The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-12-11
From the Nc,U York Herald.

The bark Monrovia, Capt. Richardson,
which arrived from Liberia last weeek,
having left Monrovia September 81,
broug g6t eighteen colored passengers.
They were part of the ill-started ship
load of emigrants which left Charleston,
S. c., for the Liberian Republic on Eas-
ter Sunday 1878, in the bark Azor. AS
soon as the returning pilgrims arrived in
New York they were transferred to the
cars and started at once for their old
homes in South Carolina. Yesterday
Capt. Richardson gave reporter many
details of their long story of suffering
and unhappiness, only the opening chap
ters of which have been published in this
country. The returning party included
three families and several single adults.
Their friends in this country sent them
money with which to pay their passage
back to their old homes. They say
there's not one of the Azor's party that
would not gladly come back if they could
raise funds for their journey. A more
discontinued, miserable lot of people
can hardly be imagined than those un-
fortunates, who have found many more
graves than homes in the young colored
republic.
1t will be remembered that of the $40
exodists who started on the Asor twenty
niue died for lack of proper provision
for their health and comfort before they
reached Monrovia. Some thirty or forty
have been able to return to this country.
OF the three hundred and over remain
ing there are now only about sixty per-
sons alive. Fhe climatic fever, which
attacks all strangers in the country, is
seldom fatal if the patient has proper
treatment and is fairly supplied with the
essentials of comfort. But these poor
wretches were most of them paupers
when they landed in Liberia. They had
no food, shelter nor medicine, except
what was inadequately doled out by the
government or by the poor settlers of
Monrovia. The result is that they have
perished by scores until only q remnant
of the band remains. The survivors are
now Injured to the climate, and the most
Of them are at last selfsupporting.
But none of them are earning more than
the scantiest subsistence.
Their troubles have been so incessant
and overpowering that they have had no
strength nor means to carry out the plans
with which they left America. They eX-
pected to 60 in Bapora, settlement on
the st. Paurs River, some twenty miles
in the interior, where they hoped to
open up small coffee farms. But when
they reached Monrovia they found them
selves through mismanagement and
probable criminality of the agents who
had them in charge, wholly dependent
upon the charity of the Liberians,
and they have not been able to stir out
side of Monrovia, although the residents
of the capital would gladly have been rid
of them long ago. The emigrants charge
that the Exodus Association of the South
shamefully swindled them, and, justly
or not, they lay most of their misfortunes
at the door of the concern. They say
that every passenger of the Azor paid be-
side his or her passage money, provisions
for months voyage, and for six months
provisions after landing in Liberia. The
money was paid to the association be-
fore the emigrants embarked at Charles
ton, and they still show receipts for it.
When they landed at Monrovia the
provisions were distributed, and there
was found to be only scant three weeks
supply. The unfortunate strangers, in
a far-off land, have been too poor and
miserable to trumpet their wrongs or to
make investigation, and none has been at
tempted by their friends on this side of
the. water. But they claim that there
has been foul play somewhere, and that
their money has been misappropriated
They were promised shelter for six
months, and they had paid for six
months food. By that time they cx-
pected to have worn out the i'll effects of
the climate, accustomed themselves to
the surroundings and found some steady
means of support. Instead of this they
we're thrown in the bad season of the
year, upon the charity of the residents,
who had only few days notice of their
coming, and who have well-nigh sup
ported them ever since, not without
grumbling loudly on account of the irk-
someness of the burden. The ASor's
party landed at Monrovia in the begin
ming of the rainy season. No shelter
had been prepared for them, and so the
three hundred and forty-odd souls were
of necessity crowded into lot of dilapida-
ted and abandoned houses near the beach.
The Liberian Government, contrary to its
practice, took some measures for their
relief, and some money was taken from
the treasury to buy them food and medi-
cines. The only aid which the Govern
ment, as rule, extends to immigrants is
to give twenty-five acres of land to the
head of every family, and to every male
adult ten acres. Capt Richardson says
this Government grant has been to most
immigrants of no advantage whatever,
as it takes some capital to improve the
land, and very few of the new corners
have money enough to buy implements
with which to develop the smallest coffee
farm.
Capt. Richardson says that immigrants
fresh from this country have little or no
chance of employment in Monrovia.
Four-ffths of the resident populace are
laborers themselves, and the town has no
need to import manual labor. Besides
this, the Kroos, native tribe, who, the
Captain says, lack only civilization to
make them much sharper and more en-
terprising and prosperous than the aver
age of their imported brethren, will work
we'll for shilling a day, which is less
than the American negro, with two or
three to provide for, requires. The
American emigrants have not been able
to 60 to the country, and the able-bodied
among them have supplied no element of
strength that the town needed. There
were very few artisans in their number,
and the most were drawn from The COM
monest ranks of Southern field hands.
They have done nothing to identify them
with the country or the interests of its
people, and the only hope they cherish
is that some happy chance will cna-
BILE them to como back to America.
There are quite number of women and
children, widowed and orphaned who are
i cfill IopapIapf fnr Tho 1itt1a t1o,, b,ro