Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/256

 The emancipated Sierra-Leonese are supposed to be all Protestants of various denominations; nevertheless, many traces of the old heathendom survive amongst them, and some sects, mostly from the Slave Coast, still worship fire, thunder and lightning. In the "colony" nearly all children attend school, the young men continuing their studies in the secondary establishments, and in the Furah Bay College attached to the University of Durham.

At the census of 1881 the white population numbered only two hundred and seventy-one, and at times of sickness it often falls below a hundred. The Italian "mercanti" resist the climate best, and almost every steamer brings a few of these pedlars, mostly from Naples, who bravely tramp with their packs of glass beads

and coral from village to village, living like the natives, and enduring hardships and privations such as would kill any European unaccustomed to such an existence. Thanks to these intrepid dealers, the retail trade has acquired a certain importance, while wholesale transactions have declined since Freetown has ceased to be the capital. of all the English West African possessions. The policy followed by the Government towards the tribal chiefs has also proved ruinous to the trade of the country. Faithful to their theory of armed non-intervention, the English send no troops inland, but they subsidise the chiefs on the condition of their keeping the routes open. These subsidies, however, are mostly devoted to the purchase of arms and munitions of war, with the result that conflicts are constantly breaking