Page:The future of Africa.djvu/247

Rh comparative ease of forming crews. Colored seamen, in large numbers, I apprehend, can easily be obtained. Even in the United States, their numbers are legion; and we may proudly say that, in activity, dutifulness, and skill, they are equal to any sailors on the globe. Nor would there be any great lack of the needed class just above the grade of sailors; that is, a class who would join intelligence and knowledge to practicalness. What a number of men, trained to a late boyhood in the colored schools, do we not know who have sailed for years out of New York as "stewards" in the great "liners." How many of these are there not, who, both at school and by experience, have attained a real scientific acquainance with navigation. And how many of them, had they been white men, would, long ere this, have risen to the posts of mates and captains! How many of such could you and I point out who were our schoolmates in the old "free school," in Mulberry street?

Here, then, you have the material and the designated agency for an almost boundless commercial 11