them. I have no hesitation in stating my belief that there is in the negro race a capacity for receiving the truths of the Gospel beyond most other heathen nations; while, on the other hand, there is this remarkable, if not unique, circumstance in their case-that a race of teachers of their own blood is already in course of rapid preparation for them; that the providence of God has overruled even slavery and the Slave Trade for this end; and that from among the settlers of Sierra Leone, the peasantry of the West Indies, and the thousands of their children, now receiving Christian education, may be expected to arise a body of men who will return to the land of their fathers, carrying Divine truth and all its concomitant blessings into the heart of Africa.

One noble sacrifice in behalf of the negro race has already been made. In the words of the most eloquent citizen of another nation-"Great Britain, loaded with an unprecedented debt, and with a grinding taxation, contracted a new debt of a hundred million dollars, to give freedom, not to Englishmen, but to the degraded African. I know not that history records an act so disinterested, so sublime. In the progress of ages England's naval triumphs will shrink into a more and more narrow space in the records of our race. This moral triumph will fill a broader, brighter page."*

Another, it may be a more inveterate evil, remains, which for magnitude and malignity stands without a parallel. One thousand human victimst (if my facts will bear sifting) are daily required to feed this vast and devouring consumer of mankind. In vain has nature given to Africa noble rivers; man is the only merchandise they carry. In vain a fertile land ;-lavish in wild and spontaneous productions, no cultivating hand calls forth its riches. In vain has she placed it in the vicinity of Civilization and Christianity; within a few weeks' voyage of the Thames there is a people who worship the shark and the snake, and a prince who imagines the agency of an evil spirit in the common properties of the load-stone. Africa is indeed encircled by an effectual barrier against the entrance of com

* Dr. Channing. † See page 171. ‡ Laird, vol. i. p. 219.

merce, cultivation, and Christianity. That barrier is the Slave Trade.

It may be thought wild extravagance to indulge the : that evils so rank are capable of cure. I do not deny that it of all tasks, the most arduous, or that it will require the whole energy of Great Britain; but if it shall be made a capital ob. ject of British policy, for the accomplishment of which our whole strength, if necessary, shall be put forward, and if it shall be, as I am sure it is, a cause in which we may look for Divine coun. tenance and help, I see no reason for despair. What has be done, may be done again; and it is matter of history, that from superstitions as bloody, from a state of intellect as rude, and from the Slave Trade itself, a nation has been reclaimed, and now enjoys in comparison with Africa, a blaze of light, liberty, religion, and happiness. That nation is Great Britain. What we find the African, the Romans found us ;* and it is not unreasonable to hope that, in the language of Mr. Pitt, "even Africa will enjoy, at length, in the evening of her days, those blessings which have descended so plentifully upon us in a much earlier period of the world.":

To raise Africa from the dust is an object worthy of the efforts of the highest order of ambition. It is calculated that Napoleon, in the course of his career, occasioned the sacrifice of three millions of the human race. The suppression of the Slave Trade would, in a very few years, save as many lives as he was permitted to destroy. The most patriotic and loyal amongst us cannot frame a loftier wish for our country and its sovereign,

* By the concurrent testimony of the best ancient historians, our forefathers were nothing better than "painted savages," the votaries of a sanguinary superstition which consumed its heca. tombs of human victims; " Alii immani magnitudine simulacra habent; quorum contexta viminibus membra vivis hominibus complent; quibus succensis circumventi flamma exanimantur homines." (Cæsar, Bell. Gall., 1. vi. c. 16.) And, if we may credit the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, they were also addicted to cannibalism; "for," says he, "the Gauls are such savages that they devour human flesh; as do also those British nations which

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than that her reign, which, in its dawn, witnessed the deliverance of our colonies from slavery, may be prolonged, till, through

ditish agency, Africa shall also be released from a still greater RiCurse :-not, however, for the honor's sake, though it would give imperishable renown; nor for the profit's sake, though it promises to open boundless fields for capital, industry and enterprise; but in pity to Africa, and for His favor who has said"Undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke." "Then shall thy light break forth as the morn

oing;" " and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward."*

inhabit Ireland." (l. v. e. 32.) Cicero, in one of his letters, speaking of the success of an expedition against Britain, says, the only plunder to be found, consisted, "ex mancipiis; ex quibus nullos puto te literis aut musicis eruditos expectare ; thus in the same sentence, proving the existence of the Slave Trade, and intimating that it was impossible that any Briton should be intel. ligent enough to be worthy to serve the accomplished Atticus. Ad Att. 1. iv. 16. Henry, in his history of England, gives us also the authority of Strabo for the prevalence of the Slave Trade amongst us, and tells us that slaves were once an established article of our exports. " Great numbers," says he, "were exported from Britain, and were to be seen exposed for sale, like cattle, in the Roman market." Henry, vol. ii. p. 225.

* Isaiah, lviii, 6, 8.

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NOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

The first part of this work having been stereotyped, we are unable to follow the author in all his corrections in the present edition. But where any new fact has been introduced we have inserted it in the Appendix to Part I., and referred to the same in the body of the work.

THE SLAVE TRADE.

"You will perceive that this horrid traffic has been carried on to an extent that almost staggers belief."

Commodore Sir Robert Mends, Sierra Leone.

CHAPTER 1.

EXTENT.

In preparing this work, my chief purpose has been to offer some views which I entertain of the most effectual mode of suppressing the Slave Trade; but before I enter upon these, I must state the extent to which that traffic is now carried on, and the sacrifice of human life which it occasions.

My first proposition is, that upwards of 150,000 human beings are annually conveyed from Africa, across the Atlantic, and sold as slaves.

It is almost impossible to arrive at the exact extent to which any contraband trade, much more a trade so revolting, is carried on. It is the interest of those concerned in it to conceal all evidence of their guilt; and the Governor of a Portugese colony is not very likely, at once to connive at the crime, and to confess that it is extensively practised. By the mode of calculation I propose to adopt, it is very possible I may err; but the error must be on the