Liberia ^ 



the best books ever written about Africa, as useful to-day as 

 when it first appeared sixteen years ago. 



The results of Biittikofer's journeys were firstly a consider- 

 able increase of our knowledge of the coast geography of Liberia, 

 which was then very incorrectly represented on the British 

 Admiralty charts and even less accurately given in contemporary 

 French or American maps. The journeys of Buttikofer and his 

 friend and fellow-countryman F. X. Stampfli produced some 

 remarkable results in the discovery of what were new, or practi- 

 cally new, species of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and inverte- 

 brates. Battikofer collected a great deal of information 

 regarding the history and natives of the country. 



During the 'eighties and 'nineties of the last century 

 German interest in Liberia began to grow considerably, partly 

 through the publication of Bttttikofer's work, but also and 

 mainly through the establishment of factories (as trading stations 

 are named in West Africa) at various points along the Liberian 

 coast by the celebrated Hamburg firm of Woermann, who had 

 commenced trading in Liberia in 1850. In 1886 the old- 

 established firm of Wiechers & Helm (also of Hamburg) 

 founded trading stations at Monrovia, Marshall, and Cape 

 Palmas. The Dutch trading house (Oost Afrikaansche Cie.) 

 which did so much to develop the commerce of Mozambique 

 has long been established in Liberia, but without any political 

 bias whatever ; whereas the Germans, like the French and the 

 British at other times, have cast a longing eye on the territory 

 of Liberia as a possible field for German "colonisation." The 

 great explorer Nachtigal seems to have had a half intention 

 (when sent out by Germany in 1884 to secure the Cameroons 

 and Togoland) to get a foothold in or near Liberia. As it 

 was, he did raise the German flag in some territory on the 

 North Guinea coast, but it was removed in deference to the 



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