A Voyage Round the World, Vol. I (of ?) by James Holman

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"He then requested permission to introduce to the assembly, a stranger
whom they were in future to revere, 'King Bey Sherbro;'[16] after
which, Bey Sherbro received the homage of his subjects. During this
time a number of minstrels played upon their several instruments, some
of which were very ingenious and musical. Those in particular, who had
come a long distance from the interior, executed with spirit and taste
some very beautiful airs; much finer, indeed, than any native music I
had yet heard. They accompanied their instruments with extempore
recitatives in praise of those chiefs whom they knew. I was, of
course, included, as they expected that I would be inclined to reward
them handsomely. Each minstrel of any repute had a person attached to
him by way of fool or jester, several of whom acted their parts very
well, and strongly reminded me of Shakspeare's clowns.

"Dalmahoumedii was in the assembly, surrounded by a number of
followers, but he appeared to feel that he had lost ground. He took
no part in the proceedings.

"If it were fair to estimate the character of a people, by their
conduct during a period of unbounded license, I should say that they
were generally, almost universally, a nation of thieves, idlers, and
drunkards. It was with difficulty, indeed, I could preserve my own
private stock of wines, &c. I was assured, however, that such is not
their general character, although they are, no doubt, like all
Africans, extremely indolent and attached to the old customs of their
country. To even the most absurd and superstitious of these, they
cling with such tenacity, that it would be a work of incalculable
labour, and of many years, to induce them to abandon them altogether,
even after they should be made conscious of their absurdity and
barbarity. The European Missionaries of the present day would never
do it. It was attempted some years ago with much zeal, but there is
not at this moment, I believe, a single convert to Christianity in
Boollam, to reward the labour, or repay the expense, which was
lavished on that object. But a very different success has attended
the efforts of the disciples of Mahommed in propagating the doctrines
of the crescent. Not only in Boollam, but in all the neighbouring
districts; even in the Peninsula of Sierra Leone itself, there are
twenty converts to the crescent, for one to the cross; and the reason
is obvious; the Christian Missionaries begin at the wrong end; they
insist upon first making people Christians, and then morality and
civilization, they say, follow as matters of course: and they present
Christianity in its most inattractive form, to men accustomed to the
uncontrollable indulgence of their passions. The Mahommedans know the
genius of the people better, and without altering the spirit of their
religion, they exhibit it in a manner exactly suited to that genius,
as far as regards externals; and in such a form, that the adoption of
it even flatters the vanity of the convert. Thus, in the article of
dress, the Mahommedans have a peculiar or distinguishing cap; to be
entitled to wear which, is, in itself, a matter very flattering to
the vanity of the young worshipper of the crescent; and I am
convinced, that were it incumbent upon Christians to wear in public a
red cross on the shoulder or hat, that it would be the means of
drawing many to listen to the doctrines of Christianity: and really I
can see no sin in the means thus adopted.

"This evening I despatched the barge to Sierra Leone, with an account
of our progress, and requesting the Convention to be immediately
transmitted, together with the usual presents to be given to the new
King and chiefs. In the mean time every measure was taken, and
argument used (with occasional presents), to induce the chiefs and
headmen to consent to the cession of the sovereignty of the country
to Great Britain.

"_Tuesday, March 6th_.--This morning I walked out to make a few
observations, and to form some idea of the capabilities of the
Boollam country. What struck me, in the first instance, was the great
fertility, and natural beauty of the surrounding country, which it
was really painful to contrast with the extreme ignorance and
indolence of its inhabitants. There is not, perhaps, a country under
Heaven more calculated to repay the exertions of industry, from the
richness and fertility of the soil; as also from the flatness of the
country, which would prevent the soil from being carried away by the
rains when cleared of the bush. It is in my opinion far more adapted
for agricultural purposes than the Sierra Leone side of the bay.
Spices of almost every description grow naturally and in abundance;
and it would require but little capital, with industry, to make the
soil produce sugar, coffee, tobacco, and indigo in great plenty. In
short, the produce of the Boollam country might, without very great
labour be made to rival that of either our East or West India
possessions, in fact almost every article imported into Great Britain
from either is indigenous to this soil. The indolent and lazy
natives, however, cultivate little excepting rice. The articles
procured from the British settlement at Sierra Leone, such as
fire-arms, gunpowder, tobacco, rum, &c. are got in exchange for
timber, and occasionally labour.

