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ens the prejudice of some, and causes others to doubt of the propriety of sending the white man to these shores. It is this influence that has weighed upon my mind more than any thing else. I am left alone, and will any others come, and assist in carrying forward those operations, which require the strength and wisdom of more than one? The appeal for help comes with renewed force. Surely those whose hearts are set upon this field of labor, will not by this dispensation withdraw, and consider it an intimation that they are not to come; no, tell those brethern not to waver; to come, not as martyrs, but in the spirit of Christ, with a holy zeal, and an entire dependence upon God.

Mrs. ALWARD was quite sick at the time of his death. They were necessarily separated at the commencement of their sickness, and never saw each other again. The blow to her has been severe, but God has enabled her to manifest the power and beauty of the religion of the Lord Jesus. We all admire her fortitude, and the cheerfulness that she manifests, the only thing in all probability that kept her from speedily following her husband. Few have been called to pass through sharper trials, than she has within a few weeks. She thinks it her duty to return to the United States as soon as an opportunity shall offer.

Mr. CANFIELD afterwards gives an account of his own and his wife's illness, from which they were then almost recoverd. CECILIA VAN TYNE had the fever also, though colored people suffer less from the climate. It gives us much pleasure to add a paragraph making grateful mention of the kindness which they had all received from the Rev. J. L. WILSON and wife, of the American Board Mission.

We owe much, very much to the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. WILSON. They have done all and more than we could have asked. While we were all sick they gave up every thing, and attended to us. By day and by night they watched over us and administered to our wants. The rapidity of our recovery depended very much upon their attention and good nursing. All the missionaries have been very kind and attentive.

Of PETER and ABRAHAM, native young men, who have spent some time at school in this country, ABRAHAM having gone out with Messrs. C. and A., we have the following notices:

PETER and ABRAHAM are attending Mr. WILSON's school and making good progress. They are the most forward of any of the boys on the premises. PETER bids fair to be a useful man. As soon as I can put up a suitable building at Settra Kroo, I shall set him to teaching. ABRAHAM is doing well, but is not so quick and active. Still he will be of much service when there is a place for him to work. . . I have just heard from Settra Kroo. They have sent a message to learn what I am going to do. They are exceedingly anxious to have me come.-Foreign Missionary Chronicle.

THE MENDI PEOPLE.

THUS the Africans, late of the schooner Armistad, call themselves. It is found that no such country as Mendi is known to geographers. The district from which the Mendians came may be known to them by some other name, but these Africans, one and all, very distinctly pronounce the word Mendi, when speaking of themselves or their native land. Its precise location is unknown to us. They cannot describe its situation. They say, however, that it is six days from Mendi to the coast. Thus they compute distances. A day's journey, we conjecture, is from 20 to 30 miles. Mendi, then, may be some 150 miles from the Atlantic coast. We sup

pose it to lie a little north of east of the mouth of the river Gallinas.

Several of these people had heard of Sierra Leone before they were kidnapped and sold to the Spaniards. They say traders from that Colony have visited Mendi with their goods. The name seemed to be familiar to them. JAMES COVEY, the interpreter now here, is a native of Mendi, but as he was sold into slavery when only six years of age, he is not able to describe the situation of his native land. FULI-WU-LU, On of the liberated Africans who lived in the Fimmani, near the Mendi country, it has been recently ascertained, has been at Sierra Leone. He, and many of the others, seem to entertain no doubt but they could easily find Mendi, if they were only set down at Sierra Leone.

The Rev. THOMAS PAYNE, an Episcopal clergyman of London, has sent to a member of the committee acting in behalf of these Africans, a copy of a new work published in London for the benefit of those who have gone to explore Africa in the steamers fitted out for the Niger. It is entitled, "Specimens of African languages spoken at Sierra Leone, appended to African vocabularies," by Mrs. HANNAH KILHAM. We find by this volume, that the language or dialect which we have denominated Mendi, is called Kossa. No intimation is given in the above mentioned work, as to the native district of the Kossas. Mr. DAVID BACON, of New Haven, speaks of it, we learn, as being in the interior, back of Grand Cape Mount and Sierra Leone, and as being called Longobar. The name Kossa is written Korso, in the African Repository, vol. vii. page 283.

Since the act of the committee, appointing Mr. CoFFIN to proceed to Sierra Leone with two or three of the Africans, these distrustful people have opened their hearts more freely than heretofore, to their instructors and friends. They have acknowledged that hitherto they had agreed among themselves to be reserved respecting their native country, because "they did not know as we would save them.” FULI-WU-LU now says that his father lives in Mendi, but that he, three years before he was stolen, lived with his grandmother, in Koyeh, near Sierra Leone. It is, he says, one day's journey by land, and two and-a-half by water, from Sierra Leone. FULI-WU-LU says that he has been to Sierra Leone a great many times.. It is probable that some of the others have relations at or near this Colony

On mentioning to the Africans that we had a book in which their country is described as Kossa, they say, that is not its true name, but it is a term of reproach, a name that has been applied to the Mendi people, by the English, and by those who dislike them. This accounts for their never having mentioned the word Kossa to their tea ers and friends.

