CHAPTER XV.
Jack Purser's wife—Fever on Board—Arrival at Cape Palmas—Strange Figure and Equipage of a Missionary—King George of Grand Bassam—Intercourse with the Natives—Tahon—Grand Drewin—St. Andrew's—Picaninny Lahoo—Natives attacked by the French—Visit of King Peter—Sketches of Scenery and People at Cape Labon.
March 30.—Got under way, at daylight, and stood down the coast.
I recollect nothing else, at Settra Kroo, that requires description, unless it be the person and garb of a native lady of fashion. Sitting with my friend Jack Purser, yesterday, a young woman came up, with a pipe in her mouth. A cloth around her loins, dyed with gay colors, composed her whole drapery, leaving her figure as fully exposed as the most classic sculptor could have wished. It is to be observed, however, that the sable hue is in itself a kind of veil, and takes away from that sense of nudity which would so oppress the eye, were a woman of our own race to present herself so scantily attired. The native lady in question was tall, finely shaped, and would have been not a little attractive, but for the white clay with which she had seen fit to smear her face and bosom. Around her ankles were many rows of blue beads, which also encircled her leg below the knee, thus supplying the place of garters, although stockings were dispensed with. Her smile was pleasant, and her disposition seemed agreeable; and, certainly, if the rest of Jack Purser's wives (for this was one of the nine-and-twenty) be so well-fitted to make him happy, the sum total of his conjugal felicity must be enormous!
31.—Sunday. An oppressively hot day. There are three new cases of fever, making fourteen in all, besides sixteen or seventeen of other complaints. There is some apprehension that we are to have general sickness on board.
April 1.—Off Cape Palmas. A canoe being sent ashore, returned with a letter from the Rev. Mr. Hazlehurst, stating that two missionaries wish for a passage to the Gaboon, and making so strong an appeal that the captain's sympathies could not resist it. So we run in and anchor.
2.—Went ashore in the gig, and amused myself by reading the newspapers at the Governor's, while the captain rode out to the mission establishment, at Mount Vaughan. During my stay, one of the new missionaries, a native of Kentucky, came in from Mount Vaughan, and rode up to the Government House, in country style. He was in a little wagon, drawn by eight natives, and sat bolt upright, with an umbrella over his head. The maligners of the priesthood, in all ages and countries, have accused them of wishing to ride on the necks of the people; but I never before saw so nearly literal an exemplification of the fact. In its metaphorical sense, indeed, I should be very far from casting such an imputation upon the zealous and single-minded missionary before me. He is a man of eminent figure, at least six feet and three inches high, with a tremendous nose, vast in its longitude and depth, but wonderfully thin across the edge. It was curious to meet, in Africa, a person so strongly imbued with the peculiarities of his section of our native land; for his manner had the real Western swing, and his dialect was more marked than is usual among educated men. With a native audience, however, this is a matter of no moment.
We were told that the Roman Catholics are about to leave Cape Palmas, and establish branches of their mission at the different French stations on the coast, under the patronage of Louis Philippe. The Presbyterians have all gone to the Gaboon river. The Episcopal Mission pines at Cape Palmas, and will probably be removed. The discord between its members and the Colonial Government continues with unabated bitterness. Mr. Hazlehurst regrets that the missionaries were identified with the colonists, in our great palaver with the four-and-twenty kings and headmen, at Cape Palmas. He believes, that, in case of any outbreak of the natives, the missionaries on the out stations would fall the first victims. His sentiments, it must be admitted, are such as it behoves a minister of religion to entertain, in so far as he would repudiate military force as an agent for sustaining the cause of missions.
We sailed at noon for the leeward without the missionaries, who declined taking passage, as it is doubtful whether the ship will proceed beyond Cape Coast Castle. We have now fifteen cases of fever, most of them mild in character. The prospect of sickness will cut short our leeward cruise.