exploration.  The account of his investigations is most interesting.  Small as is the area of the country all kinds of soil are represented, and corresponding to this variety is a remarkably rich and varied flora.  Amidst this luxuriance is found an unusually large number of products of commercial value.  Cotton, indigo, coffee, pepper, the pineapple, gum tree, oil palm, and many others grow wild in abundance, while a little cultivation produces ample crops of rice, corn, potatoes, yams, arrowroot, ginger, and especially sugar, tobacco, and a very superior grade of coffee.  The fertility of the soil renders possible the production of almost any crop.

The fauna of the land is scarcely less remarkable in variety and abundance.  The larger animals, including domestic cattle and horses, do not thrive on the coast, but are plentiful farther inland.  On the Mandingo Plateau, elephants are not uncommon.  Buffaloes, leopards, tigers, antelopes, porcupines, the great ant-eater, divers species of monkeys, and numerous other animals are found, besides many varieties of birds.

The native Africans inhabiting this territory are probably more than a million in number, and belong to several different stocks of somewhat varying characteristics.  The most common type is of medium size, well formed, coal-black in color and rather good-looking.  They are intelligent and easily taught, but are extremely indolent.  Their paganism takes the form of gross superstition, as seen in their constant use of gree-gree charms and in their sassa-wood ordeal.  Like all the races of Africa, they are polygamists; and as the women manage the farms and do nearly all the work, a man’s wealth and importance are often estimated by the number of his wives.  Domestic slavery is universal among them, the great majority of slaves being obtained by capture in war.  These inter-tribal wars were once almost constant, and their prevention requires the utmost vigilance of the Liberian authorities.

The natives harvest rice and cassada; supply the coasting trader’s demand for palm-oil; raise tobacco; procure salt by evaporating sea-water; engage in hunting and fishing.  They carry on a number of rude industries such as the manufacture of basket-work, hats, mats, fish-nets; a crude sort of spinning and weaving.  Iron ore exists in abundance, and the natives have long known how to smelt it and obtain the metal, from which they manufacture rude weapons, spurs, bits, stirrups and kitchen utensils.  The cheapness of imported iron ware has driven out this interesting art on the coast; but in the interior it is still practised by the Mandingoes, who are also fine goldsmiths, and manufacture highly ornamented rings.  There are also silversmiths among the Veys, who do good work.  The leather industry, too, has been carried to some perfection.

With all their disadvantages the natives seem to extract a good deal of enjoyment out of existence.  They are very fond of singing and dancing to the rude strains of a drum and harp, and usually prolong their revelries far into the night.