2, ESSEX COURT, TEMPLE, _September, 1915_.
THE PORO, TONGO PLAY, BORFIMA, WITCH-DOCTORS, OATHS 15
OTHER CASES OF LEOPARD MURDER; THE HUMAN BABOON SOCIETY 80
A NOTE ON SIERRA LEONE, PAST AND PRESENT 88
DESPATCH FROM THE GOVERNOR OF SIERRA LEONE REPORTING ON THE 119 MEASURES ADOPTED TO DEAL WITH UNLAWFUL SOCIETIES IN THE PROTECTORATE
SACKVILLE STREET, FREETOWN _Frontispiece_
STOCKADE SURROUNDING GBANGBAMA PRISON AND GUARDHOUSE. 38 PRISONERS AWAITING TRIAL, GBANGBAMA PRISON
A NATURAL BRIDGE ON THE ROAD TO GBANGBAMA 43
THE PRISONERS OF A NATIVE CHIEFTAINESS, CRACKING 79 PALM-KERNELS
WHERE HAWKINS MAY HAVE LANDED FOR SLAVES 90
THRESHING RICE, SIERRA LEONE PROTECTORATE 93
THE HIGHLAND OF SIERRA LEONE, WITH HILL STATION IN THE 104 FOREGROUND
COTTON TREE STATION, 9 A.M. BUNGALOW TRAIN, FREETOWN 115
[Illustration: VIEW OF FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE.]
That there were cannibals in the Hinterland of Sierra Leone in former days appears from the observations[1] of William Finch, who visited Sierra Leone in August, 1607. This accurate observer states, “To the South of the Bay, some fortie or fiftie leagues distant within the Countrey, inhabiteth a very fierce people which are man-eaters, which sometimes infest them.” This clearly points to the Mende country, where the Human Leopard Society was lately flourishing. Finch does not, however, refer to anything but pure cannibalism.
In 1803 Dr. Thomas Winterbottom, the Colonial Surgeon, Sierra Leone, wrote an account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, and, after quoting and criticizing various authorities who had alleged the existence of cannibalism in different parts of West Africa, states (vol. i. p. 166) as follows:
“That this horrid practice does not exist in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, nor for many hundred leagues along the coast to the northward and southward of that place, may be asserted with the utmost confidence, nor is there any tradition among the natives which can prove that it ever was the custom; on the contrary, they appear struck with horror when they are questioned individually on the subject, though at the same time they make no scruple of accusing other nations at a distance, and whom they barely know by name, of cannibalism.”