S wh rh the,, Llbenaf became possessed of some readjr
g rem they inv“ ted in two little
Krumen in S them t0 enf° rCe their tax on * e
Kr smai °anoes- 1 do not feel 30 sympathetic
for the x i n ° r tbflr emPIoyers in this matter as I should,
on shore anT ? v ,are u- not to S0 and wiPe out Liberia
t & S S * l Whlte men are silly hens not to but I
leave that opinion unexpressed.
for ant ™Wer ° f managi?§' Kruboys is a great accomplishment
cent mnr? W° i mg. thr\WeSt C° aSt 0ne man wil1 &et per
°Ut ? f, hlS staff> and alway s have them cheer-
same ? f V ’ another will get very little out of the
his L S w t XCept Vexati°n to himseIf> and accidents to
trad e s 'n f ?U K f ViTy ne5essar)/ and important factor in
tradels not to be taught with ink. ■ Some men fall into the
have Way °f managmg the b°ys very quickly, others may
have years of experience and yet fail to learn it The rule-is
make them respect you, and make them like you, and then the
thing is done ; but first dealing wich the Kruboy, with all his
fn awfuintimeS T T tru-ing u ° rk’ and W m give the new hand
S l i f W1 e they are experimenting on him to
see how far hey can do him. They do this very deverly bu?
shortsightedly, * * * * Africano, for they spoil the tempos of
half the white men whom they have to deal with. It is not
necessary to treat them brutally, in fact it does not pay to do-
so, but it is necessary to treat them severely, to keep a steady-
hand over them. Never let them
them see you have made a mistake. When you make a mis.
take in giving them an order let it be understood that that
way of doing a thing is a peculiarly artful dodge of your own
£ s , J J ■ ,h?‘ * is thei fa"lt- P i 3&- p i mb this if t is properly managed. I speak from experience : for
example, pnee, owing to the superior sex being on its back
h fever and sending its temperature up with worrying about-
getting some ebony logs off to a bothering wretch of a rivet
steamer that must needs come yelling along for cargo just
then, said You leave it to me, I’ll get it shipped all right I
ebon™ !? T help ° f three Krub°ys, to raft that
ebony off I saw as soon as I had embarked on the affair'
from the Kruboys manner, I was down the wrong path, but
h illp tfh 'L t n0t S?G Until a neat arrangement o f ebony
billets tied together with tie-tie was in the water. Then I
saw that I had constructed an excellent sounding apparatus
for finding out the depth of water in the river; and that- '
ebony had an affinity for the bottom of water, not for the
top.' The situation was a trying one and the way the captain
of the vessel kept dancing about his deck saying things in a
foreign tongue, but quite comprehensible, wras distracting;
but I did not devote myself to giving him the information
he asked for, as to what particular kind of idiot I was, because
he was neither a mad doctor nor an ethnologist and had no
right to the information ; but I put a raft on the line o f a
very light wood we had a big store ; of, and this held up the
ebony, and the current carried it down to the steamer all right.
Then we hauled the line home and sent him some more on
the patent plan, but, just to hurry up, you understand, and
not delay the ship, a deadly crime, some o f that ebony went
off in a canoe and all ended happily, and the Kruboys
regarded themselves as having been the, spectators of another
manifestation o f white intelligence. In defence o f the captain’s
observations, I must say he could not see me because
I was deploying behind a woodstack; nevertheless, I do not
mean to say this method of shipping ebony is a good one.'
I shall not try it again in a hurry, and the situation cannot
be pulled through unless you have, as Allah gave me, a very
swift current; and although, when the thing went well, I did
say things from behind the woodstack to the captain, I did
not feel justified in accepting his apologetic invitation to come
on board and have a drink.
My experiences with Kruboys would, if written in full, make
an excellent manual for a new-comer, but they are too lengthy
for this appendix. My first experience with them on a small
bush journey aged me very m uch; and ever since I have shirked
chaperoning Kruboys about the West African bush among
ticklish-tempered native gentlemen and their forward hussies
of wives.
I have always admired men for their strength, their courage,
their enterprise, their unceasing struggle for the beyondS-the
something else, but not until I had to deal with Krumen did
I realise the vastness to which this latter characteristic o f theirs
could attain. One might have been excused for thinking that
a man without rates and taxes, without pockets, and without
the manifold, want-creating culture o f modern European
civilisation and education would necessarily have been bounded,
to some extent, in his desires. But one would have been
wrong, profoundly wrong, in so thinking, for the Kruman
yearns after, and duns for, as many things for his body as the
lamented Faustus did for his soul, and away among the apes
this interesting creature would have | to, go, at once, if the
wanting of little were a crucial test for the. determination of