THE LAND OF THE FREE IN AFRICA 



417 



Africa which juts out into the Atlantic as 

 if in an endeavor to reach across to the 

 Brazilian shore, on the South American 

 Continent. Only a few years ago the 

 maps showed it to comprise a large area, 

 extending northeastward almost to the 

 Sahara; but the geographers themselves 

 were unable to place definite heavy lines 

 for Liberia's interior frontiers. 



Then came the dreams of African em- 

 pires by European nations, and little by 

 little the area accredited by the map- 

 makers to the weak little Republic has 

 dwindled until to-day its coastline is only 

 360 miles in length and its frontier 

 farthest in the interior is only 200 miles 

 from the seacoast. Its present area, 

 about equal to that of the State of Ohio, 

 is one-third what the Liberians originally 

 claimed, and their claims were probably 

 as good as those of many of the powers 

 which undertook the colonizing of the 

 Dark Continent. 



LIBKRIAN COLONIZATION MOVEMENT EE~ 

 GUN IN l8l6 FOR FREED AMER- 

 ICAN SLAVES 



Here and there along the coast the 

 original settlers — negro freedmen from 

 the United States — founded little towns 

 and settlements. They were sent from 

 America back to the lands of their an- 

 cestors by the American Colonization 

 Society, in which such men as President 

 Monroe, Henry Clay, and others were in- 

 terested. This movement began in 181 6, 

 and the first vessels, sailing schooners 

 chartered by the American Government, 

 set forth from New York in 1820-23. 



Many of the first settlers succumbed 

 to African fevers ; others were killed by 

 hostile natives. Indeed, the early efforts 

 of these civilized Americo-Liberians to 

 establish themselves on the African coast 

 were not unlike those of the early colo- 

 nists at Jamestown and the seekers of 

 new homes who landed at Plymouth Rock. 

 Finally they acquired right to certain lands 

 by purchase from native chiefs. 



How many strings of beads were paid 

 to the American Indians for Manhattan 

 Island? Either the purchasers of the 

 first Liberian settlement were more liberal 

 or the natives had better business heads. 

 They charged and were paid quite a 

 price — six muskets, one small barrel of 



: ff^' 1 "" 



Photograph from French Colonial Office 



A YOUNG BAOULE GOING AFTER WATER 



He is a native of the French Ivory Coast, 

 which lies to the east between Liberia and the 

 British Gold Coast. 



