the whole power of the little black despotism. Bosman [Footnote: _Eerste
Brief_, 1737: the original Dutch edition was lent to me by M. Paulus
Dahse.] shows 'Fort St. Antonio' protected by two landward bastions and an
old doorway opening upon a loopholed courtyard. Barbot (1700) sketches a
brick house in gable-shape, based upon a triangular rock.

Passing the Swanzy establishment, a model board-house, with masonry posts,
a verandah all round, and a flying roof of corrugated iron, we ascend the
old paved ramp. Here we remark that the castle-gateway of the Dutch,
leading to the outer or slave court, has been replaced by a mean hole in
the wall. The external work was demolished, lest the enemy effect a
lodgement there. We can walk seawards round the green knob scattered with
black boulders, and pick an excellent salad, a kind of African dandelion,
which the carnivorous English miners called 'grass,'--with a big, big D.
Entering the hole in the wall, and passing through a solid arched gateway
and across a small court upon which the prison opens, we ascend the steps
leading to the upper work. This is a large square house, pierced in front
for one door and three windows, and connected by a bridge, formerly a
drawbridge, with the two tall belvideres, once towers guarding the
eastern entrance. The body is occupied by the palaver-hall of the _opper
koopman_ (chief factor), now converted into a court-house and a small
armoury of sniders. It leads to the bedrooms, disposed on three sides. The
materials are trap, quartz, probably gold-bearing, and fine bricks,
evidently home-made. The substantial quarters fronting the sea are breezy,
comfortable, and healthy; and the large cistern contains the only good
drinking-water in Axim. Life must be somewhat dull here, but, after all,
not so bad as in many an out-station of British India. The chief grievance
is that the inmates, the District-commissioner and his medico, are mere
birds of passage; they are ordered off and exchanged, at the will of
head-quarters, often before they can settle down, and always before they