CHAPTER XXVIII. - LIBERIA AND BRAZIL. The Bassa Tribe.-The Greybo Language.-Kroomen. - Condition of the Natives. -Cannibals. Health of the Colonies. - Statistics.. Causes of Mortality.Contentment. - Testimony of Colonists. - Of Visiters.Morals of the Colonists.-Temperance. - The Slave-Trade.-Its Horrors.-African Fever. Sufferings from it. Day Dreams and Visions. Voyage to Brazil. Loss of a Man. Crossing the Equator. - Piping all Hands to Mischief. The Southern Cross. Magellan Clouds. Harbour of Rio Janeiro, and the Region around. Its Resemblance to the Bay of Naples. - Mountains. Islands. The City. - Population. Slaves. Cruelty.-Treaty with Great Britain. - Violation of it. - European Colonists.- Public Morals. — Bribery. Schools.- Hospitals. National Museum. - Protestant Colony. - Persecution.-Voyage to the United States. - African Fever. - Feelings on reaching Home. THE Country from Monrovia, more than one hundred miles south, and for twenty miles inland, is occupied by the different divisions of the Bassa tribe, with a population of about 125,000, all speaking essentially the same language, and presenting a striking uniformity in their manners, pursuits, and general character. They are peaceful, domestic, and industrious; and, after fully supplying their own wants, furnish a large surplus of rice, oil, cattle, and other articles of common use, for exportation. As already stated, their language has been reduced to a written form by the Baptist missionaries at Edina, who have published some elementary books in it, and are now preparing for the press a translation of the New Testament in the same tongue. In the vicinity of Cape Palmas the Greybo language is spoken, and one who is familiar with it can make himself understood by most of the tribes in that region. It has been reduced to a written form by the missionaries of the American Board, and 20,000 copies of eleven different works, containing in all 483 pages of matter, have been printed in it at the mission press. It is thought, that there are from fifty to seventy thousand natives within fifty miles of Cape Palmas, most of whom are peculiarly desirous of availing themselves of the arts and improvements of civilized life.. The native country of the Kroomen is near Cape Palmas, on the north; but from the fact of their being scattered so widely along the coast, in their occupation of watermen and traders, their language is more extensively used than any other, being more or less spoken from Sierra Leone to the Bight of Benin. They number about 40,000, and four missionaries from the United States have recently gone to labor among them. Mr. Ashmun, speaking of the region just described, says: "The people of these countries universally inhabit villages of from forty to one and two thousand souls. Every town or village has its head, and several subordinate chiefs, and exhibits the harmony, and much of the economy, of one great family. The chiefs have over the people of their respective towns unlimited authority, which is seldom resisted on the part of their subjects, or abused by themselves. Polygamy and domestic slavery are universal. The women and female children are, to the males, in most of their towns, as three to two; the inequality being sustained by frequent purchases of female slaves from the interior. The men perform no servile labor, (a few of the newly-acquired domestic slaves excepted,) and pass their entire year in indolence, except the months of February, March, and April, when all are industriously occupied in preparing their rice and cassada plantations. The women are incessantly busy, either on the plantations or in domestic duties. The people have no taste, and very little capacity for abstract thinking. Except their games of hazard, they have nothing in the shape of science among them. In their habits they are temperate and abstemious, and capable of incredible fatigue, when impelled to it by war, or stimulated by the hope of reward." At no great distance from Cape Palmas, cannibals are known to exist; and Richard Lander met, further in the interior, with those who gorged themselves with the flesh and blood of their fellow-men in the most savage and disgusting To the powerful and warlike tribes of Ashantee and Dahomey, whose kings, with gorgeous magnificence, are "Decked with barbaric pearls and gold," manner. I here refer, merely to fill out the sad picture of the woes of dark and devoted Africa, by alluding to the fact, that the funeral honors of distinguished persons are there celebrated by the sacrifice of thousands of the common people. The motive for this, in some of the savage tribes of Africa is, that a departed chief or other dignitary may be attended in another world by a large train of those who were his subjects here. - As the health of the colonies has been a subject of much discussion and dispute, it may not be amiss here to allude to that point. Mr. Wilson, speaking of Cape Palmas, says: "The climate is quite pleasant, as much so perhaps as in any part of the United States. In the morning, from eight until eleven o'clock, it is somewhat sultry; from eleven until twelve at night the sea-breeze prevails, and it is quite cool and pleasant. From twelve until eight in the morning, the Jand breeze prevails, and the air is cold and damp. The rains continue longer, but are not so excessive as they are higher up the coast. The fever is much milder than at Monrovia; and those who come here from the other settlements enjoy better health than they did before their arrival." When Mr. and Mrs. Wilson had passed through the acclimating fever, he writes as follows: "Our health now requires no change of climate. We should apprehend as serious consequences to our health from going to the United States, as we did in coming here in the first place. We have now good African health; that is, a little chill and fever about once in six weeks, but seldom so severe as to confine us to our beds as much as a whole day and night." It may be well here to notice the fact, that the mortality among the emigrants, when the colonies were first founded, was much greater than at present. In accounting