were seeking for is Psalms 68, 31, 'Princes shall come
out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God,'
under which name all that part of Africa inhabited by negroes may be
comprehended, and that these are the people here intended is clear
from Jer. 13, 23, 'can the Ethiopian change his skin?'

"Since my return I have received letters from Thomas Nicholson in
North Carolina, Edward Stabler in Virginia, and James Berry in
Maryland, all leading members in their several yearly meetings (these
I shall be glad to communicate to thee) expressive of their concern
for forwarding the great and good work we are engaged in. Edward
Stabler, clerk of the yearly meeting of Virginia, expresses, that
though they have not yet received the encouragement they desire to
their petition in England, yet it has not abated the zeal of some of
their leading men against the traffic."

* * * * *

"PHILADELPHIA, FOURTH MONTH, 28th, 1773.

"_Doctor John Fothergill_,

"Thy kind letter of the twenty-eighth of Eight Month last, I received
in due time, and gratefully acknowledge thy kind sympathy therein
expressed. I am likeminded with thee, with respect to the danger and
difficulty which would attend a sudden manumission of those negroes
now in the southern colonies, as well as to themselves, as to the
whites; wherefore except in particular cases the obtaining their
freedom, and indeed the freedom of many even amongst us, is by no
means the present object of my concern. But the best endeavors in our
power to draw the notice of the governments, upon the grievous
iniquity and great danger attendant on a further prosecution of the
slave trade, is what every truly sympathising mind cannot but
earnestly desire, and under divine direction promote to the utmost of
their power. If this could be obtained, I trust the sufferings of
those already amongst us, by the interposition of the government, and
even from selfish ends in their masters, would be mitigated, and in
time Providence would gradually work for the release of those, whose
age and situation would fit them for freedom. The settlements now in
prospect to be made in that large extent of country, from the west
side of the Allegany mountains to the Mississippi, on a breadth of
four or five hundred miles, would afford a suitable and beneficial
means of settlement for many of them among the white people, which
would in all probability be as profitable t