PERKINS LIBRARY 
 
 Duke Universitj 
 
 Rare Books 
 
THE 
 
 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, Esq. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE REMEDY 
 
 >c This is a people robbed and spoiled ; they are all of them snared in holes, 
 and they aro hid in prison houses : they are for a prey, and none delivertth ; 
 for a spoil, and none saith, Restore."— Isaiah, xiii. 21. 
 
 " The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."— Isaiah xxxv. 1. 
 
 ^i 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MURRAY, AL BEM A R LE - S TRE ET. 
 
 MDCCCXL. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 REPRINTED FROX THE LONDON EDITION. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY S. W. BENEDICT, No. 123 FULTON STREET. 
 
 18 4 0. 
 
 7356^ 
 
* 1 
 
 ^ 3> fc ! 
 
9 9 /# 
 
 ^^^^ ; p\ k5 k 
 
 PREFACE TO THE REMEDY. 
 
 As the remedy I contemplate is now, for the first time, pub- 
 lished, it is necessary to explain the reason why it has hitherto 
 been withheld. In the spring of 1838, 1 stated to several mem- 
 bers of the cabinet my views as to the suppression of the Slave 
 Trade. I could not reasonably expect, that, in the extreme 
 pressure of business during the sitting of Parliament, they would 
 be able to find time to give it the consideration it required, 1 
 therefore prepared for the press and printed a few T copies of my 
 work — describing the horrors of the Slave Trade, and proposing 
 a remedy, for the private use of the members of the administra- 
 tion, and placed these in their hands on the day that the session 
 closed. At the latter end of the year (December 22), after va- 
 rious communications with Lords Glenelg and Palmerston, I 
 was officially informed that the Government had resolved to 
 embrace and to adopt the substance of the plan. A question 
 then arose as to the propriety of printing the whole work. It 
 was thought highly desirable that the public should be put in 
 possession of the facts which showed the extent of the Slave 
 Trade, and the waste of human life which accompanied it. But 
 as a negotiation had been commenced with Spain for the ces- 
 sion to Great Britain of the sovereignty of Fernando Po, it was 
 not deemed advisable to give publicity to the intelligence I had 
 obtained as to that island, and the importance I attached to its 
 
 7 5 S'& q- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 possession. It was therefore resolved that I should publish the 
 first part, withholding the Remedy till the fate of the negotia- 
 tion was determined ; in consequence of which my first volume 
 was put into circulation in the commencement of the year 1839. 
 The negotiation has not, I regret to say, been as yet brought 
 to an issue ; but it is in that state, that a definitive answer must 
 speedily be received, and I am assured that there is no occasion 
 for any further delay. 
 
 There is another point upon which I wish to make myself 
 clearly intelligible. Some of my most valuable associates have 
 given me a friendly intimation that they " hold themselves 
 wholly distinct from any measure the Government may adopt 
 with respect to the defence of the Colonies, or the suppression 
 of the Slave Trade by armed force ; and that they are not to 
 be considered responsible for the recommendations that any 
 member of our committee may make, in connection with such 
 measures." This is a protest against those passages in my 
 Remedy in which I advise that our squadron may for the pre- 
 sent be rendered more efficient, and that our settlements should 
 be protected by the British Government. I entirely feel, that 
 the gentlemen who have made the protest cannot be considered 
 as parties to this recommendation. It was a suggestion of my 
 own — it was offered to Government before they had seen it — 
 and Government will take its own course upon the subject. In 
 my book I propose two distinct courses ; and I couple them to- 
 gether in the same work, because the arguments employed bear 
 ' upon each of these separate questions. In other words, I apply 
 to the Government to do one thing for the suppression of the 
 Slave Trade, viz. to strengthen our squadron ; and I apply to 
 individuals to join me in measures having the same object, but 
 of a character totally different. Such, for example, as an at- 
 tempt to elevate the mind of the people of Africa, and to call 
 forth the capabilities of her soil. 
 
 I have no wish to disguise my sentiments about armed force' 
 I deprecate, as much as any man, resorting to violence and war. 
 These are against the whole tenor of mv views. It will be ad- 
 
 V 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 mitted, I think, that I have labored hard in this book to show 
 that our great error has been, that we have depended far too 
 much upon physical force. It is, however, the duty of our Gov- 
 ernment to see that the peace of our settlements be preserved. 
 The natives whom we induce to engage in agriculture must not 
 be exposed to the irruption of a savage banditti, instigated by 
 some miscreant from Europe, whose vessel w aits upon the shore 
 for a human cargo. Nor must our runaway sailors repeat in 
 Africa the atrocities which have been practised in New Zealand. 
 Again and again the Foulah tribes said to the missionaries on 
 the river Gambia, " Give us security, and we will gladly till the 
 land and pasture the cattle in your neighborhood." There 
 were no means of thus protecting them, and hence an experi- 
 ment, founded on admirable principles, failed. But when I ask 
 for an effectual police force, I ask for that only. I do not desire 
 the employment of such a military force as might be perverted 
 into the means of war and conquest. I want only, that the man 
 engaged in lawful and innocent employment in Africa, should 
 have the same protection as an agricultural laborer or a me- 
 chanic receives in England ; and that there, as well as here, 
 the murderer and man-stealer may be arrested and punished. 
 
 It is possible that in these views I may be mistaken ; and 
 that the gentlemen to whom I allude may wholly differ from me. 
 But there is no reason because they do so, avowing their dissent, 
 that they should abstain from joining me in the task of deliver- 
 ing Africa from the Slave Trade by the means of her own mind 
 and her own resources, developed and cultivated. In this object 
 we heartily agree ; and for its accomplishment we may heartily 
 unite. I number amongst my coadjutors very many of the So- 
 ciety of Friends ; but I prize too highly the disinterested and 
 unflinching zeal with which that body pursues the objects which 
 it approves, to be content to lose any individual of the number, 
 especially through a misapprehension ; and it is for the purpose 
 of averting this, that I have thought it necessary to enter into 
 this explanation. 
 
 I have already described the state of Africa. It will on all 
 hands be said that there are great, if not invincible difficulties 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 to the application of a remedy. This is but too true. There 
 is only one consideration strong enough to prompt us to grapple 
 with these difficulties, namely, a just apprehension of her mise- 
 ries. I pray my readers not to shrink from the task of sedu- 
 lously studying the facts collected in this book. In the case of 
 Africa, I fear hardly anything so much as the indulgence of ex- 
 cessive tenderness of feeling. If the benevolent and religious 
 portion of the public choose to content themselves with the gen- 
 eral and superficial conviction, that there is no doubt a great 
 mass of misery in Africa, but refuse to sift and scrutinize each 
 circumstance of horror, pleading the susceptibility of their nerves 
 as an apology to themselves for shutting their eyes and closing 
 their ears to such revolting details ; then the best hope for Afri- 
 ca — perhaps the only hope — vanishes away. That resolute, 
 unflinching, untiring determination which is necessary, in order 
 to surmount the difficulties which lie in the way of her deliver- 
 ance, requires not only that the understanding should be con- 
 vinced, but that the heart should be moved. Our feelings will 
 be far too tame for the occasion, unless we can, in pity to Africa? 
 summon courage enough to face, and to study, the horrors of the 
 Slave Trade, and the abominations which there grow out of a 
 dark and bloody superstition. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Introduction. ...... vi. 
 
 Chap. 1. Preparatory Meal-res. . . . . 12 
 
 Increased Efficiency of Naval Force — Concentration on 
 Coast of Africa — Increase of Force — Employment of 
 Steamers — Treaties with Native Powers — Facilities 
 for such Treaties — Major Denham and the Sheikh of 
 Bornou — Lander — Clapperton and Bello — Governor 
 Grant's Embassy to the Foulahs — policy hitherto 
 adopted by the Government — New line of Policy re- 
 commended — These measures not the Remedy. 
 
 Chap. 2. Commerce and Cultivation. . . . 28 
 
 The true Remedy — Our former System — Reasons of 
 our^ Failure — Insignificance of present legitimate 
 Trade — Comparisons with other'Countries — Impulse to 
 Commerce — Productions — Animals — Fowls — Fish — 
 Minerals — Gold — Iron — Copper, &c. — Soil — Fertility 
 — Timber — Dye-woods — Gums — Nuts — Palm Oil — 
 Roots — Fruits — Grain — Drugs — Miscellaneous Pro- 
 ducts — Various Testimonies — Hemp — Coffee — Sugar 
 — Cotton — Cultivation of Cotton — Factories — Agri- 
 culture — Benefit to England — Benefit to Africa. 
 
 Chap. 3. Facilities for Commercial Intercourse. . 67 
 
 The Niger — Park — Lander — Laird and Oldfield — Posi- 
 tions commanding the Niger — Fernando Po — Con- 
 fiuence of Niger and Tchadda — Mr. M'Queen — Other 
 Rivers — The Senegal — Faleme — Gambia — Geogra- 
 phical position — Contiguity to Europe — Effects to be 
 hoped for. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. 4. Results of Experience. ... 83 
 
 Sierra Leone — Disadvantages — Success — Mr. Fergu- 
 son's Letter — St. Mary's on the Gambia — Missiona- 
 ries — Gold Coast — Wydah — Opinion of Governor 
 M'Carthy — General Turner — His Dispatches — His 
 Death — Colonel Nicholls — Mr. Rendall — Opinions 
 of Travelers — Goldberry — Robertson -*- Park — Lan- 
 der—Gray — Captain W. Allen — M'Queen — Clark- 
 son — Society of Friends — Pasha of Egypt — Process 
 of Conviction — Coincidence of Opinions. 
 
 Chap. 5. Principles. ..... 154 
 
 Free Trade — No Custom House — No Distinction be- 
 tween English and Foreigners — Neutral Ground — 
 Singapore — Free Labor — Warning against Slavery 
 — Captain Beaver — Mr. Fox — British Dominion — 
 Dangers — Answers to Objections — Encouragement of 
 African Produce. 
 
 Chap. 6. Elevation of Native Mind. . 168 
 
 Opinion of Mr. Pitt — Allowance to be made for the 
 Negro — Effect of Slavery on Whites — Adams — Cap- 
 tain Paddock — Favorable Symptoms — Indications 
 of Capability — Turkey — Ashmun — African Mer- 
 chants — Eastern Coast — Kroomen — Ingenuity — 
 Clarkson and the Emperor Alexander — Hannah 
 Kilham — Facilities for giving Instruction — Liberia 
 — The Plantains — Bondou — Mr. Freeman — Agents 
 to be obtained — Letters from the West Indies — 
 Advances already made — Translations prepared — 
 Church Missionary Society — Wesleyan Missionary 
 Society — London Missionary Society — Debt to Africa 
 — Present time opportune — Plan of proceeding. 
 
 Chap. 7. Specific Steps. .... 224 
 
 Objects to be attained — Means to be employed — Duty 
 of Government — Duty of individuals — Benevolent 
 Society — Agricultural Company. 
 
 Conclusion ...... 229 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 
 Appendix A. Facilities for Treaties. 
 
 B. Fernando Po. 
 
 C. Governor's Dispatches. 
 
 D. Letter from Mr. Clarkson. . 
 
 E. Letter from Mr. Hyde Pearson. 
 
 F. Copy of a Letter from the Right Hon. Lord 
 John Russell to the Lord s Commissioners 
 other Majesty's Treasury. 
 
 237 
 241 
 
 244 
 247 
 
 254 
 
 255 
 
THE REMEDY. 
 
 The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. — Isaiah. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It has been no very difficult task to collect mate- 
 rials for a description of the varied and intense mise- 
 ries with which Africa is afflicted. Every person 
 who visits that country, — whether his motive be the 
 pursuit of traffic or the gratification of curiosity, the 
 prosecution of geographical science or of missionary 
 labor, — brings back a copious collection of details 
 calculated to excite pity, disgust, and horror. 
 
 Happy would it be if it were as easy to point out 
 the remedy, as to explore the disease. 
 
 To this task I now address myself, difficult though 
 it be, from various causes — from the magnitude of 
 the evil — from the vast and complicated interests in- 
 volved — and from the comparative scantiness of our 
 information. For, while the miseries of Africa are 
 such as meet the eye of the most casual traveler, — 
 while her crimes and woes are such as no one can 
 overlook ; — the sources from whence we must hope 
 for the remedy lie much deeper and far more hidden 
 from our view. We know so little really of the inte- 
 
» THE REMEDY. 
 
 rior of Africa, — her geography, her history, her soil, 
 climate, and productions, — so little of the true con- 
 dition and capabilities of her inhabitants, that (having 
 collected all the information within my reach) it is 
 with very great diffidence I venture to put forth what 
 appear to me, to be the principles which must rescue 
 her, and the steps which we, as a nation, and as indi- 
 viduals, are called upon to take, to carry those prin- 
 ciples into operation. 
 
 In one respect I apprehend no liability to error. 
 With all confidence we may affirm, that nothing per- 
 manent will be effected, unless we raise the native 
 mind. It is possible to conceive such an application 
 of force as shall blockade the whole coast, and sweep 
 away every slaver : but should that effort relax, the 
 trade in man would revive. Compulsion, so long as 
 it lasts, may restrain the act, but it will not eradicate 
 the motive. The African will not have ceased to 
 desire, and vehemently to crave, the spirits, the am- 
 munition, and the articles of finery and commerce 
 which Europe alone can supply : and these he can 
 obtain by the Slave Trade, and by the Slave Trade 
 only, while he remains what he is. The pursuit of 
 man, therefore, is to him not a matter of choice and 
 selection, but of necessity, and after any interval of 
 constrained abstinence, he will revert to it as the bu- 
 siness of his life. 
 
 But, when the African nations shall emerge from 
 their present state of darkness and debasement, they 
 will require no arguments from us, to convince them 
 of the monstrous impolicy of the Slave Trade. They 
 will not be content to see their remaining territories 
 a wilderness, themselves in penury, their villages 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 exposed day after day to havoc and conflagration, 
 their children kidnapped and slaughtered, — and all for 
 the purpose of gaining a paltry supply of the most 
 inferior and pernicious articles of Europe. They will 
 perceive, that their effective strength may he applied 
 to other, and more lucrative purposes : and as their 
 intellect advances, it is not too much to hope that 
 their morals will improve, and that they will awaken 
 to the enormous wickedness, as well as folly, of this 
 cruel system. " Europe, therefore," (to use the words 
 of one of the most distinguished of African travel- 
 ers,*) " will have done little for the Blacks, if the 
 abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade is not followed 
 up by some wise and grand plan for the civilization 
 of the continent. None presents a fairer prospect 
 than the education of the sons of Africa in their own 
 country, and by their own countrymen previously 
 educated by Europeans." 
 
 We may assume, and with almost equal confidence, 
 that Africa can never he delivered, till we have called 
 forth the rich productiveness of her soil. She de- 
 rives, it must be confessed, some pecuniary advantage 
 from the Slave Trade : happily, however, it is the 
 smallest possible amount of revenue, at the largest 
 possible amount of cost. The strength of our case, 
 and the foundation of our hope, lie in the assurance, 
 — I am tempted rather to call it, the indisputable cer- 
 tainty, — that the soil will yield a far more generous 
 return. Grant that the chieftains sell every year 
 250,000 of the inhabitants, and that into their hands 
 £4 per head is honestly paid. (This is not the fact, 
 
 * Burckhardt, p. 344. 
 
10 THE REMEDY. 
 
 however, for they are often defrauded altogether, and 
 are always cheated by receiving merchandise of the 
 most inferior description.) But let us suppose that 
 they get the value of one million of money : we have, 
 from this sum, to deduct, first, the cost of maintaining 
 their armies intended for the Slave Trade : then of 
 the reprisals which are made upon themselves, and 
 the consequent ravage of their land and destruction 
 of their property : thirdly, the material items of arms, 
 ammunition, and ardent spirits, which form one-third 
 of the whole of the goods imported into Central Afri- 
 ca, and the greater part of which are consumed in 
 their horrid slave-hunts :* — to say nothing of any in- 
 direct loss, such as millions of fertile acres being left 
 a desert; — nothing of perils encountered and torments 
 endured ; — making no other abatement than the 
 three sources of direct and unavoidable expense 
 which I have named, — the million will have melted 
 away to a very slender sum. Call the clear profit, 
 for argument's sake, £300,000 ;— and is £300,000 all 
 that can be reaped from so extensive a portion of the 
 globe, inferior to none other in native wealth 1 Her 
 fisheries, separately taken, would yield more ; or her 
 mines, or her timber, or her drugs, or her indigo, or 
 her sugar, or her cotton. 
 
 I am then stedfast in my belief, that the capabili- 
 ties of Africa would furnish full compensation to that 
 country for the loss of the Slave Trade. It may sound 
 
 * I remember it was given in evidence before a Parliamentary 
 Committee, that an African chief thus concisely stated his mer- 
 cantile views : — " We want three things, viz. powder, ball, and 
 brandy; and we have three things to sell, viz. men, women, and 
 children." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 visionary at the present time, but 1 expect that at 
 some future, and not very distant day, it will appear, 
 that for every pound she now receives from the ex- 
 port of her people, a hundred pounds' worth of pro- 
 duce, either for home consumption or foreign com- 
 merce, will be raised from the fertility of her soil. 
 
 It is something to know that there is a natural and 
 an infallible remedy for the distractions of Africa, and 
 that the remedy is within reach, were there but the 
 sagacity to use it. It is another question, how we 
 shall cause that remedy to be applied, and how we 
 shall make manifest to the clouded perceptions of her 
 people, the false economy of selling her effective 
 strength, while her plains remain a desert, instead of 
 employing that strength in transforming that desert 
 into a fruitful and smiling land. Capabilities are 
 nothing to the unreflecting mind of the savage : he 
 wants something present and tangible. 
 
 How then shall we undeceive her chiefs, and con- 
 vince them, that it is for their interest that the Slave 
 Trade should cease ? This we must do for Africa ; 
 we must elevate the minds of her people, and call forth 
 the capabilities of her soil. 
 
 Bearing in mind, that every effort we make must 
 be intended, either directly or remotely, to effect one, 
 or other, or both of these objects, I now proceed to 
 a detail of the remedial measures which it seems ne- 
 cessary to adopt. 
 
12 THE REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PREPARATORY MEASURES. 
 
 . The first thing to be done, is to throw all possible 
 impediments in the way of the Slave Trade, and to 
 make it both more precarious and less profitable than 
 it is at present. 
 
 In order to this, our squadron must be rendered more 
 efficient ; and this it is supposed may be accomplish- 
 ed— 
 
 1st. By concentrating on the coast of Africa the 
 whole force employed in this particular service. It 
 has been our practice hitherto to distribute a few ships 
 along the African coast, while others cruise near 
 South America and the West Indies. The former, 
 though they have failed in suppressing the trade, have 
 at all events done something towards the annoyance 
 of the trader. The latter, with equal zeal, and a much 
 larger force, have done little or nothing towards this 
 object. On the average of the last four years to which 
 the accounts extend, viz., 1834-5-6 and 7, we have had 
 on the West Indian and South American stations 42 
 vessels of war ; on the African station 14. By the 
 former there have been taken and adjudicated, in four 
 years, 34 slavers ; by the smaller squadron, 97. 
 
 I am not so ignorant as to infer that the Admiralty 
 were in error in this distribution of their disposable 
 force. I well knew that other objects than the sup- 
 pression of the Slave Trade demanded attention : as 
 little do I presume to cast any reflection upon the na- 
 val officers in command. But from these facts I con- 
 ceive I am entitled to draw the conclusion, that, as 
 
EFFICIENCY OF NAVAL FORCE. 13 
 
 far as the Slave Trade is concerned, little or no bene- 
 fit has been derived from the force stationed in the 
 neighborhood of Cuba and Brazil. 
 
 2dly. The efficiency of our squadron may be im- 
 proved by an actual increase of the force. 
 
 I am aware that some gentlemen, seeing that all our 
 past naval efforts have failed, are in favor of with- 
 drawing our whole force, and of relying exclusively 
 on other means ; but it appears to me, that in order to 
 try these other means w r ith the most advantage, it 
 is needful, for a time, to retain our force on the coast 
 of Africa. 
 
 If at the moment when we are beginning to encour- 
 age agricultural industry, and to give an impulse to 
 the minds of her people, our navy were to abandon 
 the coast, there can be no doubt that it would be a 
 signal to the chiefs of the country (still ignorant of 
 the resources of their soil, and still supposing that the 
 Slave Trade alone can supply them with the luxuries 
 of Europe) to prosecute their horrid traffic with even 
 more than their usual energy. They would avail 
 themselves of the removal of the only check which 
 they have hitherto felt, and at the very moment when 
 our last ship departed from the coast, Africa would 
 present a scene of conflagration, massacre, and con- 
 vulsion, such as even Africa has never before wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 Can it be imagined that agriculture could thrive, or 
 the voice of the teacher receive attention, or the arts 
 of peace take root, at such a moment 1 Having per- 
 severed so long and so unprofitably in the attempt to 
 suppress the traffic by force, it would be a poor mode 
 of repairing our error, to dismiss that force just at the 
 2 
 
14 THE REMEDY. 
 
 time when we most required tranquillity, and when 
 anything likely to give a new impulse to the Slave 
 Trade would be peculiarly unseasonable. 
 
 It would appear to be a wiser policy to augment 
 our force, and thus to multiply the risks, while we 
 reduce the profits of the trade. We should try, if it 
 were only for a given period, the full effect of what 
 can be done by our maritime strength : instead of 
 doling out, year by year, a force inadequate to our 
 object, we should at this juncture strike a telling 
 blow, so that the African, while measuring the ad- 
 vantages of that system which we wish him to aban- 
 don, against that which we desire to see adopted, may 
 feel in its greatest force the weight of those hazards 
 and discouragements which the British navy can in- 
 terpose. 
 
 3dly, We may increase the efficiency of our squad- 
 ron by the employment of steamers as part of the pro- 
 posed reinforcement. I am, it must be confessed, but 
 ill qualified to offer an opinion on a matter which 
 comes rather within the province of naval officers. I 
 can only say, that amongst the many persons con- 
 versant with the coast of Africa, and with the Slave 
 Trade, from whom I have sought information, I have 
 not met with an individual who has not urged that 
 steamers might be employed with great advantage. 
 It is not only, that they would be able to explore ri- 
 vers and harbors, which other vessels cannot enter, 
 but that in latitudes where frequent calms prevail, 
 they might often come up with slavers, which 
 have hitherto escaped our cruisers. We know 
 too well, that with his slaves safely on board, and his 
 vessel fairly at sea, it is not often that the slave trader 
 
TREATIES WITH AFRICA. 15 
 
 is captured. " Once outside in my trim vessel, you 
 may catch me if you can,"* is, unhappily, something 
 more than an empty vaunt. In the proposed employ- 
 ment of steamers, to search the mouths of rivers, one 
 precaution is indispensable. They must be manned 
 by persons who can bear the climate to which they 
 will be exposed. Admiral Elliott, now commanding 
 on this station, objects to exploring the rivers, on ac- 
 count of the loss of life which invariably follows 
 among British seamen : he recommends the enlistment 
 of black seamen for this service, and the purchase of 
 small armed steamers to be employed exclusively in 
 river navigation. 
 
 I may as well say here, once for all, that, in all our 
 African undertakings, I look to the employment (ex- 
 cept in a very few cases) of the negro and colored race, 
 and that I have reason to believe that well qualified 
 agents of that description may be procured without 
 difficulty. 
 
 I proceed now to the suggestion of a second pre- 
 paratory measure. 
 
 Treaties should be formed with native powers in Afri- 
 ca — they receiving certain advantages, proportioned 
 to the assistance they afford in the prosecution of our 
 objects, and engaging on their side, to put down the 
 Slave Trade. I do not mean to say, that this is all 
 that ought to be contemplated in these treaties. To 
 give facilities for commerce and agricultural settle- 
 ments will be a subject of consideration hereafter. All 
 I urge at this point of the argument, is, that we should 
 do our utmost to obtain the cordial co-operation of 
 the natives in the suppression of their detestable traffic. 
 * Vide page 140. 
 
16 THE REMEDY. 
 
 I am aware that a formidable objection to this pro- 
 position will present itself to many of my readers. 
 It will be said, that it is visionary to suppose that these 
 barbarian chieftains can be induced, except by force 
 of arms, to connect themselves with us, — to lend us 
 their aid in extinguishing their only trade, — to enter 
 into peaceable commerce with us ; and, yet more, to 
 admit us, as friends, into their dominions, and volun- 
 tarily to grant us such an extent of territory and of 
 privileges, as shall enable us to plant settlements 
 among them. 
 
 I trust, however, that in this case, we are to be 
 guided, not by preconceived opinions, but by facts ga- 
 thered from experience. The truth is, and on this my 
 hopes are built, that the natives, so far from shunning 
 intercourse with us, and rejecting our overtures for 
 peace and commerce, have been, in almost every case, 
 eager and importunate that we should settle among 
 them. If further progress has not been made, it is our- 
 selves who have been to blame. I find abundant in- 
 stances in which they have declared their willingness 
 and ability to suppress the Slave Trade, and in which 
 they have offered to grant every facility for commerce, 
 — to cede territory, — and, in not a few cases, to put 
 themselves under our dominion. I find even treaties to 
 this effect, formed between British officers and native 
 chiefs. But I can seldom find that these invitations 
 to amity and commerce have been encouraged, or that 
 these treaties have been ratified by the Home Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 I grant that this anxiety on the part of the negroes 
 to hold communication with us, is one of the most 
 unexpected, as it is one of the most encouraging fea- 
 
TREATIES WITH AFRICA. 17 
 
 tures of the whole case. It would have been far from 
 strange if the disposition of African potentates had 
 been adverse to a connection with us. They have 
 had but little reason to think favorably of European 
 intentions, or to feel any great reverence for those 
 who bear the name of Christians. If they are other- 
 wise than distrustful of us, it must arise from their 
 drawing a distinction between the course we pursue 
 in Africa, and that taken by other civilized nations \ 
 and from their having learnt by experience duly to ap 
 preciate the nature of our settlements at Sierra Leone 
 and elsewhere ; or else from a deeper sense than we 
 give them credit for, of their own forlorn and disas- 
 trous condition, and a conviction that they would be 
 likely to improve it by intercourse with us. It may 
 be, that they loathe their present evils further than we 
 know, and, feeling impotent to rise out of their dis- 
 tresses by their own vigor, hope for deliverance 
 through our instrumentality. But we must reason on 
 facts as we find them j and I believe that they bear 
 me out in stating, that there exists throughout the 
 whole space, from Senegambia to Benin, a marked 
 confidence in the British \ and not only a readiness, but 
 an anxiety, to have us for their neighbors, and to 
 enter into amicable relations with us. I need not say 
 how much depends upon the truth or fallacy of this 
 statement. If it be true, many of the most formidable 
 difficulties in our way are removed, and there will be, 
 at least, an admitted possibility of a league between 
 England and Africa, — for the suppression of the Slave 
 Trade, — for the spread of commerce, — and for the 
 development of those vast resources which are buried 
 in the African soil. This, then, I shall endeavor to 
 2* 
 
18 THE REMEDY. 
 
 prove 5 but as there is an exception to this facility of 
 intercourse, I will state it at once. 
 
 I suspect it will be very difficult to gain the concur- 
 rence of the chiefs on the coast : these, in the words 
 of a gentleman who has spent many years in studying 
 the geography of Africa, and the character of its in- 
 habitants, are " a rabble of petty chiefs, the most 
 ignorant and rude, and the greatest vagabonds on 
 earth." 
 
 They have been rendered habitual drunkards by the 
 spirits which Slave Ships supply. As slave -factors, 
 they have been steeled against all compassion and all 
 sympathy with human suffering ; and no better influ- 
 ence has been exercised over them, than that derived 
 from intercourse with the dregs of Europe. Besides, 
 they obtain a two-fold advantage from the Slave Trade. 
 The goods they obtain from Europeans give a consi- 
 derable profit when sold to the natives, while the 
 slaves, received by them in return for those goods, 
 yield a profit still more considerable, when sold to the 
 s lave-captain. 
 
 We must then expect great opposition from the 
 chiefs on the coast. It appears, indeed, from the 
 journals of all travelers in Africa, that every impedi- 
 ment has been thrown in their way, in order to pre- 
 vent their proceeding to the interior of the country. 
 It is, however, some consolation to learn from recent 
 travelers, that the power of these chiefs has been 
 greatly exaggerated. 
 
 But whatever difficulties we may have to encounter 
 with the chiefs on the coast, (and I confess that, 
 viewing their character, and the insalubrity of the 
 climate near the sea, and at the mouths of rivers, I 
 
TREATIES WITH AFRICA. 19 
 
 apprehend that they will be far from light,) there is 
 good reason to believe that we shall find a much bet- 
 ter disposition on the part of the Sultans and sove- 
 reigns of the interior, to receive, to treat, and to trade 
 with us. I shall endeavor to show, first, that with 
 respect to the two most powerful potentates of Cen- 
 tral Africa, the Sheikh of Bornou, and the Sultan of 
 the Felatahs, there is some reason for supposing that 
 we need not despair of their co-operation. 
 
 Major Denham, in speaking of the Slave Trade at 
 Bornou, says : — " I think I may say, that neither the 
 Sheikh himself, nor the Bornou people, carry on the 
 traffic without feelings of disgust, which even habit 
 cannot conquer. Of the existence of a foreign Slave 
 Trade, or one which consigns these unfortunates to 
 Christian masters, they are not generally aware at 
 Bornou ; and so contrary to the tenets of his religion, 
 (Mahometanism,) of which he is a strict observer, 
 would be such a system of barter, that one may easi- 
 ly conclude the Sheikh of Bornou would be willing 
 to assist, with all the power he possesses, in any plan 
 which might have for its object the putting a final 
 stop to a commerce of this nature. 
 
 " The eagerness with which all classes of people 
 listened to our proposals for establishing a frequent 
 communication by means of European merchants, 
 and the protection promised by the Sheikh to such 
 as should arrive within the sphere of his influence, 
 particularly if they were English, excites an anxious 
 hope that some measures will be adopted for directing 
 the labors of a population of millions, to something 
 more congenial to the humanity and the philanthropy 
 of the age we live in, than the practice of a system 
 
20 THE REMEDY. 
 
 of predatory warfare, which has chiefly for its object 
 the procuring of slaves, as the readiest and most va- 
 luable property to trade with. 
 
 " Every probability is against such a barter being 
 preferred by the African black. Let the words of 
 the Sheikh himself, addressed to us, in the hearing of 
 his people, speak the sentiments that have already 
 found a place in his bosom : — ' You say true, we are 
 all sons of one father ! You say, also, that the sons 
 of Adam should not sell one another, and you know 
 everything ! God has given you all great talents, 
 but what are we to do 1 The Arabs who come here 
 will have nothing else but slaves : why don't you 
 send us your merchants ? You know us now, and 
 let them bring their women with them, and live 
 amongst us, and teach us what you talk to me about so 
 often, to build houses, and boats, and make rockets.' " 
 
 He adds, " Wherever El Kenemy, the Sultan of 
 Bornou, has power, Europeans, and particularly En- 
 glishmen, will be hospitably and kindly received. 
 Although harassed by the constant wars in which he 
 has been engaged, yet has not the Sheikh been un- 
 mindful of the benefits which an extended commerce 
 would confer upon his people, nor of the importance 
 of improving their moral condition, by exciting a de- 
 sire to acquire, by industry and trade, more perma- 
 nent and certain advantages than are to be obtained 
 by a system of plunder and destructive warfare. 
 Arab or Moorish merchants, the only ones who have 
 hitherto ventured amongst them, are encouraged and 
 treated with great liberality. 
 
 " It was with feelings of the highest satisfaction 
 that I listened to some of the most respectable of the 
 
TREATIES WITH AFRICA. 21 
 
 merchants, when they declared, that were any other 
 system of trading adopted, they would gladly embrace 
 it, in preference to dealing in slaves." 
 
 Denham makes these observations in 1824 ; in 
 1830, Richard Lander says, he learnt that the Sheikh 
 of Bornou had prohibited the carrying of slaves any 
 farther to the westward (that is, towards the coast) 
 than Wawa, a town on the borders of his empire ; 
 and it is not unworthy of notice that when Lander 
 was at this place a few years before, the chief of 
 Wawa said to him, " Tell your countrymen that they 
 have my permission to come here and build a town, 
 and trade up and down the Quorra" (the Niger). 
 
 Captain Clapperton visited Bello, the powerful 
 Sultan of the Felatahs, in 1823, at Sackatoo. Their 
 conversation often turned on the Slave Trade, which 
 Clapperton urged the Sultan to discontinue. Bello 
 asked the captain, if the king of England would send 
 him a consul, and a physician, to reside in Soudan, 
 and merchants to trade with his people 1 Clapperton 
 said he had no doubt his wishes would be gratified, 
 provided he would suppress the Slave Trade. The 
 Sultan replied, " I will give the king of England a 
 place on the coast to build a town." On another 
 occasion, he assured Clapperton that he was able to 
 put an effectual stop to the Slave Trade ; and ex- 
 pressed, with much earnestness of manner, his anxi- 
 ety to enter into permanent relations of trade and 
 friendship with England. At the close of Clapper- 
 ton's visit, Bello gave him a letter to the king of 
 England, to the same purport as the conversation 
 which had taken place between them. These offers 
 on the part of the Sultan of the Felatahs must be 
 
22 THE REMEDY. 
 
 held to be of great importance. He is the chief of 
 a warlike, enterprising people, who have extended 
 their sway over many of the nations and tribes around 
 them ,* and who, from the testimony of recent travel- 
 ers, are actively employed in carrying on war with 
 their neighbors to supply the demands of the Slave 
 Trade. It appears that Captain Clapperton met with 
 an ungracious reception from Sultan Bello, in his 
 last visit to Sackatoo in 1826 ; but this is accounted 
 for by the Sultan's having discovered that Clapperton 
 was on his way to visit his rival, the Sheikh of Bor- 
 nou, with whom he was then at war, and by the jea- 
 lousy of the Arab merchants and slave-dealers, who 
 had carefully instilled into his mind, suspicions as to 
 the intentions of Great Britain. I am not aware that 
 anything has been done to counteract this impres- 
 sion ; but it would not be difficult to disabuse the 
 mind of Bello, who would, no doubt, be induced by a 
 few presents, to afford his countenance and protec- 
 tion to British trade, by which Houssa would be so 
 greatly benefited. 
 
 I will now proceed to prove, that there likewise 
 exists on the part of the chiefs of less powerful tribes 
 a disposition to enter into friendly relations with us. 
 I give a single illustration : — In a dispatch from Act- 
 ing Governor Grant, dated Sierra Leone, 28th Febru- 
 ary, 1821, I find that " an application had been made 
 to Governor Macarthy by the king of the Foulahs, a 
 very powerful prince in the interior, expressing a de- 
 sire to have an officer sent up to Teemboo, the capital 
 of his territories ; and having myself," he says, " re- 
 ceived a very friendly letter from the king, I was in- 
 duced, in conformity with Governor Macarthy's in- 
 
TREATIES WITH AFRICA. 23 
 
 tentions, to dispatch Mr. O'Beirn, assistant-surgeon 
 to the forces, on that service. The influence of the 
 Foulah nation, extending from the branches of the 
 Sierra Leone River to the banks of the Niger, and 
 communicating with the principal countries of the in- 
 terior, renders a friendly connection with that country 
 of much importance to our commercial interests ; 
 and it is with much satisfaction I have to report the 
 good effect of Mr. O'Beirn's exertions ; which are 
 already felt here, in the increased supply of ivory, 
 gold, and cattle, brought by the Foulahs to our differ- 
 ent factories situate on this river. Mr. O'Beirn is 
 merely accompanied by a few people of color to 
 carry his luggage and presents, the expense of which 
 will be trifling." He was received in the most friendly 
 manner possible at Teemboo, the capital of the Fou- 
 lah nation, by the king, Almami Abdool Kaddree. 
 
 The following is an extract from Mr. O'Beirn's 
 Journal : — " I never saw more joy and complacency 
 in any countenance, than his expressed, on my being 
 introduced to him, and I have seldom in my life ex- 
 perienced such a kind and warm reception." The 
 chiefs were assembled to hear his explanation of the 
 objects of his mission : he explained to them the great 
 advantage they would derive from carrying on a trade 
 with the colony, and how much superior such a trade 
 would be to the traffic in slaves ; and told them, what 
 England had done to put an end to it, and to give 
 freedom to their countrymen. 
 
 " Almami replied, that he had for many years wish- 
 ed for a communication to be opened between Sierra 
 Leone and his country, Foota Jalloo, and that it 
 snould continue free and uninterrupted to the latest 
 
24 THE REMEDY. 
 
 day ; adding, that it was not his fault, or it would 
 have been effected years before. He likewise re- 
 marked, with respect to what I had said of the Slave 
 Trade, it was his opinion that it would be given up 
 ere long ; that is, sending them for sale to the coast, 
 and that he was fully convinced he would be brought 
 to account in the next world for disposing of his fel- 
 low-creatures in that way ; but hoped, at the same 
 time, God would accept the excuse of the impossibi- 
 lity that formerly existed of procuring the necessaries 
 of life in such abundance, or resisting the inducements 
 held out, at that time, by the white people that came 
 to purchase them." 
 
 I do not wish to impose upon my readers the mo- 
 notonous task of traveling through a variety of such 
 treaties which these chieftains have made, or have 
 offered to make, with the British Government : these 
 will be given in the Appendix ;* and I apprehend that 
 those who take the trouble of examining them will 
 find, that there is no unwillingness on their part to grant 
 any reasonable quantity of land, — any powers how- 
 ever extensive, — and any conditions for the suppres- 
 sion of the Slave Trade, that we may think proper to 
 propose ; and that all this may be obtained for the tri- 
 fling consideration of a few dollars, or a few pieces of 
 baft. I am ready to admit that little benefit has 
 hitherto resulted from these negotiations, but this 
 does not arise from any faithlessness on the part of the 
 natives in the fulfilment of their engagements ; on the 
 contrary, I may quote the unexceptionable authority 
 of Mr. Bandinel, of the Foreign Office, for the fact, 
 
 * Vide Appendix A. 
 
THEATJES WITH AFRICA. 25 
 
 that " compacts for the suppression of the Slave Trade 
 have been concluded with the chiefs of several native 
 states, and that those treaties have been faithfully 
 maintained by the native sovereigns.'' Mr. Kendall, 
 late Governor of the Gambia, also^ays : — "With re- 
 spect to the general conduct of the chiefs, I am not 
 aware of our having any just cause to complain of a 
 breach of confidence being committed in the treaties 
 heretofore made with them, nor do I think there is 
 any just cause to fear that they are now more likely 
 to forfeit their words and honor, particularly in cases 
 where their interests are studiously considered."' 
 
 The reason why greater advantage has not been 
 derived from co-operation with these powers, is, as 
 I have before intimated, that the British Government 
 has discountenanced almost all efforts in that direc- 
 tion. " It has never," says Mr. H. Macaulay, Com- 
 missary Judge of Sierra Leone, in his evidence before 
 the Aborigines Committee, in 1837, "been the policy 
 of our government from the first, while it was in the 
 hands of the company, nor since it has been transfer- 
 red to the crown, to extend our territory in any way. 
 Even when General Turner and Sir Neil Campbell 
 were governors in former years, and acquired by 
 treaty, and other just means, territory in the neigh- 
 borhood, and paid for it, the government ordered us 
 to give it back. They would not allow us to take pos- 
 session of it and occupy it as a British territory. And 
 though, in my opinion, it would be desirable to extend 
 our territory as our population increases so much, yet 
 it has not been done." To the question — " Do you 
 think it would be expedient or just to take possession 
 of the territory of these people without their consent 1" 
 3 
 
26 THE REMEDY. 
 
 He answers, " Certainly not ; but we are such o-ood 
 neighbors, and they have such perfect confidence in 
 us, that I think there would be no difficulty in acquir- 
 ing territory by treaty." " Have you found any diffi- 
 culty in preserving relations of amity with the sur- 
 rounding natives?" — "None whatever." 
 
 It appears to me well worth while to adopt an en- 
 tirely new line of policy, and to establish, to the ut- 
 most extent possible, a confederacy with the chiefs, 
 from the Gambia on the West, to Begharmi on the 
 East ; and from the Desert on the North, to the Gulf 
 of Guinea on the South. 
 
 Thus, I have suggested two distinct kinds of prepa- 
 ratory measures. 
 
 1st. An augmentation of the naval force employed 
 in the suppression of the Slave Trade, and the concen- 
 tration of that force on the coast of Africa, thus form- 
 ing a chain of vessels from Gambia to Angola. 
 
 2dly. A corresponding chain of treaties with na- 
 tive powers in the interior, pledging them to act in 
 concert with us ; to suppress the Slave Trade in their 
 own territory ; to prevent slaves from being carried 
 through their dominions, and, at the same time, to 
 afford all needful facility and protection for the trans- 
 port of legitimate merchandise. Thus, by creating 
 obstacles which have not heretofore existed, in the 
 conveyance of negroes to the coast, and by increasing 
 the hazard of capture after embarkation, I cannot but 
 anticipate that we shall greatly increase the costs and 
 multiply the risks of the Slave Trade. 
 
 If I am asked, whether I expect thus to effect its 
 total abolition, I answer distinctly, No : — such mea- 
 sures may reduce, or even suspend, but they cannot 
 
OBJECT OF PREPARATORY MEASURES. 27 
 
 eradicate the evil. If we succeed in establishing a 
 blockade of the coast, together with a confederacy 
 on shore, and proceed no further, it will still be 
 doubtful, as it has been in our former operations, 
 whether more of good or of evil will be effected ; — 
 good, by the degree of restraint imposed on the traffic, 
 or evil, by rendering what remains concealed and 
 contraband ; and when I recur to the fearful aggrava- 
 tion of the sufferings of the slaves, which has already 
 arisen from this cause, I am almost disposed to think 
 that it were better to do nothing than to do only 
 this. 
 
 I propose the two measures I have just named, not 
 as a remedy, but as an expedient necessary for a time, 
 in order that the real remedy may be applied in the 
 most effectual manner. For a time, the dangers and 
 difficulties of the slave-trader must be increased, in 
 order that the demand for slaves on the coast may be 
 reduced in the interval that must necessarily elapse 
 before a total suppression can be effected. There 
 was a time, during the last war, when our cruisers 
 were so numerous in the African seas, that it was dif- 
 ficult for a slaver to escape ; and it was then observed 
 that the chiefs betook themselves to agriculture and 
 trade. 
 
 The greater the impediments that are thrown in the 
 way of obtaining supplies through the accustomed 
 channels, the stronger becomes the inducement to 
 procure them in another and better mode ; and thus, 
 the diminution of the Slave Trade will operate as an 
 encouragement to industry, and a stimulus to com- 
 merce. And the evil being thus temporarily held in 
 check, time and space, so to speak, will be given for 
 the effectual operation of the remedy. 
 
28 THE REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 COMMERCE AND CULTIVATION. 
 
 " It was not possible for me to behold the fertility of the soil, the vast herds of 
 cattle, proper both for labor and food, and avaiietyof other circumstances 
 favorable to colonization and agriculture, and reflect withal on the means 
 which presented themselves of a vast inland navigation, without lamenting 
 that a country so abundantly gifted and honored by nature, should remain in 
 its present savage and neglected state." — Park. 
 
 "The commercial intercourse of Africa opens an inexhaustible source of 
 wealth to the manufacturing interests of Great B.itain— to all which the Slave 
 Trade is a physical obstruction." — Gustavus Vasa. Letter to Lord Haickes- 
 bury, 1788. 
 
 But what is the true remedy ? It cannot be too 
 deeply engraven upon the minds of British statesmen, 
 that it is beyond our power to rescue Africa, if the 
 burthen is to fall wholly and permanently on our- 
 selves. It is not the partial aid, lent by a distant 
 nation, but the natural and healthy exercise of her 
 own energies, w T hich will ensure success. We can- 
 not create a remedy ; but, if it be true that this re- 
 medy already exists, and that nothing is wanting but 
 its right application — if Africa possesses within her- 
 self vast, though as yet undeveloped resources — we 
 may be competent to achieve the much less onerous 
 task of calling forth her powers, and enabling her to 
 stand alone, relying upon the strength of her own 
 native sinews. The work w 7 ill be done, when her 
 population shall be sufficiently enlightened to arrive 
 at the conviction, (grounded on what their eyes see, 
 
AFRICAN COMMERCE. 29 
 
 and their hands handle,) that the wealth readily to be 
 obtained from peaceful industry, surpasses the slender 
 and precarious profits of rapine. 
 
 Our system hitherto has been to obtain the co-ope- 
 ration of European powers, while we have paid very 
 little attention to what might be done in Africa itself. 
 for the suppression of the Slave Trade. Our efforts 
 in that direction have been few, faint, and limited to 
 isolated spots, and those by no means well chosen. 
 To me it appears that the converse of this policy 
 would have offered greater probabilities of success : 
 that, while no reasonable expectations can be enter 
 tained of overturning this gigantic evil through the 
 agency and with the concurrence of the civilized 
 world, there is a well-founded hope, amounting al- 
 most to a certainty, that this object may be attained 
 through the medium and with the concurrence of 
 Africa herself. If, instead of our expensive and fruit- 
 less negotiations with Portugal, we had been, during 
 the last twenty years, engaged in extending our inter- 
 course with the nations of Africa, unfolding to them 
 the capabilities of her soil, and the inexhaustible 
 store of wealth which human labor might derive 
 from its cultivation, and convincing them that the 
 Slave Trade alone debars them from enjoying a 
 vastly more affluent supply of our valuable commo- 
 dities, and if we had leagued ourselves with them to 
 suppress that baneful traffic, which is their enemy 
 even more than it is ours, there is reason to believe 
 that Africa would not have been what Africa is, in 
 spite of all our exertions — one universal den of deso- 
 lation, misery, and crime. 
 
 Why do I despair of winning the hearty co-opera- 
 3* 
 
30 THE REMEDV. 
 
 tion of those European powers who now encourage 
 or connive at the Slave Trade 1 I answer, because 
 we have no sufficient bribe to offer. The secret 
 of their resistance is the 180 per cent, profit which 
 attaches to the Slave Trade. This is a tempta- 
 tion which we cannot outbid. It has been, and it 
 will be, the source of their persevering disregard 
 of the claims of humanity, and of their contempt for 
 the engagements, however solemn, which they have 
 contracted with us. 
 
 But why do I entertain a confident persuasion thai 
 we may obtain the cordial concurrence of the African 
 powers ? Because the Slave Trade is not their gain, 
 but their loss. It is their ruin, because it is capable 
 of demonstration, that, but for the Slave Trade, the 
 other trade of Africa would be increased fifty or a 
 hundred-fold. Because central Africa now receives 
 in exchange for all her exports, both of people and 
 productions, less than half a million of imports, one- 
 half of which may be goods of the worst description, 
 and a third made up of arms and ammunition. What 
 a wretched return is this, for the productions of so 
 vast, so fertile, so magnificent a territory ! Take 
 the case of central Africa ; the insignificance of our 
 trade with it is forcibly exhibited by contrasting the 
 whole return from thence, with some single article of 
 no great moment which enters Great Britain. The 
 feathers received at Liverpool from Ireland reach an 
 amount exceeding all the productions of central 
 Africa ; the eggs from France and Ireland exceed 
 one-half of it ; while the value of pigs from Ireland 
 into the port of Liverpool is three times as great as 
 the whole trade of Great Britain in the productions of 
 
AFRICAN COMMERCE. 31 
 
 the soil of central Africa.* What an exhibition does 
 this give of the ruin which the Slave Trade entails 
 on Africa ! Can it be doubted that, with the extinc- 
 tion of that blight j there would arise up a commerce 
 which would pour into Africa European articles of 
 a vastly superior quality, and to a vastly superior 
 amount % 
 
 If it be true that Africa would be enriched, and 
 that her population would enjoy, in multiplied abun- 
 dance, those commodities, for the acquisition of which 
 she now incurs such intense misery, the one needful 
 thing, in order to induce them to unite with us in 
 repressing the Slave Trade, is, to convince them that 
 they will gain by selling the productive labor of the 
 people, instead of the people themselves. 
 
 My first object, then, is to show that Africa pos- 
 sesses within herself the means of obtaining, by fair 
 trade, a greater quantity of our goods than she now 
 receives from the Slave Trade j and, secondly, to 
 point out how this truth may be made plain to the 
 African nations. I have further to prove, that Great 
 Britain, and other countries (for the argument applies 
 as much to them as to us), have an interest in the 
 question only inferior to that of Africa, and that if we 
 cannot be persuaded to suppress the Slave Trade for 
 
 + Eggs, total amount unknown, but into London, 
 
 Liverpool, and Glasgow, from France and £. 
 
 Ireland alone - ... - 275,000 
 Feathers from Ireland to Liverpool (Porter's 
 
 (i Progress of Nation," p. 83) 500,000 
 
 Pigs from Ireland to Liverpool (Porter, Ibid.) 1,488,555 
 
 Total imports, productions of the soil of Central 
 
 Africa (Porter's Tables, Supplement, No. 5) 456,014 
 
32 THE REMEDY. 
 
 the fear of God, or in pity to man, it ought to be done 
 for the lucre of gain. 
 
 The importance of Africa, as a vast field of Euro- 
 pean commerce, though it has been frequently advert- 
 ed to, and its advantages distinctly pointed out by 
 those who have visited that part of the world, has not 
 hitherto sufficiently engaged public attention, or led 
 to any great practical results. It is, perhaps, not diffi- 
 cult to account for the apathy which has been mani- 
 fested on this subject — Africa has a bad name ; its 
 climate is represented, and not altogether unjustly, as 
 pestilential, and destructive of European life ; its po- 
 pulation as barbarous and ignorant, indolent and cruel 
 — more addicted to predatory warfare than to the arts 
 of peace ; and its interior as totally inaccessible to 
 European enterprise. With the exception of a few 
 spots, such as Sierra Leone, the Gambia, the Senegal, 
 &c, its immensely extended line of coast is open to 
 the ravages and demoralization of the Slave Trade, 
 and the devastating incursions of pirates. The diffi- 
 culties connected with the establishment of a legiti- 
 mate commerce with Africa may be traced principally 
 to these circumstances ; and could they be removed, 
 by the removal of their cause, the obstacles arising 
 from climate — the supposed character of its people — 
 and the difficulty of access to the interior, would be 
 easily overcome. 
 
 Legitimate commerce would put down the Slave 
 Trade, by demonstrating the superior value of man as 
 a laborer on the soil, to man as an object of merchan- 
 dise ; and if conducted on wise and equitable princi- 
 ples, might be the precursor, or rather the attendant, 
 of civilization, peace, and Christianity, to the unen- 
 
AFRICAN COMMERCE. 33 
 
 lightened, warlike, and heathen tribes who now so 
 fearfully prey on each other, to supply the slave- 
 markets of the New World. In this view of the sub- 
 ject, the merchant, the philanthropist, the patriot, and 
 the Christian, may unite ; and should the Government 
 of this country lend its powerful influence in organiz- 
 ing a commercial system of just, liberal, and compre- 
 hensive principles — guarding the rights of the native 
 on the one hand, and securing protection to the hon- 
 est trader on the other, — a blow would be struck at 
 the nefarious traffic in human beings, from which it 
 could not recover ; and the richest blessings would be 
 conferred on Africa, so long desolated and degraded 
 by its intercourse with the basest and most iniquitous 
 part of mankind. 
 
 The present condition of Africa in relation to com- 
 merce is deplorable 
 
 The whole amount of goods exported direct from 
 Great Britain to all Africa is considerably within one 
 million sterling. 
 
 In the year 1835, the declared value of British and 
 Irish produce and manufactures exported to the whole 
 of Africa was £917,726. 
 
