THE SÁ LEONITE AT HOME AND ABROAD.
In treating this part of the subject I shall do my best to avoid
bitterness and harsh judging as far as the duty of a traveller--that of
telling the whole truth--permits me. It is better for both writer and
reader to praise than to dispraise. Most Englishmen know negroes of pure
blood as well as 'coloured persons' who, at Oxford and elsewhere, have
shown themselves fully equal in intellect and capacity to the white races
of Europe and America. These men afford incontestable proofs that the
negro can be civilised, and a high responsibility rests upon them as the
representatives of possible progress. But hitherto the African, as will
presently appear, has not had fair play. The petting and pampering
process, the spirit of mawkish reparation, and the coddling and
high-strung sentimentality so deleterious to the tone of the colony, were
errors of English judgment pure and simple. We can easily explain them.
The sad grey life of England, the reflection of her climate, has ever
welcomed a novelty, a fresh excitement. Society has in turn lionised the
_marmiton_, or assistant-cook, self-styled an 'Emir of the Lebanon;' the
Indian 'rajah,' at home a _munshi_, or language-master; and the 'African
princess,' a slave-girl picked up in the bush. It is the same hunger for
sensation which makes the mob stare at the Giant and the Savage, the Fat
Lady, the Living Skeleton, and the Spotted Boy.
Before entering into details it will be necessary to notice the history of
the colony--an oft-told tale; yet nevertheless some parts will bear
repetition.
[Footnote: The following is its popular chronology:--
1787. First settlers (numbering 460) sailed.
1789. Town burnt by natives (1790?).
1791. St. George's Bay Company founded.
1792. Colonists (1,831) from Nova Scotia.
1794. Colony plundered by the French.
1800. Maroons (560) from Jamaica added.
1808. Sá Leone ceded to the Crown; 'Cruits' introduced.
1827. Direct government by the Crown.]
According to Père Labat, the French founded in 1365 Petit Paris at
'Serrelionne,' a town defended by the fort of the Dieppe and Rouen
merchants. The official date of the discovery is 1480, when Pedro de
Cintra, one of the gentlemen of Prince Henry 'the Navigator,' visited the
place, after his employer's death A.D. 1463. In 1607 William Finch,
merchant, found the names of divers Englishmen inscribed on the rocks,
especially Thos. Candish, or Cavendish, Captain Lister, and Sir Francis
Drake. In 1666 the Sieur Villault de Bellefons tells us that the river
from Cabo Ledo, or Cape Sierra Leone, had several bays, of which the
fourth, now St. George's, was called _Baie de France_. This seems to
confirm Père Labat. I have noticed the Tasso fort, built by the English in
1695. The next account is by Mr. Surveyor Smith, [Footnote: He is mentioned
in the last chapter.] who says 'it is not certain when the English became
masters of Sierra Leone, which they possessed unmolested until Roberts the
pirate took it in 1720.' Between 1785 and 1787 Lieutenant John Matthews,
R.N., resided here, and left full particulars concerning the export
slave-trade, apparently the only business carried on by the British.
Modern Sá Leone is the direct outcome of Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's
memorable decision delivered in the case of Jas. Somerset _v_. Mr. James
G. Stewart, his master. 'The claim of slavery never can be supported; the
power claimed never was in use here or acknowledged by law.' This took
place on June 21, 1772; yet in 1882 the Gold Coast is not wholly
free. [Footnote: Slavery was abolished on the Gold Coast by royal command
on December 7, 1874; yet the _Gold Coast Times_ declares that domestic
slavery is an institution recognised by the law-courts of the
Protectorate.]
Many 'poor blacks,' thrust out of doors by their quondam owners, flocked
to the 'African's friend,' Granville Sharp, and company. Presently a
charitable society, with a large command of funds and Jonas Hanway for
chairman, was formed in London; and our people, sorely sorrowing for their
newly-found sin, proposed a colony founded on philanthropy and free labour
in Africa. Sá Leone was chosen, by the advice of Mr. Smeathman, an old
resident. In 1787 Captain Thompson, agent of the St. George's Bay Company,
paid 30_l_. to the Timni chief, Naimbana, _alias_ King Tom, for the rocky
peninsula, extending twenty square miles from the Rokel to the Ketu River.
In the same year he took out the first batch of emigrants, 460 black
freed-men and about 60 whites, in the ship _Nautilus_, whose history so
far resembled that of the _Mayflower_. Eighty-four perished on the
journey, and not a few fell victims to the African climate and its
intemperance; but some 400 survived and built for themselves Granville
Town. These settlers formed the first colony.
In 1790 the place was attacked by the Timni tribe, to avenge the insult
offered to their 'King Jimmy' by the crew of an English vessel, who burnt
his town. The people dispersed, and were collected from the bush with some
difficulty by Mr. Falconbridge. This official was sent out from England
early in 1791, and his wife wrote the book. In the same year (1791) St.
George's Bay Company was incorporated under Act 31 Geo. III. c. 55 as the
'Sierra Leone Company.' Amongst the body of ninety-nine proprietors the
foremost names are Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce, William Ludlam,
and Sir Richard Carr Glynn. They spent 111,500_l_. in establishing and
developing the settlement during the first ten and a half years of its
existence; and the directors organised a system of government, closely
resembling the British constitution, under Lieutenant Clarkson, R.N.
Next year the second batch of colonists came upon the stage. The negroes
who had remained loyal to England, and had been settled by the Government
in Nova Scotia, found the bleak land utterly unsuitable, and sent home a
delegate to pray that they might be restored to Africa. The directors
obtained free passage in sixteen ships for 100 white men and 1,831
negroes. Led by Lieutenant Clarkson, they landed upon the Lioness range in
March (1792), after losing sixty of their number.
Bred upon maize and rice, bread and milk, the new comers sickened on
cassava and ground-nuts. They had no frame-houses, and the rains set in
early, about mid-May, before they had found shelter. The whites were
attacked with climate-fever, which did not respect even the doctors.
Quarrels and insubordination resulted, and 800 of the little band were
soon carried to the grave. Then a famine broke out. A ship from England,
freighted with stores, provisions, and frame-houses, was driven back by a
storm. Forty-five acres had been promised to each settler-family; it was
found necessary to diminish the number to four, and the denseness of the
bush rendered even those four unmanageable. Disgusted with Granville Town,
the new comers transferred themselves to the present site of Freetown, the
northern _Libreville_.
The Company offered annual premiums to encourage the building of
farm-houses, stock-rearing, and growing provisions and exportable produce.
