the whole of their little community; barbarians too, who had long been engaged in a bloody and accursed traffic, making merchandize of their brethren; and these barbarians suddenly divested of their savage character, sit humbly at the feet of the newly arrived messengers of Heaven, and the natives of Africa, receive instruction in the doctrine of immortality, and the religion of the Son of God, from lips that had never uttered any other language, than broken English! It is singular that in the subsequent documents of the Society, we hear nothing farther of these thousand barbarians. How many became converts to the religion in which they were instructed; how long their attendance on the missionaries was continued, and why it was afterwards totally suspended, are points on which no information has been vouchsafed to us.

It is natural we should wish to know more of these wonderful teachers, and fortunately we are presented with the following picture of them by an eye witness.

"The holy Author of our religion and salvation, has made the hearts of a large proportion of these people, the temples of the divine Spirit. I have seen the proudest and profanest foreigners that ever visited the colony, trembling with amazement and conviction, almost literally in the descriptive phraseology of St. Paul, find the secrets of their hearts made manifest, and falling down upon their faces, worship God, and report that God is in the midst of these people of a truth." Ashmun's letter, 31st December, 1825. Af. Rep. II. 90.

We should certainly conclude from these accounts, that these holy men were blessed with

Composed desires, affections ever even,

Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heaven."

Yet strange to tell, we are presented with the following perplexing statement, by the same eye witness:

About twelve months since it (the colony) had entirely given way, as the committee are but too well apprised, to a blind and furious excitement of the worst passions, caused by a somewhat unfortunate policy operating on ignorance and invincible prejudice. During my absence for health, the people were obliged to taste some of the bitter fruits of

anarchy, and by the singular mercy of God, only escaped those tragedies of blood, which can find no modern parallel, but in the history of the civil murders and devastations of St. Domingo." Ashmun's letter, 15th January, 1825. Af. Rep. I. 23.

The excitement here alluded to, and its unhappy consequences, occurred, it will be seen by a comparison of dates, in 1824; and that wonderful moral change, which rendered the hearts of a large proportion of these people the temples of the Divine Spirit, must have been effected in 1825. Yet it was in the beginning of 1825, that the managers announced at their annual meeting at Washington, the marvellous fact of the instruction of the thousand barbarians within the gates of the colony, a fact which of course must have happened several months previous to the date of the report, and consequently during, or about the time of the "furious excitement !"

In March, 1825, the Editor of the Af. Rep., gives us the following delightful intelligence:

"The eye of the stranger is struck with the religious aspect of the settlement. He beholds, on Cape Montserado, standing in lonely beauty, a Christian village. There flourish the virtues of the gospel, defended by the Almighty, from the influences of paganism, cherished and refreshed by the dews of his grace.' Af. Rep. I. 5.

The secret of this surprising exhibition of Christian loveliness and purity, is thus explained.

"It is well known that this little community is made up of SELECTED INDIVIDUALS, and that the Board have ever required of those seeking their patronage, satisfactory evidence that their morals were pure, and their habits industrious. Hence this settlement has from its origin exhibited great decency and sobriety, respect for the Sabbath, and the other peculiar duties and ordinances of our religion. It has thus shed a benign and sacred light upon the heathen, and the feelings of the profane and lawless stranger as he treads upon Cape Montserado are subdued into unwonted seriousness.' Af. Rep. IX. p. 19. 1826.

But again we are perplexed, by the assertion of the Governor of the Colony.

"For at least two years to come, a much more discrimi

nating selection of settlers must be made than EVER HAS BEEN-even in the first and second expeditions by the Elizabeth and Nautilus in 1820 and 1822-or the prosperity of the colony will inevitably and rapidly decline." Ashmun's Letter, 3d March, 1828. Af. Rep. IV. 86.

In the 11th Report, the managers assure us:

"No village perhaps, in our own land, exhibits less which is offensive, and more that is gratifying to the eye of the Christian, than the village of Monrovia. Crimes are almost unknown, and the universal respect manifested for the Sabbath, and the various institutions and duties of Christianity, have struck the natives with surprise, and excited the admiration of foreigners." Af. Rep. XI. p. 14. 1828.

But how are we to reconcile this, with the following statements?

"Permit me to say, sir, there must be a great revolution in this colony, before it can have a salutary influence on the surrounding natives; that is, before it can have a moral influence over them." Letter from Rev. G. M. Erskine, 3d April, 1830. Af. Rep. VI. 121.

