Koran, written in Arabic, in a very graceful, beautiful hand. Although he had been a slave for more than thirty years, during which he had not heard a word of Arabic from any voice, he could still speak and write that language with facility and correctness; and he retained even then a most enthusiastic attachment to his native land, his kingdom and his throne. His freedom was purchased, and he was sent back to Africa. The succession to the throne had passed from him, and he died in his fallen greatness. The countries of the Niger and Shary will undoubtedly be to Africa what the great western valley is to the United States. They are conjectured to contain at least twenty or twenty-five millions of inhabitants-about double the population of the United States in 1830. The most numerous and interesting tribe on the western coast is the Ashantees. The king is said to be able, from his own people and his tributaries, to bring 100,000 men into the field. When the English first established themselves at Cape Coast Castle, they were strongly impressed with the dignified and courteous bearing of the king and his court, and with the rude magnificence of his palace. His throne was of massive gold, of native workmanship, and overhung by a golden tree. He was likewise on his part delighted with his English friends, and determined to introduce, as rapidly as possible, English habits and civilization. A war soon after broke out between him and the Fantees; and the English colony at Cape Coast, after a crooked and double policy, sided with the latter, and sent to their aid 1,000 soldiers. In the first battle the Fantees were repulsed and put to flight, and the whole English force, too brave to retreat, fell upon the field. There is hardly a more hopeful field for Christian missions in all Africa, and it is the design of the American Board of Missions to establish one at Cape Coast Castle as soon as suitable men can be found to conduct it. We shall pass by the tribes in the neighbourhood of the American and British colonies, in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and on the Gambia and Senegal, as their character is more generally known. The influence of these colonies has already demonstrated the capability of rapid advancement among the native tribes. Near the sources of the Senegal, and Gambia, and Niger, and spread over large portions of the interiour, are a nume rous and enterprising people, called the Foulahs, or Fellatahs, of a copper or bright brown complexion, fine, commanding countenances, and intellectual physiognomy. Their language is soft and musical, and has been called the Italian of Africa. They possess the art of working the ores, and of making steel from iron. From their friendly feelings towards foreigners, their excellent traits of moral character, and their ingenuity and industry, great hopes are placed in them for the regeneration of Central Africa. Besides the nations I have referred to, which are considered as the aboriginal inhabitants, there are the Moors and Arabs, who possess great power in the interiour countries. The Moors are located along the southern border of the great Desert, and form, of course, the northern limits of the Negro countries. They are descended from the ancient Numidians, Phoenicians, and Romans, of the Carthagenian empire. The Arabs are of two classes; some dwelling in fixed habitations, as the Shouas around Lake Tchad; others are Bedouins or wanderers, driving their flocks from place to place, or engaging in the caravan trade across the deserts. The Moors-and there is too much reason to connect with them the Arabs-are the direst curses of Africa, perpetuating the interiour slave trade, almost invariably persecuting and robbing every European traveller who falls in their way, and throwing innumerable obstacles in the path of discovery. As neither the Moors nor the Arabs, have ever been accused or suspected of any native inferiority, they furnish an excellent standard with which to compare the Negro. There are some points of striking contrast. The Moor, with every traveller, has the reputation of being cruel and vindictive, and thoroughly possessed of the most genuine selfishness of which human nature is capable. The Negro is friendly, hospitable, and generous. Mungo Park furnishes us with a perfect illustration of this opposition of moral traits. He fell into the hands of the Moors, was robbed, abused, and barely escaped with his life. He fled until exhausted, and sheltered himself from a storm beneath a tree. A negro woman found him, just at night, and invited him to her hut, where her maidens were spinning cotton. They ceased until a supper was prepared for him; then spread him a clean mat to sleep on; and when he had apparently fallen asleep, they pursued their labours, which they lightened by an extempore song, of which he gives the following as an exact translation. "The winds roared and the rains fell.-The poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk; no wife to grind his corn. Chorus. Let us pity the white man; no mother has he to bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn." Park, vol. 1. p. 193. An English lady, the Dutchess of Devonshire-has very well preserved the plaintive simplicity, and almost the very words, of the song in the following version:- 66 "The loud wind roar'd, the rain fell fast, Chorus.