"During my residence in Boollam, it frequently struck me, that a
British Settlement on the Boollam coast would be highly desirable,
say at Madina. For the reasons stated above, I am almost certain that
practical agriculture would soon become prevalent, inasmuch as it
would soon become profitable. Another, and a very strong inducement
to settlers would be, that Madina, and indeed the whole range of the
Boollam coast, is very healthy. What is called the _country fever_ in
Sierra Leone, is scarcely known in Boollam.

"To-day five or six of the mourners came to do service to me, which
they performed by bending their heads to the earth, and, in that
position, moaning in a low tone the praises of the deceased King,
mixed with compliments to myself.

"At midnight I received letters from Sierra Leone, by which I had the
satisfaction of learning that His Excellency approved of my measures.

"_Wednesday, March 7th_.--This day I succeeded in removing the
numberless evasions and objections urged by the chiefs against the
treaty.

"In effecting this measure Mr. S----'s exertions were of the greatest
service.

"In the evening we were a good deal amused by the natives fishing on
the beach. They caught a great number of fish, such as snappers,
cat-fish, soles, sharks, &c.

"_Thursday 8th_.--This day the convention arrived, and the blanks
being filled up, and the treaty solemnly signed and ratified, I had
the satisfaction on _Friday, March 9th, 1827_, of hoisting the
British flag, and of taking possession of Boollam in the name of His
Britannic Majesty."

Such is the narrative of Lieutenant Maclean, respecting a people whose
habits are as peculiar as his account of them must be interesting to
Englishmen.

_September 21st, 1827_.--On this day I attended the Court, to
hear the trial to which I have already alluded. It was a case of
adultery, and the parties were all free blacks. The action was brought
by a carpenter against the Rev. Samuel Thorpe, a preacher at one of
the Independent chapels, for criminal conversation with his wife; and,
as I have a copy from the records of the Court, I think it will be
much more satisfactory to insert the document in full, than to
supersede it by any desultory remarks of my own. It will give a clear
and characteristic idea of the state of society amongst these people.
The occurrence was so unusual, that it created no small astonishment,
that such a case should be brought into Court. The following is the
address of the plaintiff's counsel, and the verdict.

BERNARD _v_. THORPE.

"Gentlemen of the Jury,

"I bespeak your attention and indulgence. I am not only this day the
advocate of my client, but I am lending my humble efforts to defend,
perhaps I ought to say, assert, the divine right and sacredness of the
social compact of marriage, the palladium of every married man's
family, happiness and comfort. I will remind you, gentlemen of the
jury, that this is the first action of the kind that has been tried on
these boards since the colony has been ceded to the British
crown.--Among you, gentlemen of the jury, I see fathers, brothers, and
husbands, to all I appeal this day on behalf of my client, and of this
colony. Shew the world this day, by your verdict, that you will not
suffer with impunity the foul crime of adultery to be committed in the
face of a rising family; shew the value in which you hold the solemn
engagements of your female relatives; let your verdict warn the
seducer that he dare not trespass on any man's honour, or blight with
apathy, for one moment, any pleasure or gratification of his conjugal
tenderness.

"It has been too common in actions of this kind, for the defendant to
treat with contumely the humble situation of the injured prosecutor. I
do not apprehend much from any such attempt in this cause. I
acknowledge, gentlemen, that my client is a very humble individual,
but he is a respectable and an honest man, by trade a carpenter. I
see, gentlemen, on your countenances, that his humble lot shall not
deprive him from having his happiness considered as dear to him as to
any man, and equally inviolate; for you need not be told, that the
comforts and happiness of the rich and the poor originate from one
source: as it is not necessary to be rich to feel with acuteness the
pain to which our weak frames are subject, or to enjoy with zest the
most pleasurable sensations, so the poor possess the same advantages;
indeed, it is the poor to whom family happiness must be the greatest
solace! the rich have various resources to derive comfort from; the
poor seldom more than centres in their family. But before I attempt to
describe to you the sufferings of my client, I shall enter rather
minutely into the actual situation in life in which the plaintiff and
defendant in this action are placed: if unnecessary to some of you,
yet there may be others who naturally demand this explanation should
be given; I trust this will be admitted as my apology.

