I. SURF OFF LIBERIAN COAST 



PREFACE 



THE Republic of Liberia is an attempt and an atonement 

 in which the author of this book takes a great interest. 

 It is an attempt to estabhsh a civilised Negro State in the 

 West African forest ; and a somewhat paltry atonement which 

 has been made by Britain and her Daughter in America, for 

 the wrong-doing of the slave trade. As France shared to 

 some extent this traffic in negro bondsmen, we may claim her 

 sympathy and participation also in the Liberian experiment. 

 She holds back her mighty forces and the tidal wave of her 

 African Empire from the skirts of this small African republic, 

 wherein the descendants of slaves impressed with European 

 culture may try to devise a new and appropriate civilisation 



