6 to 1851, especially
exerting himself to standardize the currency and to stabilize the
revenues. Five years after his death Maryland suffered greatly from an
attack by the Greboes, twenty-six colonists being killed. An appeal to
Monrovia for help led to the sending of a company of men and later to
the incorporation of the colony in the Republic.

[Footnote 1: McPherson is especially valuable for his study of the
Maryland colony.]

Of the events of the period special interest attaches to the murder of
I.F.C. Finley, Governor of Mississippi in Africa, to whose father, Rev.
Robert Finley, the organization of the American Colonization Society
had been very largely due. In September, 1838, Governor Finley left his
colony to go to Monrovia on business, and making a landing at Bassa
Cove, he was robbed and killed by the Krus. This unfortunate murder
led to a bitter conflict between the settlers in the vicinity and the
natives. This is sometimes known as the Fish War (from being waged
around Fishpoint) and did not really cease for a year.

(b) The Commonwealth of Liberia

The first governor of the newly formed Commonwealth was Thomas H.
Buchanan, a man of singular energy who represented the New York and
Pennsylvania societies and who had come in 1836 especially to take
charge of the Grand Bassa settlements. Becoming governor in 1838, he
found it necessary to proceed vigorously against the slave dealers at
Trade Town. He was also victorious in 1840 in a contest with the Gola
tribe led by Chief Gatumba. The Golas had defeated the Dey tribe so
severely that a mere remnant of the latter had taken refuge with the
colonists at Millsburg, a station a few miles up the St. Paul's River.
Thus, as happened more than once, a tribal war in time involved the very
existence of the new American colonies. Governor Buchanan's victory
greatly increased his prestige and made it possible for him to negotiate
more and more favorable treaties with the natives. A contest of
different sort was that with a Methodist missionary, John Seyes, who
held that all goods used by missionaries, including those sold to the
natives, should be admitted free of duty. The governor contended that
such privilege should be extended only to goods intended for the
personal use of missionaries; and the Colonization Society stood behind
him in this opinion. As early as 1840 moreover some shadow of future
events was cast by trouble made by English traders on the Mano Riv