"I will begin with the defendant; because, indeed, gentlemen, he is
the more highly favoured man; I mean, gentlemen, that Providence has
blessed him with a much greater share of this world's goods; he is
known to man by the solemn designation of the Rev. Samuel Thorpe; yes,
gentlemen, the defendant in this action, for criminal conversation
with the wife of my client, is, or very lately was, a preacher of
morality; an expounder of that divine doctrine which inculcates the
precept, 'Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you;' he is
a gentleman, who, beholding with horror the degeneracy of the times,
and believing, no doubt, it required some extraordinary exertions to
recall us unto virtue, has voluntarily, for no idea of gain, or means
of livelihood, publicly devoted his talents to the pulpit. Such
conduct, if we had not other most opposite circumstances to disclose,
would have called forth our admiration and applause; for, gentlemen,
the pulpit, in the sober use of its legitimate peculiar powers, must
stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand,

"The most important and effectual guard,
Support and ornament of virtue's cause.

"The defendant, gentlemen, is also a rich man; he is, to say the
least, in very easy circumstances; we see, in this colony, several
valuable possessions of his; and we behold, at one of his houses, a
store from which is retailed valuable merchandise. The defendant,
gentlemen, I am instructed to say, is verging towards the decline of
life; to have arrived at those years, when the hey-day of the blood
might well be expected to have gone by, and that, while he preached
morality, he would find no constitutional impediment to prevent his
practising it. I am persuaded, gentlemen, that, if a cause of the
present nature had been brought before you, in which the defendant had
been a young unmarried man, you would have made some allowance for the
infatuation of his youthful passions; but when, as in the present
instance, we find experienced age; the well-informed man; the
promulger of that divine law, which denounces everlasting punishment
to the adulterer, is brought before you, charged, although a married
man, with this offence, I feel I must, indeed, commit an act of
injustice to you all, if I did not declare, that, in such a case, I am
convinced your feeling's cannot be otherwise than aroused to visit
such a criminal with your vengeance.

"My instructions suggest to me more than I will utter; yet, I must
confess, that I have been struck with the sacred profession of the
defendant, and the pertinacity with which it appears he committed the
offence against my client, for which you are now called upon to award
him the only remuneration the law allows; I cannot refrain from
asserting my belief, that the defendant's feelings must have been
strangely perverted; he, doubtless, made his full calculation upon his
outward profession, and his inward inclinations, and, I believe, I do
him no more than justice, when I put into his mouth, and suppose by
him uttered in his private moments, the expression used by an arch
hypocrite of former days:

"I sigh, and with a piece of scripture,
Tell them God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With odds and ends stol'n forth of Holy Writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

"I regret, very much regret, gentlemen of the jury, I am thus obliged
as a faithful advocate before you; but I have still another feature
to disclose, and here I must declare, that it has astonished me more
than I shall attempt to describe. I alluded before, gentlemen, to
the circumstance of the defendant's being a married man. Yes! he
has a wife living in Freetown, whom (from fear she should take a
right from his substance) he has turned out upon the world! to the
generosity--the kindness--of the stranger! surely we may infer that he
may be left at home with more ample means to gratify his passions. He
has also no children; this I am sorry for on his account; surely he
would have paused before he would have offered them such an example;
before he would systematically set about the seduction of a woman,
surrounded even by her grand-children.

