Chapter V:
Arrival in West Africa
ON the early morning of the tenth day, standing by her husband's side, Eva leaned over the rails of the upper deck, watching the African landscape, as the steamer neared the jetty of the Sierra Leone port.
Freetown presented a panorama quite similar in building constructions and plans to Dominica of the West Indies. The two British West African barracks for white and colored troops are situated upon two salubrious peaks about two miles apart in the rear of the town.
Eva, who had never visited the tropics, was very much amused by the sight of the half nude black boys, who swarmed around the steamer in small skiffs and from their little craft dived and scrambled for the silver pieces which the passengers threw to their special favorites.
Mr. Solomon, a representative of the firm, met them upon the deck and introduced himself. They had almost to fight their way to the stairway, through the numerous boat boys who tried to assist in taking the luggage and renting their respective craft to tow the party to the landing. At the wharf Mr. Solomon assisted Eva into the sedan chair borne by four boys with an ornamental and canopy shaped parasol which shaded the sun.
Seating themselves in similar conveyances the two men followed through a curious group of Sierra Leone market men, women and children, changing in color from black to light brown. The loose wrappers, slippers without hose and bright chrome yellow colored handkerchiefs of the women were to Eva as a replica of an exhibition scene at the Crystal Palace.
The black coolies trotted along at a very fast pace and soon turned up Market Street and Regent Road. The party passed numbers of passengers in hammocks and similar conveyances to their own. Imposing stone and brick buildings arose along the principal residential sections. The coolies, trotting a short distance down the Regent Road, halted in front of an iron gateway which opened upon a cement terrace leading to a short stone stairway of a brown stone residence.
The house was of a pattern most unusual for the tropics, an almost square and massive stone structure; plain outside except for the green lattice window shutters and rough stones, it had no pretense at architectural beauty.
Two ill-kept flower gardens bloomed at the front on each side of the cement walk, enclosed in an iron fence.
If the outside were not as picturesque as they might. have hoped, they were agreeably surprised upon entering to find themselves ushered into a spacious hall of polished hardwood floors with a circular stairway, and a wide mahogany balustrade facing the vestibule. On the first floor, the hall extended to the back porch. On one side a long dining room opened to the butler's pantry, leading into the spacious and bright kitchen. On the other side were the drawing room and a library which opened into a side entrance leading to a large flower garden containing palms and other tropical ornamental trees and the travelers' fountain, while a small room in the rear assigned to the maids, overlooked the back yard and an outhouse of brick used as the servant quarters.
Up the stairway Eva discovered her private suite and immediately decided upon the change of her boudoir.
Oliver and Eva were both delighted over their quarters and would have doubly appreciated it had they known the cost of cables and other efforts to persuade the late owner to accept a grant of a lease, when Mr. Servier learned that the brother of his chum would consent to take charge of his interest.
After taking the couple through the house Mr. Solomon summoned the servants and explained that they were Mr. Servier's personal attendants, whom he had desired, if acceptable, to be retained in their old positions.
A medium sized, stout and good-natured young black Ebo girl, dressed in a loose gown, stood before her mistress in a grinning and open admiration.
"Yanga is my name, Mam," she said, in answer to Eva's smiling query.
"Well, Yanga, I think we will get along nicely, so let us begin at once by unpacking," Eva remarked.
Varnee, the Vai valet and steward, was the next interesting character. Of about 6 feet, erect and quick carriage, he seemed to have been about 20, and was possessed of straight features and copper brown in color. He wore a clean white gown over a large pair of dark colored bloomers. His ready wit soon won both his master and mistress.
The Accra cook next caused a roar of laughter when he uttered a name which neither of the prospective employers could pronounce; so they compromised on Tobey and advised him to prove his culinary arts by serving a short order quick lunch to the hungry party.
Tobey wore about 12 yards of cloth draped from the left shoulder, while his left arm and side and lower limbs remained partly nude, showing his stockingless feet enclosed in slippers. His lazy gait did not promise much for a quick dinner when, slowly bending his 6 feet 5 inches he ambled away. That appearances often deceive was very soon demonstrated, when Varnee announced dinner in a surprisingly short time. If Tobey's name and appearance did not appeal to the aesthetic and critical faculties of the couple, the dinner certainly must have appealed to their epicurean tastes, if the remnants of the repast expressed their approval.
