I collapsed, feebly murmuring that it was very interesting,
but sad for the poor young fellow’s friends.
“Not necessarily,” said the old coaster.
So he had the last word, and never again will I attempt
to alter the ways of the genuine old coaster.
What you have got to do with him is to be very thankful
you have had the honour of knowing him.
Still I think we do over-estimate the value of the
papaw, although I certainly did once myself hang the
leg of a goat no mortal man could have got tooth into,
on to a papaw tree with a bit of string for the night.
In the morning it was clean gone, string and all;
but whether it was the pepsine, the papaine, or a
purloining pagan that was the cause of its departure
there was no evidence to show. Yet I am myself,
as Hans Breitmann says, “still skebdigal”
as to the papaw, and I dare say you are too.
But I must forthwith stop writing about the Gold Coast,
or I shall go on telling you stories and wasting your
time, not to mention the danger of letting out those
which would damage the nerves of the cultured of temperate
climes, such as those relating to the youth who taught
himself French from a six months’ method book;
of the man who wore brass buttons; the moving story
of three leeches and two gentlemen; the doctor up
a creek; and the reason why you should not eat pork
along here because all the natives have either got
the guinea-worm, or kraw-kraw or ulcers; and then
the pigs go and—dear me! it was a near
thing that time. I’ll leave off at once.
Giving some account of the occupation of this island
by the whites and the manners and customs of the blacks
peculiar to it.
Our outward voyage really terminated at Calabar, and
it terminated gorgeously in fireworks and what not,
in honour of the coming of Lady MacDonald, the whole
settlement, white and black, turning out to do her
honour to the best of its ability; and its ability
in this direction was far greater than, from my previous
knowledge of Coast conditions, I could have imagined
possible. Before Sir Claude MacDonald settled
down again to local work, he and Lady MacDonald crossed
to Fernando Po, still in the Batanga, and I accompanied
them, thus getting an opportunity of seeing something
of Spanish official circles.
I had heard sundry noble legends of Fernando Po, and
seen the coast and a good deal of the island before,
but although I had heard much of the Governor, I had
never met him until I went up to his residence with
Lady MacDonald and the Consul-General. He was
a delightful person, who, as a Spanish naval officer,
some time resident in Cuba, had picked up a lot of
English, with a strong American accent clinging to
it. He gave a most moving account of how, as
soon as his appointment as Governor was announced,
all his friends and acquaintances carefully explained
to him that this appointment was equivalent to execution,
only more uncomfortable in the way it worked out.
During the outward voyage this was daily confirmed
by the stories told by the sailors and merchants personally
acquainted with the place, who were able to support
their information with dates and details of the decease
of the victims to the climate.
