Sickness, however, and wars with the natives were not the only handicaps that engaged the attention of the colony in these years.  “At this period the slave-trade was carried on extensively within sight of Monrovia.  Fifteen vessels were engaged in it at the same time, almost under the guns of the settlement; and in July of this year a contract was existing for eight hundred slaves to be furnished, in the short space of four months, within eight miles of the cape.  Four hundred of these were to be purchased for two American traders."[1] Ashmun attacked the Spaniards engaged in the traffic, and labored generally to break up slave factories.  On one occasion he received as many as one hundred and sixteen slaves into the colony as freemen.  He also adopted an attitude of justice toward the native Krus.  Of special importance was the attack on Trade Town, a stronghold of French and Spanish traders about one hundred miles below Monrovia.  Here there were not less than three large factories.  On the day of the battle, April 10, there were three hundred and fifty natives on shore under the direction of the traders, but the colonists had the assistance of some American vessels, and a Liberian officer, Captain Barbour, was of outstanding courage and ability.  The town was fired after eighty slaves had been surrendered.  The flames reached the ammunition of the enemy and over two hundred and fifty casks of gunpowder exploded.  By July, however, the traders had built a battery at Trade Town and were prepared to give more trouble.  All the same a severe blow had been dealt to their work.

[Footnote 1:  Stockwell, 79.]

In his report rendered at the close of 1825 Ashmun showed that the settlers were living in neatness and comfort; two chapels had been built, and the militia was well organized, equipped, and disciplined.  The need of some place for the temporary housing of immigrants having more and more impressed itself upon the colony, before the end of 1826 a “receptacle” capable of holding one hundred and fifty persons was erected.  Ashmun himself served on until 1828, by which time his strength was completely spent.  He sailed for America early in the summer and succeeded in reaching New Haven, only to die after a few weeks.  No man had given more for the founding of Liberia.  The principal street in Monrovia is named after him.

Aside from wars with the natives, the most noteworthy being the Dey-Gola war of 1832, the most important feature of Liberian history in the decade 1828-1838 was the development along the coast of other settlements than Monrovia.  These were largely the outgrowth of the activity of local branch organizations of the American Colonization Society, and they were originally supposed to have the oversight of the central organization and of the colony of Monrovia.  The circumstances under which they were founded, however, gave them something of a feeling of independence which did much to influence their history.  Thus arose, about seventy-five