CHAPTER XXVII

THE  MENDI  RISING  IN   1898

My remarks upon the Sherbro and its Hinterland would
no doubt be considered incomplete were I not to refer,
however briefly, to the discontent of the chiefs, which, in
the end of April, 1898, culminated in a general rising and
the massacre of a good many people, both white and
black.

When this occurred there seemed to be a feeling pre¬
vailing in England and elsewhere that this rising was
caused by the imposition of the house tax. Personally I
was never of that opinion, and subsequent events have, I
think, clearly shown that the insurrection was not to be
attributed to that cause.

To my thinking, there is not the slightest doubt that for
some years previous to the rising a very serious dissatisfac¬
tion had been growing in the minds of the chiefs ; the
'.beginning of which discontent was to be seen in 1893,
when the transportation of slaves through the country was
stopped. I had personal evidence, when I was far in the
interior, of the effect that this police order had upon the
chiefs ; and it required a very great deal of tact and
management upon my part to assuage, for the time being.