The United States have also missionaries at four or five points. There are those of the Liberian republic, Cape Palmas, and the Mendi mission. In these places different denominations work kindly and earnestly together. The first obvious sign of their presence is peace. Nowhere in the world was this more needed, or more welcome, than in the regions north and east of Liberia, where men, for many years, had had to fight for their own persons, that they might remain their own, and not be sold. Every thing, as might be expected, had fallen into utter confusion. Tribes of historic character were in fragments; towns depopulated, cultivation suspended, and the small knots of families which kept together, were perishing. “The women and children,” says Mr. Thompson, “were often obliged to go out in search of berries and fruits to keep themselves from starving.” To this country, which lies along the sources of the Sierra Leone and the Gallinas rivers on the northern confines of Liberia, the captives on board the _Amistad_ had gone in 1842. But such was the confusion in that quarter, that it was not until 1851, that the missionary found it practicable to commence his efforts for peace. They told Mr. Thompson, “that no one but a white man could have brought it about;” and that “they had long been praying to God to send a white man to stop the war.” The Gaboon mission, since its disturbance by the French in 1844, has been re-established, and has experienced courteous treatment at the hands of the French authorities. This mission occupies the important position at which the great southern nation and language come in contact with the more energetic men of the equatorial region, and at which great light is likely to be thrown on their relations. The French also have a mission at the Gaboon. The mission to the Zulus, in the healthy region at the southern end of the Mozambique Channel, was at one time divided between the two branches of that tribe; but in consequence of wars, was afterwards united and established in the colony of Natal. The commercial crisis in the United States in 1837, led to the proposal that this mission should be abandoned. But its influence had been so beneficial, that the Cape colonists and their government proposed to take measures to support it. Circumstances, however, enabled the American Board to decline this proposal, and they continue their operations. An effort is being made by this mission to unite all similarly engaged, in a common and uniform mode of treating the language of the south. The Portuguese have missions, both on the east and west side of the continent. Commander Forbes, R. N., says: “In all the countries which have given up the traffic in their fellow-men, the preaching of the Gospel and the spread of education have most materially assisted the effects of the coercive measures of our squadron.” CHAPTER XXI.