I Suspect, Indeed, That In All These Copies,
There Are Interpolations Of Some Of The Peculiar Tenets Of Mahomet, For I
Could Distinguish In Many Passages The Name Of The Prophet.
It is
possible, however, that this circumstance might otherwise have been
accounted for, if my knowledge of the Arabic had been more extensive.
By
means of those books, many of the converted Negroes have acquired an
acquaintance with some of the remarkable events recorded in the Old
Testament. The account of our first parents; the death of Abel; the
Deluge; the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the story of Joseph and
his brethren; the history of Moses David, Solomon, &c. All these have
been related to me in the Mandingo language, with tolerable exactness, by
different people; and my surprise was not greater on hearing these
accounts from the lips of the Negroes, than theirs, on finding that I was
already acquainted with them; for although the Negroes in general have a
very great idea of the wealth and power of the Europeans, I am afraid
that the Mahomedan converts among them think but very lightly of our
superior attainments in religious knowledge. The white traders in the
maritime districts take no pains to counteract this unhappy prejudice;
always performing their own devotions in secret, and seldom condescending
to converse with the Negroes in a friendly and instructive manner. To me,
therefore, it was not so much the subject of wonder as matter of regret,
to observe, that while the superstition of Mahomet has in this manner
scattered a few faint beams of learning among these poor people, the
precious light of Christianity is altogether excluded. I could not but
lament, that although the Coast of Africa has now been known and
frequented by the Europeans for more than two hundred years, yet the
Negroes still remain entire strangers to the doctrines of our holy
religion. We are anxious to draw from obscurity the opinions and records
of antiquity, the beauties of Arabian and Asiatic literature, &c.; but
while our libraries are thus stored with the learning of various
countries, we distribute with a parsimonious hand, the blessings of
religious truth, to the benighted nations of the earth. The natives of
Asia derive but little advantage in this respect from an intercourse with
us, and even the poor Africans, whom we affect to consider as barbarians,
look upon us, I fear, as little better than a race of formidable but
ignorant heathens. When I produced Richardson's Arabic Grammar to some
Slatees on the Gambia, they were astonished to think that any European
should understand and write the sacred language of their religion. At
first they suspected that it might have been written by some of the
slaves carried from the Coast; but on a closer examination, they were
satisfied that no Bushreen could write such beautiful Arabic; and one of
them offered to give me an ass, and sixteen bars of goods, if I would
part with the book.
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