The distinction made by the Arab between the conduct of Mussulmans and Christians, was as just as it was ingenious. Their creed permits the disciples of the true Prophet to enslave the heretics; whereas, our purer faith says, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them;" and abounds in noble passages, denouncing God's wrath against the oppressor, and particularly that oppressor who is a man-stealer, and "who taketh his neighbor's labor without wages, and giveth him nought for his work." We remember the time when a negro slave who absconded was convicted and punished as a thief. He had run away with his master's chattels, i. e. his own body. The Arab seems to have adopted a somewhat similar train of reasoning. "After a few minutes' silence," says Captain Paddock, "Ahomed accosted me in the following manner :-' There is no confidence to be placed in Christians; for whenever they come ashore on our coast, they bury their money in the sand, as you yourself have done, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the true believers. It is our property. We pray earnestly to the Almighty God to send Christians ashore here: he hears our prayers, and often sends us good ships; and if you did as you ought to do, we should have the benefit of them." "* It is very curious that, in the course of their journey, they fell in with a tribe of African abolitionists and Mahommedan quakers. At one town their reception was different to what it had usually been. + Loss of the Oswego, p. 190. " I inquired," said Paddock, "who they were. He replied, They belong to a sect called Foulah. They will not mix with the other inhabitants, but choose to live altogether by themselves; and are so stupid, that if the Emperor of Morocco should march an army to cut off the whole race, they would not defend themselves, but would die like fools, as they are.' I asked him if they used fire-arms. 'No,' said he, 'they make no use of them; and if God was pleased to send a Christian ship ashore near them, they would neither seize upon the goods nor the men, nor would they buy a slave of any kind.' I asked him if they were numerous; and he answered, 'No, they are not numerous; but the dwellings you see on the sides of the hills yonder are theirs, and in many other places they are to be found; and wherever they are, they always keep together by themselves.' Finally, I asked him if they were Mahometans. Yes,' he answered, 'they are, or else we would destroy them; but they are poor ignorant dogs, and little better than the Christians." "* I should feel myself called upon to apologize to my readers for these lengthened quotations, were it not important to show that Europeans and Christians are not proof against that moral poison which belongs to oppression. Let a man, European, American, or African, imbibe that taint, and its virulence will be manifest in the stupidity of his understanding, in the deadness of his moral sense; it will be visible to the eye of the most careless observer, even in the external features and carriage of its victim. Reduced to * Loss of the Oswego, p. 199. the condition of a slave, he will droop and relax, and become good for nothing, or next to nothing. We see that a race fortified by early association, by the resources of intellect and education, and by the elevating principles of Christianity, placed in precisely the same circumstances as the African, exhibits precisely the same degree of degeneracy. And can we wonder that they who have so long been the victims of every species of cruelty, should not as yet have put forth those generous qualities and that higher order of intellect which will not grow, except in a ge nial atmosphere, and on a favoring soil? Does not this rescue the African from the supposed stigma of inferiority ? Franklin defines a slave to be "an animal who eats The as much, and works as little, as possible." "'Tis liberty alone that gives the flow'r I now proceed to the enumeration of the symptoms which lead me to hope that in due time the African races may be excited to industry, ingenuity, and per severance. I admit that on the coast there is a belt of slavetrading chiefs, who, at present, find it more profitable to supply the slave-markets than to conduct a legiti mate commerce. Little business can be done when there are any slavers at their stations, indeed, the fair traders are always compelled to wait until the human cargoes are completed. These chiefs not only obstruct the fair trader on the coast, but as much as possible prevent his access to the interior. Insecurity, demoralization, and degradation are the re. sults; but as we recede from the coast, and ascend the rivers, comparative civilization is found, industry becomes apparent, and no inconsiderable skill in many useful arts is conspicuous. All travelers have observed the superior cultivation and comparatively dense population of the inland regions. Laird, in ascending the Niger, writes, "Both banks of the river are thickly studded with towns and villages; I could count seven from the place where we lay aground; and between Eboe and the confluence of the rivers, there cannot be less than 40, one generally occurring every two or three miles. The principal towns are Attah and Addakudda; and averaging the inhabitants at 1,000, will, I think, very nearly give the population of the banks. general character of the people is much superior to that of the swampy country between them and the coast. They are shrewd, intelligent, and quick in their perception, milder in their disposition, and more peaceable in their habits." Oldfield says (vol. i. p. 163,) that, from the great number of towns they passed, he is inclined to suppose that the population must be very dense indeed. And (vol. ii. p. 17,) * * * The no sooner does the traveler approach one town, than he discovers three or four, and sometimes five others." Park speaks (vol. ii. p. 80,) of the "hills cultivated to the very summit, and the surplus grain employed in purchasing luxuries from native traders." Laing speaks (p. 156) with delight of "the extensive meadows, clothed in verdure, and the fields from which the springing-rice and ground-nuts were sending forth their green shoots, not inferior in beauty and health to the corn-fields of England, interspersed here and there with a patch of ground studded with palm-trees." Tuckey reports (p. 342) a similar improvement in the face of the country at some distance up the Congo, where he found towns and villages following each other in rapid succession. Ashmun, writing from Liberia, says, "An excursion of some of our people into the country, to the distance of about 140 miles, has led to a discovery of the populousness and comparative civilization of this district of Africa, never till within a few months even conjectured by myself. We are situated within 50 leagues of a country, in which a highly improved agriculture prevails; where the horse is a common domestic animal, where extensive tracts of land are cleared and enclosed, where every article absolutely necessary to comfort. able life is produced by the skill and industry of the inhabitants; where the Arabic is used as a written language in the ordinary commerce of life; where regular and abundant markets and fairs are kept; and where a degree of intelligence and practical refinement distinguishes the inhabitants, little compatible with the personal qualities attached, in the current notions of the age, to the people of Guinea."* |