The Harvard African Expedition, Book 2: September 24, 1926
Creator
Loring WhitmanDate
09/24/26Coverage
Gbeneta, Hinterland, LiberiaTranscription
Fri Sept 24th
Once more we are on our way. We got up at about 500 dismantled our beds and packed them and got everything out on front ready for the porters. Then we had breakfast. However the porters were late and took a tremendously long time tying on poles to the two-man loads etc so that it was not until 655 that we left. In the meantime we were presented with a large crate containing 1 duck and a half dozen chickens which we brought along. I took movies of the men and their loads and as they left I filmed them passing out of the compound. Then I packed my camera, said good bye to Bequaert Linder Theiler and Allen and started. Hal and I passed ahead thru the 68 porters and walked along for about 3 ½ hours before stopping. It is the same damnable second growth without a speck of shelter from the sun and it begins to get rather mean around noon especially with this hot white clay road which reflects the heat and light up under your helmet. We passed thru 2 towns – Bortah and Weymon and stopped at Gbenetah where we rested for nearly 2 hrs. Drs Strong and Shattuck joined us and we ate green oranges. I bought a pair of brass bracelets about 2” broad of native manufacture and design and a native knife. I also took some pictures of a sick woman extremely emaciated and unable to walk.
But on again over the same hot dry road thru paralah to Gbai where we settled down for the night. Gbai is quite a big town with a commanding hill on which is perched a govt reception house in which we stayed. On one side we could look out over the town roofs with the trees behind while on the other we looked down upon broad rice fields with forests behind and in the distance – hills, the most beautiful view I have seen in Liberia. The house itself has a very small porch but there is room enough for our 4 beds and we can store all our boxes and trucks inside. All in all it is very comfortable and there is a cool breeze blowing across the porch as we sit and look out over the fields.
Leave Gbanga 655 Arr. Gbai 200
15 ES ½ S
10 E NE
15 EN
10 ENE
35 E ½ S
5 EN To
Bortar
40 ES ½ S to
Weymou
35 ENE
10 ESE
10 SE
20 ESE
10 E To
Gbenetah for 105
20 SEE
15 SE
10 ES To
Paralah
20 SEE
40 SE
Distance/6 miles – Crowfly 13
After a bath and fresh clothes I borrowed Dr. Shattucks gun and went out hunting but without very success. I had seen a bright yellow bird flying below me but I was able to see him when I got there. So I wandered across the rice fields and down a little wooded path under tall cool trees. And As I was walking along I passed a native boy in a loin cloth with a big boy and iron tipped arrows. And as I saw him I suddenly felt the difference between the savage and civilized. There he was naked and with his primitive weapons striding along absolutely silently while I, the white man, in shirt, trousers and shoes and helmet clumped along with a shotgun and shells – the old and the new.
There are two things I forgot to mention at Gbenetah where we stopped to rest. When we were buying the swords Dr. Strong saw one which he wanted. The man wanted 15 shillings but finally decided to sell for 11. Then he changed his mind after he had brought it and wanted more. We said no and asked him why he was so avaricious – didn’t the soldiers take the swords if they wanted them and weren’t we paying perfectly good money?, to which he replied that, he didn’t mind the soldiers taking them but he wanted to make a good price if he sold them, the other thing was a child about 3 yrs old carrying a big block of wood on her back the way the people carry their children. She had a big piece of cloth around her hips which dragged on the ground, and in which she had wrapped around the wood. <Drawing>
After a hearty supper we went to bed early just as a thunder-storm came up. Then we discovered that the roof leaked and unfortunately over my bed. However by sliding the bed down I got out of the most of it tho the drop would hit the net and spray down over my head. But I went to sleep all right.