Liberia ^ 



time of the tide and year when the surf is bad. Leaving 

 the steamer at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile 

 off Blubarra Point, they will be rowed over the lumpy waves 

 for a distance of a mile before the actual danger commences. 

 To avoid the worst of the rollers they will have to pass 

 very close to the Savage Rocks on North Point, rocks which 

 above and below water exhibit sharp fangs, on which with 

 the slightest contact a boat would be instantly impaled. To 

 the west and north are great sandbanks on which the breakers 

 are foaming angrily, and chains of rocks or rocky islands. 

 As the extremity of North Point is reached, the boat, 

 propelled with all the vigour of Kruboy arms and with all 

 the way on her, is suddenly arrested by the force of the 

 tremendous current of the Sino River, which pours violently 

 as from some cataract round North Point into the sea. If 

 the tide is at the ebb, it is well-nigh impossible to withstand 

 the force of this current which is striving to dash the boat 

 on the savage rocks or fling it on the sandbank where 

 the surf would break it to pieces. But the Kruboys know 

 their danger, to which they have become used and callous, 

 and though the boat may remain stationary for half an hour 

 while the boys strain their muscles to keep it from gHding 

 backwards on to the rocks or the shallows, it begins at length 

 to move forward by inches and feet till North Point is rounded 

 and the boat makes its way up the relatively tranquil stream 

 of the clear river to the Liberian town of Greenville, which 

 was founded in 1838. 



Greenville is a town of pleasing appearance, with well- 

 built houses and regular streets ; but here again, as at 

 Monrovia, the rampant vegetation has to ' be fought. Away 

 behind the town there is gracious forest, and the bush along 

 each side of the red roads is full of interest to the botanist. 



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