-The white man shall our pity share; The milk or corn for him prepare." "I was oppressed," says the noble traveller, " with such unexpected kindness, and sleep fled from my eyes.' 99 In all the social and domestic relations, the Moor and the Negro are strongly contrasted. The former is despotic, unfeeling, and destitute of moral principle; the latter is susceptible of strong attachments and the claims of truth. "Strike me," said a young Negro to Park," but do not curse my mother." He gave expression to a sentiment, which, wherever the slave trade has not destroyed the native character, is a national one. The same traveller was present at a funeral lament over a young man, slain by the Moors. The chorus of his mother's song was," He never told a lie." Had it been the case of a Moor, she might have said with equal justness," He never told the truth." The grossness of the Moorish character is illustrated by his ideal of female beauty. In his view but two things are necessary for the education of a perfect belle,-rich camel's milk and a good whip. When his youthful daughter has satisfied the simple appetite of health, the lash is applied and another bowl of milk must be swallowed.* The more nature revolts, the more efficiently is this tight lacing applied, until the object is accomplished. From three years' *Park, vol. 1. p. 149. Caillie, 2. 66. discipline of this kind, his hopeful daughter acquires a protuberancy of cheeks and lips absolutely incredible. Her general form becomes that of a horizontally elongated sphere. When she takes a promenade, a strong slave at each arm must support her; and when she mounts her camel, travellers have witnessed the services of six put in requisition. The Moorish matron then looks exultingly upon her daughter, as undoubtedly destined to grace the seraglio of some high-born prince. The Arab of Central Africa is different both from the Moor and Negro. He is arrogant, proud, and deceitful, of a fiery, poetic temperament. The Negro manifests his feelings by action; the Arab by passionate, extravagant expression. He has three objects of most devout adoration,--his faith, his horse, and his mistress. The neighings of his steed, he likens to the thunders of heaven; the flashing of his eye, to the lightning's glance; the graceful arch of his neck, to the bow of heaven; his tail, to the foaming mountain torrent; and his shock in battle, to the whirlwind's might. His Arab bride is "beauty's self shining in matchless symmetry." She is the brightest star in the polished arch of heaven, whose light the dark night cannot quench; or is like the gushing spring in the burning desert, or like the polar star to the wildered caravan. The Negro, as the observations of Denham prove to us, is not always destitute of the high poetic temperament of the Arab. Where he has learned the Arabic language, and is placed on an equal footing, he hardly discloses any inferiority in this respect, and in others, he exhibits nobler traits. A Musselman prince, Abdulkader, sent two knives to Domel, a Negro chieftain, by his ambassador, who delivered them to Domel with this message: "With this knife Abdulkader will condescend to shave the head of Domel, if Domel will embrace the Mohammedan faith, and with this other knife, Abdulkader will cut Domel's throat, if Domel refuses to embrace it:-take your choice." Domel coolly replied that he chose neither, civilly dismissed the ambassador, and prepared for war. In the result the Musselman was brought before the Negro, a prisoner, in irons. "Abdulkader, answer me this question," said Domel: "If the chance of war had placed me in your situation, and you in mine, how would you have treated me?" "I would have VOL. IV. 19 thrust my spear into your heart," replied Abdulkader," and I know that a similar fate awaits me." "Not so (said the high-minded and generous Negro); my spear is indeed red with the blood of your subjects killed in battle, and I could now give it a deeper stain by dipping it in your own; but this would not build up my towns, nor restore to life the thousands who fell in the woods. I will not therefore kill you in cold blood, but I will retain you as my slave, until I perceive that your presence in your own kingdom will be no longer dangerous to your neighbours; and then I will consider of the proper way of disposing of you." Park, vol. 1., p. 234. After three months, he restored him to his throne.-Did our limits allow, many similar illustrations might be presented. The African Arab is superiour to the Moor, but inferiour to the Negro in the susceptibility of generous and friendly feelings towards those who are foreign to his faith and country. The traveller may possibly conciliate the Arab chief by rich presents and extravagant admiration of the beauty and fleetness of his steed, so as to receive respectful treatment, and when he departs the chief may give him a dignified farewell, at the door of his tent, with "Allah il Allah ; (God is God) may you live to see your wives and children." When Major Laing was about to take leave of the Nechieftain Falaba, with whom he had found, for some days, a friendly home, he accompanied me, says the traveller, some distance from his tent. "At length he stopped, and said, he was now to see me for the last time. The tears were in his eyes, and the power of utterance seemed for a while to have forsaken him; then, holding my hand still fast, he said, White man, think of Falaba, for Falaba will always think of you." While the Arab, with all his highborn enthusiasm, is fickle, arrogant, and deceitful, there is in the nature of the Negro a foundation for all the nobler sentiments and exalted patriotism of the Greek or Roman. gro In these views of the character and physical resources of the inhabitants of Central and Western Africa, we have the fullest assurance, that under favouring influences they will rise to great power and national distinction. It is true the slave trade has brought them, in some places, to the lowest degradation which humanity can reach,-has forbidden commerce, discouraged industry, and cherished whatever is base and malignant in human passions. But away from its |