ê4 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



which enjoins us to confider all men as brethren, 

 fpeaks in their behalf^ as in behalf of our own 

 countrymen. If this were the proper place, I 

 could demonftrate how Providence enforces, in 

 their favour, the laws of univerfal juftice, by ren- 

 dering their tyrants, in our colonies, a hundred 

 times more wretched than they are. Befides, how 

 many wars have been kindled among the maritime 

 Powers of Europe, on account of the African 

 flave-trade ? How many maladies, and corruptions 

 of blood in families, have not the Negros pro- 

 duced among us ? 



But 1 fhall confine myfelf to their condition in 

 tlieir own country, and to that of their compa- 

 triots who abufe their power over them. 1 do not 

 know that there ever exifted among them a fmgle 

 Republic, except it were, perhaps, fome pitiful 

 Arifcocracy along the weftern coafbof Africa, fuch 

 as that of Fantim. They are under the dominion 

 of a multitude of petty tyrants, who fell them at 

 pleafure. But, on the other hand, the condition 

 of thofe kings is rendered fo deplorable by priefts, 

 fetichasj grigris, fudden revolutions, nay, the very 

 want of the common neceffaries of life, that few 

 of our common failors would be difpofed to change 

 ftates with them. Befides, the Negros efcape a 

 confiderable proportion pf their miferies, by the 

 -thoughtleffnefs of their temper, and the levity of 



their 



