CHAPTER XXVII.

WESTERN AFRICA.

History of Slavery; its Origin, and Causes of its Continuance. - Slavery in Africa. Human Sacrifices.- Christian Colonies. Benefits resulting from them. Views of the Natives. - Speech of Simleh Balla. - Letter of King Freeman.-Testimony of the Rev. Dr. Philip. - Of Governor Thompson. Character of the Colonists. Their influence on the Natives. · American and English Missions in Africa. - Their Results. - Schools and Churches. Itinerant Preaching. - Slavery. - Pagan Rites. Human Victims. Priests. - Purrah. Lemo. Native Females. — Devil-Men. - Their Dress. - Idolatry. Fetish Worship. - Modes of Trial and Punishment. Poisoning. Richard Lander. Amulets and Charms. - Morals of the Natives. The Vey Tribe. The Deys.- Native Languages.

BUT were it indeed true, that cruisers along the coast might entirely suppress the foreign slave-trade from Africa, yet even then our duty as philanthropists and Christians, with regard to that ill-fated land, would be but partially discharged. For, to say nothing of the obligations which may rest upon us to restore to the land of their fathers, those who may wish to escape from the bonds of slavery, or the more galling oppression of deep-rooted and inveterate prejudice, there exists, aside from the foreign slave-trade, a dark and polluted fountain of cursing and bitterness in the bosom of Africa herself. If we look at the great question of slavery, as well in the light of ancient history as in its connexion with the past and present condition of Africa, we shall see that its existence has, in a great degree, been rather a result than a cause of those wide-spread, long-continued, and desolating wars, which, originating in the love of power and conquest, and in the angry and malignant passions of the human breast, have led to the subjection, in the chains of bondage, of one portion of mankind to the service and control of another.

As evidence in support of this position, we learn from Justinian, that (servi) slaves were so called because conquerors, instead of putting their prisoners to death, were accustomed to sell them, and thus (con-servare) to save or pre-serve their lives; meaning, that it was the custom of the early Romans, as of most other savage nations, to destroy their

prisoners, in order to avoid the trouble of providing for them, and to prevent their becoming their future opponents. Bruce says, that "the merchandise of slaves has contributed much to abolish two savage African customs, the eating of captives, and sacrificing them to idols, once so universal in that whole continent."

Park says: "The slaves in Africa, I suppose, are nearly in the proportion of three to one to the freemen. They claim no reward for their services except food and clothing, and are treated with kindness or severity, according to the good or bad disposition of their masters. In this condition of life a great body of the negro inhabitants of Africa have continued from the earliest period of their history, with this aggravation, that their children are born to no other inheritance."

The Landers think, that there are four slaves to one freeman throughout Central and Western Africa. While detained at Badagry, on the coast, previous to commencing their tour for exploring the course of the Niger, they wrote in their journal as follows: "The rainy season is fast approaching, and what makes us still more desirous of leaving this abominable place is the fact, (as we have been told,) that a sacrifice of no less than three hundred human beings, of both sexes, and of all ages, is shortly to take place. We often hear the cries of many of these poor wretches, and the heart sickens with horror at the bare contemplation of such a scene as awaits us, should we remain here much longer."

Dr. Leonard, of the English Navy, whose work has already been quoted, informs us, that "the king of Loango recently told the officers of his Majesty's ship Primrose, that if the English would trade for slaves there as formerly, he could load eight ships in one week, and give each ship four or five hundred slaves; but that, having no means of disposing of the greater part of his prisoners, he was obliged to kill them." He then adds: "But, besides the abolition of slavery, something else must be done to prevent the intestine wars and murderous devastation of inner Africa. The first step towards this would seem to be an endeavour, on the part of our benevolent government, to acquire and keep up a constant and friendly intercourse with the chiefs of the different parts of the coast, and in the interior, for the purpose of obtaining certain stipulations to this end, and introducing teachers, so that the people's minds may be in some measure prepared to receive and understand the doctrines of Christianity."

These closing remarks of Dr. Leonard naturally suggest to the mind the influence of Christian colonies in connexion with missions, as a means of preventing the slave-trade, and delivering Africa from the manifold curses beneath which she groans. Mr. Wilson, in allusion to this subject, writes as follows: "All traders attach much more importance to the coast to the leeward," that is, to the south and east of Cape Palmas, "than to the windward," that is, to the north. "At Lahore, at Cape Coast, Widah, Calabar, Fernando Po, Gaboun, and several other points along the coast, are European settlements, and there ought to be at each one of them a missionary. I do not see why Christian missionaries may not live at these places, when European merchants and officers, and, at some of them, entire regiments of white men, venture their lives. The inculcation of religion among these people will rear bulwarks against the slave-trade far more formidable than all the force that civilized nations can employ; and until this is done there is very little hope of its termination. There is work here (at Cape Palmas) for twenty men instead of one. The colony, I think, is decidedly prosperous; and the disuse of rum will relieve it from many embarrassments. The fears I once entertained, that the American colonists would injure and impose upon the natives, are entirely removed by the conviction, that the latter are making as rapid strides in the march of improvement and respectability as the former. The native boys in our school are very ambitious and aspiring. If education is promoted among the natives, nothing need be apprehended about the Americans acquiring an overbearing ascendancy. The colony and the natives agree much better than I feared they would. The natives are generally a spirited people, and their character as a community has been very materially improved since the Americans have come among them. The natives are planting, perhaps, five times as much rice this season as ever before, with a view to supplying the increasing-demand."

