the name of the country, palm-oil rather than gold forms the chief article of export. Hence, like the Bonny and Calabar estuaries, the creeks along the Gold Coast also take the name of " oil-rivers." The imports are mainly restricted to cotton goods and brandy, the chief aim of European " civilisation " apparently being to clothe and intoxicate the natives. In the course of ten years the whole trade of the Gold Coast gradually rose from £640,000 to £1,200,000. The administration of the Gold Coast, which now includes Lagos on the Slave Coast, is entrusted to a governor appointed by the Queen, and assisted by a legislative and executive council composed of the chief functionaries and