there is perhaps no very reprehensible
audacity in undertaking the history of a voyage; and he smiles to find
himself, so simply and with so little labor, acquiring a title to be
enrolled among the authors of books!
APRIL 5, 1845.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
Departure--Mother Carey's Chickens--The Gulf Stream--Rapid
Progress--The French Admiral's Cook--Nautical Musicians--The sick
Man--The Burial at Sea--Arrival at the Canaries--Santa Cruz--Love and
Crime--Island of Grand Canary--Troglodytes near Las Palmas.
CHAPTER II.
Nelson's Defeat at Santa Cruz--The Mantilla--Arrival at Porto
Grande--Poverty of the Inhabitants--Portuguese Exiles at the Cape de
Verds--City of Porto Praya--Author's Submersion--Green Turtle--Rainy
Season--Anchor at Cape Mesurado.
CHAPTER III.
Visit of Governor Roberts, &c.--Arrival at Cape Palmas--American
Missionaries--Prosperity of the Catholic Mission--King Freeman, and
his Royal Robe--Customs of the Kroo-People--Condition of Native
Women.
CHAPTER IV.
Return to Monrovia--Sail for Porto Praya--The Union
Hotel--Reminiscences of Famine at the Cape de Verds--Frolics of
Whalemen--Visit to the Island of Antonio--A Dance--Fertility of the
Island--A Yankee Clockmaker--A Mountain Ride--City of
Poverson--Point de Sol--Kindness of the Women--The handsome
Commandant--A Portuguese Dinner.
CHAPTER V.
Arrival of the Macedonian--Return to the Coast of Africa--Emigrants to
Liberia--Tornadoes--Maryland in Liberia--Nature of its
Government--Perils of the Bar--Mr. Russwurm--The Grebo
Tribe--Manner of disposing of their Dead.
CHAPTER VI.
Settlement of Sinoe--Account of a Murder by the Natives--Arrival at
Monrovia--Appearance of the Town--Temperance--Law-Suits and
Pleadings--Expedition up the St. Paul's River--Remarks on the
Cultivation of Sugar--Prospects of the Coffee-culture in
Liberia--Desultory observations on Agriculture.
CHAPTER VII
High Character of Governor Roberts--Suspected Slaver--Dinner on
Shore--Facts and Remarks relative to the Slave-Trade--British
Philanthropy--Original cost of a Slave--Anchor at Sinoe--Peculiarities
and distinctive Characteristics of the Fishmen and Bushmen--The King
of Appollonia--Religion and Morality among the Natives--Influence of
the Women.
CHAPTER VIII.
Palaver at Sinoe--Ejectment of a Horde of Fishmen--Palaver at Settra
Kroo--Mrs. Sawyer--Objections to the Marriage of Missionaries--A
Centipede--Arrival at Cape Palmas--Rescue of the Sassy-wood
drinker--Hostilities between the Natives and Colonists.
CHAPTER IX.
Palaver with King Freeman--Remarks on the Influence of
Missionaries--Palaver at Rock-Boukir--Narrative of Captain Farwell's
murder--Scene of Embarkation through the Surf--Sail for Little
Berebee.
CHAPTER X.
Palaver at Little Berebee--Death of the Interpreter and King Ben
Cracko and burning of the Town--Battle with the Natives, and
Conflagration of several Towns--Turkey Buzzards--A
Love-Letter--Moral Reflections--Treaty of Grand Berebee--Prince
Jumbo and his Father--Native system of Expresses--Curiosity of the
Natives.
CHAPTER XI.
Madeira--Aspect of the Island--Annual races--"Hail
Columbia!"--Ladies, Cavaliers, and Peasants--Dissertation upon
Wines--The Clerks of Funchal--Decay of the Wine-Trade--Cultivation
of Pine-Trees--A Night in the Streets--Beautiful Church--A
Sunday-evening Party--Currency of Madeira.
CHAPTER XII.
Passage back to Liberia--Coffee Plantations--Dinner on
shore--Character of Colonel Hicks--Shells and Sentiment--Visit to the
Council-chamber--The New-Georgia Representative--A
Slave-ship--Expedition up the St. Paul's--Sugar
Manufactory--Maumee's beautiful grand-daughter--The Sleepy
Disease--The Mangrove-tree.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Theatre--Tribute to Governor Buchanan--Arrival at Settra
Kroo--Jack Purser--The Mission School--Cleanliness of the
Natives--Uses of the Palm-tree--Native Money--Mrs.
Sawyer--Influence of her character on the Natives--Characteristics of
English Merchant-Captains--Trade of England with the African Coast.
CHAPTER XIV.
American Trade--Mode of Advertising, and of making Sales--Standard
of Commercial Integrity--Dealings with Slave-Traders--Trade with the
Natives--King's "Dash"--Native Commission-Merchants--The Gold
Trade--The Ivory Trade--The "Round Trade"--Respectability of
American Merchant-Captains--Trade with the American Squadron.
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 to
King Peter--Sketches of Scenery and People at Cape Lahon.
CHAPTER XVI.
Visit from two English Trading-Captains--The invisible King of
Jack-a-Jack--Human sacrifices--French fortresses at Grand Bassam, at
Assinoe, and other points--Objections to the locality of
Liberia--Encroachments on the limits of that Colony--Arrival in
Axim--Sketches of that Settlement--Dixcove--Civilized Natives--An
Alligator.
CHAPTER XVII.
Dutch Settlement at El Mina--Appearance of the Town--Cape Coast
Castle--Burial-place of L. E. L.--An English dinner--Festivity on
shipboard--British, Dutch, and Danish Accra--Native wives of
Europeans--A Royal Princess--An Armadillo--Sail for St.
Thomas--Aspect of the Island.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Excursion to St. Anne de Chaves--Mode of drying Coffee--Black
Priests--Madam Domingo's Hotel--Catering for the Mess--Man
swallowed by a Shark--Letters from home--Fashionable
equipage--Arrival at the Gaboon--King Glass and Louis Philippe--Mr.
Griswold--Mr. and Mrs. Wilson--Character of the Gaboon
People--Symptoms of illness.
CHAPTER XIX.
Recovery from Fever--Projected Independence of Liberia--Remarks on
Climate and Health--Peril from Breakers--African Arts--Departure for
the Cape de Verds--Man Overboard.
CHAPTER XX.
Glimpses of the bottom of the Sea--The Gar-fish--The Booby and the
Mullet--Improvement of Liberia--Its prospects--Higher social position
of its Inhabitants--Intercourse between the White and Colored.
Races--A night on shore--Farewell to Liberia--Reminiscence of
Robinson Crusoe.
CHAPTER XXI.
Sierra Leone--Sources of its Population--Appearance of the Town and
surrounding Country--Religious Ceremonies of the
Mandingoes--Treatment of liberated Slaves--Police of Sierra
Leone--Agencies for Emigration to the West Indies--Colored Refugees
from the United States--Unhealthiness of Sierra Leone--Dr.
Fergusson--Splendid Church--Melancholy Fate of a Queen's
Chaplain--Currency--Probable Ruin of the Colony.
CHAPTER XXII.
Failure of the American Squadron to capture Slave-Vessels--Causes of
that Failure--High character of the Commodore and
Commanders--Similar ill-success of the
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