40 AMERICAN SETTLEMENT 



obtain supplies of wood ; and immediately on 

 his arrival, the inhabitants went to work and cut 

 sufficient wood in two days to fill both vessels. 

 On the 2l4th we recrossed the bar, and proceeded 

 on our voyage with the Alburkah in tow. 



As Liberia is a settlement that has been much 

 talked of, having excited a great deal of interest 

 in this country, I am induced to record the im- 

 pression it made on my mind during our short 

 stay there. It is well known that the object of 

 this colony is professedly the civilisation of Africa, 

 by the introduction of free American negroes as 

 voluntary settlers, under a democratical form of 

 government. But let us inquire how this object 

 is carried into execution. In the American States, 

 particularly those of the South, the life of a free 

 negro is embittered by every means that the in- 

 genuity of a slave-holder can devise : he is con- 

 stantly liable to insult and oppression, and is 

 always looked on with suspicion and distrust ; — 

 suspicion, from the consciousness of his oppressor 

 that he has much to avenge, — distrust, from the 

 increase of their number, wealth, and intelligence. 

 These appeared to me the principal motives for 

 establishing the colony of Liberia. The free ne- 

 groes of the Southern States of America were 



