Passage back to Liberia--Coffee Plantations--Dinner on Shore--Character of
Col. Hicks--Shells and Sentiment--Visit to the Council Chamber--the New
Georgia Representative--a Slave-Ship--Expedition up the St. Paul's--Sugar
Manufactory--Maumee's beautiful Grand-Daughter--the Sleepy Disease--the
Mangrove-Tree.
_February_ 29.--We are on our return to Liberia. The ship is destined to
cruise along the whole coast, from Cape Mesurado to the river Gaboon,
touching at all important and interesting points. It will present the best
opportunity yet enjoyed, to observe whatever things worthy of notice the
country can present. Hourly, as we approach the coast, we perceive the
difference in temperature. It is a grateful change, that of winter to
summer. Last night was as mild as a summer evening at home. I remained on
the forecastle till midnight, enjoying the moonlight, the soft air, and
the cheerful song of a cricket, which had been, in some manner, brought on
board at Porto Praya, a week ago. He seems to be the merriest of the crew,
and now nightly pipes to the forecastle men.
Our ship slides along almost imperceptibly, yet gets over the sea
wonderfully well. She is a noble ship, stiff, fast, and dry. Her motion is
very easy, and her performance, whether in strong or light breezes, is
always excellent. Her grating-deck has been taken off, as it made her a
little top-heavy and uneasy, and detracted from her speed; and she is
infinitely better for the change.
_March_ 2.--Anchored at Monrovia, in less than eight days from Porto
Praya, although the winds were light, most of the time. Several of our
Kroomen, who left us, two months ago, completely dressed in sailor-rig,
came on board with only a hat and a handkerchief, and forthwith proceeded
to haul upon the ropes, as before.
6.--I have been walking through Judge Benedict's coffee-plantation, from
the condition of which I find little encouragement to persons disposed to
engage in the business. The trees are certainly not so thrifty, and are
apparently less in number than they were three years ago. There is little
or no weeding done; consequently, the plantation is overgrown with grass
and bushes, and looks as if the forest might, at no distant day, reclaim
its children. All the trees have been transplanted from the neighboring
woods, and, it is said, do not flourish so well as those raised from seed,
in nurseries. General Lewis has several thousand coffee-plants growing
from the seed, and, in two or three years, will have tested the
comparative advantages of this plan.
I dined ashore to-day. At the table were a Dutchman, a Dane, four American
officers, and Colonel Hicks. All, except myself, were good talkers, and
composed a delightful dinnerparty. Colonel Hicks, of whom I have before
spoken in this Journal, is one of the most shrewd, active and agreeable
men in the colony. Once a slave in Kentucky, and afterwards in
New-Orleans, he is now a commission-merchant in Monrovia, doing a business
worth four or five thousand dollars per annum. Writing an elegant hand, he
uses this accomplishment to the best advantage by inditing letters, on all
occasions, to those who can give him business. If a French vessel shows
her flag in the harbor, the Colonel's Krooman takes a letter to the
master, written in his native language. If an American man-of-war, he
writes in English, offering his services, and naming some person as his
intimate friend, who will probably be known on board. Then he is so
hospitable, and his house always so neat, and his table so good--his lady,
moreover, is such a friendly, pleasant-tempered person, and so
good-looking, into the bargain--that it is really a fortunate day for the
stranger in Liberia, when he makes the acquaintance of Colonel and Mrs.
Hicks. Every day, after the business of the morning is concluded, the
Colonel dresses for dinner, which appears upon the table at three o'clock.
He presides with genuine elegance and taste; his stories are good, and his
quotations amusing. To be sure, he occasionally commits little mistakes,
such, for instance, as speaking of America as his Alma Mater; but, on the
whole, even without any allowance for a defective education, he appears
wonderfully well. One circumstance is too indicative of strong sense, as
well as good taste, not to be mentioned;--he is not ashamed of his color,
but speaks of it without constraint, and without effort. Most colored men
avoid alluding to their hue, thus betraying a morbid sensibility upon the
point, as if it were a disgraceful and afflicting dispensation. Altogether
the Colonel and his lady make many friends, and are as apparently happy,
and as truly respectable as any couple here or elsewhere.
Coming to the beach, we found no boat; and nearly half an hour passed
before one arrived to take us on board. In the interim, I strolled along
the shore, picking up the small shells, which the waves had thrown in
abundance upon the sand. In the eye of a conchologist, they would have
been of little value, as all of them were common, and none possessed more
than a single valve. But the purple blush of the interior pleased me; and
what is more, I was gathering these trifles for a lady whom I have never
seen, yet whom I trust that I may venture to count among my friends. I
know that she will be pleased with the poor offering and its giver; for
each of these shells is linked with a thought that flew over the sea--from
the sunset shore of Africa to a fireside in New England--and returned
thence to the wanderer, bringing grateful fancies, reminiscences, and
hopes. It was a smiling half-hour.
