Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-12-11

that day to this l. nave never seen LiIlaA
Travers, nor do wish to.
Mistellaueuns @eadiug.
HOME AGAIN FROM LIBERIA.
The bark Monrovia, Capt. Richardson,
which arrived from Liberia last week, having
left Monrovia September 81, brought eight.
cen colored passengers. They were part of
the ill-starred shi p load of emigrants which
left Charleston, S. G., for the Liberian Re-
public on Easter Sunday, 1878, in the bark
Azor. AS soon as the returning pilgrims
arrived in New York they were transferred
to the cars and started for their homes in
South Carolina. Yesterday Capt. Richard
son gave reporter many details of their
long story of suffering and unbappiness, only
the opening chapters of which have been pub
lished 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 the
Journey. A more discontented, miserable
lot of people can hardly be imagined than
those unfortunates, who have found many
more graves than homes in the young colored
republic.
1t will be remembered that Of the $40 exo-
dists who started on the Azor, twenty-nlne
died for lack of proper provision for their
health and comfort before they reached Mon
rovia. Some thirty or forty have been able
to return to this country. Of the three hun
dred and over remaining there are now only
about sixty persons alive. The climate fever,
which attacks all strangers in the country, is
seldom fatal if the patient has proper treat
ment 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 dol
ed out by the government or by the poor set
tiers of Monrovia The result is that they
have persisted by scores until only 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 subsist'
ence.
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 expected to 60 to
Bapora, settlement on the St. Pauls River,
some twenty miles in the interior, where they
hoped to open up small coffee farms. But
when they reached Monrovia they found
themselves, 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 outside 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 this concern. They say that eve-
ry passenger of the Azor paid, beside his or
her passage money, for provisions for a
months voyage, and for six months provis-
ions after landing in Liberia. The money
was paid to the association before the emf.
grants embarked at Charleston, 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
far.off land, have been too poor and miser-
able to trumpet their wrongs or to make in
vestigation, and none has been attempted 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 shell
ter for six months, and they had paid for six
months food. By that time they expected to
have worn out the i'll effects of the climate
and accustom 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 grum-
bling loudly on account of the irksomeness of
the burden The Azor's party landed at
Monrovia in the beginning of the rainy sea-
son. No shelter had been prepared for. them,
and so the three hundred and forty-odd souls
were of necessity crowded into lot of dilap'
idated 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 medicines The only
aid which the Government, as rule, extends
to immigrants is to give twenty-five acres Of
land to the head of every family, and to eve
ry 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 de-
velop 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 i'm
port manual labor. Besides this, the Kross
a native tribe, who, the Captain says, lack
only civilization to make them much sharper
on6 moro enternrisinp and prosperous than