vote as much personal attention to the affairs of the Bark as I otherwise should have done. We have a quantity of produce at Little Bassa and the Kroo Country, which I shall use every exertion possible to have brought here before the forty days [the forty lay days of the Bark] shall have expired, but, as our Colonial vessels are busily engaged, it is quite doubtful whether I succeed. Could the vessel have remained here six weeks longer, I think there would have been little difficulty in her getting a full cargo, by running down as far as Cape Palmas. As it is, the utmost that can be done will fall far short of your expectations. I need not say how much I regret this. It is always my ambition to meet all your wishes, and indeed to accomplish everything, whether expected or not, that lies within the compass of possibility. But, my dear sir, it is not possible to do what you require in this instance, and without intending to find fault, I must say I am surprised, after the repeated explanations I have given you on this point, at the extent of your expectations. For myself, when I consider the amount and kind of goods with which I have been furnished, and what I have accomplished in paying off old debts, fortifying, conducting wars, making improvements, and sustaining the Government, I am astonished, not that I have failed to send home full cargoes, but that I have sent anything at all.

It is easy to secure return cargoes, and to realize large profits from the African trade, if properly conducted, and sufficient capital is employed; but to expect these results without the requisite facilities, time or means to accomplish them, in short, to expect from me, while my time is engrossed by other duties, and the funds supplied me are barely sufficient to ensure the proper discharge of those duties, is expecting too much. I consider trade not only honorable, but a most important agency in the work of civilizing this country; and there can be no reasonable objection to the Society engaging in it for the purpose of increasing her power to do good, provided, that in this pursuit she neglect not the more weighty considerations of duty and obligation. The great end of her existence must not be neglected, or compromised by the effort to obtain means for its accomplishment. The efficient administration of the Government-the improvement of the Colony -the encouragement of agriculture and other branches of industry-the fostering of schools and institutions of religion, and even the judicious assistance of the industrious and deserving poor by timely loans, are the objects that should exercise the first care of your agents here, and to which a greater portion of your funds might be most profitably devoted. These objects, with the acquisition of territory, intercourse with the tribes, and the necessary preparations for the reception and settlement of emigrants, should ever be the peculiar concern of the Governor of the Colony; and his time and thoughts should not be diverted froin them for any purpose whatever. It is only by a proper attention to these things that the true interests of Liberia can be advanced, and, as a necessary consequence, whatever tends to promote her prosperity, will, in the same ratio, give success and strength to the cause at home. But if, while these great ends receive the chief attention, the operations of trade can also be prosecuted to advantage, they ought not, surely, to be neglected. That they can be, by the employment of sufficient capital, and furnishing the requisite facilities, there is no doubt. You have only to send regular and well assorted cargoes of goods, supply us with one or two small vessels for coasters, and some good lighters, and I think you never need be disappointed of full returns of the productions of the country.

I trust you will not regard what I have here said concerning the relative importance of the duties which have been imposed upon me, as indicative

of a disposition to set up my opinion in opposition to the will of the Board. My only aim is to present my views for their benefit, and to vindicate myself in reference to those things in which I have not been able to meet their expectations. Acting without special instructions on many points, I may have applied more of their funds to the general purposes of my Administration, and less to those of trade, than they approve, as indeed seems to be the case from your letters.

While on this subject I will mention some changes I am making, which will better secure the objects you wish, while our expenses will be considerably lessened thereby :

THE STORES.

Both here and at Grand Bassa I have stopped the retail business entirely, and have given strict orders to credit nothing. At the latter place I have made the still farther change of dismissing our storekeeper and employing him merely as a Commission Merchant. In future he will have no salary, and will be responsible for all the goods placed in his possession, making immediate returns when sold, and receiving the usual commissions, as other merchants in the Colony. After a careful consideration of the whole matter, I was induced to this measure from the following reasons: While we kept up the retailing business it was next to impossible to avoid crediting many poor persons who either have, or fancy they have, claims upon the Society for assistance. Again, the profits amount to very little, when all the expenses peculiar to that branch of our business are taken into account. And the very articles most necessary to keep up an assortment, and which were invariably credited or paid out for labor, are the articles of readiest sale to the merchant (by wholesale) and produce the best payment in return. In casting about for an opportunity of retrenchment which would leave more capital available in the way of trade, it occurred to me that I might suspend some of our plans of improvement at Bassa for the present year, and thus dispense entirely with the services of Mr. SHERIDAN. He entered at once into my views, and agreed to do our business on commission, and at the same time to lend me his assistance from time to time as I might require in overseeing any jobs of work I might have on hand in that county during the However if the schooner you promise arrives soon, I shall be able to be down there in person pretty frequently to supervise and push on our operations. I am trying to make some agreement to have the road continued by contract into the Camwood Country. Should there be many emigrants arriving next year, it may be necessary to employ Mr. SHERIDAN after my departure for America. He will give his attention to the erection of the school-house on the Island, and to the clearing and planting of the land. Should we have many emigrants to provision and take care of, our own articles can be served out under the immediate direction of a steward, subject to the supervision of the physician, without interfering at all with the present plan of trade.

season.

