I Am Sure The Tax Is Heavily Taken In Cloth,
For The Boys Told Me That If It Were Made
Up into garments for
themselves they did not have to part with it on their return.
Needless to say, this
Makes our friend turn his attention to
needlework during his return voyage and many a time I have seen the
main deck looking as if it had been taken possession of by a
demoniacal Dorcas working party.
Strangely little is known of the laws and language of these Krumen,
considering how close the association is between them and the
whites. This arises, I think, not from the difficulty of learning
their language, but from the ease and fluency with which they speak
their version of our own - Kru-English, or "trade English," as it is
called, and it is therefore unnecessary for a hot and wearied white
man to learn "Kru mouth." What particularly makes me think this is
the case is, that I have picked up a little of it, and I found that
I could make a Kruman understand what I was driving at with this and
my small stock of Bassa mouth and Timneh, on occasions when I wished
to say something to him I did not want generally understood. But
the main points regarding Krumen are well enough known by old
Coasters - their willingness to work if well fed, and their habit of
engaging for twelve-month terms of work and then returning to "We
country." A trader who is satisfied with a boy gives him, when he
leaves, a bit of paper telling the captain of any vessel that he
will pay the boy's passage to his factory again, when he is willing
to come. The period that a boy remains in his beloved "We country"
seems to be until his allowance of his own earnings is expended.
One can picture to one's self some sad partings in that far-away
dark land. "My loves," says the Kruboy to his families, his voice
heavy with tears, "I must go. There is no more cloth, I have
nothing between me and an easily shocked world but this decayed
filament of cotton." And then his families weep with him, or, what
is more likely, but not so literary, expectorate with emotion, and
he tears himself away from them and comes on board the passing
steamer in the uniform of Gunga Din - "nothing much before and rather
less than half of that behind," and goes down Coast on the strength
of the little bit of paper from his white master which he has
carefully treasured, and works like a nigger in the good sense of
the term for another spell, to earn more goods for his home-folk.
Those boys who are first starting on travelling to work, and those
without books, have no difficulty in getting passages on the
steamers, for a captain is glad to get as many on board as he can,
being sure to get their passage money and a premium for them, so
great is the demand for Kru labour. But even this help to working
the West Coast has been much interfered with of late years by the
action of the French Government in imposing a tax per head on all
labourers leaving their ports on the Ivory Coast. This tax, I
believe, is now removed or much reduced; but as for the Liberian
Republic, it simply gets its revenue in an utterly unjustifiable way
out of taxing the Krumen who ship as labourers. The Krumen are no
property of theirs, and they dare not interfere with them on shore;
but owing to that little transaction in the celebrated Rubber
Monopoly, the Liberians became possessed of some ready cash, which,
with great foresight, they invested in two little gun-boats which
enabled them to enforce their tax on the Krumen in their small
canoes. I do not feel so sympathetic with the Krumen or their
employers in this matter as I should, for the Krumen are silly hens
not to go and wipe out Liberia on shore, and the white men are silly
hens not to - but I had better leave that opinion unexpressed.
The power of managing Kruboys is a great accomplishment for any one
working the West Coast. One man will get 20 per cent. more work out
of his staff, and always have them cheerful, fit, and ready; while
another will get very little out of the same set of men except
vexation to himself, and accidents to his goods; but this very
necessary and important factor in trade is not to be taught with
ink. Some men fall into the proper way of managing the boys 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 with the Kruboy, with all
his good points, is very trying work, and they give the new hand an
awful time of it while they are experimenting on him to see how far
they can do him. They do this very cleverly, but shortsightedly,
more Africano, for they spoil the tempers 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 become
familiar, never let them see you have made a mistake. When you make
a mistake in giving them an order let it be understood that that way
of doing a thing is a peculiarly artful dodge of your own, and if it
fails, that it is their fault. They will quite realise this if it
is properly managed. I speak from experience; for example, once,
owing to the superior sex being on its back with fever and sending
its temperature up with worrying about getting some ebony logs off
to a bothering wretch of a river steamer that must needs come
yelling along for cargo just then, I said, "You leave it to me, I'll
get it shipped all right," and proceeded, with the help of three
Kruboys, to raft that ebony off.
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