A youth who has been two years
with a carpenter, boat-builder, blacksmith, or mason, arrogates the name
to himself without compunction, and frequently, whilst he is learning from
an indifferent teacher the rudiments of his trade, he sets up as a master.
There is hardly a single trade that can turn out half a dozen men who
would be certificated by any European firm for possessing a thorough
knowledge of it. Of all trades in Sierra Leone, and certainly in Freetown,
that of tailoring is the most patronised, but this arises from the love of
dress, which is inherent.
'The proper cultivation of the soil is, and must always be, the true
foundation of prosperity in any country. The shop cannot flourish unless
the farm supports it, and the friends of the colony regard with anxiety
the centralisation of capital at Freetown. I have been gratified, however,
to notice that the desire to acquire land and cultivate it has lately
increased to a very great extent, and I regard it as a very hopeful sign
for the future. The people still want two things, capital and scientific
agricultural knowledge. The native implements are of the rudest
kind--their hoes little more than sufficient to scratch the ground, and
their only other implement a cutlass to cut down the bush.
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