140 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



the greater portion of the Eastern and Western 

 Continents, and among the thousands of islands 

 which diversify the surface of the Ocean dispo 

 sitions and practices, which, if permitted to ex 

 tend their influence universally, and without 

 control, would soon extirpate the intelligent 

 creation, and banish happiness from the empire 

 of God. 



WARLIKE ATTITUDE OF NATIONS. 



Were benevolence a characteristic of the in 

 habitants of our globe, every traveller would be 

 secure from danger from his fellow-men : he 

 might land on every shore without the least sus 

 picion or alarm, and confidently expect that his 

 distresses would be relieved, and his wants sup 

 plied, by every tribe of the human race among 

 whom he might occasionally sojourn. No hos 

 tile weapons would be lifted up to repel a stranger, 

 when gratifying his curiosity in visiting distant 

 lands, and contemplating foreign scenes ; and no 

 instruments of destruction would require to be 

 forged, to preserve a nation from the inroads of 

 destroyers. But when we survey the actual 

 state of mankind, we find almost every nation 

 under heaven, if not actually engaged in war, at 

 least in a warlike attitude, and one of their chief 

 employments consists in divising schemes, either 

 of conquest or revenge, and in furbishing the in 

 struments ofdeath. The following instances may 

 suffice, as illustrations of this position. 



The armies of ASHANTEE, says Dupuis, 

 amount to upwards of eighty thousand men, arm 

 ed with tomahawks, lances, knives, javelins, 

 bows, and arrows ; and forty thousand, who can 

 occasionally be put in possession of muskets and 

 blunderbusses. The opposing armies of MOS 

 LEM and DINHERTJ, amounted at times to 

 140.000 men. The King ofDAHOMY, and his 

 auxiliaries, can raise about 50,000 men, armed 

 with bows arid arrows, sabres, and iron maces. 

 The king of BENIN can arm 200,000, upon an 

 emergency, and furnish 10,000 of them with 

 muskets. In those countries of Africa, where 

 fire-arms and gunpowder are unknown, they 

 wield the following kinds of arms with great dex 

 terity and execution. These are, very strong 

 supple lances, which are barbed and poisoned, 

 targets, bows and arrows, tomahawks, and iron 

 maces ; the former of which they are in the prac 

 tice of poisoning with a venom more deadly than 

 that which is used by any other nation, as its 

 operation is said to be sometimes instantaneous, 

 and its wound, though ever so slight, usually pro 

 duces death within the lapse of a few minutes.* 



Such is the warlike disposition displayed by a 

 few comparatively insignificant tribes in Africa, 

 and similar dispositions are manifested, and si 

 milar attitudes assumed, by almost all the tribes 

 which inhabit that vast continent. Their time, 



* Dupuis &quot; Mission to Ashontee, in 1823 &quot; 



and their physical and mental exertions, seem to 

 be spent much in war, and in the preparation ol 

 warlike instruments, as if these were the great 

 ends for which the Creator had brought them in 

 to existence. If the ingenuity and the energies 

 displayed in such preparations and pursuits, were 

 employed in operations calculated to promote the 

 benefit of mankind, what an immense proportion 

 of happiness would be distributed among nume 

 rous tribes which are just now sunk into depra 

 vity, and into the depths of wretchedness and 

 wo ! 



Pallas, in his description of the nations inha 

 biting the Caucasus, when speaking of the CIR 

 CASSIANS, says, &quot; Persons of wealth and rank 

 never leave the house without a sabre, nor do 

 they venture beyond the limits of the village 

 without being completely arrayed, and having 

 their breast pockets supplied with ball cartridges/ 

 In regard to the lower class, &quot; when they do not 

 carry a sabre, with other arms, they provide 

 themselves with a strong staff, twoarshines long. 

 on the top of which is fixed a large iron head, ai&amp;gt;i 

 the lower end is furnished with a sharp iron pike, 

 about eighteen inches long, which they are ac 

 customed to throw expertly, like a dart. Th3 

 princes and knights pursue no other business 

 or recreation than war, pillage, and the amuse 

 ments of the chase ; they live a lordly life, wan 

 der about, meet at drinking parties and undertake 

 military excursions.&quot; Among these people,, 

 &quot; the desire of revenge, for injuries received, is 

 hereditary in the successors, and in the whole 

 tribe. It remains, as it were, rooted with so 

 much rancour, that the hostile princes or nobles 

 of two different tiibes, when they meet each 

 other on the road, or accidentally in another place, 

 are compelled to fight for their lives ; unless they 

 have given previous notice to each other, ano 

 bound themselves to pursue a different route. 

 Unless pardon be purchased, or obtained by in 

 termarriage between the two families, the prin 

 ciple of revenge is propagated to all succeeding 

 generations.&quot;* 



It is well known, that it: almost all the islands 

 in the Indian and the Southern Oceans, when 

 navigators attempt to land, in order to procure 

 water and provisions, they are almost uniform 

 ly opposed by crowds of ferocious savages, armed 

 with long spears, clubs, lances, bows and arrows 

 and, with horrid yells, brandishing them in t ne 

 most hostile attitudes. Jn some instances, these 

 warlike attitudes might be accounted for, from a 

 fear of the depredations and murders which might 

 be committed by strangers, with whose disposi 

 tions and characters they are unacquainted. Bui 

 the implacable hatred which they manifest to 

 wards even the neighbouring tribes, with whieii 

 they are acquainted, and of which I have already 



Pallas &quot; Travels through the Sonthr rn Province 

 of the Russian Empire.&quot; Vol II. pp. 401 4C5. 



