climate, who will encourage and fortify them against that
despondency, which alone has carried off several in the first
years of the colony. But, you may say, that even health and
freedom, good as they are, are still dearly paid for, when they
cost you the common comforts of life, and expose your wives and
children to famine and all the evils of poverty. We do not
dispute the soundness of this conclusion neither--but we utterly
deny that it has any application to the people of Liberia. Away
with all the false notions that are circulating about the
barrenness of this country. They are the observations of such
ignorant or designing men, as would injure both it and you. A
more fertile soil and a more productive country, so far as it is
cultivated, there is not, we believe, on the face of the earth.
Its hills and its plains are covered with a verdure which never
fades--the productions of nature keep on in their growth through
all the seasons of the year. Even the natives of the country,
almost without farming tools, without skill, and with very little
labour, make more grain and vegetables than they can consume, and
often more than they can sell.

Cattle, swine, fowls, ducks, goats and sheep, thrive without
feeding--and require not other care than to keep them from
straying. Cotton, coffee, Indigo, and sugar cane are all the
spontaneous growth of our forests; and may be cultivated at
pleasure to any extent, by such as are disposed. The same may be
said of rice, indian corn, guinea corn, millet, and too many
species of fruits and vegetables to be enumerated. Add to all
this, we have no dreary winter here, for one half of the year, to
consume the productions of the other half; nature is constantly
renewing herself, and constantly pouring her treasures, all the
year round, into the lap of the industrious. We could say on this
subject more; but we are afraid of exciting too highly the hopes
of the _imprudent_. It is only the industrious and virtuous that
we can point to independence and plenty and happiness in this
country. Such people are nearly sure, to attain in a very few
years, to a style of comfortable living, which they may in vain
hope for in the United States. And however short we come of the
character ourselves, it is only a due acknowled