Liberia ^ 



to Liberian settlers was little else than slavery for a term of 

 years under another name, and the British Government resented 

 the activity of Roberts in buying up all the vacant spots on 

 the coast as an attempt to pre-judge the eventual solution of 

 the status of the Liberian colony. With regard to the ap- 

 prenticeship, it is of course the case that where this system 



58. OLD MANGO TKEES IN MONROVIA, NEAR ROBERTS'S HOUSE 



has been abused from 1846 to the present day it has resulted 

 in these released slaves leading a life of servitude under a 

 Christian Liberian which differed in little but dulness and 

 respectabihty from the life he would have led witli a Muhammadan 

 master in the interior. But many of these slaves were worthless 

 people, convicted of crimes in their own land, and in almost 

 all cases it was impossible to repatriate them. Left to themselves 



196 