"I turn now to my client; but, indeed, I have little more to add
respecting him. He is poor, because he has many claims on his
industry; his wife has born him several children; and some of these
children are grown up, and married, and in their turn have children;
the connexion between the plaintiff and his wife has therefore been of
long standing, in fact on their entrance into life they became
attached to each other. The connexion was not for several years
sanctioned by the rites of our religion, but it was not less a
marriage; the assent of the heart was complete, and it has been
sanctioned by what the parties thought binding; further ceremony could
only add more publicity to the engagement. Yet after many years mutual
intercourse, they resolved to give that intercourse every tie, and
were consequently legally married according to the rites of the Church
of England. I mention these particulars because I apprehend my learned
friend will set about pulling their family history to pieces, and
endeavour to shew that my client and his wife might have had some
little family jars; be it so, gentlemen, let him make the endeavour: I
will tell him that their jars are the pleasures of the married life;
they are the tornadoes of the marriage state, which clear away the
mists and fogs, that, alas, will at times intrude themselves, to make
the succeeding calm more susceptible of enjoyments; I warn you I speak
by experience; and my learned friend Samo, on this sacred subject, can
offer nothing but theory; think, gentlemen, how dearly they must have
valued each other, when after a lapse of many years--after all their
little storms of life--they yet resolve to make their union
indissoluble, by adding thereto the celebration of those rites of our
church, which has for its maxim 'that those whom God has thus joined
together no man shall put asunder.'

"Contrast this with the conduct of the defendant, his own wife an
exile from his bed and board, for no cause, except the lordly will of
the defendant. A woman, against whom scandal has not yet dared to
whisper; still, (although she has suffered much from the violent
conduct of her husband) still, I say, striking for personal
attractions and accomplishments; and is avowedly of an unspotted
character. Let the defendant, therefore, but attempt to pry further
than he has done into the private habits of my client, as regards his
wife, and I shall not hesitate still further to tear down the
beautiful appearance of adopted sanctity, simplicity, and innocence
of deportment, with which he has hedged himself round.

"My client had been often led to believe that all was not right
between his wife and the defendant, even before the time of the
criminal conversation now prosecuted for. I am aware that my learned
friend may allege that:--

"Trifles light as air,
Are to the jealous confirmation strong
As proof of holy writ;

"But, gentlemen, can you for a moment believe that there was no art,
no perseverance, no continued attention, no working on the passions
before the criminal moment; but that the victim fell at once into the
commission of the adulterous intercourse alleged? Human nature forbids
such an idea. The female mind, always timid, would think of her
ties--her husband--her children--her grand-children; and prevent her,
before, at least, all her fears. I challenge the defendant to name,
even in one slight instance, any thing in the conduct of my client's
wife, that such a ready compliance could be expected.

"On Thursday night, the 17th of May last, between nine and ten o'clock
at night, the defendant sent his lad to call Mrs. Polly Bernard to his
house. You must know, gentlemen, that Mr. Samuel Thorpe then lived
(and for aught I know does now) in the same street, and within a short
distance of the dwelling of my client, but which was then exclusively
occupied by his wife. The object of thus sending for Mrs. Bernard by
the defendant, is alleged, I am informed, for the simple purpose of
making his bed. It is really astonishing that this gentleman could not
be content to have his bed made by some of his men servants; that he
did not hire a female, considering his ample means. Now the real
object for which Mrs. Bernard was thus called to the house of the
defendant became soon apparent. After her ingress the light ceased to
throw its shade through the casement--the windows and doors were
closed upon the guilty pair. Too much cunning generally defeats its
own intention: not far distant from this scene of unhallowed pleasure
stood the keen eye of jealousy, watching the progress of the night in
order to preserve what custom had made her consider as her own. Yes,
gentlemen, Mrs. Samuel (another intimate acquaintance of the Rev.
Samuel Thorpe,) some time after Mrs. Bernard had entered the house of
the defendant, rushed to the house--knocked at the door and got
admittance. On getting inside, the only object she sought was Mrs.
Bernard. Although in the dark she called her by name--what eye so keen
as that of a jealous woman: she attacked Mrs. Bernard, as Mrs. B. sat
on the bed of Mr. Samuel Thorpe. Both females exerted themselves to
the utmost; one to the assault, the other to repel such violence. Only
conceive, gentlemen, what a fine figure for the painter and the
moralist was here exhibited; at the dark hour of night, two married
women fighting most lustily in the bed-chamber of the pious defendant;
while he (taken by surprise) kept pacing his piazza, unable to
recollect what he had best do, and trembling with fear that the
indiscreet uproar would lead to his exposure. I will pass over the
effects of excited passion, and merely inform you, that to identify
the person so as to leave no subterfuge, Mrs. Samuel carried away as
trophies of her resentment, some handkerchiefs and an ear-ring, she
had taken from Mrs. Bernard.

