Human Leopards

CHAPTER IX
A NOTE ON SIERRA LEONE, PAST AND PRESENT

In acknowledging the congratulations of the people of Sierra Leone on the occasion of his coronation, King George V referred to the Colony as “my ancient and loyal Sierra Leone.” There is no question about the Colony being an ancient one and one of the earliest though perhaps not one of the brightest jewels of His Majesty’s now mighty Colonial Empire.

The harbour of Sierra Leone was discovered by the Portuguese towards the end of the fourteenth century, and was named by its discoverers Sierra Leone from supposing the mountains to abound in lions, though it has also been asserted that the name was derived from the noise of the surf on the shores, which resembles the roar of a lion.

At the present day there are no lions to be found along the coast of tropical West Africa, but it is not improbable that they were numerous in the days of the early Portuguese explorers and roared a challenge to their ships when they put in to land.

The following lines by T. B. Rhodes in his “Bombastes Furioso,” apropos of Col. Titus’ speech in the House of Commons on the Exclusion Bill on the 7th January, 1681, shows that it was generally accepted as a fact that lions abounded along the Coast of West Africa, which was the only part of Tropical Africa known to Europeans in those days:—

The coast-line and the rivers of Sierra Leone were explored by Pedro de Cintra, a distinguished Portuguese navigator, in the year 1462, and this constituted one of the last of the Portuguese discoveries carried on under the direct influence and authority of Don Henry, the founder and father of modern maritime discovery, who died the following year.

The record of the voyage so far as it affects Sierra Leone is described as follows:—

“On quitting St. Jago we steered southerly by Rio Grande, which is on the north of Ethiopia, beyond which we came to the high mountain of Sierra Leone, the summit of which is continually enveloped in mist and out of which thunder and lightning almost perpetually flashes and is heard at sea from the distance of fifteen to twenty leagues.”

In 1481 the King of Portugal sent Susu, his ambassador, to Edward IV of England, claiming title under the Bull of the Pope, and requested Edward to forbid his subjects to navigate along the coast of Africa.

England first began to take an active interest in this part of Africa about the middle of the sixteenth century. In 1551, in the reign of Edward VI, some London merchants sent an English ship to trade for gold, ivory, and Guinea pepper; and about three years later Captain John Lok brought back a valuable cargo consisting of gold, ivory, and Guinea pepper from what is now the Gold Coast Colony.

Sir John Hawkins landed at Sierra Leone on the 8th May, 1562, and it is recorded of him that he was the first Englishman who gave public countenance to the Slave Trade, which the Portuguese had been carrying on for some years. He brought three ships and took cargoes of slaves from Sierra Leone and other parts of West Africa and sold them to the Spanish settlements in America. After Captain Hawkins returned to England from his first voyage, Queen Elizabeth sent for him and expressed her concern lest any of the African negroes should be carried off without their free consent, which she declared would be detestable and would call down the vengeance of heaven upon the undertakers; but it is recorded that in the thirtieth year of her reign she was induced by the subtle persuasion of some of her subjects to grant patents for carrying on the slave trade from the north part of the Senegal to one hundred leagues beyond Sierra Leone.

Sir John Hawkins made three voyages from the coast of Africa to the West Indies and Spanish America with cargoes of slaves; and the good Queen Bess, having overcome her scruples regarding this lucrative trade, fitted out as a private enterprise two ships and sent them under the command of Hawkins, who lost the whole of her money, the ships being taken by the Spaniards. Sir Francis Drake, who at that time had command of the barque of fifty tons called the Judith, escaped and returned to England.

It is not surprising that the name of the great Elizabethan hero, Hawkins, is not held in reverence by the inhabitants of Freetown, who assert that, far from being a national hero, if he had lived in the present day he would have been hanged for some of the acts committed on their forbears. In this connection a story is told of a prominent Sierra Leonean who, on hearing the words “Britons never shall be slaves” sung, remarked with some feeling, to a near neighbour, “But they have been—Julius Cæsar took them as slaves to Rome.”

