The situation remained unchanged until 1882.  On March 20 four British men-of-war silently entered the harbor, and Sir A.E.  Havelock, Governor of Sierra Leone, came ashore.  President Gardiner was intimidated into acceding to the demand that the boundary should be fixed at the Manna River, only fifteen miles from Cape Mount.  But when this “Draft Convention,” as it was called, came before the Senate for ratification, it was indignantly repudiated.  At the next regular meeting of the Legislature in December, a resolution refusing to ratify the Draft Convention was passed, and a copy sent to Havelock.  It elicited the reply:—­

“Her Majesty’s Government cannot in any case recognize any rights on the part of Liberia to any portions of the territories in dispute,” followed by the peremptory announcement that “Her Majesty’s Government consider that they are relieved from the necessity of delaying any longer to ratify an agreement made by me with the Gallinas, Solyma, and Manna River chiefs on the 30th of March, 1882, whereby they ceded to Her Majesty the coast line of their territories up to the right bank of the Manna River.”

Liberia made a last feeble effort.  A “Protest” was drawn up and sent to the various powers with whom she stood in treaty relations—­of course, without result.  The President of the United States replied at once, counselling acquiescence.  Nothing else was possible.  The Senate authorized the President to accept the terms dictated, and the “Draft Convention” was signed November 11, 1885.  On April 26, 1888, Sir Samuel Rowe visited Monrovia and formally exchanged ratifications.  Thus once more strength proved triumphant; Liberia’s boundary was set at the Manna River, and Sierra Leone, which had possessed but a few hills and swamps, was given a valuable coast line.

VI.

Historic significance of colonization.

Colonization has come to be looked upon with unmerited indifference—­with an apathy which its history and achievements surely do not deserve.  To some, perhaps the present condition of the Republic seems a discouraging and inadequate return for the life and treasure lavished upon it; for others, hoping for a bloodless and gradual extinction of slavery, the Civil War carried away the chief element of interest.  Others still, who looked for a ready solution of the Negro Problem in this country, have gradually lost heart in the face of the increasing millions of the race.  And so, some from one cause, some from another, have lost interest in colonization and in Liberia, until a time has come when few have more than the vaguest knowledge of these terms.  Sometimes the voice of contempt is heard; but this is always a proof of ignorance.  Liberia stands forth historically as the embodiment of a number of ideas, efforts, principles, any one of which ought to secure at the least our respect, if not our sympathy and enthusiasm.