There Are, However,
Several Mountains Here Besides The Sierra Leone, The Most
Conspicuous Of Them Being The Peak Known As
Sugar Loaf, and when
seen from the sea they are very lovely, for their form is noble, and
a wealth
Of tropical vegetation covers them, which, unbroken in its
continuity, but endless in its variety, seems to sweep over their
sides down to the shore like a sea, breaking here and there into a
surf of flowers.
It is the general opinion, indeed, of those who ought to know that
Sierra Leone appears at its best when seen from the sea,
particularly when you are leaving the harbour homeward bound; and
that here its charms, artistic, moral, and residential, end. But,
from the experience I have gained of it, I have no hesitation in
saying that it is one of the best places for getting luncheon in
that I have ever happened on, and that a more pleasant and varied
way of spending an afternoon than going about its capital, Free
Town, with a certain Irish purser, who is as well known as he is
respected among the leviathan old negro ladies, it would be hard to
find. Still it must be admitted it IS rather hot.
Free Town its capital is situated on the northern base of the
mountain, and extends along the sea-front with most business-like
wharves, quays, and warehouses. Viewed from the harbour, "The
Liverpool of West Africa," {15} as it is called, looks as if it were
built of gray stone, which it is not. When you get ashore, you will
find that most of the stores and houses - the majority of which, it
may be remarked, are in a state of acute dilapidation - are of
painted wood, with corrugated iron roofs. Here and there, though,
you will see a thatched house, its thatch covered with creeping
plants, and inhabited by colonies of creeping insects.
Some of the stores and churches are, it is true, built of stone, but
this does not look like stone at a distance, being red in colour -
unhewn blocks of the red stone of the locality. In the crannies of
these buildings trailing plants covered with pretty mauve or yellow
flowers take root, and everywhere, along the tops of the walls, and
in the cracks of the houses, are ferns and flowering plants. They
must get a good deal of their nourishment from the rich, thick air,
which seems composed of 85 per cent. of warm water, and the
remainder of the odours of Frangipani, orange flowers, magnolias,
oleanders, and roses, combined with others that demonstrate that the
inhabitants do not regard sanitary matters with the smallest degree
of interest.
There is one central street, and the others are neatly planned out
at right angles to it. None of them are in any way paved or
metalled. They are covered in much prettier fashion, and in a way
more suitable for naked feet, by green Bahama grass, save and except
those which are so nearly perpendicular that they have got every bit
of earth and grass cleared off them down to the red bed-rock, by the
heavy rain of the wet season.
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