SCENE IN LIBERIA 



299 



GROUP OP KROO CHILDREN IN MONROVIA, LIBERIA 



The Republic of Liberia occupies an area about the size of Pennsylvania, and, according 

 to Sir Harry Johnston, is the most interesting portion of the West African coast lands. In 

 its 43,000 square miles, more or less, are locked up, he believes, some of the great undiscovered 

 secrets of Africa, besides an enormous wealth of vegetable products and perhaps some sur- 

 prises in minerals. Liberia has a population of about two millions, of whom approximately 

 one hundred and fifty thousand live along the coast and may be called civilized. There are 

 only about fifteen or twenty thousand Americo-Liberians who are descendants of the 

 American Negroes who were shipped back from the United States and the West Indies in the 

 early part of the last century. These descendants are reported to be much less vigorous than 

 the native stock. A fringe of land varying from ten to fifteen miles along the coast is cleared 

 and settled, but the interior is for the most part covered by the great primeval African forest. 

 The rainfall in portions of the Republic averages one hundred inches annually. See "The 

 Black Republic — Liberia," by Sir Harry Johnston and U. S. Minister Lyon, in National 

 Geographic Magazine, May, 1907. 



