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AFRICA. pily terminated the useful and indefatigable labours of one of the most enterprising and most celebrated of

Adams.

modern travellers.

A very singular coincidence of circumstances has very recently put the public in possession of some particulars respecting Tombuctoo, a place which has so long excited the anxious enquiry of all travellers, none of whom had hitherto been able to penetrate to the country it was believed to occupy. An American sailor, however, of the name of Adams, having been discovered in the streets of London, and examined upon the subject of his adventures, by a gentleman connected with the African Association, has furnished unquestionable evidences of his having spent six months at that remarkable city. The outlines of his story is as follows: On the 17th of October, 1810, the American ship Charles sailed from New York, on a trading voyage along the coast of Africa. A little to the south of Cape Blanco, at a place called El Gazie, the ship struck, and the crew escaped to land by swimming, where they were soon afterwards surrounded by thirty or forty Moors, who were wretched fishermen. They were stripped naked, and carried on a journey to the east, and in about forty days came to a negro village, called Soudenny, on the northern frontier of Bambarra, where the whole party were made prisoners, and sent forward under an escort to Tombuctoo, which they reached in twenty-five days. The Moors were imprisoned, but Adams being viewed as a curiosity, was taken to the palace, where he was kindly treated; and from the degree of liberty he possessed, had ample means of making observations. To him, Tombuctoo seemed about the size of Lisbon, as to the extent of ground it covered, but the houses were far more scattered, and consequently the population less. Those of the higher classes are built of wood, and of a square form, with the rooms on the ground floor; the huts of the poor are formed of branches of trees bent in a circle, covered with a matting of the palmeto, and overlaid with earth. The king's palace is built in a square of half an acre, enclosed by a mud wall, within which all merchandise is brought to be charged with a duty. To Adams, it seemed to be altogether a negro city, the Moors being excluded from it;-probably in consequence of some recent revolution. The natives are a vigorous and healthy race, violent in their quarrels, but are on the whole a good natured people. They ornament their persons with rings and ivory; are fond of dancing, and have several kinds of musical instruments. Their food is Guinea corn, ground between two flat stones, and boiled into a thick mess, on which goat's milk is poured. Their accounts are kept by notching sticks, as none of them can either read or write. The government is despotic, but mildly administered; slavery is the greatest punishment; while inferior guilt is subjected to caning. There seemed to Adams no outward form of worship, except a prayer at funerals. Marriage is very simply performed, concubines are kept, and illicit intercourse very prevalent. They have no horses, but a very fleet species of camel, unfit for carrying burdens, but capable of travelling fifty miles a day. With this animal the negroes hunt elephants. Adams makes the extraordinary assertion, that there are no shops; the probability is that the trade is principally conducted by stalls in a public market. About two hundred yards south-east of the

quar- AFRICA.

town passes a river called La Mar Zarah, three ters of a mile wide, and flowing, as our captive supposes, to the south-west. The hunting of slaves is regularly practised about once a month, by armed men from one to five hundred. The slaves thus procured, with gold dust, ivory, and other articles, are exchanged with the Moors for tobacco, tar, gunpowder, nankeens, blankets, earthen jars, and silks. At the expiration of six months, ten Moors ransomed their countrymen, together with Adams, for a large quantity of tobacco, and three weeks afterwards they set out across the desert; proceeding along the banks of the Mar Zarah, in an eastern direction inclining to the north. The country seemed thinly inhabited. After ten days, they turned to the north when the country became quite desolate. In thirteen days they arrived at Taudeny, where there are numerous beds of salt, an article much demanded in Soudan. At the end of fourteen days delay, they entered the Sahara or Great Sandy Desert, where they travelled twenty-nine days without seeing any vegetation, or meeting a human being, till they reached a village of tents, called Woled D'leim, inhabited by Moors. Here Adams was sent out to attend their cattle, and was at length told, they determined to retain him in the capacity of a slave. Upon fleeing to another village, where his master overtook him, Adams appealed to the chief of the town, who gave his first possessor a small compensation, and kept him as his own slave. In consequence of being detected in an intrigue, he was sold to another master, and carried to Wedinoor, on the borders of Morocco, where he was most severely treated; whence his release was obtained by M. Dupuis, the British Vice-Consul, who had him brought to Mogadore. He soon after sailed from Tangier to Cadiz.

