MARYLAND IN LIBERIA—CAPE PALMAS—HALL AND RUSSWURM—CHASTISEMENT OF THE NATIVES AT BEREBEE BY THE U. S. SQUADRON—LINE OF PACKETS—PROPOSAL OF INDEPENDENCE—ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE COLONIZATION SCHEME—CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
The Maryland Colonization Society resolved to establish a colony at Cape Palmas. Dr. James Hall, their agent, secured the consent of the chiefs to cede the required territory, without employing the wretched medium of rum. These kings, to their credit, have retained sensible names of their own, redolent of good taste and patriotism, being Parmah, Weah Boleo, and Baphro. As has ever been done by all wise people on that coast, a fort was expeditiously erected, overlooking in a peremptory way the native villages and the anchorage; since it is not, for a time at least, safe to trust in such affairs to the conscience of the natives.
Cape Palmas is well suited for such an establishment; the climate is as good as any in tropical Africa. The Cape itself is a small elevation or insulated hill, sloping down towards the continent, into the general expanse of wooded plain or forest; this, to the north and east of the Cape, stretches out into a wide fertile flat, the waters of which drain towards the long line of sea-beach, receiving the heavy surf of the equatorial Atlantic. The surf throws a long bulwark of sand along the mouths of the fresh-water streams, and checks them in a lagoon of ten miles in length, by about a quarter of a mile in breadth. This water is fresh or brackish, according as either element gains the mastery, and serves the natives as a precious and fruitful fish-pond.
Of this region, a tract extending about twenty miles along the sea-shore, and as much inland, was, by purchase, brought under the jurisdiction of the Maryland Society. Provision was made for retaining the resident natives on the lands they cultivated. Here, in the month of February, 1834, the Maryland Colonization Society attached itself to Africa, by landing fifty-three emigrants from that State.
Their temporary dwellings were soon put up; and their fortifications erected near to populous towns crowded with natives supplied with fire-arms and ready to use them. Vessels continued to arrive, bringing more settlers to their shores. In 1836, an additional tract of country, east of the Cape, was procured; extending the colonial territories along the broad, rapid stream of the Cavally, to the distance of thirty miles from its mouth. In succeeding years new settlers arrived to occupy the lands so acquired; yet all these acquisitive proceedings gave rise to scarcely any noticeable opposition. A little blustering occurred on the part of one chief, who attempted to monopolize the selling of rice to the colonists when in want; but a kind and resolute firmness removed the difficulty. Scarcely, in fact, does an instance occur in history, of an administration so uniformly successful in the operations for which it was established; and, whatever the future may offer to equal it, nothing certainly in the past has a higher claim for sympathy, than these efforts of Maryland for the benefit of her colored population.
With the same wisdom which had characterized the previous measures of the society, in 1837 Mr. Russwurm, a colored man, was appointed governor of the colony. He fulfilled the expectations formed of him. Thus one step was judiciously taken, to disengage the colored men of Africa from dependence on foreign management.
Considering, however, that Cape Palmas has been colonized from a slave state alone, and that the government has been retained in the hands of the state society, it is scarcely to be expected that the same vigor and activity should be found in its internal operations, or the same amount of influence exercised over the surrounding natives, as has been manifested in Liberia. Notwithstanding this, the beneficial influence of this colony also, on the surrounding natives, has been considerable. Six kings, of their own accord, applied to Governor Russwurm, and ceded their territories, that they might be incorporated with the colony. Every treaty contained an absolute prohibition of the slave-trade.
Cape Palmas colony, then, may be considered as now extending from the confines of her elder sister at the river Jarraway, as far to the eastward as Cape Lahou. The inland boundary may be anywhere, as the future shall settle it. The cultivated or cleared land extends parallel to the coast, over distances varying from twenty-five to fifty miles. Here comes on the dark verdure of forest, undulating over the rising lands which lead to the mountains, or whatever they may be, which feed the rivers. These streams act as lines of communication. But here also the old Portuguese influence has aimed at a monopoly of trade. Some explorations have disclosed the fact that there are powerful tribes in these lands, who, in spite of an obstacle of this kind, will soon be brought within the commercial influence of the colony.
