APPENDIX. 
437 
adoption of a different policy. If we acquire sovereignty over 
any given district in the neighbourhood of the Niger, it will be 
not for the purpose of enlarging the limits of our empire, but for 
the purpose of accomplishing an object, beyond all others, dear 
to the disinterested benevolence of this country, and of rescuing 
one of the most forlorn and populous regions of the world from 
the miseries of the Slave Trade. It has been truly observed, 
that “ the state of Africa is such that change as it may. it cannot 
change for the worse this is especially true with respect to the 
principles and objects of the present plan, which presents a 
striking contrast to those of almost every scheme of Emigration 
or Commerce of ancient or modern times. The acquisition of 
land and the assumption of sovereignty now recommended, will 
be based on a full recognition of the independent rights of 
African Chiefs and nations. 
It would be the result of voluntary cession, or of equitable 
purchase only. It would guarantee to individuals the possession 
of all personal and proprietary rights not inconsistent with justice 
and British institutions. It would rest upon the firm footing of 
the mutual interests of both contracting parties ; the benefits of 
Christianity and of British protection, on the one hand, amply 
compensating for the surrender of savage independence ; and, on 
the other hand, the advantages of enlarged and regular commerce, 
promising at no distant day, a sufficient reward for the additional 
labours and responsibilities of extended government. It is to be 
borne in mind that opportunities of this kind, if much longer 
neglected, may be finally lost. The Portuguese, in addition to 
their extensive possessions in Western Africa, have already 
assumed the sovereignty of a district extending fifteen hundred 
miles along the eastern coast; the American settlement of 
Liberia occupies three hundred miles of the western coast, and as 
we learn by a recent letter from Governor Buchanan, they are 
continually accepting the voluntary allegiance of Chiefs whose 
dominion stretches far into the interior. Your Lordship need 
not be reminded of the anxiety of the French to extend their 
African territory, and it is far from impossible that the Texians 
may, ere long, covet portions of the African soil, for the very 
purpose of giving facility to the Slave Trade. 
