University of Virginia Library

9. CHAPTER IX.
AFRICA.

The fifth article of the fifteenth section of the
Constitution of Liberia has the following provision:

“The improvement of the native tribes, and their
advancement in the arts of agriculture and husbandry,
being a cherished object of this government,
it shall be the duty of the president to appoint in
each county some discreet person, whose duty it
shall be to make regular and periodical tours through
the country, for the purpose of calling the attention
of the natives to these wholesome branches of industry,
and of instructing them in the same; and
the Legislature shall, as soon as can conveniently
be done, make provision for these purposes by the
appropriation of money.”

Although the Liberians have not yet been able
in their short existence to carry out this purpose to

any extent, yet, through Mr. Peyton's liberality,
Junius had, almost from his landing at Sherbro,
been at liberty to devote himself to this cause.
While the other emigrants waited at Fourra Bay
until a home could be found for them, he, unfettered
by any ties, resolved to comply with Mr.
Peyton's wish, and act as a missionary among the
heathen tribes around him. Freely he had received,
and freely he was willing to give.

He found the people sunk in the deepest ignorance
and superstition. They, indeed, acknowledged
a God as the creator of the world, but worshiped
the devil as the ruler of human affairs; and their
mode of worship, their actions and feelings, were
such as the spirit of evil might be supposed to have
inspired. At the entrance of almost every village
which he visited, Junius found a pole set up, with
a rag or a few fibres of the bark of some tree dyed
black fluttering at the top. This the people considered
sacred, and called their gree-gree pole; and
the mysterious motions of the gree-gree, as it waved
in the wind, was supposed to prevent the entrance
of the devil or conciliate his favor.

Besides this general gree-gree or charm, each
house and individual had their private gree-grees
or fetiches, which they regarded as endowed with
intelligence, and possessing power to do them evil
or good, according to their deserts. By means of

these, they thought that their priests were made
acquainted with the most secret thoughts and intentions
of their owner. The gods to which this
benighted people attribute this power, and to which
they pay awful reverence, are pieces of yams, broken
pots, feathers of fowls, horns of animals, broken
bows and arrows, knives and spears. To these they
erect altars, and place before them dishes of rice,
maize, and fruit. Those who can afford it, sacrifice
weekly to them a cock or sheep.

In the centre of some dense forest, a portion is
selected, and called the gree-gree, or devil-bush.
Into this no woman or boy is allowed to intrude,
under heavy penalties; but once a month the headmen
meet there, and sacrifice to the power of evil
a goat or some other animal; and the control of
the oracles that proceed from the devil-bush is
absolute over the ignorant African.

The belief in witchcraft was and is universal,
where the spirit of Christianity has not shed its
blessed light. This gives the priests immense
power over the inhabitants.

Dark and magical rites, incantations, and barbarous
customs are continually practiced, accompanied
by all the terrors that the dread of a malignant
being and the fear of unknown evil can invest
them. Upon the death of any one, excepting infants
and aged persons, the cry of witchcraft is immediately

raised, and the friends invariably institute
an investigation to discover who “made witch” for
the deceased.

The power of determining the question rests with
the priests, and is one of the chief sources of their
influence over the people. They have several
ordeals, to which all who are objects of suspicion
are forced to submit. Sometimes they are obliged
to grasp heated iron, or to plunge their hands into
boiling oil; if innocent, it is alleged that they suffer
no pain; if they are burned, they are punished
as guilty. The most common and severest test is
the ordeal of sassy-wood. This is regarded as infallible.
The suspected person is forced to drink a
strong decoction of the bark of the sassy-tree. This
is sometimes soon thrown off the stomach, when
the individual is regarded as innocent; but this
seldom happens, and when it does not, the sufferer
is invariably condemned to death. At one time
Junius arrived at a village a few miles from the
coast just after the death of the headman. A
secret investigation was going on to discover the
witch. Anxious to see the result, he remained.
For a long time the search was fruitless. At length
a gree-gree man, by continued incantations and
daring diabolical communications, succeeded, and
the hapless murderer was brought to light. He
protested his innocence in vain. The result of the

ordeal was unfavorable, and he was condemned to
die. Junius exerted all his influence against the
sentence; but in vain. He remained with the
tribe two weeks, and during that time three persons
fell victims to this practice. The other two
were women, who were accused of causing the
death of a man who died from a wound he had
received in battle.

This ordeal is so powerful an engine of state
policy, that the kings are unwilling to abandon it.
It is the right arm of an African monarch. By
keeping on terms with the gree-gree men, they can
rid themselves at any time of a dangerous or aspiring
subject. And the priests can so arrange these
tests as to make them produce any result they wish.
By weakening or strengthening the decoction of
sassy-wood, they can make it innocent or fatal, as
interest or inclination may lead. If the trial is to
be made by heated oil or iron, they can, by previous
application of some preparation to the part to be
operated upon, enable it to resist the effect of heat,
and the accused escapes uninjured. Thus this system
puts the life of the whole community in the
hands of the priests, who, of course, would use every
effort to perpetuate a custom so favorable to their
power. But wherever the power of Liberia extends,
whether over the native tribes who have become
their fellow-citizens, or over those who are only their

allies, these mock trials have been abolished. If
that had been all that this settlement had effected
for our common humanity, it would be enough to
repay those who established it for all their efforts.

