every similar movement would be attended with a like calamity.

The health of the Colonists (those who arrived in the Vine excepted) has been well nigh universal and uninterrupted, and no less animated and robust than that which they enjoyed in America. Among the passengers in the Indian Chief, the symptoms of disease were, in many instances, only sufficiently developed to show their specific character, and in nearly every case, yielded readily to the power of medicine. Many of the children and youth exhibit as much activity and muscular strength as the natives themselves; and "the adults who have resided for some years in the Colony, seem to acquire for the climate a peculiar predilection." The natives of the coast are remarkable for their vigorous and well proportioned frames, which are seldom broken or debilitated by disease. Probably no race of nen enjoy health more uniformly, or in greater perfection. It is a fact also well ascertained, and peculiarly encouraging in reference to the African climate, that the country gradually rises from the sea-board into the interiour, and that between these two regions, there exists a difference both in temperature and elevation nearly resembling what is found in our own Southern States.

The system of Government established with the full consent of the Colonists, in the autumn of 1824, and which the Managers had the happiness to represent in their last Report, as having thus far fulfilled all the purposes of its institution, has continued its operations during the year without the least irregularity, and with undiminished success. The republican principle is introduced as far as is consistent with the youthful and unformed character of the settlement, and in the election of their officers the Colonists have evinced such in

tegrity and judgment as afford promise of early preparation for all the duties of self-government. "The civil prerogatives and government of the Colony and the body of the laws by which they are sustained," says the Colonial Agent, "are the pride of all. I am happy in the persuasion I have, that I hold the balance of the laws in the midst of a people, with whom the first perceptible inclination of the sacred scale determines authoritatively, their sentiments and their conduct. There are individual exceptions, but these remarks extend to the body of the settlers."*

The moral and religious character of the Colony, exerts a powerful influence on its social and civil condition. That piety which had guided most of the early emigrants to Liberia, even before they left this country, to respectability and usefulness among their associates, prepared them, in laying the foundations of a Colony, to act with a degree of wisdom and energy which no earthly motives could inspire. Humble, and for the most part unlettered men; born and bred in circumstances the most unfavourable to mental culture; unsustained by the hope of renown, and unfamiliar with the history of great achievements and heroic virtues, their's was nevertheless a spirit unmoved by dangers or by sufferings, which misfortunes could not darken, nor death dismay.† They left America, and felt that it was forever: they landed in Africa, possibly to find a home, but certainly a grave. Strange would it have been had the religion of every individual of these early settlers proved genuine; but immensely changed as have been their circumstances and severely tried their faith, most have preserved untarnished the honours of their profession, and to the purity of their morals and the consistency of their conduct, is in a great measure to be attributed the social order and general prosperity of the Colony of Liberia. Their example has proved most salutary; and while subsequent emigrants have found themselves awed and restrained, by their regularity, seriousness and devotion, the poor natives have given their confidence and acknowledged the excellence of practical Christianity. "It deserves record," says Mr. Ashmun, "that religion has been the principal agent employed in laying and confirming the foundations of the settlement. To this sentiment ruling, restraining, and actuating the minds of a large proportion of the Colonists, must be referred the whole strength of our civil government." Examples of intemperance, profaneness or licentiousness, are extremely rare, and vice, wherever it exists, is obliged to seek concealment from the public eye. The Sabbath is universally respected; Sunday schools, both for the children of the Colony and for the natives, are established; all classes attend regularly upon the worship of God; some charitable associations have been formed for the benefit of the heathen; and though it must not be concealed, that the deep concern on the subject of religion, which resulted, towards the conclusion of the year 1825, in the public profession of Christianity by about fifty Colonists, has in a measure subsided, and some few cases of delinquency since occurred; and though there are faults growing out of the early condition and habits of the settlers which require amendment; yet the Managers have reason to believe, that there is a vast and increasing preponderance on the side of correct principle and virtuous practice. One gratifying instance has occurred in which two Methodist Societies, long separated, have been induced by juster views, unanimously to unite in the same discipline and worship. On this subject the Managers will only add, that the moral interests of the Colony have been most essentially promoted by the eminent piety and labours of its ministers.

The agriculture of the Colony has received less attention than its importance demands. This is to be attributed to the fact, that the labour of the settlers has been applied to objects conducing more immediately to their subsistence and comfort. They have been too much occupied in the construction of houses and public buildings, and in conducting a profitable traffic with the natives, to leave much time to make permanent improvements on their plantations. The best methods of cultivation appear to be imperfectly understood, and the lands which were early cleared on the Cape, are inferior to those more recently surveyed and allotted to emigrants on the St. Paul's. Crops which exhibited the fairest promise until near the time of harvest, have been severely injured by the various and numerous animals and insects which inhabit the neighbouring forests. "The cultivation of a larger number of contiguous farms will tend to preserve them all from depredations," and these destroyers can hardly retain their "accustomed haunts" another season.

It will not, the Board trust, be concluded that, because more might have been done for the agricultural interests of the Colony, what has been effected is inconsiderable. Two hundred and twenty four plantations, of from five to ten acres each, were, in June last, occupied by the settlers, and most of them are believed to be at present under cultivation. One hundred and fourteen of these are on Cape Montserado, thirty-three on Stockton creek, (denominated the Halfway Farms, because nearly equidistant from Monrovia and Caldwell, the St. Paul's settlement) and seventy-seven at the confluence of Stockton creek with the St. Paul's.

The St. Paul's Territory includes the Halfway Farms, and is represented as a beautiful tract of country, comparatively open, well watered and fertile, and still further recommended as having been, for ages, selected by the natives on account of its productiveness for their rice and cassada plantations. The agricultural habits of the present occupants of this tract, concur with the advantages of their situation, in affording promise of success to their exertions. "Nothing," says the Colonial Agent, "but circumstances of the most extraordinary nature, can prevent them from making their way directly to respectability and abundance."

Oxen were trained to labour in the Colony in 1825, and it was then expected that the plough would be introduced in the course of another year. Although commerce has thus far taken the lead of agriculture, yet the excellence of the soil, the small amount of labour required for its cultivation, and the value and abundance of its products, cannot fail, finally, to render the latter the more cherished, as it is, certainly, the more important interest of the Colony.

The Trade of Liberia has increased with a rapidity almost unexampled, and while it has supplied the Colonists not only with the necessaries, but with the conveniences and comforts of life, the good faith with which it has been conducted, has conciliated the friendship of the natives, and acquired the confidence of foreigners.

The regulations of the Colony allowing no credits, except by written permission, and requiring the barter to be carried on through factories established for the