n
the weather becomes really clear and dry, until, towards the end of
January, the dry parching wind, called the Harmattan, sets in, with its
over-stimulant action upon the human system, and clouds of penetrating
impalpable sand. If this is not blowing, the atmosphere is loaded with
moisture; and this it is, combined with the heat of an intertropical
sun, and the effluvia engendered by the decay of an over-luxuriant
vegetation, which makes Western Africa the white man's grave. Not that
the soil, even on the coast, is always swampy and alluvial. About Cape
Coast it is rocky and undulating. Still, it is inordinately wooded, as
well as full of spots where water accumulates and exhalations multiply.
Yet the thermometer ranges between 78 deg. and 86 deg. Fahrenheit--a low
_maximum_ for the neighbourhood of the equator; a high one, however, to
feel cold in. Nevertheless, such is the case. "From this peculiarity of
the atmosphere, the sensations of an individual almost invariably
indicate a degree of _cold_, especially when sitting in a room, or not
taking bodily exercise; so that, to ensure a feeling of comfortable
warmth, it becomes necessary to dress in a thicker material than what is
usually considered best adapted for tropical wear, and to have a fire
lighted in one's bedroom for some time before one retires to rest."[13]

The chief Africans of these parts--and we now approach the great
_officina servorum_--alone tolerant of the heats, and droughts, and
rains, and exhalations are--

1. The Fantis.

2. The Ghans.

3. The Avekvom (?)

A. _The Fantis._--Of the true natives of the country these are the
chief.

The term _Fanti_, like the term _Mandingo_, has a double sense--a
general and a specific signification.

The particular population of the parts about Cape Coast is Fanti in the
limited sense of the term.

The great section of the Negro family, which comprises, besides the
Fantis Proper, the Ashanti, Boroom, and several other populations, is
_Fanti_ in the wide sense of the term.

The Fanti, Ashanti, and Boroom forms of speech are merely dialects of
one and the same language.

A great proportion of the vocabularies of "Bowdich's Ashanti" are the
same.

So are the Fetu, Affotoo, and other vocabularies of the "Mithridates."

The inhabitants of the Native Town of Cape Coast, a mixed population of
Krumen, Fantis, and Mulattoes, amounting to as many as 10,000, are no
true specimens of the African of the Gold