-^ Commerce of Liberia 



with satisfactory results. Down to about 1898 no attempt was 

 made by Europeans to trade for rubber or to collect it away 

 from the coast ports. In that year, however, two agents of the 

 Liberian Rubber Syndicate (which preceded the Monrovian 

 Rubber Company) made some attempt to collect rubber in the 

 Dukwia country, but the enterprise, though successful, was not 

 persisted in. In 1903-4 the journeys of Mr. Alexander Whyte 



157. HEADQUARTERS OF THE LIBERIAN RUBBER CORPORATION, MONROVIA 



revealed the extraordinary wealth ot rubber-producing trees, 

 shrubs, and lianas in the interior forests. Early in 1904 Mr. 

 Harold Reynolds, on behalf of the Monrovian Rubber Company, 

 opened the first permanent station in the interior, opposite 

 Dobli Zulu Island on the St. Paul's River, near Boporo. 

 Prior negotiations had been entered into with the Gora and 

 Boporo chiefs in the neighbourhood by Mr. Braham, the General 



419 



