Volltext Seite (XML)
394 African Memoranda. lie is either a mad man, a fool, or an impostor; and to get rid of people professing such doctrines, will be his constant endea vour. Absurd as such conduct must appear, I have seen conduct towards a native chief yet more so; and much mischief has already been done by the fanatical zeal of some misguided peo ple. I could give instances, but they are so incredibly extrava gant, that they would scarcely find credit among sober minded people. If conduct like this be pursued in the intended colony, it will never succeed, and the condition of the natives will never be improved. Virtuous, If those Europeans who settle there are of industrious habits, sober, and re- x ligiousexani-and confine themselves to one wife, whose offspring they bring pie in Euro- . . 1 . 3 peans, pro- up-with care and affection, the very habit even of imitation, more good (more particularly as it would be an imitation of people ac- Af r ?wns, the knowledged their superiors in every thing) will in time, and that chargeTzeai not ver y introduce the same custom among the native fortheir re- chiefs, and from them it will descend to all others; and thus formationand conversion, what the furious zeal of a bigot would have endeavoured to bring about in a day, a week, a month, or a year, at the expence of rudely attacking all their prejudices, but which he would never have accomplished, might gently and gradually be effected, and made to appear their own work, without our having in any instance wounded any of their feelings. As to drinking; if Europeans set them the example of so briety, if they will not employ a drunkard, and always consider a man who has been seen in that state, as having dishonoured, misguided and self-appointed missionaries. The language I use is such as must na turally suggest itself to their ignorant catechists. And the great truths of Christianity will be more exposed to ridicule than veneration, by the exercise of this “ zeal with out knowledge.” Romans x. 2.