Liberia <^ 



before the tenth century, bv the fifteenth cotton nianufictures 

 h;ul become the most striking feature of West Africa (except in 

 the savage portions still covered with dense forest). As already 

 mentioned in an earlier chapter, during the first intercourse 

 between the Portuguese and French on the one hand, and the 

 Negroes, or Negroids, of West Africa on the other, cotton cloths 

 were actually exported to Western and Northern Europe ! 



'U'" III \\i\ 





405. A WEST AFKICAN FOKGK 



At the present day cotton-sp!nni>ig and weaving are probably 

 restricted to the western part of Liberia, to the Vai, Gbalin, and 

 Mandingo peoples, and to the Gora, Toma, and one or two 

 other Kpwesi tribes under the influence of Mandingo culture. 

 But the races belonging to the Kru family (except perhaps in 

 the tar north, as in the Nimba countries where they have been 

 influenced by the Mandingo) seem to know nothing of spinning 

 or weaving (except what has been taught them quite recently by 

 industrial missions). The Kru races when first seen by the 



