them, to strengthen the principle of peace and good will in the breasts
of the incautious Negroes, the Europeans have, by their bad example, led
them into excess of drunkenness, debauchery, and avarice; whereby every
passion of corrupt nature being inflamed, they have been easily
prevailed upon to make war, and captivate one another; as well to
furnish means for the excesses they had been habituated to, as to
satisfy the greedy desire of gain in their profligate employers, who to
this intent have furnished them with prodigious quantities of arms and
ammunition. Thus they have been hurried into confusion, distress, and
all the extremities of temporal misery; every thing, even the power of
their Kings, has been made subservient to this wicked purpose; for
instead of being protectors of their subjects, some of those rulers,
corrupted by the excessive love of spirituous liquors, and the tempting
baits laid before them by the factors, have invaded the liberties of
their unhappy subjects, and are become their oppressors.

Here it may be necessary to observe, that the accounts we have of the
inhabitants of Guinea, are chiefly given by persons engaged in the
trade, who, from self-interested views, have described them in such
colours as were least likely to excite compassion and respect, and
endeavoured to reconcile so manifest a violation of the rights of
mankind to the minds of the purchasers; yet they cannot but allow the
Negroes to be possessed of some good qualities, though they contrive as
much as possible to cast a shade over them. A particular instance of
this appears in Astley's collection, vol. 2. p. 73, where the author,
speaking of the Mandingos settled at Galem, which is situated 900 miles
up the Senegal, after saying that they carry on a commerce to all the
neighbouring kingdoms, and amass riches, adds, "That excepting _the
vices peculiar to the Blacks_, they are a good sort of people, honest,
hospitable, just to their word, laborious, industrious, and very ready