Page:Benezet's A caution and warning to Great Britain and her colonies.pdf/17

[ 15 ] Andrew Brue, a principal man in the French Factory, in the account he gives of the great river Senegal, which runs many hundred miles up the country, tells his readers, "The farther you go from the sea, the country on the river seems more fruitful and well improved. It abounds in Guinea and Indian corn, rice, pulse, tobacco, and indigo. Here are vaft meadows, which feed large herds of great and small cattle; poultry are numerous, as well as wild fowl.'"

The same author, in his travels to the south of the river Gambia, expresses his surprize, "to see the land so well cultivated; scarce a spot lay unimproved; the low grounds, divided by small canals, were all sowed with rice; the higher ground planted with Indian corn, millet, and peas of di different sorts, beef and mutton very cheap, as well as all other necessaries of life."

The account this author gives of the disposition of the natives, is, "That they are generally good-natured and civil, and may be brought to any thing by fair and soft means.'"

Artus, speaking of the same people, says, "They are a sincere, inoffensive people, and do no injustice either to one another or strangers.'"

From these accounts, both of the good disposition of the natives, and the fruitfulness of most parts of Guinea, which are confirmed by many other authors, it may well be concluded, that their acquaintance with the Europeans would have been a happiness to them, had those last not only bore the name, but indeed been influenced by the spirit of Christianity; but, alas! how hath the conduct of the Whites contradicted the precepts and example of Christ? Instead of promoteing the end of his coming, by preaching the gospel of peace and good-will to man, they have, by their tices,