Page:The African Slave Trade (Clark).djvu/37

Rh with other nations, rendered property and life insecure, kindled the spirit of war, and fostered the vilest passions. It has plunged millions of our fellow-men into the lowest depths of superstition and barbarism. It has added blackness to the darkness of heathenism, rent asunder natural ties, rendered savage life more savage, and perpetuated the reign of anguish and despair. Justly did John Wesley, in a moment of burning indignation, designate this trade as "the execrable sum of all villanies."

We have no means of accurately describing the condition of Africa previous to the traffic in slaves, as so little intercourse had existed between that country and the nations of Europe. But Sir T. F. Buxton has collected, in his work on the "Slave Trade and its Remedy," proofs that the people were in a more prosperous condition at that time than they have been since the commerce in slaves was opened. He says: "It is remarkable that the geographers, Nubiensis in the 12th century, and Leo Africanus in the 16th, state that in their time the people between the Senegal and Gambia never made war on each other, but employed themselves in keeping their herds, and in tilling the ground. When Sir I. Hawkins visited Africa, in 1562-7, with intent to seize the people, he found the land well cultivated^ bearing plenty of grain and fruit, and the towns prettily laid out."