Tuck

Another adventurer of the name of Riley, has since Riley been at Tombuctoo, after surviving a shipwreck, and encountering a variety of hardships; but no very considerable increase of authentic information is to be collected from his narrative. The zeal of discovery is still at work, and perhaps more vigorously than ever; so that we cannot help indulging the hope that a few years will accumulate a store of information respecting the interior of Africa. Expeditions lately sailed to the rivers Congo and Niger, under the direction of government. The one to explore the former river, commanded by Captain Tuckey, departed from London in the month of March, 1816, which has, however, unhappily failed. The captain, the lieutenant, and most of the party perished, after ascending the Congo 120 miles in a sloop, and then proceeding over a mountainous and barren district on foot 150 miles, having passed considerably beyond the first rapids or cataract. With regard to the other expedition, Major Peddie arrived at Pod Senegal in the spring of 1816, but as he found it impracticable to attain his object before the commencement of the rainy season, determined to wait till it was over. In the following October he began his journey, but died before reaching the Niger. Lieutenant Campbell then took the command, and intelligence has been received of his having arrived at the head of the Rio Nunez, whence he was to proceed to Bammakoo, where Park embarked on the Niger.

The general amount of information respecting the country along the line of the Zaire, obtained during the

RICA, expedition of Captain Tuckey, may be thus summarily stated. The narrows of the river commence about 120 English miles from the mouth at Point Padron, and continue to Inga or nearly forty miles; the width of the river being generally not more than from three to five hundred yards throughout that extent, and in most parts bristled with rocks. The banks are every where precipitous, and composed of masses of slate. Beyond the mountainous regions, the Zaire expands to the width of two, three, and even more than four miles, and flows at the rate of two or three miles an hour. Captain Tuckey believed, and with apparent good reason, that its origin is in the lakes and swamps designated by the name of Wangara. The country called Congo extends inwards indefinitely, and is partitioned out into a multitude of petty states or Chenooships, held as a kind of fiefs under some personage, real or imaginary, in the interior. That portion of the Congo territory through which the Zaire flows into the Southern Atlantic is not very interesting. The cluster of mountains, though not high, are bare and barren, and the lower ranges have no forests of any magnitude; but between the hills and the margins of the river, the level alluvial banks which extend from the mouth nearly to Embomma, are clothed with an exuberant vegetation, presenting to the eye one continued forest of tall and majestic trees, clothed with foliage of never-fading verdure. The climate is represented in a very favourable point of view; the atmosphere cool and dry, especially after the setting in of the western breezes, which occurs an hour or two after the sun has passed the meridian, and they continue till midnight. The winter resembles the mild spring of Italy; it is not subject to rains, but vegetation is promoted by abundant dews every morning. The chief products of the vegetable world consist of manioc or cassava, yams, and maize or Indian corn, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, the sugar cane, tobacco, &c. Of fruits, they have the banana, papaw, oranges, limes and pine-apples. They have all the usual animals, and the country seems remarkably free from teazing and noxious insects. The lower part of the river abounds with excellent fish. The staple articles of subsistence are manioc, ground-nuts, and palm-wine. Of Indian corn they have regularly two crops in the year. The negroes are particularly un cleanly in their food, and especially in the mode of its preparation; they broil fowls with the feathers on, and pieces of goat without removing the skin, or even the hair, and devour them when scarcely warmed. None of the villages observed by the party were of any considerable extent, the largest not exceeding one hundred

huts.

Their household utensils are few, and their articles of dress extremely sparing, consisting chiefly of an apron tied round the loins, and a cap on the head. Their chief agricultural implement is a rude hoe of iron, stuck into a wooden handle; but, in fact, the climate and the soil are such as to supersede much trouble in preparing the ground, and raising good crops.

The population evidently increased, the farther the party advanced into the interior, yet the banks of the river were in no place otherwise than thinly peopled. Omitting the paramount sovereign of Congo, whose existence seems doubtful, the component parts of a

