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Show 82 PICtURE OF AFHICA .AT HOM&. surprize in the night som~ unprotected villa!]", ~ncl carry off the inhabitants and their effects before the!!' ne1ghbours can come to their assistance. A single individual h~s been known to take his bow and quiver, and proceed .m hke manner, concealing himself among- the bushes, until some young or unarmed p~rson passes by.. H.e ~hen? tygerJike, springs. upon ~IS prey'· drags · h1~ vic lim mto, the thicket, and Ill the mght Carnes h1m of! as a slave. rhe desolation of war often, but not always, produce the second cause of slavery, famine, in which case a freeman ~comes a slave to avoid a greater calamity." Mr. Park states, that a coflle of thirty-five slaves having been collected at Kamalia, " The long wished-for day of our departure was at length. arm·ed, and the Slat~es having taken the irons from the!!' slaves, assembled With lhem at the door of Karfa's house, where the bundles were all tied up, and every one had his load assigned him." " As many of the slav~s had rem~ined ~or ma_ny years in irons, the sudden exertion of walkmg qmck, With heavy loads upon their heads, occasioned spasmodic contractions of their legs, &c." The coflle having nearly reached the coast, M:. Park continues-" But although I was now approachmg tl!c end of my tedious and toilsome journey, and expected m another day to meet with countrymen and friends, I could not part for the last time with my unfmtunate fellow-travellers, doomed as I knew most of them to be, to a life of captivity and slavery in a foreign land, without great emotion, During the peregrination of more than five hund:ed British miles, exposed to the burning rays of a tropiCal sun, these poor slaves, amidst their own infinitely !,>Teater sufferings, would commiserate mine, and frequently ol lheir own accord, bring water to quench my thirst, and at night collect branches and leaves to prepare me a bed in the wilderness. We parted with reciprocal regret and benediction. My good wishes and prayers were all that I could bestow upon them, and it af!Orded me some consolation to be tolr.l that they were sensible I had no more to give. PICTURE OF AFRICA AT HOME. 83 " We reached F endecunda in the evening, and were hospitably received at the house of an aged black female called Seniora Camilla, &c. " I lost no time in resuming my English dress, and disrobing my cl.in of its venerable incumbrance. Karla surveyed me in my British apparel with great delight, but regretted exceedingly that I had taken off my beard, the loss of which, he said, had converted me fi·om a man into a boy." " Observing the improved state of our manufactures, and our manifest superiority in the arts of civilized life, he would sometimes appe..1.r pensive, and exclaim with an involuntary sigh, "jhtajing intafeng,, "'Black men are nothir~g.') "My narrative now hastens to a conclusion; for on the 15th, the ship Charlestown, an American vessel, com. manded bv Mr. Charles Harris, entered the river. She came fur slaves, intending to touch at Goree to fill up, and to proceed from thence to South Carolina." I therefore immediately engaged my passage in this vessel for America, &c. and cmbar.,ed at Kaye on the 17th day of June." In the Appendix to Mr. Park's Journal, J;>y Major Ren. nel, t.e observes, " The Moors appear to possess 'the vices of the Arabs, without their virtues; and to avail themselves of an intolerent religion to oppress strangers; whilst the Negroes, especially the Mandingoes, unable to comprehend a doctrine, that substitutes opinion or belief for the social duties, are L'Ontent to remain in their humble state of ignorance. The hospitality shewn by these good people to Mr. Park, a destitute and forlorn stranger, raises them very high in the scale of humanity." Query. Whether the primitive moral principles and habits of Africans are improved by their introduction among civilized nations, while retaine<\ in their present state of captivity, i~:norance, and involuntary servitude? |