Under Dr. Afzelius, afterwards Professor at Upsal, who first studied the
natural history of the peninsula, they established an experimental garden
and model farm. An English gardener was also employed to naturalise the
large collection of valuable plants from the East and West Indies and the
South Sea Islands supplied by Kew. The Nova Scotians, however, like true
slaves, considered agriculture servile and degrading work--a prejudice
which, as will be seen, prevails to this day not only in the colony, but
throughout the length and breadth of the Dark Continent.
Meanwhile war had broken out between England and France, causing the
frequent detention of vessels; and a store-ship in the harbour caught
fire, the precursor of a worse misfortune. On a Sunday morning, 1794, as
the unfortunates were looking out for the Company's craft (the _Harpy_), a
French man-of-war sailed into the roadstead, pillaged the 'church and the
apothecary's shop,' and burnt boats as well as town. The assailant then
wasted Granville, sailed up to Bance Island, and finally captured two
vessels, besides the long-expected _Harpy_. Having thus left his mark, he
disappeared, after granting, at the Governor's urgent request, two or
three weeks' provision for the whites. Famine followed, with sickness in
its train, and the neighbouring slave-dealers added all they could to the
sufferings of the settlement.
In the same year Zachary Macaulay, father of Lord Macaulay, became
Governor for the first time. The Company also made its earliest effort to
open up trade with the interior by a mission, and two of their servants
penetrated 300 miles inland to Timbo, capital of that part of Pulo-land. A
deputation of chiefs presently visited the settlement to propose terms;
but the futility of the negro settler was a complete obstacle to the
development of the internal commerce, the main object for which the
Company was formed. Yet the colony prospered; in 1798 Freetown numbered,
besides public buildings, about 300 houses.
In 1800 the Sierra Leone Company obtained a Charter of Justice from the
Crown, authorising the directors to appoint a Governor and Council, and to
make laws not repugnant to those of England. During the same year the
settlers, roused to wrath by a small ground-rent imposed upon their farms,
rose in rebellion. This movement was put down by introducing a third
element of 530 Maroons, who arrived in October. They were untamable
Coromanti (Gold Coast) negroes who boasted that among blacks they were
what the English are among whites, able to fight and thrash all other
tribes. They had escaped from their Spanish masters when the British
conquered Jamaica in 1655; they took to the mountains, and, joined by
desperadoes, they built sundry scattered settlements. [Footnote: In 1738,
after regular military operations, the Maroons of Jamaica agreed to act as
police and to deliver up runaways. In 1795 the Trelawny men rebelled, and,
having inflicted a severe loss upon the troops, were deported to Nova
Scotia and Sá Leone.] Introducing these men fostered the ill-feeling
which, in the earlier part of the present century, prevented the rival
sections from intermarrying. Many of the disaffected Sá Leonites left the
colony; some fled to the wilds and the wild ones of the interior, and a
few remained loyal.
Rumours of native invasions began to prevail. The Governor was loth to
believe that King Tom would thus injure his own interests, until one
morning, when forty war-canoes, carrying armed Timnis, were descried
paddling round the eastern point. Londoners and Nova Scotians fled to the
fort, and next day the Timni drum sounded the attack. The Governor, who
attempted to parley, was wounded; but the colonists, seeing that life was
at stake, armed themselves and beat off the assailants, when the Maroons
of Granville Town completed the rout. After this warning a wall with
strong watch-towers was built round Freetown.
Notwithstanding all precautions, another 'Timni rising' took place in
1803. The assailants paddled down in larger numbers from Porto Loko,
landed at Kissy, and assaulted Freetown, headed by a jumping and drumming
'witch-woman.' Divided into three storming parties, they bravely attacked
the gates, but they were beaten back without having killed a man. The dead
savages lay so thick that the Governor, fearing pestilence, ordered the
corpses to be cast into the sea.
The first law formally abolishing slavery was passed, after a twenty
years' campaign, by the energy of Messieurs Clarkson, Stephen,
Wilberforce, and others, on May 23, 1806. In 1807 the importation of fresh
negroes into the colonies became illegal. On March 16, 1808, Sá Leone
received a constitution, and was made a depôt for released captives. This
gave rise to the preventive squadron, and in due time to a large
importation of the slaves it liberated. Locally called 'Cruits,' many of
these savages were war-captives; others were criminals condemned to death,
whom the wise chief preferred to sell than to slay. With a marvellous
obtuseness and want of common sense our Government made Englishmen by
wholesale of these wretches, with eligibility to sit on juries, to hold
office, and to exercise all the precious rights of Englishmen. Instead of
being apprenticed or bound to labour for some seven years under
superintendence, and being taught to clear the soil, plant and build, as
in similar cases a white man assuredly would have been, they were allowed
to loaf, lie, and cheat through a life equally harmful to themselves and
others. 'Laws of labour,' says an African writer, [Footnote: _Sierra Leone
Weekly Times_, July 30, 1862.] 'may be out of place (date?) in England, but
in Sierra Leone they would have saved an entire population from trusting
to the allurements of a petty, demoralising trade; they would have saved
us the sight of decayed villages and a people becoming daily less capable
of bearing the laborious toil of agricultural industry. To handle the hoe
has now become a disgrace, and men have lost their manhood by becoming
gentlemen.' I shall presently return to this subject.
Thus the four colonies which successively peopled Sá Leone were composed
of destitute paupers from England, of fugitive Nova Scotian serviles, of
outlawed Jamaican negroes, and of slave-prisoners or criminals from every
region of Western and inner Africa.
The first society of philanthropists, the 'Sierra Leone Company,' failed,
but not without dignity. It had organised a regular government, and even
coined its own money. In the British Museum a silver piece like a florin
bears on the obverse 'Sierra Leone Company, Africa,' surrounding a lion
guardant standing on a mountain; the reverse shows between the two numbers
50 and 50 two joined hands, representing the union of England and Africa,
and the rim bears 'half-dollar piece, 1791,' the year of the creation of
the colony. The Company's intentions were pure; its hopes and expectations
were lofty, and the enthusiasts flattered themselves that they had proved
the practicability of civilising Africa. But debt and native wars ended
their career, and transferred, on January 1, 1808, their rights to the
Crown. The members, however, did not lose courage, but at once formed the
African Institution, the parent of the Royal Geographical Society.
