ish pirate off Little Cape Mount, and her crew consisting of eight persons either conveyed on board the Spanish vessel or put to death. During a visit of the colonial agent to one of the native towns in the vicinity this summer, eight or ten of the chiefs, after consulting with each other, united in the request that they might be received and treated as subjects of the Colony, and that settlements might be made on their territory. They expressed a confidence that in such case they would no longer be exposed to the incursions and cruelties of more powerful tribes.

5. The just and humane policy of the colonial government toward the natives induced the latter frequently to refer the settlement of their disputes to the colonists, instead of abiding by their own laws and usages. It was not unusual for them to attend the court of monthly sessions, either as plaintiffs or defendants; and its decisions were cheerfully acquiesced in even by the party against whom they were given. In the autumn of this year, the brig Criterion, after a passage of eighty-eight days from Norfolk, arrived at the cape with forty-four passengers, who were immediately landed and placed in the receptacle at Caldwell. This was represented to be a better company, more respected for their habits of industry and propriety of conduct than the generality of those who had emigrated for some time.

6. On the 9th of December, the schooner Orion arrived from Baltimore with thirty emigrants, all well. The same day a small tract of land at Grand Cape Mount was formally ceded to the American Colonization Society; healthy, fertile, and very advantageously situated for trade, the possession of this tract was considered a valuable acquisition. The chiefs of the country granted an unquestionable title to this land, on the sole condition that settlers should be placed upon it, and that schools should be established for the benefit of the native children. The young men declared their purpose of submitting to the laws of the Colony, and their willingness to make further grants of

land to any extent desired, whenever the terms of the present negotiation should have been complied with.

7. The liberality of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society enabled the managers of the American Colonization Society this year to build a schooner for the use of the Colony of about sixty tons. She was completed and sailed from Philadelphia, under the command of Captain Abels, with a colored crew, carrying a valuable supply of trade goods. She was called the Margaret Mercer. Two families of colored people embarked in her, one the Rev. W. Johnson's, of Connecticut, the other liberated by the Rev. Dr. Mathews, of Shepardstown, Va. They arrived on the 15th of December.

8. To the Christian who esteems worldly prosperity of little moment in comparison with that blessing of the Lord which bringeth salvation, the following letter from a colonist will not be uninteresting: "A great press of worldly business, and a great revival which the Lord was pleased to bless us with last year, and greater part of this, have occcupied all my time. Since Captain Sherman was with us, there have been nearly 100 added to our church. The work began in June, 1830, in Monrovia, and lasted till the early part of 1831. It then extended to Caldwell and Cary Town [New Georgia], a settlement of recaptured Africans.

9. “Among the latter it has continued ever since, so they make up the largest number that has been added to the church; and they seem fully to adorn the Christian character. They have built themselves a small house of worship, at which they meet regularly on the Lord's day, and twice in the week for prayer. We have appointed one of the most intelligent among them to take the oversight of them, and to exhort them, when none of the preachers are there from Monrovia. Monrovia may truly be said to be a Christian community; there is scarcely a family in it that some one or the whole do not profess religion."

CHAPTER XXXIX.

WAR WITH THE DEY AND GOURAH CHIEFS.

1. On the 14th of January, 1832, 343 emigrants arrived in the James Perkins. This vessel was fitted out at short notice, at the earnest request of those who embarked in her, and the unexpected arrival of her large company, in addition to the other recent arrivals occasioned some embarrassment in providing shelters for them all. Temporary arrangements were, however, made for their accommodation, until a receptacle which had been commenced should be finished, and some building frames which were brought out in this ship erected. It was an encouraging circumstance that many of this company were farmers, for the time had now come when those who could must till the soil for a subsistence or starve. More were already engaged in trade than could gain a livelihood by this means.

2. In February, the schooner Crawford, from New Orleans, brought out twenty-two emigrants under the care of Dr. Shane, of Cincinnati. The following was extracted from a letter written by this gentleman from the Colony: "I here see many who left the United States in straitened circumstances, living with all the comforts of life around them, enjoying a respectable and useful station in society, . and wondering that their brethren in the United States, who have it in their power, do not flee to this asylum of happiness and liberty. I am certain no friend to humanity can come here and see the state of things without being impressed with the immense benefits the Society is conferring on the long-neglected sons of Africa. Nothing but a want of knowledge of Liberia prevents thousands of honest, industrious free blacks from coming to this land, where liberty and religion with all their blessings are enjoyed." All that is wanting here is industry to make

the emigrants not only easy in their circumstances, but wealthy.

3. In March, the colonists were called to take the field against a combination of the Dey and Gourah chiefs. Several slaves about to be sold had escaped from King Brumley and sought protection among the recaptured Africans of the Colony. A demand being made for them by Brumley's son, the agent refused to treat with him, but requested the king to visit the Colony, and declared himself ready to do justice in the case. Soon after the return of the young man, King Brumley died, and his sons immediately resolved on war. They secured the aid of several of the Dey and Gourah chiefs (the latter of which secretly furnished men for the contest), and commenced aggressions by seizing and imprisoning several of the colonists.

4. A messenger sent to them by the colonial agent was treated with contempt, and the settlements of Caldwell and Millsburg threatened with destruction. About 100 recaptured Africans were sent against the hostile forces, but on approaching the town of a native chief, which had been fortified as a place of retreat for the aggressors, they were repulsed and compelled to retreat with the loss of one man. Prompt and energetic measures were now required; accordingly the agent, at the head of 270 men, armed with muskets and a field-piece, proceeded toward the fortified town just mentioned, and arriving about midnight, commenced an attack upon the barricade.

5. For twenty minutes the firing on both sides was incessant, and in less than half an hour the colonists were in possession of the town, with the loss of one man killed (Lieutenant Thompson) and two wounded. Kai Pa, the instigator of the war, received a wound when about to apply the match to a three-pounder, which doubtless prevented the destruction of many lives. Of the natives, fifteen were killed and many wounded. The courage and ability exhibited by the colonial agent, as well as by the officers and men under his command on this occasion, left

an impression on the minds of the natives, favorable to the future peace and security of the Colony.

6. In a few days, six Dey chiefs appeared at Monrovia and signed a treaty of peace, by which it was agreed that traders from the interior should be allowed a free passage through their territories, and that all matters of difference which might arise between citizens of Liberia and the Dey people, with the evidences thereon, should be referred to the decision of the colonial agent. A few weeks after this affair with the Dey people, the agent received a message from King Boatswain, expressing his regret that he had not been made acquainted with their hostility, as he would have rendered it unnecessary for the colonists to march against them.

7. This spring the agent visited Grand Bassa, and obtained a deed of a tract of land on the south side of the St. John's River, containing from 150 to 200 square miles, together with four large islands in the river a little above Factory Island. The chiefs from whom the purchase was made agreed to build three large houses in the native style, for the accommodation of the first settlers.

CHAPTER XL.

HEALTH-BUYING WIVES-GRAND BASSA.

1. On the 30th of July, the ship Jupiter anchored in the harbor of Monrovia, with 172 emigrants; a part of them suffered from sickness on the passage, and several were infirm when they landed. This was considered one of the most promising expeditions which had been sent out for some time. Several were men of intelligence and education, superior to the generality of their class. They were mostly from Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia.