NARRATIVE. 195 



depended upon his character, he enjoyed numerous advantages 

 from the favour of the government at Bathurst, yet he could not 



sufficiently early to be unprejudiced by former habits : it is astonishing how soon 

 they imbibe the principles of their fathers ; httle urchins of five years will glory in 

 thieving from a white man, and in telling him a he, when, to their own parents they 

 would not on any consideration infringe on truth or honesty. In my opinion, they 

 should be brought from Africa at the age of two or three years, should never be 

 suffered to have any intercourse with their own people while in Europe, and should 

 have a good common education, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, by all 

 means a knowledge of gardening, and if possible, of agriculture, uniting to these any 

 mechanical trade for which they might shew an inchnation. If once they go beyond 

 this, they become wretched on their return home. Naturally indolent from climate 

 and constitution, a sort of despondence creeps upon them from the incongeniality of 

 their neighbours ; they become conceited from the comparisons they draw, and too 

 proud and lazy to work, they are at last obliged to submit to the humiliating 

 assistance of others, till they are so entangled with debts, that, hopeless, they become 

 indifferent, and their old habits creeping upon them by degrees, they die black 

 men in principle, manners, and religion. I am very happy to have found one instance 

 which contradicts the notion, that the African race is incapable of intellectual 

 acquirement ; though I must candidly confess, that till I met with this exception, I 

 was firmly prejudiced against their capabihty, beyond a certain extent. A girl was 

 taken, at the age of five years, from Congo to Curayao, in a slave vessel, and was 

 publicly sold there. She fortunately fell into the hands of good people, who taught 

 her to be useful in household duties, and at the age of fourteen went with them to 

 Holland, where she perfected herself in the Dutch language. Misfortunes having 

 befallen her master and mistress, she was by them placed imder the protection of the 

 Dutch Government, to prevent her from being carried back to Cura9ao to be resold. 

 She could then read, write, and sew, and living afterwards as servant in a Flemish 

 family, she learned to speak their language also. She was next the domestic of an 

 Englishman, who took her to Germany, where, from her knowledge of Flemish, she 

 quickly acquired the language of the country, and subsequently English and French, 

 both of which she reads and writes grammatically ; but I am sorry to say, this 

 Englishman attended more to her intellect than her morals, and she had a child by 

 him. When I last saw her, she was keeping her master's house, giving an arithme- 

 tical account of all expenses, making the linen required by the family, corresponding 

 with her master (when absent) both in French and English, and, from having 

 associated with her countrymen till the age of fourteen, retained enough of her 

 native tongue to answer any question put to her. I was very much interested for 



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