Journal of an African Cruiser

Journal of an African Cruiser

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Title: Journal of an African Cruiser
Author: Horatio Bridge
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7937] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 2, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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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.
* * * * *
BY AN OFFICER OF THE U. S. NAVY.
EDITED BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
* * * * *
LONDON: WILEY AND PUTNAM, 6, WATERLOO PLACE 1845
[ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.]
PREFACE.
The following pages have afforded occupation for many hours, which
might else have been wasted in idle amusements, or embittered by still
idler regrets at the destiny which carried the writer to a region so little
seductive as Africa, and kept him there so long. He now offers them to
the public, after some labor bestowed in correction and amendment, but
retaining their original form, that of a daily Journal, which better suited
his lack of literary practice and constructive skill, and was in fitter
keeping with the humble pretensions of the work, than a
re-arrangement on artistic principles. At various points of the narrative,
however, he has introduced observations or disquisitions from two or
three common-place books, which he kept simultaneously with the
Journal; and thus, in a few instances, remarks are inserted as having
been made early in the cruise, while, in reality, they were perhaps the
ultimate result of his reflection and judgment upon the topics discussed.
If, in any portion of the book, the author may hope to engage the

attention of the public, it will probably be in those pages which treat of
Liberia. The value of his evidence, as to the condition and prospects of
that colony, must depend, not upon any singular acuteness of
observation or depth of reflection, but upon his freedom from partizan
bias, and his consequent ability to perceive a certain degree of truth,
and inclination to express it frankly. A northern man, but not
unacquainted with the slave institutions of our own and other
countries--neither an Abolitionist nor a Colonizationist--without
prejudice, as without prepossession--he felt himself thus far qualified to
examine the great enterprise which he beheld in progress. He enjoyed,
moreover, the advantage of comparing Liberia, as he now saw it, with a
personal observation of its condition three years before, and could
therefore mark its onward or retreating footsteps, and the better judge
what was permanent, and what merely temporary or accidental. With
these qualifications, he may at least hope to have spoken so much of
truth as entirely to gratify neither the friends nor enemies of this
interesting colony.
The West Coast of Africa is a fresher field for the scribbling tourist,
than most other parts of the world. Few visit it, unless driven by stern
necessity; and still fewer are disposed to struggle against the enervating
influence of the climate, and keep up even so much of intellectual
activity as may suffice to fill a diurnal page of Journal or
Commonplace Book. In his descriptions of the settlements of the
various nations of Europe, along that coast, and of the native tribes, and
their trade and intercourse with the whites, the writer indulges the idea
that he may add a trifle to the general information of the public. He
puts forth his work, however, with no higher claims than as a collection
of desultory sketches, in which he felt himself nowise bound to tell all
that it might be desirable to know, but only to be accurate in what he
does tell. On such terms,