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leads down the river, by the side of which in several places were found traced on the ground Indian bieroglyphics, which Mr. Leroux and a Mexican of the party, who had passed many years among the Comanches, interpreted into warnings to us to turn back, and threats against our penetrating farther into the country. We had not gone far before Indians were seen in front in considerable numbers, who appeared to be assembling to dispute our advance. By the exchange of friendly signs, three of them, mounted on fine horses, were induced to approach, whom a few presents sufficed to convince of our peaceful intentions; and they joined the party, and accompanied its march. As we proceeded their number received accessions at every step, until it amounted to some two hundred men, women, and children, who followed on foot, running by the side of the mules, and talking and laughing with every appearance of friendship. In the evening the camp was crowded with them, bringing in for barter small quantities of pumpkins, beans, corn, and, in one or two instances, of wheat, which seem to be the staples of their food, for no animals, except a few horses, were seen among them; and the few sheep we had left were the objects of great admiration, especially to the women.

The appearance of the Mohaves is striking, from their unusual stature, the men averaging at least six feet in height; and their stalwart and athletic figures offered a convincing proof of the excellence of a vegetable diet. Almost all the men were naked, with the exception of the breech-cloth. The hair, cut sqare across the brows in front, hung in loose braids behind, reaching frequently as low as the waist; occasionally it was matted on the top of the head into a compact mass with mud, for the purpose of destroying the vermin that infest them. The only garment worn by the women was a long fringe of strips of willow-bark wound around the waist, and falling as low as the knees. No covering to the feet was worn by either sex. Their arms are the bow and arrow, the spear and the club. The arrow is formed of two pieces-that to which the barb is attached, of hard wood, seven inches long, or one-fourth the entire length; and the other of a light reed that grows profusely along the banks of the river, feathered, as usual, at the extremity. The custom still prevails among them of carrying a firebrand in the hand in cold weather, which is mentioned in the account of Coronado's expedition in 1540, and induced those discoverers to give to the river the name of Rio Del Tizon. Their lodges are rectangular, formed of upright posts imbedded in the ground, and rudely thatched on the top and three sides; a portion of the interior altitude being sometimes obtained by excavation. I saw none of so great a size as those described in the account just referred to.

".

Our progress down the river, though heralded by signal fires as we advanced, was continued without further molestation. Numbers of the mules gave out daily for the want of food, until we were

driven to the necessity of destroying all the spare saddles, blankets, tents, ammunition, books, and whatever was not absolutely essential to our safety. Our provisions, too, became exhausted; and the mules, the poorest of which were daily killed for the purpose, supplied our only food until the 30th of November, when we arrived with a small remnant of them at Camp Yuma, near the mouth of the Gila, where rations were obtained for the subsistence of the party to San Diego, California.

Below the point at which we reached the Colorado, irregular lines of rugged mountains enclose its valley, now receding to a distance of some twenty miles, now advancing towards each other; and at three places abutting against the river, hem it in between rocky promontories, leaving no room for a roadway at their base. The passage of these defiles were the most difficult portions of the journey, requiring long detours over naked cliffs of extreme acclivity; to cross which we were sometimes obliged to break stepping places in the rock for the mules, and to assist them in their ascent by means of ropes, and where a misstep, or the jostling of a pack against an impending crag, would occasionally precipitate one of them to the bottom of the adjacent precipice. The arable land bordering upon the river is greatly encroached upon by extensive flat spurs, hard, gravelly, and destitute of vegetation, which reach far out into the valley, leaving a comparatively small proportion of the space between the mountains susceptible of cultivation. Some large cotton-wood trees grow directly upon the river banks, but the growth of the rest of the valley is small, consisting chiefly of mezquit, tornilla, willow, and a singular tree with a smooth, pale-green bark, and leaves so diminutive as to require a close proximity to discern them. The shrubs are the arrow-wood, wild sage, hediondilla, or creosote plant, and grease weed, so called from the brilliancy of its flame while burning. Cacti are not numerous; the most remarkable is the pitahaya, or Cereus giganteus.

Only two kinds of grass were found, at rare intervals and in small quantities; a tall, coarse variety, growing in large tufts, and a smaller kind, having a perceptible incrustation of salt upon the leaves.

The trap in some places along the river showed traces of carbonate of copper; and beneath the trap was seen a coarse, gray granite, and in one instance a stratum of clay slate.

Near Camp 51 a large rock occupies the middle of the channel, and ledges extend from it across to both banks. In many other places the river is obstructed by shifting sand bars, rendering its navigation difficult, if not impossible, except during a high stage of the water. The water-stains upon the rocks marked a height of twelve feet above the actual level, but the indications of overflow were partial, except near the mouth of the Gila, where a large surface appears to be subject to inundation."

ARTICLE IV.

Africa and African Slavery.

The social condition of man denominated "slavery" proceeds as a natural consequence from the economy of his nature considered in connection with his disobedience to the laws of the Creator and his relations to the physical world. Every individual of the human family owes service of some sort to his fellow-man: it is a condidition of his being from which there is no escape with impunity. The nature and degree of this service must be determined in part by natural laws, and events over which neither individuals or nations have control, and in part by institutions established by man.

In a view of the human race embracing all its parts and relations, we may observe this obligation to serve one another modified by an infinite variety of conditions and circumstances, which determine the nature of the services to be performed and the burthens borne in every conceivable case, from the kind offices which proceed from the mutual friendship and love of individuals of equal degree to a state of involuntary and absolute servitude.