This line of coast has at many points been a frequent haunt of slavers, and the atrocities due to native superstition have been shocking, and rendered more villanous by European trade. Commodore Perry, in 1843, as will be seen in the notice of squadrons, did justice on some of their villages, convicted of murder and robbery of an American vessel. The officers delivered several of the natives from torture under the accusations of sorcery. To control such fierce materials into quietness, or melt them to Christian brotherhood, will require much grace from Providence, and much kind and patient dealing from men.
In carrying out the objects of the colony, an effort was made by the Maryland Colonization Society, which seemed in its nature singularly promising. This consisted in establishing a joint-stock trading company, or line of packets for carrying out emigrants and returning with produce. It was expected that the colored people of the state would, to some considerable extent, invest capital in shares. With these expectations the “Liberia Packet” was launched in 1846, and made many voyages. It was found necessary to increase the size of vessels thus employed. But these operations were checked by the wreck of the “Ralph Cross.” It was also found that comparatively little interest in this undertaking was awakened among the colored population, or that they had not the means for investment in it, as only about one-eighth of the whole amount of stock was held by them. It is, however, an incident of value in the history of Africa, that through facilities thus afforded, many emigrants revisited this country for short periods, and thus established a return line of intercourse, inquiry, or business, which binds Africa more strongly to this land.
A movement for the elevation of the colony into an independent state, has been made by the people at Cape Palmas, and a commission has visited this country to make arrangements for the purpose. That there be full political independence granted to this people, is requisite, as an element of the great achievement now going on. This contemplates something far higher than creating merely a refuge for black men, or sticking on a patch of colored America on the coast of Africa like an ill-assorted graft, for which the old stock is none the better. Liberia is the restoration of the African in his highest intellectual condition to that country in which his condition had become the most degraded. The question is to be settled whether that condition can be retained, or so improved that he may keep pace with the rest of the world.
It is a necessary element in this proceeding that he be self-governing. It is to the establishment of this point that all men look to decide the dispute, whether negro races are to remain forever degraded or not. Time and patience, however, and much kind watchfulness, may be required before this experiment be deemed conclusive. Let many failures be anticipated ere a certain result is secured. Let no higher claims be made on the negro than on other races. Would a colony of Frenchmen, Spaniards, Portuguese, Sicilians, if left to themselves, offer a fairer prospect of success than Liberia now offers? Few persons would have confidence in the stability of republican institutions among these races, if so placed.
Let then the black man be judged fairly, and not presumed to have become all at once and by miracle, of a higher order than old historic nations, through many generations of whom the political organization of the world has been slowly developing itself. There will be among them men who are covetous, or men who are tyrannical, or men who would sacrifice the public interests or any others to their own: men who would now go into the slave-trade if they could, or rob hen-roosts, or intrigue for office, or pick pockets, rather than trouble their heads or their hands with more honorable occupations. It should be remembered by visitors that such things will be found in Liberia; not because men are black, but because men are men.
It should not be forgotten that the experiment in respect to this race is essentially a new one. The nonsense about Hannibal, and Terence, and Cyprian, and Augustine, being negro Africans, should have been out of the heads of people long ago. A woolly-headed, flat-nosed African, in ancient times, would have created as great a sensation at the head of an army, or in the chair of a professor, as it would now in the United States or in England. These men were Asiatics or Europeans, rather than Africans: the Great Desert being properly the northern boundary of the African race. The African has never reached in fact, until the settlement of Liberia, a higher rank than a king of Dahomey, or the inventor of the last fashionable grisgris to prevent the devil from stealing sugar-plums. No philosopher among them has caught sight of the mysteries of nature; no poet has illustrated heaven, or earth, or the life of man; no statesman has done any thing to lighten or brighten the links of human policy. In fact, if all that negroes of all generations have ever done, were to be obliterated from recollection forever, the world would lose no great truth, no profitable art, no exemplary form of life. The loss of all that is African would offer no memorable deduction from any thing but the earth’s black catalogue of crimes. Africa is guilty of the slavery under which she suffered; for her people made it, as well as suffered it.
The great experiment, therefore, is as to the effect of instruction given to such a race from a higher one. It has had its success, and promises more. But many patient endeavors must still be used. The heroism of the missionary is still needed. Such men as Mills, Ashmun, Wilson, and Bishop Payne, will be required to give energy to this work in various forms. But there will be henceforth, it is to be hoped, less demand for the exposure of American life. There should be found in the colored people of the United States, with whom the climate agrees, the source of supply for African missions, till, in a few years, Liberia itself send them forth, with words of life to their brethren throughout the length and breadth of the continent.
