OF DR. J. R. T. VOGEL. A 
little fuel, and were therefore necessitated twice after we left 
Monrovia (Liberia), viz. at Grand Bassa and Cape Palmas, 
to cause wood to be felled, to enable us to proceed. Our 
voyage has been constantly along the coast; so that we have 
had ample opportunity for observing the remarkable nation 
of the Kroo: a people who dwell scattered along the coast, 
and often undertake long coasting voyages in small canoes. 
These canoes are built almost exactly in the same way as 
the little skiffs which at Berlin are called Seelen-verkaufer ; 
but made of a single piece only. The natives sit in them 
generally naked: they use broad oars and a very small 
rudder ; and do not trouble themselves when the craft upsets ; 
for they have commonly nothing to lose, and if they carry 
garments with them, they are soon dried. They have mostly 
a piece of cloth, bound round the head, which, when they 
come on board, they place round the loins, and think them- 
selves full dressed with great ivory rings round the ankles, 
and belts or chains round the foot or arm. We had many 
of their young people on board, for they are tolerably docile, 
and are therefore hired by the coasters, to perform such hard 
labours as are considered prejudicial to Europeans. When 
they have earned so much money by their voyage, as will 
enable them to buy one or more wives, they return home, 
establish the women, and leave them fora new expedition, 
until they get eight or ten more wives, who must support 
them; for all field-labour, &c., is performed by females. 
Including these Kroos and other negroes, who are employed 
in various ways about the ship, we are now considerably 
more than one hundred men strong: frequently, therefore, 
when I have been for a time at that part of the vessel which 
they occupy and where alone smoking is allowed, and return 
to the quarter-deck where only the officers are, I feel quite 
relieved from the bustle. It is now the rainy season and 
we have had in Monrovia and Grand Bassa a week of 
continued rain; during which the sky has been for many - 
successive days as dark as it can be with us in autumn only. 
Besides, the African brooks, when they are swollen with 
