6£(?0 
 
 7 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 DANIEL C. OILMAN. 
 

REPORT OF COMMANDER W. F. LYNCH, 
 
 IN RELATION TO HIS MISSION TO THE COAST OF AFRICA. 
 
 U. S. Steamer Alleghany, 
 
 Potomac River, October 17, 1853. 
 Sir : Herewith I respectfully submit my official report of a mission 
 to Africa, with appendix, maps, and sketches. 
 
 I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 
 
 W. F. LYNCH, Commander. 
 Hon. J. C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 Philadelphia, September 5, 1853. 
 
 Sir : In obedience to an order of the department, dated October 
 25, 1852, I left the United States on the 13th of November following, 
 for the west coast of Africa. 
 
 Touching at TenerifTe for information, I proceeded thence direct to 
 the coast, in order to form some idea of the distance inland to, and the 
 trending of, the nearest and most northern mountain range. 
 
 Africa — represented as torrid, pestilential, savage, and mysterious, 
 reserved and guarded by the most terrible and resistless influences of 
 nature — has been truly described as nowhere letting into its bosom the 
 waters of the ocean, and, in like manner, projecting into the sea no im- 
 portant peninsulas. From the stra ts of Gibraltar to the Cameroons, 
 the tame monotony of the coast is interrupted but by occasional isolated 
 promontories, which can only be termed lofty by comparison. 
 
 From Cape Cautin to the Great Desert the principal elevations are 
 "Ghebel Hadid" and the "Heights 3f Idantenan," and from the north 
 boundaiy of the desert to Cape Verde, "Los Matillos" and the "Hills 
 of Cintra" alone break the uniformity of a low and sandy coast. 
 
 On the 13th of January, of the present year, I saw Cape Verde, the 
 westernmost point of Africa, (in north latitude 14° 45',) which was first 
 discovered by the Portuguese navicator, Fernandes, about the middle 
 of the fifteenth century. In each direction, north and south, the coast 
 stretched. beyond the line of vision, in a narrow strip of sand, fringed 
 with green; except the extremity of the cape which threw up two de- 
 tached hillocks, of inconsiderable elevation, resembling islets in the 
 distance. On the hillocks were many of the baobab or monkey tree, 
 (Adansonia digitata,) which gives to them that verdant appearance 
 from whence the cape derives its name. This tree is liable to be at- 
 tacked by a fungus, which vegetates without destroying life, and ren- 
 ders the part attacked as soft as pith. 
 
 The trunks of such trees are hollowed into chambers by the natives, 
 in which they suspend the dead bodies of those to whom burial has 
 been denied. There they become mummies, dried and well preserved, 
 without being embalmed. This is somewhat analogous to the custom 
 of our Omaha Indians, who place the bodies of the dead in the crotches 
 of trees. Like all other plants of the mahacae order, the baobab is 
 
H. Doc. 1 
 
 emollient and mucilaginous, and Europeans sometimes use it as a 
 febrifuge and tonic. The fruit is large, oblong, pulpy, full of seeds, 
 and of an agreeable acid flavor; and its juice, when sweetened, is 
 drunk as a specific in putrid and pestilential fevers. The mandingoes 
 convey it to the southern and eastern districts of Africa, and through 
 the Arabs it reaches Morocco and Egypt. The ashes of the fruit, 
 mixed with palm oil, serve for soap. The flowers are large, white, 
 and handsome ; and in their many petals and violet mass of stamens, 
 bear some resemblance to the white poppy. Both flowers and fruit 
 are pendant. The baobab attains the greatest age and is the largest 
 tree known in the world, its trunk measuring, sometimes, ninety feet 
 in circumference. At one year old its diameter is one, and its height 
 five inches; at thirty years its idiameter is two feet, and its height 
 about twenty; at one thousand years its diameter is twelve or fourteen, 
 and its height about sixty feet ; and at five thousand years its lateral 
 has so far outstripped its perpendicular growth that the diameter will 
 be thirty feet, while its height scarce exceeds seventy feet. The roots 
 are of a most extraordinary length, and in a tree seventy-seven feet in 
 circumference the top root meas ired one hundred and ten feet. The 
 foliage is very abundant, and thj drooping boughs, with their mass of 
 green, almost hide the stem — presenting a hemispherical mass sixty to 
 seventy feet high and four hundrtd feet in circumference. Rene Caille 
 describes one he saw in the vajley of the Niger, which, in size, must 
 have surpassed the celebrated ^Iain-tree of Lycia, in the hollow of 
 which Licinius Mutianus feastedjtwenty-one guests. 
 
 Above the Senegal, on the dejsert of Zahara, the line of sand is no 
 
 from the powerful refraction there 
 
 the water with the land as to present 
 
 On that coast perished the hap- 
 
 longer bordered with green ; an 
 ensues a mirage, which so blend 
 the appearance of an illimitable 
 less crew of the Medusa. 
 
 It was a soft, golden morning 
 
 rhen we made the land ; but the sun 
 rose yellow and dim, enveloped n a bank of vapor. In the space of 
 an hour we had bidden adieu to he fresh wind that prevails from 30° 
 north latitude to this parallel, and exchanged the agitated but not angry 
 waves which curled before it for hot and stifling airs and a scarce un- 
 dulating sea, curtained with a nist formed of its own evaporation. 
 The northeast trade- wind, so codl and invigorating, had given place to 
 the dry and parching harmattan, which, under its other names of 
 samiel, simoon, and sirocco, sweeps across the deserts of Arabia and 
 Africa. During this wind, whicji, in its flaws of heat, resembles more 
 the blast of a furnace than living air, the atmosphere is hot, dry, and 
 rarified to an almost insufferable idegree, and sometimes becomes suf- 
 focating from the clouds of dust (and sand driven before it. But we 
 were not sensible of the strong aromatic odor wafted from the land, 
 which regaled the senses of Hanno and his Carthagenian mariners in 
 their voyage of discovery upwards of two thousand years ago. 
 
 A few hours after passing Cape Verde I arrived at Goree, a volcanic 
 island, formed of basalt and sand, which, with some settlements on the 
 Senegal, three degrees to the north, the French have held since 1816. 
 This island is about half a mile long and a quarter wide. It is strongly 
 fortified; and, from its natural position, the fortress on its summit 
 
H. Doc. 1. 3 
 
 is almost impregnable — three sides being perpendicular and washed 
 by the sea, and the fourth a precipitous ascent from the town. 
 The population of the town and garrison is estimated at from six to 
 eight thousand. Besides the fort on the summit of the hill, the place 
 is strongly fortified, but could not long withstand a siege, as it is almost 
 wholly dependent on the adjacent main for wood and water. It is the 
 great entrepot of the French colonial possessions in West Africa, north 
 of the equator. 
 
 There were in port, when we arrived, seven or eight French, one 
 American, and two English merchant vessels — besides a French squad- 
 ron of six sail, mostly steamers. The latter were preparing for a hos- 
 tile expedition against a tribe to the south. 
 
 The river Senegal is supposed to rise in the mountains of Foota 
 Jallon, and on the eastern slope of the same range it is surmised that 
 the Niger has its source. In about 15° north latitude, the Senegal is 
 joined by several tributaries, and, after passing Galam and the falls of 
 Feloo, makes a circuitous bend to the northwest along the borders of 
 the desert, and, after a course of upwards of 900 miles, empties into 
 the Atlantic at Fort St. Louis. In its lower course, it flows between 
 the Great Desert on the one hand, aud a vast alluvial plain on the 
 other, and becomes so swollen during the periodic rains, and sweeps 
 with such a resistless current into the sea, that the latter, which, in the 
 dry season, impregnates the river for upwards of a hundred miles from 
 its mouth, is driven back with so fearful a recoil, that for a mile with- 
 out the bar is one wide sheet of foam. At such times, entrance is im- 
 possible ; hence the selection of the anchorage of Goree, which is at 
 all times accessible. 
 
 Where it flows by Tuabo, the capital of Lower Galam, the Sene- 
 gal, in the rainy season, presents a magnificent sight. It fills the plain, 
 and rushes at the rate of six knots an hour by the bases of the hills, 
 which are clothed to their summits with the richest verdure, while the 
 surfice of the stream is dotted with uprooted trees, on which are seen 
 standing large aigrettes, whose snow-white feathers reflect the rays of 
 a brilliant sun, and form a pleasant contrast to the green reeds around 
 them and the brown trunks of the trees whereon they stand. 
 
 The principal articles of export from this region are the gutta-percha 
 and the gum-senegal — the latter an exudation from a species of acacia, 
 the bark of which is split by desiccation during the prevalence of the 
 harmattan. Towards the close of the last century, this gum was dis- 
 covered to be more mucilaginous and adhesive than that from Arabia, 
 which, in the arts, it has almost wholly superseded. There are now 
 upwards of two millions of pounds exported annually, mostly to France. 
 
 The French have settlements far up the Senegal, and control the 
 trade of which it is the outlet; although they are not masters of the 
 country — a country presenting a vast and interesting field for explora- 
 tion. In its far interior, in the midst of barbarous nations, a semi- 
 civilized tribe has been recently discovered, which has some religious no- 
 tions analogous to the Christian, and possess an alphabet and a mode of 
 writing, which, from their account, they derived from a white stranger 
 who died among them, and whose memory is revered as that of a sage. 
 
4 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 It was doubtless the traveller Compagnon, who, it is known, pene- 
 trated as far as the wooded desert of Simboni. 
 
 Except the island of Goree, and the hillocks crowned with foliage 
 beyond it, which mark the peninsula of Cape Verde, there was pre- 
 sented to the eye, in every direction, inland and along the coast, a 
 monotonous level of green, relieved here and there by the feathery tuft 
 of a majestic palm. These were the only interruptions to the in-shore 
 horizon. 
 
 From Goree I proceeded down the coast, eighty miles, to the 
 Gambia; the land throughout the entire distance being low and densely 
 wooded, except in one place, where a range of sand-hills presented 
 perpendicular faces washed by the sea. Lying at anchor in the Gambia 
 was the United States ship John Adams, rendering assistance to an 
 American merchant vessel in distress. I felt much relieved when I 
 descried pur ensign at her peak. Her presence relieved me from the 
 necessity, for which I had prepared by the purchase of charts and in- 
 struments, for making my reconnoissance in a small coasting vessel 
 manned by Africans. It was with infinite satisfaction, therefore, that 
 I grasped the hand of her manly and most excellent commander, and 
 exchanged greetings with her intelligent officers, and looked upon her 
 snow-white decks, her splendid battery, and clean, cheerful, and well- 
 disciplined crew. 
 
 I presented to Commander Barron the order of the department, and 
 he professed his readiness to carty out its views. I likewise informed 
 him of the application I made just prior to my departure, asking to be 
 allowed to extend the reconnoisfeance to the river Gaboon, near the 
 equator, and showed him the reply of the department granting the per- 
 mission, if it could be done in time. With every disposition to facilitate 
 my movements, Commander B. seated that he could take me along the 
 entire coast of Liberia, stopping at every place I might deem it neces- 
 sary to examine; or he could proceed with me direct to the Gaboon, 
 and from thence return to Porto jraya; but that he had not on board a 
 sufficient quantity of provisions fir both services. 
 
 As my orders were positive respecting Liberia, and only contingent 
 as to the Gaboon, and as I had an expectation, scarce short of cer- 
 tainty, that in six weeks the sloo$ Marion or the steamer Vixen would 
 be on the coast, I accepted his fijst proposition. 
 
 Like the Senegal, the Gambia has its source in the mountains of 
 Footah Jallon, near that of the [Falerne, one of the tributaries of the 
 former. It is a powerful and rapid stream, and is navigable four hun- 
 dred miles to the falls of Barriconda. Its whole course is about seven 
 hundred miles, setting first to the northwest, and then to the west, and 
 falls into the Atlantic at north latitude 13°. The Gambia is a mag- 
 nificent water-road, which has never been thoroughly explored by 
 Europeans ; but there is a current belief that, by one of its tributaries, 
 it is connected with the Senegal. 
 
 During the dry season, from November until May, the influence of 
 the tide is perceptible some distance up; but while the rains prevail, 
 and for several weeks after, a mighty volume of water sweeps down in 
 an almost resistless current, and after overflowing its lower banks it 
 encounters the long and narrow island of St. Mary's, which deflects it 
 
H. Doc. 1. 5 
 
 a little to the north, when it spreads out and becomes lost in the sea. 
 The island, but slightly elevated above the surface of the water, forms 
 one side of the noble estuary, and lies lengthwise close adjacent to the 
 southern shore. The two low, sandy shores are ten miles distant at 
 the river's mouth, where an extensive shoal forms two separate channels. 
 
 On the north extremity of the island of St. Mary's, which is only one 
 foot above high-water mark, just at the elbow round which sweeps the 
 river, is the town of Bathurst, an English commercial and military set- 
 tlement. 
 
 The soil of the island is sand and gravel, intermixed with a brown 
 oxide of iron; and, judging from the overgrown weeds in the outskirts 
 of the town and the size of the vegetables within it, is more prolific than, 
 from its appearance, one would suppose. Towards the main land, the 
 soil is evidently an alluvial deposite from above. 
 
 Bathurst is a very handsome place, containing some twelve or four- 
 teen fine houses built of stone, the residences of the merchants, besides 
 the hospital, the government house, and the barracks for the accommo- 
 dation of English officers and black soldiers — the non-commissioned 
 officers and privates of British regiments serving in Africa being re- 
 cruited from the negroes of the West Indies. 
 
 There are three companies of a West India regiment, always short 
 of their complement, which compose the garrison of the settlements, 
 being distributed among the stations comprising McCarthy's island, 175 
 miles up the river ; Fort Bullen, on the Barra shore, opposite to Bathurst ; 
 Cape St. Mary's, eight miles distant, in the kingdom of Combo ; and 
 Bathurst, the seat of government. 
 
 The government, as in that of all the British colonies in Africa, is 
 administered by a governor and legislative council, whose acts are sent 
 home for royal approval. The Europeans resident here number about 
 forty, including officers, merchants, some Wesleyan missionaries, two or 
 three ladies, and as many of that celestial band, the Sisters of Charity. 
 The rest of the population number about 2,000; consisting of Africans, 
 mostly JalofFs, Mandingoes, some Foulahs, and an occasional Moor who 
 has strayed down from the interior. Amidst many discordant sounds, 
 the ear of the stranger, as he walks through the market at Bathurst, 
 will be struck occasionally by accents from female lips, which he will 
 at once pronounce the softest and most melodious he ever heard. There 
 is a plaintiveness in the tone, and a music in the flexure of the voice, 
 which is indescribable. I could not learn of what tribe the speakers 
 were, for it is more difficult to designate the country of the female than 
 of the male. 
 
 The Mandingo language is considered more melodious than that of 
 the Foulahs, while the later is said to be more copious and to possess 
 a structure which would indicate a former high condition of the race. 
 
 Seen through the foliage of the trees in front, the buildings of the town 
 present an imposing and beautiful appearance from the harbor. The 
 habitations of the natives are huts made of cane, wattled around slender 
 uprights and plastered, many of them inside and out, with mortar. 
 Those of the poorer classes are plastered with mud. The huts are 
 usually in the form of a parallelogram, from 16 to 20 feet long, by 12 
 to 14 wide, and the walls from five to six feet high. The roofs are 
 
6 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 conical, formed of light poles meeting in the centre, and thatched with 
 the long grass of the country. 
 
 The huts are not built in regular rows, each one fronting on the street, 
 one for each family ; but are many of them in enclosures of wicker work, 
 containing two or three or more huts, according to the number of wives 
 of the proprietor. These huts very much attracted my attention, and I 
 visited several of them, each usually containing one or two beds made 
 of mats, spread on fixtures to the wall, a few chairs, and a table, on 
 which was exhibited the household crockery. Excepting thatthe3 r are 
 better finished, these huts are, I am told, fair specimens of those in the 
 neighboring country; but the bed-fixtures, the chairs, the tables, and the 
 crockery, are the results of close contact with civilization. The native 
 inhabitants of the town are nearly all Mohammedans — some few are 
 Pagans; but, so far as I could learn, there was not an adult Christian 
 among them. Nearly all wear gree-grees or charms, consisting of a 
 bit of camwood, a tooth of some wild animal, or a sentence from the 
 Koran, cased in skin. Their dress is flowing and very graceful, con- 
 sisting, with some slight variety, of a white cloth wrapped around the 
 loins and extending to the knees, and another with an aperture for 
 the head, resting upon the shoulders, like the bernoos of the Syrian 
 horseman. 
 
 The Jaloff is the tallest race of men I have ever seen, and forcibly 
 reminded me of the fabulous accounts of the Patagonians. They in- 
 habit the vast district extending along the coast from the Gambia to the 
 Senegal. Their frames are rather slight than muscular : they are coal- 
 black in their complexions, and have the short, crisped hair peculiar to 
 the negro race ; but have not the thick lips, flat nose, and low, rece- 
 ding forehead which, in our idead, are associated with the features of 
 the African. On the contrary, with the Caucasian, they have promi- 
 nent noses, and their foreheads aije high but narrowing at the temples. 
 Each one carries himself as stately as if he were a monarch — the wo- 
 men as much so as the men, and with the same proportion as elsewhere, 
 in the respective size of the sexes> I am not alone in the opinion that 
 the females are, on an average, as tall as men are with us. It is a 
 very interesting race. The Eurppeans here represent them as easily 
 managed by gentle means, but exceedingly dangerous when provoked, 
 and as being very expert in the use of fire-arms. In point of stature 
 they correspond with the Berri, a tall race of men towards the other 
 side of the continent. The JalofJs are high-toned and courteous ; and, 
 in contradistinction to the other tribes, are called by foreigners the 
 "gentlemen of Africa." 
 
 The Mandingoes are from the banks of the Gambia, from Manding 
 down to the coast. It is a numerous and powerful race, with more of 
 the characteristic features of the negro than the JalofFs. They are re- 
 presented as lively in their dispositions, prone to traffic, and with some 
 taste for literature — a literature confined to the Koran. It is said they 
 read no other book, and are taught no other lessons in their schools but 
 an unmeaning repetition of its laws and precepts. I question the cor- 
 rectness of the assertion. The songs of the Jelli, or singing men, would 
 bespeak a higher intellectual cultivation. Mr. Laing visited in 1822 
 the walled town of Kakundi, in the country of Melicouri, and was there 
 
H. Doc. 1. 7 
 
 introduced to King Yaradee, one of the chiefs of Sulima. On that oc- 
 casion was recited the following song, which is almost as poetic and 
 far more genuine than the fabled poems of Ossian. It commemorates an 
 advantage gained by Yaradee over the Foulahs, at the time when ten 
 thousand of them, headed by Ba Dembah, laid siege to Falata: 
 
 "Shake off that drowsiness, brave Yaradee, thou lion of war! 
 Hang thy sword to thy side, and be thyself! Dost thou not behold the 
 army of the Foulahs? Observe their lines of muskets and spears, 
 vying in brightness with the rays of the departing sun ! They are 
 strong and powerful ; yea, they are men ! and they have sworn on the 
 Al Koran that they will destroy the capital of the Sulima nation. So, 
 shake off that drowsiness, brave Yaradee, thou lion of war ! The 
 brave Talaheer, thy sire, held the Foulahs in contempt. Fear was a 
 stranger to his bosom! He set the firebrand to Timbo, that nest of the 
 Islamites ; and, though worsted at Herico, he scorned to quit the field, 
 but fell like a hero, cheering his war-men. If thou art worthy to be 
 called the son of Talaheer, shake off that drowsiness, brave Yaradee, 
 thou lion of war ! 
 
 " Brave Yaradee stirred. He shook his garments of war, as the 
 soaring eagle ruffles his pinions. Ten times he addressed his gree- 
 grees, and swore to them that he would either return in triumph to 
 the sound of the war-drum, or that the cries of the Jelli should bewail 
 his fall. The war-men shouted with joy. 
 
 " Behold ! he shakes from him that drowsiness, the lion of war! he 
 hangs his sword by his side, and is now himself! 
 
 "Follow me to the field! exclaimed the heroic Yaradee! Fear 
 nothing ! for, let the spear be sharp, or the ball be swift, faith in your 
 gree-grees will preserve you from danger. Follow me to the field ; 
 lor I am roused, and have shook off that drowsiness. I am brave Yar- 
 adee, the lion of war ! I have hung my sword by my side, and am 
 myself. I have shook off that drowsiness. The war-drum sounds, and 
 the sweet notes of the balla encourage warriors to deeds of arms. The 
 valiant Yaradee mounts his steed ! His headmen follow ! The north- 
 ern gate of Falaba is thrown open, and they rush from it with the 
 swiftness of leopards. Yaradee is a host in himself! Observe how he 
 wields his sword ! They fall before him ! They stagger ! They reel ! 
 Foulah men ! you will long remember this day ! for Yaradee has shook 
 off his drowsiness, the lion of war ! He has hung his sword by his 
 side, and is himself." 
 
 By way of contrast of the turn of thought and mode of expression, 
 I give the account of a Bornou man, related by himself: 
 
 " My years were eighteen. There was war. At that time my 
 mother died. My father died. I buried them. I had done. The 
 Foulahs caught me. They sold me. The Housa people bought us. 
 They brought us to Tomba. We got up. We came to the Popo coun- 
 try. The Popoes took us. To a white man they sold us. The white 
 man took us. We had no shirts. We had no trousers. We were 
 naked. Into the midst of the water — into the midst of a ship they put 
 us. Thirst killed somebody. Hunger killed somebody. By night we 
 prayed. At sun-time we prayed. God heard us. The English are 
 good. God sent them. They came. They took us. Our hunger died. 
 
8 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 Our thirst died. Our chains went .off from our feet. Shirts they gave 
 us. Trousers they gave us. Hats they gave us. Every one was glad. 
 We all praised the English. Whoever displeases the English, into hell 
 let him go." 
 
 The Mandingoes manufacture cotton cloths, and dye them with indigo 
 and other vegetable dyes in colors so fixed as to resist, it is said, the 
 action of acids, and light — a quality surpassing that of any other known 
 dye-stuff in the world. The Mandingo indigo-plant, as it is here called, 
 has a deep-green leaf, with a number of spear-shaped leaflets along 
 the sides of a common leaf-stalk, opposite to each other and abruptly 
 winged, and may therefore be classed among compound leaves. From 
 thirty leaves of this plant, nearly an ounce of pure indigo has been ob- 
 tained. The Mandingoes are skilled also in the tanning of hides, and 
 the preparation of leather; and the specimens which I saw of their 
 bridles, whips, pouches, sword and dagger sheaths, and powder-horns, 
 far surpass all I had conceived of native manufacture. 
 
 The Foulahs or Fellatas are rigid Mohammedans, and are very dis- 
 tinct from the Jaloffs and Mandingoes. They sustain the remark that 
 the inhabitants of an inland country are of lighter complexion than 
 those who reside on the seacoast in the same parallel of latitude. 
 They are lighter-colored, their noses are more prominent, and their 
 general features partake more of the Nubian than of an African tribe 
 bordering on the great desert. 
 
 There is an ancient tradition cherished by them of their being de- 
 scendants of a white race, and they have often assigned it as a reason 
 why they should have no interests conflicting with those whose origin 
 they regard as the same with their own. Those seen at Bathurst are 
 from the countries north and south of the Gambia, above McCarthy's 
 island. Although they have made a few settlements on the southern 
 bank, they do not, in general, evince a taste for agricultural pursuits. 
 They are warlike shepherds, and are overrunning Western and Central 
 Africa with as much zeal, and with equal success, as the Saracens did 
 the northern shore of the continent in the seventh century. They are 
 ever at war, and warring but to conquer ; with the sword and the 
 Koran they exterminate paganism wherever they appear. 
 
