LOGGING MAHOGANY IN TROPICAL WEST AFRICA 



137 



BUNGALOW OF WEST AFRICAN MAHOGANY CAMP FOREMAN SHOWING 

 PAW-PAW FRUIT AND LEOPARD SKINS 



blood or brain, 

 with a dash of 

 Crusoe, the un- 

 equalled in all 

 emergencies. In 

 m e n t ioning 

 the character- 

 istic traits of 

 the West Afri- 

 can native, in- 

 cluding- Libe- 

 rian and Gold 

 Coast peoples, 

 one feature 

 stands out 

 prominently to 

 his credit, and 

 by comparison 

 u n c o m p 1 i- 

 mentary to civ- 

 ilized white 

 man. In the 

 performance of 

 an important 

 trust confided 

 to him, he is 

 absolutely re- 

 liable and be- 

 yond tempta- 

 tion to betray 



confidence. In .sending money to the camps to pay quar- 

 terly wages, the only means of carrying the cash is on the 

 heads of carriers. The entire sum is in silver coin, 

 British florins, shillings, six-pences and three-penny 

 pieces. In this coin an equivalent of one thousand dol- 

 lars weighs sixty pounds avoirdupois, a load for one car- 

 rier. The money is placed in canvas bags and carefully 

 sealed with wax. To reach the farthest camp these men 

 must walk five days through the forest, sleeping where 

 they can, but usually at some native village. I have 

 many times sent a single laborer with two hundred 

 pounds, starting alone and unattended, to the farthest 

 station and as high as six hundred pounds or three thou- 

 sand dollars, by native laborers in charge of a native 

 clerk to the different camps ; and, doing this dozens of 

 times, have never lost a penny through the default of 

 these honest and illiterate heathen. The carrier's wage 

 is twenty-five cents a day, with six cents for chop money, 

 the clerk, in charge only because he can read and write 

 and speak a little English, sign and receive receipts, 

 drawing a salary of twenty dollars a month. The great 

 continent of Africa spread out before them where to 

 choose, the inbred characteristic herein mentioned be- 

 comes a valuable asset to his white employer. 



The rainy seasons are best for hauling, the skids over 

 which the flattened logs slide along the logging road 

 are wet and sli])j)ery and this greatly facilitates the work. 

 In a dry spell of weather the foreman resorts to the ex- 

 pedient of placing on the skids the juicy, succulent 



leaves of the 

 plaintain, in 

 size six to ten 

 feet long and 

 two to three 

 feet wide, with 

 a large stem 

 full of sap. 

 These placed 

 in front of the 

 log for it to 

 slide over, are 

 as good as 

 twenty men 

 added to the 

 team. 



Hauling 

 after a time be- 

 comes monot- 

 onous, and an 

 occasional day 

 or two at float- 

 ing logs away 

 irom the land- 

 ing Is wel- 

 comed by all 

 the laborers 

 who "savey 

 swim." River 

 driving is un- 

 der most conditions devoid of the elements of romance, at 

 times full of danger, but seldom is carried on at night. 

 No one inexperienced in driving logs can understand the 

 disadvantages and awkward possibilities of night work. 

 A shadow will deceive the most practiced eye, but will 

 not serve the usefulness of a real log in supporting the 

 luckless driver who leaps upon it in his work. In tropi- 

 cal Africa success in log driving is to be gained only by 

 constant vigilance and being always ready to take ad- 

 vantage of the water the moment it rises. Without 

 warning, a creek may fill with water to a floating stage, 

 and in an hour or two the flood will have subsided, leav- 

 ing the stream in its normal flow, and the log will never 

 float "with the water that has passed." 



On the larger streams, the mahogany trees have long 

 since been cut ; some of them in recent years have been 

 made into logs and taken to market, but by far thegreater 

 number have been felled during the centuries that the 

 continent has been inhabited. This has been done in 

 clearing ground for villages and patches of land for 

 planting crops ; the process is still going on, though to 

 less extent. These old clearings are now grown up to 

 young forest, but the mahogany trees are missing. Hun- 

 dreds of trees have been felled and never hauled, the na- 

 tive logger having exhausted his resources and so aban- 

 doned the tree to moulder and rot where it fell. This kind 

 of waste is still going on, the ambition of the native to 

 become a timber merchant being to his mind achieved 

 when a few trees have been cut down, and in this condi- 



