Chap. XLIL FIREARMS AND CIVILIZATION. 133 
argument in his defence, than that the slave-trade 
furnished them with the means of buying muskets ; 
and, lamentable as it is, this is certainly the cor- 
rect view of the subject, for even on the west 
coast the slave-trade originated in the cupidity of 
the natives in purchasing the arms of Europeans. 
Such is the history of civilization ! If the poor na- 
tives of Africa had never become acquainted with 
this destructive implement of European ingenuity, 
the slave-trade would never have reached those gi- 
gantic proportions which it has attained. For at first 
the natives of Africa wanted firearms as the surest 
means of securing their independence of, and su- 
periority over, their neighbours ; but in the further 
course of affairs, these instruments of destruction be- 
came necessary, because they enabled them to hunt 
down less favoured tribes, and, with a supply of slaves 
so obtained, to procure for themselves those luxuries 
of European civilization with which they had likewise 
become acquainted. This is the great debt which 
the European owes to the poor African, that after 
having caused, or at least increased, this nefarious 
system on his first bringing the natives of those re- 
gions into contact with his state of civilization, which 
has had scarcely any but a demoralizing effect, he 
ought now also to make them acquainted with the 
beneficial effects of that state of society. Entering, 
therefore, into the views of our hosts, 1 told them 
that their country produced many other things which 
K 3 