tribe or society, would appear to consist of-1. The AFRICA. Chenoo, or chief. 2. The members of his family, who are his counsellors. 3. The Mafooks, or collectors of the revenues. 4. Foomos, or such as have houses and lands of their own, and are, in fact, the yeomanry of the country. 5. The fishermen, coolies, and labouring classes. Domestic slaves are not numerous, nor are they considered as common transferable property, being sold only for some offence. Saleable slaves are those victims who have been taken prisoners in war, or kidnapped in the interior, or such as have had a sentence of death commuted into that of foreign slavery. The people of Congo may be considered as among the lowest of the negro tribes, and the immense numbers of Catholic missionaries poured into this quarter during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, do not seem to have advanced the natives a single degree in civilization. Polygamy to a great extent is universally practised. The cultivation of the land, and the search after food in the woods and on the plains, frequently the catching of fish, devolve wholly on the women, while the men pass their time in total idleness, sleeping or stringing beads. They are, however, excessively fond of dancing, and particularly by moonlight. They are represented by all the party, as of a very good humoured and hospitable disposition. They are very superstitious: every man has his fetiche or charm, consisting of a horn, a hoof, hair, teeth, claws, shells, and in short, almost any thing; which they consider as protections against thunder, lightning, alligators, lions, snakes, poisons, and every injury. Some even regard them as a kind of deity to which prayers are addressed and thanksgivings are returned. They also hold various objects in nature in great veneration. Their only capital crimes are poisoning and adultery. Their chief diseases are cutaneous. The language of Congo, and the neighbouring states, differs materially from all the known languages of the negroes of northern Africa; but from the copious vocabularies obtained by Captain Tuckey, there appears to be a radical affinity between all the languages on the western coast of southern Africa; the greater part of which portion of the continent they have pervaded, even to the eastern coast. TUCKEY'S Narrative, 4to. (published by order of the Lords of the Admiralty). 1818.

The singular interest which has been excited with regard to the regions to which we have particularly adverted, and the travellers who have explored or attempted to explore them, has induced us to dwell upon these narratives. But we do not forget that other parts of Africa has been penetrated by no less enterprising, and, in some cases, no less qualified inquirers. Their names will, however, chiefly occur, and their information be communicated under the heads of the respective countries which they have visited; we shall only indicate here some of the principal. Bruce and Salt have laboriously and successively explored Abyssinia. In Egypt, we have recent observations, by Denon, Hamilton, and Legh; Barbary has been illustrated by Shaw, Lempriere, Jackson, Keating, and others; Southern Africa by Kolben, Sparrman, Vaillant, Barrow, and others; and the Eastern coast, by Hamil

ton and Salt.

AFRICAN.

AFRICAN COMPANY, or the ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY. An association of merchants, principally of Exeter, first received a patent as an exclusive African company in 1588, from Queen Elizabeth, which conferred on them the privilege of trading to the rivers Senegal and Gambia for ten years. James I. granted a similar charter to certain merchants forming a jointstock company in 1618, but the ill success of its enterprizes caused it soon afterwards to be dissolved. In 1631, Charles I. created another company, under this title, which shared a similar fate; but the disgraceful demand of negroes for the colonies increasing, the duke of York, with some other persons of distinction, in 1662, obtained a charter from Charles II. which secured to them the commerce of all the English possessions from Cape Blanc to the Cape of Good Hope. This company was equally unsuccessful with its predecessors, and the directors in a few years resigned their charter; when in 1672 the last incorporation of this description was formed by letters patent, and appeared for some time to promise the proprietors a flourishing trade. They raised a joint capital of 111,000l. and erected several new forts on the coast; but the existence of these monopolies by grants from the crown, being considered at the Revolution inconsistent with the declaration of rights, the trade to Africa was thrown open. All private traders, however, were obliged, by stat. 9 and 10 William and Mary, to pay 10 per cent. towards maintaining the forts and factories already erected; in 1730, 10,000 7. was granted by parliament in assistance of this expence; and in 1750 the original company being completely bankrupt, its forts and various establishments on the African coast were vested by 23 Geo. II. cap. xxxi, in the present Company of Merchants trading to Africa.

This company is prohibited from trading as a corporate body, and from possessing any transferrable stock; its duties are to maintain all the forts and garrisons in good repair, that lie between Cape Rouge and the Cape of Good Hope; any British subject may be admitted into it on the payment of 40s.; and the management of its affairs are vested in nine commissioners, chosen annually, for London, Liverpool, and Bristol, in equal numbers. A sum, generally amounting to 13,000 or 14,000l. is granted to this company by parliament, amongst the current expenses of each year; but Senegal and its dependencies, with the line of coast from Port Sallee to Cape Rouge, are by stat. 4 and 5 Geo. III. exempted from its jurisdiction. The commissioners account annually to the Cursitor Baron of his Majesty's Exchequer for the proper application of this sum.

