$92 THE WESTERN COAST. 
Deity. " The earth," said they, " gives us gold ; 
" the earth yields us maize and rice ; the sea af- 
" fords us fish, but if we do not labour ourselves, 
" we may starve, before our God help us. Our 
" cattle produce young without the assistance of 
" God ; and for fruits, we are indebted to the Por- 
" tuguese, who planted the trees ; so that we have 
" no obligation to our God, as the Europeans to 
" their benevolent Deity." They admitted, how- 
ever, that the rain descended from God, to render 
the earth fruitful, the trees productive, and to wash 
down gold from the mountains. The latter effect 
of rain is common in the gold countries. An in- 
land negro being sold to a slave ship, prayed fer- 
vently for rain ; and being interrogated the cause, 
answered, that it might wash down gold to his 
friends, and enable them to redeem him. This 
idea of partiality in the Deity, has induced some 
to believe, that, after death, the virtuous will be 
transported to the lands of the whites, and be 
changed into white men. Others, by a fiction 
more honourable to themselves, suppose, that, in 
the beginning, God having created black and white 
men, gave the former their choice of two gifts, 
gold, and the knowledge of the arts and sciences ; 
the blacks, having chosen gold, and left learning 
to the whites, God, offended at their avarice, con- 
demned them to be slaves to the whites for ever. 
Concerning the creation of man, however, differ- 
10 
