nt upon true civilization. The soil of Africa is rich in native
productions, and honorable commerce might have been a blessing to
her, to Europe, and to America; but instead of that, a trade has been
substituted, which operates like a withering curse, upon all concerned
in it.

There are green and sheltered valleys in Africa,--broad and beautiful
rivers,--and vegetation in its loveliest and most magnificent
forms.--But no comfortable houses, no thriving farms, no cultivated
gardens;--for it is not safe to possess permanent property, where each
little state is surrounded by warlike neighbors, continually sending out
their armed bands in search of slaves. The white man offers his most
tempting articles of merchandise to the negro, as a price for the flesh
and blood of his enemy; and if we, with all our boasted knowledge and
religion, are seduced by money to do such grievous wrong to those who
have never offended us, what can we expect of men just emerging from the
limited wants of savage life, too uncivilized to have formed any habits
of steady industry, yet earnestly coveting the productions they know not
how to earn! The inevitable consequence is, that war is made throughout
that unhappy continent, not only upon the slightest pretences, but
often without any pretext at all. Villages are set on fire, and those
who fly from the flames, rush upon the spears of the enemy. Private
kidnapping is likewise carried on to a great extent, for he who can
catch a neighbor's child is sure to find a ready purchaser; and it
sometimes happens that the captor and his living merchandise are both
seized by the white slave-trader. Houses are broken open in the night,
and defenceless women and children carried away into captivity. If boys,
in the unsuspecting innocence of youth, come near the white man's ships,
to sell vegetables or fruit, they are ruthlessly seized and carried to
slavery in a distant land. Even the laws are perverted to this shameful
purpose. If a chief wants European commodities, he accuses a parent of
witchcraft; the victim is tried by the ordeal of poisoned water;[A] and
if he sicken at the draught, the king claims a right to punish him by
selling his whole family. In African legislation, almost all crimes are
punished with slavery; and thanks to the white man's rapacity, there is
always a very powerful motive for finding the culprit guilty. He must
be a very good king indeed, that judges his subjects impartially, when
h