THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 557 



not be found a fufficient excufe for the enormities they have 

 occafioned. 



I WOULD not, by any means, have my readers fo far mi- 

 ftake what I have now faid as to think it contains either 

 cenfure upon, or difapprobation of, the flave-trade. I would 

 be underftood to mean juft the contrary; that the abufes and 

 negletSt of manners, fo frequent in our plantations, is what 

 thelegiflaturefhoulddire(5l their coercion againft, notagainft 

 the trade in general, which laft meafure, executed fo fud- 

 denly, cannot but contain a degree of injuftice towards in- 

 dividuals. It is a fliame for any government to fay, that 

 enormous cruelties towards any fet of men are fo eviden?, 

 and have arrived to fuch excefs, without once having been 

 under confideration of the legiflature to correct them. It is a 

 greater fhame ftill for that government to fay, that thefe 

 crimes and abufes are now grown to fuch a height that 

 wholefome feverity cannot eradicate them ; and it cannot 

 be any thing but an indication of effeminacy and weaknefs 

 at once to fall to the deflrudtion of an objeft of that import- 

 ance, without having firft tried a reformation of thofe a- 

 bufes which alone, in the minds of fober men, can make 

 the trade exceptionable.. 



The incontinence of thefe people has Been a favourite- 

 topic with which blacks have been branded ; Hut, through- 

 out the whole of this hiftory, I have fet down cnly what I 

 have obfei-ved, withont confulting or troubling myfelf with, 

 the fyftems or authorities- of others, only fo far, as having 

 thefe relations in my recollcc5tion, I have compared them 

 with the fa6t, and found them erroneous. As late as two 



centurierf 



