Forming a community of our own in the land of our forefathers, having the commerce, and the soil, and resources, of the country at our disposal, we know nothing of that debasing inferiority with which our very color stamped us in America: there is nothing here to create the feeling on our part-nothing to cherish the feeling of superiority in the minds of foreigners who visit us. It is this moral emancipation, this liberation of the mind from worse than iron fetters, that repays us ten thousand times over for all that it has cost us, and makes us grateful to God and our American patrons for the happy change which has taken place in our situation. We are not so self-complacent as to rest satisfied with our improvement, either as regards our minds or our circumstances. We do not expect to remain stationary. Far from it. But we certainly feel ourselves, for the first time, in a state to improve either to any purpose. The burden is gone from our shoulders: we now breathe and move freely, and know not (in surveying your present state) for which to pity you most-the empty name of liberty, which you endeavor to content yourselves with in a country that is not yours, or the delusion which makes you hope for ampler privileges in that country hereafter. Tell us, which is the white man, who, with a prudent regard to his own character, can associate with one of you, on terms of equality? Ask us, which is the white man who would decline such association with one of our number, whose intellectual and moral qualities are not an objection? To both these questions, we unhesitatingly make the same answer there is no such white man.

We solicit none of you to emigrate to this country, for we know not who among you prefers rational independence, and the honest respect of his fellow men, to that mental sloth and careless poverty which you already possess, and your children will inherit after you, in America. But, if your views and aspirations rise a degree higher, if your minds are not as serviie as your present condition, we can decide the question at once; and, with confidence, say, that you will bless the day, and your children after you, when you determined to become citizens of Liberia.

But we do not hold this language on the blessings of liberty for the purpose of consoling ourselves for the sacrifice of health, or the suffering of want, in consequence of our removal to Africa. We enjoy health, after a few months' residence in this country, as uniformly, and in as perfect a degree, as we possessed that blessing in our native country. And a distressing scarcity of provisions, or any of the comforts of life, has, for the last two years, been entirely unknown, even to the poorest persons in this commu. nity. On these points, there are, and have been, much misconception, and some malicious misrepresentations, in the United States.

We have nearly all suffered from sickness, and, of the earliest emigrants, a large proportion fell in the arduous attempt to lay the foundation of the colony. But are they the only persons whose lives have been lost in the cause of human liberty, or sacrificed to the welfare of their fellow-men? Several out of every ship's company have, within the last four years, been carried off by sickness, caused by the change of climate; and death occasionally takes a victim from our number, without any regard at all to the time of his residence in this country. But we never hoped, by leaving America, to escape the common lot of mortals-the necessity of death, to which the just appointment of Heaven consigns us. But we do expect to live as long, and pass this life with as little sickness as yourselves.

The true character of the African climate is not well understood in other countries. Its inhabitants are as robust, as healthy, as long lived, 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. In the early years of the colony, want of good houses, the great fatigues and dangers of the settlers, their irregular mode of living, and the hardships and discouragements they met with, greatly helped the other causes of sickness, which prevailed to an alarming extent, and were attended with great mortality. But we look back to those times as to a season of trial long past, and nearly forgotten. Our houses and circumstances are now comfortable; and, for the last two or three years, not one person in forty, from the middle and Southern States, has died from the change of climate. The disastrous fate of the company of settlers who came out from Boston in the brig Vine, eighteen months ago, is an exception to the common lot of emigrants; and the cause of it ought to be explained. Those people left a cold region in the coldest part of Winter, and arrived here in the hottest season of our year. Many of them were too old to have survived long in any country. They most imprudently neglected the prescriptions of our very successful physician, the Rev. Lott Cary, who has great experience and great skill in the fevers of the country, and depended on medicines brought with them, which could not fail to prove injurious. And, in consequence of all those unfortunate circumstances, their sufferings were severe, and many died. But we are not apprehensive that a similar calamity will befal any future emigrants, except under similar disadvantages.

People now arriving have comfortable houses to receive them; will enjoy the regular attendance of a physician in the slight sickness that may await them; will be surrounded and attended by healthy and happy people, who have borne the effects of the climate, who will encourage and fortify them against that despondency which, alone, has carried off several in the first years of the colony.

