CHAPTER XIII.

FOOTNOTES:[29]Samba’s brother.[30]Of the palm kind.[31]Seventy.

FOOTNOTES:

[29]Samba’s brother.

[30]Of the palm kind.

[31]Seventy.

Retreat from Kaarta. — Difficulties and Annoyances there. — Arrival at Fort St. Joseph. — Delay and Occurrences at Baquelle. — Return to the Coast. — Arrival at Sierra Leone. — Visit to the captured Negro Establishments.

Wecommenced our retreat at half after five, on the morning of the 8th of May, and at eleven reached Guninghedy, where we halted during the heat of the day. We were accompanied by Bojar and his division, with their prisoners, whose sufferings presented scenes of distress which I am incapable of painting in their true colours. The women and children (all nearly naked and carrying heavy loads) were tied together by the necks, and hurried along over a rough stony path that cut their feet in a dreadful manner. There were a great number of children, who, from their tender years, were unable to walk, and were carried, some on the prisoners’ backs, and others on horseback behind their captors, who, to prevent them falling off, tied them to the back part of the saddle with a rope made from the bark of the baobab, which was so hard and rough that it cut the back and sides of the poor little innocentbabes so as to draw the blood. This however, was only a secondary state of the sufferings endured by those children, when compared to the dreadfully blistered and chafed state of their seats, from constant jolting on the bare back of the horse, seldom going slower than a trot or smart amble, and not unfrequently driven at full speed for a few yards, and pulled up short. On these occasions it was to me a matter of astonishment how the child could support the strokes it must have received from the back of the saddle, which, from its form, came in contact with the child’s stomach.

We reached Sanjarra the following morning at half after nine, and in the afternoon was joined by Giboodoo, who had been at Dhyaje; he told me that Modiba desired him to say he was sorry the present state of the country would not admitof my passing Kaarta, but was glad I had returned with Bojar, thereby preventing the necessity he should otherwise have been under of sending a detachment after me, for the purpose of bringing me back. I was also met at Sanjarra by a messenger from Ali, to say, that having heard something at Dhyaje, with respect to Modiba’s intentions towards me, he advised my moving without delay to his town, where I might remain in safety until the king should send people to re-conduct me to Galam. I did not believe this; supposing that his object was, in thus apparently protecting me, to lay me under obligations, from which I should be obliged to release myself by means of presents. I nevertheless followed his advice, because my most direct path led there, and I was not altogether so satisfied with Bojar’s treatment while at his town, to induce me to return.

Giboodoo returned to Dhyaje on the 11th, for the purpose of paying a parting visit to his majesty. He promised to be back on the 14th, till which day I consented to wait at Sanjarra for him[32]; but as he did not keep his time, I removed to Missira on the 15th, where I was received by Ali. Giboodoo did not join me until the 17th, when, having informed me that Modiba could not send people to escort us to Galam beforethe ensuing week, I again despatched him to tell the king that unless they joined me before the 23d, I should move on before them to the frontier.

On the 20th, the maraboo, accompanied by Bokari, one of the head slaves, and some of their followers, came to Missira, by Modiba’s orders, to take us to Moonia, and whither, in case I refused to proceed with them, they had orders to force me. Here then was what I had long expected, namely, to be plundered of every thing, and which I told them they could do at Missira, and not harass me as well as my men by travelling all over the country.

The maraboo, as on a former occasion, said he was nothing more than the bearer of Modiba’s orders, which he should carry into execution. Remonstrance was vain, and refusal would have been equally so (if not worse), as I plainly saw those people were prepared to act forcibly. Giboodoo arrived in the afternoon, and was accompanied by two more of the head slaves, sent by their master on the same errand as the former. I had however rendered their interference unnecessary, having consented to proceed to Moonia, with the almost certainty of being plundered, and, under such a conviction, I laid out a part of the few articles the rapacity of the Kaartans had spared me, in redeeming from slavery two women of Bondoo, who had been taken in theaffair which took place before I left Galam. In taking this step I had two motives; first, that of placing out of Modiba’s reach a portion at least of my merchandize, which alone excited his avarice; secondly, I had in view, by sending those women (who were related to Almamy Bondoo) to their friends in that country, to convince that chief that our intentions towards them were good indeed; and however I might feel on the subject of the treatment I met with at his hands, I was, nevertheless, deeply impressed with sentiments of compassion for those of his people who had fallen victims to Kaartan power. One of Ali’s sons was their possessor, and from him I had much trouble in obtaining their freedom, which was the more difficult and expensive, from its having been his intention to add them to the list of his concubines, whose number already amounted to twelve.

Polygamy is carried to a frightful extent in Kaarta. Many private individuals have ten wives, and as many concubines; the princes, for the most part, not less than thirty of each, and Modiba himself is said to have one hundred wives and two hundred concubines; and I verily believe that one-third of the free inhabitants of Kaarta are of the blood royal.

