LIBERIA. 253 



This splendid animal, good specimens of which are to be seen in the 

 Natural Plistor}- Museum, at South Kensington, is almost the largest 

 in size of the Tragelaphs, being exceeded only by the eland. It is 

 magnificently colored bright chestnut red, Avith a few points of black, 

 and bold white stripes and bars. It seems to be fairly common in the 

 Liberian forests, which also conceal in their recesses curious develop- 

 ments of the cephalophine antelopes, or duykers. These duvkers in 

 other j)arts of Africa are usually associated with the idea of a very 

 small antelope; but in Liberia there is the widespread Cephalophus 

 sylvicidtrix, Avhich is nearly the size of a small cow, and Cephciloiph'ns 

 jentincJci^ which is about the size of a fallow deer, with short stout 

 horns. Besides several small types of duyker there is the tiniest of 

 idl the antelopes — the royal antelope — not so large as a hare; and 

 there is the beautiful zebra antelope, which is bright yellow bay 

 boldly marked with bold black stripes, a most unusual coloration in 

 this group. The buffalo of the forest region is the red-haired, dwarf, 

 short-horned buffalo. The ordinary big hippopotamus is said to be 

 present in the lower Kavalli River, but Liberian streams and forests 

 are for the most part frequented by the pigmy hippopotamus, an 

 animal Avhich i^robably extends its range from the interior of Sierra 

 Leone to the French Ivory Coast. Before I leave the question of the 

 fauna I should like to mention that, in addition to there being ajD- 

 parently no (jlossina fl}' to spread the tsetse disease, there is a great 

 relief in other directions from the ordinary insect pests of Africa. 

 Mosquitoes are very seldom met with. In fact, they seem to be 

 entirely absent from much of the forest region. Nor are white ants 

 very common or destructive in the centers of population. 



The human jjopulation of Liberia consists of the following ele- 

 ments, which may be divided first of all into indigenes and Americo- 

 Liberians. The former number something like 2,000,000 and the lat- 

 ter betw^een 12,000 and 15,000. So far as the outside world is con- 

 cerned, the world of treaties and congresses, the country which we 

 know as Liberia is considered to belong to antl l)e governed by this 

 small caste of P^nglish-speaking negroes and half-breeds of Amei'ican 

 origin. These English-speaking negroes certainly govern and ad- 

 minister the coast line and a belt of more or less settled country which 

 extends from 20 to 40 miles inland. Of late years they have been on 

 generally friendly terms with the 2,000,000 indigenous negroes, some 

 of whom have come very much under their influence. 



The Americo-Liberians are the survivors or the descendants of 

 freed slaves or persons dissatisfied with their social condition in the 

 United States of America during the early part of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. A considerable number of them also came from the British 

 AA'^est Indies; but the movement which founded Liberia— the black 

 Republic on the west coast of Africa — originated with certain philan- 