"We stand in much need of a work house, and some acres of land enclosed, for confining licentious females, and other disorderly and lazy persons.' Letter from A. D. Williams, Agent, 10th Sept. 1830. Af. Rep. VI. 275.

"There are several enterprising merchants here. It is not, however, a favorable spot for small storekeepers and wandering pedlars, who, I am told, generally become stript of what they may have got, and in wandering about in the interior for small traffic, disgust the natives by their immoralities." Letter from Lieut. Page to Sec. of Navy, 9th April, 1832. Af. Rep. VIII. 141.

"With respect to the character of the people composing this expedition, I regret to be compelled to state, that they are, with the exception of the Pages from Virginia, and a few others, the lowest and most abandoned of their class. Our respectable colonists themselves, are becoming alarmed at the great number of ignorant and abandoned characters that have arrived here within the last twelve months." Letter from Dr. Mechlin, Agent, Sept. 1832. Af. Rep. VIII. 298.

"Let them (the friends of the Society in America) know,

that to extend knowledge and promote sound piety, a quire of paper is at the present moment of more worth than a Bible. Bibles and Tracts have been sent here, and either used as waste paper, or made food for worms-why? Not because the people despise either, but because we have not a reading population. Until this is secured, Bibles would be of more value in China." Letter from Rev. J. B. Pinney, Agent, 7th March, 1834.

TEN

On the 17th June, 1833, Mr. Gurley, Secretary of the Society, in a speech at a Colonization meeting in New-York, hazarded the following most extraordinary assertion, " THOUSAND NATIVES had placed themselves under the protection of the colony, receiving from it, instruction in civilization."

The Society, at its annual meeting 20th January, 1834, unanimously "Resolved, that this Society is cheered in its enterprise by the beneficent effects which its operations have upon the natives of Africa itself." Af. Rep. IX. 360.

On the 20th February, 1834, the Rev. Mr. Pinney, Agent at Liberia, thus writes from the colony.

"The colonists are very ignorant of every thing about the interior. Except the tribes along the coast, nothing at all is known, and of them, little but their manner of traffic. Nothing has been done for the natives hitherto by the Colonists, except to educate a few, who were in their families in the capacity of servants." Mr. Pinney appears not to have been acquainted with the fact, that "a thousand barbarians" had been taught the doctrine of immortality within the gates of the colony, or that "ten thousand natives" had received instruction in civilization!

Had any Missionary Society been guilty of such extravagant anticipations and such gross and palpable contradictions, the whole community would have joined in loading it with ridicule and odium.

It is deeply to be regretted, that some distinguished Colonizationists, have of late attempted to lead the public to hope, that in future no emigrants but such as are of good moral character, will be permitted to go to Liberia. It is difficult to reconcile such an attempt with moral rectitude, unless it be accompanied with a total and avowed abandonment of Colonization as a means of relieving the country from the

nuisance of a free colored population, and from the guilt and curse of slavery. Of the gross inconsistency, (not to use a harsher term,) of Colonizationists on this subject, the proceedings of a Colonization meeting in Cincinnati, October 31st, 1834, afford a striking example. On motion of the Rev. Dr. Beecher, the following Resolution was unanimously adopted: "Resolved, that the establishment of colonies in Africa, by the selection of colored persons who are moral, industrious, and temperate, is eminently calculated of itself to advance the cause of civilization and religion among the benighted native population of that continent; as well as to afford facilities to the various Missionary Societies for the prosecution of their pious designs."

This resolution would be utterly without point or meaning, were it not laudatory of the plans of the Colonization Society; and no person of common intelligence would conjecture from the resolution, that the "selection" mentioned in it, was utterly at variance with, and directly opposed to, the avowed objects of the Society. Slavery in our country cannot be abolished by Colonization, without removing more than two millions of slaves; and how is it possible to remove this number, and yet select for colonists only "the moral, industrious, and temperate ?" Nevertheless, the meeting "Resolved, that the friends of humanity and the friends of God, should cherish the Colonization Society, because of its influence TO ABOLISH SLAVERY, and advance the best interests of the African race."

Pages might be quoted to show that the professed ultimate object of the Society, is to remove the whole colored population to Africa, without any selection whatever. In 1824, a Committee of the Board, in an official report, declared, that the national interest "required that the whole mass of free persons of color, and those who may become such with the consent of their owners, should be progressively removed from us, as fast as their own consent can be obtained, and as the means can be found for their removal and for their proper establishment in Africa." Afric. Rep. VII. p. 113.

"But the Colonization Society hopes for, and aims at, much more—the abolition of slavery, and the removal of