Junius also found slavery prevailing among all
the tribes he visited. And the condition of the
slaves was indescribably worse than any thing that
he had ever seen, or heard, or imagined before.
By far the greater number of the people were in a
state of the most abject servitude to masters, who,
without the slightest compunction, would inflict on
them the severest punishment, and would even kill
and eat them, or throw them alive on the funeral
pile at pleasure.

He had heard a great deal of the power of the
King of Dahomey, a country lying in the interior of
Africa, nearly two hundred miles from Liberia, and
he resolved to venture upon a visit to that place.
On his way there, he narrowly escaped twice from
the hands of the slave-hunters. Once he was obliged
to conceal himself in the forest for several days, and
at last crept out to take refuge in a large village
that he had passed through a few days before.

He found it dismantled and in ruins. A few old
people sat in despairing apathy amid the desolation,
and the wail of some neglected infant arose occasionally
on the air. Junius asked the cause of the
change, so great and sudden, and learned that the

slave-hunters had made a sudden descent on the
village the night before, and left not a single strong
man, or woman, or child in it. A few years after,
he passed over the same spot, and it was so overgrown
with rank grass and bushes, that he could
hardly realize that it had not long before been the
abiding-place of so many people, happy and contented
in their few wants, and the abundant provision
nature had made for them. Nor was this a
single instance, but as years rolled on, many other
similar cases came under his observation.

As he went farther into the interior, he found a
great improvement in the country as well as the
people. The land gradually became higher and
more hilly. There were no burning sands or unwholesome
swamps as along the coast, but an undulating
surface of hill and valley, covered with
trees larger and loftier than any that he had ever
seen before. Beautiful streams of cool and pure
water crossed his path at short intervals; and the
soil was evidently of exceeding fertility.

But though rich in all natural resources, the large
country through which Junius had to pass was very
thinly peopled, owing to the devastating wars and
slave hunts of which for more than a century it
had been the theatre. The region lying near Dahomey
was subject to the inroads of this terrible
people, whose king derived all his revenue from the
sale of his slaves.

At last he reached Dahomey, and found his way
to its capital unharmed. Taking his stand under
a palm-tree that grew near the houses, he began to
tell the idle throng that soon gathered around him
some of the more important truths revealed in the
Bible. They discovered that he was from Liberia,
of which place they had heard wonderful accounts.
Without heeding the precepts he was enforcing,
they began to ask him all kinds of questions, some
idle and childish, and others showing a great degree
of acuteness. At last rumors of an American having
come to his dominions, reached the ears of King
Gezo, who commanded him to be brought to his
presence. A troop of Amazons, the king's female
guard, and his bravest and most trustworthy soldiers,
were drawn up to receive the stranger, and
impress him with a feeling of awe. All around the
king's residence the ground was paved with human
skulls, and Junius was obliged to push them away
as he walked if he did not wish to stumble over
them.

He found the king, a commanding, intellectual-looking
man, proud, stern, and haughty, simply
dressed, and sitting amid his wives and ministers.
He asked Junius many pertinent and comprehensive
questions about the objects and state of the
settlement at Liberia. Junius answered them satisfactorily,
and went on to tell him about many of

the strange things to be seen in America, about
the condition of the civilized portion of the world,
and their wonderful inventions.

While they were conversing, word was brought
that a town, that had long held out against the
Dahomans, was at last reduced to submission.

“That would please my father,” said King Gezo;
“I must let him know it. Send a slave here.”

A slave entered calmly. The king gave him the
message to be delivered to his father, and when he
had finished, at a nod his prime minister arose, and,
taking a rude ax, in one moment the slave's head
rolled in the dust.

“I have forgotten something,” said the king;
“send me another.”

Another entered, and, the message being finished,
the same scene occurred.

Junius looked on in horror.

“Why is this?” asked he.

“My father is in the land of spirits,” said the
king; “is there any other way to communicate
with him?”

Junius had heretofore used all his eloquence to
excite a feeling against the slave-trade; but now
he thought that even to live a slave would be preferable
to so uncertain a tenure upon existence as the
subjects of King Gezo possessed. He suggested to
that monarch the pecuniary advantage he might

derive from selling those whom he sacrificed so
wantonly. The king proudly answered,

“I have killed many thousands without thinking
of the slave-market, and shall kill many thousands
more. Some heads I place at my door, others I
throw into the market-place, that people may stumble
over them. This gives a grandeur to my customs;
this makes my enemies fear me; and this
pleases my ancestors, to whom I send them.”

