The Harvard African Expedition Book 1: August 28, 1926
Creator
Loring WhitmanDate
8/28/26Coverage
Reppue's Town, Hinterland, LiberiaTranscription
Sat. Aug 28th At about 830 porters started coming in. We sent off Theiler & Linder with about 20 of them and as more came along started getting off boxes. At about 1000 a big batch came so that Shattuck & I could pack up & go. We left Bequaert behind with 14 loads to come on as soon as he got men. And so we set out in the rain for Reppues.
For an hour and a half we had a series of small showers – one after another, and during that time I kept with Dr. George behind the money box. We crossed several small swamps which wet our feet; but had no deep wading. And then the skies opened. I decided that I had better move fast to keep warm in the downpour to keep warm so I walked up thru the porters and set out. The trail was a stream & on the small hills it became a raging muddy torrent. Rivers Streams were swollen and I soon had to wade above my knees. This lasted for ½ an hour. Shortly before I got to Reppues town I came to a pond into which the trail disappeared and into which I waded. Down, down, down went the bottom until I was endangering my belt. As I was going along I noticed some weaver bird nests in the tops of some bushes about 6” above water and as I was well saturated I decided to examine them. However as I stepped foreward I descended another foot and desisted. That wade was nearly 200 yds long – 150 to the bridge over the river and about 50 at the other end. I did the same later but only for a short stretch. In consequence when I arrived at Reppues at 1.30 I was some what moist and very glad to get into dry clothes. I found Theiler & Linder eating sardines & crackers with the news that the others had gone on to Miamu that morning.
Leave Memmeh town 1040 Arr. Reppue’s town 130 – Distance about 9 miles
7 NE
5 ENE
8 EN
10 E
<-----
[Diunkby]
15 E ½ S
20 E ½ N
10 NEE ½ E
5 ENE
10 EN
5 SE
<-----
[Town]
5 EN
10 E
10 ES
5 E
10 NE
20 E
10 ES
<-----
5 NE
Shattuck arrived soon and we settled down – getting our bunks arranged and started conversing with chief Reppue & his son. After using all our boys as interpreters for ½ an hour Reppues son told us that he could speak English perfectly well – so we were off. Reppue himself is a man of about 60 with a pleasant face and short pointed beard braided at the end. A very pleasant old gentleman. His son looks more like an Indian and is likewise very agreeable. We asked
*[Reppue evidently sent word himself for men to come back “one time” for they deserted Strong at Miamu as we found out later]
about porters – distances – dashes and the country. He seemed very upset about Strong taking porters – thinking that we were going to run away with them. To reassure him we wrote a note to Strong telling him to send back the men from Zeanshue.* We also asked for the sick people to come in the morning.
When we left Memmeh we left Bequaert with a cook & two pots thinking that we would join Strong. So here we are with 1 pot & no cook for 4 of us. Willie & small boy are cooking for us. In the evening we had a good supper and sat around talking for about 2 hrs before going to bed. Boys kept us awake till after 1000 beating drums & singing.