CHAPTER  XXVIII

POTENTIALITIES

My first official vacation in the New Century has been
mainly devoted to the compiling of this volume, in the
hope that the important but little known district of the
Sherbro and its Hinterland may perhaps by its means
become more familiar to the British public. Should this
hope be fulfilled nothing would give me greater pleasure
than to see that familiarity leading to practical results;
as I feel that much may be done to raise the aborigines by
encouraging their native industries and creating a market
for them in England.

The Government during the past decade or so has
opened up the entire Hinterland. The frontier has been
definitely determined; friendly treaties have been entered
into with the paramount chiefs, their heirs and successors ;
the disastrous tribal wars have been stopped; the slave
trade abolished, and the whole Hinterland proclaimed a
Protectorate. Justice at length has been given to the
people, whose interests are now safeguarded against that
tyrannical oppression which hitherto had been their lot.

Now to those who from personal experience are capable
of forming a practical opinion, this great and  beneficent