bound for sunyani—the awe-inspiring-forest—the road through the forest—the people upon that road—ofinsu and an ashanti house—rather a public bedroom—potsikrom—a night of fear—sandflies—attractive black babies—a great show at bechem—a most important person—the hausa who went in fear of his life—coronation night at tanosu—a teetotal party—the medical officer's views on trees—beyond the road—sunyani.
i talked to the commissioner, and those talks with him made me want to go somewhere out into the wilds. kumasi was beginning to look strangely civilised to me. it was a great trading-centre, and presently it would be as well known, it seemed to me, as alexandria or cairo, or at the other end of the continent, buluwayo. i should like to have gone into the northern territories, but the rainy season was upon us, and if that did not daunt me—and it would not have done so—i had to consider the time. i ought to be back in london. i had intended to be away for six months, and now it was close on eight since i had come out of the mouth of the mersey.
“go to sunyani,” said the chief commissioner, “and go on to odumase, where the rising began at the beginning of the century. you will be the first white woman to go there, and i think you will find it worth your while.”
so i interviewed the head of the transport service, and by his kindness was supplied with seventeen carriers, and one hot day in june started north.
they had doubts, these kind friends of mine, about my capabilities as a traveller, at least they feared that something might happen to me while i was in their country, and they told me that a medical officer was starting north for sunyam that day and would go with me.
i looked up the medical officer and found him in the midst of packages that he was taking with him beyond civilisation to last for a year. he was most courteous, but it seemed to me that he felt the presence of a woman a responsibility, and i was so sure of myself, hated to be counted a nuisance, that when he said he had intended to go only as far as sansu that night, i expressed my intention of going on to ofinsu, and hinted that he might catch me up next morning if he could.
so by myself i set out into the heart of the rubber country north of kumasi. i was fairly beyond civilisation now. ten years ago this country was in open rebellion against english rule, and even now there are no european stores there; there is no bread, no kerosene, no gin—those first necessities of an oncoming civilisation; it was simply the wild heart of the rubber country, unchanged for hundreds of years. it has been known, but it has not been lightly visited. it has been a country to be shunned and talked of with bated breath as “the land of darkness.” the desert might be dared, the surf might be ventured, the black man might be defied, but the gloom of the forest the white man feared and entered not except upon compulsion. the nile has given up its secrets, the sahara yields to cultivation, but still in africa are there places where the all-conquering white man is dwarfed, and one of them is the great forest that lies north of the capital of ashanti.
0527
here we know not the meaning of the word forest. england's forests are delightful woods where the deer dwell in peace, where the rabbits scutter through the fern and undergrowth, and where the children may go for a summer's holiday; in australia are trees close-growing and tall; but in west africa the forest has a life and being of its own. it is not a thing of yesterday or of ten years back or of fifty years. those mighty trees that dwarf all other trees in the world have taken hundreds of years to their growth. when a slight young girl came to the throne of england, capturing a nation's chivalry by her youth and innocence, the mahogany and kaku and odoum trees were old and staid monarchs of the forest. when the first of the georges came over from hanover, unwelcome, but the nation's last hope, they were young and slim but already tall trees stretching up their crowns to the brilliant sunlight that is above the gloom, and now at last, when the fifth of that name reigns over them, at last is their sanctuary invaded and the seclusion that is theirs shall be theirs no longer. for already the axe is laid to their roots, and through the awe-inspiring forest runs a narrow roadway kept clear by what must be almost superhuman labour, and along that roadway, the beginning of the end, the sign that marks the peaceful conquest of the savage, that marks also the downfall of the forest though it is not even whispered among the trees that scorn them yet, flows a perpetual stream of traffic, men, women, and children. backwards and forwards from the north to kumasi and the sea they come, and they bear on their heads, going north, corrugated iron and cotton goods, kerosene, and flour, and chairs, all the trifles that the advance of civilisation makes absolute necessaries; and coming down they bring all in their season, hides, and heavy cakes of rubber, and sticks of dried snails, and all the other articles of native produce that a certain peace has made marketable along the way or in the markets of kumasi.
