I Profess Accurately To Describe Native Africa - Africa In
Those Places Where It Has Not Received The Slightest Impulse,
Whether For Good Or Evil, From European Civilisation.
If the
picture be a dark one, we should, when contemplating these sons
of Noah, try and carry our
Mind back to that time when our poor
elder brother Ham was cursed by his father, and condemned to be
the slave of both Shem and Japheth; for as they were then, so
they appear to be now - a strikingly existing proof of the Holy
Scriptures. But one thing must be remembered: Whilst the people
of Europe and Asia were blessed by communion with God through the
medium of His prophets, and obtained divine laws to regulate
their ways and keep them in mind of Him who made them, the
Africans were excluded from this dispensation, and consequently
have no idea of an overruling Providence or a future state; they
therefore trust to luck and to charms, and think only of self-
preservation in this world. Whatever, then, may be said against
them for being too avaricious or too destitute of fellow-feeling,
should rather reflect on ourselves, who have been so much better
favoured, yet have neglected to teach them, than on those who,
whilst they are sinning, know not what they are doing. To say a
negro is incapable of instruction, is a mere absurdity; for those
few boys who have been educated in our schools have proved
themselves even quicker than our own at learning; whilst, amongst
themselves, the deepness of their cunning and their power of
repartee are quite surprising, and are especially shown in their
proficiency for telling lies most appropriately in preference to
truth, and with an off-handed manner that makes them most
amusing.
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