The government of the Crown colony has undergone some slight
modifications. In 1866 it was made, with very little forethought, a kind
of government-general, the centre of rule for all the West African
settlements. The unwisdom of this step was presently recognised, and Sá
Leone is now under a charter dated December 17, 1874, the governor-in-chief
having command over the administration of Bathurst, Gambia. Similarly
farther south, Lagos, now the Liverpool of West Africa, has been
bracketed, foolishly enough, with the Gold Coast.
The liberateds, called by the people 'Cruits,' and officially
'recaptives,' soon became an important factor. In 1811 they numbered 2,500
out of 4,500; and between June 1819 and January 1833 they totalled 27,167
hands. They are now represented by about seventeen chief, and two hundred
minor, tribes. A hundred languages, according to Mr. Koelle, increased to
a hundred and fifty by Bishop Vidal, and reduced to sixty by Mr. Griffith,
are spoken in the streets of Freetown, a 'city' which in 1860 numbered
17,000 and now 22,000 souls. The inextricably mixed descendants of the
liberateds may be a total of 35,430, more than half the sum of the
original settlement, 53,862. Being mostly criminals, and _ergo_ more
energetic spirits, they have been the most petted and patronised by
colonial rule. There were governors who attempted to enforce our wise old
regulations touching apprenticeship, still so much wanted in the merchant
navy; but disgust, recall, or death always shortened their term of office.
Naturally enough, the 'Cruits' were fiercely hated by Colonists, Settlers,
and Maroons. Mrs. Melville reports an elderly woman exclaiming, 'Well,
'tis only my wonder that we (settlers) do not rise up in one body and
_kill_ and _slay_, _kill_ and _slay!_ Dem Spanish and Portuguese sailors
were quite right in making slaves. I would do de same myself, suppose I
were in dere place.' 'He is only a liberated!' is a favourite sneer at the
new arrivals; so in the West Indies, by a curious irony of fate,
'Willyfoss nigger' is a term of abuse addressed to a Congo or Guinea
'recaptive.' But here all the tribes are bitterly hostile to one another,
and all combine against the white man. After the fashion of the Gold Coast
they have formed themselves into independent caucuses called 'companies,'
who set aside funds for their own advancement and for the ruin of their
rivals.
The most powerful and influential races are two--the Aku and the Ibo. The
Akus [Footnote: This is a nickname from the national salutation, 'Aku, ku,
ku?' ('How d'ye do?')] or Egbas of Yoruba, the region behind Lagos, the
Eyeos of the old writers, so called from their chief town, 'Oyo,' are
known by their long necklaces of tattoo. They are termed the Jews of
Western Africa; they are perfect in their combination, and they poison
with a remarkable readiness. The system of Egba 'clanship' is a favourite,
sometimes an engrossing, topic for invective with the local press, who
characterise this worst species of 'trades-union,' founded upon
intimidation and something worse, as the 'Aku tyranny' and the 'Aku
Inquisition.' The national proverb speaks the national sentiment clearly
enough: '_Okàn kau lè ase ibi, ikoko li asi ìmolle bi atoju ìmolle taù, ke
atoju ibi pella, bi aba kû ara enni ni isni 'ni'_ ('A man must openly
practise the duties of kinship, even though he may privately belong to a
(secret) club; when he has attended the club he must also attend to the
duties of kinship, because when he dies his kith and kin are those who
bury him').
The Ibos, or 'Eboes' of American tales, are even more divided; still they
feel and act upon the principle 'Union is strength.' This large and savage
tribe, whose headquarters are at Abo, about the head of the Nigerian
delta, musters strong at Sá Leone; here they are the Swiss of the
community; the Kruboys, and further south the Kabenda-men being the
'Paddies.' It is popularly said that while the Aku will do anything for
money, the Ibo will do anything for revenge. Both races are astute in the
extreme and intelligent enough to work harm. Unhappily, their talents
rarely take the other direction. In former days they had faction-fights:
the second eastern district witnessed the last serious disturbance in
1834. Now they do battle under the shadow of the law. 'Aku constables will
not, unless in extreme cases, take up their delinquent countrymen, nor
will an Ebo constable apprehend an Ebo thief; and so on through all the
different tribes,' says the lady 'Resident of Sierra Leone.' If the
majority of the jury be Akus, they will unhesitatingly find the worst of
Aku criminals innocent, and the most innocent of whites, Ibos, or Timnis
guilty. The Government has done its best to weld all those races into one,
and has failed. Many, however, are becoming Moslems, as at Lagos, and this
change may have a happier effect by introducing the civilisation of
El-Islam.
Trial by jury has proved the reverse of a blessing to most non-English
lands; in Africa it is simply a curse. The model institution becomes here,
as in the United States, a better machine for tyranny than any tyrant,
except a free people, ever invented. The British Constitution determines
that a man shall be tried by his peers. Half a dozen of his peers at Sá
Leone may be full-blooded blacks, liberated slaves, half-reformed
fetish-worshippers, sometimes with a sneaking fondness for Shángo, the
Egba god of fire; and, if not criminals and convicts in their own country,
at best paupers clad in dishclouts and palm-oil. The excuse is that a
white jury cannot be collected among the forty or fifty eligibles in
Freetown. It is vain to 'challenge,' for other negroes will surely take
the place of those objected to. No one raises the constitutional question,
'Are these half-reclaimed savages my peers?' And if he did, Justice would
sternly reply, 'Yes.' The witnesses will forswear themselves, not, like
our 'posters,' for half a crown, but gratis, because the plaintiff or
defendant is a fellow-tribesman. The judge may be 'touched with a
tar-brush;' but, be he white as milk, he must pass judgment according to
verdict. This state of things recalls to mind the Ireland of the early
nineteenth century, when the judges were prefects armed with a penal code,
and the jurymen vulgar, capricious, and factious partisans.
Surely such a caricature of justice, such an outrage upon reason, was
never contemplated by British law or lawgiver. Our forefathers never
dreamt that the free institutions for which they fought and bled during
long centuries would thus be prostituted, would be lavished upon every
black 'recaptive,' be he thief, wizard, or assassin, after living some
fourteen days in a black corner of the British empire. Even the Irishman
and the German must pass some five years preparing themselves in the
United States before they become citizens. Sensible Africans themselves
own that 'the negro race is not fitted, without a guiding hand, to
exercise the privileges of English citizenship.' A writer of the last
century justly says, 'Ideas of perfect liberty have too soon been given to
this people, considering their utter ignorance. If one of them were asked
why he does not repair his house, clear his farm, mend his fence, or put
on better clothes, he replies that "King no give him work dis time," and
that he can do no more than "burn bush and plant little _cassader_ for
yam."'
