Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/87

 fertile territory in reserve, where our future emigrants may sit under their own vines and fig-trees, with none to make them afraid. During the last year an amount nearly equal to the united expenditures in effecting these objects, has been exported by the colonists; and from Philadelphia alone eleven vessels have sailed, bearing to the land of their forefathers a large number of slaves manumitted by the benevolence of their owners." — Truly may it be said, that the annals of colonization have no parallel to this. The Divine blessing appears plainly to have been with the cause.

"The chief town, ," says Mr. Freeman (writing in 1837), "contains about five hundred houses and stores [dwellings and warehouses], a court-house, five churches — one Presbyterian, two Methodist, and two Baptist — three flourishing schools, one of which has upwards of a hundred scholars, — a temperance society, numbering upwards of five hundred members, — and about 1,500 inhabitants. The houses are generally well built, and of a pleasant appearance. The city is seventy feet above the sea, and the temperature mild and agreeable. The streets are one hundred feet wide, crossing each other at right angles. The harbor, which is formed by the mouth of the river, is convenient and Spacious for vessels of moderate dimensions.

"Seven miles north of the outlet of the Mesurado is the river St. Paul's, on which is the town of This town, after the plan of some American villages, has but one street, which is a mile and a half long, and is planted on each side with a beautiful row of plantain and banana trees. Caldwell is an agricultural