Embarkation—­Departure for Accra—­Land Route—­Accra Roads-Visit to Danish Accra—­Dilapidations of the Fortresses at Dutch and English Accra—­Captive Queen—­Mr. Thomas Park—­Cause of his Death unknown—­ Departure for Fernando Po—­First view of the Island—­Anchor in Maidstone Bay—­Early History of the Settlement—­Captain Owen’s Expedition—­Visited by the Inhabitants—­Site for the Settlement determined—­Author’s Mission to the King of Baracouta—­Visit of the King—­Native Costume—­Ecstacy of the Natives—­Distribution of Presents—­Second Visit to the King—­His Majesty’s evasive Conduct—­Renewed Interviews—­A Native Thief—­Intended Punishment—­ Cut-throat, a Native Chief—­Visit to King-Cove—­Purchase of land

Friday, Oct. 19.—­When on the point of embarking with Mr. Galler, the purser of the Eden, we took some refreshment at Mr. Castle’s, a commissariat officer, whom I had the pleasure of unexpectedly meeting again at New South Wales, and who is one of the few survivors, after serving some years at Sierra Leone and Cape Coast.  Embarking, as well as landing, at this place, is a matter of some moment, the passengers and a part of the crew being obliged to get into the boat before they launch her from the beach; for the surf is occasionally so heavy as to become exceedingly perilous.  Canoes are frequently upset in the attempt to get off in bad weather, and the purser of a man-of-war was drowned in this manner a few years before; but the natives, who are like fish in the water, are indifferent to the danger; all they care about is to keep the boat from being stove, and to save her appointments.  There was a small lodge of rocks about one hundred yards from the shore, that would answer for the foundation of a breakwater, which it is calculated might be effected at the cost of from three to five hundred pounds, and which certainly would be most desirable for affording protection, and facility to boats, both on landing and leaving the shore.

Saturday, Oct. 20th.—­At eight this morning we left Cape Coast Roads with a fine breeze, for Accra, a distance of sixty miles by sea, and eighty-five by land.  A sketch, of the land route may not be uninteresting.  Four miles eastward of Cape Coast is Moree, and the Dutch Fort Nassau; six miles from Moree is Annamaboc, the most complete fortification in the country; five miles from thence Cormantine, the first fort possessed by the English, and built by them about the middle of the seventeenth century.  It was taken afterwards by the Dutch, and being stormed, was almost destroyed by the Ashantee army, before it attacked Annamaboe; the position is very commanding.  Tantumquerry, a small English fort, is about eighteen English miles from Cormantine (crossing the small river Amissa, an hour’s walk inland from which is Mankasim, the capital of the Braffoe district of Fantee), the natives call the town Tuam; eight miles from Tantumquerry is the town of Afram, where there is a Dutch fort, and a small river; eight miles from