the spell was upon me the moment i left the town. that road is like nothing else in the world. the hammock and the carriers were dwarfed by the great roots and buttresses of the trees to tiny, crawling ants, and overhead was a narrow strip of blue sky where the sunlight might be seen, but only at noon did that sunlight reach the roadway below. we travelled in a shadow pleasant in that heat; and on either side, close on either side, were the great trees. looking down the road i could see them straight as a die, tall pillars, white and brown; ahead of me and close at hand the mighty buttresses that supported those pillars rose up to the height of perhaps ten men before the tree was fairly started, a tall trunk with branches that began to spread, it seemed to me, hundreds of feet above the ground. and between those tree-trunks was all manner of undergrowth, and all were bound and matted together with thickly growing creepers and vines. it was impossible to step an inch from that cleared path. there would be no getting lost in the bush, for it would be almost impossible for the unpractised hand to get into the bush. there is nothing to be seen but the brown, winding roadway, the dense green of the undergrowth, and the trunks of the trees tall and straight as nelson's column and brown or white against the prevailing green. and there are all shades of green, from that so pale that it is almost golden to that so dark it is almost black, but never a flower breaks the monotony, the monotony that is not monotony but dignity, and the flowers of an english spring or an autumn in australia would but cheapen the forest of the gold coast. there must have been orchids, for sometimes as i passed their rich, sensuous smell would come to my nostrils, but i only knew they were there by my sense of smell just as sometimes i smelt a strong smell of mice, and knew, though i could not see them, that somewhere in the depths of the gloom were hidden away a great colony of fruitarian bats that would not come out into the daylight.
0531
when there was a village there was, of course, a clearing, and on the first day i passed several villages until at last i came to ofinsu, where i had arranged to spend the night. ofinsu is on the banks of a river, and the road comes out of the forest and passes broadly between two rows of mud-walled houses with steeply pitched, high-thatched roofs, and my carriers raced along and stopped opposite a small wooden door in a mud wall and rapped hard.
for the first time on my travels i had really excellent carriers. they were krepis from beyond the german border, slight, dark men with slim wrists and ankles, and crosses cut as tribal marks on each cheek, and they were cheerful, smiling, willing. when i remembered my before-time tribulations i could hardly believe these were actually carriers who were going along so steadily and well, who were always up before me in the morning, and in as soon as i was at night, who never lingered, never grumbled, never complained, but were simply ideal servants such as i had never had before in my life save perhaps for a day, as when i went to palime from ho, and such as i shall count myself extremely lucky if i ever have again.
“we have got good carriers,” the transport officer had said, “though you don't seem to believe it”; and he proved his words, for never have i travelled more comfortably than i did on that one hundred and sixty miles to sunyani and back.
the knocking at the little door brought a black lady with a shaven head and a blue cloth wrapped round her middle. she was a woman past all beauty, and very little was left to the imagination, but she threw open the door and indicated that we were to enter, and she looked at me very curiously. never before had a white woman come to ofinsu.
i entered, and this was my first introduction to an ashanti house, a house that seems to me singularly suited to the climate and people. it is passing away, they tell me, and i for one am sorry.
we went into a courtyard open to the sky, and round it, raised at least two feet from the ground, were the rooms, i suppose i must call them, but though there was a roof overhead and walls on three sides, walls without windows, the fourth side was open to the central courtyard. when i entered the place was crowded; hausas or wangaras—i never could tell one from the other—were settled down on the platforms, and their loads—long bundles made up for carrying on the head—were all over the place. i said nothing. i am generally for the superiority of the white man and exact all the deference that is my due, but clearly these people were here first, and it seemed to me they had it by right, only how i was to bathe and sleep in a house where everything was so public among such a crowd i did not know.
