Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-06-18
LIBERIA
Not the Anticipated Land Of
Promise.
A COlored Helenian's Story of Trials
and Experiences There.

Ouu OOAOAOu pCOplCg AuOluulliB ulCu,
women and children, forty or more
families in all left Helena by the
steamer Golden Rule for New York
and the African republic of Liberia.
They all had more or less money,
having generally been of the more
thrifty Of their race, and they had
been successful with their crops the
previous season. Indeed, the Gotten
Of their production was Of the best
quality, brought good prices, and they
closed the season with their employ
ers, or landlords, in perfectly salts
factory manner.
They were not molested or annoyed
at starting, and beyond the usual
trivial obstacles that fall in the way of
all emigrants carrying large quantities
ofplunder and unused to travel, they
encountered no difficulties whatever.
A few of their employers demonstrated
with them, and said they would be
better off to remain and work the rich
cotton and corn lands Of Phillips
county, but free Liberia was in their
heads and they we're bent on going
there.
The steamer lay several hours at
Helens getting them end their traps
aboard, passed here late one night,
with every man woman and child quiet
and contented, and in due time arrived
at Cincinnati, where they took the
railway for New York city direct.
In the latter metropolis their money
ran short, and tremendous uproar
was made in the newspapers. More
arrant falsehoods were invented and
published about the great wrongs they
had encountered in an imaginary way,
than would fill dozen volumes.
Even the Herald espoused the cause
of the oppressed blacks, and printed
immense masses of miserable non
sense and drivel about the poor, down
trOdden darky, and his trials, tribula.
tions and wrongs. A gentleman of
this vicinity interviewed an editor of
that journal, and asked to have some
of the false statements corrected, be.
ing familiar with the facts; but the
only satisfaction received was, "We
are advocating the other side of the
case"
In due time the people Of New York
and vicinity raised a fund to send the
colored people on to Liberia. Mean.
time they had sheltered them in base
ments Of churches, fed them by the
hand of charity, and supplied susten-
ance in the same way.
Recently one of the party found his
way back to New York, and he gives
the Herald a lugubrious account of
his experiences, and the condition of
the colonists The Herald relates
his diScOuraging story, which is as fol.
lows:
Edward Tol6rro, one of the return
ing refugees says, that he and his wife
we're prosperous and becoming fore
handed at their work on plantation
in Helena, Ark, before the Liberia
fever spread into that state and that
he is returning to Arkansaw fully sat
is6ed that he can find a better future
there than in the African republic
he is one of the few refugees who
embarked with some pecuniary and
other means of subsistence. Nearly
all the party that he sliled with
reached New York on the verge Of
destitution and only had what had
been given them by philanthropic
New Workers when they sailed. They
arrived out after a voyage Of thirty two
days, and when they reached Brewers
vile thirteen miles above Monrovia.
on the st. Paul river, the Colonization
societys agent found temporary
homes for them in the thatched
houses of the old residents. A fort
night later the refugees drew lots for
the lands that the government was to
give them-a quarter acre lot in the
yilla,e of Brewersville and twenty
FIVE acres of arabic land near the vii
a1e for every head OF a family. Then
those whom the equatorial climate had
not stricken down began to cut out
timber for their log houses, and for
six months the Colonization society
provided them with beef, pork, -four,
beans, rice, butter, tea and syrup.
But at the end of six months the most
Of the party from Arkansaw, having
succumbed under the torrid heat and
the ills that afflict unacclimated per-
sons, were utterly unprepared to sup
port themselves, and the old residents
were unable to bear burden so great
as it would have been to support all
the refugees who were not self-sup-
porting.
A DARK PICTURE OF LIBERIA.
The outlook, was discouraging
There was, he says, practically no
money in the country, the treasury
notes of the republic being current
among the merchants at only fifty
cents on the dollar. Labor, what
there was of it, was paid in orders up
on the storekeepers. There was no
werk 30 which his wife could turn her
willing hand, as she had done in
Arkansaw. The FIRST remunerative
crop of coffee could not be expected
until five years after planting. The
land near Brewersville is, he says,
worn ont by rice crops, and alto
gether he aad his wife heartily
wished themselves back in America.
He resolved to return, Accordingly
be endeavored to sell the agricultu-
raj implements, the sewing machine
and other things that he had taken
out from New York, but he couldn't
get money ior them. At length he
negotiated with some old residents
who had good crops of coffee, and by
parting with almost all the things he
had and taking coffee foT them, he
was able to return to New York with
a probable surplus sufficient to carry
h;r,sof and his wife and har nother