8. The remonstrances sent home by some of the colonists, and the communications of the agent, had convinced the Board that immediate and strong measures were required to prevent the subversion of the Colony and the total extinction of their hopes. They wrote a reply to the remonstrance, and an address to the colonists generally, in which they declared that the agents must be obeyed, or the Colony abandoned. They asserted their determination to punish offenders, while they assisted the obedient, and affectionately encouraged all the sober and virtuous to maintain the peace, and guard, as their very life, the authority of the laws.

9. These documents were scarcely dispatched, when letters were received from the Colony charging Mr. Ashmun with oppression, the neglect of obvious duties, the desertion of his post, and the seizure and abduction of the public property. These charges were confirmed by various verbal reports of officers of the United States Navy, and others who had touched at Montserado soon after his departure, and there listened to these calumnies.

10. The Board applied to the Government to send a vessel to the Colony with some individual duly commissioned, both by the Government and the Society, to examine the condition of the Colony, redress grievances, and correct abuses. The Rev. R. R. Gurley, Secretary of the Society, was appointed to this service, and embarked at Norfolk, late in June, 1824, in the United States schooner Porpoise, Captain Skinner.

11. Arriving at the Cape De Verds 24th of July, Mr. Gurley there found Mr. Ashmun, to whom he communicated the object of his visit to Africa, and the extent of the powers with which he was clothed. Ashmun, who desired the fullest investigation of his official conduct, returned by the Porpoise to the Colony, where she arrived on the 13th of August. On a full inquiry, Mr. Gurley was not only satisfied of the integrity and purity of Mr. Ashmun's character, but of his firmness and sound judgment,

as well as the admirable adaptedness of his talents to the extraordinary crises through which he had passed.

12. Both these gentlemen applied themselves with the utmost diligence to removing all causes of complaint. Widows, orphans, the infirm and helpless were provided for. A large share in the management of their political affairs was conceded to the colonists.

13. The decisions of the commissioners, with the plan of government to be recommended to the Board, were read and explained to the colonists, which, without a dissenting voice, they pronounced satisfactory; and being assembled in the first rude house of worship ever erected in the Colony, they solemnly pledged themselves before God to support the constitution agreed upon, and faithfully to sustain the great trust committed to their hands. Mutual confidence was completely restored between the people and the agent, and if the colonists in the extremity of their suffering had injured Mr. Ashmun, their error was atoned for by the most respectful subordination to his authority and the kindest regard for his personal comfort during his future stay in Africa.

14. This period may be considered as almost the commencement of their establishment. Contentment, industry, peace, and general comfort now succeeded to the sufferings, disappointments, alarms, and dissensions which had prevailed in the Colony during the previous four years of its struggling existence.

15. The commissioner left, on his return to the United States, the 22d of August. Mr. Ashmun explored the country, and finding a rich tract of land lying on the south side of the St. Paul's River, possessing great advantages for agricultural purposes, he opened a negotiation with the kings of the country for the purchase, and succeeded in obtaining twenty miles on the river, and from three to nine miles back. On this tract a town was laid out on a beautiful point six miles from Monrovia, which was at first called St. Paul's, but afterward changed to Caldwell.

CHAPTER XXIV.

EMIGRATION TO LIBERIA.-Continued.

1. ON the 13th of March, 1825, the brig Hunter, from Norfolk, Va., with sixty-six emigrants arrived. These emigrants were principally farmers, and settled at Caldwell, preferring this situation, although an unbroken forest, and exposed to the depredations of the wild Africans, on account of the rich soil. The fever, which attacked nearly all within a month after their arrival in the Colony, was greatly protracted, and increased in violence from the want of proper medical treatment. The Board had failed to procure a physician. Lot Cary again interposed his good offices and acted as their friend and physician, and was very successful in saving his patients.

2. Recovered from the seasoning fever, these emigrants applied themselves with so much industry, that soon their farms extended a mile and a half on the rich flats of the river, and they were enjoying health and plenty.

3. At this period the slave trade was carried on extensively within sight of Monrovia. Fifteen vessels were engaged in it at the same time, almost under the guns of the settlement; and in July of this year a contract was existing for eight hundred slaves to be furnished, in the short space of four months, within eight miles of the cape. Four hundred of these were to be purchased for two American traders.

4. The agent had no power either to arrest or punish these pirates, but he determined to employ the whole influence of the Colony against this accursed traffic. He explored the whole line of coast from Cape Mount to Trade Town, and sought, by treaties with the chiefs, to effect the exclusion of the slave traders from the country, while within the legitimate jurisdiction of the Colony

he determined to enforce the laws against them with the utmost rigor.

5. In the month of August, a flagrant piracy was perpetrated by the crew of a Spanish schooner (the Clarida), employed in the slave trade, on an English brig lying at anchor off the town of Monrovia. Mr. Ashmun did not hesitate as to the course of duty. Ample testimony was taken to prove the piracy. The English brig was placed under his direction. A call upon the colonial militia was promptly responded to, and an expedition was immediately set on foot against the Spanish factory a few miles north of Monrovia.

6. The Spanish schooner was not to be found; the factory, with a small amount of property and a number of slaves, was captured without resistance, and the native chiefs bound themselves to assist in no way in collecting or transporting out of the country any of the slaves bargained for by the commander of the Clarida.

7. In proof of the good discipline of the colonists, and their sense of justice toward the natives, it may be stated that not a single instance of disorderly conduct occurred among the fifty-four men who composed this expedition. The natives, into whose country they had marched, expressed their amazement at the regard paid to their persons and property, and several of the chiefs sent deputations to thank the governor for his justice and humanity.

8. About this time a most daring robbery was committed by a Krooman on the public stores at Monrovia, and these offenses having become of frequent occurrence, it was deemed important to arrest the offender. A party of militia was ordered to accompany the sheriff to the Kroo town and to demand redress. Two or three of the party fell behind, one of whom fired at a Krooman and mortally wounded him. Ashmun had the man arrested and tried by a jury. It was proved on trial that the offender had misunderstood his orders; he was however sentenced to six months' imprisonment or a fine of one hundred bars, which

sum was paid over to the family of the deceased, and was perfectly satisfactory to the Kroo nation.

9. A short time after the destruction of the Spanish slave factory, Mr. Ashmun discovered that a plan had been formed, between the captain of the Clarida, some of the native chiefs, and a French slave dealer on the St.. Paul's, for violating the engagement by which the slaves originally destined for the pirate were to be delivered over to the Colony. He was induced, in consequence, to break up two other slave factories, and to offer to the chiefs concerned in the transactions of the Clarida a bounty of ten dollars for each slave, which, in pursuance of their agree ment, they should resign to the colonial agent. The consequence of this was, that one hundred and sixteen slaves were soon received into the Colony as freemen.

10. At the close of this year the agent presented to the Managers a complete view of the condition, relations, character, and prospects of the Colony. He stated that health had been for some months restored; that adults, resident for some time in Africa, preferred its climate to any other, and enjoyed as good health as in America, and that the settlers generally lived in a style of neatness and comfort. Two commodious chapels, each sufficient to contain several hundred worshipers, had been erected and consecrated to God.

11. A small schooner had been built, and put in the rice trade between Cape Montserado and the factories at the leeward, adapted to the passage of the bars of the rivers on that part of the coast. The militia of the settlement was well organized, equipped, and disciplined. In addition to the valuable tract of country purchased on the St. Paul's, the right of occupancy and use had been obtained to the lands at the Young Sesters, and at Grand Bassa, and factories established at both of those places. Five schools, exclusive of Sunday-schools, were in operation.

12. The people were obedient to the laws; their moral character had improved; the preponderance of example