Their good and their evil are not those of more advanced
nations; still the idea is there, and progress or tradition works
it out in a thousand different ways.
My visits to Mr. Walker first gave me the idea of making the
negro describe his own character in a collection of purely
Hamitic proverbs and idioms. It appeared to me that, if ever a
book aspires to the title of "l'Africain peint par lui-meme," it
must be one in which he is the medium to his own spirit, the
interpreter to his own thoughts. Hence "Wit and Wisdom from West
Africa" (London, Tinsleys, 1856), which I still hold to be a step
in the right direction, although critics, who possibly knew more
of Cornhill than of Yoruba, assured me that it was "rather a
heavy compilation." Nor can I yet see how the light fantastic toe
can show its agility in the sabots of African proverbs.
Chapter VIII.
Up the Gaboon River.
Detestable weather detained me long at the hospitable factory.
Tornadoes were of almost daily occurrence --not pleasant with 200
barrels of gunpowder under a thatched roof; they were useful
chiefly to the Mpongwe servants of the establishment.
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