The hill on which the barracks stand was as bright a green as you
would see on English slopes after a wet April, while down the streets
clear streams were running. The town was alive with a chattering,
laughing, good natured, excitable population, all black, but with
some slight variation in the dinginess of the hue.

Never was there such a place for fun as Sierra Leone. Every one was
brimful of it. Every one laughed when he or she spoke, and every
one standing near joined freely in the conversation and laughed
too. Frank was delighted with the display of fruit in the market,
which is probably unequaled in the world. Great piles there were
of delicious big oranges, green but perfectly sweet, and of equally
refreshing little green limes; pineapples and bananas, green, yellow,
and red, guava, and custard apples, alligator pears, melons, and
sour sops, and many other native fruits.

Mr. Goodenough purchased a large basket of fruit, which they took
with them on board the ship. The next morning they started down
the coast. They passed Liberia, the republic formed of liberated
slaves, and of negroes from America, and brought up a mile or two
off Monrovia, its capital. The next day they anchored off Cape
Palmas, the headquarters of the Kroomen. A number of these men
came off in their canoes, and caused great amusement to Frank and
the other passengers by their fun and dexterity in the management
of their little craft. These boats are extremely light, being
hollowed out until little thicker than pasteboard, and even with two
Kroomen paddling it is difficult for a European to sit in them, so
extremely crank are they. Light as they are the Krooboy can stand
up and dive from his boat without upsetting it if he take time;
but in the hurry and excitement of diving for coppers, when half a