So great is the desire of these people to return to their native country, to their wives, children, and friends, and so much encouraged are the coinmittee in the belief that the situation of Mendi, and the route to it, can be learned at Sierra Leone, that they have resolved on sending a special agent to that Colony, the present antumn, accompanied by Covey, and two among the most intelligent of the Mondians, on a tour of inquiry. If it be possible for them they will reach Men li-convey to the relatives of CINQUE, and he rest, the fact, that these men and children, supposed to be lost, are alive and well-that is, the survivors of the group who were torn from Africa. After conveving this joyful intelligence, they, or some of them, will return to the United States, to conduct the whole band o Africa. JOSHUA COFFIN has been selected as the proper individual to go.

The committee have just forwarded a memorial to the President of the United States, soliciting the aid of Government to send back these Africans to their native land, and it is hoped that Congress, on his recommendation, will make the necessary appropriation. It will be honorable to this nation to furnish the means of restoring these men to their own country and their friends. The world will say that is right.-N. Y. Evangelist.

ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF AFRICA.

THE past history of Africa presents a mysterious page in the book of Providence, and constitutes one of the most mournful and humiliating passages in the annals of mankind.

With the exception of a few favored spots, the seats of either ancient or modern civilization, nearly the whole of this vast continent, so far as we are acquainted with it, has been from time immemorial immersed in moral darkness, adapted only to exhibit scenes of the deepest human degradation and wo.

Successive ages have borne the elements of social improvement to almost every other considerable portion of the globe-but Africa, unhappy Africa, the cradle of ancient art and science, the depository of ancient grandeur, has made no onward progress; and although upon her northern and eastern frontiers, a by-gone civilization still lingers, yet her central, western, and southern districts appear to have ever remained in almost primeval barbarism, a monument of the ingratitude of those nations who first borrowed from Africa the rudiments of their own advancement.

In contemplating the desolation and misery of modern Africa, it were unjust to forget that Europe is herself a debtor to the ancient population of that now benighted Continent. Egypt first taught the use of letters; first unveiled the mysteries of science; set the most successful examples of agriculture and commerce; and by imperishable memorials in architecture and design, "the works of Memphian kings," awakened the genius and the wonder of all succeeding generations. Nor can Christianity itself deny its obligations to a Continent which gave birth to the author of the earliest of the sacred oracles; which produced the Septuagint; listened to the voice of Evangelists; and in the primitive ages of the Church, gloried in the possession of many of its most illustrious martyrs, apologists, and fathers.

She

It were well if the imputation of ingratitude and neglect could alone be urged against civilized and Christian Europe. It were well if the horrors of Africa and the disgrace of Europe were all comprised in such a complaint. But Europe is charged with far other offences than these. stands convicted, alas! of an avarice mingled with a cruelty so insatiable, that having exterminated the natives of one hemisphere in the lawless pursuit of gain, she with a fiend-like rapacity sought for fresh victims in helpless Africa, dragging them across the Atlantic to share the same miserable fate, and adding to these enormities, at first the hypocrisy of benevolence, and, when that failed, the blasphemy of denying to men, created in the image of their Maker, the dignity and the rights of manhood.

It is painful to remember that, in the perpetration of these atrocities, Great Britain once took a prominent part; and that, notwithstanding her sincere though late repentance, the mischief of her example still operates among other nations far less disposed to imitate the costly sacrifices she has since made towards the expiation of her guilt.

Great indeed, have been the efforts of this country to redress the wrongs of Africa, from the period when first the venerable CLARKSON among the people, and the sainted WILBERFORCE within the walls of Parliament, made the ears of all classes to tingle with the horrors of the accursed traffic. Their struggle was long and arduous, but the day of victory at length arrived, and the British slave trade was blotted out forever from the list of national offences. Since that period Great Britain has never wanted hearts to feel, nor hands to labor, nor tongues to plead, both eloquently and well, on behalf of the enslaved and suffering sons of Africa. The recent emancipation of 800,000 slaves at a cost of £20,000,000 sterling, and indefati

gable, but hitherto unsuccessful, exertions in connexion with other Great Powers, during upwards of thirty years, for the extinction of the foreign slave trade, exhibit specimens of national compunction and penitence such as no other age of the world can show, though still far from commensurate with the greatness of her guilt.

But merely compulsory methods have confessedly failed, and the slave traffic now rages with terrific and still increasing fury.