We left Missira at six on the morning of the 22d, and reached Moonia at ten, but had scarcelyunloaded the asses, when Bojar sent to inform me that his father insisted on my paying the customary duty on the merchandize I had brought into the country, in the same proportion as paid by the native merchants, and desired to have my immediate answer, which I gave, by saying, that I now plainly perceived what their object was in bringing me back to Moonia; and that as I would not willingly give any thing more to them, in the way of either customs or presents, and was not able to prevent them from taking what they wished, they might do so when they pleased. In about half an hour they came to our huts, and having examined all our baggage minutely, appeared much disappointed and surprised in not finding a large quantity of silver, amber, and coral, and a great number of fine guns, all which they said Modiba had been told I had in abundance. Their disappointment was so great that they walked off to the town without taking a single article. The maraboo was much confused, and said, he could not help acknowledging that I had been badly treated, but that I should not blame Modiba, as he had been misinformed, both with respect to the object of my visit to Sego, and the extent and nature of my baggage: the latter, although reduced to that state which surprised Modiba’s messengers so much, was still of value enough in their eyes toinduce their return at eight o’clockP.M.; when they again demanded the customs, and on my refusing to give them with free will, they helped themselves to the articles stated in the Appendix,Article 19.

On the following morning I despatched Giboodoo to inform Modiba of the proceedings of his messengers, and to request that, if it was really his intention to send people to escort us to Galam, he would do so immediately.

From the 23d of May until the 8th of June was spent by us in a state of suspense, which nothing but the hope we hourly entertained of seeing Giboodoo return from Dhyage, and with him the promised escort, could have rendered at all supportable. Every day was marked by some act of plunder by the slaves of Bojar, and haughty insult by himself, but we were incapable of resistance, and, however galling to our feelings, patient submission was our only line of conduct, to which we more strictly adhered in consequence of an intimation from Giboodoo, that any other would have drawn down upon us the most hostile treatment.

He arrived from Dhyage on the 8th, at night, without any escort, but obtained permission for us to proceed to Galam, where we arrived on the 18th. We were accompanied by some Serrawoollie merchants, conducting to Baquelle alarge coffle of slaves, each of whom had to deplore being torn from some near and dear object of their affections, and from their nakedness, want of proper nourishment, and being exposed to almost constant rain for two days and nights, they presented a group of beings reduced to the very lowest ebb of human suffering.

I lost no time in repairing to Baquelle for the purpose of effecting my speedy return from that place over land to the Gambia, but found that such a step was rendered totally impossible by the state of war and confusion in which all the surrounding countries were then involved, both among themselves, and with the French at all their settlements on the Senegal. They had a few days previous to my leaving Kaarta totally destroyed the town of Baquelle in revenge for the assassination of one of their officers, and were concerting measures in conjunction with Bondoo for an attack on Tuabo[33]. I was thereforenecessitated to wait for the arrival of the fleet from Saint Louis, the return of which would afford me the most expeditious and safe means of reaching the coast. This however did not take place before the 24th of September, when, having been accommodated with a passage for my men and self on board one of the French steam ships, we left Baquelle and descended the river which was then very much swollen. We arrived at St. Louis on the 8th of October, and were hospitably received by the French Governor, Captain Le Coupe, who politely offered me every assistance I might require.

Here I waited a fortnight, in hopes of meeting a vessel going to the Gambia or Sierra Leone, but none offering, I proceeded by land to Goree, where I arrived on the 3d of November, and met with a vessel ready to sail for the Bathurst Gambia. The rapid improvement that had taken place since I left it in 1818, struck me with pleasing astonishment, and as a description of the island may not be uninteresting to some, I will endeavour to give it as correctly as the time I spent there enables me to do; but I am aware that it possesses many advantages beyond those which came under my observation. SeeArticle First, Appendix.

I returned to Sierra Leone on board his Majesty’sship Pheasant, Captain Kelly, whose politeness and attention to myself and men I shall never forget.

His Excellency Sir Charles M‘Carthy, who had just arrived from England, was then about visiting some of the liberated negro establishments in the country towns, accompanied by all the civil and military staff of the colony. I felt too much concern in the welfare of those truly interesting objects not to make one of the party, and therefore had an opportunity of witnessing the wonderful improvements that had taken place in every town since I had before seen them, indeed some having all the appearance and regularity of the neatest village in England, with church, school, and commodious residences for the missionaries and teachers, had not in 1817 been more than thought of. Descending some of the hills, I was surprised on perceiving neat and well laid out villages in places where, but four years before, nothing was to be seen except almost impenetrable thickets, but arriving in those villages the beauty and interesting nature of such objects was much enhanced by the clean, orderly, and respectable appearance of the cottages and their inhabitants, particularly the young people and children, who, at all the towns, assembled to welcome with repeated cheers the return of their Governor and daddy (father),as they invariably stiled His Excellency, who expressed himself highly pleased at their improvement during his absence, in which short period large pieces of ground had been cleared and cultivated in the vicinity of all the towns, and every production of the climate raised in sufficient abundance to supply the inhabitants, and furnish the market at Free-town.

