A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

10/30/26

Coverage

Sinoe Town, Sinoe County, Liberia

Transcription

October 30th

Soon after our arrival here on the 28th, Mr. Grigsby, the Government representative here, secured us a vacant house which we are renting and in which we shall live until we can get away from here. I have my cot on the porch upstairs but the others have theirs inside, as there are four rooms upstairs. Our house is situated on a sandy beach. It is the most restful spot I have found in Liberia.

The men are all rather tired. Harold had some fever the evening of the 28th, having caught a bad cold from walking most of the day in the rain. All of us are thin but otherwise perfectly well. Our boots, on the other hand, are used up. Owing to the entire wearing off of the heels on the inside of all my boots and the twisting over of them, walking has been rather difficult for me for a number of days past. I tried walking on a trail with an ordinary pair of high leather shoes one day, but in less than an hour I struck a sharp stump of a tree on the edge of the trail and tore a hole an inch and a half long in the side. So they were thrown away next day. I have never had such aching of my ankle bones from any game of foot-ball or polo as I have from walking on twisted shoes for eight or nine hours on a Liberian trail. Night before last it was several hours before I could rest from the pain. It is gratifying, however, that the next morning one is quite able to walk again without pain. So, as there is no permanent injury, it is of no matter. However it would not be wise to pursue such a course unless it was a necessity. I have now only one pair of white low shoes with rubber soles and my mosquito boots left in usable condition. Were it not for the fact that our walking is over for the present, I would have to try to nail some strips of wood on the inside of my shoes.

There is no cable here or wireless station and no one can tell when a steamer will stop here. We are planning to travel northward along the coast to Monrovia in a whaleboat which carries ten oarsmen and has a sail. We had thought to sail to Cape Palmas first and try and get a steamer for Monrovia from that place, but on account of a head wind it would not be practicable to do this.

We have now crossed Liberia in three directions. From Monrovia we have traveled northeast to French Guinea at Niekore (near Garimou). From this northern border we have crossed the country again, in a southeasterly direction to the eastern border on the Ivory Coast at Saura (or Taoulo); and from this eastern border we have crossed the country a third time travelling south to Sino. So we should have a good idea of the little known parts of the interior -- and I think that we have -- and of the conditions of life which prevail there and of the problems which it seems to me the United States should face in connection with Liberia. I am not ready to write of these today. It will be of advantage for me to see conditions elsewhere, in Central Africa, for example, to compare them with some of those found here. Certainly there are grave problems in this country which either the United States or the civilized world must concern itself in in the near future.

To me, the most attractive parts of Liberia by far are her wonderfully beautiful forests. In them one feels nearer to Heaven than anywhere else in the country and I have never been in more beautiful forests in any country.

Type

Diary

Citation