A Spanish slaver had established himself at Little Bassa, within fifty miles of the capital. The governor prohibited the purchase of slaves, and ordered the Spaniard off. This he disregarded. An Englishman, in the character of a legal trader, sided with the Spaniard. The governor, on Monday, the 22nd of July, dispatched a force of one hundred men by land to dislodge the slavers and destroy the barracoons. The respectability, or the safety of the colony, which is the same thing, in its dealings with the mass of corrupted barbarians with which it was begirt, required summary measures. Three small schooners were sent down the coast with ammunition to assist the land force at Little Bassa. A fresh southerly wind, however, prevented these vessels from reaching their destination, leaving the land forces in a perilous predicament. Affairs looked gloomy at Monrovia as the schooners returned, after beating in vain for sixty hours. At this juncture the schooner Euphrates, which had been seized as a slaver, was put in requisition. Being supplied with arms and ammunition, the governor himself, in three hours after the return of the vessels, was aboard, and the schooner sailed for the scene of action. Being a _clipper_, she soon beat down the coast, and anchored before daylight off Little Bassa. On the morning of the fifth day after the colonial force had marched, a canoe was sent ashore to ascertain the state of things. The rapid daybreak showed that there was work to be done; for as the barracoon, standing in its little patch of clearance in the forest, became distinguishable, the discharge of musketry from without, replied to from within, showed plainly that beleaguering and beleaguered parties, whoever they might be, had watched through the night, to renew their interrupted strife in the morning. It was a surprise to both parties, to find a well-known slaver at hand, and ready to take a part in the fray. The governor learned by the canoe on its return, that the colonists had seized and were holding the barracoon against the slavers and the chiefs, with the whole hue and cry of the country in arms to help them. These naturally hailed the Euphrates as an ally; and Buchanan foresaw the certainty of a fatal mistake on the part of his people, in case he should land and attempt to march up the beach, with the men he had, under the fire which, without some explanation, would be drawn upon him from the palisades of the barracoon.