"The exact period at which the colored people began to make their appearance in the Western District, _as settlers_, I have not been able to ascertain to my satisfaction; but it is generally believed to have been about the time of the War with the Americans, in 1812. Before then, however, there had been a few scattered about, who, generally speaking, had, prior to the passing of the Emancipation Bill, been slaves to different individuals in the District. From 1813 to 1821, the increase was very trifling; and they were generally content to hire themselves out as domestic or farm servants; but about the latter period the desire of several gentlemen residing near Sandwich and Amherstburgh to place settlers on their lands, induced them, in the absence of better, to resort to the unfortunate, impolitic expedient of leasing out or selling small portions of land to colored people on such inviting conditions as not only speedily allowed many of those who had already settled in the country to undertake 'farming on their own account,' but encouraged many more to escape from their American masters, to try their fortunes in this now far-famed 'land of liberty and promise.' The stream having thus begun to flow, the secret workings of the humane, but not unexceptionable abolitionist societies, existing in the American States, speedily widened and deepened the channel of approach, until a flood of colored immigrants, of the very worst classes, has been progressively introduced into the District, which had, last year, reached an aggregate of about 1500 souls, and which threatens to be doubled in the course of a very short time, unless it be within the power of the Government to counteract it;--but which, _if suffered to roll on unchecked_, will sooner or later lead to the most serious, if not most lamentable consequences.