mutually taken in battle, must strike the humane mind with sentiments of
the deepest abhorrence, and confer on that people a reproach, as lasting
as time itself. It is surprising that the eastern world did not unite, to
discourage a custom so diabolical in its tendency, and to exterminate a
species of oppression which humbles the dignity of all mankind. But this
torpid inattention can only be accounted for, by adverting to the savage
disposition of the times, which countenanced cruelties unheard of at this
enlightened period. What rudeness of demeanor and brutality of manner,
which had been introduced into Europe, by those swarms of barbarians, that
overwhelmed it from the north, had hardly begun to dissipate before the
enlivening sun of civilization, when this infernal practice first sprang
up into existence. Before this distinguished era of refined barbarity, the
sons of Africa were in possession of all the mild enjoyments of peace--all
the pleasing delights of uninterrupted harmony--and all the diffusive
blessings of profound tranquility. Boundless must be the punishment, which
irritated providence will inflict on those whose wanton cruelty has
prompted them to destroy this fair arrangement of nature--this flowery
prospect of human felicity. Engulphed in the dark abyss of never ending
misery, they shall in bitterness atone for the stab thus given to human
nature; and in anguish unutterable expiate crimes, for which nothing less
than eternal sufferings can make adequate retribution!--Equally iniquitous
is the practice of robbing that country of its inhabitants; and equally
tremendous will be the punishment. The voice of injured thousands, who
have been violently torn from their native country, and carried to distant
and inhospitable climes--the bitter lamentations of the wretched, helpless
female--the cruel agonizing sensations of the husband, the father and the
friend--will ascend to the throne of Omnipotence, and, from the elevated
heights of heaven, cause him, with the whole force of almighty vengeance,
to hurl the guilty perpetrators of those inhuman beings, down the steep
precipice of inevitable ruin, into the bottomless gulph of final,