0535
but my hostess had other views. no sooner had i entered than she began clearing out the former guests, and in less than a quarter of an hour the place that had seemed so crowded was empty, swept and garnished for my accommodation. my bed was put up on one platform, my table and chair on another. “get table quick and chair, so can play cards,” grant instructed my headman, and behind, through a little door that may be seen in the picture, was a place that answered for a kitchen, and a cup of tea was quickly produced for my comfort. it was weird going to sleep there in the open, but it was very, very delightful. i rigged up in the corner of one of the rooms—i have no other names for them—with ground sheet and rugs, a little shelter where i could have my bath in comfort, but i undressed without a qualm and went to bed and slept the sleep of the woman who has been in the open air the livelong day and who, happily for herself, can indulge her taste and sleep in the open air all night.
i took a picture of my open-air bedroom with my valuable headman and two small children who belonged to the household i had invaded in the foreground. but that was before i went to bed at night. at earliest dawn, before the dawn in fact, my headman was at my bedside wanting to pack up and start.
that night's lodging cost me one shilling and threepence. the headman told me one shilling was enough, so i bestowed the extra threepence as a dash on the shaven old woman who had done all for me that my servants could not do, and she seemed so delighted that i was left wondering what the wan-garas who had given place to me had paid.
just as the sun was rising we crossed the ofin river, and i found there assembled the entire population of the village to look at the strange sight—a perfectly courteous, polite people who never crushed or crowded though they looked their fill. i can only hope i was a success as a show, for certainly i attracted a great deal of attention, but of course i had no means of knowing whether i came up to expectations. it took some time to get my goods and followers across the river in the crank canoe which is only used in the rainy season, for usually the ofin river can be waded, and while i waited on the farther shore i looked with interest at the other people who were waiting for their loads to be ferried across.
the men were hausas or wangaras, some wearing turbans, some with shaven heads, and clad in long, straight, shirt-like garments, while the women excited my deepest compassion. they may have been the men's wives, i know not; but by whatever name they were called they were slaves if ever i saw slaves. they had very little on besides a dirty, earthen-coloured cloth hitched round their loins, their dark faces were brutalised and depressed with that speechless depression that hardly realises its own woes, and their dusty hair that looked as if it had not been washed for years was generally twisted into short, thick, dusty looking plaits that were pressed downwards by the weight of the load they one and all carried. they carried children, too, on their backs, tiny babies that must have been born on the journey, or lusty youngsters that were a load in themselves. but a hausa will carry an enormous load himself—sometimes up to 240 lbs.—so it is not likely he will have much consideration for his women. it may be, of course, that their looks belied them, but it seemed to me that they cared little whether fate drowned them there in the swirling brown waters of the river or brought them safely through to the other side to tramp on, footsore, tired, weary, heartsick—if these creatures who looked like dumb beasts had life enough in them to be heartsick—to their destination three months away in the north.
0539
they waited there as i passed, and they looked at me dully and without interest; presently their loads would be brought across and they would be on the march again, and i went on pitying to potsikrom.
the forest was getting denser and denser. there were fewer towns and clearings on this day—nothing but the great trees and the narrow ribbon of road with the strip of blue sky far, far away. it was very awe-inspiring, the forest. i should have been unspeakably terrified to pass through it alone, but my chattering men took away all sense of loneliness. there was not much to see, but yet the eternal trees had a most wonderful charm. it was like being in some lofty cathedral where the very air was pulsating with the thought of great and unseen things beyond the comprehension of the puny mortals who dared rashly to venture within the precincts. no wonder the ashanti gave human sacrifices. sacrifice, we all know, is the basis of all faith, and what lesser thing than a man could be offered in so great a sanctuary?
and that afternoon we came to potsikrom, a little village deep in the forest.
the rest-house was a mud building with a thatch roof somewhat dilapidated, and built not after the comfortable, suitable ashanti fashion, but after the european fashion, possibly in deference to some foolish european who probably regarded all the country as “poisonous.” that is to say, it was divided into two rooms with holes in the clay, very small holes for windows, and, saving grace, a door at each side of one of the rooms. in the corner of one of these impossible rooms i saw, to my surprise, a camp-bed put up, and for the moment thought it was mine. then i saw a suit of striped pyjamas which certainly were not mine, and realised it must belong to the medical officer whom i had left at kumasi the day before. his boys had stolen a march ahead, and, thinking to do better than the white woman, had put up his bed in what they considered the most desirable place, thinking doubtless that possession was nine points of the law.
i certainly didn't desire that corner, but i felt my authority must be maintained, and so i asked:
“who that bed belong to?”
“massa,” said a grinning boy.