His Excellency visited the schools at the different towns, and witnessed the improvement which all the students had made, but particularly those of the high-school at Regent-town, whose progress in arithmetic, geography, and history, evinced a capacity far superior to that which is in general attributed to the Negro, and proves that they may be rendered useful members of society, particularly so in exploring the interior of the country, having previously received the education calculated to that peculiar service.

From the change which has taken place in those villages since I saw them in 1817, I am satisfied, that a little time is alone necessary to enable the colony of Sierra Leone to vie with many of the West India islands, in all the productions of tropical climates, but particularly in the article of coffee, which has been already raised there, and proved by its being in demand in theEnglish market to be of as good (if not superior) quality to that imported from our other colonies. That the soil on the mountains is well adapted to the growth of that valuable berry has been too well proved by the flourishing state of some of the plantations in the immediate vicinity of Free-town to need any comment of mine. Arrow-root has also been cultivated with advantage on some of the farms belonging to private individuals, and there can be no doubt of the capability of the soil to produce the sugar-cane, as some is already grown there, but whether it is of as good a description as that of the West Indies I cannot pretend to say, as the experiment had never been tried at Sierra Leone, at least to my knowledge. The cultivation of all these with the cotton, indigo, and ginger, could here be carried on under advantages which our West India islands do not enjoy, namely, the labour of free people, who would relieve the Mother Country from the apprehensions which are at present entertained for the safety of property in some of those islands, by revolt and insurrection amongst the slaves, and from the deplorable consequences of such a state of civil confusion; those people would, by receiving the benefits arising from their industry, be excited to exertions that must prove beneficial to all concernedin the trade, and conducive to the prosperity of the colony itself.

The capital of the peninsula (Free-town) is of considerable extent, and is beautifully situate, on an inclined plane, at the foot of some hills on which stand the fort and other public buildings that overlook it, and the roads, from whence there is a delightful prospect of the town rising in the form of an amphitheatre from the water’s edge, above which it is elevated about seventy feet. It is regularly laid out into fine wide streets, intersected by others parallel with the river, and at right angles. The houses, which a few years since were for the most part built of timber, many of them of the worst description, and thatched with leaves or grass, are now replaced by commodious and substantial stone buildings, that both contribute to the health and comfort of the inhabitants, and add to the beauty of the place, which is rendered peculiarly picturesque by the numbers of cocoa-nut, orange, lime, and banana trees, which are scattered over the whole town, and afford, in addition to the pine-apple and gouava that grow wild in the woods, an abundant supply of fruit. The Madeira and Teneriffe vines flourish uncommonly well in the gardens of some privateindividuals, and give in the season a large crop of grapes.

Nearly all our garden vegetables are raised there, and what with yams, cassada, and pompions, there is seldom any want of one or other of those agreeable and almost necessary requisites for the table. There are good meat, poultry, and fish markets, and almost every article in the house-keeping line can be procured at the shops of the British merchants.

FOOTNOTES:[32]See Appendix,Article 20.[33]This event took place on the 4th August, by a smart cannonade from the French brig, and an assault by the Bondoo army (amounting to nearly three thousand men), a spirited sortie made by about one hundred of the besieged, put the whole army of Bondoo to flight and took several prisoners, whom they immediately butchered in front of the brig, which, although moored within musket shot of the shore, was not fired on by the people of the town, with whom the French commandant found it necessary to make peace in a few days afterwards.

FOOTNOTES:

[32]See Appendix,Article 20.

[33]This event took place on the 4th August, by a smart cannonade from the French brig, and an assault by the Bondoo army (amounting to nearly three thousand men), a spirited sortie made by about one hundred of the besieged, put the whole army of Bondoo to flight and took several prisoners, whom they immediately butchered in front of the brig, which, although moored within musket shot of the shore, was not fired on by the people of the town, with whom the French commandant found it necessary to make peace in a few days afterwards.

Havingnow finished my narrative, it remains for me to fulfil my obligations to the reader and the public, by briefly stating the result of my experience, not only upon the habits and manners of the people of Western Africa, but also as to the progress they have made towards civilization, as to their political institutions and religious improvement. In doing this I shall cautiously abstain from entering into abstruse calculations, and religiously confine myself to what my best judgement enables me to declare from practical observation. I must here however state, that it has been too long the custom to set little value on the African Negro, to consider him as a being mid-way placed between the mere brute and man; as impervious to every ray of intellectual light; and, in a word, as incapable of enjoying the blessings of civil or religious liberty. This custom is, to say the least of it, erroneous, and the notion on which it is founded unjust. The Spaniards, after the discovery of South America,affected to believe the South Americans of a species inferior to themselves. They ruinously acted on that belief for centuries, and the descendants of those Spaniards have lived to see the day, when long observation has taught them, at a large expense, a very different lesson. It is not however denied, that slaves must and will be slaves, with all the cunning and treachery which their condition engenders, and perhaps it may still be a question, if persons enfranchised from a state of slavery can, by the fact of such an enfranchisement, become at once, or even very speedily, fit and useful members of a free and enlightened community. At the first blush of the question the answer would be in the negative, but that negative should not be left unqualified. The people amongst whom I have travelled, and of whom only I would now be understood to write, are illiterate and consequently superstitious; but the former arises not from want of capacity or genius so much as from the want of means to cultivate them; their mechanical like their agricultural knowledge is extremely limited, but why from that argue their incapacity to meet improvement, if improvement were happily thrown in their way? They have beside, a civil polity and a diplomatic chicane in their intercourse with each other,which is not usually to be found in merely savage life. Like most half taught people their cunning generally supersedes their wisdom, but then I am still prepared to argue, that if you allow them the full exercise of their industry; if you improve and protect it; if, by wise and judicious policy, you lift the Negro in his own esteem, and teach his Chief, that what is good was intended for all, though not in the same proportion, for the servant as the master; if you abate their superstition by the careful introduction of evangelical truths; if, in a word, you realize those things, the condition of Africa will soon assume the appearance of health, longevity, and happiness.

