Page:The land of fetish.pdf/264

 Connor's Hill, they were quartered, partly under canvas on the drill-ground to the west of the town and partly in hired buildings in the town itself. In 1873 no troops were put on shore until their services were actually required, and, when so landed, great care was taken to provide them with camping-grounds, or huts, far removed from the neighbourhood of native towns; and it is much to be regretted that it was not possible to adopt similar precautions on this occasion, for the amount of sickness which ensued amongst the officers and men of the Second West India regiment quartered in the town was appalling.

The town of Cape Coast is one of the most filthy and unhealthy known to the civilized world. In 1872 we find Governor Hennessy thus writing of it—"It was my disagreeable duty to tell the late Administrator that I found the town of Cape Coast to be the most filthy and apparently neglected place that I had ever seen under anything like a civilized Government." That description answers perfectly even at the present day. After the Ashanti war of 1873-4 some attempts at improvement were commenced during the administration of Governor Strahan; but on the removal of the seat of government to Accra these were discontinued, and the condition of the town is now as bad as ever. With a population of some nine