-^ A Dutch Account of Liberia 



As to the Karou, who at one time conquered the Vai, 

 they are described as having lived recently in the country of 

 the Folgia, which is located by Dapper in the vicinity of the 

 present town of Monrovia. The first general of this conquering 

 tribe was known as Sokwalla, who was succeeded by his son 

 Flonikerri. Under these leaders the Karou first conquered the 

 Folgia round about the River Junk, and then made friends with 

 them. The united peoples of the Folgia and Karou conquered 

 the tribes about the River Cestos on the one hand and the Gala 

 (Gora), Vai, and Kwoya on the other, even carrying their 

 victorious arms as far west as Sierra Leone, also bringing under 

 their control the interior people called Dogo and the Gibi tribe. 



At the beginning of the eighteenth century, according to 

 the letter of John Snoek/ who visited the Grain Coast in the 

 yacht Jofianna Jaba^ ivory was becoming less abundant in 

 Liberia as a trade product. Snoek describes the natives round 

 about Cape Mount as wearing the voluminous Mandingo 

 garments, but adds that the women are nearly and sometimes 

 quite naked. In the country where the town of Monrovia is 

 now situated he writes that the natives live in large houses con- 

 taining two or three apartments, in one of which buildings as 

 many as fifty or sixty men, women, and children were sleeping 

 promiscuously. For the most part the people all along the 

 coast were very hospitable and friendly to Europeans. The 

 chiefs were already beginning to bear European names, 

 and the slave trade had commenced, owing to the excessive 

 warfare between the people of the coast and those of the 

 interior, each party, when victorious, being ready to sell their 

 prisoners of war to foreign traders. A chief amongst the 

 Kruboys at Sanguin called himself James. " He spoke a 

 confused sort of language, a mixed jargon of English and 



^ In Bosnian's Description of the Coast of Guinea. 

 91 



