Some Historical Account of Guinea | Page 3

is regularly moistened and rendered extremely fertile; and being in
many places improved by culture, abounds with grain and fruits, cattle,
poultry, &c. The earth yields all the year a fresh supply of food: Few
clothes are requisite, and little art necessary in making them, or in the
construction of their houses, which are very simple, principally
calculated to defend them from the tempestuous seasons and wild
beasts; a few dry reeds covered with matts serve for their beds. The
other furniture, except what belongs to cookery, gives the women but

little trouble; the moveables of the greatest among them amounting
only to a few earthen pots, some wooden utensils, and gourds or
calabashes; from these last, which grow almost naturally over their huts,
to which they afford an agreeable shade, they are abundantly stocked
with good clean vessels for most houshold uses, being of different sizes,
from half a pint to several gallons.
[Footnote A: _Gentleman's Magazine, Supplement, 1763. Extract of a
letter wrote from the island of Senegal, by Mr. Boone, practitioner of
physic there, to Dr. Brocklesby of London._
"To form just idea of the unhealthiness of the climate, it will be
necessary to conceive a country extending three hundred leagues East,
and more to the North and South. Through this country several large
rivers empty themselves into the sea; particularly the Sanaga, Gambia
and Sherbro; these, during the rainy months, which begin in July and
continue till October, overflow their banks, and lay the whole flat
country under water; and indeed, the very sudden rise of these rivers is
incredible to persons who have never been within the tropicks, and are
unacquainted with the violent rains that fall there. At Galem, nine
hundred miles from the mouth of the Sanaga, I am informed that the
waters rise one hundred and fifty feet perpendicular, from the bed of
the river. This information I received from a gentleman, who was
surgeon's mate to a party sent there, and the only survivor of three
captains command, each consisting of one captain, two lieutenants, one
ensign, a surgeon's mate, three serjeants, three corporals, and fifty
privates.
"When the rains are at an end, which usually happens in October, the
intense heat of the sun soon dries up the waters which lie on the higher
parts of the earth, and the remainder forms lakes of stagnated waters, in
which are found all sorts of dead animals. These waters every day
decrease, till at last they are quite exhaled, and then the effluvia that
arises is almost insupportable. At this season, the winds blow so very
hot from off the land, that I can compare them to nothing but the heat
proceeding from the mouth of an oven. This occasions the Europeans to
be sorely vexed with bilious and putrid fevers. From this account you

will not be surprized, that the total loss of British subjects in this island
only, amounted to above two thousand five hundred, in the space of
three years that I was there, in such a putrid moist air as I have
described."
]
[Footnote B: James Barbot, agent general to the French African
company, in his account of Africa, page 105, says, "The natives are
seldom troubled with any distempers, being little affected with the
unhealthy air. In tempestuous times they keep much within doors; and
when exposed to the weather, their skins being suppled, and pores
closed by daily anointing with palm oil, the weather can make but little
impression on them."]
That part of Africa from which the Negroes are sold to be carried into
slavery, commonly known by the name of Guinea, extends along the
coast three or four thousand miles. Beginning at the river Senegal,
situate about the 17th degree of North latitude, being the nearest part of
Guinea, as well to Europe as to North America; from thence to the river
Gambia, and in a southerly course to Cape Sierra Leona, comprehends
a coast of about seven hundred miles; being the same tract for which
Queen Elizabeth granted charters to the first traders to that coast: from
Sierra Leona, the land of Guinea takes a turn to the eastward, extending
that course about fifteen hundred miles, including those several
civilians known by name of _the Grain Coast, the Ivory Coast, the Gold
Coast, and the Slave Coast, with the large kingdom of Benin_. From
thence the land runs southward along the coast about twelve hundred
miles, which contains the _kingdoms of Congo and Angola_; there the
trade for slaves ends. From which to the southermost Cape of Africa,
called the Cape of Good Hope, the country is settled by Caffres and
Hottentots, who have never been concerned in the making or selling
slaves.
Of the parts which are above described, the first which presents