Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/312

 256 WEST ATEICA. European traders. After the Ashanti war the seat of government was removed from Cape Coast to Christiansborg- Accra. Each colonial district is administered by a magistrate, and the tribal chiefs are gradually being transformed to justices of the peace with power to settle all minor matters according to local usage, while affairs of importance are referred to the English court. The military forces consist chiefly of Fantis, Haussas, and Kroomen. Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to enlist troops in the states north of Ashanti, the natives of which regions refuse to migrate towards the seaboard. The revenue is derived exclusively from imposts levied on imports in the twenty- five coast towns opened to foreign trade. The colonial administration, which is slowly displacing that of the tribal chiefs, has in no way modified the limits of the annexed states now reduced to provinces. Nor does it interfere directly in the affairs of the conterminous states beyond occasionally sending visitors or agents, whose advice is usually accepted. Formerly all the Upper Yolta basin formed part of the Ashanti empire ; but these agents have pursued a policy of political dismemberment, and numerous so-called " independent " kingdoms have been established in the regions coming within the influence of the British authorities. But farther inland there still exist some absolutely independent states, such as Gyaman, Dagomba, and Busso. In the Appendix is given a table of the colonial districts and petty states conterminous to the Gold Coast, together with their chief towns and absolute or approximate populations. The Slave Coast. — Togo, Popo, Ajuda, Babagry, Lagos, Dahomey, Yoruba. The section of the African seaboard lying between the Volta and Niger deltas describes an extremely regular slightly curved arc of a circle masking an inner shore-line, from which it is separated by intervening lagoons and back- waters. To this region, washed by the Bight of Benin, still clings the sad name of the Slave Coast, a reminiscence of the traffic in " black ivory " which flourished on the shores of these cursed lagoons from the first years of the Portuguese discovery down to the second half of the present century. Nowhere else were the slavers able to conduct their operations in more open defiance of the cruisers. The beach is defended by formidable breakers, where the most skilful pilots alone can dare to venture ; the mouths of the estuaries are invisible from the sea, and the inner bays offer a thousand secret inlets on the densely wooded shores, in which it was easy to conceal the human merchandise. The caravans of dealers from the banks of the Niger, the troops escorting gangs of captives forwarded by the kings of Dahomey and Yoruba, were able to consign their victims under the shelter of the gloomy forests without exposing themselves on the open seaboard. But while all the Western nations were glad to have a share in this profitable business, no foreign power except Portugal made any official settlements on this coast before the year 1851, when the English occupied Lagos and made it the headquarters of their operations for the suppression of the traffic in the Bight of