"Well then, gentlemen of the jury, you see the defendant, detected in
connection with the wife of one man, by the wife of another, whose
passions he had raised to jealousy by prior intercourse--whether
criminal, or not, I leave to your judgment--that is not, to-day, my
duty to decide.

"Mrs. Samuel, in the excited feelings of the moment, smarting under
the seeming neglect and vacillating conduct of the defendant, as
regarded herself, flies from house to house, spreading the dishonour
of the plaintiff; the news soon reaches the injured husband; his wife
has absconded from consciousness of guilt--he seeks her out, charges
her with her crime--she confesses it--and now, gentlemen, he is forced
to fly to you, to redress his wounded sensibility and affection."

The Jury, having heard counsel on the other side returned a verdict
for the plaintiff, damages Fifty Pounds.

The schooner Thomas arrived from England this morning after a passage
of 35 days. By her we heard of the death of Mr. Canning, which caused
an extraordinary sensation. A warm discussion sprang up among the
Freetown politicians, as to who should form the next Ministry, each
person, of course, electing a Prime Minister for himself, and making a
Cabinet after his own taste.

----------
[10] Although these men are hired under the denomination of Kroo men,
they are generally Kroo, and Fish men, who inhabit the country between
Sierra Leone and our settlement of Cape Coast Castle.

[11] There were only nineteen prisoners in the calendar, one of whom
was a soldier, Patrick Riley, for a desperate attempt to murder a
serjeant with his bayonet. The rest of the prisoners were principally
Kroomcn, and other black fellows, for house-breaking, stealing, &c.
&c.

[12] In these cases the principal felons remained unknown.

[13] King George was the first king of Boollam, that had been allowed
to die a natural death, through fear of getting 'a palaver,' as they
term it, with Sierra Leone. Previous to this, they always despatched
their kings when they considered them about to expire, sacrificing two
human victims, whom they buried in the same grave.

[14] Meaning that the late king loved him as a son.

[15] It is but right to state, that the above speech was read over
sentence by sentence, to the person who spoke it, and that he deemed
it to be almost literally reported, and seemed much astonished that it
could have been taken down.

[16] The new appellation of John Macaulay Wilson.

CHAP. IV.

Auction at Sierra Leone--Timber Establishments in the River--Tombo,
Bance and Tasso Islands--Explosion of a Vessel at Sea--Liberated
Africans--Black Ostlers--Horses Imported--Slave Vessel--Colonial Steam
Vessel--Road and Street Repairs--Continued Rains--Suggestion for
preserving the Health of European Seamen--General Views of the
Colony--Population--Parishes--Supply of Provisions--Description of
Freetown--Curious Letter from Black Labourers--Original Settlers--
Present Inhabitants--Trade with the Interior--Strange Customs of Native
Merchants--Anecdote of Sailors--Injurious Example of the Royal African
Corps--Vaccination of Natives--Medical Opinion--Departure from Sierra
Leone

_Monday, Sept. 24th_.--Still stronger signs of the breaking up of the
rainy season, more frequent heavy showers, with thunder and lightning
for the last two days. A fine morning, but squally and showery in the
afternoon. There was an auction held to-day of the effects of the late
Tasco Williams, Esq.; one peculiar feature of which is worth noting.
The persons who had assembled were hospitably entertained with bread
and cheese, and abundance of wine and spirits, with a view, no doubt,
to increase the animation and excitement of the scene. Whether the
bidders became extravagant in consequence, I do not know, but I think
it very likely; at all events I suspect that the auctioneer was trying
an experiment on the animal spirits of the company. This custom,
although by no means familiar to Englishmen, is very generally
practised in the north of England. It is probably a relique of ancient
manners.

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