 At the close of the last century there was not a Mohammedan south 
 of Cape Verde or west of Footah Torra. Now, of the two millions of 
 inhabitants occupying that country, two-thirds are Mohammedans. At 
 present, a religious war is raging within two miles of Bathurst ; and 
 the English officer, in his evening ride, can hear the report of fire-arms 
 and the uproar of battle. Not long since the combatants approached 
 so near that their bullets struck the barrack-wall and the houses and 
 fences of European residents. I have mentioned a French squadron 
 fitting out in Goree for the purpose of attacking a tribe lower down the 
 coast. The circumstance was related in the presence of the governor 
 here ; and an officer of the garrison, who had just arrived upon the 
 station, remarked, that in his opinion one small steamer and a hundred 
 men would be sufficient for the purpose. " Far from it," replied the 
 governor; "and you will think so, too, when you have been longer in 
 Africa. There are, at this moment," he added, "people within fifteen 
 miles of us whom we dare not attack." 
 
H. Doc. 1. 
 
 The Foulahs have warred against the Tauriyacks in the north, and 
 the negroes of Bambara in the south. With the Jaloffs and Mandin- 
 goes, they occupy much of the western coast ; and in the interior of 
 the continent have subjugated Yoruba, Nyfee, and Housa. They now 
 extend from the Atlantic to the Niger, and from the Senegal to within 
 a few days' march of the Gulf of Guinea ; and within the present 
 century have founded Soccatoo, the capital of their empire. Wherever 
 they have settled, pagan idolatry is said to have disappeared, and 
 human sacrifices are abolished. In one respect their success will check 
 the traffic in slaves, and thus prove beneficial to humanity. By their 
 civil code, derived from the Koran, it is forbidden to enslave any one 
 born of free parents, and professing the religion of Mohammed ; and 
 the slave of a kafir, by embracing Islamism, becomes, ipso facto, free. 
 
 By the abolition of human sacrifices, and the substitution of the 
 worship of the true Gcd for that of senseless idols, the Foulahs are 
 unquestionably ministers of good to Africa ; but it may be doubted 
 whether, under the Mohammedan rule, that country will present less 
 difficulties than at present to the advancement of Christianity within 
 it. The theology of Islamism is unexceptionable. " Obedience leads 
 the way to heaven ; fasting and self-denial give it rapid progress ; 
 and alms-deeds open the door." 
 
 But, unhappily, all kafir s — a term embracing Christians and in- 
 fidels — are excluded from their charity. Intolerant in their bigotry, 
 the very exercise of what they believe to be virtues begets a spirit 
 of self-righteousness, which may prove the greatest obstacle to their 
 conversion. 
 
 The commerce of the Gambia, already great, is rapidly increasing. 
 Bathurst is the port of entry for all the settlements on the river, ex- 
 cept the French colony of Albreda. There are no discriminating 
 tonnage duties; and, except sixpence per gallon on wines and spirits, 
 and one farthing per pound on tobacco, the import duty on all goods, 
 British and foreign, is four per cent. A comparison of the official 
 returns of 1840 and that of 1S51 (the last rendered) will convey an 
 accurate idea of the advance of commerce. 
 
 In 1S40 the foreign tonnage entered was 6,922 tons, and that of 
 1851 was 21,596 tons ; while the difference between the aggregate 
 imports and exports was $325,000. This difference is annually in- 
 creasing, and the exports of 1851 exceeded those of the preceding 
 year $120,000. In 1835 there were but 47 tons of ground-nuts 
 raised on the Gambia. In 1845 the trade in that article commenced, 
 and it was exported to the amount of $995. In 1851, including 1,000 
 tons from Albreda, there were upwards of 12,000 tons exported, 
 amounting to $720,000, one-fifteenth of which found its way to the 
 United States, and about the same proportion to Great Britain. Nearly 
 five-sixths of the whole amount is exported to France, where an oil is 
 expressed from it, which is used for the table and for supplying lamps. 
 It is much esteemed, and is said never to become rancid. 
 
 It will be perceived that extra duties are levied on the principal ar- 
 ticles imported from the United States. But it is not fair to infer that 
 they are imposed in a spirit of illiberality. No man, who is a friend to 
 
10 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 his race, would regret, if the tax on New England rum and all intoxica- 
 ting drinks amounted, everywhere, to a total prohibition. As for 
 tobacco, the very light duty imposed aids the revenue, while it does 
 not lessen the importation ; for it is an indispensable article in the Afri- 
 can trade ; and whatever he sells, the native requires a part of the pay- 
 ment to be made in tobacco. Of this staple of our country, we last 
 year imported into the Gambia one and a half million pounds. Our 
 other imports for the same period included one thousand barrels of 
 flour and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of cotton goods, 
 besides salt provisions, hams, potatoes, furniture, shoes, hats, &c, to 
 a large amount. Hides form a considerable portion of the exports, 
 and are sent almost exclusively to our country ; and at least one-fourth 
 of the imports are from the United States, exclusive of the tobacco 
 brought in vessels of other nations. 
 
 Leaving the Gambia, we stretched a little from the land, to pass 
 outside the Isles de Los, and steered our course for Sierra Leone. 
 The coast is low and thickly wooded, with occasional clumps of trees 
 showing above the surface. These clumps, alone visible at times 
 above the misty exhalations of the land, like the hillocks of Cape Verde, 
 resemble islands in the distance. With these interruptions, the scene 
 inland was as level and monotonous as that to seaward. On the one 
 hand an unbroken mass of foliage, and on the other a slumbering sea, 
 with a mist brooding over it, which narrowed the limits of the horizon. 
 
 Our passage was a long and tedious one, and the weather was most 
 relaxing. By day we had light and fitful airs, which scarce agitated 
 the hazy atmosphere through which the rays of the sun penetrated with 
 scorching heat, while the eye shrunk in pain from the glare of light. 
 During the night calms mostly prevailed, but the heated air kept evap- 
 oration suspended, except when the wind shifted to the north, and 
 then the dew was copious. Notwithstanding the heat was most trying 
 to the system, the average temperature was only 83°. Our progress 
 was as much accelerated by a southerly current as by wind and can- 
 vass. In our course we passed the mouths of the Rio Grande, the 
 Nunez, and the Pongo. The former is more a deep bay, with numer- 
 ous islands, than an estuary ; the two latter are considerable rivers, 
 which flow from the interior in many intricate channels, connecting 
 with each other, which, while they increase the difficulties of naviga- 
 tion to vessels of burden, extend to the inhabitants great facilities of 
 intercommunication. 
 
 A vessel drawing twelve feet water can ascend the Nunez sixty 
 miles to Kakundy. The town of Tallabuncia, about four miles from 
 its mouth, is described as being situated in a plain, and beautifully 
 shaded with lofty palm-trees, and a great profusion of the lime, the 
 orange, the plantain, and the banana. The men inhabiting it are strong 
 and well formed, but of a savage appearance, having their breasts and 
 arms tattooed, and are almost destitute of clothing. Large holes are 
 pierced through their ears, in which are inserted bits of coarse grass. 
 The appearance of the women is still less attractive. At the com- 
 mencement of the rains the locust tree on the Nunez ripens its fruit, 
 which hangs in clusters from its branches, and furnishes a great part 
 of the food of the natives at that season. 
 
H. Doc. 1. 11 
 
 The coast from the Nunez nearly to Sierra Leone was, until the 
 early part of this century, inhabited by the Soosoos, who drove from it 
 the aboriginal tribe, only leaving them a few settlements along the 
 shore and on the island of Tamara, the largest of the Isles de Los. 
 
 The Soosoos are patriotic and brave, determined enemies of Moham- 
 medanism, and subject to no superstition which would not readily yield 
 to the light of Christianity. Their notions of the Deity are extremely 
 vague, and it can scarcely be said that they have any religion. They 
 have some obscure idea of an omnipotent power, and pay respect and 
 homage to departed souls — honoring, with solemn rites and offerings, 
 the manes of their ancestors. They are accustomed to visit certain 
 spots consecrated to the dead, and deposite some portion of their food 
 and call over the names of their deceased friends. 
 
 Hospitality is a virtue for which the Soosoos are distinguished ; and 
 the stranger, it is said, never passes through one of their villages with- 
 out being invited to take rest or refreshment. Should the reigning 
 king, in the opinion of a majority of the chiefs, prove too weak for his 
 trust, or should age unfit him for the discharge of his duties, by an act 
 of peculiar significance he is called upon to retire. A messenger pre- 
 sents to him a silver basin containing a piece of white paper. If the 
 king places his royal turban in the basin, he may descend, without dis- 
 turbance or danger, to the walks of common life, and there enjoy the 
 respect and affection of his countrymen ; but should he refuse to com- 
 ply with this peaceful request, he retains his turban and manifests his 
 resolution to defend it, by sending back in its stead a piece of scarlet 
 cloth, with powder and ball. This is the signal for civil war. 
 
 The Soosoos have been dispossessed of a great portion of their ter- 
 ritory by the Mandingoes, who occupy the country between the recent 
 conquests of the Foulahs and the sea. 
 
 Somewhere in that territory are the Loubies — supposed to be de- 
 scendants of the Lencothiopes of Ptolomy and Pliny. They are repre- 
 sented as a degenerate race — poor and squalid in appearance — who 
 neither cultivate the soil nor follow pastoral pursuits, but manufacture 
 wooden bowls and other trifles, and carry on a petty traffic with the 
 Mandingoes. 
 
 The language of the Bulloms and that of the Timmanees, who oc- 
 cupy the shores of the river Sierra Leone, are said to be harmonious to 
 the ear, but surpassed in sweetness by the dialect of the Soosoos. The 
 Mandingo language is more difficult than either to acquire ; and, in con- 
 sequence of abounding in gutturals, is harsher in pronunciation. 
 
 In consequence of light winds and calms we had a long passage to 
 Sierra Leone. The river of Sierra Leone discovered by Pietro de 
 Cintra, in 1462, and formerly called the Mitomba, is formed by the 
 junction of four streams — the Bunce, Rokelle, Porto Lago, and Ma- 
 hara — and falls into the s"ea in north latitude' 8° 30', and west lon- 
 gitude 13° 43'. The name "Sierra Leone" was given to the mount- 
 ain range south of the river from the fancy that the loud reverberation 
 of thunder in the valleys resembled the roaring of lions. 
 
 The peninsula, which breaks down suddenly at the river's mouth, is 
 very lofty compared with the opposite shore, and stretches inland to 
 the southeast in a range which soon reaches an elevation of more than 
 
12 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 2,000 feet. The range is not uniform ; bul presents on the north side 
 detached hills, with valleys between, that increase in width as they de- 
 scend and sweep down towards the river ; before reaching which they 
 unite in a rolling and luxuriant plain, varying only in the character of 
 their foliage. The valleys and hill-tops were clothed with luxuriant 
 verdure when we saw them. As viewed from the sea, the scene was pic- 
 turesque and imposing : on one side a low shore, stretching away to 
 the north, which looked dark in its dull uniformity of green ; on the 
 other the lofty mountain range, showing above the mist which rolled 
 up from the valleys and gathered around its waist. The scenery is 
 that of paradise ; but beneath its beauty, like the serpent concealed 
 amid flowers and foliage, lurks the deadly venom which is developed in 
 the rainy season, when its earliest and its surest victim is the white man. 
 
 Now, it is comparatively healthy ; and the Europeans of the place, as 
 well as those of Bathurst, forget the alarms and fears of the past in the 
 enjoyments of the present. The river Sierra Leone is, like the Gambia, 
 divided into two channels ; but the southern and principal one is nar- 
 row, owing to an extensive shoal along the northern shore. 
 
 In approaching the harbor the scenery softens into the beautiful. 
 The breeze which daily sets in to temper the heat of the sun, wafts 
 masses of clouds from seaward ; which, in passing over, cast their 
 shadows upon the swelling hills and outstretching valleys. 
 
 At home, we sometimes behold the foliage of the trees wearing rich 
 autumnal tints, while the grass beneath is green ; but here it is reversed : 
 the grass is embrowned by the want of moisture at this season; while 
 the trees, their roots striking deeper into the soil, retain their tropical 
 verdure. And this tropical character is enhanced by the frequent palm- 
 tree — the ancient and acknowledged symbol of fertility. 
 
 Between the cape and the anchorage off the town, there are many 
 ferruginous rocks scattered along the shore : but the rugged appearance 
 is relieved by two placid little bays, into which empty some small 
 streams, fringed with shrubbery ; among which we could not detect 
 the fever-engendering mangrove. The ferruginous soil, the rounded 
 summits of the mountain range, and the small pieces of lava brought 
 up by the lead in sounding near the Banana islands, which lie abreast 
 of it, all indicate a volcanic origin. 
 
 Here and there, on the hill-sides and throughout the rolling plain, are 
 cultivated spots, with pretty cottages embowered in foliage, which be- 
 come more and more frequent in approaching the town. Freetown is 
 built on the northern declivity of the mountain, which towers 2,600 
 feet behind it — a beautiful, but most insalubrious position ; for the high 
 lands exclude the sea-breeze from the quarter whence it blows in the 
 sickly season, and from the swampy shore on the other side is borne, 
 by the land-breeze, the miasmata which is so deadly to the white man. 
 One can scarcely realize that death can be shrouded in so much 
 beauty. 
 
 The soil in and around the town is formed of a brittle rock, consist- 
 ing of sandstone and a combination of iron with oxygen, having a strong 
 magnetic quality. 
 
 In the centre of the town are the stores and dwellings of the Euro- 
 pean residents and principal native merchants, flanked on one side 
 
H. Doc. 1. 13 
 
 by Krootown, and on the other by populous villages of liberated 
 Africans. 
 
 The whole is well laid out, and the principal streets broad and rect- 
 angular. The houses in the centre town have generally a superstructure 
 of frame, on a ba'sement of stone. They are mostly surrounded by 
 covered galleries, having trellis-work in front ; and are detached from 
 each other, with many trees around them. The dwellings of the Kroo- 
 men, who resort here in great numbers for employment, and those of 
 the liberated Africans, are similar to the huts at Bathurst in their con- 
 struction ; but, unlike them, they are built in lines with the streets, 
 and not in detached courts. 
 
 Some of the Africans reside in the centre town in well-finished 
 houses, and own considerable property. One of the most extensive 
 merchants of the place is a native of the interior. Many of the natives 
 keep small retail shops ; but some of their stores are as attractive as 
 those of Europeans ; and those who keep them import their goods from 
 England, and export, in return, large cargoes of timber. The blacks 
 are as eligible as whites to all civil and municipal offices — mayor, 
 alderman, sheriff, &c. Some years ago, the governor of the colony 
 was a colored man ; and a very intelligent one, with whom I became 
 acquainted, held the situation of colonial chaplain. 
 
 Many of the negroes residing in the place are well clothed, present- 
 ing quite a contrast to some of the natives of the surrounding country, 
 each with a single garment girt about his loins. The Mandingoes, 
 however, and the natives from Matakong, with the products of their 
 manufacturing skill, twisted and stamped gold rings, and pouches, 
 bridles, and sword-cases of leather, look well in their long white or 
 blue garments, thrown over the head and resting upon the shoulders. 
 
 The public buildings in the centre town are the church, the jail, the 
 custom-house, and the commissariat, built of the ironstone of the coun- 
 try, none of them imposing in appearance. Half-way up the elevation, 
 immediately back of the town, is the governor's house, occupying the 
 site of a fort, and less imposing even than the public buildings below it. 
 
 A short distance above and beyond the governor's is the hospital, a 
 plain building, in a bad position ; and crowning all are Tower Hill 
 barracks, composed of three massive buildings, capable of accommo- 
 dating 2,000 men. At present there are but 200 troops in the garrison, 
 composed, as at the Gambia, of English officers and black soldiers. 
 
 The view from the balcony of the officers' quarters is commanding 
 and superb. The town is spread out in front and on each side. The 
 native huts stretch far up the plain beyond the barracks, and look beau- 
 tiful in their long lines ot streets, so perfectly shaded by orange, 
 banana, and pawpaw trees, that, in places, the walls of huts are alone 
 visible ; the brown roofs being concealed by the lofty branches. But 
 there is a drawback to the view on the eastern side — the large and 
 well-filled grave-yard at the head of the valley. In 1833, the popula- 
 tion of Freetown was 7,000 : it is now 18,000 ; and that of the whole 
 colony was, in 1851, 44,500. 
 
 The population is a very mixed one, consisting of Europeans, Nova- 
 Scotians, liberated Africans and native Creoles, West Indians, Ameri- 
 cans, (colored,) Kroomen, and natives of the district. The liberated 
 
14 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 Africans and native Creoles comprise ten-elevenths of the whole num- 
 ber. The creeds are as various as the races : commencing with the 
 largest number professing them, they are Wesleyan Methodists, Epis- 
 copalians, Pagans, African Methodists, (seceders from the Wesleyan,) 
 Lady Huntington's connexion, Mohammedans, Baptists, Catholics, 
 Presbyterians, and Jews. 
 
 The costumes of the inhabitants are as various as their creeds and 
 complexions ; the latter ranging from the ruddy cheek of Caledonia to 
 the sable brown of Egypt ; the former, from the superfluous garments 
 of civilization to the pitris naluralibus of barbarism. Generally, the adults 
 are partly clad — the women more so than the men, although some of 
 them have only a cloth around their loins. The young of both sexes 
 under twelve years of age generally go naked ; but some have adopted 
 the European dress. 
 
 As a love of ornament is a characteristic of the African race, there 
 is reason to hope that, as they lose their reverence for gree-grees, they 
 will appropriate the money heretofore expended for them to the pur- 
 chase of petticoats and trousers. In such a heterogeneous society, how- 
 ever, the reformation cannot be a rapid one. So long as there were 
 frequent accessions to the population from the slave-ships captured by 
 English cruisers, there was but little progress made in the introduction 
 of the manners and customs of the whites. Now, however, that the 
 horrible slave trade is, or seems to be, extirpated from these latitudes, 
 the present population will, day by day, yield their prejudices and pro- 
 pensities to the influences of Christianity and civilization ; but, for the 
 thorough reformation we must rely upon the missionary and the school- 
 master acting upon the rising generation. Daily, hourly, that influence 
 is now being exercised by humble but heroic men ; of whom, without 
 exaggeration, it may be said that they deliberately perish, in order that 
 others may live. 
 
 There seems to be much activity evinced in clearing the land of 
 its dense undergrowth in the vicinity of the settlements ; thus contribu- 
 ting, at the same time, to beautify the face of the country and promote 
 the health of its inhabitants. The whole colony is intersected by ex- 
 cellent roads, forming long, narrow vistas, overshadowed and beauti- 
 fied by the palm and the banana — with hedges of the coffee plant, the 
 leaves of the latter a rich and vivid green. These roads measure 
 seventy miles in length, and are continually repaired by the liberated 
 Africans. 
 
 The Bullom tribe occupy the northern shore of the river, and give 
 their name to the district they inhabit. The Timmanees were the origi- 
 nal inhabitants of the peninsula of Sierra Leone, and they still reside 
 in and around it. They are described as indolent and licentious. There 
 is a tradition that they were preceded by the Aiguas, who worshipped 
 the thunder-bolt. During thunder-storms they are represented as com- 
 ing forth from their huts* and by shouts and songs welcoming their deity. 
 On one occasion a pregnant woman was killed by lightning ; and far 
 and near the worshippers came in, exulting that with one bolt two 
 were killed. 
 
 It is a custom among the Timmanees, as also of many other tribes of 
 Western Africa, to throw a small portion of whatever they eat or drink 
 
H. Doc. 1. 15 
 
 upon the ground, as an Offering to the dead. The bodies of their kings 
 are deposited in charnel-houses, which are never opened ; but there are 
 small apertures through which cooked provisions and palm wine are in- 
 troduced, the Timmanees believing that they are consumed by the dead. 
 They have houses near their towns, in which are images, skulls, 
 shells, &c, in which their divinities are believed to reside. 
 
 I first saw here the cola or gorra-nut, so frequently mentioned by 
 Park, Clapperton, and the Landers. It is the seed of the Sterculia acu- 
 minata, resembling the horse-chestnut in appearance and growing in 
 pods, four or five together. It is exceedingly bitter, but is considered 
 an excellent tonic by the natives. It has an unquestionable peculiarity. 
 After chewing one, tepid and slightly brackish water tastes sweet and 
 refreshing. The locust tree of this country is very beautiful — covered 
 when in blossom with vermillion-colored flowers, which are followed 
 by pods containing a farinaceous substance, of which the natives are 
 very fond. In the yard of one of the colonists I saw a bread-fruit 
 tree, large and umbrageous, but without fruit, it being too early in 
 the season. The British government might have transplanted the bread- 
 fruit tree from this vicinity, instead of sending to the South Pacific for 
 it. Limes, oranges, plantains and bananas, with other tropical fruits, are 
 abundant in the market. Of fish there was no scarcity ; and there seemed 
 a sufficiency of indifferent beef and mutton to supply the limited de- 
 mand. There was no great variety of vegetables, the cassada, yams, 
 and sweet potatoes being the principal; and poultry was rarely Seen. 
 
 The movement which led to the first settlement of Sierra Leone ori- 
 ginated with the Society of Friends, and the first colonists consisted 
 mostly of London prostitutes and refugee slaves from the United States. 
 The object was humane, but the means adopted most injudicious. For- 
 tunately for the credit of the Christian name in a heathen land, nearly 
 one-half died or fled from the colony in a few months; and in less 
 than a year an African chief destroyed the settlement, and the whole 
 were dispersed. Another colony was sent out and the town was rebuilt, 
 but soon after destroyed by the French. A third time settled, it has, 
 with occasional trying vicissitudes, gone on increasing, until it has be- 
 come an important colony and the principal of the English settlements 
 in West Africa. It was formerly under the charge of the African as- 
 sociation, during which it suffered much from mal-administration of 
 its affairs ; but since the government has assumed the control and ex- 
 erted itself strenuously and successfully in suppressing the slave trade, 
 there is said to be a decided improvement in the character and habits 
 of the blacks. Many of them are well clothed, and all of them are 
 well behaved ; perfect order throughout the town is preserved by police- 
 men appointed from among them, each one distinguished by his badge 
 of authority. I heard no quarrelling, and among them saw no intem- 
 perance. 
 
 The trade of Sierra Leone, like that of the Gambia, is fast increas- 
 ing. From the official return to the British Parliament, the number 
 of vessels reported inwards at the customs of this port for ] 851 was 
 nearly double that of the preceding year ; and the amount of tonnage 
 entered shows an increase of 50 per cent The imports from the 
 United States amounted, in 1851, to $83,000 ; in 1852, to $98,000. 
 
16 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 But, in the words of the "official returns," "a very large proportion 
 of the exports are not reported ; it being a well-known fact that very 
 many vessels load annually in the neighboring rivers with produce, for 
 various parts of the world, and on account of the resident merchants of 
 the colony, but which are, nevertheless, not cleared outwards at the 
 custom-house ; and, consequently, no returns of their cargoes can be in- 
 cluded in the return of exports, which only shows the exports of those 
 vessels cleared by the customs." 
 
 The exports for 1852 were : 
 
 800,000 bushels ground-nuts, valued at $440,000 
 
 (i- - to France and to to the United States.) 
 
 400,000 feet timber— to England ; valued at 500,000 
 
 500,000 hides— to the United States ; at $1 each 500,000 
 
 300,000 gallons palm oil, at 33£ cents 100,000 
 
 (i to the United States and f to England.) 
 
 200 tons pepper, valued at " 400,000 
 
 (& to the United States and § to England.) 
 
 600 tons ginger, valued at 600,000 
 
 (£ to the United States and § to England.) 
 Beeswax not rendered — estimated at 90,000 
 
 Total 2,630,000 
 
 • . , , 
 
 A letter received from Sierra Leone since my return here, reports a 
 large proportionate increase for the first quarter of the present year ; 
 but as it is not official, I withhold it. It will be seen that the reported 
 exports very much exceed the imports ; and the inference is, that all of 
 the latter, as well as the former, are not entered at the custom-house, 
 but distributed in the neighboring rivers. 
 
 Leaving Sierra Leone for Monrovia, with a fair wind, we passed 
 Sherbro island and the Shcbar and Gallinas rivers, and on the second 
 day made Cape Mount. 
 