 Central Africa possesses within itself everything 
 from which commerce springs. No country in the 
 world has nobler rivers, or more fertile soil j and it 
 contains a population of fifty millions. 
 
 This country, which ought to be amongst the chief 
 of our customers, takes from us only to the value of 
 £312,938 of our manufactures, £101,104* of which 
 are made up of the value of arms and ammunition, 
 and lead and shot. 
 
 * Parliamentary Returns for 1837. 
 
34 THE REMEDY. 
 
 I must request the reader to fix his attention on 
 these facts ; they present a dreadful picture of the 
 moral prostration of Africa, — of the power of the 
 Slave Trade in withering- all healthy commerce, — of 
 the atrocious means resorted to, in order to maintain 
 and perpetuate its horrors, — and of the very slender 
 sum which can be put down as expended in fair and 
 honest trading. 
 
 The declared value of British and Irish produce and 
 manufactures, exported in 1837, was according to 
 parliamentary returns — 
 
 To Asia 
 
 £4,639,736 
 
 America 
 
 15,496,552 
 
 Australia . 
 
 921,568 
 
 Hayti 
 
 171,050 
 
 Central Africa 
 
 312,938 
 
 Deducting from this last sum the value of arms, 
 ammunition, &c, the remnant of the annual trade of 
 this country, so favored by nature, and endowed with 
 such capabilities for commerce, is but £211,834. 
 
 There is many a cotton spinner in Manchester who 
 manufactures much more j there are some dealers in 
 London whose yearly trade is ten times that sum ; and 
 there is many a merchant in this country who exports 
 more than the amount of our whole exports to Africa, 
 arms and ammunition included. 
 
 The imports from Africa into this country, though 
 they have, undoubtedly, increased since the year 1820, 
 are still extremely limited ; and it is observable that 
 they scarcely embrace any articles produced from the 
 cultivation of the soil. Their estimated value, in 
 
AFRICAN COMMERCE. 35 
 
 1834, was £456,014* (exclusive of gold dust, about 
 £260,000) j they consisted chiefly of palm-oil, teak 
 timber, gums, ivory, beeswax, &c, all extremely va- 
 luable, and in great demand, but obtained at compara- 
 tively little labor and cost. 
 
 So small an amount of exports from a country so 
 full of mineral and vegetable wealth, either shows the 
 extreme ignorance and indolence of the people, or the 
 total want of security both to person and property 
 which exists in consequence of the Slave Trade. All 
 the authorities which are accessible, clearly show 
 that the latter is the true cause why the commerce 
 between Africa and the civilized world is so trifling ; 
 and there is one remarkable fact which corroborates 
 it, namely, that nearly all the legitimate trade with 
 central Africa is effected through the medium of 
 those stations which have been established by the 
 British and French governments on its coasts, and in 
 and around which the trade in slaves has either been 
 greatly checked, or has totally disappeared. 
 
 But limited as the commerce of Africa is at present 
 with the civilized world, and infamous as one part of 
 that commerce has been, it is capable of being indefi- 
 nitely increased, and of having a character impressed 
 on it, alike honorable to all parties engaged in it. 
 The advantages w T hich would accrue to Africa, in the 
 development of her resources, the civilization of her 
 people, and the destruction of one of the greatest evils 
 which has ever afflicted or disgraced mankind, — not 
 less than the benefits which would be secured to Eu- 
 rope in opening new marts for her produce and new 
 
 * See Porter's Table?. 
 
36 THE REMEDY. 
 
 fields for her commercial enterprise — would be incal- 
 culable. 
 
 What can we do to bring about this consummation 1 
 It is in our power to encourage her commerce ;—to im- 
 prove the cultivation of her soil ; and to raise the morals, 
 and the mind of her inhabitants. This is all that we 
 can do ; but this done, the Slave Trade cannot con- 
 tinue. 
 
 The first question, then, to be considered is, in what 
 way can we give an impulse to the commerce of Afri- 
 ca 1 I apprehend that, for this purpose, little more is 
 necessary than to provide security, and convey a 
 sense of security : without this, there can be no traf- 
 fic : this alone, with such resources as Africa possess- 
 es, will cause legitimate commerce to spring up and 
 thrive of itself; it wants no more than leave to grow. 
 Nothing short of so monstrous an evil as the Slave 
 Trade could have kept it down. 
 
 Its natural productions* and commercial resources 
 
 * Productions. — Animals. — Oxen, sheep, goats, pigs, &c. &c, 
 Guinea fowls, common poultry, ducks, &c. 
 
 Grain. — Rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, or millet, wheat, Dou- 
 rah, &c. 
 
 Fruits. — Oranges, lemons, guavas, pines, citrons, limes, papaws, 
 plantains, bananas, dates, &c. 
 
 Roots. — Manioc, igname, batalee, yams, arrow-root, ginger, 
 sweet potato, &c. 
 
 Timber.— Teak, ebony, lignum vitae, and forty or fifty other 
 species of wood for all purposes. 
 
 Nuts. — Palm-nut, shea-nut, cocoa-nut, cola-nut, ground-nut, 
 castor-nut, netta-nut, &c. 
 
 Dyes. — Carmine, yellow various shades, blue, orange various 
 shades, red, crimson, brown, &c. 
 
 Dye-woods. — Cam-wood, bar-wood, &c. 
 
 Gums. — Copal, Senegal, mastic, sudan, &c. 
 
AFRICAN COMMERCE. 37 
 
 are inexhaustible from the testimony of merchants 
 whose enterprise has, for many years past, led them 
 to embark capital in the African trade ; and from the 
 evidence furnished by the journals of travelers into 
 the interior of the country,* we gather that Nature 
 
 Drugs. — Aloes, cassia, senna, frankincense, &c. 
 
 Minerals. — Gold, iron, copper, emery, sal-ammoniac, nitre, &c. 
 
 Sugar-cane, coffee, cotton, indigo, tobacco, India rubber, bees- 
 wax, ostrich feathers and skins, ivory, &c. 
 
 Fish. — Of an immense variety, and in great abundance. 
 
 Note. — The above is a very imperfect list, but it may serve to 
 show, at a glance, some of the riches of Africa. For all the state- 
 ments ralating to Africa, its capabilities and productions, I have 
 specific authorities ; but it seems hardly necessary to quote them. 
 
 * I shall here mention some of the names of countries and king- 
 doms : — 
 
 Timbuctoo, the great emporium of trade in central Africa. 
 
 The powerful kingdom of Gago, 400 Arabic miles from Tim- 
 buctoo to the south-east, abounds with corn and cattle. Guber, 
 to the east of Gago, abounds with cattle. Cano, once the famous 
 Ghana, abounds with corn, rice, and cattle. Cashna Agadez, 
 fields abound with rice, millet, and cotton. Guangara. south of 
 this, a region greatly abounding in gold and aromatics. Balia, 
 celebrated for its fine gold, four months' voyage to Timbuctoo. 
 Bournou, its capital very large, and inhabitants great traders. 
 The country very rich and fertile, and produces rice, beans, cotton, 
 hemp, indigo in abundance, horses, buffaloes, and horned cattle, 
 sheep, goats, camels, See. Yaoorie produces abundance of rice. 
 The country between R. Formosa and Adra affords the finest pros 
 pect in the world. Inland it is healthy, and the chmate good. 
 Trees uncommonly large and beautiful, cotton of the finest quality, 
 amazingly plentiful, and indigo and other dye-stuffs abundant. 
 The Jabboos carry on great trade in grain between Benin and 
 Lagos. Boossa is a large emporium for trade. The place where 
 the people from the sea-coast meet the caravans from Barbary to 
 exchange their merchandise. From Bossa to Darfur there are nu- 
 merous powerful, fertile, cultivated, well-wooded, watered, popu- 
 lous, and industrious states. Benin, Bournou, Dar Salev, Darfur, 
 4 
 
38 THE REMEDY. 
 
 has scattered her bounties with the most lavish hand; 
 and that what is required to make them available to 
 the noblest purposes is a legitimate commerce sus- 
 tained by the government, and directed by honorable 
 men. 
 
 In the animal kingdom I find that, in addition to the 
 wild beasts which infest its forests, and occupy its 
 swamps, and whose skins, &c, are valuable as an 
 article of commerce, immense herds of cattle, incal- 
 culable in number, range its plains. Hides, there- 
 fore, to almost any amount, may be obtained ; and 
 well-fed beef, of excellent quality and flavor, can be 
 obtained at some of our settlements, at from 2c?. to 
 3d. per lb. There are also in various districts im- 
 mense flocks of sheep ; but as they are covered with 
 a very coarse wool, approaching to hair, and their 
 flesh is not very good on the coast, it may be said, that 
 
 Kashua, Houssa, Timbuctoo, Sego, Wassenah, and many others, 
 are populous kingdoms, abounding in metals, minerals, fruits, 
 grain, cattle, &c. 
 
 Attah, on the Niger, healthy, many natural advantages, will be 
 a place of great importance, alluvial soil, &c. The places on the 
 banks of the Niger are rich in sheep, goats, bullocks, &c. 
 
 Fundah, population 30.000 ; beautiful country. 
 
 Doma, population large and industrious. 
 
 Beeshle and Jacoba, places of great trade. 
 
 Rabba, population 40,000. 
 
 Toto, population immense. 
 
 Alorie (Feletah,) vast herds and flocks. 
 
 Bumbum, thoroughfare for merchants, from Houssa, Borgoo, 
 &c, to Gonga, vast quantity of land cultivated. 
 
 Gungo (Island,) palm-trees in profusion. 
 
 Egga, two miles in length; vast number of canoes. Egga to 
 Bournou, said to be fifteen days' journey. 
 
 Tschadda, on its banks immense herds of elephants seen, from 
 50 to 400 at a timo. 
 
MINERALS. 39 
 
 though numerous, they are not valuable ; their skins, 
 however, might form an article for export. Goats of 
 a very fine and large kind are equally numerous, and 
 sell at a lower price than sheep. Their skins are 
 valuable. Pigs can be obtained in any numbers ; they 
 are kept at several of the coast stations. Domestic 
 poultry, the Guinea hen, common fowls, ducks, &c, 
 are literally swarming, especially in the interior, and 
 may be had for the most trifling articles in barter both 
 on the coast and inland. Fish of all kinds visit the 
 shores and rivers in immense shoals, and are easily 
 taken in great quantities during the proper season, 
 
 The mineral kingdom has not yet been explored, 
 but enough is already known to show that the pre- 
 cious metals abound, particularly gold. The gold-dust 
 
 obtained from the beds of some rivers, and otherwise 
 
 - , _ i i ■, 
 
 produced, is, comparatively, at present, a Jaigc uiuucfl 
 of the African trade. It is said that gold may be pro. 
 cured in the kingdom of Bambouk, which is watered 
 by the Felema, flowing into the Senegal, and is there- 
 fore easily attainable in any quantity. Martin says, 
 (vol. iv. p. 540,) the main depositories where this 
 metal is traced, as it were, to its source, are two 
 mountains, Na Takon and Semayla. In the former, 
 gold is very abundant, and is found united with earth, 
 iron, or emery. In the latter, the gold is imbedded 
 in hard sandstone. Numerous streams (he adds) flow 
 from these districts, almost all of which flow over 
 sands impregnated with gold. The natives, unskilled 
 in mining operations, have penetrated to very little 
 depth in these mountains. Park found the mines of 
 the Konkadoo hills, which he visited, excessively rich, 
 but very badly worked, (Chapter on gold, vol i. pp. 
 
40 THE REMEDY. 
 
 454, 465, 524, and vol. ii. pp. 73, 76.) The gold 
 which forms the staple commodity of the Gold Coast, 
 is chiefly brought down from mountains of the interi- 
 or. It is said that the whole soil yields gold-dust, 
 and that small quantities are obtained even in the town 
 of Cape Coast.* There are reported to be mines 
 within twenty or thirty miles of the shore, but the 
 natives are very jealous of allowing Europeans to see 
 them.f Dupuis and Bowditch speak of the " solid 
 lumps of rock gold" which ornament the persons of 
 the cabooceers in the court of the king of Ashantee, 
 at Coomassie4 Mrs. Lee (late Mrs. Bowditch) says, 
 that the great men will frequently on state occasions, 
 so load their wrists with these lumps, that they are 
 obliged to support them on the head of a boy. The 
 largest piece she saw at Cape Coast weighed 14 oz. 
 ana was very pure.§ Dupuis, on tiie authority of 
 some Mohammedans, says that a great deal of gold 
 comes from Gaman, and that it is the richest in 
 Africa. || Gold is said to be discovered in a plain 
 near Houssa ; and another writer (Jackson) says — 
 " The produce of Soudan, returned by the akka- 
 buahs, consists principally in gold-dust, twisted gold 
 rings of Wangara, gold rings made at Jinnie (which 
 are invariably of pure gold, and some of them of ex- 
 quisite workmanship) bars of gold,H &c." He also 
 states that gold-dust is the circulating medium at 
 Timbuctoo.** 
 
 * Sierra Leone Report, 1830, p. 87. t lb. p. 88. 
 
 f Dupuis' Ashantee, p. 74 ; Bowditch's Travels, p. 35. 
 § " Stories of Strange Lands," p. 66. 
 
 || Dupuis, Ap. lvi. T Jackson's Timbuctoo, pp. 245, 246. 
 
 ** Jackson's Timbuctoo, p. 251, 
 
MINERALS. 41 
 
 Iron is found in Western Africa. The ore from 
 Sierra Leone is particularly rich, yielding seventy- 
 nine per cent., according to Mr. M'Cormack, and said 
 to be well adapted to making steel.* The iron brought 
 from Upper Senegal, by Mollien, was found to be of a 
 very good quality. Berthier found it to resemble 
 Catalonian.f Iron is found also near Timbuctoo, and 
 is manufactured by t\-,e Arabs. ;£ The discovery of this 
 important metal in Africa is of the utmost conse- 
 quence to its future prosperity, and will greatly facili- 
 tate the accomplishment of the object contemplated. 
 Early travelers relate that the mountains of Congo 
 are almost all ferruginous, but that the natives have 
 not been encouraged by Europeans to extract their 
 own treasures. Copper is so abundant in Mayomba, 
 that they gather from the surface of the ground enough 
 for their purposes. § Sal ammoniac is found in abund- 
 ance in Dagwumba, and is sold cheap in the Ashantee 
 market ; nitre, emery and trona, a species of alkali, 
 are found on the border of the Desert. *7 I might 
 greatly enlarge this list, from the writings of travel- 
 ers who have already visited the country, but it will 
 be long before its mineral wealth will be adequately 
 known. 
 
 It is not, however, to the mineral treasures of Africa 
 that we chiefly look ; we regard the productions of 
 the soil as of infinitely more value, especially those 
 which require industry and skill in their culture. We 
 look to the forests, and the plains, and the valleys. 
 
 * Sierra Leone Report, 1830. t Mollien's Travels, Appendix, 
 
 t Jackson's Timbuctoo, p. 24. § Degrandpre, T. F., p. 38. 
 
 I Bowditch, p. 333. 
 
 4* 
 
42 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and the rich alluvial deltas, which it would take cen- 
 turies to exhaust of their fertility and products. 
 
 Fifty miles to the leeward of the colony of Sierra 
 Leone is a vast extent of fertile ground, forming the 
 delta of the Seeong Boom, Kitiam and Gallinas 
 rivers. This ground may contain from 1,000 to 1,500 
 square miles of the richest alluvial soil, capable of 
 growing all tropical produce. According to Mr. 
 M'Cormack, this delta could grow rice enough for the 
 supply of the whole West Indies.* At present it pro- 
 duces nothing but the finest description of slaves.f 
 
 From Cape St. Paul to Cameroons, and from thence 
 to Cape Lopez, extends the richest country that imagi- 
 nation can conceive. Within this space from forty to 
 fifty rivers of all sizes discharge their waters into the 
 ocean, forming vast flats of alluvial soil, to the extent 
 of 180,000 square miles. From this ground at pre- 
 sent the greatest amount of our imports from Western 
 Africa is produced, and to it and the banks of the 
 rivers that flow through it, do I look for the greatest 
 and most certain increase of trade. It is a curious 
 feature in the geography of Africa, that so many of 
 its great navigable rivers converge upon this point 
 (Laird). The extent to which the Slave Trade is 
 carried on in the rivers alluded to is immense, and 
 offers the greatest possible obstruction to the fair 
 trader. 
 
 With few inconsiderable exceptions, the whole line 
 
 * Sierra Leone Report, No. 66, p. 64. 
 
 t There is another large delta, formed by the rivers Nunez, Rio 
 Grande, and Rio Ponga. It is described as very extensive and 
 fertile. The Isles de Lost command the mouths of these rivers. 
 The Rio Nunez runs parallel with the Gambia. — Mr. Laird, 
 
soil. 43 
 
 of coast in Western Africa, accessible to trading ves- 
 sels, presents immense tracts of land of the most fer- 
 tile character, which only require the hand of indus- 
 try and commercial enterprise to turn them into in- 
 exhaustible mines of wealth. 
 
 But it is not to the coast alone that the merchant 
 may look for the results of his enterprise. The in- 
 terior is represented as equally fertile with the coast ; 
 and it is the opinion of the most recent travelers, as 
 well as of those who preceded them, that if the laborer 
 were allowed to cultivate the soil in security, the list 
 of productions would embrace all the marketable com- 
 modities imported from the East and West Indies. 
 
 Between Kacunda and Egga, both large towns on 
 the Niger, the country is described as very fertile, and 
 from Egga to Rabbah, where the river is 3,000 yards 
 wide, the right bank is represented to consist of ex- 
 tensive tracts of cultivated land, with rich and beau- 
 tiful plains stretching as far as the eye can reach 
 (Laird). The country does not deteriorate as we 
 ascend the river. We have the testimony of Park, 
 corroborated by Denham and Clapperton, in support 
 of this statement, and their remarks embrace both 
 sides of the river. The country surrounding Cape 
 Palmas, the Gambia, the Senegal, the Shary, the 
 Congo, presents to the eye of the traveler unlimited 
 tracts of the most fertile portion of the earth. 
 
 The woods of this continent are extremely valuable. 
 Travelers enumerate not less than forty species of 
 timber, which grow in vast abundance, and are easily 
 obtained ; such as mahogany, teak, ebony, lignum 
 vitse, rosewood, &c. 
 
 While Colonel Nicolls was stationed at Fernando 
 
44 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Po, he gives this account of its timber, in a letter to 
 Mr. Secretary Hay. I extract the passage as a spe- 
 cimen of the nature of African forests. He says that 
 some of the trees are ten feet in diameter, and 120 
 feet in height. — " Twenty men have been for a period 
 of eight days cutting down one tree of these dimen- 
 sions, for the purpose of making a canoe : it was quite 
 straight, without a branch ; the wood white in color, 
 close in grain, and very hard. I have no name for it, 
 but it very much resembles the lignum vitae, except 
 in color. The canoe cut out of it is five feet within 
 the gunwales, forty feet long, and carries about twen- 
 ty tons safely, drawing but eight inches water. We 
 have also a very fine description of red wood, close- 
 grained, strong, and good for beams, sheathing, ribs, 
 and deck-planking of the heaviest vessels of war. 
 We could send home stern-posts and stems, in one 
 piece, for the largest ships. This wood seems to 
 have a grain something between mahogany and oak : 
 when cut thin to mend boats, it will not split in the sun, 
 and when tapped or cut down, exudes a tough resin- 
 ous gum, is very lasting, and not so heavy as teak or 
 oak, takes a fine polish, and I think it a very valuable 
 wood. There is another hard-wood tree of very large 
 dimensions, the wood strong and good, in color brown 
 and white-streaked ; it also exudes, when cut, a 
 strong gum, which I think would be valuable in com- 
 merce. Another, which we call the mast-tree, from 
 the circumstance of its being very tall and straight, is 
 in color and grain like a white pine. We have, be- 
 sides the above-mentioned trees, many which are 
 smaller, but very useful, their wood being hard, tough, 
 and of beautifully variegated colors ; some are streak- 
 
TIMBER. 45 
 
 ed brown and white,tlike a zebra, others of black, deep 
 red, and brown." 
 
 In a dispatch, 1832, Colonel Nicolls further states, 
 that he has Commodore Hayes' authority for saying, 
 that there never was finer wood for the purposes of 
 ship-building.* 
 
 Of dye-woodsf there are also abundance, yielding 
 
 * Desp. p. 5 ; Colonial Records, 1832. 
 
 t Many beautiful kinds of wood have been discovered by acci- 
 dent amongst the billets of fire. wood, brought home in the slave- 
 ships to Liverpool. Mr. Clarkson gives the following anecdote in 
 his " Impolicy of the Slave Trade." After mentioning the tulip- 
 wood and others, found in this manner, he says : — " About the 
 same time in which this log was discovered (a. d. 1787), another 
 wood vessel, belonging to the same port, brought home the speci- 
 men of the bark of a tree, that produced a very valuable yellow 
 dye, and far beyond any other ever in use in this country. The 
 virtues of it were discovered in the following manner : — A gentle- 
 man, resident upon the coast, ordered some wood to be cut down 
 to erect a hut. While the people were felling it he was standing 
 by : during the operation some juice flew from the bark of it, and 
 stained one of the ruffles of his shirt. He thought that the stain 
 would have washed out, but, on wearing it again, found that the 
 yellow spot was much more bright and beautiful than before, and 
 that it gained in lustre every subsequent time of washing. Pleased 
 with the discovery, which he knew to be of so much importance 
 to the manufacturers of Great Britain, and for which a considerable 
 premium had been offered, he sent home the bark now mentioned 
 as a specimen. He is since unfortunately dead, and little hopes 
 are to be entertained of falling in with this tree again, unless a sim- 
 ilar accident should discover it, or a change should take place in 
 our commercial concerns with Africa. I shall now mention ano- 
 ther valuable wood, which, like all those that have been pointed 
 out, was discovered by accident in the same year. Another wood 
 vessel, belonging to the same port, was discharging her cargo ; 
 among the barwood a small billet was discovered, the color of 
 which was so superior to that of the rest, as to lead the observer 
 
46 THE REMEDY. 
 
 carmine, crimson, red, brown, brilliant yellow, and 
 the various shades from yellow to orange, and a fine 
 blue. Of gums there are copal, Senegal mastic, and 
 Sudan, or Turkey gum, to be obtained in large quan- 
 tities ; and there are forests near the Gambia where, 
 hitherto, the gum has never been picked. Of nuts, 
 which are beginning to form a new and important 
 article of trade, there are the palm-nut, the shea-nut, 
 the cola-nut, the groundnut, the castor-nut, the nitta- 
 nut, and the cocoa-nut. The palm-tree grows most 
 luxuriantly, and incalculable quantities of its produce 
 are allowed to rot on the ground for want of gather- 
 ing ; yet it is now the most important branch of our 
 commerce with Africa, and may be increased to any 
 extent. The oil expressed from its nut is used in 
 
 the manufacture °f soan and candles «nd in I"!?Tic* f r 
 ing machinery. The shea, or butter-nut,* is scarcely 
 
 to suspect that it was of a very different species, though it is clear 
 that the natives, by cutting it of the same size and dimensions, and 
 by bringing it on board at the same time, had, on account of its 
 red color, mistaken it for the other. One half of the billet was 
 cut away in experiments. It was found to produce a color that 
 emulated the carmine, and was deemed to be so valuable in the 
 dyeing trade, that an offer was immediately made of sixty guineas 
 per ton for any quantity that could be procured. The other half 
 has been since sent back to the coast, as a guide to collect more of 
 the same sort, though it is a matter of doubt whether, under the 
 circumstances that have been related, the same tree can be ascer- 
 tained again." — p. 9. 
 
 * The butter is prepared by boiling, and besides the advantage 
 of keeping a whole year without salt, it is u whiter, firmer, and, 
 to my palate," says Park (vol. i. p. 302), I 1 of a richer flavor than 
 the best butter I ever tasted made of cow's milk." The shea-tree, 
 which produces it, is said to extend over a large part of the conti- 
 nent, from Jaloof to Gaboon. " It has been analyzed by the 
 French chemist, M. Chevreuil, and found well adapted for thp 
 
GUM — NUTS. 47 
 
 less valuable than the palm-nut. Some travelers in- 
 form their readers that it is an excellent substitute 
 for butter, and can be appropriated to the same uses 
 with the palm-oil. It is a remarkable fact, in the 
 natural history of these trees, that immediately where 
 the one ceases to yield its fruit, the other nourishes 
 abundantly. The ground-nut* is becoming also a 
 valuable article of commerce ; and this with the 
 other nuts mentioned, yield a rich supply of oil and 
 oil cake for the use of cattle. The value of the cas- 
 tor-nut, as an article of medicine, needs not be parti- 
 cularly adverted to. The roots which grow in Africa 
 require generally but little attention in their cultiva- 
 tion 5 among others, there are the following : — The 
 manioc, yams, sweet potatoes, arrow-root, and gin- 
 ger :f the two latter are exportable, and the former 
 yield a large amount of healthful and nutritious food. 
 Yams can be so improved by cultivation that, at Fer- 
 nando Po, Captain Bullen says, many weigh from 
 
 manufacture of soap. Being inodorous and highly capable of tak- 
 ing a perfume, it would be valuable for the finer sorts." — Mrs. Lee, 
 Stories of Strange Lands, p. 26. 
 
 * M Thc ground-nut yields a pure golden colored oil, of a pleasant 
 taste, and has been sold here at 561 per ton. From 750 to 1000 
 tons are produced on the Gambia ; but these nuts appear plentiful 
 along the whole coast, are often mentioned by Park, and were no. 
 ticed by Denham, as very abundant near the lake Tchad. It 
 grows in a soil too light and sandy for corn — its stalks afford fod- 
 der for cattle — it sells at six shillings per gallon, and is as good as 
 sperm-oil. The castor.nut also grows wild in great abundance on 
 the banks of the Gambia, and elsewhere. 
 
 t The ginger of Africa is particularly fine, and high flavored ; 
 it yields about sixty for one ; and the people only want instruction 
 in the method of preparing it for European markets. — Denham, 
 Desp., 21st May, 1827; Sierra Leone Report, 1830, No. 57, p. 30. 
 
48 THE REMEDY. 
 
 fifteen to twenty-five pounds, and in taste almost 
 equal a potato. On one occasion he bought upwards 
 of four tons for seventy-six iron hoops ; and says, 
 " The nourishment derived from them to my people 
 was beyond belief."* The fruits are oranges, lemons, 
 citrons, limes, pines, guavas, tamarinds, pawpaws, 
 plantains and bananas. The paw-paw and plantain 
 trees (says Ashmun) are a good example of the power 
 of an uniformly-heated climate to accelerate vegeta- 
 tion. You may see in the gardens many of the for- 
 mer, not more than fifteen months from the seed, al- 
 ready fifteen inches round the stem, and fifteen feet 
 high, with several pecks of ripening fruit. Clear your 
 lands, plant your crops, keep the weeds down, and the 
 most favorable climate in the world, alone, under the 
 direction of a bountiful Providence, will do more for 
 you than all your toil and care could accomplish in 
 America."! Tamarinds are exportable. Of grain, 
 there is rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, or millet, &c. 
 The quantities of these can be raised to any extent, 
 and be limited only by demand.;}: The Rev. W. Fox, 
 the Missionary, says, in his MS. Journal, August 22, 
 1836 — " This afternoon I visited Laming, a small 
 Mandingo town (above Macarthy's Island.) I could 
 
 * Captain Bullen's Desp., November, 1826. 
 
 t Ashmun's Life, Ap. p. G6. 
 
 I " Nothing can be more delightful than a stroll along the bor- 
 ders of the beautiful fields, winding occasionally along almost im- 
 pervious clusters of young palms, whose spreading branches ex- 
 clude every ray of the scorching sun, then opening suddenly on an 
 immense rice-field of the most delicate pea-green, skirted by the 
 beautiful broad-leaved plantain and banana, literally groaning un- 
 der the immense masses of their golden fruit." Dr. J. Hall, Gov- 
 ernor of Liberia. Missionary Register, 1836, p. 360. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS. 49 
 
 scarcely get into the town for the quantity of Indian 
 corn with which it is surrounded ; upon a very mode- 
 rate calculation, and for a very small portion of labor, 
 which generally devolves upon the poor women, they 
 reap upwards of two hundred fold." I am informed 
 that Madeira wholly depends on the maize raised in 
 Africa, and that the rice produced there, when pro- 
 perly dried and prepared, is equal to that grown in 
 South Carolina, Of drugs, there are aloes* and cas- 
 sia, senna, frankincense, cardamums, and grains of 
 paradise, or Malagetta pepper. Amongst the miscel- 
 laneous products, which are in great demand in this 
 country, may be enumerated ivory, beeswax, caout- 
 chouc, or India-rubber. The former of these arti- 
 cles will, of course, suffer a gradual diminution as the 
 forests are cut down, the swamps drained, and the 
 plains cultivated ; but of the latter scarcely any dimi- 
 nution need be apprehended. The beeswax of Africa 
 is in great repute, and can be had in any quantity; 
 and the great price freely given for India-rubber 
 might be a sufficient inducement to lead the African 
 to pay more attention to its collection. Of this Mr. 
 Rankin says,f describing what he saw in an excursion 
 amongst the Timmanese, — "A large lump of India- 
 rubber (caoutchouc) lay on the table, also the produce 
 of Tombo. This article, at present acquiring a high 
 value amongst our importations, is not there made an 
 article of commerce. Like almost every other pro- 
 
 * A new use of the aloe plant has heen discovered in the beau- 
 tiful tissue and eordage manufactured from its fibres, by M. Pavy, 
 of Paris. The fibres of the palm and banana-trees are also wrought 
 by him into glossy stuffs. 
 
 t Rankin's Sierra Leone, vol. ii. p. 218. 
 5 
 
50 THE REMEDY. 
 
 duce of the neighborhood of Sierra Leone, it is 
 scarcely known to exist, or is entirely neglected. It 
 grows plentifully, and may be easily obtained by mak- 
 ing incisions into the tree, from which it flows like 
 cream, into calabashes tied underneath ; it hardens 
 within a few hours." 
 
 Mr. Elliot Cresson, examined before the American 
 Committee on the Foreign Slave Trade, February, 
 1839, stated, in answer to the question, — " What will 
 be the commercial and political advantages to the 
 United States, from an intercourse with the colony of 
 Liberia % n " Among the valuable articles of export, 
 wax and spices are obtained in large quantities in our 
 colony. The India-rubber tree grows wild in the 
 neighboring woods, and ostrich feathers have been 
 exported largely. Hides could be obtained in any 
 quantities ; so could rosewood, lancewood, and palm- 
 wood, and live oak of the best quality. One mer- 
 chant in Philadelphia last year imported from the co- 
 lony a quantity of pea or ground nuts, from which he 
 realized a profit of 12,000 dollars. Cotton, of a very 
 good staple, is found there, and cultivated with great 
 advantage, as there is no frost there. And the arti- 
 cles desired in return are those produced by Ameri. 
 can manufactures and agriculture." — Colonization 
 Herald, March, 1839, p. 124. 
 
 Ashmun, who seems to have had a clear view of 
 the interest of the Liberian settlers, writes to them 
 thus : — " Suffer me to put down two or three remarks, 
 of the truth and importance of which you cannot be 
 too sensible. The first is, that the cultivation of your 
 rich lands is the oqly way you will ever find out to 
 independence, comfort, and wealth." " You may, if 
 
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS. 51 
 
 you please, if God gives you health, become as inde- 
 pendent, comfortable, and happy as you ought to be 
 in this world." " The flat lands around you, and par- 
 ticularly your farms, have as good a soil as can be 
 met with in any country. They will produce two 
 crops of corn, sweet potatoes, and several other vege- 
 tables, in a year. They will yield a larger crop than 
 the best soils in America. And they will produce a 
 number of very valuable articles, for which, in the 
 United States, millions of money are every year paid 
 away to foreigners. One acre of rich land, well till- 
 ed, will produce you three hundred dollars' worth of 
 indigo. Half an acre may»be made to grow half a 
 ton of arrow-root. Four acres laid out in coffee- 
 plants, will, after the third year, produce you a clear 
 income of two or three hundred dollars. Half an acre 
 of cotton-trees will clothe your whole family ; and, 
 except a little hoeing, your wife and children can per- 
 form the whole labor of cropping and manufacturing 
 it. One acre of canes will make you independent of 
 all the world for the sugar you use in your family. 
 One acre set with fruit-trees, and well attended, will 
 furnish you the year round with more plantains, bana- 
 nas, oranges, limes, guavas, papaws, and pine-apples, 
 than you will ever gather. Nine months of the year, 
 you may grow fresh vegetables every month, and 
 some of you who have lowland plantations, may do so 
 throughout the year."* 
 
 I must also quote the authority of Denis de Mont- 
 fort, a Frenchman of science, who in a paper on the 
 gold of the Coast of Guinea, inserted in the " Philo- 
 
 * Ashmun's Life, Ap., p. 64. 
 
52 THE REMEDY. 
 
 sophical Magazine," thus writes : — " There exists no 
 country in the world so susceptible of general cultiva- 
 tion as Africa : we know that certain districts are fer- 
 tile in corn ; and grain of every kind grows there, 
 intermixed with sugar-canes lately introduced, and 
 which protect the grain from hail. The plants of 
 India, Europe, America, and Australia will flourish 
 there in perpetual spring, and the animals of all cli- 
 mates can be easily naturalized. The negroes, whose 
 respect for the whites is extreme, notwithstanding 
 what they have suffered from them, will cheerfully 
 give up their fields to be cultivated by them. Ser- 
 vants, and even slaves, \yill not be wanting, and this 
 will be a true method of preventing these nations from 
 massacring their prisoners of war, as the king of De- 
 homey does at the present moment. May our feeble 
 voices on this subject reach the ear of royalty!"* 
 
 It is almost impossible to turn to any book of Afri- 
 can travels, without meeting with some incidental 
 observations upon the fertility of the soil. I should 
 have supposed that nothing of this kind would have 
 occurred in the narrative of Captain Paddock ; yet he 
 says : — " On the south was seen a very extensive 
 country, abounding with little enclosed cities, large 
 fields of grain, and productive gardens. In short, 
 though the climate here is dry as well as hot, such is 
 the great fertility of the soil, that it is capable of pro- 
 ducing abundantly all the necessaries and most of the 
 luxuries of life. What might it be under the cultiva- 
 tion of a civilized, industrious, and skilful people !f 
 
 " We made choice of a wheat-field, which lay but 
 
 # Annual Register, 1815, p. 542. t P. 289. 
 
FERTILITY 53 
 
 a few hundred yards from us ; and we had entered it 
 but a few paces when we found ourselves completely 
 hidden, even while standing erect. Although my 
 mate was rive feet eleven inches in height, and myself 
 rive feet ten, the heads of the wheat were above our 
 own. This was the finest piece of wheat I ever saw ; 
 it was all well headed ; and had we not gone among 
 it, and took its measure, we should have known it 
 was very tall, though we never could have told how 
 tall.'* 
 
 It is observed by Brown, in his botanical appendix 
 to " Tuckey's Voyage," (pp. 342-3,) that from the 
 river Senegal, in about 16° north latitude, to the Con- 
 go, in upwards of 6° south latitude, there is a remark- 
 able uniformity in the vegetation of Western Africa 
 — a fact which gives us promise of extending to any 
 amount, our commerce in such vegetable productions 
 as have already obtained a sale in Europe or America. 
 Thus a tree which characterizes nearly the whole 
 range of coast, is the Elais Guineensis, or oil-palm, 
 one of the most valuable to commerce. This grows 
 in the greatest abundance in the delta of the Niger. 
 There " the palm-nut now rots on the ground un- 
 heeded and neglected," over an extent of surface 
 equal to the whole of Ireland. (Laird, vol. ii. p. 362.) 
 
 The whole extent, too, of the Timmanee, and a great 
 part of Koranko, through which Captain Laing passed 
 in 1822, was absolutely bristled with palm-trees, which 
 at the time he went up the country, (April and May,) 
 were bearing luxurious crops of nuts. " There is no 
 known instance, or any apparent danger, of a failure 
 
 * P. 181. 
 5* 
 
54 THE REMEDY. 
 
 on the part of all-bountiful Nature in supplying the 
 fruit : on the contrary, it is the opinion of Captain 
 Laing, that were the population double, and had they 
 all the industry we could wish, they would not be 
 able to reap the abundant harvest annually presented 
 to them." * 
 
 The soil of Africa produces indigenously nearly all 
 the useful plants which are common to other tropical 
 countries, and some of them in greater perfection 
 than they are to be found elsewhere. 
 
 There are some articles that require more notice. 
 
 Hemp grows wild on the Gambia, and only requires 
 a better mode of preparation to make it a valuable 
 article of import. The same may be said of tobacco. 
 Indigo grows so freely in Africa, that, in some places, 
 it is difficult to eradicate it. " Immense quantities 
 of indigo, and other noxious weeds," spring up in 
 the streets of Freetown/]" 
 
 It is known to grow wild as far inland as the Tchad, 
 and even with the rude preparation bestowed by the 
 natives, gives a beautiful dye to their cloths. J 
 
 Coffee is another indigenous shrub, which well re- 
 pays cultivation. When Kizell, a Nova Scotian, first 
 observed it near the Sherbro, he pulled up two or 
 three plants, and showed them to the people, who 
 said that they thought it was good for nothing, but 
 to fence their plantations. It was all over the coun- 
 try, and in some places nothing else was to be seen.§ 
 
 * Sierra Leone Gaz., Dec. 14, 1822. 
 
 t Dispatch, Mr. Smart to Sir G. Murray, 1828 ; Sierra Leone 
 Report, No. 57, p. 30. 
 
 t Denham's Travels, p. 246. 
 
 § Afr. Inst. 6 Report, App. 
 
COFFEE. 00 
 
 Even in a wild state it seems to repay the trouble of 
 gathering ; for the Commissioners at Sierra Leone, 
 in their Annual Report, of date 1st January, 1838, 
 inform us, "that the Foulahs have been induced, by 
 the fair traders of the river Nunez, to bring down 
 for sale to them a quantity of coffee, of a very supe- 
 rior quality, the produce of the forests of their own 
 country." An extract of a letter, which they inclose, 
 observes, that " one great advantage of peaceful com- 
 merce with the natives is, that valuable productions 
 of their country are brought to light by our research, 
 sometimes to their astonishment." Thus, till within 
 the last two years, this abundant growth of coffee 
 was ,' left to be the food of monkeys/' but is now a 
 source of profit to the natives and to our own mer- 
 chants. A small quantity has been cultivated, both 
 at Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast ; and Ashmun 
 (Life, App. p. 78) states, that, in Liberia, no crop is 
 surer ; that x\frican coffee frequently produces four 
 pounds to the tree, and that the berries attain a size 
 unknown elsewhere. I am happy to learn that above 
 10,000 lbs. of African coffee were imported into this 
 country in 1837, that its quality was excellent, and 
 that it fetched a good price." 
 
 Sugar-canes grow spontaneously in several parts of 
 
 * Mr. M : Queen says, that the old Arabian traveler, Batouta 
 who had visited China, states, that in the interior parts of Africa, 
 along the Niger, which he visited, the tea-plant grew abundantly. 
 M'Queen's Africa, p. 218. Dr. M'Leod, describing the kingdom 
 of Benin, says — " In the opinion of one of the latest governors we 
 have had, on the establishment in tnis country, (Mr. James,) and 
 one whose general knowledge of Africa is admitted to be consider- 
 able, the tea-tree flourishes spontaneously here." — M : Leod's Voy- 
 age to Africa, p. 18. 
 
56 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Africa j and when cultivated, as they are in various 
 places, for the sake of the juice, they become very 
 large. The expense of the necessary machinery 
 alone seems to have hitherto prevented the manufac- 
 ture of sugar.* 
 
 I now come to the article which demands the 
 largest share of our attention, viz. cotton ; because it 
 requires little capital, yields a steady return, is in 
 vast demand in Europe, and grows naturally in the 
 soil of Africa. 
 
 As this last is a point of vital importance, I think 
 it necessary to furnish a portion of the evidence I 
 have collected as to the luxuriant and spontaneous 
 growth of cotton in Africa : — 
 
 Sir Fulk Grevell making, by order of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, a report to Sir Francis Walsingham on a me- 
 morial of certain merchant adventures : — " Sir, you 
 demaunde of me the names of such kings as are ab- 
 solute in the East, and either have warr or traffique 
 w th the kinge of Spaigne." * 
 
 " Then followeth kingdoms of Gaulata, Tombuto, and 
 Melly ; whereof the firste is poore, and hath smal 
 traffique ; the seconde populous, and rich in come and 
 beasts, but wanteth salte, w ch the Portugal supplieth ; 
 the last hath store of corne, flesh, and cotten woll, 
 w ch are carried into Spaigne in great abundance." 
 Quoted by Mr. Bruce, from a MS. in the State Paper 
 Office — Annals of the East India Company, vol. i., 
 p. 121. 
 
 Beaver says, " Of the vegetables that are wild, the 
 
 * A company has been established at Monrovia, with a small 
 capital, for the experiment. — Col. Herald, November, 1837. 
 
COTTON. 57 
 
 sugar-cane, cotton-shrub, and indigo-plant, seem the 
 most valuable : no country in the world is more amply 
 enriched than this is with the chief productions of the 
 animal and vegetable kingdoms." 
 
 Mr. Dalrymple, who was at Goree in 1779, states, 
 " that there are three different kinds of cotton ; that 
 samples sent home were considered by English mer- 
 chants superior to that from the West Indies. It 
 grows spontaneously almost every where, though it 
 is sometimes cultivated."* 
 
 Cotton, says Col. Denham, grows wild about Sierra 
 Leone, of three kinds, white, brown, and pink ; the 
 first is excellent. t He also " found it wild on the 
 Tschadda."^: 
 
 Clapperton saw some " beautiful specimens " of the 
 African looms in the interior. § 
 
 Park || observes, almost every slave can weave. 
 
 AshmunlT says, it is believed that none of the vari- 
 eties of the American cotton-shrub answers, in all 
 respects, to the indigenous African tree. The cotton 
 of this country is on all hands allowed to be of a good 
 quality, and the mode of growing, curing, and manu- 
 facturing the article pursued in America may be 
 adopted here, making due allowance for the much 
 greater size and duration of the African tree. 
 
 Lander says, " From Badagry to Saccatoo, the 
 cotton-plant, indigo, &c, are cultivated to a great 
 extent." 
 
 * Evid. Slave Trade Com., 1790, p. 297. 
 
 t Col. Denham, Rep. Sierra Leone, Sess. 1830, No. 57, p. 16. 
 
 t Denham's Travels, p. 317. 
 
 § Clapperton, p. 5. 
 
 || Park, vol. i. p. 429. 
 
 IT Ashmun's Life, App., p. 76. 
 
58 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Laird says, " The increase of trade from the inte- 
 rior would, I think, consist chiefly of palm-oil, raw 
 cotton, shea-butter, rice, and beeswax. These arti- 
 cles would, I think, be indefinitely increased. 
 
 The Rev. John Pinney,* an American missionary, 
 says, " The crops of coffee, pepper, and cotton, ex- 
 ceed all that could be boasted of in the United States." 
 
 And the Rev. J. Seysf speaks of the u excellent 
 cotton of the St. Paul's river. 
 
 I might, if it were necessary, multiply these proofs 
 almost indefinitely, by references to M'Queen, Burck- 
 hardt, De Caille, Dupuis, Robertson, &c. 
 
 It has been my endeavor, throughout the whole of 
 this work, to take nothing for granted, and to prove, 
 as I proceeded, all that I stated. It cannot be neces- 
 sary, however, to stop for the purpose of establishing 
 the vast importance to Great Britain of an additional 
 market for the purchase of raw cotton. In our cot- 
 ton trade there are about twenty millions of fixed, 
 and twenty millions of floating capital invested. The 
 total yearly produce of the manufacture amounts to 
 forty millions. One million five hundred thousand 
 persons earn their bread by it. 
 
 Africa is capable of yielding this necessary article : 
 it is as near to us as North America ; nearer than the 
 Brazils ; two-thirds nearer to us than India. The vast 
 tropical districts along the southern side of the Great 
 Desert, the fine plains, and gently-rising country from 
 the northern bank of the Rio de Formosa, and from the 
 Niger to the base of the Kong mountains, are adapted 
 to the culture and production of the finest cotton. 
 
 * Coloniz. 1 Soc. Rep., quoted in Miss. Reg. for 1836, p. 22. 
 t Ibid. 
 
CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 59 
 
 This portion of Africa alone, so rich in soil, so easy 
 of access, offers an independent and abundant supply of 
 that article, the want of which impedes and oppresses 
 our manufacturing prosperity. But if Africa, when 
 delivered from that evil which withers her produce, 
 and paralyzes her industry, can be made to supply us 
 with the commodity which we so much need, she, in 
 her turn, will be the customer of Europe to the same 
 vast extent, for the manufactured goods which Europe 
 produces. If it be true that intercourse with Africa, 
 of an honest description, would be twice blessed, — a 
 blessing to the nation who confers, and to the conti- 
 nent which receives, cultivation and commerce, — no- 
 thing can exceed the folly (except the wickedness) of a 
 system, which annually sweeps off nearly half a million 
 of the inhabitants of Africa and consigns, by its inhu- 
 man butcheries, one of the fairest portions of the earth 
 to the sterility of a wilderness. 
 
 But it may be said, that though the land might be 
 made to produce cotton, centuries must elapse before 
 it can be made to yield any quantity of that article. 
 I do not pretend to say that this will be suddenly ac- 
 complished : but an anecdote which I heard stated to 
 the Marquis of Normanby, by a gentleman whose mer- 
 cantile knowledge would not be disputed by any one, 
 may serve to forbid despair. He stated that the person 
 who first imported from America a bale of cotton into 
 this country was still alive, that the person to whom 
 it was consigned in Liverpool was still alive, and that 
 the custom-house officer at that place refused to admit 
 it at the lower rate of dutv, because, to his knowledge 
 no cotton could be grown in America j yet that coun- 
 try which could grow no cotton, now, besides supply- 
 
60 THE REMEDY. 
 
 ing her own demand, and that of all other countries, 
 sends annually to Great Britain a quantity valued at 
 about £15,000,000 sterling. 
 
 I propose, then, that an effort shall be made to cul- 
 tivate districts of Africa, selected for that purpose, in 
 order that her inhabitants may be convinced of the 
 capabilities of their soil, and witness what wonders 
 may be accomplished by their own labor when set in 
 motion by our capital, and guided by our skill. 
 
 There is no doubt that mercantile settlements would 
 effect a considerable measure of good ; but the good 
 is distant, and will be effected by slow degrees, while 
 the condition of Africa is such, that the delay of a 
 single year carries with it a world of misery, and the 
 certain destruction of a multitude of lives. 
 
 I confess that I think it would be well, on many 
 grounds, if we could, to confine ourselves to the estab- 
 lishment of factories. I fear, however, that this limit- 
 ation would retard, if not defeat, our objects. 
 
 We should touch Africa at a few prominent points, 
 — at each of these a mart be established, and some- 
 thing might be done towards the education of the 
 children of those who entered our service. But the 
 evil is gigantic, and it requires gigantic efforts to 
 arrest it. I believe, — and every word that I have read 
 or heard on the subject confirms me in the impres- 
 sion, — that Africa has, within herself, resources, 
 which, duly developed, would compensate for the 
 gains of the Slave Trade, if these were twenty times 
 as great as they are. But it must never be forgotten 
 that these resources are nothing, unless they are fairly 
 and fully called into action. 
 
AGRICULTURE . 61 
 
 Factories on the coast may lead the natives to 
 gather the spontaneous productions of nature. They 
 may supply us with wood, with palm-oil, with skins. 
 and with ivory ; but beyond the money or the goods 
 paid for these, and beyond occasional and very lax 
 employment to the natives, Africa would gain little. 
 No habits of settled industry will be inspired ; no 
 examples will be placed before those, the avenue to 
 whose understanding is through the eyes ; and who, 
 however slow they may be to reason, are quick to 
 perceive, and intelligent to imitate. 
 
 I have already said, that two things must be achiev- 
 ed, or we shall fail : the one is, to call forth and ele- 
 vate the native mind ) the other is, to provide a larger 
 source of revenue than that derived from the trade in 
 man. 
 
 By agriculture — both will be accomplished. The 
 ransom for Africa will be found in her fertile soil ; 
 and the moral worth of her people will advance as 
 they become better instructed, more secure, more in- 
 dustrious, and more wealthy. And then will be felt 
 the influence of cultivated intellect on rude reason; 
 the children will be taught by our schools ; our very 
 machinery, doing easily what is impossible to their 
 unaided strength, will eloquently speak to others, and 
 beget that allegiance of mind, which is uniformly 
 yielded by the untutored, to beings of superior capa- 
 city. The ministers of the gospel, the best of civi- 
 lizers, will, as gently as irresistibly, work out a change 
 in the current of opinion, and effect the cheerful re- 
 nunciation of bloody and licentious customs. 
 
 Such essential reforms as these cannot be expected 
 6 
 
62 THE REMEDY. 
 
 from the mere establishment of factories on the coast. 
 Something, no doubt, will be gained by these, but not 
 enough to execute the task (of all tasks the most diffi- 
 cult) of giving an impulse to the slumbering energies 
 of the people, and making productive the latent capa- 
 bilities of the soil. In one word, Africa wants more 
 than commerce — she wants cultivation. 
 
 If cultivation be required, it becomes at once desir- 
 able that we should afford to the natives the benefit of 
 our experience and skill — our example and capital. 
 Why should the African be left to work his way up- 
 wards, from his rude and unprofitable tillage, to that 
 higher order of cultivation, which we have reached 
 by the labors of successive generations X Our dis- 
 coveries in tropical agriculture must work a great 
 physical change. It is probable, that we might re- 
 claim a waste district in half the time, and at half the 
 expense, that it would cost the inhabitants. 
 
 But I look also, as I have already hinted, to the 
 moral effect which will hence be produced. Those 
 of old, who carried the spade and the plow into barba- 
 ous countries were ranked with the deities. 
 
 By our seeds and our implements, and our skill in 
 abridging labor and subduing difficulty, we shall 
 place before the natives, in a form which they cannot 
 mistake, the vast benefits they are likely to derive 
 from intercourse with us \ and they will speedily per- 
 ceive, that it is their interest to protect those strang- 
 ers who possess secrets, which can make their land 
 produce so unexpected and rich a harvest. 
 
 It is quite clear that the present commercial inter- 
 course between this country and Africa is extremely 
 limited ; that the chief obstacle to its extension is the 
 
AGRICULTURE. 63 
 
 prevalence of the Slave Trade,* and that it might be 
 indefinitely increased under the fostering and protect- 
 ive care of the British government. The grounds on 
 which this supposition rests are the number and situa- 
 tion of its navigable rivers ; its rich alluvial deltas, 
 and extensive and fertile plains ; its immense forests j 
 
 * The imports of palm-oil have diminished during four late years, 
 as may be seen by the following returns, viz : — 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 1834 . . . 269,907 
 
 1835 . . . 234,882 
 
 1836 . . . 236,195 
 
 1837 . . . 201,906 
 
 This diminution has arisen, not in consequence of a decrease in 
 the demand for the article, but on account of the extension of the 
 Slave Trade on the coast, and the increased difficulty of procuring 
 a supply. 
 
 «• The industry of the natives, in a great degree, is stifled by the 
 Slave Trade ; and, though a good deal of oil is prepared and sold, 
 the English traders, loading at the mouth of the river, are often 
 interrupted, and obliged to wait, to the loss of profit and the ruin of 
 the crew's health, while a smuggling slaver takes all hands on the 
 coast to complete her cargo." — Laird. 
 
 " When there is a demand for slaves the natives abandon every 
 other employment ; aud the consequence is, that the British vessels 
 trading on the coast are lying idle for want of trade. 
 