Mr. ROBERTS will still continue in charge of the establishment at this place, and will superintend the general affairs of the farm, and all our trading here and elsewhere along the coast. He is a valuable man, and I find him of great service to me in our varied and extensive business.

IMPROVEMENTS.

There are a great many important things under this head I had intended recommending, but as they are incompatible with the course to which my attention is more especially directed by your letter, of retrenchment and trade, I shall pass over them mostly.

AGRICULTURE.

The farm on Bushrod Island is at last beginning to make some return for all the expenditure made upon it. We have made a quantity of very beautiful sugar this season, though all the work has been done at the greatest possible disadvantage. Our kettles were too small, our team too weak, and all the materials necessary about the mill were awkward and unsuited to the purposes for which they were used. Besides, we were obliged to work , in the dark, there being no one in the Colony to be found, who knew anything about the process of sugar making. Owing to all these circumstances, we have not made more than two-thirds of the sugar that the crop would have yielded, if properly managed. As it is we shall send you a few barrels, and keep some for our own market. The first lot of Liberia sugar must surely feteh a good price in the United States. Our Abolition friends ought to purchase of us, and by patronizing our free sugar, make some compensation for the injury they have done the cause of freedom in persecuting Liberia.

,

I am planting about ten acres more of sugar cane at present. Several of the colonists will plant this season both here and at Bassa Cove, and in two or three years I think there will be two or three more mills at work in the Colony, when our score of barrels will be increased to some hundreds of hogsheads. As I before informed you, considerable attention has been given this year to coffee planting, but as the season was then over, nothing has been done in this business since my last by the Atalanta. Next year, I have no doubt, will see the present number of trees doubled.

One gentleman of this place, Mr. JOHN LEWIS, Colonial Secretary, informs me that he will plant ten acres of land near Monrovia to Indigo-with which, you are aware, this country abounds. From all I can learn, this will be a very productive and profitable crop, and I have no doubt the enterprise of Mr. Lewis will be abundantly rewarded.

STATISTICS.

I regret sending this despatch without full statistical returns from the several settlements in the Commonwealth. The returns East of this have not been received, although promised several days ago.

Monrovia.-6795 Coffee Trees; 16 1-4 acres in Rice; 16 acres in Cassada; 16 3-4 in Potatoes; total 49 acres :-39 Sheep, 8 Goats, 1193 Fowls, 99 Ducks, 135 Hogs, 2 Turkies, 56 Cattle; 61 Lots, quarter acre each, in vegetables.

New Georgia.-55 acres in Rice; 73 1-4 acres in Cassada; 23 1-4 arres in Potatoes; 5 3-4 acres in Corn; 7 1-4 acres in Peanuts; 1 1-2 acres in Peas; total 166 acres ;-426 Fowls, 32 Ducks, 79 Goats, 38 Sheep, 76 Hogs.

Caldwell.-19 1-2 acres in Rice; 67 1-4 acres in Potatoes; 58 acres in Cassada; 1 1-2 acres in Peas; 1-2 an acre in Peanuts; 1 acre in Sugar zane; total 147 3-4 acres :-260 Coffee Trees, 38 Croos Peanuts, 250 lbs. Arrow Root, 4 Ducks, 136 Fowls, 22 Hogs, 14 Goats.

Bushrod Island.-14 3-4 acres in Potatoes; 5 1-2 acres in Potatoes; total 20 1-4 acres.

Millsburg.-25 acres in Cassada; 5 acres in Rice; 23 acres in Potatoes ; 9 1-4 acres in Sugar cane; 2 acres in Arrow Root; total 64 1-4 acres :— 150 Coffee Trees, 13 Hogs, 37 Sheep, 39 Ducks, 347 Fowls, 1 Cattle.

SUMMARY.

7205 Coffee Trees; 95 3-4 scres in Rice; 182 1-4 acres in Cassada; 160 1-2 acres in Potatoes; 5 3-4 acres in Corn; 8 3-4 acres in Peanuts, and 38 Croos, do.; quantity of land not known; 3 acres in Peas; 10 1-4 acres in Sugar cane; 27 acres in Arrow Root, and 250 lbs. do., quantity of land not

known; 15 1-4 acres vegetables, say 61 town lots; total under cultigation, including the public farm, 513 1-4 acres :-57 Cattle, 246 Hogs, 114 Sheep, 101 Goats, 2 Turkeys, 174 Ducks, 2102 Fowls.

The Public Farm.-50 acres in improvement-say 25 acres in Sugar Cane; 15 acres in Potatoes; 10 acres in Cassada; 2 Yoke of Oxen.

There are about 200 acres of land in cultivation at Bassa Cove, Edina, and Bexley, but considerably more is cleared. I regret that the report of the Agricultural Committee for that County has not reached me yet, and that I am thus deprived of the opportunity of presenting together the statistics of the Agriculture of the whole Colony. The only articles of which I can speak with certainty is Coffee. By a report made to me some time since there were actually growing about 23,000 Coffee Trees in the three settlements of Bassa Cove, Edina, and Bexley.

