Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V. THREE DATS AT FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE. September. "I have travelled east, I have travelled west, north, and south, ascended mountains, dived in mines, but I never knew and never heard mention of so villanous or iniquitous a place as Sierra Leone. I know not where the Devil's Poste Restante is, but the place surely must be Sierra Leone." I Quote memoriter from Captain Chamier's "Life of a Sailor/' which was in every mouth on board the "Blackland." Here, however, as elsewhere, the saying may hold good that a Certain Person may, perhaps, not be so black as he is painted. Our only amusemeut during the hours before retiring had been to watch the Sargassa, or Gulf weed, floating with torn stalks, and to speculate upon the mysterious cause which brought anything here that might go elsewhere. These floating prairies--which, by-the-bye, are supposed to give a name to the Ilhas Verdes, or the Cape Verde Islands--are so misplaced that one can never get over the peculiarity of their appearance. At 6 A.m. it was announced that we were off the Ilhas de Los (Loss), or dos Idolos (of Idols), a triad of volcanic islets, Tamara or Footabar, Factory Island, and Ruma, or Crawford, not to mention bare rocks and outlying reefs. Our soldiers, for we had whilome a garrison there, found the two former healthy, but inferior to the Bananas, whilst the third was deadly: the largest is five miles by one. Being still inhabited, they supply beef and vegetables, fruits and plantains, and sundry attempts have been made to overgrow them with the ground-nut. Shortly afterwards we were off the Scarries Biver, where at seasons there is an awesome bar, some seven miles broad. We made southing, and shortly after noon a lump of mountains to starboard--I had been long...
