Note 251 — Chapter IX

Truth, being a peculiarly rare article, is highly valued here. King Sinmenkpen said to Governor Abson (1803), who, being a resident of thirty-seven years in the country, had attempted a mild deceit, that “he wished the Englishman had not been so much of a Dahoman-man, as to make use of any artifice.” I have myself been put to shame by hearing a Camaroons River chief declare to a Baptist missionary, who was palpably prevaricating, that had the truth been told, all would have been well. It must be a curiously self-sufficient brain that will enter into the lists of lying with an African.