Liberia 



WM 



wmlmmHKmmmmmmsr 



21. THE MOUNTAINOUS PROMONToi V 1 1 RRA LEONE FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE 



(drawn by the AUTHOR IN 1882) 



promontory of Sherbro Island was called Cape St. Anne, a 

 name it still bears. 



Then Pedro de Sintra reached the coast of what is now 

 called Liberia in the autumn of the year 1461 — certainly 

 an important date in the history of that country, as, if the 

 legends of the Dieppe adventurers are untrue, it was possibly 

 the first time in which the Negroes of Liberia ever beheld a 

 white man. Pedro de Sintra noticed and named the remarkable 

 promontory of Cape Mount (Cabo do Monte), and beyond 

 that. Cape Mesurado.^ Llereabouts the natives were lighting 



^ Mesurado in Portuguese does no/ mean " measured " (as several writers 

 have assured us), neither does it mean "miserable" (another explanation). The 

 correct translation is "moderated," " diminished," " quiet," and in this sense Pedro 

 de Sintra may have intended to refer to the lessened surf (it is nearly always 

 a safe place for landing) or an improvement in the weather. But Ca' da Mosto 

 in his Italian version of De Sintra's narrative calls it alternatively " Capo Cortese '' 

 (in the French translation, " Cap Courtois "), and one is led to infer that the name 

 was given on account of the placable and quiet demeanour of the natives. As 



40 



