The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus Part 5

At Grand Ba.s.sa I held a Council with some of the most eminent Liberians, among whom were several members of the National Legislature--the venerable Judge Hanson in the chair. Several able speeches were made--the objects of my mission and policy approved; and I shall never forget the profound sensation produced at that ever-memorable Council, and one of the most happy hours of my life. When the honored old judge and sage, sanctioning my adventure, declared that, rather than it should fail, he would join it himself, and with emotion rose to his feet; the effect was inexpressible, each person being as motionless as a statue.

Public Affairs, Munic.i.p.al and Public Improvements

The laws of Liberia seem to be well constructed, and framed to suit the wants of the people, and their public affairs are quite well and creditably conducted. But there is a great deficiency in public improvements, and, as I learned--and facts from actual observation verified until comparatively recent--also in public spirit. There are no public buildings of note, or respectable architectural designs; no harbor improvements, except a lighthouse each on the beautiful summit rock-peaks of Cape Messurado and Cape Palmas--not even a buoy to indicate the shoal; no pier, except a little one at Palmas; nor an attempt at a respectable wharf.a.ge for canoes and lighters (the large keels owned by every trading vessel, home and foreign, which touches there.) And, with the exception of a handsome wagon-road, three and a half miles out from Harper, Cape Palmas, beyond Mount Vaughan, there is not a public or munic.i.p.al road in all Liberia. Neither have I seen a town which has a paved street in it, although the facilities for paving in almost all the towns are very great, owing to the large quant.i.ties of stone everywhere to be had.

The Capital No City

And what is surprising, Monrovia, although the capital, has not a city munic.i.p.ality to give it respectability as such; hence, there is neither mayor nor council (city council I mean) to give character to any public occasion, but His Excellency the President, the Chief Executive of the nation, must always be dragged down from his reserved and elevated position, and made as common as a common policeman to head every little petty affair among the people. The town was once, by the wisdom of some legislators, chartered into a city, and Dr. T. F. M'Gill (ex-governor) chosen mayor, who, by his high intelligence and fitness for the office, had commenced the most useful and commendable improvements; but the wisdom of other legislators, after a year's duration, in consequence of the heavy expenses incurred to "make Monrovia, where big folks lived, a fine place," repealed the act, degrading their Capital to a town. That is the same as declaring that a court shall not have a judge--the nation a President or Executive, or there shall be no head at all; hence, to reduce the judge to the grade of a lawyer, the lawyer to that of the clerk of the court, the President of the nation to that of the county magistrate, and the county magistrate to that of a constable. How much respect would a people be ent.i.tled to who would act thus? They must understand that nothing is greater than its head, and the people of a nation cannot rise above the level of the head of their nation any more than the body of the individual in its natural position can be raised above the head. It is just so with a town population. A villager is a villager, a citizen is a citizen, and a metropolitan is a metropolitan--each of which is always expected to have a standing commensurate with his opportunities.

Self-Reliance, Ways and Means

One word as a suggestion in political economy to the young politician of Liberia: Always bear in mind, that the fundamental principle of every nation is _self-reliance_, with the _ability to create their own ways and means_: without this, there is no capacity for _self-government_. In this short review of public affairs, it is done neither to disparage nor under-rate the gentlemen of Liberia with whom, from the acquaintance I have made with them in the great stride for black nationality, I can make common cause, and hesitate not to regard them, in unison with ourselves, a n.o.ble band of brothers.

Executive Munificence

There has been much progress made in the various industrial vocations within a few years past by the munificence of President Benson, aided by the wisdom of the Legislature, through the agency of a national agricultural fair, with liberal premiums on samples exhibited in a s.p.a.cious receptacle prepared each season for the purpose, in the Public Square in front of the President's mansion, called Palm Palace. Like his predecessor President Roberts, in pressing the claims of his country before the nations of Europe, President Benson has spared no authority which he possessed in developing the agricultural resources of his country. Every man has his _forte_, and in his turn probably becomes a _necessity_ for the time being, according to his faculty. Consequently my opinion is, that the _forte_ and mission of President Roberts for the time being were the establishment of a Nationality, and that of President Benson the development of its resources, especially the agricultural. Neither of these gentlemen, therefore, might be under-rated, as each may have been the instrument which G.o.d in his wisdom appointed to a certain work.

