Mount Vaughan, near Harper, Cape Palmas August 27th, 1859
Gentlemen--Your note of the 23rd inst., requesting me, should my health permit, to appear before the citizens of your county, is before me, and for the sentiments therein expressed I thank you most kindly.
As I have reason to believe that I am now convalescent from my second attack of native fever, should my health continue to improve I shall start on an exploration for the head of Kavalla river on Monday next ensuing, to return on Friday evening.
Should it be your pleasure, gentlemen, and my health will permit, I will meet you on Monday, the 5th of September, the place and hour to be hereafter named according to circ.u.mstances.
I a.s.sure you of the pleasure, Gentlemen, with which I have the honor to be,
Your most obedient servant, M. R. DELANY
Gen. Wood; Judge Drayton; Rev. Alex. Crummell; John Marshall, Esq.; Hon. J. T. Gibson; C. H. Harmon, Esq.; J. W. Cooper, Esq.; Dr. Fletcher; Giles Elem, Esq.; Jas. M. Moulton, Esq.; Benjamin Cook, Esq.; S.
B. D"Lyon, M.D., and others, Committee, &c., &c.
Reception Meeting at Palmas
On the evening of the 14th this request was complied with in the Methodist Church at Latrobe, an out-village of Harper, by addressing a crowded a.s.semblage of both s.e.xes and all ages of the most respectable people of the Cape, on the part of whom I was most cordially welcomed by Rev. Alexander Crummell.
V
LIBERIA--CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, ETC.
Territory, Climate
Liberia extends from a point north of Grand Cape Mount, about 7 deg. 30 min. north lat., on sea sh.o.r.e, northeasterly to the western extremity of the most southern range of the Kong Mountains, lat. 4 deg. 30 min. The climate is generally salubrious, and quite moderate. But it is frequently somewhat oppressive, though mild and genial, and the high hills and mountain ranges sometimes enervating to strangers or foreigners from temperate climates, in consequence of the "air being freighted with _fragrance_" from the _flowers_ and _aroma_ of the exuberant, rich, rank growth of vegetable matter, as trees, shrubbery, and other herbage.
Temperature
The temperature is seldom or never great, the average being 85 deg.
Fahr.[5] This, it will be perceived, is but 5 deg. above _summer_ temperature in the temperate _zone_ of America, according to Fahrenheit"s scale.
Comparative Temperature Bees
It is worthy of observation that, by a natural law, we are enabled to compare the temperature in many parts of Africa satisfactorily with that of some other countries. There are parts of India, and also Central and South America, where it is said that _bees_ cannot propagate, in consequence of their inability to build their cells because of the heat, the cera or wax melting in their hive or habitation. While in Africa such is not the case, there being no part known to civilized travelers where bees are not seen ever busy on every blossom, gathering their store, leaving laden with the rich delicacies of the blooming flowers; and Doctor Livingstone not only speaks most frequently of the profusion of honey in the extensive country through which he traveled, but says that, while near the coast in Loango, he encountered many persons laden with "tons of _beeswax_" carried on their heads exposed to the sun, on their way to the trading posts. And during our stay at Abbeokuta, Mr.
Campbell my colleague, had two swarms of bees; the first taken by him when in _transitu_ (swarmed) and hived, which bred a new swarm in the hive at the Mission House where we resided.
Soil, Stone, Minerals, Productions
The soil is very rich, which, like that of other parts of Africa through which I traveled, rates from a sandy loam to a rich alluvial, resting on strata of granite, limestone, and quartz with a large percentage of mica, profusely incorporated with iron, and doubtless other rich minerals not yet discovered. Palm oil and camwood are abundant, comprising the princ.i.p.al articles of native products for exportation; a good deal of ivory from the interior through the Golah country, but not so much as formerly; palm nuts, which princ.i.p.ally go to France; ginger, arrowroot, pepper, coffee, sugar and mola.s.ses, to which three latter articles (as well as pepper, ginger and arrowroot,) the industrious citizens of Liberia have, during the last six years, turned their attention.
Domestic Animals, Fowls, Goats, Sheep, Swine, Cattle
The stock consists of fowls of various kinds--as chickens, ducks, common and Muscovy; Guinea fowls in abundance; turkeys, and on one farm--the _Gaudilla farm_ of William Spencer Anderson, Esq., sugar planter, on the St. Paul River--geese. Neither are the cows so small as supposed to be from the general account given of them by travelers. Those which are common to, and natives of this part of Africa, which I shall cla.s.sify as the _Ba.s.sa_ (p.r.o.nounced _Ba.s.saw_) cattle, are handsome and well-built, comparing favorably in size (though neither so long-legged nor long-bodied) with the small cattle in the interior counties of Pennsylvania, U.S., where no attention is paid scientifically to the breeding of cattle; though the Liberia or Ba.s.sa are much the heaviest, and handsomely made like the _Golah_, or _Fulatah_, hereafter to be described, resembling the Durham cattle of England in form. Also swine, goats, and sheep are plentiful.
Horses, None. Why?
I saw but one horse in Liberia, and that on the Gaudilla farm of Mr.
Anderson; and though, as the Liberians themselves informed me, they have been taken there by the Mandingo and Golah traders, they never lived.