 " In consequence of the great demand for slaves, the natives 
 here and in the interior abandon cultivation, the trees go to de- 
 struction, and no young trees are planted. 
 
 4< At one place in Africa where a very considerable quantity of 
 palm-oil has been annually supplied to the ships of our merchants, 
 the Spanish and Portuguese have latterly so much increased the 
 Slave Trade, that the cultivation of the palm-trees, which was 
 giving occupation to thousands, has not only become neglected? 
 but the native chiefs have been incited to blind revenge against 
 British influence, and have set fire to and destroyed 30,000 palm 
 trees." — Recent Letters from Africa. 
 
64f THE REMEDY. 
 
 its wide range of natural productions ; its swarming-, 
 active, and enterprising population ; its contiguity to 
 Europe, and the demand of its people for the manu- 
 factures of this country. 
 
 In speculating on African commerce, it should be 
 borne in mind that we have to deal with nations who 
 are not only ignorant and uncivilized, but corrupted 
 and deteriorated by the Slave Trade, and by inter- 
 course with the worst class of Europeans. There will, 
 therefore, be difficulties and obstructions to overcome 
 before a clear field for honest commerce can be ob- 
 tained. In the present state of the people we can 
 hardly look to obtain from them articles which de- 
 pend on an extensive cultivation of the soil, so as to 
 compete wih the productions of civilized nations. It 
 is probable that in commencing an extensive inter- 
 course with Africa, there will be at first a consider- 
 able outlay of money without an immediate return ; 
 but from whatever source this may be obtained, it 
 should be considered as a gift to Africa. It will ulti- 
 mately be repaid a thousand-fold. 
 
 The articles desired by the Africans in return for 
 the produce of their country are too many to enume- 
 rate. Lists of them are given by almost every travel- 
 er. It may, therefore, suffice to observe, that many 
 of them are the produce or manufactures of our island, 
 or of our colonies ; and it is an important consider- 
 ation, that we may obtain the treasures of this unex- 
 plored continent, by direct barter of our own commo- 
 dities, and that, while we cheapen luxuries at home, 
 we also increase the means of obtaining them, by giv- 
 ing increased employment to our productive classes. 
 
 The extension of a legitimate commerce, and with 
 
BENEFIT TO AFRICA. 65 
 
 it the blessings of civilization and Christianity, is 
 worthy the most strenuous exertions of the philan- 
 thropist, whilst to the mercantile and general interests 
 of the civilized world it is of the highest importance. 
 Africa presents an almost boundless tract of country, 
 teeming w ith inhabitants who admire, and are desirous 
 of possessing our manufactures. There is no limit to 
 the demand, except their want of articles to give us in 
 return. They must be brought to avail themselves of 
 their own resources. 
 
 Attempts, as we have seen, have already been 
 made to form cotton plantations, and the article pro- 
 duced is found to be of a very useful and valuable 
 description. Perseverance in these efforts is alone 
 required to accomplish the object in view, and, when 
 once accomplished, the importance to this eountry 
 will be incalculable. The trade in palm-oil is capable 
 of immense extension, and the article is every year 
 becoming more important and in more extensive use. 
 In exchange for these, and many other valuable arti- 
 cles, British manufactures would be taken, and British 
 ships find a profitable employment in the conveyance 
 of them. 
 
 It so happens that a considerable proportion of the 
 goods which best suit the taste of the natives of Africa, 
 consists of fabrics to which power-looms cannot be 
 applied with any advantage. Any extension, then, 
 of the trade to Africa, will have this most important 
 additional advantage, that it will cause a correspond- 
 ing increase in the demand for the labor of a class of 
 individuals who have lately been truly represented as 
 suffering greater privations than any other set of 
 workmen connected with the cotton trade 
 6* 
 
66 THE REMEDY. 
 
 But the first object of our intercourse with Africa 
 should be, not so much to obtain a remunerating 
 trade, as to repair in some measure the evil that the 
 civilized world has inflicted on her, by conveying 
 Christianity, instruction, and the useful arts to her 
 children. The two objects will eventually, if carried 
 on in a right manner, be found perfectly compatible ; 
 for it is reasonable to seek in legitimate commerce a 
 direct antidote to the nefarious traffic which has so 
 long desolated and degraded her. We have shown 
 the vast variety and importance of the productions 
 which Africa is capable of yielding : we have already 
 proved that, notwithstanding the bounty of nature, the 
 commerce of Africa is most insignificant. Truly may 
 we say with Burke, " To deal and traffic — not in the 
 labor of men, but in men themselves — is to devour 
 the root, instead of enjoying the fruit of human dili- 
 gence." 
 
FACILITIES FOR COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 67 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FACILITIES FOR COM3IERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 
 
 I have thus stated what I conceive to be the gist 
 of the whole question, viz., that the deliverance of 
 Africa must spring, under the blessing of God, from 
 herself, and I have also shown, I trust to the satisfac- 
 tion of every reader, that she possesses abundant ca- 
 pabilities for the purpose. The next question that 
 arises, is, how are these capabilities to be made avail- 
 able 1 how are we to obtain access to them 1 Great, 
 no doubt, are the difficulties j yet, such are the dis- 
 coveries of the last ten years, that we may now lay 
 aside the impressions of an impenetrable continent, 
 and of interminable wastes of sand, which have ac- 
 companied us from our childhood. We now know 
 that a mighty river which discharges itself into the 
 Bight of Benin, by upwards of twenty mouths, is na- 
 vigable, with little interruption, from thence nearly 
 to its source, a distance of more than 2,600 miles. 
 We also learn from the travelers who have navigated 
 the Niger, that there are many tributary streams, 
 some of which, especially the Tschadda, or Shader- 
 bah, are equally navigable, and afford every facility 
 for intercourse with the numerous nations and tribes 
 who inhabit the countries in their vicinity. 
 
 Mungo Park, in his last journey (1805), embarked 
 on the Niger at Bammakoo, about 500 miles from its 
 source. In his narrative he says, " Having gained 
 the summit of the ridge which separates the Niger 
 from the remote branches of the Senegal, I went on 
 
68 THE REMEDY. 
 
 a little before, and coming to the brow of the hill, / 
 once more saw the Niger rolling its immense stream 
 along the plain." And he tells us, it is larger " even 
 here, than either the Senegal or the Gambia, and full 
 an English mile over." When preparing for his sub- 
 sequent embarkation on the Niger, he says, " the best 
 wood for boat-building is near Kaukary, on a large 
 navigable branch of the Niger." Park descended the 
 river to Boussa, where most unhappily he was killed. 
 
 In 1830, Lander, who had accompanied the enter- 
 prising Clapperton in his last journey to Houssa, was 
 sent out by the British Government to explore the 
 Niger. He succeeded in reaching Boussa by a land 
 route : there he embarked on the river, and after a 
 voyage of about 560 miles, reached the Bight of Be- 
 nin, and thus solved the interesting problem which 
 had so long exercised the talents and ingenuity of 
 modern geographers. 
 
 Messrs. Laird and Oldfield, by the aid of steam- 
 vessels, went up the Niger from the Bight of Benin, 
 in 1832 ; and their journals contain much valuable 
 information as to that river, and its tributary, the 
 Tschadda. The latter, at the point of confluence, is 
 represented to be one mile and a half broad ; and the 
 country on the banks of both rivers is described to 
 be most fertile, very populous, and, wherever there 
 is any security from the ravages of the Slave Trade, 
 highly cultivated. 
 
 Mr. Oldfield ascended the Niger to the town of 
 Rabbah, and he explored the Tschadda, for about 100 
 miles from its confluence with the Niger at Adda- 
 cuddah. 
 
 They also describe several towns, Eboe, lecory, 
 
FERNANDO PO. 69 
 
 Iddah, Egrga, Rabbah, and Fundah, proving how great 
 are the facilities for trade and commerce with the 
 interior afforded by the river. 
 
 It is to be regretted that so little of the Tschadda 
 has been explored. Mr. Oldrield was informed, that 
 its course lay through the heart of Africa, and that 
 there were many large towns on its banks ; and Laird 
 in mentioning this river, says, " By it, a communica- 
 tion would be opened with all the nations inhabiting 
 the unknown countries between the Niger and the 
 Nile." 
 
 Here, then, is one of the most magnificent rivers 
 in the world, introducing us into the heart of Africa : 
 at a central point, it opens a way by its eastern branch, 
 to the kingdoms of Bournou, Kanem, and Begharmi ; 
 by its western, to Timbuctoo, — each of them bringing 
 us into communication with multitudes of tribes, and 
 unfolding to us the productions of a most extensive 
 and fertile territory. 
 
 The problem is, how shall that stream be closed to 
 the passage of slaves to the coast ; while it is at the 
 same time opened as a secure and accessible highway 
 for legitimate commerce. The solution seems almost 
 self-evident : we must obtain the positions which 
 command the Niger ; and without doubt, the most 
 important of these, is Fernando Po. 
 
 FERNANDO PO. 
 
 I have already adverted to the importance of this 
 island, as being decidedly the best locality on the 
 coast for the reception of liberated negroes ; and for 
 aiding us in a great effort for the civilization of Africa. 
 It is situated about 20 miles from the main land, in 
 
70 THE REMEDY. 
 
 the Bight of Biafra, and commands the mouths of 
 those great streams which penetrate so deeply into 
 central Africa, along the coast from the Rio Volta to 
 the Gaboon. These rivers are about forty in number, 
 and Fernando Po is at the distance of from 40 to 200 
 miles. The island is exceedingly fertile ; the soil is 
 composed of a fine deep black and brick mould : it 
 abounds in many species of large and fine timber, fit 
 for ornamental or useful purposes ; and it is capable 
 of producing, in the highest perfection, not only every 
 article of tropical produce, but also many kinds of 
 European fruits and vegetables : it is 24 miles in 
 length, and 16 miles in breadth. It has three ranges 
 of hills, running parallel to the north-east side ; the 
 centre rising into a conical volcanic mountain, to the 
 height of 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 Mr. Laird thus describes its aspect : — " On my re- 
 turn to Fernando Po I recovered rapidly, and was 
 able to walk and ride about in a fortnight after my 
 arrival. The splendid scenery that distinguishes this 
 beautiful island is well known from former descrip- 
 tions, and to persons coming from the low marshy 
 shore of the main land has indescribable charms. 
 
 " The view from the galleries of the government- 
 house, on a clear moonlight night, I never saw equal- 
 led, nor can I conceive it surpassed. To the north- 
 east, the lofty peak of the Camaroons, rising to the 
 immense height of 14,000 feet, throws its shadow 
 half way across the narrow strait that separates the 
 island from the main land ; while the numerous little 
 promontories, and beautiful coves, that grace the 
 shores of Goderich Bay, throw light and shadow so 
 exquisitely upon the water, that one almost can ima- 
 
FERNANDO PO. 71 
 
 gine it a fairy land. On the west, the spectator looks 
 down almost perpendicularly on the vessels in Cla- 
 rence Cove, which is a natural basin, surrounded by 
 cliffs of the most romantic shape, and a group of little 
 islands, which nature seems to have thrown in to 
 give a finish to the scene. 
 
 " Looking inland, towards the island, the peak is 
 seen, covered with wood to the summit, with its sides 
 furrowed with deep ravines, and here and there a 
 patch of cleared land, showing like a white spot in 
 the moonlight." 
 
 We are also informed, that, from the elevation of 
 3,500 feet above the level of the sea, there is always 
 found the climate of an European summer. 
 
 The shores are bold, and, with hardly an exception, 
 free from those swamps on the coasts of the main 
 land, around the mouths of the rivers, which generate 
 the fatal malaria which proves so destructive to the 
 health and life of Europeans. From all this Fer- 
 nando Po is entirely free ; while the land remains 
 uncleared and uncultivated, diseases, the attendants, 
 of every tropical climate, will, to a considerable extent 
 prevail, but never equal to what is witnessed on the 
 alluvial, flooded, and swampy shores of the adjacent 
 continent. When, however, the land shall be cleared 
 and cultivated, the climate, we may reasonably expect, 
 will become healthy and safe for Europeans : the same 
 as the climate is found to be in the elevated parts of 
 Jamaica, and in those West Indian islands which are 
 cleared, cultivated, and drained, such as Barbados 
 and St. Christopher's, to the latter of which Fernando 
 Po bears in many points a very strong resemblance. 
 The putrid malaria, generated on the alluvial plains 
 
72 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and swamps, on the shores of the sea, and in the 
 neighborhood of large rivers in the torrid zone, 
 never rises to any great height, probably not 400 feet 
 above the level of the sea at any place ; and, conse- 
 quently, it is very obvious that Fernando Po would, 
 when cleared of the wood, afford a healthy, as well as 
 convenient location for any British force, or settle- 
 ment, which it may be considered necessary or advisa- 
 ble to place upon it. The island, moreover, is free 
 from hurricanes : there are several bays which afford 
 most convenient access: two of these, North West 
 Bay and Maidstone Bay, were carefully surveyed by 
 Commodore Bullen, in 1826. He describes the latter 
 bay as perfectly easy of access, and at once healthy 
 and very airy, the westerly wind blowing directly 
 across it at all times of day and night. He also says 
 that there is good anchorage in all parts of the bay; 
 that it abounds with fish and turtle ', and that many 
 streams of excellent water run into it. There are 
 in this bay two very fine coves, where ships might lie 
 and refit, as smooth as in a mill-pond, combined with 
 the benefit of a beautiful and refreshing breeze. 
 Commodore Bullen further says, that if a look-out be 
 kept from the shore of this bay, scarcely a vessel 
 could leave the Bonny, Calabars, Bimbia, and Ca- 
 maroons rivers, without being observed time enough 
 to give a signal to any vessel lying in the bay to inter- 
 cept her ; and he cites as an instance, the capture of 
 a slaver, " Le Daniel," by his own vessel. This cap- 
 ture was effected within four hours after first seeing 
 her, although his vessel was then lying at anchor in 
 the bay. Commodore, now Sir Charles Bullen, 
 strongly recommended that a settlement should be 
 
FERNANDO PO. 73 
 
 formed for liberated Africans in Maidstone Bay ; but 
 it appears that Clarence Cove was preferred. Of the 
 latter place we are told, that it affords the finest shelter 
 and anchorage for shipping : 500 sail may there ride 
 in perfect safety and lie quite close to the shore. It 
 also abounds with excellent spring water, as in fact 
 the island generally does ; the fine streams rushing 
 from the mountains to the sea, in beautiful waterfalls 
 and cascades, down its bold coasts. " You have not," 
 said a gentleman, who had resided there nine years, 
 and whose testimony may be relied upon, " an island, 
 either in the North or South Atlantic, equal to Fer- 
 nando Po for shipping : a vessel may anchor there all 
 the year round in perfect safety." 
 
 Colonel Nichols computes the natives to amount to 
 about 5,000 ; and he states that, if the island were 
 cleared and cultivated, it could easily maintain a very 
 large population. He found the natives friendly, 
 inoffensive, and willing to work : he employed them 
 in clearing the ground for the British settlement at 
 Clarenee Cove. 
 
 The Colonel speaks in high terms of the products 
 and capabilities of the island. The yams were the 
 finest he ever saw, and he introduced the cultivation 
 of Indian corn with complete success ; and Captain 
 Beatty thinks that a profitable whale fishery might 
 be established on the shores of Fernando Po. 
 
 Mr. Laird, in his remarks on our commerce with 
 Africa, observes, " My proposal is, to make the gov- 
 ernment's head quarters at Fernando Po, which, from 
 its geographical position, is the key to central Africa, 
 and within a few miles of the great seats of our pre- 
 sent commerce on the coast. It is also the only 
 7 
 
74 THE REMEDY. 
 
 place upon the whole line of coast, on which hospitals 
 and other conveniences could be erected, far above 
 the reach of the coast fever, where invalids from the 
 naval, military, and civil establishments, from all 
 parts of the coast, might recruit their health in a pure 
 and bracing atmosphere."* 
 
 Fernando Po, therefore, in every way, and in a very 
 remarkable manner, possesses those advantages of 
 which we stand in need. Is it our object to capture 
 the slave-trader 1 Here is an island adjacent to his 
 chief resort, so situated as to command and control 
 the whole Bights of Benin and Biafra. Or is it 
 our object to encourage legitimate commerce 1 Fer- 
 nando Po is at the outlet of that great stream which 
 offers a highway into the heart of Africa. I con- 
 fess, I look forward to the day, when Africa shall 
 unfold her hidden treasures to the world ; and as a 
 primary means of enabling her to do so, this island 
 is of incalculable value. Do we dread the climate ? 
 Here, and as I believe, almost here alone, on the 
 western coast of Africa, has Nature provided a po- 
 sition, which enjoys the benefit of perpetual sea- 
 breezes, free from the noxious effluvia which load 
 even these breezes as we advance inland on the con- 
 tinent ; whilst its high land is above " the fatal fever 
 level." Or is it our object, as far as possible, to 
 reduce the sufferings, and spare the lives of the 
 negroes, whom w r e, with the most generous intentions, 
 rescue from the slave-trader % Under the present 
 system, we consign these negroes in vast numbers to 
 destruction, consequent on a five weeks' voyage to 
 Sierra Leone, when they could be landed on the 
 
 • Laird, vol. ii. p. 391. 
 
FERNANDO PO. 75 
 
 island of Fernando Po, within a few hours, or, at 
 most, within a few days, after their capture ; while, 
 if located on that island, they would afford material 
 for the formation of what may be termed a normal 
 school, for the introduction of agriculture, civilization, 
 and Christianity into the interior of Africa. 
 
 To the reader who may be desirous of obtaining fur- 
 ther information respecting this island, I strongly re- 
 commend the perusal of the abstract of a letter which 
 I insert in the Appendix.* It was written, as its date 
 (Sept. 1835) proves, without reference to the plans 
 which I now propose, and it did not come into my pos- 
 session, till after the above description of the island 
 had been prepared. It will be seen, however, how 
 remarkably it confirms the statements I have made 
 on other authorities. 
 
 Next in importance to Fernando Po, is a settlement 
 at the confluence of the Niger and the Tchadda. It 
 can hardly be doubted, I think, even by those who 
 are most sceptical with regard to predictions of future 
 commercial greatness, that this position will, here- 
 after, become the great internal citadel of Africa, and 
 the great emporium of her commerce. It commands 
 the Niger, with all its tributary streams and branches 
 in the interior, while Fernando Po exercises the same 
 control over its numerous mouths. With these two 
 positions, and with our steamers plying between them, 
 it is not too much to say, that this great river would 
 be safe from the ravages of the pirate and the man- 
 hunter, and would be open to the capital and enter- 
 
 * Vide Apperdix B. 
 
76 THE REMEDY. 
 
 prise of the legitimate merchant. I must here avail 
 myself of a passage from a work published nearly 
 twenty years ago : — * 
 
 "The extent of country and population whose 
 improvements, labors, and wants would be dependent 
 upon, and stimulated to exertions by a settlement on 
 the Niger, is prodigious, and altogether unequalled. 
 The extent comprehends a country of nearly 40° of 
 longitude from west to east, and through the greater 
 part of this extent of 20° of latitude from north to 
 south, a space almost equal to Europe. Where the 
 confluence of the Tschadda with the Niger takes 
 place, is the spot to erect the capital of our great 
 African establishments. A city built there, under 
 the protecting wings of Great Britain, would ere long 
 become the capital of Africa. Fifty millions of 
 people, yea, even a greater number, would be depend- 
 ent on it. 
 
 " The rivers are the roads in the torrid zone= 
 Nature seems to have intended these as the great 
 help in introducing agriculture and commerce. 
 Wherever the continents are most extensive, there 
 we find the most magnificent rivers flowing through 
 them, opening up a communication from side to side. 
 What is still more remarkable, and becomes of great 
 utility, is, that these mighty currents flow against the 
 
 * The "View of Northern Central Africa" was published before 
 it was known that the Niger emptied itself into the Bight of Be- 
 nin, and when the prevailing theories gave that river an opposite 
 direction. The author, Mr. M'Queen, is at least entitled to the 
 credit of having clearly pointed out its true course ; all that he 
 then asserted has been verified by the expedition of Laird and 
 Oldfield. 
 
SETTLEMENTS IN THE INTERIOR. 77 
 
 prevailing winds, thus rendering the navigation easy, 
 which would otherwise be extremely tedious and 
 difficult. The prevailing trade-winds blow right up 
 their streams. This is the case with the Niger, and 
 in a more particular manner during the time it is in 
 flood. For ten months in the year, but more partic- 
 ularly from May till November, the prevailing wind 
 in the Bights of Benin and Biafra is from south-west, 
 thus blowing right up ail the outlets of the Niger. In 
 the Congo, Tuckey found the breeze generally blow- 
 ing up the stream. It is needless to point out, at 
 length, the advantages which may be derived from 
 this wise regulation in the natural world." 
 
 I have dwelt thus much on the Niger and the settle- 
 ments connected with it, because it clearly holds the 
 foremost place among the great inlets to Africa ; but 
 the number and situation of many other navigable 
 rivers on the western coast of Africa have been much 
 remarked by those who have visited them, as afford- 
 ing the noblest means for extending the commerce 
 of this country to the millions who dwell on their 
 banks, or occupy the cities and towns in the interior. 
 Along the coast, commencing at the southern point 
 of the Bight of Biafra, and embracing the coast of 
 Calabar, the Slave Coast, the Gold Coast, the Ivory 
 Coast, the Grain Coast, the Pepper Coast, the coast 
 of Sierra Leone, and thence northwards to the Sene- 
 gal, there cannot be less than ninety or one hundred 
 rivers, many of them navigable, and two of them 
 rivalling in their volume of water and extent the 
 splendid rivers of North America. It is reported that 
 a French steam-vessel plies more than 700 miles up 
 
78 THE REMEDY. 
 
 the Senegal, and that the Faleme, which flows into it 
 eight leagues below Galam, is navigable in the rainy 
 season for vessels of sixty tons burden. The Faleme 
 runs through the golden land of Bambouk, whence the 
 French traders obtain considerable quantities of that 
 precious metal. The Gambia is a noble river. It is 
 about eleven miles wide at its mouth, and about four 
 opposite Bathurst. How far it extends into the interior 
 is unknown ; it is said, however, that it has been 
 ascended for some hundred miles.* It is also 
 asserted that from the upper part of this river 
 the Senegal can be reached in three, and the Niger in 
 four days. 
 
 In addition to the mighty rivers above referred to, it 
 has been ascertained that, from Rio Lagos to the river 
 Elrei, no fewer than twenty streams enter the ocean, 
 several of surprising magnitude, and navigable for 
 ships (M'Queen) ; and that all the streams which fall 
 into the sea from Rio Formosa to Old Calabar inclu- 
 sive, are connected together by intermediate streams, 
 at no great distance from the sea. 
 
 The geographical position of Africa, and its conti- 
 guity to Europe claim for it especial attention. The 
 voyage from the port of London to the Senegal is 
 generally accomplished in twenty-five days ; to the 
 
 * In 1834, Captain Quin carried Governor Rendall up to Mc- 
 Carthy's Island, in the Britomart sloop of war. Craft of 50 or 60 
 t jns can get up to Fattatenda, the resort of caravans for trade with 
 Lritish merchants. Commodore Owen terms the Gambia ''a mag- 
 nificent river." It was surveyed in 1826 by Lieutenant Owen' 
 R.N., on which occasion he was accompanied by the Acting 
 Governor Macaulay, as far as Macarthy's Island, 180 miles up the 
 liver. — Owen, ii. 
 
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. 79 
 
 Gambia in twenty-eight or thirty days ; to Sierra 
 Leone, in thirty to thirty-five days ; to Cape Coast 
 Castle, in forty-two to forty-eight days ; to Fernando 
 Po, forty-eight to fifty-three days ; to the ports in the 
 Bight of Biafra, in fifty to fifty- five days ; to the 
 Zaire or Congo, in fifty-five to sixty days, respectively. 
 Vessels leaving Bristol or Liverpool for the same 
 ports possess an advantage, in point of time, of from 
 five to eight days. The voyage is attended with little 
 danger, provided common care be used. The home- 
 ward voyage is of course considerably longer than 
 the outward, in consequence of the vessels being 
 obliged to take what is commonly called the western 
 passage, having generally to go as far as 40° west 
 longitude. The difference in the length of the voy- 
 ages, outward and homeward, may be stated at from 
 three to four weeks. 
 
 The use of steam would, of course, greatly diminish 
 the length of the voyage, and faciliate the operations 
 of the trader, until establishments could be formed 
 to which the produce required might be conveyed by 
 the natives. 
 
 The best season for visiting the African coast is 
 the dry season, that is, from December to May. But 
 it may be remarked that the line of coast from Cape 
 Palmas to Cape St. Paul's is less subject to rains than 
 the Windward Coast or the Bights, and may be visit- 
 ed at any season. The worst period of the year is 
 from the middle of July to the middle of December.* 
 
 * The chief causes of the sickness and mortality on board trad- 
 ing vessels may be ascribed, first, to climate ; second, to overwork, 
 and especially exposure to the action of the sun while working, 
 and, third, to drunkenness. This last is the chief cause of mortal- 
 
80 THE REMEDY. 
 
 With regard to commerce, then, this portion of 
 Africa would have fair play : her resources may prove 
 greater or less than we suppose ; but, whatever they 
 be, the traffic arising from them will possess that first 
 and indispensable requisite — security. 
 
 I do not, however, anticipate that this commerce 
 will in the first instance be large. Africa is only 
 capable of producing : as yet, she does not produce. 
 When it is found that there is security for person 
 and property, and that products of industry find a 
 ready market, and command a supply of European 
 articles which the natives covet, an impulse will, no 
 doubt, be given to internal cultivation. But it is 
 greatly to be desired, that this impulse should be as 
 strong, and operate as speedily, as possible. What 
 we want is, to supplant the Slave Trade by another 
 trade, which shall be more lucrative. We cannot 
 expect that savage nations will be greatly influenced 
 by the promise of prospective advantage. The rise 
 of the legitimate trade ought, if we are to carry the 
 good-will of the natives along with us, to follow as 
 close as possible upon the downfall of the trade in 
 man : there ought to be an immediate substitute for 
 the gains which are to cease. In short, the natives 
 must be assisted, and by every method in our power 
 
 ity. One great means of preventing sickness would be, to make 
 it imperative for all trading-vessels to employ a certain number of 
 natives, as is done on board men-of-war. 
 
 Mr. Becroft (a merchant who resided for a number of years at 
 Fernando Po) went up the Niger in the Quorra s'.eam-boat, on a 
 trading voyage, in 1836 ; his expedition lasted three months. lie 
 had with him a crew of forty persons, including five white men. 
 Only one individual died, a white man, who was previously far 
 gone in consumption. 
 
EFFECTS TO BE HOPED FOR. 81 
 
 put in the way of producing those things which will 
 bear a value in the market of the world. It is impos- 
 sible that we can be in error in assuming that Africa, 
 under cultivation, will make more from her exports 
 than she now receives from the sale of her popu- 
 lation. 
 
 There is no danger that the experiment will fail, if 
 time enough is allowed for the full development of its 
 results : but there is very considerable risk that the 
 experiment, while advancing to maturity, will fail, 
 from the impatience of a barbarous people, who are 
 not in the habit of contemplating distant results, and 
 who, finding themselves stripped of one species of 
 customary trade, have not as yet been remunerated 
 by the acquisition of a better source of revenue. For 
 this reason, I have already suggested that we should, 
 for a time, subsidize the chiefs of Africa, whose assist- 
 ance we require ; and, for the same reason, I now 
 propose that we should give all natural, and even 
 some artificial stimulants to agricultural industry. 
 
 If at the moment when the African population find 
 themselves in unaccustomed security, and feel, for 
 the first time, a certainty of reaping what they sow j 
 when they see their river, which has hitherto been 
 worse than useless to the bulk of the people — (for it 
 has brought on its waves only an armed banditti, and 
 carried away from their smouldering villages only 
 that banditti exulting in their captured prey) — trans- 
 formed into the cheapest, the safest, and the most 
 convenient highway between themselves, and the 
 civilized world, and discover it to be the choicest 
 blessing which nature has bestowed upon them ; if 
 at the moment when a market is brought to their 
 
82 THE REMEDY. 
 
 doors, and foreign merchants are at hand, ready to 
 exchange for their productions the alluring articles of 
 European manufacture, of which, sparingly as they 
 have hitherto tasted, they know the rare beauty, and 
 surpassing usefulness, — if at this moment^ when so 
 many specific and powerful motives invite them to 
 the diligent cultivation of their soil, they are visited 
 by a band of agricultural instructors, who offer at 
 once to put them in possession of that skill in hus- 
 bandry which the rest of the world has acquired, and 
 they are enabled to till their ground in security, and 
 find opened to them a conveyance for its productions, 
 and a market for their sale ; and if simultaneously 
 with these advantages we furnish that practical 
 knowledge, and those mechanical contrivances which 
 the experience of ages, and ingenuity of successive 
 generations, have by slow degrees disclosed to our- 
 selves — I cannot doubt that those combined benefits 
 and discoveries will furnish an immediate, as well as 
 an ample compensation for the loss of that wicked 
 traffic, which, if it has afforded profit to the few, 
 has exposed the great mass of the inhabitants to un» 
 utterable wretchedness. 
 
RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE. 83 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Africa, it is true, is in great measure untried ground, 
 yet there is some information to be derived from the 
 history of those colonies, few and imperfect though 
 they be, which have been attempted along her coasts. 
 There are also important hints to be found in the re- 
 corded opinions (many of them drawn from actual 
 experiment) of those who are best acquainted with 
 the subject, whether government officers, travelers, 
 or others. It may now be convenient to turn our at- 
 tention to the colonies which already belong to us in 
 Africa : in the history of them there is much to con- 
 firm my views. I extract the following passage from 
 a paper written by Mr. Bandinel, dated Foreign 
 Office, March 30, 1839 :— 
 
 " So long ago as in 1792, the colony of Sierra 
 Leone was founded by benevolent individuals, for the 
 express purpose of inducing the natives to abandon 
 the traffic. The course taken was two-fold : — the 
 one, to educate the natives, with the view of teaching 
 them to give up the Slave Trade, on a religious prin- 
 ciple : the other, to substitute for that trade a more 
 legitimate commerce. 
 
 '' The accounts, soon after the settlement was 
 formed, stated, that the natives crowded round the 
 colony both for education and for trade ; and that the 
 beneficial effect on them, in inducing them to quit 
 Slave-trading, was instantaneous. That effect has 
 been continued, and has extended, in the neighbor- 
 
84 THE REMEDY. 
 
 hood of Sierra Leone, to a very considerable distance 
 round the colony. Traders bring down the ivory, the 
 gold-dust, and palm-oil, as usual. Of late years, a 
 very important branch has been added to the legal 
 trade, by the cutting of timber for the British navy ; 
 and the minds of the natives are thus effectually di- 
 verted from the baneful occupation of the Slave 
 Trade, to the pursuits of legitimate commerce/' 
 
 I admit, that Sierra Leone has failed to realize all 
 the expectations which were at one time indulged. 
 It must, I fear, be confessed, that the situation was 
 ill-chosen, — the north-west wind blows on it from the 
 Bulloom shore, covered with mangrove-swamps, 
 which generate the most destructive malaria. The 
 district is small, by no means affording space for a 
 fair experiment of our system. Nor is the land of the 
 peninsula well suited for the growth of tropical pro- 
 ductions ; and there is wanting that, without which 
 we can hardly expect to see commerce spring up and 
 thrive in a barbarous country, — a river navigable far 
 into the interior. Besides these natural difficulties, 
 there have been some, arising from the system which 
 we have adopted, or " rather," in the words of one of 
 the strongest advocates in favor of Sierra Leone, " in 
 the want of anything like system or preconcerted plan 
 in the administration of its government . . . the whole 
 of its administration, with the exception of its judicial 
 system, was left to the chapter of accidents. No in- 
 structions were sent from home ; every governor was 
 left to follow the suggestions of his own mind, both 
 as regarded the disposal and treatment of the liberat- 
 ed Africans, and the general interests of the colony. 
 Every governor has been left to follow 
 
SIERRA LEONE. 85 
 
 his own plans, however crude and undigested ; and 
 no two succeeding governors have ever pursued the 
 same course. This remark applies more particularly 
 to the management of the liberated Africans." 
 
 I find this view confirmed in the third Resolution 
 of the Report of the Select Committee on the State 
 of Sierra Leone, 1830, which runs thus : — " It is the 
 opinion of this Committee, that the progress of the 
 liberated Africans in moral and industrious habits has 
 been greatly retarded by the frequent change of sys- 
 tem in their location and maintenance, and by the 
 yearly influx of thousands of their rude and unciviliz- 
 ed countrymen." 
 
 This resolution notices another peculiarity in the 
 case of Sierra Leone, which ought always to be borne 
 in mind when it is brought forward as an instance of 
 what may be done in African colonies. This pecu- 
 liarity consists in the nature of its population, "a 
 heterogeneous mass," but mainly composed of the sur- 
 viving cargoes of captured slave-ships, — men who 
 have undergone a great shock, — uprooted beings, — 
 compelled colonists of a strange land. In addition to 
 this original disadvantage, there have undoubtedly 
 been great errors aud omissions in the management of 
 them. According to Colonel Denham, superintend- 
 ent of that department, there has been " the want of 
 instruction, capital, and example;" yet he adds, "with 
 the very little they have had of either, conveyed in a 
 manner likely to benefit them generally, it is to me 
 daily an increasing subject of astonishment, that the 
 liberated Africans settled here have done so much for 
 themselves as they have." 
 
 Sierra Leone has unquestionably labored under 
 8 
 
8b THE REMEDY. 
 
 very great disadvantages.* But, with all its defects, 
 if anything has anywhere been done for the benefit of 
 Western Africa, it has been there. The only glim- 
 mer of civilization ; the only attempt at legitimate 
 commerce ; the only prosecution, however faint, of 
 agriculture, are to be found at Sierra Leone, and at 
 some of those settlements which I have just named. 
 And there alone the Slave Trade has been in any de- 
 gree arrested. We may regret, therefore^ that the 
 experiment was not tried under more favorable cir- 
 cumstances, on a more healthy spot, on a more fertile 
 and suitable soil, on a larger scale, less exposed to 
 the inroads of the slave-trader, and in the vicinity of 
 one of the great arteries of Africa. Still, experience 
 speaks strongly in its favor, because many thousands 
 of human beings, taken from the holds of slave-ships, 
 and placed there in the rudest state of barbarism, have 
 made considerable advances in civilization,! because 
 
 * I have compared various and conflicting accounts of Sierra 
 Leone ; the Reports of the Company, and of the African Institu- 
 tion ; the able Reports of Colonel Denham on the Liberated Afri- 
 cans, and other Government Dispatches; the Statements of Mr. 
 M'Queen, and the Reply of Mr. Kenneth Macaulay ; and the Evi- 
 dence before both the Aborigines Committees, and that on the state 
 of Sierra Leone, together with several private letters of authority; 
 and T believe my statements will all be found accurate, though my 
 authorities are too voluminous, and too varied, to quote or extract 
 at length. 
 
 t Captain Ramsay told me that he had been particularly struck 
 with the intelligent conversation and refined manners of a person 
 in whose company he dined at Fernando Fo, and whom he thought 
 capable of filling almost any situation. Had it not been far his 
 complexion, he would have supposed that he had been educated in 
 England. This man was brought thither, not many years before, 
 in the hold of a slave-ship. Mr. H. W. Macaulay, Commissary 
 
SIERRA LEONE. 87 
 
 thousands of Negro children have received and are 
 receiving* the rudiments of Christian education, and 
 because a trade has there taken root, in itself incon- 
 siderable enough, it is true, but yet, one-third of the 
 whole legitimate trade of Central Africa. The very- 
 fact, that so large a proportion of African commerce 
 has taken refuge, as it were, in a spot so inconvenient, 
 while none is found on that mighty river which flows 
 from the centre of Africa into the Atlantic, is in it- 
 self, to my apprehension, an unanswerable and autho- 
 ritative proof, that, could the system of protection and 
 instruction be tried on right principles, and upon a 
 large scale, we need not despair of witnessing a great 
 and glorious change in the condition of that conti- 
 nent. 
 
 Since the above remarks were written, I have re- 
 Judge at Sierra Leone, stated before a Parliamentary Committee, 
 in 1837, that a large portion of these people, brought, as they have 
 been, to the " colony in a savage state," landed, as he has seen 
 many thousands of them, in a diseased and wretched condition, yet 
 become civilized and useful members of society. He states, that 
 these men form the militia : they serve not only as constables and 
 attendants on the Courts of Justice, but also as jurymen ; and they 
 discharge this duty so satisfactorily, that Mr. Macauley further 
 states, that, having himself had questions of large amount before 
 them, he should at all times be willing to abide by their verdict. 
 In speaking of the advancement to which these people have attain, 
 ed, he says : " There are many such instances of liberated Afri- 
 cans : one in particular, which I recollect, where a man, who not 
 very long since was in the hold of a slave-ship, is acquiring at pre- 
 sent an income of, I suppose, from 1.200Z. to 1,500Z, a-year. He 
 has the government contracts for the supply of beef to the army 
 and navy, and has had them for many years past, and he has al- 
 ways fulfilled his contracts to the satisfaction of the Government. 
 He is living in a very excellent house ; has every comfort about 
 him ; and has educated two of his children in England." 
 
88 THE REMEDY. 
 
 ceived a letter from Mr. Ferguson, a gentleman of 
 great intelligence and experience, who was originally 
 sent out to Sierra Leone under the auspices of the 
 African Institution, and is now, and has been for the 
 last eight years, at the head of the medical department 
 there. The document is so interesting, and so highly 
 important, that I have ventured to quote it at consid- 
 erable length ; not, however, without having, in parts, 
 curtailed the original paper, as it respects a few facts 
 and statements of minor importance : — 
 
 " Having resided at Sierra Leone during a period 
 of seventeen years, and had many opportunities of in- 
 tercourse with the nations in the neighborhood of 
 that colony, my views of the practicability of the 
 measures you contemplate have reference chiefly to 
 the Windward Coast, and in a more especial manner 
 to the colony of Sierra Leone, and to the nations im. 
 mediately adjacent. 
 
 " Though the friends of Sierra Leone have long 
 ceased to look for, or to expect any great advantage 
 to the cause of African civilization from that quarter, 
 I entertain a rather confident hope of being able to 
 show that the cause is by no means so hopeless as it 
 is generally supposed to be ; but on the contrary, that 
 it is precisely in that quarter, and in its neighborhood, 
 and at the present time, that the objects you contem- 
 plate are likely to be most speedily, and for some 
 years at least, most extensively accomplished. 
 
 " Much money as well as much parental care and 
 encouragement were lavished on the infant colony of 
 Sierra Leone ; but matters were so mismanaged in 
 the outset of the undertaking, especially in the breach 
 of faith with the Nova Scotian settlers, refusing to 
 
SIERRA LEONE. 89 
 
 allot to them the quantities of land for which they had 
 previously stipulated, that distrust and discontent, 
 neglect of agriculture, and inveterate habits of idle- 
 ness, became general. 
 
 "After a lapse of some years, an accession was 
 made to the colony of numbers, but by no means of 
 moral strength, in a body of Maroons, who were sent 
 from Jamaica after the Maroon war. They had been 
 for many years the only body of free blacks in the 
 island of Jamaica. Indolent, and averse to agricul- 
 ture in their native land, their habits were by no 
 means changed by the transatlantic voyage, nor have 
 they, in fact, studied to acquire habits of industry un- 
 til this day. Thus agriculture and the useful arts re- 
 ceived no aid whatever from such elements as the 
 Sierra Leone Company had as yet employed in fur- 
 therance of their benevolent designs. 
 
 " The abolition of the Slave Trade by Great 
 Britain, and its subsequently declared illegality, 
 under certain circumstances, by the governments of 
 Spain and Portugal, and the consequent capture of 
 vessels taken in the prosecution of the illicit trade, 
 introduced, in the body of liberated Africans, a third 
 element in the population of the colony, and it is to 
 the working of that third element — what it has 
 already done, is doing, and what maybe prospectively 
 and reasonably expected from it, that 1 desire espe- 
 cially to direct your attention. 
 
 " The condition of a body of captured slaves on 
 their arrival at Sierra Leone for liberation, is the 
 most miserable and wretched that can be conceived — 
 emaciated, squalid, sickly-looking, ill-fed, barbarous, 
 confined in inadequate space, compelled to breathe an 
 8* 
 
90 THE REMEDY. 
 
 atmosphere hardly fit for the sustenance of animal 
 life — is it to be wondered, that, in such circumstances, 
 the faculties of the soul should be cramped and 
 benumbed by the cruelties inflicted upon the body 1 
 It is nevertheless from among such people and their 
 descendants at Sierra Leone, their minds at length 
 elevated by a sense of personal freedom, and by the 
 temperate administration of just and equitable laws, 
 that you are to look for the first practical results of 
 your operations. It is not my intention to trace the 
 progress of the liberated Africans from the depths of 
 misery alluded to, until we find them, after the lapse 
 of fifteen or twenty years, independent and respect- 
 able members of society, but to give you some notion 
 of them as a class, and of the position in society 
 which they occupy at the present day. 
 
 " Those most recently arrived are to be found 
 occupying mud houses and small patches of ground 
 in the neighborhood of one or other of the villages, 
 which are about twenty in number. The majority of 
 these remain in their location as agriculturists ; but 
 several go to reside in the neighborhood of Free- 
 town as laborers, farm servants, servants to carry 
 wood and water, grooms, house servants, &c. Others 
 cultivate vegetables, rear poultry and pigs, or offer 
 for sale a variety of edible substances. They are a 
 harmless and well disposed people ; there is no 
 poverty nor begging amongst them ; their habits are 
 frugal and industrious, and their anxiety to possess 
 money remarkable. 
 
 " Persons of a grade higher than those just de- 
 scribed are to be found occupying frame houses and 
 are mostly employed either in carrying on small 
 
SIERRA LEONE. 91 
 
 trades in the market, in buying and retailing the 
 cargoes of native canoes, in curing and drying fish, 
 or in working at various mechanical trades. Re- 
 spectable men of this grade meet with ready mercan- 
 tile credits, amounting from £20 to £60 ; and the 
 class is very numerous. 
 
 " Those who have advanced another step are found 
 in frame houses, reared on a stone foundation, of from 
 six to ten feet in height. These houses are very com- 
 fortable : a considerable quantity of furniture of 
 European workmanship, and of books, chiefly of a 
 religious character, is to be found in them, and an 
 air of domestic comfort pervading the whole. Per- 
 sons of this class are nearly altogether occupied in 
 shopkeeping, and may be seen clubbing together in 
 numbers from three to six, seven, or more, to purchase 
 large lots or unbroken bales ; and the scrupulous 
 honesty with which the subdivision of the goods is 
 afterwards made, cannot be evidenced more thorough- 
 ly than in this, that, common as such transactions are, 
 they have never yet been known to become the sub- 
 ject of controversy or litigation. The principal 
 streets of Freetown, as well as the approaches to the 
 town, are lined on each side by an almost continuous 
 range of booths and stalls, among which almost every 
 article of merchandise is offered for sale. They are 
 all in easy circumstances, and are invariably anxious 
 to possess houses and lands of their own, especially 
 in Old Freetown. Property of this description has 
 of late years, become much enhanced, and is still 
 increasing in value, solely from their annually 
 increasing numbers and prosperity. 
 
 " Persons of the highest grade of liberated Africans 
 
92 THE REMEDY. 
 
 occupy comfortable two-story stone houses, inclosed 
 all round with spacious piazzas. These houses are 
 their own property, and are built from the proceeds 
 of their own industry. In several of them are to be 
 seen mahogany chairs, tables, sofas, and four-post 
 bedsteads, pier glasses, floor cloths, and other articles 
 indicative of domestic comfort and accumulating 
 wealth. They are almost wholly engaged in mer- 
 cantile pursuits, and are to be found in neatly fitted- 
 up shops on the ground-floor of their respective 
 dwelling-houses. Many of them have realized con- 
 siderable sums of money. Peter Newland, a libe- 
 rated African, died a short time before I left the colony, 
 and his estate realized, in houses, merchandise, and 
 cash, upwards of £ 1,500. I am well acquainted with 
 one of these individuals, whose name, shortly before 
 my departure from the colony, stood on the debtor 
 side of the books of one of the principal merchants 
 for £1,900, to which sum it had been reduced from 
 £3,000 during the preceding two months. Many of 
 them at the present moment have their children being 
 educated in England at their own expense. 
 
 " There is at Sierra Leone a very fine regiment of 
 colonial militia, more than eight-tenths of which are 
 liberated Africans. The amount of property which 
 they have acquired is ample guarantee for their loyalty, 
 should that ever be called in question. They turn 
 out with great alacrity and cheerfulness on all occa- 
 sions for periodical drill. They also serve on juries ; 
 and I have repeatedly heard the highest legal autho- 
 rity in the colony express his satisfaction with their 
 decisions. 
 
 " From the preceding details it may be inferred, 
 
SIERRA LEONE. 93 
 
 that a leading feature in the character of the liberated 
 Africans is their great love of money. But this, 
 though remarkable, is by no means of that sordid 
 nature which induces the miser to hoard up his wealth 
 for its own sake. On the contrary, their whole 
 surplus means are devoted to the increase of their 
 domestic comforts and the improvement of their out- 
 ward appearance of respectability. A comfortable 
 house is the first great object of their desire. For 
 this they are content to labor at any sort of work, 
 and turn themselves diligently and cheerfully to any 
 honest means of earning money. The working hours 
 are from six in the morning till four in the afternoon, 
 with one hour of interval for breakfast. Labor is 
 to be had in abundance at 4c?. per diem. Very needy 
 persons may sometimes be found who will work for 
 3%d. A good overseer or headsman may be had at 
 5c?. per diem, or 135. per month. 
 
 " Of the liberated Africans as a body, it may with 
 great truth be said that there is not a more quiet, 
 inoffensive, and good humored population on the 
 face of the earth. Of their religious spirit it is not 
 easy, from the very nature of the subject, to form a 
 decided opinion, but I know that their outward ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath-day is most exemplary. On 
 that day the passion for amusements is altogether laid 
 aside, and the whole body of the people are to be 
 found at one or other of the churches or chapels, 
 which abound in the colony. 
 
 " It may be presumed, from what has been said of 
 their love of gain, that in their habits and desires 
 they are decidedly industrious. But, however suc- 
 cessful, from the abundance of European example, 
 
94 THE REMEDY. 
 
 they may have been in the application of their ener- 
 gies and industry to pursuits of a mercantile nature, 
 it is to be regretted that no similar example in the 
 department of agriculture has as yet been placed be- 
 fore them. Were such example afforded in the cul- 
 ture of such articles as would at all times meet with 
 a ready purchaser, I am warranted in averring, with 
 much confidence, that energies similar to those which 
 (as we have already seen) have been so zealously and 
 successfully directed to trade, would promptly, and 
 with equal zeal, be found engaged in agriculture. 
 In 1826, Mr. Clouston, a respectable merchant of 
 Freetown, planted a small quantity of ginger by way 
 of experiment, and having reported favorably of it, 
 its culture was immediately taken up by a vast body 
 of liberated Africans. Ignorance was, however, dis- 
 played at every step of their progress. They planted 
 indiscriminately in sterile and in rich soils, so that 
 the sample produced was a mixture of plump and 
 meagre roots. By some the sample was dried pre- 
 viously to being offered for sale, by others not ; by 
 some it was carefully cleaned, which others neglected ; 
 so that the merchants became averse to purchase it, 
 and the growers saw their hopes blighted. In 1829 
 their attention was turned to the culture of capsicum, 
 by the sale of a lot at Freetown, which fetched 2s. 6d. 
 per pound. It would have been difficult at that time 
 to have collected two tons of pepper in the colony, 
 but in the course of a very few years individual mer- 
 chants were found exporting 100 and 150 tons per 
 annum. The price, however, fell to 4>d. per pound ; 
 sales could not even then be effected ; and the hopes 
 of the cultivators were again disappointed. In 1833 
 
SIEERA LEONE. 95 
 
 their expectations were similarly raised and blighted 
 by the encouragement held out for the manufacture 
 of cassada starch. Instances might be multiplied, 
 but I think those just noted are sufficient to show 
 that the liberated Africans are not only willing but 
 desirous that their attention should be directed to the 
 culture of such articles as will afford them a certain 
 return for their labor and industry ; and that the 
 position at which they have arrived in the social state 
 is precisely that to which the labors of philanthro- 
 pists may be applied satisfactorily to themselves, and 
 with a certain prospect of advantage to that interesting 
 people. 
 
 "Among other circumstances indicative of the im- 
 provement of their worldly means, and of their desire 
 still further to avail themselves of European example, 
 none stands more prominently forward than the sys- 
 tem which they have lately commenced of sending 
 their children to England for education. Thirty 
 years ago a few liberated African boys were sent to 
 England and educated at the expense of the African 
 Institution, with a view to their aid in working out 
 the general objects of the Institution at Sierra Leone. 
 These boys, on their return to the colony, with one 
 exception, speedily fell back on the barbarous habits 
 of their youth, and their public utility fell far short of 
 the expectations of their patrons. We now, however, 
 behold under different auspices the same class of per- 
 sons considerably advanced in wealth and civilization, 
 desiring European education for their children of 
 their own accord, without advice or pecuniary aid 
 from others, and moved thereto solely by a conviction 
 of its intrinsic excellence. There are now, however, 
 
96 THE REMEDY. 
 
 but few outlets for the employment of educated young 
 men in the colony j and it appears clear that the 
 quantity of talent of this description which will be- 
 come available will in a short time far exceed the 
 means of employment. The present is therefore pre- 
 cisely the time for the friends of African civilization 
 to adopt such measures as may appear best calculated 
 to secure the effectual co-operation of the new ele- 
 ment which is about to be placed before them. 
 
 " Several articles of tropical agriculture have been 
 from time to time tried at Sierra Leone on a small 
 scale, and the experiments have been generally suc- 
 cessful. The most decided, as well as the most care- 
 fully performed and most successful of these, was the 
 introduction, a few years ago, by some of the gentle- 
 men of the Church Missionary Society, of some of the 
 seeds of the Sea-island cotton. I have stated above, 
 that were examples in agriculture offered as liberally 
 as they have been in trade, the former would be fol- 
 lowed up by the liberated Africans with as much dili- 
 gence and zeal as they have been found to have de- 
 voted to the latter. It would, however, be important, 
 in conducting such an experiment, that their attention 
 should, in the first instance, be directed to such arti- 
 cles as in their culture require the smallest outlay of 
 money, the shortest time to bring them to maturity, 
 and a sure sale whenever and in whatever quantity 
 they may be brought to market. 
 
 " No article seems to afford these requisites with 
 such a prospect of certainty as cotton ; and a normal 
 farm of 100 acres, for the culture of that article, in 
 the south-eastern part of the colony, would, I am well 
 assured, be followed within two years by a general 
 
SIERRA LEOSE. 97 
 
 rush of the whole agricultural population towards its 
 production. The actual sight of a considerable quan- 
 tity grown in the colony, offered for sale, and im- 
 mediately purchased, would render any further ex- 
 perimental effort in regard to that article useless ; ex- 
 cept, indeed, in respect of the best kind of seed to be 
 used, and the most approved mode of culture. 
 
