I 
INTRODUCTION 
Tue Harvard African Expedition of 1926-1927 was planned for the purpose of 
making a biological and medical survey of Liberia, which apparently was that 
country of Africa about which the least was known in those respects. It was also 
planned, after the survey was completed, to cross the continent of Africa from 
the west to the east coast, travelling particularly through the Belgian Congo, 
and to make comparative studies in these regions. This program was carried 
out. Map I roughly illustrates the general routes followed by the Expedition. 
The members of the Expedition besides myself were Dr. George C. 
Shattuck, Assistant Professor of Tropical Medicine, Clinician; Dr. Max Theiler, 
Instructor in Tropical Medicine, Laboratory Assistant; Dr. Joseph C. Bequaert, 
Assistant Professor of Entomology, Entomologist; Dr. David H. Linder (Ph.D., 
Harvard, 1926), Botanist; Dr. Glover M. Allen, Assistant Professor of Zoology, 
Zoologist; Mr. Harold J. Coolidge, Jr. (S. B. Harvard, 1927), Assistant Zoolo- 
gist; and Mr. Loring Whitman (Harvard Medical School), Photographer and 
Assistant Ornithologist. 
The following brief quotations will serve to emphasize the lack of knowledge 
regarding the interior of Liberia at the time the present expedition was made. 
Maugham (‘‘The Republic of Liberia,’ 1920) says: Liberia although nor- 
mally only twelve days removed from the United Kingdom is nevertheless in all 
probability the one portion of West Africa of which today the least is known to 
us. Sir Harry Johnston (in the introductory chapter of his book ‘‘ Liberia,”’ 
1906, which constitutes a compilation of our knowledge of this country) writes: 
“The interior of Liberia is still the least known part of Africa.’’ — He also 
reiterates this opinion in several later chapters. Robert Durrant,! special Com- 
missioner in West Africa, 1924, states that Americo-Liberian civilization has 
not extended inland, and that the settlers have not succeeded in penetrating into 
the interior for more than about thirty miles from the coast. He says further 
that ‘‘ Liberia has escaped the notice of all the story tellers and of most of the 
chroniclers. The few books that have been written about it present such a wide 
divergence of opinion that the reader is forced to the conclusion that some of 
them at any rate were inspired.” Sir Alfred Sharpe in ‘“‘The Black Republic,”’ 
1923, writes: ‘‘In Monrovia there are few people who have been thirty miles 
inland. This applies not only to Liberians but to Europeans and is partly ac- 
counted for by the fact that under existing Liberian laws no one may go inland 
without a permit. Liberia is a rich country and is at present the one totally un- 
developed stretch of West Africa.” 
1 Durrant: Liberia, A Report published by the African International Corporation (1924), pp. 7, 
34, 46 
3 
