CHAPTER XVII.

"THEY shall never perish," were the memorable words of the Son of God speaking of the final destiny of His faithful disciples. The subject of our Memoir, is soon to prove the value of this promise, for he has passed the threshold of that year in which he must die.

On the 15th of January, 1828, arrived at Liberia, the brig Doris, after a passage of sixty-one days from Baltimore, with one hundred and seven emigrants, principally from Maryland, sixty-two of them liberated slaves; on the 17th of the same month, the schooner Randolph from South Carolina, with twenty-six Africans, manumitted by a single individual; and on the 19th of February, fifty-four days from Hampton Roads, the brig Nautilus, with one hundred and sixty-four emigrants, mostly from the lower counties of North Carolina.

Early in January, Mr. Ashmun made a fatiguing visit of inspection, to the Factories south of Monrovia, and returning on the 17th, found the commanders of several vessels waiting to settle concerns of business, and hasten their departure.

The Doris came to anchor the same evening. This was the sixth vessel the affairs of which demanded consideration. "Such an accumulation of labour," he observes, "I never felt 'pressing on me before. Days and nights were too short.'But I despatched previous to the 25th, three of the vessels, 'when another arrived from Sierra Leone, with special 'claims on my attention." A piratical and strongly armed Spanish vessel now menaced the settlement with an attack at night, and until a late hour, Mr. Ashmun exposed himself in arduous efforts for its defence. Immediately after, on the receipt of a proposal from the Dey chiefs on the St. Paul's, for opening a way for trade into the interior, on condition of the establishment of a settlement at the head of navigation, on that river, he visited all the intermediate kings on both sides of the river, and was occupied for three days and nights in negotiations, terminating in the conclusion that a number of the Colonists should occupy, without delay, the beautiful tract of country now bearing the honoured names of Mills and Burgess. For the four next successive days he was engaged in a difficult judicial investigation. The duty of assigning, to the company of emigrants just arrived, their lands was then discharged, followed immediately by a laborious session of the Court, for two days. Even after he felt his strength sinking, his exertions were unremitted, until seized by a raging fever on the 5th of February, under the power of which, up to the 21st of that month, he was (to use his own words) "tossing on the brink of eternity." The daily intervals of reason with which, subsequently, he was favoured, were employed in giving instructions to those who were entrusted, during his illness, with the general management of affairs.

To add to his distress, the emigrants by the Doris were heavily afflicted; the season was unhealthy, their passage had been nearly twice the usual length, and in the case of twenty

four from Maryland, the disease baffled all the medical skill existing in the Colony.*

On the 25th of February, he was able to write to the Board and state the circumstances of the new-comers and his own situation. "For the last four days," he remarks,

my strength has returned almost as rapidly as it went. But 'I hope the event will advertise the Board, that the constitution of their Agent, here, is not to be depended on-and that a most probable item of intelligence may very shortly be, that he too, is numbered with the departed. May pro'vision be made accordingly. For myself, alone, the event 'has no appalling features-but to leave the Colony--to quit a field of labour forever, in which so little is yet done and so 'much ought to be done-here, I fear, will be the distressing 'pang of dying. But the Colony depends, I am persuaded, ' on the life of no one or ten individuals; and it is a vanity, 'I do not indulge, that it has any such dependence on my But it is a field of labour, in which, if better work'men are not employed, I wish to be myself, so long as, with 'the Divine blessing, I can do any good."

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own.

Though his weakness would have exempted him, in the opinion of all except himself, from the obligations of official duty, he failed not to express to the Managers, his thoughts on one or two points of essential concern to the Colony. He insisted that for at least two years to come, a more discriminating selection of settlers must be made, than ever had been, even in the earliest expeditions, or the prosperity of the Colony must inevitably and rapidly decline.t

• The emigrants by the Randolph and Nautilus, suffered slightly. Of the one hundred and seven by the Doris, twenty-four died, all from the north of the Potomac. "Draw a line due east and west," said Mr. Ashmun, "acrossElk Ridge, Maryland, and not a death has invaded the people from the south of it."

