Commerce of Liberia 



the villages. Beyond the coast strip of ten to twenty miles 

 all roads narrow into a footpath which becomes often a mere 

 tunnel through dense vegetation sufficiently high for foot 

 passengers with loads on head or' back to pass through. In 

 the wet season these paths 

 become canals, along which 

 Europeans and natives can 

 only progress by wading, 

 sometimes up to the armpits. 

 In the far interior {i.e. 

 over seventy miles from the 

 coast) another inconvenience 

 to caravans arises occasion- 

 ally from the simultaneous 

 occupation of the roads by 

 herds of elephants, who are 

 very fierce, and rush at the 

 human trespassers (for many 

 of these paths appear to have 

 been elephant-tracks in origin) 

 with angry screams and up- 

 lifted trunks. Needless to 

 say, the native porters, if 

 not the European master, 

 fling down their loads and 

 scatter into the dense forest. 

 But when the region 

 quite beyond coast influence 

 is reached, at, say, one hundred miles inland, these narrow 

 paths often broaden out into fine highways, constructed and 

 kept clear of vegetable growth by the industrious, warlike (and 

 often cannibalistic) natives of the "far interior, 



427 



162. A PORTER, LIBKRIA 



