CHAPTER XVII 



THE AMERICO-LIBERIANS 



NO official census has been taken in Liberia (so far as the 

 author is aware) since 1843. When the author visited 

 that country in 1904, he made a rough computation, 

 from data variously obtained, of the approximate Americo- 

 Liberian population of the civilised settlements, and adding to 

 the total thus obtained one or two hundred to represent 

 Liberian traders or Government officials travelling from place 

 to place in the far interior, he came to the conclusion 

 that the men, women, and children of American origin did not 

 exceed i2,oco in number.^ In an appendix to this chapter is 

 given an enumeration of the Americo-Liberian settlements known 

 to the writer, and their approximate population. The author 

 confesses that the results are less than the estim.ates of some 

 recent writers on the subject ; but when there has been taken into 

 account the rather high death-rate amongst the civilised Negroes, 

 the poor birth-rate, and the return to America of some few 

 dissatisfied persons, it is probable that his estimate is not far 

 short of the mark. Is this to be regarded as a source of 

 discouragement ? Are we to pronounce the Liberian experiment 

 after eighty years' trial to be a failure } The author thinks not, 

 decidedly. 



' This is not the correct estimate of the Liberian {i.e. more or less civilised and 

 Christian Negro) population, which in the various coast centres of population reaches 

 to quite 40,000. Tl;e appendix only deals with settlers of American origin. 



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