 " But this is, perhaps, the smallest amount of bene- 
 fit that would ensue. The natives of the countries in 
 the immediate vicinity of Sierra Leone take a large 
 quantity of British manufactures in return for Afri- 
 can teak, the cutting and squaring of which is nearly 
 altogether performed by slave labor. The sort of 
 traffic to which it has given rise, has, nevertheless, so 
 clearly demonstrated to the native chiefs how much 
 more advantageous it is to work their slaves than to 
 sell them, that Slave Trading (I mean the selling of 
 slaves) in the countries adjacent to Sierra Leone has 
 nearly altogether ceased. In some of these coun- 
 tries the timber is now obtained with much more dif- 
 ficulty than formerly, owing to the greater distance 
 from the water- side at which it has to be procured. 
 Should this difficulty increase to such a length as to 
 render the cutting of timber no longer profitable, the 
 hands left unemployed in such a case would, in the 
 culture of cotton find ample means of profitable em- 
 ployment ; and by this means the continuance and 
 permanence of the first great step in African civiliza- 
 tion would, to the inhabitants of those countries, be 
 secured. I fear that these people are not yet so far 
 removed from the recollections of a flourishing Slave 
 Trade as to render its abandonment by them the re- 
 sult of sound principle, or of a conviction of its cru- 
 9 
 
98 THE REMEDY. 
 
 elty. The continuance of the legitimate trade on 
 which they have already so successfully entered, may, 
 however, in the hands of another generation, establish 
 its final abandonment on more reputable motives. 
 Meantime, in the cutting of timber, and in the growth 
 of rice, we have undoubted proofs of their industry, and 
 of their willingness, by bodily labor, to obtain what 
 they may require of European manufactures. 
 
 "I trust that in this sketch of the liberated Afri- 
 cans, of the progress which they have already made, 
 and of the efforts which they are still making, to- 
 wards civilization, you will find not only sufficient en- 
 couragement to induce you to devote towards the 
 colony of Sierra Leone a portion of your fostering 
 care ; but also that you will perceive that the present 
 is the time when instruction and encouragement, es- 
 pecially in the practice of agriculture, afford a fairer 
 prospect of being crowned with success, than at any 
 other period in the previous history or condition of 
 the colony. 
 
 " I have a moral certainty that the advances which 
 they have already made in knowledge and in^wealth 
 cannot possibly be arrested at the present stage, and 
 that an impulse has been given to the onward course 
 of improvement, the limit of which, in respect to them, 
 is not yet in sight. But however certain their future 
 progress may be in the course on which they have so 
 auspiciously entered, it is clear that that progress 
 might be accelerated tenfold, were there, in well con- 
 ducted examples, and in competent instruction, as it 
 were a beacon held out to them, teaching them alike 
 what to avoid and what to cling to, as well in the 
 mode of culture, as in the article to be cultivated, 
 
SIERRA LEONE. 99 
 
 "There are places on the Windward Coast of 
 Western Africa, other than Sierra Leone, which I 
 think would repay any care that might be bestowed 
 on them, in the way of agricultural instruction and 
 example ; and, perhaps, none will be found better cal- 
 culated for its application than the settlements on the 
 river Gambia. The soil is rich, and more easily 
 brought under culture than even that of Sierra Leone ; 
 ground nuts and corn are grown there ; and cotton, 
 also, in a considerable quantity, and of a texture 
 which, as I have been informed by respectable mer- 
 chants, equals much that is brought from the West 
 Indies and South America, although their mode of 
 preparing it is inferior. At the extensive Govern- 
 ment farm near Barthurst, which is worked by libe- 
 rated Africans, such quantities of ground nuts and 
 corn are raised, as far more than pay all the expenses 
 of management ; and were example and the necessary 
 instruction afforded, the culture of cotton might there 
 be substituted with great advantage, and at no addi- 
 tional expense. 
 
 " Keeping steadily in sight your principle of sub- 
 stituting a harmless and profitable trade for one that 
 is illegal and worse than profitless, I am also desirous 
 of directing your attention to what has been going on 
 during the last year or two in the Rio Nunez. This 
 river, though now little spoken of, was in former 
 years notorious for Slave Trading. 
 
 " At Kaikandy, the chief trading place, situated 
 about 100 miles from the sea, and in the country of 
 the Landemas, numerous factories, occupied by 
 French and English traders, are established ; to which 
 Foulahs, Seracoolies, Bambarras, and people of other 
 
100 THE REMEDY. 
 
 nations, resort in great numbers. I spent some time 
 there in February last, and was assured by the mer- 
 chants that the Foulahs were gradually weaning them- 
 selves from the Slave Trade, and that they had of late 
 years brought down a much larger quantity of native 
 produce than formerly ; an assurance which was con- 
 firmed as well by the number of English and French 
 merchants established there in the prosecution of le- 
 gitimate commerce, as by the single slave-trader, 
 Senor Caravalho, a Portuguese. 
 
 " About three years ago, some of the Foulah traders 
 who resort to Kaikandy, brought down small parcels 
 of coffee, and offered them for sale. The coffee was 
 so eagerly purchased by the European merchants, 
 that the Foulahs immediately turned their attention 
 to the further supply of it. It appears that there are 
 vast forests of indigenous coffee in the Foulah coun- 
 try, and of much finer quality than that of the West 
 Indies or South America. The Foulahs evince great 
 satisfaction in the possession of such an unexpected 
 source of wealth, and the quantity supplied has of 
 course greatly increased ; but, unfortunately, this in- 
 fant trade, at the very dawning of its existence, is 
 threatened with destruction ; it being found that the 
 protective duty for British plantation was so high as 
 to prove tantamount to a total exclusion of the Foulah 
 coffee ; the duty on the former being 6d., and on the 
 latter Is. 3d. per pound. The merchants at Kaikandy 
 have, nevertheless, continued to purchase the coffee, 
 in whatever quantities it has been offered, in the hope 
 that the British Government may yet be disposed to 
 relieve them of their difficulties. 
 
 (t But the most grievous part of the disappointment 
 
FOULAHS. 101 
 
 is, that it would be difficult to devise any mode cal- 
 culated more powerfully and effectually to disenthral 
 the people from the desire of kidnapping and selling 
 each other, than the admission of the Foulah coffee 
 into the ports of Great Britain on terms similar to 
 those of British plantation. 
 
 " You will perceive, from this detail, that the Fou- 
 lahs, without any extrinsic aid, have already done 
 much in furthering the object you have at heart ; that 
 they want assistance ; that the present is the time at 
 which that assistance may most effectually be applied j 
 and also the nature of the assistance required. 
 
 " The Foulahs are an intelligent people, and are 
 very anxious to extend their commercial dealings with 
 the British. They seem to have already perceived 
 that it is more profitable for them to preserve the 
 element of labor in their own country, than to de- 
 prive themselves of its assistance by selling each other 
 to strangers ; so that it may be said, without a meta- 
 phor, that in every hundred- weight of coffee which 
 they collect and take to Kaikandy, at least one human 
 being is preserved from slavery. 
 
 " An instance illustrative of their desire to preserve 
 and extend their commercial relations with the British 
 occurred a few months ago. A temporary interrup- 
 tion was thrown in the way of both the export and 
 import trade of the river, (Nunez,) by certain dissen- 
 sions among the tributary chiefs, the continuance of 
 which was likely to prove highly detrimental to the 
 interests of the British and other merchants estab- 
 lished at Kaikandy. Lieutenant Hill, of her Majesty's 
 brig Saracen, on being made acquainted with the dan- 
 ger to which British property was exposed, very 
 9* 
 
102 THE REMEDY. 
 
 promptly set sail for the Rio Nunez for its protection. 
 On his arrival there, a grand palaver was called, for 
 the purposes of investigating the causes of this dis- 
 turbance, and of restoring tranquillity. The confer- 
 ence which ensued was presided over by a Foulah 
 chief, who appeared to be established at Kaikandy in 
 an official character, and to be clothed with functions 
 (as the event showed) of a nature more full and 
 extensive than those of a mere consul or charge 
 d'affaires. 
 
 " It appeared by the majority of voices, and by an 
 almost unanimous concurrence of opinion, that the 
 cause and continuance of the disturbances were at- 
 tributable to the intrigues of a Mandingo named Boi 
 Modao. 
 
 u The Foulah chief addressed himself to Lieut. Hill, 
 in a speech explanatory of the great anxiety of the 
 Foulah king to maintain and to extend commercial 
 intercourse with the British, and his determination 
 to put down and remove any obstacle to its continu- 
 ance that should arise ; and to satisfy Lieut. Hill of 
 the sincerity of his professions, he offered then and 
 there to decapitate Boi Modao, and thus at once re- 
 store trade to its usual channels. Lieut. Hill, of 
 course, declined a proof of sincerity so unequivocal 
 and convincing. 
 
 " The conference was no sooner at an end than Boi 
 Modao, with marks of great haste and much alarm, 
 fled from that part of the country, and trade was car- 
 ried on as usual." 
 
 We now proceed to the further consideration of 
 the Gambia. " In the year 1814," says Mr. Bandinel, 
 " a colony was formed at St. Mary's, on the river 
 
THE GAMBIA. 103 
 
 Gambia, by British settlers, who removed from the 
 coast of Senegal, when it was restored to the French. 
 This colony has increased and flourished beyond all 
 reasonable calculation, and is already more powerful 
 and wealthy than any of those elder settlements of 
 the British in Africa, which were formed for the pur- 
 pose of promoting the Slave Trade. 
 
 " The beneficial effects of the settlement of St. 
 Clary's, on all the tribes along the banks of the Gam- 
 bia, are perhaps still more prominent than those which 
 have taken place round Sierra Leone." 
 
 " The Gambia was formerly a great mart for slaves. 
 The population along its banks are now eager for law- 
 ful commerce, in which alone they are now engaged. 
 The trade is extended about -iOO miles up the rh'er : 
 a new and lucrative branch has also been lately open- 
 ed there in gum ; and the only exception to the cheer- 
 ing picture occurs in the French establishment at Al- 
 breda, where still some slaves are said to be harbor- 
 ed, obtained from natives in the interior, and sent 
 overland afterwards to Goree." 
 
 The Slave Trade is, however, so small and so de- 
 clining at Albreda, that the exception may be almost 
 said to prove the rule ; because it shows, that though 
 an European establishment exists, ready to trade in 
 slaves, it does not flourish against the rivalry of a 
 legal commerce. 
 
 In the year 1833, a mission, in connection with the 
 Wesleyan Society, was established at Macarthy'e 
 Island, on the Gambia, with the view of promoting 
 the civilization of the neighboring tribes of Foulahs 
 through the medium of Christianity. To the mission- 
 aries connected with this establishment I am indebted 
 
104 THE REMEDY. 
 
 for much valuable information respecting the present 
 state of Western Africa. The Rev. R. M. Macbrair, 
 in a MS. statement with which he has favored me, 
 ascribes the abolition of the Slave Trade in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Gambia to two causes ; first, to the vicin- 
 ity of the British colony, and its command over the 
 river j and, secondly, to the existence of a good mar- 
 ket for the produce of the soil. The change effected 
 by these circumstances Mr. Macbrair thus describes : 
 — " Culture is more practised in the neighborhood 
 of the Gambia, where affairs are now comparatively 
 peaceful. Before the abolition of the Slave Trade 
 there were considerable factories here ; and one na- 
 tive merchant, now at St. Mary's, was sold no less 
 than three times by another, who resides in the same 
 place. One of the kings also, is said to have " seized 
 and disposed of some of his subjects whenever he 
 wanted a horse, a wife, or other purchasable commo- 
 dity." But now that the slave-market is abolished, 
 and the natives can find a ready market for the pro- 
 duce of their lands by means of the British mer- 
 chants, the cultivation of the soil increases every 
 year ; and the Aborigines have been heard to say, 
 that they now wish they had their slaves back again, 
 because they could get more by their labors in 
 husbandry than they did by selling them to Euro- 
 peans." 
 
 Mr. Finden, who has been a resident merchant on 
 the Gambia for the last 17 years, says, in a letter to 
 me, dated 4th May, 1838 — " Prior to the formation 
 of the settlement, the trade consisted almost wholly 
 in slaves: and vessels, fitted out for the purpose, pro- 
 ceeded up the river about 300 miles. Since that pe- 
 
THE GAMBIA. 105 
 
 riod, I can state, from correct information, and my 
 own knowledge, that no slaves have been exported 
 in any vessel from the Gambia ; and in lieu of this 
 horrible traffic, a valuable and legitimate commerce 
 has been established there, which, by encouragement., 
 might be considerably increased and rendered most 
 valuable to the mother country.' " This," he thinks, 
 " might be effected by extending protection, at least 
 as high up the river as it is navigable in the dry sea- 
 son. I should consider Fattatenda * and Kantally 
 Coonda the most desirable spots. By this means 
 greater quantities of our exports could be thrown into 
 the country, and trade drawn from a much greater 
 distance, and we should thus be enabled, in a great 
 measure, to check the slave-traders who pass these 
 places on their way to the different leeward slave- 
 depots. An armed steam-vessel would be of great 
 service, and would afford a protection to trading ves- 
 sels and factories established on the banks of the ri- 
 ver, which are at present rendered unsafe by the de- 
 predations committed by marauding chiefs." 
 
 These views are fully concurred in by the Rev. 
 John Morgan, to whose zeal the Foulah mission partly 
 owes its origin. He recommends the purchase of 
 tracts of land adjoining the principal rivers which 
 flow into the Atlantic, in which the natives might find 
 security from the predatory incursions of the chiefs, 
 
 * A considerable trade is already carried on at the port of Fat. 
 tatenda, beyond which merchant vessels do not proceed, The Rev. 
 W. Fox, who visited it in 1837, describes it as " the resort of car- 
 avans from the interior;" and, consequently, a considerable con. 
 course of people is invariably attracted thither in the pursuit of 
 commerce. 
 
106 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and from the cupidity of the slave-trader ; and he 
 likewise suggests the employment of an armed steam- 
 vessel attached to each settlement. He says, " I am 
 convinced that thousands would flee to such places 
 of refuge, as soon as they could be assured of protec- 
 tion, and thus a dense free population would soon 
 spring up, and agriculture and commerce would ra- 
 pidly extend. These settlements might soon be ren 
 dered capable of defending themselves, and a great 
 saving of European life would be immediately effect- 
 ed, as the interior of the country is far more salubri- 
 ous than the coast." 
 
 Here I must again express my regret that the use- 
 fulness of our principal African settlements should 
 have been impaired by an injudicious selection of lo- 
 calities, and by a too contracted scale of operations. 
 The disadvantages with which they have had to con- 
 tend are thus stated by Mr. Morgan : — " Being situat- 
 ed on the coast, those who most needed refuge could 
 not reach them : secondly, they have ever been so 
 small, that it was impossible for more than a small 
 number to provide the means of subsistence on either 
 of them : thirdly, in several cases, protection has not 
 been offered to those who have fled to them." To 
 these causes, I think, it may be attributed that our 
 success has been so limited, and that so little has 
 been done towards the accomplishment of our main 
 object. 
 
 We find, however, in the immediate neighborhood 
 of the Gambia, where the influence of the British flag 
 is felt, the Slave Trade has been suppressed, and com- 
 parative tranquillity and security have been establish- 
 ed. But we do not proceed far into the interior, be- 
 
THE GAMBIA. 107 
 
 lore we meet with the same scenes of violence and 
 rapine as before. In many cases, the slaves who were 
 formerly brought to the mouth of the river, are now 
 transported over land to other parts of the coast ; the 
 depredations of the powerful chiefs still continue and 
 have hitherto rendered abortive the attempts which 
 have been made by the missionaries to establish na- 
 tive settlements on the main land, without the aid of 
 British protection. These circumstances confirm me 
 in the opinion which I have formed, in common with 
 those who are best acquainted with the subject, that 
 our settlements, in order to be effective, must be fixed 
 in the interior, where the Slave Trade originates, and 
 where our experiments can be tried at a less costly 
 sacrifice of human life. 
 
 I cannot conclude my notice of this colony, without 
 adverting to the success which has attended the labors 
 of the missionaries, from whom I have so largely 
 quoted. By the latest official returns of the estab- 
 lishment at St. Mary's and Macarthy's Islands, it 
 appears that there are " 559 members in church fellow- 
 ship, with congregations amounting to more than dou- 
 ble that number." The Mandingo language, which is 
 generally used in that part of Western Africa, has 
 been reduced to grammatical form, and translations 
 of the gospels have been made. In the schools, which 
 are partly conducted by native teachers, 220 are in- 
 structed in the elements of a plain education ; and the 
 missionaries state that they are encouraged to per- 
 severe in their labors, by the increasing desire mani- 
 fested by the people to obtain instruction. An interest- 
 ing feature in this missionary enterprise is the experi- 
 ment which is about to be made of following up the 
 
108 THE REMEDY. 
 
 preaching of the gospel by instruction in the arts and 
 pursuits of civilized life. The site of a native village 
 has been selected in Macarthy's island, and 600 acres 
 of land have been allotted by the British government 
 on which some of the Christian natives are already 
 receiving elementary instruction in agriculture. 
 
 THE GOLD COAST. 
 
 Our settlement on the Gold Coast is another illus- 
 tration of the advantage of stations in Africa. In this 
 case there are two unquestionable facts, — 1st, That 
 the Slave Trade did prevail in the district of the Gold 
 Coast. 2dly, That it has been entirely suppressed, and 
 that a considerable and increasing trade has sprung 
 up in its place. To any one familiar with the earlier 
 period of the Slave Trade controversy, it will not be 
 necessary to say, that it was perpetually referred to as 
 the district which furnished by far the greater part of 
 the slaves taken to the British colonies. We not only 
 established forts there for the express purpose of en- 
 couraging that trade, but there seems to have been 
 no difficulty in obtaining from parliament munificent 
 grants for their maintenance — 30,000/. was the annual 
 sum thus applied. 
 
 " These establishments," says the governor of the 
 colony, " constituted the great emporium whence the 
 British West India colonies were supplied with slaves. 
 Such being the case, and considering also the vast 
 number of slaves which were annually exported in or- 
 der to meet the demands of so extensive a market, we 
 are fully warranted in affirming, that in no part of 
 Africa was the Slave Trade more firmly rooted, or 
 
THE GOLD COAST. 109 
 
 more systematically carried on, than in these settle- 
 ments." 
 
 What is now termed legitimate commerce was, pre- 
 viously to the passing of the Abolition Act, but little 
 thought of, and only attended to, so far as it was auxi- 
 liary to the grand object— the acquisition of slaves. 
 " Daily accustomed to witness scenes of the most cold- 
 blooded cruelty, the inhabitants became utterly callous 
 to human suffering ; each petty chieftain oppressed 
 and plundered his weaker neighbors, to be in his turn 
 plundered and oppressed by one stronger and more 
 powerful than himself. In no portion of Africa, in short, 
 was the demoralizing, the brutalizing influence of the 
 Slave Trade more fearfully displayed, than in those 
 extensive tracts of country which now form, or are 
 adjoining to, our settlements on the Gold Coast." 
 
 But, happily, this state of things no longer exists. 
 Within a few short years, so complete a revolution has 
 been effected, that, in the expressive words of Gover- 
 nor M'Lean, " from Apollnnia to Accra, not a single 
 slave has been exported since the year 1S30." 
 
 It becomes, then, highly interesting to ascertain 
 how, and by what means, the Slave Trade has been 
 eradicated from a portion of Africa, comprehending a 
 space which Governor MLean rates at 4000 square 
 miles inland, and a line of coast 130 miles in extent, 
 — where it had been planted, protected, fostered, and 
 munificently encouraged for centuries. 
 
 This great object has not been accomplished by our 
 naval squadrons. Her Majesty's cruisers have certain- 
 ly been in the habit of visiting the settlement, but only 
 for the purpose of procuring supplies, and of affording, 
 if called upon, aid to the local authorities. No cruiser 
 10 
 
1 10 THE REMEDY. 
 
 (says the Governor) has ever, at least for many- 
 years, been stationed off the Gold Coast for the pur- 
 pose of intercepting slaves. 
 
 This revolution has been effected by the very agency 
 which I desire to see tried on other parts of the coast, 
 and on a greater scale, — by the establishment of a 
 station, which, while it multiplies the difficulties and 
 dangers of the slave-trader, will afford protection to 
 the native in the cultivation of the soil, by giving se- 
 curity to the trader, and opening a market for the sale 
 of the productions he rears. Crops have been grown, 
 and articles produced, and labor bestowed, because 
 he who sowed knew that he should reap, and he who 
 labored was no longer exposed to the probability of 
 seeing his acquisitions rifled, and himself hunted after, 
 by the marauders whom his prosperity had attracted. 
 
 It is not to be denied that there were great difficul- 
 ties in the outset. The trade in man has its attractions 
 — it combines the hazard of the chase, with the name 
 and profits of merchandise. It affords a field for 
 the exercise of skill — for the display of courage — for 
 the employment of stratagem — for the gratification 
 of revenge. It calls forth all those martial passions, 
 in which savages, and others than savages, conceive 
 that all glory resides. To some, no doubt, it yielded 
 wealth : a successful sally — a fortunate adventure — a 
 sudden and daring surprise — rendered a profit larger 
 than a month's labor would produce. It was, moreover, 
 the inveterate custom of the country. The inhabitants 
 knew the art of kidnapping, and knew no other art : 
 there seemed to them no other way by which they could 
 obtain tiiOse supplies of foreign manufacture and pro- 
 duce, which long habit had rendered necessaries of life. 
 
THE GOLD COAST. Ill 
 
 These difficulties stood in the way of the effectual 
 abolition of the Slave Trade : they were only to be 
 overcome by proving to the natives experimentally 
 that it was their interest to suppress it ; in other words, 
 that they would gain by the sale of their productions 
 a larger amount of those foreign luxuries which they 
 craved, than by the sale of man. It was therefore 
 necessary to create some other species of traffic, 
 whereby the native could procure his wonted supplies. 
 This end could not have been effected without the 
 aid of resident merchants and a local government : 
 the one, to afford a perpetual and ready supply of the 
 articles which the African required, and to urge him 
 to provide the goods which would be taken in ex- 
 change ; the other, to protect legitimate commerce, 
 and to redress, and, if needful, to punish the exporta- 
 tion of slaves. 
 
 The experiment has been successful. The diffi- 
 culties and perils which, after the Abolition law, at- 
 tached to the Slave Trade, called into existence 
 various articles of commerce previously unknown. 
 The soil, which formerly did not yield sufficient for 
 the sustenance of the inhabitants, now exports a 
 very large amount of corn to Madeira ; and the 
 natives, as we are expressly told by the governor, are 
 better supplied with European and other merchan- 
 dise than formerly, when it was the chief mart for 
 slaves. 
 
 It does not diminish my satisfaction to know that 
 this result was brought about by slow degrees. For 
 many years after the Slave Trade was abolished by 
 law, the conflict between lawful and unlawful trade 
 continued. It was not likely that the natives would 
 
112 THE REMEDY. 
 
 be weaned in a moment from the customs of their 
 forefathers, or by anything short of a succession of 
 experiments. But innocent commerce has at length 
 fairly won the victory, and the last case which occur, 
 red is thus described. I quote it, because the narra- 
 tive proves that prior to 1830, our influence had check- 
 ed the Slave Trade ; and because it incidentally 
 shows, in an official form, the customary horrors of 
 the traffic, which, as far as the Gold Coast extends, we 
 have been so happy as to repress. 
 
 " In the month of January, 1830, the king of Apol- 
 lonia, an ally, though not a dependent on the 
 British government, dispatched messengers to Cape 
 Coast Castle, to intimate that a Spanish slaver had an- 
 chored off Apollonia fort, the captain of which assert- 
 ed, that he had obtained the president's leave to pur- 
 chase a cargo of slaves, and had already landed goods 
 for that purpose ; that he (the king of Apollonia) 
 wished to ascertain whether there was any truth in 
 the Spanish captain's assertion, as he should certainly 
 furnish him with no slaves, without the full consent 
 and permission of the president. The president, in 
 reply to this message, highly commended the conduct 
 of the king of Apollonia, as a reward for which he 
 sent him a handsome present, at the same time strict- 
 ly prohibiting him from exporting, or permitting to be 
 exported, a single slave, and explaining to him the 
 British laws on that subject. 
 
 " In the mean time, the king had contrived, by fair 
 promises, to get into his possession the whole of the 
 Spanish cargo of goods ; and when his messengers 
 returned from Cape Coast Castle, he flatly refused to 
 deliver a single slave, or return the cargo. The 
 
THE GOLD COAST. 113 
 
 Spanish captain managed, however, to get on board 
 his vessel several of the king's family, and intimated 
 to him, that, unless the slaves contracted for were 
 furnished immediately, he would certainly carry them 
 (the king's hostages) off the coast ; whereupon the 
 king, mustering his more immediate attendants and 
 adherents, sallied out into the town, in the night time, 
 and seizing all without distinction whom he could find, 
 sent them, to the number of 360, on board in irons, 
 at daybreak, receiving in return the persons detained 
 as hostages. 
 
 " Here were 360 free people, living in their own 
 houses, in perfect peace and apparent security, seized 
 without the shadow of pretext, by a rapacious and 
 remorseless tyrant, whom they had been taught to 
 look up to as their father and protecter. One of 
 them, a mulatto girl, about sixteen or seventeen years 
 of age, was afterwards redeemed, and she described 
 the consternation and horror of the poor people, 
 when they found themselves ironed in the slaver's 
 hold." 
 
 la a letter which I received from Governor M'Lean, 
 dated 28th September, 1838, he again adverts to the 
 formerly disordered state of the colony, which he 
 thus contrasts with its present condition : — " In 1830, 
 all communication with Ashantee, and through it with 
 the interior, had been entirely stopped for 10 years 
 previously ; and the only trade done was for what 
 gold and ivory could be procured in the districts ad- 
 joining the coast. The whole country was one scene 
 of oppression, cruelty, and disorder j so much so, 
 that a trader dared not go twenty miles into the 'bush.' 
 At present our communication with the interior is 
 10* 
 
114 THE REMEDY. 
 
 as free and safe as between England and Scotland ; 
 single messengers can, and do travel from one end of 
 the country to the other with perfect safety ; and no 
 man can oppress another with impunity." Such is 
 the important change which a local government, with 
 but limited resources at its command, has been ena. 
 bled to effect throughout this extensive territory, in 
 the short period of eight years, and principally by 
 means of a strict and impartial administration of 
 justice. The natives, long used to the most cruel 
 tyranny, warmly appreciate their present mild and 
 equal system of government, and rely, with perfect 
 confidence, upon the integrity of their rulers. The 
 consequence is, the trade of the Gold Coast already 
 repays more than twenty. fold the sum granted by 
 Parliament for the support of the local establishment.* 
 Its exports to Great Britain amount to 160,000/. per 
 annum, forming one-fifth of the whole commerce of 
 Africa ; although the country is by no means so fer- 
 tile as many other parts of that continent, and has not 
 the advantage of navigable rivers. 
 
 It is also gratifying to find that, through the labors 
 of the Wesleyan missionaries, Christianity is making 
 considerable progress in this part of Africa. The 
 Rev. T. R» Freeman, in a letter to the parent Society, 
 dated 10th October, 1838, after describing in animated 
 terms, the prosperous state of the mission, and the 
 field which is now open for Christian enterprise, 
 communicates the following interesting intelligence : 
 — " I have received information via Fernando Po, that 
 several liberated Africans in the Island of Jamaica, 
 
 * United Service Journal, March, 1838. 
 
THE GOLD COAST. 115 
 
 who are members of our Society in the Kingston cir- 
 cuit, and who are natives of Cape Coast, Annamaboe, 
 and Accra, and other places along the western coast 
 of Africa which are under the British flag, are very- 
 anxious to return to their native land. But they are 
 afraid of being again torn away from their homes, 
 and exposed to all the horrors of slavery : and, 
 secondly, of being deprived of those Christian privi- 
 leges which they now enjoy. Please to inform them 
 that their fears are groundless ; that their persons and 
 property will here be perfectly safe, and that several 
 hundreds of their countrymen have embraced the 
 truths of Christianity. They can also have employ- 
 ment as soon as they arrive here." 
 
 A striking contrast to the state of the Gold Coast 
 is presented by the town of Wydah, situated on the 
 Bight of Benin. This place is the residence of the 
 notorious De Sousa, the slave-broker of the king of 
 Dahomey, and it enjoys very little, if any, legitimate 
 trade. The captain of a merchant-ship states, that he 
 has seen there 28 slave vessels under Spanish and 
 Brazilian colors. " These vessels," he observes, 
 " would carry, on an average, 350 or 400 slaves each. 
 On returning, ten months after, I have seen several of 
 these vessels in the same roadstead, having in the 
 interim completed a slavery voyage to Brazil and 
 back." 
 
 To these portions of Africa, in particular, Great 
 Britain owes a heavy debt of justice, for the many 
 years of misery which she inflicted upon them by 
 making them the seats of the Slave Trade ; a debt, 
 which she can only hope to repay, by carrying out the 
 salutary measures which have proved so successful 
 
116 THE REMEDY. 
 
 in the case of the Gold Coast. But as the injury was 
 not limited to these localities only, so her redress 
 should not terminate there : in order that her com- 
 pensation may be ample, and her remedy efficient, 
 they must be applied nearer the sources of the evil. 
 
 Our efforts, as far as they have gone, have been suc- 
 cessful, and although our principal object has not been 
 attained by them, we have proved what may be effect- 
 ed, by granting our protection, by encouraging com- 
 merce and agriculture, and by diffusing the blessings 
 of Christianity. By adopting a similar policy in po- 
 sitions more favorable, and in connection with the 
 other measures which I propose, I am led to believe 
 we shall effectually check the Slave Trade, and pro- 
 duce a revolution in Africa, still more signal than that 
 which has been already experienced in our present 
 settlements. 
 
 It appears, then, that these three cases, Sierra 
 Leone, Gambia, and the Gold Coast, as far as they go, 
 illustrate and strengthen my views. When the errors 
 which have been committed in their management shall 
 be rectified, — when education and Christian instruc- 
 tion shall prevail, and when an effective impulse shall 
 have been given to commerce and agriculture, we, 
 seeing what has already been done, may reasonably 
 hope that a salutary change will be effected in this 
 unhappy continent. 
 
 A further confirmation of this hope is derived from 
 the recorded observations of gentlemen, worthy of all 
 confidence, who have collected their opinions on the 
 spot. 
 
 Governor Macarthy, in addressing the merchants 
 of St. Mary's on the Gambia in a visit he paid them 
 
DISPATCHES OF GOVERNOR TURNER. 117 
 
 in 1818, used the following words : — " I consider the 
 extension of an honorable trade in Africa as benefit- 
 ing a considerable portion of the human race. I an- 
 ticipate with delight the period when, in lieu of the 
 horrid traffic in human life, British trade and indus- 
 try will spread, and the Christian religion prevailing 
 over Africa, the inhabitants of this vast continent will, 
 by their emancipation from moral and physical slave- 
 ry, rank among civilized nations."* 
 
 General Turner, governor of Sierra Leone, appears 
 to have been a man of vigorous and enlarged mind : 
 had he lived, he would probably have done much for 
 the suppression of the Slave Trade. His reports are 
 the more interesting to me, because I find that his 
 views, as to the mode of accomplishing that object, 
 closely correspond with those which I have adopted. 
 He appears to think that the abolition is to be effected 
 by means of treaties with the native powers ; by en- 
 gaging them to lend their assistance j by thus root- 
 ing out the Slave-trader from his usual field of exer- 
 tion ; and by the employment of steamers on the 
 coast : above all, by the influence of legitimate com- 
 merce. 
 
 Extracts from Dispatches from Major General Turner, 
 late Governor of Sierra Leone. 
 
 Dated 20th July, 1825. 
 
 " The great increase of the Slave Trade in this 
 
 neighborhood, together with the inadequacy of the 
 
 ships of war on the station, have caused me to turn 
 
 my attention seriously to the evil, as well as to the 
 
 * Nineteenth Report of Church Missionary Society. 
 
118 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 remedy for it j and whilst I admit the evil to exist to 
 a shameful extent, I am happy to say, that I will un- 
 dertake, at little or no expense, without the aid of the 
 navy, without compromising the government, and 
 without risk of failure, to complete in six months such 
 arrangements as will prevent any vessel, of any nation, 
 carrying away a cargo of slaves from Western Africa ; 
 and I pledge myself that the completion of these mea- 
 sures will produce to Africa more peace and good 
 order, more industry, prosperity, and morality, — and 
 to England, a larger and better field for the exercise 
 of her benevolence. 
 
 # # # # 
 
 "England should prevent the collection of these un- 
 happy victims, and bestow her care upon nations with 
 knowledge to appreciate, and character to retain the 
 advantage of an intercourse with her ; that there are 
 such nations within our reach, and that they are anx- 
 ious to open a communication with us, is within my 
 knowledge ; and that I will accomplish all these ob- 
 jects without much expense, if approved of, I pledge 
 myself. If there should be any doubt, I should beg 
 that those who know me best may be referred to, 
 whether I am likely to engage in wild, visionary 
 schemes. Should such measures be approved of, all 
 I want from England are two small steam-boats. 
 
 " These two boats, in addition to the one already 
 ordered for the general work of this extended com- 
 mand, will be enough to occupy and maintain our 
 sovereignty over the various rivers from Senegal to 
 the Gold Coast — a sovereignty which I will procure 
 from the natives, if approved of, at a small expense ; 
 and I will establish and maintain the British flag on 
 
DISPATCHES OF GOVERNOR TURNER. 119 
 
 them, which will cause them to be considered British 
 waters, and give us the power to exclude all nations 
 from them." 
 
 Dated ISth October, 1825. 
 " On approaching the Sherbro, I caused the king 
 and chiefs of the maritime districts engaged in the 
 war, to be assembled ; and as they had already ap- 
 plied to me for protection against their enemies, I 
 informed them that the only condition upon which 
 I would grant them effectual security would be the 
 giving up for ever the Slave Trade, making over to 
 me for the King of England the sovereignty of their 
 territories, acknowledging the laws of England, laying 
 down their arms in the present war, and agreeing 
 never to undertake any other without the consent of 
 the government of Sierra Leone for the time being. 
 They immediately agreed to these terms, and a treaty 
 was accordingly signed and ratified, in presence of all 
 the people. 
 
 # * # * 
 
 " By this treaty, upwards of 100 miles of sea-coast 
 are added to this colony ; a circumstance which, in 
 this particular case, will tend greatly to increase its 
 trade and general prosperity. 
 
 # # # # 
 
 "As regards the Slave Trade the district now 
 ceded has, for many years back, been the theatre of 
 its most active operations in this or perhaps any other 
 part of the coast ; and the best information that I can 
 collect warrants my stating the number annually ex- 
 ported at not less than 15,000, all of whom will in fu- 
 ture be employed in cultivating the soil, preparing and 
 
120 THE REMEDY. 
 
 collecting articles of export, and improving their own 
 
 condition. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " The other parties engaged in the war, and who 
 are an inland people, I sent a messenger to, to desire 
 that they would no longer carry on the war, as I had 
 taken the country under my protection ; they ex- 
 pressed their willingness for peace, and some of the 
 principal men among them came down and begged to 
 be taken under our protection, which was done. I 
 could not remain long enough in the Sherbro to re- 
 ceive the more distant ones ; but I make no doubt I 
 shall be able to bring about a general peace through- 
 out these countries, and cause the kings and chiefs to 
 turn their attention to more humane and profitable 
 
 pursuits. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " The affairs of this colony (Sierre Leone) are 
 taking a much wider range, and the valuable products 
 of the interior are finding their way here in much 
 larger proportion than formerly, and the influx of 
 strangers from very distant nations is very great. 
 The name and character of the colony are spreading 
 rapidly, as is proved by the repeated messengers sent to 
 me from the rulers of distant nations, and the eagerness 
 with which they seek our friendship and alliance. Our 
 influence and authority with the smaller states imme- 
 diately around are getting greater, and the beneficial 
 results very visible. ****** 
 " The most powerful of them, the king of the Man- 
 dingoes, has placed himself under our orders." 
 
 Dated 1st November, 1825. 
 u I have just received from chiefs to the northward 
 
DISPATCHES OF GOVERNOR TURNER. 121 
 
 of this colony, an offer to give us the sovereignty of 
 their country, and to abolish for ever the Slave Trade, 
 receiving, in return, our protection and the benefits of 
 a free trade with us." 
 
 Dated 20th December, 1825. 
 Reports the success of his expedition up the rivers 
 Rokell and Port Logo, which, by their junction, form 
 the river and harbor of Sierra Leone. The Rokell is 
 the direct route to the countries round the source of 
 the Niger. 
 
 # # # # 
 
 Having overcome the difficulties which had called 
 for his active interference, General Turner entered 
 into a Convention with the people, the substance of 
 which I give in his own words : — 
 
 "The Convention, in the first place, puts an effec- 
 tive stop to all slave-trading, to internal wars, a 
 scourge more baneful to Africa than the Slave Trade 
 itself, and gives security and stability to persons and 
 property : it causes the chiefs and others to become 
 industrious, in order to procure, either by cultivation 
 or trade, those articles of luxury which they formerly 
 acquired by the sale of slaves or plunder in war j it 
 will lead to civilization, morality, and a desire of edu- 
 cation and useful knowledge, by showing the advan- 
 tage which educated men will have in trade over un- 
 educated ones ; and the becoming provinces of this 
 government will create a strong desire to learn our 
 language and religion. 
 
 " To us it will have the effect of greatly extend- 
 ing the sphere of our mercantile transactions, by 
 enabling agents and travelers to pass through the 
 
 country in security, of extending and improving our 
 11 
 
122 THE REMEDY, 
 
 geographical knowledge, of obtaining correct infor- 
 mation of the power, wealth, and resources of each 
 nation, and thereby forming, in the course of time, 
 a large outlet for our manufactured goods, and of 
 receiving, in return, valuable raw materials, and of 
 spreading throughout distant nations impressions of 
 our wealth, influence, and greatness. These facts 
 are already beginning to be felt, and the surrounding 
 countries generally, (with the exception of a few 
 factious chiefs who live by plundering travelers,) 
 aware of the advantage of being connected with 
 Sierra Leone, are petitioning this Government to 
 interfere to put an end to their wars, and to take 
 them under its protection. Your Lordship will ob- 
 serve, that the public are put to no expense for the 
 accomplishment of these objects ; that there is no in- 
 crease of our military establishments required. 
 * # * # 
 
 " I would submit that a small yearly salary should 
 be given to each native chief placed in charge of these 
 provinces or districts, from JG50 to £100 per year." 
 
 I have given these extracts at considerable length, 
 because they are highly valuable, as showing, on the 
 testimony of a person who had great experience, that 
 the true way to suppress the Slave Trade, and to 
 extricate Africa from its present abyss of misery, is 
 to be found in friendly intercourse with the natives ; 
 in the encouragement of their legitimate trade ; in 
 the cultivation of the soil, and in alliances with them 
 for the suppression of the Slave Traffic. Acting upon 
 this system, he says, " I have little doubt but I 
 shall have the honor, ere long, to announce to your 
 
PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNOR TURNER. 123 
 
 Lordship the total abolition of the Slave Trade for 
 1000 miles around me, and a tenfold increase to the 
 trade of this colony." 
 
 I may be permitted to relate the melancholy, but 
 to me highly interesting termination of the career 
 of this officer. In the early part of the spring of 
 1826, he proceeded to the Sherbro country, for the 
 purpose of consolidating those arrangements for the 
 abolition of the Slave Trade which he had entered 
 into with the king and the native chiefs. On his 
 arrival at the Sherbro, he discovered, that the great 
 slave-traders, who had retired from that district on 
 the signing of the convention, prohibiting the export- 
 ation of slaves, had joined with those of the Gallinas, 
 and had come to the resolution of establishing the 
 Slave Trade by force, even in the districts where it 
 had been voluntarily given up by the native chiefs, 
 and were then assembled in force up the Boom river, 
 seizing our people, and putting at defiance our power 
 and our rights. 
 
 Upon this band of miscreants he made a success- 
 ful attack, and he concludes his dispatch on the 2d 
 of March, 1826, by saying : " After carrying away 
 the guns and stores, and destroying by fire the town 
 and neighborhood, we embarked, and got safely to 
 the shipping in the Sherbro on the 23d after de- 
 stroying the two principal strongholds, with eight 
 smaller towns, where these wretches kept their 
 victims in chains, until the ships were ready to receive 
 them ; and I sincerely trust that this lesson will teach 
 the deluded of this country not to put further faith 
 in the vain boastings of these wicked people, who, 
 by administering to the worst passions of the igno- 
 
124 THE REMEDY. 
 
 rant and unfortunate inhabitants, not only depopu- 
 late and turn into deserts the most fertile plains 
 which I have ever seen, but so blunt their feelings, 
 and brutalize their natures, that, for a few bottles of 
 rum and heads of tobacco the parent is found with- 
 out remorse, casting away his offspring ; each village 
 is engaged against the other, for the purpose of 
 making prisoners ; and men, like beasts of prey, are 
 ever on the watch to seize their neighbors and their 
 fellow-men." 
 
 I received an account of this expedition from a 
 gentleman who joined it as a volunteer. He spoke 
 of the conduct of General Turner with admiration. 
 Not content with heading the attack, and command- 
 ing the boats in the descent, he took with his own 
 hands the soundings of every part of the river, and 
 underwent more physical toil than the lowest of the 
 crew. He paid the greatest attention to the health 
 of all his party, and administered medicine to them 
 upon the slightest symptom of incipient fever. The 
 only point of which he was regardless was his own 
 health ; and to this imprudence he fell a victim. One 
 of his officers ventured to remonstrate with him on the 
 subject, and told him that he saw he was indisposed. 
 The General replied, that nothing could touch his 
 iron constitution ; that he never had taken a dose of 
 physic, and never would. On his arrival at Sierra 
 Leone, he wrote with his own hands the dispatch 
 dated March 2d, from which I have already made 
 quotations. On the 3d of March he begins a short 
 letter to Lord Bathurst thus : — " I lament exceeding- 
 ly that an attack of fever got up the Boom river should 
 prevent my having the honor of submitting to your 
 
OPINION OF GOVERNOR WICHOLLS. 125 
 
 Lordship observations upon the bearings which the 
 circumstances detailed in my dispatch of the 2d inst. 
 have upon the state of this unhappy country, and the 
 prospects which they hold out, for a great revolution 
 in the affairs of the inhabitants.'' After adverting, in 
 three lines to the expedition, he says : — " Although 
 the bar of the Gallinas river is an extremely diffi- 
 cult and hazardous undertaking, I think that, by 
 blockading them, and making a strong party there, 
 I shall completely break up the Slave Trade, and stop 
 for ever, from those shores, the export of near 
 30,000 slaves ^annually, substituting agriculture, se- 
 curity of person and property, industry, civilization, 
 and knowledge of the Christian religion. At all 
 events, if my health is restored, I will do my best." 
 
 According to my informant, he found the General 
 at his desk, quite insensible, with his pen still in his 
 hand, and this letter before him. It is well worth 
 notice that, in his last words, he should have dwelt 
 upon the extinction of the Slave Trade, by the substi- 
 tution of agriculture, security of person and property, 
 industry, civilization, and knowledge of the Christian 
 religion. 
 
 The effect of General Turner's measures are thus 
 described by his successor, in a dispatch, dated 2d 
 of July, 1826 :— 
 
 u The measures adopted by General Turner have 
 
 secured peace, safety, and tranquillity to a large 
 
 extent of country, have destroyed an annual export 
 
 of at least 15,000 slaves, and have prevented all the 
 
 wretchedness, misery, and bloodshed which would 
 
 otherwise have attended the making of these slaves, 
 * * • # 
 
 11* 
 
126 'THE REMEDY. 
 
 " iMore real service has been performed by him 
 towards the abolition of the Slave Trade, and that, 
 too, permanently, should his measures be followed 
 up, than by all the other means employed by His 
 Majesty's Government for that purpose." 
 
 I cannot express how deeply I deplore that twelve 
 years should have elapsed, in which little or nothing 
 has been done by the Government in furtherance of 
 views so sound, so enlightened, and so promising. 
 
 Colonel Nicholls, who was Governor of Fernando 
 Po, during our occupation of that island, and who 
 has had, perhaps, as much knowledge, derived from 
 experience, as any man, of the nature of the Slave 
 Trade, and of the most effectual modes of pre- 
 venting it, in a memorial to Government in 1830, 
 thus describes his general view : — 
 
 " There is one means, and I am persuaded but one 
 effectual means, of destroying the Slave Trade, 
 which is, by introducing a liberal -and well-regulated 
 system of commerce on the coast of Africa. At 
 present, the African is led to depend principally on 
 the slave dealers for his supplies of manufactured arti- 
 cles, of which he is so fond, and stands so much in 
 need. The individuals engaged in this traffic are 
 persons of the most infamous and unprincipled de- 
 scription : they come in their ships to the mouths of 
 the different unexplored rivers, where they land a 
 quantity of trade goods of the worst kind, and leav- 
 ing their supercargoes to exchange them with the 
 chiefs for slaves, return to the sea whilst their cargoes 
 are collecting, where, as pirates, they rob our mer- 
 chant-ships, murder their crews, and, when glutted 
 
OPINION OF GOVERNOR NICHOLLS. 127 
 
 with plunder, return to the coast to ship their victims, 
 for whom they pay about 11. or 8/. a-piece, and sell 
 them for 70/., 80/., or 100/. each. In conducting the 
 barter for these poor creatures with the chiefs, the 
 slavers are frequently guilty of every sort of violence 
 and injustice. Of this the chiefs are well aware, and 
 submit to it only because they have no redress. Were 
 it put in their power to procure better manufactured 
 goods from merchants who would have some regard 
 to justice and fair dealing in their transactions with 
 them, they would eagerly give them the preference, 
 particularly if they were protected from the resent- 
 ment of the slave-dealers. 
 
 " I will give, as nearly as I can recollect, the sub- 
 stance of a conversation which passed between one of 
 the native chiefs and myself on this subject. I began 
 by asking him how he could act so unwisely as to 
 sell his countrymen for 11. or 8/., when he might ren- 
 der them so much more profitable to him, by making 
 them labor \ The chief mused awhile, and then said, 
 1 If you will show me how this is to be done, I will 
 take your advice.' I asked him how much palm oil 
 a man could collect during the season 1 ' From one 
 to two tuns,' was his answer. I then inquired, how 
 a man could be employed when it was not the palm- 
 oil season ? ' In cutting down and squaring wood, 
 gathering elephants' teeth, tending cattle, and culti- 
 vating rice, corn, and yams,' was the reply. I then 
 said to him. ' Suppose a man collects a tun and a half 
 of palm-oil in a season ; that, according to its presen 
 value, will amount to 11/ or 12/.; and suppose he 
 picks up one elephant's tooth, the value of which is 
 about 2s. per lb., the weight frequently fifty pounds : 
 
128 THE REMEDY. 
 
 but reckon it at one -half that weight, that will be 21. 
 10s. more. The value of these two articles alone will 
 be nearly double what his price brings you, if you sell 
 him ; and this he would bring you every year, allow- 
 ing him all the other kinds of his labor for his own 
 maintenance. Upon this simple calculation, the truth 
 of which cannot be denied, what a loser you are by 
 selling him. Beside, you get goods inferior both in 
 quality and quantity, to those you could procure by 
 exchanging the produce of this man's labor with Bri- 
 tish merchants.' The chief acknowledged I was 
 right ; but said that, when I was gone, the slavers 
 would come, and if he did not get slaves for them, 
 they would burn his town, and perhaps take away 
 himself and his family, in place of the slaves they ex- 
 pected him to collect for them ; but that if this could be 
 prevented, he would sell no more slaves. I then told 
 him, if he promised this, 1 would come to his assist- 
 ance, in case the slavers committed any violence 
 against him, and put the miscreants in his power ; 
 that I should advise him to assemble his head-men, 
 and try and punish the delinquents by his own law, 
 and I thought they would not trouble him again. 1 
 assured him, that he and his countrymen were consi- 
 dered by us as much better men than these slavers, 
 and that we would protect them if they would trade 
 fairly with us in other produce than slaves. 
 
 " This chief drove off the first slaver that came, as 
 I directed him : he is now carrying on a thriving trade, 
 and his people are more civil and kind to us than any I 
 have yet seen. I feel convinced that I could influence 
 all the chiefs along the coast in the same manner ; but 
 to be able to effect this, it would be necessary to have 
 
OPINION OF GOVERNOR NICHOLLS. 129 
 
 the means of moving from one place to another with 
 a degree of celerity that a steam-vessel alone could 
 give us. This would be requisite, both to enable us 
 to keep our promise of protecting the chiefs from the 
 slavers, and also for the purpose of going up the 
 rivers, which are at present unknown to us, with the 
 least possible risk of health or loss of time. 
 
 " Steam-boats would also be of incalculable use to 
 commerce, by towing ships over bars and agitated 
 currents, whilst, as a means of catching the slave-ships, 
 and protecting the coast from the depredations of 
 their crews, three steamers would effect more than 
 the expensive squadron now maintained there. These 
 three vessels should carry four heavy guns each, be 
 of as light a draught of water as possible, and be 
 manned with fifty white* and fifty black men each : 
 they would not cost one half as much as one large 
 frigate, one corvette, and two gun-brigs, whilst they 
 would be an infinitely more efficient means for attain- 
 ing the end proposed by the use of them. I pledge 
 myself to put an end to the whole of our expense, 
 and totally to suppress the Slave Trade in two years. 
 But if this plan be not adopted, we may go on paying 
 over and over again for the liberated Africans to the 
 end of time, without performing anything beneficial 
 in their behalf." 
 
 Mr. Rendall, who was Governor of the Gambia, 
 (where he died,) it appears, contemplated, some 
 years ago, a plan for the suppression of the Slave 
 Trade j and had made some progress in a letter 
 
 * Colonel Nicholls now thinks that a much smaller number of 
 white sailors would be sufficient; 
 
130 THE REMEDY. 
 
 intended to be addressed to the Duke of Wellington. 
 I extract a few passages from it, which will serve to 
 show, that experience conducted him to the same 
 conclusion as that which has been arrived at by the 
 authorities I have already cited. In the introduction, 
 he says — " Of all the measures calculated to insure 
 the prosperity of Africa, none promises so well as 
 the encouragement of its legitimate commerce and 
 agriculture." He recommends the immediate clear- 
 ance and cultivation of a district, " which would at 
 once embrace two of the most important objects ; 
 viz., the improvement in salubrity, and the pro- 
 duction of such articles of export as would render the 
 colony valuable to the mother country." "Give," he 
 says, " an impulse to industry by establishing model 
 plantations ; let moral and religious education go 
 hand in hand ; and thus most firmly do I believe that 
 the great and benevolent objects of the real friends of 
 Africa will be most securely attained." — ■' Govern- 
 ment," he adds, " must begin, by showing to the 
 natives the practicability and profit of cultivation." 
 But he is convinced that the outlay thus required 
 would be speedily and abundantly repaid. He 
 speaks of cotton, coffee, indigo, and ginger as being 
 the produce that would thrive the best. 
 
 I now insert some extracts, bearing on the same 
 points, which I find in Mr. M'Queen's "View of 
 Northern Central Africa :" — 
 
 " There is no efficient way to arrest the progress of 
 this deep-rooted evil, but to teach the negroes useful 
 knowledge, and the arts of civilized life. Left to 
 themselves, the negroes will never effectually accom- 
 plish this. It must be done by a mighty power, who 
 
RENDALT,. m'qUEEN. 131 
 
 will take them under its protection — a power suffi- 
 ciently bold, enlightened, and just, to burst asunder 
 the chains of that grovelling superstition which en- 
 thrals and debases their minds, and that, with the 
 voice of authority, can unite the present jarring ele- 
 ments which exist in Africa, and direct them to 
 honorable and useful pursuits. Till the native 
 princes are taught that they may be rich without 
 selling men — and till Africa is shown that it is in 
 the labor and industry of her population, and in the 
 cultivation of her soil, that true wealth consists — 
 and till that population see a power which can pro- 
 tect them from such degrading bondage, there can 
 be no security for liberty or property in Africa ; 
 and, consequently, no wish or hope for improvement 
 amongst her population. 
 