Captain Keeling, who visited Sierra Leone in August, 1607, wrote the following account of his visit:

“About 7 p.m. we anchored in twenty fathoms on hard sand, the south part of Ilha Verde bearing E. and the Cape of Sierra Leone, which is a low point, N. by E. about eight leagues distant. But the land over the Cape is very high, and may be seen fifteen leagues off in clear weather. About six next morning we made sail for the road, and had not less than 16, 15, 10 and 9 fathoms till we ranged north and south with the rocks which lie about one and a half miles west of Cape Sierra Leone; and when one mile from the nearest shore we had seven fathoms good shoaling between us and the rock. Immediately when past the rock we had 20 fathoms, and shoaled to 18, 16, 12 and 10 fathoms all the way into the roads, keeping very near the South shore; for a sand lies about two miles from the North shore or a league from the South shore, and upon it the sea continually breaks. We came to anchor in ten fathoms on good ground, the point of Sierra Leone bearing W. by N., the north point of the bay N. by W., and the sand or breaker N.N.E. In the afternoon we were waved by some men on shore, to whom I sent my boat, which, leaving two hostages, brought off four negroes, who promised us refreshments. My skiff sounded between our anchorage and the breakers, finding fair shoaling, with two fathoms water within two boats-length of the beach or sand on which the sea breaks. All the previous observations of the variation, since our coming from 2 N. latitude to this place proved erroneous; for to each distance, having reference to any Meridian eastwards, there must be added 30 leagues, and from such as referred to western Meridians 30 leagues must be subtracted; for it appeared, by our falling in with the land, that the ship was so much more westerly than we supposed; myself, notwithstanding this error, being as much if not more westerly than any of the Mariners. Yet every man must trust to his own experience; for instruments may deceive, even in the hands of the most skilful. The 7th August some negroes of a superior appearance came aboard in my boat, for whom, as for all others, we had to leave one of our men in hostage for every two of them. These made signs that I should send some men up the country, and they would stay as hostages; I accordingly sent Edward Bradbury and my servant William Cotterell with a present to the Captain or chief, consisting of one coarse shirt, three feet of bar iron, a few glass beads, and two knives. They returned towards night, and brought me from the Captain one small gold earring worth some eight or nine shillings; and as it was late the hostages remained all night on board without any one in pawn for them. I sent my boat, and brought off five tons of water, very good and easily come by.

“I went ashore on the 11th, when the people came to us, accompanied by their women, yet feared we might carry them away. We got plenty of lemons very cheap, as they gave us 200 for a penny knife. The 13th I bought an elephant tooth of 63 pounds weight for five yards of blue calico and seven or eight pounds of bar iron. The 15th in an hour and a half we took Six thousand excellent small fish called Cavallos. That afternoon we bought two or three thousand lemons at the Village. It rained so much at this place that we esteemed it a dry day when we had three hours of fair weather. The 16th I allowed our weekly workers to go on shore with me for recreation. In our walk we saw not above two or three acres sown with rice—the surface of the ground being mostly a hard rock. The 16th and 17th were quite fair; and on the latter I caused a quantity of lemon-water to be made. The 20th John Rogers returned and brought me a present of a piece of gold in form of a half-moon, worth five or six shillings. He reported the people to be peaceable, the chief without state, the landing to be two leagues up the river, and the chief’s village eight miles from the landing. The 22nd I went on shore and made six or seven barricos full of lemon juice; having opened a firkin of knives belonging to the Company wherewith to buy limes. The afternoon of the 7th September we went all on shore to try if we could shoot an elephant, when we shot seven or eight bullets into him, and made him bleed exceedingly, as appeared by his track; but night coming on we had to go on board without effecting our purpose. The best road and watering place is the fourth bay to the east of Cape Sierra Leone. The tide where we rode flowed W.S.W., and the highest water upon a spring tide was at the least 12 feet. I made no observation of the sun in this road, neither aboard nor on shore, though I proposed to have so done several times; but the Master made the road where we lay 8 36 N., Cape Sierra Leone being west, a league or four miles off. He also made the variation 1 50 eastwards; but my instrument was out of order, and I had not time to put it in repair. We weighed from Sierra Leone the 14th September, with the wind all easterly; but it soon fell calm, and we drove to the north, but drifted again S.W. by S., with the ebb, and when the flood again made, we anchored in 15½ fathoms, Cape Sierra Leone bearing N.E. by E. about seven leagues off. We had not less than ten fathoms all this day. The 16th we found the current setting N. by W.”

William Finch, a British merchant who also visited Sierra Leone during the year 1607, wrote the following lengthy and interesting account of his visit:

“The island which we fell in with lieth some ten leagues south from the bay of Sierra Leone in lat. 8 N., has no inhabitants, neither did I learn its name. It has some plantains, and, by report, good watering and wooding for ships; but about a league from the shore there is a dangerous ledge of rock, scarcely visible at high water. The bay of Sierra Leone is about three leagues broad, being high land on the South side, full of trees to the very edge of the water, and having several coves in which we caught plenty and variety of fish. On the farther side of the fourth cove is the watering place, having excellent water continually running. Here on the rocks we found the names of various Englishmen who had been there. Among those was Sir Francis Drake, who had been there twenty-seven years before; Thomas Candish, Captain Lister, and others. About the middle of the bay, right out from the third cove, lieth a sand, near about which there are not above two or three fathoms, but in most other parts eight or ten close in shore. The tide flows E.S.E., the highest water being six or eight feet, and the tide is very strong. The latitude is 8 30 N.

