l 2,
1825, to organize, on the 18th of the next month, a permanent
government for the colony.[108]

USEFULNESS OF THE MAN

During these times Lott Cary continued to increase his popularity by
performing the pastoral duties of the Providence Baptist Church as
vigorously as he could.[109] He preached several times each week, and,
in addition, gave religious instruction to many of the native
children. A day school of twenty-one pupils was begun April 18,
1825.[110] By June, the number had increased to thirty-two, nineteen
of whom came from Grand Cape Mount, some miles distant.[111] Cary was
handicapped in this work by the lack of funds, by the demoralizing gin
traffic of the Europeans, by Mohammedanism, by the deadly climate and
by degraded fetichism,[112] yet, in the course of seven weeks, he
taught several children to read the Bible intelligently, although he
could not devote more than three hours a day to this work.[113]

In the meantime, in keeping with the report of the Board of Managers
of the General Missionary Convention in 1823, Governor Ashmun wrote to
the American Colonization Society, March 20, 1825, that "the natives
have universally a most affecting persuasion of the superiority of
white men.... I cannot hesitate to say that the missionary, or
principal of the proposed establishment (_i.e._, a religious mission
for Africa), ought by preference to be a white man."[114] The little
colony of near 400 souls was suffering for an adequate educational
program. Excepting Governor Ashmun, there was not an individual there
who had ever received a plain English education.[115] Allowing that
and granting that there were few intelligent Negroes in the United
States,[116] Ashmun would have appeared more hopeful of Negro
leadership had he made his request to the board more general.

Whether because of this appeal or not, it is singular to note that the
Rev. Calvin Holton, a graduate of Waterville College (now Colby
College), offered his service to the board the same year and, with 34
emigrants,[117] sailed from Boston in the brig _Vine_, January 4,
1826. He was employed to establish and direct a Lancastrian system of
education for (1) the children of the colonists, (2) for the native
children living in the settlement, (3) for the recaptured Africans who
numbered about 120, and (4) for the young men and women who were
teaching or preparing themselves for this profession.[118] His work
was not of long duration for on t