Their wants are, generally speaking, few and easily satisfied; and their soil, though barren, yields a sufficiency of those common necessaries of life which are required in tropical climates. They have not, unfortunately, any common language to knit them together in society, hence must their intercourse with each other be extremely limited; their curiosity is not awakened by the contemplation of new and remote objects, they know few artificial necessities to induce the visits of strangers to supply them, and hence, except in war, they seldom pass the boundaries of the hut that shelters, and the field of rice or corn that feeds them. Nor are these theonly disadvantages, or, more properly speaking, difficulties to their general improvement. It is a melancholy truth, that some of the white men who were in the first instances sent ostensibly to instruct them, were often actuated by different motives to suffer the lust of interest and power to tempt them from the useful discharge of the functions entrusted to them;—they, too, often meet cunning by cunning, treachery by treachery, and rapine by rapine: and while they thus conducted themselves,—why expect the Negro to view them in the light of friends and Christian regenerators? The Negro absurdly thinks the white man his enemy, and in how many thousand instances has not the white man realised this absurdity into positive and melancholy fact? The white inculcates principles whose practice he violates, and then he turns round and smiles at the incredulity, or affectedly weeps over the folly of those who will not yield to the happy influence which, forsooth! he was destined to spread amongst them. That this has been too much the case cannot be denied. That a different conduct now prevails, I can with pleasure assert, and I hope for the sake of mankind, that it may improve in proportion as the field of our enquiries shall enlarge. This misconduct was the beginning of all the evil which followed, and those erroneous views destroyed the best intentionedlabours. We as Englishmen should consider that the prejudices of ages cannot be eradicated in an hour, nor the light of truth communicated by instruction at the mere will of man. To benefit our fellow creatures, we must expend time, patience, money, resources and sedulous instruction, because we know that cupidity, bigotry, and revenge, and all the bad passions which spring from ignorance, are not to be destroyed by any other effectual means. Many incidents have been stated in the course of my narrative, which justify these remarks, exclusive of those more prominent instances which are to appear in the sequel.

The principal difficulties which impeded my progress may be reduced to a few heads. The cupidity and duplicity of the chiefs, the existence of slavery as connected with our endeavours to abolish it, the idle fears and apprehensions growing out of recent hostile transactions in the Senegal, and, mainly, the rapid spread and dreadful influence of the Mahomedan faith.

The duplicity of the chiefs is principally exemplified in the conduct of the kings of Woolli, Bondoo and Kaarta, and either in the want of inclination, or the fear of our approaching or passing Sego, by the king of that country. At Woolli perhaps they were of too trivial a nature, and the king so inadequate to prevent our passingby force, that they scarcely merit attention. They serve however to shew, that if he had not the power, he had at least the inclination to throw every obstacle in the way of our proceeding eastward, but in which direction, it is equally true, that none but his enemies resided. It may be naturally supposed he did not wish such persons to be enriched by sharing in the booty expected from our baggage, exaggerated reports of whose value had been circulated through the interior long before even the first expedition had left Senegal. At Bondoo the fairest promises were in the first instance held out to us by Almamy; nay, an apparent impatience was evinced by him to send us forward, but this we soon discovered to have originated in a desire on his part to grasp at those presents which he supposed we should make him in consideration for so laudable an attention to our interests, but which (although more than we could well afford) not being sufficiently valuable in his eyes, were no sooner handed over to him, than the appearance of things changed, and he made a demand for nearly as much more, under the name of customs. The English name, and the liberality of the British governors of St. Louis, and Senegal, to Almamy Bondoo were well and long known to him previously to our entering his country, but it appears that not only therecollection of their kindness to him had vanished with our cession of that colony to the French, but that he had been determined to crown his ingratitude with treachery, deceit, and even want of common hospitality to the expedition, which was unfortunately induced to prefer the road through his country for the reasons already mentioned inp. 61, and in consequence of the very apparently warm manner in which he expressed himself grateful for the handsome presents he had received from Sir Charles M‘Carthy when commanding at St. Louis. That every deference and respect for him as the king of Bondoo, and indeed in some cases rather more than enough, had been shewn him, is but too evident from the enormous sacrifices we made at the shrine of his insatiable avarice, with a view of conciliating his favour and protection, and of convincing him that our object in going to the east was not only the mere solution of a geographical question, but an endeavour at the eventual improvement of the commercial and social interests of the countries we visited, by opening a safe and direct communication between them and our settlements, where I assured Almamy we should be most happy to see himself and subjects as constant visitors. What could have induced him to act ashe did towards us I was really for a long time at a loss to define, although he more than once hinted at having received private information, and as he said from good authority, that we had in view the destruction of his country, but which I could not then believe, and supposed he only made that excuse a cloak to hide some other motive with which I ineffectually strained every nerve to become satisfactorily acquainted. The information which I afterwards acquired with respect to the immense profits arising to the native merchants from the trade, and barter of slaves, in the transaction already mentioned of redeeming the Bondoo woman and her daughter out of the hands of the Kaartans, led me, in considering that subject minutely, to reflect on other circumstances connected with the question, and that left no doubt on my mind as to his having been thereby influenced: these shall be fully explained hereafter.