“take it down,” said i.
up came the chief's clerk. all these ashanti chiefs now have a clerk who can write a little english and so communicate for them with government, and the clerk, interested as he was to see a white woman, was very certain in his own mind that the white man was the more important person. he probably regarded me as his wife come on ahead, and said that the chief had another house for me.
i didn't like that rest-house, but pride has suffered pain since the beginning of the world, so i distinctly declared my intention of staying there and ordered them to clear out the medical officer's bed forthwith.
my boys were very anxious to assert my superiority and out went that bed in the twinkling of an eye, and my men proceeded to put up mine between the two doors, and, having had a table set out for tea, i awaited the arrival of the medical officer with a quiet mind.
0543
presently he arrived and we laughed together over the struggle for supremacy between our men, and pledged our future good fellowship in tea. the chief sent me in eggs and chickens and yams as dash, the people came and looked at me, and presently the evening fell and i had my evening meal and went to bed.
and when i went to bed i repented me of having stood on my dignity. what on earth had i wanted the rest-house for? it was the last house in the village, a little apart from the rest, the great solemn forest was all around me, and i was all alone, for grant and the men had retired with the darkness to somewhere in the village. my bed stood under a roof certainly, but i should not have dared put up the door of the rest-house for fear of making it too close, and so it meant, of course, that i was sleeping with nothing between me and that awe-inspiring forest. i do not know what i was afraid of any more than i know what i feared at anum, but i was afraid of something intangible, born of the weird stillness and the gloom. i put a hurricane lantern at the door to scare away any wandering pigs and goats—i did not really in my heart think there would be any wild beasts—and then i proceeded to put in a most unpleasant night. first there was too much light, it fell all over my bed, and though i did not like it, i still felt a comfortable sense of safety in the light.
then i began to itch. i twisted and turned and rolled over, and the more i moved about the more uncomfortable i became. i thought to myself, “there, it serves you right! you are always nursing the fat little black babies and now you have got some horrible disease.” the thought was by no means consoling, but i was being driven so frantic that i began to think that no disease could really advance with such rapidity. besides, all sorts of great insects were banging themselves against my mosquito curtains, so i came to the conclusion that probably the tiny sandflies were also attracted by the light and were getting through the meshes. there was nothing for it but to screw up my courage, get out of bed, and take that lantern away. i did it, crept back to bed again, listened for a little to the weird noises of the night, was relieved to find the appalling irritation showed no signs of increasing, and finally, in spite of my fears, dropped off into so sound a sleep that i was only awakened by grant endeavouring to drive away by fair words my energetic headman, who was evidently debating whether it was not his bounden duty to clear me away, bed and all.
i told the doctor my experiences in the morning, and he confirmed my supposition that it was only sandflies and not horrible disease that had troubled my slumbers.
very much relieved was i, for the little black babies are dear little round souls, and i should have been loath not to take them when their mothers trusted them to me. i should hesitate much before i took a baby of the peasant class in this country, but there, in the heart of africa, it is always safe to cuddle the little, round, naked thing that has for all clothing a few beads or a charm or two tied to its hair. they are always clean and soft and round and chubby, and they do not invariably yell with terror at the white woman, though i am bound to say they often do.
0547
we were in the heart of the forest now. there were but one or two villages and only one or two places that could be dignified by the name of clearings. at one, as big, perhaps, as a tiny london square, three or four huts had been erected, and an old woman was making pots. they were all set out in the sun to dry, and the good lady was very nervous when i wanted to take her photograph. she consented at last, and sat there shivering, in her hand a great snail shell which she used to ornament the pots. they were such a lonely little company, so cut off from all their kind, and we must have been such wondrous figures breaking in on their life and then passing on again. i gave them the last bright new pennies i had, and left them wondering.
and so we went on again through the forest, past insuta, until, as the evening was falling, we created immense astonishment by arriving at bechem.
here again the rest-house was built uncomfortably, european fashion, and again my only alternative was to have my bed put up between the two doors so that i might get plenty of air. but at bechem the town was full. it was a big town set in the midst of a great clearing, and to-day it was swarming with people, for the next day was coronation day, and the chief had sent out word that all his sub-chiefs were to come in and celebrate. and here was another excitement—a white woman! how many chiefs came to see me that day i really would be afraid to say, and the chief sent me in by way of dash a sheep, a couple of chickens, piles of plantains, yams, eggs, and all manner of native edibles. it was very amusing to stand there in the midst of the swarming people, receiving these offerings. of course they all have to be returned with presents of value, and i was thankful they did not think me important enough to receive a cow; as it was it cost me a pound to get out of bechem, but my carriers were delighted for i presented them with the sheep. he was an elderly ram with long horns, and i think he was the only person who did not thoroughly enjoy the entertainment.
