Preface <«- 



Pearson, R.E., and Lieut. E. W. Cox, R.E., have permitted 

 the reproduction in this book of their map of the Sierra Leone- 

 Liberia Boundary region. The rest of the maps have been 

 compiled and drawn specially for this book by Mr. J. W. 

 Addison, of the Royal Geographical Society, from the Admiralty 

 charts, the work of Dr. Biittikofer, the French, British, and 

 Liberian frontier surveys, and from information supplied by 

 Messrs. L F. Braham, Maitland Pye-Smith, P. Newman, 

 Conrad Viner, Harold Reynolds, and the author. 



So far as labour and expenditure go, the author's own 

 share in this work has been considerable. He cannot pretend 

 that the book will be of general interest : Liberia may seem 

 to many, in the words of R. L. Stevenson, " a footnote to 

 history" ; although to the author it appears from many points 

 of view the most interesting portion of the West African coast- 

 lands. Its area is trivial — 43,000 square miles, more or less — 

 but within these limits are locked up, he believes, some of the 

 great undiscovered secrets of Africa, besides an enormous wealth 

 of vegetable products, and perhaps some surprises in minerals. 

 Here, also, is being tried the most serious and cautious ex- 

 periment in Negro self-government. This book is an advance 

 on the few works which have preceded it, merely because it 

 is written sixteen to twenty years later, and in the meantime 

 our knowledge of the country has increased. But Liberia, 

 like Ihe Uganda Protectorate, is only an attempt to put before 

 the reading world some information about a little-known part 



