Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/133

( 99 ) Mr. Wadstrom is supported in this second circumstance as a cause by Captain Wilson, who, in giving a reason why the slave trade obstructs the civilization and commerce of the natives, says, they will not for a temporary gratification risque [sic] the being kidnapped, and carried into perpetual slavery.

That the slave trade then, either by diminishing the proper encouragement to the natives, or endangering their persons, or by doing both, is the real cause why they do not or cannot exert their industry in cultivating the various articles, which their country has been proved to produce, can be ascertained from facts; for Mr. Dalrymple has remarked, that in those parts of the coast where there is little or no trade for slaves, they are actually more industrious than in those places where the trade is carried on.

Captain Hall says also, that he found cultivation in by far the highest state at the island of Fernandipo, so that the yams, which were the principal produce there, were made to run up like vines upon sticks. But here he observes, first, that the natives had great encouragement, for all the ships from Calabar, Del Rey, and the Cameroons, sent their boats there for these articles, as to the regular market, and, secondly, that they had no trade in slaves.

Mr. Falconbridge also has occasion to observe, that at Bonny, the most considerable place for slaves, there was a time in the late war when the slave trade was so interrupted, as to cease to be carried on, and that on his asking the black traders what they had done during this interval, they answered they had been obliged to cultivate the earth for their support.

Mr. How adds, that he has been almost upon every settlement, that belongs to the English, on the coast of Africa, and that he found the culture always in a higher degree, where there was but little of the slave trade, and just the reverse where the slave trade was carried on more at large. C H A P.VIII.N 2