420 African Tribes. — The Ashcmtees, S)-c. QOct. 



bullets, and in her hand a gold enamelled cutlass, and she was after- 

 wards in the hottest part of tlie action ! To some of the gentlemen who 

 called upon her the day before, she said, among other things, ' Osai has 

 driven me from my country because he thought me weak, but though I 

 am a woman, I have the heart of a man.' " 



We have now authentic accounts regarding mostof the nations, or tribes, 

 on the coast of Africa, or bordering thereon ; we see that they are every- 

 where treacherous, brutal, and ferocious ; that notwithstanding all our 

 attempts to civihze them in Africa, their thirst for blood is easily ex- 

 cited, and that in seeking revenge, or in compliance with superstitious 

 customs, it is still poured out in their native country, like water ! We 

 have been told by a person long resident on the coast,* that the negroes 

 usually sent from the interior for sale, are, generally speaking, either 

 savage warriors taken in battle, or " bad subjects of barbarous states 

 enslaved for their crimes." We see that this statement is corroborated 

 by the narrative of ]\Iajor Ricketts, and that many of the Ashantee pri- 

 soners taken in this last battle, were actually sold to the foreign slave- 

 traders. 



We have seen by the narrative before us, the ferocious disposition of 

 these savage warriors ; and we would ask any reasonable man whether 

 it would be possible by any speedy process of civihzation, to reclaim 

 them from their state of brutal barbarism. 



The British West Indians say, that by a long course of steady and 

 mild discipline, they have succeeded in raising the character of their 

 labourers, until, in point of civilization, and as regards all the relations 

 of social life, they are far beyond even the most favoured tribes of their 

 original country. That they are now, unless when distui'bed by arbi- 

 trary regulations sent from home, living in cheerful contentment, and 

 gradually gaining a knowledge of the gospel ; that they have laid aside 

 and nearly forgotten the whole of their ancient superstitions, and are in 

 fact rapidly becoming a moral and industrious people ; that they pos- 

 sess considerable property, and are well cared for in sickness, and in old 

 age ; and they have repeatedly challenged a fair and full inquiry into 

 the truth of these allegations, to be made, not secretly, but openly in the 

 face of the country. — Yet a well known party of anti-colonists at home, 

 wish, by sudden and forcible measures, to deprive the blacks, by the 

 ruin of the whites, of their present advantages ; and throw them back 

 into that state from which they are now rescued. — Surely the people at 

 home will not always remain blind to the true state of this case, nor in- 

 sist upon that which would place the lives of thousands of our country- 

 men in jeopardy, or perhaps at the disposal of some old negro warrior, 

 of whom there are still many in the West Indies, whose African pro- 

 pensities only require to oe roused by the sound of the war-drum and 

 the prospect of plunder.f 



To return to the Narrative before us. Major Ricketts gives us a concise, 

 but perhaps rather favourable view of the condition of the people at 

 Sierra Leone. We have not space to enter fully into this subject, after 

 what we have already said regarding it in former numbers ; but we 



• Pamphlet of the late Kenneth Macaulei/, Esq., of Sierra Leone notoriety, 

 t Tlie accounts which have j'ust been received of a jiartial insurrection of negroes 

 in the United States, is ilhistrative of this subject. They arc said to have murdered, 

 with the most atrocious cruelty, every while family within their reach, without the least 

 regard to age, sex, or condition ! 



