Liberia ^«- 



factorily during the 'thirties, received a check from which it 

 took a long time to recover. 



Writing in May, 1839, Buchanan states that "the right 

 bank of the River St. Paul presents an almost continuous line 

 of cultivated farms." Some of the recent colonists derived from 

 America were not by any means suited to the Liberian life. 

 They were townsmen, and not agriculturists, and it is to be 

 feared that from 1840 onwards nothing like the same propor- 

 tionate advance in Liberian agriculture has been made such as 

 occurred during the 'thirties of the nineteenth century. 



Buchanan took advantage of the prestige acquired by the 

 Liberian forces in the war against Gatumba^ to conclude treaties 

 of friendship with several native chiefs and bring all his influence 

 to bear in suppressing internecine warfare amongst the tribes, in 

 putting down barbarous customs such as the poison ordeal, and, 

 above all, in attacking the slave trade, which had been again 

 reorganised and had at its command a powerful confederacy of 

 chiefs. Unfortunately, this slave trade was actually (at that 

 period) encouraged and maintained by American ships under the 

 Stars and Stripes. American slaving ships bore off their cargoes 

 of wretched men and women unmolested, because at that period 

 the British Government had not acquired the right to search 

 American vessels, while the United States Government would 

 not (until about 1842) take any measures of its own to stop 

 this traffic. But for the British cruisers, Buchanan must have 

 looked on impotently whilst the vicinity of the Basa settlements 

 and Cape Mount was turned into slave-exporting stations.^ 



' -As the result of this war, he himself received the nickname of Big Cannon, 

 a very easy corruption of " Buchanan." 



^Writing of the British naval officers, Buclianan says, "Whilst making 

 various complaints against English traders, I cannot forbear placing in distinguished 

 contrast the honourable and gentlemanly conduct of the naval officers of that 

 nation. They invariably manifest a warm interest in the prosperity of the colony, 

 ^nd often lay me under obligations by their kind offers of service." 



18? 