But a kind of _hysterica passio_ seems to have mastered the cool common
sense of the nation--a fury of repentance for the war about the Asiento
contract, for building Bristol and Liverpool with the flesh and blood of
the slave, and for the 2,130,000 negroes supplied to Jamaica between 1680
and 1786. Like a veteran devotee Great Britain began atoning for the
coquetries of her hot youth. While Spain and Portugal have passed sensible
laws for gradual emancipation, England, with a sublime folly, set free by
a stroke of the pen, at the expense of twenty millions sterling the born
and bred slaves of Jamaica. The result was an orgy for a week, a
systematic refusal to work, and for many years the ruin of the glorious
island.
If the reader believes I have exaggerated the state of things long
prevalent at Sá Leone, he is mistaken. And he will presently see a
confirmation of these statements in the bad name which the Sá Leonite
bears upon the whole of the western coast. Yet, I repeat, the colony is
changed for the better, physically by a supply of pure water, morally by
the courage which curbed the black abuse. Twenty years ago to call a negro
'nigger' was actionable; many a 5_l._ has been paid for the indulgence of
_lèse-majesté_ against the 'man and brother;' and not a few 50_l._ when
the case was brought into the civil courts. After a rough word the Sá
Leonite would shake his fist at you and trot off exclaiming, 'Lawyer Rainy
(or Montague) lib for town!' A case of mild assault, which in England
would be settled by a police-magistrate and a fine of five shillings,
became at Freetown a serious 'bob.' Niger, accompanied by his friends or
his 'company,' betook himself to some limb of the law, possibly a
pettifogger, certainly a pauper who braved a deadly climate for uncertain
lucre. His interest was to promote litigation and to fill his pockets by
what is called sharp practice. After receiving the preliminary fee of
_5l_., to be paid out of the plunder, he demanded exemplary damages, and
the defendant was lightened of all he could afford to pay. When the
offender was likely to leave the station, the _modus operandi_ was as
follows. The writ of summons was issued. The lawyer strongly recommended
an apology and a promise to defray costs, with the warning that judgment
would go by default against the absentee. If the defendant prudently
'stumped up,' the affair ended; if not, a _capias_ was taken out, and the
law ran its course. A jury was chosen, and I have already told the
results.
At length these vindictive cases became so numerous and so scandalous that
strong measures became necessary. Governor Blackall (1862-66) was brave
enough to issue an order that cases should not be brought into the civil
courts unless complainants could prove that they were men of some
substance. Immense indignation was the result; yet the measure has proved
most beneficial. The negro no longer squares up to you in the suburbs and
dares the 'white niggah' to strike the 'black gen'leman.' He mostly limits
himself to a mild impudence. If you ask a well-dressed black the way to a
house, he may still reply, 'I wonder you dar 'peak me without making
compliment!' The true remedy, however, is still wanting, a 'court of
summary jurisdiction presided over by men of honour and probity.'
[Footnote: _Wanderings in West Africa_, ii. pp. 231-23.]
It cannot be said that the Sá Leonite has suffered from any want of
religious teaching or educational activity. On the contrary, he has had
too much of both.
After the collapse of Portuguese missionary enterprise on the West Coast,
the first attempts to establish Wesleyan Methodism at Sá Leone were made
in 1796, when Dr. Thomas Coke tried and failed. The Nova Scotian colonists
in 1792 had already brought amongst them Wesleyans, Baptists, and Lady
Huntingdon's connexion. This school, which differs from other Methodists
only in Church government, still has a chapel at Sá Leone. Thus each sect
claims 1792 as the era of its commencement in the colony. In 1811 Mr.
Warren, the first ordained Wesleyan missionary, reached Freetown and died
on July 23, 1812. He was followed by Mrs. Davies, the prima donna of the
corps: she 'gathered up her feet,' as the native saying is, on December
15, 1815. Since that time the place has never lacked an unbroken
succession of European missionary deaths.
The Church Missionary Society, founded in 1799, sent out, five years
afterwards, its first representatives, MM. Renner and Hartwig, Germans
supported by English funds. In 1816 they devoted themselves steadily to
converting the 'recaptives,' and many of them, together with their wives,
fell bravely at their posts. In twenty years thirty-seven out of seventy
died or were invalided. The names of Wylander and W. A. B. Johnson are
deservedly remembered. Nearly half a million sterling was spent at Sá
Leone, where the stone church of Kissy Road was built in 1839, and that of
Pademba Road in 1849. The grants were wisely withdrawn in 1862. At the
present moment only 300_l_. is given, and the church is reported to be
self-supporting. The first bishopric was established in 1852. In 1861
Bishop Beckles instituted the native Church pastorate: its constitution is
identical with that of the Episcopalians, whose ecclesiastical functions
it has taken over.
According to the last census-returns, Sá Leone contains 18,660
Episcopalians; 17,093 Wesleyans and Methodists of the New Connection;
2,717 Lady Huntingdonians; 388 Baptists, and 369 Catholics. These native
Christians keep the Sundays and Church festivals with peculiar zest, and
delight in discordant hymns and preaching of the most ferocious kind. The
Dissenting chapel combines the Christy minstrel with Messieurs Moody and
Sankey; and the well-peppered palaver-sauce of home cookery reappears in
hotly spiced, bitterly pious sermons and 'experiences;' in shouts of
'Amen!' 'Glory!' and 'Hallelujah!' and in promiscuous orders to 'Hol' de
fort.' Right well do I remember while the rival pilots, Messieurs Elliot
and Johnson, were shamelessly perjuring themselves in the police-court,
[Footnote: _Wanderings in West Africa_, i. pp. 256-58.] the junior
generation on the other side of the building, separated by the thinnest of
party-walls, was refreshing itself with psalms and spiritual songs.
We went to hear the psalmody. Ascending the staircase in the gable
opposite the court-house, we passed down the hall, and saw through the
open door the young idea at its mental drill in the hands of a pedagogue,
apparently one of the [Greek: _anaimosarka_], who, ghastly white and
thatched with Paganini hair, sat at the head of the room, the ruling body
of the unruly rout. Down the long length, whose whitewashed walls were
garnished with inscriptions, legal, moral, and religious, all sublime as
far as size went, were ranged parallel rows of _négrillons_ in the vast
costumal variety of a ragged school. They stood bolt upright, square to
the fore, in the position of ' 'tention,' their naked toes disposed at an
angle of 60º, with fingers close to the seams of their breeches (when not
breekless), heads up and eyes front. Face and body were motionless, as if
cast in ebony: nothing moved but the saucer-like white eyes and the
ivory-lined mouths, from whose ample lips and gape issued a prodigious
volume of sound. Native assistants, in sable skins and yellowish white
chokers, carrying music-scores and armed with canes, sloped through the
avenues, occasionally halting to frown down some delinquent, whose body
was not perfectly motionless, and whose soul was not wholly fixed upon the
development of sacred time and tune. I have no doubt that they sang--
The sun, the moon, and all the stars, &c.
precisely in the same spirit as if they had been intoning--
Peter Hill! poor soul!
