to open a subscription for his free-pect of the departure of his wife and dom, the President's table was soon children. I felt deeply interested crowded and old Reuben was free. for him, and promised his wife to He is now daily glorifying God for make an effort in his behalf. His the liberality of those who secured owner had sent me a letter valuing for him the boon of liberty. It was him at $1,000, but offering to let him an act, I doubt not, approved in hea-go for $600. Mr. Wilson expressed ven-and the actors in which will not regret it on a dying bed. Our purpose was to leave Louisville Thursday morning, in the steamboat for Pittsburg, but at the moment of embarkation, it was discovered that an application had been made for a bill of injunction to prevent their departure. Here was another difficulty, which at first seemed to threaten an entire failure. It however failed, the application was refused, and after only a day's delay, we were enabled to start Friday morning, in the mail boat for Cincinnati. The hour of separation had come, and some who came to bid their fellow-servants adieu, parted with heavy hearts. it as his opinion, that if Peter had his time, in two years he could earn enough to pay for his freedom, and had I possessed the means, without hesitation I would have advanced it for him. I wish some friend of Liberia who could spare $600 for two years, would advance it for him and let him earn his liberty, and follow his family to their home in Africa. James, a most excellent member of Mr. Wilson's family, after packing his clothing and getting them on board, found the sacrifice too great, and chose to remain in bondage rather than leave his wife and children behind. One cannot but admire such motives, while the necessity which demands the sacrifice of liberty or affection may be lamented. I understood that the owner of James' wife had offered to let her go for $500, but would not let their two children But, not to dwell on particulars any longer, we left Louisville Friday morning, Nov. 1st, and arrived by the Ohio at Wheeling, Wednesday morning following. Several left husbands or wives behind, perhaps forever. Two of these cases were of deep interest: Jordan belongs to an estate near Mr. Wilson's farm, and had come down to bid his wife and two children adieu-go on any terms. application had been made to know if he could be redeemed, and an absolute refusal was given. When asked if he wished his wife and children to stay, he replied, "no, if they can be free let them go." Still At Wheeling I received advices their separation was sorrowful, and from Pittsburg, which rendered it after having come all the way to Bal-advisable to take them to Baltimore timore and put their clothes on board the vessel, his wife having been discouraged, decided to return to Kentucky. via Cumberland, instead of the Pennsylvania canal, as I had originally intended, and finding an empty waggon leaving that morning; a contract Peter belongs to a gentleman who was made to take them to Cumberlives out of Shelby county, and has land in four days, and, without any been hired by Mr. Wilson for some serious accident, they arrived on Satime at $175 a year. He is a valu-turday night within five miles of that able blacksmith. He could scarcely place, and came in Sabbath morning. speak, so affected was he at the pros- By the liberality of the citizens of Cumberland, they were kept there | ally sailed, while he had made the until Wednesday morning, lodging contracts and necessary provision in the school-house, and bountifully for twenty-seven. These changes supplied with provisions without ex- are, however, incident to our work, pense to the Society. The kindness and without murmuring at them we of the pastor of the M. E. Church are disposed to rejoice that so many was especially conspicuous, and if finally embarked with cheerful the satisfaction of good done, or the spirits for their new home. blessings of the poor are to be prized, they are his. Even from the vessel, the emigrants sent him, by their late master, messages of gratitude for his atten The final separation of these interesting emigrants from their kind benefactor and former owner, exhibited a strength of mutual attachment and a depth of sorrow honorable alike to both, and affording a striking By an application to the gentle- commentary upon the pictures of manly superintendent of the Balti-wrong, and tyranny, and injustice, tion to them. more and Ohio rail road, the emigrants were brought down in the cars at less than half the rate of ordinary passengers, and thus a saving of nearly $100 made to our Society. Besides the provisions purchased by us for the support of these emigrants in Liberia for six months, they have received a large outfit from their former owner, of clothing, hardware, dry goods, &c., and more than one hundred dollars in cash. While thus delayed, one of the females, Eliza, the mother of two children, before mentioned as Jordan's wife, decided not to proceed. Her master offered to leave her in Maryland until another vessel should go, but she refused, and at Mr. Wilson's expense she and her two children have returned to Kentucky. Her decision, as in the case of others who refused to go, was a disappointment, and augmented the expenses of the expedition per capita, as only twenty-one emigrants actu so often spread before the people of the north as a necessary constituent of slavery and slave-holding. No one, I think, could have witnessed this scene without a deep conviction of the injustice of such views, indiscriminately applied. Confidence and affection, such as these emigrants manifested towards their former master, could be the result of no other than the most humane and benevolent treatment, and would doubtless favorably contrast with the state