 The country between Sierra Leone and the Sherbro is covered with 
 timber, much of which is annually exported. With the exception ol about 
 ten miles along the coast, the Shebar is now the northern boundary of the 
 republic of Liberia. This river is properly an estuary of several rivers ; 
 and on the island between it and the sea, the first attempt was made 
 to settle a colony of colored people from the United States. The Boom 
 Kittam river, up which we have a considerable trade, flows in here 
 from the southeast. A short distance up the stream is the Mendi mis- 
 sion, established by our countrymen. They complain that they have 
 frequently been much incommoded, and that once or twice their prop- 
 erty and their lives were endangered by the cupidity of the native chiefs. 
 They at one time considered that they owed their preservation to the 
 timely interference of the commander of an English ship-of-war. This 
 is not the only instance which has come to my knowledge of the assist- 
 ance rendered by officers of the royal navy to our citizens trading to or 
 residing in Africa. 
 
 In an isolated position, like that on the Boom Kittam, it seems to me 
 that one of our cruisers should occasionally visit it ; for which purpose, 
 
H. Doc. 1. 17 
 
 as for many others connected with the suppression of the slave trade 
 and the protection of American lives and property, one or two steamers, 
 of light draught of water, should be attached to our squadron on the coast. 
 
 The Mohammedan religion was introduced into this district of coun- 
 try in the early part of this century, bv missionaries from Coroango and 
 Toubah. 
 
 De Cintra, sailing down the coast from Sierra Leone, discovered the 
 
 ' river Gallinas, to which he gave the name of Rio del Fumi, because he 
 
 7 saw nothing but smoke along the shore. Until recently the mouth of 
 
 this river was the most notorious slave mart on the western coast. The 
 
 factories were destroyed in 1849 by Commander Denham, R. N. 
 
 Through the joint liberality of two philanthropists — an Englishman 
 and a citizen of the United States — the territory was subsequently pur- 
 chased from the neighboring kings and annexed to the republic of Li- 
 beria ; and in May, 1852, the Cassa territory, which adjoins Gallinas 
 on the north, was also purchased, making the Shebar the northern 
 boundary of the republic. 
 
 From Gallinas to Cape Mount, along the coast, and extending about 
 thirty miles inland, is the territory occupied by the Veys, a warlike 
 tribe, numbering from ten to twelve thousand, heretofore actively en- 
 gaged in the slave trade. They are said to be separatists from the 
 Mandingoes ; and some of them are Mohammedans, and possess a de- 
 gree of intelligence, and are more highly civilized than the Deys and 
 other tribes to leeward. 
 
 Their language has been reduced to writing by syllabic characters, 
 and has a strong affinity to that of the Deys. 
 
 Sharks hover about the mouths of rivers on the coast ; and, during 
 the activity of the slave trade, were particularly numerous at Gallinas 
 bar, on the watch for the frequent upsetting of the canoes which trans- 
 ported slaves from the shore to the vessels in the offing. In 1849, a 
 captain of a vessel lying off Gallinas, who had visited the shore, for a 
 long time feared to launch his boat to return on board, in consequence 
 of the great number of sharks he saw swimming about. When he had 
 embarked, they pursued him so closely that he could strike them with 
 his oar. 
 
 As an instance of the rapacity of the shark, and the cruelty of one 
 of our countrymen, Dr. Savage relates, that in 1837 a native boy be- 
 longing to Tabou, about forty miles to leeward of Cape Palmas, was 
 taken on board of an American brig, to act the part of cabin-boy. 
 Having offended the mate on one occasion, he received a severe chas- 
 tisement, and rushed down into the cabin for protection from the cap- 
 tain, who was busily engaged in writing; but the latter, provoked at 
 such an abrupt intrusion, began also to beat him. The poor boy now 
 retreated to the deck, pursued by the captain, and encountering the 
 mate in a threatening attitude, he ran towards the bow of the ship. 
 The captain followed him, pouring forth his oaths and imprecations. 
 The little fugitive, finding no way of escape, sprang upon the bowsprit 
 and leaped into the sea. Here, hanging to the cable, without daring 
 to ascend, he began to entreat the compassion of his Christian employer, 
 who stood leaning over the bow, shaking his fist and threatening ven- 
 geance on his head if he attempted to come on board again. It can 
 2 
 
18 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 hardly be supposed that the captain intended to prevent his final ascent; 
 but he did prevent it in the end. For while the boy was pleading for 
 his mercy, two sharks were seen to approach, and, each grasping at a 
 leg, rent his body asunder. The next moment the captain saw only 
 the bloody wave swashing against the bow of his ship. 
 
 Of the horrors of the slave trade, few have a distinct conception. 
 A single instance, which occurred in this locality, will give an idea of 
 the reckless barbarity which attends it. Prior to recent treaties, En- 
 glish cruisers could not capture vessels of other European nations along 
 the coast, (and cannot now American,) unless there were actually 
 slaves on board. In 1830 his Britanic Majesty's ship "Medina" gave 
 chase to a suspicious sail hovering off the mouth of this river. On 
 board of the latter was a female slave, whose presence, as much as 
 that of hundreds, would insure the capture and condemnation of the 
 vessel. As the most effectual means of removing the poor wretch 
 from sight — for even her dead body would bear damning testimony — 
 she was lashed to the anchor, and with it cast overboard. The search 
 was thus baffled, and the slaver allowed to pass unmolested. 
 
 Cape Mount, in latitude 6° 44' N., is a bold and sudden elevation, 
 densely wooded to the summit, which is 1,060 feet above the level of the 
 sea ; and it towers over the surrounding country, except in the south- 
 east direction, where a chain of hills stretch inland until they are lost 
 in the distance. 
 
 Cape Mount, as well as the Gallinas and Sierra Leone to the north, 
 and Cape Mesurado to the south, were discovered by the same Portu- 
 guese navigator, who saw here, as Hanno and his Carthaginians had 
 seen before, many fires on shore, made by the natives, some of whom 
 came off to the ship in canoes, two or three in each. They were all 
 naked, and armed with wooden darts and small knives, bows, and 
 shields. They had rings in their ears ; and, according to the narrative 
 of Cada Mosta, in their nostrils also, and wore the teeth of slaughtered 
 enemies suspended from their necks, as trophies. 
 
 The eastern base of Cape Mount is washed by Fisherman's lake, ten 
 or twelve miles long, formed by the outspreading of the irregular and 
 sluggish river Pissou, which flows down from the interior, and only 
 finds an outlet when its rising waters overflow a depression in the bar- 
 rier of sand thrown up by the sea. The shores of the lake, and the 
 banks of the river, are covered with luxuriant vegetation, except here 
 and there a clearing occupied by villages and rice-fields. The huts re- 
 semble so many bee-hives on a gigantic scale. 
 
 It was here that Pedro Blanco had his extensive slave factories. 
 Besides other goods, he imported, in 1841, 1,800 hogsheads of tobacco, 
 and annually shipped from six to eight thousand slaves ; and considered 
 it a good speculation, if one out of four of his vessels reached its des- 
 tination unmolested. 
 
 Twenty miles from Cape Mount is Half-cape Mount river, which, in 
 part, belies its name ; for it is a fine river, flowing through a level 
 country, uninterrupted, as far as the eye can see, by the slightest ele- 
 vation. 
 
 From Cape Mount to Cape Mesurado is the Dey country, cut up in 
 small districts, held by petty kings, who, while outwardly acknowledg- 
 
H. Doc. 1. 19 
 
 ing the jurisdiction of the republic, are continually holding palavers ; 
 i. e., quarrelling among themselves. The word "palaver," with a 
 great many phases to its meaning, generally implies a discussion, to 
 decide upon a right assumed, or a right disputed ; or indemnity for a 
 wrong; or the entbrcement of a contract. In fact, it is the court of 
 law of the tribes, and suits are brought before it. 
 
 The Deys, more tractable but not more trustworthy than the Veys, 
 are somewhat given to agriculture, and possess considerable mechanical 
 skill in the weaving and dyeing of cotton cloths, and the manufacture 
 of household articles and instruments of warfare. They are considered 
 less numerous than the Veys, and are a more indolent and inoffensive 
 race, numbering from 6,000 to 8,000. The dialect of these two tribes 
 has some affinity, but differs from other languages along the coast. 
 Although very imperfect, the missionaries have succeeded in reducing 
 it to significant characters, and translating into it a compilation of the 
 gospels. 
 
 At day-light, on the 31st of January, we made Cape Mesurado, dimly 
 visible through a thin white mist which shrouded the horizon. The mist, 
 hanging over the lowlands, but not rising above the tops of the trees, 
 gave to the scene very much the appearance of a general inundation. 
 We soon after heard the splashing of paddles in the water, and in a 
 few moments a. number of canoes came swiftly forth from the obscurity, 
 and revealed two or three natives nearly naked, sitting upright in each, 
 and handling their paddles with great dexterity. These canoes are dug 
 out of the bombax ceiba, the pullam or wild cotton tree of the country, 
 and being very light, narrow, and long, with a slight upward curve at 
 each extremity, float buoyantly and gracefully upon the water." 
 
 As we slowly sailed along, the mist in the meanwhile rising with 
 the sun, the surrounding scenery, feature by feature, was unveiled, and 
 by the time we cast our anchor in the bay the whole was distinctly 
 revealed. 
 
 Abreast of us was a lofty promontory ; a little beyond, and partly 
 hidden by it, was the town of Monrovia; and to the east and north a 
 densely wooded country, its sandy shore interrupted only in two 
 places, where the rivers Mesurado and St. Paul's find outlets to the 
 sea — those outlets marked by the foam of breakers flashing in the 
 sunlight. 
 
 The pitch of Cape Mesurado is gently rounded; but its face is 
 abrupt, and would present a rugged appearance, were it not covered 
 with a mantle of the richest green 1 have ever looked upon, re- 
 sembling, if anything, the hue of lichens and mosses in some seques- 
 tered ravine, from the sides of which water imperceptibly trickles. 
 Except a very narrow strip of beach, with a few outlying rocks at the 
 very water's edge, all is one mass of foliage — tangled vines and shrub- 
 bery beneath, but above a dense growth of trees, becoming more and 
 more lofty, until those on the summit rear their heads above and half 
 conceal the light-house, an indifferent frame building, stained and 
 defaced by the weather; which, except in its greater height, recalls to 
 mind one of those narrow and neglected tobacco-houses so often seen 
 in our southern States. 
 
 In the dense thicket which crowns the Cape was formerly a Fetish- 
 
20 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 house, where the natives worshipped some hideous idol; and on the 
 naked rocks, near the extremity of the Cape, was found, in September, 
 1823, the carcass of a boa constrictor. It was extended nearly at 
 length, and measured thirty-two feet. Its size, near down to the tail, 
 was almost uniform, and, in its then collapsed and shrivelled state, 
 varied little from eight inches in diameter. Its color, when alive, 
 seemed to have been dark brown, variegated with irregular patches of 
 a darker hue. It had apparently perished from starvation. 
 
 The anchorage is an open one ; but the winds rarely blow fresh upon 
 the shore, and the only danger to shipping is a heavy sea which some- 
 times comes tumbling in without the slightest premonition. The ridge 
 of highland, the rounded extremity of which forms the Cape, trends 
 inland, in a diagonal line from the coast; and on a depression of that 
 ridge, about half a mile from the light-house, the principal part of the 
 town is built. But many houses are scattered about on the inland 
 slope, at the foot of which are several stone warehouses, facing the broad 
 sheet of water formed by the junction of Stockton creek coming down 
 from the north, and the river Mesurado from the east. A stone's throw 
 from the shore is Carey island, on which the settlement was first 
 made ; where the colonists were obliged, with arms in their hands, to 
 procure water for their daily use. Stockton creek separates Bushrod 
 island, a densely wooded flat, from the mainland; and connects, at its 
 northern extremity, with the river St. Paul's, one and a half mile from 
 the mouth of the latter. 
 
 Just within the swell of the Cape, in a kind of bay, where, except 
 in northerly winds, the sea breaks gently upon the shore, is the usual 
 landing. Immediately back of the crest of the shelving shore, just 
 beyond the reach of the heaviest breakers, is a small African village, 
 inhabited mostly by males, who come from their native districts in 
 search of occupation. Their huts are constructed of wattled cane, 
 lined with mats, and are smaller than those at Sierra Leone and the 
 Gambia. They have no enclosures, and make no attempt to cultivate 
 the soil ; but look only to the sea for their subsistence. They are called 
 Kroomen, and their distinctive mark is an arrow tattooed on each 
 temple, the point towards the eye. Their only dress was a piece of 
 blue cloth, sometimes merely a handkerchief, worn around the loins. 
 
 From the village we crossed the neck of the low peninsula which 
 terminates in Cape Ashmun, at the river's mouth; and, walking along 
 an elevated foot-path, we saw a number of small cattle, spotted black 
 and white, in fine condition. These, with the exception of some goats, 
 a dog, and a few lean and prowling swine, were the only quadrupeds 
 we encountered. 
 
 Instead of turning up to the town by a road which led to the right, 
 we kept along the base of the ridge, and soon came to the wharves, 
 where two small vessels were building and one undergoing repair, 
 and about the stores were a number of palm-oil casks and some large 
 canoes, all indicating a degree of commercial activity ; thence, ascend- 
 ing the rough hill-side, we passed several houses, one of them a sub- 
 stantial church, nearly finished, and in a few moments reached Broad- 
 way, the central and principal street of the town. This street, and those 
 parallel to it, run nearly north and south, and at regular intervals are 
 
H. Doc. 1. 21 
 
 intersected by others at right-angles, all broad and straight, but, ex- 
 cepting a path in the centre of each, much overgrown with senna and 
 wild indigo. 
 
 Monrovia, which contains about 300 houses and 2,000 inhabitants, is 
 built, as I have said, on a depression of the ridge which sweeps inland 
 from the cape. About midway the length of the principal street ihe 
 land swells up like an earth-wave, and sinks immediately down the 
 street, crossing the summit and following the declivity. On the sum- 
 mit is Fort Hill, where, in December, 1822, in the infancy of the set- 
 tlement, the heroic Ashmun, rising from his bed of sickness, with 
 thirty-four brave colonists repulsed an assault made by eight hundred 
 savages. 
 
 The houses are detached, being built on lots of a quarter of an acre 
 each. They are of good size, some two stories, but most of them one 
 and a half, consisting of a single story of frame resting on a basement 
 of stone, with a portico front and rear. Many of them were neatly, 
 and two or three handsomely, furnished. There were twelve houses 
 under construction, mostly of stone ; and there were, besides, a few 
 which looked in good preservation ; but most of the frame dwellings 
 presented an old and dilapidated appearance, owing to the humid 
 climate during half the year, the scarcity of whitewash and paint, and 
 the ravages of the beeg — a bug — a destructive species of termite. For 
 the last reason, all the new houses not built in the native fashion — of 
 wattles, mud, and grass — are constructed of stone, while the old frame 
 ones are abandoned to decay. 
 
 In almost every yard there were fruit-trees — mostly the lime, the 
 lemon, the banana, the pawpaw — and the coffee-tree ; sometimes the 
 orange, and now and then the soursop and the tamarind. The oranges 
 were good, but scarce ; and the lemons large and fine. The cocoa 
 grows abundantly, and the pomegranate, the fig, the vine, and a tree 
 bearing the cashew-nut, are to be seen, but not in abundance. 
 
 The soil is thin and not productive, resting upon a ferruginous rock 
 which occasionally crops out. The gardens are enclosed by wooden 
 palings, generally in a state of decay, or by stone walls without mor- 
 tar. In them were only a few collards and some cassada, sweet po- 
 tatoes, and arrow-root. But it is not the proper season for vegetables, 
 and a few months hence these gardens may, and doubtless will, pre- 
 sent a more gratifying appearance. 
 
 The suburbs, the river, and the inner harbor, are commanded by 
 Fort Hill, as the outer anchorage is by that of Fort Norris at the cape. 
 
 The view from Fort Hill is a very fine one. To the west and south- 
 west it overlooks the houses and the trees far out upon the sea ; on 
 the north and east, Stockton creek and the two branches of the Mesu- 
 rado flow gently through an alluvial plain ; and to the southeast the 
 eye follows the direction of the ridge which stretches far into the in- 
 terior. 
 
 On Broadway, south of Fort Hill, is the government house — a large 
 stone building, with arched windows and a balcony in front. The 
 lower floor is used as a court-room and printing-office, and the upper as 
 the hall of legislative council; behind it is the jail; directly opposite is 
 the President's mansion — a double two-stoiy brick-house, with a front 
 
22 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 portico — its roof sustained by lofty columns. It is the most imposing 
 building in the place. There are five churches, all well attended. 
 Indeed, I never saw a more thoroughgoing church community, or heard 
 a greater rustling of silk, on the dispersal of a congregation, than here ; 
 all were at least sufficiently attired ; and the dresses of the children 
 were in better taste than those of their mothers. One of the most grat- 
 ifying things I noticed was the great number of well-dressed and well- 
 behaved children in the schools and about the streets. The schools 
 are also numerous and well attended. I did not see sufficient to justify 
 the expression of an opinion, except that, while I noticed the attendance 
 was full in almost every one, it seemed to me that, in some instances, 
 the acquirements of the teachers were surpassed by the capacities 01 
 their scholars ; but for all the purposes of rudimental education the 
 materials are ample. I feel a delicacy in alluding to this subject, and 
 only say what has escaped me from a solicitude that the generation 
 now coming forward may sustain the institutions of the republic. 
 
 The colonists were all decently clothed ; and of the natives moving 
 about the streets, with very few exceptions, the most indifferently clad 
 wore a long loose shirt, but their heads and legs were bare. One of 
 the latter I saw reading apparently a book which he held before him 
 as he walked. 
 
 On the outskirts of the town is a large coffee grove, which did not 
 seem to be in a thriving condition ; and altogether, in and around 
 Monrovia, agriculture wore a languishing appearance. This is doubt- 
 less owing, in part, to the poverty of the soil, and in part to ihe over- 
 weening spirit of trade ; there being evidently a preponderance of petty 
 retail shops. I must say, however, that the town presented a far more 
 prosperous appearance than I had been led to anticipate. From its 
 fine situation it must eventually be a salubrious one. The sea-breeze 
 at all seasons blows directly over it, and in this respect it is far prefer- 
 able to Sierra Leone. The bifurcation of the river St. Paul's to the 
 north gives, through Stockton creek, its southern branch, a direct and 
 easy access to that river at all times, without encountering the perils 
 of either bar. On the southeast the east branch of the Mesurado is 
 separated by a portage only five miles from the head of Junk river, 
 which flows into the sea thirty-five miles down the coast. Monrovia 
 will therefore be the outlet of the products of an extent of country not 
 less than 1,250 square miles. 
 
 During the time of the Portuguese ascendency, the Mesurado was 
 called Rio Duro, from the cruelty of the natives — a cruelty fostered, if 
 not engendered, by the whites. 
 
 It is but fair to state, that the land on the northeast Mesurado gives 
 little promise of being soon brought into cultivation. The banks are so 
 low as to be overflowed at every tide, and are covered, as far as the 
 eye can reach, with an impenetrable growth of mangroves, while the 
 sluggish stream is discolored by the black mud of the marshes, from 
 which, at low water, a most offensive odor is exhaled. 
 
 At 13 miles from Monrovia, the east branch is too shallow for canoe 
 navigation; and a quarter of a mile above its source is an extensive 
 morass, overgrown with long grass and mangrove bushes. The scenery 
 is the same as that on the northeast branch. A short distance from the 
 
H. Doc. 1. 23 
 
 morass is a native village ; the soil around it exhausted from repeated 
 cultivation, and producing little else than cassada. 
 
 From thence, across the portage, to the Red Junk river, the surface 
 of the country is nearly level, with extensive fields, no longer under 
 cultivation, skirted with open forests. The soil is light loam, intermixed 
 with sand, and producing only a long, coarse grass. In some places 
 the plain is thickly studded with tumuli, formed by the Termite belli- 
 cosi, (called by the natives bug-a-bug.) These mounds are from 8 to 
 12 feet high, and 10 to 14 thick at the base: some having been aban- 
 doned by the ants, were covered with grass embrowned by the sun, 
 which gave them, at a distance, the appearance of native huts. 
 
 While observing as well as I could the condition of things around 
 me, I did not lose sight of the principal object of my mission, and soon 
 after my arrival set out for the St. Paul's, in a boat manned by natives. 
 For the first six miles our course was up Stockton creek, a wide and 
 shallow stream, with a low mangrove swamp on each side, (Rhizoj)hera 
 mangle,) which, like the Fieus religiosa of India, propagates itself in 
 a two-fold manner : by perpendicular shoots descending lrom its branches, 
 and by dropping its long, slender, sharp-pointed seed-pods, which im- 
 plant themselves in the soft mud beneath, and then take root and grow 
 up into trees, with almost as many stems as branches. On the edge of 
 the banks, on each side, the mangroves throw down their long, fantastic 
 shoots, and within them the tops of lofty trees arch overhead, their 
 branches interlaced with parasitic creepers, while through the crevices 
 of the foliage the flickering sunshine streams upon the sluggish water. 
 
 From the growth of trees of which we occasionally caught a glimpse 
 through the mangrove border, there was evidently a drier soil some dis- 
 tance inland; but the shores of the creek, with the exception of two 
 small clearings — one the site of a native village, the other the landing of 
 New Georgia — were for nearly the whole distance one inexplicable net- 
 work of tangled roots and twisted stems and branches. Through this 
 net- work we occasionally caught sight of a monkey frisking about the 
 tree-tops, and sometimes disturbed a crocodile (miscalled alligator) from 
 his sleep, and saw him clumsily flounder away through the mud to fin- 
 ish his slumber elsewhere. These, with some mud-snipes and curlews, 
 were the only living things we saw. Such an effect had the solitude 
 and the scene upon me, that I almost wound myself up to the expecta- 
 tion of beholding the huge iguanadon dragging himself through the fetid 
 slime. 
 
 There was not a sign of cultivation, nor of an attempt to reclaim the 
 soil ; and the stifling hot weather, the sluggish stream, and the tainted 
 odor of putrescent vegetable matter, painfully depressed my spirits ; but 
 when we passed the lower settlement of Caldwell and entered a bold, 
 swift-flowing river, three-fourths of a mile in width, with banks 10 to 
 30 feet high, dotted with farm-houses, few of them a quarter of a mile 
 apart, it was like the shifting of a scene in a theatre, and I gazed with 
 satisfaction upon the beautiful sight. 
 
 Nothing had been told me to excite anticipation ; and the transition 
 was therefore as unexpected as it was gratifying. The breeze, no 
 longer intercepted, swept refreshingly up from the sea, but half a mile 
 
24 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 distant by the river ; and, turning our boat's head up stream, we jo} r - 
 fully pursued our way. 
 
 The banks are uneven — at some places high and steep ; at others 
 coming down with a slope to the water's edge. On each side is a belt 
 of cultivation, with a dense forest-growth behind it; and the most con- 
 spicuous objects of the scene were the light-green, broad-leaved foliage 
 of the banana, clustering about every settlement, and the detached and 
 distant palm-trees, which reared their dark, tufted heads above the sur- 
 rounding mass of vegetation. 
 
 The appearance of this tree is majestic, yet graceful. Its round, 
 smooth trunk springs, shaft-like, into the air, from sixty to upwards of 
 a hundred feet, and then expands its rich, fringe-like leaves into a 
 canopy, twenty or thirty feet in diameter. 
 
 The St. Paul's narrows very gradually in ascending it, and to the 
 head of navigation is nowhere less than one-fourth of a mile in width. 
 For the whole distance of fourteen miles from its mouth, there is a greater 
 depth of water in the channel of the river than on the bars ; and, for 
 its length, it is a magnificent stream, pouring down such a volume of 
 water as to render it certain that, however soon its navigation may be 
 interrupted, it has its sources far in the interior. 
 
 The soil on both sides is a loamy clay, equal in fertility to the best 
 sugar lands in Brazil. There are on the banks of the river four hun- 
 dred farms and three thousand cultivators. Many of the houses are 
 built of brick, two of them double-sized two-story ones, and there were 
 seven brick-kilns. 
 
