'As to the morals of the colonists, I consider them much better than those of the people of the United States; that is, you may take an equal number of inhabitants from any section of the Union, and you will find more drunkards, more profane swearers, and Sabbath breakers, &c., than in Liberia. Indeed, I know of no country where things are conducted more quietly and orderly than in this colony. You rarely hear an oath; and as to riots or breaches of the peace, I recollect of but one instance, and that of a trifling nature, that has come under my notice since I assumed the government of the colony. The Sabbath is more strictly observed than I ever saw it in the United States. Our Sunday Schools are well attended, not only by the children of the colonists, but also by the native children who reside amongst us. The natives themselves are so well acquainted with our strict observance of this day, that you never find them offering any thing for sale, nor can you hire them to work for you,-I mean those who have been amongst us, and are at all acquainted with our customs. Mr. Skinner, the Baptist Missionary, stated, that he was surprised to find every thing conducted in so orderly a manner, and the Sabbath so strictly observed, and that the state of society was much better than he expected to find it.'

The present narrative cannot fail to interest our readers; and every philanthropist must feel a glow of satisfaction at the rising prosperity of this little State, in which our more sanguine American friends discern, with prophetic eye, the foundation of an Americo-African empire! Of this, it is confidently anticipated that Sierra Leone must eventually become a part. That Sierra Leone, if abandoned by the British, would be occupied by the Americans, there is no room to doubt; and it is not less certain, that, in order to be retained with advantage by us, there must be a more systematic adoption of the American policy, by which the waste of European life might be wholly obviated. What is there to hinder the Anglo-African colony, under wise administration, from keeping pace, in the race of improvement, with Liberia itself?

We are somewhat surprised at finding no notice taken in the present narrative, of one estimable individual, whose remarkable history, and the service he rendered to the infant settlement, entitled him to honourable mention. We refer to the Rev. Lott Carey, who was killed by an explosion of gunpowder, when acting temporarily as governor of the colony, in Nov. 1828. A brief memoir of this extraordinary man will be found in the Missionary Register for Nov. 1829.

Mr. Douglas, in his "Hints on Missions", published in 1822, after observing that the civilizers of Africa must be Africans, adds: and America is the country where the civilization of Africa ought to commence.' This 'hint' seems likely to be realized. The Americans are beginning to be alarmed at the prospect of a negro-American nation; and many of them would fain get rid of the whole mass of the coloured population by a general exodus. The following statement shews that even the

American philanthropists are not exempt from the operation of that national prejudice which leads every white man in the United States to shrink with disgust and horror from all contact and fellowship with his black brother, and to refuse to worship the Father of Spirits in the same temple with those who are guilty of a darker skin.

The whole coloured population of the United States is estimated at about 2,000,000, and they are supposed to increase in nearly the same ratio as the whites, or to double in thirty years. In thirty years from this time, then, there will be four millions of negroes in the country, and in sixty years, eight millions! A nation of 8,000,000 of degraded, despised, oppressed beings! And to this accelerated progress there is no limit. The barbarous scheme of Pharaoh, if practicable, would alone retard it. But from this, our feelings as men and as Christians, revolt with horror. What then is to be done? We would fain indulge the hope that this dreadful curse will one day be removed, and that, when we speak about the millions who inhabit our land, we may add with pride, they are all freemen. We know not how it may be with others, but for ourselves we see no human means by which this can be accomplished, unless it be by colonization; and if ever the work is to be commenced, it cannot be done under more favourable auspices than at the present period. It is at least worth the experiment, and now is the best time for making it. The American Colonization Society have undertaken to lead the way; they have founded a colony on the coast of Africa, and it only requires the encouragement of an enlightened country to give the plan a fair trial. If it succeed, the benefit to our country will be incalculable: if it fail, the pious and patriotic men who have made the attempt, have done their duty; and we must submit with resignation to the unavoidable calamity. But there is yet hope, and while any thing remains untried, no effort should be spared. It is true, the work is immense, and the means of the Society are small-confessedly inadequate to the accomplishment of the project. But the Society never pretended to be able to carry through this great enterprise. They have acted only as pioneers in the work. All they could expect to do was, " merely to pave the way, to point out the track," and call upon the nation to follow. Even with the assistance of Government, there are many difficulties; and the final attainment of the object must be remote; but the difficulties are not insuperable; and the remoteness of the desirable event should be no objection. It is to be recollected, that this matter affects the vital interest of the republic; and, if a century or more is required to complete it, this time, in the age of a nation, is soon passed. Individuals commence works which they can scarcely expect to see finished; and surely a great national undertaking is not to be left unattempted, because the present generation may not witness its completion. But the benefits of colonization are not to be referred to a remote period; they commence immediately-they are already felt; and every year, as it extends the operation of the plan, will increase its beneficial effects, and facilitate its final accomplishment. Each state, like Maryland, may take advantage of this measure, and remove the coloured

