Journal of an African Cruiser: Comprising Sketches of the Canaries, the Cape De Verds, Liberia, Madeira, Sierra Leone, and Other Places of Interest on the West Coast of AfricaBridge, Horatio
History
Journal of an African Cruiser: Comprising Sketches of the Canaries, the Cape De Verds, Liberia, Madeira, Sierra Leone, and Other Places of Interest on the West Coast of Africa
Bridge, Horatio
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Bridge, Horatio, 1806-1893
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account