I have said that the population of Africa is composed of one-fourth free men and three-fourths slaves. It is an admitted fact, that the free Negroes never work; it is therefore necessary to employ slaves, and to pay their masters for their hire. If, however, the company were to employ them, it would depart from its primitive regulations, which positively stipulate that there shall never be any slaves in the colony. If it were to buy them in order to render them free, and employ them in cultivation, I would ask if it could then be satisfied with their labour, or could hope to attach them to the soil? I should wish that this important question were ascertained beyond all doubt; but I must confess my doubts of its success; and I fear that the Negroes whom the company may render free, will imitate all other Negroes that are their own masters, and who will do nothing, or in other words, that they will prefer slavery to labour. This apprehension is founded on the knowledge which I posses of their natural and invincible indolence. I must, therefore, repeat with freedom my opinion of the rigorous conditions which the company has imposed on itself; and I really think that there will always be an obstacle to the accomplishment of its views. But to attain its wishes, I would propose an opposite mode, which I will point out in a few words. I would make use of the Africans in their present state, that is to say, slaves, and would pay their masters the price of their labour; I would render them subservient to mild, humane, and benevolent laws; and I would incite them to work, and to like the place of their residence, by the inducement of property and land. Having thus prepared them for the charms of liberty, I should hasten to purchase them and make them free, that they might enjoy it. This method would, in my opinion, produce many cultivators: for even those who have been of no advantage during several years, might be thus dismissed and sent home. In short, I would leave off exactly where the company began; and I should thus hope to see my colony composed of industrious and experienced men. Hence, like the company, I should not only renounce the slave trade, but should deliver the Africans from bondage. I should buy them as formerly, only under the sacred condition of having them for a certain time to cultivate our American colonies, which it is impolitic to abandon; and under a condition equally sacred of making them proprietors at the expiration of their servitude, provided they would reside on the spot. Should they, however, be disinclined to stay in the colonies, I would comply with their wishes, and convey them back to Africa. Those who might turn out bad, or be guilty of crimes, ought to be banished from the colonies, but scrupulously restored to their own countries.