 J landed at four or five places, and saw every indication of comfort 
 and prosperity — far more so than in Monrovia. The houses were well 
 furnished, and in one of them was a room, specially assigned for the 
 purpose, which contained a small but good library. The principal arti- 
 cles I saw in cultivation were sugar, coffee, cassada, arrow-root, yams, 
 sweet potatoes, and a few ground-nuts. Among the fruits were the 
 luscious pine-apple, oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, plantains, and 
 the paw-paw ; the last, in cooking, an excellent substitute for the 
 apple. A little cotton is raised for domestic use. The sugar-cane was 
 growing finely ; and at one of the farms I witnessed the operation of 
 grinding it. The apparatus, in part the invention of the owner, was 
 an ingenious one, but very wasteful in its process ; yet the proprietor 
 expected to make nine thousand pounds of sugar and several hundred 
 gallons of molasses this year. I tasted the sirup, which, owing, I pre- 
 sume, to the high temperature, was thinner than I have seen it during 
 the grinding season in Louisiana. Some of the sugar of last year's 
 crop was as light in color and as well granulated as the best Porto 
 Rico I have seen. I scarce think, however, that sugar can to any 
 extent be profitably cultivated, owing to the deficiency of capital and 
 the consequent want of machinery. 
 
 Coffee will, I think, become eventually the great staple of this sec- 
 tion of country. The tree grows indigenous, can be transplanted with 
 ease, and requires little care in its cultivation ; and, where it is not ex- 
 tensively grown, its berry may be gathered as a pastime by women and 
 children. I was shown one sample raised on the St. Paul's, and tried 
 another gathered in Monrovia. The last, which I did not see in the 
 
H. Doc. 1. 25 
 
 berry, was excellent ; but I cannot sustain the assertion that it is better 
 than the Mocha. The former was of a clear light color, and the grains 
 were the largest I have ever seen ; I am not aware, however, that the 
 large size of the grain is, per se, an indication of superior quality. 
 
 From all that I could observe or learn from others, a taste lor agri- 
 culture is becoming prevalent ; and I cannot give a better idea of the 
 prosperity of the settlements on the St. Paul's, than by stating that 
 cleared land fronting on the river sells at from $40 to $50 per acre. 
 Some of the country seats looked beautiful from the river, and their 
 names are characteristic of their owners ; some being unpretending, 
 but expressive; some classic, and some scriptural — "Pleasant View," 
 "Iconium," and " Mount Horeb." 
 
 Opposite to Caldwell is the settlement of New Virginia; where, in 
 1847, the government of the United States built a receptacle for libe- 
 rated Africans. Higher up are Kentucky, Heddington, and Millsburg. 
 Heddington was fiercely attacked by the natives in 1841, and gallantly 
 defended by a missionary and one of the colonists ; the leader of the 
 assailants was killed and his party dispersed. These four are little 
 more than a close contiguity of small farms ; but Millsburg, at the head 
 of navigation, and the farthest inland settlement in Liberia, is a flour- 
 ishing village and missionary school station ; and on the opposite side 
 of the river is the mission of" White Plains." 
 
 From its situation, Millsburg must be comparatively healthy, and is 
 certainly beautiful. The river, separated by an island into two chan- 
 nels, there forces itself over a rocky ledge with the rushing sweep and 
 hoarse sound of a rapid. The ledge is, however, a narrow one, and a 
 channel through it might be blasted with gunpowder, or it could be 
 flanked by a canal. Above the ledge the stream is unobstructed for 
 about ten miles, and the country through which it flows is yet more 
 rolling and beautiful than it is below the rapids. The soil is a rich 
 mould, formed by the vegetable decay of centuries, resting on a sub- 
 stratum of clay, and covered with a luxuriant forest. 
 
 At the rapids are a number of islands, clothed with luxuriant vege- 
 tation ; and, as was remarked by the lamented Dr. Randall, the islands 
 differ from each other in their verdure, and from that of the main land. 
 Each one seems to have caught, in the autumnal inundations, the seeds 
 and roots of particular plants and shrubs brought down from the in- 
 terior; for, while differing from those on the main, no two resemble 
 each other in their peculiar foliage. 
 
 Above the islands the country is represented as most beautiful, 
 bearing trees of immense size, clear of undergrowth, and having their 
 branches interwoven with vines, and decorated with gaudy parasitic 
 plants, forming a shade impervious to the sun, and imparting a coolness 
 to the atmosphere which is truly delightful. The stream, irregular in 
 its width, sometimes forces its way through fissures in the rocks, and 
 at others forms deep pools, where the water is so transparent that the 
 bottom is distinctly visible. It seems as if the foot of man had never 
 trodden these lovely solitudes, where the silence is only interrupted by 
 the murmuring sound of water, the scream of the fish-hawk, and the 
 chattering of monkeys pursuing their gambols among the trees. 
 
26 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 This must, however, be taken cum grano salis; for, in the rainy- 
 season the river overflows its banks and inundates the country. 
 
 The river St. Paul's has its source in the same range of hills from 
 which the Karamanka issues ; and, by barometrical measurement, these 
 hills are 1,400 feet in height, which is about the elevation of the head- 
 waters of the Mississippi. The scenery of the upper St. Paul's will, 
 therefore, compare with that of the Karamanka, although more than 
 two degrees intervene between their outlets. 
 
 The late Major Laing thus describes the country bordering on the 
 latter river: 
 
 " The valleys are picturesque and fertile, and are watered by nu- 
 merous rivulets, which, running from north to south, collect behind the 
 lofty hill of Botato, and contribute in swelling the river Karamanka. 
 I was frequently induced to stop to contemplate the lovely scene around 
 me, consisting of extensive meadows clothed with verdure ; fields, from 
 which the springing rice was sending forth its vivid shoots, not inferior 
 in beauty and health to the corn-fields of England in March, inter- 
 spersed he*e and there with a patch of ground studded with palm- 
 trees; while the neighboring hills, some clothed with rich foliage — 
 some exhibiting a bald and weather-beaten appearance, formed a noble 
 theatre around me. We left the town of Nijiniah, on the Karamanka, 
 and having walked an hour and three-quarters, gained the summit of 
 one of the hills; and in one direction, on the opposite side, a scene 
 quite panoramic broke upon the view: an extensive valley, partly 
 cultivated and partly covered with a long, natural grass, about five 
 feet high, with lines of stately palm-trees, as regular as if laid out by 
 art, and here and there a cluster of camwood trees, their deep shade 
 affording a relief to the lighter hue of the smaller herbage. 
 
 " These, with a murmuring rivulet, meandering through the centre, 
 exhibited the appearance of a well cultivated and tastefully arranged 
 garden, rather than a tract amid the wilds of Africa; whilst, in the 
 distance, mountain towered above mountain in all the grandeur and 
 magnificence of nature." 
 
 Without being so wide or so impetuous in its current, there is much 
 in the St. Paul's (one feature excepted) to suggest what might have 
 been the appearance of the Mississippi above La Fourche, and below 
 Baton Rouge, before the less pretending houses of the Creole planters 
 were displaced by the stately mansions of the present proprietors. 
 
 The St. Paul's connects, it is said, with Half-cape Mount river by 
 a branch that runs parallel with the coast, and both abound in fish and 
 a small species of the " Hippopotamus liberiensis" thus named by the 
 late Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, from crania sent to him by Dr. 
 Goheen. This animal is said to be extremely tenacious of life, and, 
 except to gunpowder and ball, almost invulnerable. When injured he 
 becomes dangerous ; but if unmolested, never, the natives say, attacks 
 any one. The flavor of the flesh is described as intermediate between 
 that of veal and beef. 
 
 About seventy miles from Millsburg, in a direction a little east ot 
 north, is Boporah, a large native town, formerly containing more than 
 a thousand houses, fortified with a strong barricade. The path to it 
 leads through a dense forest, in which there are elephants and a great 
 
H. Doc. 1 27 
 
 many other wild animals. For the first fifty miles there are no villages, 
 and the only natives met with are the elephant-hunters, who are nu- 
 merous, and represented as friendly. The St. Paul's passes within 
 25 miles of the town, winding, in its course, among many islands. 
 
 On both shores of Stockton creek, as well as on the Mesurado, are 
 many alligators' nests. They are about four feet high, and five in 
 diameter at the base, made of mud and grass, very much resembling 
 haycocks. The female first deposites a layer of eggs on a floor of a 
 kind of mortar, aud she and her mate having covered this with mud 
 and herbage, she lays another set of eggs, and so on to the top ; there 
 being sometimes as many as two hundred eggs in a nest. All is plas- 
 tered over with mud by the tail, and the grass around the nest is beat 
 down with the same member, to prevent an unseen approach of ene- 
 mies. The female then watches the nest until the young are hatched 
 by the heal of the sun ; when she takes them under her care. 
 
 In order not to lose time waiting for the steamer which had been 
 promised me, I requested Commander Barron to convey me to the Junk 
 river, about thirty miles down the coast. Leaving an order, therefore, 
 for the Vixen to follow, we weighed anchor in the afternoon of a clear, 
 warm day, and, sailing slowly southward, had the best view of Mon- 
 rovia, spread out on the cleared portion of the ridge, where it is de- 
 pressed within eighty feet of the sea. 
 
 From Cape Mesurado to the Junk river, the coast runs in a south 
 east direction ; and presents, as heretofore, the same low line of sand, 
 with a back-ground of forest for eight or ten miles, where a slightly 
 elevated ridge is thrown up immediately upon the shore. About the 
 same distance from it, but further inland, are the "Crown" and the 
 "Cockscomb" — two isolated hillocks; and beyond them, and thrice 
 the distance inland from the coast, south of the Junk river, are two 
 remarkable peaks with a depressed ridge between, called " Saddle 
 Hill," towering above the sea of verdure, and measuring 1,070 feet in 
 height. Beyond the Saddle Hill are two other peaks, dimly visible 
 in the distance. With these interruptions, all else is a sandy beach, 
 edged with a glittering line of light, where the surf breaks upon it, 
 backed by a vast forest stretching to the horizon. 
 
 Anchoring off the mouth of the Junk river, I was compelled to re- 
 main nearly two days inactive, in cousequence of heavy breakers on 
 the bar. It was the change of the moon ; and the colonists maintain, 
 that at such times, from the increased swell, the passage of the bar is 
 impracticable. 
 
 When the swell seemed to have sufficiently subsided, with the native 
 crew which always accompanied me, I started for the shore. These 
 men were of the Nifou tribe, whose territory is farther down the coast. 
 
 Although muscular, active, and in the open sea fearless in the man- 
 agement of their canoes, a circumstance occurred on our way to the 
 shore, which satisfied me that they are not to be relied upon in danger. 
 Trusting to the head man, who steered the boat and directed the crew, 
 ten in number, how. to manage the oars, (for on their skilful manage- 
 ment almost everything depends,) I felt no apprehension, and directed 
 my attention to the shore, which we were rapidly approaching. A 
 startling exclamation roused me; and looking back, I saw a low, black 
 
28 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 cloud sweeping towards us, and driving a huge wave before it. We 
 were almost on the bar ; and the terrified crew were divided in opin- 
 ion as to whether we could cross it before the gigantic roller overtook 
 us. To be caught by it before we were safely over would be certain 
 destruction. At this trying time the panic-stricken boatmen failed me ; 
 and in loud confusion they argued what should be done, when every 
 instant's inactivity increased the peril fourfold. But as soon as the ques- 
 tion was settled lor them, and the steersman was directed to turn the 
 boat's head towards the southern shore, they gave way with all their 
 might, and, although borne down to the very edge of the outer break- 
 ers, we gained the beach in safety. I am satisfied that, with a good 
 pilot, it would be less dangerous to cross these difficult bars in a boat 
 manned by white men. 
 
 We landed just below Bassa Point, near the dwelling of a colonist. 
 It was recently built, in a clearing in the midst of a grove of palm- 
 trees ; and I found him, with three or four natives in his employment, 
 busied in extracting from the palm-nut the rich oil it yields. After 
 resting a short time under his thatched roof, with the assistance of his 
 laborers, we dragged the boat up the high, shelving bank, and over a 
 narrow strip of sand, and launched her in the South Junk, which, flow- 
 ing nearly parallel with the coast, unites with the other branches just 
 inside the bar. 
 
 From thence we pulled over to the village of Marshall, on the north- 
 ern bank, about half a mile from the river's mouth. This was the last 
 settlement made by the parent Colonization Society in Liberia. It is 
 elevated about forty feet above the river, and its situation is a fine one 
 in appearance ; but the soil around it is poor, and the place far from 
 flourishing. Originally laid out on an enlarged plan, it now contains 
 but thirty or forty houses, built along the river-bank — a few of them 
 frame buildings, but most of them plastered mud-walls, with thatched 
 roofs — many presenting a dilapidated appearance. 
 
 The only article of export I saw was a quantity of lime, made from 
 the oyster-sheH upon the shore ; and I was assured that this place 
 wholly supplies Monrovia, and partly the other settlements, with this 
 invaluable building material. Oysters are plentiful here ; but they are 
 only palatable when cooked ; and the river abounds with mullet. 
 There is some small traffic here with the natives in camwood, palm- 
 oil, and a little ivory ; but it is much interfered with by dealers from 
 Monrovia. 
 
 It being Sunday when I arrived, after conversing with some of the 
 citizens, I accepted an invitation to attend church, and there heard a 
 sermon from a venerable colored preacher which I shall not soon forget. 
 I have heard many stereotyped sermons, but never one to move me as 
 much as this. The distant booming of the surf on one side, through 
 which I had to pass to rejoin my companions, and the dark, teeming 
 forest upon the other, tended, no doubt, to enhance the solemnity of the 
 scene; for, seated upon a rush floor beneath a roof of thatch, as I lis- 
 tened to the earnest tones of the feeble old man, I never felt more im- 
 pressed with a sense of my own undeserving. I mention this, because 
 I conceive that I should withhold nothing which may convey a correct 
 idea of the impressions made on me in Liberia. In a personal sense, 
 

 H. Doc. 1. 29 
 
 these impressions ue, insignificant and wholly unworthy of record. 
 Their only importance is derived from the scene which gave them birth, 
 and from the inference to be drawn from it, that Christianity has its ex- 
 emplars in benighted Africa, as well as in our own more favored land. 
 
 About a mile above the settlement is the confluence of two streams — 
 the Red Junk, flowing down from the north, and the Junk, or main 
 stream, from the east. The Red Junk, near its source, is connected 
 with the eastern branch of the Mesurado by a narrow portage. At 
 the junction the banks of both streams are low and bordered with man- 
 grove thickets. 
 
 About two miles up the Red Junk there is a native village, and from 
 thence the banks become more elevated and present a more attractive 
 appearance. The palm-trees become more frequent, and, in the space 
 of twenty miles, the scene is enlivened by a number of villages — the 
 light-green leaves of the banana indicating their locality long before 
 the brown roofs become visible. The course of the stream is winding, 
 and its width various; at times but 150 to 200 yards, with compara- 
 tively high banks, and again spreading out to nearly a mile in width, 
 with low and sedgy shores. 
 
 The vegetation is very luxuriant and much diversified in its charac- 
 ter. The scenery of the river's banks is described as rich beyond con- 
 ception. 
 
 " Trees of singular form and foliage spring from the deep, rich soil, 
 and rear their heads to an amazing height ; while their branches are 
 covered with a beautiful drapery of vines, forming a dense shade, and 
 hanging, in many places, to the surface of the water." 
 
 Looking closely at these trees, a large black knot is occasionally seen 
 swelling irregularly out of the branch to which it attaches. It would 
 be set down as a fungus, but that a more scrutinizing glance detects 
 the head of a snake projected above the coil, in an attitude of menacing 
 vigilance. On the near approach of the boat every fold is shaken out, 
 as by a single effort, and the snake precipitates itself into the water and 
 disappears. It is the well-known black snake, measuring from four to 
 six feet in length and two to four inches in diameter, which frequents 
 the banks of rivers, and is said, by the natives, to be amphibious. 
 
 The fertility of the soil, combined with the presence of moisture, 
 gives a peculiar depth and • vividness of green to the foliage; and the 
 stream, as smooth as a polished mirror, reflects the variegated beauties 
 which clothe its banks. Occasionally a light native canoe shoots down 
 with the current, or paddles up stream, close along the shore ; while 
 amon* the trees, a short distance back, monkeys are seen springing 
 from limb to limb, in pursuance of their gambols. As on the St. Paul's 
 and the Mesurado, the stranger is little annoyed by mosquitoes and 
 flies, and is struck with the scarcity of birds and flowers. 
 
 In the rainy season the first deficiency may be more than satisfacto- 
 rily supplied, and the moist, gloomy shades of the forest are unfit nur- 
 series for flowers, which thrive best in a light soil and where they can 
 expand their petals to the sun. 
 
 Of the birds to be seen in the recesses of the wood, very few are 
 gifted with melodious notes; but by the compensatory law of nature, 
 some of them are magnificent in their plumage. Of these, the sun- 
 
30 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 bird, scarce larger than our smallest humming-bird, with its scarlet 
 breast, tinged straw-color at the edges, its emerald throat and back, 
 and dove-colored wings, and a tail longer than its body, is the most 
 beautifully conspicuous. Others I saw wholly of one color — some of 
 the deepest indigo-blue, and others a rich tinted orange. But they par- 
 took of the spirit of the solitude in which they dwelt, and flitted silently 
 from tree to tree before the footsteps of the intruder. 
 
 Like the Red Junk, the Junk proper has low banks, bordered with 
 mangrpves for about three miles from the junction, where the shore 
 rises on each side and the soil becomes fertile, occasionally presenting 
 a slight elevation, on each of which is a settlement comprising three 
 farms of colonists and two native villages. 
 
 The river averages about 300 yards in width to King Kymocree's 
 village — a collection of twelve or fourteen low-pitched, mud-plastered 
 huts, with projecting thatched roofs and uneven clay floors. In the 
 centre of the floor is the fireplace — the only outlet for the smoke being 
 the low and narrow door-way, near which the inmates are always, by 
 
 E reference, seated. The principal building, in front of which the king 
 eld his audience, was built of wattled cane ; but not plastered, being 
 open all round. About six feet from the floor were cross-pieces ; on 
 which, up to the roof, was piled rice in the sheaf, to be dried by the 
 smoke of the council-fire. The king is short of stature, but with a 
 muscular frame ; and his features altogether are more of the true negro 
 type than I have thus far seen in Africa. He was cordial and commu- 
 nicative ; and the colonists represented him as a staunch friend and 
 ally, having in the late war borne arms gallantly in their behalf. He 
 possesses a number of villages — their male inhabitants, like those of 
 the one we were in, being nearly all absent some distance inland, clear- 
 ing land preparatory to sowing rice. He presented us to three of his 
 wives and six or eight children; declaring that the latter were so 
 numerous, that he did not know them all by sight. His tribe is one of 
 the many ramifications of the Bassas, of whom I will speak further on. 
 
 Although scarce beyond middle age, this chief was quite gray; and, 
 in this respect, I have repeatedly noticed the difference between the 
 African and Mexican Indian, whose hair never changes its color. 
 There is also a perceptible difference in the texture of the hair 
 of natives along the coast; for, as I have proceeded south, it has ap- 
 peared to me to be finer, more elastic, blacker, more shining and crisp, 
 than in Goree and about the Gambia. 
 
 Thus far 1 have not seen an instance of baldness among the natives ; 
 but their lips are, in general, as dark as their faces : therein differing 
 from most of their descendants with us ; and the whites of their eyes 
 are tinged with a yellow suffusion, which I know not whether to ascribe 
 to the constant smoke in which they are enveloped in their huts, or to 
 some organic cause. I incline to the latter opinion ; for the eyes of the 
 Kroomen, who had been serving two years on board of the John 
 Adams, were as much discolored as those of the natives I saw on 
 shore. 
 
 Above the mangroves the land has the appearance of great fertility, 
 and teems with every production of an intertropical forest. This stream 
 is broad er and bolder than the Red Junk, but the features of its shores 
 
H. Doc. 1 31 
 
 are exactly the same. It is navigable by boats for thirteen miles ; and 
 twelve miles further there is a ridge of high land, east of which is an 
 extensive lake, from whence the river issues. Twenty miles beyond 
 the first ridge is a second and loftier one, from which the blue crest of 
 a mountain is visible to the southward and eastward. 
 
 The level land west of the ridges, and the valleys between them, is 
 one dense, wide-spreading forest. These ridges are evidently the out- 
 lying shoots of an interior mountain range. From all I could learn 
 there is much camwood in the interior ; and the forest beyond the first 
 ridge of highlands abounds in elephants. The exports of camwood 
 and ivory could therefore be very much increased ; while it needs only 
 a glance in any direction to see the numerous palm-trees, bearing aloft 
 thick clusters of fruit, which only require the hand of industry to gather 
 and express from them the valuable oil ; the demand for which, now 
 that it can be deprived of its stearine, increases with every successive 
 year. 
 
 Marshall is injudiciously situated on a sandy soil, which is parched 
 up during the dry season, and is therefore unfit for cultivation. Could 
 the settlement be removed to a convenient point on the main stream, near 
 the confluence, the colonists disposed to agriculture would find more 
 fertile land, while those embarked in commerce could engross the 
 river trade, which, as I have said, is so much interfered with by mer- 
 cantile agents from Monrovia. Several of the colonists are making set- 
 tlements a short distance up the river ; and I believe there would be a 
 general movement if the few enterprising men now in the place were 
 not so hampered by a disproportionate number of helpless women. A 
 settlement at or near the point of junction could raise enough for its 
 subsistence ; and, by means of a direct intercourse with the interior 
 up one stream, and with Monrovia by another, unaffected by the 
 weather on the coast, would, doubtless, carry on a thriving business. 
 
 From the Junk to the St. John's river the coast preserves its south- 
 east direction, with the same monotonous features, except some red 
 and white cliffs which abut upon the shore below the former ; and 
 inland, the range of Bassa hills and the isolated Mount St. John, which 
 become visible on approaching the latter river. 
 
 We anchored off the mouth of the St. John's too late to enter it by 
 daylight. On the following morning we started for the shore, and, 
 passing a Liberian schooner, bound to Monrovia with a cargo of palm- 
 oil, and an English cutter coming up from the southward, we steered 
 for the opening in the line of beach, where, with a graceful curve and 
 a rapid sweep, the river finds an outlet ; and, ( rossing the bar on a 
 heavy roller, we landed at Buchanan. 
 
 Within the bar are concentrated the waters of three rivers : the 
 Mechlin, flowing from the north ; the St. Johns, from the northeast ; and 
 the Benson river, from the east. This great body of accumulated 
 water is forced through a passage narrower than the principal stream ; 
 and when the tide is ebb and the wind blows fresh upon the shore, 
 there is drawn across it a line of terrific breakers. At this season, 
 however, the winds are ordinarily light, and with a skilful pilot the 
 bar can be passed in safety. 
 
 On the sandy peninsula between the Mechlin and the sea, just within 
 
32 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 the confluence, some thirty feet above the water, is the village of Edi- 
 na; the streets contiguous to and running parallel with the river. This 
 settlement consists of a church and some twenty or thirty dwellings, of 
 which the former and three-fourths of the latter are frame buildings ; 
 the rest are thatched huts. 
 
 This settlement presents an unthrifty appearance. The wide rec- 
 tangular streets are overgrown with weeds; and although there are 
 several coffee groves, the trees are too thickly planted, and the ground 
 between them is covered with rank grass and shrubbery. In the rainy 
 season the path which winds through each street, like a trail through a 
 prairie, must effectually conceal those who pass to and fro, from those 
 who remain stationary in their houses. If I had not known it before, 
 the lean condition of some vagabond pigs I saw would have satisfied 
 me that there is nothing nutritious in senna and wild indigo. And yet 
 there was nothing gaunt or slovenly in the appearance of the inhabit- 
 ants ; and at the first threshold I approached I was greeted by an old 
 colored lady, attired in a silk dress, with corresponding trimmings. 
 
 The Benson river pours in its tribute opposite to Edina ; and on the 
 west side of the junction is the flourishing town of Buchanan. This set- 
 tlement was founded by the New York and Pennsylvania Colonization 
 Societies, in 1835, and consists of the emigrants who escaped from the 
 massacre at Fort Cresson, two miles further down the coast. In 1838 
 the population of Buchanan was 200 : it now contains 600 inhabitants, 
 and musters 100 fighting men. The last has become an essential item 
 in the statistics of the place. 
 
