the name assigned to a large tract of country on the W. coast of Africa, commencing at Cape Verga, in about 10° N. Lat., and terminating with the Cameroon Mountains in the Gulf of Biafra. These are the limits more commonly given to what is called Guinea; by some they are greatly extended, so as to comprise the whole of the Portuguese settlements south of the equator, under the name of Southern Guinea, while the coast north of the equator is called Northern Guinea.
The term Guinea is not of African origin, or at least not among those to whom it is applied. There is, according to Barbot, a district of country north of the Senegal known by the name of Genaoua, the inhabitants of which were the first blacks that the Portuguese encountered in their explorations along the coast in the fifteenth century; and they applied this name indiscriminately afterwards to all the black nations which they found farther south. In the two succeeding centuries it was applied in a more restricted sense to that portion of the coast which is now better known as the Gold and Slave Coasts; owing to the fact, perhaps, that this region for a time offered a larger number of slaves for the foreign market than any other part of the country. The natives here acknowledge this term as applied to themselves, but it was undoubtedly borrowed in the first instance from the Portuguese.
The physical aspect of the country, as might be inferred from the large extent we have under consideration, is very variable, but is characterized everywhere by excessive richness of natural scenery. In the region of Sierra Leone, Cape Mount, and Cape Mesurado, the eye rests on bold headlands and high promontories covered with the richest tropical verdure. In the vicinity of Cape Palmas there are extended plains, slightly undulating, and covered with almost every variety of the palm and palmetto. On the coast of Drewiss the country rises into table-lands of vast extent, and apparently of great fertility. The Gold Coast presents every variety of hill and dale; and as we approach the equatorial region we are saluted by mountain scenery of unrivalled beauty and surpassing magnificence.
The inhabitants consist chiefly of the following tribes:—The Vais, the Manou or Kru, the Kovakeras or Avekroom, the Inta, the Dahomey, Ashanti, and the Benin. There are no large or extended political organizations, with the exception, perhaps, of the kingdoms of Ashanti and Dahomey, and neither of these has a larger population or greater extent of territory than the smaller kingdoms of Europe. For the most part, the people live together in independent communities, of not more than eight or ten villages, and with an aggregate population of from 2000 to 25,000 or 30,000. In these different communities they have no written forms of law, but are governed for the most part by certain traditional usages that have been handed down from generation to generation. Nominally, monarchy is the only form of government acknowledged among them; but, when closely scrutinized, their systems show much more of the popular and patriarchal than of the monarchical element. They are essentially a pagan people; but in their religious notions and idolatrous worship they differ very much from each other. There are many decided traces of the Jewish origin. Among these may be specified the rite of circumcision, which, with the exception of the Kru or Manou family, is, we believe, universal; the division of the tribes into families, and in some cases into the number of twelve; bloody sacrifices, with the sprinkling of blood upon their altars and door-posts; the observance of new moons; a formal and specified time for mourning for the dead, during which period they shave their head and wear tattered clothes; demoniacal possessions, purifications, and various other usages of probable Jewish origin.
Respecting the natural products and trading capabilities of the country, the articles exported consist chiefly of ginger, gum, mombol (Guinea grains, a species of seed), palm-oil, some ivory, a wood used for dyeing called camwood, and which is worth in England about L15 sterling a ton. Vessels visiting that coast take on board—at Sierra Leone, or on the coast of Malaguetta, between Cape Mesurado and Cape Palmas—some black sailors, called krumen, who are of great use in doing the heavy work on board, and for boat service; thus saving the European seamen from exposing themselves too much to the sun's rays, &c. The services of these krumen are recompensed with two or three pieces of cotton cloth per month each. Their chief food is rice, which may be purchased at a very cheap rate on the coast of Malaguetta; the price of a "kru" (a measure of capacity weighing about 30 lbs.) being a fathom and a half of cotton cloth, or any other article of proportionate value.
