19 
could be spared, and might be obtained 
without difficulty. The people of America 
must have several articles essential to their 
commerce, which they cannot find at home, 
but might be had in profusion from a set- 
tlement in Africa. The naturalist, whether 
his genius leads him to the study of orni- 
thology or botany, would have a noble field 
in these regions for his researches, and the 
natives, rendered savage by long and reite- 
rated persecutions, would, by kind and 
gentle treatment, soon embrace the advan- 
tages arising from a state of civilization. 
Captain Stout, in the course of his address 
to the president, expresses a most laudable 
indignation at the cruelties and impolitic 
conduct, manifested so repeatedly by the 
Dutch government, in their treatment of 
the unhappy natives. These unoffending 
people, (says this gentleman) have been 
most grossly abused 5 they have been de- 
scribed as beings of the most savage dis- 
position, delighting in blood, and of a na- 
ture as cruel and untractable as the fiercest 
animals of their deserts. But these, sir, are 
the calumnies of their christian persecutors, 
c 2 
