The conception of evangelizing a heathenish country by sending to it an illiterate, degraded and irreligious population, belongs exclusively to the advocates of African colonization. For absurdity and inaptitude, it stands, and must forever stand, without a parallel. Of all the offspring of prejudice and oppression, it is the most shapeless and unnatural. But more of this hereafter.

History is full of instruction on the subject of colonization. The establishment of colonies, in all ages, with scarcely an exception, has resulted either in their subversion by the vices or physical strength of the natives, or by a fatal amalgamation with them; or else in the rapid destruction of the natives by the superior knowledge and greedy avarice of the new settlers. It is presumption to suppose that the colony at Liberia, composed of the worst materials imaginable, will present an example of forbearance, stability and good faith, hitherto unwitnessed in the world.

Soon after its establishment, the colony narrowly escaped a bloody extirpation, and was the cause of a murderous warfare in which several of the colonists and a large number of the natives were slain. The steady growth of the colony excited the jealousy and alarm of some of the neighboring tribes; and, accordingly, a consultation was held, at which Kings George, Governor, and all the other head men, contended that The Americans were strangers who had forgot their attachment to the land of their fathers; for if not, why had they not renounced their connexion with white men altogether, and placed themselves under the protection of the kings of the country? King. George had already been under the necessity of removing from his town, and leaving the Cape in their hands. This was but the first step of their encroachments. If left alone, they must, in a very few years, master the whole country. And as all other places were full, their own tribe must be without a home, and cease any longer to remain a nation.* This appeal (which evinces an intimate acquaintance with human nature and much foresight) induced the attack to which allusion has been made. A

* Memoir of American Colonists-vide The African Repository,' vol. 2, p、 174. [PART I.] 4

single paragraph from the Rev. Mr Ashmun's account of the battle with the natives may suffice to give the reader an idea of its destructiveness :

'A few musketeers with E. Johnson at their head, by passing round upon the enemy's flank, served to increase the consternation which was beginning to pervade their unwieldy body. In about twenty minutes after the settlers had taken their stand, the front of the enemy began to recoil. But from the numerous obstructions in their rear, the entire absence of discipline, and the extreme difficulty of giving a reversed motion to so large a body, a small part only of which was directly exposed to danger, and the delay occasioned by the practice of carrying off all their dead and wounded, rendered a retreat for some minutes longer, impossible. The very violence employed by those in the front, in their impatience to hasten it, by increasing the confusion, produced an effect opposite to that intended. The Americans perceiving their advantage, now regained possession of the western post, and instantly brought the long nine to rake the whole line of the enemy. Imagination can scarcely figure to itself a throng of human beings in a more capital state of exposure to the destructive power of the machinery of modern warfare! Eight hundred men were here pressed shoulder to shoulder, in so compact a form, that a child might easily walk upon their heads from one end of the mass to the other, presenting in their rear a breadth of rank equal to twenty or thirty men, and all exposed to a gun of great power, raised on a platform, at only thirty to sixty yards distance! Every shot literally spent its force in a solid mass of living human flesh! Their fire suddenly terminated. A savage yell was raised, which filled the dismal forest with a momentary horror. It gradually died away; and the whole host disappeared. At 8 o'clock, the well known signal of their dispersion and return to their homes was sounded, and many small parties seen at a distance, directly afterwards, moving off in different directions. One large canoe, employed in reconveying a party across the mouth of the Montserado, venturing within the range of the long gun, was struck by a shot, and several men killed.**

The above (which cannot be perused without a thrill of horror) is one of the legitimate fruits of foreign colonization. Subsequent to this bloody affair, another battle took place, which resulted in the defeat of the natives and the loss of many lives. It is true, the colony since that period has received little molestation, and has succeeded, moreover, in making some amicable treaties with the natives; but in proportion to its means of defence and numerical force will be its liability to encroach upon the rights of the Africans, and thus to provoke hostilities. If this prophecy should not be fulfilled, history will

* African Repository, vol. 2, p. 179.

have spoken in vain, and human nature experienced a total regeneration.

No man of refined sensibility can contemplate the fate of the aborigines of this country, without shuddering at the consequences of colonization; and if they melted away at the presence of the pilgrims and their descendants, like frost before the meridian blaze of the sun,-if they fell to the earth, like the leaves of the forest before the autumnal blast, by the settlement of men reputedly humane, wise and pious, in their vicinage,— what can be our hope for the preservation of the Africans, associated with a population degraded by slavery, and, to a lamentable extent, destitute of religious and secular knowledge? The argument, that the difference of complexion between our forefathers and the aborigines (which is not a distinctive feature between the settlers at Liberia and the natives) was the real cause of this deadly enmity, is more specious than solid. Conduct, not color, secures friendship or excites antipathy, as it happens to be just or unjust. The venerated William Penn and his pacific followers furnish a case in point.

