Page:Africa's redemption.djvu/11

Rh others he is the kindest, brightest, gayest, and most inclined to religion. He has eloquence, grace, and wit, a gorgeous fancy and a most touching pathos. As the sun declines in Africa, the stupid Dutch boor of the south lights his pipe and sits down in moody silence; the saturnine Moor of the north whets his knife and thirsts for blood; whilst the negro leaps, and sings, and dances, and plays upon his musical instrument. The whole country is a scene of the most joyous merriment. Nor are the Africans destitute of regular governments. They have rulers, law, and subordination, and, considering the isolation which has characterized their history, we see some favourable features in their condition, calculated to surprise us.

But still their moral degradation is very great. They are suffering under the usual woes attendant upon an absence of correct religious knowledge. Mr. Moffatt thinks he found some tribes in southern Africa, who had no idea of a Supreme Being, or indeed of any supernatural power whatever. But this is not wholly true of the natives of central and western Africa. Some of them have been converted by the Moors to the Mohammedan faith. But the mass of them are governed by an abject superstition, which we may call Devil-worship. To their god, who resembles our idea of Satan, they frequently offer human sacrifices, especially on occasions like the ratification of a treaty, or the death of a king. It is recorded that upon the occasion of the death of one of the kings of the Aikims, his 2