Page:The A. B. C. of Colonization.djvu/15

10 and frustrate what we wish to promote,—lest we encourage idleness and pauperism, and much that is evil, instead of checking them. If, however, the humane and natural feelings of our people are wisely directed, and if by their own individual exertions are helped and patronised, we may make the evils that have accumulated under the Park Street system of emigration, the groundwork for a sound plan of Colonization,—we have nothing to do but to follow the yearnings of human nature, in order to carry out a system that will support itself. But to return to the Government Depot, here we find congregated together broken up families; young couples without children, or single young women, perhaps perfect strangers to all around them; each party leaving behind them in all probability, parents, brothers, sisters, &c., without almost any hope of re-union; here is a mass of human beings inwardly lamenting their separation from those most dear to them; they go on board under harrowed feelings, and the young women are placed under the care of a matron, who is viewed as a very subordinate character. These are trying situations for human nature, and a dangerous position for young women to find themselves in, for amongst them there exists no common feeling, except that of perfect indifference to each other,—the innocent and the helpless stand there exposed to the wiles of the snarer. Who has not been shocked by the frightful details we have read in the public papers, how orphan after orphan had been victimized on board emigrant ships by men calling themselves Christians; how modest maidens have been brutalized over and insulted by those whose peculiar duty it was to protect them. With such facts before the public, let us hope the first attempt at Colonizaticn will be viewed with indulgence, and