^ The Founding of Liberia 



was set on fire ; the fire reached a great store or magazine 

 of powder, and a terrific explosion occurred, fiUing the air 

 with debrisy thatch, splinters, and fragments of human beings. 

 Nevertheless, in a few years the slaving stations were built up 

 again, and lasted till the British and Liberians destroyed them 

 finally in 1842. 



In spite of constant ill-health, Ashmun worked unceasingly 

 to lay the foundations of an agricultural prosperity for Liberia. 

 He incessantly urged on the ofttimes lazy colonists the im- 

 portance of field work. He would devote rare moments of 

 leisure, for example, to drawing up instructions how to obtain 

 manure and how to apply it to the plantations so as to obtain 

 the best crops. He introduced fresh breeds of cattle, sheep, 

 pigs, goats, ducks, and fowls. He encouraged the plandng of 

 cotton, cofl^ee, indigo, sugar-cane, rice, maize, and sorghum. In 

 spite of fever, floods of rain, peevish interruptions of grumbling 

 settlers, Ashmun managed to get through a great deal of study 

 in his Liberian exile. He tells us in his diary that in 1825 

 he beguiled the worst months of the rainy season by reading 

 through the whole of Blackstone's Commentaries^ 'The Letters 

 of Junius^ The History of England by Aquitel, Robertson's 

 America, Marshall's Life of Washington^ Hamilton's Political 

 Writings, Robertson's Scotland, Voltaire's Essays and Henriade, 

 Madame de Stael's Delphine, etc., etc. 



In 1827 a fresh invitation had been sent to America to 

 free Negroes that they should seek their homes and independence 

 in Liberia. By 1828 the total American population of the colony 

 had risen to over twelve hundred, some of whom were Mulattos. 

 To these had been added a number of freed slaves and natives 

 of the country, who had left their own homes to associate with 

 their civilised brethren. It really seemed as though the enter- 

 prise was marching rapidly towards a great success. In 1824 



149 