He was of opinion that, at the end of that time, (to use his own words) "a healthy proportion of working and idle people, would be found there," and that the coloured population taken up just as they are, might be introduced, and, under good management, not be found to be a burthen.

On the 25th of March, having received a written opinion from his Physician, that his return to the United States offered the only hope of his recovery, escorted by the military, and accompanied by a large majority of the inhabitants of Monrovia in tears, to whom he spoke affectionately, but briefly, he went on board the brig Doris, and with the feelings which seek despairingly for expression, through the eyes of the dying, in their last, fixed look upon an object which the heart holds fast to its last moment, left Africa forever.*

During a passage of forty-seven days to St. Bartholemews, in the West Indies, his sufferings were nearly indescribable, and for two weeks he indulged but a faint hope, of ever again seeing land.

Again he observes: "if rice grew spontaneously, and covered the country, yet it is possible by sending few or none able to reap and clean it, to starve ten thousand helpless children and infirm old people in the midst of so much plenty. Rice does not grow spontaneously, however; nor can any thing necessary for the subsistence of the human species, be procured here without the sweat of the brow. Clothing, tools, and building materials, are much dearer here than in America. But send out your emigrants, laborious men and their families only-or laborious men and their families, accompanied with only their natural proportion of inefficients; and with the ordinary blessing of God, you may depend on their causing you a light expense in Liberia, and fixing themselves speedily and easily in comfortable and independent circumstances. I further think I may safely say, that in no new country in the world, would they be likely to meet with so many advantages, and find it so easy to get in a way of comfortable living, by their own moderate industry." "I know that nothing is effectually done, in colonizing this country, till the Colony's own resources can sustain its own and a considerable annual increase of population. To this point, it has been my great anxiety to bring it; and adopting and persisting in the course I have recommended, I am certain the Board will see it soon reach this point."

* "Never, I suppose, were greater tokens of respect shown by any community on taking leave of their head. Nearly the whole (at least two-thirds) of the inhabitants of Monrovia, men, women and children, were out on this occasion, and nearly all parted from him in tears, and, in any opinion, the hope of his return in a few months, alone enabled them to give him up. He is indeed dear to this people, and it will be a joyful day when we are permitted again to see him. He has left a written address containing valuable admonitions to officers, civil, military and religious."-L. CARY.

On the 10th of May, the day after his arrival at that Island, he wrote to the Board: "I am now in the hands ' of a Physician of the Island, who has the reputation of being 'skilful-and with whom it will be necessary for me to re'main-I hope not many days--but God knows, and I am 'submissive. I was enabled to arrange the concerns of the 'Colony with Mr. Cary, even to the minutest particulars; and 'I have the greatest confidence that his administration will 'prove satisfactory, in a high degree, to the Board and advan'tageous to the Colony."*

It was soon decided, that to proceed home in the Doris, would, in all probability, either hasten his complicated maladies to a fatal termination, or render them incurable.

He saw the Doris sail without him, and with quiet resignation to the Divine will, awaited the consequences of a mild and gradual course (the only one his system could endure) of medical treatment.

For a few days, his spirits revived; he wrote to the Society, and to the Secretary of the Navy, on matters of business, and derived pleasure from intercourse with a few intelligent individuals kindly solicitous to relieve his sufferings, as well as from the refreshing and delightful scenery of

• Mr. Ashmun's instructions to Mr. Cary are very full and interesting.-"The first grand object," he remarks, "for the next six months, doubtless is, to see every man and every working family now in charge, placed on their lands, and supported no longer, even in part, at the public expense.

"To effect this object, they must be furnished with a few simple tools-to pay for them if they can-if not, to receive them gratuitously. Their allowance must be withheld if they neglect or negligently follow the improvement of their lands, and the building of their houses. Much may be done, by visiting the people separately, getting at their intentions and circumstances, and spurring, advising, or reproving as they may require. I am persuaded it will be useful, and in most instances possible to get, at least all the men out of the public receptacles, and on their lands, before the rains set in." He then gives very particular instructions in regard to the buildings belonging to the U. States -buildings belonging to the Colony-the arms and armament, water craft, farm and public garden; printing establishment, forts, public servants, Millsburg settlement, finances, &c. &c.