9.--Ashore, and in the council-chamber. It is a spacious apartment on the
second floor of the stone building recently erected for the purposes of a
Legislative Hall and Court-House. The Governor presided, sitting in a high
backed rocking-chair; which, by the by, the natives call a "Missionary
Horse." The colonial Secretary acted as chief-clerk, and Doctor Prout, in
gold-bowed spectacles, as his assistant. An ungainly lad, with big feet
and striped hose, seemed to engross in his own person the offices of
door-keeper, sergeant-at-arms, and page. The council proper consisted of
ten members, who sat at separate desks, arranged semi-circularly in front
of the Governor. The spectators occupied rude benches in the rear of the
members.
The question before the council related to the building of a market-house
in Monrovia, at the expense of the commonwealth, as proposed in one of the
sections of a bill to form a city government. This being a matter of some
interest, each member expressed his views, but with such brevity that the
whole debate occupied scarcely forty minutes, although several individuals
spoke twice. This conciseness was less a virtue of choice than necessity,
being attributable chiefly to the fact, that the presiding officer set his
face against all vagaries of eloquence, and kept the speakers strictly to
the point. If one wandered in the least, he was instantly called to order,
and compelled to take his seat, upon the slightest deviation from the
rules of the house. One of the members was a wilder specimen of humanity
than even our legislative bodies at home have ever presented to an
admiring world. He was a re-captured African, representing New Georgia, an
uncouth figure of a man, who spoke very broken English, with great
earnestness, and much to the amusement of his brother counsellors and the
audience generally. I regret my inability to preserve either the matter or
the manner of so original an orator.
Here, as in the various other situations in which I have seen him placed,
Governor Roberts acquitted himself as a dignified, manly, and sensible
person. Deriving his appointment from the Society at home, he can act with
more independence, in an official capacity, than if indebted to the voices
of the members for his position.
15.--At sea again, on our way to Gallenas.
17.--Fell in with the English brig-of-war Ferret. Our captain went on
board, and was told that she had been engaged with a large slaver, four
days ago. Previous to the action, the slave-ship went to Gallenas, where
the Ferret's pinnace was at anchor. She ran alongside of the boat, with
three guns out on a side, and her waist full of musketeers--a superiority
of force in view of which the pinnace did not venture to attack her; and
the ship took in nine hundred or a thousand slaves, and went off
unmolested. At sea, she encountered the Ferret, and was fired into
repeatedly by that vessel, during the night, but succeeded in making her
escape. The slaver was under Portuguese colors, and is said to have been
formerly the American ship Crawford, now owned by Spaniards, and bearing a
Spanish name.
18.--Again came to an anchor at Monrovia.
19.--Just returned from an excursion up the St. Paul's river. Three
officers, in company with Dr. Lugenbeel, left Monrovia seasonably in the
forenoon, in one of our boats, rowed--and well rowed too--by five Kroomen.
Near the village, we passed from the Mesurado river through Stockton's
creek, seven or eight miles, to the St. Paul's. Our first landing was at
the public farm, where the manufacture of sugar was going on. Twelve
Kroomen (whose power, in this country, is applied to as great a variety of
purposes as those of steam and water in our own) were turning the mill by
two long levers, walking round and round in one interminable circle, like
the horse in an old-fashioned bark-mill. Three or four boys fed the mill
with cane, which about a score of colonists were employed in cutting and
bringing in by small armsfull, from a field in the immediate vicinity. The
overseer, Mr. Moore, and a few other persons, were occupied in boiling the
cane-juice. Mr. Moore informed me that sixteen Kroomen were employed on
the premises, at three dollars per month, and twenty-five colonists at
sixty-two and a half cents a day, besides their food. This year, they make
about thirty barrels of sugar (which will cost at least twenty-five cents
per pound), and two pipes of molasses. The cane, now in process of
manufacture, is very small and unprofitable, all of the larger kind having
been already ground. The sugar-house is a wretched building, with a
thatched roof, and the sides roughly boarded like a cow-shed. There were
four boilers in full bubble, and ten thousand bees in full buzz about the
establishment; the insects bidding fair to hoard up more profit than the
sugar-manufacturers.
Mr. Moore had accompanied the Niger expedition in the capacity of farmer,
and resided nine or ten months on the model farm, without undergoing the
prevalent sickness. While almost every white man perished, the colored
colonists all survived. A large amount of property was left in the charge
of Mr. Moore, and he returned with the expedition to England. As
superintendent of the public farm, he now receives from the Colonization
Society a salary of three hundred dollars.
Leaving the farm, we soon entered the St. Paul's, a noble river, which
comes rolling onward from the yet unexplored interior of the country.
Following its course a mile or more towards the sea, we arrived at
Maumee's Town, a village of thirty or forty huts, where a considerable
slave-trade was carried on, until broken up by the colonists under
Governor Ashman. Old Maumee still resides here, and cherishes a bitter
hatred against the Liberians, and all Americans and Englishmen, as having
caused the ruin of her profitable commerce. The old hag was not now at
home, having obeyed the custom of the country by retiring to a more
secluded spot, for the purpose of nursing a sick granddaughter. The
persons who remained were quite uninteresting. The only noticeable group
was composed of two women, one lying flat on her face, with her head in
the other's lap. Her hair being combed out as straight as the tenacity of
its curls would allow, her friend was arranging it in that fine braid with
which it is customary to cover the head.
