I mean no disrespect to the people of Great Britain when I say that the British trader on the Coast of Africa is among the most grasping and unscrupulous of men. He has succeeded the Frenchman, the Spaniard, and the Portuguese, those reckless factors in the prosecution of the slave trade, and substituted a trade in rum, tobacco, and gunpowder, a trade not quite so baneful in its immediate results, but as pernicious as it dares to be in the logic of events. These articles the native is eager to buy and the trader anxious to sell. Year by year the British government, yielding to the demand of the British trader, has increased its possessions upon the Coast either by acquisition from the native Kings, or by purchase from foreign Powers, until it owns 1,500 miles of the African shore. Liberia is now bounded on its northern and southern limits by British territory, but the trader, not content with this stealing as it were in the rear of Liberian settlements with his contraband products, is enticing the willing native to trade in violation of the laws of the Republic, and inducing him to believe that if the poor and defenseless Liberian settler can be driven from his home, the trader can sell his goods without restriction and at half the price; hence this war which is now trying the courage and the resources of the Liberians. These two tribes, the Mandingos and Grebos, both of them intelligent and aggressive, the one crusaders in the name of Mahomet, and the other warriors in the cause of greed and gain, form the most important elements in the internal economy of the Republic. The destiny of Liberia depends on the conquest of these two opposing forces. Will she? Will she? She must meet and conquer morally and physically these antagonistic ideas or see herself swept into the sea; but I have faith that she will conquer in the name of God and with the aid of America. We know that God will not fail them; let us see to it that America does not fold her arms and turn upon these struggling people the cold shoulder of indifference. The other tribes that come under the jurisdiction of the Government of Liberia are the Veys, the Pessehs, the Barlines, and the Bassas. The Veys are amongst the most intelligent, and thirty years ago made an alphabet for themselves. Mahomedanism is rapidly spreading among them. None of these have any special significance. They constitute, however, the material nearest at hand for the missionary and the philanthropist.