Flog 'um wife, oh no! oh no!
and that famous anthropological assertion--
Eve ate de appel,
Gib one to daddy Adam;
And so came mi-se-ry
Up-on dis worl'.
_Chorus (bis)_ Oh sor-row, oh sor-row!
Tri-bu-la-tion
Until sal-va-tion day.
It is a pity that time and toil should be thus wasted. The negro child,
like the Hindu, is much sharper, because more precocious, than the
European; at six years he will become a good penman; in fact, he
promises more than he can perform. Reaching the age of puberty, his
capacity for progress suddenly disappears, the physical reason being
well known, and the 'cute lad becomes a _dummer Junge_. Mrs. Melville
thus describes her small servant-girl from one of these schools: 'She
looks almost nine years old; and, as far as reading goes, she knows
nothing more than her alphabet; can repeat the Prayer-Book Catechism by
rote, and one or two hymns, utterly ignorant all the while of the import
of a single word.' Even in Europe education, till lately, exercised the
judgment too little, the memory too much; consequently there were more
learned men than wise men. The system is now changing, and due attention
is paid to the _corpus sanum_, the first requisite for the _mens sana_.
The boys at Sá Leone are kept nine hours in school, learning verse by
heart, practising a vocalisation which cannot be heard without pain, and
toiling at the English language, which some missionaries seem to hold a
second revelation. Far better two or three hours of the 'three Rs' and
six of the shop or workyard. Briefly, the system should be that of the
Basle Missionary Society, [Footnote: I deeply regret that _Wanderings in
West Africa_ spoke far less fairly of this establishment than it
deserves. My better judgment had been warped by the prejudiced accounts
of a fellow-traveller.] which combines abstract teaching with practical
instruction in useful handicraft, and which thus suggests the belief
that work is dignified as it is profitable.
The Sá Leonites from their earliest days were greedy to gain knowledge as
the modern Greeks and Bulgarians; but the motive was not exalted. Their
proverb said, 'Read book, and learn to be rogue as well as white man.'
Hence useless, fanciful subjects were in vogue;--algebra, as it were,
before arithmetic;--and the poor made every sacrifice to give their sons a
smattering of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The desire of entering the
'professions' naturally affected the standard of education. What is still
wanted at Sá Leone is to raise the mass by giving to their teaching a more
practical turn, which shall cultivate habits of industry, economy, and
self-respect, and encourage handicrafts and agriculture as well as trade.
I have already noticed the Fourah Bay College. The Church Missionary
Grammar-School, opened in 1845, prepares boarders and day-scholars for
university education; and the curriculum is that of an ordinary English
grammar-school. The establishment, which has already admitted over 1,000
boys, is now self-supporting, and has an invested surplus, with which
tutors are sent to England for higher instruction in 'pædagogia.' The
Wesleyan High School for Boys, opened in 1874, receives youths from
neighbouring colonies; that for girls, originating with Mrs. Godman, the
wife of a veteran missionary still on the Coast, was founded in 1879. It
was cordially taken up by the natives, who subscribed all the funds. The
founders thought best to adopt the commercial principle; but no one as yet
has asked for profit, and the school shows signs of prosperity and
progress. The Annie Walsh Memorial School for Girls, dating from a bequest
by the lady whose name it bears, is under the management of the Church
Missionary Society. The Catholics are, as usual, well to the fore. The
priests keep a large school for boys, and the sisters educate young women
and girls. I have before described the dark novice,--
Under a veil that wimpled was full low;
And over all a black stole shee did throw.
The masters also make their children learn Arabic and English. There is a
manliness and honesty in the look of the Mandenga and the Susu never seen
in the impudent 'recaptive.' The dignity of El-Islam everywhere displays
itself: it is the majesty of the monotheist, who ignores the degrading
doctrine of original sin; it is the sublime indifference to life which
_kazá wa kadar_, by us meagrely translated 'fatalism,' confers upon the
votaries of 'the Faith.' These are not the remarks of a prejudiced
sympathiser with El-Islam: many others have noted the palpable superiority
of the Moslem over the missionary convert and the liberated populace of Sá
Leone.
As a rule journalism on the West Coast is still in the lowest stage of
Eatanswillism, and the journal is essentially ephemeral. The newspapers of
twenty years ago are all dead and forgotten. Such were the 'African
Herald,' a 'buff' organ, edited by the late Rev. Mr. Jones, a West Indian,
and its successor, the 'African Weekly Times.' The 'Sierra Leone Gazette'
succumbed when the Wesleyans established (1842) the 'Sierra Leone
Watchman.' Other defuncts are the 'Free Press,' a Radical paper,
representing Young Sá Leone, and a fourth, the 'Intelligencer,' which
strove to prove what has sometimes been asserted at negro
indignation-meetings, namely, that 'a white man, if _he behave himself_,
is as good as a black man.' Cain, like the rest of the family, was a
negro; but when rebuked by the Creator he turned pale with fear, a tint
inherited by his descendants. The theory is, _par parenthèse_, as good as
any other. The only papers now published are the 'West African Reporter,'
whose proprietor and editor was the late Hon. Mr. Grant, and the
'Watchman,' a quasi-comic sheet.
The worst feature of journalism in West Africa is that fair play is
unknown to it. The negroes may thoroughly identify themselves with
England, claim a share in her greatness, and display abundant lip-loyalty;
yet there is the racial aversion to Englishmen in the concrete, and to
this is added the natural jealousy of seeing strangers monopolise the best
appointments. The Sá Leonite openly declares that he and his can rule the
land much better and more economically than the sickly foreigner, who
spends half his service-time on board the steamers and at home. 'Dere goes
another white raskel to his grave!' they will exclaim at the sight of a
funeral. 'Wish dey all go and leave colony to US.' And as the reading and
paying public is mainly composed of Nigers, the papers must sooner or
later cater for their needs, and lose no opportunity of casting obloquy
and ridicule upon the authorities and Albus in general. We can hardly
blame them. I have shown that the worst and most scandalous display of
journalism comes from London.