Like all sinful men, the African needs faith. But you must dig deeper in him, before you find any thing to plant it on. The grain of mustard-seed meets a very hard soil there, and the thorns are deep. It is a conquest to get him to believe that there is any virtue in man. They have never had a Socrates, to talk wisdom to them; nor a Cyrus, who was not a slave-merchant; nor a Pythagoras, to teach that kindness was a virtue. Hence the difficulty which the Christian missionary has had with them, has been to satisfy their minds as to the miraculous phenomenon of there being a good man. It has been always found that there was many a consultation among their sages as to the peculiar trade or purpose the missionary might have in view, in coming as he came; and very generally the more good they saw, the more evil they suspected. The first thing which, in most instances, opened their eyes, has been in his inculcating peace; for they saw no fees coming to him for it, and of course no looking out for plunder.
The civilized world, as well as the savage, need the example of the missionary. The true courage of faith is a blessing to mankind. Besides his devotion to the highest interests of men, the world also owes much to the educated and enlightened missionary, who has not only greatly contributed to the cause of science and literature, but has often been the means of developing the commercial resources of the countries where he has been stationed. Women, with their own peculiar heroism, which consists in fearless tenderness and patience, have also shared in this work of faith. Mrs. Judson is seen wandering through a Burman village teaching the people, with a sick child in her arms, while her husband lies in prison. And Mrs. Wilson, highly cultivated and refined, sacrificing her property, and surrendering a position in the best society of the country, is found teaching negro children in the dull and fetid atmosphere of African schools. This is true heroism, such as the gospel alone can inspire.
Christianity has, with watchful kindness, been seeking to penetrate Africa from various points of the coast. Abyssinia has long professed the Christian faith, although in a corrupt form. Its church, and that of Egypt, must soon fall under the influence of the line of communication through the Red Sea. English missionaries are at Zanzibar, and have brought to light, by their explorations in the interior, the group of mountains which raise their snowy heads south of the equator in that neighborhood. Missionaries from the same country are also to be found at Sierra Leone and in the Bight of Benin. From the extremity of the continent they have, in conjunction with those of five other nations, been penetrating all the interior of the southern angle.
The United States have also missionaries at four or five points. There are those of the Liberian republic, Cape Palmas, and the Mendi mission. In these places different denominations work kindly and earnestly together. The first obvious sign of their presence is peace. Nowhere in the world was this more needed, or more welcome, than in the regions north and east of Liberia, where men, for many years, had had to fight for their own persons, that they might remain their own, and not be sold. Every thing, as might be expected, had fallen into utter confusion. Tribes of historic character were in fragments; towns depopulated, cultivation suspended, and the small knots of families which kept together, were perishing. “The women and children,” says Mr. Thompson, “were often obliged to go out in search of berries and fruits to keep themselves from starving.” To this country, which lies along the sources of the Sierra Leone and the Gallinas rivers on the northern confines of Liberia, the captives on board the Amistad had gone in 1842. But such was the confusion in that quarter, that it was not until 1851, that the missionary found it practicable to commence his efforts for peace. They told Mr. Thompson, “that no one but a white man could have brought it about;” and that “they had long been praying to God to send a white man to stop the war.”
The Gaboon mission, since its disturbance by the French in 1844, has been re-established, and has experienced courteous treatment at the hands of the French authorities. This mission occupies the important position at which the great southern nation and language come in contact with the more energetic men of the equatorial region, and at which great light is likely to be thrown on their relations. The French also have a mission at the Gaboon.
The mission to the Zulus, in the healthy region at the southern end of the Mozambique Channel, was at one time divided between the two branches of that tribe; but in consequence of wars, was afterwards united and established in the colony of Natal. The commercial crisis in the United States in 1837, led to the proposal that this mission should be abandoned. But its influence had been so beneficial, that the Cape colonists and their government proposed to take measures to support it. Circumstances, however, enabled the American Board to decline this proposal, and they continue their operations. An effort is being made by this mission to unite all similarly engaged, in a common and uniform mode of treating the language of the south.
The Portuguese have missions, both on the east and west side of the continent.
Commander Forbes, R. N., says: “In all the countries which have given up the traffic in their fellow-men, the preaching of the Gospel and the spread of education have most materially assisted the effects of the coercive measures of our squadron.”