AFRICAN ASSOCIATION; a public-spirited society of gentlemen, who united themselves, to the number of about 95 members, in 1788, to promote the discovery of the interior parts of Africa. Their affairs were conducted by a committee of five distinguished individuals. Lord Rawdon (the present Marquis of Hastings), the late Dr. Watson, Bishop of Landaff, Sir Joseph Banks, H. Beaufoy, Esq. and Mr. Stuart. These gentlemen had the honour to despatch the intrepid Ledyard on his first journey to Africa, in the year of their institution; and it was to Henry Beaufoy, Esq. that Ledyard made the memorable answer, on being asked, upon the first interview, when he would set out?-To-morrow morning." The committee assigned him, in conformity

with his own desire, the perilous course from east to AFRIC west, in the supposed latitude of the Niger, which stretches across the whole continent at its greatest breadth. In August he arrived at Cairo, but died before entering upon the route proposed. Mr. Lucas was their next missionary, with but little more success. He embarked for Tripoli in October of the same year (1788), and was instructed to penetrate the desert of Zaara to Fezzan, communicating with the society by the port of Tripoli, and to return by way of Gambia. At Mesurata, however, he found those difficulties which deterred him from proceeding further; and in Feb. 1789, relinquished his engagement. Major Houghton was engaged by the committee in the following year, to ascend the Gambia eastward, as far as he should be able, and to continue on the same line of route over the continent. In November he reached the coast, and went up the river 900 miles, to Bambouk, and from thence to the adjoining province of Kasson, where he died in September, 1791. The accomplished Mungo Park was the person next engaged for these services. In 1795 he entered upon the same route as his predecessor; explored the course of the Niger to Silla, and returned to receive the just plaudits of his countrymen in about two years. It is but too well known that Park was afterwards sent out by government, in 1805, to renew these cherished labours, from which he never more returned.

The details of these journies we have already given in their connection with our present knowledge of Africa; but to the individuals who first directed and encouraged the enterprises of our countrymen in this direction, it may be due thus to re-state the names and objects of their travellers; of whom Mr. Horneman was the last. This gentleman embarked from London in 1797; was at Cairo when the French expedition, under Buonaparte, had possession of the country; and, on explaining his object, was received under that general's protection; was heard of at Tripoli in April, 1800, but since that period all intelligence of him has ceased.

AFRICAN INSTITUTION.—While the society assuming the name of the African Association merits our high esteem for the ardour and perseverance which it has displayed in exploring, by its emissaries, the hitherto undiscovered regions of interior Africa, it is impossible to withhold our warmest approbation from another union of talent and piety, formed for the especial purpose of diffusing knowledge and improvement through that much-injured continent, and which has chosen the title of the African Institution. The resolutions which were adopted at the constituent meeting on the 14th of April, 1807, furnish the best elucidation of the general basis upon which it is erected. They were circulated in the first report, as follow:

"1. That this meeting is deeply impressed with a sense of the enormous wrongs which the natives of Africa have suffered in their intercourse with Europe; and from a desire to repair those wrongs, as well as from general feelings of benevolence, is anxious to adopt such measures as are best calculated to promote their civilization and happiness.

2. That the approaching cessation of the slave trade, hitherto carried on by Great Britain, America, and Denmark, will, in a considerable degree, remove the barrier which has so long obstructed the natural

HCA. course of social improvement in Africa; and that the way will be thereby opened for introducing the comforts and arts of a more civilized state of society. "3. That the happiest effects may be reasonably anticipated from diffusing useful knowledge and exciting industry amongst the inhabitants of Africa, and of obtaining and circulating throughout this country more ample and authentic information concerning the agricultural and commercial faculties of that vast continent; and that, through the judicious prosecution of these benevolent endeavours, we may ultimately look forward to the establishment, in the room of that traffic by which Africa has been so long degraded, of a legitimate and far more extended commerce, beneficial alike to the natives of Africa and to the manufacturers of Great Britain and Ireland.

"4. That the present period is eminently fitted for prosecuting these benevolent designs; since the suspension, during the war, of that large share of the slave trade, which has commonly been carried on by France, Spain, and Holland, will, when combined with the effect of the abolition laws of Great Britain, America, and Denmark, produce nearly the entire cessation of that traffic along a line of coast extending between two and three thousand miles in length; and thereby afford a peculiarly favourable opportunity for giving a new direction to the industry and commerce of Africa. "5. That for these purposes, a society be immediately formed, to be called " The African Institution." To carry into effect the important designs proposed in these resolutions, a patron and president, twenty vice-presidents, a treasurer, and a committee of management, consisting of thirty-six persons, were chosen. The president is the duke of Gloucester; and the active managers are, most of them, the same individuals whose unremitted labours for a series of years, and under most inauspicious circumstances, to procure the abolition of the slave trade, at length terminated in that complete success, which has not only raised them to a distinguished place in the annals of benevolence, but added a sensible brightness to their country's glory.