After the church, the school, and the newspaper, the most important
civilising institution is the market. Sá Leone is favourably situated for
collecting the interior trade, and yet seven-tenths of the revenue is
derived from articles passing through the Loko and Rokel rivers; the rest
is levied from wines, spirits, and tobacco, and in the form of
preposterous harbour-dues. The export duties are light, but the exports do
not seem to have increased as rapidly as they should have done during the
last twenty years; this, too, despite missions into the interior and the
hospitable reception of native chiefs and their messengers. There are no
assessed or house taxes. The revenue and expenditure of the past five
years have averaged, respectively, 63,869_l_. and 59,283_l_., leaving a
surplus of 4,586_l_., which might profitably be expended upon roads. But
the liabilities of the colony early in 1881 still amounted to 50,637_l_.,
being the balance of a debt resulting principally from the harbour-works.
The present population of the original settlement--including British Kwiáh
(Quiah), an early annexation--is 53,862. The dependencies, Isles de Los,
Tasso, Kikonkeh, and British Sherbro, according to the census of 1881, add
6,684, a figure which experts would increase by 4,000. The total,
therefore, in round numbers, would be nearly 65,000. At the last census
only 163 were resident whites; the crews and passengers of ships in port
added 108.
On the whole the Sá Leonite cannot be called a success. Servants in shoals
present themselves on board the steamers, begging 'ma'sr' to take them
down coast. In vain. The fellow is handier than his southern brother: he
can mend a wheel, make a coffin, or cut your hair. Yet none, save the
veriest greenhorn, will engage him in any capacity. As regards civility
and respectfulness he is far inferior to the _emancipado_ of Cuba or the
Brazil; with a superior development of 'sass,' he is often an inveterate
thief. He has fits of drinking, when he becomes mad as a Malay. He
gambles, he overdresses himself, and he indulges in love-intrigues till he
has exhausted his means, and then he makes 'boss' pay for all. With a
terrible love of summonsing, and a thorough enjoyment of a law-court, he
enters into the spirit of the thing like an attorney's clerk. He soon
wearies of the less exciting life in the wilder settlements, where orgies
and debauchery are not fully developed; home-sickness seizes him, and he
deserts his post; probably robbing house or till.
Even a black who has once visited Sá Leone is considered spoilt for life,
as if he had spent a year in England. Hence the eccentric Captain Phil.
Beaver declared that he 'would rather carry a rattlesnake than a negro who
has been in London.' I have met with some ugly developments of
home-education. One was a yellow Dan Lambert, the son of a small
shopkeeper, who was returning--dubbed a 'Templar'--from the Land of
Liberty. He was not a pleasant companion. His face was that of a porker
half-translated; he yelped the regular Tom Coffee laugh; and when asked
why Sá Leone had not contributed to the Crimean Widow Fund, he uttered the
benevolent wish that 'the damned ---- and their brats might all starve
like their husbands.' Another was a full-blooded negro, a petty huckster
at the 'Red Grave,' who, in his last 'homeward' voyage, had met at Madeira
the Dean and Deaness of Oxbridge. The lady resolved to keep up the
creditable acquaintanceship: so strong is feminine love for the 'black
lion.' Shortly afterwards Niger paid his promised visit, which he
described graphically and sans sense of shame--how he had been met at the
station by a tall gentleman in uniform and gold-laced hat, how he was
invited to enter a carriage, and how great was his astonishment when the
'officer' preferred standing in the open air behind to accompanying him
inside. After this naïve _début_ he showed tact. Mr. Dean wished to know
if anything could be done towards advancing the interesting guest in his
'profession'--not trade. We talk of an English school-master, but a
mulatto or a negro becomes a 'professor.' Niger whispered 'No,' which,
ladylike, meant a distinct 'Yes.' He ended by graciously accepting an
introduction to a Manchester firm, and soon relieved it of 16,000_l_.
No one who knows the West African coast will assert that the influence of
Sá Leone has been in any way for good. All can certify that this colony,
intended as a 'model of policy,' and founded with the object of promoting
African improvement, has been the greatest obstacle to progress. She
fought to keep every advantage to herself, and she succeeded in securing a
monopoly of 'recaptives,' who were more wanted elsewhere. She became an
incubus in 1820, when all British possessions from N. Lat. 20º to S. Lat.
20º were made her dependencies. The snake was scotched in 1844 by the Gold
Coast achieving her independence. Yet Sá Leone raised herself to a
government-general in 1866, and possibly she will do so again.
The Sá Leonite has ever distinguished himself by kicking down, as the
phrase is, the ladder which raised him. No man maltreats his wild brother
so much as the so-called 'civilised' negro: he never addresses his
congener except by 'You jackass!' and tells him ten times a day that he
considers such trash like the dirt beneath his feet. Consequently he is
hated and despised withal, being of the same colour as, while assuming
such excessive superiority over, his former equals. No one also is more
hopeless about the civilisation of Africa than the semi-civilised African
returning to the 'home of his fathers.' He feels how hard has been his
struggle to emerge from savagery; he acknowledges, in his own case, a
selection of species; and he foresees no end to the centuries before there
can be a nation equal even to himself. Yet in England and in books he will
cry up the majesty of African kings,--see, for a specimen, Bishop
Crowther's 'Niger Diary.' He will give his fellow-countrymen, whom he
thoroughly despises, a thousand grand gifts of morals and industry. I have
heard a negro assert, with the unblushing effrontery which animates the
Exeter Hall speechifier, that at some African den of thieves men leave
their money with impunity in the storehouse or on the highway. I read the
assertion of a mulatto, who well knew the contrary, 'A white man who
supposes himself respected in Africa, because he is white, is grievously
mistaken.' The 'aristocracy of colour' is a notable and salient fact in
Africa, where the chiefs are lighter hued and better grown than their
subjects; and the reason is patent--they marry the handsomest women.
Finally, the Sá Leonite is the horror of Europeans on the West Coast. He
has been formally expelled by his neighbours, the Liberians. At Lagos and
Abeokuta he lost no time in returning to his original fetishism, which the
'recaptive' apparently can never throw off. Moreover, he became an
inveterate slave-dealer, impudently placing himself under native
protection, and renegading the flag that saved the crime-serf from
lifelong servitude. These 'insolent, vagabond loafers' were the only men
who gave me much trouble in the so-called 'Oil rivers,' where one of them
accused a highly respected Scotch missionary of theft. Finally, the Gaboon
merchants long preferred forfeiting the benefits of the mail-steamers to
seeing themselves invaded by a locust tribe, whose loveliest view is,
apparently, that which leads out of Sá Leone.