Mr. Solomon joined in the dinner and afterward invited Oliver to accompany him to the mercantile house. Standing together Mr. Solomon stood the same height as Oliver, and but for a dark mustache and distinctive, racial, long, straight, pointed nose they might have passed as doubles.
They left the house at last, after Oliver had run back several times to say good-bye, about 3 o'clock p. m., and walked to the Kissy Road. Through the narrow streets they picked their way, and jostled with the crowds of market buyers and very insistent peddlers who pulled at their coat sleeves as they offered their wares spread along the road side.
Mr. Solomon pointed out to Oliver a large two-story slanting roof and corrugated iron building about fifty by seventy feet with a thirty-foot L attached to the rear. From the direction of their approach it stood at the right side of the street and presented a side view, showing the veranda of the L joining the porch of the rear half of the main building, and the wide front portico upon which stood quite a number of natives of Sierra Leone as they patronized the upper store.
Around the acre of barren ground was a six-foot wire netting fence, which enclosed, beside the store, several iron warehouses with thick heavy double wooden doors, and iron bars leaning beside the front walls.
In the front yard about thirty square feet on one side was covered with loose piassava, African palm fibre, which two squatting half nude yard boys lazily turned over to dry in the sun, while two other boys in long shirts bound up into small bundles the little piles which the other first two laid aside, and added them to a large pile that strong men were preparing for shipment. While the front and side yards contained coffee, kernels and loose bags and crated piassava for shipment, the back yard was the scene of great activity, stacked high with cases of dry goods and gin which the store boys were busily stowing into their respective warehouses, under the inspection of two European clerks.
On entering the open gate, Oliver read the two signs in large letters over the upper front door, "P. Z. & Co.'s Store," and the lower, "P. Z. & Co.'s Retail Store." Two long stairways led up to the upper piazza from opposite sides and terminated in a wooden banister rail in juxtaposition.
Mr. Solomon escorted Oliver up one of the stairways, clearing his way through the gaping crowd as they went along. Oliver entered a long store room down the middle aisle of which two rows of counters extended.
Back of the counters were shelves built upon the walls, reaching to the top and packed with merchandise, while the European salesmen and native African store boys moved about attending to the customers.
Mr. Solomon introduced Oliver as he passed along and entered the L compartment containing storerooms and the office departments. He ushered Oliver into his future apartment of two rooms at the rear. The small reception room was plainly but tastefully and comfortably furnished and opened into the private office furnished in the usual office style. They both opened into French windows upon the side veranda shaded by green canvas movable shades. Scattered upon the veranda were cosy Madeira and deck chairs, in the midst of which stood several small tables.
Mr. Solomon presented the office force to the future manager, in conjunction with which post he filled, ad interim, with his position of head salesman. They spent half an hour upon the veranda, where they were served whiskey and soda and other drinks by the steward boy, wearing a clean long white shirt. This Oliver noticed that the European merchant traders were not entirely void of luxuries in their African quarters.
After dispatching one of the accountants to obtain a temporary permit for Oliver to drive his machine, Mr. Solomon summoned the office porter. A heavy-set black giant, of about seven feet, whose brawny muscles well might cause the envy of Jack Johnson, answered the call. Acting upon instructions he unbolted and raised a heavy trap door, which no two men of ordinary strength could budge. After securing it against the wall, he stood in readiness for further orders.
Oliver hesitated a little to proceed when he noticed the slender iron hook holding up the door, but Mr. Solomon, assuring him of its firmness, proceeded down the steps.
They entered the retail department from the rear entrance and passed up the ill-smelling and littered aisle. Oliver interrupted the lifting of some of the tobacco leaves from the open drum propped against the rear end of the counter by some small urchins who seized the opportunity while the party conversed.
The retail department was under a young Sierra Leonian of about thirty, dressed in stylish European clothes, and with an English college education. Two underclerks of the same nationality and a native store boy completed the force of this department of the same nationality and a native store boy completed the force of this department. They then proceeded to the front yard when Oliver supervised the uncrating of his automobile, in the presence of a curious crowd of the Market Street Sierra Leonians. The honk of the auto-horn caused a general panic, and it was with the greatest difficulty that Oliver piloted the machine under the direction of Mr. Solomon down the Kissy Road through the ruined market wares and stumbling pedestrians.