Colonel Lumley, Lieutenant-Governor of Sierra Leone claims my first attention.  I had the good fortune to make his acquaintance at the seat of government, and during the whole time I had the pleasure of knowing him, I always found him to be actuated by a most zealous devotion to the many important duties which his situation imposed upon him.  Nor was his high character as a public officer more praiseworthy, than his estimable qualities us a man.  I shall always look back with pride and satisfaction to the period of our intimacy, which was clouded only with the apprehensions I entertained of the fate that awaited him.  Perhaps the prophetic forebodings with which he was impressed might have led me to such gloomy anticipations; for he often observed to me, he felt convinced that if he should ever be attacked by the fever, it would prove fatal, as it unfortunately did, not very long after I left the colony:  and I was informed he caught it from a young friend whom he was kindly attending, and who fell a victim to the disease.

With Captain Ricketts, the commandant of the fortress, I also had the pleasure of enjoying an intimate acquaintance.  Captain Ricketts has served many years on this coast, and was engaged with the Ashantees at the battle of Essamacow, where Sir Charles McCarthy lost his life.  On that occasion he had a most miraculous escape, both in, and after the battle, particularly on his return to the coast, where he was obliged to follow the course of rivers, traverse the jungle and forests alone, to evade the murderous Ashantees.  He subsequently became commandant of Cape Coast Castle, in which capacity he acquired so much influence with the natives as to succeed in prevailing on them to build a market-place, to lay out several new lines of streets, and otherwise improve the town; but above all, to induce them, after a great deal of persuasion, and perseverance, to take down all the houses adjoining, and in the immediate vicinity of the castle walls, a measure which must have greatly interfered with their religious prejudices, as they were obliged to remove the remains of their relatives, who are always buried under the apartments they inhabit, and to carry them to their new habitations to be deposited in a similar manner.  He had also succeeded with the King and carboceers in getting them to cut away all the jungle from the suburbs of the town, for three or four miles distant, and in fact his influence was so great, and the positive utility of the works he designed so obvious, that the natives of Cape Coast almost adored him.  The castle, which is a fine building, was kept in the best order under the superintendence of this active and useful officer.