AN AFRICAN SKETCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 1752, 20 June 1885, Page 26

AN AFRICAN SKETCH.

A "ft'n,tlve Kcntlcsnr n. -

My Aihsoti gentleman— ;or Buoh ho was bui/oud all mittiake — had a charming face, a handsome one, indeed. People of his race, who boast their blood, are not black at all ; iudeed, from one end of Africa fco the other, kings and nobles are yollow or bronze, according to my experience. It is the comrnonost form of abuse among negroes, in Africa as in America, to call a man "black." The Ashanti gentleman baa neither flat nose, nor thick lips, nor ebony skin. To take Boossoonogo as a specimen, he is not darker than many Spaniards, has features of the European cast, and an eye that protrudes in tho manner admired by French paoplo, and called ctjleur de tile. His drees, even when a prisoner, as I sawr him, is a miracle o{ taste, unequalled since tho Roman toga vanished. One single piece of " cloth " it is, a cotton print, home spun and home dyed. Your native gentleman, whether from East; or West, would not condescend to wear Minchoster Rfcuff-*, and ha xg conspicuously right. To sco Bocssoonogo was to sea a picture of antique grace. It was a marvel how ha kept so cLan that sheet of cotton, adorned with blue arabesques and flowers on a white ground. Nofbing else did ha wosr by day, except the " broech-oloufc," friaged with silk, the ends of which fell below his kaees. At night he rolled it round him, and so slept, but the stiffening never went out of it, and its folds were alwayb ptatueßque. He looked a swell, overy inch, bright, and wholesome, and courteous, though tied by his wrist, and trudging barefoot through the mud. .... When permitted tho use of a carriage hammock (instead of walking chained to a common soldier) Boossoonogo stopped into his conveyance with a courteous bow towards the marine ; through my rttterpi-o-I;er he expresaod regret that cireum6fcance3 ovar which he had no cnntrol forbad him -to reward P>"ivat;n tiinilhfor hia "uniform consideration, " &3. The face of that gallant aoldior whf>n ho thoroughly mattered this' parting shaft of polifcsn663, did ons good to see. " Why — why !" ho «aid, "this nigger -ho— oh, blow it !" Words would not come to him fitting to describe his sentiments. I saw him again two daya after, with his remaining captives still in tow. Private Smith had changad into a thoughtful man ; tha sublimity of Ashanti uuuruere bad overpowered him,