On the coast of Malaguetta (Grain Coast), the articles received principally in barter are rice and millet; also ivory, palm-oil, and camwood, especially at Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. At Sierra Leone, the pepper-tree (called malaguetta) is cultivated on an extensive scale, and its fruit—Guinea pepper—after being dried, is purchased in large quantities by the Americans, and imported into the United States. English muskets, gunpowder, rum, and tobacco, are the principal articles of traffic on the whole of the coast as far as Onim at the bottom of the Bight of Benin.
At Jaque Lahoo and Jaque Jaque, two considerable towns, situated at the extremity of the bight formed by Cape Palmas and Cape Three Points, commences the trade in gold-dust; here also a considerable quantity of palm-oil and some ivory are found. After passing these towns, the European settlements commence. The first are Great Bassam and Assine, belonging to France, and situated at the mouths of the rivers of the same names. Five leagues to the west of Cape Three Points, is the small Dutch fort of Axem; and on the other side of the same cape is the English port of Dick's Cove.
From Cape Lahoo to Acora, and to all the European settlements on the coast, the monetary standard is the "ake" (ackie) of gold-dust, which weighs half a dram English, and is worth nearly 5s. The kru on this part of the coast is almost double that assigned to it on the coast of Malaguetta—averaging L50, more or less.
Between Dick's Cove and the castle of St George of the Mine (S. Jorge da Mina) are situated the small forts of Serunde, Sanca, and Commendo; after which we come to the first large European settlement, viz., the castle of St George of the Mine, belonging to Holland. The castle is a Portuguese structure, and was formerly the most important of the Portuguese colonies on this coast. Next to it is Cape Coast Castle, belonging to England, and situated in sight of the former. The next place is Annamaboo, a small English fort, formerly abandoned, but where for some years past trade has been again in some degree developed. To this fort succeed others in ruins, as Winebah and Assam. Millet is found in abundance at these places, as well as palm-oil and gold-dust.
Proceeding along the coast, we come to the great English settlement of Acora, where there are at present two fortresses. The first, that of St James, was built by them many years since; the second, that of Christianburg, was purchased from Denmark, together with all its possessions on that coast, in the year 1850. Then follow the small settlements of Ningo; after passing which, Cape St Paul, a little to the east of Rio da Volta ("Return River"), is doubled.
From Cape St Paul to Onim or Lagos, many negro towns or villages are met with stationed along the coast. These communicate with each other by means of the lake situated at no great distance inland from the beach; and then the ford converges to the principal points, which are Quia, Popo-pequeno, Ajuda, Porto Novo, and Onim.
The trade which formerly flourished at all these places was that in slaves; but for some years past that in palm-oil, or den-den, has greatly developed itself, the quantity produced amounting annually to more than 7000 tons, which are shipped to England, America, and France.
On this section of the coast there are no European establishments, properly so called; but at Ajuda, Porto Novo, and Onim, there are factories; and Europeans are also resident in the country, and traffic with vessels, as they do at those establishments.
The trade of the Benin, Brass, Bonny, Calabar, and Cameron Rivers, is all in palm-oil, and carried on exclusively by the English.
The whole coast has been arbitrarily divided into five parts:
1. The Sierra Leone district, from Cape Verga to Cape Mesurado. 2. Malaguetta, Pepper or Grain Coast, from Cape Mesurado to Cape Palmas. 3. The Ivory Coast, from Cape Palmas to Cape Three Points. 4. The Gold Coast, from Cape Three Points to the River Volta. 5. The Slave Coast, or Benin district, from the River Volta to the Cameroons.
New. See AUSTRALASIA.
a gold coin formerly struck and current in Britain, and so denominated because the gold of which the first specimens were struck (temp. Car. II.) was brought from the coast of Guinea; and for a like reason it originally bore the impression of an elephant. The value of the guinea varied greatly at different periods, but latterly it was worth 21 shillings. Its weight was 5 dwts. 9½25 grs. On the introduction of the sovereign—first coined in 1817—the old guinea coinage was gradually superseded. See COINAGE, and MONEY.
GUINEA-Fowl. See index to ORNITHOLOGY.
GUINEA-Fig. See index to MAMMALIA.