Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/85

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THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.
71

the people [the natives] have could be got over. — Groups of cheerful beings were passed through, either planting or grubbing; while at the towns the women were generally employed in spinning cotton. Cotton grows abundantly throughout the country, and every town is furnished more or less with the apparatus for dyeing and weaving. The sugar-cane, too, we observed frequently, while the plantain and banana were in the greatest profusion. The first notice, at times, that we could have of our proximity to a town, would be the dense and beautiful foliage of those trees, giving us notice of human habitations. We approached Talma through beautiful walks of lofty and magnificent trees, very thickly interspersed with those of camwood, whose fragrant blossoms imparted delightful aroma to the atmosphere. The situation of Bo Pore," be continues, "is very obscure, being located in a valley formed by a chain of double mountains, completely encircling it, and giving to their elevation a remarkable similitude to the seats of a theatre. The scenery by which the town is surrounded is magnificently grand; and as far as the eye can see, you discern mountain above mountain, until they are lost in the distance. The chain runs regularly for some miles; then a portion more lofty than the rest towers aloft; whilst from base to summit the eye can behold but one expanse of the greenest foliage. Upon the whole, the scenery is more magnificent than any that I remember seen."

Let us turn now from this brief survey of the soil, climate, and scenery of Liberia, to an examination of the interior and domestic condition of the colony.