population within its own borders; and those states which have heretofore been obliged to forbid emancipation, will have no longer cause for apprehension, when the slave can be removed as soon as he is liberated. Many gentlemen of the south have expressed their willingness to emancipate their slaves, if the Society would take charge of them; and this feeling will, no doubt, increase, if adequate means for its exercise be afforded. In some of the states, the education of slaves is forbidden by law; and in most of them, the advantages of instruction are in a great measure withheld from the people of colour. In their present situation, this may be necessary; but if the means of their removal from the country were provided, their education might be encouraged with safety, in the assurance, that the more enlightened they become, the more desirous they will be to embrace this opportunity of improving their condition. Many of the better class of our coloured population still regard the colony with suspicion, and distrust the benevolent intentions of its founders; but, when they know that there is a nation of their brethren on the coast of Africa, in the full enjoyment of all the blessings of freedom and rational equality, their prejudices will yield to conviction, and they will be glad to enrol themselves among the citizens of Liberia. Instead of being looked upon, as it now is, by too many, as a receptacle of slaves and discontented free negroes, it will be regarded in its true light, as the appropriate home of the coloured man-the only place where he may employ his faculties to their full extent, and assert the dignity of his nature, as a man and a freeman. The number of emigrants to this country, from Great Britain and Ireland, during the year 1827, was 23,000; and the number this year will probably be as great, or greater. If such multitudes leave their homes, and come to a foreign land to procure employment and support, the same motives, with all the additional reasons the peculiarity of their situation suggests, will induce the coloured people of this country to emigrate to Africa, when assured, that, by so doing, they will certainly improve their condition. The annual increase of our whole coloured population is estimated at 52,000; to remove any portion of this, would be an advantage; to remove the whole, would prevent the growth of the evil; and every thing beyond this would tend to its eradication.' pp. 108-111.

It seems that, in the slave-holding States, a slave-proprietor is prevented by law from emancipating a slave, how much soever disposed to do so, unless he at the same time send him out of the country. The alleged reason is, that in many cases the free negroes are a great annoyance to the community, often living by pilfering the property of their neighbours: that is, many of the free negroes retain the vices of slaves. Hence, there is felt a much stronger wish to get rid of the free coloured population, than to meliorate the condition of the slaves; and Liberia is thought a safer distance for a free negro state, than Hayti. Whatever mixture of motives, however, may actuate the friends of this Colonization scheme, the benefit to Africa will be great; and America may, by this great act of retributive justice and humanity,

compensate, in some degree, for the wrongs and injuries inflicted upon generations of the dark-skinned helots of the West. Colonization is the only measure that can effectually and for ever put a stop to the piratical trade.

The specific object of the American Colonization Society is thus distinctly avowed in one of the annual Reports.