The statements of Mr. Wilson and others, who have been for years in Africa, as to the beneficial influence exerted by the colonies on the native tribes around them, have a most important bearing on the great question of African colonization. The enemies of this scheme seem to have taken it for granted, that the natives must fade away and become extinct wherever they come in contact with the colonists, just as the

Aborigines of our own land have yielded to the onward flow of the white population. In assuming this point, however, they seem to have wholly disregarded the fact, that the colonists and the natives belong to the same race, and that the only difference between them is that arising from education, and a knowledge, on the part of the colonists, of the arts and customs of civilized life; while, on the other hand, the natives, from having never felt the galling chains of slavery, as imposed by those far superior to them in intelligence and power, and with spirits unsubdued by the bitter oppression of deeprooted and inveterate prejudice, may be expected, as to some of the elements of their character, to be so far superior to the first generation of the colonists, as to leave no ground for fear that the colonists will trample on and oppress them, provided both classes enjoy equal means of moral and intellectual improvement.

Allusion has already been made to the influence of the colonies in protecting Africa from the evils of the slave-trade, as well by occupying the mouths of rivers and other important points, from which the trade was formerly carried on, as also by furnishing the natives with those articles of trade which they highly prize, and which were held out to them by slave-dealers as a lure to lead them to engage in the traffic in human flesh.' We have also noticed the influence of the colonies in shutting out the trade in ardent spirits, so extensively carried on both by slave-dealers and by merchant vessels, which trade along the coast. Thus do they, where they exist, protect Africa from an evil, which has been the most fruitful cause of ruin to the Aborigines of our own land.

As a means of showing in what light the natives regard the settlement of the colonists among them, it may not be amiss here to insert the message delivered by Simleh Balla, the head man of King Freeman, to the Managers of the Maryland Colonization Society, during his visit to Baltimore in 1836. This speech may also serve as a specimen of the lingo formed of broken English, with a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese words, which is extensively used by the natives of the western coast of Africa. The word sava means to know or to be acquainted with; to tief is to steal; and a palaver is a council called for making treaties or other important business. The message is as follows:

"I be Balla, headman for King Freeman, of Cape Palmas. Him send me this country; I come for peak [speak] his

words. Pose [suppose] him sava book, I no come; he make book [writing or letter] and send him; but cause he no sava make book, I come for look country, and peak him [his] words.

“Long time past slave-man [slave-dealer] come we [our] country. He do we bad too much; he make slave, he tief plenty man for sell. By and by, all slave-man knock off. This time [now] we no sell slave, no man come for tief him. All man glad this palaver done sit, [glad that this business is ended.] Beside that, we have [had] plenty trouble. All man have [had] to go for ship for get him ting, [things,] iron, cloth, tobacco, guns, powder, and plenty, plenty little ting. Sometime canoe capsize, man lose all him [his] money. Sometime he die. Plenty water kill him; him can't come up. This hurt we [us] too much, and make we heart sorry. By and by one white man come we [our] country. He bring plenty black America man. Him buy we country, we give him land for sit down. Him say he come for do country good. Him build house, put all him money shore, make farm, make road, make all country fine. This time [now] all good ting live shore, no more go ship. Ebery man can buy that ting him want. No money lose, no man lose. This make all men heart glad, make king's heart glad. King tell me, Balla, go that country; see how this ting be. Tell them people all we heart say. Thank him for that good ting them do for we country. Beg him for send more man for make house, make farm, for bring money, and for make all ittle childs sava read book, all same [all the same as] America men.' I done."

After King Freeman had received the laws which Balla brought with him from the United States, he dictated a letter to the Managers of the Maryland Colonization Society, from which the following is an extract: "I tank [thank] you bery much for dem law you send me; he be good law, and all my people go do him. Pose I have dem law first time I no go do fool fash [foolish fashion or wrong] all time; dis time I go make all me [my] people do dat ting what you law tell me. I tank you plenty, gentlemen, for dem good law. I tell all man go hear Misser Wilson talk God palaver, [preach,] and yiserday so much man go till plenty have for to stand outside de house. Me hear say, you hab plenty slave in your country. Me have one word for peak dem. You must come me [to my] country; den you be freeman for true. Dis country