THE SLAVE QUESTION. 
433 
with the assistance of Krunien, and a small steamer 
to run up and down, and facilitate their transit 
by towing. It is true that this practice would 
be running counter to the prejudices of the na- 
tives, who never allow the traders of other nations 
to trespass on their waters; but it might, by an 
occasional payment of “ port dues,” be broken through; 
or by a few trifling presents, the freedom of the 
navigation of the river might be secured for all 
nations. A clause to that effect was indeed intro- 
duced in our treaties with Obi and the Attiih of 
Iddah. 
“With regard to commercial transactions* on a large 
scale, it is our firm belief that in the present state of 
the manners and customs of the people, and the im- 
perfectly known resources of the country, the hopes 
of speculators will be inevitably wrecked unless their 
enterprizes be based on very different principles, and 
with a view to remote repayment. Our arts and 
manufactures must be introduced to the interior not 
by the present tardy and demoralizing means of inter- 
course with the coast, nor by dazzling the natives 
with a transient display of them in short-lived and 
disastrous attempts to penetrate to nations which 
have been heretofore cut oflf from the knowledge of 
them. But the advantages which may result to and 
from the population of Africa by our intercourse with 
* Captain Allen’s MS. Narrative of the First Niger Expedition 
2 F 
VOL. IL 