And is there, then, no method of staying the wide-spreading plague? This question has long engaged the attention of British philanthropists; and, however much they differ about the means of applying the remedy, all appear to agree in the necessity of employing one of a strictly benevolent and pacific character; and no considerate person will, probably, deny that the wounds of Africa can never be effectually healed but by imparting to her children the blessings of Christianity and civilization.

If the spectacle of a vast Continent, once foremost in arts and sciences, but now thrown far behind in the march of civilization, excites no compassion for its future welfare-if the increasing horrors of a traffic which annually sweeps hundreds of thousands of unoffending beings into slavery or eternity, and dooms the countries from whence they are torn to the terrors of perpetual alarm, entailing, moreover, the curse of endless barbarism, kindle no indignation, and provoke no effort for their delive rance-if the sense of deepest national respnosibility, incurred by long participation in the guilt and the gains of the man-stealer, produce no compunction, and suggest no thoughts of ample reparation, or if, on the other hand, the powerful influences of Christianity, combined with the beneficial influence of enlightened self-love, acting upon the resources of a Continent still teeming with inhabitants, endowed with incomparable fertility, and offering the richest rewards to free agricultural industry and legitimate commerce, justify no hopes, and afford no probable or allowable means of promoting the moral and social improvement of Africa,-then might it be feared that further arguments would be urged in vain. But past events have shown the fallacy of these hypotheses, and have proved the progressive interest felt, both in this country and upon the Continent of Europe, in plans like these for rendering justice to Africa. Nothing, therefore, remains but to commend them earnestly, though in no exclusive spirit, to the fervent prayers and the generous and persevering exertions of a philanthropic public, with a conviction that they still leave ample scope to the useful efforts of kindred societies, and with an unfailing confidence in the expansive power of Christian charity to furnish adequate funds for the encouragement and support of all suitable means for the advancement of this righteous cause.-Friend of Africa.

A SLAVER. We learn by the ship Sarah-and-Arsalie, last from Pernam bnco, that the British brig-of-war Acorn, on her voyage from Plymouth to Rio Janeiro, fell in with the brig Gabriella under Portuguese colors, and, after a chase, in which the Gabriella carried away both her topmasts, boarded her and took off fifty-eight negroes, which were afterwards landed at Rio. The captain of the Gabriella jumped overboard when the crew of the Acorn boarded his vessel, and was lost.-Journal of Commerce.

Our readers will remember the difficulty which the Gabriella had to get her cargo on board, and leave the coast of Africa uncaught by the men-ofwar. They will also mark the difference between the number of slaves on board then, and now. Comment is unnecessary. The horrors of the slave trade can never be told.

THE AFRICAN REPOSITORY,

AND

COLONIAL JOURNAL.

Published semi-monthly, at $1 50 in advance, when sent by mail, or $200 if not paid till after the expiration of six months, or when delivered to subscribers in cities. VOL. XVIII.] WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 1, 1841.

FOR THE AFRICAN REPOSITORY.

[No. 21.

THE following piece, in the hand-writing of a lady, now deceased, who has, with a good deal of justice, been called "the HANNAH MORE of America," is the more worthy of publication, as she had probably prepared it not long before her last illness, and because it comes from a section of the country where the great mass are opposed to Colonization :

"I mentioned, sir, in a former letter, that trade and commerce were some of the means of God's appointment to civilize and evangelize nations, for they not only carry the means of civilization from place to place, but it carries the information with the means. I find in my conversations with free colored people about colonizing in Africa, or civilizing their own countrymen, that most of their prejudices grow up to their present formidable height, from ignorance of their country and the nature of the Colonization Society. I met with a colored man some few years since who went from New York as coachman to a gentleman and family who were visiting the South. The gentleman took sick and died, and his man was left to look out for himself. He spent some years at the South, in different places, of all which he gave a good account, and also of his countrymen both free and bond. At length he got sick, and when I saw him he was making his way back to New York as he could. I perceived him to be an understanding man, and asked him what he thought of the African Colonization Society. "I never heard of such a thing," was his reply. I then told him there was such a Society, and how and when it commenced, and what had been done, and how it had been put down by abolitionists calling it the "grave yard of Liberia." He seemed in perfect extacy, that such provision had been made for the colored people. "Why," says he, clasping his hands, "if I could once set my foot on the land of my fathers, (for he was a free born American,) I would go, if I knew I should die the next hour. But I never heard of such a thing." This man, sir, must have had the means of knowledge as much as most free colored people; and those that I have conversed with from that time to this, are about as wise on the subject as this man was. If they ever heard of such a thing, it was in such black shades that they might as well not have heard at all, so far as any benefit could be derived. But they can, any of them; tell you the whole story of oppression, abolition, and the grave yard of Liberia.

"The mechanic arts, is another very powerful instrument in the hand of Him who holdeth the ocean in its bounds, and directeth the storm. It

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