During Perry’s stay on the African coast, the French had a squadron of eleven vessels, and the British a fleet of thirty, eleven of which were steamers. The other Powers were willing to save their cash, and allowed the British to spend their money and do the work. The French capturing not one prize, turned their attention to seizing territory. Their policy in Africa, as in Asia, was an attempt to make new nations by means of priests and soldiers. It began with brandy, progressed with bombardment, and wound up with military occupation. The beginning of their African possessions was the seizure of Gaboon, where in 1842, five American missionaries had begun labor. By limitation of his orders, Perry was unable to do anything in the case, though notifying the Department of the facts and the danger. A French critic writing in 1884, of French “expansion,” “prestige,” and “civilization,” in their so-called possessions, mostly in the torrid zone, speaks of this system of “artificial hatching, which was to produce a swarming brood of little Frenchmen.” “We see,” says he, “the broken eggs, but find neither omelette nor chicks.” At present, in 1887, the west coast of Africa, valuable as affording gateways into the interior, is owned as follows: by England, 1300 miles; by Portugal, 800 miles; by Liberia, 350 miles; by Germany, 750 miles; by natives, 900 miles. Missionary stations now occupy many of the old slave-marts. By faith and knowledge, prayer and quinine, the white man is making the dark continent light. Ethiopia is lifting up her gift-laden hands to God. CHAPTER XXI. THE MEXICAN WAR. THE long agitation, in behalf of the establishment of a Naval Academy, by leading American naval officers, prominent among whom was Captain Perry, bore fruit in the year 1845. Mr. George Bancroft, another of the eminent literary men who have acted as Secretaries of the Navy, convened a board of officers at Philadelphia, June 24, and directed them to make suggestions in regard to a naval school. In this board were Commodores George C. Read, T. ap. Catesby Jones, M. C. Perry, Captains E. A. F. Lavallette and Isaac Mayo. Full of enthusiasm for the proposed enterprise, they wrote a report outlining its leading features. Secretary Bancroft’s energy secured the execution of the plan, and the United States Naval Academy was begun on the grounds of Fort Severn, near Annapolis. Many friends warmly urged Perry’s name as principal, but he was not an applicant for the post. Captain Franklin Buchanan was most worthily chosen, and the sessions began October 10, 1845. Under successive superintendents, the Naval Academy has become one of the first professional schools in the world, having thus far graduated over twelve hundred naval officers, equipped either for seamanship or engineering.