With such resources, the commerce of Liberia. is already very considerable: indeed, it seems to have become such at a very early period, — thus presenting great prospects for the future. As long ago as 1826 — in six months, from January to June, of that year — "the nett profits on wood and ivory alone, passing through the hands of the settlers, were upwards of thirty thousand dollars (£6,000). In 1829, we find the exports of African produce amounting to sixty thousand dollars. In 1831, forty-six vessels, twenty-one of which were American, visited the colony. During the year ending May 1, 1832, fifty-nine vessels had visited the port of Monrovia, and the exports during the same period amounted to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and the imports to eighty thousand dollars. A portion of the colonists are continually and actively engaged in trade with the natives, disposing of English, American, and other goods, and receiving in return dye-woods, ivory, hides, palm-oil, tortoise-shell, rice, and gold, which become articles of exportation, affording great profit. Even now the harbor of Monrovia presents, at times, a most animating scene of commercial-activity and enterprise. One may often see there the harbor‘ whitened with sails — vessels anchoring or taking their departure, loading and unloading; you behold warehouses stored, with rich cargoes; you hear the busy hum of industry; you observe the alert movements of active men, once most of them sluggish slaves! Freedom has transformed them."[1]
The climate of Liberia is tropical, and therefore
- ↑ Ibid.
