$52 TRAVELS IN THE 
admit of a doubt, that all the rich and valuable productions, 
both of the East and West Indies, might easily be naturalized, 
and brought to the utmost perfection, in the tropical parts of 
this immense continent. Nothing is wanting to this end, but 
example, to enlighten the minds of the natives; and instruction, 
to enable them to direct their industry to proper objects. It 
was not possible for me to behold the wonderful fertility of the 
soil, the vast herds of cattle, proper both for labour and food, and 
a variety of other circumstances favourable to colonization and 
agriculture; and reflect, withal, on the means which presented 
themselves of a vast inland navigation, without lamenting that 
a country, so abundantly gifted and favoured by nature, should 
remain in its present savage and neglected state. Much more 
did I lament, that a people of manners and dispositions so 
gentle and benevolent, should either be left as they now are, 
immersed in the gross and uncomfortable blindness of pagan 
superstition, or permitted to become converts to a system of 
bigotry and fanaticism ; which, without enlightening the mind, 
often debases the heart. On this subject many observations 
might be made; but the reader will probably think that I 
have already digressed too largely; and I now, therefore, 
return to my situation at Kamalia. 
