Original.
LIBERIA.

very large part of the mortality in the United States results directly from the variable character of the climate, and it is probable that a greater difference exists between the healthiness of the seacost in Liberia, and of the country only ten miles inland, than can any where be found here within the same limits. Although DURING the last year two companies of emigrants vegetation is astonishingly luxuriant and forms an obhave been located in Liberia, at the interior settlements, ject of novel interest to strangers from the temperate and have lost none from the effects of the climate. zone, yet the soil is generally a dry absorbent and gravExperience concurs with many other obvious reasons elly loam, and resembles that of New England more to show that the climate of Liberia is absolutely a than the alluvion of the Mississippi valley. Some of very healthy one, and safe for the natives of this coun- the most fatal diseases of the East and West Indies, such try. The reports which have represented that coast as as liver and bowel complaints, are almost unknown in one of the most unfriendly and dangerous to the health the colony, and fruit may be used, to a great extent, by of northern residents were founded on observations con- the acclimated, with impunity. A healthier people fined to the very limited part of the country in which than the natives probably does not exist. Although alone they could have originated, namely, to the mouths the slave trade and the constant wars occasioned by it of rivers and the immediate vicinity of the seacoast. In destroyed millions of the people, and generally those the colony, within two or three miles of the ocean, all of the most valuable class, and rendered life and propthe rivers and their branches are bordered by mangrove erty extremely insecure, yet the country has an imswamps, which occupy about one-half of that part of mense population. In the territory of Grand Bassa, the country; and the noxious exhalations from these which is forty or fifty miles square, their number is swamps are almost the only cause adverse to health in supposed to be 120,000, or nearly as great as that of Liberia. The utmost extremes of heat and cold which || the Indians east of the Mississippi at the settlement of were observed by the writer during a residence of four the United States. W. JOHNSON. years in the colony, were 70° and 87°, so that there are at least 100° of temperature in this climate which are never felt in that. Emigrants to Liberia, having been once acclimated, there is very little change afterwards to be encountered; and this accounts for the fact that among those who have resided a few months, even in the swampy district, near the coast, as little medical advice is called for as in the most healthy parts of the state of New York. The town of Edina, at the mouth of the St. John's river, was settled nine years ago by thirty-three men, shortly after their arrival in Africa. It is so closely invested by swamps that all the dry land is already appropriated to town lots. The company built a stockade for the defense of the place, and endured all the hardships and privations incident to the founding of a new settlement, and none of them have died by any cause referable to the climate. One was killed in battle, another died of consumption, and thirty-one were alive and in health on my return from the colony last winter. Among the acclimated population there is no season of general sickness, and nothing farther is observable than a rather greater frequency of bilious attacks at the change from the dry to the rainy season. It is, however, important that those who are to reside in unhealthy situations on the coast should select the best season for their arrival, which is about the first of July. Fogs are very rarely seen in Liberia, and the atmosphere is as clear as in the United States. The winds and rains are much more regular, and in the wet season, as the rain generally accompanies the land breeze, which blows only at night, the weather is not more inconvenient to laborers than it often is for entire months in this climate. Excellent water is everywhere abundant, and, in short, all the general causes affecting the health of the people, are in the highest degree favorable. A

The following notice of the state and prospects of the Liberia colonies is from a gentleman who has resided several years

at Bassa Cove.-ED.

Original.

THE POET'S DEATH.*

""Tis not vain-they do not err

Who say that when the poet dies
Mute nature mourns her worshiper,
And celebrates his obsequies."

Uron a stranger's couch

His feeble form reclined,
And dimly shone that eye

Where genius sat enshrined.

Upon his lofty brow

The clammy death-drop hung,
And by his side his harp

Lay shattered and unstrung.

The world's unfeeling scorn
Had rested on his head;
His wreath of young renown
Lay withering and dead.

'Twas eve: he bowed in awe
At nature's altar-stone,
To catch the sun's last ray-
It faded: he was gone,

Now rest, thou child of song!

All nature mourns for thee;
And man alone could scorn
A spark of Deity.

*The author of these lines was very young, and he himself met the very end which he here describes.-ED.

SELF-CONVICTION.

Original.
SELF-CONVICTION.

"Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

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view a face that might have been a study for a painter. In it there beamed, through the shriveled features of age, and physical traces of suffering, such a sun-lit expression of spiritual triumph, that it forcibly reminded me of the last poetical breathings of Cowper's muse

Ir was Saturday evening, and I had returned home wearied, chagrined, and disappointed, from the conviction that I was reluctantly obliged to admit that I had been over-reached in a bargain of considerable importance; and where, too, I had felt doubly secure in hav- There came over her whole countenance such a sweet, ing placed implicit confidence in the honesty of the in- chastened look of devout resignation, that my feelings dividual in question, and also in having trusted in the were deeply touched; and in comparing her situation sufficiency of my own judgment to appreciate the true with mine, and also her spiritual condition with my own, value of the purchase. Alas! I was doubly deceived, || I felt rebuked and ashamed to call myself a Christian. The next who entered was also a female, aged, but not infirm. She hastened in with a quick, if not elastic step, and took a seat just in front of me, and after reverently bowing her head in prayer, she raised her eyes to the pulpit as if in wonder why the preacher was so late. But he was not out of time-she had "made haste" to be there. She looked inquiringly about for a few minutes to see who had assembled, then seemed to call in her wandering thoughts, and settle down into a grateful remembrance of the past, as though she were counting up the mercies she had, through a long life, received from the hands of her Lord and Master, and to be looking forward to that rest that was soon to be hers. She was coarsely clad, and evidently belonged to the class, in the language of the world, of the indigent; but she seemed to have the Scriptural riches—— she seemed content with the humble lot assigned her. Again I felt rebuked, and resolved to be more faithful to Him who "had made me to differ." A third female now made her appearance clothed in the habiliments of deepest mourning. Her countenance was expressive of the anguish of an unsanctified bereavement. Perhaps the partner of many years had been taken away by a sudden stroke; or, it may be, an only child had died, after protracted suffering. The unregenerate heart rebels against the removal of earthly friends,

and found I had indeed paid too dear for my hobby. Now, the conviction of a bad bargain, without any cause for self-reproach in the matter, would in other days have made me eloquent in the abuse of mankind. Even now I felt some risings of reprobation in my mind, that my confidence should have been so abused; but this implication of self with the subject, acted as a complete sedative, outwardly, at least, and like casting oil upon the waters, it calmed the waves on the surface, if it could not still their swelling below. Not being able to abstract my mind from the subject, I sat silently revolving the purchase again and again, to catch all its relative aspects and bearings, until I had quite philosophized, if not christianized myself into resignation, and in a quiet frame I sought my pillow. But no sooner were my outward senses sealed in sleep, than the subject again presented itself, and with all the variations of kaleidoscopic combination, demanded a new hearing. Again I could not escape from the dreamy conviction that I had indeed been basely cheated. So that after a perturbed and feverish night, I awoke on Sabbath morning unrefreshed in body and unfitted in spirit for the enjoyment of the day. But I resolved not to indulge a half inclination I had to stay from church. So determined was I to go that I found myself there much earlier than usual. The preacher had not yet arrived, and the congregation were only beginning to col-under whatsoever circumstances they may be taken. lect; and coming in singly, as they mostly did, I had ample opportunity to observe and ponder upon each individual that entered. And, verily, it seemed to me to be the gathering together of the way-side hearers. The lame, the halt, the deaf, and the blind were there. Their afflictions were various, their want was the same, and a similar impulse had probably drawn them together-a hope that the angel of the Lord might stir the Gospel pool for them, and that they might step in and be made spiritually if not physically whole. The first whose infirmities I particularly noticed was an aged female, who appeared to have lived beyond her three-score and ten years; for besides all the ordinary indications of age, she was lame, and came halting in with her crutch. After she had taken her seat, she appeared to be quite overcome with her exertions, and with the confined air of the church, and to gasp as it were for freer breath. She first wiped her face, then made use of her fan, and finally laid aside her bonnet, by which was exposed to

Whilst my fancy was drawing pictures of the probabilities of her case, my eye was caught by the tremulous motion of her head; and I now observed that unless steadied by her hand it had a constant vibratory motion, as though her nerves had rebelled against some dispensation of Providence, and the Lord had "let them alone" to witness against her. A third time I felt rebuked, and thanked God from the depths of my heart that I had been spared such a token of his displeasure, though in days that are past, perhaps my spirit had been equally rebellious as hers.

"To Jesus, the crown of my hope,
My soul is in haste to be gone;

O, bear me ye cherubims up,
O waft me away to his throne!"

A hymn was now struck up, and another infirmity manifested itself. Sitting near the altar, I observed a man arching his hand at the back of his ear in the form of a trumpet, that he might catch the Gospel song; and I rejoiced in the reflection that there are no deaf ears, or blind eyes, or lame limbs in that heaven for which we should all strive.

The church now began to fill with the young, and

GOD IS LOVE.

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THE REPOSITORY.