of feeling between the members of northern families, in whose many language and thoughts, nothing but words of detestation towards every slave-holder is heard. If the insertion of this article in the Herald can be of service to the cause, please use it, with full liberty to prune or abbreviate at pleasure. Respectfully yours, J. B. PINNEY, The Colony of Liberia. THE following is the conclusion || Editor of that paper, and does credit of the article commenced in a former number of our paper. It has just reached us in the May number of the Liberia Herald. It is written by the alike to his head and his heart. We commend it to a careful perusal. It will more than repay the reader : The colony has now been settled twenty-two years. In December of 1822, when the whole country was combined against it, thirty-five souls, including six native youths, was the sum total of its available force. Under the guidance of a beneficent Providence, it rode out the gale of that stormy year, and by its own energy, seconded by the timely British mediation, it composed the elements of a desolative discord, and arranged stipulations which have prevented the recurrence of those violent scenes. The colony was then limited to the heights on which Monrovia now stands; but freed from the anxiety always attendant upon apprehension of war, and receiving continually as surances of firm friendship on the part of the natives, the colonists be-, gun to extend their acquaintance with the country. As their numbers gradually increased by fresh importations, they found an enlargement of territory absolutely necessary to the operations of agriculture and husbandry. They found no difficulty in obtaining land, but having no ambition of territorial aggrandizement, they limited their purchases to actual necessities. The first line of extension ran up the St. Pauls river. Here they form ed agricultural settlements. Negotiations were shortly afterwards opened for Cape Mount, where a school for native youths, taught by a colonist,, had been some time in successful operation. The high road to the interior, the nursery of victims for the slave market at Gallinas, winds its way through this region. It was also the theatre of continual war, excited by the demand for slaves which at that time was very great. Apprehensive that an American settlement amongst them might prejudice this traffic, and most probably assured that it would do so, by the slavers scattered through the country collecting their cargoes, the natives refused to sell at that time, but guarantied to the colony a small plat of land for a school, agreed to furnish the necessary buildings for the purpose, and pledged the power of the country to its protection. The extremely unsettled state of the country rendering the object impracticable, it was for the time abandoned. The colonists now felt, in its deadliest force, the blighting influence of the slave trade. It raged on every side. Heralded by conflagration and murder, the whole country was in a state of consternation; and, as if safety consisted only in absolute solitude, each one appeared anxious to kidnap all others! While clouds of murky smoke ascended from smouldering ruins, while the heavens rang with the shrieks of mangled victims, the slave ship might be seen hovering near the land ready to barter for those who should fall alive into the hands of the conqueror, or to receive them in payment for debts already contracted. All lawful trade was suspended, and agriculture entirely neglected, and the whole attention of the natives was absorbed in pursuing and eluding pursuit. It appeared that the utter extinction of the tribes involved was at hand. The colonial authorities resolved upon an effort to arrest the progress of this disorder and to compose the natives to peace. While the land was in possession of the natives, the idea of force could not be entertained. Mediation was proffered, and treaties formed, in which, by mutual consent, a prominent article always appeared condemnatory of the slave trade. The most effectual method was to get possession of the land and by this means the right to put down the trade by force. This method was adopted, and the colonial territory was extended by purchase exactly in proportion to its increase in means to exercise over it a salutary control. Never for a moment was it Should the colony be permitted to obtain the control of this territory, a measure demanded by every consideration of humanity and philanthropy intended nor even wished, that the na- || arrested. The moral influence of the tives should remove from the land colony over the natives in its own terthey thus conveyed away. Invaria- ritory will be enervated, while in bly they were earnestly solicited to these independent communities withremain, to enroll themselves as citi- in its bosom, no system or enterprise zens of the colony, and urged to could be suppressed, however disasadopt the manners and customs of trous, that the cupidity and avarice of colonists. It has been the steady others might encourage. policy of the Society at home and of the colonial authorities here, as a means of rapidly advancing the colony and of improving the natives, to incorporate them with the Ameri-—and which nothing but foreign incans. The measure has had a most gratifying effect. Thousands of natives are now residing in the territory of the colony. Many have come from distant tribes induced by the security enjoyed here, which they in vain sought beyond the jurisdiction of the colony. Others, although they have conveyed away the sovereignty over the land, yet remain near the graves of their fathers, content to conform to the mild regulations imposed, while they enjoy all the privileges they could wish. The slave trade has ceased, and they are in peace. terference