power in the production of varieties, as climates can be supposed to exert, and we shall afterwards produce examples of its effects, which will show that they have not in this view been overrated. With these preliminaries it appears necessary that we should in proceeding to compare the inhabitants of different climates, consider those nations only as the proper subjects of this comparison, which are in a similar state with respect to barbarism and civilization. We shall compare savages with other barbarous tribes, and civilized races with people in a similar state, and shall endeavour in general to include in the same comparison nations as nearly as possible on a level with each other in a moral point of

view.

The indigenous nations of America afford us one very ample field for this sort of comparison. Though divided into a great number of tribes which are completely independent of each other, and have no mutual intercourse, and which have been thus discriminated from the earliest period of our acquaintance with them; and though scattered at immense distances over a vast continent of a most diversified surface, which extends itself through every habitable climate, these people preserve every where a strong resemblance in all the leading points of their manners and habits. Since the researches of Humboldt in the new World, we have become better informed concerning various particulars of its natural and political state. His observations lead to some conclusions concerning the physical history of the aboriginal people, which are very much to our present purpose.

"The Indians of New Spain have a more swarthy complexion than the inhabitants of the warmest climates of South America. The influence of climate appears to have almost no effect on the Americans and negroes. There are no doubt tribes of a colour by no means deep, among the Indians of the new continent, whose complexion approaches to that of the Arabs or Moors. We found the people of the Rio Negro swarthier than those of the lower Orinoco, and yet the banks of the first of these rivers enjoy a much

cooler climate than the more northern regions. In the forests of Guiana, especially near the sources of the Orinoco, are several tribes of a whitish complexion, the Guaicas, Guajaribs and Arigues, of whom several robust individuals, exhibiting no symptom of the asthenic malady which characterises Albinos, have the appearance of true Mestizos. Yet these tribes have never mingled with Europeans, and are surrounded with other tribes of a dark brown hue. The Indians in the torrid zone, who inhabit the most elevated plains of the Cordilleras, of the Andes, and those who under the 45th degree of south latitude, live by fish ing among the islands of tne Archipelago of Chonos, have as coppery a complexion as those who under a burning climate cultivate bananas in the narrowest and deepest valleys of the Equinoctial region. We must add that the Indians of the mountains are clothed, and were so long before the conquest, while the Aborigines who wander over the plains, go quite naked and are consequently always exposed to the perpendicular rays of the sun. I could never observe that, in the same individual, those parts of the body which were covered were less dark than those in contact with a warm and humid air. We every where perceive that the colour of the American depends very little on the local position in which we see him. The Mexicans are more swarthy than the Indians of Quito and New Granada, who inhabit a climate completely analogous, and we even see that the tribes dispersed to the north of the Rio Gila are less brown than those in the neighbourhood of the kingdom of Gautimala. This deep colour continues to the coast nearest Asia, but under 54° 10′ of north latitude, at Cloak Bay in the midst of copper coloured Indians, with small long eyes, there is a tribe with large eyes, European features, and a skin less dark than that of our peasantry." All the other travellers of credit coincide in a similar testimony with that of Humboldt, concerning the complexion of the native Americans. Herrera, Ulloa and other Spanish writers give the same account. Ulloa's authority is of weight, because he had personal opportunities of mak

ing observations on the Indians in North America as well as South. He reported that there was no discoverable difference of complexion which had any relation to climate. Herriot makes a similar remark. Stedman relates that the Indians near Surinam, are of a copper colour, M'Kenzie and Hearne give the same account of the Knistineaux, and other tribes who inhabit the region contiguous to the Artic Circle. I have received a similar relation from several persons of credit, who have seen the natives of Canada and of South America. The general statement is, that the people of the tropics are fairer than those of the north. Wallis reports that the people of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego are of the same colour with the Indians of North America. Cook describes the natives of Tierra del Fuego as having the colour of rust of iron mixed with oil.

(To be continued.)

under any title, in the king's navy or the French merchant service.

Other individuals belonging to the crew shall be punished with imprisonment from two months to five years. From these are excepted, such of the above mentioned individuals as shall, within fifteen days after the vessel's arrival, declare to the commissary of marine, or the magistrates of the French consuls in foreign ports, the facts which they shall know.

The vessel shall be seized and confiscated.

The penalties under the present law are independent of those which shall be pronounced, in conformity with the penal code, for other crimes or offences which may have been committed on board the ship.

The law of April 15, 1818, is abrogated.

