_Unde nigerrimus Auster_
Nascitur.

Practically and commercially the former is worked by the Bristol barques
and the latter commences at Cape Threepoints. The bold headland, a hundred
feet tall and half a mile broad by a quarter long, bounded north by its
river, has a base of black micaceous granite supporting red argillaceous
loam. Everywhere beyond the burning of the billows the land-surface is
tapestried with verdure and tufted with cocoas; they still show the
traditional clump which gave the name recorded by Camoens. The neck
attaching the head to the continent-body is a long, low sand-spit; and the
background sweeps northward in the clear grassy stretches which African
travellers agree to call 'parks.' These are fronted by screens of tall
trees, and backed by the blue tops of little hills, a combination which
strongly reminded me of the Gaboon.

The prominent building is still the large white-washed mission-house with
its ample windows and shady piazzas: the sons of St. Benedict could not
have placed it better. In rear lies the square tower yclept a lighthouse,
and manipulated like that of Monrovia; its range is said to be thirteen
miles, but it rarely shows beyond five. An adjacent flagstaff bears above
the steamer-signal the Liberian arms, stripes and a lone star not unknown
to the ages between Assyria and Texas. The body of the settlement lying
upon the river is called Harper, after a 'remarkable negro,' and its
suburbs lodge the natives. When I last visited it the people were rising
to the third stage of their architecture. The first, or nomad, is the hide
or mat thrown over a bush or a few standing sticks; then comes the
cylinder, the round hovel of the northern and southern regions, with the
extinguisher or the oven-shaped thatch-roof; and, lastly, the square or