A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

7/23/26

Coverage

Monrovia, Montserrado County, Liberia

Transcription

July 23rd.

A very special day. It is pouring rain. The first contingent of the men -- Bequaert, Allen and Linder -- has just left by motor and then they go by launch to the base camp I located last week. A second lot of the men will go Sunday -- George, Coolidge and perhaps Theiler. I can not get away yet. I have been so busy that I have had no opportunity to write a line in my notes since July 19th. On July 20th I went out with my personal boy and had him and a woodsman chop down some dying coconut trees I have been observing. They are in a large plantation near the beach in Monrovia. The only one large grove here I think. I brought pieces of the trunk here and examined them microscopically and found therein a small motile nematode, genus Aphelenchus (?) in the circulatory channels of the plant. This is an important discovery for us. This little nematode perhaps explains why there is only one large cocoa-nut grove about Monrovia, and it may be that in a few years that this one grove will be almost or entirely destroyed by this parasite. Then perhaps some one will start another grove which after a few years will also become infected. There is of course more likelihood of such infection in a grove than in isolated trees. A disease of this nature has not before been reported in Africa. I took Coolidge and Whitman with me, the latter to photograph the tree. They were thrilled to see the disease and subsequently the parasite under the microscope. It took several days to solve this problem.

On July 21st we went to Mt. Barclay where the Firestone rubber plantations are and observed there a fungus disease of the rubber trees. It is of no great importance. The fungus merely develops in blackish linear streaks on the denuded trunk of the tree, so denuded in order to obtain the latex. The fungus is largely on the surface of the wound and does not penetrate into the bark. A mild antiseptic, copper sulfate and a brush should rid the tree of it, if the sunshine does not. This fungus merely develops on the wounded tree very much as surface bacteria infect a superficial wound of the skin. I had Whitman photograph the fungus and later about Monrovia, a ficus tree encircling and strangling a giant palm tree. I am arranging for Whitman to take a moving picture of the rubber industry here at the plantation.

On Wednesday, July 21st, I asked George and Theiler to make a survey of Kru town, of about 2500 inhabitants, and to take the blood of a number of apparently healthy boys that play about there. This they did and found two marked cases of elephantiasis. A high percentage of these apparently healthy boys playing about on the sands were found to have malarial parasites in their blood. Evidently they are more or less immune themselves and act as reservoirs of the parasites very much as some other animals do, for other parasitic diseases. I had Whitman take some moving pictures of them making the survey. I am naturally trying to keep out of the moving pictures as much as possible as I shall probably have to show and talk about them on our return.
All our permits to travel in the interior have been secured and our gun licenses are on the way. Last evening the President gave a beautiful dinner in our honor. We all wore white evening dinner coats or mess jackets. I only brought four with me on this trip but as Coolidge and Whitman have each two, we divided them among the eight men. The executive mansion and the verandas were draped with numerous flags. As we came up the stairs the native band played “The Conquering Hero Comes.” This band is made up of bushmen none of whom can read or even write his name, but they can read music. All of the cabinet were present at the dinner and two ex-presidents. Mr. Clarke of our Legation was also there and Mr. Ross and Mr. Hines. The President first spoke and proposed the health of President Coolidge. Mr. Clarke replied in a few words. Then the President spoke his official welcome to us and proposed my health and party. I replied at some length. Afterwards Ex-President Barclay spoke and gave us an “unofficial” welcome. I think he is nearly eighty years of age. He made an excellent speech and showed that he was very familiar with the history of Harvard University, and made very gracious remarks about our coming here. He is undoubtedly a very able, sage man. He has two nephews in the Cabinet, the Secretary of State Barclay and the Attorney General Grimes. I sat on the President's right and Ex-President Barclay on my right and the Secretary of State next to him. My speech was very well received. After expressing profound thanks to the President I mentioned the names of the different secretaries of State, War, Interior, Treasury, etc. in thanking them. I referred to the fact that they were a liberty-loving people and quoted from the President’s messages expressing this sentiment and the Liberian National Anthem and said they had stressed again this sentiment by giving us complete liberty to travel and carry on our investigations unrestrictedly throughout their country. I then said something about the value of scientific investigation in general and the opportunities for work here, what we hoped to do and some of the things we had already discovered here. The government here has certainly given us every assistance and been most curteous. I really am exceedingly appreciative and under great obligation to them, particularly to the President who is the ruler here in the true sense of the word. He told me after dinner if there was anything more the government could do for us I must let him know. He expressed great appreciation that the expedition had decided to come to Liberia first to carry on its investigations. Sometime I must talk more freely about this evening, which was a gala one for Liberia,

I have been confronted with a problem today that I never have before had to solve in my previous wanderings. It is to take $5000 into the interior and to carry it around for some four months, not as a draft or in checks, or even in paper notes, but in silver two-shilling pieces, one-shilling pieces (mostly) and six-pence pieces and a few coppers. There is no paper money in the country. It is against the law to use any of the paper British West Africa money in Liberia. And the amount of silver must be divided into four man loads on account of its weight. And how to protect it from theft. In the jungle a box of it taken even a few yards away and buried in the forest could perhaps never be traced. That is the problem. In the interior we will be cut off from all communication and we must always travel with our money. Porters receive their shilling every day, purchases of food, rice for personnel servants, dashes to chiefs. Be must be our own bank throughout three or four months.

Type

Diary

Citation