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vessels of transport, mats were then furnished, and regularly changed at fixed periods :-"L'avarice même peut donc quelquefois ramener a l'humanité!" Avarice even teaching that humanity which modern philanthropy has denied them. The preventive measures now well known to the world, have contributed to, rather than have diminished the horrors of this wretched traffic. Forced upon the colonies against their will by Great Britain, that she might reap the full advantage of the Methuen Treaty, or Assiento Contract, she now, with all the affected prudery of a decayed strumpet, turns up eyes of holy horror to God, at the existence of slavery in America--the fruit of her own vices. She would add new-fold horrors to the wretched condition of these people, to prove the extent of her new-born virtue. And Wilberforce, with his grinning, satisfied air of self-importance, is BREVETTED a great man! The idea that self-interest might teach men humanity where nature did not prompt, seems to have escaped these people wholly, in their eagerness to prove their philanthropy and to effect our overthrow. If in time the trade had been recognized and directed, it might have saved many a poor creature from many of the worst horrors of the middle passage, and would not necessarily have increased the traffic, for new supplies would not then have been called for to supply vacancies occasioned by these very preventive or repressive measures. A lawful trade could have been regulated and restricted-that which became piratical, became, at the same time, solely under the controul of pirates. Mercy was thus denied by the folly of humanity. But meddling philosophy looks very far, says Mr. Dickens of Mrs. Jellaby; strange, that the same person cannot see how greatly he himself deserves the same censure. There have been, we fear, too many Mrs. Jellaby's for the good of mankind; Jellaby's in breeches as well as petticoats-fools and meddlers, of precious little good, either at home or to those of Borrioboola Gha, to the myriads who need the help of common sense and virtue, rather than that philanthropy which appears to possess so little of either.

The Jaggas are spread over the whole of Africa, from the confines of Abyssinia to the land of the Hottentots.

They are very black and ill-shaped. They trace lines upon their cheeks with a hot iron, and, showing only the whites of their eyes, are horrible to behold. They are entirely naked, and their whole manner indicates utter barbarism. They know no king, live in the forests, and, wandering like Arabs or jackals, they are led by their ferocity to ravage the country of their neighbours; and, during their attacks, utter frightful cries that inspire every one with terror. Their greatest opponents were a race of war-like women, whom Lopez describes as occupying Monopotapa, a people similar to the Amazons, now maintained by the King of Dahomey, and whose services it is said he has lately tendered to Louis Napoleon. If this is not upon the authority of Punch, it is very much like it. We have lost our reference. If in the sudden marches of these Jaggas, their wives give birth to children, they are immediately smothered. Such responsibilities are only so many impedimenta to such a life and people.

This brings us to the Hottentots, a word synonymous with every thing that is rude, ignorant, filthy, ugly, debased, savage and disgusting; and yet we believe the Hottentots are better than many, and quite as good as any of the African negro races. Their favourite vice. like others, is laziness. It prevails not only over their bodies but their minds. To reason is to labour, and labour of any kind is to them the greatest of evils. Constraint inspires them with horror; but, forced to work, they are docile, submissive and faithful. To begin to civilize the African, it seems absolutely necessary first to subdue him to the bit of bondage to a civilized race. Otherwise, he is as untameable as the Wild Zebra of his plains. Satisfy the present necessities of the Hottentots, and no prayers or considerations can force them from their natural indolence. Drunkenness is another of their vices, in which respect they differ from no Africans ever heard of. Give them brandy and tobacco, and they will drink, smoke and yell, until they lose their voices. They commit, it is said, most unnatural offences.-(Abrégé des Voyages, tom. 3, p. 422.) If you attempt to convince their old people of the odiousness of these practices, they say

