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structure of a republican government, without destroying its symmetry, and endangering its permanence.

If we inquire what is the actual state of religion and morals in districts where slavery is predominant, we shall find our previous conclusions corroborated. To institute a comparison between the opposite sections of our own country, might, perhaps, appear invidious; I shall therefore look to a more distant quarter. Bryan Edwards, the historian so frequently quoted in the preceding numbers, notes as one of the peculiarities of the West Indians, an eagerness for litigation and juridical controversy, which he says remarkably -predominates in most of those islands; certainly no flattering description from the pen of an advocate. But upon a point much more closely allied to the peace of society, and the virtues of domestic life, we have, from the pages of the same writer, an account of the general condition in which the females of mixed blood are kept, which presents a sombre view of the prevailing morals.* Thomas Cooper, a clergyman of the established church, who went to Jamaica in 1817, for the purpose of instructing the slaves in the doctrines of Christianity, declares, that "the state of morals and religion there is as bad as can well be imagined, both among whites and blacks. The general profligacy is perfectly notorious and undisguised. It is well known that the morals of nineteen out of twenty white men are ruined before they have been a month in the island. They get into habits of debauchery, and every idea of religion vanishes."+

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"Even the clergy," says he, "in some instances, fall into this horrid impurity of manners, and that, too, without being expelled from their situations in the church. Many persons in Jamaica seem to think that the merc circumstance of vice being common, renders the practice of it almost if not altogether excusable. The plea is, I am not worse than my neighbour; I only do that which is common to all classes of the community. Serious attention to religion is out of the question. Persons who are received into the best society of the place, speak of having been drunk, and getting drunk, without apparently feeling any sense of shame. All this applies to the whites, and I have advanced it merely with a view to show the necessity of some efficient steps being taken to reform the manners of this branch of our fellow subjects; and to warn parents and others from sending their innocent sons and wards across the Atlantic to be plunged into this dreadful sink of vice and abomination." "The demoralizing influence of the slave system ought to be deemed a most important argument for its destruction, especially when there seems no reason whatever to imagine that it can ever be made to coexist with true religion and virtue."

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the estimation of their own community, that is to them an honour, which in a moral respect ought to be viewed with abhorrence. Slavery sinks them below the condition of women, and to slavery a great part of their immoralities must be imputed. Persons who pride themselves on the superiority of their natures, their liberty, their power, their education, ought to blush for the mean and unmanly advantage which they never fail to take of the helpless and miserable beings whom despotism has placed in their power."

Dr. Williamson, an advocate of the slave system, who resided in Jamaica from 1798 to 1812, gives a description of religion and morals little more favourable than that of Thomas Cooper. "Contempt for religion," says he, "is openly avowed by a great proportion of those to be met with in that country." His account of the prevailing morals is too gross for insertion in the columns of this journal.

Religion and morals being poisoned in the fountain, we should naturally expect that even the forms of religion would be very generally disregarded; we accordingly find that the day usually set apart professedly at least for devotion, is in the islands the market day for the slaves. If we are to believe the uncontradicted statements so repeatedly made, that a large part of the vegetables and small meat used by the planters is bought of the slaves, it must be obvious that the market day of the slaves must be a day of business for others. In a late report of the bishop of Barbadoes to Lord Bathurst, we find it asserted, that "the parishes in the interior are absolutely without the

* Medical Observations, &c. vol. i. p. 328.

semblance of the forms of religious worship."+

If we suppose, as the cool calculating reader will probably do, that these pictures are somewhat overwrought, we can hardly fail to conclude, that religion and morals are sunk very low in the places to which these descriptions were intended to apply. Indeed, almost every one who has undertaken to describe the state of morals among slave-holding communities, has represented a shameless licentiousness as one of the most prominent features. To this our own southern states cannot be marked as an exception. Morris Birbeck remarks, "Perhaps it is in its degrading influence on the moral senses of both master and slave, that slavery is most deplorable. Brutal cruelty, we may hope, is a rare and transient mischief; but the degradation of soul is universal. All America is now suffering in morals, through the baneful influence of negro slavery, partially tolerated, corrupting justice at the very source."

