heat. President Benson wrote to the Society
that great evils would result unless means were liberally supplied, and
entire control of the new arrivals given to the Liberian Government. The
Society accordingly transferred the execution of its contracts to that
government, and placed at its disposal all money received by their
terms. This action seems to have allayed the worst apprehensions; and
although over 4,000 recaptured Africans were landed within the space of
two months, no harm seems to have resulted. They made rapid progress in
civilization, becoming assimilated to and in many cases intermarrying
with the colonists; from among them arose some of the best citizens of
the Republic.

President Benson's policy in regard to the natives was successful in
bringing many tribes much more closely under the influence of the
government. A number of steps were taken toward actively spreading among
them the arts of civilized life, improving their methods of agriculture,
and checking the evils of intertribal warfare and of superstition. A
poll tax of one dollar a year was levied on each male adult, to be
collected from the chiefs of the several districts; with a part of the
funds thus raised schools for popular instruction were to be established
throughout the country.

The control and oversight by the central authority of so many small
settlements scattered over a large range of coast had been greatly
facilitated by the small armed cutter presented in 1848 by the English
government. This was now found to be hopelessly out of repair, and was
generously replaced by the donor with another and somewhat larger
vessel--the Quail, an armed schooner of 123 tons. About the same time
the New York Society sent over a small steamer to provide rapid and
regular communication between points along the coast. In honor of a
liberal benefactor it was called the "Seth Grosvenor."

The third and fourth administrations of Benson passed uneventfully, and
in January, 1864, Daniel B. Warner, who, the May previous, had been
elected, succeeded him. Warner was born near Baltimore, in 1812, and
emigrated in 1823. The Civil War in America, with the sanguine hopes it
aroused in the breast of the Negro, caused a rapid falling off in the
number of applicants for transportation to Liberia. The income of the
Society for once exceeded the demand upon it, and several good
investments were made. Liberia, however, was demanding more cultivators.
A supply came f