A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

8/19/26

Coverage

Binda, Hinterland, Liberia

Transcription

August 19th.

Too busy to write yesterday. Bequaert arrived the afternoon of the 17th. with no news of Shattuck’s date of departure. He brought me a note from him which he sent on to Lango town by Allen in which he says Linder and Coolidge have been suffering from indigestion and he thought it better to delay a few days. George S. asked me to transfer the charge of the kitchen and menu to Harold Coolidge, which I did. The men have since been eating far too much and. there is far too much served. At the next base camp I must as a health measure reduce the ration. In the tropics and on an expedition which must demand hard physical energy it is better to leave the table being a little hungry rather than with too full a stomach and too much carbohydrate in the heat is apt to lead to indigestion. The situation at present with reference to personnel is that Shattuck, Coolidge and Linder are at our first base camp, Allen and Theiler are at Lango town and Bequaert, Whitman and myself are at Kaka town. I dare not split my party into more groups. At present, if I am urgently needed by sickness I can reach Shattuck in a day and a half and Allen and Theiler in half a day, but if I sent Bequaert and Whitman ahead this morning and I was urgently needed I could not go quickly because I would have no one here to look after money and valuable stores and would have to take them with me. So when the 105 porters arrived this morning I had to send them off with 93 loads, with only one of my headmen to look after them. They are to carry them for two days’ march towards our next base camp and then deposit them and wait until one of us arrives to make arrangements with the next District native chief. I must use porters when I can get them.

While I have been writing, a note has come from George S. forwarded by Allen in which George says that Linder is well again and they will come on in a few days. He is now six days behind time, which is unfortunate for the reasons I have already explained. I have secured 60 porters for Shattuck, since he seems unable to get them and have sent these to him advising him to come on at once if possible and practicable, and to carry Linder if he is not strong enough or to send him back to Monrovia to rest there for the present. When George arrives I am going to put Bequaert in the rear in charge of the last section with instructions to keep close up.

Now, what happened yesterday. I walked to Binda eastward for half an hour and then southeast for fifteen minutes. A town of some 14 huts of similar construction to Kaka town, there are a number of Mandingos here (with some Arab blood?), Mohammedans. I saw two students with their books written in the Mandingo language and got Whitman to photograph them. Their teacher, a rather superior looking Mandingo, asked not to be photographed and said he never had been. The Mandingos have browner skins than the other natives here. Some of the blacks in the towns apparently had never seen white people before. I found here a boy with yaws and one with very advanced anaemia whose blood I examined and whose case I will further study. I walked slowly back here and began microscopical work. On the afternoon of the 17th I examined the blood of the one horse in town, which was already dying. I looked at its blood for trypanosomes or other parasites but found none. It died yesterday afternoon and I made preparations from its spleen and liver. It had cirrhosis of the liver and a number of hard nodules in the liver which will be studied later; evidently the result of old parasitic infections. I also examined scrapings from the skin of the supposed leper that carried my microscope from Lango town here and found therein the same blastomyces I did several days ago. I also examined the blood of a snake -- a very poisonous one -- the horned viper (Bitis nasicornis), but found no parasites in it. This snake the cook killed as he was crossing the path on his way to the kitchen. So you see I had a busy day and not time to think; I was feeling-rather miserable with low fever. I was interrupted here by going to dress the ulcer of the chief’s wife, which I do daily. I have written up my notes in my laboratory book, having been continually busy since 5:30 and it is now 12:15. I wish I felt better.

Type

Diary

Citation