ing the dangers of those who preceded him, run his boat a little to the left of the river's mouth, and thus landed in safety.

7. Though met by a galling fire from a party of Spaniards and natives at the water's edge, Captain Barbour formed the colonists, under his command, with the utmost coolness, and attacked the enemy with such vigor that they soon broke and fled to the town. The colonists, joined by the Colombians, advanced rapidly upon the town, broke down the slight palisades, and before the frightened enemy had time to rally behind their defenses, fell upon them, and drove them in the forest in the greatest confusion.

8. As soon as he found himself in quiet possession of the town, Mr. Ashmun dispatched a messenger to King West (the principal native chief) demanding the delivery of all the slaves belonging to the factories. He was told that if there was deception or unnecessary delay in the matter, Trade Town should not exist two days longer. On the same day the Kroomen of King West brought in thirty-eight slaves, and on the next morning fifteen more; the latter, a wretched company, evidently the refuse of all that had been collected at the station.

9. The natives assembled and united their forces to those of the Spaniards, and continued, from the rear of their towns and under cover of the woods, to pour in at frequent intervals their shot upon their invaders. Captain Woodside, surgeon of the Jacinto, was severely wounded, and several of the colonial militia slightly. Every man under the command of the colonial agent lay on his arms during the night of the 12th; and until noon on the 13th every disposition was evinced by Mr. Ashmun to settle peacefully the questions which had excited hostilities. But in vain.

10. At twelve on that day the boats were prepared, just outside the breakers, to receive on board the rescued slaves; at two the canoes began to carry off the mariners, and at half-past three all were embarked, the officers leav

ing the shore last, having set fire to the principal buildings of the town. The flames communicated with the utmost rapidity to every roof, and the town exhibited a single immense mass of flame before the canoes could get off from the beach. The moment they reached the boats, the explosion of 250 casks of powder at the same instant swept every vestige of what was once Trade Town from the ground on which it stood.

MORE TROUBLE WITH SLAVE TRADERS.

1. THE destruction of Trade Town contributed more to the suppression of the slave trade on the western coast of Africa, north of the Bight of Benin, than any one single event, except only the enactments of the English and American legislatures.* It convinced every slave trader along the coast that his commerce was insecure, and the natives over a great extent of country, that a powerful enemy to their crimes had gained establishment on their shore.

2. From May to October Mr. Ashmun was confined to his room in consequence of the injury received at Trade Town. Dr. Peaco was absent from Liberia several weeks during this period, to settle certain claims held at Sierra Leone against the United States agency in Liberia. But the Colony was not neglected. Mr. Ashmun was able to attend to the business of his agency, and directed several important measures for improving the condition and extending the influence and territory of the Colony.

* The American Government at this time rigorously enforced her laws against the slave trade by means of armed cruisers on the coast.

3. To encourage agriculture, he granted leases of the public grounds in the vicinity of Monrovia for three years rent free, on condition that the lessees should proceed immediately to clear, inclose, and improve them. He imposed a tax of two dollars a head on all landholders for the purpose of raising funds for the construction of a town. school-house. Although this act occasioned expressions of the wildest and most absurd notions on the subject of taxation and republican liberty, he persevered in collecting the tax.

4. The government of Sierra Leone had put the line of coast from that place to the Gallinas under blockade for the suppression of the slave trade. This measure operated favorably for the American colonies, as the exclusion of the ordinary commerce induced the chiefs of Cape Mount to open a regular trade with the colonists, which made the supply of rice and other African provisions unusually cheap and abundant.

5. The brig John, Captain Clough, from Portland, and the schooner Bona, from Baltimore, were plundered on the 27th July, when lying at anchor off the town of Monrovia, by a piratical brig, mounting twelve guns, and manned chiefly by Spaniards, the former of $2,500 and the latter of $2,860.

6. Intelligence reached the Colony nearly at the same time, that eight vessels engaged in the slave trade had resolved to make Trade Town the station for their traffic, that they had commenced a battery on shore, and were determined to defend themselves against any force which might be brought against them. It is well known that the slave trade was, at this time, the pretext for fitting out piratical vessels from Havana. Scarcely an American trading vessel had for the last twelve months been on this coast as low as six degrees north without suffering either insult or plunder from these Spaniards.

7. In this state of things Mr. Ashmun directed that a strong battery should be immediately erected near the

termination of the cape, for the protection of ships at anchor in the roadstead, while he represented to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy the absolute necessity of the presence of a sloop of war for the defense of American commerce on the coast.

8. His influence and authority with the native chiefs, however, contributed more than any other means to prevent the destruction of the colonial factories and the threatened subversion of the Colony. The boats furnished by the Government were of great utility; they enabled him to maintain the establishment at the Sesters, although within five miles of Trade Town, and to keep up an intercourse, even at that inclement season, along the beach with Bassa factory.

X

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE COLONIAL NAVY-LITERATURE-PEACE.

1. On the 18th of August, Dr. Peaco, whose health was much reduced by repeated attacks of fever, embarked in the brig John for the United States. This vessel was the first of a regular line of packets intended to run between the United States and Liberia; an arrangement which promised a great benefit to the colonies, as well as profit to the owners; but on account of exposure to slave traders and pirates, and the general want of security for American vessels on the coast, the line was discontinued.

2. Coincident with the departure of Dr. Peaco was the death of Mr. Hodges, a boat builder from Norfolk, which left Mr. Ashmun, for the seventh time, the only white man in the Colony. The first political contest in the Colony occurred this year. A few individuals belonging to the Independent Volunteer Company, composed of high-spir

ited young men, all excellent soldiers, but bad politicians, took offense at certain restrictive regulations, and particularly at the summary method which, on the failure of all others, had been adopted to raise money for most necessary improvements in the town.

3. By zeal and activity they soon formed a party, went forward in a body to the polls, and while the more sober part of the community were little aware of any political danger, elected their own candidate for the vice-agency. The colonial agent refused to confirm the chosen candidate in office, and stated his reasons, which were entirely of a political nature.

4. In the afternoon, a circular was issued to this effect: "That the right of election conferred by the Board of Managers on the people of the Colony, as it never had been, so it never should be interfered with by the agent; consequently appointments to offices of trust in the Colony, once legally made by the concurrence of the popular choice, with his own approbation, should never be rescinded by any arbitrary act on his part, and that the actual incumbents must remain in their office till removed in the only way prescribed by the constitution-that is, by vote of a majority of the electors of the Colony.".

5. A minority only having voted, the polls were kept open until the next day; the whole body of voters attended, and by a large majority elected men well qualified for the offices, and whose appointment was immediately confirmed by the colonial agent.

6. The frames of two small schooners had been brought out in the Indian Chief; one of them, the Catharine, was completed and launched in October. Trifling as this circumstance may seem, it was really an important event to the Colony; although but ten tons burden, the Catharine carried a brass six-pounder, pivot mounted, and being strongly manned and well armed with muskets, boarding pistols, and cutlasses, she was thus prepared for defense against the piratical slave traders, afforded a commodious