learn to take interest in the place. The works consist of two bastions on
the land side; a large one to the south-east, and a smaller to the
north-east. Seawards projects a rounded cavalier, fronted by dead ground,
or rather water. In the days of the Dutch the platforms carried '22 iron
guns, besides some patteraroes.' Now there are two old bronze guns, two
'chambeis' bearing the mark 'La Hague,' and an ancient iron tube
dismounted: a seven-pounder mountain-gun, of a type now obsolete, lurks in
the shadows of the arched gateway. I afterwards had an opportunity of
seeing the ammunition, and was much struck by a tub of black mud, which
they told me was gunpowder. The Ashantis at least keep theirs dry.

The dispensary appeared equally well found. For some weeks there was a
native assistant; then Dr. Roulston came, and, after a few days, was
ordered off at a moment's notice to the remotest possible station. He had
no laudanum, no Dover's powders, no chlorodyne, no Warburg; and, when
treating M. Dahse for a burst vein, he was compelled to borrow styptics
from our store. This style of economy is very expensive. To state the case
simply, officials last one year instead of two.

The late Captain P. D. O'Brien, District-commissioner of Axim, did the
honours, showing us the only 'antiquity' in the place, the tomb of a Dutch
governor, with a rudely cut inscription set in the eastern wall:--

WILLEM
SCHOORWAS
COMAD. OP AXEM
1659.

Amongst the slave-garrison of twenty-five Hausás I found a Wadai-man,
Sergeant Abba Osman, who had not quite forgotten his Arabic. Several