 # # * % 
 
 " It is in Africa that this evil must be rooted out — 
 by African hands and African exertions chiefly that 
 it can be destroyed. It is a waste of time and a 
 waste of means, an aggravation of the disorder, to 
 keep lopping off the smaller branches of a malignant, 
 a vigorous, and reproductive plant, while the root and 
 stem remain uninjured, carefully supplied with nour- 
 ishment, and beyond our reach. Half the sums we 
 have expended in this manner would have rooted 
 up slavery for ever. Only teach them, and show them 
 that we will give them more for their produce than 
 for the hand that rears it, and the work is done. All 
 other methods and means will prove ineffectual. 
 
 # # * # 
 
 " The change contemplated in Africa could not be 
 wrought in a day. But were we once firmly estab- 
 
132 THE REMEDY. 
 
 lished, in a commanding attitude on the Niger, and 
 an end put to the two great scourges of Africa, Super- 
 stition and an external Slave Trade, the progress of 
 improvement would be rapid, and the advantages 
 great. 
 
 * # # # 
 
 " Nothing can be done — nothing ever will be 
 done, to alter their present indolent and inactive 
 mode of life, till justice and general security are spread 
 throughout these extensive regions. It would be 
 vain to expect industry or exertion on their parts, in 
 order to procure the comforts and the luxuries of life, 
 when no one can call any thing he may possess his 
 own, or where the superior wealth which he does 
 possess serves only to mark him out as the prey of 
 the unfeeling robber or sovereign despot." 
 
 The opinions also of travelers, who have visited 
 different parts of Africa at different times, are very 
 similar, both as to the capabilities of Africa, and as to 
 the opposite effects produced by the antagonist sys- 
 tems of the Slave Trade and legitimate commerce ; 
 and they concur in declaring that the encourage- 
 ment of the one ever tends to the destruction of the 
 other. This truth was admitted even by Golberry, 
 who was so far from being carried away by the phan- 
 toms of philanthropy — that he owns he felt some 
 difficulty in checking the expression of his " just 
 indignation" against the " cruel theories" of those 
 pretended philosophers, who imposed on the vulgar 
 by decrying the Slave Trade. 
 
 *' I have also observed," says Golberry, " that this 
 surface of Africa (all the country between Cape 
 Blanco and Cape Palmas), is at least 374,400 square 
 
ROBERTSON. 133 
 
 leagues, which is more than a fifth of the total 
 superficies of this large continent ; and that, if we 
 should one day be enabled to traverse freely and habi- 
 tually this extensive space, not only Europe would 
 discover new sources of wealth, and new objects for 
 industry, but that, by a natural and inevitable conse- 
 quence, the whole of Africa would soon be enlight- 
 ened, and everything which yet remains ambiguous 
 in the centre of this continent would be laid open to 
 investigation. 
 
 " There is reason to presume that more active 
 relations, together with agricultural and mercantile 
 establishments, and wholesome institutions, whose 
 object should be the instruction and civilization of 
 the negroes, would, in the course of fifteen years, 
 augment these products from thirty to more than 
 sixty millions ;* and if, during this period, England 
 and France act in unison — if the Governments of 
 the two first nations in the world were to proceed, 
 with emulation, in pursuit of the same object, then, 
 far from the Slave Trade being augmented, it would 
 soon diminish to one half, and it would quickly be 
 abolished by a natural consequence ; the inexhausti- 
 ble fertility of a soil which the natives would learn 
 to cultivate, and which has hitherto remained, in a 
 manner of speaking, abandoned to nature, would 
 administer to the wants and enjoyments of Europe ; 
 the African would become civilized ; and the ardent 
 wishes of a rational philosophy would speedily be 
 accomplished." 
 
 Robertson speaks to the same efTect : — " If Africa 
 
 * Franes. 
 
 12 
 
134 THE REMEDY. 
 
 is to be made subservient to the views of Europe, 
 let her have an interest in her own labor, and 
 that interest will be the strongest and best secu- 
 rity for her friendship. Show her the advantages 
 of industry, and will she deviate so far from the 
 usual motives which actuate mankind, as not to cul- 
 tivate such a connection, in order to improve her 
 own condition 1 There is but one system for us, 
 which can secure her friendship, and her social in- 
 tercourse, and that is, an equitable use of our and 
 her rights." 
 
 Park's testimony is similar : — " It cannot, how- 
 ever, admit of a doubt that all the rich and valu- 
 able productions, both of the East and West 
 Indies might easily be naturalized, and brought 
 to the utmost perfection, in the tropical parts of 
 this immense continent. Nothing is wanting to 
 this end but example, to enlighten the minds of 
 the natives ; and instruction, to enable them to direct 
 their industry to proper objects. It was not possible 
 for me to behold the wonderful fertility of the soil, 
 the vast herds of cattle, proper both for labor and 
 food, and a variety of other circumstances favorable 
 to colonization and agriculture, and reflect, withal, on 
 the means which presented themselves of a vast in- 
 land navigation, without lamenting that a country, so 
 abundantly gifted and favored by nature, should re- 
 main in its present savage and neglected state. Much 
 more did I lament that a people, of manners and dis- 
 positions so gentle and benevolent, should either be 
 left, as they now are, immersed in the gross and un- 
 comfortable blindness of pagan superstition, or per- 
 mitted to become converts to a system of bigotry and 
 
LAII1D. LANDER. 135 
 
 fanaticism which, without enlightening the mind, often 
 debases the heart." 
 
 Mr. Laird, discussing the best mode of establishing 
 trade, and of civilizing Africa, proposes establishing 
 a chain of British posts up the Niger, and across to 
 the Gambia : he proposes six or seven stations, and 
 sa y S : — « There are two ways in which this might 
 be done with comparative economy : the one, by 
 merely establishing a trading post ; the other, by 
 acquiring a small territory and importing West Indian 
 and American free negroes, who would bring with 
 them the knowledge they have acquired in the cul- 
 tivation of sugar and other tropical produce, and 
 would form, in fact, agricultural schools for the 
 benefit of the surrounding population." 
 
 "By the Niger, the whole of Western Africa 
 would be embraced ; by the Sharry (which I have 
 no doubt will be found navigable to the meridian of 
 25° east longitude) a communication would be opened 
 with all the nations inhabiting the unknown countries 
 between the Niger and the Nile. British influence 
 and enterprise would thereby penetrate into the re- 
 motest recesses of the country ; one hundred millions 
 of people wo*uld be brought into direct contact with 
 the civilized world ; new and boundless markets 
 would be opened to our manufactures ; a continent 
 teeming with inexhaustible fertility would yield her 
 riches to our traders ; not merely a nation, but hun- 
 dreds of nations, would be awakened from the 
 lethargy of centuries, and become useful and active 
 members of the great commonwealth of mankind ; 
 and every British station would become a centre from 
 whence religion and commerce would radiate their 
 
136 THE REMEDY 
 
 influence over the surrounding country. Who can 
 calculate the effect that would be produced, if such 
 a plan were followed out, and Africa, freed from her 
 chains, moral and physical, allowed to develope her 
 energies in peace and security % No parallel can be 
 drawn, no comparison can be instituted, between 
 Africa enslaved, and Africa free and unfettered." 
 
 Lander confirms these views : — " It is more than 
 probable, as we have now ascertained, that a water 
 communication may be carried on with so extensive 
 a part of the interior of Africa, that a considerable 
 trade will be opened with the country through which 
 we have passed. The natives only require to know 
 what is wanted from them, and to be shown what 
 they will have in return, and much produce that is 
 now lost, from neglect, will be turned to a consider- 
 able account. The countries situated on the banks 
 of the Niger will become frequented from all the ad- 
 jacent parts, and this magnificent stream will assume 
 an appearance it has never yet displayed." 
 
 Major Gray, summing up the means for bringing 
 the Africans to a state of civilization, and relieving 
 the people from the tyranny of their chiefs, says, — 
 " It has occurred to me there are no- means more 
 available, and, I may add, more speedily practicable, 
 than the enlargement of our intercourse with the 
 people, and the encouragement and protection of the 
 internal commerce of Africa. By this, we can im- 
 prove them in the way of example ; by the other, we 
 can benefit them and ourselves in the way of inter- 
 change of commodity : our habits and our manners 
 will gain upon them in time, and our skill tend to 
 stimulate and encourage theirs." 
 
GRAY. ALLEN. 137 
 
 " By increasing their commerce, we also obtain 
 another happy consummation, we give them employ- 
 ment, and we consequently, to a certain extent, secure 
 them from the incessant meddling of their maraboos. 
 We could congregate them in greater numbers to- 
 gether, and therefore the more readily instruct them ; 
 and I may venture to add, that if a fair trial of zeal 
 were used in such a delightful employment, within a 
 very few years they would prove themselves not un- 
 fitted for the enjoyment of liberal institutions." 
 
 " That there are powers of mind in the African, it 
 were quite idle to dispute ; that the productions of 
 the country are capable of being beneficially employ- 
 ed must, I think, be equally incontestable to any one 
 who has carefully perused the preceding pages ; and, 
 to act with honesty, we should not allow both, or 
 either, to lie for ever dormant." 
 
 " The European governments," says Burckhardt, 
 " who have settlements on the coast of Africa, may 
 contribute to it by commerce, and by the introduction 
 among the negroes of arts and industry." 
 
 Capt. W. Allen, R. N.,* in a letter addressed to me 
 August, 1839, observes : — " I have read your ' Reme- 
 dy' with great interest and attention, the more so, as 
 I find embodied in it all the ideas I had formed on the 
 same subject, deduced from observations written on 
 the spot." 
 
 There is no species of argument which carries with 
 it a greater force of conviction to my mind, than the 
 concurrence of a variety of persons, who, being com- 
 
 * Captain W. Allen was employed by the Admiralty to ascend 
 the Niger in Laird and Oldfield's expedition. 
 
 12* 
 
138 THE REMEDY. 
 
 petent to judge, and having opportunities of forming 
 a sound judgment, examine a given object with very 
 different purposes, from very different points of view, 
 yet arrive, without concert, or previous communica- 
 tion, at the same conclusion. In the case before us, 
 we collect the unpublished dispatches, letters, and 
 journals of the several Governors of Sierra Leone, 
 Fernando Po, the Gambia, and the Gold Coast. These 
 documents were written at different times, with no 
 view to publication, and there was no connection 
 between the officers who wrote them. Differing on 
 many points, they harmonize exactly on those which 
 affect my case. Each speaks of the exuberant fer- 
 tility of the soil ; each laments the desolation which, 
 in spite of nature, prevails ; and each looks to the 
 cultivation of those fertile lands, and to the growth 
 of legitimate commerce, as the remedy to the distrac 
 tions of Africa, and the horrors of the Slave Trade. 
 For example, it appears that General Turner at Sierra 
 Leone, and Colonel Nicolls of Fernando Po, had in 
 view much such a plan as I have suggested, when 
 they spoke in their dispatches of putting an end to 
 the Slave Trade in two or three years. This uncon- 
 scious union between themselves is not all. The 
 views of these gentlemen correspond with those 
 which I find in the private journals of the Missiona- 
 ries, who have gathered their experience, and formed 
 their opinion, while laboring among the native tribes 
 of the Gambia. That which is the opinion of these 
 soldiers and of these teachers of religion turns out to 
 be the opinion of the most distinguished travelers 
 and of intelligent traders. Captain Becroft, who 
 traded on the Western Coast, and Captain Raymond, 
 
m'queen. 139 
 
 who did the same on the Eastern, tell me, — that 
 trade, springing from the cultivation of the soil, will, 
 and that nothing else will, abolish the Slave Trade. 
 
 This uniformity of opinion between governors and 
 missionaries, travelers and traders, stops not here. 
 Mr. M'Queen and Mr. Clarkson,* who have spent 
 their lives in studying Africa, but not in the same 
 school, here cease to differ. Mr. Clarkson thus con- 
 cludes a long letter to me, dated November 20th, 
 1838 (after having noticed and approved each sug- 
 gestion I had made, particularly the purchase of a 
 large tract of country, for the establishment of pattern 
 farms, and the selection of Fernando Po) : — " Upon 
 the whole, it is my opinion that, if Government would 
 make the settlements which you have pointed out ; 
 if they were to substitute steamers in the place of 
 sailing ships ; if they were, by annual presents, to 
 work upon the native chiefs ; if they were to buy the 
 land upon which their settlements would be built, and 
 introduce pattern farms for the cultivation of cotton, 
 indigo, rice, or whatever other tropical production 
 they might think fit, they might as certainly count 
 upon the abolition of the Slave Trade, even in a short 
 time, as upon any unknown event, which men mio-ht 
 expect to be produced, from right reasoning, or by 
 going the right way to work, in order to produce it. 
 As far as our knowledge of Africa, and African man- 
 ners, customs, and dispositions goes, a better plan 
 could not be devised — no other plan, in short, could 
 answer. Had this plan been followed from the first, 
 it would have done wonders for Africa by this time 
 
 * For Mr. Clarkson' s judgment on the views and principles 
 stated in this book, see Appendix D. 
 
140 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and it would do much for us now : in two years from 
 the trial of it, it would become doubtful, whether it 
 was worth while to carry on the Slave Trade ; and in 
 fire years I have no doubt that it would be generally, 
 though, perhaps, not totally, abandoned. Depend 
 upon it, there is no way of civilizing and Christianiz- 
 ing Africa, which all good men must look to, but 
 this." " Teach them," says Mr. M'Queen, " that we 
 will give them more for their produce, than for the 
 hand that rears it, and the work is done. All other 
 methods and means will prove ineffectual." 
 
 Other illustrations of this coincidence might be 
 quoted The Society of Friends anxious to benefit 
 Africa, could devise no better means than the estab- 
 lishment of a school and a farm in the neighborhood 
 of St. Mary's. The experiment failed, or it seemed 
 to fail, owing to the death of the agent whom they 
 had sent ; but it was with no small pleasure that I 
 found, in the papers of the brother of a deceased 
 governor of the colony, this evidence that their la- 
 bors were not entirely lost. After stating that the 
 Society had formerly established a school and a farm 
 on a point of land forming Cape St. Mary's, " as eli- 
 gible a spot for such an undertaking as could be 
 found in the country," he goes on to say, " The na- 
 tives of the neighborhood must have observed, with 
 some degree of attention, the mode adopted by these 
 settlers in their agricultural pursuits. Indeed, it must 
 be inferred that many of them assisted on the works 
 of the farm, as at this date (viz. 14 years after) they 
 conduct matters in a more neat and satisfactory man- 
 ner than is to be observed in other parts of the 
 country. Their grounds are well cleaned and en- 
 
COINCIDENCE OF OPINIONS. 141 
 
 closed ', vegetation, of one kind or another, appears 
 to be kept up during the year ; the quality of their 
 articles is superior to their neighbors ; and altogether 
 there is a superiority among these people, a neatness 
 about their persons and villages, that pleases the eye, 
 particularly as these things do not exist in other parts 
 of the country. The old chief of the district loses 
 no opportunity of making the most particular inqui- 
 ries after his friends the Quakers, and of expressing 
 his regret that such good people should not have re- 
 mained amongst them, as their kindness will ever 
 live in the memory of the inhabitants. The chief 
 and his sons are worthy good folks, and much at- 
 tached to the English. The seeds which Mr. W. 
 Allen and other gentlemen have sent to the Gambia 
 have been of infinite service, in improving the quality 
 of the cotton and rice."* 
 
 I hardly know anything more encouraging than the 
 facts which have thus unexpectedly come to light. 
 Here an effort has been made, exactly in conformity 
 with the views which I am endeavoring to urge, but 
 it was soon abandoned ; yet the effect of that imper- 
 fect experiment is still visible in the improvement 
 of the face of the country, and in the manifest 
 distinction between that district which had been 
 thus befriended, and the desolate regions which sur- 
 round it. 
 
 The fact, too, that these simple people retain a 
 lively and grateful recollection of their benefactors, 
 and cease not to pant for their return, proves that in 
 the minds of the people, as well as in the quality of 
 
 * Rcndall. 
 
142 THE REMEDY. 
 
 the soil, there are materials on which we may work. 
 When so much was effected by a slight effort, what 
 may we not expect to be accomplished, when the 
 same merciful measures shall be adopted permanently, 
 and upon a large scale 1 
 
 One further coincidence, and not the least remark- 
 able, remains to be stated. I gave a description on a 
 former occasion* of a slave-hunt, or gazzua, which 
 was perpetrated in the dominions, and by the permis- 
 sion of the Pasha of Egypt. Some strong representa- 
 tions of the impolicy and atrocity of such proceedings 
 were made to him by some of our countrymen, parti- 
 cularly by Dr. Bowring.f And I have now to de- 
 scribe the influence which these have exercised over 
 his conduct.:}: From a manuscript which purports to 
 be an official account of the journey of his Highness 
 to Soudan, of the views in which it originated, and of 
 the policy which was adopted with regard to the na- 
 tives, I extract the following particulars. In the au- 
 tumn of 1838 the Pasha's attention was turned to his 
 savage territory of Soudan, and he resolved to take 
 measures for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and to 
 introduce a reformation in the customs, commerce, 
 and agriculture of the inhabitants : for this purpose 
 
 * African Slave Trade, p. 76. 
 
 t Vide Appendix E., p. 564, for an extract from a letter from Sir 
 W. H. Pearson to Mr. Buxton, junior, containing an account of 
 that gentleman's visit on board a slave-ship on the Nile. 
 
 t The consul at Alexandria, of date 5th May, 1833, narrates a 
 conversation which he had had with Mohammed Ali, in which the 
 pasha said that he would not permit his officers in the interior to 
 seize slaves : and he adds that the pasha himself does not now pur- 
 chase any more slaves for his own use or service. — Class D., 1838-9, 
 p. 14. 
 
THE PASHA OF EGYPT. 143 
 
 he repaired thither in person, accompanied by his 
 usual attendants, and several scientific persons, col- 
 lected not only from his own country, but from the 
 continent of Europe. He embarked in a steam-boat 5 
 October 15th, 1838. In passing the cataracts, he had 
 to endure some hardships, and was exposed to con- 
 siderable danger. After passing the first cataract, he 
 had to remain during a night without provisions or 
 attendance : in the attempt to pass the second, the 
 boat in which he was seated was dashed violently on 
 the rocks, and it was with difficulty that he effected 
 his escape, while the vessel was carried away by the 
 current On the eleventh of November, the cataract 
 of Annek was reached : it appears from the narrative, 
 that this was the first attempt that was ever made to 
 pass it : from Dongola, he went across the desert Xcr 
 Kartoum, the capital of Sennaar, on the confluence of 
 the Blue and the White Nile ; he proceeded along the 
 Blue Nile, and was there joined by some pupils of the 
 schools of language and mineralogy. At Fazoglo, 
 hearing of depredations, committed, according to cus- 
 tom, by a tribe of mountaineers on their more feeble 
 neighbors, he dispatched a force against them, under 
 the command of a superior officer, who returned with 
 540 prisoners. His Highness had them brought be- 
 fore him, and spoke to them at great length on the 
 odiousness and barbarity of stealing and selling their 
 fellow-creatures ; then, wishing to join example to 
 precept, he permitted them to depart, after having dis- 
 tributed to every one ten days' provisions and given 
 dresses to five of the chiefs. Learning that some pri- 
 soners had been taken at Kordofan, he ordered them 
 to be dismissed, with permission to return home, or 
 
144 THE REMEDY. 
 
 to establish themselves as cultivators on the banks of 
 the White Nile, issuing at the same time a manifesto^ 
 declaring that slave-hunting was strictly forbidden ; 
 and that if any quarrels should arise between neigh- 
 boring tribes, their differences were to be brought be- 
 fore the Governor-general, who was commissioned to 
 decide them. At length he arrived at the mouth of 
 Fazangoro, where, after inspecting the gold mines, he 
 laid the foundations of a town, which is to be called 
 by his own name, Mohammed Ali, and to contain 
 houses for fifteen hundred families. The chiefs of the 
 country showed their readiness to co-operate with 
 him, by offering a much larger force for the working 
 of the mines : this however he declined. We are ex- 
 pressly told, that he pays his workmen wages, and 
 provides them with dresses adapted to the climate : 
 also, that he granted land to Arab agriculturists for 
 the formation of model farms, supplied them with the 
 necessary implements and animals, and declared them 
 to be exempt from taxes for five years. The land of 
 Sennaar is extremely fertile j it readily returns sixty 
 for one ; the dourah grows quickly and produces very 
 rich ears ; animals and wood abound j cotton suc- 
 ceeds wonderfully, almost without cost, and it pro- 
 duces more wool than that of Egypt, which is culti- 
 vated at a great expense. Hitherto, however, culti- 
 vation has been entirely neglected. The Pasha col- 
 lected round him a great number of the sheikhs, 
 made them presents, and addressed them in a speech, 
 remarkable not only for its good sense, but for the 
 quarter from whence it was delivered. " The people 
 of other parts of the world were formerly savages ; 
 they have had instructors, and, by labor and perse* 
 
THE PASHA OF EGYPT. 145 
 
 verance, they have civilized themselves ; you have 
 heads and hands like them; do as they have done: 
 you also will raise yourselves to the rank of men ; you 
 will acquire great riches, and will taste enjoyments of 
 which you can at present, from your profound igno- 
 rance, form no conception. Nothing is wanting for 
 this purpose : you have a great quantity of land, cat- 
 tle, and wood : your population is numerous, the men 
 strong, and the women fruitful. Up to the present 
 time you have had no guide : you have one now : — it 
 is I! — I will lead you to civilization and happiness. 
 The world is divided into five great parts ; that which 
 you occupy is called Africa : in every country, except 
 this, the value of labor is understood, and a taste for 
 good and useful things prevails ; men devote them- 
 selves with ardor to commerce, which produces 
 wealth, pleasure, and glory — words, which you can- 
 not even comprehend. Egypt itself is not an exten- 
 sive country ; yet, thanks to labor and the industry of 
 its inhabitants, it is rich, and will become more so : 
 distant provinces are acquainted with it ; and the ter- 
 ritory of Sennaar, which is twenty times larger than 
 Egypt, produces almost nothing, because its inhabi- 
 tants remain as idle as if they were without life. Un- 
 derstand well that labor produces all things ; and that 
 without labor nothing can be had." 
 
 His Highness then explained to them, in detail, the 
 advantages of agriculture and commerce. His audi- 
 tors, astonished at what they heard, begged him earn- 
 estly to take them into Egypt, that they might be in- 
 structed in those arts. " It would be better," replied 
 his Highness, "that you should send your children 
 there ; they will learn more easily, because they are 
 13 
 
146 THE REMEDY. 
 
 younger, and will remain longer useful to these coun- 
 tries, when they return to them. I will place them in 
 my colleges ; they will learn there all that is useful 
 and ornamental. Be not uneasy about their welfare, 
 they shall be my adopted children ; and, when they 
 are sufficiently instructed in the sciences, I will send 
 them back to be happiness to you, and to these coun- 
 tries, and a glory to you." 
 
 The sheikhs very willingly accepted the offer : — 
 every one wished to send his children into Egypt ; 
 the most powerful among them, named Abd-el-Kadir, 
 having no son, asked the favor for his nephew. His 
 Highness then urgently recommended Ahmed Pasha 
 to labor for the welfare and civilization of these peo- 
 ple ; and, for the purpose of encouragement, announc- 
 ed, that he should himself return next year, in order 
 to judge the progress that might be made, and incite 
 them to fresh exertions. 
 
 The Viceroy departed the next morning, and re- 
 turned to Fazoglo on the 1st of February, when he 
 renewed his exhortations to the sheikhs of that dis- 
 trict ; and proceeded to Kartoum, where he was de- 
 lighted to find the good effects of his late visit, in 
 some land being already in full cultivation. From 
 thence he visited, in like manner, the White Nile, and, 
 on returning to Kartoum, he set on foot the building 
 of a Christian church. Before leaving the place, he 
 proclaimed the freedom of trade in indigo, which the 
 provinces of Dongola and Berber produce in consider- 
 able quantities, and ordered the governor to supply 
 implements, and everything necessary, for the deve- 
 lopment of its cultivation. After which, he embarked 
 with his suite, leaving M. Lambert, with the charge 
 
THE PASHA OF EGYPT. 147 
 
 of making two reports, — the one, upon a projected 
 railroad, in that part of the desert which separates 
 Abu-Muhammed from Kurusku j the other, on the for- 
 mation of a canal between the White River and Kor- 
 dofan, destined to furnish water for the irrigation of 
 the land, and to facilitate the carriage of the iron-ore 
 of the mines. 
 
 The cataracts were repassed on his return ; and on 
 the 14th of March, the cannon of the citadel of Cairo 
 announced to Egypt the arrival of the Viceroy, after 
 an absence of five months and four days. 
 
 Having freely, in another place, commented upon 
 the conduct of the Pasha, in permitting the continu- 
 ance of the gazzua, and in allowing his officers to re- 
 imburse themselves, for any arrears of their pay, with 
 the human booty which they might seize, we are 
 bound to do justice to the course which he has now 
 pursued, and to acknowledge that the zeal and energy 
 which he has displayed, in acting upon his new opin- 
 ions, furnish an example, which any civilized and 
 Christian nation may do itself honor by following. 
 It must be confessed, there were great impediments 
 in his way : it was not likely that he, a follower of Ma- 
 homet, whose religion justifies the enslavement of the 
 infidel, should have shared our abhorrence of all that 
 pertains to the trade in man : he must have had to sur- 
 mount many strong and deep-seated prejudices in his 
 own bosom, and must have exposed himself to public 
 reproach, if not danger, before he resolved to set his 
 face against a system so long established, and so lu- 
 crative. It was an act of great vigor in a prince, 
 seventy years of age, threatened by a formidable en- 
 emy, and holding his authority in some considerable 
 
14-8 THE REMEDY. 
 
 measure, by his own personal presence and influence, 
 to undertake a journey, of more than five months du- 
 ration, through a country so rarely visited, exposing 
 himself to considerable perils and fatigue, and the ex. 
 pense of conveying with him a large body of well- 
 qualified assistants. It is greatly to the credit of his 
 understanding to have seen so distinctly that a great- 
 er amount of wealth may be drawn from the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil, than from the chase and capture of 
 the inhabitants. The language which he uses to the 
 native chiefs proves that he well comprehends the 
 principles by which a degree of civilization may be 
 spread among savage tribes, and valuable products 
 reared from their rich but untilled lands. But the 
 point which deserves most notice is, that, from the 
 moment he was convinced, he acted, at once and 
 boldly. In a very short period, he has executed a 
 voyage of discovery ; he has selected an excellent po- 
 sition for a town, and commenced building it. He has 
 entered upon a system of hiring labor and paying 
 wages (in itself, I am afraid, an innovation) ; he has 
 labored to convince the native chiefs that it is better 
 to sell their productions than their subjects : he has 
 made some provision for the education of their child- 
 ren ; he has relinquished taxes, and established free 
 trade in articles which have hitherto been subject to a 
 monopoly ; he has given orders for the formation of a 
 canal and a railroad ; and he is employed in opening 
 through the cataracts a way sufficiently wide for the 
 passage of boats of large dimensions : moreover, and 
 it confirms one of my most important anticipations, 
 he has found better cotton in Soudan than that which 
 is grown by himself in Egypt: in short, if I may judge 
 
THE PASHA OF EGYPT. 149 
 
 by his actions, as represented in the narrative which 
 is put forth under his authority, there is no more 
 thorough-going advocate of the policy which I am 
 laboring to recommend to the British nation than 
 the personage whom, but a few months ago, I had to 
 point out to public indignation as the patron of the 
 horrible gazzua. It must, however, be borne in mem- 
 ory that we have only seen the beginning of a new 
 system. The character of the Pasha will be judged, 
 not by what he has hitherto attempted, but by the fi- 
 delity with which he shall adhere to the principles he 
 has professed, and by the sagacity with which he 
 shall carry into execution the wise and benevolent 
 design which seems to reflect so much credit upon 
 him. 
 
 I have thus shown that many persons, whose vera- 
 city we have no reason to doubt, whose experience 
 furnishes the best means of forming a correct judg- 
 ment, and who cannot be suspected of acting in con- 
 cert, arrive at precisely the same conclusions. The 
 argument deducible from this coincidence of opinion 
 enforced itself on me with peculiar effect. I possess- 
 ed neither the practical experience which belongs to 
 a traveler, a trader, or the governor of a colony, nor 
 the intimate acquaintance with native mind acquired 
 by the missionary ; nor that deep knowledge of all 
 that has been written concerning Africa, in which Mr. 
 Clarkson and Mr. M'Queen excel. Yet in ignorance 
 of almost all the opinions to which I have now refer- 
 red, I had, by a process, and from documents, quite 
 distinct, arrived at the same result. I attentively ex- 
 amined the papers on the Slave Trade, annually present- 
 ed to Parliament : they demonstrated the unwavering 
 13* 
 
150 THE REMEDY. 
 
 sincerity of the Government, by whatever party admin- 
 istered, and the generous compassion of the nation : at 
 the same time, they forced upon me an undoubting con- 
 viction, that the evil could never be eradicated by this 
 mode of correction. Ready to abandon all further 
 effort, in despair of being able to effect any practical 
 good, and from an abhorrence of the task of afflicting 
 myself and others by a recital of evils, which I could 
 not cure, and of horrors, which every effort seemed to 
 aggravate, I cast my eyes, in every direction, in order 
 to discover if there yet existed any effectual remedy. 
 It then occurred to me, that Africa, after all, obtains a 
 very inconsiderable revenue from the Slave Trade ; 
 while the outlay, so to speak, — the desolation, the 
 slaughter, the bloody and diabolical superstition, and 
 the human suffering from all these, — are indeed pro- 
 digious : the net profit to Africa (whatever it may be 
 to the civilized ruffians who instigate the trade) is 
 miserably scanty. " Thou sellest thy people for 
 nought ; and dost not increase thy wealth by their 
 price." There was something hopeful in the fact that 
 the interests of Africa were not involved in the con- 
 tinuance of the Slave Trade. It gave birth to the in- 
 quiry, Is it not possible for us to undersell the slave- 
 dealer, and to drive him out of the market, by offering 
 more for the productions of the soil than he ever gave 
 for the bodies of the inhabitants 1 
 
 This opened a new field of investigation. I eagerly 
 turned to every book of travels which might furnish 
 an insight into the capabilities of that quarter of the 
 globe. There was anything but a dearth of materials : 
 I found evidence, sufficient to fill volumes, that Africa, 
 though now a wilderness, may rank with any portion 
 
VALUE AND SUPPLY OF LABOR. 151 
 
 of the world in natural resources and in the power of 
 production. Travelers, whatever may be the scarcity 
 of other topics, never fail to speak of the exuberance 
 of the soil on the one hand, and the misery of its inha- 
 bitants on the other. These two subjects occupy three- 
 fourths of the pages of those who have visited Africa. 
 It is sufficient here to say that I rose from that part of 
 the investigation, in possession of incontrovertible 
 proof that nature had provided an abundance of all 
 things which constitute agricultural wealth. The 
 question then arises, Are there hands to till the earth] 
 Africa, notwithstanding the annual and terrible drain 
 of its inhabitants, teems with population : but for the 
 Slave Trade, there is no reason to doubt that it would 
 be as densely peopled as any part of the Globe. Can 
 labor be obtained there as cheaply as in Brazil, Cuba, 
 or the Carolinas? We have some light on this sub- 
 ject. We know that a slave fetches, in Interior Af- 
 rica, about 3/. ; in Brazil, at least 70/. ; when seasoned, 
 as an African is in his own country, 100/. Africa, then, 
 has this advantage over America, that it can be culti- 
 vated at one-twentieth of the expense. Why, then, 
 should the inhabitants be torn from Africa, when her 
 native laborers upon her native land might held suc- 
 cessful competition with any Slave State 1 The soil 
 being equal, a laborer in Africa will raise as much 
 produce as the same laborer transported to America, 
 but at less expense ; for you can hire ten laborers in 
 the former at the price that one costs in the latter. 
 Hence I infer, that the labor and produce of Africa, 
 if fairly called forth, would rival the labor employed, 
 and the produce raised in America, throughout the 
 markets of the civilized world. 
 
152 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Besides all this, the laborers stolen in Africa are 
 not in fact, carried to America. What the one loses, 
 the other does not gain. Africa loses three labor- 
 ers j America obtains but one : in no species of mer- 
 chandise is there such a waste of the raw material, as 
 in the merchandise of man. In what other trade do 
 two-thirds of the goods perish, in order that one-third 
 may reach the market % 
 
 Apart, then, from all considerations of humanity 
 and Christian principle, and narrowing the question 
 to a mere calculation of pecuniary profit, it would 
 appear a strange kind of economy to carry away the 
 population from their native fields, which need no- 
 thing but those hands for their cultivation, in order 
 to plant them in diminished numbers, at a prodigious 
 expense, in another hemisphere, and on land not more 
 productive. 
 
 But would these men be willing to work for wages ] 
 I did not require to be taught that men will work, not 
 only as well but ten times better, for reward, than 
 they were ever made to do by the lash : proof, how- 
 ever, of this truth presented itself. As I shall have 
 to enlarge upon that subject before I close this book, 
 I will only say here, that of all the fictions ever in- 
 vented by interested parties to quiet their own con- 
 sciences, or delude the world, there is none so gross 
 as the doctrine, that less labor is to be won by wages, 
 than can be extorted by the whip. 
 
 Thus, then, the study of the writings of travelers 
 proved to me that Africa possessed all the separate 
 elements necessary for vast production and extensive 
 commerce ; but these materials, were, if I may so ex- 
 press myself, asunder : the hands, both able and will- 
 
VALUE AND SUPPLY OF LABOR. 153 
 
 ing to labor, had never been brought to bear upon 
 the land, so capable of yielding a grateful return. 
 It was not till after I had come to the conclusion that 
 all that was wanting for the deliverance of Africa was 
 that agriculture, commerce, and instruction should 
 have a fair trial, that I discovered that those views 
 were not confined to myself, and that others had ar- 
 rived, by practical experience, at the same result 
 which 1 had learnt from the facts, and from reasoning 
 upon them ; and I was very well pleased to renounce 
 any little credit which might attach to the discovery, 
 in exchange for the solid encouragement and satisfac- 
 tion of finding that what was with me but theory, was 
 with them the fruit of experience. I cannot but re- 
 member that a poet, who possessed the faculty of 
 combining the closest reasoning with the most flow- 
 ing verse, saw, and availed himself of this species of 
 argument for the defence of Christianity : — 
 
 '•^Whence, but from Heaven, could men unskill'd in arte, 
 In several ages born, of several parts, 
 Weave such agreeing truths ; or how, or why, 
 Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie ? M 
 
154 THE REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRINCIPLES. 
 
 ' ; True faith, true policy, united run." — Pope. 
 
 "If you plant where savages be, do not only entertain them with trifles and 
 gingles, but use them justly and graciously, with sufficient guard nevertheless." 
 — Lord Bacon. 
 
 " The greatest advantage a Government can possess is to be the one trustwor- 
 thy Government in the midst of Governments which nobody can trust." — Edin- 
 burgh Review, Jan. 1840.— Life of Clive, p. 330. 
 
 It appears to me a matter of such peculiar moment 
 that we should distinctly settle and declare the Prin- 
 ciples on which our whole intercourse with Africa, 
 whether economic or benevolent, whether directed 
 exclusively to her benefit, or mingled (as I think it 
 may most fairly be) with a view to our own, shall be 
 founded, and by which it shall be regulated, that I 
 venture, though at the risk of being tedious, to devote 
 a separate chapter to the consideration of them. The 
 principles, then, which I trust to see adopted by our 
 country, are these, — 
 
 Free Trade. 
 
 Free Labor. 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 Nothing, I apprehend, could be more unfortunate to 
 the continent we wish to befriend, or more discredit- 
 able to ourselves, than that Great Britain should give 
 any color to the suspicion of being actuated by mer- 
 cenary motives j an apology would thus be afforded 
 
FREE TRADE. 155 
 
 to every other nation for any attempt it might make 
 to thwart our purpose. We know, from the Duke of 
 Wellington's dispatches, that the powers on the con- 
 tinent were absolutely incredulous as to the purity of 
 the motives which prompted us, at the congress of 
 Aix la Chapelle, to urge, beyond everything else, the 
 extinction of the Slave Trade. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Wilberforce, dated Paris, 15th 
 Sept., 1314, the Duke of Wellington says, "It is not 
 believed that we are in earnest about it, or have abol- 
 ished the trade on the score of its inhumanity. It is 
 thought to have been a commercial speculation ; and 
 that, having abolished the trade ourselves, with a 
 view to prevent the undue increase of colonial pro- 
 duce in our stores, of which we could not dispose, 
 we now want to prevent other nations from cultivat- 
 ing their colonies to the utmost of their power." 
 
 And again, in another letter to the Right Honorable 
 J. C. Villiers : — 
 
 Pari*, 31st August, 1314. 
 
 " The efforts of Great Britain to put an end to it 
 (the Slave Trade) are not attributed to good motives, 
 but to commercial jealousy, and a desire to keep the 
 monopoly of colonial produce in our own hands." 
 
 The grant of twenty millions may have done some- 
 thing to quench these narrow jealousies, but still, the 
 nations of the continent will be slow to believe that 
 we are entirely disinterested. It should, then, be 
 made manifest to the world, by some signal act, that 
 the moving spring is humanity ; that if England makes 
 settlements on the African coast, it is only for the 
 more effectual attainment of her great object ; and 
 
156 THE REMEDY. 
 
 that she is not allured by the hopes either of gain or 
 conquest, or by the advantages, national or individual, 
 political or commercial, which may, and I doubt not, 
 will follow the undertaking. Such a demonstration 
 would be given, if, with the declaration, that it is re- 
 solved to abolish the Slave Trade, and, that in this 
 cause we are ready, if requisite, to exert all our pow- 
 ers, Great Britain, should couple an official pledge 
 that she will not claim for herself a single benefit, 
 which shall not be shared by every nation uniting 
 with her in the extinction of the Slave Trade ; and 
 especially 
 
 First, — That no exclusive privilege in favor of Bri- 
 tish subjects shall ever be allowed to exist. 
 
 Secondly, — That no custom-house shall ever be es- 
 tablished at Fernando Po. 
 
 Thirdly, — That no distinction shall be made there, 
 whether in peace or in war^ between our own subjects 
 and those of any such foreign power, as to the rights 
 they shall possess, or the terms on which they shall 
 enjoy them. In short, that we purchase Fernando 
 Po, and will hold it for no other purpose than the 
 benefit of Africa. I am well aware that these may 
 appear startling propositions ; I am, however, sup- 
 ported in them by high authorities 5 the suggestion 
 as to the custom-house was made to me by Mr. Por- 
 ter, of the Board of Trade ; and that respecting neu- 
 trality in peace or in war, originated with the learned 
 Judge of the British Vice Admiralty Courts. Sup- 
 ported by his authority, I may venture to say that, 
 though a novel, it would be a noble characteristic of 
 our colony. As it is intended for different ends, so 
 it would be ruled by different principles, from any 
 
FREE LABOR. 157 
 
 colony which has ever been undertaken : it would 
 have the distinction of being the neutral ground of the 
 world, elevated above the mutual injuries of war; 
 where, for the prosecution of a good and a vast object, 
 the subjects and the fleets of all nations may meet 
 in amity, and where there shall reign a perpetual 
 truce. 
 
 Let us look to the tendency of the proposition, that 
 no custom-house shall be established at Fernando Po, 
 or at the post to be formed at the junction of the Ni- 
 ger and the Tchadda : we might then hope that the 
 history of these stations would be a counterpart to 
 that of Singapore, which is described as having been, 
 in 1819, " an insignificant fishing-village, and a haunt 
 of pirates," but now stands as an eloquent eulogy on 
 the views of its founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, proving 
 what may be effected, and in how short a time, for 
 our own profit and for the improvement of the un 
 civilized world, " by the union of native industry and 
 British enterprise," when uncurbed by restrictions on 
 trade. 
 
 FREE LABOR. 
 
 I now turn to the second great principle, viz., — 
 Free Labor. 
 
 It may be thought by some almost superfluous that 
 this should be urged, considering that there is an Act 
 of Parliament, which declares that " Slavery shall be, 
 and is hereby utterly and for ever abolished in all the 
 colonies, possessions, and plantations of Great Bri- 
 tain." But if ever there were a case in which this 
 great law should be strictly and strenuously enforced, 
 14 
 
158 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and in which it is at the same time peculiarly liable to 
 be neglected or evaded, it is in the case of any pos- 
 sessions we may obtain in Africa. It is necessary to 
 be wise in time, and never to suffer this baneful weed 
 to take root there. Let us remember what it has cost 
 us to extirpate it from our old colonies. It is remark- 
 able that among the whole phalanx of antagonists to 
 the abolition of West India Slavery, there was never 
 one who was not, by his own account, an ardent lover 
 of freedom. Slavery, in the abstract, was universally 
 acknowledged to be detestable ; and they were in the 
 habit of pathetically deploring their cruel fate, and of 
 upbraiding the mother-country, which had originally 
 planted this curse among them ; but property had en- 
 twined itself around the disastrous institution, and we 
 had to contend with a fearful array of securities, mar- 
 riage settlements, and vested interests of all kinds. 
 Again, bondage, it was said, had seared the intellect, 
 and withered all that was noble in the bosoms of its 
 victims. To have begun such an unrighteous system 
 was an error, only less than that of suddenly eradicat- 
 ing it, and of clothing with the attributes of freemen, 
 those whose very nature had been changed and de- 
 filed by servitude. 
 
 I firmly believe that much of all this was uttered 
 in perfect sincerity ; and yet, I feel the most serious 
 apprehensions lest these wholesome convictions should 
 evaporate before the temptations of a country, where 
 land of the richest fertility is to be had for Id. per 
 acre, and laborers are to be purchased for 4/. per head. 
 We know, not only that the Portuguese are turning 
 their attention to plantations in the neighborhood of 
 Loango, but that they have been bold enough to ask 
 
FREE LABOR. 159 
 
 us to guarantee to them their property, that is their 
 slaves, in these parts. This, together with certain 
 ominous expressions which I have heard, convinces 
 me that my apprehensions are not altogether chime- 
 rical ; and I am not sure that we shall not once more 
 hear the antique argument, that Negroes, " from the 
 brutishness of their nature," are incapable of being 
 induced to work by any stimulus but the lash : at all 
 events, we shall be assured, that if we attempt to es- 
 tablish Free Labor, we shall assail the prejudices of 
 the African chiefs in the tenderest points. If we do 
 not take care, at the outset, to render the holding of 
 slaves by British subjects in Africa highly penal, and 
 perilous in the last degree, we shall see British capital 
 again embarked, and vested interest acquired in hu- 
 man flesh. We shall, in spite of the warning we have 
 had, commit a second time, the monstrous error, to 
 say nothing of the crime, of tolerating slavery. A 
 second time the slave-master will accuse us of being 
 at least accomplices in his guilt ; and once more we 
 shall have to buy off opposition by an extravagant 
 grant of money. 
 
 The suggestion, then, that I make is, that we shall 
 lay it down, as a primary and sacred principle, that 
 any man who enters any territory that we may acquire 
 in Africa, is from that moment " Free, and discharged 
 of all manner of slavery," and that Great Britain 
 pledges herself to defend him from all, civilized or 
 savage, who may attempt to recapture him. That one 
 resolution will do much to give us laborers, — to obtain 
 for us the affections of the population, — to induce 
 them to imitate and adopt our customs, — rand to settle 
 down to the pursuits of peaceful industry and product- 
 ive agriculture. 
 
160 THE REMEDY. 
 
 No more daring attempt was ever made to form a 
 settlement in Africa than that undertaken by Captain 
 Beaver, near the close of the last century. His object 
 was to establish a colony on the island of Bulama. 
 Notwithstanding the errors into which he fell, and 
 which proved fatal to his expedition, yet was it highly 
 creditable to him, that at a time when the abolition of 
 the Slave Trade had made but little way in the public 
 mind, and when the extinction of slavery was not 
 thought of, he should have perceived, and applied 
 principles so wise and so humane as those we find 
 scattered in his interesting volume. His Narrative 
 proves two points, — first, that the natives of Africa 
 may be led to prefer legitimate commerce to slave- 
 dealing. Secondly, that they were very willing to 
 labor for wages. 
 
 The chief dissimilarity which first struck the Afri- 
 cans, in the conduct of this and that of other Euro- 
 pean settlements, was their refusal to purchase slaves. 
 
 " This they could not account for ; neither were 
 they altogether pleased with it at first ; for when ne- 
 gotiating with Niobana for the purchase of the Bi- 
 afara territory, he said, that ' It was very hard that we 
 would not buy his slaves !' Having made him com- 
 prehend that our intention was rather to cultivate the 
 earth than to trade ; but that we should, notwith- 
 standing, at all times, trade with him for wax, ivory, 
 clothes, &c, — in short, that we would buy everything 
 which he had to sell, except only slaves, whom he 
 could always dispose of as he had been accustomed to 
 do heretofore — he appeared satisfied ; although he 
 could not comprehend why we would not purchase the 
 one, nor why we cultivated the other." 
 
FREE LABOR. 161 
 
 By their steadiness in this point, they got the 
 character of being the first white men the natives had 
 ever heard of " who could not do bad.' And " from 
 no circumstance," says Captain Beaver, " did we de- 
 rive so much benefit, as from our not dealing in 
 slaves." 
 
 The natives not long after found out that these new 
 colonists not only refused to purchase slaves, but that 
 no man in their settlement was permitted to be con- 
 sidered in the light of a slave. The two first who 
 came to Captain Beaver were full of suspicion ; they 
 remained with him a little more than three weeks, 
 and then signified their desire to depart at the time 
 when their help was most needed. Captain Beaver 
 wisely did not even ask them to remain, but paid them 
 their wages, and dismissed them with presents. Their 
 report induced others to take service, and he never 
 after wanted grumetas : in one year, he employed 
 nearly two hundred of them. The Africans of these 
 parts always, he says, go armed, and never voluntarily 
 place themselves in the power of even a friendly tribe j 
 but when they had once ascertained that these Eng- 
 lish colonists neither bought nor sold slaves ; that 
 every man was paid for the full value of his labor, and 
 suffered to depart whenever he chose, " They came 
 to me unarmed," says Captain Beaver, " and remained 
 for weeks and months at a time on the island, without 
 the least suspicion of my ever intending them evil." 
 And this, though he was occasionally obliged to in- 
 flict punishment on individuals of their number for 
 disorderly conduct. " Thus," he says, u by the nega- 
 tive merit of treating these people with common in- 
 tegrity, was I n ot only able to acquire their confidence 
 U* 
 
162 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and, by their labor, to do almost all that was done 
 upon the island, but also to overturn one of their strong- 
 est prejudices against us, and to convert their well- 
 grounded suspicion of fraud and deceit in all Euro- 
 peans, into esteem and respect for the character of a 
 white man." 
 
 I cannot dismiss the work of Captain Beaver, with- 
 out expressing my satisfaction in finding, that he, like 
 others whom I have named, gathers from his expe- 
 rience on the coast of Africa, that the Slave Trade is 
 to be overthrown by fair dealing, and by the wealth 
 which is to be raised from the soil. " One great 
 motive of the Africans in making slaves, indeed I may 
 say the only one, is to procure European goods ; 
 slaves are the money, the circulating medium, with 
 which African commerce is carried on : they have no 
 other. If, therefore, we could substitute another, and 
 at the same time that other be more certain and more 
 abundant, the great object in trading in slaves will be 
 done away. This may be done by the produce of the 
 earth. Let the native chiefs be once convinced that 
 the labor of a free native in cultivating the earth 
 may produce him more European goods in one year 
 than he could have purchased if he had sold him for a 
 slave, and he will no longer seek to make slaves to 
 procure European commodities, but will cultivate the 
 earth for that purpose." And this is the testimony 
 which he bears to African industry, and to the facility 
 of procuring labor : — 
 
 " I know that those who choose always to see the 
 African character in its worst light will probably say 
 that they never will be induced voluntarily to labor ; 
 and that I betray a total ignorance of it, in supposing 
 
FREE LABOR. 163 
 
 that they can ever be brought to cultivate the earth 
 for wages. That assertion may be made ; but my 
 answer is, ' Put it to the test.' And I moreover say 
 that, as far as my little knowledge of the Africans will 
 enable me to judge, I have no doubt of their readily 
 cultivating the earth for hire, whenever Europeans 
 will take the trouble so to employ them. I never saw 
 men work harder, more willingly, or regularly, 
 generally speaking, than those free natives whom I 
 employed upon the island of Bulama. What induced 
 them to do so ? Their desire of European commo- 
 dities in my possession, of which they knew that they 
 would have the value of one bar at the end of a week, 
 or four at the end of a month. Some of them re- 
 mained at labor for months ere they left me ; others, 
 after having left me, returned : they knew that the 
 labor was constant, but they also knew that their re- 
 ward was certain. I think, therefore, that as far as 
 my experience goes, I am warranted in saying that 
 the Africans are not averse to labor, unless those in 
 the neighborhood of Bulama are unlike the rest of 
 their species. So much as to the question of labor."* 
 
 If I have quoted at unusual length from Captain 
 Beaver's work, it is because here is testimony upon 
 which no shade of suspicion can rest. This work 
 was published before a word had been uttered upon 
 the controversy, as to free and slave labor ; and it 
 comes from a gentleman who took nothing upon the 
 authority of others, but formed his opinions from his 
 own personal experience in Africa. 
 
 I shall subjoin in the Appendix further proof, on 
 
 * Beaver's African Memoranda, p. 385. 
 
164 THE REMEDY. 
 
 the authority of General Turner, Colonel Denham, 
 and Major Ricketts, who also spoke from what they 
 saw at Sierra Leone, as to the disposition of Africans 
 to work for wages.* 
 
 The Rev. W. Fox, missionary at McCarthy's Island, 
 whom I have already quoted, says, " The East- 
 ern Negroes, .... come here and hire themselves as 
 laborers for several months, and, with the articles 
 they receive in payment, barter them again on their 
 way home for more than their actual value on 
 this island." In the journal of the same gentleman, 
 just received, under date of April, 1838, he writes 
 thus : " I have to-day paid off all the laborers who 
 had been employed on the mission ground, and have 
 hired about eighty more, with three overseers ; many 
 others applied for work, and 1 should have felt a plea- 
 sure in engaging them, but that I wished to keep the 
 expenses within moderate bounds." 
 
 It thus appears that free labor is to be obtained 
 in Africa, even under present circumstances, if we 
 will but pay the price for it, and that there is no ne- 
 cessity at all for that system of coerced labor, which 
 no necessity could justify. I am aware that I have 
 trespassed on the patience of many of my readers, 
 who require no arguments against slavery ; but 1 have 
 already expressed, and continue to feel, if there be 
 danger anywhere in the plan for the cultivation of 
 Africa, it lies in this point. And I wish the ques- 
 tion of slavery to be definitively settled, and our prin- 
 ciples to be resolved on, in such a way as shall render 
 it impossible for us to retract them, before a single 
 
 * Vide Appendix C. 
 
BRITISH DOMINION. 165 
 
 step is taken, or a shilling of property invested in the 
 attempt to grow sugar and cotton in Africa. 
 
 I shall here introduce the consideration of two 
 other points, which though they cannot precisely be 
 classed as principles, yet are nearly akin to them, and 
 deserve our very serious attention. 
 
 The proposal of a settlement in Africa, necessarily 
 recalls to mind our vast empire in India : and, surely, 
 no sober-minded statesman would desire to see re- 
 newed, in another quarter of the globe, the career 
 we have run in the East. 
 