The king of Kaarta likewise, after tempting me under the most flattering promises to enter his country, having even sent an escort of one thousand horse to conduct me in safety, when he had received from me to the full measure which inclination or duty prompted me to give him, not only broke every promise he made meof assistance in the prosecution of my journey, but literally plundered me of the few articles which his avarice had hitherto spared. As on other occasions, I was here at a loss to conjecture the cause of such treatment, and upon the most mature and unprejudiced consideration, can only attribute it to the same causes as operated on his brother chiefs of Woolli and Bondoo.

The King of Sego was at war with the Massina Foulahs when Mr. Dochard entered his country, and as his enemies were a powerful people, he was unwilling to admit of our nearer approach, until, as he said, they should either be defeated, or yield to terms of peace which he should dictate to them. That Mr. Dochard’s delay might have been caused by such a disposition, is not at all impossible, but it is nevertheless evident, that the very great distance he ordered the removal of Mr. Dochard, pending these negociations, affords room for supposing that he was actuated by other motives than those which he had previously assigned, namely, a superstitious fear of the too near approach of a person who was supposed to possess supernatural powers, and likely to become a troublesome neighbour. That the general persuasion throughout the country of Bambarra, and particularlyat Sego, was of this nature, has been already proved by Mr. Park, to whose appearance there the death of Mausong himself, and of other great personages immediately after his passage through, was industriously attributed by the Mahomedans. A second opportunity was afforded to their malice against us, and their hatred of our faith, upon the occasion of the subsequent death of some of Dha’s chief men, particularly the governor of Bamakoo, who died suddenly a few days after Mr. Dochard’s arrival at that town.

The existence of slavery as connected with the endeavours of England to abolish it, tends in a material degree to awaken the jealousy of the native chiefs, who, in common with the Moorish and Negro traders, derived, and are still deriving, a very lucrative income from that abominable traffic, which they designate by the softened appellation of a lawful branch of commerce. In order to give an adequate idea to my readers of the profits attending this trade in human flesh, it will be necessary for me to state a few particulars.

I have already stated inpage 326, that in order to save from the fate which I had good reason to know awaited my baggage at Moonia, I had released from slavery a Bondoo woman andher child, with the intention of restoring them to their family, and had paid for each of them a larger sum in merchandize than is generally considered the ransom of a slave taken in war, but in reality amounting to a mere trifle when put in competition with the liberty of a fellow-creature, as will appear by the following statement:—

ARTICLES PAID FOR THE WOMAN AND HER CHILD.

Or the value of five prime slaves in that country. Had one of the native merchants purchased those poor creatures, he would not have paid more than two hundred of those bars for them, and probably not so much, as he would first have changed those articles for cowries[34], the current money of that country, with which he would have made the bargain. He could next sell them to the traders in the Senegal, or as profitably to their friends in Bondoo, for the following articles:—

For which he could again purchase five slaves in Kaarta, where there is no want of those wretched beings. Is it then to be wondered at that those people view with a jealous eye our endeavours to suppress that trade, or throw obstacles in the way of our penetrating into the interior of their country, where they suppose we are attracted with no other view than the ultimate subversion of their religion and favourite traffic in their own flesh and blood; for it is impossible to convince them (at least by words) that we have no such intention: and as to think of persuading them that the extension of our geographical knowledge in visiting unknown countries at such risks and expense, or that the lawful increase of our commerce alone attractour steps, we might as well tell them that a white man never bought a slave. Whenever I spoke of the Niger, or my anxiety to see it, they asked me if there were no rivers in the country (we say) we inhabit; for the general belief is, as before stated, that we live exclusively in ships on the sea. The Moors too, who are general traders, and visit all the states of the interior in their commercial pursuits, are aware that any encouragement given by the native chiefs to our direct and friendly intercourse with them must tend to undermine their own trade, and in the course of time to remove from the eyes and understandings of those chiefs and their subjects the veil of superstition by which they are now shrouded. They therefore take advantage of the credit and respectability which in their characters as Maraboos they so invariably enjoy, to circulate reports prejudicial not only to our views in Africa (which they, if they do not really believe like the negroes, represent in the same way) but to our character as a people, whom they designate by the degrading appellation of Kafér, or unbeliever.

