242 
which our monarch (of whom thou art 
the fkilful fervant) has formed, for the 
fubjugation of thefe barbarians. To pre- 
vent any other African nation from affert- 
ing any claim of prior difcovery of this 
remote ifland, I in the night proceeded 
boldly to the chief temple, in the center 
of this city, and affixed the holy badge of 
our religion, as a token of the right of 
the glorious fovereign of Tombuctoo. I 
alfo buried a bottle containing all his titles, 
fubjoined to which is a folemn claim of 
thefe newly difcovered iflands in the 
northern fea, as gems inherent in_his 
crown; and of the inhabitants, as fheep 
referved for his own flaughter-houfe. 
‘There can, therefore, be no future doubt 
to whom thefe iflands belong, 
Our numerous fleets may eafily proceed 
down the great riyer, and, entering the 
ocean, affail thefe lands om the weit. 
The favages haye, indeed, many and 
large fhips; but they are happily ftran- 
gers to that fubmarine fire, fo long pre- 
ferved as a fecret of our ftate, and by 
which a few of our boats may fend all 
their fleet into the air, and render it only 
an illumination of our triumph. Their 
foldiers are numerous, but not clothed in 
metal; in confequence they are quite ex- 
pofed to thofe fhowers of aétive and 
cauftic poifon, ufed by our troops; by 
which, when ejected to a prodigious 
height by our vaft machines, whole territo- 
ries may be overwhelmed, and myriads 
of men fent to their fathers; the touch 
beme inftant death, and the very air 
rendered poifon. May the bleffing of all 
our gods attend the glorious imventor of 
this. artificial peftilence, the fecret of 
which is only known to us, the chofen 
people of heaven, the chief of ali civilized 
nations! Let us bend to the gceds in 
humble adoration for this favour, and 
ever remember their infinite goodne{s and 
mercy. Moft juft it is, and moft necel- 
fary. 
There isa king in this country, but it 
is chiefly ruled by a fort of fenate; which, 
initead of meeting in the morning, the 
ufval and choien hour of the foul’s vi- 
gour, affembies in the night, even in the 
nights of winter. Hence follow colds 
and catarrhs, and political fevers, and 
many inflammatory fymptoms. Their 
ftate councils, as may be expected, are 
far inferior to ours; and forgetting that 
wifdom is the lot of the few, they al- 
ways decide by the majority, a fingular 
inftance of direét oppefition to our contti- 
tution. 
I heartily agree with all Attica in ex- 
Letter from. a Marchant of Tombuéioa. 
ecration of .thofe cannibals. ..That they 
are cannibals I am:convinced. Would# - 
thou: think, my friend, that out of thou. 
fands of blacks, imported by them, f 
have hardly feen half a dozen, fpared, I 
fuppofe, as ufual among the worft fava- 
ges, by fome favour, or fortuitous circum- 
ftance? The reft are all eaten! 
The vengeance will be fweet; we thall 
export them by whole fhip loads, and 
fell them to the fouthern cannibals of 
Africa. Many of the people are very fat 
and-fair, particularly of the cafts of the 
Spankidoodels, and of the Hahums and 
the Mummums. This fpeculation will 
be excellently profitable. I thould expeé 
from five to twenty dinars per man. 
As to the colonies to be fent here, they 
may be eafily and firmly eftablifhed. A 
few myriads deftroyed by the artificial 
earthquakes, which we know how to pro- 
duce fo eafily; and two or three millions 
blafted by our artificial peftilences, the 
reft will be overawed ; and will ref{pe& our 
farther progrefs in civilization, and fu- 
perior {kill in the arts of death and de- 
ftruction. We mutt, by all means, im- 
fift on the eftablifhment of a defpotie 
government, exaétly fimilar to our own. 
Without this the people could have no 
liberty nor happinefs, and of courfe 
would grow fretful and lean; the very 
thing to be avoided; as our profit de- 
pends much upon their fat and good con- 
dition. 
The Jean and deformed may, however, 
be occupied for our profit, in manufac- 
tures, in which they fhew fome little {kili. 
Indeed, I am told they have, in this 
branch, excelled. moft of the favages of 
the nerth, for thefe forty years. Before 
this, moft articles were imported, in ex- 
change for their wool, a ftaple commo- 
dity, and always a favourite; infomuch, 
that perhaps fome of our Tombutctan 
fociety of antiquarians may thence derive 
the fingular partiality of this voracious 
people for 'the woolly heads of the negroes, 
This I leave to the learned, I have told 
thee, Friend Cooo, that, about forty years 
back, thefe favages imported moft arti- 
cles of manufa&ture ; and, I am told, but 
know not how to credit it, that fuch was. 
formerly their rage for importation, that 
they have repeatedly imported their kings 
frora the Continent; as being men of a 
fuperior manufaéture to any made in 
their.country. This I fuppofe is one of 
the fables, obtruded upon ignorant tra- 
vellers. 
I know not well what religion thefe 
wild people proteis. But we muft fend - 
some 
