Obfervatlons on the Negroes. *45 



The teftimonies and examples which ferve to prove the 

 truth of the fecond propofition, refpeding the mental facul- 

 ties, natural talents and ingenuity of the negroes, are equally 

 numerous and incontrovertible. Their aftonifhing memo- 

 ries, their great adivity, and their acutenefs in trade, parti- 

 cularly with gold duft, againft which the mod experienced 

 European merchant cannot be too much on his guard, are 

 all circumftances fo well known, that it is not neceffary to 

 enlarge on them*. The great aptitude of the (laves for 

 learning every kind of nice handicraft is equally well known ; 

 and the cafe is the fame in regard to their mufical talents, 

 as we have inftances of negroes playing the violin in fo maf- 

 terly a manner, that they gained fo much money as enabled 

 them to purchafe their liberty t> 



Of the poetical genius of the negroes inftances are known 



among both fexes. A female negro, who was a poetefs, is 



mentioned by Haller ; and a fpecimen of the Latin Poetry 



of Francis Williams, a negro, may be found in the Hiftory 



©f Jamaica. The interefting letters of Ignatius Sancho, a 



negro, are well known; and the two following inftances 



will ferve as a farther proof of the capacity and talents of our 



black brethren, in regard to literature and fcience. The 



proteftant clergyman J. J. Eliza Capitein was a negro; a 



man of confiderable learning, and a great orator. I have in 



my pofiefiion an excellent print of him engraved by Tanje, 



after P. Vandyk. Our worthy profeflor Hollman, when he 



was at Wittenberg, conferred the degree of Doftor of Phi- 



• Barbot, in his Defcription of the Coafts of North and South Guinea, to 

 Be found in the fifth volume of ChurchhiU's Colleaion, relates many in- 

 terefting things on this fubject. Thus he fays, p. 255. •■ The blacks are for 

 themoft part Tien of fcnfe and wit enough, of a fharp ready apprehenfion, 

 and an excellent memory beyond what is eafy to imagine; for, though 

 they can neither read nor write, they are always regular in the greateft 

 hurry <f -ufinefs and trade, and feldom in confufion." 



+ Sec Urlfperger's Americanifch. Ackerwcrk Gottcs, p. 31 f . 



Vol. III. L lofophy 



