The rest of the moving multitude was composed of the servantry and the
camp-followers. One _bouche inutile_ bore a flag, a second carried a gun,
and so forth, the only principle being to work as little as possible and
to plunder all things plunderable. There were exceptions. Joe (Kwasi
Bedeh) of Dixcove, Cameron's old servant, who boasts of being a pagan, and
who speaks English, French, and Dutch, a handy and intelligent young
fellow, who can cook, sew, carpenter, or lead a caravan--in fact, can
serve as factotum--and his accounts, marvellous to recount, are honestly
kept. I should want no better servant in these coast-countries and in
exploring the far interior. The cook, 'Mister Dawson,' of Axim, is a
sturdy senior of missionary presence: having been long employed in that
line, he wears a white tie on Sundays, and I shrewdly suspect him of
preaching. A hard worker, beginning early and ending late, he is an
excellent stuffer of birds and beasts, and the good condition of our
collection is owing entirely to him. His son, Kwasi Yau (Sunday Joe), is a
sharp 'boy' in the Anglo-Indian sense. The carpenter, our model idler, who
won't work and can't work, receives 3_l_. per mens., when $8 should be the
utmost; we cleared him out on return to Axim. Meanwhile he saunters about
under an umbrella, and is always missing when wanted for work.

Our companions and body-guards are Bianco and Nero, both bought by Cameron
at L'pool for a suspiciously trifling sum. The former is a small
smooth-haired terrier, who dearly loves to bark and bite, and who shows
evident signs of early training in the cab-line. A dog with all the
manners of a doggess, he eventually found a happy home in the fort, Axim.
The second, a bastard Newfoundland with a dash of the bloodhound, and just
emerging from puppyhood, soon told us the reason why he was sold for a
song. That animal was a born murderer; he could not sight a sheep, a goat,
or a bullock without the strongest desire to pull it down; therefore he
had been sold into slavery, African and old-English fashion, instead of