GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 371 



Moravian missionaries to settle themselves in a negro village, 

 to instruct the natives in the useful arts of aoriculture, ma- 

 nufactures and trade ; to make them feel the comforts and 

 advantages of acquiring a surplus property ; to instil into 

 their minds sound moral precepts : and to divert their at- 

 tention from their gross and senseless superstitions to the 

 mild and rational principles and precepts of the Christian 

 religion. 



The worst feature in the negro character, which is a very 

 common one among all savage tribes, is the little estimation 

 in which the female sex is held ; or, rather their esteeming 

 them in no other way than as contributing to their plea- 

 sures, and to their sloth. Yet, if this was the extent to which 

 female degradation was subject, some palliation might 

 perhaps be found in the pecuUar circumstances of the 

 state of the society- ; but the open and barefaced manner in 

 which both wives and daughters were offered f(n" hire, from 

 the Chenoo or chief, to the private gentleman, to any and all 

 of the persons belonging to the expedition, was too disgust- 

 ing to admit of any excuse. Some of the Chenoos had no 

 less than fifty wives or women, and the Matboks from ten to 

 twenty, any of which they seemed ready to dispose of, for 

 the time, to their white visitors ; and the women most com- 

 monly, as may well be supposed, were equally I'eady to 

 offer themselves, and greatly offended when their offer was 

 not accepted. It would seem, however, that whether they 

 are lent out by their tyrants, or on their own accord, the 

 object is solely that of obtaining the wages of prostitution ; 

 the heart and the passions had no share in the transac- 

 tion. It is just possible, that this facility in transferring 



