This weapon's point must heal the wound of love, And fill with horror every sleepless night!' Rinaldo now rushed behind her, and withheld her hand. Again he vowed himself her champion, and swore to restore her to the throne of her fathers. He spoke; and speaking, sought her breast to move Meanwhile, Godfrey gathered the last laurels on the battle-field, the few remaining foes falling, flying, or surrendering. Thus Godfrey conquered; and as yet the day The domes where Christ had made his blest abode. HE little African republic of Liberia has of late years excited in this country and other parts of Europe, as well as in America, an amount of interest which, unless its sources were known, would appear quite out of proportion to the actual importance of that infant commonwealth. A small community of emancipated slaves and descendants of slaves, recently established on a remote and unfrequented coast, would seem likely to attract but little notice, and that only of a casual and half-contemptuous kind. Such would certainly have been the manner and spirit in No. 57. 1 which Roman statesmen and philosophers, in the days of Scipio or of Augustus, would have regarded such an insignificant colony of freedmen, if indeed they had deigned to notice it at all. But at the present day we have learned, or are gradually learning, to estimate communities, as well as individuals, by a new standard. The result is, that this young and feeble colony, whose brief history inspires so many hopes for the cause of human progress, is regarded by many persons with an interest which might almost be termed affectionate. The extinction of the slave-trade, and ultimately of slavery itself-the diffusion of Christian civilisation over the vast interior of Africa-such are the splendid results which philanthropists and politicians expect from the success and extension of this settlement. Men of science and men of business, who confine their attention to their own special pursuits, cannot but regard with curiosity and good-will the prosperous growth of a community which seems destined to solve the long-vexed question of the capacity of the African race for selfgovernment, and to convert the African peninsula into a vast garden of tropical products for the supply of industrious and wealthy Europe. Views and expectations like these influencing the minds of eminent statesmen in this and some other countries, have led them to form favourable treaties with the young republic-to protect its interests with friendly care, to receive its chief magistrate with the honours reserved for the most distinguished visitors, and to manifest in other ways the peculiar regard which the colony seems to awaken in all who are acquainted with its history and character. The same feelings, it is hoped, will lend an interest, in the eyes of many readers, to the following account of the past fortunes and present condition of the settlement. The facts embodied in this narrative, it should be stated, have been obtained in part from publications of good authority, and in part from the communications of respectable inhabitants of the colony. A history of the Liberian republic, to be fully intelligible, must be preceded by a description of its situation and present extent. In most of our modern maps, the coast of Upper Guinea is divided into four sections, styled respectively, beginning from the east, the Slave Coast, the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast, and the Grain Coast. The three first-named divisions face to the southward, the line of coast running nearly east and west, and forming the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea. But at Cape Palmas, which is the western limit of the Ivory Coast, the line of coast bends to the north-east, facing the Atlantic Ocean, and keeps on in this direction beyond Sierra Leone, nearly to the mouth of the river Gambia. The southern portion of this coast, between Cape Palmas and Sierra Leone, is the fertile region formerly known as the Grain Coast. The native inhabitants, though as barbarous in most respects as their neighbours, were somewhat more industrious, and more addicted to agricultural pursuits. The slave dealers, as well as the honest traders who visited the Guinea Coast, were accustomed to purchase here their supplies of rice, and such other provisions as the country afforded. The influence of this trade upon the inhabitants, had it not been counteracted by one more powerful, would have been highly beneficial; but, unhappily, the slave-trade was at the same time carried on here with great activity, and with the usual results. The native population was first demoralised by it, and then nearly exterminated. The destructive effects of the African slave-trade have only of late years become fully known. It is probable that, during the past century, the population of a great part of Africa, and more particularly of the regions near the coast, has been constantly diminishing from this cause alone. In the year 1823, shortly after the arrival of the first Liberian colonists on the Grain Coast, the governor of the settlement travelled about 150 miles along that coast. There were indications sufficient