Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/273

 LIBERIA. 223 The foreign trade of Liberia, which iu 1885 was almost monopolised by three commercial houses, bears but a slight proportion to the extent of the state. Formerly the chief relations were with America, but at present nearly all the traffic lies with England and Hamburg. The people themselves take a direct part in the coasting trade, which employs a number of small craft of fifteen to eighty tons burden, built at Monrovia. Ivory, formerly a staple of export, has now been mostly replaced by dyewoods, caoutchouc, palm-oil, cofPee, ground-nuts, exchanged for textiles, implements, paper, and especially spirits and tobacco. The barter system of trade still prevails almost everywhere except in Monrovia and the other seaports, which have adopted a metal currency. Topography. Despite its convenient position, Bobertsporf, the northernmost town in the republic, is still little more than a rural commune dotted over with houses and huts. It is pleasantly situated at the foot of Cape Mount, whence an extensive prospect is commanded of the blue waters of Fisherman's Lake and of the sea, with its white fringe of breakers encircling the verdant headland. One of the crests of this peninsula, rising above the fever zone, has been chosen as the chief residence of the Liberian missionaries. Robertsport is the natural depot of all the streams converging in the common basin of Fisherman's Lake, but its pros- perity is impeded by the incessant local feuds of the Vei, Kosso, and Gallina chiefs, and so recently as 1882 it only escaped destruction by the opportune arrival of trooj)S from Monrovia. In times of peace it receives its supplies from the hamlets of Madina on Johnny Creek, Besscf, Coro on the Japaca, CoboUa, residence of the Vei king, " Sandfish," and Baporo, capital of king "Boatswain," in the Condo country. Baporo is a busy trading place, which at the time of Anderson's visit in 1868 had a population of about ten thousand, including representatives of all the sur- rounding tribes. But the dominant element were the great slave-owning Moham- medan Mandingans, who treat their slaves much more rigorously than do the neighbouring pagan tribes. All the towns in this district have sacred fishponds, inhabited by ** armed fish," formidable animals which struggle furiously for the offal thrown to them by the natives. They are covered with scars, and Anderson had reason to think that they were occasionally fed with human victims. Monrovia, capital of the republic, was so named in honour of the United States President Monroe. Its position is somewhat analogous to that of Robertsport, standing at the foot of a marine headland at the outlet of an estuary which re- ceives the discharge of several inland streams. But in the absence of fresh spring water, the inhabitants have to depend on cisterns, or to draw their supplies from the interior. The town is laid out in the regular American style, the chief thoroughfares running east and west at right angles with the by-streets. But the stone or wooden houses are not continuous, being built at considerable mtervals, with intervening courts and gardens planted with cocoa-nut palms and mangoes. The finer quarters are centred on the higher and more salubrious grounds near the fortifications which command the roadstead.