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APPENDIX,

Containing explanatory Notes, Quotations and Original Documents; fome of which, had the Author obtained them fooner, would have been, with more Propriety, inferted in the Body of the Work.

Subftance of two Letters addressed to Dr. Knowles, of London, on the Productions and Colonization of Africa.

SIR,

BY DR. HENRY SMEATHMAN. See § 62.

621. To pofterity it may perhaps appear extraordinary, that the Europeans

fhould for near 200 years, have carried on a brisk trade with Africa for little elfe but flaves. A fhort reflection on the fituation of Africa muft certainly countenance this opinion. It lies in climates, which in the other continents produce the richest materials of commerce: and it's productions are actually fimilar. The principal are gold, ivory, dying wood, gums, honey, wax, ambergrease, &c. and probably there are few of the riches of the eastern or western hemispheres which may not be found in this middle region.

622. This is not mere conjecture. I have, by obfervations made in a 4 years Produce refidence, a moral certainty, that on a proper plan, a molt lucrative, fafe and honourable traffic may be carried on to that quarter, from Europe. The Grain Coaft, from it's fertility in rice, would, if a proper vent was opened, in a few years produce of that commodity alone, and the finest in the world, an immense quantity. And nothing is wanted but encouragement, to procure great quantities of cotton, as fine as the E. Indian, and tobacco as the Brazilian; also sugar and a species of indigo infinitely fuperior to that of the weft, and various drugs, fome peculiar to Africa, others the usual result of industry in thofe climates. Among the former we may reckon various gums, fpices, and woods; and of the latter the spirit of fweet potatoes, wild grapes, &c. from which I have made excellent brandy, various kinds of flax and

hemp,,

APPENDIX. hemp, &c. To thefe may be added palm oil, equal to olive oil, for food and other purposes; and of which an infinite quantity may be got merely by collecting the fruits or nuts, and boiling them. The coaft abounds with fifh and turtle, and would be an excellent fituation for a whale fishery. But an enumeration of it's various productions would be tedious.

Tendency of the Doctor's

plan.

623. My plan would tend to emancipate and to civilize every year, fome thoufands of flaves, to dry up one great source of that diabolical commerce: and if not to produce liberty to the flaves in the W. Indies, at least to meliorate their fituation. The flopping fome fource would not only encreafe the price of flaves, but alarm the W. India planters, left they should foon have no fresh supply. This would make them more tender of those they already poffefs. And of this be affured, the planters will always buy flaves as long as they can calculate, that each will, in 7 or 10 years, repay his price. If fuch a plan would be agreeable to the fociety of FRIENDS, I should have pleasure in laying it before them, and to disclose, under a promise of fecrefy, the latent hinge on which it will affuredly fucceed. If they fhould find my propofals expedient, I will gladly dedicate the chief part of my fu ture life to the carrying them into execution.

624. I conceived this project in Africa, where an induftrious cultivation of the foil, with various excurfions, made me well acquainted with the genius, customs, agriculture, trade and arts of the natives. My ftay in the W. Indies was with a view to inform myself of tropical cultivation, previous to my return to Africa. I accomplished my intention, and have fince, by studying various branches of philofophy and useful arts, qualified myself still further.

625. By the enclosed letter you will fee, I had, previous to your fpeaking to me on the flave-trade, begun to seek out a method of executing my plan. Mr. Wilding is my particular friend, and though engaged in the flave-trade, is in other respects a man of great fenfe, honour and candor. But I fhould be glad to have no connec tion with any concerned in the flave-trade, and therefore, if no gentleman, in your truly refpectable society, will take it up, I have been advised to make overtures to foreign power.-I am, &c.

LETTER II.

H. SMEATHMAN.

SIR,

626. Not to take up much of your time in foreseeing and answering little objections, I fhall only observe, that folicitations for employment on the coast of Africa are indeed extraordinary; fince those who have concerns there, find it difficult to prevail on perfons of abilities to refide in Africa, at any rate. And yet I am defir. ous to refide there, on a plan in which I must meet more difficulties, and hardships,

and

and receive lefs emolument, than on one to which I am frongly recommended, APPENDIX. wherein I should have every kind of fupport, and handfome commiffions.

