d exposed, into a storm, he will surely run a chance of
catching an illness: so too, if a man penetrate to the tropics, and
carry with him the habits of England or France, he will certainly peril
his life, for these habits are unsuitable to places where a vertical
sun pours down its scorching rays upon the body. Every climate requires
especial modes of conduct for physical constitution. Brandy and water
might be a very good beverage, and even a medicinal protective at the
North Pole, but it would be ruinous if taken in excess at Sierra Leone.
It is because emigrants do not sufficiently study the situation to
which they bend their steps, that they so often complain of failure. We
have seen in the first expedition from the United States, that the
project terminated fatally for nearly all the colonists; but why?
Because they went to a low marshy island, at the commencement of the
rainy season, when disease in its worst horrors was just setting in.
How could they expect to escape a contagion, which they actually seemed
to court?

If the example of the colony of Liberia were to be followed, if
wholesome laws were laid down to regulate the movements of emigrants,
and proper precautions taken, by which all the advantages of position
might be seized, and the disadvantages avoided, I have very little
doubt that colonization would ultimately prove a valuable safety-valve
for society. The idle and wretched, who have no hopes or friends at
home, might always be thus beneficially drafted off to infant states,
where they could be made to labour, and where their recovered habits
could be rendered subservient to the common good. At home they hang on
the necks of the industrious; there they might be converted to useful
members of the great community, improving the means of the social body,
instead of deteriorating its morals, and wasting its resources.

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[19] This is a small bag filled with air, for the purpose of floating
nippers that are attached to it, through which the line passes, being
intended to fasten itself to the line on the surface of the water the
moment you check it on perceiving the lead strike the bottom, by which
means more correct soundings are obtained.

CHAP. VI.

The Kroo Country--Religion of the Kroo and Fish men--Emigration of the
Natives--Sketch of their habits and customs--Purchase of wives--The
Krooman's _ne plus ultra_--Migratory propensities--Rogueries exposed--
Adoption of English Names-