Dutch merchant William Bosman described the inhabitants of Cape Mount in the early 1700s as “industrious to the last degree,” mainly in growing rice and extracting salt from sea water.
At Cape Mount around 1701, the men’s attire was “like a Surplice,” which was a knee-length overgarment with full sleeves worn by European clergy or choirs. Women, on the other hand, wore a narrow cloth around their waist, “tucked in at their sides to fasten it,” but without the girdles worn by women on the Gold Coast
“Sometimes they shamelessly go around naked,” he added, “as if they were proud of what Nature bestows on them in common with the rest of their Sex.”
Footnote: Bosman, 1967, pp. 474, 472, 480-481.
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