"These are the usages of the Hottentots." That solves all difficulties and silences all reproach. Like the other nations of Africa, they immolate their children and old people. Their language is hard and inarticulate, and sounds like so much stuttering or grunting to the ears of the stranger. Dressed in sheep-skins, their naked heads are smeared and plaistered with fat and grease, to such a degree as to form a sort of bonnet of black mortar. They find it "very refreshing.' Their legs are naked and their breasts open; they expose their bellies to the middle. Only their narrow kuthness prevents the utter exposure of both sexes. Nothing is more captivating to them than an old brass button, or piece of broken mirror. They will give all their animals for such bagatelles. All classes take delight in greasing their bodies from head to foot with butter, or the suet of sheep, mixed with the soot from their pots. They renew this as often as it is dried by the sun. Like the skunk, they may be nosed at a great distance." They smell loud," as the Dutchmen or Boors would say. If the rich indulge themselves with the use of rancid butter, the poor besmear themselves with the fat from the bowels of slaughtered animals. Their whole body is invested with a thick coat of ointment, of some sort or other. Tufts of hard, coarse hair or wool and prominences of fat, jut out in various parts of the body and complete their deformity. Gluttonous and filthy beyond measure, they seize upon and tear out, like beasts of prey, the entrails from the belly of the animal only yet half dead, and devour them when but half roasted. Their villages are composed of hovels formed of twigs and clay, and are too low to stand in upright. And yet their stupid aspect has been said by writers, scarcely less stupid, to be owing not to their national character, prevalent over all Africa, but to the state of bondage they are held in by the Boors or Dutch settlers! Were they any better before the whites settled there? But the Bosjosmans, of the same race?-They have never been conquered or enslaved. They have preserved their independence and their primitive habits; and what is their condition? "Of all human beings, their condition is, perhaps. the most forlorn." Alas! poor creatures, as our

slave negroes often say of the free negroes-"they have got no masters."

The best race in all Africa is the Caffre, and these the English are now endeavouring to destroy-all for the good of humanity-that sort, at least, which may be called British humanity. To teach them to use opium, perhaps?

But, to return to the Hottentots. Kolben thinks their habits, so disgusting to us, are the very best for them. Quien sabé? Chacun a son gout. Their filth subjects them to all sorts of vermin, and to a particularly filthy kind, not to be mentioned to polite ears, of an extraordinary size. But they have their revenge; for the troublesome beast is, in its turn, eaten by him it troubles. Surprised with a heap of these animals, they attribute their treatment of them to a principle of retaliation. The worn-out shoes of Europeans, made of raw-hide, are steeped for awhile in water, then roasted and eaten. They would rather lose a tooth than a small piece of tobacco. Their hovels resemble ovens. Those who have killed a lion, tiger, leopard, elephant or rhinoceros, are knighted with great ceremony. The whole kraal assembled, forms circles round him in a squatting position like his own, as our sand-hill people do when they romance together. The deputies of Elders (earls) or chiefs approach, and but for a full description of this quaint ceremony, the curious reader must consult the original.

Thus have we given a rapid sketch of such parts of Africa as have furnished slaves to the European Colonies. We have run over the accounts of a series of travellers since the earliest settlements of the Portuguese in 1484. We will now take up Mr. Beecham, of the London Wesleyan Mission, our latest authority.

In Central and Western Africa, the few, says our author, are despots and the great mass slaves. In the Mahomedan states, running across the centre of Africa, the number of pagan negroes held in slavery is far greater than that of the free population. This is the best part of negro Africa; more enlightened than other parts, and containing many millions of inhabitants. The coast, including the interior for three hundred miles, is supposed to have thirty millions; and

Mahomedan Africa, including a part of the West, and most of Central Africa, must have a much larger population. This would give some forty or fifty millions, the greater part of whom are slaves. In Kano, Clapperton found the proportion of slaves thirty to one, and in another village seventy In pagan Africa, however, says Beecham, slavery prevails still more extensively. Every noble in Ashantee owns thousands. Their lives and services are equally at the disposal of their masters. The nobles or Caboceers, in their turn, belong to the king, and he can take their property whenever he pleases.

to one.

The King of Ashantee justified the slave trade to Mr. Hutchinson, on the ground that the slave population at home was too numerous for public safety; and Mr. Beecham admits that the suppression of the foreign slave trade, however desirable, would not, therefore, of itself, remove the causes of domestic slavery at home.-(p. 119.) Remedial measures depend on the Africans themselves. Ten thousand prisoners in the Gaman War were put to death in cold blood. Many, moreover, died, "because," said the king, this "country does not grow much corn;" and "unless 1 kill or sell them, they will grow strong and kill my people." They believe the Fetiche makes war every where for strong men, because they can pay plenty of gold and make proper sacrifices. The law allows the King of Ashantee three thousand three hundred and thirty-three wives. These are attended by little boys with whips made of elephant's hide, and they lash all who do not turn aside out of their way, or dare to look at them. Mr. Morris saw the King of Dahomey with seven hundred and thirty wives bearing provisions, and many more in troops of seventy following. In Yariba, even a caboceer or common noble often owns two thousand, and the king of that country told Clapperton that he really did not know how many wives and children he had, but that hand to hand they would reach from Katianga to Jannah, more than one hundred miles. Seventeen hundred to a mile, would give one hundred and seventy thousand! A nice little family indeed! In one visit which he paid the traveller, the king had five hundred wives along with him. All this glory should put the Mor

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