Liberia <•' 



in captivity of slave parents. Mr. Gow writes that these Sikon 

 slaves are well treated, " much better so than many free-born 

 people. Should a free boy wish to marry a woman from 

 amongst the slaves, he has simply to give her a leopard's tooth 

 (which is a sign of freedom) and she is then a free woman 

 and can go away with him." 



Though it may seem wrong in principle that a Sierra 

 Leone negro trader or an Americo-Liberian planter should 

 under one guise or another recruit labourers by "redeeming," 

 " hiring," or " apprenticing " war captives, there is no question 

 that the result has been beneficial for the time. Mr. Conrad 

 Viner, who visited the Buzi country in the early part of 1906 

 (when this portion of Western Liberia was recovering from 

 civil war), reported that the adult prisoners not disposed of 

 under these pretexts were slaughtered, and their bodies thrown 

 outside the clay walls of the town to be devoured by leopards. 

 In consequence of this all the leopards in the vicinity had become 

 bold man-eaters. 



What is wanted as a corrective to the Slave Trade is the 

 construction of roads, and the creation of a legitimate commerce 

 in the forest products of the country. 



io8? 