But you may say that even health and freedom, as good as they are, are still dearly paid for, when they cost you the common comforts of life, and expose your wives and children to famine, and all the evils of want and poverty. We do not dispute the soundness of this conclusion either; but we utterly deny that it has any application to the people of Liberia.

Away with all the false notions that are circulating about the barrenness of this country: they are the observations of such ignorant or designing men as would injure both it and you. A more fertile soil, and a more productive country, so far as it is cultivated, there is not, we believe, on the face of the earth. Its hills and its plains are covered with a verdure which never fades; the productions of nature keep on in their growth through all the seasons of the year. Even the natives of the country, almost without farming tools, without skill, and with very little labor, make more grain and vegetables than they can consume, and often more than they can sell. Cattle, swine, fowl, ducks, goats, and sheep, thrive without feeding, and require no other care than to keep them from straying. Cotton, coffee, indigo, and the sugar cane, are all the spontaneous growth of our forests, and may be cultivated at pleasure, to any extent, by such as are disposed. The

same may be said of rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, millet, and too many species of fruits and vegetables to be enumerated. Add to all this, we have no dreary Winter here, for one half of the year, to consume the productious of the other half. Nature is constantly renewing herself, and constantly pouring her treasures, all the year round, into the laps of the industrious. We could say, on this subject, more; but we are afraid of exciting too highly the hopes of the imprudent. Such persons, we think, will do well to keep their rented cellars, and earn their twenty-five cents a day at the wheel-barrow, in the commercial towns of America, and stay where they are. It is only the industrious and virtuous that we can point to independence, and plenty, and happiness, in this country. Such people are nearly sure to attain, in a very few years, to a style of comfortable living, which they may in vain hope for in the United States; and, however short we come of this character ourselves, it is only a due acknowledgment of the bounty of Divine Providence to say, that we generall yenjoy the good things of this life to our entire satisfaction.

Our trade is chiefly confined to the coast, to the interior parts of the continent, and to foreign vessels. It is already valuable, and fast increasing. It is carried on in the productions of the country, consisting of rice, palin oil, ivory, tortoise shell, dye woods, gold, hides, wax, and a small amount of coffee: and it brings us, in return, the products and manufactures of the four quarters of the world. Seldom, indeed, is our harbor clear of European and American shipping; and the bustie and thronging of our streets show something, already, of the activity of the smaller seaports of the United States.

Mechanics, of nearly every trade, are carrying on their various occupations; their wages are high; and a large number would be sure of constant and profitable employment.

Not a child or a youth in the colony but is provided with an appropriate school. We have a numerous public library, and a court house, meeting houses, school houses, and fortifications sufficient, or nearly so, for the colony, in its present state.

Our houses are constructed of the same materials, and finished in the same style, as in the towns of America. We have abundance of good building stone, shells for lime, and clay of an excellent quality for bricks. Timber is plentiful, of various kinds, and fit for all the different purposes of building and fencing.

Truly, we have a goodly heritage: and if there is any thing lacking in the character or condition of the people of this colony, it never can be charged to the account of the country: it must be the fruit of our own mismanagement, or slothfulness, or vices. But from these evils we confide in Him, to whom we are indebted for all our blessings, to preserve us. It is the topic of our weekly and daily thanksgiving to Almighty God, both in public and in private, and He knows with what sincerity, that we were ever conducted, by his providence, to this shore. Such great favors, in so short a time, and mixed with so few trials, are to be ascribed to nothing but His special blessing. This we acknowledge. We only want the gratitude which such signal favors call for. Nor are we willing to close this paper, without adding a heartfelt testimonial of the deep obligations we owe to our American patrons and best earthly benefactors, whose wisdom pointed us to this home of our nation, and whose active and persevering benevolence enabled us to reach it. Judge, then, of the feelings with which we hear the

motives and doings of the Colonization Society traduced-and that, too, by men too ignorant to know what that society has accomplished; too weak to look through its plans and intentions; or too dishonest to acknowledge either. But, without pretending to any prophetic sagacity, we can certainly predict to that society the ultimate triumph of their hopes and labors, and disappointment and defeat to all who oppose them. Men may theorize and speculate about their plans in America, but there can be no speculation here. The cheerful abodes of civilization and happiness which are scattered over this verdant mountain-the flourishing settlements which are spreading around it—the sound of Christian instruction, and scenes of Christian worship, which are heard and seen in this land of brooding Pagan darkness-a thousand contented freemen united in founding a new Christian empire, happy themselves, and the instruments of happiness to others-every object, every individual, is an argument, is demonstration of the wisdom and goodness of the plan of colonization.

