with what sincerity, that we were ever conducted by his providence to this shore. Men may theorize and speculate about their plans in America, but there can be no speculation here. 9. "The cheerful abodes of civilization and happiness which are scattered over this verdant mountain; the flourishing settlements which are spreading around it; the sound of the Christian instruction, and scenes of Christian worship, which are heard and seen in this land of brooding pagan darkness; a thousand contented freemen united in founding a new Christian empire, happy themselves, and the instrument of happiness to others; every object, every individual, is an argument, is demonstration, of the wisdom and the goodness of the plan of colonization." CHAPTER XXXII. DEATH OF THE COLONIAL AGENT. 1. On the 15th of January, 1828, the brig Doris arrived at Liberia, after a long passage from Baltimore, with 107 emigrants, principally from Maryland-sixty-two of them liberated slaves; and on the 17th, the schooner Randolph, from South Carolina, with twenty-six Africans manumitted by a single individual. On the same day Mr. Ashmun returned from a fatiguing visit of inspection to the factories south of Monrovia, and found these vessels with several others waiting his arrival; he had hardly dispatched them before the settlement was menanced by a strongly armed piratical vessel. 2. Immediately after her departure he received a proposition from the interior for opening a new trade path, on condition of forming a settlement and factory at the head of navigation on the St. Paul's River. This required him, without delay, to explore that situation and visit, for negotiation, all the kings on both sides of the river. Returning from this expedition, he was engaged for the next four days in a tedious judicial investigation. The duty of assigning to the newly arrived emigrants their lands was next discharged, followed immediately by a session of the court. 3. The agent had felt his strength failing under this pressure of business, but there seemed no alternative, and his exertions were unremitted until, on the 5th of February, he was seized with a violent fever, which deprived him of his reason until the 21st. Subsequently he was favored with daily intervals of reason, which he employed. in giving instructions to those who managed affairs during his illness. 4. On the 19th of February, the brig Nautilus arrived from Hampton Roads, with 164 emigrants, mostly from the lower counties of North Carolina. The emigrants by this vessel and those by the Randolph suffered but slightly from the climate, but those by the Doris were sorely afflicted. They arrived in bad health, in consequence of a protracted voyage, and twenty-four of the emigrants from Maryland died. Mr. Ashmun having been advised by his physician that a return to the United States afforded the only hope of his recovery, prepared for his departure, and on the 25th of March, accompanied to the beach by the inhabitants of Monrovia in tears, left Africa never to return. 5. He proceeded to the West Indies, when, after some weeks, he took passage for New Haven, Conn., arrived on the 10th of August, and died on the 25th. He fell a victim to his labors and sufferings in the cause of African colonization. The establishment which he found on the brink of extinction, he left in prosperity and peace. The people whom he began to rule when they were few, unorganized, and disunited, he trained to habits of discipline and taught to enjoy the blessings of rational liberty. In his life he illustrated the power of Christianity to guide, to comfort, and to elevate, and died with a calm, thoughtful, untrembling confidence which none but the Christian can experience.* 6. At his funeral the Rev. L. Bacon, preaching from the words "To what purpose was this waste," said: "Such was he whose life has been spent and prematurely exhausted in his zeal for Africa. Do you ask, to what purpose has he died? I would that we could stand together on the promontory of Montserado and see what has been accomplished by those toils and exposures which have cost this man his life. Hard by, we might see the island where, a few years since, there was a market for the slave trade. To that place crowds of captives were brought every year, and there they were sold like beasts of burden. From that place they were consigned to the unspeakable cruelties of thronged and pestilential slave ships; and those whom death released not in their passage across the Atlantic, went into perpetual slavery. 7. "At that time this cape was literally consecrated to the devil; and here the miserable natives, in the gloom of the dark forest, offered worship to the evil spirit. All this only a few years ago. And what see you now? The forest that has crowned the lofty cape for centuries has been cleared away, and here are the dwellings of a civilized and intelligent people. Here are twelve hundred orderly, industrious, and prosperous freemen, who were once slaves, or in a state of degradation hardly preferable to bondage. 8. Here are schools, and courts of justice, and lo! the spire which marks the temple dedicated to our God and Saviour-strange landmark to the mariner that traverses the sea of Africa. Here, for a hundred miles along the coast, no slave trader dares to spread his canvas; for the 66 * Gurley's Life of Ashmun is recommended as containing much valuable information relating to colonization, as well as for the elegant style and sentiments of the author. This work has afforded much assistance in preparing the early part of this history. 104 flag that waves over that fortress, and the guns that threaten from its battlements, tell him that this land is sacred to humanity and freedom. Is all this nothing? Is it nothing to have laid on a barbarous continent the foundation of a free and Christian empire? This is the work in which our friend has died. 66 9. But this is not all. I look forward a few I see these results swelling to an importance which may years, and seem incredible to cold and narrow minds. I see those few and scattered settlements extending along the coast and spreading through the inland. I see thousands of the oppressed and wretched fleeing, from lands where at the best they can have nothing but the name and forms of freedom, to this new republic, and finding there a refuge from their degradation. I see the accursed slave trade, which for so many ages past has poured desolation along twelve hundred miles of the African coast, utterly suppressed, and remembered only as an illustration of what human wickedness can be. 10. "I see the ancient wilderness, like our own wide forests of the West, vanishing before the march of civilized and Christian man. I see towns and cities rising in peace and beauty, as they rise along our Atlantic shore, and on the borders of our rivers. I see fair villages, and quiet cottages, and rich plantations spreading out, where now in the unbroken wilderness the lion crouches for his prey. I see the pagan tribes catching the light of civilization, and learning from the lips of Christian teachers to exchange the bondage of their superstitions for the blessed freedom of the Gospel. I see churches, schools, and all the institutions of religion and science adorning Africa as they adorn the country of the Pilgrims. I hear from the mountains, and the valleys, and along the yet undiscovered streams of that vast continent, the voice of Christian worship and the songs of Christian praise. In all those scenes of beauty or of gladness, I see, and in all those accents of thanksgiving, I hear, to what purpose this ? servant of God poured out his noble soul in his labors 11. "Who asks us to what purpose is this waste? To 12. "What parent would exchange the memory of such a departed son for the embrace of any living one? Who would not that his brother or his friend had lived such a life, and died so nobly for so noble ends, than that he were still living, and living for no such noble and exalted purpose? He is not dead to usefulness. His works still live. The light which he has kindled shall cheer nations yet unborn. His influence shall never die. Years and ages hence, when the African mother shall be able to sit with her children under the shade of their native palm, without trembling in fear of the man-stealer and murderer, she will speak his name with words of thankfulness to God." CHAPTER XXXIII. COMMERCIAL AND AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS. 1. On the departure of Mr. Ashmun from Liberia, the government devolved on the Rev. Lot Cary, vice-agent of the Colony. The measures adopted by his predecessor |