That some difficulties would lie in the way of accomplishing their object, might have been from the first anticipated; but the measures which they determined to adopt, accorded well with the simplicity of their plan and the purity of their motives, and gave no bad omen of future success. Discarding at once all colonial and mercantile speculations, and all direct aim at the propagation of religion, which they deemed the sole and legitimate purpose of the Christian missionary, they resolved to pursue their object with undeviating firmness, by such means as the following, which their report represents as the fundamental principles of their undertaking-to collect and diffuse information respecting the natural productions of Africa, and respecting its agricultural and commercial capacities, its intellectual, moral, and political condition-to cultivate a friendly connection with the natives, and promote their instruction in the art of reading, and in useful knowledge in general-to enlighten them with regard to their true interests, and the means by which they may improve the present opportunity of substituting a beneficial commerce for the slave trade-to introduce amongst them the improvements and most useful arts of Europe-to promote the cultivation of the African

VOL. XVII.

soil, by furnishing the natives with seeds, plants, AFRICA. implements of husbandry, and agricultural instruction-to acquaint them with medical discoveries-to obtain a knowledge of the African languages, and reduce them to a written form, and to employ agents, establish correspondences, and reward enterprise. The society has, moreover, from its commencement, maintained a most jealous circumspection with regard to the execution of the abolition laws, detecting improper proceedings, communicating information to government, and aiding its measures with the wisdom of practical experience, and promoting the abolition of the traffic in slaves amongst foreign nations. In consequence of the comparative scantiness of the society's funds, the latter purpose has hitherto been that to which its principal attention has been directed, and indeed it is itself an object of first rate importance, in attempting the amelioration of Africa. This is naturally the primary step to improvement; the abolition of the African slave trade must precede the march of civilization, with the accompanying blessings of practical wisdom, the arts of life, and a mental and moral cultivation. This society is therefore to be honoured and encouraged, as adopting the most prompt and, under Providence, the most efficacious means of atoning for those diversified evils, which, in other days, and during the reign of a sordid and inhuman principle, were inflicted upon the miserable population of the African continent.

The proceedings of this society have been vehemently attacked by Dr. Thorpe, whose official situations, as some time chief justice of Sierra Leone, and judge of the vice-admiralty court in that colony, certainly entitle his animadversions to a patient hearing, although they are too often tinctured with an undue degree of controversial asperity. It would exceed our limits to enter into a minute detail of the statements on either side, but we shall mention a few of the principal objections he has advanced, and the replies which the directors of the African Institution have published, in a special report made at a general meeting, on the 12th of April, 1815, respecting Dr. Thorpe's allegations.

The first charge advanced by the judge against the society refers to a neglect of education, to which the society had pledged itself. The answer is, a variety of resolutions, empowering Mr. Ludlam to erect schools of different kinds, reached the colony, some of them a short time before, and others soon after he had resigned the government of it into the hands of Mr. Thompson, who, notwithstanding the transfer of papers and resolutions to him, did not take a single step to accomplish the wishes of the institution. Captain Columbine succeeded, and effected much more than his predecessor, but a variety of untoward circumstances prevented more being done; but the fifth report states, that there were between two and three hundred children enjoying the benefit of education at Sierra Leone Colonel Maxwell, the next governor, was earnestly solicited upon the subject, but he did not think proper to use the funds of the institution for the purpose, as the government were willing to bear the expence of the schools he was able to establish; besides which, the Missionary Societies engaged zealously in the work, and in a great degree superseded the necessity of aplying the funds of the institution to this object.

The next subject of blame with Dr. Thorpe, relates to the institution having sent cotton seeds and various

