THE WESTERN COAST. 
they boasted, by assuming the lash of the task- 
master. Who first attempted to demolish the in- 
fernal prison-house, and to raise over its ruins 
the temple of freedom ? Who first attempted to 
vindicate insulted humanity, and to burst the 
chains which the sanction of ages had rivetted ? 
The Swedish nation may claim the glory of form- 
ing the first specific plan for alleviating the evils 
which the inhuman man-trade has occasioned in 
Africa ; and the Danes of carrying into execution 
the first agricultural establishment, for instruct- 
ing the negroes in the cultivation of their fertile 
soil, and teaching them to avenge their wrongs 
on the abettors of slavery, by rearing a bulwark 
for freedom in the Land of Slaves. 
The Swedish design of establishing a colony in 
Africa, which, by its original organization, might 
exclude every political, financial, and mercantile 
principle, that appeared inconsistent with the hap- 
piness of mankind, though it only terminated in 
exploring a part of that continent, originated in 
the purest and most disinterested motives. In the 
year 1799, some members of a society formed for 
diffusing those principles of civilization which ap- 
peared to be best calculated for promoting social 
order and general happiness, met at Norkioping in 
Sweden, toconsiderthe colonization andcultivation 
of waste lands in Europe, upon philanthropic prin- 
ciples. What seemed impracticable in Europe, 
