ntry. They come to Sierra Leone, to work in any
capacity in which they can obtain employment, until they are possessed
of sufficient property to enable them to purchase several wives. The
object they propose to themselves in this increase of their domestic
establishments, differs in some respects from the indulgences of the
east. The Kroomen compel their women to perform all the field-work, as
well as the necessary domestic duties, in conformity with the usages of
savage life, and when they can purchase a sufficient number of wives to
fulfil all these employments, they pass the remainder of their days in
ease and indolence. Before they are able to accomplish this object,
they are obliged to make several visits to Sierra Leone, as they do not
like to be absent more than two or three years at a time from their own
country. The average duration of this voluntary banishment is perhaps
about eighteen months. A sketch of the progress of the Kroomen from
their first visit to Sierra Leone, to the final consummation of their
wishes, in the attainment of their Paradise of idleness, will fully
illustrate the peculiar character of a tribe, one of whose usages is
that of seeking abroad during the vigorous years of life, the means of
dwelling with ease and comfort in old age at home.

When they have arrived at healthy boyhood, they first come to Sierra
Leone in the capacity of apprentices to the old hands, who are
considered as headmen or masters: these headmen, according to their
influence, or station in their own country, have a proportionate number
of apprentices attached to them, fluctuating from five to twenty, to
teach them what they call "White man's fashion." The profit of the
labour of the youths is always received by the headmen, who returns
them a small portion of it. When an apprentice goes back to his own
country, after his first trip, he is considered to have passed through
the period of initiation, and when next he visits Sierra Leone, he
comes upon his own account. The amount of the gains of this visit (a
great part of which consists of what they have been able to steal) is
delivered up to the elders of his family, who select and purchase a
wife for him. A short time is now spent in marriage festivities with
the respective relatives of the parties, and then a fresh venture to
Sierra Leone is undertaken, on which occasion he leaves his wife with
her relations. The proceeds of the third visit are dedicated to the
buildi