for the accommodation of emigrants, and sailed for the coast with a full cargo in May, 1853. The Liberia Packet arrived in July, and was disposed of. A large expedition was planned for the Ralph Cross, November 1st, and we waited her arrival without hearing of her loss until the 10th."

CHAPTER LXIV.

THE PESSAY TRIBE.

BY REV. GEORGE L. SEYMOUR.

1. As to the country, I would remark that I have seen and heard of no better. In this region the face of the country is undulating, presenting a most healthful aspect; heavily timbered, good for house and mill purposes, and everything, in short, where timber is called into requisition; soil mostly of a sandy loam, productive of all tropical vegetation, as also varieties common in the temperate zones; water, as good as the best in the Union, except your mineral; their equal, doubtless, may, by discovery, be found in this land of mystery. The rock or stone consists principally of three kinds: 1st, the blue granite, like that at Monrovia ; 2d, the gray or sand mixed formation; 3d, the iron ore; the first two good for building; in fact, the latter may be employed in that way if persons have a fancy for that kind of material.

2. I add, in answer to another question, that the following productions thrive well, viz.: Indian corn, rice, millet (a kind of breadstuff having a stem like the corn-stalk, with an ear on the top like puss-tail flag), and another kind much like the broom-corn; sweet potatoes, yams, tania, egg-plant, cucumbers, arbor beans, tomatoes, radishes, mustard, pineapple, plantain; banana, guava,

papaw, granadilla, orange, lime, lemon, cotton plant, indigo, all common to this part of the country. The cola tree (which acquires an enormous bulk, and produces abundantly a bitter nut, much in request as an article of commerce), peanuts, black-eyed peas, coffee, cocoa for chocolate, and a variety of pepper, may be found on the mission premises; and yet these are not all the country affords by many sorts. I shall strive to procure them all. Shalots, or onions, are found in the country, better than I have seen raised on the sea-coast, some of which we have in our garden; there are many little herbs for salad, etc. I have no names by which to term them, not being a botanist.

3. I wish to say that the people are a kind and peaceable race, industrious and ingenious, hospitable to strangers, but, like all savages, revengeful to their enemies; yet for all that, the head men are very considerate about entering into important measures, easily governed, and quite affectionate to each other; while, at the same time, they are disposed to tricks of dishonesty to each other, and will take advantage of strangers if they have an opportunity. In body they are robust, and much better proportioned than the Bassas; of about the same stature, wearing very little cloth as a common thing. I should not forget that their color is more generally inclined to a light brown than that of the Bassas; and those interior of us are still lighter, as they are from a more northern district. Their food consists of rice principally; of course they make use of palm-oil, the palm-tree being found throughout the country, so far as I have traveled.

4. As regards their knowledge of Cod, of course it is very indefinite; yet they all have some confused idea of a great First Cause. But one thing, very favorable to the spread of the Gospel is, I have observed, that this tribe is not given up to the use of the gregree or fetish, like the Bassas. I have been in many a Pessay town and have yet to see a gregree house; while, at the same time, one hardly sees a Bassa town without one; the people wear

horns and trinkets. A favorable omen, indeed! Some of them tell me of the Mohammedan worship among the tribes more to the north and east.

5. The Pessay is the only tribe that manufacture iron, so far as I have seen, though it is said that some other tribes also work it. They spin the cotton and weave it into cloth, many samples of which you have doubtless seen on the coast while visiting us. They make their clay owls and pots, also pipes; all of which answer very well the purpose intended. Their habitations consist of mudwalled huts, very low, not allowing you to stand erect in them, with thatched roofs, some square and others round, having projections, giving the appearance of a huge mushroom. They are agriculturists in their general occupation; and they engage in the slave trade to a limited extent, as the chance of shipment is too uncertain for those on the coast to make a large demand; and in that one particular, the Republic of Liberia has worked a revolution that is felt a great distance interior of us.

6. Polygamy is practiced by this tribe, but they do not treat their women as uncharitably as the Bassas, but do more for them in the way of farming, for they cut the brush wood, and after burning, char it up for planting in all cases, which is not done by the Bassas, except when the farm burns badly; they also cut the same farm over the next season, and sow rice and plant cassada—a thing not done by the Bassas, except those near the Pessay tribe. In the circumstance of a person dying, they do not burn up the house of a dead person like the Bassas, nor do they remove away, but reside for many years in one locality, and for that purpose they build more substantial dwellings. Their implements of husbandry are the billhook, ax, and hoe, and with these simple articles they do a great amount of labor.

7. I have seen here farms of many acres cut and planted in rice, corn, cassada, etc.; and the largest farm I think would measure about forty acres, belonging to one or two

persons of a town. The people about us trade in rice, camwood, and colas; fowls, sheep and goats, bullocks, peanuts; they make palm-oil for their own use, but not for sale, except the little for us, which is much less than we want for table purposes; and the people interior of us trade in bullocks, cloth, sheep, goats, iron, etc., and take in exchange guns, powder, tobacco, crockeryware, beads, cutlasses, foreign cloths. The European goods are best liked by both Bassas and Pessays, not on account of texture so much as their width, dye, and figure or print, and in fact (strange as it may appear) they do not fancy the American goods as well as those above mentioned; and one reason they give is that the American goods are too heavy and strong; but the American musket, powder, and tobacco, and many other articles of trade, are eagerly sought after by the tribes interior of the Republic.

8. The habit of the African in general to wash frequently is proverbial; there is but little sickness among them, and they are quite expert in herb medicines; have their doctors, who appear to be persons of considerable note, yet not to that degree as to assume the aspect of superstitious assurance. As I have intimated before, they have no form of religious worship, of course no priest. As instruments of hunting and war they use the musket, arrow, spear, and knife or cutlass. For both hunting and war, the arrow point is dipped in a deadly poison, the slightest scratch of which I am informed causes death; and they shoot with such precision and at such a distance that the victim is sure of a mortal wound, and this fact is too well known by the Bassas on the borders of the Pessay country to encourage them to provoke a war.

9. I should have mentioned before that this tribe cultivate a good quality of tobacco, the leaves of which I have measured, and found them nine inches wide by eighteen long.

Thus upon the whole I consider this people an interest ing tribe-for their aptness to learn is much in advance

of the Bassas; and their dialect is peculiarly adapted to the articulation of English, and they speak it with a clearness that would deceive many an ear, not having that roll and grumble about it which belongs to the Bassa dialect; they pride themselves in making efforts to speak the English, and are attentive at religious worship. The children acquire the knowledge of letters very fast.

CHAPTER LXV.

LETTER FROM G. W. HALL, ESQ.

BRIG "HANNAH," OFF CAPE SIERRA LEONE.

December 16, 1857.

1. I HAD anticipated the pleasure of writing to you from Cape Mount, but early yesterday morning our ship met this brig bound for Sierra Leone and a market. Her consignee came on board and desired me to accompany him. Accordingly, in less than two hours, I bade adieu to my agreeable companions and comfortable quarters, for the sake of business, and once more seeing the settlement of Sierra Leone. I hope this course will not prevent, but merely delay for a few weeks, my visit to Liberia. Although the wind did not blow like fury, as a friend of ours hoped it would, the M. C. Stevens had a very fair passage, she being only thirty-one days out when I left her, and then within one hundred miles of Cape Mount, her first point of destination.

2. There, most of her emigrants are, for the first time, to press the soil of their freedom; there to feel, if ever, that heart-throbbing which the first full freedom of manhood so uniformly inspires. Most of them, you are aware, were born slaves, and are now made free by will of their kind owners. Many bring with them funds sufficient to build