The relations established between a subjugated race and their masters are determined not so much by physical power as by the difference which may exist in the degree of intelligence and virtue possessed by the respective parties. And we are warranted in the belief that the Creator in the exercise of his wisdom and benevolence, sometimes, ordains the subjugation of an ignorant and viceous race to one possessing a higher degree of civilization, that the former may be improved, and finally redeemed from their degraded condition.

Such we most sincerely believe to be the case in respect to the present relations between the Anglo-Saxon and African races on this continent. In this view of the object, it would be a national sin to sever these relations by any act of ours before the purposes for which they were established shall have been accomplished. To sever them suddenly, would degrade still lower the African race in this country, while it would leave that portion remaining in their own land in its former and present degraded state without a hope of redemption.

Viewing the subject of slavery in this light, and deprecating the political and religious strife which springs, as we believe, from ig

norance of the natural and social laws governing the relations of individuals, and the destinies of nations, we are truly gratified that our accomplished co-temporary and friend, Hugh A. Garland, Esq., has undertaken to write a book upon this intricate and interesting subject.

Having been favored with a perusal of a portion of the manuscript, we feel authorized to say that, if the author carries out the work according to the design, as we understand it, he will do more to enlighten the people of this country upon the institution of slavery than all the writers who have preceded him since its introduction upon the continent. Such a work is much needed; and it will be a disparagement to the intelligence and taste of the American people, if the philosophy and historical truth of GARLAND should not obtain a circulation equal at least to the fiction of STOWE.

We have been permitted to copy the following chapter "On Africa," in advance of the publication of the work, and are persuaded that the conclusions of the author touching the moral necessity of transferring a part of the African race to this country to redeem them from barbarism, will be assented to by every intelligent and unprejudiced mind.

AFRICA.

The amelioration of the customs of Europe had proceeded from the influence of religion. At the epoch of the discovery of America, the moral opinion of the civilized world had abolished the traffick in christian slaves-Anglo-Saxons no longer trafficked in Anglo-Saxons-but the infidel was not included within the pale of humanity. As native christians of Europe ceased to be slaves, pagan Africans were substituted in their place.

As

Yet negro slavery is not an invention of the white man. the Greeks enslaved Greeks, and Hebrew Hebrews in the earliest dawn of history, so the negro race enslaved its own brethren. The oldest accounts of the land of negroes, bear witness to the existence of domestic slavery and the caravans of dealers in negro slaves.

Herodotus, the oldest Greek historian, speaks of the traffick. Negro slaves were seen in classic Greece, and were known at Rome and in the Roman empire. It was about the latter part of the tenth century that Moorish merchants from the Barbary coast first reached the cities of Nigritia, and established an uninterrupted exchange of Saracen and European luxuries for the gold and slaves of Central Africa. The merchants of Seville imported gold dust and slaves from the western coast of Africa, and negro slavery w

established in Andalusia, and abounded in the city of Seville before the enterprise of Columbus was conceived.

Thus we see that slavery existed in Africa long before the time of the American slave trade-there are traces of it in the earliest Egyptian paintings and monuments-it is known to have existed in its most hideous forms since the time when Hanno, the Carthagenean navigator, found his way to the coasts of Guinea, and brought back with him to Carthage a cargo of Ourang-Outangs, which he took to be African men and women.

More than three-fourths of the negroes in Africa are slavessuch has been the condition of the masses of population from time immemorial.

The native slave trade was the result of the brutal, bloody, and savage character of the African tribes. They are described by travelers as being more cruel than the hyena, the tiger, or the lion. Richard Lander found them cowardly, treacherous and cruel, with the passions and appetites of wild beasts, devoid of natural affection for wives, children or friends. Blood, as wine with us, is their favorite and most honored drink. To inflict a wound, or even death, is an imperial luxury. They catch the blood as it spurts, and drink it in the presence of the victim, while yet alive and suffering. Eagerness to share in cruelty glows in the African's bosom as its highest pleasure. Their riches consist in the multitude of their wives and children. Reserving a few of the older males, the rest of the children are sold as slaves. A common habit is to emasculate them in part, to diminish the breed and save food.— Lander never saw a cheerful looking slave in Africa. They were all prematurely old, maimed, or diseased from harsh usage.

When a king, nobleman, or man of fortune, dies, his slaves and wives are invariably sacrificed. They are usually buried alive, amidst the most frightful shouts and screams. The king of Dahomy paves the approaches to his residence and the battlements of his palace with the skulls of his slaves and enemies. At the celebration of the "Yam Customs" every nobleman sacrificed a slave as he entered at the gate. Heads and skulls formed the ornaments of the procession. Hundreds were slain, and the blood of the butchered slaves was mixed with other and unclean substances in a huge brass vessel. The king's executioners during these customs, traverse the city, killing whom they choose.

Paganism the most loathsome and brutal in its forms, exists in Africa at this day, precisely as it existed in the days of Hanno and Alexander. Fetichism is the lowest form of pagan worship. Fetish signifies a charm or amulet. In Africa it is Bosson, which means God. Thus they convert a fish-bone, a stone, or feather, the skull of a monkey, the skin of a rat, in a word, the least trifle, into gods and worship them.

They nail these ridiculous gods to their doors, to drive away the devil and his imps. They worship a certain tree as Fetish, and

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