Report.

Ten years have now elapsed, since a few individuals assembled in this city, and deliberately formed themselves into an Institution for the purpose of establishing a Colony of the Free People of Colour of the United States, on the coast of Africa.

An enterprise of such a nature, so vast in conception, various in its relations, and remote in its consequences and its benefits, was seen to be involved in uncertainty, because relying for its full execution upon the aid of those, whose approbation could not reasonably be expected, until created by other evidences of its utility, than those which the scheme, as merely theoretick, pre sented to the public mind.

But should the means be contributed for demonstrating, experimentally, the utility of the plans of the Society, so far, as the actual establishment of a Colony on the African coast could be regarded as such demonstration, still, it was manifest, that, on the delicate but momentous question of the probable effects of this Colony upon the condition and interests of the great mass of our coloured population, two opinions would be adopted, entirely contradictory, and both, therefore, widely varying from the real purposes and hopes of the Institution.

The want of satisfactory information concerning the soil, climate, and natives of Africa, and the methods most expedient to be adopted for the acquisition of Territory, and the very general aversion of the Free People of Colour to a design, which all of them could feel to be hazardous, but which few could comprehend; increasing, as it necessarily must, the indifference of those of our citizens who are governed rather by sympathy than reflection; constituted obstacles truly formidable, but which it was impossible to avoid.

It may not perhaps be irrelevant to the present occasion, to consider for a moment, by what motives and arguments the founders of this Society were enabled to sustain themselves in their earliest efforts for a cause, embarrassed by difficulties so numerous and immense, and so destitute of attraction to the eye of an ordinary observer.

There was a moral grandeur in the design itself, which rendered the bare possibility of its accomplishment a motive sufficient to justify every possible exertion. It presented itself in relations infinitely important to those whom it would remove from our shores; was seen connected with the domestic happiness, social order, political strength, and all the higher interests of our country; and seemed to offer the only hope, of rescuing Africa from the invaders of her rights, and the murderers of her children, and of imparting to her tribes, whose sable aspect is but the shadow of a darker mind, the pure and undying light of our religion.

In the operations of the Society, it was obvious that the principal difficulties must be encountered at the outset. That a few enlightened citizens might be induced to furnish the means for exploring the coast of Africa, there was reason to hope; and a favourable report from those delegated for this purpose, could not fail to secure

aid for the emigration of such intelligent and energetic adventurers as have never been found wanting to enterprises of the most arduous and dangerous character. Every practical movement of the Society would draw the public attention to its plans, and if successful, exhibit evidence of their utility which no developement of a theory, however plausible, could produce. Accounts from Africa would be perused by all; by the fanciful and inquisitive for the novelty of their statements, by the thoughtful and pious to learn the character of its inhabitants, and the best methods of instructing them in the principles of our faith. Thus reflection would be excited, and the objects of the Society become better understood; a knowledge of their nature would secure belief in their importance; the spirit of charity would advance with the progress of conviction; truth and time would soften down prejudice; and through the agency of the press, unremitted efforts and fervent prayer, the thoughts which dwelt at first in the breasts of a few, might finally enlist the sympathies and command the powers of the nation.

Animated by such considerations, the original Managers of this Society resolved to proceed, and the history of their operations for the last ten years, as detailed in their Annual Reports, will show the sobriety of their purposes, and the reasonableness of their hopes.

The facts connected with the efforts of the Society during the last year, and now to be presented to this Meeting, will add, the Managers trust, no little weight to the accumulated evidence heretofore adduced, of the practicableness and expediency of the scheme in which they are engaged.

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It was stated by the Managers in their last Report, that the liberality of their friends had enabled them to despatch for the Colony the brig Vine with thirty four emigrants, a missionary, and printer, accompanied by the Rev. Horace Sessions, an Agent of the Society, who proposed to return in the same vessel; and that the Indian Chief was about to depart from Norfolk with a much larger number of passengers. The first of these vessels sailed from Boston on the fourth of January, and arrived at Liberia on the seventh of February; the last left Norfolk on the 15th of February, and completed her passage on the 22d of March.

A printing press, with all its necessary appendages, many valuable books, and other articles of equal importance, were shipped on board the Vine by the citizens of Boston, who evinced still farther their liberality, by as. suming the whole expense of the printing establishment for the first year.* Eighteen of the emigrants by this vessel were, just before their departure, at their own request, organized into a church, and the impressive exercises of the occasion, upon which thousands attended with heartfelt interest, deepened the concern for the prosperity of the expedition. But the counsels of Heaven are too mysterious for human scrutiny, and the Almighty was pleased to visit this little company with a mortality unprecedented in the history of the Colony. Scarcely had the Managers seen announced in the first sheet ever issued from the Colonial press, the arrival of the Vine, before they received the mournful tidings of the decease of the Rev. Horace Sessions, Mr. Charles L. Force, the printer, and twelve of the emigrants, with whom others must now be reckoned, including the

missionary, the Rev. Calvin Holton, making in all nearly half the whole number of those who embarked from New England. But the attention of the Meeting is not left to dwell on this melancholy statement.

The Indian Chief conveyed to Africa one hundred and fifty-four persons, of which one hundred and thirtynine were from the State of North Carolina. Not an individual of the latter number suffered materially from sickness, while some who left Norfolk in bad health, derived, ultimately, benefit from the change of climate. All felt more or less severely the symptoms of fever, ague, and prostration of strength, which the system must necessarily experience, on a transition from a temperate to a tropical climate; but they soon recovered their vigour, and proceeded to the erection of buildings, and the clearing of their lands.

As both these expeditions sailed from the United States in the winter, the striking contrast in their subsequent condition is doubtless owing, in great measure, to the wide difference in the change experienced by the two companies of emigrants; a difference which must be estimated by comparing the less constitutional liability to tropical disease, and the lesser influence of the season affecting those from the South, with the greater liability, and the more powerful influence of the season to which those from the North were exposed. It has been very justly remarked by the Colonial Agent, that as it would be rash for our friends in North Carolina to conclude that no emigrant from that State will hereafter suffer from the African climate, so it would be equally wide from sober calculation for the citizens of New England to determine from a single experiment, that

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