It should be remembered, that all the land in cultivation in the Colony (about 713 acres,) is worked entirely by hand. The proportion of stock of all kinds, is, I think, greater in Bassa County, than in this. Mr. BENEDICT will probably take the largest premium for Coffee this year, though I cannot speak with certainty until I get the report from Bassa County, when all the premiums will be distributed.

BEXLEY.

While at Bassa Cove, I visited Bexley, and was highly gratified at the progress of things among the new emigrants. All are living in comfortable log houses with lots around each covered with a luxuriant growth of cassada, potatoes, corn, beans, plantains, &c. The streets too are all planted. I found some of the men hard at work, cutting and burning the trees and bushes off their farms. I went into every house and inquired particularly of every individual whether they liked their new situation. With the exception of one young man, who was quite sick-and who answered, "I 'spose I should like it, if I was as well as the rest,"--they all expressed themselves in the warmest terms of admiration, and declared nothing would induce them to leave Bexley. I am happy to inform you that they have now entirely recovered from their sickness, and bid fair to do well hereafter. I have some houses building there for the next emigrants, as I consider it one of the most desirable places, in every point of view, there is in the Colony.

The land is high, and very finely diversified, so as to suit any variety of crop at all seasons; the soil is good, and the water pure and abundant. I am in treaty for a strip of land adjoining it, and intervening between it and a much larger tract which lies higher up the river, and which we already own. When this purchase is secured we shall possess the whole right, or northern bank, of the St. John's river, from the mouth about twelve miles up, and on the other side about six miles from the mouth. This brings me to another head, the acquisition of

TERRITORY.

I have been exceedingly desirous, since first receiving your instructions on this subject, to carry them out to the fullest extent, but no means have as yet been afforded me for making the voyage along the coast. From what I can learn of the disposition of the tribes to leeward, particularly between Cape Palmas and Sinou, I am sure we should find no difficulty whatever in negociating successfully with them. Should I find an opportunity of leaving home after the session of the Council, (which takes place on the 1st of January,) I shall run down to that neighborhood and see what can be done.

THE SLAVE TRADE.

It gives me the greatest pleasure to apprize you of the destruction of the slave factories at Gallinas by the Honorable Captain DENMAN, senior offi.

cer of this station. He landed about the middle of last month, with the boats of his own vessel, the "Wanderer," and those of the "Rolla " and "Saracen," eleven in all, carrying from 150 to 200 men. The Spaniards made no resistance, not a gun was fired, but all fled in the greatest conster nation to the woods. Though they abandoned all their other property, they succeeded in driving away, with them, nearly all the slaves, and only about one hundred, out of two or three thousand, were captured by the British. The property in the baracoons and factories, to a very large amount, wa destroyed on the spot, and the captors kept possession of the place for some days. I have not yet heard what is to be the ultimate disposition of their conquest, but I hope they will not allow the vile slavers again to take possession. Should the English Government not be disposed to retain it, I shall avail myself of the first opportunity to attempt obtaining it by negoci

ation.

While I was at Bassa Cove, last week, I was most agreeably surprised by the receipt of a letter from Lieut. SEAGRAM, commanding H. B. M. brig Termagant, informing me that he had completed an arrangement with Mr. CaNOT of New Cesters, by which it was agreed that he should deliver up all his slaves, one hundred and three in number, to SEAGRAM, to be carired to Siern Leone, and thenceforth to abandon the slave trade entirely. Another part of the agreement was that CANOT should remain at New Cesters and carry on business as a regular trader under the sanction and protection of the English Government. If SEAGRAM made this agreement by authority, it would seem that his Government intends occupying that place. This would be a dismembering of our territory by cutting off our northern settlements from Sinou and Cape Palmas. Can it be possible that a great nation would descend to such a contemptible and wicked thing? I cannot think it; still, it will be important for you to have measures taken to ascertain their real views without delay.

TRADE.

Should Gallinas not again be occupied as a slave mart, and New Cesters remain free from that curse, it will make a mighty addition to the legitimate commerce of this part of the coast; and the trade of the Colony would probably be doubled within the next year. The effect produced last year by the breaking up of Little Bassa was very great throughout the Colony, and the amount of trade has been ever since increasing steadily and rapidly. Within the last three months, Camwood, Oil and Ivory, has been shipped from this place, Marshall and Bassa Cove, to the value of $25,000, Colonial prices. The intercourse with Bo Poro, and the country beyond, being again unrestricted, and the vast drain of slaves shut up, at least for some time, we may reasonably calculate on a still greater proportionate amount during the whole of next year. There has been an unusual number of trading vessels, principally English, on the coast this season, and they have all filled up in a much shorter time than ever before. Some of them have had to store part of their cargo here, having more than they could carry. In more than one case, they have filled their vessels before half their outward cargo was sold, and had to carry part of it back to England!

SCHOONER AND LIGHTERS.

The objections to purchasing a schooner at Sierra Leone are-first, the difficulty of communicating with that place, and the uncertainty of having an order executed properly-and secondly, the want of money to make the purchase! Sometimes there are great bargains to be had, and vessels are occasionally to be found that would suit my purpose admirably-but the purchaser should be on the spot, in person, with the cash in his hand, or he will get cheated.