Liberia **- 



to them most welcome supplies of food and munitions of war, 

 and offered to remain with them till other relief came. The 

 arrival of the Prince Regent^ in fact, occurred at a most critical 

 moment in the history of Liberia. On board this colonial 

 schooner was the celebrated African traveller Major Laing, 

 who was afterwards to lose his life at or near Timbuktu. He 

 came on shore to see Ashmun, and gave the colonists great 

 assistance. The gallant little midshipman Gordon, who had 

 volunteered to remain with his eleven stalwart bluejackets, 

 brought for a brief period a breath of cheerfulness into the 

 sad and disenchanted band of colonists. On December 4th, 

 1822, through the efforts of Major Laing, peace was made 

 between the Americans and the De and Mamba chiefs. The 

 Prince Regent went on its way to the Gold Coast with Major 

 Laing, and Ashmun recommenced the work of building which 

 had been interrupted by the war with the natives. 



Gordon, the midshipman, lived with them for one month. 

 Just before he and his men could be relieved he died of a 

 virulent fever, and this disease carried off eight of the eleven 

 bluejackets. He was wept for with unfeigned regret by Ashmun 

 and the Negro colonists. His memory lingers in Liberia to 

 this day, and Dr. E. W. Blyden has proposed to found a 

 Gordon Scholarship at Liberia College. 



As soon as a respite had been obtained by the victories 

 over the native chiefs, Ashmun set to work with vigour to get 

 the houses re-built in the space outside the palisade. We read 

 that these houses were very much like those in the poorer quarters 

 of modern Monrovia, raised from the ground on wooden or stone 

 supports, built of planks and roofed with wooden shingles. This 

 evidently was a style of architecture brought direct from America. 

 It is nowhere else seen in Africa. A market was established 

 where the natives could bring their food products for sale. 



X40 



