LIBERIA. 



423 



terest, to be redeemed in fifteen years. There 

 is no regular army; but every citizen between 

 the ages of sixteen and fifty, able to bear arms, 

 is liable to be called upon in case of war, and is 

 enrolled in the militia, which comprises a bri- 

 gade of four regiments. 



The Methodist Episcopal Church has organ- 

 ized the Liberia mission into an Annual Con- 

 ference, with a bishop at its head. The mission 

 in 1875 had 25 American missionaries, 40 as- 

 sistant missionaries, 2,100 members, 200 proba- 

 tioners. The Protestant Episcopal Church also 

 supports a missionary bishop at the head of its 

 mission. The largest mission reported in 1875 

 was Cape Palmas, with 93 communicants and 

 175 attending divine worship. The Baptists had 

 in 1875 10 native preachers, 10 churches, and 

 525 members. The expenses for the year were 

 $3,141.66. The Baptist churches in 1868 or- 

 ganized the "Liberian Baptist Missionary 

 Union," for the evangelization of the heathen 

 within the borders of the republic and contig- 

 uous thereto. A training-school for Baptist 

 preachers and teachers has been established in 

 Virginia, and is reported to be in a good con- 

 dition. The Presbyterian churches of Liberia 

 have an aggregate membership of about 300, 

 and form, with those of Gaboa and Corisco, 

 the Presbytery of Western Africa. 



The native population under the jurisdiction 

 of the republic comprises a variety of tribes, 

 of whom the principal are the Veys, the Pes- 

 sehs, the Barlines, the Bassas, the Kroos, the 

 Grebos, and the Mandingos. The Veys extend 

 from Gallinas in the north to Lille Cape Mound 

 in the south, and they stretch inland about 

 two days' journey. They have invented an 

 alphabet for writing their own language, and, 

 next to the Mandingos, are the most interest- 

 ing and promising of the aboriginal population 

 of Liberia. They hold constant intercourse 

 with the Mandingos and other Mohammedan 

 tribes of the far interior, by whom they are 

 rapidly converted to the faith of Islam. The 

 Pessehs are located about seventy miles from 

 the coast, and extending about one hundred 

 miles from north to south. They are entirely 

 pagan, but are hard-working and industrious. 

 The Barlines are a very interesting tribe, next 

 interior to the Pessehs, and but recently brought 

 into treaty relations with Liberia. This tribe 

 is situated about eight days' journey northeast 

 from Monrovia, and was visited in 1858 by 

 Mr. James L. Sims, a young Liberian. He de- 

 scribed the inhabitants as being very indus- 

 trious, and, for the most part, ^>hammedans. 

 According to Mr. W. S. Anderson, the latest 

 explorer, there are no Mohammedans at pres- 

 ent inr the Barline country. The next tribe, 

 proceeding south along the coast, is that of the 

 Bassas, occupying a coast-line of over sixty 

 miles, and extending about the same distance 

 inland. They are the great producers of palm- 

 oil and cane-wood, which are sold to foreign- 

 ers by thousands of tons annually. The Kroos, 

 occupying the region south of Bassa, are a 



large and powerful tribe, and, in many re- 

 spects, more remarkable than the Bassas. 

 They extend about seventy miles along the 

 coast, and only a few miles inland, apd are the 

 sailors of West Africa. They are shrewd, in- 

 telligent, and manly, never enslaving or selling 

 each other. Bordering upon the southeast 

 boundaries of the Kroos are the Grebos, ex- 

 tending from Grand Sesters to the Cavalla 

 River, a distance of about seventy miles. It is 

 supposed that this people emigrated about one 

 hundred and fifty years ago from the coast. 

 They are said to equal the Kroomen in physi- 

 cal development, and to resemble them in in- 

 tellectual character. The two tribes have many 

 points in common. The same love of freedom, 

 the same martial qualities, the same love of 

 maritime adventure, and the same patience of 

 exposure and fatigue, characterize both tribes. 

 They number about 30,000. But perhaps the 

 most interesting and promising tribe found in 

 the territory of Liberia are the Mandingos. 

 They are numerous, intelligent, enterprising, 

 and not a few of them learned. They are 

 found on the whole of the eastern frontier of 

 the republic, and extend back to the heart of 

 Soudan. They have books, and schools, and 

 mosques, in every large town. They read and 

 write, and many speak the Arabic language. 

 For the most part, these aboriginal tribes live 

 in towns or villages of from 200 to 5,000 in- 

 habitants, and in communities of eight or ten 

 villages. In these communities, excepting the 

 Mandingos, they have no written forms of 

 law, but are generally governed by certain tra- 

 ditional usages handed down from generation 

 to generation. Nominally, monarchy is the 

 only form of government acknowledged among 

 them, but, when closely scrutinized, their sys- 

 tems show much mor of the popular and pa- 

 triarchal than of the monarchical element. 



In 1875 a war broke out with the Grebos. 

 It arose from a dispute about the colony of 

 Maryland. This colony was annexed to the 

 Republic of Liberia in 1857, since which time 

 the Government labored with singular abor- 

 tiveness of purpose for the settlement of the 

 perplexing question of the right of territorial 

 possession and jurisdiction at that point of the 

 republic. In the beginning of August, 1875, 

 the Government sent James S. Payne as com- 

 missioner to the Grebos for the purpose of 

 learning the most satisfactory manner in which 

 it might be possible to settle the long series of 

 complaints alleged by that tribe against Libe- 

 ria. Having failed to come to a satisfactory 

 agreement with Mr. Payne, the Grebos decided 

 to" appeal to arms, and to wring from Liberia 

 forcibly a concession of that territory, the right 

 to which the Grebos claim never to have ceded 

 to any one. On the other hand, the Liberians 

 claim to have acquired the right to the disputed 

 territory by treaty and purchase, entered into 

 with the Grebos by the first American settlers, 

 and by the annexation of April, 1857. On 

 September 8th or 9th Cape Palmas was at- 



