ong the muselmen, as well as among
the pagans and idolaters, of Africa? I would venture to assert,
that in the event of the British government engaging, with energy
and determination, to cultivate a commercial intercourse and
extensive connection with Africa, that the negroes, and possibly
even the Muhamedans, might gradually be converted to Christianity.
This event would take a long time to accomplish, but its gradual
progress, most probably, would be more rapid than was the progress
of Muhamedanism during the life of the Arabian prophet.

[Footnote 164: When this Emperor, for the purpose of satisfying
his people that he administered retributive justice, ordered
two teeth of an English merchant to be drawn, he repented so
much of what he had done, that he offered to make any amends
that the merchant might require, expressing his wish that he
had an English consul with whom he could converse colloquially,
without the inconvenience of an interpreter; and for this
purpose the Emperor, after granting him considerable favours,
urged him to accept of the British consulship; adding, that he
himself would secure him the appointment, and that he would
then refuse nothing, but whatsoever the English should ask of
him, they should have.]

Associations have been formed in this philanthropic country,
through the medium of extensive subscriptions, for the civilisation
228 of Africa, and the abolition of the slave trade: the greatest merit
is due to the individuals who have subscribed to such institutions;
their motives have been unexceptionable, but we grossly deceive
ourselves, and the whole is an illusion! The French, as it were,
have taken the staff out of our hands; and whilst we are in vain
endeavouring to abolish the trade in slaves, _by the capture of
slave-ships at sea_[165], they are insidiously cultivating the
growth of cotton, coffee, sugar, indigo, and other colonial
produce, on the banks of the Senegal river; insomuch that if we
shall continue thus supinely to disregard their important African
agricultural operations, the result in a few years will probably
be, that they will be able to undersell us in West-India produce,
in the markets of continental Europe; for they can cultivate, with
free negroe