V 
WESTERN AFSICA. 
to discover the reason for this. Rather 
should we wonder that those people have 
powers of intellect at all, after suffering as 
they have done for centuries the blasting 
and deteriorating influences of heathenism, 
and the tyrannical and hellish treatment they 
have received from slave traders, and others 
who have gone among them, and are among 
them now, for worldly gain alone. Surely 
on African soil, " man's inhumanity to man " 
has caused very many to sink depths into 
the pool of moral pollution to which they 
never would have gone had they been left 
to themselves. 
It is but proper to state also in this con- 
nection, that their skill in chirography is 
equaled by few, and not surpassed by any. 
They are naturally great imitators in what- 
ever direction they choose to exercise their 
faculties. They are remarkably skillful 
