, lighthouses (two) and wharf improvements at the
city in the bay, with steam-tugs or tenders to tow vessels over the Ogun
bar-mouth or inlet, are all that we require to make Lagos a desirable
seaport, with one of the safest harbors in the world for light-draught
vessels.

The fish in these waters are very fine, and Ako is one of the finest
natural oyster bays in the world. The shell-fish are generally of good
size, frequently large, and finely flavored.

Religious and Philanthropic means

As a religious means, such a position must most largely contribute, by
not only giving security to the Missionary cause, but by the actual
infusion of a religious social element permanently among the natives of
the country; and as a philanthropic, by a permanent check to the
slave-trade, and also by its reflex influence on American slavery--not
only thus far cutting off the supply, but, also by superseding slavery
in the growth and supply of those articles which comprise its great
staple and source of wealth--thereby tendering slave labor _unprofitable
and worthless_, as the succeeding section will show.

Stopping the Slave Trade

As to the possibility of putting a stop to the slave-trade, I have only
to say, that we do not leave America and go to Africa to be passive
spectators of such a policy as traffic in the flesh and blood of our
kindred, nor any other species of the human race--more we might
say--that we will not live there and permit it. "_Self-preservation_ is
the first law of nature," and we go to Africa to be _self-sustaining_;
otherwise we have no business there, or anywhere else, in my opinion. We
will bide our time; _but the Slave-trade shall not continue!_

Means of Doing It

Another important point of attention: that is, the slave-trade ceases in
Africa, wherever enlightened Christian civilization gains an influence.
And as to the strength and power necessary, we have only to add, that
Liberia, with a coast frontier of seven hundred miles, and a sparse
population, which at the present only numbers fifteen thousand settlers,
has been effective in putting a stop to that infamous traffic along her
entire coast. And I here record with pleasure, and state what I know to
be the fact, and but simple justice to as noble-hearted antagonists to
slavery as live, that the Liberians are uncompromising in their
opposition to oppression and the enslavement of their race, or any other
part of the human family. I speak of