“The King of Sierra Leone resides at the bottom of the bay, and is called by the Moors Borea, or Captain Caran, having other petty kings or chiefs under him; one whom he called Captain Pinto, a wretched old man, dwells at a town within the second cove; and on the other side of the bay is Captain Bolone. The Dominions of Borea stretch forty leagues inland, from which he receives a tribute in cotton cloth, elephants’ teeth and gold; and has the power of selling his people as slaves, some of whom he offered to us. Some of them have been converted to Christianity by the Portuguese priests and Jesuits, who have a chapel, in which is a table inscribed with the days that are to be observed as holy. The King and a few of his principal attendants are decently clothed in jackets and breeches; but the common people have only a slight cotton-cloth round their waists, while the women have a kind of short petticoat or apron down to their knees; all the rest of their bodies, both men and women, being quite naked; the young people of both sexes having no dress whatever. All the people, both men and women, have all parts of their bodies very curiously and ingeniously traced and pintred (tattooed), and have their teeth filed very sharp. They pull off all the hair from their eyelids. The men have their beards short, black, and cropped, and the hair on their heads strangely cut into crisped paths or cross alleys; while others wear theirs in strange jagged tufts, or other foolish forms; the women’s heads being all close shaved.

“Their town contains not more than thirty or forty houses, all irregularly clustered together, all thatched with reeds; yet each has a kind of yard inclosed with mud walls like our hovels or hog-styes in England. Instead of a locked and bolted door, the entrance is only closed by a mat, having nothing to be stolen; and for bedsteads they have only a few billets covered by a mat; yet some have hangings of mats, especially about their beds. Their furniture consists of two or three earthen pots to hold water, and to boil such provisions as they can get; a gourd or two for palm wine; half a gourd to serve as a drinking cup; a few earthen dishes for their loblolly or pottage; and a basket or two for the Maria to gather cockles; and a knapsack for the man, made of bark to carry his provisions, with his pipe and tobacco. When a negro man goes from home he has always his knapsack on his back, in which he has his provisions and tobacco, his pipe being seldom from his mouth; besides which he has always his little sword by his side, made by themselves of such iron as they get from the Europeans, his bow also, and quiver full of poisoned arrows, pointed with iron like a snake’s tongue, or else a case of javelins or darts having iron heads of good breadth and made sharp, sometimes both. The men of this country are large and well-made, strong and courageous, and civilized manners for heathens; as they keep most faithfully to their wives, of whom they are not a little jealous. I could not learn their religion, for though they have some idols, they seem to know that there is a God in heaven, as, when we asked them about their wooden puppets, they used to lift up their hands to heaven. All their children are circumcised, but I could not learn the reason why. They are very just and true in their dealings, and theft is punished with instant death. When any one dies, a small thatched roof is erected over his bier, under which are set earthen pots kept always full of water, and some earthen plates with different kinds of food, a few bones being stuck up around the body. To the South of this bay, some thirty or forty leagues into the interior country, there are very fierce people, who are cannibals, and sometimes infest the natives of Sierra Leone.

“The inhabitants of Sierra Leone feed on rice, of which they only cultivate what is indispensably needful for their subsistence, in small patches near their dwellings, which they clear by burning the woods. They likewise sow another very small grain, called pene, of which they make bread, not much unlike winter savory. They rear a few poultry about their houses, using no other animals for food, except when they sometimes get a fawn of the wild deer, a few of which are found in the mountains, or some wild fowl. They feed also on cockles and oysters, of which there are vast quantities on the rocks and trees by the seaside, but these have rather an insipid taste; and they catch plenty of excellent fish, by means of weirs and other devices. They also feed on herbs and roots, cultivating about their dwellings many plantains, gourds, pumpkins, potatoes, and Guinea pepper.

“Tobacco likewise is planted by every one, and seems to constitute half their food. The bowl of their tobacco pipe is very large, and made of clay well burnt, into the lower end of which they thrust a small hollow cane eighteen inches long, through which they suck the smoke, both men and women swallowing most of it. Every man carries a small bag called a tuffio in his knapsack, in which is his pipe and tobacco, and the women have their pipes in their hands. They prepare their tobacco for smoking by straining out its juice while quite green, and they informed us by signs that it would otherwise make them drunk. They afterwards shred it very small and dry on an earthen dish over the embers. On an island in the bay we saw about half a dozen goats and nowhere else in this country.

