TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 355 
The Africans in their pagan state were not 
liable to the same superstitions as they are and 
have been since their proselytism, — if it maybe so 
termed, because, their reHgion wasnot overloaded 
with ceremonies, and their priests had but a nar- 
row and contracted influence. Mohamedanism 
has made them hypocrites as it keeps them slaves, 
and, while it prevails to its present extent, they 
must continue so. Essences are forgotten in the 
strict observance of a miserable ritual, and truth 
has lost its value and its splendour when only 
seen through the jaundiced instruction of pecu- 
lating Maraboos. These jugglers in morality 
make whatever use they please of the victims of 
their sorcery, and if once they catch them in their 
toils, escape is almost literally impossible. The 
enmity which those ministers of false doctrine 
bear against our religion and ourselves naturally 
induce them to represent us in colours most ter- 
rifying to the converted negroes' minds, by as- 
suring them, that, although we say our intentions 
towards them are good, we are only under that 
cloak aiming at their total and eventual subjuga- 
tion ; — and, they bring forward the continuance 
of the slave trade by the French in the Senegal 
as a proof of our want of sincerity. 
The negroes, however, receive a sort of bonus 
by their conversion to Mohamedanism. In the 
event of war waged on them by a Mohamedan 
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