Excerpt from Sierra Leone: Its People, Products, and Secret Societies; A Journey by Canoe, Rail, and Hammock, Through a Land of Kernels, Coconuts, and Cacao, With Instructions for Planting and Development
Sierra Leone has not yet received the attention it deserves. Is it because information has, hitherto, emanated entirely from officials, active or retired? Or is it because, as a recent traveller says, "No one goes to West Africa for pleasure, and of those who gain their livelihood from the country three-fourths regard themselves as martyrs and heroes, counting the days till the steamer shall take them home again"?
Officialdom, martyrdom, heroics attracted me not. For pleasure I sought Sierra Leone, and I found pleasure. Other objects also I had in view. I desired to satisfy myself and some friends at home regarding certain information about which there was ubiquitous uncertainty and considerable contradiction. I wished also to study the life and habits of the West African natives. And I wanted, or believed I wanted, rest; and where else could one better seek rest than in the "White Man's Grave"? But I was not obliged to go.
Once there I was loath to leave. I had accomplished more than I anticipated or intended. The railway carried me within a few miles of Liberia. Canoe, hammock, enthusiasm, and a good constitution did the rest, and enabled me to penetrate into parts of Sierra Leone seldom visited and less frequently described by Europeans. The goodwill and hospitality of the natives procured me knowledge and admission to their inner life, dances, ceremonies, and ideas.
I had settled a boundary dispute, overcome a labour difficulty, reorganized a plantation, and planned out a model native village under European supervision; visited or met European and Creole officials, native chiefs, missionaries, and traders; slept on a native boat, in the bush, in a comfortable European bungalow, and in an equally comfortable native palace.
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