2 D

AFRICA. machines to the colony before they could be of any use. These articles were, indeed, sent out to Governor Ludlam, but they were received, not by him, but by Governor Thompson, who stated in a letter, dated March 6, 1809, that "measures had been taken for exciting the attention of the coast to the cotton seeds sent out by the institution; and a portion of them," he adds, "will be propagated in the colony at the proper season." Governor Thompson being on the spot at the time, and consequently best qualified of any other person to form a judgment on the subject, not only does not state that there was any objection to the transmission of this cotton seed, but intimates in his letters that it was both a valuable and seasonable gift. He even distinctly requests, among a variety of other articles, "hemp seed enough to sow thirty acres; tobacco seed, twenty-five pounds; white mulberry, one hundred plants; red American mulberry, one hundred plants; ten pounds of red, and ten pounds of white clover, and other grasses," expressing his sincere belief," that commerce and agriculture will overspread this almost depopulated part of Africa, and that in no very long time the colony will repay the benefits received." After advancing various other charges of a more private nature, relating to individual agents of the society, and to its particular acts, to which the special report replies seriatim, Dr. Thorpe proceeds to a more serious allegation, calling upon the directors to shew any one instance of civilization they have effected, or even attempted; and he affirms that they have performed no part of what they promised to the public. The same general declarations are repeated in a more recent publication; the society is declared to have almost wholly failed, and to have expended large sums to little purpose. But it ought surely to be considered that it is a subject of deep regret to the directors themselves, that their zealous efforts have not been so extensively successful as their benevolence could desire, or their sanguine philanthropy anticipated; nor ought the value of their labours to be estimated by the direct and immediate effects that have been produced. If they have broken up the fallow ground; if they have sown the seeds of African amelioration; if they have checked the daring spirit of inhuman speculation that has in vain attempted to elude their vigilance in order to revive the slave trade; if they have only awakened the attention of Great Britain, and of Europe in general, to the condition of that vast continent, stimulating to exploratory journies, and exciting a moral sympathy with these most wretched and most unpitied of the human race; if they have only attempted to improve them, and pointed out the path of duty to future ages, then we ought rather to applaud their diligence, to honour their perseverance, to support their exertions, and to sympathize with rather than censure their comparative ill-success.

Be it further recollected, that the advancement of nations in civilization is not the work of a few years or a few individuals, but generally of many centuries, and a vast combination of means. The seeds of improvement do not push through the soil, or grow up, like mushrooms, in a night; nor can it in the ordinary course of things be expected, in such an undertaking, that the first labourers in this field should live to reap the golden harvest, if they should even witness its earliest indications. The directors of the African In

stitution, however, aver that they have the most re- AFRIC spectable testimonies in favour of the actual effect of their efforts, and that, in both the settlers and surrounding natives, the progress of civilization is very visible and very extensive.

Instead of being rich, as their opponent represents them, the directors say, in the special report, that the contributions they have received have proved wholly inadequate to undertakings which would necessarily involve a large permanent expense. Their whole receipts, of every description, from the first formation of the society to the 31st of December, 1814, have amounted to only 98501.; and their annual income, exclusive of donations, has not quite reached 400." Under these circumstances," they say, " it became necessary to direct their attention, in the first place, to such objects as were at the same time the most urgent, and the most compatible with the state of their funds." And the question as it respects the conduct of the directors, is not so much what they have left undone, as whether they have advantageously employed the limited means they possessed. Their first duty obviously was, to watch over the execution of the laws recently enacted for abolishing the slave trade; to endeavour to prevent their infraction; to suggest the means of rendering them more effectual, and to promote the abolition of this trade by foreign powers. It was only in the degree in which these objects were accomplished, that a rational hope could be entertained of civilizing Africa. These objects, however, have proved to be of sufficient magnitude and difficulty to engross a large share of the attention of the directors, and to absorb a considerable portion of the funds entrusted to them. Many of the measures, however, that have been taken with this view being of a preventive kind, are precisely of that description, which, however extensive in their operation, and beneficial in their effects, are the least likely to attract the notice of superficial or prejudiced observers. It is only by such persons that it can ever be doubted whether the expense which is incurred in promoting either the efficacy of our own abolition laws, or the abolition of the slave trade by foreign powers, has a direct and most momentous bearing on the civilization of Africa. Had the institution confined itself to this single point, it would still have been the best benefactor of that oppressed continent. Sp. Rep. p. 62-64.

It is fair, however, to remark, that through all the hostility of Dr. Thorpe, beam some rays of intelligence and sound sense, and we doubt not the directors of this institution will be willing to avail themselves of some of his suggestions, which are by no means unworthy of notice. Such, for instance, as the following: "The institution will perceive the reciprocal benefit that must arise from cultivating the native chiefs; to obtain their countenance and encouragement, is the principal consideration in endeavouring to promote a commercial intercourse for the civilization of Africa. By opening innumerable channels for supplying the chieftains with what they consider comforts, by gratifying their vanity with voluntary attentions, and by proving, from an open confidence in their protection, that we are actuated with an honest zeal to serve them, we shall make great progress in accomplishing our wishes. If the institution would erect a saw-mill, or a machine for cleaning rice at Sierra Leone; also, if they would send the most approved tools used in agriculture and by mechanics,

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