Page:Substance of the speech of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, in the House of Lords.djvu/26

 be astonished, that the wild, ferocious, and ignorant African, unenlightened by the Christian Religion, should frequently consider persons conversant with, and consequently guilty of a communication with evil spirits? Indeed, my Lords, though the civilization of Africa was professed to be, together with the Abolition of the Slave Trade, the principal object of the Sierra Leone Company, it does not appear that any great benefit can soon arise from the propagation of Christianity under the influence of this Colony; for even Mr. Macaulay has acknowledged, that for the last three years no Clergyman of the Church of England has been within the Settlement; and indeed, notwithstanding that the salary of Chaplains was 140l. per annum, no clergyman, after earnest solicitation, could be procured to venture to this pernicious climate.

I have heard that the staple commodity of Africa is Slaves. Every other article of Com-