Little more than four years have elapsed since a chapel in the island of Barbadoes, occupied by William Shrewsbury, a Wesleyan minister, was demolished with circumstances of notoriety and brutal ferocity which speak very unfavourably of the prevailing morals of the place. The object of vengeance appears to have been a man of blameless life, remarkably cautious of giving offence, and much beloved by the congregation who received his instructions. He had been selected by the Wesleyan missionary society, to engage in the difficult task of teaching the negroes in the truths of Christian

+ Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter for June 1826, p. 196.

ity. To this object he had assiduously devoted himself for several years. But an impression having in some way obtained, that his doctrines, or those of the society to which he belonged, were less congenial to the legal or political maxims of the slave-holders than they desired, the floodgates of popular indignation were at once opened upon him. Several riots were made, in which the rioters were encouraged if not actually joined by the magistrates entrusted with the preservation of the public peace. During the time of worship, the assembly who attended upon his ministry were several times rudely assaulted, and finally a large concourse assembled and demolished the building, not leaving, as they afterwards insultingly declared, one stone upon another. The worthy minister fled for his life, and sought an asylum in a neighbouring island. The process was of sufficient duration and notoriety to allow ample opportunity for the interference of the civil authorities; but the magistrates permitted the work of destruction to proceed without molestation. When the governor soon afterwards issued his proclamation offering a reward for the discovery and conviction of the offenders, a counter proclamation was fulminated against all those who should dare to make the disclosures required. In this it was asserted, that the majority of the per- . sons engaged in the demolition of the chapel were of the first respectability, and had the concurrence of nine-tenths of the community. The professed object was, the eradication of methodism from the island; and accordingly, all methodist preachers were warned, at their peril, not to approach their shores. When the governor saw this proclamation, he asked his council what he

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PROGRESS OF DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA.

(Continued from page 307.)

Discoveries during the middle ages. The rise of the Mahometan power, and the vast hordes of Saracen invaders which poured into Africa, caused a complete revolution in the moral and political aspect of that continent. This revolution, of which the ultimate effect was to extinguish all the intelligence, activity, and civilization, by which it had been illustrated, showed at first a completely opposite tendency. The caliphate was held during several ages, by a race of monarchs who rank among the most accomplished by whom any throne has been filled; the arts of peace were perfected even in the bosom of war, and the nations placed under their rule, cherished, almost alone, the lights of science, which were fast expiring in every other region. The migratory spirit of this celebrated people, their commercial habits, their zeal in the pursuit of geographical science, all impelled them to direct their steps into the yet unknown regions of interior Africa. The desert, that barrier which deterred all former approach, appeared less formidable to an Arabian explorer. It recalled to him the image of his native country, where he had long been familiar with every 'expedient by which such an expanse could be traversed in safety. The camel, transported into a congenial soil, afforded the means not only of effecting a passage once for the purpose of discovery, but of establishing a regular and constant communication across it. The first route appears to have been from Fezzan by way of Agades, being the one still followed by the Cassina

* Account of Proceedings in H. Com. June 23, 1825.

caravan. The passage is less difficult at this than any other point; the immense breadth of the desert being broken by the large oases of Fezzan and Agades, and by several others of less magnitude. After passing it, they found a shore, whose fertility and beauty were probably much heightened in their view by the length of the dreary approach to it. But the eyes of this commercial people were peculiarly attracted by a commodity which, precious in itself, has always been much overrated in the opinions of mankind. From the regions immediately to the south, was brought in abundance gold, not disguised in chemical combinations, which could be discovered only by genius and labour; but ready pure, and separated, by a simple mechanical process, from the sand with which it was mingled. A splendour, partly real and partly imaginary, was thus thrown around this region, which, in the unsettled state of northern Africa, attracted numerous colonists towards it. Compulsory exile has always been a powerful instrument in peopling the globe. Those who fled before the arms of the Saracens, and those who were worsted in the intestine divisions which shook the caliphate, alike sought refuge and settlements in the depth of the interior. The precise period of these emigrations cannot be distinctly traced; but it is unquestionable, that, by the tenth or eleventh century, the banks of the Niger were covered with kingdoms, in which Mahometans formed a numerous, and the ruling part of the population. Of these kingdoms, according to the unanimous testimony of the Arabian writers, the most powerful and splendid was Ghana, situated on the great central river, called by them the Nile of the Negroes. The sovereign was absolute within his own territories, and owed homage only to the head of the Abbassides. The pomp of his court was the admiration of the age; and appears certainly to have been accompanied with a degree of art and civilization, which scarcely any other negro kingdom has yet attained. The palace, built on the banks of the river, besides being of a peculiarly solid structure, and having the luxury, little known in those regions, of glass windows, was adorned with elaborate Vol. I.-47

works of painting and sculpture. Tamed elephants and camelopardales are mentioned as among the accompaniments which swelled the pomp of the sovereign's equipage. The circumstance, however, which was considered as distinguishing him above all other African potentates, was a mass of native gold, weighing thirty pounds, which formed the ornament of his throne. Notwithstanding this splendour of the court, the nation, in general, appears to have been characterized by simplicity, and even by rudeness. The common people wore merely a girdle, composed frequently of the skins of beasts; and it was considered as indicating a superior rank to have any further covering.