will prevent-no interest will be prejudiced by it except such as is stigmatised by all civilized nations. The ports of the colony are, and it is to its interest to keep them, open to the vessels of all nations on an equal footing. It excludes only such as are known to be engaged in trade for slaves. Past experience shows that the amount of legal trade in any given territory is inversely as the slave trade. Wherever the demand for slaves is great, there the supply of all other articles of commerce is meagre. It is the direst of curses-it steels the heart of man and clenches the hand of nature. Slaves are procured more by predatory incursions than by purchase, and the demand is met only by a state of alarm and ambuscade that leaves no room for attention to any other pursuit. only be done by actual possession, the great incentive to continual hostility would be precluded, friendly relations would be entered into and maintained, agriculture would flour The territory claimed by the colony extends from Cape Mount on the north to Cape Palmas on the south. Actual purchase has not been made of the whole extent of this line, but of many of the intermediate points; while of others, grants of lease have been obtained, and of others still, the By closing the line of coast refernatives have engaged to make no con-ed to, against this traffic, which can veyance except to the colony. It is exceedingly desirable that this territory should be under the control and jurisdiction of the colony, and it would long ago have been purchased but for the petty jealousy and lowish-the arts of civilized life could intrigue of foreign traders. While be introduced-the articles of comthe territory is thus cut up and divi- merce would rapidly increase, and ded by intermediate hordes of sover- the native ear now closed by an ineign savages, indulging, unrestrained, fatuating traffic, would be open to the in all the excess of barbarian liberty, instructions of civilization. That this the moral energies of the colony must is not merely a picture of what is be deplorably crippled, and at no dis- rather wished than can be rationally tant period its growth permanently predicted, is, we think, susceptible of terests of the colony have been suffered to languish-in fact to be almost totally neglected. Although the soil offers to the cultivator the richest reward for his industry, yet the productions have never equalled the consumption. The attention of those who have pretended to cultivate, has been directed almost exclusively to the commonest articles of tropical produce; while coffee, cotton and sugar, have been neglect time and money. These articles are pointed out to us by nature as the great staples of commerce. Coffee and cotton, although growing spontaneously in the forests, require a larger amount of capital to make them important as articles of commerce than the colonists have possessed. The land is in the primitive wildness of nature. The forests of ages rest upon it. moral proof. We judge of the future || ly regretted that the agricultural inby the past. These results have followed wherever the influence of the colony has been exerted. Voluntary native residents amongst us parade in our military ranks, vote at our elections, and bow with us in our temples before the feet of our common Parent. This is the last aim of the colony, the high elevation to which it aspires. Not to dispossess the natives of their land and drive them to die barbarians in the forest, but to guide them by a salutary control, and instruct themed as demanding too large a share of in the arts of peace-to pour into their ear the lessons of civilization and christianity, to incorporate them into our political and social body that they may be one with us. But should the colony be astricted, should the barriers which law and order would erect against the operations of lawless traders on the one hand, and of the constant feuds and heathenish practices of the natives on the other, this most desirable consummation for which so many lives have been sacrificed and so much treasure expended in vain, will be pushed back to an indefinite period, our colony will languish and our hopes expire. It is worthy of remark that the gi-day, the colony will be able to offer gantic scheme proposed by Mr. Buxton, is precisely the scheme of this colony with only inconsiderable modifications. It is not ours to say why it sustained a defeat when commenced on the Niger, under such imposing auspices. It is sufficient that all the elements of good to Africa which philanthropy beheld in that scheme, are found in this, arranged and combined and ready for enlarged and ef-mitting, however, that we have exficient operation. Never was there a better occasion for the display of disinterested benevolence and philanthropy than this colony presents. It is emphatically the cause of mankind, and to the sympathies of human kind it appeals. It can never be sufficient These are to be cleared away the soil prepared, and the seed to be sown. This demands an amount of labor and money which none have been able to command. Enough however has been accomplished to cherish the hope, that, at no distant these productions in return for productions of other countries, and the earlier the attention of the natives be drawn to this subject, the sooner this hope will be realized. Sugar making is now in successful operation at the Society's farm on the Stockton. The article produced this year is of a superior quality, equal to any of the West India, that we have seen. Ad ported no coffee, nor cotton, nor sugar, we shall hardly be branded as peculiarly worthless, seeing the same may be written of so many other colonies on the coast settled long anterior to this, and favored with advantages which we have never possessed. |