 This colony was first founded on the peace principle, but the massacre 
 of its unarmed inhabitants conclusively proved the folly of such an 
 experiment, on such a field ; for, in the space of one month, in the very 
 year of its selection, 500 slaves had been embarked from the cove ; 
 and it was known that the native chiefs regarded the settlement of col- 
 onists in their vicinity as destructive of their traffic with the slave ships. 
 
 On Benson river, adjoining the town, there was a steam saw-mill in 
 operation ; and in the cove beyond it, one small vessel was hauled up 
 for repairs, and two others were anchored in the stream. 
 
 Between the Benson river and the confluent streams, before they 
 mingle with the sea, Buchanan is built, on wide streets running parallel 
 with the beach, and they are less encumbered with weeds than those 
 of Edina. Unprotected by whitewash or paint, the houses all present 
 a dingy, semi-dilapidated appearance, except the residence of Judge 
 Benson, on the south side of the cove ; which looks fresh and beautiful, 
 embowered, as it is, in an extensive grove of coffee-trees. 
 
 The St. John's river is as wide as would be the united streams of 
 the Mechlin and the Benson. It is half a mile wide at the estuary; 
 and for a mile further up, is fringed with the mangrove. Thence it 
 gradually lessens in width, and at the distance of three miles is di- 
 vided into two channels by Factory island, on which Mr. Ashmun con- 
 templated forming a settlement. Above the island the river narrows 
 more rapidly, and does not exceed 200 yards in width at Bexley, a 
 missionary school station, and rather a farming settlement than a vil- 
 lage, seven miles from the river's mouth. 
 
 Opposite to the mission is the town of "King Soldier" — a venerable 
 
H. Doc. 1. . 33 
 
 and friendly old man, upwards of one hundred years old. A little above 
 is another island, half a mile beyond which is the head of navigation, 
 where the immediate banks are about twelve feet high. 
 
 The scenery is the same as that on the Junks, except that there are 
 more frequent indications of agricultural improvement. After the man- 
 grove ceases, the soil is a yellow clay ; and the principal growth on 
 and near the water's edge is a medium-sized tree, from its peculiar 
 properties called the soap-tree ; and the more lofty pullam or wild cot- 
 ton tree, the sassy- wood tree, and the palm-tree. The qualities of the 
 soap-tree are the same as those Herodotus mentions, of the shavings 
 of which the Scythian women made a soft paste, wherewith they 
 plastered their bodies, and stripped it off again when quite dry ; by 
 which means the skin was thoroughly cleansed. 
 
 One of the farm-houses at which I stopped was finely situated on a 
 rolling piece of ground, some eighty feet above and one hundred and 
 fifty yards distant from the river. It was well furnished and contained 
 two rooms and a kitchen below stairs, and an attic sleeping-room above. 
 It was the workmanship of the owner — an emigrant from Staunton, in 
 Virginia ; and the neat, yet strong stairway of wattled cane, and the 
 partitions made of rushes, attested his industry and skill; while a small, 
 but good library, proved that he possessed yet other resources. Him- 
 self, his wife and daughter, made the same declaration, which, with 
 two exceptions (and those unprotected females,) I have heard from many 
 others — that nothing could induce them again to take up their residence 
 in the United States. 
 
 * On the banks of the river, between Buchanan and Bexley, are the 
 farms of eight or ten colonists, with as many native settlements ; and I 
 think that I counted two brick-kilns ; but, as on the branches of the 
 Junk and the St. Paul's, the settlements extend only a short distance- 
 back from the river. Including Bexley, there are 250 colonists on the 
 St. John's above Buchanan. 
 
 The mission-house, just below the settlement of Bexley, is a fine two- 
 story frame building, occupied at the time of my visit by two male 
 and three female missionaries. They had arrived a month previous, 
 and were still in the enjoyment of excellent health. Although unprovi- 
 ded with a physician, they spoke cheerfully of their prospects,, and ex- 
 pressed gratification at finding things so much be.ter than they had an- 
 ticipated. 
 
 1 felt a glow of pride, tempered with sympathy, as I looked upon my 
 countrymen and countrywomen periling all earthly hopes in such a 
 noble cause. This is true heroism — the chivalry of the gospel! For 
 warlike achievements, men are alriiost deified; while the self-sacrificing 
 missionary, who foregoes all the comforts of life, and, with the cross for 
 his banner, boldly penetrates the cloud which overshadows this conti- 
 nent, and encounters certain sickness and death, more or less premature, 
 for the benefit of a benighted race, — the missionary is rarely named, 
 except with the final enunciation, " Mortuus est." 
 
 There is a considerable tract of land under cultivation at Bexley. 
 I could not ascertain how much its produce has increased ; but some 
 years ago it yielded 600 lbs. of coffee; nearly 3,000 lbs. of ginger; 1,100 
 baskets* of sweet potatoes; 1,200 lbs. of arrow-root ; and 300 bushels 
 
34 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 of cassada. There were raised, besides, a great many fowls, and some 
 sheep, goats, and cattle. 
 
 Beyond the rapids, the St. John's is navigable by canoes six miles 
 further; from whence it is about ten miles to the base of Mount St. 
 John ; beyond which is a broad valley, bounded on the east by ele- 
 vated ridges. 
 
 The principal forest growth beyond the head of navigation is cam- 
 wood, bastard mahogany, African hickory, two kinds of wisniore — both 
 admirably adapted lor articles of furniture — and the oak, differing essen- 
 tially from the species found from the tropics nearly to the polar circles, 
 which is, throughout those regions, a cosmopolite of vegetation, being 
 alike in its fruit, although much diversified in growth and the form of 
 its leaves. 
 
 From thirty to fifty miles from the sea is one uninterrupted camwood 
 forest; and the wood is used by the natives as fuel, and for building pur- 
 poses. They fell the trees, and split them up into billets fifteen or six- 
 teen inches long, which they carry in bundles on their heads to the near- 
 est point of canoe navigation. Instead of this slow and laborious pro- 
 cess, it is strange that it has never occurred to them to launch the trees, 
 denuded of their branches, and raft them down the river. The whole 
 world might be supplied with camwood rafted down the St. John's. 
 
 Most of the land bordering upon the sea has been, at different times, 
 under cultivation ; but after yielding the first crop, a piece of land is 
 abandoned, and a new clearing made fir the succeeding one. As a 
 natural consequence, a rapid growth of vegetation supervenes in the de- 
 serted field, and it becomes, in a few years, a tangled thicket of trees 
 and shrubs, bound together with the lacings of interminable vines and 
 creepers. Added to which, from the incessant wars heretofore for the 
 purpose of supplying the slave trade, the country along the coast has 
 been half depopulated. Thus stripped of a great part of its primitive 
 growth, and cultivated only in spots detached and distant from each 
 other, the general aspect of the coast is that of a forest of dense and 
 matted trees and shrubbery, almost destitute of its original character- 
 istics. 
 
 In ascending the rivers, however, a wholly different scene presents 
 itself. The primitive forest, in all its native grandeur, covers the 
 earth ; the graceful palm-tree waves its feathery branches in the breeze, 
 and the lofty wisniore and huge bastard mahogany rear high their tow- 
 ering heads, while among the green foliage is seen the gay coloring of 
 blossoms on many a stately tree, which give a kaleidoscopic variety to 
 the deep embowering wood. Far up the streams, the eye is charmed 
 with the ever-varied landscape : the dense trees which overhang the 
 banks, their towering height and majestic size, the vivid hues of their 
 foliage, and the sombre shade, despite the rays of an unclpuded sun. 
 
 The profound stillness which prevails in these solitudes was dis- 
 turbed at our approach, not only by the harsh grating of the oars in the 
 rowlocks, but also by the wild and not unmelodious songs of the boat- 
 men, which caused the basking crocodile to plunge into the stream, the 
 monkey to retire into the recesses of the wood, and the fish-hawk to seek 
 another position from whence to pounce upon his prey. 
 
 The territory of Little Bassa has many subdivisions, under as* many 
 
H. Doc. 1. 35 
 
 names. It is compressed nearly into the form of a triangle by the At- 
 lantic and the branches of the Junk and the St. John's rivers ; and is also 
 a peninsula, as these streams approach each other very nearly in the 
 interior. The country abounds in camwood and palm-oil, and the de- 
 mand for the last is rapidly increasing, as it is now used instead of Rus- 
 sian tallow in the manufacture of soap. Hundreds of tons of camwood, 
 and many thousand gallons of oil, are annually shipped from these rivers. 
 
 The new clearings on the river-banks, the steam saw-mill at Bu- 
 chanan, the vessels in the cove, and the buildings under construction, 
 all attest, with the exception of Edina, that the settlements on the St. 
 John's are flourishing. 
 
 About three miles further down the beach from Buchanan is Fish- 
 town, now being resettled, where there are twenty houses under con- 
 struction, and a considerable tract of land cleared for cultivation. In 
 the environs of the former, and on the road to the latter, I saw a num- 
 ber of cattle, larger in size than those of Monrovia. Their excellent 
 condition- verified the statement of respectable settlers that the neigh- 
 borhood is a fine grass country. 
 
 The landing-place at Bassa Cove is protected from the sweep of the 
 southwest wind, the prevalent one during the rainy season, by Grand 
 Bassa Point, which bends to the north and renders the landing safe, 
 except during a northerly wind. Unfortunately, when I left, the wind 
 blew from that quarter, driving a heavy sea before it. It was near 
 night-fall when I embarked in a canoe, to be conveyed through the 
 surf to the boat, which lay beyond the outer breakers. I took my seat 
 in the little dug-out, which was so light that I could have carried it 
 upon my shoulders, while two natives, one standing at each end, kept 
 it from being swerved entirely round and filled with water, as the 
 waves broke upon the shore and washed knee-deep beyond them. As 
 each wave receded, the two men pointed the bow anew in the right 
 direction, and then stretching themselves up to the greatest height, 
 watched the foaming crest of the succeeding roller, for an opportunity 
 to launch forth and attempt a passage. It was necessary that those 
 who had me in charge should not for one moment be distracted ; a 
 few friendly colonists, therefore, unable to assist, stood a short distance 
 back, and watched our proceedings in silence. The scene to them 
 must have been a wild and impressive one : the tiny canoe, the dusky 
 forms of the natives, now and then shown in striking contrast as an 
 angry breaker broke upon the shore, and sent its seething foam far up 
 the beach, and the troubled sea be}^ond, with the boat in the foreground, 
 tossing confusedly upon it. 
 
 We waited so long for an opportunity^ that the ship, at first dimly 
 visible in the distance, became lost in the fast increasing obscurity ; 
 and the boat beyond the line of surf could only be distinguished as a 
 dark speck upon the surface. 
 
 At last there was a sudden shout, a push, a plunge, a rocking vio- 
 lently from side to side, a rapid play of the paddles which seemed 
 more like wild gesticulations than a concerted movement; and, after a 
 few moments' pitching and tossing, more than I ever pitched and tossed 
 before, I found myself alongside the boat, and the canoe half filled 
 with water. 
 
36 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 It was a long, cold, uncertain pull afterwards to the ship, four miles 
 distant, against a high wind and heavy sea, and without a compass, 
 which, from fear of losing it by the upsetting of the canoe, had been 
 left upon the shore. We were soon, however, favored with a beacon ; 
 for a lantern was hoisted on board the ship. About an hour afterwards 
 a blue light was burned ; and in an hour more we pulled alongside, the 
 Kroomen too weary to keep up their customary song. 
 
 The next morning we sailed for Sinou, eighty miles further down 
 the coast, a Liberian schooner taking her departure also for the south 
 a few hours before us. The two canoemen, my companions of the 
 night before, came off to bring the compass, and receive a compensa- 
 tion for their services. They also brought a specimen of coffee from 
 Judge Benson's plantation, for exhibition at the New York Crystal 
 Palace. 
 
 The Bassa tribe occupies the coast and an indefinite distance inland, 
 from the Mesurado to Settra Kroo, below Sinou. All the colonial set- 
 tlements of Liberia are within the territory of this tribe. With this 
 tribe, therefore, they are better acquainted, having daily and hourly 
 intercourse with them ; nearly all the residents, natives of the settle- 
 ment, being members of this large tribe, estimated to number 100,000 ! 
 all speaking, with little variation, the same language ; their physical 
 conformation, pursuits, manners, architecture, superstitions, and pro- 
 ductions of the country, presenting a striking uniformity. This tribe, 
 like others on the coast, embraces a great many subdivisions, under 
 petty chiefs, of from 15 to 20 miles square, but forming combinations, 
 to more or less extent, by general custom and superstitious laws, con- 
 tinually harassing each other by family quarrels and petty jealousies. 
 They are, nevertheless, industrious in their habits, not fond of wander- 
 ing far from their homes, and are imitative and desirous of improve- 
 ment. 
 
 Wars occasionally take place between two or more of the subdivi- 
 sions ; but, when they have occurred heretofore, the si ave trade was 
 generally the exciting cause. With the extinction of that direful cause, 
 its lamentable consequences it is hoped may be hereafter averted. 
 
 Every town and village has its headman, who is subject to a king — 
 generally an old man, to whom, as well as to the aged in general, 
 great respect is paid. These kings and headmen do not appear to 
 exercise despotic authority. An accused person is tried by the ordeal 
 of drinking red water, a decoction of sassywood, or by a general 
 palaver, which decides the innocence or guilt, and determines the 
 punishment. 
 
 Their towns are assemblages of small conical huts, placed without 
 order, sometimes on the banks of rivers, but are most frequently hidden 
 by the surrounding woods, to which they retreat when attacked by an 
 enemy. These towns exhibit much pleasing harmony and good nature, 
 having altogether the order and features of one great family. Poly- 
 gamy is universal, the number of wives being the measure of a man's 
 wealth ; yet, nothing like indiscriminate licentiousness is to be seen. 
 The men perform no servile labor, but pass most of the year in care- 
 less indolence, except the months of February, March, and April, when 
 the towns appear to be deserted by them, excepting one or two hoary- 
 
& 
 
 H. Doc. 1. 37 
 
 headed patriarchs; all others being busied in cleaning and burning off 
 their farms. 
 
 At this time the whole line of coast presents an interesting spectacle 
 from the sea — volumes of smoke by day, and numerous blazing fires at 
 night. The planting of rice and cassada is then left to the women, to 
 whom all further labor is resigned until the crops are safely stored in 
 their houses. The men then betake themselves to their usual pursuits 
 and amusements. They often seek employment among the colonists, 
 in order to get a supply of tobacco and cloth for themselves, and beads 
 for the women. When they have anything to sell in the colony, the 
 women, with their children strapped to their backs, carry the articles 
 on their heads, while their lordly husbands walk on before, each bear- 
 ing a knife or a gun. 
 
 The children, soon after their birth, are exposed naked to the rays 
 of the sun, and the manner in which they are nursed is anything but 
 gentle; but they are very healthy, and few die in infancy. The boys, 
 eleven or twelve years old, completely throw off all maternal restraint, 
 deeming it unmanly to be longer controlled by a woman. Nothing 
 will make a native boy in the service of the colonists run away sooner 
 than being struck by a female. 
 
 Their mechanical and agricultural implements are exceedingly sim- 
 le — the latter being merely a hatchet for the men to cut down the 
 
 shes and trees; and a small hoe, three inches broad, for the woman 
 to plant the rice with, which, when ripe, is cut down with a common 
 knife. They cook rice admirably, and all their peculiar dishes are 
 highly seasoned with pepper. They live principally on vegetables, 
 but are fond of animal food — snakes, guanas, and monk<5ys being among 
 their highest luxuries; and they are accused of not being averse to cats 
 and dogs. Smoking and drinking palm wine (and rum, when it can be 
 had) is the summum bonum of their existence. They rarely, however, 
 drink to excess; but are fond of games of hazard, which they play with 
 large beans. They do not gamble, however, to the extent cf some 
 tribes in the interior, who first stake one limb, and then another, until 
 the whole body is forfeit, and the unsuccessful player becomes the 
 slave of his antagonist. 
 
 By the labor of the missionaries a syllabic alphabet has been con- 
 structed for the Bassa language, which, although harsh, is metaphorical; 
 the figures being drawn from natural objects. It is believed that there 
 exists a similarity of construction, and no great disparity in the ele- 
 mentary sounds of the languages of the tribes extending from the Gal- 
 linas to Cape Palmas. Such alphabets, therefore, may prove exten- 
 sively and eminently useful. 
 
 The coast from Bassa Cove to Sinou presents the same monotonous 
 features as that to windward, only interrupted at New Cess river, and 
 between Trade Town and Little Culloh river, where there are two 
 elevations ne^ir the coast, of which "Highland Peak," the southern- 
 most, is 240 feet high; directly back of it is the "Tobacco" mountain, 
 880 feet; the "Nipple," 218 feet high; and abreast of it, the "Pobamo 
 rock," directly upon the coast. 
 
 The light winds and smooth sea which prevail, with the smoke on 
 shore and the mist to seaward, would render sailing along the coast 
 
38 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 exceedingly tedious, if the scene were not enlivened by numerous 
 canoes which put off. from the shore, six to eight miles distant, and, 
 paddling alongside, in noisy competition seek to gratify curiosity, or 
 dispose offish, fruit, and fowls, for bread, pork, tobacco, and any kind 
 of clothing. These canoes usually contain from two to four men each, 
 squatted upon their hams, with their feet behind them, and nearly every 
 one naked; the best attired having only a kerchief about the loins, and 
 an old straw hat upon the head. • 
 
 So much are these people at home in the water, that when a canoe 
 upsets, the crew, with as much nonchalance as if it were in a shallow 
 stream, right it, and taking hold of each end, sway it to and fro length- 
 wise, until the water is nearly all swashed out; two of them, alternately, 
 rather roll than clamber in, and, seated at each end, jerk their legs to 
 and fro rapidly along the bottom; and thus, with the flat of their feet, 
 bail it perfectly dry. 
 
 One of this amphibious race came on board while we were sailing 
 down the coast, and left his companion, a mere lad, in the canoe, 
 which was made fast to the ship. We were moving so rapidly through 
 the water that the tow-line parted with the strain, and the canoe, pro- 
 pelled only by one paddle, could not keep up with us. The man who 
 had left her was on the poop, and, after regarding for a few moments 
 the ineffectual efforts of his companion, he made a single ejaculation, 
 walked to the gangway, descended the side, and letting himself into 
 the water, swam to his canoe. 
 
 The people along the coast, protected, as they imagine, by their 
 gree-grees, which they purchase from their priests, have no fear of 
 sharks ; and it»is certain that this voracious fish gives preference to the 
 flesh of a white man. Repeatedly a boat has been capsized con- 
 taining but one white man among its crew ; and yet that man has been 
 singled out and destroyed, while the rest were not even molested. 
 The escape of the native may be owing to the peculiar mode in w r hich 
 he swims — a mode which- appears ungraceful to the beholder, but may 
 prove the safeguard of the swimmer. I have noticed that this people 
 swim overhanded, with their bodies parallel to the surface of the 
 water, which they splash by the movement of their hands and feet ; 
 but my observation has been limited both as to time and space, and it 
 may be that it is to the odor of the skin, or a difference in the taste of 
 the blood, that the preference of the shark is to be attributed. 
 
 Between the St. John's and the Sinon river there are several streams 
 coming down from the interior, but all are shallow and mostly difficult 
 of access. First, the " New Cess," where was the last slave mart be- 
 tween Cape Mount and Cape Palmas. There are here masses of 
 sienite upon the beach and a range of hills stretching inland. Next, 
 the "Little Culloh," south of the highland peak, and accessible to 
 boats in fair weather, and with a good landing just below it. Then 
 follows the " Grand Culloh" river, with its entrance barred up at this 
 season; and the " Tembo," which has a good landing on its southern 
 beach ; " Sestos" river, where a slave factory was long established ; 
 the " New" river, coming in by" Diabolito rock;" the "Broom" river, 
 at the mouth of which is Bahyah rock, sixty feet above the sea ; and the 
 
H. Doc. 1. 39 
 
 " Sangwin" and the " Grand Bouton" rivers, the latter having a bluff 
 260 feet on its southern shore, and the " Yulee" shoal before it. 
 
 There are many rivulets besides these streams, all pouring down, 
 even in this dry season, immense volumes of water, but none of them 
 admitting vessels drawing more than six feet water, except the " San- 
 gwin," which at the flood has upwards often feet water upon its bar, 
 within which it is spread out and is navigable but for a short distance. 
 
 From the Sangwin to Nifou is the Kroo country, inhabited by an 
 interesting race. The extent of their territory inland is not accurately 
 known, but supposed not to exceed twenty miles, as they have no 
 towns, except upon the coast. The general aspect of the country is 
 champagne, and it is densely wooded, but mostly free from marshes. 
 Its chief vegetable productions are rice, cassada, yams, and plantains. 
 The rice which it produces is valued by traders along the coast for its 
 superior whiteness. The rivers which run through it are not large, 
 and do not probably rise at any great distance from the coast, although 
 the Krooman, whose ideas of distance are far from exact, represent 
 them as extending a great way inland. They are full of banks and 
 shoals, which obstruct navigation. 
 
 In the Kroo country there are but five towns : " Little Kroo," the 
 northernmost ; " Settra Kroo," the chief town; "Kroo Bah," " Nana- 
 kroo," and " Willstown." A few small villages, inhabited by strangers 
 or slaves, are said to be scattered over the inlermediate space, and at 
 a greater distance from the shore, for the purpose of cultivating the 
 land. This small district is considered more populous than any along 
 the coast. The inhabitants are employed by all the vessels trading 
 between Cape Mesurado and Cape Palmas as factors, interpreters, 
 and as auxiliaries to the crews, to save them from exposure in boats. 
 The Kroomen who thus employ themselves are seldom less than fif- 
 teen or more than forty years of age. Those who remain at home are 
 chiefly employed in agriculture and a few in fishing. They rear also a 
 few cattle. The land seems to form a common stock, and not to de- 
 scend by inheritance. Each man settles where he pleases, and the 
 labor is performed chiefly by the women, assisted by domestic slaves. 
 
 The commerce of the Kroomen is carried on principally by barter, 
 and the articles in greatest demand among them are leaf-tobacco, cot- 
 ton cloth, handkerchiefs, fire-arms, knives, and bar-iron. The last 
 they manufacture into implements of husbandry. For these articles 
 they exchange palm-oil, a little ivory and rice, and occasionally supply 
 ships with fire-wood, plantains, cassada, and sometimes with bullocks. 
 They paddle in very small canoes to ships eight or ten miles from the 
 shore, with not more of these articles than will procure for them a few 
 leaves of tobacco — counting their toil and hazard as nothing. Their 
 chief article of barter, however, is their labor to captains and traders on 
 the coast. This is the source from whence they derive by far the 
 greater portion of their imported commodities. They have long been 
 the exclusive intermediate dealers between vessels trading on this part 
 of the coast and the people of the interior ; and while the slave trade 
 flourished, it employed a great many hands. Since the abolition of 
 that trade, they have sought other lines of service; and at Sierra Leone, 
 350 miles to the north, there were 800 of them employed in one year/ 
 
40 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 The form of their government is monarchical ; but the " old men' 1 — the 
 aristocracy of the country — possess considerable influence, and the 
 power of the monarch is small, except when supported by them. Each 
 town has a chief, who is designated as king to strangers ; but there is 
 one chief who is considered superior, and rules over the whole. The 
 power, however, of the superior chief is very great in his own district, 
 and the office, it is probable, is hereditary. At the same time the 
 children of the greater chiefs work as laborers in clearing the ground, 
 while they are young men, in exactly the same manner as the lowest 
 of the people ; nor are they to be distinguished on ordinary occasions 
 by their attire, or by superior respect being paid to them. 
 
 With respect to the principal monarch, his power is seldom exer- 
 cised ; and instead of being the source of all authority, the fountain of 
 justice, the original proprietor and ultimate heir to all the land, he is 
 in general no more than the last referee in important disputes, and the 
 person in whose name business with other tribes or countries is trans- 
 acted. A general war must be carried on in his name, but independent 
 of the concurring voice of those headmen who possess the greatest 
 share of talent and activity. His power is probably far less than that 
 of some of his subordinate chiefs. This remark applies not only to the 
 Kroomen, but to all the African tribes not of the Mohammedan faith. 
 
