-Cape Palmas--Dexterity of the Fishmen--Fish
towns--The Fetish--Arrival at Cape Coast--Land with the Governor--
Captain Hutchison--Cape Coast mode of taking an airing--Ashantee
Chiefs--Diurnal occupations--School for Native Girls--Domestication
of Females--Colonel Lumley--Captain Ricketts--Neglect of Portuguese
fortresses--A native Doctor

_Monday, Oct. 8th, 1827_.--Light airs and variable, with frequent heavy
showers. Land in sight, bearing N.E. At noon calm and very hot. Lat.
5 deg. 32'. N. lon. 10 deg. 17'. W. Cape Palmas E.S.E. 168 miles.
Hoisted in the pinnance, which we had been towing all the way from
Sierra Leone, in consequence of the crowded state of the ship.

_Tuesday, 9th_.--At noon, lat. 4 deg. 55'. N. lon. 9 deg. 17'. W. Cape
Palmas S. 76 deg. E. 83 miles. At one a canoe came off to the ship, at
this time we saw a remarkable rock, called the Swallow, or Kroo rock,
which is detached from the main land, about two miles and a half from
the entrance of the river Waffen. There is a safe channel for vessels
inside of this rock, with seven fathoms water, and a muddy bottom.
Nearly twenty leagues to the westward of the Waffen is the river
Cestus,[20] in which river, Captain Spence, an old African trader, has
had a timber establishment some years.

Being now off the Kroo country, I think it desirable to introduce a
short description of it, and its inhabitants.

The Kroo country is situated on that part of the coast of Africa called
the Grain Coast, the chief towns of which are Settra Kroo, Little Kroo,
Kroo Barru, Kroo Settra, and King Will's town. It does not appear that
it extends any distance inland. The manners of the natives are
sufficiently curious to merit some description. They are pagans, and
place much faith in charms, auguries, and oracles. The most celebrated
place for oracles is near the banks of the river Cavally, a little to
the westward of Cape Palmas, and this spot is in as great repute
amongst them, and the surrounding tribes (particularly those along the
coast, even so far down as Cape Lahou), as ever that of Delphos was
among the ancient Greeks, and so far as we can learn, imposes with
equal success on the credulity and superstition of the poor ignorant
natives.

The Kroomen, that is, the Kroo and Fish men, for they all come under
the general denomination of Kroomen in Sierra Leone, are almost the
only people on the coast who voluntarily emigrate, to seek for labour
out of their own cou