It is very true that colonization frequently terminates disastrously, and that instances might be cited, in which emigrants have suffered terrible privations, and have even fallen beneath the insalubrity of unaccustomed climates.  But these cases merely prove the necessity of adopting sufficiently precautionary measures, before the emigrant commits himself to a venture, upon which the happiness and interests of himself and his family altogether depend.  If a man rashly goes out uncovered, and exposed, into a storm, he will surely run a chance of catching an illness:  so too, if a man penetrate to the tropics, and carry with him the habits of England or France, he will certainly peril his life, for these habits are unsuitable to places where a vertical sun pours down its scorching rays upon the body.  Every climate requires especial modes of conduct for physical constitution.  Brandy and water might be a very good beverage, and even a medicinal protective at the North Pole, but it would be ruinous if taken in excess at Sierra Leone.  It is because emigrants do not sufficiently study the situation to which they bend their steps, that they so often complain of failure.  We have seen in the first expedition from the United States, that the project terminated fatally for nearly all the colonists; but why?  Because they went to a low marshy island, at the commencement of the rainy season, when disease in its worst horrors was just setting in.  How could they expect to escape a contagion, which they actually seemed to court?

If the example of the colony of Liberia were to be followed, if wholesome laws were laid down to regulate the movements of emigrants, and proper precautions taken, by which all the advantages of position might be seized, and the disadvantages avoided, I have very little doubt that colonization would ultimately prove a valuable safety-valve for society.  The idle and wretched, who have no hopes or friends at home, might always be thus beneficially drafted off to infant states, where they could be made to labour, and where their recovered habits could be rendered subservient to the common good.  At home they hang on the necks of the industrious; there they might be converted to useful members of the great community, improving the means of the social body, instead of deteriorating its morals, and wasting its resources.

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[19] This is a small bag filled with air, for the purpose of floating
nippers that are attached to it, through which the line passes, being
intended to fasten itself to the line on the surface of the water the
moment you check it on perceiving the lead strike the bottom, by which
means more correct soundings are obtained.

CHAP.  VI.

The Kroo Country—­Religion of the Kroo and Fish men—­Emigration of the Natives—­Sketch of their habits and customs—­Purchase of wives—­The Krooman’s ne plus ultra—­Migratory propensities—­Rogueries exposed—­ Adoption of English Names—­Cape Palmas—­Dexterity of the Fishmen—­Fish towns—­The Fetish—­Arrival at Cape Coast—­Land with the Governor—­ Captain Hutchison—­Cape Coast mode of taking an airing—­Ashantee Chiefs—­Diurnal occupations—­School for Native Girls—­Domestication of Females—­Colonel Lumley—­Captain Ricketts—­Neglect of Portuguese fortresses—­A native Doctor