Liberia ^ 



Island, where they had been landed from the " American ships," 

 five guns (four of cast iron, one of brass). Besides the cannon, 

 the settlement possessed only forty muskets. The cannon were 

 mounted in a martello tower constructed of rubble and timber 

 near the point of the peninsula ; for it was realised that the lull 

 in the native attacks was only likely to last until the rains were 

 over. The De chief George was particularly bitter against the 

 new colonists, and he and other De and Mamba chiefs were 

 urged against them (and supplied with munitions of war) by the 

 Cuban slave traders who had settled in the adjoining Gallinhas 

 country and realised that the definite establishment of this colony 

 of free Negroes would be a great blow to the slave trade. A 

 strong palisade was erected round the martello tower, near the 

 site of the modern lighthouse. Those of the colonists able to 

 bear arms (only thirty-five in number, even with Ashmun's new 

 recruits — and of these, six were mere boys under sixteen years 

 of age) were daily drilled by Carey and Elijah Johnson.^ For 

 months twenty of these warriors out of the thirty-five had to 

 remain on guard every night. 



On August 31st, a fortnight after Ashmun's arrival, he issued 

 the following proclamation organising the available force of the 

 settlement. It may be interesting to reproduce this in detail, as 

 it gives us the names of the more notable among the Negro 

 colonists, the " pilgrim fathers," some of whom have left 

 descendants who are living in twentieth-century Liberia. 



" I. The Settlement is under military law. 



" 2. Elijah Johnson is Commissary of Stores. 



"3. R. Sampson is Commissary of Ordinance. 



" 4. Lot Carey is Health Officer and Government Inspector. 



"5. F. James is Captain of the brass mounted fieldpiece, 



' Johnson had fought on the American side against the British in 18 12, and 

 knew something about soldiering. 



136 



