Page:Thorpe (1819) A commentary on the treaties.pdf/8

4 sessions in Africa, he does not even pause to consider where they are situated, for Molembo and Cabinda are on the western, not on the eastern coast; and allowing this to have been a mistake, it may be worthy of remark, that between latitudes five and eight south, on the west coast lies the great kingdom of Congo, over which His Faithful Majesty possesses just as much jurisdiction, as he does over Siberia, yet he assumes the right of plunging its inhabitants into interminable slavery, for the purpose of administering to the indolence, the riches, and the criminal gratiﬁcations of the inhabitants of Brazil. Before I leave this article, I must try to ﬁx the reader's attention more particularly on the space allowed for trade: from Cape Delgado to the Bay of Lourenco on the eastern coast, embraces an extent of nearly twenty degrees of latitude and longitude, and from Cabinda to Cape Negro on the western coast, exceeds thirteen degrees of latitude, so that by this treaty we sanction His Faithful Majesty’s claim to twenty times more dominion in Africa than he really possesses; (for he has but one fort on the eastern and two on the western side,) and to an extant of coast far surpassing that of the Brazils.

Bounded ambition, and extensive humanity, having induced His Faithful Majesty thus to contract the sphere in which his pious subjects shall