Ixxvi PREFATORY LETTER. 



those points of character which, among civilized men, are 

 called honour and patriotism. Nor is he a mere fierce and 

 wandering hunter, like the Red-Indian of North America. 

 For though he does love to follow the "large game," and to 

 bring back their spoils for commerce ; he also delights in agri- 

 culture and dwells contentedly among his gardens and fields of 

 corn ; longs to possess new implements and arts of culture, 

 that he may turn them to profit; delights to improve his 

 stock of domestic animals, to exchange produce with neigh- 

 bouring Tribes, and thus to learn the arts of peace. Above 

 all, he longs for the improved arts and the commerce of the 

 white-men; whose fame has reached him, but whose persons 

 he has never seen. 



Or taking the moral side of the African's character, as 

 it is here delineated: — We find that he believes in God, but 

 does not know how to worship Him. He offers prayers to 

 his dead Chiefs; and if he endeavour to propitiate the Barimo, 

 it is by charms and vain formalities. He is a creature of 

 cheerful temper, and of warm affections; and if we con- 

 sider his humble and untaught condition, we may well 

 regard him as a being framed by the hand of his Creator 

 with good capacities, which, under Christian guidance, may 

 raise him to the social level of a happy and useful civilized 

 man. 



Such is the living picture we see in the pages of our Au- 

 thor. And a picture of like tints, though drawn with much 

 less extended knowledge and far fewer touches, is found in 

 the excellent volume of Mr Galton, written after he had ex- 

 tended his travels to Ovampo. He also had seen a large tribe 

 of Negroes, whose hearts had not been corrupted by the 

 breath of the slave-dealer, and whose land had not been 

 blighted by his footsteps. 



It is on such elements as these that the Christian merchant 

 and Christian missionary will have to work while they are 

 doing their endeavour jointly to benefit the poor African and 



