among the natives; and thus great good will
be bestowed upon Africa. This is at least a summary, if not a sure mode
of obviating these difficulties.

In the first place, it is by no means certain--nay, it is not probable,
especially if the number of emigrants annually exported to Liberia swell
from hundreds to thousands, (and this increase of transportation is
positively promised by the Parent Society, and absolutely necessary to
cause a perceptible diminution in the annual enlargement of our colored
population)--I say, it is neither certain nor probable that the
multiplication of literary and religious privileges will keep pace with
the unnatural and enormous growth of the colony. Nine years after the
first settlement of Liberia, it appears by the following extract of a
letter from a highly respectable colored emigrant, (the Rev. George M.
Erskine,) there was but the 'remnant of a school' left! This letter is
dated '_Caldwell, Liberia, April 3, 1830_.'

'Sir, the state of things, with regard to schools, is truly
lamentable. _The only school in the Colony at this time, is a
remnant of one at the Cape._ Among the present emigrants, there
are seventeen out of forty-eight that can read the Holy
Scriptures, _leaving thirty-one that cannot_. Now, Sir, suppose
each company of emigrants to this place bring a like proportion
of illiterate persons into the Colony, then what state, think
you, it must be in? But again, Sir: I am greatly mistaken if
this Colony is not, for several years yet to come, mostly to be
peopled with slaves sent out by their present owners, without
any education themselves, and without means and very little
desire to have their children instructed; and add to the above,
that this people is planted in the midst, and are daily
conversant with, a people that are not only heathen, but a
people extremely partial in favor of their grovelling
superstition. My dear Sir, this being the case, _whether is it
probable that they will come over to us, or we go down to them_?
To me the latter is the most likely, _as it is the very essence
of human nature to seek the lowest depth of degradation_. Permit
me to say, Sir, there must be a great revolution in this Colony
before it can have a salutary influence on the surrounding
natives; that is, before it can have a moral influence over
them.'[G]

Subsequent accounts, I am happy to