Official and Personal Favors

To John Moore, Esq., Government Surveyor; the Hon. B. P. Yates, ex-Vice-President of the Republic; Hon. John Seys, U.S. Agent for Re-captured Africans, and Consular Agent, I am much indebted for acts of kindness in facilitating my Explorations in Liberia. The Hon. Mr. Seys and Mr. Moore, for personally accompanying me up the St. Paul River; and Colonel Yates, for the loan of his fine canvas-covered boat for my use.

Also to Dr. Henry J. Roberts, for remedies and medicines for my own use; Dr. Thomas F. M'Gill, for offering to make advances on articles of merchandise which I took out on trade to bear expenses, much beyond the market price; and to those excellent gentlemen, Messrs. Johnson, Turpin, and Dunbar, also for large advances made above market price in cash for my commodity, as well as other favors, especially on the part of Mr.

Johnson, who, having for years been a resident in Monrovia, did everything to advance my mission and make my duty an agreeable one.

To the Rev. Alexander Crummell, who accompanied me up the Kavalla, above the Falls, making my task an easy one; to Drs. Fletcher and D'Lyon, who rendered me professional aid, and also to our excellent, faithful, and reliable guide, Spear Mehia is, a native civilized Christian Prince, the son of the old friend of the missionaries, Nmehia, the deceased King of Kavalla, I here make acknowledgments. And I cannot close this section without an acknowledgment that, wherever I went, the people of the country generally did everything to make me happy--Esquire Wright at Junk, Dr. Smith at Grand Ba.s.sa, and the Hon. Mr. Priest at Sinou whose guest I was, all here will receive my thanks for their aid in facilitating my mission.

Settlement and Sites of Towns

I conclude this section by remarking, that Monrovia is one of the handsomest and most eligible sites for a city that I ever saw, and only lacks the population and will of the people to make it a most beautiful place; and how much it is to be regretted that the charter was repealed, and Mayor M'Gill and the City Council cut off in the beginning of the first steps towards a national pride, which was to have a Capital City in reality as well as name.[3] How unsightly to a stranger, as he steps from the boat at the mouth of Stockton Creek, on the Messurado River, is the rude and rugged steep, leading by simple pathways in true native style, from the warehouses up to the town, which, if improved as it might and should be, would be one of the most pleasing as well as attractive approaches to any city in the world. Not even is there a respectable public market-house or market s.p.a.ce in town. But wisdom decreed it otherwise, and for the present it must be so. "Wisdom" in this case "hath" _not_ "built her house" neither "hath she hewn out" the stone "pillars" leading from the beach.

Another good site for a city is Edina, on the northeast side of the St.

John River, opposite Buchanan, Grand Ba.s.sa, which doubtless in time Buchanan will include. This is also a handsome place, from the gradually rising elevation. Edina is the residence of that great-hearted, good old gentleman, Judge Hanson. Junk, Little Ba.s.sa, and Sinou, are also good, but each of these are low, and consequently not so imposing.

Next to Monrovia is Cape Palmas for beauty of location and scenery, and a stranger will more readily be pleased at first sight with Harper than the Capital. A beautiful city will in time occupy the extensive Cape for several miles back, including Mount Vaughan and the country around; and it may be remarked, that this place presents greater evidences of public improvement than any town in Liberia, and the only place in the country which has a regular wagon road with ox-teams running upon it.

Buildings

The private buildings in Liberia are generally good and substantial, and especially those of Monrovia, built of brick. Many of them are handsome and quite extensive mansions, the warehouses mostly being built of stone. The wooden houses generally are well-built frames, and "weather-boarded," and not, as some romancers and wonder-vendors would have it, being either log, bamboo, or mud huts. To take the settlers generally, there cannot be much fault found with their style of living, except perhaps in some instances, rather a little too much extravagance.