“They have innumerable kinds of fruits growing wild in the woods, in which are whole groves of lemon trees, especially near the town and watering place, and some few orange trees. Their drink is mostly water; yet the men use great quantities of palmito wine, which they call moy, giving little or none to the women. It is strange to see their manner of climbing the palmito trees; which are of great size and height, having neither boughs nor branches except near the top. Surrounding the tree and his own body by means of a withe or band of twisted twigs, on which he leans his back, and jerking up his withe before him, he foots it up with wonderful speed and certainty, and comes down again in the same manner, bringing his gourd full of liquor on his arm. Among their fruits are many kinds of plums: one like a wheaten plum is wholesome and savoury; likewise a black one, as large as a horse plum, which is much esteemed and has an aromatic flavour. A kind called man-samillius, resembling a wheaten plum, is very dangerous, as is likewise the sap of the boughs which is perilous for the sight if it should chance to get into the eyes. Among their fruits is one called benin-ganion, about the size of a lemon with a reddish rind and very wholesome; also another called bequill, as large as an apple, with a rough knotty skin which is pared off, when the pulp below eats like a strawberry, which likewise it resembles in colour and grain, and of which we eat much. There are abundance of wild grapes in the woods; but having a woody and bitterish taste. The nuts of the palmito are eaten roasted. They use but little pepper and grains. There is a singular fruit growing six or eight together in a bunch, each as long and thick as one’s finger, the skin being of a brownish yellow colour and somewhat downy, and within the rind is a pulp of a pleasant taste; but I know not if it be wholesome.

“I observed in the woods certain trees like beeches, bearing fruit resembling beans, of which I noticed three kinds. One of these was a great tall tree, bearing pods like those of beans, in each of which was four or five squarish beans, resembling tamarind seeds, having hard shells, within which is a virulent poison, employed by the negroes to envenom their arrows. This they call Ogon. The second is smaller, having a crooked pod with a thick rind; six or seven inches long, and half that breadth, containing each five large beans an inch long. The third, called quenda, has short leaves like the former, and much bigger fruit, growing on a strong thick woody stock, indented on the sides, nine inches long and five broad, within which are five long beans, which are also said to be dangerous.

“I likewise saw trees resembling willows, bearing fruit like pease pods. There is a fruit called Gola, which grows in the interior. This fruit, which is enclosed in a shell, is hard, reddish, bitter, and about the size of a walnut, with many angles and corners. The negroes are much given to chew this fruit along with the bark of a certain tree. After one person has chewed it a while, he gives it to his neighbour, and so from one to another, chewing long before they cast it away, but swallowing none of its substance. They attribute great virtues to this for the teeth and gums; and indeed the negroes are usually as well toothed as horses. This fruit passes also among them for money.

“Higher within the land they cultivate cotton, which they call innuma, and of which they spin very good yarn with spindles, and afterwards very ingeniously weave into cloths, three quarters of a yard broad, to make their girdles or clouts formerly mentioned; and when sewed together it is made into jackets and breeches for their great men. By means of a wood called cambe they dye their purses and mats of a red colour.

“The tree on which the plantains grow is of a considerable height, its body being about the thickness of a man’s thigh. It seems to be an annual, and, in my opinion, ought rather to be reckoned among reeds than trees; for the stem is not of a woody substance, but compacted of many leaves wrapped close upon each other, adorned with leaves from the very ground instead of boughs, which are mostly two yards long and a yard broad, having a large rib in the middle. The fruit is a bunch of ten or twelve plantains, each a span long and as thick as a man’s wrist, somewhat crooked or bending inwards. These grow on a leafy stalk on the middle of the plant, being at first green, but grow yellow and tender as they ripen. When the rind is stripped off, the inner pulp is also yellowish and pleasant to the taste. Beneath the fruit hangs down, from the same stalk, a leafy sharp-pointed tuft, which seems to have been the flower. This fruit they call banana, which they have in reasonable abundance. They are ripe in September and October. We carried some with us green to sea which were six weeks in ripening.

“Guinea pepper grows wild in the woods on a small plant like privet, having small slender leaves, the fruit being like our barberry in form and colour. It is green at first, turning red as it ripens. It does not grow in bunches like our barberry, but here and there two or three together about the stalk. They call it bangue.

“The pene of which their bread is made grows on a small tender herb resembling grass, the stalk being all full of small seeds, not inclosed in any husk. I think it is the same which the Turks call cuscus, and the Portuguese Yfunde.

