Liberia <«- 



to the J Link River at Marshall from the sea has a very bad 

 bar, or this would become an important port, as it would receive 

 produce from so many directions by cheap and easy inland 

 water carriage. Marshall and the other Liberian settlements 

 on the adjoining rivers have an Americo-Liberian population 

 of about eight hundred. 



From the Mano River on the west to the Farmington 

 River on the east are the coast boundaries of the county of 

 Montserrado. This is the largest province or county of Liberia, 

 though its inland boundaries, with the adjoining county of 

 Grand Basa, have not yet been fully determined up to the 

 French frontier on the north. They are assumed to take 

 a straight line in a north-easterly direction from the source 

 of the Little Basa or Farmington River. The county of 

 Montserrado therefore contains nearly the whole of the basin 

 of the St. Paul's River. Originally there was another county 

 to the west of Cape Mount — the Gallinhas or North-Western 

 Territories ; but when the frontier agreement with England 

 pushed back the Liberian boundary to the Mano River, this 

 definition was abandoned, and the territory between the Mano 

 and Cape Mount was added to Montserrado County. The name 

 " Montserrado " has given rise to many conjectures. Amongst 

 others it was supposed to be derived from the West India 

 island of Montserrat, called by the Spaniards Montserrado. As 

 a matter of fact, it is nothing else but a mis-spelling of 

 " Mesurado." The Americans who first dealt with the question 

 of Liberian colonisation, not understanding the Portuguese 

 word " Mesurado," wrote the cape " Montserrado." As Cape 

 Mesurado was the principal settlement, it gave its name under the 

 corrupt form of Montserrado to the province of which it is the 

 capital. In this form the name of the province has been so long 

 established that it is impossible to change it back to Mesurado. 



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