2 Kroo boys (p. [3]).--These were natives procured from the Kroo Coast to work the cargo on the steamers that ran along the west coast of Africa. Only sufficient white sailors were carried to work the ship from starting port to the Kroo country. On arrival there, the ship fired a gun to intimate its need of a gang of Kroo “boys” to handle the cargo. These “boys” were any age from about eighteen to fifty, and in a gang there were generally about forty to fifty “boys” under a head man.
Most captains had a head man who gathered a gang ready by the time his ship returned from its European port. For example: a ship leaves Liverpool, and on arriving at the coast picks up its head man and gang of “boys,” who work the winches, man the boats and handle the cargo all the way along the coast and back again to their own country, where they are paid off in barter goods, powder, guns, rum and gin at the rate of one shilling a day. They then rest after their arduous work until that ship returns, and they engage themselves for another trip. The Congo boats now pick up their Kroo “boys” at Sierra Leone on the outward voyage, and drop them there on the homeward journey, and pay them in cash at the rate of about one shilling to one and sixpence per day and their rations.
When not in port these Kroo “boys” polished the brasswork, scraped the iron, cleaned the paint, holystoned the deck, etc.; but when in port they went into the holds, tied up the cargo in slings, hoisted it by winches, put it over the side into boats, and rowed it ashore. They were hard-working men who toiled from 4 a.m. until 10 or 12 p.m., only resting for their meals of boiled rice, salt beef or fish, and ship’s biscuits.
3 Peasoup (p. [4]).--When the writer went to Congo first in 1881 there came on board at the Kroo coast a head man whose name was Peasoup. For many years he had acted as head man for the captain of that ship, who, as an acknowledgment of his various good qualities, and as a joke, presented him with a brass plate to hang round his neck by means of a chain. The following words were engraved on it--
PEASOUP
Captain Jolly’s Head Man.
A Rogue, Thief, and a Liar.
Peasoup was a tall, thin, grey-headed, bandy-legged man; and I used to see him polish the plate every morning, hang it across his chest, and with knock-knees and bandy legs strut the deck and order his men about as proud as any general with a breast hidden by medals.
Peasoup knew English fairly well, but, of course, could not read it; but he would never accept as true the accurate rendering of his much-prized brass plate. Passengers read it correctly to him; but with a laugh he would retort: "You white men, you no sabbe read them thing properly. Him live for say: ‘Peasoup, Captain Jolly’s Head Man. Him be plenty, proper, good man.’"
Since those days Peasoup has passed away, leaving his brass plate as an heirloom to his family, and if not melted down into a brass ornament, it may turn up some day as a relic of a joke played by a master on a decent servant in “the good old days” on the West African Coast.