, whose efforts culminated in the founding of the
colony of Liberia. The recent world war, with Africa as its prize, fixed
attention anew upon the little republic. This comparatively small tract
of land, just slightly more than one-three hundredth part of the surface
of Africa, is now of interest and strategic importance not only because
(if we except Abyssinia, which claims slightly different race origin,
and Hayti, which is now really under the government of the United
States) it represents the one distinctively Negro government in the
world, but also because it is the only tract of land on the great West
Coast of the continent that has survived, even through the war, the
aggression of great European powers. It is just at the bend of the
shoulder of Africa, and its history is as romantic as its situation is
unique.

Liberia has frequently been referred to as an outstanding example of
the incapacity of the Negro for self-government. Such a judgment is not
necessarily correct. It is indeed an open question if, in view of the
nature of its beginning, the history of the country proves anything one
way or the other with reference to the capacity of the race. The early
settlers were frequently only recently out of bondage, but upon them
were thrust all the problems of maintenance and government, and they
brought with them, moreover, the false ideas of life and work that
obtained in the Old South. Sometimes they suffered from neglect,
sometimes from excessive solicitude; never were they really left alone.
In spite of all, however, more than a score of native tribes have been
subdued by only a few thousand civilized men, the republic has preserved
its integrity, and there has been handed down through the years a
tradition of constitutional government.

1. _The Place and the People_

The resources of Liberia are as yet imperfectly known. There is no
question, however, about the fertility of the interior, or of its
capacity when properly developed. There are no rivers of the first rank,
but the longest streams are about three hundred miles in length, and at
convenient distances apart flow down to a coastline somewhat more than
three hundred miles long. Here in a tract of land only slightly larger
than our own state of Ohio are a civilized population between 30,000 and
100,000 in number, and a native population estimated at 2,000,000. Of
the civilized population the smaller figure, 30,000, is the more nearly
correct if we