Travels in West Africa

arose, but we gradually educated each other, and I came out the better for it. All I had to teach them was that I was merely a "beetle and fetish hunter" a collector of insects and religious artifacts and so forth, while they had to introduce me to a new world; I found it a very fascinating course of study. Whatever the people on the Coast might say against me—regarding my constant need for hair-pins and other pins, my annoying habit of wading into water, the ant-infested abominations I brought into their houses, or objects that suddenly emitted vivid and terrible stenches—they must admit that I was a diligent pupil. I sincerely tried to learn the lessons they so kindly taught me, even though some of those lessons were difficult for someone who had never previously been even in a "tame" part of the tropics, and whose life for many years had been entirely domestic in a university town.

One by one, I took my old ideas—drawn from books and based on imperfect knowledge—and compared them against the real life around me; I found them either worthless or inadequate. The most significant admission of error I had to make—which I did humbly before I had been on the Coast for three months in 1893—concerned my perception of the traders. They were very different from what I had expected to find. I can never speak highly enough of their kindness to me. On that voyage, I was completely out of touch with government circles and entirely dependent on the traders. The most useful lesson of all the lessons I learned on the West Coast in 1893 was that I could trust them. Had I not learned this so thoroughly, I could never have returned to carry out the journey I describe in this book.

Thanks to "the Agent," the resident manager of a trading station I have visited places I could never otherwise have seen. Because of the respect and affection the local people have for him, I was able to travel in safety. Whether I arrived at his factory a merchant's trading post and warehouse by steamer or canoe—unexpected and without introduction—or emerged unannounced from the wilderness in a bedraggled state, he always received me with a gracious hospitality. Under the conditions of the Coast, this must have caused him genuine trouble and inconvenience—things he could have easily found logical excuses to avoid for the sake of an individual whom he...