luxuriantly, even in the forests, and requires
but little cultivation to make it perfect. It, is
considered equal to the finest Mocha, and has a
peculiar flavour and aroma, not found in any other
coffee. It is much prized in the United States,
and fetches a good price in the market. Cotton
which might succeed perfectly—Sea Island
cotton, too, which is of longer staple and more
elastic fibre than the indigenous kind—has not
yet been brought to any useful condition. It
grows abundantly in Liberia, and the natives
manufacture a large quantity of coarse cloth, but
it is short in fibre, so would not do for the
Manchester machinery. When we see, however,
what has been done by the pedigree wheat
in the International Exhibition, we cannot
doubt of the ultimate success of any association,
combining capital and brains, which would
set itself to the task of creating a first-class
Liberian cotton. Such an association is being
organised, and is sure to succeed. The Saint
Paul district grows the best rice and sugar—but,
indeed, rice, and cotton, and palm oil, and sugar,
are to be had everywhere; and Grand Bassa
turns out the best coffee, and the best
camwood for dyeing. Along the banks of Saint Paul
you get the best clay for bricks; while maize,
sweet potatoes, cassava, beans, peas, water
melons, pine-apples, oranges, lemons, guavas,
mangoes, plantains, bananas, pawpaws,
tamarinds, pomegranates, ginger, pepper, indigo,
ground-nuts, arrowroot, &c. &c., are to be had
wherever there is an inch of earth for rooting, and
the bright tropical sun over head. No minerals
have been found yet; no copper, zinc, lead,
antimony, quicksilver, tin, silver, or sulphur of
brimstone. But there are minerals in the
country, that is certain; there is iron ore in
large quantities, and gold is often found at the
base of the high hills, in the back country; and
there are rumours of coal, not yet fully verified,
but pretty certain to be true. The great want
of Liberia is capital—capital, which would soon
obtain one or two public desiderata, such as
good roads, a breakwater at Monrovia, a canal
between the Mesurado and Junk rivers, and a
railroad, fifty or a hundred miles into the
country, up to Millsburg or Carrysburg, to bring
down the cotton, ivory, cattle, and other things
in which sucli an immense trade might be made.
These, also, will come in time, and by enterprise
and patience.

The town of Monrovia is three miles square,
and its population three thousand civilised
people. It has straight streets, shops, a
newspaper, called The Liberia Herald, dating as far
back as 1826, markets, a college with professors
black and scientific, churches and chapels, and
all the other appurtenances of a well-conducted
place. The houses are chiefly made of brick
and stone, those of wood being infested with a
little insect called a "bug-a-bug," while the
large masses of grey and blue granite, and
a close kind of sandstone, lying round
Monrovia, are handy for building, and have no
bug-a-bugs. Brick, though, is chiefly used,
because it holds the damp less than any other
material; and in the rainy season, the Liberians,
like all tropical people, have enough moisture to
try anything in the world. Their lime is got
from snail-shells and oyster-shells, and some
comes from Germany. There are four denominations
of Christians, of which this is their
comparative order: Methodists, Baptist, Episcopalians,
and Presbyterians: no Roman Catholics,
and no Quakers. There is no State Church, and
there is universal toleration—which is not what
all communities can say.

There is plenty of fish about: oysters from
the Junk river in any conceivable quantities,
selling at two cents the bushel when at their
dearest; a few clams and fewer lobsters, crabs
and turtle; there are mullet and mackerel, the
"angel fish," and "white boys," the gripper,
pike, barracouta, cavally snapper, and whitings;
all to be had for the feeblest endeavour. And
fish, when quite fresh, makes a better diet for
hot countries than over-much meat. The
Americo-Liberians rise early and work all day,
having for their amusements pic-nics, concerts,
singing parties, and—on the first of December,
the anniversary of the establishment of their
capital—a grand military and civil procession,
with speechifying and games to conclude. They
are very fond of music, like all negroes; and
sing to their work all through the day, the
habits acquired in the American plantations
continuing out in the Liberian forests. At
Monrovia they have one pianoforte player, and one
guitar player, many accordion players, and very
many amateur part-singers; part-singing being
their chief social dissipation. They drink wine
and ale got from England and Germany, and
palm wine of their own manufacture; but they
drink very sparingly, and are not sensual or
licentious in any of their habits. They make
their own clothes, beautifully embroidered, but
they have also a trade in ready-made American
clothing, which it is to be hoped will not flourish
much or long. They dress in the United States
fashion, and so do some of the more civilised
natives now, though the original robe is a kind
of toga as with all savages: meaning no
disrespect though to the Ancients. They are
great farmers, and their draught cattle are
oxen only, which suit better to the climate
than the more nervous and excitable horse. In
every town there is a native suburb with mud
houses thatched, not tiled, and without streets;
in striking contrast to the straight streets, the
brick or stone dwellings, and the general air of
civilisation and advancement in the colonists'
towns. Think, what an immense progress the
American slave has made in the way of civilisation
over his free brothers of the African
wilds! Is slavery then to prove an ultimate
blessing after all, by the mysterious ways in
which good is so often made to proceed from
evil? So often? so often? indeed how often
does historic good spring from anything but
oppression, tyranny, and the reaction of an evil
rule? surely one of the most perplexing
problems of human life! Now this very colony of
Liberia—this triumphant instance of the educability