“The palmito tree is high and straight, the stalk being knotty and the wood of a soft substance, having no boughs except at the top and these also seem rather reeds than boughs, being all pith within inclosed by a hard rind. The leaf is long and slender, like that of a sword-lily or flag. The boughs stand out from the top of the tree on all sides, rather more than a yard long, beset on both sides with strong sharp prickles, like the saw teeth but longer. It bears a fruit like a small cocoa-nut, the size of chestnut inclosed in a hard shell, streaked with threads on the outside, and containing a kernel of a hard horny substance quite tasteless, yet they are eaten roasted. The tree is called tobell and the fruit bell. For procuring the palmito wine they cut off one of the branches within a span of the head, to which they fasten a gourd shell by the mouth, which in twenty-four hours is filled by a clear whitish sap, of a good and strong relish, with which the natives get drunk.

“The oysters formerly mentioned grow on trees resembling willows in form, but having broader leaves, which are thick like leather, and having small knobs like those of the cypress. From these trees hang down many branches into the water, each about the thickness of a walking-stick, smooth, limber, and within, which are overflowed by every tide and hang as thick as they can stick of—oysters, being the only fruit of this tree.

“They have many kinds of ordinary fish, and some of which seemed to us extraordinary, as mullets, rays, thorn-backs, old-wives with prominent brows, fishes like pikes, gar-fish, cavallios, like makerel, sword-fishes having snouts a yard long toothed on each side like a saw-shark’s, dog-fish sharkers, resembling sharks but having a broad flat snout like a shovel, shoemakers, having pendants at each side of their mouths like barbels, and which grunt like hogs, with many others. We once caught in an hour 6,000 fishes like bleaks. Of birds there are pelicans as large as swans, of a white colour, with long and large bills; herons, curlews, boobies, ox-eyes, and various other kinds of water-fowl. On land great numbers of grey parrots, and abundance of pintados or Guinea fowls, which are very hurtful to their rice crops. There are many other kinds of strange birds in the woods, of which I knew not the names; and I saw among the Negroes many porcupine quills. There are also great number of monkeys leaping about the trees, and on the mountains there are lions, tigers and ounces. There are but few elephants, of which we only saw three; but they abound further inland. The negroes told us of a strange beast, which our interpreter called a carbuncle, which is said to be often seen, but only in the night. This animal is said to carry a stone in the forehead, wonderfully luminous, giving him light by which to feed in the night, and on hearing the slightest noise he presently conceals it with a skin or film naturally provided for the purpose. The commodities here are few, more being got farther to the eastwards. At certain times of the year the Portuguese got gold and elephants’ teeth in exchange for rice, salt, beads, bells, garlick, French bottles, edge-tooles, iron barrs, and sundry specious trifles, but for your toyes they will not give gold in this place but victuals.”

In 1615 Sierra Leone was visited by the Unity, a ship of 360 tons, of which William Cornelison Schonten was the master. This visit is described as follows:—

“On the 1st August we came in sight of the high land of Sierra Leone, on the 21st of that month, as also of the island of Madre Bomba, which lies off the south point of Sierra Leone and north from the shallows of the island of St. Ann. This land of Sierra Leone is the highest of all that lie between Cape Verd and the coast of Guinea, and is therefore easily known.

“On the 30th August they cast anchor in eight fathoms water on a fine sandy bottom near the shore and opposite a village or town of the negroes in the road of Sierra Leone. This village consisted only of eight or nine poor thatched huts. The moorish inhabitants were willing to come on board to trade, only demanding a pledge to be left on shore for their security, because a French ship had recently carried off two of the natives perfidiously. Aris Clawson, the junior merchant or supercargo, went accordingly on shore, where he drove a small trade for lemons and bananas in exchange for glass beads.

“In the meantime some of the natives came off to the ship, bringing with them an interpreter who spoke many languages. They here very conveniently furnished themselves with fresh water, which poured down in great abundance from a very high hill, so that they had only to place their casks under the waterfall. There were here whole woods of lemon-trees, and lemons were so cheap that they might have had a thousand for a few beads and ten thousand for a few common knives, so that they easily procured as many as they wished, and each man had 150 for sea store. The 3rd September they found a vast shoal of fish resembling a shoemaker’s knife. They left Sierra Leone on the 4th September.”

The next recorded visit to Sierra Leone was that of the Desire, whose Master was Thomas Candesh, and this visit is described as follows:—

“They made Sierra Leone on the 23rd August, and reached its southern side on the 25th, where they had five fathoms of the lowest ebb; having had for about fourteen leagues, while running into this harbour, from eight to sixteen fathoms. At this place they destroyed a negro town because the inhabitants had killed one of their men with a poisoned arrow. Some of the men went four miles up the harbour in a boat on the 3rd September, where they caught plenty of fish, and going on shore procured some lemons. They saw also some buffaloes, on their return to the ship. On the 6th they went out of the harbour of Sierra Leone and staid one tide three leagues from the point at its mouth, the tide there flowing S.W.

