Page:An address to the free people of color of the state of Maryland.djvu/14



experienced, and fever takes the place of mental excitement. Their friends and family are also sick around them; they miss the care and attention of former friends, and many of the comforts and luxuries of their old homes. The fever leaves them low and nervous; home-sickness and remembrance of their far-off home, new diet, new habits of life, and new faces, not always the most kind and friendly, all tend to depress and dispirit them, and many is the emigrant who would at this juncture sell himself for life, if he could once more return to America—to his old master or mistress. Many indulge these feelings for a long time after recovery, nourish indolence and discontent, and disseminate the same among others. Sometimes months elapse before an effort is made to do any tiling for themselves or their families, and oftentimes they never make an effort, but return in some vessel to this country, filling the land with reports of pestilence, starvation, Government oppression, slave trade, big snakes, monkey soup, and the like marvels. Others of this class, who cannot get back, after a while begin to come to, and cast about for some means of livelihood and often become good citizens. Another class, although they may surfer equally from the disease of the climate and other causes, never for a moment give way to depression, and soon get in way of thrift and usefulness. As a general rule, letters, written on first arrival out, are cheering and hopeful; for six months after the fever, despondent and whining, "carry me back to old Virginia;" a year after, "I could live here if I had so and so;" eighteen months, "right smart I thank you, sir;" at the end of two years, "I would not come back to live for the best farm in Maryland" This is about a fair picture of the process which most emigrants go through; but this vacillation of feeling from hope to despondency, and the reverse, is mainly confined to the first year or two of African life. When once acclimated and settled down, the Liberian not only becomes satisfied with his new home and country, but ardently attached to it, proud of it, and ready to sacrifice his life for his Government. Nowhere have I ever witnessed a more strong and lively attachment to country, or stronger feeling of patriotism, than in the people of Liberia.

It must be well known to you that the majority of those who emigrate are poor and ignorant. Many manumitted slaves, consisting of whole families, of both sexes and all ages, from the decrepid grandsire to the infant at the breast. Therefore, it is to be expected that a large proportion of the citizens of Liberia are poor people, many destitute, and dependent to a greater or less degree upon charity, either an extension of aid from the Colonization Society or upon the Liberians themselves, individually or associated. This must, of necessity, be the case. It is so in this and in all countries, and in many to quite as great an extent as in Liberia. But with ordinary health and even moderate industry, no one need want for necessary food, shelter and clothing. Taking the emigrants as they land let us see what becomes of them, as a general rule. First, orphan children; as said before, they are provided for by the Agent of the Society for six