CHAPTER III. Annamaboe--State of the Fort--Indolence of the Natives, and Difficulty in procuring Labourers--Domestic Slavery--Missionary Schools--Want of Education in the Useful Arts--Hints on this Subject--Vegetables and Fruits--Town of Annamaboe--Soil--Natives--Reception of me by the King, and Conversation with him--Mr. Brewe--Mr. Parker--Excessive Heat--Little Cromantine, its impregnable Situation--The Fort--Cromantine--The Market-place--Extraordinary Tradition--Wonderful Dwarf--An Adventure--Accra--Wesleyan Missionaries--Natives--their Habitations--Wives and Slaves--Situation of the Town, and Soil. On Monday, 23d of November, 1844, Mr. T. Hutton and I started from Cape Coast for Annamaboe, a town of considerable trade on the coast, about thirteen miles from Cape Coast Castle, from which its magnetic bearing is about due east. It has also a very good fort, which, however, is gradually going to decay. Its ramparts are well supplied with artillery, and capable of making a good defence against an attack from the sea, if properly garrisoned, and it is quite impregnable by the natives from the land, or north side. It was at this place that the Ashantees made so determined an attack, and an attempt to blow up the gate of the fort. They, however, failed in all their attempts during the late war of 1817. There are at present only two or three private soldiers and a sergeant of militia in charge of the garrison. Some of the apartments in the garrison are in a pretty good state of repair, and might be very profitably used in more ways than one, if from one hundred and fifty to two hundred militia-men were stationed here, and employed by turns in managing a farm in the immediate neighbourhood: the soil is capable of producing every thing necessary for the support of the garrison. In three or four years, on such a plan, this garrison would pay its own expenses. The native kings or chiefs, and caboceers, are never to be depended upon; and even the humblest of the natives, when they imagine they have any power, although naturally great cowards, will bully and be very insolent. The natives are so lazy that at times the merchants cannot, without great difficulty, get men to load or unload their ships. This is a very serious grievance, and often exposes our merchants to great difficulties as well as loss. Were our merchants allowed to hold as many slaves as are requisite for the performance of domestic duties, and the carrying on of their business, it would act as a check to the exportation of slaves.