mber for my
ship-yard, was captured _on suspicion_, and, though sent across the
Atlantic for adjudication, was dismissed uncondemned. The sudden death
of a British captain from Sierra Leone, deprived me of three thousand
dollars. Fana-Toro made numerous assaults on his foes, all of which
failed; and, to cap the climax of my ills, on returning after a brief
absence, I found that a colonist, whom I had rescued from misery and
employed in my forge, had fled to the enemy, carrying with him a
number of my most useful servants.

It was about this time that circumstances obliged me to make a rapid
voyage to New York and back to Africa, where the blind goddess had
another surprise in store for me. During my absence, our ancient king
was compelled to make a treaty with his rival, who, under the name of
George Cain, dwelt formerly among the American colonists and acquired
our language. It was by treachery alone that Fana-Toro had been
dragooned into an arrangement, by which my _quondam_ blacksmith, who
married a sister of Cain, was elevated to the dignity of prince
George's _premier_!

Both these scamps, with a troop of their followers, planted themselves
on my premises near the beach, and immediately let me understand that
they were my sworn enemies. Cain could not pardon the aid I gave to
Fana-Toro in his earlier conflicts, nor would the renegade colonist
forsake his kinsman or the African barbarism, into which he had
relapsed.

By degrees, these varlets, whom I was unable, in my crippled
condition, to dislodge, obtained the ears of the British commanders,
and poured into them every falsehood that could kindle their ire. The
Spanish factory of Fana-Toro's agent was reported to be _mine_. The
shipment in the A---- and the adventure of her boat, were said to be
_mine_. Another suspected clipper was declared to be _mine_. These,
and a hundred lies of equal baseness, were adroitly purveyed to the
squadron by the outlaws, and, in less than a month, my fame was as
black as the skin of my traducers. Still, even at this distant day, I
may challenge my worst enemy on the coast to prove that I
participated, after 1839, in the purchase of a single slave for
transportation beyond the sea!

From the moment that the first dwelling was erected at New Florence, I
carefully enforced the most rigid decorum between the sexes throughout
my jurisdiction. It was the boast of our friends at Cape Palmas and
Monrovia, that my grounds were free fr