627. The part of the coaft I would recommend for this plan, poffeffes every ad- Produce. vantage. Large, fertile and unoccupied tracts of land, adapted to all tropical productions, but now covered with endless forests of the finest gums, feeds and spices, and an endless variety of plants, and animals of known and unknown value. Among the former are gum copal, malaguetta pepper, cotton, capficum, tobacco, fugar canes, an aromatic feed called monkey pepper, oft riches, elephants, buffaloes, antelopes and monkies, Ethiopian hogs, &c. Some of thofe lands are mountainous, but the greater part are flat and fandy within 10 or 15 miles of the sea; but the foil, from the frequent fucceffions of vegetables, is very rich, and improves the farther we go inland. They are all watered with prolific rivers and refreshing brooks, having numerous fine creeks and ports, profufely stored with turtle and fish.

and state of the flaves.

628. The country is governed by a kind of elective kings, who have a power Government fimilar to our mayors, and not much greater, though farther extended. It is but thinly inhabited, and is moftly fubdivided into little independent ftates, rather headed than governed by chieftains. Thefe ftates are feldom founded either in wisdom or juftice. They have no law but cuftom, and no policy but to preferve their independence. Wealth is the most common means of becoming a chief; for as the children do not inherit the power or riches of their fathers, it is very rare that power continues in the fame family for generations: and, while the wretched defcendants of kings and chieftains cultivate the foil of cruel maflers in the W. Indies, the defcendants of their flaves rule the land in Africa. The fubjects of many black chieftains. have been mostly enflaved in the inland or neighbouring countries, by purchase, fraud or violence. After having been domefticated for a few years, they gain a kind of freedom, infomuch that the chief dares not fell them, without firft convicting them of fome real or imaginary crime, which he finds no difficult matter: yet he must be cautious, fince thefe people, having only a precarious liberty, make a point of combining against steps that may affect their common safety. They find their principal protection in the customs of the country, bad as they are; hence they fcrupulously fupport them; and as faft as flaves are domefticated, take care to acquaint them with their intereft, which, among other things, is not to aggrandize their mafter over much: hence a chief gains no internal, and very little relative power, by encreafing his people, neither does he add much to his wealth, whatever he may to his reputation. Exclusive of what redounds from riches, the chiefs obtain their power furreptitiously, feldom exert it for the advantage of their subjects, and govern rather by force and chicanery, than by justice and equity. They have rarely any view but to gratify their own appetites, and often by abufing power, facrifice the liberties, and fometimes the lives, of individuals to their own bad paffions. Hence it is evident their

government

APPENDIX. government is neither calculated to promote the happiness, nor the increase of the community.

White traders become chicts.

Free fociety

629. A white trader who can get 2 or 300 people about him, becomes virtually a Chief in Africa. Embaflies have been fent to them, and they have often entered into the political difputes of the inhabitants. As thefe traders are generally illiter ate, diflolute feamen, as ignorant and improvident as the black themfelves, they feldom or never make a proper ufe of the power granted them by the courtesy of the country; and calculate only for a little more than to acquire luxuries, and a fortune to fubfift on, or rather, perhaps, to diffipate, at home. It is then very obvious, that by a regular Code of Laws, a well concerted plan of agriculture, manufactures and commerce, and with little more money than would buy a cargo of laves, a free commonwealth might be founded, which would be a fanctuary for the oppreffed people of colour, and gradually abolish the trade in the human fpecies. In fhort, if a community of 2 or 300 perfons were to be affociated on might eafly fuch principles as conftitute the profperity of civilized nations, fuch are the fertility of the foil, the value of its products, and the advantages of fuch an establishment, that it muft, with the bleffing of the Almighty, increase with a rapidity beyond all example; and in all probability extend it's faving influence in 30 or 40 years, wider than even American Independence. The fources of this increase. would be numerous: there is no ftate in the country, which gives not a certain protection to the unfortunate; and there are all over the country little communities, befides individuals, who have not been regularly emancipated. These people live in continual fear of their former masters, who often revive their claims, and continually squeeze out of them the chief produce of their little industry, and often make palavers*, and fell them or their children. A free ftate conducted with prudence, and exerting but a little regular industry in agriculture and commerce, would be enabled to redeem great numbers of flaves yearly.

be formed.

