A foe more stubborn than paganism is to be met in the ranks of Islam.  There seems to be something in its teachings which renders the native a ready convert.  Its simplicity is readily understood; and it sanctions the practices of polygamy and slave-holding to which he is accustomed.  Under the zealous proselytism of the Mandingoes the Mohammedan faith has taken a strong hold on the interior, and is spreading rapidly to the very doors of Liberia.  Candor compels the admission that it brings with it a marked improvement in the condition and intelligence of the converts.  Intemperance—­which in many cases follows in the tracks of the Christian merchant—­disappears.  A knowledge of Arabic is soon acquired and the Koran is eagerly read and its principles put in practice.  The whole life of the convert is transformed, and he becomes in turn zealous in the dissemination of the faith.  The efforts of missionaries alone can never stem this torrent; if any impression is to be made upon the Mohammedan tribes it must be by the extension of Christian settlements and civilization.

5. As a Refuge to the Negro from the Pressure of Increasing Competition in America.

It would be unnecessary to bring into review the causes that are operating daily to make the conditions of earning a living in America more difficult.  However much or little credence we place in the Malthusian theory of the increase of population, in the doctrine of diminishing returns, or the iron law of wages, all thinking men are agreed that the country is already entering upon a new era.  The period of expansion, of the taking up of new territory by the overflowing population of the older districts, is practically ended; future development will be intensive, the country will be more thickly settled, and the sharpness of competition will be immeasurably increased.  The possibility of rising in life will be reduced to a minimum; and there will exist a class, as in the older civilizations of Europe, who live, and expect to see their children live, in a subordinate or inferior relation, without the prospect of anything better.

There may be under this new regime a number of occupations in which the Negro, by contentedly accepting a subordinate position, may hold his ground.  Or the conditions of life may become so severe that a sharp struggle for existence will leave in possession the race which shall prove fittest to survive.  To follow the train of thought would lead into all the unsolved difficulties of the Negro Problem.  But surely there will be some among all the millions of the race who will become dissatisfied with their life here.  Some will aspire to higher things, some will seek merely a field where their labor will meet an adequate return; many will be moved by self-interest, a few by nobler motives.  To all these Liberia eagerly opens her arms.  The pressure in America finds an efficient safety-valve in the colonization of Africa.