“The 7th they departed for one of the islands which lie about ten leagues from the point of Sierra Leone, called the Banana Isle, and anchored that same day off the principal isle, on which they only found a few plantains.”

In 1622 a Dutch fleet consisting of eleven vessels put into the harbour of Sierra Leone, where they stayed for about three weeks. The visit is described as follows:—

“They anchored in the road of Sierra Leone on the 11th August. Here on the 15th some of the crew being on shore ate freely of certain nuts resembling nutmegs, which had a fine taste, but had scarcely got on board when one of them dropt down dead, and before he was thoroughly cold he was all over purple spots. The rest recovered by taking proper medicines. Sierra Leone is a mountain on the Continent of Africa standing on the South side of the mouth of the river Mitomba, which discharges itself into a great bay of the sea. The road in which ships usually anchor is in Lat. of 8° 26 N. This mountain is very high and thickly covered with trees, by which it may be easily known, as there is no mountain of such height anywhere upon the coast. There grows here a prodigious number of trees producing a small kind of lemons called limasses (limes), resembling those of Spain in shape and taste, and which are very agreeable and wholesome if not eaten to excess. The fleet arrived here at the season when this fruit was in perfection, and having full leave from the natives the people eat them intemperately, by which and the bad air the bloody flux increased much among them, so that they lost forty men between the 11th August and the 5th September.

“Sierra Leone abounds in palm trees, and has some Ananas or Pine-apples with plenty of wood of all sorts, besides having anchorage. They sailed from Sierra Leone on the 4th September, on which day the Admiral fell sick.”

In 1730 the Merchants of Havre and Nantz sent out some armed merchant vessels with the alleged object of exterminating the pirates in Pirates’ Bay, Sierra Leone; history is silent as to the result of this expedition. They visited the Colony of Gambia and destroyed some trading centres owned by Englishmen.

By an Act of Parliament of 1763, 4 George III, Chapter 20, Senegal and its Dependencies became vested in a Company which is described as the Company of Merchants Trading in Africa, and by an Act of the following year the property of the Company became vested in His Majesty King George the Third, and the trade to Africa was declared open to all his subjects, the officers and servants on the Coast being forbidden to export negroes on their own account.

The Peninsula of Sierra Leone was purchased in 1787, and a number of freed slaves and about sixty white women arrived from England the same year. The Sierra Leone Company, which had been formed for philanthropic purposes, was established by Act of Parliament, 31 George III, Chapter 55, of the 1st July, 1791, for a period of thirty-one years, and annulled on the petition of the Company by an Act transferring to His Majesty certain possessions and rights vested in the Company, and for shortening the duration of the said Company and for preventing any dealing or trafficking in buying or selling slaves within the Colony of Sierra Leone on the 8th August, 1807. The Colony was formally transferred to Governor Ledlum for the Crown on the 31st January, 1808. Apart from anything else, Sierra Leone, on account of its very close association with the abolition of the slave trade and the efforts made to promote civilization in West Africa and to convert the natives to Christianity, will always appeal to the sentiment of a large section of the English public.

It was the famous ruling of Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in 1772 that a slave setting foot in England became free, which inspired William Cowper’s stirring lines:—

Although the slave trade was abolished over a century ago, slavery still exists in many parts of West Africa, and it was in a great measure due to the raids by the Sofas and intertribal wars for the purpose of obtaining slaves that a Protectorate was in 1896 declared over the territory adjacent to the Colony of Sierra Leone. Domestic slavery still exists, but it is a kind, patriarchal sort of slavery, and slaves are allowed to purchase their freedom by paying, in the case of an adult, a sum not exceeding £4, and in the case of a child a sum not exceeding £2; many of them prefer to remain as domestic slaves or retainers, or, as they describe it, “sit down to some person” who makes himself responsible for their welfare. Their position is somewhat similar to that of the serf under the old English feudal system.

All dealing in slaves has been made unlawful, and heavy penalties are provided for any breach of this provision, whilst every slave or other person who shall be brought or induced to come within the limits of the Protectorate in order that such person shall be dealt or traded in, sold, purchased or transferred as a pledge or security for debt, is declared to be free. The principles underlying the administration of the Protectorate have been to recognize as between natives the use of native customs and laws, and to preserve the authority of the native rulers while preventing any acts of aggression on their part.

