The Saint Paul River is a river of western

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Its headwaters are in southeastern

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

. Its upper portion in Guinea is known as the Diani River or Niandi River, and forms part of the boundary between Guinea and

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

. It is known locally as the Du by the

Gola people The Gola or Gula are a West African ethnic group who share a common cultural heritage, language and history and who live primarily in western/northwestern Liberia and Eastern Sierra Leone. The Gola language is an isolate within the Niger–Congo ...

in Liberia. The river then enters Liberia about north of

Gbarnga Gbarnga is the capital city of Bong County, Liberia, lying north east of Monrovia. During the First Liberian Civil War, it was the base for Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia. Cuttington College, a private, Episcopal-affilia ...

and crosses Liberia in a southwesterly direction. It empties into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

Cape Mesurado Cape Mesurado, also called Cape Montserrado, is a headland on the coast of Liberia near the capital Monrovia and the mouth of the Saint Paul River. It was named Cape Mesurado by Portuguese sailors in the 1560s. It is the promontory on which Afri ...

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...

near

Bushrod Island Bushrod Island is an island near Monrovia, Liberia surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Saint Paul River, the Mesurado River and Stockton Creek (a tidal channel that connects the two rivers). It contains the Freeport of Monrovia, the major nat ...

, separating Monrovia from its suburb Brewerville.

History

The river was named by

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

navigators in the 15th century, who first sighted the river on

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

. The river became important for the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

Robert Bostock Robert Bostock (22 April 1784, in Bootle – 1847 in Hobart) was an English merchant sailor. Who along with John McQueen, were accused of co-owning a Slave Factory (trading post) on the Saint Paul River, nowadays in Liberia. Robert started h ...

established a

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

here. Because the soil around

was poor and the coastal areas were covered in dense jungle, many early

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

emigrants to Liberia in the 19th century moved up to the nearby St. Paul River, where they found land suitable for agriculture. There they established small settlements. Also, American Lutheran missionaries set up the

Muhlenberg Mission Muhlenberg Mission was a Christian mission on the West Africa coast in Liberia. It was run by the Lutheran Mission of Africa for the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States of America. The mission was an outlet for the products ...

Station along the river, where they taught children various academics, technical/agricultural skills (especially the cultivation of coffee), and catechism. David A. Day introduced a steam ship to the river for the purposes of commerce and travel. The students at the school built it.Harold Vink Whetstone, Lutheran Mission in Liberia, (Board of Foreign Missions of the United Lutheran Church in America, 1955), pp. 24-51; George Scholl, D.D., "David A. Day," in Missionary Heroes of the Lutheran Church, ed. Luther B. Wolf (Lutheran Publication Society, 1911), pp. 199-219.

References

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica entryWorld River Discharge Database
{{coord, 6, 25, N, 10, 43, W, source:kolossus-plwiki, display=title International rivers of Africa Rivers of Guinea Rivers of Liberia Guinea–Liberia border Border rivers

History

See also

References

External links