To the sovereign of Ghana was also subject Wangara, or the land of gold, considered, probably, as the brightest jewel in his crown. The gold here, as over all the rest of Africa, is represented as entirely alluvial, and found chiefly in the beds of the rivers, or inundated ground after the water has retired. Wangara is represented as formed into a species of island by branches of the Nile, which surround it on all sides, and which, overflowing during the rainy season, lay nearly the whole country under water. As soon as the inundation subsides, the inhabitants are described as rushing with eagerness, and digging up the earth, in every part of which they find a greater or less quantity of gold. Immediately after arrive the merchants from every part of Africa, to exchange their various commodities against this single one. The principal cities of Wangara were Reghebil and Semegonda, both handsome, and situated on the shore of large fresh water lakes. To the west of Ghana lay the kingdom of Tocrur, including the capital city of the same name, with those of Sala and Berissa. The monarch is said to have been also very powerful, and his dominions the seat of an extensive commerce, but in both these particulars yielding to Ghana. This kingdom was also traversed by the Nile of the Negroes, which, after flowing fifteen days journey westward from Tocrur and Sala, fell into the sea, or more probably into a large lake. At some distance from its shore, was found the

island of Ulil, which afforded salt so abundantly as to supply all the states of Nigritia; those states being then, as now, wholly destitute of that necessary of life. To the south of all these countries lay the extensive regions of Lamlam, (supposed the Melli of Leo). Great part of it was a desert; the rest inhabited by people who were little removed from savages. This tract afforded to the people of the Niger a theatre for the barbarous practice of slave hunting. Inroads were habitually made for that sole purpose; and the victims procured became an article of traffic with northern Africa. There is reason to suspect, that the same practice continues undiminished over all this part of the continent. Edrisi was not acquainted with any inhabited regions to the south of Lamlam, and doubts even if any such existed. The empire of Bornou is not mentioned in any of the Arabian writers by that name; but different portions of it appear evidently to be described under the appellation of Zaghara, Kanem, and Kuku. Of these Kuku appears to have been decidedly the most powerful and splendid. The king kept a numerous army finely equipped, and the splendour of his court eclipsed every thing in that part of Africa. The lower orders, as usual in negro states, were very indifferently clothed; but the merchants, who were numerous, wore vests, tunics, caps on their heads, and ornaments of gold. The nobility are said to have been clothed in satin. The capital city of the same name was celebrated among the negroes for its extraordinary magnitude.

As the Arabs extended themselves westward through Barbary, they opened always new routes across the desert; and when Morocco became the seat of their principal power, Segelmessa was in consequence the emporium of the commerce of Nigritia. Another territory, called Vauclan, situated apparently to the south of Morocco, carried on a very extensive trade; and its merchants went as far as Wangara in search of gold. The only parts of the interior on which the Arabs made no impression, were Nubia and Abyssinia. These countries, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, continued still Christian, and were therefore in a state

of habitual enmity with the Saracen powers. Only, the necessities of trade produced a species of truce on the frontiers of Egypt and Nubia. The merchants of the respective nations met near the cataracts of Syene, and made an exchange of their respective commodities, without entering each other's territories.

Between the narrative of the Arabian geographers, and the discoveries of modern travellers and navigators, the link is formed by a celebrated description of Africa, written by a person bearing the appellation of Leo Africanus. He was born at Granada; but when that city was besieged and taken by Ferdinand,* sought refuge in Fez, and devoted himself wholly to Arabic literature: Partly as a traveller, and partly as an ambassador, he traversed a great part of Africa, and composed, in Arabic, the description of that continent, which still renders his name celebrated. Lastly, being taken prisoner and brought to Rome, he attracted the notice of Leo X., who proved himself the patron of every liberal art and science. Under the auspices of this pontiff, Leo made a translation of his work into Italian, which has been reprinted by Ramusio in his collection of voyages. Having been an eye witness to most of the scenes. which he describes, his work forms the only original authority for the state of northern and united Africa during the period at which he wrote. Where personal observation failed, he unfortunately had recourse to very blundering and erroneous compilation. The coincidence, however, in many respects, of his report with the best modern information, leaves no doubt as to its original character; so that it throws an important light, both on the progress of knowledge, and the changes in the political aspect of this conti

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