Africa and the American FlagFoote, Andrew H. (Andrew Hull)
History
Africa and the American Flag
Foote, Andrew H. (Andrew Hull)
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Liberia -- History -- 1847-1944; Slave trade -- Africa, West
Monrovia, the capital, is situated immediately in the rear of the
bold promontory of Cape Mesurado, which rises to the altitude of 250
feet. The highest part of the town is eighty feet above the level of
the sea. The place is laid out with as much regularity as the location
will admit. Broadway is the main or principal street, running nearly at
right angles with the sea. Besides this, there are twelve or fifteen
more. The town contains not far from two thousand inhabitants. Many of
the houses are substantially built of brick or of stone, and several
of them are handsomely furnished. The humidity of the climate has
greatly impaired the wooden buildings. The State-House, public stores,
and the new academy are solid, substantial buildings, appropriate to
their uses. There are five churches, and these are well attended. The
schools will compare favorably with the former district schools in this
country, which is not saying much in their favor.
The soil in the vicinity of the rocky peninsula of Mesurado is
generally sandy and comparatively unproductive, except where there
are alluvial deposits along the margin of the streams or creeks. The
lands on the banks of the rivers--of the St. Paul’s, for instance, four
or five miles north of Monrovia--are very rich, of loamy clay soil,
equalling in fertility the high lands of Brazil, or any other part
of the world. Here more care is devoted to the culture of sugar, and
increasing attention is given to agriculture. These lands readily sell
at from forty to fifty dollars per acre. A fork of this river flows
in a southeasterly direction, and unites with the Mesurado River at
its mouth. This fork is called Stockton’s Creek, in honor of Commodore
Stockton. The largest rivers of Liberia are navigable only about twelve
or fifteen miles before coming to the Rapids.
As the country becomes settled, and the character of its diseases
better understood, the acclimating fever is less dreaded. In fact, it
now rarely proves fatal. This having been passed through, the colored
emigrants enjoy far better health than they did in most parts of the
United States. The statistics, as President Roberts stated, show some
three per cent smaller number of deaths than in the New England States
and Canada among the same class of population. The thermometer seldom
rises higher than 85°, nor falls lower than 70°.
The productions of the soil are varied and abundant,--capable of
sustaining an immense population. The want of agricultural industry,
rather than the incapacity of the country to yield richly the fruits
of the earth, has been the difficulty with the Liberians. With
well-directed labor, of one-half the amount required among the farmers
of the United States, a large surplus of the earth’s productions,
over the demands of home consumption, might be gathered. The country
certainly possesses elements of great prosperity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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