Given in our palace of the Tuilleries, December 27th, 1825; and, of our reign, the third. CHARLES.

SLAVE TRADE.

The following is a late decree of the King of France against the Slave Trade.

Charles, by the grace of God King of France and Navarre, to all who shall see these presents, greeting.

We have ordained, and do ordain, that the project of a law of the following tenor shall be presented by our Minister Secretary of State to the Department of Marine and the Colonies, whom we charge to explain its object and to support it in discussion.

Only Article.-In case of a co-operation or participation, by any means whatever, in the traffic known under the name of the negro slave trade, the proprietors, and supercargoes; the insurers who insure it knowingly; the captain or commander and other officers of the vessel; shall be punished with banishment, and a fine equal to the value of the ship and cargo.

The fine shall be pronounced conjointly against the individuals designated in the preceding paragraph.

The captain and officers shall be further declared incapable of serving,

BRAZILIAN SLAVE TRADE.

Freetown, Feb. 21. 1827.

We have occasion to notice in this week's paper, the arrival on Monday last of the Brazilian slaver Invincible, mentioned in our No. 447, as having been captured in the Cameroons by two boats of his Majesty's ship Esk, under the command of Lieuts. Kellett and Tolleway. The dentention was between eight and nine in the evening of the 21st Dec., at which time the vessel had on board 440, human beings, just shipped, the captain and part of the crew being sick. Five days were occupied in working to the mouth of the river, which is in latitude 3o 54' north, and fourteen days more in attempting to get to the southward, during which the vessel only made one hundred and twenty miles. Lieutenant Tolleway, the officer in charge, then determined on running away to the westward, seeing no probability of succeeding in making southing, and after a wretched passage of fifty-six days, reached this port, having, during the period, been twice struck by lightning on the 1st of January, at four in the morning, which shivered to

pieces the mizzen top-mast, and did other damages, killing one marine on deck, and two slaves (women) below; and secondly at noon, in a heavy squall on the deck, and killed two slaves in the hold-a man and a boy. The damages sustained in the first instance, were repaired by Lieutenant Tolleway, being fortunate enough to fall in with the Esk, eight days after taking his departure from the mouth of the river.

The mortality on board this vessel on the way up, we believe has never been exceeded. Out of the 440 unfortunate Africans on board at the time of capture, 178 died in addition to the four killed and four missing (supposed to have jumped overboard in one of the storms of thunder and lightning) before her arrival here, and eight in the harbour prior to their being landed on the twenty-first inst. (two days after anchoring;) making a total of 186 natural deaths-if persons dying under the circumstances these poor creatures did can be so termed -out of 440 individuals in less than sixty days! The cause of this. immense loss, we understand, is mainly attributable to the filthy state of the vessel when they were received on board, and the numbers that were thrust into her.

The master of this slaver, is an old offender, having carried off the coast, in the same vessel, last voyage, 600 slaves.

THE AFRICAN CHIEF

Chained in the market place he stood,
A man of giant frame,
Amid the gathering multitude

That shrunk to hear his name,—
All stern of look and strong of limb,
His dark eye on the ground,—
And silently they gazed on him,
As on a lion bound.

Vainly, but well, that'chief had fought,

He was a captive now,

Yet pride, that fortune humbles not,
Was written on his brow.
The scars his dark broad bosom wore
Shewed warrior true and brave:
A prince among his tribe before,
He could not be a slave.

Then to his conqueror he spake"My brother is a king; Undo this necklace from my neck, And take this bracelet ring. And send me where my brother reigns,

And I will fill thy hands With store of ivory from the plains, And gold dust from the sands."

"Not for thy ivory nor thy gold
Will I unbind thy chain;
That bloody hand shall never hold
The battle spear again.

A price thy nation never gave

Shall yet be paid for thee; For thou shall be the Christian's slave, In lands beyond the sea."

Then wept the warrior chief, and bade
To sherd his locks away,
And, one by one, each heavy braid
Before the victor lay.
Thick were the plaited locks, and
long,

And deftly hidden there
Shone many a wedge of gold among
The dark and crisped hair.

"Look, feast thy greedy eye with gold

Long kept for sorest need
Take it-thou askest sums untold-
And say that I am freed.

Take it-my wife, the long, long day
Weeps by the cocoa tree,
And my young children leave their
play,

And ask in vain for me."

"I take thy gold-but I have made
Thy fetters fast and strong,
And mean that by the cocoa shade
Thy wife will wait thee long."
Strong was the agony that shook

The captive's frame to hear,
And the proud meaning of his look
Was changed to mortal fear.