It cannot be too often repeated, that the Society is instituted for the sole and entire purpose of demonstrating the practicability of removing, with their own consent, the entire free black population of the United States to Africa. The purpose of this institution is specific and definite. The most moderate portion of intelligence can easily understand it. We disavow and reprobate every coercive means; we discard all restraint; we ask no bounties; we solicit no compulsion, by which to produce emigration. Having in the bosom of the country a free black population, computed now at 280,000, deprived of all political privileges, and many civil rights; constituting a distinct caste among our people; and, from the very nature of our institutions, destined, during their duration in all time to come, to occupy a condition which must tend to their civil, political, and moral degradation, and constitute them a curse to the land of their birth; the American Colonization Society was instituted to procure for them an asylum, to which they might voluntarily repair; and where they would be restored to all those rights, of which stern necessity required our laws to deprive them. Success in such a work carries with it a double blessing. Our own beloved country derived from the execution of the design her full share of the advantage. A race of men, whose distinctive characters must separate them from the rest of the population, whose morals must ever be of the humblest standard, and whose colour places an impassable barrier between them and the rest of the population of the land, are to be removed, and replaced by a free, hardy, virtuous white population, standing equal in every right claimed by civilized man. The emigrant is to be restored to all those rights which the free white men of this republic so highly value; he is to feel the elevation of his own condition; he is to occupy a country which he will proudly call his own, and where no other distinction will exist, save that bestowed by intelligence, accompanied by virtuous character and industrious habits. Can any one look with calm indifference on such a result?'-pp. 127, 128.

But what is to be the fate of the slave-population of America? Prudence seems to have prescribed an expressive silence on this topic. Get rid of the free black population by all means,' the Slaveholders would say; but 'talk of emancipation at your peril.'

The following remarks on the climate of Africa appear to us worth transcribing, as equally applicable to our own settlements in Senegambia and on the Gold Coast.

We are apt to imagine, that, because the climate of Africa is different from that to which we have been accustomed, it must necessarily be unhealthy; but this is clearly erroneous; and, if generally acted

upon, would prevent any change of residence. The climate of Liberia, like that of all other tropical situations, is exceedingly warm, and unfriendly to constitutions formed in more temperate regions. But it does not therefore follow, that it is unfitted to sustain human life, where there is a congeniality of constitution. Accordingly, we find that the natives of the country are a robust, healthy race, subject to no epidemic disease; and, of the emigrants who have gone from this country, those from the southern states have suffered but little by the change of climate. Early last year, the brig Doris carried out a considerable number of emigrants from North Carolina, who arrived at Liberia in April; and, in noticing their sickness, in his communication to the Board, Mr. Ashmun observes, "all the change they have undergone, seems to be less a disease, than a salutary effort of nature to accommodate the physical system of its subjects to the new influences of the tropical climate." It is true, many have died soon after their arrival; but, it was under peculiar circumstances, and such as are not likely again to occur. The first settlement, on the low, marshy ground of the Sherbro, was unfortunate, and very properly abandoned. The early settlers at Montserado, arrived at an improper time of the year, and were exposed to all the inclemencies of the rainy season, without sufficient houses to protect them. Add to this, the excessive fatigue they underwent in preparing for their defence against the natives; and it is not wonderful that many fell victims to disease. But, since the erection of suitable houses, and the release from incessant labour, the general health of the colony has been good, and the emigrants who have arrived at proper seasons of the year, have been exposed to little danger.

́ Dr. Peaco, who resided some time at Liberia, as United States' agent for recaptured Africans, says, in a letter addressed to the Pennsylvania Colonization Society: " Persons of every description, from all parts of the world, are liable to an attack of bilious fever, shortly after their arrival; which I found, in every instance, to yield to the common remedies in the first attack; and all the deaths which occurred, were from relapses, occasioned by imprudently exposing themselves while in a state of convalescence; but few cases terminated fatally from among those who left Norfolk last winter; and but one of the people of colour, from North Carolina, who accompanied me out, fell a victim to the prevailing diseases of the climate."

The true character of the African climate is not well understood in other countries. Its inhabitants are as robust, as healthy, as longlived, to say the least, as those of any other country. Nothing like an epidemic has ever appeared in this colony; nor can we learn from the natives, that the calamity of a sweeping sickness ever yet visited this part of the Continent. But the change from a temperate to a tropical country is a great one, too great not to affect the health, more or less; and in the cases of old people and very young children, it often causes death.' pp. 94-96.

Though perfectly salubrious to the natives and to the coloured 'emigrants who are habituated to it,' the climate is, however, ill adapted to the constitution of what physiologists term the Cir