 I entirely disclaim any disposition to erect a new 
 empire in Africa. Remembering what has now been 
 disclosed, of the afflictio'n of that quarter of the globe, 
 and of the horrors and abominations which every 
 spot exhibits, and every hour produces, it would be 
 the extreme of selfish cruelty to let a question so mo- 
 mentous be decided with an eye to our own petty in- 
 terests ; but there is another view of the case, — it 
 would also be the most extreme folly to allow our- 
 selves to swerve one iota from its right decision, by 
 any such indirect and short-sighted considerations, 
 
 What is the value to Great Britain of the sove- 
 reignty of a few hundred square miles in Benin, or 
 Eboe, as compared with that of bringing forward 
 into the market of the world millions of customers, 
 who may be taught to grow the raw material which 
 we require, and who require the manufactured com- 
 modities which we produce 1 The one is a trivial and 
 insignificant matter ; the other is a subject worthy the 
 most anxious solicitude of the most accomplished 
 statesmen. 
 
 It appears to me, however, that the danger of our 
 
166 THE REMEDY. 
 
 indulging any thirst for dominion is rather plausible 
 than real. In the first place, the climate there forbids 
 the employment of European armies, if armies indeed 
 formed any part of my plan, which they do not. I 
 look forward to the employment, almost exclusively, 
 of the African race. A few Europeans may be re- 
 quired in some leading departments ; but the great 
 body of our agents must have African blood in their 
 veins, and of course to the entire exclusion of our 
 troops. 
 
 2dly. In Asia, there was accumulated treasure to 
 tempt our cupidity : in Africa, there is none. Asia 
 was left to the government of a company : the Afri- 
 can establishments will, of course, be regularly sub- 
 jected to parliamentary supervision. Our encroach- 
 ments upon Asia were made at a time, when little 
 general attention was bestowed, or sympathy felt, for 
 the sufferings and wrongs of a remote people. Now, 
 attention is awake on such topics. India stands as a 
 beacon to warn us against extended dominion ; and 
 if there were not, as I believe there are, better prin- 
 ciples among our statesman, there would be a check 
 to rapacity, and a shield for the weak, in the wakeful 
 commisseration of the public. 
 
 I may add, that, were the danger as great as some 
 imagine, it would have disclosed itself ere this. The 
 French have had for some time a settlement on 
 the Senegal ; the Danes on the Rio Volta ; the Dutch 
 on the Gold Coast ; the Portuguese at Loango ; the 
 Americans at Cape Mesurado, and the English at Si- 
 erra Leone, in the Gambia, and on the Gold Coast ; 
 and I know not that there has been upon the part of 
 these a desire manifested to raise an empire in Central 
 
ENCOURAGEMENT OF AFRICAN PRODUCE. 167 
 
 Africa. Certainly, there has been none on the part 
 of the British : on the contrary, I think there is some 
 reason to complain that our government has been too 
 slow, at least for the welfare of Africa, in accepting 
 territory which has been voluntarily offered to us, and 
 in confirming the treaties which have been made by 
 our officers. We have been in possession of Sierra 
 Leone not very far short of half a century ; and I am 
 not aware that it can be alleged that any injury has 
 been thereby inflicted upon the natives. 
 
 Lastly. There is this consideration, and to me it 
 seems conclusive : — Granting that the danger to Afri- 
 can liberty is as imminent as I consider it to be slight, 
 still the state of the country is such, that, change as it 
 may, it cannot change for the worse. 
 
 The other point to which I would call attention is, 
 the encouragement which may be afforded to the in- 
 fant cultivation of Africa, by promoting the admission 
 and use of its productions. I shall not advert to the 
 assistance which we may fairly expect from the Le 
 gislature in this respect, when the subject is brough 
 under its consideration in all its important bearings 
 with the example of France and the United States be 
 fore them, I cannot doubt that Government will intro 
 duce such measures as a liberal and enlightened policy 
 will dictate. But individuals have it in their power 
 to contribute largely to the encouragement of African 
 produce, by a preference that will cost them little. 
 Let them recollect that for centuries we were mainly 
 instrumental in checking cultivation in Africa : we 
 ransacked the whole continent in order to procure la- 
 borers for the West Indies. Is it, then, too much to 
 ask, now when we are endeavoring to raise her from 
 
168 THE REMEDY. 
 
 the gulf of wretchedness into which we have contri- 
 buted to plunge her, that while she is struggling with 
 enormous difficulties, we should force her industry 
 and excite her to unfold her capabilities by anxiously 
 encouraging the consumption of her produce] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ELEVATION OF NATIVE MIND. 
 
 " Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence ; but the excellency of know- 
 ledge is, that Wisdom giveth Life to them that have it." — Ecclesiastes, vii. 12. 
 
 " That peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be es- 
 tablished among them for all generations." — Liturgy. 
 
 I now come to the point which I deliberately con- 
 sider to be beyond all others momentous in the ques- 
 tion before us. I lay great stress upon African com- 
 merce, more upon the cultivation of the soil, but most 
 of all upon the elevation of the native mind. 
 
 This is a wide subject ; it embraces the considera- 
 tion of some difficult questions. They resolve them- 
 selves into these : 1st. Are the Africans able and 
 willing to learn 1 2d. What, and how shall we teach 
 them] 
 
 It is true that the inhabitants of Africa are in the 
 very depths of ignorance and superstition ; but, still, 
 there are amongst them redeeming symptoms, how- 
 ever slight, sufficient to prove that the fault is not in 
 their nature, but in their condition ; and to teach us, 
 
OPINION OF MR. PITT. 169 
 
 that when we shall have put down that prodigious evil 
 which forbids all hope of their improvement, it is 
 abundantly possible that the millions of Africa may- 
 assume their place among civilized and Christian na- 
 tions ; and that a region, whose rank luxuriance now 
 poisons the atmosphere, may be brought under sub- 
 jection to the plow, may yield a wealthy harvest to 
 its occupants, and open a new world, as exciting to 
 our skill, capital, and enterprise, as was America on 
 its first discovery. In these views it is a satisfaction 
 to me that I can lean upon an authority so stable as 
 that of Mr. Pitt. Mr. Wilberforce, writing to Mr. 
 Stephen in 1817, says: "Reflection renders me more 
 and more confident that we shall, or at least, that they 
 who live a few years, will see the beginnings of great 
 reforms in the West Indies, as well as opening pros- 
 pects of civilization in Jlfrica. In the latter instance 
 I must say, even to you, that Pitt's death has been an 
 irreparable loss to us. He had truly grand views on 
 the topic of our moral and humane debt to Africa."* 
 And there is a speech on record, of which Mr. Sheri- 
 dan said at the time, " If Mr. Pitt were always thus 
 to speak, the opposition could not survive a fort- 
 night ;" and of which Mr. Fox said fifteen years after- 
 wards, that it was " the most powerful eloquence that 
 ever adorned those walls ; a speech not of vague and 
 showy ornament, but of solid and irresistible argu- 
 ment ;" in that speech Mr. Pitt said, " Some of us 
 may live to see a reverse of that picture, from which 
 we now turn our eyes with shame and regret ; we 
 may live to behold the natives of Africa engaged in 
 
 * Wilberforce's Life, vol. iv. p. 306. 
 
 15 
 
170 THE REMEDY. 
 
 the calm occupations of industry, and in the pursuit of 
 a just and legitimate commerce ; we may behold the 
 beams of science and philosophy breaking in upon 
 their land, which, at some happier period, in still later 
 times, may blaze with full lustre, and, joining their 
 influence to that of pure religion, may illuminate and 
 invigorate the most distant extremities of that im- 
 mense continent." 
 
 In the first part of this work I have given a descrip- 
 tion of the deadly superstition which prevails in Africa, 
 and of the effect it produces. The reader is requested 
 to carry a sense of this most miserable state of things 
 along with him, while we are considering what can be 
 done towards the moral, intellectual, and religious im- 
 provement of the people. 
 
 Preliminary to this, I beg to call attention to cer- 
 tain indications, — faint, no doubt, — but, considering 
 the difficulties and impediments to improvement in 
 Africa, encouraging indications, — of a capability for 
 better things ; 
 
 And also, to show that there are facilities for giving 
 instruction to the inhabitants, which hold out the 
 hope that our labors, if we shall be induced to make 
 them, will not be in vain. 
 
 Hence an argument for a mighty effort towards the 
 moral and intellectual improvement of Africa, may be 
 successfully derived. 
 
 Before I proceed to these indications of capability, 
 I must premise that a just judgment cannot be formed 
 of the Africans without reference to the circum- 
 stances in which they are placed. Things which 
 would be no proof at all of intelligence in an Eu- 
 ropean, who had been taught the truths of religion, 
 
ALLOWANCES TO BE MADE FOR THE NEGRO. l7l 
 
 and been under the influence of a certain measure of 
 refinement and civilization, denote positive intellect in 
 an African, savage from his birth, imbibing the grossest 
 superstition, and bereaved of motives to action by his 
 insecurity. 
 
 What Allowance then should be made in favor of the 
 Negro 1 
 
 When we find that at this period of the world there 
 are nations not very remote from the centre of civili 
 zation, who have as yet learned the use of no agricul- 
 tural implement but the hoe, and who, eager for 
 wealth, have not energy enough to till their land, or 
 work their mines, or in any way to avail themselves 
 of the prodigal bounty of nature, we are apt to rush 
 to the obvious but fallacious conclusion, that they are 
 not men in the ordinary sense of the term, but beings 
 of a stunted intellect, and of a degraded order. 
 
 This false conception has been the cause of infinite 
 suffering to the negro race. During the whole con- 
 troversy on the subject of slavery, it was the great 
 defence and apology of the planters ; it constituted 
 their whole case. They triumphantly pointed at the 
 idleness of the negro, and extracted from it a justifi- 
 cation of the necessary severity with which he was 
 treated. The error has not as yet been dissipated ; 
 many benevolent persons, judging of the African un- 
 der his present aspect, despair of his improvement. 
 It will serve better than a thousand arguments to dis- 
 pel this idea of inferiority in the African, and to in- 
 duce us to make large allowances for him, notwith- 
 standing his existing debasement, if I produce before 
 
172 THE REMEDY. 
 
 my readers individuals of European extraction, of a 
 race which amongst Europeans is supposed to stand 
 in the highest rank for energy and intelligence, who 
 have been, in the space of a few months, corrupted 
 and debased by oppression. When Englishmen are 
 masters, and Africans their slaves, we charge them 
 with sloth, deception, thievishness ; and we rate them 
 as another and an inferior order in the family of man. 
 I am going to reverse the picture, and to show that 
 when Africans are masters and Englishmen their 
 slaves, they reckon us a poor, pitiful, degraded race 
 of mortals ; inveterate thieves, and proverbial liars j 
 too lazy to work, too stupid to learn, too base to be 
 credited ; hardly sensible of the obligation of an oath ; 
 and fit only to be hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water to the true believers, to whom God, in answer 
 to their prayers, has been pleased to send them. 
 
 " It may from many a blunder free us, 
 To see ourselves as others see us." 
 
 Such, as I shall show, is the reproach in each case ; 
 and in each case I doubt not that it is just. Let 
 Slavery be imposed on man of whatever race, that 
 man is found a poor, tame, degenerate creature. The 
 black, being a slave, thieves ; so does the white. He 
 lies ; so does the white. The black will not do a 
 stroke of work, except under the terror of the lash ; 
 just so the white. The fact, in both cases, is true ; 
 and the fallacy lies, not in an erroneous opinion of 
 the demerits of the slave, but in this — that each forms 
 his estimate on a being corrupted by oppression. He 
 forgets that it is natural that the man reared in slavery 
 should be tainted with slavish vices j that, denied ac- 
 
ALLOWANCES TO BE MADE FOR THE NEGRO. 173 
 
 cess to knowledge, it is natural he should be igno- 
 rant ; that, wanting a motive, he necessarily wants 
 perseverance. 
 
 Before we can pronounce a man, or a race of men, 
 desperately wicked, and incorrigibly idle, they must 
 have their fair chances as men — we must give them a 
 motive for their exertions. We must associate with 
 the fatigues we call for, a sense of personal advantage 
 to spring from them ; we must awaken whatever there 
 may be of native vigor sleeping in their bosoms, and 
 we must release them from the trammels which in- 
 cumber their progress, if we desire to see them ad- 
 vance with rapidity. 
 
 One corroboration of this doctrine is to be found in 
 the history of Adams, who was wrecked upon the 
 coast of Africa, made a slave to the inhabitants, and 
 was carried to Timbuctoo. Adams was a British 
 sailor, and our consul at Mogadore thus describes 
 him at the termination of his captivity : — " Like most 
 other Christians, after a long captivity and severe treat- 
 ment among the Arabs, he appeared, at his first arrival, 
 exceedingly stupid and insensible"* But a still more 
 forcible illustration of the truth of this theory is to be 
 found in the very interesting narrative of the loss of 
 the Oswego, on the coast of A frica, and the enslavement 
 of Captain Paddock and his crew. He was a man on 
 whose statement every reliance could be placed. De 
 Witt Clinton, governor of New- York, thus writes to 
 him, October 1817, — "I have been urged by several 
 respectable gentlemen, who, together with myself, re- 
 pose the utmost confidence in your candor and veraci- 
 
 * Adams's Residence at Timbuctoo. Introd. p. 24. 
 15* 
 
174 THE REMEDY. 
 
 ty, and who have been a long time acquainted with 
 the respectability of your standing in society, to solicit 
 from you a statement of your sufferings and adven- 
 tures. " In compliance with this application, the nar- 
 rative was published. 
 
 Captain Paddock was a Quaker, high in repute with 
 the Society of Friends, by whom no man will be res- 
 pected who is not strictly veracious. He himself gives 
 proof of the effect which slavery had upon his own 
 morals. He furnishes an elaborate description of his 
 various modes of robbing and deceiving his master. 
 He steals his corn, his tobacco, his fruit, his boat. 
 He makes no scruple of telling falsehoods out of num- 
 ber to his master, and of purloining everything he 
 could lay his hands on. 
 
 Of this, the following will serve as an illustration : 
 — r " I was soon after called away to furnish tobacco 
 for a few who were smoking under the shade of the 
 walls. When they had done, my second mate, who 
 was as fond of tobacco as myself, suggested a query 
 as to the propriety of robbing the pouch of a little. 
 We did so, and divided the spoil among such of our 
 company as were tobacco-chewers. Not long after, 
 some new company having come, I was again called 
 upon to bring the pouch ; and the fellow, on opening 
 it, charged me with stealing from it. Against that 
 charge I defended myself as well as I could. For 
 some time I was unwilling to make the hazardous 
 attempt again ; but at last, while the Arabs were all 
 lying asleep under the shade, I proposed to my second 
 mate, that we two should go off together to some dis- 
 tance, where we might have an opportunity of taking 
 some out in such a manner as not to be suspected. 
 
CAPTAIN PADDOCK. 175 
 
 " W r e sat down in the finest piece of wheat I ever 
 saw, and commenced the business that we went upon, 
 taking particular notice of the turns of the string and 
 knot of the pouch, in which, when we had unrolled it, 
 we found two little sticks, laid in such a manner as to 
 detect me in my next attempt upon it, and doubtless 
 for that purpose. Having opened the tobacco, we took 
 out as much of it as we durst, and replaced the little 
 sticks as exactly as possible, when we rolled it up 
 again, putting round it the string just as we found it, 
 and hurried out of the field."* 
 
 The Africans having discovered that their captives 
 were exceedingly idle, resorted to exactly our own 
 methods of procuring (what was formerly so much 
 dwelt upon in this country) " steady labor in the 
 sun." They beat them, they starved them ; they 
 said to them, " If you will not work, neither shall you 
 eat ;" and even threatened to shoot them for their 
 indolence. Captain Paddock says, " Early in the 
 morning of the 27th, the sickles that the Arabs brought 
 with them were made ready, and all of us were order- 
 ed out to work." This he refused, for which he re- 
 ceived their curses and threats, but determined not to 
 heed them. " This controversy lasted an hour, and 
 they got my men into the field at last. Some of them 
 them could handle a sickle as well as the Arabs 
 themselves ; and I told one of them (the man that I 
 was fearful would be of the most service to our en- 
 slavers) to cut his own fingers, as if by accident. 
 They all understood my meaning, and it was not long 
 after my men had been dragged into the field before I 
 found they were doing very well ; I mean well for our 
 
 * Loss of the Oswego, p. 181. 
 
176 THE REMEDY. 
 
 own purposes. Some by accident, and some intention- 
 ally, perhaps, cut their fingers and hands with their 
 sickles, and made loud complaints ; while others, who 
 were gathering up the grain for binding, did it in such 
 a wasteful manner, that their work was a real loss to 
 the owner. Upon this, the Arabs took away the sickles 
 from those that had been reaping, and set them to 
 haul the grain up by the roots. They did so, but laid 
 it in the worst form that was possible By managing 
 things in this way, they beat the Ishmaelites, and got 
 the victory."* 
 
 Their masters, finding that all their efforts to over- 
 come the indolence of their Christian slaves were in. 
 effectual, directed their vengeance against Paddock, 
 saying, " If Rias works, his men will, for he is the head 
 devil among them." 
 
 It is curious to remark that the opinions the Afri. 
 cans entertained of us bore a strong resemblance to 
 the doctrine, now I trust obsolete, but not long ago in 
 full vogue amongst ourselves, of the inferiority of the 
 African race. All who took an interest in the question 
 of negro emancipation must remember the deep pre- 
 judice which was felt by the white population of the 
 West Indies against any approach towards social in- 
 tercourse with those who had black blood in their 
 veins. I have heard of a clergyman who was perse- 
 cuted for admitting persons of color to the Sacra- 
 ment at the same time with the whites ; of a gentle- 
 man who was banished from society for the crime of 
 permitting his own colored daughters to ride with 
 him in his carriage through the public streets ; and 
 upon the occasion of two gentlemen of color being 
 * Loss of the Oswego, p. 157 to 159. 
 
CAPTAIN PADDOCK. 177 
 
 admitted under the gallery of the House of Commons 
 when their own case was under discussion, I heard a 
 member of Parliament express in a very animated 
 speech his disgust at the insult thus offered to the 
 representatives of the people : " He had hoped never 
 to have seen the day when the laws of decency and 
 of nature might thus be trampled on." We are not 
 the only persons who have insisted on this aristocracy 
 of complexion. Paddock and others have recorded 
 that " swinish-looking dogs and white-skinned devils 
 were the appellations which were familiarly applied 
 to them by Africans." " The Arabs were well re- 
 ceived here ; but we were more ridiculed than ever 
 we had been, receiving an abundance of the vile epi- 
 thets so common to these people, who had ever view- 
 ed us as a. poor degraded set of beings, scarcely fit to 
 live in the world. The old man (Ahomed) was seated 
 opposite the gate at the time. He spoke to me, and 
 bade me sit down ; I sat down, but, happening to sit 
 near him, he ordered me away to a greater distance, 
 saying, he did not allow a Christian dog to be so near 
 him ; I obeyed, and moved off a little. The women 
 were foremost in insolence and abuse ; but their chil- 
 dren were not far behind them."* " They frequently 
 spoke of us, but in such a manner as often to remind 
 me of the old adage, 'Listeners seldom hear any good 
 of themselves.' That saying was verified here com- 
 pletely. The heads of their discourse concerning us 
 were,f that we were a poor, miserable, degraded race 
 
 * Loss of the Oswego, page 208. 
 
 t About the same estimate of negroes was at one time enter- 
 tained by British subjects. ,l An Act for the Security of the Sub. 
 ject" was passed in Bermuda in 17SQ, A passage of it runs thus : — 
 
178 THE REMEDY. 
 
 of mortals, doomed to the everlasting punishment of 
 hell fire after death, and, in this life, fit only for the 
 company of dogs; that our country was so wretchedly 
 poor that we were always looking out abroad for sus- 
 tenance, and ourselves so base as to go to the coast of 
 Guinea for slaves to cultivate our land, being not only 
 too lazy to cultivate it ourselves, but too stupid to 
 learn how to do it j and finally, that if all Christians 
 were to be obliged to live at home, their race would 
 soon be extinct ;" and " an old man swore that we 
 were not worthy of a mouthful of bread."* " They 
 think that there are no people in the world so active 
 and brave as themselves, nor any so well informed ; 
 and they proudly say that they are at war with all the 
 world, and fear nobody. "f 
 
 Upon one occasion, the Arab appears to have had 
 the best of the argument. " Ahomed made some in- 
 quiries of me respecting the manufactories of my own 
 country, which I answered as well as I could ; and I 
 
 " Whereas, they (negroes, Indians, mulattos) being, for brutishness 
 of their nature, no otherwise valued or esteemed amongst us than 
 as our goods and chattels, or other personal estates ; be it therefore 
 enacted, that if any person or persons whatsoever, within these 
 islands, being owner or possessor of any negroes, Indians, mulattos, 
 or other slaves, shall, in the deserved correction or punishment of 
 his, her, or their slave or slaves, for crimes or offences by them 
 committed or supposed to be committed, accidentally happen to 
 kill any such slave or slaves, the aforesaid owner or possessor shall 
 not be liable to any imprisonment, arraignment, or subject to any 
 penalty or forfeiture whatsoever; but if any person or persons 
 whatsoever shall maliciously and wilfully kill and destroy any slave 
 or slaves, then the aforesaid person or persons shall forfeit and pay 
 unto our Sovereign Lord the King the full sum of ten pounds cur- 
 rent money." 
 * Loss of the Oswego, p. 148. t Ibid. 144. 
 
CAPTAIN PADDOCK. 179 
 
 took the liberty to tell him how much better he would 
 be treated than we had been, if by any accident he 
 should be thrown on our shores • that, in such an 
 event, instead of being held in bondage, and sold from 
 tribe to tribe, our sultan would have him conducted 
 back to his native country in safety. He heard me 
 out, and then warmly retorted upon me as follows : — 
 'You say, if I were in your country, your people 
 would treat me better than I treat you. There is no 
 truth in you, If I were there, I should be doomed to 
 perpetual slavery, and be put to the hardest labor in 
 tilling your ground. You are too lazy to work your- 
 selves in your fields, and therefore send your ships to 
 the negro coast, and, in exchange for the useless 
 trinkets with which you cheat the poor negroes, you 
 take away ship-loads of them to your country, from 
 which never one returns ; and had your own ship es- 
 caped our shore, you yourself would now 7 be taking 
 the poor negroes to everlasting slavery.' 
 
 " Although the purpose of my voyage had been 
 very different from what Ahomed suspected, yet I 
 felt the sting of this reproach in a manner that I can 
 never forget." 
 
 Upon another occasion, Ahomed drew no very 
 flattering comparison between the conduct of Chris- 
 tians and that of the followers of the Prophet. " * The 
 negroes are men that you Christian dogs have taken 
 from the Guinea country, a climate that suits them 
 best. You are worse than Arabs, who enslave you 
 only when it is God's will to send you to our coast.' 
 Never, I must confess, did I feel a reproach more 
 sensibly."* 
 
 * Loss of the Oswego, p. 118. 
 
180 T&E REMEDY. 
 
 The distinction made by the Arab between the 
 conduct of Mussulmans and Christians, was as just 
 as it was ingenious. Their creed permits the disci- 
 ples of the true Prophet to enslave the heretics ; 
 whereas, our purer faith says, " Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ;" 
 and abounds in noble passages, denouncing God's 
 wrath against the. oppressor, and particularly that op- 
 pressor who is a man-stealer, and " who taketh his 
 neighbor's labor without wages, and giveth him 
 nought for his work." 
 
 We remember the time when a negro slave who 
 absconded was convicted and punished as a thief. 
 He had run away with his master's chattels, i. e. his 
 own body. The Arab seems to have adopted a some- 
 what similar train of reasoning. " After a few mi- 
 nutes' silence," says Captain Paddock, " Ahomed ac- 
 costed me in the following manner : — ' There is no 
 confidence to be placed in Christians ; for whenever 
 they come ashore on our coast, they bury their mo- 
 ney in the sand, as you yourself have done, to pre- 
 vent it from falling into the hands of the true believ- 
 ers. It is our property. We pray earnestly to the 
 Almighty God to send Christians ashore here : he 
 hears our prayers, and often sends us good ships ; 
 and if you did as you ought to do, we should have 
 the benefit of them.'"* 
 
 It is very curious that, in the course of their jour- 
 ney, they fell in with a tribe of African abolitionists 
 and Mahommedan quakers. At one town their re- 
 ception was different to what it had usually been. 
 
 + Loss of the Oswego, p. 190. 
 
CAPTAIN PADDOCK. 181 
 
 " I inquired," said Paddock, " who they were. He 
 replied, ' They belong to a sect called Foulah. They 
 will not mix with the other inhabitants, but choose 
 to live altogether by themselves ; and are so stupid, 
 that if the Emperor of Morocco should march an 
 army to cut off the whole race, they would not de- 
 fend themselves, but would die like fools, as they are.' 
 I asked him if they used fire-arms. ' No,' said he, 
 i they make no use of them ; and if God was pleased 
 to send a Christian ship ashore near them, they would 
 neither seize upon the goods nor the men, nor would 
 they buy a slave of any kind.' I asked him if they 
 were numerous ; and he answered, 'No, they are not 
 numerous ; but the dwellings you see on the sides of 
 the hills yonder are theirs, and in many other places 
 they are to be found ; and wherever they are, they 
 always keep together by themselves.' Finally, I 
 asked him if they were Mahometans. ' Yes,' he an- 
 swered, ' they are, or else we would destroy them ; 
 but they are poor ignorant dogs, and little better than 
 the Christians.' "* 
 
 I should feel myself called upon to apologize to my 
 readers for these lengthened quotations, were it not 
 important to show that Europeans and Christians 
 are not proof against that moral poison which belongs 
 to oppression. Let a man, European, American, or 
 African, imbibe that taint, and its virulence will be 
 manifest in the stupidity of his understanding, in the 
 deadness of his moral sense ; it will be visible to the 
 eye of the most careless observer, even in the exter- 
 nal features and carriage of its victim. Reduced to 
 
 * Loss of tbe Oswego, p. 199. 
 
 16 
 
182 THE REMEDY* 
 
 the condition of a slave, he will droop and relax, and 
 become good for nothing, or next to nothing. We 
 see that a race fortified by early association, by the 
 resources of intellect and education, and by the ele- 
 vating principles of Christianity, placed in precisely 
 the same circumstances as the African, exhibits pre- 
 cisely the same degree of degeneracy. And can we 
 wonder that they who have so long been the victims 
 of every species of cruelty, should not as yet have 
 put forth those generous qualities and that higher or- 
 der of intellect which will not grow, except in a ge- 
 nial atmosphere, and on a favoring soil 1 Does not 
 this rescue the African from the supposed stigma of 
 inferiority 1 
 
 Franklin defines a slave to be " an animal who eats 
 as much, and works as little, as possible." The 
 black, the brown, the red, the white races of men, 
 are alike indolent when they want a motive for exer- 
 tion. * Ye be idle, ye be idle," was the reproach of 
 Pharaoh to his Israelitish bondsmen ; u ye be idle, 
 ye be idle," says the master to the slave in all nations 
 and in all ages. 
 
 " 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flow'r 
 Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume, 
 And we are weeds without it." 
 
 I now proceed to the enumeration of the symptoms 
 which lead me to hope that in due time the African 
 races may be excited to industry, ingenuity, and per- 
 severance. 
 
 I admit that on the coast there is a belt of slave- 
 trading chiefs, who, at present, find it more profitable 
 to supply the slave-markets than to conduct a legiti- 
 
INDICATIONS OF CAPABILITY. 183 
 
 mate commerce. Little business can be done when 
 there are any slavers at their stations, — indeed, the 
 fair traders are always compelled to wait until the 
 human cargoes are completed. These chiefs not 
 only obstruct the fair trader on the coast, but as much 
 as possible prevent his access to the interior. Inse- 
 curity, demoralization, and degradation are the re- 
 sults ; but as we recede from the coast, and ascend 
 the rivers, comparative civilization is found, industry 
 becomes apparent, and no inconsiderable skill in ma- 
 ny useful arts is conspicuous. All travelers have 
 observed the superior cultivation and comparatively 
 dense population of the inland regions. Laird, in 
 ascending the Niger, writes, " Both banks of the ri- 
 ver are thickly studded with towns and villages ; I 
 could count seven from the place where we lay 
 aground ; and between Eboe and the confluence of 
 the rivers, there cannot be less than 40, one generally 
 occurring every two or three miles. The principal 
 towns are Attah and Addakudda ; and averaging the 
 inhabitants at 1,000, will, I think, very nearly give 
 the population of the banks. * * * The 
 
 general character of the people is much superior to 
 that of the swampy country between them and the 
 coast. They are shrewd, intelligent, and quick in 
 their perception, milder in their disposition, and 
 more peaceable in their habits." Oldfield says (vol. 
 i. p. 163,) that, from the great number of towns they 
 passed, he is inclined to suppose that the population 
 must be very dense indeed. And (vol. ii. p. 17,) 
 " no sooner does the traveler approach one town, 
 than he discovers three or four, and sometimes five 
 others." Park speaks (vol. ii. p. 80,) of the " hills 
 
184? THE REMEDY. 
 
 cultivated to the very summit, and the surplus grain 
 employed in purchasing luxuries from native traders." 
 Laing speaks (p. 156) with delight of "the extensive 
 meadows, clothed in verdure, and the fields from 
 which the springing-rice and ground-nuts were send- 
 ing forth their green shoots, not inferior in beauty 
 and health to the corn-fields of England, interspersed 
 here and there with a patch of ground studded with 
 palm-trees." Tuckey reports (p. 342) a similar im- 
 provement in the face of the country at some distance 
 up the Congo, where he found towns and villages fol- 
 lowing each other in rapid succession. Ashmun, 
 writing from Liberia, says, "An excursion of some of 
 our people into the country, to the distance of about 
 140 miles, has led to a discovery of the populousness 
 and comparative civilization of this district of Africa, 
 never till within a few months even conjectured by 
 myself. We are situated within 50 leagues of a coun- 
 try, in which a highly improved agriculture prevails ; 
 where the horse is a common domestic animal, where 
 extensive tracts of land are cleared and enclosed, 
 where every article absolutely necessary to comfort- 
 able life is produced by the skill and industry of the 
 inhabitants ; where the Arabic is used as a written 
 language in the ordinary commerce of life ; where 
 regular and abundant markets and fairs are kept ; and 
 where a degree of intelligence and practical refine- 
 ment distinguishes the inhabitants, little compatible 
 with the personal qualities attached, in the current 
 notions of the age, to the people of Guinea."* 
 
 The wants of the people in Africa must not, any 
 
 * From Miss. Regr. for 1828, p. 335. 
 
INDICATIONS OF CAPABILITY. 185 
 
 more than their industry and enterprise, be judged of 
 by what is observable on the coast. The Moors, who 
 have preceded us in the interior, have imparted more 
 knowledge of commercial transactions than we may 
 suppose. Captain Clapperton told Mr. Hamilton that 
 he could have negotiated a bill on the Treasury of 
 London at Soccatoo, The Moors have introduced 
 the use of the Arabic in mercantile affairs \ and that 
 language is nearly as useful in Africa, as the French 
 language is in Europe. In 1812, Mr. Willis, formerly 
 British Consul for Senegambia, stated his belief that 
 in the warehouses of Timbuctoo were accumulated 
 the manufactures of India and Europe, and that the 
 immense population of the banks of the Niger are 
 thence supplied. A Moorish merchant reported to 
 Mr. Jackson, that between Mushgrelia and Houssa 
 there were more boats employed on the river than 
 between Rosetta and Cairo ; and that the fields of that 
 country were enclosed and irrigated by canals and 
 water-wheels,* — a demonstrative proof of the activity, 
 industry, and civilization of the people. 
 
 " Thirty years' experience," says an African mer- 
 chant (Mr. Johnston,) " of the natives, derived from 
 living amongst them for the whole of that period, 
 leaves a strong impression on my mind that, with due 
 encouragement, they would readily be led to the cul- 
 tivation of the soil, which I think in most places ca- 
 pable of growing anything." Mr. Laird, in a letter 
 to me, observes, — " As to the character of the inhab- 
 itants, I can only state that, if there is one character- 
 istic that distinguishes an African from other uncivil- 
 
 * Jackson's Timbuctoo, pp. 24, 38, and 427. 
 16* 
 
186 THE REMEDY. 
 
 ized people, it is his love of, and eagerness for, traf- 
 fic : men, women, and children trade in all directions. 
 They have regular market-places where they bring 
 the produce of their fields, their manufactures, their 
 ivory, and everything they can sell. * * * At the 
 Iccory- Market I have seen upwards of one hundred 
 large canoes, each holding from ten to forty men, all 
 trading peaceably together. I was informed by the 
 natives that it was considered neutral ground, and 
 that the towns at war with one another, attended the 
 same market amicably." The industrious inhabitants 
 of the Grain Coast supply Sierra Leone, and Liberia 
 with the greatest portion of their food. 
 
 One of the sub-agents of the Slave Trading Com- 
 pany, which I have already noticed, thus writes to his 
 principal from the town of Gotto, about ten leagues 
 up the river Benin, of date 20th June, 1837: " I was 
 astonished to see so large a market the day I arrived. 
 The town is large and eligible ; there were at least 
 4000 persons at market with all sorts of commodities 
 for sale."* 
 
 Of their capabilities of improvement we may judge 
 from the rude efforts of negroes transported from 
 North America, or liberated from slave-ships at Sierra 
 Leone. "What these men have wanted, as Colonel 
 Denham remarks, is " instruction, example, and capi- 
 tal ;" and he adds, " that, with the small amount of 
 either that they have received, it is a subject of as- 
 tonishment to him that they have done what they 
 have." -(Dispatch, 21st May, 1829.) They supply 
 the market of Freetown with plenty of fruit and vege- 
 
 * Class A., 1838.9, p. 64. 
 
COMMERCE WITH THE EASTERN COAST. 187 
 
 tables, such as yams, cassada, Indian corn, ground- 
 nuts, pine-apples, sugar-canes, &c, (fee. 
 
 Nearly the same account may be given of the exu- 
 berant fertility of the eastern as of the western coast, 
 and of the lucrative character of the commerce which 
 might be there carried on were it not for the destruc- 
 tive Slave Trade. I have been informed by the cap- 
 tain of a merchant-vessel who was long on the eastern 
 coast, that before the Slave Trade absorbed the whole 
 attention of the people, two merchant-ships used to be 
 annually dispatched from Lisbon, which for the most 
 paltry outfit, brought home return cargoes of from 
 40,000/. to 60,000/.* 
 
 Other testimonies might be added to show that the 
 African is not wanting in those qualities which ac- 
 company civilization, and he only requires that a right 
 direction should be given to his industry and intelli- 
 gence, to qualify him for intercourse with the more 
 refined European. 
 
 The eagerness with which the Timmanees entered 
 into the laborious and fatiguing work of cutting, 
 squaring, and floating to the trading stations the im- 
 mense bodies of heavy teak timber exported from 
 
 * The gentleman who furnished this information, mentions the 
 following articles of commerce on the eastern coast of Africa : — 
 Gold, silver, copper, iron, ivory, horns, tallow, hides, skins, tor- 
 toiseshell, ostrich- feathers, pearls, ambergris, amber, gums and va- 
 rious drugs, palm-oil, cocoa-nut oil, black whale-oil, sperm-oil, bees- 
 wax in great abundance, coffee, tobacco, indigo, corn, rice, &c. A 
 most profitable trade might also be carried on in cowries, which 
 abound on the coast, where he has purchased them at 4rf. a-bushel; 
 on the western coast they are the current coin, and are told out by 
 the hundred. All these articles find a ready market at Ceylon, 
 Bombay, and Calcutta. 
 
188 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Sierra Leone, is a convincing proof of their readiness 
 to engage in any employment where they can get a 
 reward, however small, for their labor. It is well 
 known that during the time the timber trade was in 
 activity, several native towns were formed on the 
 banks of the river, and many natives came from a dis- 
 tance up the country to engage in it. Timber was 
 cut at the termination of the largest creeks at Port 
 Logo, and even so far as Rokou, and floated down to 
 Tombo, Bance Island, and Tasso. (Laing, p. 77.) # 
 
 I have lately seen a portion of the Journal of the 
 Rev. W. Fox, written at Macarthy's Island, in which, 
 of date September 3, 1836, he mentions having given 
 away a considerable number of Arabic Scriptures to 
 Mandingoes, and to Serrawoollies, or Tiloboonkoes, 
 as they are here more generally termed ; which lite- 
 rally means Eastern people, as they come from the 
 neighborhood of, and beyond, Bondou, and are strict 
 Mahommetans. They come here and hire them- 
 selves as laborers for several months, and with the 
 articles they receive in payment barter them again on 
 their way home for more than their actual value on 
 this island. 
 
 The Kroomen who inhabit Cape Palmas are a most 
 extraordinary race of men. They neither sell nor al- 
 
 * «' Twenty years ago," says Laird (vol. ii. p. 363,) " African 
 timber was unknown in the English market. There are now from 
 13,000 to 15,000 loads annually imported. In 1832 Mr. Forster, in 
 a letter to Lord Goderich, stated the importation as high as 'from 
 15 000 to 20,000 loads, giving employment to 20,000 tons of ship, 
 ping annually.' From 3.000 to 4,000 loads of red teak-wood are 
 exported annually from the Gambia," and the mahogany from that 
 river is now much used for furniture. 
 
INGENUITY OF NATIVES. 189 
 
 low themselves to be made slaves. These men leave 
 their homes young, and work on board the trading 
 vessels on the coast, or at Sierra Leone. Their at- 
 tachment to their country is great, nor will they en- 
 gage themselves for more than three years. " To my 
 mind," says Mr. Laird, in the letter to me which I 
 have before quoted, "these men appear destined by 
 Providence to be the means of enabling Europeans to 
 penetrate into the remotest parts of Africa by water. 
 They are patient, enduring, faithful, easily kept in or- 
 der, and brave to rashness when led by white men. 
 Any number may be got at wages from two to four 
 dollars per month." 
 
 We thus find that little difficulty exists in procur- 
 ing either laborers or seamen in Africa. 
 
 To those disposed to make the necessary allow- 
 ances, it is something to know that it has been re- 
 marked by many travelers, that the Africans are by 
 no means devoid of aptitude and ingenuity in imitat- 
 ing European manufactures. Thus, at the island of 
 Tombo, Mr. Rankin* saw the lock of a rifle which 
 had been so well repaired by a Foulah, who had never 
 seen any but the fractured one, that strict examina- 
 tion was necessary to discover what part had been re- 
 placed. In Benin they make muskets, procuring only 
 the locks from Europe ; and at the market of Jenne, 
 De Caillie observed gunpowder, of an inferior kind 
 indeed to ours, but of home manufacture. In most 
 parts of Africa the natives have some notion of work- 
 ing metals. f They are acquainted with many dyes, 
 
 * Rankin, vol. i. p. 130. 
 
 t The Rev. Mr. Fox has recently presented me with two gold 
 rings of excellent workmanship, manufactured by a native of the 
 Gambia. 
 
190 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and make much use of indigo. Colonel Denham* says 
 that the dark blue of the tobes (or tunic) worn in 
 Bornou cannot be excelled in any part of the world ; 
 and Kano is famed for its indigo establishments. I am 
 told that they are also acquainted with a plant which 
 produces a more brilliant blue than the indigo. From 
 other vegetable substances they obtain other colors ; 
 thus Wadstrom stated to the Committee of 1790,f 
 that the whole army of the king of Darnel was clothed 
 in cloth of native manufacture, dyed orange and 
 brown. They also give a red or black dye to their 
 leather ; for the tanning of which they use several 
 kinds of bark.J 
 
 In the year 1818 Mr. Clarkson had a conference, 
 on the subject of the Slave Trade, with the Emperor 
 Alexander at Aix-la-Chapelle. I have before me a 
 private letter which he wrote to J. J. Gurney, Esq., 
 describing the interview. He states that he exhibited 
 articles in leather, in iron, in gold, in cotton cloth, 
 mats, &c. " Having gone over all the articles, the 
 Emperor desired me to inform him whether he was 
 to understand that these articles were made by the 
 Africans in their own country, that is, in their own 
 native villages ; or after they had arrived in America, 
 where they would have an opportunity of seeing Eu- 
 ropean manufactures. I replied, that such articles 
 might be found in every African village, both on the 
 coast and in the interior ; and that they were samples 
 of their own ingenuity, without any connection with 
 Europeans. 'Then,' said the Emperor, 'you hav< 
 
 * Clapperton, p. 60. 
 
 t Abbrev. Evid. vol. iii. p. 10. 
 
 t Rankin, vol. i. p. 132. Clapperton, p. 61, 62. 
 
THE BIBLE AND THE PLOW. 191 
 
 given me a new idea of the state of these poor peo- 
 ple. 1 was not aware that they were so far advanced 
 in society. The works you have shown me are not 
 the works of brutes, but of men endued with rational 
 and intellectual powers, and capable of being brought 
 to as high a degree of proficiency as other men. 
 Africa ought to be allowed to have a fair chance of 
 raising her character in the scale of the civilized 
 world.' I replied that it was the cruel traffic which 
 had prevented her from rising to a level with other 
 countries, and that it was really astonishing to me 
 that the natives had, under its impeding influence, ar- 
 rived at the perfection which displayed itself in the 
 specimens he had just seen. The Emperor replied 
 that it was equally astonishing to him, for that 
 wherever the trade existed, a man could have no sti- 
 mulus to labor; being subject every hour to be taken 
 away for a slave, he could not tell whether he should 
 enjoy the fruits of it ; he was sure upon this principle 
 that no man in Africa would sow more corn than was 
 sufficient for his own consumption ; and so the same 
 principle would prove an obstacle to any extraordina- 
 ry cultivation of the works of art." 
 
 The natives have some turn both for husbandry and 
 gardening. In the more settled parts of the interior 
 more pains are taken with cultivation, and even the 
 slaves are said to work better than those on the coast. 
 One of the best specimens of African agriculture is 
 given by De Caillie, as observed by him at Kimba, on 
 the road between Kankan and Jenne : — 
 
 " I walked about in the neighborhood of our 
 habitation, and was delighted with the good cultiva- 
 tion ; the natives raise little mounds of earth in which 
 
192 THE REMEDY. 
 
 they plant their pistachios and yams ; and these 
 mounds are arranged with some taste, all of the same 
 height, and in rows. Rice and millet are sown in 
 trenches ; as soon as the rainy season commences, 
 they put in the seed around their habitations, and when 
 the maize is in flower they plant cotton between the 
 rows. The maize is ripe very early, and they then 
 fill it up to make room for the other crop. If they 
 do not plant cotton they turn up the ground after the 
 maize is got in, and transplant the millet into it, a 
 practice which I never observed in Kankan. I was 
 surprised to find these good people so laborious and 
 careful ; on every side in the country I saw men and 
 women weeding the fields. They grow two crops 
 in the year on the same land ; I have seen rice in 
 ear, and other rice by its side scarcely above the 
 ground."* 
 
 Agriculture is obviously one of the first arts to 
 which we ought to direct their attention, not merely 
 as furnishing the surest ground for our future com 
 mercial intercourse, but as tending to bring the peo- 
 ple into a condition of life most favorable for the re- 
 ception and spread of Christianity. When Mr. Read 
 set forth to convert the Bushmen on the frontier of 
 Cape colony, he is reported to have said, " We take a 
 plow with us ; but let it be remembered, that in 
 Africa the Bible and the plow go together." And 
 in the same spirit should I desire that our operations 
 might be carried on. At present, indeed, trade (the 
 barter of such articles as the country spontaneously 
 produces, and which may suffice for the limited de- 
 mand Africa has hitherto known,) is likely to be more 
 * De Caille's Travel, vol. i. p. 293, 394. 
 
HANNAH KILHAM. 193 
 
 to their taste than an occupation requiring regular 
 labor ; still the cultivation which has arisen in many 
 places on the stoppage of the Slave Trade, the 
 ground-nuts grown for sale on the Gambia, the corn 
 raised for exportation on the Gold Coast, the cutting 
 of timber at Sierra Leone, and the preparation of 
 palm-oil at the mouths of the Niger, prove that these 
 people may be led to adopt new methods of earning 
 wealth by honest industry. In fact I think it is evi- 
 vident that, as Sir. E. Mends wrote in 1823 to the Ad- 
 miralty, " wherever the traffic in slaves has been 
 checked, the natives have shown a fair and reason- 
 able desire for cultivating the productions of the coun- 
 try."* 
 
 The negro's aptitude for letters has, as we may 
 well suppose, been still less exercised than his 
 manual skill \ but we have proof, I think, that as a 
 race, they are by no means deficient. On this point I 
 may quote the words of an accurate observer, a 
 
 * It is impossible not to observe with regret how little these 
 44 desires" have met with encouragement from European?. Cap- 
 tain Arabin, in describing the fertile banks of the river Cassa- 
 manza, where the Portuguese have factories, thus refers to the 
 inhabitants, who, though now hardly to be distinguished from the 
 aboriginal negroes, yet are partly descended from the first settlers. 
 "They have remarkably fine cotton and indigo, and manufacture 
 from them cloth of a dye and texture highly esteemed in Africa, 
 and susceptible of much greater improvement ; but the Portuguese, 
 neglecting these advantages and capabilities of a people who have 
 a mixture of their own blood in their veins, direct their attention 
 almost wholly to the traffic in slaves, and seH indiscriminately 
 these ingenious artificers, with their wives and children, whenever 
 they can catch them." — '« State of the Slave Trade," in the Amulet 
 1832, p. 218. 
 
 17 
 
194 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Quaker lady,* who devoted much of her life to the 
 promotion of African education, and at last sacrificed 
 it in the cause. 
 
 " If my heart might speak from what my eye has 
 seen, I would say I am fully convinced that it is not 
 any inferiority in the African mind, or natural capa- 
 city, that has kept them in so depressed a state in the 
 scale of society, but the lack of those advantages 
 which are, in the usual order of Providence, made use 
 of as instruments for the advancement and improve- 
 ment of human beings. Those disadvantages which 
 they, in common with other uncivilized natives, have 
 suffered, have with them been cruelly increased, by 
 that oppression, which, wherever exercised, has a 
 natural tendency to fetter, to depress, and to blunt the 
 powers of the mind ; and it is very unfair, and a great 
 aggravation of the cruelty, to reflect on the victims of 
 it, as wanting ability for any other station than that 
 which they have been suffered to fill. I do not think 
 that even here [Sierra Leone] Africans have had a 
 fair trial of what they might be, had they the same 
 advantages in education, and circumstances connect- 
 ed with education, which Europeans have been favor- 
 ed with, yet their intelligent countenances, and the 
 ability they show when rightly instructed, evince cer- 
 tainly no deficiency in the natural powers of the mind ; 
 they come here, as to a foreign land, the language of 
 which is quite strange and unknown to them, they are 
 taught in this strange language, (those of them who 
 
 * Hannah Kilham, who made three voyages to Africa for the 
 sake of acquainting herself with the native languages ; she reduc- 
 ed to writing the Wolof or Jaloof, in which she printed reading 
 
 lessons. 
 
FACILITIES FOR GIVING INSTRUCTION. 195 
 
 have school instruction,) from lists of detached words, 
 spelling- lessons, many of which they never hear but 
 in those lessons, and their meaning therefore remains 
 unknown."* 
 
 " It seems very evident from what we hear, that 
 civilization is prevented, or has been prevented, along 
 the coast, by the prevalence of the horrid traffic in 
 men ; and the interior, north of the line, is much 
 more civilized than near the coast. The interior of 
 the south appears to be little known. I wish the 
 sceptical as to African capacity could have seen a 
 Foulah man, of striking and intelligent countenance, 
 who was here the other day, and have heard his melo- 
 dious reading of Arabic manuscripts. I am informed, 
 both here and in the Gambia, that the Mahomedans 
 of Western Africa are the most orderly and well con- 
 ducted part of the African population. Their zeal in 
 the promotion of Arabic schools should stimulate Eu- 
 ropeans of higher profession. If persons be suitably 
 introduced, so as that their designs are fully known, 
 I believe intercourse, where only good is intended, 
 would, in most places, be made more easy than some 
 are willing to believe.'** 
 
 FACILITIES FOR GIVING INSTRUCTION. 
 
 There is no more encouraging feature than the 
 readiness which has been generally observed on the 
 part of the negroes, to obtain for their children, and 
 sometimes for themselves, the advantages of educa- 
 
 * Letter from H. Kilham to W. Allen, 1824. 
 t Appendix to Second Report of African Instruction Society. 
 p. 11. 
 
196 THE REMEDY. 
 
 tion. Their love of acquiring knowledge, especially 
 that of languages, is thus spoken of by Mr. Laird. 
 
 " The eagerness with which the Africans thirst 
 after knowledge, is a very striking feature in their 
 character ; on the coast great numbers have learned 
 to read writing from the captains of merchant ves- 
 sels."* He mentions that the late Duke Ephraim, 
 chief of Old Calabar, though he could not read a news- 
 paper, yet considered it essential to have a supply of 
 books. " The schools at Sierra Leone and Cape Coast 
 have done most, if not all, the good that has been 
 done. I know an instance now of a captured slave, 
 resident at Fernando Po, who sent his son to England 
 for education. All the chiefs would gladly pay for 
 the board and education of their children. In the in- 
 terior, in every village where Mahomedanism is 
 professed, the children crowd to learn to mutter Ara- 
 bic prayers and scraps of the Koran. 
 
 Liberia presents the example of a black community 
 managing their own affairs on civilized principles. 
 There, besides the governor, there is scarcely a white 
 man in authority. They have two public libraries, a 
 press, and the journal of the colony, " The Liberian 
 Herald," is edited by a negro, the son of a slave of 
 Virginia, and frequently contains able dissertations 
 written by men of the same race. 
 
 Mr. Ashmun found the natives bordering on the 
 American Colony at Liberia very desirous of putting 
 their children under his care. He writes in a Keport, 
 1825 : — " No man of the least consideration in the 
 country, will desist from his importunities until at 
 
 * Lairdj vol. ii. p. 395. 
 
ANXIETY FOR INSTRUCTION. 197 
 
 least one of his sons is fixed in some settler's fam- 
 ily.* 
 
 At this time many of the natives reside in the colo- 
 ny, and are gradually adopting the habits of civilized 
 life. Many came thither for the express purpose of 
 obtaining a Christian education, for which purpose, 
 also, many of the native kings continue to send their 
 sons. Missionaries of various denominations have 
 penetrated into the neighboring states, and all have 
 sent cheering accounts of their success and prospects. f 
 
 Two Wesleyan ministers, Messrs. Dove and Bad- 
 ger, visited the " Plantains," an island on the mouth 
 of the " Sherbro," in April, 1839. 
 
 Mr. Dove says, " The island has a beautiful appear- 
 ance, and the cattle on it look as fine as any I ever 
 saw in my native land. The island, though small, 
 belongs to King Calker, who treated us with great 
 kindness. We took up our abode in the royal apart- 
 ments, and the next day we dined with his Majesty. 
 He is certainly a sensible man, and seems to be quite 
 free from the vile and superstitious customs practised 
 throughout the ' Sherbro ' country ; he possesses a 
 pretty good knowledge of English, and expressed a 
 wish to have a missionary live with him ; we had the 
 high gratification of seeing him reading an English 
 Bible. His brother, also, is a sincere inquirer after 
 truth ; having received some instruction when young, 
 and living in Freetown, he now instructs both children 
 and adults, and when we witnessed the result of this 
 king's brother's labor, we could not but rejoice. He 
 
 * Life of Ashmun, p. 271. 
 
 t Address of Judge Payne to the Vermont Colonization Society, 
 1838. 
 
 17* 
 
198 THE REMEDY. 
 
 has translated several portions of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures, catechisms, and some of our excellent hymns, 
 into the ■ Sherbro 1 language ; he wishes me, if possi- 
 ble, to get them printed for the use of the heathen 
 around him." 
 
