On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    * k ? &ral > ly largerthan Great Britain . "This language , which i ^ remarkably simple and easy of acquisition * , has been reduced to writing by the zeal of Mr . JBnmton , who resided for some time as a- roissiojiayy among the Susoos , and who was assisted in his task by some Swsoo youths who had been brought mver % & England for education , and have skice returned to Africa .. The fruit of

    3 # r . Branton " ' s labours is a Susoo Grammar and Vocabulary , and several Susoo Tracts , all of which have been printed . " Tfoe present widely-extended war is favourable ta the abolition of the slave

    trade . With the return of peace , and *> i She freedom of the seas * there is danger lest the abominable trainc should i > e feoewefl hf ther continental powers . Jt : may , therefore , seem desirable that that the -whole coast of Africa should be

    in the possession of Britain ; but we jbrei&bie at the anticipation of such an « v « &t . Brifcon-s arc philanthropists , but fhe British Ooveraiaaselrt is not accustomed to scrupulous justice or excessive iuadtaaskky . Ciod forbid that the enoraakies committed in Asia should be

    practised in Africa . I The whole of the -westere * coast is at present in our hand * , excepting the French fort of Senega ] ,. she small Portuguese colony of Bissao , . and two or three Dutch forts * The writer © f a paper in the Appendix to the Repore , suggests that ** the Dutch forts

    are bow wholly at our mercy" ( a very significant hint ) ; and that the island of ^ Ezssao naay possibly be ceded to us by the Portuguese . We deprecate these political speculations . Let the African Institution be on its guard . Wietched -will' it be if the benevolence of this

    society should only pander to the appetite © f over-gorged ambition . The soie liope © f civilizing- Africa rests on our obtaining a good character in the eyes of her injured sons . If we respect property , display a pacific spirit , and be * - ? omc real benefactors to the Negro tribes , we shall be respected , conscience will 1 > e placeci m ' us , unjl tho slave-trade will graduaftvjjie away , for want of subjects

    -pr . cyjupon , ... t ' - ^ \ ' 1 h ' c JfiLtujoft . cpnclude ^ * wkh . a detail vt thcna ^ aiiUi ^ s ^ y / JiVicii ha ^ e . ^ een adoptcd ' y mr « Ytf ' feow ^ akmgy ^ y , ; Gpvemindtxx * y / lt ^\ Jff ^ §§ < ) i f § iQ ^ s&jSSfeT 5 v / hich ib in tfefe hJgKctt Jp ^ Sjj ^ ^ j ^^ ctory , as ; a proof that tne'ISt Jot 'abolishing the slavetrade tVill rv > t be ( as we hoiie ^ tly confess we o ; icc feared ) virtually repealed by

    Untitled Article

    the inactivity or the partial proceceffng * of the present ministry . " Two ships of war were sent < vat tty the coast in the tttonth of November , with instructions to their Cotnrtianders to prevent the infraction of tfee laW for abolishing the slaye ^ trade , and t 6 take every opportunity Which might ctecurof recopciliag the African chiefs ( ivho , i £ xmrBt be remenaber ^» have very gene-In to

    rally been trader ^ ^ laVe ?) this measure , and of explaining to them its beneficial tendency . A commission , consist * ing of three gentlemea , tw& of whort ^ possess considerable local "knoWle ^ g ^ has also been appointed , and wiU proceed m a few months to tfye coast of Africa , for the purpose of minutely investigating the state of the different

    British settlements , and pointing out ih what inanner they naay be made subservient to the gr / eat objefct of African civilisation . Much importafit information may also be eaJf > 6 ctdd from tberti respecting the capabilities 6 f Africa in general and the condition of her inhabitants , and the best rheans of improving both , to the mutual advantage of that continent and of Great Britain . .. His

    Majesty ' s Government has further resolved to appoint a Court of Vice-Admiralty at Sierra I ^ eone , for the purpose of giving more complete effect to tht Act for abolishing the slave-trade . The appointment of s » ch a Judicature is ]> articularly desirable at » the present moment , as otherwise all the vessels which ma > y be seized under the Abolition Atft must be carried to the West Indies for

    adjudication ; " a course which would he attended with a cruel protraction of the confinement < cei ship-board of the captured slaves . At Sierra Leone it would also be much easier than it would be in the West Indies , to dispose of these persons , agreeably to the humane pro-r visions of the Act of Parliament . The

    system of free labour being alread y established at Sierra . Leone , the introduction of airy number of Negroes into that colony , whether on the footing of free labourers or as apprentices for a limited period , could be attended with none of those inconveniences which , it is al ?

    leged , would flow from it in our Wc ^ t India islands , and which , as the Committee understand , are deemed to be so considerable , . as to make it a question whether many of the persons already liberated in the West Indies under the operation of the Abolition Act shall not

    Untitled Article

    C 5 Z 4 Intelligence ** — African Institution * .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1808, page 624, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2398/page/48/