The Protectorate Courts Jurisdiction Ordinance, 1903, provides that in the Court of the District Commissioners or the Circuit Court judicial cognizance may be taken of any law or custom not being repugnant to natural justice. Courts of Native Chiefs are also recognized by the above Ordinance, and such Courts are declared to have jurisdiction according to native law and custom to hear and determine all civil cases arising exclusively between natives, other than a case involving a question of title to land between two or more Paramount Chiefs, and all criminal cases arising exclusively between natives, other than Murder, Slave-raiding, Cannibalism, and a few other of the more serious offences, provided that the Chief shall in no case be permitted to inflict punishment involving death, mutilation, or grievous bodily harm; formerly it was the custom to hand over the wrong-doer to the injured party, who could take his life or keep him as a slave until such time as he or his family paid a sufficient sum to have him redeemed.

The administration by the native rulers is kept under close observation, and they are encouraged to educate themselves in the application of their own code. Each chief has his advisers or counsellors, some of whom are selected by himself and others elected by the people. When a chief dies it is not customary to announce the fact at once—his chief speaker would announce first that he was suffering from a bad sickness, and was therefore unable to attend the affairs of State, later he would announce that he had gone to Futah—Futah Jalloh being in the eyes of the natives a land rich in cattle and everything that they most desire. Steps would then be taken to elect a new chief. The person usually selected would be the senior male member of the deceased’s family, though they sometimes go to the female side, as there is no Salic law to prevent such a course. The person nominated is taken to a hut on the outskirts of the town near the burial-place of the chief, where he lives out of sight of all persons for two or three months; during this period he is supposed to hold high converse with the mighty dead, and learn from them how to govern wisely and well. After the lapse of this period the principal men of the chiefdom visit him, and he is escorted into the town, which gives itself up to wild enthusiasm. The chief elect is carried round the town by a struggling, shouting mob, and at this stage it is permissible for any one to strike him. The reason given for this ceremony is that it enables the chief to feel the pain he will have in his power to inflict on others, and in consequence it may teach him compassion. After the chief has been formally elected and acclaimed, his body is sacred. Among the Mendes, women are frequently elected to the chieftainship; a chieftainess does not marry, but may have a consort, whom she changes at will. She is also permitted, contrary to a strict rule regarding other women, to join the Poro Society. The Bundu Society, a women’s society which corresponds with the Poro for men, plays a very important part in native life among the Mendes and Temnes. Bundu girls have to undergo during their novitiate period an operation somewhat similar to that performed on the Poro boys, and their backs and loins are cut in such a manner as to leave raised scars which project above the surface of the skin. They also receive their Bundu names by which they are afterwards known. Their release from the Bundu bush is carried out with great ceremony, and they are usually accompanied by persons wearing hideous masks who personate Bundu devils. A procession is formed, which marches through the town or village accompanied by musicians, who play on a collection of instruments consisting of drums, rattles and timbrels. A halt is made in the centre of the town and the girls are publicly pronounced marriageable.

The price paid for a wife varies according to the social position of the parties, but the usual price is between £3 and £5, though a man who has married a shrew will often sell her second-hand for a few shillings.

The majority of the people of the Protectorate are Pagans, but Mohammedanism is rapidly spreading among them; and as no good Mohammedan ever touches spirits, the advance of this faith may go a long way to put a stop to the consumption of trade gin, which is the curse of the Coast. The Government is doing everything possible to discourage its use as currency, and the principle of local option has been encouraged with good effect. One large District and portions of two other Districts have been declared prohibited areas into which no spirits can be lawfully imported.

One other matter which the Local Government is doing that is likely to result in much good is the effort being made to instruct the native chiefs and their people in sanitation and to teach them an elementary knowledge of hygiene.

The Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone at the present time comprise an area of approximately 30,000 square miles, and the population, given at the census taken in 1911, is 1,400,000. The Colony has an area of only 256 square miles and a population of 75,000, of which about 600 are Europeans; it is of course the Colony that has so often been referred to in song and story on account of the evil reputation of its climate; it is a case of “give a dog a bad name and it sticks to him.”

Sierra Leone was and is still known, though now quite undeservedly, as the White Man’s Grave. Mrs. Falconbridge, the wife of one of the early agents of the Sierra Leone Company, records that during her residence in the Colony (1793–4) it was usual to ask in the morning “how many died last night.” This can still be heard in Freetown as a form of morning greeting, but it now helps to start the day with a laugh, and that in West Africa is about the best tonic known.

Captain Chamiers, in his “Life of a Sailor,” says: “I have travelled east, I have travelled west, north and south, ascended mountains, dived in mines, but I never knew and never heard mention of so villainous and iniquitous a place as Sierra Leone. I know not where the Devil’s Poste Restante is, but the place must surely be Sierra Leone.”

Burton, in commenting on the above on the occasion of a visit paid to Freetown, the capital of the Colony, prior to writing his interesting book “Wanderings in West Africa,” says in justice to the place, “Here, as elsewhere, the saying may hold good that a certain person may, perhaps, not be so black as he is painted.”