 Besides this eagerness on the part of the African 
 tribes to obtain intellectual and useful instruction, 
 there is also a most encouraging willingness to re- 
 ceive, and listen to, the teachers of Christianity. In. 
 deed, I am not aware of any instance of Christian 
 teachers having been repelled, when their object has 
 been fairly understood, except, indeed, by the noto- 
 rious influence of European Slave Traders. These 
 miscreants obliged the church missionaries to leave 
 some of their stations ; an event deeply to be regret- 
 ted, as they had established some excellent schools on 
 the Rio Pongas : one of their scholars was Simeon 
 Wilhelm, who died in England in 1817, and was well 
 known as a young man of remarkable promise.* 
 
 Within the last three years Mr. Fox has visited the 
 chiefs of Woolli, Bondou, Barra, and Nyani, and ob- 
 tained from all, Pagan and Mahomedan, invitations for 
 missionaries. The following is the account he gives 
 of an interview with Saada, the Almamy of Bondou. 
 
 On Saturday, April 28, 1838, Mr. Fox reached 
 Boollibanny, the capital of the Mahomedan state of 
 Bondou, and on the following day had an interview 
 with Saada, who was encamped six miles from the 
 city, and was about to start on a marauding expedi- 
 tion. On being introduced, Mr. Fox immediately 
 stated the object of his journey, adding that he had 
 visited the kingdoms of Barra, Nyani, and Woolli, and 
 that those kings were favorable to his design j and 
 ♦ See the Life of Wilhelm, by the Rev. Mr. Bickersteth. 
 
ANXIETY FOR INSTRUCTION. 199 
 
 giving, at the Almamy's request, a brief summary of 
 the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. The Al- 
 mamy replied, that all that had been said was very 
 good ; and that Mr. Fox might look at the Bondou 
 ground, and inform him when he had fixed upon a 
 place 5 but that he and his people must still follow 
 Mahomet. 
 
 " This being ended," Mr. Fox continues, " I told 
 him I had one request to make j namely, that he 
 would abandon the war he had in contemplation. 
 In reply to my request, the Almamy asked, Why I did 
 not wish him to go to war 1 I answered, From the 
 misery that must of necessity follow ; but especially 
 because of the Divine command given to Moses, 
 ' Thou shalt do no murder.' Shortly after this I 
 shook hands with this powerful chief, and w r e return- 
 ed to our lodgings at Boollibanny. 
 
 " About an hour afterwards, to my surprise and that 
 of others, the Almamy and his war tribe came gal- 
 loping home." 
 
 Mr. Freeman's visit to Ashantee has been already 
 noticed. On this occasion his converts gave proof of 
 the effect of the gospel which he had preached to 
 them. No nation could have been more barbarously 
 treated by another, than the Fantees by the Ashan- 
 tees ; who had exercised their power in the most fe- 
 rocious manner, not only slaying them by thousands 
 in the field, and destroying their villages, but putting 
 hundreds of them to death by torture. It has been 
 only British protection that has preserved the weaker 
 race j yet no sooner did the ill-used Fantees hear of 
 Mr. Freeman's views than they entered fully into 
 them, and became, as he says, "not only willing, but 
 
100 THE REMEDY. 
 
 anxious for him to go up to Coomassie." Such a salu- 
 tary feeling has religion wrought in them, that they 
 are now making a voluntary subscription to send the 
 gospel to their blood-thirsty enemies. 
 
 We have also seen the results of Mr. Freeman's 
 expedition ; the impression made upon his mind was 
 thus stated by himself after his return. " I am happy 
 to inform you, that through the mercy of the God of 
 missions, I have surmounted every difficulty, and re- 
 turned fully satisfied that even the sanguinary Ashan- 
 tees are ready to receive the gospel, and that, as soon 
 as the committee can send a good supply of mission- 
 aries to this station, we shall, by the blessing of God, 
 establish a mission among that people."* 
 
 In their last report, the Church Missionary Society 
 state that they also hope soon to be able to extend 
 their operations from Sierra Leone into the interior, 
 that some preliminary excursions had been made by 
 the missionaries, and that the reception they met with 
 from the people was encouraging. 
 
 AGENTS TO BE OBTAINED. 
 
 We have already seen the desirableness of educat- 
 ing and civilizing the inhabitants of Africa ; and a 
 number of facts have been brought to light, tending 
 to show, that there is at least as great a readiness on 
 their part to receive instruction, as on ours to com- 
 municate it ; the question now remains — Who are to 
 be the instructors 1 The climate is generally viewed 
 as unfavorable to Europeans, and this being the case 
 I have great satisfaction in finding, that from among 
 
 * Wesleyan Missionary Notices, November, 1839, p. 166. 
 
AGENTS TO BE OBTAINED. 101 
 
 the liberated Africans in our West Indian Colonies, 
 we are likely to be furnished with a number of per- 
 sons, in whom are united the desirable qualifications 
 of fitness for the climate, competency to act as teach- 
 ers, and willingness to enter upon the work. 
 
 An important feature of the present time is this, 
 that the exertions of the missionaries in the "West 
 Indies are beginning to tell on their converts in the 
 missionary spirit which they have imparted. There 
 is a feeling in the hearts of our emancipated negroes 
 towards the land of their origin, which seems to have 
 arisen spontaneously in various congregations. 
 
 Last December, in the hope that openings might 
 ere long occur for the employment of native agents, 
 I addressed, through the Rev. Mr. Trew, a circular to 
 the heads of missionary societies, inquiring whether 
 trustworthy persons could be found for various de- 
 partments of our operations. Before answers could 
 be received, the Rev. Mr. Dyer, the secretary of the 
 Baptist Missionary Society, transmitted to me an in- 
 quiry on their part in the following letter to the com- 
 mittee at home, from the minister of one of their con- 
 gregations in Jamaica. 
 
 Montego Bay, Jan. 2lst, 1839. 
 " We beg to press upon your attention a subject of 
 vast importance, and shall feel thankful if, at the very 
 earliest opportunity, you will bring it before the mem- 
 bers of the committee, with our earnest request that 
 they will take it into their prayerful and serious con- 
 sideration, and without delay adopt measures to realize 
 the desires of many thousands of their fellow Chris- 
 tians in this island. The subject is, a mission to the 
 
102 THE REMEDY. 
 
 interior of Western Africa ; the land from which the 
 beloved people of our charge, or their forefathers, 
 were stolen, and which is at present without the light 
 of the gospel, and suffering under accumulated wrongs. 
 We, their ministers, feel on the subject an intense in- 
 terest, while in their hearts the strongest emotions 
 are excited for the perishing land of their fathers. 
 The conversion of Africa to God is the theme of 
 their conversation and their prayers, and the object 
 of their most ardent desires. For this they are willing 
 to toil, and devote the fruits of their labor, while 
 some are anxious to go themselves, and proclaim to 
 their kindred the love of Christ in dying for their sal- 
 vation. In short, a feeling prevails among the mem- 
 bers of our churches, to check which would be to in- 
 jure their piety, and we believe would grieve that 
 Divine Spirit, by whose gracious influences those feel- 
 ings have been excited. 
 
 " There being no direct communication between 
 this island and Africa, and few sources of information 
 respecting that country being opened to us, we are at 
 a loss to fix upon any plan to carry our desires into 
 effect, and are therefore desirous that the committee 
 should give it all the consideration it demands, and as 
 early as possible communicate their sentiments to us." 
 
 The following letter to myself, from a highly 
 respectable gentleman, is of a somewhat similar 
 character : — 
 
 [Kingston, Jamaica, May 1st, 1839. 
 " It is very remarkable that before being acquainted 
 with the movements in England, we had been acting 
 in some measure practically on your principle. Three 
 
AGENTS TO BE OBTAINED. 103 
 
 or four months ago a large meeting, consisting of 
 betwixt 2000 and 3000 persons, was held in this city, 
 for the purpose of considering the best means of 
 Christianizing Africa, by such Christian agency as we 
 could collect in this island. I was president of that 
 meeting, and on my return home, what was my sur- 
 prise to find upon my table Mr. Trew's circular, in- 
 quiring to what extent a Christian commercial agency 
 for operations in Africa, could be procured here ! . . 
 We have had since another meeting, when a society 
 was organized for the Evangelization of Africa, by 
 means of native agency. The object has excited the 
 deepest interest in the black population, and I 
 have no doubt we shall be able to make a commence- 
 ment at least. Your plan is much more extensive. I 
 think you may rely on securing from the West Indies 
 an agency of negro and colored persons, efficient for 
 establishments either civil or commercial, as might be 
 thought advisable. A good common education is 
 
 generally within the reach of all classes now 
 
 The negro is naturally a very susceptible creature, 
 perhaps naturally the most favorably disposed of any 
 of the human family, to receive and avail himself of 
 the advantages which may be put in his way ; but by 
 some fatality, unaccountable on any principle, save 
 that ' the time to favor it had not come,' the tribe has 
 remained an outcast, and the country a waste. 
 
 " One poor African, named James Keats, left this 
 country a few months ago, really on a pilgrimage to 
 his native land, that he might carry the gospel there. 
 We are anxious to hear of him. He had reached 
 Sierra Leone, and had, I believe, embarked in Her 
 Majesty's ship Rattlesnake for the Congo river, which 
 he intends to ascend." 
 
104 THE REMEDY. 
 
 I have also received a letter from the Rev. John 
 "Beecham, stating that a number of agents might be 
 obtained from among the Wesleyan negroes in the 
 West Indies, who are already qualified for the work 
 "to a good extent," and who by the necessary train- 
 ing, might prove valuable auxiliaries to the cause. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Holberton, Rector of St. John's, has 
 also stated his views on the subject, in a letter to the 
 Rev. Mr. Trew, dated Antigua, March 6, 1839, of 
 which the following is an extract : — 
 
 "The subject of your circular has long occupied 
 my mind ; and now that it has come, soliciting inquiry 
 on the point, I cannot help laying before you what 
 seems to me a very feasible, and comparatively inex- 
 pensive mode of proceeding in this deeply interesting 
 work. Instead of having a college erected in one of 
 the islands for the reception of native black and col- 
 ored youths of promise, I would respectfully recom- 
 mend that an agent be sent to this island, and there 
 gather about him a band of black and colored youths, 
 to be trained and educated expressly for the employ- 
 ments proposed in your letter, more especially as mis- 
 sionaries. Nothing is better than an infant school as 
 the first training place for the future missionary, as he 
 is there likely to be moulded into a pains-taking, per- 
 severing, simple-minded man. 
 
 " From persons so employed and approved, your 
 agent might make a selection. Such as he made choice 
 of should be trained by him and domesticated with him 
 for a time ;and when the necessary measure of fitness 
 was apparent, should be sent for one year to the Church 
 Missionary Society's college in England. And when 
 you forward them from England, send as their super- 
 
AGENTS TO BE OBTAINED. 203 
 
 intendent, one of ourselves, a minister who shall 
 dirrect their energies aright, bear with their weakness, 
 and keep united heart and mind in the great work on 
 which they had been sent out. I do not see how you 
 can move a step in this great undertaking without 
 sending out an agent of decided piety, sound judgment, 
 and competent ability, to instruct and direct those 
 who are to be committed to his charge ; but let him 
 be no sectarian. 
 
 " On the whole, then, you will see that I do not hold 
 the scheme which you state in your letter to'be at all 
 a visionary one ; but am sanguine enough to hope, 
 that if you proceed on the plan I have ventured to 
 recommend, you will attain to the desired end by a 
 very speedy, and sure and safe way. I rejoice in the 
 prospect of such an undertaking. It will be the most 
 righteous compensation that could be made to Africa 
 for all the wrongs England, through former years, took, 
 part with other nations in doing to her. Of a truth 
 how beautiful will be to her, the feet of the sons of 
 those who were cruelly torn from her soil in years 
 past, returning to her shores again with the everlasting 
 gospel in their hands, and their mouths opened to de- 
 clare unto her what God hath wrought." 
 
 The Rev. John Clark, baptist missionary in Jamaica, 
 stated to me, in a letter dated September 16, 1839, 
 " that the case of Africa was exciting deep sympathy 
 amongst the members of his congregation." He also 
 named several negroes, already qualified to some ex- 
 tent, who were willing and even anxious to enter im- 
 mediately upon the work ; and stated his full convic- 
 tion, that an ample number of native agents might, 
 after suitable education, be available from the island 
 18 
 
206 THE REMEDY. 
 
 of Jamaica, for the important purposes of African in- 
 struction. 
 
 ADVANCES ALREADY MADE. 
 
 To this it must be added that some advances have 
 already been made. The Church Missionary Society 
 have a normal school for the education of teachers at 
 Sierra Leone ; by the last statement it appears that 
 sixteen are now in the course of education, under the 
 effective instruction of the Rev. G. A. Kissling, who 
 speaks favorably of his scholars. By a summary, is- 
 sued May, 1839, it appears that there are 5,098, of 
 all ages, under the care of this society ; and the report 
 of this year states, " with thankfulness to Almighty 
 God, the steady progress of this first established of 
 the society's missions." 
 
 The Report of the Wesleyan Mission for this year 
 has the following paragraph, p. 68 : — " The state of 
 the work at the West African stations is very gratify- 
 ing, and the openings for more extended usefulness 
 are most inviting. At Sierra Leone nearly 2000 per- 
 sons are united together in religious fellowship, and 
 the schools are prosperous. The stations at the Gam- 
 bia are increasing in importance. At Macarthy's 
 island the committee for the civilization department 
 are exerting themselves for the benefit of the con- 
 verted natives. The kingdoms of Woolli and Bondou, 
 which the enterprising spirit of Mr. Fox has explored, 
 and other places, are open to the missionaries. At 
 Cape Coast, the rapid spread of the Gospel calls for 
 the most grateful acknowledgments to Almighty God, 
 who has crowned the labors of his servants with sig- 
 nal success. And in the midst of the discourage- 
 
ADVANCES ALEEADY MADE. 207 
 
 merits resulting from the painful visitations of disease 
 and death, which these missions from time to time 
 experience, it is an alleviating consideration, that a 
 native agency is rising up, by which the work may, 
 at no distant period, be prosecuted, without so large 
 a sacrifice of life and health on the part of European 
 missionaries." 
 
 The Wesleyans have declared their intention to 
 establish a college on Macarthy's island for the edu- 
 cation of children of natives of the higher classes, in 
 connection with the experimental farm. One benevo- 
 lent individual, Dr. Lindoe, has engaged to give £1000 
 to this institution. 
 
 The Church Missionaries have prepared, and with 
 the help'of the Bible Society, printed, translations of 
 the gospel of St. Matthew, in the Bullom, Mandingo, 
 and Susoo languages, in which they have also printed 
 grammars, or lesson-books, as well as in the Eyo or 
 Aku,* and the Sherbro. The American missionaries 
 have published elementary books in the Greybo and 
 Bassa languages. I have before mentioned the Wo- 
 lof lessons of Hannah Kilham. The Rev. R. M. Mac- 
 brair, of the Wesleyan Society, has published a com- 
 plete grammar of the 3iandingo. Another Wesleyan 
 missionary, the Rev. W. Archbell, has published a 
 grammar of the Sechuan.i language of South Africa, 
 which has been also critically investigated by the 
 French missionary, M. Casalis, and is supposed to be 
 the key to the dialect prevailing from the Congo to 
 Delagoa bay. 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that the Aku language has been found 
 to be understood by the great majority of the captured negroes. 
 Mr. Ferguson is my authority for this ; from this circumstance im- 
 portant facilities are likely to arise. 
 
208 THE KEMEDY. 
 
 I am not amongst the number of those who derive 
 encouragement from the vicinity of the Mahomedans. 
 I must confess that I apprehend a more stubborn re- 
 sistance to the diffusion of knowledge, especially that 
 which is the best and the most civilizing, from the 
 followers of the Prophet, than from the simple and 
 docile, though barbarous, tribes of Central Africa. 
 Mahomedanism also gives the sanction of religion to 
 the Slave Trade, and even enjoins it as a mode of con- 
 verting the heathen. That people are " Kaffering, and 
 do not say their prayers, the dogs ! " is sufficient rea- 
 son for the true believers making war upon them,* 
 and carrying them into slavery. Their prejudices are 
 so deeply rooted, that some missionaries do not hesi- 
 tate to say they would rather deal with Pagans than 
 with Mahomedans. 
 
 Yet even with these there is some encouragement j 
 to a certain extent they go along with us. There are 
 points in the Mahomedan faith which we may turn 
 to account in attempting to introduce better instruc- 
 tion. The Mussulmans of the west do not regard 
 Christians with the same horror as those of the east ; 
 they seem to be favorably impressed by finding that 
 we acknowledge much of their own sacred history ; 
 and with them, the names of Abraham and Moses 
 serve to recommend our holy books. 
 
 We may make common cause also with them in 
 Africa, in our common abhorrence of the bloody rites 
 and sacrifices of the Pagans. Thus Mr. Hutchison 
 writes from Coomassie : — " This place now presents 
 the singular spectacle of a Christian and a Mahomed- 
 
 * Dcnham, p. 149. 
 
ADVANCES ALREADY MADE. 209 
 
 an agreeing in two particulars — rejecting fetishes, 
 and absenting themselves from human sacrifices and 
 other abominations. The rest of the people, of what- 
 ever country they may be, when the king's horns an- 
 nounce any thing of the kind, strive who will get there 
 first, to enjoy the agonies of the victims ! " 
 
 Hitherto education has been entirely in the hands 
 of the Mahomedans ; and, in fact, the Arabic is, to a 
 considerable extent, the common language of Central 
 Africa. 
 
 The travels of the Mahomedans have, to a certain 
 degree, enlarged their minds. They are the leaders 
 of most of the caravans, and some travel merely for 
 pleasure. Mr. Fox mentions seeing, at Macarthy's 
 Island, a Moor who had come across the continent 
 from Medina, and was much interested on being 
 shown on a map the places he had passed through. 
 " When questioned as to the object he had in view in 
 coming so far, his answer was, he merely came for 
 'taVe walk' — he wished to see the Gambia, Senegal, 
 &c.' " Mr. Fox gave him the New Testament in 
 Arabic, which he read with tolerable ease. 
 
 It becomes evident, therefore, that our way is not 
 totally blocked up, but that there are many circum- 
 stances which will tend to facilitate our efforts for 
 disseminating knowledge and religion among those 
 who are the objects of our sympathy. And the en- 
 couragement and stimulus to exertion which we de- 
 rive from these ought to be in proportion to the mag- 
 nitude of the enterprise we contemplate, and of the 
 results we expect will follow. The elevation of the 
 native mind, as it is the only compensation we can 
 offer for the injuries we have inflicted on Africa, so 
 18* 
 
210 THE REMEDY. 
 
 it is the truest, the cheapest, and the shortest road to 
 the downfall of the Slave Trade, and of those fright- 
 ful superstitions which it has tended to preserve. 
 
 In what way, then, can this advance of mind be 
 most effectually and speedily attained 1 I answer in 
 the words of Mr. Burke, when speaking on a kindred 
 subject,* " I confess I trust more, according to the 
 sound principles of those who have at any time ame- 
 liorated the state of mankind, to the effect and influ- 
 ence of religion, than to all the rest of the regulations 
 put together." The Gospel ever has been, and ever 
 must be, the grand civilizer of mankind. Happily for 
 Africa, a mass of evidence is to be found corrobora- 
 tive of this assertion in the Report of the Committee 
 of the House of Commons in the sessions 1833 and 
 1834, on the Aborigines Question, appointed to con- 
 sider, amongst other things, " what measures ought 
 to be adopted to promote the spread of civilization 
 among the Aborigines of our colonies, and to lead 
 them to the peaceful and voluntary reception of the 
 Christian religion." A main branch of that inquiry 
 was, " Whether the experience of the several mis- 
 sionary societies led to the belief that it would be ad- 
 visable to begin with civilization in order to intro- 
 duce Christianity, or with Christianity, in order to 
 lead to civilization." It is a striking fact, that the 
 representatives of the missionary bodies who were 
 examined on that occasion, without any previous con- 
 cert between themselves on the subject of the inquiry, 
 arrived at precisely the same conclusion, namely, 
 
 * Burke's Works, vol. ix. p. 287 ; Letter to Dundas on Civiliza- 
 tion of Negroes in the Two Hemispheres. 
 
ADVANCES ALREADY MADE. 211 
 
 " That there is no means so effectual, under the di- 
 vine blessing, to benefit man for ' the life that now is,' 
 as well as ' that which is to come,' as Christianity." 
 
 In proof of this, Mr. Coates, Secretary of the 
 Church Missionary Society, observes to the com- 
 mittee : 
 
 " I find the preceptive part of Christianity tends to 
 make man peaceable, honest, sober, industrious, and 
 orderly. These, in my opinion, are the very elements 
 of civilization, in the moral sense of it. 
 
 " The impression of its great principles on the 
 heart tends directly to make him humble, self-denying, 
 philanthropic, beneficent, apart from the consideration 
 of those effects which may be deemed more strictly of 
 a religious or theological kind. I see in it, there- 
 fore, an arrangement and process by which the human 
 mind is to be operated upon in a more powerful man- 
 ner than by any other agency that can be imagined. 
 
 u If I look at the world when, at the rise of Chris- 
 tianity, it found Rome in the zenith of her power 
 and glory, in the highest state of civilization, as civil- 
 ization could exist in a heathen land, at that period, 
 among other practices, that of selling their prisoners 
 of war into slavery, prevailed. I find, too, in their 
 gladiatorial games, man opposed to man in mortal 
 conflict. And this not an accidental occurrence, or a 
 scene exhibited in private, but habitually at their 
 theatres, and to the most polished and distinguished 
 of the whole population. What do I find at the 
 expiration of a few ages 1 Christianity gains the 
 ascendency, and these things are extinct. 
 
 " I would only attempt further to illustrate this 
 bearing of the subject from three or four facts of a 
 
212 THE REMEDY. 
 
 recent date. At a recent period, suttees prevailed 
 throughout our possessions in India — they are now 
 prohibited : and this was effected by the expression 
 of Christian opinion and feeling in this country. I 
 look back on the enormous evils of the Slave Trade. 
 The Slave Trade is suppressed, and suppressed un- 
 questionably by the force of Christianity in this 
 country. I come to a still more recent period, and 
 see slavery abolished throughout all the British colo- 
 nies, and that at the cost of £20,000,000 of public 
 money ; the result most unquestionably of the state 
 of Christian principle and feeling. 
 
 " I now take up the question under a different 
 aspect — I mean as it is illustrated by the effects of 
 modern Protestant missions. I notice more particu- 
 larly those of the Church Missionary Society. 
 
 " Mr. George Clarke, a catechist, who has been 
 twelve years in New Zealand, thus writes : — ' Here 
 are a number of poor cannibals collected from the 
 different tribes around us, whose fathers were so rude, 
 so savage, that for ten years the first missionaries 
 lived among them, often expecting to be devoured by 
 them. A few years ago, they were ignorant of every 
 principle of religion ; had glutted in human blood, 
 and gloried in it ; but now there is not an individual 
 among them who is not in some degree acquainted 
 with the truths of the Christian religion. Not six 
 years ago they commenced with the very rudiments 
 of learning ; now many of them can read and write 
 their own language with propriety, and are com- 
 pletely masters of the first rules of arithmetic. But 
 very few years ago a chisel made out of stone was 
 their only tool ; now they have not only got our tools, 
 but are learning to use them.' 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 213 
 
 "Mr. R. Davis thus writes from the same mission : 
 — 'During the last quarter my time was principally 
 occupied in preparing agricultural implements, and 
 in attending to my natives employed about different 
 work — carpentering, sowing, fencing, taking up the 
 potatoe crop, and clearing land for the plow.' ' 
 
 We next turn our attention to the testimony of 
 another laborer in the Christian field, who no less 
 strongly supports the preceding statements. 
 
 The Rev. John Beecham, of the "Wesleyan Mis- 
 sionary Society, after expressing similar opinions to 
 those delivered by Mr. Coates, as to the sole efficacy 
 of Christianity in establishing and promoting refine- 
 ment and civilization, with their attendant comforts, 
 and very clearly illustrating his idea by a reference 
 to ancient history, proceeds further to support his 
 sentiments by referring to the testimony of Kahke- 
 waquonaby,* a chief of the Chippeway Indians, whose 
 name had been subsequently changed into Peter 
 Jones. This tribe, notwithstanding their rejection of 
 the offers of Government made to induce them to 
 renounce their roving course of life, afterwards em- 
 braced the gospel when preached to them, and de- 
 voted themselves to the pursuits of civilized life. 
 
 Mr. Jones thus writes : — " The improvements 
 which the Christian Indians have made, have been the 
 astonishment of all who knew them in their pagan 
 state. The change for the better has not only extended 
 to their hearts and feelings, but also to their personal 
 
 * The literal meaning of Kahkewaquonaby is " Sacred," or 
 " Eagle's feathers ;" the chief being of the Eagle tribe. He was 
 baptised by the name of Peter, and assumed the name of Jones 
 from his sponsor. 
 
214. THE REMEDY. 
 
 appearance, and their domestic and social condition. 
 About ten years ago this people had no houses, no 
 fields, no horses, no cattle. Each person could carry 
 upon his back all that he possessed, without being 
 much burthened. They are now occupying about 
 forty comfortable houses, most of which are built of 
 hewn logs, and a few of frame, and are generally one 
 and a half story high, and about twenty-four feet long 
 and eighteen feet wide, with stone or brick chim- 
 neys ; two or three rooms in each house. Their fur- 
 niture consists of tables, chairs, bedsteads, straw mat- 
 tresses, a few feather beds, window curtains, boxes, 
 and trunks for their wearing apparel, small shelves 
 fastened against the wall for their books, closets for 
 their cooking utensils, cupboards for their plates, 
 knives and forks ; some have clocks and watches. 
 They have no carpets, but a few have mats laid on 
 their floors. This tribe owns a saw-mill, a workshop, 
 a blacksmith's shop, and a warehouse, the property 
 of the whole community. They have about 200 
 acres of land under cultivation, on which they grow 
 wheat, Indian corn, potatoes, &c. In their gardens 
 they raise vegetables of various kinds, and a few have 
 planted fruit trees. They have a number of oxen, 
 cows, horses, and pigs ; a few barns and stables ; a 
 few wagons and sleighs ; and all sorts of farming im- 
 plements. 
 
 " The gospel has of a truth now proved the 
 1 savor of life unto life,' among our poor degraded 
 women. The men now make the houses, plant the 
 fields, provide the fuel and provisions for the house j 
 the business of the women is to manage the house- 
 hold affairs. The females eat with the men at the 
 
CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. '215 
 
 same table. You will be glad to hear that they are 
 not insensible to the great things the gospel has done 
 for them. I have often heard them expressing their 
 thanks to the Great Spirit for sending them mission- 
 aries to tell them the words of eternal life, which 
 have been the means of delivering them from a state 
 of misery and degradation." 
 
 The testimony of the Rev. William Ellis, Secretary 
 of the London Missionary Society, is to the same 
 effect. " True civilization and Christianity/' he ob- 
 serves, " are inseparable ; the former has never been 
 found but as a fruit of the latter." And he proceeds 
 to show with much force and perspicuity, the ineffi- 
 ciency of a mere demi-civilization to penetrate to the 
 root of human evil, and to lead to comfort and to 
 Christianity. 
 
 In the report of the London Missionary Society 
 for 1835, a comprehensive view is taken of the effects 
 produced by its labors in the South Sea Islands, 
 and which may serve as an illustration of the benign 
 and salutary influences of Christian truth, when per- 
 severingly pressed upon the acceptance of the most 
 barbarous people. The report observes — " Forty 
 years ago, when this society was formed, the islands 
 of the South Seas had been discovered, explored, and 
 abandoned, as presenting no objects worthy of fur- 
 ther regard. Their inhabitants were sunk still lower 
 in wretchedness by intercourse with foreigners, and 
 left a prey to the merciless idolatry that was fast 
 sweeping them from the face of the earth. To them 
 the attention of our venerable fathers in this cause 
 was first directed, and a mission was auspiciously 
 commenced. Idolatry was subverted, infant murder 
 
216 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and human sacrifices ceased, education was promoted, 
 converts flocked around the missionaries, churches 
 were gathered, missionary societies formed, and 
 teachers sent forth. Now, the people, fast rising in 
 the scale of nations, have, as fruits of the Divine 
 blessing on missionary perseverance, a written lan- 
 guage, a free press, a representative government, 
 courts of justice, written laws, useful arts, and im- 
 proved resources. Commercial enterprise is pro- 
 moting industry and wealth, and a measure of do* 
 mestic comfort, unknown to their ancestors, now per- 
 vades their dwellings. A nation has been born at 
 once, and surrounding nations have been blessed 
 through their mercy." 
 
 Testimonies of this kind might be multiplied to a 
 great extent. The annals of missionary proceedings 
 teem with information of the most conclusive cha 
 racter, whilst the newly converted heathen them- 
 selves, ever ready to testify to the blessings they are 
 thus brought to enjoy, are heard to exclaim, "But 
 for our teachers, our grass on the hills, our fences 
 and houses, would have been fire ashes long ago; 
 and we should have been upon the mountains squeez- 
 ing moss for a drop of water, eating raw roots, and 
 smothering the cries of our children by filling their 
 mouths with dirt, grass, or cloth." " We were all 
 blind till the bird flew across the great expanse with 
 the good seeds in its mouth, $nd planted them among 
 us. We now gather the fruit, and have continual 
 harvest." 
 
 No less striking is the evidence of Andrew Stof- 
 fell, a converted Hottentot, before the Aborigines 
 Committee. He is asked, " Have the character and 
 
MISCELLANEOUS TESTIMONIES. 
 
 217 
 
 condition of the Hottentots been improved since the 
 missionaries came among them, and in what re- 
 spects]" He replies, "The young people can now 
 read and write, and we all wear clothes ; many of us 
 have learned trades, and we are altogether better 
 men. We have plowing, wagon-makers, and shoe- 
 makers, and other tradesmen, amongst us. We can 
 make all those things, except a watch and a each. 
 The missionaries have done much good, and they have 
 tamed the Hottentots." 
 
 The testimony of 3Ir. Elisha Bates, who was a 
 member of the Society of Friends, before the same 
 Committee, furnishes the most convincing evidence 
 of the efficacy of Christianity in promoting the im- 
 provement of the temporal condition of savage na- 
 tions, even where other means had failed. He ob- 
 serves, speaking of the Indians of the United States, 
 "Within the last few years we have had occasion to 
 review the whole course of our proceedings, and we 
 have come to the conclusion, from a deliberate view 
 of the past, that we erred in the plan which was 
 originally adopted, in making civilization the first ob- 
 ject ; for we cannot count on a single individual that 
 we have brought to the full adoption of Christianity." 
 Having been further asked, " Do your Society now 
 regret that they did not begin with Christianity, in 
 order to lead the way to other advantages ; and if you 
 had to recommence the same undertaking, would you 
 now begin with Christianity ?" he emphatically re- 
 plied, " Decidedly we should, from a full conviction 
 that the attempt to civilize without Christianity has 
 failed ; and that the plan now adopted is to make 
 Christian instruction the primary object." 
 19 
 
218 THE REMEDY. 
 
 From these facts, gathered from different sources, 
 the inference does not appear by any means doubtful, 
 that whatever methods may be attempted for amelio- 
 rating the condition of untutored man, this alone can 
 penetrate to the root of the evil, can teach him to love 
 and to befriend his neighbor, and cause him to act 
 as a candidate for a higher and holier state of being. 
 
 The hope, therefore, of effecting Africa's civiliza- 
 tion, and of inducing her tribes to relinquish the trade 
 in man, is, without this assistance, utterly vain. This 
 mighty lever, when properly applied, can alone over- 
 turn the iniquitous systems which prevail throughout 
 that continent. Let missionaries and schoolmasters, 
 the plow and the spade, go together, and agriculture 
 will flourish ; the avenues to legitimate commerce 
 will be opened ; confidence between man and man 
 will be inspired ; whilst civilization will advance as the 
 natural effect, and Christianity operate as the proxi- 
 mate cause of this happy change. 
 
 If, indeed, it be true that such effects will follow 
 in the train of religion, and that Christianity alone can 
 effect such changes and produce such blessings, then 
 must we pause before we take a single step without it. 
 The cause of Africa involves interests far too great, 
 and results far too stupendous to be trifled with. The 
 destinies of unborn millions, as well as of the millions 
 who now exist, are at stake in the project ; and the 
 question is one of life or of death, of comfort and hap- 
 piness, or of unutterable misery. 
 
 I believe that Christianity will meet the necessities 
 of the case, and will prove a specific remedy for the 
 moral evils of Africa. 
 
 My next proposition consequently is, that it is our 
 duty to apply this remedy if we can. 
 
DEBT TO AFRICA. 219 
 
 One part of our national debt to Africa has already 
 been acknowledged by the emancipation of our colo- 
 nial slaves. There remains yet, however, a larger 
 debt uncancelled, — that of restitution to Africa itself. 
 We shall have much difficulty in ascertaining the 
 amount of this obligation. Had w r e the means of dis- 
 covering the total number of the sufferers whose 
 miseries we have caused, or could we form the faint- 
 est idea of the nature and extent of the woes which 
 are justly chargeable upon as a nation, the duty of 
 making reparation to Africa would be obvious. 
 
 Next to the debt which we ourselves owe, I can 
 form no conception of a stronger argument in favor 
 of carrying thither civilization and Christianity, than 
 the existence of the Slave Trade itself, as it is found 
 at this day, attended, on the one hand, by desolation ; 
 on the other, by a blind and devouring superstition j 
 and in all directions encircled by ferocity and carnage, 
 by torture, by terror, by all the evils through which 
 man can be afflicted j and this variety of woes ending 
 in the annual sacrifice of 500,000 human beings. 
 
 I repeat, that a stronger proof we cannot have, that 
 it is the duty of the people of this empire to take up 
 the cause upon Christian grounds, as a measure of 
 atonement for the injuries we have done to her, as 
 the only means now within our power of making 
 restitution to her still degraded population; and as 
 the most successful implement for uprooting from its 
 very foundations that gigantic and accursed tree, 
 which for ages has nourished beneath its shadow 
 lamentation, and mourning, and woe. 
 
 Let but the people of this Christian country take up 
 this cause as a duty, nationally and religiously, and no 
 
220 THE REMEDY. 
 
 difficulties, however great, can, with the Divine bless- 
 ing, hinder its success. 
 
 Nationally and religiously, the duty is plain. We 
 have been put in trust with Christianity, — we have 
 been the depositaries of a pure and holy faith, which 
 inculcates the most expanded benevolence, and yet 
 have not only neglected, as a nation, to confer upon 
 Africa any real benefit, but have inflicted upon it a 
 positive evil. Covetousness has dimmed our moral 
 perceptions of duty, and paralyzed our efforts, during 
 many generations ; and now that the nation has 
 awakened from its lethargy, it is high time to act up 
 to the principles of our religion. 
 
 Africa still lies in her blood. She wants our mis- 
 sionaries, our schoolmasters, our Bibles, all the ma- 
 chinery we possess, for ameliorating her wretched 
 condition. Shall we, with a remedy that may safely 
 be applied, neglect to heal her wounds 1 Shall we, on 
 whom the lamp of life shines, refuse to disperse her 
 darkness ? 
 
 " If there be any consolation in Christ, if any com- 
 fort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any 
 bowels of mercies,"* we must awake to the duty, 
 amidst every difficulty, of freely and liberally distri- 
 buting to others those rich and abundant blessings 
 which have been entrusted to us. 
 
 I dwell no longer on the point of duty, but proceed 
 to prove that we can apply the remedy. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer on the facilities which exist 
 for the instruction of the natives, in order to show 
 that the attempt to raise negro intellect, and to im- 
 part moral culture and religious instruction, is not of 
 
 * 1 Cor. vi. 9. 
 
PRESENT TIME OPPORTUNE. 221 
 
 that forlorn character which many suppose. The facts 
 I have stated are, I apprehend, sufficient to show that 
 there is, amongst the Africans, a capability of receiv- 
 ing instruction ; that there are agents within our 
 reach, well calculated to assist in conferring it : that 
 there is, in many parts at least, a thirst for education, 
 and a readiness to accept the services of missionaries ; 
 and that, although the steps already taken have been 
 very few, there has been some little advance. Other 
 circumstances render the project of sending instruct- 
 ors more feasible at the present than at any former 
 time. They will be carried to their destination by 
 water. British steamers will be upon the Niger 
 to protect them (at the only time that mission- 
 aries want protection) on their first settlement among 
 the natives. Missionaries find less difficulty than any 
 other class of persons, perhaps, in winning the confi- 
 dence of native tribes. The secret of their success, 
 is, the spirit of fair dealing, and the manifestation of 
 upright and benevolent intentions, which they carry 
 with them. These speak to all men, but especially to 
 the uncivilized, in a language which they accurately 
 comprehend, and to which they freely respond. It 
 would seem, then, that the difficulties, considered a 
 few years ago insurmountable, in the way of an at- 
 tempt to diffuse intellectual, moral, and religious 
 knowledge amongst millions of the human race, plung- 
 ed in the very depths of ignorant superstition, have 
 been in a great measure removed. Hence it is evi- 
 dent, that the question is not so much as to our power, 
 but as to our willingness, to provide the means of con- 
 ferring the inestimable benefits of intellectual ad- 
 vancement and true religion. 
 19* 
 
222 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Having arrived at this point, it will naturally be 
 asked, what scheme of instruction do I propose 1 I 
 answer, I hardly dare to propose any scheme. Would 
 that there were that charity among the Christians of 
 the happier quarters of the world, which would in- 
 duce them to lay aside their minor differences, in or- 
 der to make a combined effort, of the most determin- 
 ed and strenuous character, to pour instruction upon 
 Africa! But if this unity be too much and too good 
 to be expected, we may at least hope that every de- 
 partment of the Christian church will separately press 
 forward into that vast field which will, I trust, speedily 
 be opened, and where there is room enough and need 
 enough, physically and morally, for all.* 
 
 I may, however, recommend — 
 
 Firstly. That in every settlement formed on the 
 views here laid down, the religious, moral, and in- 
 dustrial education of the natives should be consid- 
 ered an essential and fundamental object, claiming 
 
 * I have no fear that missionaries to Africa will be wanting 
 from our own country ; but it gives me satisfaction to find the 
 following passage in the South African Commercial Advertiser: — 
 " It will be agreeable to all who can comprehend the grandeur of 
 this opening prospect, to learn that the people of the United States 
 of America have determined to unite with the discoverers and re- 
 generators of Africa. In a private letter, addressed to a gentleman 
 of this colony, which we have just seen, the writer, one of the 
 heads of a college in New Jersey, announces the deep interest 
 which this subject has already excited in that country ; and he in- 
 quires, with an anxiely approaching to impatience, as to the course 
 their first missionaries should take, and the regions in which they 
 are likely to be most useful. Thirty students in that college, he 
 says, will bo ready to start in a few months. At present their views 
 are chiefly directed to Central Africa. It is not improbable, there- 
 fore, that they may follow the course of the newly-opened Niger." 
 
PLAN OF PROCEEDINGS. 223 
 
 the early and careful attention of the founders of such 
 settlement. 
 
 Secondly. That missionary societies should, by 
 mutual agreement, subdivide and apportion the parts 
 of this common field, so that each section of the 
 Christian church may have undisturbed possession of 
 its own sphere of labor. 
 
 Thirdly. . That immediate arrangements should be 
 made by each for normal schools,* intended to rear 
 not only native teachers of religion, but native arti- 
 zans, mechanics, and agriculturists, well instructed 
 for the purpose, and themselves converts to Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 Fourthly. That the African Civilization Society 
 now being instituted shall befriend and protect all 
 who are engaged in disseminating the truths of 
 Christianity. 
 
 My object will be attained if two things are effected, 
 — if a spirit of harmony shall reign amongst all who 
 devote themselves to the benefit of Africa, — and if, 
 
 * I am happy to say that this suggestion is by no means a novel 
 one. In 1835, the Moravians contemplated apian for establishing 
 an institution in Jamaica, "for training native missionaries and 
 teachers for needy Africa." The Rev. Hugh Stowell has recently 
 proposed " an institution akin to Bishop's College, in ths East In- 
 dies, where those of the liberated Africans and of their teeming 
 offspring who should give promise of distinguished piety and lalent 
 might be educated as future missionaries to the land of their fore- 
 fathers." He goes on to say that, " without the services of con. 
 verted natives, humanly speaking, very extended success cannot 
 be anticipated. If, in other countries, this principle holds good, how 
 much more in the case of Africa. There the fatality of the cli- 
 mate to European constitutions, the un'amed savagenessof the in- 
 terior tribes, and the multiplicity of their motl. y dialects, present 
 next to insuperable barriers to other than aboriginal agency." 
 
224 THE REMEDY. 
 
 wherever channels of commerce are opened, or agri- 
 cultural locations made, there shall be put in opera- 
 tion at the same moment a system of instruction 
 which shall raise up and send forth teachers of all 
 that Africa requires to learn. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SPECIFIC STEPS TO BE TAKEN. 
 
 I have sufficiently explained what my object is. 
 It is the deliverance of Africa, by calling forth her 
 own resources. We contemplate that her population, 
 instead of being sold into Foreign Slavery, and of 
 perishing by tens of thousands in the process of 
 transportation, shall be employed in the tillage, and 
 in the commerce, which may be found at home. 
 In order to do this, we must 
 
 1st. Impede and discourage the Slave Traffic. 
 2dly. Establish and encourage legitimate com- 
 merce. 
 3dly Promote and teach agriculture. 
 4thly. Impart moral and religious instruction. 
 To accomplish the first, -we must 
 
 Increase and concentrate our squadron, and 
 make treaties with the chiefs of the coast, the 
 rivers, and the interior. 
 To accomplish the second, we must 
 
 Obtain commanding positions; settle factories; 
 and send out trading-ships. 
 
SPECIFIC STEPS TO BE TAKEN. 225 
 
 To accomplish the third, we must 
 
 Set on foot an agricultural company. 
 Obtain, by treaty, lands for cultivation, with so 
 much power as may be necessary to keep the 
 slave-trader at a distance. 
 The territory we obtain should be freely offered 
 
 to us, without any kind of constraint. 
 It should be in the vicinity of some navigable 
 
 river. 
 The climate should be, for Africa, healthy. 
 The soil should be capable of growing tropical 
 
 productions. 
 Its limits should be extensive. 
 To accomplish the fourth, we must 
 
 Support the benevolent association now esta- 
 blished. 
 Besides these special purposes, there is one general 
 object, which must be carefully provided for, viz. : 
 that the agents employed in Africa, whether on their 
 own account, or in connection with an association at 
 home ; whether engaged in commerce, cultivation, or 
 instruction, may be sufficiently protected. 
 
 Of the work to be done, a part belongs to the Govern- 
 ment, and a part must be executed by individuals. 
 The Government should 
 
 Take on itself the whole duty and expense of pre- 
 serving the peace, and of affording the neces- 
 sary protection, to new British settlements in 
 Africa. 
 Increase and concentrate our naval force. 
 Obtain Fernando Po, and such other command- 
 ing positions as may be found necessary. 
 
226 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Prepare, — instruct, — and send out embassies, 
 with all practicable dispatch, (or authorize 
 their African governors,) to form treaties, in- 
 cluding either, or all, of the following points, 
 viz. : — Prevention of Slave-traffic ; — arrange- 
 ments for legitimate trade or cultivation, — with 
 such privileges and powers as may be necessa- 
 ry for their well-doing ; and with grants of land 
 for cultivation. 
 
 The part which devolves on individuals interested in 
 
 the fate of Africa is, — 
 
 1st. Strenuously to assist the benevolent asso- 
 ciation already mentioned, the objects of which 
 are — to assist individuals or societies who may 
 engage themselves in the task of educating the 
 population of Africa ; — to promote by every 
 means in its power, — direct and indirect, — its 
 civilization, cultivation, and commerce ; to ob- 
 tain and circulate statistical, geographical, and 
 all other information concerning that country, 
 especially availing itself of the opportunity 
 shortly to be presented of doing so, by appoint- 
 ing agents to accompany the expedition, which 
 it is intended to send out in the ensuing au- 
 tumn ; and, lastly, to keep alive the interest of 
 the people of England on the subject. 
 2dly. To form an agricultural company, which 
 shall, hereafter, send out persons well acquaint- 
 ed with tropical climates and productions ; to 
 form settlements, guided by such arrangements 
 and treaties as the Government may have 
 made ; to commence pattern farms and esta- 
 blish factories, well supplied with European 
 
DUTY OF GOVERNMENT. 227 
 
 goods ; in a word, to use all the means that 
 experience may point out, for a profitable and 
 successful employment of British skill and ca- 
 pital in the African continent. JV"o Slavery, no 
 monopoly, forbearance towards the natives, and 
 utter enmity towards Slave Trade and Slavery 
 in all their forms, must be the fundamental 
 principles of such a company ; and an honest 
 adherence to these will, in my full belief, in- 
 sure its prosperity and profit. 
 I have proposed two associations, a Benevolent So- 
 ciety, which shall watch over and befriend the inter- 
 ests of Africa, and a Company, which shall cultivate 
 her soil. In one sense they are entirely separate; the 
 object of the one is, charity, — of the other, gain. As 
 they are distinct in their principle, so, I think, they 
 ought to be kept entirely separate in the prosecution 
 of their details. Yet, it is impossible that they should 
 not subserve and benefit each other. It is impossible 
 to spread education, scientific knowledge, and the 
 civilizing influence of Christianity, without commu- 
 nicating that to the population, which will most ma- 
 terially contribute to the advance of commerce and 
 agriculture: on the other hand, there is no better way 
 of advancing the moral and physical condition of the 
 people, than by the introduction of our skill, and the 
 sagacious and successful employment of our capital 
 amongst them.* 
 
 * Statements and proposals of a more definite nature respecting 
 these two associations will, I trust, be laid before the public at no 
 distant day. In the mean time, it may be well to observe, in an- 
 swer to the inquiry in what manner it is proposed to work land in 
 Africa, that it is intended that those employed as superintendents 
 
228 THE REMEDY. 
 
 To the question which has already been repeatedly 
 put to me, by those who have been moved to compas- 
 sion by the sorrows of Africa, What shall we do ? my 
 answer is, — Join the African Institution, which we are 
 endeavoring to revive; and join the African Agricul- 
 tural Association, which we are about to establish. 
 
 should be, as far as possible, of negro extraction, but that none 
 should be sent but men of moral and religious character. That 
 such are to be had I have, I trust, shown in the Chapter on the 
 Elevation of Native Mind (page 200.) 
 
 But in what species of agriculture is it proposed to employ them ? 
 In the first instance, perhaps, in the cultivation of cotton ; on the 
 facilities for which 1 have dwelt at some length (page 56 ;) but as 
 we become better acquainted with Africa, we shall know how to 
 turn its cultivation to the best advantage, and of course we shall 
 grow those articles which will find the readiest and most profitable 
 market in the civilized world. 
 
CONCLUSION. 229 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I cannot close this work, without suggesting some 
 considerations, which, in the review I have taken of 
 the whole subject, have forcibly impressed themselves 
 on my own mind. Great as is the undertaking, there 
 are, at the present time, many concurrent and favora- 
 ble circumstances, which have not previously existed. 
 
 England is at peace. Since the abolition of the 
 Slave Trade by Great Britain, it is not too much to 
 say, that there has been, both at home and amongst 
 many of the nations of the continent, an increase of 
 a benevolent and enlightened spirit. Our sincerity 
 with regard to the Slave Trade has been established, 
 by sacrifices which admit of no misconstruction. 
 The principles involved in that great measure have 
 been carried out by the abolition of slavery, and by 
 the willingness of the nadon to pay the price of that 
 most costly act of duty. Thus, then, we. are in a con- 
 dition (our own hands being clean) to ask the co- 
 operation of France, Russia, the United States, and 
 other great powers ; and we have a right to demand 
 from Spain, Portugal, and Brazil that they should no 
 longer delay the execution of their engagements. 
 
 Again, there are certain circumstances, which ren- 
 der Africa far more accessible than at any former pe- 
 riod. We now know the course of the Niger, and an 
 entrance into the centre of Africa is opened, by means 
 of this noble river. We have now got, in steam, a 
 power which enables us to traverse it ; to pass rapid= 
 20 
 
230 THE REMEDY. 
 
 ly through the unhealthy parts of it ; to ascend it 
 against the current ; in short, to command its naviga- 
 tion. 
 
 Beyond and besides all these, there is another cir- 
 cumstance lately brought into existence which may 
 supply us with the necessary agents capable of endur- 
 ing the African climate. I wish not, with too san- 
 guine an eye, to anticipate the course of events, but I 
 cannot help believing, as I have elsewhere stated, that 
 in the present condition of the negro race in our West 
 Indian colonies lies one of the best hopes of Africa. 
 They are rising, under the influence of freedom, edu- 
 cation, and religion, to a rank, which will fit them 
 to be messengers of peace to the land from which 
 their fathers were torn; and already, though the 
 time has been so short, various, distinct, and uncon- 
 certed symptoms have appeared, proving that " it 
 pitieth them to see her in the dust." 
 
 At the moment, then, that a highway is discovered 
 into the heart of Africa, and that a new power is plac- 
 ed in our hands enabling us to command its naviga- 
 tion, and that agents present themselves qualified by 
 physical constitution to endure the climate, and by 
 intellectual cultivation to carry with them the seeds 
 of true improvement ; at that moment, we learn the 
 utter fallacy and inutility of the system for the sup- 
 pression of the Slave Trade which we have hitherto 
 been pursuing. 
 
 But there is another consideration, though quite 
 of a different order, which bears strongly upon this 
 point. New markets for the sale of our manufactur- 
 ed articles are urgently required, at a time when 
 we are excluded from some of our accustomed chan- 
 nels of sale. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 231 
 
 Nor is the supply of the raw material less import- 
 ant ; new fields for its growth ought to be opened, in 
 proportion to the increasing consumption of the world. 
 I firmly believe that, if commercial countries consult- 
 ed only their true interests, without reference to mo- 
 tives of a higher character, they would make the most 
 resolute and persevering attempts to raise up Africa 
 — not to divide her broad territory amongst them, nor 
 to enslave her people, but in order to elevate her into 
 something like an equality with themselves, for their 
 reciprocal benefit. 
 
 But I am well aware that it is a case in which we 
 must act under circumstances of considerable discour- 
 agement ; and especially that of our great ignorance 
 with regard to the real internal condition of Africa, 
 both physical and moral. 
 
 Upon any other subject, the dimness of our know- 
 ledge would supply an unanswerable reason for paus- 
 ing ; but the state of Africa admits no delay. The 
 complicated horrors which are crowded into the space 
 of a single month, furnish sufficient reasons for all 
 possible dispatch, and for adventuring on measures, 
 which, under other circumstances, would be prema- 
 ture and probably rash. Better to fall into a thousand 
 errors in the detail, and to incur the expense and mor- 
 tification of the miscarriages they will cause, than to 
 sit still, and leave Africa to her woeful fate. 
 
 If nothing be done, Africa will be at the end of 50 
 or 100 years what she now is, and we shall still be as 
 ill-informed, as we now are, of the readiest means for 
 her relief. But if we grapple with the evil, we shall 
 either find ourselves in the right road, or grope our 
 way to it ; and the very mistakes we now make will 
 
 serve to direct us aright hereafter 
 
232 THE REMEDY. 
 
 I am not so sanguine as to suppose that we can at 
 once, by a single effort, solve the problem which lies 
 before us. The deliverance of Africa will put our 
 patience and perseverance to no ordinary trial. We 
 must deliberately make up our minds to large and long- 
 continued expense, to persevering labors, and to se- 
 vere disappointments. I wish not in any degree to 
 conceal from myself, or from others, these truths. 
 
