Liberia 



«#^ 



for ministry in the American Episcopal Church. But when 

 not much over twenty he accepted the position of professor 

 at a college. About this time he made the acquaintance of 

 a young woman, also a teacher, for whom he conceived a certain 

 attachment ; but his proposal of marriage was received rather 

 ambiguously. He met her once or twice at intervals during 

 the next few years, but (so far as the very involved language 

 of his biographer can be understood) she was of the Early 

 Victorian type, and preferred her sentiments to be divined rather 

 than to express them herself in a simple Yes or No. At last 

 Ashmun made her a decided proposal of marriage. While 

 she shillyshalHed, he accidentally crossed the path of a " Being " 

 unwillingly described by his biographer as "a person of radiant 

 beauty," but apparently no precisian. What took place — 

 whether Ashmun merely kissed her and fled and was only 

 momentarily unfaithful to his first love, or whether the case was 

 a less innocent flirtation, it is impossible to divine from the 

 inflated language and mysterious hints of Ashmun's biographer. 

 It may quite well have been a blameless love conceived too late ; 

 but having already made this unanswered proposal, Ashmun felt 

 himself in duty bound to press for a reply. At last the 

 object of his earlier attachment said Yes, and they were soon 

 afterwards married. Owing, however, to the gossip which 

 had arisen over the incident (which only merits description 

 because of its important bearing on Ashmun's life), the latter felt 

 obliged to give up his professorship and travel "a thousand miles 

 by sea " to Baltimore.^ Here, later on, he was ordained, and 

 offered himself as a missionary. At this juncture, in 1821, 

 the American Colonisation Society was in want of a capable man 

 to take charge of their derelict settlements at Cape Mesurado. 



' This journey was undertaken apparently from Portland, Maine, to Baltimore 

 in Maryland. 