 A king usually names a vice- king, who, on the death of the former, 
 succeeds him in sovereign authority. A mourning cry of several days' 
 continuance takes place on the death of a king, during which time the 
 succession is arranged. The body of a deceased king must be interred 
 with the honors due to his rank before his successor can be recognised. 
 The possession of the body is therefore the first thing aimed at by 
 competitors for the throne. 
 
 Wars are not frequent among them; but the inhabitants of the dif- 
 ferent towns sometimes have very serious quarrels. When at war, all 
 Kroomen who are made prisoners are released on the payment of a 
 ransom. They neither kill nor sell them. Prisoners of other tribes 
 are enslaved or put to death. The submission of Kroomen to their 
 superiors is carried so far, that, if one of the foremen commit a theft, 
 the rest will run any risk,, and resist every temptation of re ward, rather 
 than reveal it; and if there be no other mode of saving their superior 
 from disgrace and punishment, they will assume the crime, and suffer 
 its penalty. Among themselves, theft is punished by whipping. The 
 punishment of adultery is by fine. Murder may be punished with 
 death, but it, also, may be atoned for by a pecuniary fine. Witchcraft 
 is always punished capitally; but instances of it are rare. 
 
 Among Kroomen no offence is punishable with slavery, nor is any 
 Krooman permitted to be sold on any account whatever ; but, while 
 the slave trade continued, they were notonous for kidnapping and sell- 
 ing the Bushmen, who came down to the coast for the purpose of trade. 
 
 Kroomen are seldom very tall ; but they are well made, muscular, 
 vigorous, and active. They wear no clothes, except a piece of cloth 
 or a kerchief wrapped around their loins ; but they are fond of ob- 
 taining hats and old woollen jackets, which they are allowed to wear 
 in their own country in the rainy season. They are extremely sensible 
 to cold during this season, but never appear to suffer from the heat. 
 
H. Doc. 1. 41 
 
 They are generally gay and cheerful in their dispositions, and frequently 
 talkative and noisy, often evincing much talent for mimicry. They 
 seldom speak English well, and they understand it but imperfectly. 
 They are very fond of adopting what man-of-war sailors call "pursers' 
 names," such as "pipe of tobacco," "bottle of beer," "tin pot," "pea 
 soup," half dollar," "after breakfast," &c. They are very sensitive ; 
 and, if harsh and angry expressions are used towards them, become 
 sulky and intractable. But they will bear even a sharp blow, if their 
 negligence deserves it, provided it seems to be given more in jest than 
 in earnest. 
 
 In their general conduct, they are more deliberate than impetuous ; 
 and, although not a brave race, they are less cowardly than the tribes 
 immediately above and below them. 
 
 Among themselves they are exceedingly hospitable ; and when ab- 
 sent from their country, those who are unemployed are supported by 
 those who are receiving wages. In their expenditures they are rigid 
 economists, a little tobacco being the only luxury which they allow them- 
 selves; in every other respect, they are content with the bare neces- 
 saries of life. A small quantity of ship-biscuit was the only article 
 of provisions taken by those who accompanied me in my boat expe- 
 ditions. Although fond of rum, they never buy it, and never drink to 
 excess when it is given to them; and their clothing on board of a man- 
 of-war consists only of a flannel shirt and drawers, and a straw hat. 
 On board of trading vessels they wear their shore attire, and the cost 
 of their clothing is insignificant. 
 
 The residue of their gains is converted into such goods as are most 
 valuable in their own country. In eighteen months or two years a suf- 
 ficient stock has been collected, and the Krooman returns home with 
 his wealth. A certain portion is given to the head man of the town ; 
 all his relations and friends partake of his bounty, if there be but a 
 leaf of tobacco for each; and his mother, if living, has a handsome 
 present. All this is done in order " to get him a good name ;" what 
 remains is delivered to his father "to buy him a wife." One so liberal 
 does not long want a partner. The father obtains a wife for him; and, 
 after a few months of ease and indulgence, he sets off afresh to different 
 parts of the coast, from Sierra Leone to Fernando Po, to get more 
 money. By this time he is proud of being acquainted with "white 
 man's fashions," and takes with him some raw, inexperienced young- 
 sters, whom he initiates into his profession, taking no small portion of 
 the wages of the eleves for his trouble. In due time his coffers are re- 
 plenished ; he returns home, confirms his former character for liberal- 
 ity, and gives the residue of his wealth to his father " to get him another 
 wife." In this way he proceeds for ten or twelve years, or more, in- 
 creasing the number of his wives, and establishing a great character 
 among his countrymen; but scarcely a particle of his earnings, ex- 
 cept in the article of wives, is at any time applied to his own use. 
 
 A Krooman sometimes presents his favorite wife with one of his front 
 teeth, which he has extracted for the purpose ; and he mourns for a 
 departed friend by shaving all the hair from the back or one side of 
 his head. 
 
42 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 The name "Krooman " is said t.o be a corruption of the term "crew- 
 men," because of their general employment among vessels visiting the 
 African coast. Among this people polygamy exists universally, and 
 slavery to some extent ; although slaves are bought only from other 
 tribes, and are never sold to foreigners, or to any person out of their 
 own tribe. Their houses are built of a square form, of sticks, covered 
 with bamboo plaited, and the roof of leaf-thatch ; and the floor is of 
 plaited bamboo, raised eighteen inches on cross-pieces ; and the door 
 and loft above are not sufficiently high to permit an adult to enter with- 
 out stooping, or to stand erect. There are, generally, three rooms in 
 each house, separated by partitions of plaited bamboo. The fire-place 
 is made principally of hard clay, near one corner of the house, where 
 is the only window, which serves both to admit light and open a pas- 
 sage for the smoke. The smoke penetrates the interstices of the loft 
 above and preserves the rice, which would otherwise be destroyed by 
 insects. 
 
 Their furniture consists, mostly, of a few cooking utensils ; the floor 
 answers for bed, table, and chairs; and their pillow is a round stick of 
 wood. Their dress is a piece of cloth wrapped about the loins. Their 
 devotions are, superstitiously gazing on the moon, and a feast on the 
 first day of the moon, among the head men, and devotional walks in a 
 thicket called the "devil's bush ;" and they depend on amulets or 
 gree-grees for protection and defence. The latter are purchased from 
 the gree-gree doclors, for different sums of money, according to the 
 purposes for which they are designed. These amulets are sheep's 
 horns, or small pockets, filled with herbs and palm-oil and dirt, made 
 by the conjurer or doctor. These doctors are a distinct class of men, 
 who come into the profession hereditarily — the heads of the families 
 teaching their children the craft. The children destined to this pro- 
 fession enter early upon their studies under some doctor — sometimes 
 as early as seveu or eight years of age — and are distinguished by a 
 peculiar straw dress. 
 
 These doctors profess a knowledge of herbs and roots, and to have 
 the means of curing diseases, and are called to relieve the sick and 
 afflicted ; but their greatest reputation is derived from their imagined 
 supernatural knowledge. The Krop people consider death and sickness 
 as caused by witchcraft, and they employ and rely upon the doctors to 
 point out the person who has, by witchcraft, caused these evils. The 
 person who is designated as guilty of the crime of witchcraft is arrested 
 by the soldier king, and condemned to the ordeal of sassy-wood. The 
 bark of the sassy-wood is powerfully narcotic, and a strong decoction 
 of this the person condemned is forced to drink ; and after he has drunk 
 it he walks to and fro, exclaiming, "Am I a witch?" "Am I a witch?" 
 while one of the executioners walks behind him replying, "You are a 
 witch," "You are a witch," and thus continues until he either throws 
 off the poison from his stomach, when he is pronounced innocent, or it 
 operates as a cathartic, when he is declared guilty, and compelled to 
 take more of the decoction, and is subjected to other cruelties which 
 cause his speedy death. When pronounced innocent, there is great joy 
 and triumph among the friends of the accused, who march through 
 the town dancing, singing, and firing guns, and the conjurer resigns his 
 
H. Doc. 1. 43 
 
 fee to those who employed him. These shocking, scenes of the ordeal 
 by sassy-wood were of almost daily occurrence in former times, but 
 have been much less frequent since the establishment of missions among 
 them. Sometimes this sassy-wood ordeal is used to decide questions 
 between individuals ; and they voluntarily drink it to prove and settle 
 some disputed points. It is one of the most prevalent and cruel of 
 African superstitions, and is practised among nearly all, if not all, the 
 tribes of Africa. 
 
 The laws of the Kroo people form a body of customs, handed down 
 by tradition from past generations, interpreted and enforced by the gen- 
 eral council, who also enact occasional special laws, which are generally 
 suggested or dictated by the doctor or conjurer. The laws are imperfect, 
 inconsistent, and unfair. If one man loses anything and accuses an- 
 other of having stolen it, the accused is required to drink sassy- wood 
 water to prove his innocence. The ordeal of sassy-wood is, therefore, 
 a penalty for almost all crimes, and exerts a powerful restraining in- 
 fluence on the community. When the sassy-wood so affects the accused 
 as to condemn him, his friends may buy him off from death for differ- 
 ent sums of money, according to the wealth of the family accused; but 
 few are thus saved, in consequence of the poverty of the friends of the 
 accused, and because, if once rescued, he is liable to be re-accused for 
 any trifling offence. The ordeal of sassy-wood is frequently made to 
 decide points of honor, precisely like the custom of duelling in the 
 United States. 
 
 The leading motives of the Kroo people are sensuality and vanity. 
 The men employed by vessels on the coast, and by traders as factors 
 on shore, are industrious ; but on the plantations, and in their towns, 
 the men are idle, and the women perform most of the labor. The men 
 build the houses and clear the plantations ; but the women plant, 
 watch, cultivate, and gather and beat the rice, and cut and bring the 
 wood, and perform all the labor about the house ; and especially those 
 who are old and incapable of other labor, are constantly and indus- 
 triously engaged in making salt, by boiling down sea-water. Salt is a 
 principal article of trade with the interior tribes. 
 
 The women seldom eat with the men, except a man's head or favor- 
 ite wife, who superintends the cooking, and first tastes the food before 
 he partakes of it. 
 
 The system of polygamy gives rise to jealousies and many quarrels 
 among the women. All lawful wives are purchased when children, 
 and, on attaining a suitable age, are taken to their husbands. Besides 
 these there is a class of women who go and live with any man they 
 choose, and leave him for any other at pleasure. When one or more 
 of these leave a man and run to another, the one to whom they resort 
 fires guns, and his lawful wives rejoice with him; because they regard 
 it as adding importance to their husband, and it relieves them from a 
 portion of their labor. There appears to be a strong affection between 
 parents and children, and brothers and sisters; but polygamy doubtless 
 lessens the affection between husbands' and wives. 
 
 Kroomen are passionate, but cowardly ; fond of war and hunting, 
 but have little skill in either. When specially intrusted with property 
 they may be expected to be faithful ; but if they can slyly steal, they 
 
44 
 
 H. Doc. 1 
 
 are apt to do it ; and in case one of their number informs against the 
 thief, it is the law that the informer shall pay for the stolen property. 
 
 With respect to intellectual improvement, the condition of the Kroo- 
 men may be considered as stationary. It is universally admitted, that 
 if a Krooman were to learn to read and write he would be put to death 
 immediately. Distinction, respect, power among his own countrymen, 
 as soon as age permits it, are the high objects of each one's ambition. 
 He is trained up in the habit of looking forward to these as to all that 
 is honorable or desirable. His life is spent in seeking them by the only 
 means which the customs of his country allow ; and when possessed 
 of them, every exertion is used to train others in the same ways, in or- 
 der that he may keep and enjoy what he has acquired with so much 
 labor. All this is supported by superstition ; and under the cloak of 
 superstition are cruelty and injustice. Who shall break through these 
 shackles ? Premiums have been proposed to Kroomen if they would 
 settle at Sierra Leone, or emigrate to the West Indies; but take away 
 from them their desire of respect and distinction in their own country, 
 and they are deprived of every motive for that industry and self-denial 
 which procures for them, at present, a preference over other nations. 
 
 The indifference of Kroomen to the arts and comforts of the whites 
 would make one regard them as a very dull race of men. A Kroo- 
 man and a Mandingo were shown an English clock. It was a new thing 
 to both of them. The Krooman eyed it attentively lor about a minute, 
 but with an unmoved countenance, and then walked away to look at 
 something else, without saying a word. The Mandingo could not suffi- 
 ciently admire the equal and constant motion of the pendulum; his at- 
 tention was repeatedly drawn to it ; he made all possible inquiries as 
 to the cause of its motion ; he renewed the subject next morning, and 
 could hardly be persuaded that the pendulum had continued to "walk," 
 as he called it, all night. In general the case is nearly the same. 
 Kroomen have little or no curiosity about things which are of no use 
 in their own country ; they are careless about our comforts and luxu- 
 ries ; none of them have been rendered necessary by habit, and they 
 would often be inconsistent with the principal objects of their pursuits. 
 But they are sufficiently acute and observant when occasion calls their 
 minds into action. 
 
 They have not the use of letters, and will not permit their children 
 to learn ; they talk miserably bad English ; and, living by daily labor, 
 which is paid for in goods, they have no occasion for manufactures of 
 their own. They have, therefore, but few opportunities of displaying 
 peculiar talent. They make their own canoes, several of their imple- 
 ments of agriculture, &c, and some trifling musical instruments ; and 
 they 'sometimes plead in their own defence with much art. The evi- 
 dence against one examined on a charge of theft was so strong, that 
 few men would have had the boldness to deny it. The culprit, how- 
 ever, began a long speech with expressing his sorrow that the judge 
 was not born a Krooman, and proceeded to enlarge on the superior 
 ability he would, in that case," have possessed to distinguish between 
 truth and falsehood in all cases wherein Kroomen were concerned, not 
 orgetting the security against deception which he might possibly have 
 obtained by means of those fetishes of which white men know not the 
 
H. Doc. 1. 45 
 
 value nor the use. Had the judge possessed but these advantages, he 
 would have known, he argued, how much more safely he might rely on 
 his veracity than on all the evidence produced against him, although it 
 was backed by the unfortunate circumstance of the stolen goods being 
 found in his possession. 
 
 A Krooman will never sell a Krooman, or allow him to be sold by 
 others, if he can prevent it. Partly from their general usefulness on 
 the coast, partly from the probability that the sale of a Krooman would 
 be severely revenged, they have gone about everywhere in slave-ships 
 and to slave factories, and were active agents in the slave trade, with- 
 out any more apprehension of being sold themselves than if they were 
 white men. At home their numbers make them formidable to their 
 neighbors, and they seldom seem to be engaged in war but when great 
 divisions exist among themselves ; few, therefore, are ever sold. 
 
 Nearly all the vowels of their language are pronounced very short; 
 the consonant indistinct, with occasionally a strong nasal sound, par- 
 ticularly in the numbers two and three ; an apostrophe after a word 
 marking that short breaking off of a sound (without dwelling on the last 
 letter or connecting it smoothly with the first letter of the next word) 
 which is common in many languages on the coast. 
 
 The country from Cape Mount to Cape Palmas is an inhabited strip 
 along the seacoast, with a wooded desert behind it, which separates it 
 from the more populous interior, and the coast tribes are ingenious and 
 persevering in their endeavors to obstruct the intercourse of strangers 
 with those residing inland. 
 
 As much by drifting as by sailing we reached Sinou, where a Libe- 
 rian schooner and a square-rigged vessel were at anchor; and one of 
 the latter was in sight, bearing down from the north. The anchorage 
 is an exposed one for large vessels, but smaller ones find a partial 
 shelter from the southwest wind, and its accompanying heavy sea, 
 behind Bloobarre Point. The Sinou, a small but placid river, was 
 selected about eighteen years ago by colonists from Mississippi and 
 Louisiana, with a few from South Carolina, who, after acclimating at 
 Monrovia, founded the town of Greenville on the right bank, just above 
 the river's mouth. 
 
 From the sea this settlement presents an attractive appearance. 
 Directly abreast of it the shore curves inwards, and then stretches to 
 the north, a long line of yellow beach, fringed with a deep forest. To 
 the south are two shallow bays, separated from each other by project- 
 ing crags of ferruginous rock, the curved beach of sand bordered like 
 that of the northern shore. At the northwest extremity of the north- 
 ernmost bay is the promontory of Bloobarre, a broad, high rock, its 
 surface bare and smooth to the summit, which is covered with luxuriant 
 foliage. At the inland base of the promontory are the brown, conical 
 huts of the Bloobarre tribe. Outwards, in a line with the promontory, 
 and at half a cable's length distance from it, is a ledge of detached rocks, 
 washed smooth by the slirf, which at low water are covered with 
 sea-gulls ; and between the two is the bar. 
 
 Immediately after crossing the latter, the river, which is about sixty 
 yards wide, opens short to the right, round the bluff promontory, and 
 in fifty yards turns sharp to the left by a low, sandy point, immediately 
 
46 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 opposite to which, near the southern shore, are two smooth, rocky 
 islets — the nearest one bare, the farthest capped with vegetation — pre- 
 senting a fine contrast between the iron-tinted rock and the rich green 
 upon its summit. Ascending the river there is a low, sandy peninsula 
 on the left, which becomes wider and more elevated until reaching 
 the settlement half a mile distant. 
 
 The opposite bank is high, with several abrupt patches of ferrugi- 
 nous rock. Greenville faces the sea, and the river flows behind it. It 
 is regularly laid out, and Mississippi avenjre, with a row of dwellings 
 on one side and open to the sea on the other, is a delightful prome- 
 nade. The houses I considered by far the neatest I had seen — two of 
 them were quite handsome two-story ones ; and the gardens were in 
 better condition than those of Monrovia. There are about sixty houses 
 and between three and four hundred inhabitants in the settlement. 
 The churches are the least reputable features of the place ; but, al- 
 though unprepossessing in their exterior, their congregations were 
 creditable in costume and deportment. My visjt was at the time of 
 the annual meeting of the Baptist association, and the members of that 
 persuasion thronging into the settlement gave it quite a lively appear- 
 ance. 
 
 There are a number of mechanics in Greenville, particularly carpen- 
 ters, and in the outskirts of the town I saw a steam saw-mill, to which 
 lumber was rafted from the river by an artificial canal. The Bloobarre 
 district, opposite to the settlement, is very properly described by the 
 Rev. Mr. Gurley as high, rich, and inviting, and he judiciously points 
 out the summit of the promontory as an eligible site for a light-house. 
 
 Above Greenville were founded the settlements of Rossville and 
 Readville ; but the country around them, although slightly rolling, is 
 subject to inundation. The soil is composed of stiff clay overlaid with 
 vegetable mould, excepting the river bottoms, which are made up from 
 the deposites of annual inundations. Rice is the principal growth 
 relied upon as an article of food; but, like the settlements on the Junk 
 and the St. John's, the colonists do not cultivate sufficient for their own 
 consumption. A great quantity is, however, raised by the natives ; 
 and such is the productiveness of the soil, tha 1 " slave vessels, when 
 that baleful traffic was at its height, resorted to the Sinou to purchase 
 their stores of rice. The principal article of export at present is palm- 
 oil; but much attention is now being paid to the culture of the coffee- 
 plant, which, in beauty and fragrance of foliage and flower, equals the 
 orange tree, and far surpasses it in the utility of its fruit. Its deep- 
 green leaves and snow-white blossoms would remind one of the orange, 
 if its delicious perfume, borne on the wind, had not anticipated the 
 comparison. 
 
 The river, although deep within the bar, is navigable only seventeen 
 miles to the falls, beyond which it runs shallow and obstructed, through 
 the same belt of wilderness which lies behind the colony inland 
 throughout its entire length, and constitutes the great barrier to the 
 more speedy improvement of settlements along the coast, and the 
 civilization and conversion of the natives in the interior. The forest is 
 dense beyond conception. The crowded branches of the trees, twisted 
 and interlaced, each bearing its full crop of foliage, form one wide 
 
H. Doc. 1. 47 
 
 canopy, which the sun looks upon but cannot penetrate ; ^hile beneath, 
 shrubs and climbing plants weave themselves into tangled and im- 
 penetrable thickets. The timber of many varieties is harder and heavier 
 than any in the United States, the live oak excepted, and much of it, 
 even when seasoned, will not float in water. There are also others, 
 corresponding to our pine in lightness ; and whether for houses, ships, 
 or furniture, the mechanic need never be at a loss for a selection. 
 The caoutchouc or India-rubber tree grows also large and abundant 
 here; its stems, branches, a*d leaves emitting copiously the viscous 
 fluid which is elsewhere so profitable an article of commerce. 
 
 The domesticated cattle are small in size, but there is a large wild 
 breed, having short horns, with hides nearly destitute of hair. There 
 are many deer in the forest, and leopards are occasionally seen. In 
 consequence of the dense undergrowth near the coast, the range of the 
 elephant is quite far in the interior. A good deal of ivory is from time 
 to time brought down; and from the inequality of many of the tusks, it 
 may be inferred that more elephants die of disease than are killed by 
 the natives. Lizards and chameleons are common; but it is averred 
 that serpents are rarely, and venomous ones very rarely, seen. But 
 three kinds are, I believe, known to the colonists; and although the 
 natives are unquestionably acquainted with others their accounts, are 
 confused and unintelligible. 
 
 This section of country is thinly inhabited by a mild and inoffensive 
 race, who are fond of agriculture, and represented as the most indus- 
 trious of any on the coast, but as very filthy and disgusting in their 
 habits. They form one of the divisions of the Great Bassa tribe. 
 Through the head man of the principal village on the Sinou I met 
 three natives, who represented themselves as coming from a country 
 ten days' journey inland. A day's journey in Africa is about twenty- 
 five miles; but as the natives never clear obstructions from their path, 
 making always a detour to pass them, and even where there are no ob- 
 stacles preferring a zigzag road to a direct one, their country cannot be 
 more than 150 mites from Greenville ; but whether directly inland, or 
 diagonal with the coast, I could not ascertain. From the density of the 
 forest through which they travelled, they took no notice of the bearing 
 of the sun at various times of the day, and could give no other clue 
 than that they came from the highlands to the sea. 
 
 From their account, I inferred that their country is not a mountain- 
 ous one. They represented the climate as but little colder than that 
 of the coast ; and their representation was confirmed by the scantiness 
 of their attire, being a single cloth about the loins, worn pendant in- 
 stead of being passed in and out between the legs. Their country 
 abounds, they said, with goats, sheep, and cattle, and the two first 
 would have supplied them with skins for garments if the climate were 
 a cold one On the other hand, they stated that they possessed a breed 
 of dogs with long hair, whereas the few to be seen along the coast are 
 almost devoid of any hair whatever. They have neither crocodiles 
 nor horses, and little camwood or ivory, but a great deal of palm-oil. 
 The nut-bearing palm-tree is known to be confined to the seaboard, 
 and the crocodile delights in the muddy deposites of wide-spread estu- 
 aries; but the camwood does not grow, and the elephant is never found 
 
48 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 on soil which, subject to inundation, cannot sustain his enormous weight. 
 I can only reconcile these conflicting accounts by the conclusion thai 
 these men came from a country just beyond the belt of forest between 
 the coast and the interior, and not more than 70 or 80 miles in a direct 
 line from the sea. They were unquestionably Bushmen, and, excepting 
 some Arabs of the desert, the wildest and shyest beings I have ever 
 seen. They were under the medium stature, but exceedingly broad- 
 chested and muscular. Their bodies were long, their legs unnaturally 
 short, and their whole appearance indicated great strength combined 
 with extraordinary activity. 
 
 From a single interview, although a prolonged one, it would be un- 
 wise to form a decided opinion ; but, the impression left on my mind 
 was, that with equal native shrewdness, they evinced less duplicity 
 than characterizes the tribes along the coast. From Tolon, themselves, 
 they named the following tribes as inhabiting the intermediate country, 
 commencing with the seacoast : " Twah," " Nenvoo," " Ghepoh," 
 "Tygepoh," "Drapoh," "Nafou," "Sapoh," "Cabadeh," "Tatroo." 
 Notwithstanding their uncouth and savage appearance, these men, 
 after their first shyness wore off, exhibited much social feeling, and a 
 marked love of humor. 
 
