According to the last census the Creole population shows a decrease of over 6 per cent. during the ten years under review, while the other native races in the Colony show a considerable natural increase. The ordinary Creole has always shown a marked antipathy to agriculture, and the principle here applies that when a nationality declines to cultivate the earth, the first industry of life, that nationality has a tendency to decrease.
Mission enterprise has not been a success in West Africa, and this is probably due to the fact that the first stage in converting the pagan is the effort made to break down his superstitious beliefs in good and evil spirits, which are matters of the gravest importance in his social life.
Witches and vampires are still in fashion among them, and belong to the good old-fashioned variety which come to your bedroom in the dead of night, sit on your chest and suck your blood. It is not unusual to hear even the more or less educated native complain that he has passed a most unpleasant night because “witches” have visited him.
It is certainly no compliment to call a lady in this country a witch; she is liable to be maltreated and even beaten to death, and it is not uncommon for the police to be asked to protect a Freetown lady who is suspected of being a witch.
[Illustration: FREETOWN FROM THE HARBOUR.]
It would appear from the criminal statistics that Freetown has a demoralizing effect on the aboriginal native who comes from the Protectorate to trade or obtain employment, and this is probably due to the fact that he is free from tribal authority and that his superstitious belief does not present any obstacle to his helping himself to the white man’s property.
There is very little stigma attached to imprisonment, which, after all, is the chief deterring factor in civilized countries; it does not necessarily follow that a scale of punishments suitable for offences committed by a civilized people is suitable for offences committed by an uncivilized people, and there are strong arguments in favour of allowing corporal punishment to be inflicted as well as imprisonment for offences committed by uneducated natives. Imprisonment to the educated native is of course a real punishment, though the social consequence following it would not be as serious as in the case of a European.