A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

8/22/26

Coverage

Kaka Town, Hinterland, Liberia

Transcription

August 22nd, Kaka town.

I began work this morning by writing up my notes in this book from the middle of p. 30. The light was so poor yesterday that by 4:30 I could no longer see. I had been examining the preparations microscopically of the spleen and liver of the horse, and my eyes were strained, the large doses of quinine causing congestion of the retina. It continues to rain, a general steady fine downpour. Yesterday the sun came out for not longer than ten minutes and that was the first time we had seen it for about a week. Everything is more than damp and moldy. It is a strange country. Clouds almost every day which however, when it is not raining, these cause a deceptive screen; for the actinic and long heat rays of the sun penetrate them, and if one exposes oneself without a helmet one is apt to know of it from the headache or low fever which follows. Also at night one rarely sees but a few stars of the dipper or the Southern Cross at one time. Both of these constellations are near the horizon here. The moon one sees also only for a few moments at a time. It is a true rainy season, and not so much so in this region of hard showers but of continuous milder rain.

When I awake in the morning I see from my cot a chocolate colored maiden, bare to the waist, with a yellow kerchief round her head and silver bracelets on her arms, peering from under the eaves of the veranda of the chief’s house. She is sweeping the porch. As my eye travels around eastward it reaches the forest spread out beyond where the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is everywhere here most conspicuous. These trees the natives tap and allow the juice to ferment (their palm oil). On the other sides of my abode there is tall elephant grass and low scrub. It is through this latter region that I shall be travelling northeast in a day or two. Our next base camp is I believe about six days’ march from here. I have arranged to have 200 porters here on Thursday, August 26th. George will surely have arrived by then. As I have already sent off 100 loads this should move everything.

Type

Diary

Citation