 The Sinou is navigable to as great a distance as the St. Paul's, but 
 its banks are less thickly settled, and there is less water on its bar ; 
 but the soil is fertile, and the heaviest vessels built for the coasting 
 trade can enter the river with facility. The first settlers were unques- 
 tionably energetic and industrious; and from the aspect of Greenville, 
 I should judge that there has .been no great relaxation. There is 
 throughout the place a pleasing aspect of prosperity, and I consider it 
 the prettiest settlement I have seen in Africa. 
 
 The rivers "Dehvoeh," " Coroo," and "Teeroroah," are the princi- 
 pal streams flowing into the Atlantie between the Sinou and the Gar- 
 raway, the southern line of the republic. The coast preserves its low, 
 monotonous character, only throwing up a sufficient number of de- 
 tached elevations to prevent its being classified as one unbroken level. 
 The first of these interruptions is a solitary hill abreast of Kroo rock, 
 about ten miles below Sinou. Twelve miles further, south of the Co- 
 roo, are three elevations, one of them 260 feet in height. Twenty 
 miles beyond is a hill just within Sesters Point, 210 feet high ; and in 
 a line with it, a short distance inland, is a range comment- '" r at Flat 
 Hill, and becoming mountainous as it stretches into the interior; and in 
 a northeast direction from it, the Sugar Loaf shows isolated 730 feet in 
 height. At New Sesters was the last slave factory between Cape 
 Mount and Cape Palmas. South of Grand Sesters is Table Hill, 190 
 feet high near the shore, with the Paps, two rounded summits, a few 
 • miles inland ; and from thence to the Garraway, the southern boundary 
 of the republic, are five or six hillocks, mostly contiguous to the shore. 
 
 The imports of the Republic of Liberia, on which duties were paid 
 for the year ending September 30, 1851, amounted to $166,000. The 
 exports, of which no account is kept, may be safely estimated at a 
 much larger sum, as along the entire coast commerce increases rapidly. 
 
 From the Garraway to Cape Palmas is the Atlantic coast of territory 
 settled by the Maryland Colonization Society. At the latter point the 
 
H. Doc. 1. 49 
 
 coast line tends abruptly to the east, along the Gulf of Guinea, as far 
 as Cape Lahore. Between the Garraway and the first named Cape, 
 besides the hill of Kabla, 290 feet high, near the shore, there are but 
 three elevations visible from the sea, of which Flat Mountain is 1,090 
 feet in height; all else is level forest. 
 
 Cape Palmas is a bold promontory, in a marked geographical posi- 
 tion, where the Atlantic suddenly swerves to the left and forms the Gulf 
 of Guinea. From the current which sweeps into the gulf along the 
 coast, all vessels bound in that direction avail themselves of it and pass 
 within sight of the Cape, which must eventually attain great commer- 
 cial importance. The extremity of the Cape is crowned with a light- 
 house, and is separated from the main land by the Hoffman river, 
 which has from three to seven feet water upon its bar, and is navigable 
 but a short distance from its mouth. The fine headland, the scattering 
 houses upon its summit, the rocky islet on one side, and on the other, 
 across the river, the wide extent of country, part forest and part prairie, 
 present, from the anchorage, a beautiful appearance. The rocky islet, 
 formerly used by the natives as a receptacle for their dead, is now 
 called Russworm's island, in honor of the first colored governor of the 
 colony. It is small and irregular in its outlines, the chafing of the sea 
 having worn deep fissures in its sides. Between it and the peninsula 
 is a narrow channel, practicable only for boats. Back of the Cape are 
 seen houses of colonists, and the conical peaks of native huts, which, 
 from the sea, appear to be confusedly intermingled. In the distance, 
 shooting up from the plain, or overtopping the woodland, are many 
 detached hills, one of them to the north (Mount Vaughan) rendered con- 
 spicuous by the buildings of an Episcopal mission. 
 
 On visiting the shore we pulled by a snug cove, with rocky extremi- 
 ties, but a smooth sandy beach between, just within the pitch of the 
 Cape, and, crossing the bar without difficulty, landed at a small stone 
 wharf just within the river's mouth. Immediately at the head of the 
 wharf is a large stone warehouse, from whence a good winding road 
 leads to the summit. On this broad elevated platform are the colonial 
 settlements of Harper and Latrobe, with two native villages between 
 them. The village of Harper consists of one wide street, with the gov- 
 ernment house, the custom-house, a number of private dwellings, and 
 at its northern extremity the light-house, besides a large stone building 
 under c truction, intended as an orphan asylum. 
 
 From t.AS settlement a broad McAdamized road leads by the na- 
 tive villages, through Latrobe, to Mount Tubman, three miles distant. 
 Latrobe consists of a number of small farms, with the dwellings neatly 
 enclosed, stretching some distance on both sides of the road. The first 
 native village, within which is the royal residence of the king, contains 
 about 200 thatched huts and 1,000 inhabitants : the second one, about 
 half a mile from it, below the hill and nearer to the river, has about 300 
 inhabitants. The Grebo tribe, to which they belong, owns the territory 
 from Fishtown to the Cavally river, but are almost wholly confined to 
 the seacoast, their territory being about thirty miles in length, by six 
 to eight inland. 
 
 Turning aside from the road, by far the best I have seen in Liberia, 
 I entered one of the largest huts of the principal village. The walls 
 
50 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 were plastered inside and out, and the thatched roof projected all round, 
 two feet beyond them. There were three low doors, one in front and 
 one on each side. Suspended to the wall, opposite to the front entrance, 
 were from forty to fifty white wash-hand-basins, and before them, on 
 the mud floor, were eight or ten large stone jars. According to the quan- 
 tity of crockery thus exhibited, is the estimated wealth of the proprie- 
 tor. A fire was burning on the floor between the two side-doors, and 
 two piles of cut wood were suspended from the rafters, as a reserve 
 store for wet weather. Over the fire was a frame for rice in the ear, 
 and many bunches, hung to the rafters, were designed for seed. In one 
 part small beams were thrown across which supported a rude flooring, 
 with a ladder to ascend to it, made to trice up and held by a hook. 
 There were two men, one woman, and a child, in the hut, which was 
 far more spacious within than one would suppose from its external ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 The natives seemed less sprightly and intelligent, and certainly, as 
 far as costume can indicate it, are less civilized than any I have seen 
 in immediate contact with the colonists. But there is said to be a slight 
 improvement. Formerly, a narrow piece of cloth in front constituted 
 the whole attire ; now, a corresponding piece is worn behind, but the 
 appearance is disgusting. Yet even here fashion has its votaries, and 
 none but the aristocracy can aspire to the color of the season. 
 
 I likewise visited the Fetish House, which in its exterior presented no 
 perceptible difference from the others. The idol, made of wood, was 
 about fifteen inches high, a misshapen figure between that of a monkey 
 and a man, with a small, dirty feather drooping from its head. It was 
 fenced in on three sides, and in the enclosure were some tin pots and 
 trumpery, all covered with dust. There was a fire in the corner of the 
 hut, and a woman, with a child in her arms, seated beside it. These 
 people regard their Fetish as an evil spirit, whom in evil times they 
 seek to propitiate. They have no regular time for worship. Some years 
 back the last human sacrifice was offered. A man of this village, be- 
 lieving it necessary to sprinkle human blood upon his Fetish, in order 
 to avert some threatened calamity, employed another to kill a boy for 
 him. But the employer was obliged to fly, and will be severely pun- 
 ished by the tribe should he return. 
 
 There are eleven new houses being built by the colonists, besides the 
 Orphan Asylum and the Methodist church, and there was a great de- 
 mand for building materials. In other repects there were few indica- 
 tions of prosperity, and not many signs of trade perceptible to the 
 eye of the observer ; yet the value of the imports last year was nearly 
 $100,000, and of the exports upwards of $80,000. The trade of the 
 colony with the interior is very injuriously affected by trading vessels, 
 which, being driven from the coast of the republic by a rigid enforce- 
 ment of its revenue laws, carry on their traffic along the shores of this 
 colony almost within sight of Cape Palmas. 
 
 On the road from Harper to Latrobe I met two ox-carts, drawn by 
 two small oxen each — one of them belonging to the society, the other 
 the property of an individual. I likewise saw a native mother feeding 
 her child in a peculiar manner. The little thing was laid between her 
 knees, face upward, and its feet towards her. With one hand the 
 
H. Doc. 1. 51 
 
 mother held it down, and with the other filled its mouth from time to 
 time with soft boiled rice, which was smoking-hot. When the mouth 
 was crammed full, she pinched the infant's nose until the rice was 
 swallowed. They think that a child never gets sufficient nourish- 
 ment from the breast, and that to thiive it cannot be stuffed too freely. 
 
 There is here a public farm of sixteen acres, of which ten were in 
 cultivation when I saw it, and the remainder was used as pasturage. 
 There were some coffee-trees, and the cassada, sweet potatoes, plan- 
 tains, and Indian corn, were in cultivation. The coffee-trees did not 
 seem to flourish, and altogether the farm presented a less thrifty ap- 
 pearance than it doubtless would have done had it been individual 
 property. It is ever the case, that management by deputy will never 
 compete with the superintending vigilance of the owner. I mean to 
 cast no reflection on Dr. McGill, the colonial governor, whose time 
 is engrossed by more pressing and important cares. 
 
 In the two colonial settlements there are 122 voters and about 800 
 inhabitants. I was there on an election day, and the place was quite 
 lively. The people were in their best attire. The men gathered in 
 groups near the building where the poll was held, while the women 
 stood about in the shade, principally near the stands, where some of 
 their sex displayed, on long tables, cakes, fruit, etc., for sale. 
 
 A short time ago it was unanimously decided to declare the independ- 
 ence of the colony, and this day the voters were assembled to elect 
 commissioners, to proceed to the United States and confer with the 
 Maryland Colonization Society on the subject. At the same time, 
 delegates were to be elected to a convention for forming a State con- 
 stitution. This act, seemingly premature, is, I believe, the offspring of 
 necessity. I am inclined to think so from what I see around me, and 
 am convinced of it by the concurrence of the Society at home, whichin 
 most respects has heretofore so wisely directed the affairs of the colony. 
 The election was conducted in a quiet and orderly manner, and I am 
 satisfied that in its climate, soil, geographical position, and the general 
 character of its settlers, this colony possesses the elements of undevel- 
 oped prosperity. The settlement has heretofore been retarded in its 
 growth by the number of emigrants sent out, who were either infirm 
 in health, feeble from age, or indolent in their habits and of listless 
 characters — too many recently emancipated from slavery, with no idea 
 of freedom beyond exemption from labor. A better time is approach- 
 ing ; and when the colony becomes an independent State, it will compete 
 with its sister republic to the north, in the advantages it presents to the 
 enterprising settler. 
 
 In and around Cape Palmas, for four or five miles from the shore, 
 the soil is a sandy prairie, but soon presents clay, covered with vegeta- 
 ble mould ; and in the valleys between the clumps of hills, which are 
 seen in every direction, is a rich alluvial soil, capable of supporting an 
 immense population. Among these valleys are found most of the na- 
 tive villages. 
 
 Just below the principal village is the grave of King Freeman, who 
 was in life a warm friend of the colony. In a rude enclosure, just 
 large enough to contain them, are two huts, and in one of them is the 
 royal grave, unmarked by mound or tombstone. The broad-brimmed 
 
52 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 straw hat of the deceased alone indicates the spot. Without the door 
 of the hut are some old clothes torn into shreds, and many fragments 
 of pottery. The former are torn, and the latter broken, because the 
 natives believe that the spirit of the departed can unite them at will, 
 while in their dismembered condition they present no temptation to the 
 living. The opening to the enclosure is never secured ; it is directly 
 beside the thoroughfare between the two villages, but seems neither to 
 attract nor repel the people continually passing to and fro. Except the 
 stranger, monkeys from the adjoining wood seem to be its only 
 visitants ; and the latter visit it unmolested, for although this people are 
 fond of them as food, and will destroy them elsewhere, they hold them 
 sacred in a grave-yard. 
 
 King Freeman did not, as is usual, name a successor. Great funeral 
 honors were paid to his remains by the colonists, which so gratified the 
 tribe that it was conceded that no one should be made to drink red 
 water, except about half a dozen who were accused of " making witch 
 for the king," and the privilege was granted to the colony of naming 
 his successor. The one selected was Peroh-Nah (Yellow Will,) a stout 
 mulatto, with a frank, intelligent countenance. 
 
 The ordeal of sassy-wood may now be considered obsolete with 
 that portion of the tribe in the immediate vicinity of the settlements; 
 and in some of the villages of the tribe labor is forbidden on the 
 Sabbath ; but from what I could learn, compensation is expected for the 
 lost day. 
 
 The Grebo language is different from that of the Bassa's, although 
 they have some affinity to each other. It has been reduced to a syste- 
 matic form by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, and is used in the schools and 
 religious exercises of the mission. The Grebo tribe is estimated at 
 about twenty thousand, and they are represented as docile and indus- 
 trious, but much addicted to thieving. The above named reverend 
 gentleman, who resided for some years among them, states that although 
 each tribe has its king, there is not a feature of royalty in the govern- 
 ment : so different is it from the arbitrary despotism which prevails in 
 certain parts of Africa, that it may be regarded as the purest specimen 
 of republicanism to be found in the world. The people govern, and 
 they govern en masse. All proceedings, whether legislative, judicial, 
 or executive, are conducted by the people in a body, and the majority 
 enact, abolish, suspend, and execute all laws whatever. No office is 
 hereditary, and there is nothing like caste. Kings, chiefs, men, women, 
 and children, eat, drink, sleep, and mingle together in the common 
 affairs of life with as little restraint as the herds of cattle which graze 
 in their meadows. Kings think it no detraction from their dignity to 
 perform the most irksome drudgery, and to labor side by side with their 
 poorest subjects, provided there be no one to witness it who would 
 probably deride them for it. In some respects the government is 
 patriarchal. Each family in the male line keeps itself entirely distinct 
 from the others; and there is always one representative head, who is 
 the guardian of the property and the protector of the rights of the 
 family. When a family becomes too large to transact business without 
 inconvenience, it is divided, and subordinate heads are appointed. 
 These subordinate heads manage all their affairs separately, except in 
 
H. Doc. 1. 53 
 
 matters of great moment. The bead man of each family receives and 
 holds all the money and other property of its different members. He 
 is accountable, however, for the disbursements of the common stock. 
 He is required to purchase wives for the young men, and is responsible 
 to the people at large for the payment of all fines which may be im- 
 posed upon the members of his family. However successful any one 
 individual may be in amassing property, he cheerfully deposites almost 
 the whole of it in the house of the head man of his family, and seems 
 amply repaid for his toil in having the satisfaction to know that he has 
 contributed largely to the common stock. 
 
 The old men who stand at the head of their respective families are 
 much revered; and when they unite on a particular measure, their 
 influence is very considerable, and their decisions seldom reversed. But 
 there does not seem to be anything like political organization among 
 them. 
 
 There are four prominent offices among them : the Bodio, the Tihba- 
 wah, the Worabank, and the Ibadio. The two first are sacred offices. 
 The Bodio is the protector of the people and the town. His house is of 
 a different shape and much larger than the others ; it is something of a 
 sanctuary, and is a place of refuge for all culprits who fly to it. If a 
 criminal can enter the house and place his hands upon the great gree- 
 gree, no one but the Bodio can remove him. In front of the Bodio's 
 house important oaths are administered, and perjury under such circum- 
 stances is guilt of the deepest dye. If the Bodio puts his hand upon a 
 person condemned to drink sassy-wood water, the latter goes free. 
 He wears a plain iron ring round his ankle, as the badge of his office, 
 and if that should by any means be removed or lost, he would lose his 
 office and be subject to a heavy fine. He is subjected to a great many 
 singular restrictions. He must never sleep out of his own town ; the 
 rain must never touch his head; and he is never allowed to sit down, 
 except upon a monkey skin, which he always carries in his hand. He 
 is restricted from certain kinds of food, and on burial days he is not 
 allowed to partake of any food whatever until the sun has gone down; 
 and he can wear only one kind of cloth. 
 
 If a stranger has a complaint against any individual in the town, he 
 prefers it before the Bodio, who calls a town council and presides at it, 
 but has no power to decide any case without the concurrence of the 
 people. The wife of the Bodio is a person of still greater sanctity ; 
 any lewd intercourse with her is always most severely punished. On 
 no consideration whatever would she be allowed to be absent from 
 home one night. If the town burns down, and months elapse before it 
 is rebuilt, she must sleep on the spot, whatever be the state of the 
 weather. t 
 
 The Tihbawah is the judicial head of the soldiery. He is subjected 
 to nearly the same restraints as the Bodio. 
 
 The Worabank is commander-in-chief in time of war. The inter- 
 pretation of his name is Tower Tail, and its origin is a little singular, 
 but in strict accordance with the notions of Africans. Here, as every- 
 where else in the world, the post of most danger is the post of greatest 
 honor. Hence the rearmost rank in retreat, which is very common in 
 their warfare, is the place of greatest danger, and he who has bravery 
 
54 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 enough lo occupy it, becomes the commander-in-chief. His authority- 
 is never exercised until war is declared, and then he has more power 
 than any other individual in the community. He is subject to none of 
 the restrictions of. the Bodio and the Tihbawah, but eats, drinks, and 
 wears what he pleases. 
 
 The Ibadio is associated with the Tihbawah, and is something of a 
 civil magistrate among the soldiery in time of peace. But the most 
 powerful and efficient organization is the soldiery. They constitute 
 the bone and sinew of the body politic. It embraces the chief part of 
 young and middle aged men. They fight the wars of the people, and 
 they repay themselves abundantly for their toil and exposure by their 
 high-handed and exorbitant exactions both in peace and war. It is an 
 elective body. No one can be admitted into its ranks without paying 
 an initiation fee, which is usually a bullock. They receive a great 
 many presents to avert rapacity, and they help themselves to much 
 that is not given to them. They never deprive a man of his property, 
 however, without alleging some crime against him. The charge of 
 witchcraft is one they can always bring forward with some plausibility, 
 and the result of the prosecution, if nothing worse, always turns a bul- 
 lock into their hands. But the people understand their interests, and 
 save their property, and perhaps their lives, by voluntary offerings. 
 
 There is no other restraint but interest on this powerful body. As 
 it is constituted by representation from each family, and as all fines 
 imposed upon an individual must be paid out of the family stock, they 
 naturally restrain each other, and prevent much lawless aggression. 
 They do not often oppose the influence of the old men, and rarely, if 
 ever, reverse their decisions ; but the old men are careful not to in- 
 fringe upon the prerogatives of the soldiery. The latter enforce all de- 
 cisions that are passed by the people in a collective capacity. If any 
 one refuses to pay a fine that is imposed, it is only necessary to report 
 the case to the soldiery, who are always glad of an opportunity to 
 interfere, for, besides collecting the fine, they always abundantly in- 
 demnify themselves for their trouble. In time of war they may seize 
 and kill any cattle they please, and the owner does not dare demur. 
 If he charge one of them with stealing, they employ the following test: 
 The accused is taken to the water-side, and an open basket is pro- 
 vided. The accuser is told that if the basket holds water the soldier 
 is guilty, but should it run out the charge is pronounced a false accusa- 
 tion, and he who has preferred it is fined three-fold for bis audacity. 
 The mode of trial is well understood, and few expose themselves to the 
 snare. 
 
 There are no other magistrates in this tribe, and all cases of dispute 
 are submitted to the people for adjudication. They have no written 
 laws, and all their decisions are made viva voce. They never inflict 
 capital punishment; and although the husband often castigates his 
 wives, sometimes severely, the children are indulged to the utmost, 
 and are never whipped. Banishment is the highest penalty ever en- 
 forced. Almost every trespass is punished by fine, which is regulated 
 not so much by the nature of the offence as by the ability of the delin- 
 quent to pay. For stealing, the thief is required to restore two, three, 
 and sometimes four- fold. 
 
H. Doc. 1. 55 
 
 The charge of witchcraft is the most disgraceful that can be alleged. 
 They have several trials by ordeal. One of them is to dip the hand 
 into boiling oil. If it can be submerged in the oil and taken out un- 
 injured, the accused is declared guiltless; if not, he is condemned. 
 Another, more serious, and more universal along the entire coast, is the 
 trial by sassy-wood water, which is regarded as an infallible mode of 
 detecting witchcraft. The bark of the tree is procured, and from it a 
 strong decoction is prepared, which the accused is enjoined to drink. 
 If he disgorge it, he is pronounced innocent; if not, his death is in- 
 evitable. This trial by sassy-wood is always voluntary on the part of 
 the accused; he is not compelled to drink it, but death is preferable to 
 the suspicion of witchcraft, and many who perish drink it in the con- 
 fident belief that it will not injure them. 
 
 The will of the people is the law of the land, and no man can 
 prosper who does not conciliate public opinion. If any one be more 
 successful than the rest of his tribe in accumulating property, he be- 
 comes the subject of jealousy, and some charge is sure to be preferred 
 against him. This would seem to be a great drawback to industry ; but 
 it is not so with Africans. They scarce know what discouragement is. 
 If the whole property of an individual be swept away by fire, or the 
 violence of a mob, in good glee he immediately sets to work to repair 
 his loss. Enterprising men have seen the whole of their property de- 
 stroyed three or four times in their lives without manifesting despond- 
 ency, or relaxing their efforts to retrieve their fortune. 
 
 The families of the tribe are so much interwoven, and their mar- 
 riages one with the other are so frequent, that the interest of each 
 community requires that it should deal equitably with others ; and they 
 have too many mutual drawbacks upon each other to allow any high- 
 handed or unjust procedure. Litigated points between individuals are 
 frequently referred to a third party. 
 
 The treaties of the tribe are held sacred, and they have several 
 ways of ratifying them. The most common is the following: The par- 
 ties concerned take each a mouthful of water from the same vessel and 
 eject it in the presence of witnesses, at the same time calling upon 
 God, the devil, and the town, to bear testimony. They have another, 
 that is employed on extraordinary occasions, particularly when a league 
 of amit3' - is for the first time established. An incision is made upon the 
 backs of the hands of persons belonging to the two parties, with the 
 same knife. By this means their blood is mingled, and they become 
 one people. Treaties thus ratified are as inviolable as any in the 
 world, and may be relied upon with implicit confidence. 
 
 Much that 1 have said, especially respecting the tribes, apart from 
 what I gathered myself, is derived, some of it verbatim, from Dr. 
 McDowell and the Rev. Messrs. Connelly and Wilson. 
 
 Anxious to obtain information respecting the river Cavalry from 
 Bishop Payne, of the Episcopal church, who resided in its vicinity, I 
 started, on the 16th February, at 7 a. m., in company with Commander 
 Barron and Surgeon Sinclair, on a visit to Half Cavally, the seat of the 
 mission. Landing at Harper, we walked to Latrobe, and from thence 
 embarked on Shepherd's lake, which lies lengthwise parallel to the 
 sea, from which it is separated by a high and narrow strip of sand. In 
 
56 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 an hour and a half we arrived at the head of the lake, after passing 
 Half Grahway and Grahway, two populous villages of the Grebo 
 tribe, situated on the narrow strip between the lake and the sea. 
 These villages are fenced in by palisades, eight to ten feet high, with 
 an opening at each extremity, barely wide enough for one person to 
 enter at a time, and so low as to require him to stoop in passing. 
 Thence, walking a quarter of a mile, we came to another very large 
 village, and a few hundred yards further to a smaller one, inhabited by 
 the same tribe. There were many women and children about, looking 
 contented and healthy; but there were very few men visible, they 
 being absent preparing the fields for planting rice the approaching rainy 
 season. The few males who fell under my observation were better 
 clothed than the females ; and this remark is applicable to all the tribes 
 I have seen. The men seem here to have invaded the privileges of the 
 other sex in two particulars — by evincing a greater love of dress, and 
 by monopolizing the use of needle and thread. The husband mends 
 the household garments, while the wife splits wood for the fire. There 
 is but a single variation in the costume of the female — the occasional 
 change of color in the only article they wear, which bears the same 
 proportion to a civilized garment that a waist-band does to a pair of 
 unmentionables. 
 
