The White Man’s Grave.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 14

The White Man’s Grave.

We take the following extract from a review of Mr Bindloss’ book “In the Niger Country”:At the close of the. first Ashanti War, the offer of the Governorship of the Gold Coast was made to Captain Colley —‘ £4OO a year, a large house, steam yacht, a military secretary, aide-de-camp and brigade-major, and the option of holding it for three months, a year, or the full time.’ He declined it: ‘I told Sir Garnet that, though ready to risk rny health on any professional .service. I was not prepared to do so in a service entirely unconnected with my profession.’ This fairly represents the West African climate as it appeared to one who knew it by experience, and who would have had at his disposal all the means there are for mitigating its lethal effect.

But humbler white men are from time to time offered situations on that coast, or on the banks of the Lower Isiger and its delta. Here is a passage for the consideration of would-be FACTORY ASSISTANTS.

As a rule, there is no mistaking the man who has dwelt any time in Western Africa. [But here]were a few freshlaced English youths going out under a three years’ contract as factory assistants for tho usual sum [plus free, quarters] of £6O, £7O, and £IOO a year, and who would probably die before the time expired. They, seemed eager to reach the' land of romance, and blissfully ignorant of the lives they were to lead. True, they had been medically examined, aiid warned that the coast was ‘unhealthy’ ; but unhealthy is a vague term, and as yet they did not understand the full meaning of the petition—‘From plague, pestilence—and from sud-. den death.’ That, however, would come in due time. Two, I remember, hailed from Manchester, and were nicknamed ‘Bones’ and ‘Blades,’ These were ostentatiously cheerful, and one afternoon wei-e holding forth about the fine things they-were going to do. ‘A gig with four Krooboys to row you wherever you want, lots of hunting and fishing, and only a few invoices to check. A negro girl girl to feed you with pine-apple and that kind of thing. Better than slaving in a gas-lit office,’ said Blades; and a gaunt trader answered quietly, ‘ls that what you think you are going to do ? Now, if you will listen, I will explain:’ Then an officer .... touched the trader on the arm, an drew him away. ‘Let the lads enjoy it while they can. Poor devils! they will find out soon enough,’ he said. It was a simple episode, but I venture to describe it as it happened because the affair was typical. Six months later poor Bones was buried by two hall’-drunk' Krooboys beside the roaring beach at Ambriz, and a little rickety cross now marks the last rest-ing-place of Blades outside Bonny Town. Mr Bindloss’s book should be read by our youth before they close with a West Coast offer. “In the Niger Country” is most entertainingly written. Its subject is by no means unfamiliar to educated readers who have a taste for the records of commerce pursued at all hazards, but we do not remember to have come across elsewhere so vivid a picture of what life on the West Coast really means, and Mr Bindloss draws on his own experience of it. It is life so hateful as to be without one redeeming feature. Yet Englishmen ore readily found to accept its conditions, and they are steadily leading the way from the plague-stricken coast to the comparatively wholesome hinterland. Zvlr Bindloss has visions of a better future. Already the cry has been raised for the construction of LIGHT RAILWAYS from Sierra Leone, from the Gold Coast, from Lagos, all converging on the basin of the Niger, and if the Government do not help them the traders will do the work themselves. Many men will perish before the last spike is driven and the narrow-gauge steel highways connect tht land of the Northern Moslem with the Guinea shore. But that spike will be a sudden change in the map of

Africa. ... It is neither a dream nor a fancy. Far-seeing men have been steadily working with this one object in view. . . . Meantime, shall not our sympathies go out to those who labour in the steam of the forest—trader, missionary,’ or official—as they grimly clear the.way, bidding them be strong and of a good courage:, and quit themselves like men? And the nameless rank and file, who perish and art forgotten ? They, also, have done their part, and gained a. hard-won rest ; and, after all, it is such as these who have made the nation great. Mr Bindloss. at an y rate, has done his part well in letting pioneers know what they will have to encounter.