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chap, nr.] WEST INDIES. 1 265 
stantly made a day of strict fasting. It was almost 
a sin, he observes, on that day, to swallow his 
spittle ;—such is his expression. 
Besides this man, I had once another Mandingo 
servant, who could write, with great beauty and 
exactness, the Arabic alphabet, and some passages 
from the Alcoran. Whether his learning extended 
any further, I had no opportunity of being inform¬ 
ed, as he died soon after he came into my pos¬ 
session. 
t 
The advantage possessed by a few of these peo¬ 
ple, of being able to read and write, is a circum¬ 
stance on which the Mandingo negroes in the 
West Indies pride themselves greatly among the 
rest of the slaves; over whom they consider that 
they possess a marked superiority; and in truth, 
they display such gentleness of disposition and de¬ 
meanour, as would seem the result of early edu¬ 
cation and discipline, were it not that, generally 
speaking, they are more prone to theft than any of 
the African tribes. It has been supposed that this 
propensity, among other vices, is natural to a state 
of slavery, which degrades and corrupts the human 
mind in a deplorable manner; but why the Man- 
dingoes should have become more vicious in this 
respect, than the rest of the natives of Africa in the 
same condition of life, is a question I cannot an¬ 
swer. 
Vol. II. 
