rew
of his ship, there was one on his late surveying voyage, uttered by an
old sailor, who said, that as soon as he was paid off, he would set up a
public-house in Wapping, with the sign of The Bag and Nippers,[19] and
the words "Watch, there, watch!" written underneath. Notwithstanding
this poor fellow's joke, he entered a second time with Captain Owen, on
board the Eden, for an equally hazardous voyage, which he did not
survive. I was near him in his last moments, when the fatal signal of
ebbing life--the rattles in the throat--fell on the ear like the
melancholy sound of the muffled drum in a dead march.

_Sunday, 7th_.--Light airs and variable, with rain at times. Cape
Mesurada in sight great part of the day. Under the eastern side of this
Cape is the American settlement of Liberia. The origin and progress of
this colony present so many points of interest, that I am induced to lay
before my readers a succinct account of its early history. I am chiefly
indebted for the materials of this sketch to a pamphlet, which I
procured in Sierra Leone, published a short time before in Washington.

The first efforts of the American Colonization Society were directed to
Sierra Leone in 1818, when two Agents were sent there to purchase land
for a new colony; on their arrival at their destination, two men of
colour, well acquainted with the coast, accompanied them on a voyage of
exploration. Having examined all the places which appeared suitable for
their purposes, they finally made arrangements for forming the new
colony on Sherbro Island, about 100 miles south of Sierra Leone, when
one of the agents returned to America, the other having died on his
passage. The Society now resolved to fit out an expedition immediately,
in which they were greatly aided by the President, the object seeming to
be well calculated to promote the political advantages of the United
States. The first colonists left America in February, 1820. They
consisted of two government agents, one from the society, and
eighty-eight persons of colour. These emigrants were very unfortunate:
they arrived just at the commencement of the rainy season, the _damps_
of which were much increased by the unhealthiness of the low, marshy
ground of the Sherbro. The result was that all the agents, and a great
number of the colonists died; the remainder wisely abandoned a
speculation so fruitful of risk. Those people remained at Sierra Leone
until new agents were sent out, and an