Arial View of West Point
West Point of Monrovia in 1878.
West Point was initially known as the Mesurado Peninsula. On this Peninsula was the Fishing Village of the Kru people, at that time the Kru People had a vertical tattoo in the middle of their faces. With that mark they were untouchable during the Slave Trade. No one could buy nor sell a Kru man and they roamed all the Coasts of Liberia in their boats.
All ships bringing Emigrants or Settlers to Mesurado anchored at West Point and smaller boats were used to take them over the Mesurado River to Monrovia. West Point is Monrovia's most Natural Harbor.
Today West Point is only known as a Slum, with no further history attached to it.
On April 21, the Azor set sail with 206 emigrants. A young reporter for the News and Courier, A.B. Williams, accompanied the emigrants all the way to Monrovia and wrote a comprehensive account of the voyage.
In that account is the detailed description of West Point, but not with the name west Point.
1878__Description of West Point.
(Culled from the Logs of "The Azor").
Now we were inside the Cape, and on the Mesurado River, which here is about half a mile wide.
On the left(Vai Town) the beach stretches away, with a landscape of wooded country extending back from it.
On the right(West Point) a bit of white beach comes out, and behind it is a small extent of flat land, lying between the foot of the hill and the water. Among the trees and bushes of this little plain are to be seen the thatch houses composing the village where the Kroos live, while on the beach are generally a few sleek looking little cattle, Kroo men and women, and a number of canoes, the latter drawn out of the water and resting bottom up.
A little further up past this beach the green trees and wild India rubber vines again come down to the water, which here is placid and clear, bending over and almost sweeping it. Under the roots of the trees the water has worn away the soil, leaving the reddish looking stones bare. Some of these trees are valuable, among them being cam wood.
Past this, and a few yards further up, the water runs in again, forming a shallow little bay, and we see the town of Monrovia.
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Krumen of West Point Boards the Emigrants' Ship(The Azor) in 1878.
Behind the bar there was a glimpse of still water and a clump of trees. This was Monrovia, with its cape, as first seen that morning. Some of the passengers began singing:
“Land ahead, its fruits are waving, O'er its fields of endless green, And the living waters loving Shores where Heavenly forms are seen.”
But the Heavenly forms were seen about then, and the singing stopped. They consisted of
A FLEET OF “DUG OUT” CANOES,
each propelled by two or three gentlemen in the aforementioned state of near nudity, with paddles shaped like a pointed spade, or a trowel bayonet. These individuals came paddling out through the surf like mad, and soon reached the ship's side to which the emigrants eagerly crowded. Each of the new arrivals had a dark blue line about an inch broad tattooed from the roots of his hair to the end of his nose, and it was discovered that all had on some clothes. Some had only a cloth, others a coat and cloth, others a coat only, others a shirt, one all three. They had each suspended about their necks a string or two of beads, and small bags of “medicine.” Some had hats, some gaudily trimmed smoking caps, some ridiculous woollen night caps. It reminded one of the old Mother Goose melody:
“Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, Beggars come to town, Some in rags, and some in Tags, and some in velvet gown,”
except that there was nothing in the remotest degree suggestive of velvet gown. These fellows gabbled away among themselves in some heathenish and unknown dialect, with a great many “o's” and short and long “a's” in it. They occasionally addressed us in some few words of imperfect English. I at once conceived the idea that they were the original intoners. Their whole language seemed to be a series of intonations. Their words for “yes” is a sound something like a drunken man's utterance of the letter N, and they say it so much as a High Church Episcopalian does the last syllable of “amen,” that the resemblance is startling.
BOARDED BY THE NATIVES.
The emigrants were the most disgusted and crestfallen looking set that ever I saw. They wandered disconsolately around inquiring axiously of each other whether these were specimens of Liberians. “Why,” said the passengers indignantly, “they can't even talk English.” The mate stationed himself at the gangway and ordered every canoe to keep off, forbidding our visitors to fulfil their announced desire to come aboard. The rascals paddled around, however, and made a feint of climbing up on the side, and when the vigilant officer rushed around to drive them back, their companions streamed in over the gangway in such numbers and scattered about the ship so quickly that it was impossible to get them off except by inaugurating a knock-down and drag-out fight which would have been unpleasant. The whole gang therefore got aboard. The head men immediately sought the captain, and produced their “books,” i. e. their written recommendation of good character and working ability procured from various captains, and carried in water-tight tin tubes about twelve inches long by two thick, suspended about their necks. It then transpired that our new friends were Kroomen, that is members of the Kroo Tribe of Africans. Detachments of this tribe, which is a very large one, are scattered up and down the west coast. They are amphibious animals, and will do no work except on or in the water. Their perfect familiarity with that element, and their skill and endurance in rowing and working about ships, render them an indispensable auxiliary to the trader along the coast, especially as there are few good harbors, the ports having generally, like Monrovia, only open roadsteads, and vessels being loaded or unloaded by small boats. These visitors of ours were desirous of procuring work, and therefore the visit. Being disposed of by the captain, they spread themselves about the vessel, and soon gave proof that at least two bumps were largely developed on their craniums—inquisitiveness and acquisitiveness. They are the most whining, persistent and shameless beggars I ever saw.
THE KROOMAN.
A Krooman will beg until you give him nineteen shillings, then charge you the odd one for a service worth a penny, and want his pay in advance. If they, as a people, have a single redeeming trait of character, I confess I have never seen it manifested. They seem “villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves and treacherous by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars and adulterers by an enforced obedience to planetary influence.” Their inordinate inquisitiveness is unfettered by any conventional delicacy. The first one I ever spoke to stuck his head in the cabin, and wanted to know where was I from? Was America a big place? Were my father and mother there? What did they do for a living? Was I married? Wasn't I “co'tin'?” Why wasn't I? How old was I, and so on, ad infinitum, until it would up—had I an old coat, hat shirt, handkerchief, knife or piece of chewing tobacco to give him? No Krooman ever asks for pantaloons, and I think they begin to chew tobacco when about 4 years old. I will have more to tell of these gentry further on. The cause of the blue marks on their noses is, however, curious enough to be recorded here. It seems that in the time when the slave trade flourished, the Kroos were as useful watermen as now. The slavers would, therefore, never purchase one, or only did so to set him at liberty, fearing to incur the hostility of the tribe, and the Kroos adopted the blue mark as a sign of their nationality, which always protected them from purchase by the white men. They are very proud of having never been slaves, and frequently twit the Liberians with the fact, when a quarrel occurs. About 9 o'clock on the morning of our arrival, a large row boat, manned by eight Kroomen, pulled out with the harbormaster and emigration commissioner, who came aboard.
( The Liberian Exodus. An Account of Voyage of the First Emigrants in the Bark “Azor,” and Their Reception at Monrovia, ).