Junius found it impossible to convince him of the
enormity of this practice, or to induce him to set
the least value upon the life or comfort of a slave;
but he listened to him with a degree of forbearance
and respect that could only be accounted for by his
clear perception of the superiority of the civilized
man over the savage, and he seemed to desire the
friendship of the Americans, as he called the Liberians,
rather than their enmity.

The missionary did not remain long there, for he
saw that the time had not yet come when the Gospel
might be proclaimed with any prospect of success
in that bloody land. He went where he could
employ himself more usefully than in gratifying the
idle curiosity of the vacant-minded savages, who
crowded around him daily to question him.

There were many kings who received Junius
with great kindness, and listened to him with the
utmost respect. One of them went so far as to wish

that “his son had been a slave in America, that he
might have learnt 'Merican fash.” He asked Junius
to take two of his children to Monrovia, that
they might learn what they could there, saying, that
he wished them to be wiser than their father.

As the principles and character of the settlers of
Liberia became better known, a missionary from
among them was welcomed with increasing warmth,
till at last their eagerness for teachers, or men with
the “book,” as they called it, became so great that
it was almost painful.

A few months before Ben's arrival in Liberia,
Junius had been on one of his usual tours through
the interior, visiting, as far as he could, every native
village within twenty miles of Liberia. He found
that a great change had taken place among the people
since he first journeyed through their towns.
The desolating wars that each petty tribe had felt
obliged to keep up with their neighbors in self-defense
had ceased. The quiet of a universal peace
prevailed throughout that once-troubled land. Never
had they been so willing to listen to God's messenger,
or so anxious to learn His will. In whatever
place he stopped, he had only to say, “I wish
to talk God palaver to you,” and in a few minutes
a crowd would be assembled to listen to what he
had to say. Neither was it necessary to use flattering
words, nor to speak with respect of their superstitious

observances. With the utmost boldness
he was accustomed to denounce their ordeals, their
gree-grees, and their fetiches, as delusions of the
devil, and to tell them that to God alone they must
look for salvation; and kings as well as people
would listen in meek submission to the words of
one, who swept away as cumbering rubbish the
whole system of worship on which they had been
accustomed to rely for temporal and eternal safety.
They seldom argued against or opposed his teachings,
but would say, “We never prayed to God; we
don't know how to come to him. How must we
seek God? What must we do to find him? How
can we forsake our sins?” And not withheld by
the pride that often prevents the civilized man from
openly acknowledging his dependence on his Maker,
when the missionary revealed to them the only way
of approach to Him, they might often be seen the
same hour kneeling, king and people together, imploring
the mercy of God.

Of course there were difficulties to be overcome
and privations to be endured on these journeys.
After toiling all day over hills and through the
thick undergrowth, Junius was often obliged to
throw himself upon the bare earth at night, without
food, and sleep with no protection but a fire from
the leopards and other wild animals that infested
the forest. But he forgot all his sufferings when

he entered one of their villages, and met the warm
reception of the people, and saw how anxious they
were to hear and learn the truth. Often they pressed
him with such urgent entreaties to remain, that
it was with difficulty he could force himself away
from them. There was hardly a town through
which he passed where a teacher might not have
found full employment—and what employment
yields so rich a harvest as this of teaching the inquiring
heathen?—but there were no laborers ready
for the work. The Macedonian cry, uttered with
an earnestness that almost amounted to agony, was
heard on all sides; but there were few who seemed
willing to emulate the self-devotion of St. Paul.

Junius had a favorite project to which he had directed
his thoughts and exertions during this last
tour. It was to select some spot that would be eligible
for the location of an inland colony. He found
it easy to do this. After traveling a few miles from
the low lands lying along the coast, the country
became at once beautiful and healthy. No longer
level and marshy, but hilly and undulating, with
clear streams flowing through it, and shaded by
dense forests, there was no malaria to dread or guard
against.

The great difficulty was not to find a suitable
place for a settlement, but to obtain settlers who
would be fitted for their work. If he could but see

established in these dark places of the earth a
Christian colony, “with their houses, barns, and
mills, wagons, roads, fences, farms, and waving
fields,” with their schools, their churches, and the
influence of their regular and Christian life, he felt
that one great step would be taken toward the conversion
of the whole surrounding country.

Pent up within their coasts as the Africans are,
with no large gulfs or rivers, as in Europe and
America, giving free access from the ocean to their
farthest centre, almost the only way of reaching the
inland tribes to do them any permanent good, is by
planting Christian colonies among them, from which
an influence may radiate that will transform the
whole continent.

Much has been done for Africa in the last thirty
years. The first step, in all enterprises the most
difficult, has been taken and proved successful.
Liberia has outlived the doubts of the weak-hearted,
the sneers of the disbelieving, the open opposition
of its foes, and is now a great and triumphant
reality. But much yet remains to be done. The
promise so assuredly given, that “Ethiopia shall
stretch out her hands unto God,” is on the verge
of fulfillment. Let not the heavy blame of delaying
that blessed event one day or hour rest on the head
of those to whom Providence has intrusted so many
of its exiled and homeless children.