Copal and bees'-wax would form articles of
extensive export; but the people are satisfied with maize and roots,
especially the cassava, which to Sa Leone is a curse as great as the
potato has proved to Ireland. Petty peddling has ever been, and still is,
the 'civilised African's' _forte_. He willingly condemns himself to spend
life between his wretched little booth and his Ebenezer, to waste the week
and keep the Sabbath holy by the 'holloaing of anthems.' His _beau ideal_
of life is to make wife and children work for, feed and clothe him, whilst
he lies in the shady piazza, removing his parasites and enjoying porcine
existence. His pleasures are to saunter about visiting friends; to grin
and guffaw; to snuff, chew, and smoke, and at times to drink
_kerring-kerry_ (_cana_ or _caxaca_), poisonous rum at a shilling a
bottle. Such is the life of ignoble idleness to which, by not enforcing
industry, we have condemned these sable tickets-of-leave.
Before quitting the African coast I diffidently suggested certain steps
towards regenerating our unhappy colony. For the encouragement of
agriculture I proposed a tax upon small shopkeepers and hucksters, who, by
virtue of sitting behind a few strings of beads or yards of calico, call
themselves traders and merchants.
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