Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/147

 CHAPTER XI.

PROGRESS IN CIVILIZATION.

It is a pleasing fact to relate that the last fifty years have witnessed much advance towards civilization in Africa; and especially on the west coast. This has resulted mainly from the successful efforts made to abolish the slave-trade. To the English first, and to the Liberians next, the praise must be given for the suppression of this inhuman and unchristian traffic. Too much, however, cannot be said in favor of the missionaries, men and women, who, forgetting native land, and home-comforts, have given themselves to the work of teaching these people, and thereby carrying civilization to a country where each went with his life in his hands.

Amongst the natives themselves, in several of the nations, much interest is manifested in their own elevation. The invention of an alphabet for writing their language, by the Veys, and this done too by their own ingenuity, shows remarkable advancement with a race hitherto regarded as unequal to such a task.

This progress in civilization is confined more strictly to the Jalofs, the Mandingoes, and the Fulahs, inhabit