I avow it—the natural tendency of the colony at Liberia excites the most melancholy apprehensions in my mind. Its birth was conceived in blood, and its footsteps will be marked with blood down to old age-the blood of the poor natives-unless a special interposition of Divine Providence prevent such a calamity. The emigrants will be eager in the acquisition of wealth, ease and power; and, having superior skill and discernment in trade, they will outwit and defraud the natives as often as occasion permits. This knavish treatment once detected,as it surely will be, for even an uncivilized people may soon learn that they have been cheated,-will provoke retaliation, and stir up the worst passions of the human breast. Bloody conflicts will ensue, in which the colonists will be victorious. This success will serve to increase the enmity of the natives, and to perpetuate the murderous struggle. The extirpation of one generation may put the colonists in undisputed possession of the land.

This is not a fancy sketch-it is not improbable : on the contrary, it is the obvious and hitherto certain consequence of

bringing hastily together large bodies of civilized men with unlettered barbarians.

Jealousy will be another fruitful source of contention. The population of Africa is divided into a vast number of tribes, governed by petty kings,—sometimes indeed united by an amicable league, but commonly distinct and independent. Some of these tribes will form alliances with the colonists, either to obtain protection from their more formidable rivals or from motives of fear, curiosity or selfishness. In this manner, tribe will be arrayed against tribe throughout that vast continent; the tide of commotion, gathering fresh impetuosity in its headlong career, will rush from the mountains down to the ocean, devastating all that is beautiful, and swiftly defacing that which will require the labors of centuries to restore to its pristine excellence; there will be wars and rumors of wars, succeeded by deceitful and unstable treaties ratified only to be broken at a favorable moment; and these collisions will not cease until the colonists obtain an undisputed mastery over the natives.

Would to Heaven these fears might prove to be but the offspring of a distracted mind! May the colonists be so just in their intercourse with the Africans, as never to impeach their own integrity; so pacific, as to disarm retaliation and perpetuate good will; so benevolent, as to excite gratitude and diffuse joy wherever their names shall be known; and so holy, as to exalt the christian religion in the eyes of an idolatrous nation! But he must be grossly ignorant of human nature, or strangely infatuated, who believes that they will always, or commonly, exhibit this unexceptionable conduct.

It is my sober conviction, that no contrivance or enterprise could possibly be planned more fatally calculated to obstruct the progress of christianity in a heathenish country, than the establishment of a colony, or colonies, of selfish, ignorant, or even intelligent and high-minded men, on its shores. In every settlement of this kind, no matter how choice the original materials,―vice will soon preponderate over virtue, intemperance over sobriety, knavery over honesty, oppression over liberty, and impiety over godliness. The natives will see just enough of christianity to hate and shun it; finding that its fruits are

generally bad-that it has no restraining influence upon the mass of its nominal professors, they will not easily comprehend the utility of abandoning their own idolatrous worship; looking only to the pernicious examples of the intruders, they will spurn with contempt the precepts of the gospel. Their confidence will be abused-their lands craftily trafficked for nought -their ignorance cheated-their inferiority treated oppressively; and then what must naturally follow? Why-wAR-a war of retaliation. All the vices, and few of the virtues, of the instructers, will be faithfully copied ; and thus barriers will be erected against the progress of the christian religion, not absolutely insurmountable, it is true, but sufficiently tall and strong to retard its noble career-barriers not only of superstition and ignorance, but of hatred and revenge. These reflections might be extended to the size of a volume; but they are probably sufficient to convince every unprejudiced, discerning mind, that the establishment of foreign colonies in a barbarous land is the surest way to prevent its speedy evangelism and civilization.

In reply to this reasoning, some of the advocates of African colonization may argue, that schools and houses of worship, multiplying with the growth of the settlement at Liberia, will check the evil propensities and passions of the emigrants, and qualify them to act as missionaries or instructers among the natives; and thus great good will be bestowed upon Africa. This is at least a summary, if not a sure mode of obviating these difficulties.

In the first place, it is by no means certain-nay, it is not probable, especially if the number of emigrants annually exported to Liberia swell from hundreds to thousands, (and this increase of transportation is positively promised by the Parent Society, and absolutely necessary to cause a perceptible diminution in the annual enlargement of our colored population)-I say, it is neither certain nor probable that the multiplication of literary and religious privileges will keep pace with the unnatural and enormous growth of the colony. Nine years after the first settlement of Liberia, it appears by the following extract of a letter from a highly respectable colored emigrant, (the Rev. George M. Erskine,) there was but the remnant of a