Gladstone, and
Mrs. Grundy still buys it, in order to put it behind the fire.] an
excellent judge of Africans, declares that they are very courageous, 'keen
as mustard' for the fray. On the raid they creep up to and surround the
doomed village; they raise the war-cry shortly before sunrise, and, as the
villagers fly, they tell them by the touch. If the body feels warm after
sleep, unlike their own dew-cooled skins, it soon becomes a corpse. They
advance with two long knives, generally matchets, one held between the
teeth. They prefer the white arm because 'guns miss fire, but swords are
like the chicken's beak, that never fails to hit the grain.' Some 250 of
these desperadoes lately drove off 5,000 of the semi-civilised recreants
and took about 560 prisoners, including the 'King' of the Vai.
After covering forty-three miles from Cape Mount we anchored (5 P.M.) in
the long, monotonous roll under Mount Mesurado. The name was probably
Monserrate, given by the early Portuguese. It is entitled the Cradle of
Liberia. The idea of restoring to Africa recaptured natives and manumitted
slaves was broached in 1770 by the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, of Newport, R.I.
The scheme for 'civilising and christianising' the natives assumed organic
form at Washington in 1816.
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