 But the question is, — Shall such an experiment be 
 made 1 There are two mighty arguments which 
 should prompt us to such an undertaking : the intense 
 miseries of Africa, and the peculiar blessings which 
 have been showered upon this country by the mercy 
 of Divine Providence. With regard to the first, I 
 need not again plunge into the sickening details of 
 the horrors which accompany this bloody trade, and 
 of the sanguinary rites, which there bear the name of 
 religion. Whether we look to the vast space which 
 is there made a theatre of public misery, or calculate 
 how many deeds of cruelty and carnage must be per- 
 petrated every day in the year, in order to make up 
 the surprising total of human distress, which, by in- 
 disputable documents, we know to be realized, there 
 is enough to awaken the deepest pity, and to arouse 
 the most energetic resolution. 
 
 Turning to the second consideration, we cannot fail 
 to see how signally this nation has been preserved, 
 and led forward to an extent of power and prosperity, 
 beyond what almost any other nation has been permit- 
 ted to reach. " It is not to be doubted that this coun- 
 try has been invested with wealth and power, with 
 arts and knowledge, with the sway of distant lands, 
 and the mastery of the restless waters, for some great 
 
CONCLUSION. 233 
 
 and important purpose in the government of the 
 world. Can we suppose otherwise than that it is our 
 office to carry civilization and humanity, peace and 
 good government, and, above all, the knowledge of 
 the true God, to the uttermost end of the earth V'* 
 
 Since that passage was written, Great Britain has 
 refuted the idle, yet once the all but universal doc- 
 trine, that confusion, havoc, and bloodshed must fol- 
 low the extinction of slavery. And with this doctrine 
 of universal convulsion has also fallen the allegation, 
 that negroes will not work, except under the impulse 
 of the whip. It is confessed by every authority, that 
 wages have charmed away what used to be called 
 " the natural and incurable indolence of the African." 
 I do not say a single word here upon the controverted 
 question, whether the negroes demand excessive re- 
 muneration. We may assume, for the sake of argu- 
 ment, that they are exorbitant. This may be a fault, 
 though, under all the circumstances, not an unnatural 
 or surprising one ; but this does not touch my asser- 
 tion, grounded upon all the papers which have been 
 produced to Parliament, that, when satisfied with the 
 rate of wages, they do labor industriously, and exe- 
 cute more work, in better style, and in less time, than 
 when they were slaves. There never was a greater 
 delusion, than that negroes could not be induced to 
 work for money. 
 
 A nobler achievement now invites us. I believe 
 that Great Britain can, if she will, under the favor of 
 the Almighty, confer a blessing on the human race. 
 It may be that at her bidding a thousand nations now 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Whewell's Sermon before the Trinity Board. 
 20* 
 
234? THE REMEDY. 
 
 steeped in wretchedness, in brutal ignorance, in de- 
 vouring superstition, possessing but the one trade, and 
 that one the foulest evil that ever blighted public pros- 
 perity, or poisoned domestic peace, shall, under Bri- 
 tish tuition, emerge from their debasement, enjoy a 
 long line of blessings — education, agriculture, com- 
 merce, peace, industry, and the wealth that springs 
 from it ; and far above all, shall willingly receive that 
 religion which, while it confers innumerable tempo- 
 ral blessings, opens the way to an eternal futurity of 
 happiness. 
 
 I have already confessed that I am not experienced 
 or skilful in matters which touch the commercial part 
 of the question. I tread this ground with diffidence. 
 I say no more, than that it appears to me that the soil 
 in Africa being rich, and the people being found upon 
 it, it is not advisable to carry them to a distance. It 
 is possible, however, that some fallacy, unsuspected 
 by me, may lurk under my theory, if theory of mine 
 it can be called ; but when I come to humanity, jus- 
 tice, and the duties of Christian men, I stand upon a 
 rock. It may be, or it may not, that while we act 
 under the impulse of charity to the most afflicted of 
 mankind, we are also obeying the dictates of the most 
 far-sighted policy, and the most refined ambition. It 
 may prove, or it may not, that while we are leading 
 Africa to grow at home, cheaper sugar than Brazil, 
 and cheaper cotton than the United States, we are 
 renovating the very sinews of our national strength. 
 Be this as it may, without doubt it is the duty of Great 
 Britain to employ the influence and the strength which 
 God has given her, in raising Africa from the dust, 
 and enabling her, out of her own resources, to beat 
 down Slavery and the Slave Trade 
 
CONCLUSION. 235 
 
 I am aware that it is quite a different question whe- 
 ther the means I propose are practicable, and likely 
 to be crowned with success. It belongs to the nation 
 to consider whether the suggestions now offered, and 
 the policy which I have ventured to recommend, are 
 likely to eradicate that mighty evil which desolates 
 Africa, degrades Europe, and afflicts humanity. If it 
 shall appear that my views are not chimerical — that 
 they have some grounds of reason in themselves, and 
 are fortified by a great mass of evidence of a practi- 
 cal nature — and if it shall appear that, whether we 
 look to the great interests of humanity, or consult the 
 prosperity and honor of the British empire, it is our 
 duty to proceed, undeterred by difficulty, peri], or ex- 
 pense — then I trust that steps will be taken boldly 
 and rapidly, for the accomplishment of the object. 
 
 But if it shall appear that this and every other plan 
 is likely to be futile, or, if the Government shall not 
 feel itself justified in braving the difficulties and ex- 
 pense which will be required, then must I express my 
 painful conviction, that it would be better for the in- 
 terests of humanity that we should withdraw altoge- 
 ther from the struggle — better to let the planters of 
 America satiate themselves with their victims, than 
 to interpose our efforts, unavailing in reducing the 
 magnitude of the evil, while they exasperate the mis- 
 eries which belong to it — better to do nothing, than 
 to go on, year after year, at great cost, adding to the 
 disasters, and inflaming the wounds of Africa. But I 
 cannot contemplate such a result — I must hope better 
 things. 
 
 The case is now fairly laid before the nation. It 
 belongs to no individual, to no party — it is a distinct 
 
236 THE REMEDY. 
 
 and isolated question. My desire has been to lay it 
 upon the national conscience of Great Britain. There 
 I must leave it ; having fully stated what I believe to 
 be the only remedy, and the best means of applying 
 that remedy. 
 
 I find in the sacred writings, a faithful picture of 
 sorrows — such as those with which Africa is now af- 
 flicted ; but I find also annexed to that description a 
 prophetic promise, which we must fervently desire to 
 see realized to miserable Africa : — 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord of Host — Before these days 
 there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast : 
 neither was there any peace to him that went out, or 
 came in, because of the affliction : for I set all men, 
 every one against his neighbor. 
 
 " But now I will not be unto the residue of this 
 people as in the former days, saith the Lord of Hosts. 
 
 " For the seed shall be prosperous ; the vine shall 
 give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, 
 and the Heavens shall give their dews : and I will 
 cause the remnant of this people to possess all these 
 things." 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 ON FACILITIES OF MAKING TREATIES. 
 
 The following instances may prove the disposition of the native 
 chiefs to form connections with us : — 
 
 Sir Charles MacCarthy, in giving an account of the negotiations 
 for taking possession of the Isle de Loss, states, that the treaty 
 " was made with great facility, without drunkenness or bribery."* 
 In 1826 the king of Barra ceded to Great Britain, by treaty, a tract 
 of land on the northern shore of the Gambia, 36 miles in length, by 
 one in breadth, for 400 Spanish dollars yearly ; all slave-trading to 
 be finally prohibited. In 1827 the king of Combo guarantied to 
 the British crown rights nearly amounting to sovereignty over his 
 dominions, extending about 30 miles along the southern bank of the 
 river, and 10 miles along the coast, and from 10 to 15 miles in 
 breadth, with the prohibition of the Slave Trade, for an annual 
 payment of 100 dollars. 
 
 Treaties with the king of Bulola and Biafra, made by Sir Xeil 
 Campbell, cede the sovereignty of those districts, and a right on the 
 part of Great Britain to establish forts or factories, with clauses for 
 the abolition of the Slave Trade. From the Pongas and Nunez 
 rivers, little or no produce, except slaves, is exported. In 1827, 
 Sir X. Campbell saw the chiefs of these rivers, and obtained " the 
 cession of the most commanding points up the mouth of each." 
 Mr. Hutton states, in 1829, that he made a treaty with the king of 
 
 * Mr. Hutton, acting governor of the Gambia, effected an ar- 
 rangement with the chief of Contalacunda, which being deemed a 
 place of importance by our merchants, he did not consider 50 dollars 
 annually (about 10/.) ill bestowed in securing its chief's friendship. 
 
238 APPENDIX. 
 
 Woolli at Fattatenda, and obtained the full sovereignty of that town 
 with stipulations in favor of our commerce, for the payment in 
 merchandise of 200 dollars annually. He also made a treaty with 
 the king of Bondou, and observes, 4( The object of 300 or 400 dol- 
 lars is trifling, compared with the advantage that would result from 
 such a connection with both these kings, whose influence extends 
 not only through the whole of Bondou and Woolli, but also to the 
 adjoining countries ofShendrum and Tanda, celebrated for gold 
 gum, &c." Though we have not availed ourselves of these open- 
 ing, — though the payments to the chiefs were soon suspended, — 
 'some benefit seems to have been derived from these engagements. 
 Rev. T. W. Fox, a Wesleyan missionary, as appears from his jour- 
 nal in my possession, paid a visit to Woolli in 1837, and urged upon 
 the king the benefits of Christianity : " He," says Mr. Fox, " lis 
 tened attentively, appeared pleased, and said that was what he 
 wanted ; and if I would come and sit down on his ground, he would 
 give me as much land as I wished, and his own children to be edu- 
 cated." I replied, " That if I sent a missionary, I hoped he would 
 protect him, and not allow anybody to trouble him ;" Koy (the 
 king) answered, il that he belonged to white man, and that if To- 
 baba fodey (the white priest) came to sit down in his kingdom, no- 
 body should, or would, trouble him." He also said, " he hoped 
 God would preserve me ; the object I had in view was very good." 
 
 The King of Bondou, also, whom Mr. Fox likewise visited in 
 1838, offered to give him ground for a settlement, and said, " They 
 were all glad to see him, and they loved him very much, because 
 he was a good man." It is something in the present disastrous con- 
 dition of Africa, that there is a good feeling towards the British, 
 and no rooted indisposition to listen to their agents. 
 
 In 1827, the king and head men of Brekama solicited Sir N. 
 Campbell to take them under British protection : they stipulated 
 to renounce the Slave Trade, and to enter into no wars, in return 
 for British alliance, " and four pieces of baft annually." 
 
 Governor Rendall gives a list of 19 kings or chiefs, on the 
 northern and 20 on the southern, bank of the Gambia, with whom 
 we have some intercourse or connection. The total sum annually 
 divided amongst these, for rents and propitiatory presents, reaches 
 only 300Z. This liberality is not without its effect. Governor 
 Rendall reports Ibl. spent in presents to chiefs and head men on 
 both banks of the river, between Bathurst and Woolli, and says, 
 
APPENDIX. 239 
 
 !i Th ; s expenditure has not been in vain, as I have received intel- 
 ligence that the war in Carbo, which has lasted 12 years, is finally 
 settled, both parties having taken my advice, and called in um- 
 pires to decide their difference : the paths through Carbo and 
 Footah Jallow will now be open to the river, by which a great in- 
 flux of trade must take place." Besides the tribes lying immedi- 
 ately on the Gambia, Governor Rendall says, that M messengers 
 are often received at Bathurst from the kings of Boaul and Cayor, 
 to the northward of Bondou ; Cassan, and Kaarta-Bambarra, to 
 the eastward ; and the Almanez of Footah- Jallow, to the south- 
 east." I am aware that no definite ideas can be derived from this 
 catalogue of barbarous chiefs : we have, however, evidence suffi- 
 cient to show that the soil is fertile, and suited to tropical produc- 
 tions ; that the forests are full of mahogany and valuable woods, 
 and that the country yields gold : hence we may justly infer, that 
 from a territory so extensive, for which nature has done so much. 
 there is a capability of large cultivation, and of considerable com- 
 merce. The Commissioners of Inquiry sent out to that country 
 in 1827, report thus, — " When the magnitude of the river Gambia, 
 and the various countries through which it takes its course are 
 duly considered, it will probably be concluded that, with capital 
 and enterprise, its trade may be increased to a considerable extent ;'' 
 they add, and I entirely unite wilh them in the opinion, ' { Great as 
 the advantages, in this point of view, which it presents, thev can 
 never be completely available, without the establishment of a 
 more intimate and friendly intercourse with the natives of the 
 country." Following the coast, we come to the Portuguese set- 
 tlements of Cacheo and Bissao ; and then to a belt of Slave. deal- 
 ing states, extending to the Congo, and blocking out legitimate 
 commerce from the interior. Here, however, we have some claims, 
 of which we have not availed ourselves. The fine little island of 
 Bulama, in the estuary of the Rio Grande, belongs to Great Bri- 
 tain : it is unoccupied ; and, in 1826, Governor Macaulay recom- 
 mended that liberated Africans should be located there. I find, in 
 Captain Beaver's " African Memoranda," the following report of 
 the cession of this island to us : — " The original purchase of the 
 island of Bulama. made by captain Beaver in 1792, was affected 
 without any difficulty ; though, on the first arrival of the English, 
 they had offended the natives by cutting wood without permission, 
 
240 APPENDIX. 
 
 and in the quarrel which ensued, some lives had been lost." When 
 Captain Beaver entered into a palaver with the two kings oi 
 Canabac, touching the purchase of their hunting island of Bulama, 
 one of them, while he attributed the affray to our taking the 
 liberty to help ourselves, without any leave from the native author- 
 ities, expressed his desire to treat with us amicably on fair terms. 
 He said, " He was sorry for what had happened, but that then 
 they neither knew who we were, nor what were our intentions : 
 we were strangers, and we took their land." Being, however, 
 convinced of the pacific and just dispositions of the English, and 
 of the great reciprocal benefits that were likely to result from an 
 European colony established in their neighborhood, they readily 
 made over the sovereignty and possession of the said island to the 
 king of Great Britain, for 473 bars of goods (about 78Z. 16s. 8d.) 
 
 Two chiefs on the mainland afterwards put in a claim for a part 
 of the price ; and Captain Beaver, having ascertained that " there 
 was some justice in these people's claims," wisely satisfied them, 
 and bought their concurrence in the cession of the island, together 
 with a still larger tract on the mainland, for goods, the cost price 
 of which he estimated at 25Z. 136*. Id. There were some further 
 charges for European agency in these transactions.* 
 
 Captain Beaver, at all events, did not apprehend that there was 
 any difficulty in his time in obtaining any extent of territory on rea- 
 sonable terms : for he proposes to the Government that they should 
 purchase between the Gambia and the Rio Grande a tract of 
 18,000,000 of acres, which, in his opinion, might be bought for 
 50002., or less. 
 
 * See the copy of these treaties in Johansen's " Account of 
 Bulama and the Bulam Association/' pp. 28, 29. 
 
APPENDIX. 241 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Abstract of a Letter written in 1835, relative to Fernando Po. 
 
 This island belongs to Spain, and was formerly called " Formosa," 
 ur the beautiful island, a designation it well deserves. It has three 
 ranges of hills running parallel with the north-east side of it, the 
 centre One rising into a mountain of 10,000 feet in height. After 
 some negotiation between the governments of England and Spain, it 
 it was agreed in 1827, that the former might place an establishment 
 on the island for the purpose of locating upon it such negroes as 
 might be captured, and emancipated, under the Slave Trade 
 Abolition Treaties, and a Governor was sent from hence, and va- 
 rious buildings were erected ; but some difficulties arising, in con- 
 sequence of the Spanish Crown refusing to transfer the sovereignty 
 of the island, it was abandoned, after the outlay of a considerable 
 sum. This termination of the negotiation is most deeply to be 
 lamented, as the island, in the hands of Great Britain, would prove 
 a most important and valuable possession as regards her com- 
 merce ; but it would be still more important to the civilization of 
 Africa, forming, as it does, the key to the centre of that vast con- 
 tinent, and in this view, t > the philanthropist, its occupation by 
 the British Crown would be invaluable, as the prepossession of the 
 natives on the opposite coast (from which it is distant only a few- 
 miles) in favor of the English, over all other nations, is very re- 
 markable : but to any maritime trading nation, it would prove a 
 valuable acquisition. The Americans have already shown a de. 
 sire for opening a tiade with it, and in 1834 one or two vessels 
 were engaged in whaling there. 
 
 On the northern end of the island there is a very fine bay, where 
 the different points of land form an inner and an outer anchorage, 
 and where from 400 to 500 vessels might ride in all the months 
 of the year in complete security. The facilities for discharging and 
 taking on board their cargoes are also very great, as they may lie 
 
 21 
 
242 APPENDIX. 
 
 in three or four fathoms of water within 40 or 50 feet from the 
 shore, the depth increasing greatly at every additional few feet : 
 it is remarkable, too, that these seas are not visited by the hurri- 
 canes so prevalent on other parts of the coast, and that even the 
 tornadoes are less violent than elsewhere. These advantages, 
 joined to its immediate vicinity to the great rivers which penetrate 
 to the heart of Africa, render it unnecessary to say a word to en- 
 force the desirableness of its becoming an English possession. At 
 the period when the island was abandoned a town had been laid 
 out at the head of the bay, a considerable number of houses had 
 been built, and a good drainage cut through each street. The 
 population, then amounting to about 700 persons, were in a flour- 
 ishing condition, being constantly employed in cutting timber, build- 
 ing, and cultivation, and the town was bidding fair to become one 
 of the most — perhaps the most — important on the coast. The na- 
 tive population, in its immediate vicinity, was estimated at between 
 500 and 600 persons, whose ready submission to the English go- 
 vernment gave every facility to the progressive improvement of the 
 new colony : they looked up to the whites, and readily received 
 instruction in the schools which were established, and they at- 
 tended church with great regularity and decency on the Sundays 
 — on which days they came into town in great numbers. 
 
 The island produces, in rich abundance, palm-oil, cocoas, plan- 
 tains, and yams : and it is covered with a vast variety of trees, 
 many of them of the most useful qualities : there are whole forests 
 of palms, and many different kinds of trees which would be val- 
 uable for cabinet work; but, in a commercial point of view, the 
 most important amongst its timber trees, and in which it also 
 abounds, is that which is peculiarly adapted for sh ; p-building, and 
 which may be procured of almost all lengths. Several ships, both 
 belonging to the government and to merchants, have been repair, 
 ed with it at the island, and many cargoes have been imported into 
 England, and used in the king's and merchants' yards. The palm- 
 tree is invaluable to the negroes, who use palm-wine as a beverage. 
 The soil is so rich, that no limits can be assigned to its productive- 
 ness ; it is capable of producing almost every luxury in the vege- 
 table world for the use of man and beast. 
 
 Much has been urged in favor of, and also against, the climate 
 of this island ; but when the timber, with which it abounds, is fell- 
 ed, — and this, if the island were occupied by the British, would be 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 constantly progressing, as it is, as has already been stated, of a 
 very valuable kind, — there can scarcely be a doubt that it would 
 become, ere very long, the Madeira of the western coast ; as al- 
 most any degree of temperature may be obtained on the different 
 ranges of its mountains ; and the vegetables of the temperature as 
 well as of the tropical climates, flourish in its soil, which is ex- 
 tremely fertile. The water, too, is pure and abundant ; game is 
 plentiful, and its coasts swarm with fish. It is a fact well estab- 
 lished, that, in plains in tropical climates where fever exists at a 
 temperature of from 80° to 90°, it is not found on the neighbor- 
 ing mountains, where at noon the thermometer does not range 
 higher than from 70° to 75°. 
 
 Extract of a Letter from another Gentleman, dated Clarence, Fer- 
 nando Po, May, 1835. 
 
 " We anticipate with much anxiety the (we trust not very far 
 distant) period, when this establishment will be again resumed by 
 our government ; 'for, on investigation into the real state of the 
 colony, it must necessarily take place, and then prejudices will 
 surely give way, and truth prevail over the false representations, 
 through which, one of the most beautiful and profitable spots in 
 Africa has been so injudiciously abandoned. Indeed, I can, in 
 addition to its beauty and great utility to British trade in Western 
 Africa, safely say, that, in point of salubrity, if not more so, it is at 
 all events equal to any other British settlement on the coast. 
 
 '' Since 's departure, we hare drawn up our militia, and 
 
 designated it ' The Clarence Militia Corps,' and I feel great plea- 
 sure in stating, that, considering the short period the men have been 
 under arms, and their natural awkwardness at first, I should not 
 be ashamed to welcome the Commander-in-chief with a captain's 
 guard, whenever Admiral Campbell will deign to honor us with a 
 visit. 
 
 " Our little town of Clarence has also undergone some altera- 
 tions and improvements ; the town, which formerly laid scattered 
 in the midst of a forest of plaintains and bananas, has been brought 
 in nearer the cove, and properly laid out ; the streets are made 
 broad, and cut each other at right angles, on either side of which 
 are the houses and allotments, of equal dimensions ; so, that in 
 what street soever you may be, instead of the suffocating atmos- 
 phere that formerly assailed one, you now enjoy a cool and refresh- 
 
244 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing current of air, which certainly must be conducive to health, 
 and justify our anticipating even healthy wet seasons. 
 
 " While we go on thus improving among ourselves, I do not des- 
 pair of working a complete revolution in the manners and habits of 
 the aborigines, who are rapidly becoming inhabitants among us, 
 and are already beginning to adopt our customs ; assume a more 
 active and industrious character ; and supply us with much great- 
 er quantities of palm-oil than formerly." 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Copy of a Dispatch from General Turner to Earl Bathurst. 
 Dated Sierra Leone, January 25th, 1826. 
 
 " It is found that, under this system of putting them (the libe- 
 rated Africans) to easy and regular labor such as they have been 
 used to, on their landing from ships, they become very orderly 
 good laborers ; but in the cases where they have been located in 
 the villages, and have received gratuitous maintenance, they can, 
 with difficulty, be induced to give a day's labor for good wages. 
 
 11 It would but lead to disappointment to imagine that a large 
 mass of poor ignorant people, without capital, skill, or industry, 
 could be brought to maintain themselves, and to raise articles of 
 export, without the assistance of labor-wages. Could such a sys- 
 tem succeed even in England, the poor rates might soon be abo- 
 lished." 
 
 l * General Turner further says, that if men of color who under- 
 stand the cultivation of cotton and coffee, were brought from the 
 West Indies, to superintend such plantations as would not fail un- 
 der such facilities to be formed by capitalists, he is satisfied much 
 would be done in a few years for the improvement of the coun- 
 try.* 
 
 * Parliamentary Papers, Sierra Leone, p. 7, Session 1830, No. 57. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 245 
 
 Copy of a Dispatch from Lieutenant. Colonel Denham* General 
 Superintendent of the Liberated African Department. 
 
 Dated Sierra Leone, May 2lst, 1827. 
 
 " What this colony, or rather the liberated Africans, have felt 
 the most want of is, instruction, capital, and example : with the 
 very little they have had of either, conveyed in a manner likely to 
 benefit them generally, it is to me, daily, an increasing subject of 
 astonishment, that the liberated Africans settled here have done so 
 much for themselves as they have, 
 
 " I have not observed any disinclination for voluntary labor; it 
 appears to be a system perfectly understood and practised by the 
 liberated Africans here ; and strengthens with their strength, as 
 they become more sensible of the sweets of labor, by enjoying the 
 profits of it, and the comforts those profits enable them to purchase ; 
 indeed, to the many hundreds of liberated Africans that have been 
 employed as laborers on the different Government works, as well 
 as on the buildings erected by private individuals, during the last 
 few years, may in some measure be attributed the comparatively 
 small number of agricultural laborers in the villages. 
 
 " Laborers' wages have varied from Is. to 6d. per day ; yet has 
 there never been a deficiency of liberated Africans, who were wil- 
 ling to labor for hire. On the !Naval Stores, now erecting by con- 
 tract on King Tom's Point, are nearly 200 liberated African la- 
 borers, who work well and steadily, at 20s. per month, one-half 
 paid in money, and the remainder in goods taken from the stores 
 of the merchants who have the contract. 
 
 ,: The period of labor also forms a longer portion of the day 
 here than even in the South of Europe, where for several hours, 
 when the sun has most power, a general cessation of labor, or in- 
 deed employment, takes place. Laborers in this colony work 
 from six in the morning till five in the afternoon, constantly, with 
 the exeeption of the hour from nine till ten, which they are allow- 
 ed for breakfast. 
 
 i; Husbandry and practical agriculture should be encouraged by 
 every possible means; but yet I am inclined to think the kind of labor 
 in which so many of the liberated Africans have been and still are 
 
 * The celebrated African traveler, and eventually Governor of 
 Sierra Leone. 
 
 41* 
 
246 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 employed, has been upon the whole beneficial to them ; they must 
 acquire intelligence, habits of regularity, and steady labor, with 
 much general knowledge, by being employed with artificers, and 
 watching the progress of the public buildings from the foundation 
 to the roof, — the roof, to the finished whole, — as in the case of the 
 extensive barracks, and a very handsome building intended for the 
 Naval stores, which are both nearly completed. 
 
 " They are already sensible of the rewards of industry, by being 
 in possession of the profits ; and the advantage of property is be- 
 coming daily an increased object of interest. 
 
 •• An anxious desire to obtain and enjoy the luxuries of life is 
 apparent in every village, from the oldest settler to the liberated 
 African of yesterday. European articles of dress are the first ob- 
 jects of their desire, and for the means of acquiring these both 
 sexes will cheerfully labor ; and a gradual improvement has 
 taken place in their dwellings, as they become possessed of the ne- 
 cessary means for that purpose. Of the practicability of introduc- 
 ing free labor among the liberated Africans settled here, I have 
 not the slightest doubt, nor do I believe they would work half as 
 well in any other way, unless the greatest cruelty should be exer- 
 cised towards them. 
 
 •.' My opinion on this subject is formed from facts, collected dur- 
 ring an actual residence in each of the settlements of liberated 
 Africans, of from one to three weeks, and I shall merely state 
 those facts, as I consider them better than any reasoning. The 
 number of frame-houses with stone foundations, and also stone 
 houses, has increased in all the villages, particularly the mountain 
 ones of Gloucester and Regent. Three sold during the last three 
 years at Wellington. There are seven stone houses nearly finish- 
 ed, all begun during the last two years. The owners of these ha- 
 bitions, which cost them from 100 to 200 dollars, have all acquired 
 the means of so permanently establishing themselves, by free labor 
 and industry ; they were all, with the exception of a few discharg- 
 ed soldiers from the Fourth West India Regiment, landed from the 
 ships here after capture, and merely given a lot of ground and ra- 
 tions for a time : they became masons, carpenters, coopers, smiths, 
 and farmers. 
 
 "The markets at Freetown are supplied with fruit and vegeta- 
 bles, almost exclusively, by the mountain villages ; and from 80 to 
 
APPENDIX. 247 
 
 100 men, women, boys, and girls, are to be seen daily on the hill 
 leading to Gloucester town, with the products of their farms and 
 gardens. This is also entirely the reward of their own persever- 
 ance, for not the least instruction on this important branch of la- 
 bor have they ever received.''* 
 
 Major Ricketts, in a dispatch, dated June 30th, 1829, speaking 
 of the produce raised by the liberated Africans, says ; — 
 
 '' The value of these articles may be estimated by the well- 
 known fact, that a laboring man can go into the market and pur- 
 chase as much food for a penny-halfpenny as will suffice for two 
 meals. Some of the persons supplying the market are known to 
 travel from Waterloo and Hastings, the former being 22, and the 
 latter 16 miles from Freetown, carrying their produce in baskets on 
 their heads. This kind of industry clearly manifests the desire the 
 liberated Africans have to labor voluntarily, to enable them, by 
 honest means, to become possessed of those luxuries, which 
 they see their more wealthy brethren enjoying."t 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Playford Hall, 17** July, 1839. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 Having read your little book, bearing the name of <l The 
 Remedy," I congratulate you on having at last discovered a way, 
 which if followed up in all its parts, would most certainly lead to 
 the abolition of that execrable traffic called the Slave Trade. 
 
 Two of the measures which you hold forth to accomplish this 
 object, are the employment of steamers in conjunction with sailing 
 vessels, and the annexation of the island of Fernando Po to our 
 foreign possessions. Simple and insignificant as the means may 
 
 * Papers relative to Sierra Leone, September, 1830, No. 57, p. 
 15—17. 
 
 t Papers relative to Sierra Leone, September, 1830, No. 57. 
 p. 39. 
 
248 APPENDIX. 
 
 at first sight appear, they will be decisive in their consequences, 
 and fully answer the end as far as the capture and destruction of 
 slave-vessels are concerned. Steamers, it is obvious, will come up 
 with these, at times and seasons, when our best sailing ships can- 
 not touch them, and Fernando Po is a station, in the sight of 
 which eight-tenths of the existing slaves must pass to be carried 
 on. Commodore Bullen, whom you have quoted, says, " that if a 
 look-out be kept from the shore of this bay, [in Fernando Po] 
 scarcely a vessel could leave the Bonny, Calabars, Bimbia, and 
 Camaroon rivers, without being observed time enough to signalize 
 to any vessel lying in the bay to intercept her ;" and he cites as an 
 instance the capture of a slaver, Le Daniel, by his own vessel. This 
 capture was effected within four hours after first seeing her, al- 
 though his vessel was then lying at anchor in the bay. Taking in 
 these three happy circumstances together, the employment of 
 steamers, the vicinity of Fernando Po to the coast, and that the 
 island commands a sight of eight-tenths of the Slave Trade now 
 carried on, 1 cannot doubt that ten vessels would be captured where 
 one was taken before. I verily believe that our cruisers would 
 make such havoc among the slave vessels in three months, that 
 when the news of what they had done should reach Cuba, 
 Brazil, &c, the insurance there would be raised to a fright- 
 ful amount, and merchants begin to query, whether it would be 
 advisable to send any more adventures to that part of the coast. 
 So far for the first three months ; but after this, other vessels would 
 be on their way to the Niger, ignorant of what had happened, and 
 would share the same fate. Here a fresh report of captures would 
 be communicated to the people of Brazils, Cuba, &c, and what 
 effect would this produce there ? No insurance at any rate ! No 
 heart to venture again in this trade ! And here I cannot help 
 stating the benefit that Fernando Po would be to the slaves who 
 should be captured on these occasions : instead of being carried to 
 Sierra Leone, as heretofore, many of them in a diseased state, a 
 voyage of five or six weeks, during which a prodigious loss of life 
 has occurred, they would be landed there in health in three or four 
 days, some of them in a few hours, where they would be liberated, 
 and set to work, and oarn their own maintenance immediately. I 
 have been writing hitherto under the supposition that we are at 
 liberty to take vessels of this description bearing the Portuguese 
 
APPENDIX. 249 
 
 flag. It is said that a treaty is on foot for that purpose with Portu- 
 gal, but if that should fail, existing treaties would bear us out in 
 the capture of such vessels. 
 
 But supposing these two measures should be successful, as you 
 think they would be, m putting an end to the Slave Trade, what do 
 you recommend next ? You recommend that a.neio trade should 
 be proposed to the natives in exchange for that of the Slave Trade, in 
 the productions of their soil; that is, by means of agriculture, by 
 which their wants, and more than their usual wants, would be sup- 
 plied, so that when the new trade should come fairly into play, they 
 would find, practically find, that it was more than a compensation 
 for the old ; and that the rise of this new trade should immediately 
 follow the downfall of the Slave Trade. But how is this new trade 
 to be brought about ? You answer by treaties with the native 
 chiefs ; by subsidies to some of them, which, though they would be 
 mportant, would be of trifling amount ; by purchasing land, which, 
 though extensive, would be attended with little cost ; by introducing 
 settlements among them, by which their industry would be direct- 
 ed to the proper objects of cultivation, and that cultivation im- 
 proved by our skill ; by which their youth would be educated, 
 their manners and habits civilized, and the gospel be widely spread 
 among them. 
 
 There is no doubt that if all these things could be accomplished, 
 not only the Slave Trade would be abolished, but the natives would 
 never wish to return to it. Now you have shown by historical 
 proofs that all these things have been already done in many instan- 
 ces in different parts of Africa, and that the results have been high- 
 ly favorable, and this, without any particular pains being taken, 
 except at Sierra Leone" ; in fact, without any but ordinary stimulus 
 being given, the natives being left to their own will and pleasure, 
 and without any other incitement than the protection which a set- 
 tlement in this vicinity afforded them, and a simple declaration, 
 " that they should be paid for their labor." What would be the 
 case then, were a great company established in England, whose 
 constant object would be to excite their energies by the prospect of 
 a suitable reward, and by instructing them how to earn it ? 
 
 Let us now see what these historical proofs are (and I shall quote 
 from them very briefly) on which you place so much reliance. 
 Sierra Leone offers itself for consideration first. You say that "the 
 
250 APPENDIX. 
 
 accounts, soon after the settlement was formed there, stated that 
 the natives crowded round the colony, both for education and for 
 trade, and that the beneficial effect upon them in inducing them 
 to quit slave trading, was instantaneous. That effect has been con. 
 tinued, and has extended in the neighborhood of Sierra Leone to 
 a very considerable distance round the colony. Traders bring 
 down ivory, gold-dust, and palm oil as usual. Of late years a very 
 important branch has been added to the legal trade for the cutting 
 of timber for the British Navy, &c. &c. 
 
 The river Gambia presents itself next. " In the year 1814," 
 says Mr. Bandinel, '« a colony was formed at St. Mary's on this 
 river. This colony has increased and flourished beyond all reason- 
 able calculation, and is already more powerful and wealthy than 
 any of those older settlements of the British in Africa, which were 
 formed for the purpose of promoting the Slave Trade." — " The 
 beneficial effects of this settlement at St. Mary's on all the tribes 
 along the banks of the Gambia, are perhaps still more prominent 
 than those which have taken place round Sierra Leone." 
 
 In the year 1833, a mission in connection with the Wesleyan 
 Society was established at MacCarthy's island. 4< Before the 
 abolition of the Slave Trade," says the Rev. Mr. Macbriar, «' there 
 were considerable factories here, but now that the slave market is 
 abolished, and the natives can find a ready market for the produce 
 of their lands by means of the British merchants, the cultivation 
 of the soil increases every year ; and the aborigines have been heard 
 to say, that they now wish they had their slaves back again, be 
 cause they could get more by their labor than they did by selling 
 them to Europeans." 
 
 Let us add another of your proofs. The Rev. J. Morgan, to 
 whom the Foulah mission in the same river partly owes its origin, 
 recommends the purchase of tracts of land adjoining the principal 
 rivers. He says, " that thousands would flee to such places of 
 refuge as soon as they could be assured of protection, and thus a 
 dense free population would soon spring up, and commerce would 
 rapidly extend." I myself am connected by subscription with a 
 settlement in this river, and the accounts from thence, which I see 
 yearly, are full of the anxious desire manifested by the natives on 
 the banks of it, to be under our protection, and to cultivate their 
 lands in peace, and to be civilized and Christianized. 
 
APPENDIX. 251 
 
 We come now to the Gold Coast. In no part of Africa, says the 
 Governor, M'Lean, was the Slave Trade more firmly rooted, or 
 more systematically carried on than in these settlements." '' But 
 a great change has taken place since its abolition. The soil, which 
 formerly did not yield sufficient for the sustenance of the inhabi- 
 tants, now affords to export a very large amount of corn to Ma- 
 deira," " besides greatly increased quantities of gold-dust and 
 ivory." " The exports to Great Britain amount to £160,000 per 
 annum." Formerly " the whole country was one scene of oppres- 
 sion, cruelty, and disorder, so that a trader dared not go twenty 
 miles into the bush. At present our communication with the inte- 
 rior is as free and safe as between England and Scotland." Add 
 to this the statement, that " several hundreds of the natives, through 
 the labors of the Wesleyan missionaries, have embraced the truths 
 of Christianity." 
 
 Having now made a few quotations from what you have ad- 
 vanced relative to our own colonies on the continent of Africa, let 
 us quote from what you have said relative to other parts of the 
 same continent which are not in our possession. The first of these 
 which presents itself in the order of location upon that coast, is the 
 country in the neighborhood of the Senegal. The natives having 
 had reason to suppose that it was the intention of the British Gov- 
 ernment, when they took possession of this river, to abolish the 
 Slave Trade as far as their new dominions extended, were filled 
 with joy. " Seeing no probability of any further Slave Trade," 
 says Mr. Rendall, who was a resident of St. Louis, in the Senegal, 
 from 1813 to 1817, " they bethought themselves to turn their at- 
 tention to agriculture, and all disposable tracts of land were in con- 
 sequence to be found in a state of cultivation. The inhabitants 
 passed from one village to another without fear or protective wea- 
 pons, and contentment seemed to reign not only in the countenan- 
 ces, but in the humble huts of the inhabitants." This account of 
 Mr. Rendall is very short. It is a pity that he did not dwell more 
 largely, as he might have done, on the extraordinary industry, 
 which this belief of the abolition excited ; on the great quantity of 
 land put in cultivation for miles along the banks of the Senegal, 
 and on the markets which the people had opened for themselves. 
 I had an account of these particulars, as they occurred, from per- 
 sons at Fort St. Louis, myself, and had occasion afterwards to 
 transmit them to the Congress at Aix-la Chapelle, where I under- 
 stood thev were received and read. 
 
252 APPENDIX. 
 
 The next place in order of location is the Island of Bulama, 
 situated opposite to the country of Biafra, and not far from the 
 great rivers Rio Grande and Nunez. Here Captain Beaver, at the 
 close of the last century, attempted to form a colony. Two of the 
 natives of the opposite continent soon crossed over to him, and 
 though he told them ' ( he could have no dealing inslaves" yet their 
 report induced others to take service with him, and he never after- 
 wards wanted grumettas or laborers. In one year he employed 
 nearly two hundred of them. He never saw men work harder, 
 more willingly, or regularly, generally speaking, than they did. 
 And what induced them, says Captain Beaver, to do so ? " Their 
 desire of European commodities in my possession, of which they 
 knew they would have the value of one bar at the end of the week, 
 or four at the end of a month. Some of them remained at labor 
 for months ere they left me. Others, after having left me, return- 
 ed. They knew that the labor was constant, but they also knew 
 that their reward was certain." To this account I may just add, 
 that I knew Captain Beaver personally, and that I have heard 
 these and other important statements from his own lips. He was a 
 captain in the royal navy; and in private life he was most estim- 
 able, and a man of high moral character. 
 
 The last place in the same order, but some hundreds of miles 
 further down the coast, which you quote, is the river Niger. Un- 
 fortunately the gentlemen you mention have not been resident in 
 the interior of this country, and therefore can only speak of what 
 they saw and heard while navigating this immense river. " By 
 this river," says Mr. Laird, '* one hundred millions of people 
 would be brought in direct contact with the civilized world, new 
 and boundless markets would be opened to our manufactures, a 
 continent teeming with inexhaustible fertility would yield her rich- 
 es to our traders ; not merely a nation, but hundreds of nations, 
 would be awakened from the lethargy of centuries, and become 
 useful and active members of the great commonwealth of man. 
 kind." And what says Mr. Lander of the disposition of this vast 
 population of the countries through which this river goes ? " The 
 natives," he says, " only require to know what is wanted from them, 
 and to be shoicn what they will have in return, and much produce 
 that is now lost by neglect, will be returned to a consider- 
 able amount." But the most important evidence which you have 
 
APPENDIX. 253 
 
 cited for this part of the country is Colonel Nicholls. He tells us, 
 that from his long experience in these and other parts of Africa, 
 " there is one means, and he is persuaded but one effectual means, 
 of destroying the Slave Trade, which is by introducing a liberal 
 and -well regulated system of commerce on the coast of Africa." 
 He then gives us the substance of a conversation with one of the 
 native chiefs on this subject, in which he convinced him of the fol- 
 ly of trading in the bodies of the inhabitants in comparison with 
 trading in the productions of the soil, so that this chief gave up the 
 Slave Trade : and says, " I feel convinced that I could influence 
 all the chiefs along the coast in the same manner : but to be able 
 to effect this, it would be necessary to have the means of moving 
 with a degree of celerity that a steam-vessel alone would give us." 
 •' Steam-boats would also be of incalculable use to commerce, bv 
 towing ships over bars and agitated currents, whilst, as a means 
 of catching the Slave-ships, and protecting the coast from the de 
 predations of their crews, three st earners would effect more than the 
 expensive squadron now maintained there. I pledge myself to put 
 an end to the whole of our expense, and totally to suppress the Slave 
 Trade , in two years." O, how I wish that Colonel Nicholls could be 
 sent again to Africa for this purpose ! He is the only man alive to 
 effect it. I know him well, His whole heart and soul are in the 
 project. Besides, he has an intimate knowledge of these seas and 
 harbors, of Fernando Po, and what it can do towards the aboli- 
 tion of the Slave Trade ; of the mouth of the Niger, and the great 
 rivers falling into it ; of some of the native chiefs personally, and 
 of the manners, customs, disposition, and temper in general of the 
 inhabitants of these parts. 
 
 But why should I go further into " The Remedy" you propose ? 
 It would be a waste of words. It has already appeared probable, 
 nay, more than probable, that if steamers were employed, and Fer- 
 nando Po added to our possessions, the capture of the vessels con- 
 cerned in the hateful traffic would be comparatively easy ; that 
 treaties might be made with the African chiefs, and several of 
 them subsidized in our interest ; and that the energies of the na- 
 tives on that vast continent might be called forth in a nev: trade, 
 in the productions of their soil, (which of itself would sap the 
 foundation of the Slave Trade,) and that thousands and tens of 
 thousands of these natives might be engaged in it. Again, you 
 22 
 

 254- APPENDIX. 
 
 have projected a large commercial and agricultural company, 
 which should take off their produce, and supply their wants. What 
 can you devise, and what can you desire more, to put down the 
 Slave Trade and to civilize Africa ? I hope then that you will not 
 be so diffident as you appear to be relative to the success of your 
 measures : if they do not succeed, none will. I have studied the 
 subject for mDre than half a century, and I give it as my opinion 
 that yours is the only plan that will answer. I cannot doubt that 
 the Government would readily promote your views, if they were 
 only persuaded that it was probable that the abolition of the Slave 
 Trade would follow, and that a great part of the country, the mor- 
 al and religious part of it, would be grateful, very grateful, to them 
 for so doing. And now, my dear Friend, having read your little 
 work twice over, and having formed my conclusions upon it, and 
 finding these in unison with your own, I thought that you would be 
 pleased with them ; and thanking you, as every abolitionist must 
 do, for the great labor you must have undergone in preparing 
 your present plan, I remain, with great regard, 
 
 Your sincere and affectionate Friend, 
 
 Thomas Clarkson, 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I mention how my time has been chiefly occupied, as an apology 
 for my abreviated account of the matter you are inquiring about ; 
 however, thus much I can state and verify. When I was traveling 
 between Der, the capital of Nubia and Epsarnbool, I met a slave 
 ship descending the Nile, and as I wished to see what was going 
 on in the vessel, I went on board to purchase some ostrich feathers. 
 This was in March last, I cannot tell the exact date, as my jour- 
 nals are in Paris. There were 20 or 25 slaves, of ages between 
 10 and 1G. There was one man about 30 chained to the bifurcated 
 end of a long pole ; his neck was enclosed by the two branches, 
 
APPENDIX. 255 
 
 and a chain from one end to the other secured him even from a 
 movement of his head. The other end of the pole was locked to 
 the floor of the hold of the vessel. It appears that this man had 
 attempted to escape. I actually saw but this one vessel, but my 
 interpreter told me that several slave vessels had passed us in the 
 night. 
 
 I was in the slave market in Cairo ; I saw many slaves, male 
 and female, on sale ; being an European, I was not permitted to 
 see the white slaves, nor do I know that there were any on sale 
 at that time. The black slaves I had free access to ; and I was 
 told that there were some white ones in the rooms. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 
 
 Wm. Hyde Pearson. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 Copy of a Letter from the Rigid Honorable Lord John Russell to 
 the Lords Co?nmissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury. (Laid 
 on the table of the House of Commons, 8th February, 1840.) 
 
 Downing Street, 
 My Lords, 26th December, 1839. 
 
 The state of the foreign Slave Trade has for some time past en- 
 gaged much of the attention of Her Majesty's Confidential Advis- 
 ers. In whatever light this traffic is viewed, it must be regarded 
 as an evil of incalculable magnitude ; the injuries it inflicts on the 
 lawful commerce of this country, the constant expense incurred in 
 the employments of ships of war for the suppression of it, and the 
 annual sacrifice of so many valuable lives in this service, however 
 deeply to be lamented, are not the most disastrous results of this 
 system. The honor of the British Crown is compromised by the 
 habitual evasion of the treaties subsisting between Her Majesty and 
 foreign powers for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the calami- 
 ties which, in defiance of religion, humanity, and justice ; are in- 
 flicted on a large porportion of the African continent, are such as 
 cannot be contemplated without the deepest and most lively con- 
 
256 APPENDIX. 
 
 cern. The Houses of Lords and Commons have, in their address, 
 es to the Crown, expressed, in the most energetic terms, the indig- 
 nation with which Parliament regards the continuance of the trade 
 in African slaves, and their anxious desire that every practicable 
 method should be taken for the extinction of this great social evil. 
 
 To estimate the actual extent of the foreign Slave Trade, is, 
 from the nature of the case, an attempt of extreme difficulty ; nor can 
 anything more than a general approximation to the truth be made. 
 But after the most attentive examination which it has been in my 
 power to make, of official documents, and especially of the corres- 
 pondence communicated to Parliament from the department of 
 Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, I 
 find it impossible to avoid the conclusion, that the average number 
 of slaves introduced into foreign states or colonies in America and 
 the West Indies, from the western coast of Africa, annually ex- 
 ceeds 100,000. In this estimate a very large deduction is made for 
 the exaggerations which are more or less inseparable from all state- 
 ments on a subject so well calculated to excite the feelings of every 
 impartial and disi nterested witness. But making this deduction, 
 the number of slaves actually landed in the importing countries 
 affords but a very imperfect indication of the real extent of the 
 calamities which this traffic infiicts on its victims. No record ex- 
 ists of the multitudes who perish in the overland journey to the 
 African coast, or in the passage across the Atlantic, or of the still 
 greater number who fall a sacrifice to the warfare, pillage, and 
 cruelties by which the Slave Trade is fed. Unhappily, however, 
 no fact can be more certain, than that such an importation as I 
 have mentioned, presupposes and involves a waste of human 
 life, and a sum of human misery, proceeding from year to year, with- 
 out respite or intermission, to such an extent as to render the subject 
 the most painful of any which, in the survey of the condition of 
 mankind, it is possible to contemplate. 
 
 The preceding statement unavoidably suggests the inquiry, why 
 the costly efforts in which Great Britain has so long been engag- 
 ed for repressing the foreign Slave Trade have proved thus inef- 
 fectual ? Without pausing to enumerate the many concurrent 
 causes of failure, it may be sufficient to say that such is the differ- 
 ence between the price at which a slave is bought on the coast of 
 Africa and the price for which he is sold in Brazil or Cuba, that 
 
APPENDIX. 257 
 
 the importer receives back his purchase-money tenfold on the safe 
 arrival of his vessel at the port of destination. It is more than 
 probable that the general profits of the trade, if accurately calcu- 
 lated, would fall exceedingly below this estimate, as indeed it is 
 certain that in many cases it is carried on at a ruinous loss. But 
 your Lordships are well aware, how powerful and constant an 
 impulse may be given to any species of illegal traffic, however 
 hazardous, when they who engage in it are allured by the hope of 
 very large and quick returns, if their good fortunes could enable 
 them to escape the penalties of the law. It may therefore be rea- 
 dily understood how effective is such a stimulus, when, as in the 
 case in question, the law itself is regarded with general disfavor 
 in the society to which the violator of it belongs, and is reluctantly 
 executed by the government of that society. We must add to 
 this exciting motive the security which is derived from insurances, 
 and insurance companies, which are carried on to a great extent, 
 and combined powerful interests. Under such circumstances, to 
 repress the foreign SlaveTrade by a marine guard would scarcely 
 be possible, if the whole British navy could be employed for that 
 purpose. It is an evil which can never be adequately encountered 
 by any system of mere prohibition and penalties. 
 
 Her Majesty's confidential advisers are therefore compelled to 
 admit the conviction that it is indispensable to enter upon some 
 new preventive system, calculated to arrest the foreign Slave 
 Trade in its source, by counteracting the principles upon which it 
 is now sustained. Although it may be impossible to check the 
 cupidity of those who purchase slaves for exportation from Africa, 
 it may yet be possible to force on those, by whom they are sold, 
 the persuasion that they are engaged in a traffic, opposed to their 
 own interests when correctly understood. 
 
 With this view it is proposed to establish new commercial rela- 
 tions with those African chiefs or powers within whose dominions 
 the internal Slave Trade of Africa is carried on, and the external 
 Slave Trade supplied with its victims. To this end the Queen has 
 directed Her Ministers, to negotiate conventions or agreements 
 with those chiefs and powers, the basis of which conventions would 
 be, first, the abandonment and absolute prohibition of the Slave 
 Trade ; and, secondly, the admission for consumption in this coun- 
 try, on favorable terms, of goods the produce or manufacture of 
 
 y 
 
258 APPENDIX. 
 
 the territories subject to them. Of those chiefs, the most consider- 
 able rule over the countries adjacent to the .Niger and its great 
 tributary streams. It is therefore proposed to dispatch an expedi- 
 tion which would ascend that river by steam-boats, as far as the 
 points at which it receives the confluence of some of the principal 
 rivers falling into it from the eastward. At these, or at any other 
 stations which may be found more favorable for the promotion 
 of a legitimate commerce, it is proposed to establish British Facto- 
 ries, in the hope that the natives may be taught that there are 
 methods of employing the population more profitable to those to 
 whom they are subject, than that of converting them into slaves, 
 and selling them for exportation to the slave traders. 
 
 In this communication it would be out of place, and indeed im- 
 practicable, to enter upon a full detail of the plan itself ; of the 
 ulterior measures to which it may lead, or of the reasons which 
 induce Her Majesty's Government to believe that it may even- 
 tually lead to the substitution of an innocent and profitable com- 
 merce, for that traffic by which the continent of Africa has so long 
 been desolated. For my immediate purpose it will be sufficient .to 
 say, that having maturely weighed these questions, and with a full 
 perception of the difficulties which may attend this undertaking, 
 the Ministers of the Crown are yet convinced that it affords the 
 best, if not the only prospect of accomplishing the object so ear- 
 nestly desired by the Queen, by her Parliament, and her people. 
 
 Having instituted a careful inquiry as to the best and most eco- 
 nomical method of conducting the proposed expedition, I find from 
 the enclosed communication from the Lords Commissioners of the 
 Admiralty, that it will be necessary to build three iron steam-ves- 
 sels for this service, and that the first cost of those vessels, includ- 
 ing provisions and stores for six months, will amount to 35,000Z. 
 It further appears that the annual charge of paying and victualling 
 the officers and men will be 10,546Z. The salaries of the conduct- 
 ors of the expedition, and of their chaplain and surgeon, will pro- 
 bably amount to 4,000Z. In addition to this expenditure, Presents 
 must be purchased for the chiefs, and tents, mathematical instru- 
 ments, with some other articles of a similar kind, will be indispens- 
 able for the use of the persons who are to be engaged in this ser- 
 vice, when at a distance from their vessels. I have some time 
 since given directions for the completion of this additional esti- 
 
APPENDIX. 259 
 
 mate, but with those directions it has not hitherto been found prac- 
 ticable to comply. The charge for this branch of the proposed 
 service will not be very considerable. 
 
 I have to convey to your Lordships my recommendation that in 
 the estimates to be laid before the House of Commons for the servi- 
 ces of 1840, the sums be included which are necessary to provide for 
 the expenses of the proposed expedition to the Niger, on the scale 
 already mentioned, under the several heads of expenditure, 
 
 I have. &c. 
 
 (Signed) J. Russell. 
 
326.1 B991 73364