SS 
_mext chapter, 
- recesses of the woods. 
WINTERBOTTOM’S ACCOUNT. OF SIERRA LEONE. 
ations of vegetable and animal food, 
their spirituous and intoxicating liquors. 
ere, however, we meet with nothing 
sufficiently new and important to detain 
us; we shall therefore proceed to the 
in which the African 
towns are described. The villages be- 
longing to the Pagan negroes on the 
coast, who are the least civilized, are 
small, crowded, and unhealthy, from 
being situated, for the sake of security, 
in the most intricate and impenetrible 
The Mahometan 
tribes, on the contrary, being in a much 
more advanced state of society, are dis- 
_ tinguished from the rest by the neat- 
mess and superior size oftheir brick 
houses, and the greater populousness of 
their towns; ‘!éembo, the capital of 
the Foola kingdom, being reckoned to 
contain about 8000 inhabitants. 
The arts, manufactures, dress and 
Amusements, government and political 
institutions of the negroes, are succes- 
sively described by Dr. Winterbottom, 
with a needless minuteness, since no 
additional information of the smallest 
consequence is communicated. The 
same may be said of the chapter rela- 
TYive to the state of the women, and the 
_ old question concerning the influence of 
polygamy on population. 
The moral character and mental 
- powers of the negroes are vindicated by 
the author, with considerable success ; 
and this being the most original and 
interesting, and the best written part of 
his book, we shall here select our speci- 
mens. 
_ They (the negroes) are in general of 
mild external manners; but they possess a 
“great share of pride, and are easily affected - 
y an insult ; they cannot hear even a harsh 
expression, or a raised tone of voice, with- 
out shewing that they feel it. Asa proof 
that they are not deficient in natural affec- 
tion, one of the seyerest insults which can 
be offered to an African is to speak disre- 
_spectfully of his mother, which is called 
** cursing her ;” that they do not feel so 
very acutely an insult offered to their father 
isa nataral consequence of polygamy. 
«© The hospitality of the Africans has 
been noticed by almost every traveller who 
has been much among them. When the 
colony of Sierra Leone was destroyed by 
» those who styled themselves the friends of 
Py 
38 
liberty, and the inhabitants were stripped 
in the most wanton manner of the comforts 
they were enjoying, when their houses* 
were burnt, their ptovisions and even me- 
dicines destroyed, and they themselves re- 
duced by this cruel treatment to the prospect 
of disease, famine, and misery, queeque ipse 
miserrima yidi; they were all, whites as 
well as blacks, most hospitably received by 
the natives, imto whose villages they were 
obliged to fly for shelter. In travelling 
through many parts of their country, when 
averpowered with heat, fatigue, and hunger, 
I have ever met with a welcome and hospi- 
table reception on arriving at their villages ; 
mats haye been brought out for myself and 
friends to repose on ; and if it happened to 
he meal-time, we have been at liberty to join 
them without ceremony, or to wait tll 
something better could be provided. If we 
intended to spend the night there, a house 
has been set apart for us, and, on taking 
leave in the morning, a guide has generally 
offered to shew us on our way. Indeed, so 
far does this spirit of hospitality prevail, that 
a traveller or stranger, as they call him, is 
scarcely accountable for any faults which he 
may commit, whether through inadyertency 
or design, pe host being considered as _re- 
sponsible t the actions of ** his stran- 
ger.” 
The negroes upon the coast, from their 
habitual intercourse with the European 
slave-factors, are, as may naturally be 
expected, much inferior in every thing, 
except the art of making a bargain, to 
those who reside higher up the country: 
and of all the tribes, those who have em- 
braced Mahometanism are the most oi- 
vilized and respectable. In this part of 
Africa the ‘religion of Mahomet has 
lost much of its ferocity, and instead of 
being propagated by the edge of the 
sword, appears as the benign patroness 
of arts, civilization, and literature : its 
influence seems to be rapidly extending, 
and the national character of the ne- 
groes is rising in exact proportion, The 
honour that is attached to the arts of 
reading and writing in this country, may 
be judged of by the following extract : 
«¢ Those who have visited the schools in- 
stituted by the Mahommedans, for the in- 
struction of children in Arabic literature, 
must have’ admired the industry and perse- 
verance of the scholars, at the same time 
that he lamented the great loss of time spent 
in acquiring a knowledge of the Arabic, 
* Tt must be acknowledged, however, that the French left the bare walis of the huts 
belonging to the Nova Scotian settlers uninjured, after having plundered them of their con- 
tents, even the wearing apparel of the women and children, and destroved those articles of 
furniture which they could not carry away. 
“Awn. Ray. Vor, I. 
Piss! 
