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nate track of Hornemann. This retrospect gives us no feelings but those of pure satisfaction; because we verily believe, that we have in some small degree been useful to the great cause of humanity; and that Africa has been, in a manner, benefited by the progress of this journal.

The commission of African inquiry, sent out by the government, has, it would appear, been at length closed; and their report made. This was retarded by various unforeseen occurrences, particularly by the death of Mr. Ludlam, one of the commissioners; and captain Columbine, another of their number, unfortunately died before his return, which has deprived the institution of much important information. Before his death, however, he had drawn up a report, in which Mr. Dawes, the surviving commissioner, concurred; and it has been laid before government with his additional remarks, and by government communicated to the board of directors. This report, and the notes and other communications from the commissioners, furnish the most important parts of the information contained in the appendix to the work before us.

The first branch of the report of the commissioners relates to the state of the slave-trade, and the means of curbing it. We have already adverted to this part of the subject; but the commissioners state a fact which deserves farther attention. By the captures in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, the transport of about 2,800 Africans had been prevented; and by the condemnation in that settlement of other vessels, with cargoes (as they are called) on board, 1,088 persons had been released. Of these 471 were men; 196 women; and 421 children. A considerable 'number' (add the commissioners) of the nearest and dearest 'kindred, husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers ' and sisters, who had been kidnapped or stolen at various times, ' and put on board different vessels, have been thus unexpect'edly restored to each other at Sierra Leone; and whenever any of them have desired to return to their own country, and 'such return has been deemed practicable, they have been allowed to do so; being first provided with a paper under the hand and seal of the governor, certifying that they are to be 'considered as his people, and under his protection; which is 'looked upon, according to the customs and law of Africa, to be a sufficient security against further molestation.' An observation is subjoined, of great importance to the question of African civilization. All the people thus returning home, must naturally be more than ever the enemies of slavery, as they cannot fail, in the last four eventful months of suffering and 'liberation, to have acquired some new ideas of freedom, which 'will of course be gradually diffused amongst their friends; and

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seeing that all white men are not their enemies, but that one 'European nation considers the slave-trade as unlawful, and is 'determined, if possible, to put an end to it, the natives may by 'degrees feel some encouragement to liberate themselves from 'this horrible thraldom. The right of making slaves seems for'merly to have been confined to the kings or chiefs; but on the west coast of Africa, where power is so diffused that it is diffi'cult to say with whom any tolerable share rests, the constant practice at present is, for the people in general to kidnap each other, wherever one party is personally stronger than the other, ' and has connexions sufficiently numerous to secure his victim.' (p. 69.) It seems most plain, that the agents of government, and the African institution, cannot do more for the improvement of that continent than to pursue the hint here afforded. Let them kindly treat all the slaves whom they may release, and then send them back to their own districts; carrying with them, to their barbarous countrymen, a recollection of our humanity, and of the horrors of the slave traffic, together with such improvements as our intercourse may have taught them.

Several remarks on the colony of Sierra Leone then follow. Its misfortunes are well known; but, of late, it has been prospering as well as might reasonably have been expected. The climate is much better for European constitutions than that of almost any other part of the coast. There are now 400 houses within the walls of Freetown, containing 1917 inhabitants, beside above 2500 negroes, freed by sentences of the admiralty court, and residing there under the protection of the government. There is a considerable number of European forts on the coast, apparently very useless, except for slave-trading purposes. From Apollonia to Acra, a distance of only 64 leagues, there are no less than twenty-seven; and the expense of the British forts is about 25,000l. annually. We believe it is in the contemplation of government to dismantle all these except one or two, which will be put in a respectable state of defence.

The notes of the commissioners form the most valuable part of this publication, and throw very considerable light upon the state of the African continent. We have first to notice an account of the tribe of Kroomen, by the late governor Ludlam. The Kroo country extends along the grain coast, between Cape Mount and Cape Palmas, from 4° 54' to 5° 7' north latitude. The chief town, Settra Kroo, is in longitude 7° 48′ west. This district, though small, is extremely populous; and the natives are of a migratory disposition. Above 800 are employed as labourers at Sierra Leone; and they are to be found at every tory and town along the coast for a space of 350 miles. They are employed as factors or intermediate merchants, boatmen and

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sailors; and, while the slave-trade was carried on upon this coast, they had their share of its occupations. After the age of forty, they return and settle at home. Their country produces grain, particularly fine rice, pepper and cattle; but their staple article is their own labour, with which they purchase goods, and return to their home with the produce. To find this in Africa is a singular anomaly. Wars are rare among this people; and they never sell one another, nor kill their captives; nor do they punish any offence by slavery, though witchcraft is a capital offence, and the only one that is invariably so among them. While the slave-trade lasted, they used to kidnap the bushmen, or na-tives of the interior, and sell them. The following passage we recommend to those speculatists who dream about natural and fixed incapacities of the Africans.

When hired by the month, their wages depending on the time they are at work, not upon the work performed, they are apt to be very indolent, unless carefully superintended. But they are fond of task work, or working by the piece; and exert themselves exceedingly when the reward is proportioned to the labour. When I first arrived in Africa in 1797, it was deemed a gross absurdity to imagine that a Krooman would do any kind of work unconnected with boats and shipping, as in that way alone they had hitherto been employed; and it was supposed their prejudices against innovation could never be overcome. Necessity forced us to try the experiment; and we now find that Kroomen will employ themselves in agricultural labour, or in any other way by which they can get money. They seem to think, at the same time, some kinds of work much more creditable than others. The washerwomen at Sierra Leone have lately employed their hired Kroomen in carrying home baskets of wet clothes from the brook. I have heard them grumble very much under their burdens, because "man was made to do woman's work;" nevertheless, as they gain money by it, they are disposed to put up with the indignity.

