The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-11-01
Liberia, Liberia, The Home of the Free

LiberIaI The Home Of the Free.
day or two since there was published
glowing account of the colony of Liberia 1t
was written by former slave to his old mas I
ter, and his probity and disinterestedness were
guaranteed Every line was rich in hope and
promise. There was plenty to eat, plenty OF
land, 1luxuriant cotton: sugar cane twenty-five
feet. high, coffee growing wild, one hundred
bushels of corn to the acre, deer, hogs, tur-
keys, all kinds of fruit, everything but popu-
lation. The whole affair was overfowing with
cheerfulness and confidence, and it bore the
appearance of sincerity; but, as far as truth
goes, the writer might as we'll have said that
roast pigs ran about the lanes, crying OUT
''come eat me-" Our own information has been
furnished by gentleman now in this city VINO
went out to Liberia in the "Golconda" In NO
vember last, and remained there eight months
Upon what he says reliance can be placed, and
he has certainly given different tone to the
picture.
Immigrants, when they reach Liberia, are
supported for six months, free of charge, and
they seldom think of honest labor until the
half year is gone. Then they try to get work.
but there is no employment for them. Scores
are dawdling about the streets and blubbering
for something to eat, and if they do get a job
they are paid just forty cents day, in Liberia
currency, which is worth about forty cents
on the dollar. Mechanics. when employed, are
paid from fifty to seventy-fve cents Liberia
currency, but there is no lumber on the coast
and no use for labor.
The whole coast region is poor and barren'
but the land in the interior, where no one but
the natives can live, is, by wise provision OF
Nature, much more fertile. There are no such
mellow potatoes in Liberia as those known IN
Carolina They do not like the new regime,
and cannot be made to grow either large or
pretty. Sugar cane does not grows mile high'
or even twenty-five feet high, but it does strug-
gle up ten feet, and there is legend that one
has been seen fifteen and three quarter inches
in length Coffee does grow wild and produces
from two to three berries per bush, but, IN
four years from time of planting, at least two
quarts may be had from each tree.
There is no capital in the colony, and the
colored lords play big Injun" and have strict
customs regulations, and protective tariffs
All trade is in the hands of the highly colored,
and new comers are tricked and cajoled on
eyery side. There are no horses in the colony,
the cattle do not average over $50 pounds, and
the only agricultural implement is the COM
mon hoe. This hoeing is not child's play, and
negroes from the Southern States cannot work
thunder the African sun. The native Kroomen
can do so and flourish, but the imported negro
cannot endure the fearful tropical heat in the
barren, sandy fields. Chills and fevers are az
abundant as tar in North Carolina, and the
food of the residents is more peculiar than
that of the highly digestive Chinese. The ma
tives live on snakes, cats, rats, snails, worms
and every description of vermin, and have
such an adherence of the gastronomic art that
they prefer their dainties in quick and raw
condition This the imported Liberians cannot
endure. They remember too we'll when on
some big plantation they out ate all creation,
revelling, all the year round, in richest hog
and hominy. Imported Liberian eats out his
six months provisions, and then lives, or dies,
upon scanty ration of rice and palm oil.
This is sober truth Out of six hundred i'm
migrants who went out in the "Golconda" two
hundred and fifty are already dead, and the
rest would gladly come back if they had fifty
dollars to pay their passage. When immigrants
arrive in the colony they are motand welcomed,
and they have a shoal of friends until all the
money is gone Then comes the pinch. They
pine away, starve, and groan at the day when
they first heard the name of Liberia. car
penter from Columbia, who went out in the
"Golconda" could get no work. Gradually his
money was spent, and, finally, he sold his ewn
and wifes clothing to pay his passage back to
the United States.
The colony produces nothing of consequence,
and the whole return cargo of the "Goloonda,"
on her last trip, was four barrels of sugar, two
bags of coffee, one barrel of ginger and one
box of sweetmeats
Liberia has but one advantage. Power is in
the hands of the "Big Injuns," and the ruck
have no part in politics But, if the negroes
here would do as their brothers are obliged to
do in Liberia, if they would pitch politics to
the winds and keep steadily at work, they could
live better, and more comfortably. and more
proAtably in the Southern country than in any
Liberia, real or imaginary, to which they had
ever directed their hopes and aspirations