Certain Monrovia
men have laid out farms of coffee and _cacao_ (chocolate) upon the St.
Paul River, which, heading in Mandenga-land, breaks the chord of the bay;
but nothing can induce these ex-pets or their congeners, the Golas and the
Pesis, to work.
Like most of the coast-races, the Vai seem to be arrant cowards. The
headmen salute their visitors Arab-fashion, with flourishes of the sword;
but swording ends there. Of late they were attacked by the savages of the
interior, Gallinas, Pannis, and Kusus. The latter, meaning the 'wolves' or
the 'wild boars,' is the popular nickname of the Mendi or Mindi tribes,
occupying the Sherbro-banks. They did excellent service in the last
Ashanti war (1873-74) by flogging forward the fugitive Fantis. Winwood
Keade, [Footnote: _The Story of the Ashanti Campaign_. Smith & Elder,
London, 1874. It is a thousand pities that the volume was pruned, to use
the mildest term. My friend's memory seems to brighten with the years,
doubtless the effect of his heroic honesty in telling what he held to be
the truth. His _Martyrdom of Man_, in which even his publisher did not
believe, has reached a fourth edition; it was quoted by Mr.
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