-•) President Roberts 



seen in a later chapter, he was again called to the Presidency 

 at a critical time in the condition of his adopted country. 



Roberts on the occasion of his visit to France in 1852 

 had attracted the sympathies of that much maligned man, 

 Napoleon III., then Prince-President. In 1856, when the 

 troubles of the Crimean War were over, Napoleon III. 

 remembered the little African republic, which he seems to 



63. LIBERIA COLLEGE IN I9OO 



have wished to help from a spirit of pure disinterestedness. He 

 sent them out in that year equipment for a thousand armed 

 men, and at the same time gave them a smart little gunboat, 

 the Hirondelle^ which was very soon turned to account. It 

 conveyed Roberts with his two hundred and fifty troops to 

 Cape Palmas when he came to the rescue of the Government 

 of Maryland in its disastrous war against the Grebos. 



In the year 1858 an unfortunate event occurred, which 

 for a time threw a cloud over the relations between France 



237 



