Was it
not folly to wait for the stream to run down before we crossed the bed
of its channel? Alas! we might wait for ever. The river would still flow
on. We should be no nearer the object which we had in view, so long as
the step, which could alone bring us to it was not taken.
He would now proceed to the civilization of Africa; and, as his eye had
just glanced upon a West Indian law in the evidence upon the table, he
would begin with an argument, which the sight of it had suggested to
him. This argument had been ably answered in the course of the evening;
but he would view it in yet another light. It had been said, that the
savage disposition of the Africans rendered the prospect of their
civilization almost hopeless. This argument was indeed of long standing;
but, last year, it had been supported upon a new ground. Captain Frazer
had stated in his evidence, that a boy had been put to death at Cabenda,
because there were those who refused to purchase him as a slave. This
single story was deemed by him, and had been considered by others, as a
sufficient proof of the barbarity of the Africans, and of the inutility
of abolishing the Slave Trade. But they, who had used this fact, had
suppressed several circumstances relating to it.
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