Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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Passing Along By The Left
Bank, We Presently Entered The First Brass River, Which Is The Nun
Of Europeans, Where At Midnight We Could Faintly Distinguish The
Masts And Rigging Of The English Brig In The Dusky Light, Which
Appeared Like A Dark And Fagged Cloud Above The Horizon.
To me,
however, no sight could be more charming.
It was beautiful as the
gates of Paradise, and my heart fluttered with unspeakable delight,
as we landed in silence on the beach opposite the brig, near a few
straggling huts, to wait impatiently the dawn of to-morrow.
"The morning of the 24th was a happy one, for it restored me to the
society of my brother, and of my countrymen. The baneful effects of
the climate are strongly impressed upon the countenances of the
latter, who, instead of their natural healthy hue, have a pale,
dejected, and sickly appearance, which is quite distressing to
witness. However, the crew of the Spanish schooner look infinitely
more wretched; they have little else but their original forms
remaining; they crawl about like beings under a curse they are mere
shadows or phantoms of men, looking round for their burying place. No
spectacle can be more humiliating to man's pride than this; nothing
can give him a more degrading sense of his own nothingness. It is
very much to be wondered at why Europeans, and Englishmen in
particular, persevere in sending their fellow creatures to this
Aceldama, or Golgotha, as the African coast is sometimes not
inappropriately called; they might as well bury them at once at home,
and it is pleasanter far to die there; but interest, and the lust of
gain, like Aaron's rod, seem to swallow up every other consideration."
CHAPTER XLII
During the time that the canoe was coming from the shore to the
vessel, Richard Lander had stationed himself by the cannon; it was
the only one on board, but it had been loaded as Lake had directed,
and pointed to the gangway of the brig, where the Brass people were
obliged to come.
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