CHAPTER II 



THE HISTORY OF LIBERIA PRIOR TO THE MIDDLE 



AGES 



IN some respects it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that 

 Liberia is still within the Miocene Period so far as its 

 vegetation and its fauna are concerned. There are beasts, 

 birds, and reptiles living to-day within its limits which (or 

 near representatives of which) are found fossil in Miocene 

 formations of France and Southern Germany, The mighty 

 forests of Liberia, while they sheltered these ancient types, long 

 kept the country from being overrun by man, so that Liberia, 

 like parts of the Congo Basin and of forested West Africa, is 

 in a far more backward condition (in respect of human develop- 

 ment) than the rest of Africa. As yet, however, no traces have 

 been found of any Pygmy race (such as is associated with the 

 Congo Basin) either in Liberia or in any other part of the 

 West African projection. The Pygmies of the Congo, who 

 perhaps represent the lowest and most simian type of Negro 

 existing at the present day, have not hitherto been found 

 westwards of the Cameroons. It is just possible that they 

 may never have reached the western extremity of Africa, though 

 it would be premature to make any statement to that effect, 

 considering how very little West Africa has been explored as 

 regards its present or its past conditions.^ 



' Since this was written, reports of a Pygmy people have been transmitted from 

 Central Liberia. 



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