Part of this demoralisation arose from the over-tenderness of the British
Government, in deference to the philanthropist and the missionary.
Throughout the Bights of Benin and Biafra, where the chief stalks about
with his fetishman and his executioner, there is still some manliness
amongst men, some modesty amongst women. There the offending wife fears
beheading and 'saucy water;' here she leaves with impunity her husband,
who rarely abandons the better half. Consequently the sex has become
vicious as in Egypt--worse than the men, bad as these are. Petty larceny
is carried on to such an extent that no improvement is possible: as
regards property, the peninsula contains the most communistic of
communities. The robbers are expert to a degree; they work naked and well
greased, and they choose early dawn or the night-hour when the tornado is
most violent. The men fight by biting, squeezing, and butting with the
head, like the Brazilian _capoeira_. The women have a truly horrible way
of putting out of the world an obnoxious lover. Ask an Aku if an Ibo is
capable of poisoning you: he will say emphatically, 'Yes.' Put the same
question to an Ibo touching an Aku, and he will not reply, 'No.'
With respect to the relative position of Japhet and Ham--perhaps I should
say Ham and Japhet--ultra-philanthropy has granted all the aspirations of
the Ethiopian melodist:--
wish de legislator would set dis darkie free;
Oh, what a happy place den de darkie world would be!
We'd have a darkie parliament,
An' darkie code of law,
An' darkie judges on de bench,
Darkie barristers and aw.
I own that darkey must be defended, and sturdily defended too, from the
injustice and cruelty of the class he calls 'poor white trash;' but the
protection should be in reason, or it becomes an injustice. Why, for
instance, did the unwise negrophile propose to protect the Jamaica negro
against the Indian coolie? Because Niger wants it? Pure ignorance and
prejudice of gentlemen who stay at home! Though physically and mentally
weaker than Europeans, the negro can hold his own, as Sá Leone proves, by
that combination which enables cattle to resist lions. Japhet Albus is by
nature aggressive; if not, he would not now be dwelling in the tents of
Shem and the huts of Ham. He feels towards Contrarius Albo as the
game-cock regards the dunghill-fowl. Displays of this sentiment on the
part of the white population must be repressed; but this should be done
fairly and without passion.
I do not for a moment regret our philanthropical move, despite its awful
waste of life and gold. England, however can do her duty to Africa without
cant, and humbug, and nonsense about the 'sin and crime of slavery.'
Serfdom, like cannibalism and polygamy, are the steps by which human
society rose to its present status: to abuse them is ignorantly to kick
down the ladder. The spirit of Christianity may tend to abolish servitude;
but the letter distinctly admits it, and the translators have unfairly
rendered 'slave' and 'bondsman' by 'servant,' which is absurd. England can
fight, if necessary, against a traffic which injures the free man, but she
might abstain from abusing those who do not share her opinions. The
anti-slavery party has hitherto acted rather from sentiment than from
reason; and Mr. Buckle was right in determining that morality must be
ruled by, and not rule, intellect. We have one point in our favour. The
_dies atra_ between 1810-20, when a man could not speak what he thought
upon the subject of slavery, ended as the last slave left the West African
coast; and yet I doubt whether the day is yet come when we can draw upon
the great labour-bank of Africa and establish that much-wanted
institution, the black _ouvrier libre_.
There are several classes interested in pitting black man against white
man. An unscrupulous missionary will, for his own ends, preach resistance
to time-honoured customs and privileges which Niger has himself accepted.
An unworthy lawyer will urge litigation; a dishonest judge or
police-magistrate will make popularity at the expense of equity and
honour; a weak-minded official will fear the murmurs, the complaints, and
the memorials of those under him, and the tomahawking which awaits him
from the little army of negrophiles at home. But the most dangerous class
of all is the mulatto; he is everywhere, like wealth, _irritamenta
malorum_. The 'bar sinister,' and the fancy that he is despised, fill him
with ineffable gall and bitterness. Inferior in physique to his black, and
in _morale_ to his white, parent, he seeks strength by making the families
of his progenitors fall out. Had the Southern States of America deported
all the products of 'miscegenation,' instead of keeping them in servitude,
the 'patriarchal institution' might have lasted to this day instead of
being prematurely abolished.
My first visit to Sá Leone showed me the root of all her evils. There is
hardly a peasant in the peninsula. Had the 'colony-born' or older
families, the 'King-yard men,' or recaptives, and the creoles, or children
of liberated Africans, been apprenticed and compelled to labour, the
colony would have become a flourishing item of the empire. Now it is the
mere ruin of an emporium; and the people, born and bred to do nothing,
cannot prevail upon themselves to work. But the 'improved African' has an
extra contempt for agriculture, and he is good only at destruction. Rice
and cereals, indigo and cotton, coffee and arrowroot, tallow-nuts and
shea-butter, squills and jalap, oil-palms and cocoas, ginger, cayenne, and
ground-nuts are to be grown. Copal and bees'-wax would form articles of
extensive export; but the people are satisfied with maize and roots,
especially the cassava, which to Sá Leone is a curse as great as the
potato has proved to Ireland. Petty peddling has ever been, and still is,
the 'civilised African's' _forte_. He willingly condemns himself to spend
life between his wretched little booth and his Ebenezer, to waste the week
and keep the Sabbath holy by the 'holloaing of anthems.' His _beau idéal_
of life is to make wife and children work for, feed and clothe him, whilst
he lies in the shady piazza, removing his parasites and enjoying porcine
existence. His pleasures are to saunter about visiting friends; to grin
and guffaw; to snuff, chew, and smoke, and at times to drink
_kerring-kerry_ (_caña_ or _caxaça_), poisonous rum at a shilling a
bottle. Such is the life of ignoble idleness to which, by not enforcing
industry, we have condemned these sable tickets-of-leave.
Before quitting the African coast I diffidently suggested certain steps
towards regenerating our unhappy colony. For the encouragement of
agriculture I proposed a tax upon small shopkeepers and hucksters, who, by
virtue of sitting behind a few strings of beads or yards of calico, call
themselves traders and merchants. This measure, by-the-by, was attempted
in 1879 by Governor Rowe, but the strong opposition compelled him to
withdraw it. I would have imposed a heavy tax upon all grog-shop licenses,
and would have allowed very few retail-shops in the colony.
