MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES. 427 



months old, he gave the answer in a minute and a half. On 

 reckoning it up after him, a different result was obtained : 

 " Have not you forgotten the leap years ? " says the Negro. 

 This omission was supplied, and the number then agreed 

 with his answer *. 



BoERHAAVE and De Haen have given the strongest tes- 

 timony that our black brethren possess no mean insight 

 into practical medicine ; and several have been known as 

 very dexterous surgeons. A Negress at Yverdun is men- 

 tioned by Blumenbach as a celebrated midwife of real 

 knowledge and an experienced hand. 



Omitting Madocks, a Methodist preacher, and not at- 

 tempting to enumerate all the Negroes who have written 

 poems, 1 may mention that Blumenbach possesses En- 

 glish, Dutch, and Latin poetry, by different Negroes. 



In 1/34, A. W. Amo, an African, from the coast of 

 Guinea, took the degree of Doctor at the university of Wit- 

 tenberg; and displayed, according to Blumenbach, in two 

 disputations, extensive and well-digested reading in the phy- 

 siological books of the time f. 



Jac. Eliz. Joh. Capitein, who was bought by a slave- 

 dealer when eight years old, studied theology at Leyden, and 

 published several sermons aud poems. His Dlssertatio de 

 Servitufe Libertati Chvistiance non contraria went through 

 four editions very quickly. He was ordained in Amsterdam, 

 and went to Elmina, on the Gold Coast, where he was either 

 murdered, or exchanged for the life and faith of his coun- 

 trymen those he had learned in Europe J. 



Ignatius Sancho, and Gustavus Vasa. — the former 

 born in a slave-ship, on its passage from Guinea to the West 

 Indies, and the latter in the kingdom of Benin — have distin- 

 guished themselves as literary characters in this country in 



*Stedman's Surinam ; v. ii. p. 270. The circumstance is related on the 

 authority of Dr. Rush, as having happened in his presence. 



+ Beytr'dge zur Naturgeschichte ; Th. 1. p. 98. 



I A characteristic Portrait of this Ethiopian variety is represented in 

 Blumenbach's work. Ibid. 



