LIBERIA, an American colony, situated on the western coast of Africa. This territory was purchased from the native chiefs in 1821, by the American Colonization Society, for the purpose of forming an establishment for liberated negroes belonging to America, who, by the prejudices of the country, are regarded as beings of an inferior order. It is situated in that part of Africa called Grand Bassa, a part of the Grain Coast of Guinea, about 300 miles south of Sierra Leone; and its capital, which is called Monrovia, stands on an island at the mouth of the Mesurado, called Cape Mesurado or Montserrado, longitude 10. 36. 30. west, latitude 6. 15. 0. north. The territory presents the form of a narrow tongue of twelve leagues in extent, and is connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus, formed by the approach of the head waters of the Montserrado and Junk Rivers. Cape Montserrado, the north-western termination of this linear tract of country, rises to a promontory sufficiently majestic to present a bold distinction from the uniform level of the coast. Towards the south-east, Liberia is terminated by the mouth of the Junk River. The country upon the coast is low, but it gradually rises towards the interior; and at a distance of from twenty to thirty miles from the sea, hills of considerable elevation are visible. It is fertile, healthy, and in every way adapted to the purpose for which it was obtained from the natives. About forty-eight miles due north-west from Cape Montserrado, is Grand Cape Mount, which rises from a level country, on a base of about four miles in diameter, about 900 feet above the sea, which washes it on three sides. This mount, the north-western extremity of Liberia Bay, is covered with a deep and unfading foliage. Several springs of excellent water descend from it, and the Pisson River empties itself into the ocean on its northern side. The St Paul’s River, which flows into Liberia Bay, is of considerable magnitude, and is supposed to admit, above its falls, which are about twenty miles from its mouth, of boat navigation, for 200 or 300 miles. The Montserrado River is forty miles long, and enters the sea on the northern side of the cape of the same name. In the Junk district, southeast of Cape Montserrado forty miles, are two considerable rivers, which pour their waters into the ocean at the distance of only two miles from each other. The river St John’s, eighty-one miles south-east from Cape Montserrado, is the largest of all, and navigable for vessels of from 90 to 100 tons, abounding with fish, and having its course through a fertile and salubrious country, of a rich soil. Cape Montserrado is elevated about eighty feet above the ocean, is washed on three sides by the water, is connected with a level tract of land on the fourth, and comprehends about 1600 acres. The town of Monrovia, the capital of the settlement, is situated on the inland side of the peninsula which forms the south-west bank of the river Montserrado, about two miles within the extremity of the cape. The original settlement approached within 150 yards of the water, and occupied the highest part of the ridge, which traverses a large part of the peninsula, and rises at this place to about seventy-five feet. A dense and lofty forest, entangled with vines and brushwood, so as to be nearly impracticable by any but the feet of savages and wild beasts, formed the majestic covering of a large portion of this tract, when the territory was purchased by the American Colonization Society.

Opposite the town of Monrovia, and near to the mouth of the Montserrado River, are two small islands, containing together about three acres of ground. The largest of these islands is nearly covered with houses built in the native style, and was for some time occupied by a number of domestic slaves, formerly held in a state of qualified vassalage, very common in Africa, by a black man, to whom the right of the original owner had devolved after his return to Europe. The tribes in the neighbourhood are, first, the Deys, who inhabit the coast from twenty-five miles to the northward of Montserrado, to the mouth of the Junk, about thirty-six miles to the south-eastward; contiguous to this nation, and next interior, are the Queabs, whose country lies to the east of Cape Montserrado; and, lastly, the Garrahs, a much more numerous race of men, who occupy the country to the northward of the upper parts of the St Paul River. Still farther towards the interior is the formidable and warlike nation of the Condoes, the terror of all their maritime neighbours. About a mile to the northward of the settlement, a portion of the beach is occupied by the Kroomen, who are the watermen and pilots of the country. They originate from a populous maritime tribe, whose country is Settra-Kroo, near Cape Palmas. The articles to be obtained by trade at Liberia are chiefly ivory, camwood, gold, tortoise-shell, hides, the teeth of the seahorse, and a small quantity of coffee. The country abounds in cattle, goats, swine, and fowls, and in most of the fruits and vegetable productions of other tropical climates. I he first efforts of the American Colonization Society were attended with considerable success. Great numbers of free people of colour were transported to Liberia, and some improvement was effected both in their condition and theircha∙
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racter. Those who had been slaves were transformed into masters; and, from being a depressed and degraded being in America, the freed negro found himself raised to the level of those who had formerly been his task-masters and oppressors. In theory the plan of the American Colonization Society was excellent, and indeed it appears to be the only one by which civilization can be introduced into Africa. Natives of Africa alone possess physical constitutions which are proof against the climate; and to operate by a continuous force, as it were, is the only way to make an impression upon the country, or to effect a change in the moral deportment of its inhabitants. The scheme was not only praiseworthy, as far as the freed men of colour were themselves concerned, but in regard to the land of their nativity it might have effected an important change. Unfortunately, however, almost every prospect of success has been blasted by the native Africans, who, in 1835, attacked the colonists, and massacred a number of the inhabitants; and by the most recent accounts, it appears that they are in continual danger of entire extirpation. ¢; Liberia, in Roman antiquity, a festival observed on the 16th of the kalends of April, at which time the youth laid aside their juvenile habit for the toga virilis, or habit peculiar to grown men.