I Take to the Road

Soon after daybreak on the second morning after my departure from Quittáh, the fishing canoe, which had been sent to fetch me ashore, swept round the bluff into the quieter waters of Winneba Bay, and presently took the ground not far from the mouth of the little river Ainsu; and as I jumped out on to the beach, I found myself folded in the embrace of no less a person than Mr. David Annan.

He seemed very pleased to see me, and not without reason, as I presently discovered, for it appeared that, relying on my assumed opulence, he had refrained from burdening himself with an undue amount of that which is vulgarly known as “the ready,” and was even now in a state of some pecuniary embarrassment. The “carrier men” were, in fact, “not fit,” to use his expression, and refused to lift a load until they had received tangible evidence of their employer’s solvency.

A sovereign from my purse, rapidly converted into eighty “thor-pennies” at an adjacent store, revived the flagging confidence of our followers, and half an hour after landing, we formed up our little caravan and stepped out briskly up the steep street of the town. I looked around me with growing pleasure and interest, for everything was new and strange. The little church with its tower of sun-dried clay, that had looked so imposing from the anchorage and now appeared so mean; the bright red walls of the houses, so different from the grimy hovels of Quittáh, built of the black lagoon-mud; the steep rocky road, the strange trees, the gay and comely Fanti women, were all elements of novelty that came upon me with singular force after my long sojourn amidst the sandy flats and changeless horizon of the Bight of Benin.

Even when we descended into the wide plain the novelty was not abated, for the meadow-like expanse, with its pink soil and waving grass, was as great a change from Quittáh as the rocky upland. And so, while Isabel was mourning my absence in the dull and silent house, here was I striding gaily along the narrow track, watching the little zebra mice and the white-breasted crows and the circling vultures, with an exhilaration that I blush to reflect on.

We walked on at a good swinging pace until nearly noon, when, reaching a belt of woodland, we halted in the shade of a silk-cotton tree to rest and take our midday meal. I had left the commissariat arrangements to Annan, and now reaped the harvest of my folly, for that child of Belial had laid in, with my money, a supply of kanki—a disgusting mess of boiled maize which I had never tasted before, and hope never to taste again. It was highly satisfying, however, and its flavour encouraged moderation, so that when we resumed our march after an hour’s rest I was completely refreshed.

The road through which we passed during the afternoon exceeded in beauty my wildest dreams. In the open, indeed, the prospect was merely that of a fine breezy, rolling country covered with grass and bushes; but where the winding path led through shady woodland or rustling groves of oil palms, the richness and luxuriance of the vegetation filled me with astonishment and delight. My opportunities for examining the landscape were not indeed great, for our bare-footed carriers covered the rough ground at a pace that was a revelation to me, and kept it up, too, until I was ready to drop with fatigue; and when, towards sunset, we entered a straggling village, I learned from Annan, with profound relief, that this was the end of our day’s march.

My trunk had been set down by the carrier against the wall of a house, so I took my seat on it and leaned back with great comfort. Soon a little crowd of women and children gathered round and stood watching me with the expectant interest that a group of rustics at home would manifest in a foreign organ-grinder. I drew out my pipe and filled it to their complete satisfaction, but my matches had become spoiled by the damp of the woodland and would not strike, seeing which, a young woman with a glossy brown baby fastened on to her back, hurried away and presently returned rolling a glowing cinder in the palm of her hand. This she very adroitly laid on the tobacco in my pipe and then blew it softly until it glowed white hot and the smoke ascended in blue clouds, and when I thanked her with some warmth she laid her hands together and curtseyed prettily, murmuring “Ya wura,” and then retired bashfully behind her friends.

Suddenly the calf-like voice of Annan was heard, “shooing” the children away from me, and my conductor appeared wreathed in smiles and glorious with rich apparel. For in this short time he had exchanged his rough travelling costume for the garb of ceremony, and now displayed the splendour of a velvet smoking cap, a suit of pink pyjamas, the ankles tucked into a pair of scarlet socks, and carpet slippers of prismatic brilliancy.

“You get no servant now, Mr. Englefield,” said he with an oily smile, “but never fear, sah, I shall be your steward and I do you proper.”

“You are very good,” said I. “What are we going to do about food? I have had enough kanki for to-day; and where am I to sleep to-night?”

“I get you fine dinner, sah—de chief’s wife cook it now—and very fine bed in de chief’s house. But,” here he dropped his voice and pulled a most lugubrious face, “dis headman no good at all. He get a dry eye.”

“A dry eye?” I exclaimed.

“Yes; he never want to give anyting unless you dash him some money first.”

“Well, I don’t expect him to give me food and lodging for nothing. If you pay him what you think right, or what he thinks right, I will let you have it back.”

Annan groaned and pulled out of his pocket a gaudy purse which he opened and held upside down.

“Dose carriers take all dat you give me dis mornin’ and spend it ‘fore we start. Now de headman say he won’t give us nutting for chop widout you dash him first.”

I began to suspect that Mr. Annan “get a dry eye,” but it was useless to wrangle over a few shillings, so I handed him another sovereign, which he received with a gleeful guffaw and departed—ostensibly to make an advance payment to the headman—leaving me speculating curiously as to how he proposed to get change for a sovereign in this primitive hamlet. Apparently he managed to do so, for I came upon him unawares shortly after, doling threepenny pieces to the carriers for subsistence; and mightily disconcerted he seemed, for some reason, at being discovered.