I like the Kruboy so well and I admire his bravery so much that I am reluctant to admit his glaring deficiency of morals,—that he lies, steals, commits adultery, and kills his neighbours with a good-natured or perhaps stupid indifference to right and wrong scarcely paralleled even in Africa. The treatment that the natives receive at the hands of the ship’s officers is often the very opposite of brave. Many of these officers are pleasant gentlemen. Some of them will later be captains, and as a rule none but the best ever reach that position. The captains of the coast steamers are a fine class of men and delightful to travel with. I have never witnessed cruelty on their part towards the natives; though I have sometimes wondered that they did not interfere and restrain the angry passions of their officers. Yet, it must be added that the officers have not so much need of restraint when the captain is standing by. Not to touch upon the doubtful propriety of swearing under any circumstances; no one but a fool will habitually swear at a Kruboy. For the Kruboy is as indifferent to a curse as to a blessing, and thus it reacts upon the man himself, exasperating him and putting him into such a rage as to threaten him with a fit of apoplexy or at least a _brain-storm_. The cursing of one or another of the officers at the Kruboys is both loud and continuous, and if it should suddenly cease one might be justified in supposing that the ship had sprung a leak and was about to go to the bottom and the officers to certain death. On the homeward voyage there are always, among the deck-passengers, a number of Accra or Lagos men who have been working on the south coast and are returning home with their pay, a large portion of which is in the shape of various goods. There is no harbour in either of these places and the steamer anchors far out, in rough water, the passengers going ashore in boats. Some officers when in charge of native passengers are careful of their baggage; but occasionally—and not seldom—it is flung down into the boat below without the slightest care and even with the apparent intention of causing as much breakage and other damage as possible. The officer casts an occasional glance towards the upper deck, quite sure that the white passengers are enjoying the joke. But he is mistaken: both the missionary and the trader are indignant. For they both know the native better than he does, and they also know that those goods were earned by the hard labour of at least a year, and perhaps three years, during which time he has not seen his home or his friends. And only those who know them intimately can understand this sacrifice; for the African can die of homesickness. [Illustration: THE DEBARKATION OF A DECK PASSENGER.]