descent, is estimated at about 10,000;[1] and such has been the effect of their example and influence, that out of the remaining 70,000, consisting of aborigines, and of captives released from slavers, at least 50,000 can speak the English language, so that any one would perfectly understand them; while their habits are rapidly becoming those of civilized and steady agriculturists. The desire for education is also manifested by the surrounding tribes, and instances are not uncommon of natives sending their children four or five hundred miles from the interior to be instructed in the primary schools established in the Republic. Of these there are thirty-six in operation, and an average attendance in each of about forty aboriginal pupils.
"The whole of the territory of Liberia has been purchased from time to time from the aboriginal owners, and in this way at least twenty petty sovereignties have been extinguished. In its former condition, the coast was the constant resort of slaves; but the traffic is now effectually suppressed as far as the jurisdiction of the Republic extends; and its entire
- ↑ This number has now increased to.upwards of 12,000, and the number of aborigines under the Liberian jurisdiction is estimated at 340,000; while the coast-line, including the late purchase of Gallinas, cannot be less than 700 miles — See Chambers’s Repository of Instructive and Amusing Tracts, No. 57, "Liberia."
This Tract presents a brief, but interesting sketch of Liberia, its history and present condition. It appears, from the same Tract, that the Government of Brazil has recently appointed a Chargé d’Affaires to Liberia, the Chevalier Miteroi, who, in addition to his ordinary duties, is specially instructed to make preparations for the establishment of a colony of Brazilian free blacks. Hence the return of the Africans from the South, as well as the North, American Continent, may soon be expected to commence.