And why--if they live in other parts of Africa, on the western coast, which they do, even near the _Mangrove swamps_, as will hereafter be shown--do they not live in Liberia, the civilized settlements of which as yet, except on the St. Paul and at Careysburg, are confined to the coast? There are certainly causes for this, which I will proceed to show.
Horse Feed, Pasturage, Hay
In the first place, horses, like all other animals, must have feed naturally adapted to their sustenance. This consists mainly of gra.s.s, herbage, and grains, especially the latter when the animal is domesticated. Secondly, adequate shelter from sun and weather, as in the wild state by instinct they obtain these necessary comforts for themselves.
No Cultivated Farms--No Shelter for Horses
Up to the time, then, when the Liberians ceased the experiment of keeping horses, they had not commenced in any extensive manner to cultivate farms, consequently did not produce either maize (Indian corn), Guinea corn (an excellent article for horses in Africa, resembling the American broom corn both in the stock, blade, and grain, the latter being larger and browner than those of the broom corn, and more nutritious than oats); peas, nor any other grain upon which those animals are fed, and the great, heavy, rich, rank, pseudo reed-gra.s.s of the country was totally unfit for them, there being no gra.s.s suited either for pasturage or hay. Again, I was informed by intelligent, respectable Liberians, that to their knowledge there never had been a stable or proper shelter prepared for a horse, but that they had, in one or more instances, known horses to be kept standing in the sun the entire day, and in the open air and weather during the entire night, while their owners had them.
No Horses; Why, and Why Not
It is very evident from this, that horses could not live in Liberia, and since the _tsetse_ fly introduced to the notice of the scientific world recently by Doctor Livingstone the African Explorer, has never been seen nor heard of in this part of the continent, nor any other insect that tormented them, those must have been the prime causes of fatality to these n.o.ble and most useful domestic creatures. I have been thus explicit in justice to Liberia, even in opposition to the opinion of some very intelligent and highly qualified gentlemen in that country (among whom is my excellent friend, Doctor Roberts, I think,) because I believe that horses can live there as well as in other parts of Africa, when fairly and scientifically inquired into and tested. Proper feed and care, I have no doubt, will verify my opinion; and should I but be instrumental, by calling the attention of my brethren in Liberia to these facts, in causing them _successfully_ to test the matter, it will be but another evidence of the fact, that the black race should take their affairs in their own hands, instead of placing them in the hands of others.
Exploration. Farms, Sugar, Coffee
My explorations in Liberia extended to every civilized settlement in the Republic except Careysburg, and much beyond these limits up the Kavalla River. There is much improvement recently up the St. Paul River, by the opening up of fine, and in some cases, extensive farms of coffee and sugar; also producing rice, ginger, arrowroot, and pepper, many of which have erected upon them handsome and well-constructed dwellings; also sugar mills and machinery for the manufacture of sugar and mola.s.ses, which articles manufactured, compare favorably with the best produced in other countries. There has, as yet, been no improvement introduced in the hulling and drying of coffee, there being probably not enough produced to induce the introduction of machinery. I am informed that there have also been commenced several good farms on the Junk River, which district, farther than the settlement at the mouth, I did not visit. The people are willing and anxious for improvement, and on introducing to many of the farmers the utility of cutting off the centre of each young coffee-tree so soon as it grew above the reach of a man of ordinary height, I had the satisfaction of seeing them immediately commence the execution of the work. The branches of the tree spread, in proportion to the checking of the height; hence, instead of eight feet apart, as some of the farmers have done, the trees should be planted at least twenty feet apart, thus leaving ample s.p.a.ce between for the spreading of the branches. The tree should never be permitted to grow too high to admit of the berry being picked from the ground, or at least from a stand which may be stepped upon without climbing.
Schools
The schools are generally good, every settlement being amply accommodated with them; and in Monrovia and at Cape Palmas the cla.s.sics are being rigidly prosecuted.[4]
Churches Missionaries
Churches are many and commodious, of every Christian denomination--except, I believe, the Roman Catholic. The Missionaries seem to be doing a good work, there being many earnest and faithful laborers among them of both s.e.xes, black and white, and many native catechists and teachers, as well as some few preachers.
Business, Professions, Theology, Medicine, Law
The princ.i.p.al business carried on in Liberia is that of trading in native and foreign produce, the greater part being at the Capital. The greater part of merchants here are Liberians; but there are also three white houses--two German and one American. And along the coast there are a number of native trading-posts, the proprietors of which are white foreigners, with black agents. Many of the Liberian Clergy of all denominations are well educated gentlemen; and the Medical Profession is well represented by highly accomplished Physicians; but of all the professions, the Law is the most poorly represented--there being, as I learnt when there, but one young gentlemen at the bar who had been bred to the profession; and not a Judge on the bench who was learned in the law. This I do not mention in disparagement of the gentlemen who fill those honorable positions of presiding over the legal investigations of their country, as many--indeed, I believe the majority of them--are clergymen, who from necessity have accepted those positions, and fill their own legitimate callings with credit. I sincerely hope that the day is not far distant when Liberia will have her learned counsellors and jurists--dispensing law, disseminating legal opinions, and framing digests as well as other countries, for the benefit of nations.
Council