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1836.0423 |
 1836 folded letter written and signed by Governor Thomas Buchanan, datelined "Bassa Cove 23 April 1836", written and signed
by Governor Thomas Buchanan to his sister Juliet in Fort Covington New York, red "New-York Ship Jun. 14" circular datestamp and red manuscript "20" rate at top right and "pr. Rev. H. Teage"(?) at bottom left, interesting content incl. "… I
arrived at Monrovia, which was the first African soil my foot touched (?) on the first day of January and after spending a few days, sailed for this place where I arrived on the 9th of that month. My feelings you may well imagine were very peculiar
on finding myself in the scene of my future labours five thousand miles from home surrounded by the sea on one side and a boundless forest on the other; in the midst of strangers who were hereafter to regard me as their guardian, friend and governor.
The day after my landing being Sunday, we had a meeting beneath the spreading branches of some large trees, and an interesting one it was. The mighty ocean rolled its own restless waves at our feet while on and around us the thick foliage spread its
ever green, covering while the eternal silence of the savage wild for the first team reached the gospels hallowed sound. In eleven days after my arrival here, I was attacked by the African fever and for four weeks endured great suffering…When
I arrived this place was covered entirely with woods. The old scite (sic) where the massacre took place having been abandoned, I selected this on account of its advantage for fortification and immediately commenced laying out a village and securing
against (a possible attack) of the savages….now a very neat village … which in short time I expect to be able to (begin building and) making preparations for (the arrival of) an expedition of immigrants which I expect in the …
summer. We have five or six cannons and out littlel handful of people consider ourselves perfectly secure from attack….the neighboring kings and headmen show me great respect and a great desire for our friendship and protection. There are
hundreds of the savages in our immediate vicinity and scores of them are in our emmploy constantly. They are very peacably inclined but have a great propensity to steal. One of them who had been arrested and brought before me bound on examination
could not be proved guilty. Of course I ordered him to be unbound and released. The poor fellow before had been in great fear fell upon his knees and crawling most humbly to my chair took hold of one of my feet and embraced it rubbing the bottom of
it with his hand…", small piece of letter removed and some reinforced splitting along folds and wear, otherwise very fine, the massacre described in the letter refers to the June 1835 destruction by Bassa tribal members of the
Americo-Liberian colony of Port Cresson, which was founded in December 1832 by black Quakers of the New York and Pennsylvania Colonization Societies. A month after the massacre, a new colony called Bassa Cove was founded by black Quakers of the Young
Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania. The Bassa Cove colony was incorporated into Liberia on April 1, 1839, and on the same day, Buchanan, a cousin of President James Buchanan, was appointed as the first governor of the colony, serving until
his death on September 3, 1841 from yellow fever. This was the first letter of many Buchanan had written to his sister., ex-Lippman.
(Image)
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