'than three fourths are re-captured Africans, whose rapacious
owners had destined them for foreign bondage. Towns are,
reared up, churches and schools established, agricldture has be-
come a settled pursuit, and society has p)ut on a regular and sta-
ble appearance.
   For some years anterior to 1816, the project of colonizing the
free blacks of this country in Africa, had occupied the serious
consideration of individuals in several parts of the union. The
rapid accumulation of free negroes, who amoumtedi, at that pe-
riod, to two hundred and ten thousand, to which number they
had grown from sixty thousand, in twenty six years, become a
subject of general anxiety; in somne of the states laws were p'.ss-
ecl annexing the condition of banishment to emancipation. The
idea of colonizing them was probably first suggested in this
country from  the success which attended the establishment at
Sierra Leone. It was known, moreover, that the Portuguese,
the French, the Danes, and the English, had establishe(l white
settlements along the coast of Africa, from the Cape (le Verd to
the Cape of Good Hope. More than a century ago the French
had established a post on the Seniegal, four hiinidreil miles from
its mouth. At Congo, the Portuguese had grown into a consid-
erable colony. At the southern extremity of Africa, the Dutch
anrd English had spread over a country larger than the southern
peninsula of Europe. It was not then a question requiring se-
rious debate, wvhether America could do what many nations had
done before. In 1802, Mr. Jefferson, then President of the U-
nited States, in compliance witch the request of the Virginia le-
gislature, communicated by Governor M onroe, entered into ne-
gotiations, wvhich proved unsuccessful, with the Sierra Leone
company, and afterwards with Portugal, to proctire a situation
for an American colony of blacks in Africa. The project con-
tinued to gain strength, until, on the 21st day of December, 1816,
the first public meeting to form  a Colonization Society in this
country, was held at Washington City; and shortly afterwards
the American Society was established, under the patronage of
many of the most distinguished citizens of this nation.
  Formed under such auspices, at such a crisis, and for such an
object, this society has steadily pursued its onward course, the
object of many a bitter sarcasm, of various and contradictory
accusation, of flippant and mImost iml)ertinent contempt, and of
grave and deep reproach. Full of the noble ardour which be-
longs to generous enterprise, it has triumphed at every step), and
,won its way to the confidence anti applause of men. It numbers
over one hundred and sixty auxiliary societies; eleven states have,
by their legislatures, recommended it to the patronage of Con-
gress; and all the leading sects of evangelical Christians in the
fnited States, have, through their highest ecclesiastical tribu-