In their expenditure they are most rigid economists: a little tobacco is the only luxury which they allow themselves. In every other respect they are contented with the barest necessaries. They are allowed nothing more for their subsistence than two pounds of red rice a day, (which makes only from one pound and a half to one pound and three quarters when clean and fit for use), and of this they will sell half when rice is dear. Though extremely fond of rum when given to them, I believe they never buy it. I speak generally; for some will never drink it though offered to them. Their clothing I have spoken of already: probably it does not cost them ten shillings in a year. The residue of their gains is converted carefully into such goods as are most valuable in their own country. In eighteen months or two years, a sufficient stock having been collected, the Krooman returns home with his wealth. A certain portion is given to the head men of the town; all his relations and friends partake of

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his bounty, if there be but a leaf of tobacco for each; his mother, if living, has a handsome present. All this is done in order " to get him a good name:" what remains is delivered to his father" to buy him a wife." One so liberal does not long want a partner: the father obtains a wife for him; and after a few months of ease and indulgence, he sets off afresh for Sierra Leone, or some of the factories on the coast, to get more money. By this time he is proud of being acquainted with "white man's fashion;" and takes with him some raw, inexperienced youngster, whom he initiates into his own profession, taking no small portion of the wages of the éléve for his trouble. In due time his coffers are replenished; he returns home; confirms his former character for liberality; and gives the residue of his wealth to his father to "get him another wife." In this way he proceeds perhaps for ten or twelve years, or more, increasing the number of his wives, and establishing a great character among his countrymen; but scarcely a particle of his earnings is at any time applied to his own use.' p. 93, 94.

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One of the most singular parts of their character, is their extreme love for their own country, and their confident belief in its vast superiority over all others. Every action of their lives bears a reference to it. All their exertions are to obtain wherewithal they may return and live there. Like the Swiss, the Scottish Highlanders, the Piedmontese and the Gallicians, they ramble from it only to love it the better, and to enable them to live, where alone they can be happy, at home.

'The indifference of Kroomen' (says Mr. Ludlam) to European arts and European comforts, made me once think them a very dull race of men, to say the least. I was struck when I first came to Africa with the different manner in which a Krooman and a Mandingo man (a Mohammedan) viewed an English clock. It was a new thing to both of them. The Krooman eyed it attentively for about a minute, but with an unmoved countenance, and then walked away to look at something else, without saying a word. The Mandingo man could not sufficiently admire the equal and constant motion of the pendulum; his attention was repeatedly drawn to it; he made all possible inquiries as to the cause of its motion; he renewed the subject next morning, and could hardly be persuaded that the pendulum had continued to "walk," as he called it, all night. In general, I think, the case is nearly the same. They have little or no curiosity about things which are of no use in their own country; they are careless about our comforts and luxuries; none of them have been rendered necessary by habit, and they would often be inconsistent with the principal objects of their pursuit. But Kroomen are sufficiently acute and observant, where the occasion calls their minds into action; but it is rather from a general view of their character and conduct that I say this, than from particular specimens of ingenuity. They have not the use of letters, and will not permit their children to learn; they talk miserably bad English; living by daily labour, which is paid for

in European goods, they have no occasion for manufactures of their own. They have but few opportunities, therefore, of displaying peculiar talents. They make their own canoes, several of their implements of agriculture, and some trifling musical instruments: I know not of any thing else worthy of notice. I ought not to omit, however, that they sometimes plead in their own defence with much art. The evidence against one of the very last I examined on a charge of theft was so strong, that few men would have had the boldness to deny the charge. The culprit, however, began a long speech with expressing his sorrow that I was not born a Krooman, and proceeded to enlarge on the superior ability I should in that case have possessed to distinguish between truth and falsehood, in all cases wherein Kroomen were concerned; not forgetting the security against deception which I might possibly have obtained by means of those fetishes of which white men knew not the value or the use. Had I possessed but these advantages, I should have known, he argued, how much more safely I might rely on his veracity than on all the evidence produced against him; although it was backed by the unfortunate circumstance of the stolen goods being found in his possession.' p. 99, 100.

The next communication of the commissioners, is a sort of journal of observations by Mr. Ludlam during his voyage to the Gold Coast; and it contains a number of details, chiefly useful in a geographical and nautical point of view. The natives in most parts of the coast are fond of designating themselves by English names. Thus, we find one king called king George; probably out of the respect in which our royal family's known attachment to the slave-trade (before it was prohibited and made a felony) caused them to be held in that country. Others call themselves by appellations somewhat less dignified; such as, Pipe of Tobacco, Bottle of Beer, and so forth.

The next article is a very curious one. Governor Columbine, having a desire of opening some direct communication with the native princes, found an agent admirably well suited to his purpose in the person of John Kizell. He was a native African, and son of a chief. When a boy, he had been made a prisoner, and sold on the coast. Every effort had been made by his father to reclaim him by ransom; but he was carried to Charlestown in North America. He had inlisted, with many others, under sir H. Clinton's proclamation, and served in the American war. He came out to Africa with the Nova Scotian blacks. Being an intelligent man, of excellent character, and the warmest lover of his country, the governor employed him in a negotiation, for the purposes of the abolition, with the chiefs in the Sherbro river. The object of this judicious mission was to turn the natives, if possible, from those slave-trading habits which the long endurance of European iniquity has made so prevalent amongst them. The article now before us contains some most interesting

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