to keep on hand an assortment of goods to exchange for the articles wanted from the natives for the use of his family.

4. It was at first proposed to send small silver coin to the Colony, but the Board became satisfied, by the information they received, that it would be impossible to keep a sufficient quantity of silver there to answer any useful purpose, as it would soon be brought off by trading vessels stopping at the cape. They prepared and forwarded certificates for five, ten, twenty-five, fifty, and one hundred cents, receivable in payment for goods at the public store. To make these intelligible to the natives, there were represented on them objects to which they attached the value represented by the certificates; for instance, on the five cent certificate a head of tobacco; on the ten cent, a chicken; on the twenty-five cent, a duck; on the fifty cent, two ducks; and on the dollar certificate, a goat.

5. The report of the Liberia Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church represented this as a year of unparalleled prosperity. "The fervent and united prayers,” said the report," with which we commenced 1837, have not been in vain. The thousands of pious hearts among the Christians of America, which have been supplicating a throne of Divine Grace for Africa, have not been pleading for naught." Seasons of revival had been extensively experienced in the Colony, and more than twenty of the natives had been converted. Some of these were living in the families of the colonists, and had been trained to the knowledge of the Christian's God, while others were "right out of the bush."

6. At Millsburg, the Methodist Church had increased, this year, from eleven to sixty-three. The White Plain manual labor school, near this settlement, had shared in the blessings of converting grace. One of the native boys at this school received a visit from his father, and on being inquired for at a certain hour of the day to go to work with the other boys, was missing. The missionary found

him in one of the upper rooms of the school-house, pleading with his father to "look for the American's God," and get his soul converted to Christ.

7. The number of church members within the bounds of this mission, embracing all the settlements except Marshall, was 578. The number of children in the schools, under its care, 221 attending day schools, and 303 the Sabbath-schools. One of the colored teachers at Monrovia (Mrs. Moore, formerly Eunice Sharp) wrote to a lady in New York: "I have a goodly number of pupils, from twenty years old to three, but not advanced in learning as they are in years. I have some very interesting little girls; I have watched them from the alphabet to more interesting things; I have seen them trying to point out the different countries on the map; I have heard them tell me the nature of a noun, conjugate a verb, and tell how many times one number is contained in another; but all this was not half so entertaining to me as when I saw them crowding to the altar of God. Give God the glory, O my soul! that mine eyes have seen the salvation of God upon my own people.

8. "I have heard the wild natives of Africa testify that God hath power on earth to forgive sin. Rejoice, then, ye daughters of benevolence! The Judge of all the earth is answering your prayers in behalf of poor benighted Africa. Yes, though they have laid long upon the altar, he has smelled a sweet savor, and it appears to me that the day is beginning to dawn, and the day star is rising on this dark division of the earth. The way is opening for the poor native, who is now worshiping devils, to become acquainted with the worship of the true and living God." The Rev. S. Chase, who came to Liberia in 1836 with a heart most zealously devoted to the cause of missions, and who promised to be extensively useful in spreading the Gospel among the natives, was obliged, in consequence of protracted ill-health, to return to the United States in the summer of this year.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

A LARGE PLANTER-THE DEY PEOPLE.

1. ARRIVED on the 12th of February, 1838, ship Emperor, with ninety-six emigrants from Virginia, of which sixty were emancipated by John Smith, Sr., Esq., of Sussex County. These people have all been bred to farming, and we hope they will prove an important accession to the agricultural interests of the Colony. The physicians of the Colony being united and unequivocal in their verdict in favor of the superior healthfulness of the inland settlements over that of Monrovia, these emigrants have all been placed at Caldwell and Millsburg, an event which will put this opinion to the test. Our opinion is that either place is healthful.

2. There is no earthly occasion that colored people should die in establishing themselves in Africa. Let them only avoid the actual and obvious causes of disease (which is neither more difficult nor more necessary to be done here than in all other countries), and they may live their threescore years and ten, and if they should have on their arrival good cheer and plenty, they may even attain their four-score years. There came passengers in this ship, Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Clark, to join the Baptist Mission at Edina, Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Barton and mother, of the Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Dr. Skinner and daughter. This latter gentleman has the medical chargé of the Colony.

3. It was a great disappointment to the Governor not to receive a sugar-mill, which he expected by this vessel, as he had then six acres of promising thrifty cane, and was anxious to prove the practicability of cultivating and manufacturing the article, and thereby give an impulse to the

business; but the cane was lost for want of the means of grinding. In the early part of this year the Bassa Cove settlement received an accession of seventy-two emigrants, who came in the barque Marine, from Wilmington, N. C.

4. One of these emigrants was Mr. Lewis Sheriden, a distinguished colored man from North Carolina. On visiting Governor Matthias, and examining the laws for the government of the Colony, he expressed much dissatisfaction, and refused to take the oath required of those who became citizens, alleging that he had left the United States on account of oppression, and that he should not subject himself to arbitrary government in Africa, and such he deemed that of the Colony. However, after spending a few weeks in examining the country, and failing in an ef fort to induce the colonists to petition the Board for an amendment of the constitution, he resolved on locating at Bexley, six miles from Bassa Cove. As he was a man of wealth, and had been extensively and successfully engaged in business in Carolina, the rules observed in the allotment of lands to emigrants were dispensed with in his case. He took a long lease of 600 acres, and soon had in his employ a hundred men. Many of them were natives, who proved to be excellent laborers.

5. The inland and elevated situation of Bexley, and its rich soil, well adapted to the growth of sugar-cane and the coffee-tree, with such a man as Sheriden to excite to industry those around him, by his own example, may soon make it one of the most important agricultural settlements in Liberia. Some of the Dey people, residing on the Little Bassa, had forcibly taken colonial property from those to whom its transportation to Edina had been intrusted. On satisfaction being demanded for this outrage, the Deys readily agreed to pay for the property taken, also to pay a debt due by them, to the colonial agent, and to secure the payment in four months, pledged a portion of their lands, embracing the mouth of the Little Bassa.

6. The time of payment having expired, a commissioner

was appointed to remind the Deys of their promise, but only a renewal of it was obtained. The colonization agent, acting in accordance with the spirit of his instructions to treat the natives with all consistent lenity, pursued persuasive measures to induce this tribe to comply with their engagements, for eighteen months without success, when he sent two commissioners, accompanied by seventyfive armed men, with instructions to bring the business to a close by an amicable arrangement, if possible; but if no satisfaction could be obtained, they were to take possession of the land pledged.

7. The Deys, conscious of their own duplicity, and fearful of being chastised for the robbery they had committed, retired from the coast; and after spending eight days in fruitless efforts to bring them to a palaver, the colonists took possession of the territory pledged. This course was deemed necessary, for had the Deys escaped unpunished, their robberies would have become of frequent occurrence; forbearance is always interpreted by the natives to be weakness.

8. A man by the name of Logan, in disregard of the remonstrances of his friends, settled on the territory of the natives, north of the St. Paul's, and opened a farm. In a fracas with some Mandingoes in which he was concerned, one of them was killed. Logan was accused of the deed, arrested, and formally tried in the Colony, and acquitted of the murder. Having returned to his farm, the party to which the murdered man belonged, went, a few days after, to Logan's house, under pretext of trading; not suspecting their designs he admitted them.

9. As soon as they had entered, they seized and confined him, and after robbing the house of its contents, set it on fire, which, with the owner was consumed. Of three other persons in the house, an American, a Gourah, and a Bassa, the latter escaped, and the other two were taken captive. The Governor demanded of the Deys the surrender of the murderers, and satisfaction for the property destroyed.