Having procured a guide, we crossed the river, and, at the mouth of
Logan's creek, exchanged our boat for a large canoe, in which we followed
the windings of the deep and narrow inlet for nearly two miles. This
brought us to a village of six huts. Without ceremony, we entered the
dwelling of the old Queen (who was busied about her household affairs),
and looked around for her grand-daughter, to see whom was the principal
object of our excursion. On my former visit to Maumee's town, four or five
months ago, this girl excited a great deal of admiration by her beauty and
charming simplicity. She was then thirteen or fourteen years of age, a
bright mulatto, with large and soft black eyes, and the most brilliantly
white teeth in the world. Her figure, though small, is perfectly
symmetrical. She is the darling of the old Queen, whose affections exhaust
themselves upon her with all the passionate fire of her temperament--and
the more unreservedly, because the girl's own mother is dead.
We entered the hut, as I have said, without ceremony, and looked about us
for the beautiful grand-daughter. But, on beholding the object of our
search, a kind of remorse or dread came over us, such as often affects
those who intrude upon the awfulness of slumber. The girl lay asleep in
the adjoining apartment on a mat that was spread over the hard ground, and
with no pillow beneath her cheek. One arm was by her side--the other above
her head--and she slept so quietly, and drew such imperceptible breath,
that I scarcely thought her alive. With some little difficulty she was
roused, and awoke with a frightened cry--a strange and broken murmur--as
if she were looking dimly out of her sleep, and knew not whether our
figures were real, or only the phantasies of a dream. Her eyes were wild
and glassy, and she seemed to be in pain. While awake, there was a nervous
twitching about her mouth and in her fingers; but, being again extended on
the mat, and left to herself, these symptoms of disquietude passed away;
and she almost immediately sank again into the deep and heavy sleep, in
which we found her. As her eyes gradually closed their lids, the sunbeams,
struggling through the small crevices between the reeds of the hut,
glimmered down about her head. Perhaps it was only the nervous motion of
her fingers; but it seemed as if she were trying to catch the golden rays
of the sun and make playthings of them--or else to draw them into her
soul, and illuminate the slumber that looked so misty and dark to us.
This poor, doomed girl had been suffering--no, not suffering, for, except
when forcibly aroused, there appears to be no uneasiness--but she had been
lingering two months in a disease peculiar to Africa. It is called the
"sleepy disease," and is considered incurable. The persons attacked by it
are those who take little exercise, and live principally on vegetables,
particularly cassady and rice. Some ascribe it altogether to the cassady,
which is supposed to be strongly narcotic. Not improbably, the climate has
much influence, the disease being most prevalent in low and marshy
situations. Irresistible drowsiness continually weighs down the patient,
who can be kept awake only for the few moments needful to take a little
food. When this lethargy has lasted three or four months, death
comes--with a tread that the patient cannot hear, and makes the slumber
but a little more sound.
I found the aspect of Maumee's beautiful grand-daughter inconceivably
affecting. It was strange to behold her so quietly involved in sleep--from
which it might be supposed she would awake so full of youthful life--and
yet to know that this was no refreshing slumber, but a spell in which she
was fading away from the eyes that loved her. Whatever might chance, be it
grief or joy, the effect would be the same. Whoever should shake her by
the arm--whether the accents of a friend fell feebly on her ear, or those
of strangers, like ourselves, the only response would be that troubled
cry, as of a spirit that hovered on the confines of both worlds, and could
have sympathy with neither. And yet, withal, it seemed so easy to cry to
her--"Awake! Enjoy your life! Cast off this noon-tide slumber!" But only
the peal of the last trumpet will summon her out of that mysterious sleep.
On our return, we passed under the branches of the mangrove tree, and
pulled some of the long fruit or seed. This singular seed is about fifteen
or sixteen inches long, and in its greatest diameter not more than an
inch. It is round, heavy, and pointed at both ends. When ripe, it detaches
itself from a sort of acorn, to which the smaller end has been firmly
joined, and falls with sufficient force to implant itself deeply in the
mud. After a few days, it begins to shoot, and soon becomes a tall
mangrove. This tree has many strings to its bow; for, while the seed is
growing, as here described, the branches send down slender and cord-like
shoots, perhaps thirty feet long, and less than an inch in thickness.
These strike into the mud, and aid in giving sustenance to the tree. Thus
the Mangrove presents the appearance of a large tree, supported by
hundreds of lesser trunks, standing so thickly together as to be
impassable for even small animals. Therein it differs from the tree
described by Milton, to which it otherwise seems to bear an analogy:--
"In the ground
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade,
High overarched, and echoing walks between!"
Returning to the ship, we found it lighted up, and the Theatre about to
open. The scenery has been much improved, since the last performance, and
the actors are more perfect in their parts.