RELIGION. 
299 
of God J and for fruits, we are indebted to the 
Portuguese, who planted the trees ; so that we 
" have no obligation to our God, as the Europe- 
" ans to their benevolent Deity/* They admitted, 
however, 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 coun- 
tries. An inland negro being sold to a slave-ship, 
prayed fervently 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, sup- 
pose, 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, condemned them to be slaves to the 
whites for ever. Concerning the creation of man, 
however, different opinions prevail ; for, besides 
those who attribute his creation to the Deity, 
there are some who believe that he was formed by 
Anansie, an enormous spider, and others who pre- 
tend that he emerged from caves and holes in the 