the chief sent in word through his interpreter to say that the people had never seen a white woman before; there were many people here because of the coronation, might they come and “look”? never have i been so frankly regarded as a show. there was nothing for it but to go outside and let them look, and once more i can only hope they were satisfied. i had never seen such crowds of natives before, crowds that had not seen much of the white man and as yet were not arrayed in his cast-off clothes. all round us long dane guns were popping off in honour of the great occasion, and tom-toms were beating half the night. when i waked next morning—i slept in the passage to get plenty of air, but i was not afraid because the rest-house was near the centre of the village—i found that at the earliest glimpse of dawn long lines of people had assembled outside my house and were patiently waiting for me to come out. i had my breakfast in the little courtyard behind the house, the people peeping through the fence of palm-poles, and when we set out on our way the chief, in all the glory of silken robes and great umbrella, came a little way to do us honour.
never, not even when i was married, have i been such an important person. the tom-toms beat, the umbrellas twirled, long danes went off, horns blew, and as far as the eye could see were the villagers trailing away behind us.
0551
the chief escorted us for about a mile, we walking in the cool, misty morning, and then he turned, slipped his cloth from his left shoulder as a mark of respect, shook hands, wished us a prosperous journey, and bid us good-bye like the courteous gentleman he was, and we went on into the mighty forest again.
it is always cool in the early morning, and very pleasant here among the trees, so the medical officer and i walked on chatting about bechem, when we came upon another little party of travellers, who stopped us and asked help. it was a hausa with a couple of women, his wives in all probability, and a couple of other men, presumably his slaves. he was a tall, strong man in the prime of life, upon whose shaven head were deep lines graven by the loads he had carried. our headman, who could speak hausa, interpreted.
men were following him from nkwanta, he said, to kill him. a child had died in the town, and they said he “had put bad medicine upon it,” that is, had bewitched it, and the penalty was death.
it was rather startling in this twentieth century to be brought face to face with the actors in such a tragedy, especially when we were powerless to help. we were unarmed and had with us only carriers and servants; it was the prestige of the white man that was carrying us through. the hausa was going away from nkwanta as fast as he possibly could, and apparently he did not want to trust himself within its bounds, even under the protection of a white man. he declined to come back with us, and what could we do? the medical officer, i think, did all that he could when he promised to report things to the commissioner at sunyani, and recommended the hausa, since he would not avail himself of our protection, to get the chiefs clerk at bechem to write his account of the affair to sunyani and kumasi.
and so in the early morning we went our way, and he went his, and he disappeared into the gloom of the forest, a much troubled man. i wondered how he would ever get back to his home in the north, for there is but this one road, and that road leads through nkwanta. he would only dare it, i think, with a large body of his own people, for who is to report to government if a travelling hausa should disappear?
we put in a long day that day, and in the full heat of the noontide arrived at nkwanta, a most important place, whose chief rules over a large tract of country. we came upon the butchers' stalls first, all kept by hausas or wangaras. this country, on account of the tsetse fly, will allow but few cattle to live, and these men from the north drive them down, kill them, and sell them, for the ashantis are rich, and like to buy meat. i had hardly taken a photograph of these stalls, when from all sides i saw the people assembling, and presently the chief appeared. he brought offerings, a sheep, fowls, eggs; yams, and plantains; but this time i pointed out that i was on a journey, and could not take the presents, as i had no means of carrying them. he was very anxious indeed we should stay for that night; said he, they were celebrating the coronation, and there would be a big dance. i went into his house and took a photograph of the moulded clay that ornaments the walls, and a small slave-boy was proud to stand in the corner so as to give life to the picture, and i think nkwanta was sorry we elected to go on. i was a little sorry myself afterwards, for as we passed along the forest path we met sub-chiefs going in to the coronation ceremonies, men carried high in their hammock-chairs, followed by a motley assemblage of men and women, bearing long danes, horns, drums, household utensils, and all the paraphernalia of a barbaric chief.