From the simple calculation and exposé just now made, it must be obvious that the native princes and traders have a strong and direct interest to oppose the abolition of slavery; although as regards the negro population it is equally clearthat they have, if possible, a stronger and more direct interest to promote it by every means in their power. It is not my intention to enter into the very wide and comprehensive question growing out of this position, namely, whether the free negro, if independent of his master, could obtain sufficient employment, or, obtaining, would be ready to accept it. The first authorities of the present day, the ablest political economists of this and every other country, have decided that labour should be free; not only as conducive to the increased comforts of the labourer, but as decidedly favourable to the pecuniary interests of the employer and consumer. The African chiefs, like the owners of slaves in other countries, think they have no security for their authority but the maintenance of their people in slavery; and the prejudices of the negroes are such, the custom has been so long continued and by time become so inveterately strong, that no one having pretensions to superiority will perform any of those useful occupations which the best informed in civilised countries so usually attend to. There is in the habit of slavery a something much more difficult of cure than even in the oldest and most stormy passions of educated man: there is within it a debasement not to be found in any other state, and it seems as absolutely to chain men to themere measure of their length and breadth upon the soil, as if their existence had no other object. The sun seems to roll his orbit without their observance, and the earth to yield its fruits without their gratitude; and yet they exhibit a deep sense of injury, and feel an insatiable thirst for revenge: such opposite feelings all being generated from the unwholesome effluvia of their religion—of which, however, more hereafter.

Another and very plausible reason was afforded the chiefs and people of the interior for not wishing our presence in their countries, and for exciting them to jealous and fearful conjectures as to the object of our visits. This was the forcible possession taken by the French of a position on the Foota frontier of the Waallo country, which although no doubt dictated by a laudable desire of improving the condition of those people and giving a stimulus to their commerce, was done in opposition to the wishes of the Foota chiefs and of those of the Moorish tribes of Bracknar and Trarsar, all of whom claimed a right to the place, and to defend which they made war on the King of Waallo, whose permission alone to establish and occupy a post on disputed ground was purchased by the Governor of Senegal.

The other chiefs remonstrated against this infringement of their rights, but receiving no satisfactoryanswer, joined their forces, and almost wholly destroyed the country, where all the horrors and misery so appallingly attendant on African wars were inflicted on and borne by the wretched inhabitants. A dreadful instance of the detestation in which the actual state of slavery is regarded by the free-born negro, so far as they are themselves concerned, occurred at the destruction of one of those towns. The wives of some chiefs who had either been killed or taken by the enemy determined not to survive their husbands’ or their country’s fall, and preferring death, even in its most terrifying shape, to slavery and the embraces of their captors,—suffered themselves and their young children to be burnt to death in a hut, where they had assembled with that determination, and which was set on fire by themselves. This affair and some others of a similar nature which took place about that time in the Senegal, although rendered necessary by acts of plunder, breach of contract, or treachery on the part of the chiefs, who are unfortunately much addicted to such conduct, were unavoidably attended with circumstances which, so far from being calculated to make those people regard the visits of Europeans to their country in a favourable light, had the effect of corroborating in a great measure the false and interested reports already but too sedulously circulatedby the Moors and other native traders, and too credibly received by the several chiefs.

Another circumstance, which took place in Bambarra, must serve to convince every impartial reader that fears were really entertained by the chiefs as to the ultimate results of our communications with them.

At an interview which Mr. Dochard had with one of Dha’s head slaves at Bamakoo, where all the occurrences in the Senegal were not only known but much exaggerated, he was asked with a significant smile, “in case the Niger terminated in the sea and was found navigable to Sego, would our large vessels come up to that place, and our merchants settle there as the French had done in the Senegal?” The object of this question is too palpably evident to need any comment of mine, and Mr. Dochard’s answer, “that he doubted the possibility of large vessels ascending that river, or the wish of our merchants to try it without even settling there,” although in my opinion the best he could have given, did not remove from the minds of Dha and his ministers their apprehension of the consequences.

The main difficulty to our success in Africa decidedly results from the extent and influence of the Mohamedan religion. From the period of its introduction as affecting the mode of African legislation, which is scarcely a century since,the negroes, but particularly the chiefs, have lost the little of honesty or natural feeling which they before possessed. The doctrines of Mohamedanism are at right angles with those of Christianity, or if the doctrines be not so widely different, it is unquestionable that their influence produces the most melancholy and opposite results. Mohamedanism may direct the performance of moral duties, its theology may be wise and its ethics sound; but no abstract rules, however good or salutary, can operate upon the believers, while the interests of its ministers are at open war with them. In truth, we need not recur to Africa nor Mohamedanism to illustrate the truth of this position, for experience much nearer home has, while even these sheets are at the press, too forcibly proved it. Whatever then the written code of Mohamedanism may teach, I have invariably discovered that in practice, it countenances, if it does not actually generate, cunning, treachery, and an unquenchable thirst of litigation and revenge. It produces no good but from the meanest sense of fear, and its very profession is of itself considered as sufficient absolution from every atrocity committed to increase its disciples. But in Africa its pernicious tendency is still more exemplified than in those quarters where it has so long flourished with the rankest luxuriance.

