A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

9/1/26

Coverage

Miamu, Hinterland, Liberia

Transcription

Wednesday, September 1st, Suah Koko town.

We arrived here yesterday at 2:30 P. M. However, I will speak first of the events of August 30th. We were unable to leave Miamues on August 29th on account of lack of porters and I was only able to send on the 21 loads of tents (in advance). On Monday morning August 30th, however, we started with sixty porters but I was compelled to leave 49 loads behind to be sent after me when sufficient porters were obtained. I left letters for Shattuck and Bequaert telling them I had gone on in order to have the bridges repaired which I had heard had been swept away by the heavy rains we have been having. The altitude of Reppues was about 350 feet and that of Miamues about 830 feet, where it was cool at night. From Miamues the trail led through the forest where everything was green and beautiful. It was raining lightly when we started and everything was fresh with raindrops. We went up and down hill for some hours, crossing many mountain streams. Sometimes the trail led over large rocks and stones, the former bed of some forest stream. Later we came out into the open, the trail bordered at times with the coarse Guinea grass six or seven feet high or the still coarser elephant grass as high as 10-12 feet. Behind this on each side of the trail there was low scrub affording no shade. About 11:30 the blazing sun came out and the march was trying from then on. About twelve o’clock Harold and Allen stopped to rest and eat crackers and drink from their canteens but I continued, arriving finally at Zeanshu at 2:30 P. M. We had started at seven-thirty a march of seven hours without stopping, or not less than 21 miles. Ordinarily at home I walk four miles or over an hour. Here, however, on these long marches I estimate not more than three miles an hour. The pedometer usually shows 3 and a half or or 3 and a quarter . As soon as I arrive, I take off my clothes, which of course are wet through from perspiration and rain, and take my bath in my canvas tub and put on dry things. Then only I drink from my canteen, usually about three cups of water. On the march I never allow myself to drink from the canteen. My canteen is filled only once each day with boiling water, at night. In camp we use chlorinated water as I have mentioned. By the time I had put on dry things and looked around a little Harold and Allen arrived. I had stopped in a hut on the edge of the town for my bath. Harold thought the communal hall near the other end of the town was better, so we moved the things there. We soon had a crowd of several hundred men and women and children around us, watching everything we did. Harold had his bath with the assembled populace looking on and apparently hugely enjoying it. One wonders what they think, as they are modest in their conduct and one never sees them bathe in public. Yet what can one do? They surely could move away if they did not wish to see. The women are naturally the most curious. Zeanshu is the largest village in the interior we have seen. I counted eighty-five houses (huts), which I should say was roughly about two thirds of the town. Here I saw a number of women spinning or weaving wicker baskets. The chief brought me a chicken shortly after my arrival, usually the first mark of friendship. Afterwards he had the town entertainer perform -- a man who made noises and movements supposed to imitate wild animals -- not very interesting to us, but highly enjoyed by the populace.

For dinner we had soup, stewed chicken and rice and bananas for dessert, an excellent repast. I forgot to add cocoa, we also always have with our evening meal.

I forgot to mention that just before reaching Zeanshu I counted some eighty-five “road-men” working on the road near the town. I wrote a note to the man in charge of these men telling him he must send them back to Miamues to bring on Dr. Shattuck’s party and our other supplies. I also sent all my porters but 2l back to George, trusting that I would get more the next day, August 31st.

I was not able to leave Zeanshu until five minutes to eight. It is impossible to assemble porters before seven-thirty. I forgot to say that I held a sort of informal clinic in the town yesterday. Among some 260 children I only found three cases of yaws and one of favus. I doubt if one could assemble that many children in almost any civilized town and find less evidence of disease. The sickly ones evidently die young, a survival of the more robust. Umbilical hernia was the only pathological condition particularly noted. One man with very extensive lesions of yaws in the face, scalp, back and abdomen was photographed for me by Coolidge. (I do miss my own camera so, which Whitman failed to bring from Boston apparently because he was afraid he would have to carry it at times and it is heavy.) Another man was seen with old evidences of tubercular hip joint disease with resulting shortening of the legs and one man was seen with a severe bite in the arm through the biceps made by a leopard a few days before. The people claimed that several people had recently been mauled by leopards on the edge of the town and one killed and carried off. Whether these stories are authentic or relate to the practices of the leopard men it is impossible to say.

