12 
SHERBKO MISSION. 
CHAPTER IE 
l^reetowH — First Impressions — Kindness of American Mission-^ 
ary Association — Exploring Tours— Return of Messrs. Shuey 
and Kumler. 
Our missionaries landed in Freetown, February 
26, 1855, having been thirty-four days on the ocean. 
As they were wholly unaccustomed to sea voy- 
ages, the reader may imagine their satisfaction 
on being able to again set foot on terra firma. 
Freetown is a city of eighteen or twenty thou- 
sand inhabitants, with not more than two or three 
hundred white people in it. It is the capital city 
of the colony of Sierra Leone — so named from a 
great mountain in the colony denominated Sierra 
• Leone, or ‘^Lion Mountain.^’ The colony, or state, 
contains nearly three hundred square miles, being 
about as large as a small county in this country. 
The city is unlike anything in America. The 
people know nothing about the use of horses, 
wagons, carriages, or drays. Traveling by land 
is all done on foot. Goods, building materials, 
and agricultural products are carried from one 