 After passing this second village — one mounted on a jenny, and the 
 other two in hammocks borne by natives — we travelled along the sea- 
 beach about three-quarters of a mile ; and then turning to the east, 
 traversed a sandy prairie for two miles, and reached a rocky knoll at 
 its extremity, close upon the sea, where we found some look-outs from 
 an adjoining populous village. Pursuing our course between the pali- 
 sades of the latter and the sea, we passed through another populous 
 village, and entered immediately upon the precincts of the mission. 
 
 A little beyond the palisade of the last village was a broad avenue, 
 lined with wide-spreading cocoa-palm trees, leading up a gentle ascent, 
 on the summit of which was the mission-house. A little below it, on 
 the left, we noticed the foundation and part of the superstructure of a 
 large brick church. 
 
 The mission-house is a frame building, and although seemingly com- 
 modious, resembles imperfect joint-work, presenting the appearance of 
 having been constructed in detached parts at different intervals. 
 
 The plan pursued in this mission seems to be the best adapted of 
 any I have observed or heard of for reclaiming the African. By the 
 usage of the tribes, females are contracted in childhood, the future hus- 
 band making payment in advance, and the father binding himself to 
 deliver up his daughter at the marriageable age. Heretofore the females 
 taught in the missions have been claimed by those to whom they were 
 affianced, after having, with apparent conviction and zeal, embraced 
 and tor some years practised Christianity. The consequence was, that 
 they fell back to barbarism. In like manner the males, returning to 
 their tribes, would sink under the pernicious iufluence of polygamy. 
 But Bishop Payne (I believe that the credit of the suggestion is due to 
 him) obviates the first difficulty, by paying the price for a female child 
 and receiving her into the mission, to be educated by the accomplished 
 and devoted ladies connected with it. In like manner, the boys are 
 
H. Doc. 1. 57 
 
 taught a trade, as well as their catechism and grammar, by the reverend 
 gentlemen ; and when the former attain the age when heretofore they 
 have left to rejoin their tribes, employment is given them by the mission, 
 and every inducement presented to marry one of the educated native 
 females, and settle within the precincts. In this way there is now a 
 village on the mission premises of about sixty native Christians, occu- 
 pying comfortable houses erected by themselves. This is a slow and 
 expensive, but seems to be the only effectual, mode of retaining in the 
 Christian fold those who have been reclaimed from barbarism, and 
 whose descendants may prove powerful auxiliaries to future messen- 
 gers of the Gospel. 
 
 I ascertained that it would be almost impossible to cross the bar of 
 the Cavally river, except in a boat during the most favorable season ; I 
 would not, therefore, detain the John Adams to proceed to the mouth of 
 that river, as it might take weeks to return against the current to Cape 
 Palmas, although the distance is but fifteen miles. I determined, there- 
 fore, to postpone my visit to the Cavally until the arrival of the steamer, 
 when it was my purpose to make a second and more thorough examin- 
 ation of the rivers along the coast, crossing the bars with the vessel, and 
 ascending with her as far as possible. 
 
 While at Cape Palmas, Dr. McGill, to whom I am indebted for much 
 information and great kindness, took me through the hospital containing 
 the sick among the recently-arrived emigrants. As far as I could judge, 
 the type of fever in each case was a mild one. Since it has been dis- 
 covered that quinine can be administered in large doses, even during 
 the paroxysm of fever, the mortality among colored emigrants, I am 
 assured, has been diminished fifty per cent. Such is the adaptability 
 of the constitution of the colored man to this climate, that, after recov- 
 ering from sickness, he can attain and preserve his previous health and 
 strength. On several occasions, when I could scarce endure the fiery 
 rays of the sun, colonists would be walking along bare-headed, who 
 laughingly declared that they rather enjoyed than suffered from the 
 heat. The white man, on the contrary, never becomes acclimated; and 
 after he has undergone the ordeal of the fever, if he do not recruit his 
 strength by seeking for a time a more congenial climate, he will, accord- 
 ing to his vital energy, meet with a lingering or a speedy death. 
 
 The day after returning from Cavally I visited Rock Town, a mis- 
 sionary school station, situated on a small stream where it flows into 
 the sea, four miles from Cape Palmas. A projecting rocky point pro- 
 tects the mouth of this river from southerly winds ; but the stream is 
 shallow, and its bar is rarely crossed by anything larger than a canoe. 
 Just within the extremity of the point is a Grebo village, and a short 
 distance from it, on the opposite side of the stream, is another, with its 
 Fetish House, without the palisade. They are populous, and although, 
 like all the rest, their huts are placed irregularly, the spaces between, 
 as in the others also, are kept scrupulously clean. 
 
 We found the Rev. Mr- Home, with sallow complexion, laboring in 
 his God-like vocation, teaching Pagan children the rudiments of Christ- 
 ianity. While above stairs, his pallid child had just passed through, 
 and his wife was undergoing the ordeal of the climate, with none but 
 native Africans around them, and without necessary comforts for the 
 
58 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 sick. As I have before said, this illustrates the true chivalry of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 The country about Rock Town is prairie, with palm-trees so beauti- 
 fully interspersed as to convey the idea expressed by Major Laing, in 
 describing another section, of having been planted expressly to adorn 
 the landscape. 
 
 The soil is sandy, but far from unproductive ; and in Mr. Home's gar- 
 den I saw, besides a great variety of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, indi- 
 genous to the climate, a number introduced bj* him from the West Indies. 
 
 The day after my visit to Rock Town I was attacked by the fever, 
 and from thenceforth had not sufficient strength to make further obser- 
 vations. 
 
 We returned slowly to Monrovia against the current, but, on our 
 arrival there, learned that the steamer had neither been seen nor heard 
 from. 
 
 Being prostrated a second time, in consequence of exposure to the 
 sun, I requested Commander Barron to proceed to Half-cape Mount 
 river, whither President Roberts had gone with a detachment of 250 
 Liberians. But, unable to land there from weakness, I was forced 
 to consider my reconnoissance at an end. 
 
 We proceeded to Sierra Leone, where the John Adams left me ; 
 and at the expiration of sixteen days, during which the yellow fever 
 made its appearance, I embarked for home, and arrived in New York 
 on the first of May. 
 
 In this report I have presented things exactly as they appeared to 
 me, and at every place 1 visited endeavored to procure reliable in- 
 formation, for thus I interpreted my instructions. 
 
 It now remains for me to speak of the best place to disembark an 
 exploring party ; the proper inland route ; the precautions to be taken ; 
 and the difficulties to be encountered. 
 
 I consider Monrovia the best place for a party to ride out the fever 
 in. I believe it to be as healthy as any other settlement in Liberia, 
 and good accommodation and nurses for the sick can there be procured. 
 Besides, the intercourse of its inhabitants with the interior is more fre- 
 quent, and extends farther inland, than from any other point I am 
 aware of along the coast. Millsburg, at the head of the navigation of 
 the St. Paul's, I recommend as the proper rendezvous, and the point 
 from whence to take up the inland march. 
 
 Boporah, a populous native town, of which I have spoken in this 
 report, lies directly in the path which it seems to me should be pur- 
 sued, and it should be reached as soon as possible, and made the pivot 
 of operations for advancing inland, and keeping up a communication 
 with the sea-shore. 
 
 The march from Boporah should be regulated by the nature of the 
 country, and the distance and direction of the nearest mountain range, 
 which must form the water-shed between the tributary streams of the 
 Niger and those which flow into the Atlantic. That range attained, 
 if it trend southeast, as it most probably does, it might be followed to 
 the parallel of Cape Palmas, with a particular eye to the country on 
 its Atlantic slope, and thence the expedition might descend and make 
 its way to the sea. 
 
H. Doc. 1. 59 
 
 The obstacles to be encountered would be a dense forest, (through 
 which, in many places, a path could only be cleared with the hatchet,) 
 wild beasts, the frequent morasses, the jealousy and possible treachery 
 of the natives, and sometimes the scarcity of food. 
 
 The party should consist of as few whites as possible. The com- 
 mander ; an officer to take his place, should he perish ; a physician, 
 who should also be a naturalist ; and some twelve or fifteen colonists, 
 would perhaps be sufficient. 
 
 The energy of the white man is indispensable for such an under- 
 taking ; but, from the hostility of the climate to his race, as few as 
 possible should embark in it. The main body, therefore, should be 
 citizens of Liberia; but as no man of resolution and judgment would 
 undertake to head them unless they were under military organization, 
 and bound to follow as long as he led the way, I suggest that if an ex- 
 pedition be organized, the government of Liberia consent to its citizens 
 enlisting under the flag of the United States, and thereby subject them- 
 selves to its martial code. All ought to possess physical stamina, and 
 the whites, especially, should be in the vigor of life, and, if possible, 
 natives of our southern States. 
 
 I have considered it my duty to collect in my route all the informa- 
 tion I could as to the commerce of the places I visited. It has been 
 presented in the body of this report, and few, I presume, are aware of 
 the present magnitude and the annual increase of the commerce of 
 Western Africa. For further information on this subject, I herewith 
 submit the official reports of the British colonial possessions, transmit- 
 ted with the Blue Book to both houses of Parliament. 
 
 Our own proportion of the African trade is very large, and might be 
 rendered yet more extensive by forming treaties with the principal in- 
 dependent tribes along the coast. England has already negotiated 
 eighty such treaties, her plenipotentiary being sometimes a lieutenant 
 in her navy. To her honor be it said, that while looking to her com- 
 mercial interests, she is not forgetful of the claims of humanity, and 
 inserts, wherever she can, a clause prohibitory of the slave trade. She 
 is, however, accused of reviving that trade in another form, and I sub- 
 mit in the appendix (No. 1) a proclamation of the President of Liberia 
 on the subject. 
 
 I will illustrate the advantages of the treaties to which I have 
 alluded. It is a custom of the tribes, that all traffic with the natives 
 shall be transacted through the kings and head men ; in other words, 
 the head men and kings are the sole factors of their respective com- 
 munities. By a stipulation of the treaty, these potentates become re- 
 sponsible for the payment of debts contracted with an English trader. 
 Should payment be withheld when due, (for the credit system pre- 
 vails here as well as in the Christian world,) the trader seeks a British 
 man-of-war, and communicates the circumstance to her commander, 
 and the latter repairs instantly to the place and enforces payment. 
 Not so with the American trader. If his debtors are disposed to de- 
 fraud him, he has no redress ; and as native breach of faith is not un- 
 frequent, he cannot fairly compete with the Englishman. With this 
 report I submit two maps, on a large scale — one of the republic of 
 Liberia, and the other of Maryland in Liberia — together with views of 
 
60 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 Monrovia, the residence of President Roberts, Cape Palmas, Mount 
 Vaughan, and Russworm's monument. 
 
 One other thing I feel impelled to say from a sense of duty, and do 
 so most reluctantly. But, if we do not wish to be accused, and per- 
 haps justly accused, of observing the letter and neglecting the spirit ot 
 our treaty stipulation with regard to the slave trade, we will substitute 
 small but efficient steamers for sailing-vessels upon the African station. 
 Judging of the future from the past, I venture to say that the frigate 
 Constitution is of little more use in suppressing that trade than if she 
 were in the Bay of Fundy. Nor can it scarce be otherwise. From 
 Goree to Cape Palmas, ranging from fifty to eighty miles from the 
 coast, is a misty region of alternate calms, light winds, currents, and 
 tornadoes, with overwhelming torrents of rain, compared to which the 
 refreshing showers of our own more favored clime are as dew-drops to 
 overflowing cisterns. In the " John Adams," we were ten days 
 making a distance which a steamer could have accomplished in thirty- 
 six hours. From Monrovia to the island of St. Jago, vessels are often 
 forty days on the passage, which a steamer could make in five. In one 
 direction along the coast it is a drift with the sluggish current : in the 
 other, it is working up against it with light and baffling winds. 
 
 I do not say that the vessels we have on the coast do not sometimes 
 protect our commercial interests, or are not otherwise serviceable. I 
 have mentioned the "John Adams" assisting a merchant vessel in dis- 
 tress ; and I submit in the appendix (Nos. 2, 3, and 4) some letters from 
 President Roberts, expressing acknowledgments for benefits derived 
 from our squadron. But, from the causes I have enumerated, our 
 cruisers can visit very few places compared to the number that should 
 be visited, and, as the log-books will testify, often remain long at their 
 anchors, or make yet more lengthy passages to Madeira to recruit — a 
 passage which, under canvass alone, in the teeth of the trade-wind, is 
 often more prolonged and more wearing to the ship than if she came 
 directly home. 
 
 The service on the coast of Africa needs an incentive. Great Britain 
 has twenty-seven vessels-of-war employed in the suppression of the 
 slave trade on that coast, and a large proportion of them are steamers, 
 mostly small "ones. Her naval officers have eveiy inducement to seek 
 service on that station, for he who attains to a higher grade by the 
 death of his superior in rank, retains it permanently, and does not, as 
 with us, hold it but temporarily. The consequence is, that the English 
 far surpass us in activity on the coast of Africa. A very slight incen- 
 tive would cause service on that coast to be coveted by our officers and 
 crews. Within a few years two commanders have died on that sta- 
 tion. If the two senior lieutenants in the squadron had been promoted 
 permanently, the files of the department would now exhibit more ap- 
 plications from lieutenants for service on that station than all others 
 combined. And thus of every other grade, except the highest, which, 
 living on its honors, should be influenced by higher aspirations. 
 
 The arrogance of British officers heretofore, precludes the idea of an 
 agreement to search respectively the vessels of either nation. It is a 
 
 Erivilege which cannot be safely conceded to them, and we must at all 
 azards protect the integrity of our flag. But, for the honor of our coun- 
 
H. Doc. 1. 61 
 
 try and the protection of its commerce, it is to be hoped that small 
 steamers will be substituted for our sailing-vessels on the African coast, 
 and that some incentive may be presented which will infuse greater 
 activity among them, and render them almost ubiquitous in the neigh- 
 borhood of the slave marts, and the parts of the coast frequented by our 
 traders, instead of making tedious passages to and from a few places, 
 some of them too remote by far, or too long lying suggishly at their 
 anchors. 
 
 Since my return I have received intelligence from Sierra Leone of 
 the capture by British men-of-war of three slavers, one of them Ameri- 
 can. The prostitution of our flag, now so much facilitated by sea-let- 
 ters, obtained principally at the consulates of Rio de Janeiro and 
 Havana, will continue, to our disgrace, until we have vessels on the 
 coast of Africa propelled by steam, and manned with crews and com- 
 manded by officers who are stimulated, the one by increased pay and 
 the hope of prize-money, and the other by permanent promotion when 
 vacancies are caused by death. The climate is a trying one, and, as 
 in battle, the places of those who perish should be filled by the sur- 
 vivors. 
 
 I do not permit myself to dwell on the necessity of incorporating into 
 the international code a clause declaring the slave-trade piracy under 
 any flag ; nor on the frequent decisions of our legal tribunals, (caused 
 by the want of such declaration,) which have so discouraged our offi- 
 cers. Of this want, and its attendant evil consequences, the govern- 
 ment has been long advised. 
 
 In estimating the amount of our African trade I have been careful 
 not to exaggerate, and rejected every item not based on authentic data ; 
 but there is so much traffic along the coast in articles never entered at 
 a custom-house, that I have reason to believe I have given twenty-five 
 per cent, less than the actual imports ; and as the profits are very 
 great, that the exports exceed the estimate nearly one hundred percent. 
 Apart, therefore, from the suppression of the slave trade, our com- 
 merce with the west coast of Africa needs the protection of an efficient 
 force — efficient more in its power of locomotion than in the number of 
 its guns. 
 
 A knowledge of the disadvantages under which our countrymen 
 labor who trade along that coast, has induced these concluding re- 
 marks, and I trust they will not be considered inappropriate. 
 
 I have the honor to be, veiy respectfully, &c, 
 
 W. F. LYNCH, Commander, U. S. N. 
 
 Hon. J. C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Proclamation. 
 
 Whereas Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., of London, contractors with 
 her Britannic Majesty's government to furnish laborers from the African 
 coast for the West Indies, have sent some of their ships to the coast of 
 the republic, offering an advance of ten dollars for every person who 
 may be induced to emigrate; and whereas the extinction of the slave- 
 
62 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 trade has left large numbers of predial and other laborers in the pos- 
 session of the chiefs and principal men of the country, while the offer 
 often dollars each is nearly equivalent to the amount formerly paid for 
 slaves during the prevalence of the slave trade, and which operated 
 mainly in producing and sustaining the wars by which the country was 
 distracted; and whereas certain refractory chiefs are reported to have 
 engaged with the agents of said company to furnish a number of labor- 
 ers, and are further known to have in concealment near Grand Cape 
 Mount a number of the unhappy victims of their predatory excursions ; 
 and whereas complaint has been made to the government that persons 
 are held, to be sent off without their voluntary consent, or the consent 
 of their natural guardians : therefore, to prevent the abuses and evils 
 which might otherwise result from the enterprise — 
 
 Be it known by this proclamation to all whom it may concern, that 
 the law regulating passports must be strictly observed ; that vessels 
 carrying, or intending to carry away immigrants, must come to this 
 port with their immigrants on board to obtain passports, in order that 
 an opportunity may be presented to the government to ascertain 
 whether the emigration be tree or constrained. Every violation of the 
 law regulating passports will be visited with the utmost penalty of the 
 law in that case made and provided. 
 
 Done at Monrovia, this twenty-sixth day of February, in the year of 
 r -. our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, and of the 
 L L * S 'J republic the fifth. J. J. ROBERTS. 
 
 By the President : 
 
 H. Teague, Secretary of State. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Government House, 
 
 Monrovia, November 16, 1851. 
 
 Sir : I have just received despatches from Grand Bassa, announc- 
 ing that a formidable attack was made yesterday morning, about 
 7 o'clock, upon the settlement of Bassa Cove, by a force of about one 
 thousand Fishmen and Bassas. After a vigorous contest of nearly one 
 hour, they were repulsed with considerable loss on their -part. The 
 enemy has retired; but, it is confidently believed, only to return and to 
 renew the attack with increased force and vigor. The settlers there 
 are worn down with watching and fatigue, and cannot sustain them- 
 selves much longer, without aid in men and ammunition. This is 
 earnestly craved in the despatches, and we are now preparing to ren- 
 der them the desired succor ; but it will require some two or three 
 days to make the necessary preparations here, and as many more days 
 perhaps will be occupied in reaching the scene of hostilities. As the 
 natives expect and dread a reinforcement from this place, their object 
 will be to anticipate it, and to strike a decisive blow ere it arrive. 
 The presence of your vessel here, just at this crisis, seems most oppor- 
 tune and providential. I have, therefore, to throw myself, and the 
 perilous and exposed condition of our leeward settlements, upon your 
 friendly consideration, and solicit, most earnestly, that you will make it 
 convenient to take me to Bassa, a distance of only about sixty miles. I 
 
H. Doc. 1. 63 
 
 am of the opinion, as are also those whom I have consulted, that the 
 presence of your vessel there, and the interest in our cause which your 
 taking me down would indicate to them,, would effectually deter the 
 natives, and stay an immediate blow, and thus afford an opportunity to 
 reinforce Bassa Cove and put it in a state of security. 
 
 I hope, sir, you may find it convenient to lend us the aid of the 
 presence of the ship under your command, at the scene of hostilities. 
 Be assured, sir, it is nothing less than the call of humanity for the 
 protection of hundreds of almost wholly defenceless women and chil- 
 dren from the brutal rage and fury of savages ; for if Bassa should be 
 carried by them, we shall have nothing to entertain but the most 
 gloomy anticipations for all our leeward settlements,, and our numerous 
 traders along the coast. 
 
 As it is of the utmost importance that I should, by my arrival at 
 Bassa, anticipate an attack by the natives, I shall hold myself ready to 
 embark whenever you shall be pleased to give me notice. 
 I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 
 
 J. J. ROBERTS, President. 
 
 Captain W. Pearson, United States Ship Dale. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Government House, 
 
 Monrovia, January 24, 1852. 
 
 Sir : Accompanying is a letter which I beg you will take in charge 
 for Commodore Lavallette. I have not been able, in consequence of 
 the numerous engagements pressing upon me just at this time, to give 
 the commodore as full details of our campaign as I could wish ; and 
 I have taken the liberty — for which I beg your indulgence — to refer to 
 you for such further particulars of our operations as may have come to 
 your knowledge. I enclose herewith a copy of the communication I 
 have addressed to the commodore. 
 
 Permit me here, sir, to present — which I beg you will accept — my 
 sincere thanks for the services you have rendered the people of this 
 republic in their present difficulties. I am fully sensible of the obli- 
 gations we are under to you. I know, sir, that we have had your sym- 
 pathies and good wishes with us in all our operations, and that you 
 would willingly have afforded us other and more important services had 
 circumstances rendered it necessary. 
 
 I beg to assure you, sir, that your kindness will never be forgotten 
 by your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 J. J. ROBERTS. 
 
 Captain S. Barron, 
 
 U. S. Ship John Adams. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 Government House, 
 
 Monrovia, January 24, 1852. 
 Sir : I have had the honor of receiving your esteemed favor of 
 December 12th, by Captain Barron, of the United States ship John 
 
64 H. Doc. 1. 
 
 Adams, which vessel, on hearing of our difficulties with the natives of 
 Grand Bassa, you very kindly despatched to aid us " in such meas- 
 ures as might be deemed necessary to establish full confidence in the 
 minds of the settlers of their security, by assurances of protection to 
 them by the naval forces of the United States when their situation 
 needs it." 
 
 This kind feeling of concern for the security and future welfare of 
 Liberia, and the sentiments of benevolence you so kindly express, sir, 
 are sensibly felt and deeply appreciated by the whole people of this 
 republic. Your goodness in sending them aid, at a time when they so 
 much needed the countenance and support of a foreign power, to con- 
 vince their enemies that they are not forgotten nor neglected in time of 
 peril, places us under renewed obligations to your government and to 
 yourself; and I assure you, sir, your kindness in this instance will en- 
 dure with the history of Liberia, and I fancy will never be erased from 
 the memory of her citizens. And in their behalf I have the honor to 
 present, and I beg you will accept, sincere thanks and grateful ac- 
 kno wled gments. 
 
 Captain Barron arrived at Monrovia two days after my departure 
 with a body of troops for Grand Bassa ; without delay he proceeded 
 to join us at this latter place, where he arrived and communicated with 
 me earl}'- in the evening of the 1st instant. It would be impossible to 
 describe to you the bursts of joy that ran through our little camp when 
 the arrival of the " John Adams," and the object of her visit, were 
 announced. 
 
 Having just returned to this place, and the time of the departure of 
 the "John Adams" being up, I cannot give you the details of our 
 movements, and must beg to refer you to Captain Barron for particu- 
 lars. Our operations have been mostly inland, from ten to fifteen 
 miles parallel with the beach, and extending along the coast about 
 thirty-five miles. The presence of the "John Adams" at certain points 
 of the coast along the line of our march, no doubt, had a favorable 
 effect, and tended much to keep the natives near the coast in check, 
 and also afford us certain means of communication. 
 
 I have great satisfaction in stating that Captain Barron readily met 
 my wishes in placing his ship off such points of the coast where it was 
 deemed his presence would be most important; and also tendered 
 his services to assist us in any other way consistent with his duty and 
 instructions. 
 
 I am happy to inform you that the campaign, though it has been an 
 exceedingly fatiguing one, has terminated quite to our satisfaction. 
 We have given the deluded enemy a chastisement which he will long 
 remember, and, I doubt not, will relieve us from any trouble or diffi- 
 culty in future in that quarter. We had two severe engagements ; in 
 the last we had four killed and twenty-seven wounded, two of whom 
 have since died ; the others are doing well, and will probably recover. 
 
 With many thanks, high regard and esteem, I have the honor to be, 
 sir, most respectfully, your obedient and humble servant, 
 
 J. J. ROBERTS. 
 
 Com. E. A. F. Lavallette, 
 
 Commanding U. S. Naval Forces west coast of Africa. 
 
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