News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-12-07
The Republic Of Liberia.
What the Head of the Liberia College Has
TO say About Aiilirs There.


In February, 1920, eighty-eight colored
persons sailed from New York in the shin
Elizabeth. for the purpose of starting a
colony in Liberia, At the time it started
the Hudson River was frozen over. Some
one had to be hired to cut a way through
tbe ice in order to let the ship start ON
her voyage. The man who was employed
TO cut the ice and who did it was the late
Commodore Vanderbilt. He was paid
500 for his labor After a voyage Of five
weeks the coIonists landed at Sierra
Leone. They finally settled, however, at
Cape Mesurado, whi1h is 26Omiles south
east of Sierra Leon4 There are now in
Liberia from 20,OQ3 to $4,000 colonists
from America. Thy are settled over a
tract of land on Z coast 600 miles in
length. By cesg2, purchase, and
gradual ee4ssiesssislSiss - greatly
extended their territory.
Rev. Dr. Edward W. Blyden, presi-
dent of the colored college in Liberia, is
now in this country soliciting subscrip-
tions for the endowment of professorships
for the college. Blyden is a pure-blooded
negro, with thick curly hair, in which
now and then appear traces Of gray and
white. The Doctor appears to have good
faith in the future of Liberia, and says
that the impression that the colonists
have Jared hardly and that life there has
been hard, and that nothing much has
been accomplished by them as regards
bettering their condition is false in letter
and spirit.
He says: ''The colonists have increased
the products of their agriculture and their
commerce since their assumption of SOW
ereign rights. Three European lines of
steamers visit the Liberian coast-two
from England and one from Hamburg.
Only Liberian citizens are allowed to
transact business with the aborgines at
places not ports of entry. This leaves
the trade in the hands of citizens who
are the colonists from America These
American negroes ship large quantities
of native products TO England and to
Germany, and receive in return articles
of European production. Strange to say,
there are only two American houses trad
ing with Liberia, and these do only a
transient business. having no establish
ments Of their own in the country. Large
numbers of the colonists are engaged in
agriculture. Within the last ten years
they have been pushing out to the high
lands of the interior, where they have
formed settlements and engaged largely
in the cultivation of coffee, sugar and
cocoa.
These colonists are nearly all Southern
negroes, who were in slavery before the
war and went out with no capital but
their habits of industry. They are grow
ing in all the elements of National pros
perity. Some of them have attained a
competence which they say they never
could have gained in the South Many
have had leianra to lesrr to read and
write since their arrival in Africa. They
have been stimulated to make such i'm
provements in the first place by the ne
cessity which exists sinsettlements founded
under such circumstances for men to read
and write; and, secondly, by seeing
natives coming from the interior with
manuscripts, pens and ink of their own
manufacture, and confronting the illit-
crate colonists with literature which
has crossed the Continent from Arabia.
The doctor concluded his remarks to a
reporter as follows:
All of the reports to the effect that
there is suffering and distress among the
colonists, that they make a mistake in
going there, is sheer nonsense, started
by Northern negroes who know nothing
about it, for they are not in correspond
ence with Liberia at all. The Arkansas
refugees who went to Liberia are doing
nobly, each having a farm of his own
and living a happy and industrious life
Only three have died since they arrived
there, and they were only children. The
leader of them has fine farm of his own
and has twelve men under him The
Azor expedition from Charleston was
grossly misrepreeented also. 1t is all
done by Northern negroes, who do not
want to go to Liberia, and who certainly
are not wanted there"