630. The laws being at first fettled, every number gained to the community would be an addition to the internal, as well as relative, strength of the state; and there is the greatest probability that it would, in the natural courfe of things, very foon civilize the country, and gradually abforb all the petty tyrannies, and change them into fubordinate free ftates, by offering advantages to all ranks too inviting to be refifted, The Code of Laws for fuch a community ought to be short and fimple, and the police flrict, but not fanguinary.

631. Succefs will depend, in a great measure, on the goodness of a plan of public education, which I hold, to be the beft adapted to form valuable citizens, to

* Palaver means a quarrel, difpute, oration, amusing speech, &c.-Here it means actions at law. Thefe are generally carried on to all appearance equitably; but in fome of these cafes they refemble tribunals of foxes trying geefe.

make

make men as happy as the nature of things will admit, and confequently to make APPENDIX. profperous and happy focieties.

and trade.

632. Rice is the staple of the country, which they cultivate with most care. But Cultivation they alfo cultivate caffava, yams, fweet potatoes, a little Indian and Guinea corn, and a grain as small as mustard, called pine, plantanes, fome kinds of beans, peas and greens. Their trade at prefent is in flaves, ivory, camwood, rice, palm oil, fish, venifon, fowls, goats, and other provifions. Their manufactures are cotton cloths, which they rarely fell, matting and bafket-work. They make alfo their own wood-knives, hoes, and other little implements of husbandry, fishing lines, finall nets, &c. In their labours, however, they meet little advantage from being in society: the fame man who weaves in the morning, forges in the afternoon; at one time makes a basket, at another thatches his houfe; to-day he works at his plantation, and to-morrrow traverses the woods or the waters for animal food; or, takes his canoe, and with his young men rows and fails by the help of a rice-mat, 10 or 15 leagues, to buy of the nearest ship or factory, 4 or 5 pounds worth of European neceffaries and luxuries.. A pot or kettle, two or three pewter bafons, cargo knives (18d. the dozen at Birmingham,) a gun, powder, fhot, flints, a filt hat, a fhirt, a ruffled cap, fifh-hooks, needles and thread, coarse woollen, linen and cotton cloths, filk handkerchiefs, tobacco (though it grows round his door,) rum, brandy, &c. induce his voyage. He often gets drunk as foon as he gets on board, and fells not only his own goods, but those he had on commission from his neighbours, for rum, tobacco and gun-powder.

not their exer

tions.

633. They feldom unite their ftrength and their skill, but in making a plantation They unite for the town, in rowing a canoe, and in building a house, in drawing an alligator or a shark on fhore, and in poisoning a piece of water to draw the fish. Their strength is in general exhaufted upon folitary and trivial exertions, and two-thirds of the product of their little industry is often, through a pernicious custom, or a difinclination to combine their powers at a critical moment, abandoned to the birds and beafts, or left to rot for want of ftores and cafks, of mechanic powers to clear it, or of Europeans to purchase it. Not knowing the use of wheels in fpinning, they make lines and nets between the finger and thumb, or by rolling on their thighs. Hence perhaps it is they never have a seine of any tolerable fize, though they often affift the feamen in drawing thofe of European fhips; neither do they unite to make a weir in the fea, by which they might easily procure a conftant supply of fish. They even hunt the elephant in folitude, juft as they set a snare or a fish-pot.

634. From this improvidence, they are never blessed with any great fuperabundance, and fometimes not finding articles fufficient to barter with the Europeans for indifpenfible neceffaries, they fell fome friendless fervant. And, as a slave will buy more neceffaries than they want, they get more rum, which is apt to produce fuch a rage for it, as to induce them to fell another and another. Hence the country is fo thinly inhabited, that we rarely find a town containing 2 or goo inhabitants, within

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