with a brief notice of the neighbouring tribes, soil, productions, &c. and some observations on the facility of Colonizing that part of Africa, with a View to Cultivation; and the introduction of letters and religion to its inhabitants: but more particularly as the means of gradually abolishing African Slavery relative to an attempt to establish a British Settlement on the Island of Bulama, on the Western Coast of Africa, in the year 1792
with a brief notice of the neighbouring tribes, soil, productions, &c. and some observations on the facility of Colonizing that part of Africa, with a View to Cultivation; and the introduction of letters and religion to its inhabitants: but more particularly as the means of gradually abolishing African Slavery relative to an attempt to establish a British Settlement on the Island of Bulama, on the Western Coast of Africa, in the year 1792
Projekt: Bestände der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden
LDP: Bestände der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Strukturtyp
Monographie
Parlamentsperiode
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Wahlperiode
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Titel
Chapter VI. Apology for those parts of the preceding Journal which may appear either illegal, or harsh. Objections foreseen and answered. — Difficulties which we had to overcome stated. — Natives' opinion of the European character. Advantages resulting from our having remained upon the island
'294 African Memoranda. covered with a thick forest, which must be levelled with the ground, and then shaped into a fortress, ere we could hope for either shelter or security. This, even in the dry season, would have been a task; in the wet season, it was a severe one. diminution 'Fhe tliiid disadvantage was the great subtraction of our ber - strength, which, from what has just been said, required increase, instead of diminution, to make us respected; it had also the effect of increasing our labour in the same proportion as it diminished our number. Fever. The fourth was the fever having made its appearance among us ; and the Desponden- Fifth was the general depression and despondency produced cy • • by their united effects. Ail these Now all these disadvantages were merely accidental, and by merely acci- ... , . . ... dental. no means necessarily connected with our undertaking, which, though not then, certainly hereafter, may be easily avoided. If therefore, we surmount these, does it not afford rational ground to suppose that our undertaking was practicable ? I think it does. The Africans’ It has frequently been remarked that the Africans consider «harac?er fl of“ white man witch,” they also believe that “ all white man white men. rO g Ue » There is no species of cheating, of deceit, or of treachery, of which they did not think a white man capable, nay, they even thought those the predominant traits of his character; and, when we consider that those Europeans with whom they had hitherto had any intercourse, were probably among the lowest and basest of their colour, this ought not so much to surprize us. Whether the English had any reasonable hope to be excluded from these unfavourable impressions, the reader will be enabled to judge from the following circumstances: