46 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
Monrovia. The referees may not vote, but they may speak every Friday on 
such affairs as affect their tribes. 
It has been estimated that the total number of Americo-Liberians trans- 
ported to Africa probably does not exceed twenty-five thousand. It seems, how- 
ever, that the old Americo-Liberian families are gradually dying out in part 
through disease and a low birth rate and in part through polygamy with women 
of the aboriginal tribes. There is today no clear-cut distinction between the 
Americo-Liberians and many of the million and a half subjects over whom they 
rule. Intermarriages have frequently occurred between Americo-Liberians and 
indigenous natives, and the Americo-Liberian and aboriginal African children 
often attend the same school. This assimilative process has been going on for 
years, and more and more the sons of the natives of the interior have entered 
school, acquired an education and attained prominence in the affairs and life 
of the Republic. Because of the decreasing number of Liberian families who have 
not intermarried with aboriginal tribes, the aboriginal children in the schools 
now far exceed in number the children of Americo-Liberians. According to 
one estimate, all but six hundred out of the nine thousand children said to be in 
school in Liberia are aborigines. 
A number of Americo-Liberians, however, still maintain an attitude of high 
superiority toward the interior native population, and certainly the education 
and living conditions of the residents of the coast are entirely different from those 
of the natives of the interior. Nothing of any importance has been done by 
the Americo-Liberians to improve the condition of the natives. On the other 
hand, much has been done which has actually retarded their development. 
Nevertheless, it is obvious that Liberia cannot be successfully developed without 
the aid of the interior tribes, a brief description of which will now be given. 
The Indigenous Inhabitants. The aboriginal or indigenous natives of Liberia 
who constitute somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety-seven per cent of the 
population belong to a large number of tribes. They have been studied partic- 
ularly by Johnston, D’Ollone, Delafosse, and Westermann, and have been roughly 
divided into three main ethnological groups, the Mandingo, the Kru, and the 
Gola (Gora). In the Mandingo group, a mixture of Fula and native Liberian 
stocks, are included the pure Mandingo, the Vais, Kpwesi, Buzi, Mendi, Gbandi, 
and Gbundi tribes. In the Kru group, representing the original stock of West 
Africa, are particularly included the more important tribes of Krus, Bassas, Des, 
and Grebos. Delafosse has divided it into eighteen smaller tribes. The third 
ethnological group includes the Gola and Kissis tribes which, from the character 
of their language, are presumed to have belonged to one of the original black 
races of West Africa and perhaps to be allied with the Temne and Bulom tribes 
in Sierra Leone. 
No attempt will be made here to give any extensive ethnological or anthro- 
pological description of these different groups. Only a few of the more striking 
characteristics will be mentioned, and in the main only of those tribes among 
which the work of the Expedition was carried on. 
The Krus are a coastal people. Many are boatmen and fishermen; others 
