, who announced himself as Abel Hurd. He was a Bostonian by
birth, and a seaman by profession. In a voyage to the East his vessel
had been captured by the Malays, and he alone, if I recollect rightly,
escaped death, owing to his complexion. He had a varied fortune; had
at one time been in Cochin-China, again in Tibet, and, after passing
some twenty years in the East, had returned to America, and was
looking out for employment. Some one had heard how deeply interested
General Harper was in Africa and African colonization, and had sent
Hurd to him. About this time there was a great doubt as to the mouth
of the Niger; whether it was to be found at the bottom of the Bight of
Benin, and whether it was not identical with the Congo, or Zaire,
south of the line. This was a question in which General Harper was
interested, and he determined to fit out Hurd and send him northward
from Liberia until he struck the river, which he was then to follow to
its mouth, and I was deputed to superintend the outfit.

"Hurd's idea was to take as little baggage with him as possible, and
to rely upon the resources of his wit and ingenuity in making his way
among the interior tribes. He had had a vast experience, and he
directed his own equipment. I do not recollect all that he was
furnished with, but I recollect having devised a hollow cane, in the
top of which was a compass and the tube of which contained papers and
pencils. These were to be resorted to when the compass and materials
openly were lost. I think I wrote, at General Harper's dictation, a
letter of instructions. Had Hurd lived and succeeded, he would have
anticipated the Landers, Richard and John, who explored the Niger in
1832-34. He arrived safely in Liberia, and made several short
excursions into the interior, but he had a theory that it was
necessary to train himself for the great journey. Abstinence was a
part of his training. It was a mistake. He took the acclimating
fever, and, although he recovered from the first attack, he had a
relapse brought on by some imprudence and died."[1]

* * * * *

CHARLES H. WEBB.--During the years when the American Colonization
Society was preparing to establish a colony of freedmen in Africa, it
early became evident that the mere transportation of the blacks to
their native home would mean little in establishing them in life. It
was, therefore, necessary to organize schools in which Negroes
desiring to be colon