The chief at Zeanshu did not prove very efficient at obtaining porters and it was finally necessary for my 21 personal porters and some six of our personal servants to impress the necessary number to carry our some seventy loads. The trail yesterday, August 31st, was again over hilly country, very little level, up and down hill all the way. The altitude of Zeanshu is about 720 feet and of this town (Suah Coco), 870 feet; so on the whole we ascended slightly yesterday. The march here took six and a half hours. I came through again without stopping. The country was more open and there was less forest. The birds along the trails the past two days have been particularly the blue plantain eaters, the widow birds with exceedingly long tails, some doves and many hornbills. The trail is often bordered with orange flowers resembling our asters and with morning glories, pink and also of the richest purple. I forgot to say that we had the two bridges repaired and sent word back to George to that effect from Zeanshu. We have not had to do so much wading the past two days, the land being less swampy and very sandy. At times on the banks of a stream we will find pure white sand. The weather was much the same yesterday -- light showers of rain up to 11:30, then fierce sun until about a little after one, which was very trying. Then a splendid downpour of rain came; I took off my hat and let it beat upon me as I walked for a time. I reached here at 2:20 P. M., about six and a half hours walk. Harold and Allen stopped at a town Sharlarkporlah about half way for a light luncheon. They came in about a half hour later.

About a third of the distance here from Zeanshu I met the District Commissioner Campbell with some twenty-five men. He was being carried in his hammock by four men. I called upon him to descend and after giving him a mild but distinct “dressing down” for not having sent sufficient porters to bring on our things, I showed him my official papers and told him I wanted him to send back the hundred road men for Dr. Shattuck and the others. He promised to do this and made excuses about his not knowing I was coming and we parted amicably after I told him that he would get a good dash if everything was brought on promptly.

This town is presided over by Suah Coco, a woman, and it bears her name, she being the chief of it, as is the case of many of the other interior towns. Shortly after my arrival she sent me by her grandson a good-sized chicken and some native rice. After we were settled I took Coolidge and Allen to call upon her. She has barricaded herself on the edge of the town in an enclosure containing four huts and surrounded by a stockade about twenty feet high, formed by driving into the ground closely placed rough stakes or trunks of trees. The most striking thing is the entrance to the stockade with double doors of a single slab of a tree separated by a hall only just wide enough for one man to squeeze through. We are told that during the war her people engaged in with the government troops she barricaded herself in this enclosure. She received us under a hut with overhanging walls, her left hand covered with rings, quite elderly, her skin brown (evidently she has Mandingo blood), her eyesight evidently poor. She wished to shake hands. I presented her with a powder puff case and mirror and a small bottle of scent (presents purchased in London by Harold for the natives). She seemed pleased with these but said she hoped we had some gin and tobacco and that she was particularly glad to see us because she believed we had these articles. As a matter of fact all our trade gin is behind us. I gave the last two bottles of it I had with some tobacco and a tin of beef and a box of sardines to the Chief and Inspector at Zeanshu as a dash. However we will give the old lady some tobacco when she furnishes us with porters as she has promised to do, and I will leave word for George to give her some gin.

We had a large crowd of women surrounding us when we took our baths after arriving yesterday. They watch everything we do or that concerns us. The putting up of cots, mosquito nets, tables, plates and white men are all novelties to them.

This morning I have held a clinic and found one case of very prominent goiter in a woman. We gave her iodine to take. Harold has taken a picture of her and also of some of the remarkable patterns of cicatrization on the chests and abdomens of the women from tattooing. I need Whitman very much as photographer and in lieu of him a good camera. We are hoping for the sun today, September 1st, to dry out our things. It is raining this morning. Will the sun be contrary and not come out because we are not marching?

Suah has promised me porters for tomorrow. She told me frankly she could not get them today, as she has to collect them from surrounding villages, which are far away. She has sent me a squash for our dinner and I have given her grandson some medicine for her stomach. She tells me her five sons and two daughters are all dead. Her grandson assists her in ruling here.

Tomorrow’s march should bring me to Gbanga near which I propose to establish the base camp. I do not think I have done harder marching before on foot in the tropics. In the earliest days of the Philippine campaigns we had to do some hard tramping but I have never marched troops or marched with them for six or seven hours without resting. Just after arriving here yesterday I felt a slight pain in my neck and reached up and caught a tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis) quite gorged with my blood.

Suah Coco is in latitude about 7º 21’ and longitude 90º 30’ west of Greenwich, about 18 to 20 miles from the French border. There are three young bulls and two heifers outside the town, all fat and healthy looking with sleek coats. Until two days ago all the large streams we crossed were running towards the Dukwia River rather to the west. Since we reached the hills the streams are flowing southeasterly evidently in the direction of the Mani River, the upper portion of the St. John River. The weather today (September 1st) has been much like yesterday, light and heavy showers with an hour or two of sunshine but interrupted with light showers enough sun to dry some things, but not enough to dry underwear washed this morning. The violin was taken out today and played for a few minutes, a surprised and apparently interested crowd quickly accumulating. Of course they have never seen or heard such an instrument and have no true appreciation of what music means. Their commonest musical instrument has five metal strings. They apparently have no fixed method of tuning them and merely pluck the open strings over and over in sequence without any fingering. They do this as they walk about.

Type

Diary

Citation