416 



LIBERIA. 



eral R. A. Sherman ; the President of the 

 Senate is the Vice-president of the republic. 

 The Speaker of the House of Representatives 

 is J. N. Lewis; the Supreme Judge is C. L. 

 Parsons ; the United States Consul at Monro- 

 via died after a few months' service, and 0. H. 

 J. Taylor, who was appointed to succeed him, 

 resigned in a short time. There is now no U. 

 S. consul in Monrovia. The republic has con- 

 cluded treaties with the German Empire, Great 

 Britain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the 

 United States, the Netherlands, Sweden and 

 Nor way, Portugal, Austria-Hungary, and Hayti. 



Army. There is no standing army. Militia 

 service is obligatory upon all citizens from six- 

 teen to fifty years of age. The militia is com- 

 posed of a brigade of four regiments. 



Education. A fresh impulse has been given to 

 the educational department by the reopening of 

 the Methodist Episcopal seminary in Monrovia, 

 which admits students of all denominations of 

 Christians. At Bassa, a graduate of Liberia 

 College has charge of a school in which the 

 higher branches are pursued. The Alexander 

 High School, now located in Clay Ashland, 

 under the supervision and instruction of anoth- 

 er graduate of Liberia College, is also doing 

 good work ; and the preparatory school in the 

 college is being carried on with commendable 

 energy and profit. The two schools at Ar- 

 thington, aggregating seventy-eight pupils, and 

 the school at Brewerville, numbering thirty, 

 supported by the American Colonization So- 

 ciety, are prosperous. The Government schools 

 are instructing as many as will attend them. 

 A compulsory system of education here is im- 

 practicable at present. 



Religion. Church and state are separate. All 

 religious beliefs are tolerated. Most of the 

 evangelical denominations are doing missionary 

 work in Liberia. The Presbyterians were the 

 pioneers. The name of Archibald Alexander, 

 first dean of Princeton Seminary, has been 

 commemorated in the Alexander High School 

 of Liberia. The Baptists began their mission- 

 ary work very early, and with great vigor, and 

 they have the most flourishing churches. The 

 Methodists are largely represented, and their 

 missionary societies of the United States have 

 spent thousands of dollars in evangelical work. 

 The Episcopalians have prosecuted work in 

 Liberia with amazing persistency and great re- 

 sults. Their schools at Cape Palmos and Cnpe 

 Mount have benefited hundreds of natives. Re- 

 cently a scholarly and pious colored man was 

 made Bishop of Cape Palmos and parts adja- 

 cent. For twenty years or more a board of 

 philanthropists in Boston, and one in New 

 York, have prosecuted missionary educational 

 work in connection with Liberia Colleee; but 

 the condition of the country and the people has 

 not been favorable to great success. It is pro- 

 posed to establish an industrial department in 

 connection with the college. The Lutherans 

 have sustained for years a manual-labor sotool 

 and mission near Arthington, and have reached 



hundreds of natives, converting and enlight- 

 ening them, and teaching them the art of sys- 

 tematic labor. At Arthington there is also a 

 private missionary school, supported by Ed- 

 ward S. Morris, of Philadelphia. There are 

 several other mission schools ; but the educa- 

 tional facilities are few and poor. Of the 

 Americo- African children, not ten per cent, are 

 in school, and of the entire native and Liberia 

 population not one per cent, is receiving any 

 instruction. 



Climate. The climate is somewhat like that 

 of southern Florida. The grass and foliage are 

 always green. The thermometer averages 72 

 for about six months ; for about three months 

 it is from 85 to 90, and it never remains for 

 any length of time above 95. The rainy sea- 

 son begins in Liberia in May, and ceases in Oc- 

 tober. It is dry the remainder of the year. 

 Terrific tornadoes precede and end the rainy 

 season. About the middle of December there 

 is a cold, disagreeable, and dangerous wind, 

 called the " harmattan wind," blowing for 

 from four to six weeks. During these winds 

 the thermometer at sunrise and at sunset av- 

 erages 66, and it seldom rises higher than 80 

 at any time during the day. The harmattan 

 comes from the interior, some say from the 

 Desert of Sahara. It injures vegetation and 

 affects the lower animals, and man does not 

 escape. This is the sickly season. Otherwise, 

 an equable temperature prevails. The Americo- 

 African Republic, like Holland, has a low, flat 

 coast. Marshes and swamps of mangrove-trees 

 abound. These trees thrive in mud. They are 

 found near the mouths of rivers, and form a 

 close, impenetrable thicket. They spread rap- 

 idly, and the leaves and branches fall and rot, 

 and form a sickening mass of decayed vegeta- 

 tion. In the dry season particularly, the sun 

 brings out from this bed of putrefaction an ex- 

 traordinary amount of poison that mingles 

 with the air, and both man and beast inhale 

 disease and receive the seeds of infirmity and 

 death. This malarial coast belt is the great 

 barrier in the way of the growth and develop- 

 ment of Liberia. The process of acclimation 

 must be passed through even by colored per- 

 sons, and for the first six months it is quite as 

 trying to them as to the whites. Back from 

 the Liberiau coast, however, are the hills of 

 the Finley and the Kong mountains, with a 

 salubrious climate. 



Resources. The resources of the Americo- 

 African republic are rich and varied. The soil 

 contains gold, silver, and iron in great abun- 

 dance. The iron-ore yields sixty per cent., and 

 is found near the surface. The natives use gold 

 and iron in certain crude manufactures, and 

 they do not mine for these metals. English 

 capitalists are digging gold at Axim, south of 

 Liberia, and the same rich vein passes through 

 Liberia. Capital is needed to utilize these 

 mines. The resources of the forests are almost 

 inexhaustible, and they are within the reach 

 of simple industry. Palm-trees are found in 