The educated Sierra Leonean is proud of the fact that the great Milton in “Paradise Lost” referred to Sierra Leone, even though it was only in connection with the awe-inspiring tornado to which the Colony is frequently subject, in those lines:

Sierra Leone as it exists to-day is, owing to segregation and up-to-date sanitation, comparatively healthy for Europeans. The progress of the Colony has been phenomenal during the last fifteen years, and the credit is chiefly due to two energetic and far-seeing Governors in the persons of Sir Frederick Cardew and Sir Leslie Probyn, who foresaw the great benefit that would accrue by opening up the Protectorate, and this has been done by building lines of railway into the rich palm-kernel belts and encouraging the natives to gather the natural products of the country for export.

The revenue of the Colony, which in 1898 was only £117,000, had increased to £618,000 in 1913, and although the expenditure has proportionately increased, the finances of the Colony may be looked upon as satisfactory.

Freetown, the chief port and the seat of the Government, is a city with a population of about 35,000 inhabitants, of which about two-thirds belong to a class known as Creoles, the majority of whom are the descendants of the liberated slaves. It is beautifully situated, at the foot of a circle of hills on the summits of which are barracks belonging to the Garrison Artillery, the West India and the West African Regiment; and a short distance beyond lies Hill Station, the residence of the majority of the European officials stationed in the Colony—Sugar Loaf, a beautiful wooded mountain which rises to a height of nearly 3,000 feet, forming a picturesque background. Altogether the natural beauties of Freetown and its surroundings are many, though it is frequently asserted by the jaded or bored temporary resident, that to enjoy the view really one must see it from the stern of one of Messrs. Elder, Dempster’s ships homeward bound.

In regard to the temporary resident—which every European must consider himself, as, even with the greatest progress possible, Sierra Leone can never be regarded as other than a black man’s country—a discussion recently took place at a meeting of the members of the Hill Station Sports Club on the interpretation of the words “permanent residents” and “ordinary members” of the Club. One member humorously moved the deletion of the words “permanent” and “ordinary,” assigning as his reason that the only European “permanent” members were those in the cemetery, and that there was a misuse of the word “ordinary” as no one who was ordinary ever came to West Africa; needless to say the proposal was carried nem. con. The European officials and officers of the garrison are well provided for in the way of means of recreation. There are numerous tennis courts, a golf link, stickie and squash courts, and a cricket ground—and there is no doubt that the fact of being able to take healthy and pleasant exercise reacts favourably on the health generally of the white community. Hill Station is situated nearly 1,000 feet above sea level and in the midst of most beautiful surroundings, and here the European official can enjoy the refreshing breezes from the broad Atlantic after leaving his office and the used-up atmosphere of Freetown. The Station is connected by a line of rails six miles in length with Freetown. The train is naturally not a “flying Scotchman,” and some years ago the Railway Department were practising economy by feeding their engines with firewood instead of coal; however, the train service at present is as good as can be expected, and there are a sufficient number of trains to meet the requirements of residents.

Hill Station is fortunate in having an excellent water supply laid on to all the bungalows, which are roomy and comfortable; and, all things considered, the Colonial Official’s lot in Sierra Leone is not an unhappy one.

In the streets of Freetown there are natives of many races to be seen. Chief among them are the Mendes and Temnes, but there are also many Mandingos, Susus and Limbahs. The market women of Freetown, chiefly Creole, are also one of the features of the place. They are keen business women, and look upon it almost as a matter of honour to haggle over the smallest commercial transaction. There are of course many Creole traders who have shops of their own, where anything from a bag of sand to a pearl necklace can be purchased, but the chief trade is in the hands of European firms. The educated Creole youth usually looks for employment as a clerk, and when once he has attained that object he makes little further effort to improve his position.

According to the last census the Creole population shows a decrease of over 6 per cent. during the ten years under review, while the other native races in the Colony show a considerable natural increase. The ordinary Creole has always shown a marked antipathy to agriculture, and the principle here applies that when a nationality declines to cultivate the earth, the first industry of life, that nationality has a tendency to decrease.

Mission enterprise has not been a success in West Africa, and this is probably due to the fact that the first stage in converting the pagan is the effort made to break down his superstitious beliefs in good and evil spirits, which are matters of the gravest importance in his social life.

Witches and vampires are still in fashion among them, and belong to the good old-fashioned variety which come to your bedroom in the dead of night, sit on your chest and suck your blood. It is not unusual to hear even the more or less educated native complain that he has passed a most unpleasant night because “witches” have visited him.

It is certainly no compliment to call a lady in this country a witch; she is liable to be maltreated and even beaten to death, and it is not uncommon for the police to be asked to protect a Freetown lady who is suspected of being a witch.