Where is the argument that shall refute facts like these? And where is the man hardy enough to deny them?

From the National Gazette.

The following resolutions have passed the House of Assembly of Upper Canada:

"NEGRO SETTLERS.

"1. Resolved, That this House has just cause of alarm for the peace and security of the inhabitants of the Western parts of this Province, by reason of the rumored intention, on the part of the Canada Company, of introducing large bodies of Negro settlers into this Province.

2. Resolved, That, in affording such encouragement, the Canada Company seem not to have duly reflected on the danger in which it involves the peace and happiness of the people; and that the act of the Imperial Parliament, constituting this Company, marks the subject of these resolutions as one of the many evils which must result from Legislation by the Imperial Parliament in matters of the internal concerns of this Province.

"3. Resolved, That no subject calls more seriously for the attention of the Legislature, than the settlement of the country, by all reasonable facility given to strangers to come into this Province and cultivate its wastes.

4. Resolved, That, although this House has long observed, without uneasiness, that fugitive slaves of color do, occasionally, escape into this Province, and, recognizing the law of nature, which says, "that the fugitive shall not be delivered up to his pursuers," this House is still unwilling to shut the door against the outcast; yet, the sudden introduction of a mass of black population, likely to continue without limitation, is a matter so dangerous to the peace and comfort of the inhabitants, that it now becomes necessary to prevent or check, by some prudent restrictions, this threatened

evil.

5. Resolved, That, inasmuch as such a population, sometimes surpassing, and at others approaching an equality with the whites, in several States of this Continent, has proved, in various ways, highly inconvenient and dangerous to those States, it is too certain that the like disasters must flow

from the same cause in this Province, if such projects be permitted to be effected.

"6. Resolved, That the Committee to whom was referred the petition of the inhabitants of Gosfield and Colchester, do bring in a bill, if it be practicable, during this session, to prevent the introduction of Blacks and Mulattoes into this Province, as settlers participating in all the civil rights of the people of this Province.

7. Resolved, That an humble address be presented to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, requesting him to forward, with as little delay as possible, these resolutions to His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, to be by him, with his Majesty's gracious permission, laid before the Imperial House of Commons; and further requesting His Excellency to discourage, as far as may be within his power, the introduction of such population, until the Legislature of the Province may be enabled to mature some safe enactment on the subject."

B

SLAVE TRADE.

Extract from the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the American Colonization Society, made the 18th Jan. 1830. "It is painful to state that the managers have reason to believe that the slave trade is still prosecuted, to a great extent; that much was done by Mr. Ashmun to banish it from the territory under the colonial jurisdiction, is unquestionable; but it now exists even on this territory; and a little to the North and South of Liberia it is to be seen in its true characters-of fraud, rapine, and blood. In the opinion of the late agent, the present efforts to suppress this trade must prove abortive. A frigate or two, sent out to pass two or three times a year down the coast, can effect little or nothing. Through the agency of natives employed for the purpose their movements are perfectly understood by the slave dealers. In my opinion,' says Dr. Randall, 'the effectual method for breaking up this traffic would be, to send upon the coast ten or twelve well armed, light, fast sailing schooners, which might touch at those places from whence the slaves are taken; which should relieve each other, and remain in this service the whole year. They should be accompanied by one or two sloops of war, with a force sufficient to break up

the slave factories.'

"Confident, the managers are, that any suggestions which may in the least degree contribute to annihilate an evil so dark and appalling as to shock the sensibilities of the whole civilized world, will be hailed with exultation by all who share in the common sympathies of our race."

FOURTEENTH CONGRESS-SECOND SESSION.

FEBRUARY 11, 1817.

Report of the Committee consisting of Mr. Pickering, Mr. Comstock, Mr. Condict, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Taggart, Mr. Cilley, and Mr. Hooks, on colonizing the free people of color of the United States.

The committee to whom was referred the memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the "American Society for Colonizing the Free Peo