admitted. The foreshore of yellow sand, pointed and dotted by lines and
falls of black rock, fronts a shallow bay as foul and stony as the coast.
Here are three settlements, parted by narrow walls of 'bush.' Edina, the
northernmost, is said to do more business than any other port in the
republic; she also builds fine, strong surf-boats of German and American
type, carrying from one to five tons. The keels are bow-shaped, never
straight-lined from stem to stern; and the breakers are well under the
craft before their mighty crests toss it aloft and fling it into the deep
trough. They are far superior to the boats with weather-boards in the fore
which formerly bore us to land. The crew scoop up the water as if digging
with the paddle; they vary the exercise by highly eccentric movements, and
they sing savage barcarolles the better to keep time.

The middle settlement is Upper Buchanan, whose river, the St. John's, owns
a bar infamous as that of Lagos for surf and sharks. The southernmost,
Lower Buchanan, is defended by a long and broken wall of black reef, but
the village is far from smooth water. All these 'towns' occupy holes in a
curtain of the densest and tallest greenery. They are composed of groups
and scatters of whitewashed houses, half of them looking like chapels and
the other like toys. Each has its adjunct of brown huts, the native
quarter. These Bassá tribes must not be confounded with their neighbours
the Krumen; the languages are quite different, and the latter is of much
harsher sound. There is no doubt of this being a good place for engaging
labour, and it is hoped that in due time Bassá-hands, who work well, will
be engaged for the Gold Coast mines. At present, however, they avoid
English ships, call themselves 'Americans,' and willingly serve on board
the Yankee craft which load with coffee, cam-wood, and palm-oil.

We steamed along the Cape, River, and Town of Sinou, the very home of the
Kráo, or Krumen, strictly speaking a small tribe. Returning