ckap. hi.] WEST INDIES. 281 
snd hisrh cheek bones of the natives of the north of 
o 
Europe. 
The «:reat objection to the Eboes as slaves, is 
their constitutional timidity, and despondency or 
mind; which are so great as to occasion them very 
frequently to seek, in a voluntary death, a refuge 
from their own melancholy reflections. They re¬ 
quire, therefore, the gentlest and mildest treatment 
to reconcile them to their situation; but if their 
confidence be once obtained, they manifest as great 
fidelity, affection, and gratitude, as can reasonably 
be expected from men in a state of slavery. The 
females of this nation are better labourers than the 
men, probably from having been more hardly treat¬ 
ed in Africa. 
The depression of spirits which these people 
seem to be under, on their first arrival in the West 
Indies, gives them an air of softness and submis¬ 
sion, which forms a striking contrast to the frank 
and fearless temper of the Koromantyn negroes. 
Nevertheless, the Eboes are in fact more truly sa¬ 
vage than any nation of the Gold coast, inasmuch, 
as many tribes among them, especially the Moco 
tribe, have been, without doubt, accustomed to 
the shocking practice of feeding on human flesh. 
This circumstance I have had attested beyond the 
possibility of dispute, by an intelligent trust-worthy 
domestic of the Ebo nation, who acknowledged to 
me, though with evident shame and reluctance, 
(having lived many years among the whites), that 
Vol. II . 
n n 
