There is no better landing-place than Axim upon this part of the African
coast. The surf renders it impracticable only on the few days of the worst
weather. We hugged the north of the Bobowusua rock-islet. When the water
here breaks there is a clear way further north; the southern passage,
paved with rocks and shoals, can be used only when the seas are at their
smoothest. A regular and well-defined channel placed us on the shingly and
sandy beach. We had a succulent breakfast with Messieurs Gillett and Selby
(Lintott and Spink), to whose unceasing kindness and hospitality we
afterwards ran heavily in debt. There we bade adieu to our genial captain
and our jovial fellow-travellers.
The afternoon was spent in visiting the Axim fort. Santo Antonio, built by
the Portuguese in the glorious days of Dom Manuel (1495-1521), became the
Hollander Saint Anthony by conquest in 1682, and was formally yielded by
treaty to the Dutch West Indian Company. It came to us by convention at
the Hague; and, marked 'ruined' in the chart, it was repaired in 1873
before the Ashanti war. It can now act harbour of refuge, and is safe from
the whole power of the little black despotism.
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