ed in this capacity he rendered himself very useful, and
continued at the pestle and mortar until Sir Charles McCarthy's
arrival, when the African Company was dissolved, all their slaves
liberated, and the new charter proclaimed, (for Sierra Leone and Cape
Coast) on March 29, 1822. Having received his freedom, he now assumed a
position of some importance, and was retained on the medical
establishment as dispenser, with a small salary. His excellent conduct
and judgment in the discharge of his new office procured him the
general respect and confidence of Europeans, and his reputation, when I
was at Cape Coast, stood so high that he was frequently consulted on
the diseases of the climate in preference to medical gentlemen from
Europe. He is in the habit of making daily visits to all the European
residents, whether they require his services or not, and they generally
invite him to take some refreshment, handing him at the same time the
keys of their celeret or cupboard, that he may help himself to spirits,
or wine. He sometimes avails himself of their offer, chiefly for the
sake of gratifying his vanity, by shewing to the servants the
confidence that is reposed in him; for no other native, perhaps, except
himself, would be entrusted with the keys of any place where wine and
spirits are kept. Trade was very dull during my stay at Cape Coast, and
had been so for some time; the merchants, however, looked forward to
its revival, in consequence of the prospects of peace with the Ashantee
people, who were very desirous to terminate hostilities, for the sake
of being enabled to resume their commercial intercourse with the
English, and other Europeans on the coast. During the war it was
believed that they had accumulated a great quantity of gold and ivory,
which are the principal articles they barter for goods of European
manufacture, and for which they had no sale while hostilities lasted,
except in some few instances, where individuals risked the hazard of
embarking in smuggling transactions.

Captain Hutchison (whom I have before mentioned, as being left at the
Ashantee capital after the departure of the mission), when the troops
returned to the coast, subsequent to the Ashantee war was appointed
commandant of the Fortress of Annamaboe, a post which he resigned for a
time, in consequence of some difference of opinion with Colonel Lumley,
acting Governor of Sierra Leone, when he was at Cape Coast; however, he
was afterwards indu