xx Central Africa

Sub-call! Far at the world's end, strange, fascinating lands beckon us, did us revel in their exotic spenders, come with us as we head for our ports of call!

Over the Atlantic, we journey, with our bowels pointed at a land of fable and adventure, a land of jungle and felt, of juju and devil dances, of towering forest and steaming swamp, a country where witchcraft thrives, and the echoing footsteps of ancient adventurers still ring upon the ears of those who follow. Central Africa lies before us. With the equatorial

sun blazing down out of a cloudless sky, we approach the west coast of Africa, a coast people with rays of old pirate ships and slave-trading Moorish dows that once haunted its coast and inlets. This is the fever coast of Africa, spoken of with awe and greed by the traders of ancient Carthage, fought over by the Portuguese and English, Dutch and French,

finally divided among them. Sierra Leone lies directly ahead. As we near the land and penetrate the haze of heat, we see a town spreading over the lower slopes of bush-covered hills, with low cliffs separating the houses from the water-line. In the distance of fleet of large sailing gigs, loaded with passengers and produce from the Bullum shore, their huge

white sails hanging far over to leeward, tack in toward the harbor as we drop anchor in Freetown, port of call. Free town sprang into being toward the end of the 18th century, when England, after the abolition of slavery, transported ex-slaves and formed a colony in Sierra Leone, now using the port as a naval coaling station. Sierra Leone was well known to the agents. From