“ The botanic gardens form a pleasant and favourite place of resort. The roads are wide but badly kept. Horses do not live, and all wheeled traffic is done by manual labour—hammocks and sedan-chairs are the customary means of locomotion. Notwithstanding that Freetown possesses an abundant and pure water-supply, drawn from the adjacent hills, it is enervating and unhealthy, and it was particularly to the capital, often spoken of as Sierra Leone, that the designation “White Man’s Grave” applied. ”

“ The only language of the lower class is pidgin-English—quite incomprehensible to the newcomer from Great Britain,—but a large proportion of the inhabitants are highly educated men who excel as lawyers, clergymen, clerks and traders. Many members of the upper, that is, the best-educated, class have filled official positions of great responsibility. The most noted citizens are Bishop Crowther and Sir Samuel Lewis, chief justice of Sierra Leone 1882–1894. ”

“ About 500 of the inhabitants are Europeans. Freetown is picturesquely situated on a plain, closed in behind by a succession of wooded hills, the Sierra Leone, rising to a height of 1700 ft. As nearly every house is surrounded by a courtyard or garden, the town covers an unusually large area for the number of its inhabitants. ”