for this, in addition to the great exposure and hard labor to which the pioneers of a new settlement are necessarily subjected, it is claimed that Monrovia, owing to extensive marshes in the vicinity, was less healthy than other places which have since been occupied. To this we may add the want, in some cases, of sufficient supplies of wholesome provisions, as also of medicines and medical attendance for the sick; together with the fact, that not only is the seacoast of any warm alluvial country much more unhealthy than the interior, but also that where, by removing the forest trees, the sun causes the leaves and other vegetable matter rapidly to decay, fevers of a certain class are commonly much more prevalent than where the soil has been longer cleared. Not only have the sick now much better accommodations and attendance than they could have at first, but much has also been learned with regard to the proper treatment of the peculiar diseases of the climate, and experience has taught at what season of the year emigrants may arrive in Africa with the least exposure of life and health. Colonists from Mississippi told me, that they suffered less from fever in Africa than they had done in the United States; and from the first, by far the greatest mortality has been among the emigrants from the North, and from the high country of the Southern States. The health of an interior settlement in Africa may be judged of from the fact, that when we were at Millsburg, which is twenty miles from the coast, of the colonists recently located there, of one company of thirty-eight individuals, none had died; and of another, forty-eight in number, three only had died, of whom one was an infant. Of the exposure of life and health from the African fever, as well as of the greater or less severity with which different classes of emigrants are affected by it, some idea may be formed from the following facts. The ship Indian Chief, with 154 emigrants, reached Liberia in 1826. Of this number, but one adult and two small children died in the course of the season, and these from other causes than the effect of the climate; while some, who left Virginia in bad health, ultimately derived benefit from the change! In April, 1827, the brig Doris arrived at the colony, with 93 emigrants, mostly from North Carolina. Of these, two small children, one very young, died. The most protracted case of illness, in the whole number, did not last longer than five days. Three days was the average time of the in-doors confinement of such as could be pronounced sick. About one third were not confined at all. The same vessel returned again to the colonies in January, 1828, with 107 emigrants, mostly from Maryland. As they were sixtyone days on their passage, which was twice the usual time, they suffered severely from the fever, twenty-four of their number dying, all of whom were from the north of the PotoTwo other vessels arrived about the same time, with 190 emigrants from North and South Carolina, who suffered but slightly from the fever. The brig Vine, with 34 emigrants, arrived at Monrovia, in February, 1826. As this company were all, with one exception, natives of the Northern States, or had long resided there, and withal left Boston in the dead of winter, thus reaching Africa in the hottest and most unhealthy part of the year, they were, on their arrival, attacked by the fever in its most malignant form, and half their number died. This, so far as I have learned, was by far the most unfortunate expedition ever fitted out for the colonies, and the causes of its suffering are obvious. mac. If we sum up the whole history of the colonies, we find that the mortality there has not been great, when compared with that of other communities. Few if any colonies, so far removed from the parent land, have been founded with so small an expenditure of human life, as have those of Liberia. Of 2,301 emigrants sent out by the National Society, during a period of sixteen years, only 733, or about one third, were dead at the end of that time, which, if we allow thirty-two years to a generation, would be less than the average of most other countries, had the whole of the number been in Africa during all of the sixteen years. The annual mortality at Monrovia, is five or six per cent., which is but little more than that of the free blacks in Philadelphia, one of the healthiest cities in the world. Of the whites who have died in Liberia, or have severely suffered as to their health, my own decided impression is, that though the climate is peculiarly trying, especially to northern constitutions, still, most have fallen victims to overexertion and imprudent exposure of health, before they had become fully acclimated. Some have almost miraculously survived a course of imprudence which would prove fatal in almost any land. Of one individual, high in office, for example, I was told, that, when sick with the fever, he would leave home on foot and alone, to visit other settlements at a distance, and when the regular paroxysms of the disease came upon him, he would lie down upon the ground, and, taking medicine, which he carried with him, continue there several hours, until sufficiently relieved to resume his journey. One of the missionaries, a native of New England, was six or eight months in Africa, without having the fever; and, with common prudence, would probably have escaped it entirely. He informed me, however, that, wishing to become familiar with the language of one of the native tribes, he went to reside in one of their villages, for some months, and there, during the rainy season, he slept in a little hut, six feet by eight, with nothing between him and the ground, but a single mat, which was always damp. Thus he brought on the fever, from which he suffered for some time; and surely the same exposure would endanger life in any country. Indeed, it is not strange that ardent young men, who have never known what sickness is, should, when in responsible stations, with important duties pressing upon them, so exert themselves as to endanger their health. If we carefully examine the influence of various cli |