xxxvi PREFATORY LETTER. 



Europe, and to which every man, whatever may be his pri- 

 vate life, professes an allegiance. But when they find them- 

 selves in a new position and entangled in a policy which their 

 hearts cannot approve of, they may soon learn to lull their 

 conscience into a belief that the African is in a better con- 

 dition with them than he would be were he left to the free- 

 dom of his own country. Were this true it would be but a 

 worthless atom in helping us to decide upon a great moral 

 question that still agitates a part of the Christian world. 



Unrestrained power is a corrupter of the human heart ; 

 and the principles of the Gospel (as is proved by the social 

 history of all the older portions of Christendom) are at war 

 with an institution that makes one part of the human family 

 the bond-slaves of the other. The Son of God, who came 

 down to save us, tells us in as plain words as were ever 

 put on record — that the humblest man living is our 

 brother — that if he be ignorant we are bound to teach him 

 — if fierce and sinful, to soften his heart, to lead him to 

 better knowledge and better hopes — and thus to raise him, 

 through Divine help, to his true resting-place as a member 

 of the great human family. To act in direct antagonism to 

 these pure elements of Christian truth is to make a profane, 

 hypocritical mockery of our religion — to shew ourselves 

 the tyrants over those who have God's title to our good- 

 will and love — to prove ourselves the bond-slaves of the 

 minister of evil. 



The true Christian policy of Angola is steadily and 

 honestly to mitigate a great existing evil — to stop the slave- 

 gangs from coming down among them from the forests of 

 Africa, like the blast of a moral pestilence — with all pru- 

 dence and humanity to change slavery into serfdom, and 

 serfdom, at length, into civil freedom. Taking the lowest 

 ground, and keeping the moral question in abeyance, the 

 State would not lose but gain by such a gradual change; 

 while the African is encouraged to win his freedom by 