His heart was broken-crazed his brain,

At once his eye grew wild, He struggled fiercely with his chain, Whispered, and wept, and smiled; Yet wore not long those fatal bands, And once, at shut of day, They drew him forth upon the sands, The foul byena's prey.

The slave, in the British colonies, is, at all times, liable to be sold, or otherwise aliened, at the will of the master, as absolutely in all respects, as cattle, or any other personal effects. He is also, at all times, liable to be sold by process of law, for satisfaction of the debts of a living, or the debts or bequests of a deceased master, at the suit of creditors, or legatees. In consequence of a transfer in either of these ways, or by authority of his immediate owner, he may be exiled in a moment and for ever, from his home, his family, and the colony in which he was born, or in which he has long been settled.

There are few situations in life, so completely wretched as to destroy the attachment to the land of our birth and the scenes of our childhood, so interwoven with the tenderest feelings of the human heart; and this attachment generally exerts the greatest influence over those who have always vegetated on a single spot, and whose knowledge of the world is bounded by the narrow circle of their own perVOL. I-13

sonal observation. To such persons, a simple exile from their natal soil, without any concomitant evils, is viewed with extreme dismay.

But even the West Indian slave has his comforts, arising from family connexions and the ties of friendship; and probably few friendships are more tender and sincere than those which are cemented by community of suffer. ing.

On the liability of the negro slaves to be sold for the debts of their masters, the eminent historian so frequently noticed in the preceding essays, has furnished some pathetic remarks. After proposing several improvements in the existing system of West Indian slavery, which he represents as likely to be conducive to the comfort of the negroes, he adds, "But these, and all other regulations which can be devised for the protection and improvement of this unfortunate class of people, will be of little avail, unless as a preliminary measure, they shall be exempted from the cruel hardship, to which they

are now frequently liable, of being sold by creditors, and made subject, in a course of administration by executors, to the payment of all debts, both of simple contract and specialty.

"This grievance, so remorseless and tyrannical in its principle, and so dreadful in its effects, though not originally created, is now upheld and confirmed, by British act of parliament; and no less authority is competent to redress it. It was an act procured by, and passed for the benefit of, British creditors; and I blush to add, that its motives and origin have sanctified the measure, even in the opinion of men who are among the loudest of the declaimers against slavery and the slave trade. This odious severity of the Roman law, which declared sentient beings to be inter res, is revived and perpetuated in a country that pretends to Christianity! In a few years a good negro gets comfortably established, has built himself a house, obtained a wife, and begins to see a young family rising about him. His provision ground, the creation of his own industry, and the staff of his existence, affords him not only support, but the means also of adding something to the mere necessaries of life. In this situation, he is seized on by the sheriff's officer, forcibly separated from his wife and children, dragged to public auction, purchased by a stranger, and perhaps sent to terminate his miserable existence in the mines of Mexico, excluded forever from the light of heaven; and all this without any crime or demerit on his part, real or pretended. He is punished because his master is unfortunate. I do not believe any case of force or fraud in Africa, can be productive of greater misery than this.

Neither can it be urged, that, like some unauthorized cases of cruelty in the West Indies, it occurs but seldom: unhappily it occurs every day, and, under the present system will continue to occur, so long as man shall continue to be unfortunate.

"Let this statute then be totally repealed. It is injurious to the national character; it is disgraceful to humanity. Let the Negroes be attached to the land, and sold with it. The good effect of a similar regulation in the system of ancient villanage has been illustrated by a great many writers; and those persons who now oppose an extension of the same benefit to the Negroes in the West Indies, would do well to reflect, that while they arraign the conduct of the resident planters towards their slaves, they are them. selves the abettors and supporters of the greatest of all the grievances under which these unfortunate people continue to suffer."

Such is the portrait of this branch of West Indian slavery, drawn by one of its ablest advocates, when the cause of humanity furnished a plea for casting a dart at their opponents.†

* Ed. Hist. W. Ind. vol. 2, Book iv. chap. 5.

Justice to the friends of abolition, who are here obliquely charged with supporting the most cruel part of the slave-holding system, requires a brief explanation of the law in question.It was an act of 5 Geo. Il., containing a declaration that negroes and land in the colonies should be assets for the satisfaction of simple contract debts, and liable to be sold under executions. By the insular laws, slaves were required to be sold for debts before a resort could be had to the real estate; and the latter could be sold only in case the former were insufficient.-As far therefore, as the parliamentary act had any bearing upon the question, it