of national stability. The resources of the country are daily being developed. Their exports of sugar, coffee, arrow-root, ginger, palm-oil, camwood, ivory, etc., are increasing every year-a fact that gives assurance of the continued growth, progress, and perpetuity of their institutions. The form of the government is republican. They have copied, as closely as possible, after the United States, their legislative, judicial, military, and social arrangements being very similar to those of this country. A writer in Fraser's Magazine, in quoting the dictum of Sir George Cornwall Lewis, that "man is an historical animal," says that it is "confirmed by the remarkable definiteness with which new nations repeat in embryonic development the stages through which their ancestral nations have passed." Liberia is another illustration.

9. In organizing a government for themselves on that far-off coast, there seemed to be an historic necessity that the people should adopt the republican form-and adopt it with nearly all the defects of the Republic whence they had emigrated, and for which they entertained a traditional reverence. But they are learning by experience. The people are now occupied with the discussion of fundamental changes; and it is very likely that the ideas of the progressive portion of the Republic will soon become a part of the organic law of the land. And when once the country is freed from the frequent recurrence of seasons of political conflicts, which, among a small people, must always be injurious, there will be nothing to interfere with their progress.

CHAPTER LV.

THE ST. PAUL'S RIVER IN 1866.

1. It was in the spring of 1840, on our first return voyage to the United States, that we stopped at Monrovia for a week or two, and were the guests of that truly great and good man, the late Governor Thomas Buchanan. He was evidently not an agriculturist in his tastes or habits of life. He had a distinct mission, and apprehended it. That mission was to train a young community to self-reliance and self-respect, politically and socially. The former object he had to some good extent accomplished by drilling Liberians in military tactics (for which he had an evident fondness), and leading them to victory against their most boastful and formidable foe, Gatoombah, who at a distance of forty miles interior, from a strongly fortified town, had invaded an outpost of the settlement at Heddington, and threatened further aggressions.

2. Governor Buchanan, with the aid of the future President Roberts and General Lewis, assaulted the defiant warrior in his stronghold, took it, and forced him to sue for peace. Amid much obloquy he was laboring to advance also the social character of the Liberians, at the time of our visit. But, though chiefly occupied with these objects, and with establishing honorable relations between his own and foreign countries, he of course looked forward to the time when Liberia should develop her vast agricultural resources.

3. And with a view of giving us some idea of these, he proposed a row in his barge up the river. But certainly this was not very inspiring. For he only proceeded about seven miles by Stockton Creek, connecting the Mesurado with the St. Paul's River, through the dismal swamp of mangroves lining this stream of water to its

happy exit into the St. Paul's. Here one gets the lifegiving sea-breeze coming fresh through the mouth of the St. Paul's, three or four miles distant. But the Governor did not even reach that point. Through an opening in the mangroves, he conducted me to what, by courtesy I suppose, was called "the Government Farm." Certainly, even to one not accustomed as he had been to the splendid farms of Pennsylvania, this was a forlorn object.

4. The wreck of an old sugar-mill, that had never made any sugar, a few cotton plants indicating an abortive effort to cultivate this valuable article, was all that indicated that we might be standing on a farm. It was said that some parties among them, the late Mr. Blackledge, had essayed something like a sugar farm higher up on the St. Paul's, but evidently, though he afterward became a very successful planter, at this time his efforts and those of others similarly occupied were held in low repute by the merchants and shopkeepers of Monrovia.

5. Now let us contrast this with what we saw and heard on Friday, April 20th, when at the kind invitation of Mr. W. Spencer Anderson, we rowed up the St. Paul's twenty miles, to dine at his residence on Gandilla Farm. Emerging from Stockton Creek, of which the less said the better, except to warn foreigners to beware of passing through its foul atmosphere early in the morning or late in the evening, we meet the pleasant sea-breeze coming up from the mouth of the St. Paul's. And at once we feel we are in a civilized country. On the right, in Lower Caldwell, near the spot where Rev. Mr. Cesar, first Episcopal missionary, drowned himself in a fit of insanity, is the modest but neat establishment of Mr. Powers, with store and hotel.

6. Here, too, is a modest frame building with quite as modest a congregation, called St. Peter's Episcopal Church. Proceeding up the river, we saw two Baptist and Methodist churches, each of brick, on either side of the river. Just opposite to Mr. Powers', on the Virginia side of the

river, is the neat, home-like residence of Rev. J. W. Roberts, Bishop of the Liberia Methodist Conference. The settlement of Virginia here extends back three or four miles from the river. Above Mr. Roberts', we soon see the fine brick houses of Mr. William Blackledge and Rev. A. F. Russell. Presently we come to Clay Ashland, where besides Grace (Episcopal) Church are three others, representing what is called the University of Virginia, the "Quadrangular Orthodoxy."

7. Here are many fine brick houses, the township of Clay Ashland extending back four or five miles, and now we never lose sight again of cultivated fields and comfortable brick houses. Best among these are those of the Messrs. Cooper, DeCoursey, Anderson, Howland, and Washington, sugar planters. By the time we reach the Gandilla Farm, we have passed four steam mills, all hard at work. We find Mr. Anderson just grinding off his last cane. There are many wooden mills besides those propelled by steam.

8. An intelligent friend has given us the following, as an approximate estimate of the sugar crop on the St. Paul's in 1866: Sharp, 120,000 lbs.; Cooper, 30,000; Anderson, 35,000; Howland, 40,000; Roe, 30,000; sundry smaller farmers, 150,000; total 575,000 lbs. The coffee crop also is considerable, though we are not able to state how much.

EXTRACT FROM MESSAGE OF PRES. WARNER, 1865.

1. Ir affords me inexpressible pleasure to refer to the cessation of the unhappy contest in the United States; and especially as it has terminated in the permanent extinction, I trust, of human bondage throughout that great country.

2. An unbounded prosperity, doubtless, lies before that nation, rid, as it is, of the incubus which, from its foundation, has preyed upon its vitals. But in the month of July, in the midst of our rejoicings at the triumphs of the banner of freedom, a feeling of unutterable horror and indignation was sent throughout this land, pervading every household, and saddening every heart, by the intelligence that the President of the United States, the illustrious Abraham Lincoln, had fallen by the hand of an assassin.

3. Liberia, perhaps more than any other independent community, and for peculiar reasons, felt the shock of the melancholy death, and bewailed the loss of Abraham Lincoln. How prophetical was the remark which, nearly two years since, he is said to have uttered, that "When this war is done, I shall be done too."

4. On the 10th of May last we had an accession of 346 immigrants by the brig Cora from the island of Barbadoes. They were sent out under the auspices of the American Colonization Society; but owing to the people being from a country not included in the constitutional provisions of the Society, but more particularly on account of the high prices of provisions, the usual six months' supplies could not be furnished them.

5. This threw them, after being two months in the country, upon the support of the government, until such time as they should be able to support themselves. For this emergency the government treasury was both unprovided and unprepared, and it became therefore a subject of serious consideration and much embarrassment. To relieve the people, however, everything was done that the state of the finances would permit.

6. Just here I take great pleasure in stating, in justice to the citizens generally, and to the Ladies' Benevolent and Union Sisters of Charity Societies in particular, that from these respective sources the newly arrived and necessitous immigrants received very considerable assistance and unremitting attention during their illness. Much gratitude