Police-magistrates appeared to me perfectly capable of settling disputes
and of punishing offenders. I would have discouraged the litigation which
the presence of lawyers and a bench suggests, and which causes such
heartburn between Europeans and Africans. I would have established a Court
of Summary Jurisdiction, and never have allowed a black jury to 'sit upon'
a white man, or _vice versâ_; and in the case of a really deserving negro
or mulatto I would rather see him appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland
than Governor or Secretary of Sá Leone.
On my last journey I met the Hon. Mr. T. Risely Griffith, a West Indian
and Colonial Secretary at Sá Leone. He kindly read what I had written
about the white man's Grave, and found it somewhat harsh and bitter. At
the same time he gave me, with leave to use, his valuable lecture
delivered before the Royal Colonial Institute. [Footnote: _The Colonies
and India_, a weekly newspaper. London: December 17, 1881.] Making
allowance for the official _couleur de rose_, and reading between the
lines, I found that he had stated, in parliamentary language, what had
been told by me in the rude tongue of a traveller. The essay, he assured
me, had been well received at Sá Leone; and yet, to my knowledge, the
newspapers of the western coast had proposed to make it the subject of an
'indignation-meeting.'
Hear what Mr. Griffith has to say upon the crucial question--agriculture.
'The ordinary observer cannot fail to be impressed with the great number
of traders and hawkers. In the peninsula of Sierra Leone there are
returned 53,862; of these, traders and hawkers number 10,250, or about 19
per cent., or, including hucksters, 23 per cent. Little good can result to
a country as long as one-fourth of its people are dependent for their
livelihood for what they sell to the remaining three-quarters.... The same
tendency to engage in the work of distribution rather than the production
of wealth seems to be a general characteristic of the negro race.
'The real number of artisans or mechanics who have any right to the term
is very limited; and it is to be regretted that in Sierra Leone, where the
people are apt to learn, and tolerably quick to apply, there is not a
greater number of thorough workmen to teach their handicrafts and make
them examples for the rising generation. A youth who has been two years
with a carpenter, boat-builder, blacksmith, or mason, arrogates the name
to himself without compunction, and frequently, whilst he is learning from
an indifferent teacher the rudiments of his trade, he sets up as a master.
There is hardly a single trade that can turn out half a dozen men who
would be certificated by any European firm for possessing a thorough
knowledge of it. Of all trades in Sierra Leone, and certainly in Freetown,
that of tailoring is the most patronised, but this arises from the love of
dress, which is inherent.
'The proper cultivation of the soil is, and must always be, the true
foundation of prosperity in any country. The shop cannot flourish unless
the farm supports it, and the friends of the colony regard with anxiety
the centralisation of capital at Freetown. I have been gratified, however,
to notice that the desire to acquire land and cultivate it has lately
increased to a very great extent, and I regard it as a very hopeful sign
for the future. The people still want two things, capital and scientific
agricultural knowledge. The native implements are of the rudest
kind--their hoes little more than sufficient to scratch the ground, and
their only other implement a cutlass to cut down the bush. Ploughs are
unknown, and spades very little used. Wheelbarrows are detested, although
they are not quite unknown; the people would sooner "tote" the soil in a
box on their heads, and instances are on record where the negro has
"toted" the wheelbarrow itself, wheel, handle, and all.'
Mr. Griffith further informs us that the Colonial Government is desirous
of fostering and encouraging agriculture; that it proposes to establish,
or rather to re-establish, a model farm; that lands have been granted at a
trifling sum to Mr. William Grant on condition of his devoting capital and
labour to the development of agriculture; that Mr. Thomas Bright has laid
out a coffee and cocoa farm at Murray Town; and that Mr. Samuel Lewis, a
barrister-at-law, universally well spoken of, is engaged in cultivation,
with a view of studying the best methods and of influencing his
fellow-countrymen in favour of agricultural pursuits. Major Bolton also is
working the land seventeen miles down coast, and planting cocoa-nuts,
chocolate, and Kola-trees. The latter, when ten years old, are said each
to fetch 15_l_. per annum. Here, therefore, we have at least a beginning.
During the discussion on Mr. Griffith's lecture, some home-truths were
told by the Hon. Mr. Grant, [Footnote: This 'eminent African,' who had
gone to England with the view of buying agricultural implements and an
ice-machine, died in London on January 28, 1881. His speech, therefore,
was delivered only a week or so before his death. Much fulsome praise of
him followed in the press, which seemed completely surprised that a black
man could talk common sense.] a full-blooded negro, of the Ibo tribe, and
a member of the Sierra Leone Legislative Council. He objected to the term
'white man's Grave.' He bravely and truly told his audience that if the
French held possession of Sá Leone they would have made it a 'different
thing.' After praising the present Governor's instruction-ordinance he
spoke these remarkable words:--
'But education from the point I allude to is that practical education
which develops the man and makes him what he is, not the education which
makes him simply the blind imitator of what he is not. Of course the
education, as originally introduced into the colony, was an experiment,
and a grand experiment it was. They said, "There are these people, and we
will educate them as ourselves." It was a good idea, but it was defective,
because there is as great a difference between the negro and the white man
as there can be. He is capable of doing anything that the white man can
do; but then, to get him to do that, you must educate him in himself. You
must bring him out by himself: you must not educate him otherwise. He must
be educated to carry out a proper and distinct course for himself. The
complaint has been general of the want of success in the education of the
negro; but it is not his fault: the fault is from the defect of his
education. He fancies, by the sort of education which you give him, that
he must imitate you in everything--act like you, dress in broadcloth like
you, and have his tall black hat like you. Then you see the result is that
he is not himself; he confuses himself, and when he comes to act within
himself as a man he is confused, and you find fault that he has not
improved as he ought to do. But if he is properly educated you will find
him of far greater assistance to you than you have any idea of.'
The remarks on agriculture and on capital were equally apposite; and
Captain Cameron remarked that these were the 'truest words of wisdom about
Africa that it ever was his lot to hear.' They will leave a sweet savour
in the reader's mouth after a somewhat acid chapter.
But the ingrained idleness of generations is not so easily cleared away.
The real cure for Sá Leone will be an immigration of Chinese or of Indian
coolies, that will cheapen labour and enable men of capital to farm on a
large scale. It may be years before agriculture supplants trade with its
light work and ready profits; but the supplanting process itself will do
good. At present Sá Leone finds it cheaper to import salt from England
than to lay out a salina, and to make an article of commerce which finds
its way into the furthest interior. Immigration, I repeat, is the sole
panacea for the evils which afflict the Lioness Range.