If They Had Been Mountaineers, They Would Have
Pined For Home.
To one who has observed the hard toil of the poor
in old civilized countries, the state in which the inhabitants here live
is one of glorious ease.
The country is full of little villages.
Food abounds, and very little labor is required for its cultivation;
the soil is so rich that no manure is required; when a garden
becomes too poor for good crops of maize, millet, etc.,
the owner removes a little farther into the forest, applies fire
round the roots of the larger trees to kill them, cuts down the smaller,
and a new, rich garden is ready for the seed. The gardens usually present
the appearance of a large number of tall, dead trees standing without bark,
and maize growing between them. The old gardens continue
to yield manioc for years after the owners have removed to other spots
for the sake of millet and maize. But, while vegetable aliment is abundant,
there is a want of salt and animal food, so that numberless traps are seen,
set for mice, in all the forests of Londa. The vegetable diet
leaves great craving for flesh, and I have no doubt but that,
when an ordinary quantity of mixed food is supplied to freed slaves,
they actually do feel more comfortable than they did at home.
Their assertions, however, mean but little, for they always try
to give an answer to please, and if one showed them a nugget of gold,
they would generally say that these abounded in their country.
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