Caldwell, Clay-Ashland, and Millsburg on the St. Paul, are pleasant and prospectively promising villages, and deserve a notice in this place.

Clay-Ashland is the residence of Judge Moore, to whom I am indebted for personal favors and much useful information when examining the land over his extensive sugar and coffee farms. And to my excellent friend Dr. Daniel Laing, of the same place, for similar acts of courtesy and kindness, I am much indebted.

Public Meeting

I addressed the citizens in a very long political meeting in the Methodist church, on the evening of my visit there.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] This day, August 2, 1861, while revising this Report, the thermometer Fahr. stands in the most favorable shade in the town of Chatham, Kent county, C. W., 96 deg. (98 is the general test of this day) and in the sun 113--being one degree above _fever heat_. A fact to which my attention was called by an intelligent Liberian--and which science may hereafter account for--that the nearer the approach to the equator, the more moderate is the heat. Has the sun the same effect upon the general bulk of the earth that it has upon particular locations--the greater the elevation the cooler--or is it because of the superior velocity of this part, that a _current_ is kept up by its pa.s.sage through the _atmosphere_ surrounding it? It is a settled fact that the earth is "elevated at the equator and depressed at the poles," and hills are cool, while valleys and plains are hot, because of their peculiar property of attracting and reflecting heat.

[4] The "Liberia College" has been fully established since my visit there, by the erection of a fine stone edifice, and the choice of the Hon. Ex-President Joseph Jenkins Roberts, President and Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law; Rev. Alexander Crummell, A.B., Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and English Literature; Rev. Edward Welmot Blydon, Professor of Greek and Latin Languages and Literature. This is a grand stride in the march of African Regeneration and Negro Nationality.

[5] I am happy to learn by advices recently received from Liberia, that Monrovia has again been created and organized a City Munic.i.p.ality, ex-Judge James Mayor; and I should have named in connection with the public spirit of Liberia, three newspapers--the _Liberia Herald_, _Star of Liberia_, and _Christian Advocate_--the last, a religious journal, under the auspices of that excellent Christian gentleman, Bishop Burns the Methodist Missionary-Bishop of Liberia.

VI DISEASES--CAUSE--REMEDY

First Symptoms

The first sight and impressions of the coast of Africa are always inspiring, producing the most pleasant emotions. These pleasing sensations continue for several days, more or less, until they gradually merge into feelings of almost intense excitement, not only mentally, but the entire physical system share largely in it, so that it might be termed a hilarity of feeling almost akin to approaching intoxication; or as I imagine, like the sensation produced by the beverage of champagne wine. Never having enjoyed the taste for it, I cannot say from experience.

Second Stage of Symptoms

The first symptoms are succeeded by a relaxity of feelings, in which there is a disposition to stretch, gape, and yawn, with fatigue.

Third Stage of Symptoms

The second may or may not be succeeded by actual febrile attacks, with nausea, chills, or violent headache; but whether or not such symptoms ensue, there is one most remarkable, as almost (and I think quite) a necessary affection, attendant upon the acclimation at this incipient stage: _a feeling of regret that you left your native country for a strange one; an almost frantic desire to see friends and nativity; a despondency and loss of the hope of ever seeing those you love at home again_.

These feelings, of course, must be resisted, and _regarded as a mere morbid affection of the mind_ at the time, arising from an approaching disease, which is not necessarily serious, and may soon pa.s.s off; which is really the case.

Its Effects

It is generally while laboring under this last-described symptom, that persons send from Africa such despairing accounts of their disappointments and sufferings, with horrible feelings of dread for the worst to come.

Recovery

When an entire recovery takes place, the love of the country is most ardent and abiding. I have given the symptoms _first_, to make a proper impression first.

Diseases

I have thought it proper to give a section in my Report entirely to the diseases of Liberia, which are the same as those in other parts of Africa, with their complication with diseases carried from America by the settlers.

Native Diseases, Peculiar Character in Liberia