EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 



2&1 



** When the gentleman who had afked the queftion took 

 " his pen, and having calculated the fame by figures, told 

 «^ the negro he muft be miftaken, as the number he had 

 " mentioned was certainly too great. ' Top, Maffera,' faid 

 the negro, ' you have omitted the leap-years when 

 having calculated the feconds contained in the number 

 " of leap-years, and added them, the number was found 

 " exa6tly the fame as that calculated by the negro. This 

 fame man multiplied nine figures by nine, by me- 

 " mory, before another company." Another lately repeat- 

 ed the Alcoran from recolledlion only. — What amazing 

 mental faculties in African negroes, who could neither 

 read nor write 1 Yet that fuch things are, is well authen- 

 ticated. 



To what i have already advanced, I may add, that alt 

 negroes fiirmly believe the being of a God, upon whofe 

 goodnefs they rely, and whofe power they adore, while 

 they have no fear of death, and never tafte food without 

 offering a libation. In the rivers Gambia and Senegal they 

 are moftly Mahometans ; but generally the wonliip and 

 religious ceremonies of the Africans vary, as do the num- 

 berlefs fuperftitious practices of all favages, and indeed 

 of too many Europeans.. Perceiving tliat it was their 

 cultom to bring their offerings to the v/ild cotton-tree *j 



* This tree grows to a confiderable 

 height and thicknefs, very ftraight, and 

 cohered wjth a ftrong grey prickly bark. 

 The boughs fpread very much, with fmall 

 digitated kaves. The cotton, which it 



produces tricnnally, is neither white nor 

 plentiful, which makes it little fought 

 after. It bears fome refemblance to the 

 Britifh oak, the largeft of which it fur-- 

 paffes both in elegance and magnitude.. 



I enciuircd 



