I Suspect
That They Were Originally Introduced By The Portuguese.
Concerning property in the soil, it appeared to me that the lands in
native woods were considered as belonging to the king or (where the
government was not monarchical) to the state.
When any individual of free
condition had the means of cultivating more land than he actually
possessed, he applied to the chief man of the district, who allowed him
an extension of territory, on condition of forfeiture if the lands were
not brought into cultivation by a given period. The condition being
fulfilled, the soil became vested in the possessor; and for aught that
appeared to me, descended to his heirs.
The population, however, considering the extent and fertility of the
soil, and the ease with which lands are obtained, is not very great in
the countries which I visited. I found many extensive and beautiful
districts, entirely destitute of inhabitants; and in general, the borders
of the different kingdoms were either very thinly peopled or entirely
deserted. Many places are likewise unfavourable to population, from being
unhealthful. The swampy banks of the Gambia, the Senegal, and other
rivers towards the coast, are of this description. Perhaps it is on this
account chiefly that the interior countries abound more with inhabitants,
than the maritime districts, for all the Negro nations that fell under my
observation, though divided into a number of petty independent states,
subsist chiefly by the same means, live nearly in the same temperature,
and possess a wonderful similarity of disposition. The Mandingoes, in
particular, are a very gentle race, cheerful in their dispositions,
inquisitive, credulous, simple, and fond of flattery. Perhaps the most
prominent defect in their character, was that insurmountable propensity,
which the reader must have observed to prevail in all classes, of them,
to steal from me the few effects I was possessed of. For this part of
their conduct, no complete justification can be offered, because theft is
a crime in their own estimation; and it must be observed, that they are
not habitually and generally guilty of it towards each other. This,
however, is an important circumstance in mitigation; and before we
pronounce them a more depraved people than any other, it were well to
consider whether the lower order of people in any part of Europe would
have acted, under similar circumstances, with greater honesty towards a
stranger, than the Negroes acted towards me. It must not be forgotten,
that the laws of the country afforded me no protection; that every one
was at liberty to rob me with impunity; and, finally, that some part of
my effects were of as great value, in the estimation of the Negroes, as
pearls and diamonds would have been in the eyes of a European. Let us
suppose a black merchant of Hindostan to have found his way into the
centre of England, with a box of jewels at his back; and that the laws of
the kingdom afforded him no security, in such a case, the wonder would
be, not that the stranger was robbed of any part of his riches, but that
any part was left for a second depredator. Such, on sober reflection, is
the judgment I have formed concerning the pilfering disposition of the
Mandingo Negroes towards myself. Notwithstanding I was so great a
sufferer by it, I do not consider that their natural sense of justice was
perverted or extinguished; it was overpowered only for the moment, by the
strength of a temptation which it required no common virtue to resist.
On the other hand, as some counterbalance to this depravity in their
nature, allowing it to be such, it is impossible for me to forget the
disinterested charity, and tender solicitude, with which many of these
poor heathens (from the sovereign of Sego to the poor women who received
me at different times into their cottages, when I was perishing of
hunger) sympathised with me in my sufferings, relieved my distresses, and
contributed to my safety. This acknowledgment, however, is perhaps more
particularly due to the female part of the nation. Among the men, as the
reader must have seen, my reception, though generally kind, was sometimes
otherwise. It varied according to the various tempers of those to whom I
made application. The hardness of avarice in some, and the blindness of
bigotry in others, had closed up the avenues to compassion; but I do not
recollect a single instance of hard-heartedness towards me in the women.
In all my wanderings and wretchedness I found them uniformly kind and
compassionate; and I can truly say, as my predecessor Mr. Ledyard has
eloquently said before me, "To a woman, I never addressed myself in the
language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and
friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they did not
hesitate, like the men, to perform a generous action. In so free and so
kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry, I
drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with
a double relish."
It is surely reasonable to suppose, that the soft and amiable sympathy of
nature, which was thus spontaneously manifested towards me, in my
distress, is displayed by these poor people as occasion requires, much
more strongly towards persons of their own nation and neighbourhood, and
especially when the objects of their compassion are endeared to them by
the ties of consanguinity. Accordingly, the maternal affection (neither
suppressed by the restraints, nor diverted by the solicitudes of
civilized life) is every where conspicuous among them; and creates a
correspondent return of tenderness in the child. An illustration of this
has been given in p. 39. "Strike me," said my attendant, "but do not
curse my mother." The same sentiment I found universally to prevail, and
observed in all parts of Africa, that the greatest affront which could be
offered to a Negro, was to reflect on her who gave him birth.
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