to shew that the country had formerly been very populous. He found it 'nearly desolated of inhabitants,' and covered with dense forests and almost impervious thickets of brambles. Of one of the streams, on which he had purchased a site for a colonial village, he wrote: Along this beautiful river were formerly scattered, in Africa's better days, innumerable hamlets; and till within the last twenty years, nearly the whole river-board, for one or two miles back, was under that slight culture which obtains among the natives of this country. But the population has been wasted by the rage for trading in slaves. A few detached and solitary plantations, scattered at long intervals through the tract, just serve to interrupt the silence and relieve the gloom which reigns over the whole region.' 6 Such was the state of that part of the country in which Liberia was founded. The whole of the Grain Coast, from the colony of Sierra Leone on the north, to Cape Palmas on the south, is now comprised within the territory of that republic. The length of this line of coast is about 500 miles. The average breadth of the colonial territory, between the coast and the independent tribes of the interior, is about 40 miles. The extent of country over which the republic now exercises jurisdiction is not less than 20,000 square miles. This is nearly three times the area of Wales, or about equal to two-thirds of Scotland. But the population of the republic, though rapidly increasing, is as yet by no means commensurate with its extent, or with the natural capabilities of the country. It comprises only about 12,000 colonists from America, with about 340,000 natives, who have voluntarily placed themselves under the laws of the commonwealth. But along this coast the slave-trade has been entirely abolished. Cultivation of the soil is rapidly extending. The forests and brambles are already in many parts cleared away. Where once stood the innumerable hamlets of pagan savages, Christian villages are springing up. Small colonial schooners, laden with palm-oil, dye-woods, rice, coffee, and other products of the country, ply constantly along the coast, where, fifty years ago, even the pirate and the slave-trader sometimes hesitated to land, so great was their dread of the fierce and treacherous tribes that inhabited it. On what was, at one time, the site of the principal slave-mart of the Grain Coast, is now situated the capital of Liberia-a thriving seaport town, of 2000 inhabitants, with its stores and wharfs, its light-house and fort, its court-house, schools, churches, newspapers, and literary and eharitable associations. In the following pages, we propose to sketch, as briefly as possible, the causes and events by which these astonishing and delightful changes have been effected. About the close of the year 1816, an association was formed at Washington, styled the American Colonisation Society for Colonising the Free People of Colour of the United States. The founders of this society were a few benevolent Americans, who felt deeply for the unhappy condition of the coloured inhabitants of their country, both bond and free. On some accounts, indeed, the free negroes in America are even more to be pitied than the slaves. With the natural aspirations of freemen, they find themselves depressed into an inferior caste, repulsed from the society of the white race, and excluded from all but the most humble and least lucrative employments. The object for which the Colonisation Society was established, was to found on the coast of Africa, or in some other place beyond the limits of the United States, a colony of free coloured people from America. The originators of the society did not, however, confine their views merely to the deportation of persons previously free; on the contrary, they anticipated that many slaves would be emancipated by their owners for the express purpose of sending them to the colony. The event has shewn that these expectations were well founded. More than half of the colonists now in Liberia were originally slaves, and would probably have remained in that condition but for the establishment of the colony. If the Colonisation Society had done nothing more than procure the freedom of 5000 slaves, and place them in comfortable circumstances, its members would have abundant reason to be satisfied with their work. But the society has accomplished much more than this. The real purpose which some of its most intelligent and far-seeing founders had in view, was of a much vaster scope: they meant to discover and open a way by which the emancipation of all the slaves in the United States might ultimately be effected. It is true that this expectation-which might, if publicly proclaimed, have fixed upon them at the time the reputation of visionaries-was kept in a measure out of view. But abundant evidence remains to shew, that the purpose and hope were really entertained by them; and the fact ought to be remembered to their credit, now that their noble and philanthropic design seems to be in a fair way for accomplishment. Although some of the most eminent public men of America, including the late distinguished statesmen, Mr Henry Clay and |