The Africans in their pagan state were not liable to the same superstitions as they are and have been since their proselytism,—if it maybe so termed, because, their religion was not overloaded with ceremonies, and their priests had but a narrow and contracted influence. Mohamedanism has made them hypocrites as it keeps them slaves, and, while it prevails to its present extent, they must continue so. Essences are forgotten in the strict observance of a miserable ritual, and truth has lost its value and its splendour when only seen through the jaundiced instruction of peculating Maraboos. These jugglers in morality make whatever use they please of the victims of their sorcery, and if once they catch them in their toils, escape is almost literally impossible. The enmity which those ministers of false doctrine bear against our religion and ourselves naturally induce them to represent us in colours most terrifying to the converted negroes’ minds, by assuring them, that, although we say our intentions towards them are good, we are only under that cloak aiming at their total and eventual subjugation;—and, they bring forward the continuance of the slave trade by the French in the Senegal as a proof ofourwant of sincerity.

The negroes, however, receive a sort of bonus by their conversion to Mohamedanism. In the event of war waged on them by a Mohamedanpower, they are spared, or at all events not compelled to feel the horrors which usually attend it.

But the crying sin of Mohamedanism and the main spring of its pernicious tendency, is the toleration of polygamy. I confine my observations to its effects in Western Africa, although if this were the proper time and occasion, I should not dread being able to demonstrate that wherever tolerated, its tendency must be evil in the worst degree. Polygamy is the fruitful source of jealousy and distrust, it contracts the parental and filial affections, it weakens and disjoints the ties of kindred, and but for the unlimited influence of the Maraboos and the fear of hell, if they do not profit of the license of their great Apostle, must totally unhinge the frame of all society. The father has many wives, the wives have many children, favoritism in its most odious form sets in, jealousy is soon aroused, and revenge unsheathes the sword which deals forth destruction. But it is not to the domestic circle, it is not to the family arrangements, it is not to the fearful mischiefs it leads to upon social intercourse that I look alone; but to its division of the soil and to its mutilation of the different states, than which nothing can prove more destructive to any country. The jealousies of the mothers, while exciting to domestic hatred, lead to external civil war, and states rise and set with a sort of harlequinoperation, and when they are sought for vanish in the air, and “leave not a wreck behind.” The consequence of these wars is, that during the precarious conquests of these chiefs, their whole employment is plunder, and where that cannot be procured the forfeiture—is life. All order and morality is upset, all right is unknown, and the effect must be the degradation of society and the dismemberment of empire in that ill-fated portion of the world.

To this cause also may be attributed in a great measure the existence (at least to the present extent) of slavery, for that religion not only gives an apparently divine authority to the practice, but instils into the minds of its proselytes a conviction or belief, that all who are not or will not become Mohamedans were intended by Providence and their Prophet to be the slaves and property of those who do. It is much to be regretted that those valuable and indefatigable friends of Africa who have been for years labouring towards civilization on the coast, where much has been done by the pious labours and example of the missionaries from the Church and other Societies, are so circumstanced, from the many difficulties which the climate itself presents and the rapid spread of the Mohamedan faith, that they are unable to penetrate beyond the influence of our settlements on the coast,and consequently excluded from all possibility (for the present at least) of giving those misguided people an opportunity of judging for themselves between the secure and happy state of those whom the exertions of an enlightened country and the influence of the Christian religion have redeemed from slavery and ignorance, and the miserably precarious and blind condition to which they are themselves subjected.

Having thus far stated the difficulties which have hitherto impeded, and are still likely to impede our researches in, and our civilization of Western Africa, it may not be considered as adventuring too much if I place before my readers a few suggestions, which, if acted upon, may have a tendency to diminish, if not to overcome them altogether.

I have adverted amongst others to the difficulty originating in the fears which were entertained in consequence of the transactions on the Senegal, but on that the remedy is obviously one to be administered by the healing hand of time. The native chiefs had long received presents which were originally granted for the accommodation and security they afforded to the European and Senegal merchants who traded with them. In the progress of time, however, those voluntary presents were not only demanded as a right, but when refused (which wasonly the case where a breach of faith on their part was committed), were enforced by the prohibition of further commercial intercourse, and this generally terminated in a compliance with their demand. This peaceable, and even almost necessary mode of conciliation, at the period I speak of, was afterwards continued as a matter of course. The arrogance of the native chief was pampered by the yielding, and his cupidity was fed by the necessity of doing so. And the evil did not rest here, for as we conceded they advanced fresh claims, which, even when admitted, afforded no certainty that their promises with us would be fulfilled.

