INTRODUCTION. 47 



civilised than the African, more hardy and hard-working than the 

 Asiatic, less prejudiced and enervated than the Creole, the settle- 

 ment of such of the West India islands as are in need of population 

 by the coloured people of the States, is an enterprise worthy the 

 serious consideration and strenuous efforts of the statesman and 

 the philanthropist,' of the great Republican Union itself, and of 

 those nations which have the lead in Europe, particularly of Eng- 

 land and France. 



The state of degradation in which the African race is kept in 

 North America must make them anxious for a better home, for 

 not only do they not enjoy political privileges, but they are every- 

 where kept in a position of servile inferiority, even in the every- 

 day concerns of life, in railway carriages, at theatres, on board of 

 steamers, and, harsher than all, in the temples of a common 

 FATHER. This is the condition of the coloured people, not only in 

 what are called the slave states, as Louisiana, Alabama, the Caro- 

 linas, or Virginia, but also in Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, &c. 

 Is there to be found a class of society so much degraded in any 

 part of the world, except perhaps the Farias and the Poohlias in 

 Hindostan ? Could these people hesitate for a moment to grasp at 

 immigration, were sufficient inducement offered them, to en- 

 courage their settlement in those free and beautiful islands ? And 

 would the government of the States have any objection to the 

 emigration of that class ? On the contrary, they seem anxious to 

 eject that foreign element from their national composition ; laws 

 have already been passed in some of the free states prohibitive of 

 their settlement there. It is therefore natural, that the United 

 States government should readily concur in any plan which would 

 tend to relieve them of the coloured population ; for this popula- 

 tion, whether slave or free, is viewed with a jealous eye by the 

 whites, and they are fully alive to the inconveniences, not to say 

 the dangers, arising from the presence, on the same territory, of 

 two races so broadly antagonistic. Listen to what Lieutenant 

 Maury says on the subject : " The valley of the Amazon, with 

 its magnificent and interesting future, presents itself to the 

 American mind in another point of view. 



" That view we hastily sketch, presenting only the main feature 

 of it. 



" If ever the vegetation there be subdued and brought under, 

 if ever the soil be reclaimed from the forest, the reptile, and the 

 wild beast, and subjected to the plough and hoe, it must be done 

 by the African with the American axe in his hand ; and he alone is 

 equal to the task which man has to accomplish in the valley of 

 the Amazon. 



" At the north the spirit of emancipation has been pressing 

 the black man down to the south. He is now almost confined to 

 the waters of the gulf. In the south the same spirit has pressed 



