OF DR. J. B. T. VOGEL. 607 



of their young people on board, for they are tolerably docile, 

 and are therefore hired by the coasters, to perform such hard 

 labours as are considered prejudicial to Europeans. When 

 they have earned so much money by their voyage, as will 

 enable them to buy one or more wives, they return home, 

 establish the women, and leave them for a new expedition, 

 until they get eight or ten more wives, who must support 

 them, for all field labour, &c, is performed by females. 

 Including these Kroos and other negroes, who are employed 

 in various ways about the ship, we are now considerably 

 more than one hundred men strong ; frequently, therefore, 

 when I have been for a time at that part of the vessel which 

 they occupy and where alone smoking is allowed, and return 

 to the quarter-deck where only the officers are, I feel quite 

 relieved from the bustle. It is now the rainy season and 

 we have had in Monrovia and Grand-Bassa a week of con- 

 tinued rain, during which the sky has been for many suc- 

 cessive days as dark as it can be with us in autumn only. 

 Besides, the African brooks, when they are swollen with 

 rain, assume the privilege of making their way down the 

 footpaths, and I was therefore obliged for hours to wade up 

 to the knees in water. I was indeed, in general, whether at sea 

 or on land, as wet as it was possible to be. One advantage 

 accrued from the rain, it kept the decks water-tight, whereas 

 before, I was regularly soaked by the water when they were 

 washed at five o'clock in the morning, and frequently part of 

 my collection got damaged. At Cape Palmas we arrived at a 

 s pot where an intermission of the rainy season takes place, 

 a "d from thence to this place we have enjoyed delight- 

 nil weather. The passage, however, was longer than we 

 expected, so that water ran very short, and one day we were 

 absolutely placed on half-allowance; otherwise we should 

 scarcely guess that we were in a foreign zone. As regards 

 meat and drink, we have several times a week salted beef or 

 P°rk, and in general, other kinds of meat preserved in her- 

 metically sealed cases. Hares, poultry, &c, preserved in 

 this way, often appear at table. These ship-stores are 



