Much neglect seems to prevail at the time of the birth of male children, respecting the separation of the umbilical cord. Many boys, and even men, may be seen with protruding navels as large as a duck’s egg, sometimes turned down at the end. They have many different fashions in shaving their heads: some leave only a small tuft on the crown; others, a tuft on one side just above the ear; others, narrow strips from the middle of the forehead to the top of the head; others, again, from ear to ear, thus dividing the head into four parts. Some shave their heads only from the forehead to the suture, which is very observable in the skulls kept in their fetish-houses. Of letters or cyphers they are wholly ignorant. Their tally is kept in grains of Indian corn, so many being put in one small bag as an account against the debtor, and in another as the number due to the creditor. Surnames are not in use in any part of the Western Coast,[6] except among the few who have been educated, whose number is very small, considering the time that missionaries and schools have been established among them. The town of Winnebah contains about four thousand inhabitants. February 5th, 1845.--We set sail from Winnebah and landed at Accra. On the morning of the 6th I went on shore and visited Mr. Bannerman, whose hospitality and kindness are well known to Europeans. After breakfasting with him, I went to see some more of my friends in this place; and with Mr. Gedge, a British merchant established here, I remained during my stay. He drove me over the Danish Accra, where we visited the Governor, a very kind and gentlemanly man. Two days previous to my arrival at Accra, he had been under the necessity of destroying part of the town, as the inhabitants of the demolished houses had received and harboured a party of miscreants who had come down from the Woodlands with the intention of murdering him. The party, amounting to fifty armed men, had stationed themselves on the beach to waylay his Excellency when he landed from a Danish vessel anchored in the roads, on board of which he had gone to visit the commander; but before the boat came within gunshot of the beach, a signal from the fort warned them to keep off. His Excellency, thereupon, returned to the ship, and brought a few marines in another boat, who soon put these would-be assassins to flight. When he had ascertained where they had been secreted, his Excellency ordered that part of the town to be cannonaded. I visited the ruins, and it was certainly a wretched spectacle to see so many houses in ashes, and their inhabitants encamped on the outskirts of the town, with such articles of furniture as they were able to save from destruction. Fortunately, this being the dry season, they were not so much exposed as otherwise they might have been.