"♦'•s. 



J 



92 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



filver; they had alfo balm, or balfam, but this it feems, in 

 thofe days, they brought froni Gilead. 



We are forry, in reading this curious anecdote preferved 

 to us in fcripture, to find, in thofe early ages of the India 

 trade, that another fpecies of commerce was clofely con- 

 nected with it, which -modern philanthropy has branded as 

 the difgrace of 'human nature. It is plain, from the paffage, 

 the commerce of felling men was thenuniverfally eftablifh- 

 ed. Jofeph* is bought as readily, andibid as currently im- 

 imediately after, as any ox or camel could be at this day. 

 Three nations, Javan, Tubal, and Mefhecht, are mentioned 

 as having their principal trade at Tyre in the felling of men ; 

 and, as late as St John's time:):, this is mentioned as a prin- 

 cipal part of the trade of Babylon ; notwithftanding which, 

 no prohibition from God, or cenfure from the prophets, 

 have ever fligmatized it either as irreligious or immoral; 

 on the contrary, it is always fpoken of as favourably as any 

 fpecies of commerce whatever. For this, and many other 

 reafons which I could mention, I cannot think, that pur- 

 chafing flaves is, in itfelf, either cruel or unnatural. To 

 purchafe any living creature to abufe it afterwards, is cer- 

 tainly both bafe and criminal; and the crime becomes fiill 

 of a deeper dye, when our fellow-creatures come to be the 

 fufFerers. But, although this is an abufe which accidentally 

 follow the trade, it is no neceilary part of the trade itfelf .; 

 and, it is againfl this abufe the wifdom of the legiflature 

 ihould be directed, not againft the trade itfelf. 



On 



* Gen. chap, xxxvii. ver. 25. 28* _f Ezek. cliap. xxvii. vet. 13. 



$ Rev, chap, xviii.ver. y . 



