ve, that the accounts we have of the
inhabitants of Guinea, are chiefly given by persons engaged in the
trade, who, from self-interested views, have described them in such
colours as were least likely to excite compassion and respect, and
endeavoured to reconcile so manifest a violation of the rights of
mankind to the minds of the purchasers; yet they cannot but allow the
Negroes to be possessed of some good qualities, though they contrive as
much as possible to cast a shade over them. A particular instance of
this appears in Astley's collection, vol. 2. p. 73, where the author,
speaking of the Mandingos settled at Galem, which is situated 900 miles
up the Senegal, after saying that they carry on a commerce to all the
neighbouring kingdoms, and amass riches, adds, "That excepting _the
vices peculiar to the Blacks_, they are a good sort of people, honest,
hospitable, just to their word, laborious, industrious, and very ready
to learn arts and sciences." Here it is difficult to imagine what vices
can be peculiarly attendant on a people so well disposed as the author
describes these to be. With respect to the charge some authors have
brought against them, as being void of all natural affection, it is
frequently contradicted by others. In vol. 2. of the Collection, p. 275,
and 629, the Negroes of North Guinea, and the Gold Coast, are said _to
be fond of their children, whom they love with tenderness_. And Bosman
says, p. 340, "Not a few in his country (viz. Holland) fondly imagine,
that parents here sell their children, men their wives, and one brother
the other: but those who think so deceive themselves; for this never
happens on any other account but that of necessity, or some great
crime." The same is repeated by J. Barbot, page 326, and also confirmed
by Sir Hans Sloane, in the introduction to his natural history of
Jamaica; where speaking of the Negroes, he says, "They are usually
thought to be haters of their own children, and therefore it is believed
that they sell and dispose of them to strangers for money: but this is
not true; for the Negroes of Guinea being divided into several
captainships, as well as the Indians of America, have wars; and besides
those slain in battle, many prisoners are taken, who are sold as slaves,
and brought thither: but the parents here, although their children are
slaves for ever, yet have so great love for them, that no master dares
sell, or give away, one of their little ones, unless the