1830.] United Stales of America, and British West Indies. 523 



another portion of forest land. This circumstance must always operate 

 to discourage agricultural pursuits in Sierra Leone. 



The total number of slaves liberated in 1828 appears to be 2,558; 

 the total number in charge on the 31st December of that year,, 15,004. 

 The number of persons who have left the villages in 1 828,, and whose 

 absence cannot be accounted for, is no less than 680, besides 1,341 stated 

 as supposed to be settled in Freetown, or employed up Ike river! Here 

 are 2, 021 people, or one-eighth of the whole, liberated at a great expense 

 to government, many of whom have undoubtedly deserted, or been kid- 

 napped, and again carried into slavery by the neighbouring tribes ! !* 



These parliamentary papers contain ample medical reports on the in- 

 salubrity of the climate. We shall, however, take leave of the African 

 Coast and Sierra Leone, by again urging the policy and necessity of 

 getting quit of the latter, except as a factory, at as early a period as, 

 under all the circumstances of the case, humanity will permit. The 

 removal of even a part of the people and stores, and the cost of esta- 

 blishing them on new ground, cannot be effected without expense ; but 

 when the cost of re-erecting nearly all the present public buildings, and 

 keeping effective, by constant supplies of men and money, a larger esta- 

 blishment there than might be fully adequate to the same purpose else- 

 where, is taken into consideration, we have no doubt that the incidental 

 expense, whatever may plausibly be said to the contrary by interested 

 individuals, would, in the end, prove to be a considerable saving. 



A very slight examination of Captain Hall's Travels in the United 

 States will, we think, prove that he has paid very particular attention 

 to the subject of slavery there ; and we are not aware, after a very careful 

 examination of his remarks, that he has been swayed by any other con- 

 siderations than an earnest desire to elicit the truth. He says, " by 

 gradually acquiring a more extensive knowledge of the facts of the case, 

 under many different forms, I was enabled, I trust, to escape from the 

 influence of enthusiasm or of paradox on the one hand, and of strong 

 and often angry passions and interests on the other. To steer a fair 

 course, in the midst of such a strange kind of moral and political navi- 

 gation, is a hard task for any traveller." This, however, appears to be 

 a task which the captain has performed with great impartiality and con- 

 siderable ability. 



The first two volumes relate to his visit to Canada and sojourn amongst 

 the sober, dram-drinking, scheming, wood-chopping, electioneering, 

 " what-do-ye-think-of-us" citizens of the northern states of the Union. 

 Leaving Philadelphia in December, 1827, he proceeded in a steamer to 

 Newcastle, forty miles below the first mentioned city, and from thence 

 by land to Frenchtown, on the left bank of the Elk river, a small stream 

 running into the Chesapeake, where, in the steam-boat, " the tables were 

 removed by three or four light-fingered negro domestic slaves, I was 

 given to understand ; for we had now come within the limits of that 

 large portion of the Union, where the labouring population do not even 

 possess the name of freedom." f 



As the immense number of slaves in the states of the Union is not 

 generally known in this country, especially to many persons who derive 

 their only knowledge of the subject from the reports of anti-slavery 



* Vide Caillie's Travels, vol. i. p. 256. 



-J- Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828, by Captain Basil Hall, R.N. 

 vol. ii. p. 381. 



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