C 414 ] lOcr. 



AFRICAN TRIBKS. THE ASHAXTEF.S, ScC* 



The attractive, but very deceptive colouring under which the narra- 

 tive of Muiigo Park Was disguised, before being submitted to the 

 public, was more calculated to aid the deep designs of certain persons 

 in this country, than to give a faithful view of the actual state and 

 condition of African society. 



To please the public, and the amis-des-noirs, the harsh features of 

 the picture seem to have been softened down, or entirely obliterated ; 

 and instead of presenting us with a faithful idea of what Park actually 

 saAV, we fancied to ourselves a number of primevous communities of 

 happy and innocent beings, amusing themselves with " mumbo jumbo," 

 dancing all night by the light of the moon, and pitying the poor while 

 man, who had " no mother to bring him milk," and who, " to grind his 

 corn, no mother had he !" 



These narratives, universally read and admired, assisted in creating 

 erroneous impressions, which were artfully kept up until this country 

 was led into an injudicious expenditure of some millions of public money, 

 — genuine charity was enticed from its proper channels, — and many 

 thousands of valuable lives have been thrown away in pursuance of 

 impracticable plans for civilizing Africa, and in maudlin schemes, pro- 

 mulgated under the specious garb of philanthropy, which never would 

 have been entered upon, or at least pursued to any ruinous extent, had 

 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, been at first 

 made public. 



To draw aside the veil, and look at the actual deformities of African 

 society, as exhibited by more recent travellers is, to a mind imbued 

 with feelings of humanity, rather a repulsive than a pleasing task. But 

 when we contemplate the mischief which has actually been done, and 

 may still be perpetrated by persons taking advantage of these false 

 impressions ; and when we hear people still characterizing the natives 

 of Africa as a simple, innocent, and unoffending race, it becomes the 

 duty of every honest man to strip them of that deceptive and factitious 

 colouring by which the truth is obscured, and to exhibit all their 

 native deformity, so that delusion may no longer prevail. 



We have alreadj% by exposing the Sierra Leone humbug, and by 

 noticing the travels of Clapperton, Caille, Landers, and others, contri- 

 buted our share towards this desirable object ; and we have now before 

 us the narrative of Major Ricketts, a gentleman who spent many years 

 in active service on that coast.f 



• Narrative of the Ashantee war, with a view of the present state of the colony 

 of SieiTa I<eone — By Major Ricketts, lute of the Royal African Colonial Corps. 

 London, 1<!31. 



■f Our readers arc aware that the slave trade is still carried on there, in spite of 

 our naval siiperioritv, to a greater extent than ever ; but they may not, perhaps 

 know, that while ministers are endeavouring to put it down with one hand, they 

 are hnldinp it tip with the other. I'ovcign sugars, raised hy inepns of the slaves 

 now surreptitiously carried off' by these foreign slave dealers, are, by a juggling 

 " foreign sugar retinsry bill," adir.itted into the refineries, and are partly consumeu 

 ill this country, to the exclusion of British sugar ; so that the latter is now almost 

 entirely shut out from the refineries ; lor by this stupid bill the reliners for expor- 

 tation cnnninfiJy ohtain a hounty, in the shape of drawback, o/3i. or 4s. per cwt. more 

 than is allowed upon British sugars I 