0555
and at last we came to a place where the forest was ruthlessly cleared for about a hundred feet on either side of the road, and the tropical sun poured down in all its fierceness. i did not like it. the mighty monarch s of the forest had simply been murdered and left to lie, and already nature was busily veiling them with curtains of greenery. why those trees had been so slaughtered i do not know. that the forest would have been better for thinning, i have no doubt, but why not leave the beautiful trees? i am sure the germans would have done so, but the englishman seems to have no mean. if there are too many trees he cuts them all down and makes a desert. the medical officer of course did not agree with me.
“must get rid of the trees,” said he with enthusiasm.
i looked at him. he was a young fellow, pleasant and kindly, sallowed by life in the tropics. he wore a drab-coloured helmet, coming well down over his back, which was further protected by having a quilted spinal pad fastened down the back of his bush shirt.
“why,” i said, “do you wear so big a helmet, and a spinal pad?”
he looked at me tolerantly, as if he had always known that woman asked silly questions, and i was only confirming a preconceived idea. but he was in a way my host, so he was patient with me.
“to keep off the sun, of course,” said he.
“the trees,” i began; and then he felt i really was silly, for every medical man knows the proper thing is to get rid of the trees, and have some artificial form of shade. at least, that is what i gathered from his subsequent explanation. the idea is apparently to cut down all the forest trees, and when the place is bare, they can be replaced by fresh trees, planted exactly where they ought to grow. since they are not english trees it does not matter how beautiful they are, and that they take at least two hundred and fifty years to come to perfection is a matter of small moment. so the medical officer and i disagreed, till we came to tanosu, a little town on the tano river.
the chief here had just built a new rest-house, thank heaven, on the comfortable ashanti pattern, and i was given it by the courteous medical officer, who disapproved of me on trees, while he sought shelter in the village.
the people were very curious. the chief, who it appears is a poor man, sent the usual presents, and then the people came and looked, and looked, till after about a couple of hours of it i grew weary, and shut the doors of the courtyard. then they applied their eyes to every crank and cranny, and i had an uneasy feeling that whatever i did unseen eyes were following me. i wanted to rejoice in the coronation, so i asked the doctor to come to dinner and celebrate, but unfortunately my kitchen was at least a quarter of a mile away, and there were such terrible long waits between the courses that again and again i had to ask my guest if he would not go and see what had happened. we finished at last, and i wanted to drink the king's health in whisky-and-soda which was the only drink i had, but my guest was a teetotaller, so i sent for the servants, only to be informed that every one of them refrained from liquor. and as a rule i approve so highly of temperance. only for this once did i find it rather depressing. however, we stood up and drank the king's health, and i expect the eyes that were watching us wondered what on earth we were doing. they performed on tom-toms after that, and i fell asleep in the pleasant, damp night air, to a sort of barbaric fantasia on horns and drums.
we were nearing our journey's end. early next morning we crossed the tano river, which is full of sacred fish, and the medical officer took my photograph in the stream, and i took his, as he crossed on his boy's shoulders, and when we crossed to the other side we found we had left every vestige of the road, the good road that had so surprised me, behind. we went along a track now, a track that wound in and out in the dense, tropical forest. generally the trees met overhead and we marched through a tunnel, the ground beneath our feet was often a quagmire, and if we could not see the sun often, neither could we feel the rain that fell on the foliage above our heads. on either side we could see nothing but the great trunks and buttresses of the trees, and the dense undergrowth. possibly to go for days and days through a forest like this might give a sense of oppression, but to go as i did, for but a short time, was like peeping into a new world. never a bird or beast i saw, nothing but occasionally a long stream of driver ants, winding like a band of cut jet across the path. and so we went on and on, through the solemn forest, till at last it cleared a little. there was the sky above again, and then no forest, but on my left cornfields and the brown splash of a native town, and in front a clearing, with the rim of the forest again in the distance, and right ahead, on the top of the gently sloping rise, the european bungalows of sunyani. i had arrived, the first white woman who had come so far off the beaten track.