Immediately after our cession of that colony, the French authorities there decided on convincing those people, that, although they were willing, in a great degree, to submit to the custom which had so long existed, yet, that they would not quietly bear the obstructions thrown in the way of their commercial pursuits upon the Upper Senegal; and prepared to meet force by force, which was eventually rendered necessary by the hostile threats and actions of the natives. Time, and time alone, can afford to those natives a proof that the resistance forced upon the French was not an act of disrespect to them, or of a disposition to invade their just pretensions or their rights; but intended to shewthem that the benefits of commerce should be mutual, and that a present, unrefused as such, should not be converted into a right, to be enforced for the future by prohibitions or by arms.

Another remedy at once presents itself to the mind, but, unfortunately, that is a remedy which cannot, I fear, be speedily administered, much less easily obtained; I allude to the general concurrence of Europe in the abolition of slavery. England, however, does not come in for any share of blame on this eventful subject: every thing has been done by her which eloquence, treasure, influence, humanity, or religion could unite in favour of so desirable a consummation. It is to be hoped that her example will, sooner or later, induce the other powers of Europe to imitate it, in which event the most incalculable advantages would result to the suffering negroes of Africa. It would be, perhaps, unbecoming in me to press this important topic to an extremity; the wisest men as statesmen, and the minutest calculators as political economists, all concur in stating the general abolition of slavery (placing all humanity and religion out of the question) to be a general good. After the expression of such a very extensive and honourable feeling, it is matter of regret that some of the powers of Europe cannot be induced to aid in the great work which England had the honourof commencing, and completing as far as she was concerned. It is a heart-rending reflection that mistaken views of interest, or the calls of avaricious clamour, should not only take precedence of, but actually absorb all the obligations of good feeling, and all the commands of the Most High. But we are to hope a new light may break in upon the councils of those who are, perhaps, only mistaken, or who, from some over-ruling necessity, are obliged to tolerate a traffic at which not only our nature revolts, but which no one has of late years had the hardihood to attempt a shadow of justification.

I am persuaded that a mode of disposal of some of the liberated negroes similar to that which I adopted in the case of Corporal Harrup, would be attended with the most beneficial results to Africa and the Mother Country; to the former, by affording them a strong proof of our good intentions towards them, and to the latter, by extending our commercial intercourse by means of these people; who would unquestionably, not only revisit our settlements themselves, but would induce many of their fellow countrymen to accompany them. I am, however, aware that many difficulties present themselves to the accomplishment of such a step: first, from the almost impossibility of ascertaining whether theperson so disposed of belonged to a free family, for few of them will acknowledge the fact of their having been born in slavery; and secondly, from the very limited intercourse between our colonies and the remote states of the interior, whence those unfortunate beings were dragged into slavery; and during their return whether they would, on most occasions, be exposed to a second, and, if possible, a worse state of bondage. The latter difficulty, however, is daily decreasing before the persevering endeavours of Africa’s friends in this country, under the immediate and personal direction of an active governor, who, in holding out every inducement to the chiefs and people in the vicinity of our colonies to keep up a direct and friendly intercourse with our commercial agents, is adopting a plan likely to be attended with the most salutary results[37].

The cupidity and duplicity of the chiefs has already obtained that notice which it required, and to obviate them, it has occurred to me there are no means more available, and, I may add, more speedily practicable, than the enlargementof our intercourse with the people, and the encouragement and protection of the internal commerce of Africa. By this we can improve them in the way of example, by the other we can benefit them and ourselves in the way of interchange of commodity; our habits and our manners will gain upon them in time, and our skill tend to stimulate and encourage theirs.

By increasing their commerce we also obtain another happy consummation, we give them employment, and we consequently to a certain extent, secure them from the incessant meddling of their maraboos. We could congregate them in greater numbers together, and therefore the more readily instruct them; and I may venture to add, that, if a fair degree of zeal were used in such a delightful employment, within a very few years they would prove themselves not unfitted for the enjoyment of liberal institutions. When once a people feel their moral power improving it is not difficult to give it a degree of perfection, and when once the chief found his former slave so far lifted in the scale of being, as to have some notion of the place and duties assigned him here, it would not be easy for him to continue his sway without limit or controul. While, however, the negro dreams of nothing beyond a mere animal support, he is admirably calculated for a slave; but give him an insightinto something higher—teach him an art or a trade, in the exercise of which he finds comfort necessary to himself, and comfort flowing from such an exercise to others; place him in this situation, and without revolting against the authority of his chief, he will still feel that he is not singled out to remain the unpitied and the worthless slave. That there are powers of mind in the African, it were quite idle to dispute; that the productions of the country are capable of being beneficially employed, must, I think, be equally incontestible to any one who has carefully perused the preceding pages; and to act with honesty we should not allow both or either to lie for ever dormant. Common charity, much less common interest, forbids so unworthy a course, and, in truth, I cannot have the slightest suspicion that it ever was contemplated.

Upon this important branch of my subject I might descant to a very considerable extent, but that, fortunately, its magnitude is so thoroughly felt as to spare me the labour on this occasion: let me however look at the advantages of this increased commerce in any point of view, with all the difficulties which rather appear, than really do exist to impede it, I am fully convinced that to it Africa will be at last mainly indebted for any social and political enjoyments to which she may attain.

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