his docility. Such, however, was the weakness
of his system, that he could neither throw it off, nor take it into
circulation for five days. The crude poison was then voided, and a
distressing salivation ensued, in the course of which all other morbid
symptoms disappeared: by the middle of February, he was restored to
health and the active duties of his station. Two out of the number of
captive children had been delivered up for a small gratuity; five still
remained, for whose release an extravagant ransom was demanded, terms
steadily rejected by the colonists. It speaks well, however, for the
humanity of the natives, that their first object had been to place these
young prisoners in the care of experienced nurses. These protectresses
so entirely won the affection of their charges, that when the chiefs
determined eventually to restore them unransomed to their parents, they
were obliged to be taken from their nurses by main force.

The long illness of the Agent, had relaxed the principle of industry and
order, which he had been so anxious to establish; and on his recovery he
found that it required all his influence to rouse the colonists into
those exertions, which were necessary to secure their comfort, and the
safety of their stores, during the rainy season. The huts were still
without floors, and except the storehouse there was but one shingled
roof, so that through the thatch of nearly all, the rain could easily
penetrate in continued streams.

The store of provisions was now consumed, and still remained
unreplenished by any shipment from America, while the neglect of
effective financial arrangement on the part of the Colonization Society
at home, rendered it difficult for the Agent to make purchases from
occasional vessels, and he had already a larger pecuniary
responsibility, than as an individual he could justify either to himself
or others; the productions of the country had been rendered available,
but the few disposable goods which the settlers possessed were now all
exhausted in their purchases.

Matters had arrived at this extremity, when, on the 12th of March, the
welcome intelligence of the arrival on the coast of the U.S. ship Cyane,
R.T. Spence, Esq. was announced, by a Krooman from Sierra Leone. By the
judicious and indefatigable exertions of that officer, the hulk of the
dismantled and long-condemned schooner Augusta, was again floated, and
metamorphosed into a seaworthy and useful vessel, on board w