“This man,” resumes the African. “has travelled a considerable way.  He lived at a great distance from hence, and had a large family, for whom he was daily to provide.  As he went out one night to a neighbouring spring, to procure water for his thirsty children, he was kidnapped by two slave hunters, who sold him in the morning to some country merchants for a bar of iron.  These drove him with other slaves, procured almost in the same manner, to the nearest market, where the English merchants, to whom the train that has just now passed us belongs, purchased him and two others, by means of their travelling agents, for a pistol.  His wife and children have been long waiting for his return.  But he is gone for ever from their sight:  and they must be now disconsolate, as they must be certain by his delay, that he has fallen into the hands of the Christians”.

“And now, as I have mentioned the name of Christians, a name, by which the Europeans distinguish themselves from us, I could wish to be informed of the meaning which such an appellation may convey.  They consider themselves as men, but us unfortunate Africans, whom they term Heathens, as the beasts that serve us.  But ah! how different is the fact!  What is Christianity, but a system of murder and oppression?  The cries and yells of the unfortunate people, who are now soon to embark for the regions of servitude, have already pierced my heart.  Have you not heard me sigh, while we have been talking?  Do you not see the tears that now trickle down my cheeks? and yet these hardened Christians are unable to be moved at all:  nay, they will scourge them amidst their groans, and even smile, while they are torturing them to death.  Happy, happy Heathenism! which can detest the vices of Christianity, and feel for the distresses of mankind.”

“But” we reply, “You are totally mistaken:  Christianity is the most perfect and lovely of moral systems.  It blesses even the hand of persecution itself, and returns good for evil.  But the people against whom you so justly declaim; are not Christians.  They are infidels.  They are monsters.  They are out of the common course of nature.  Their countrymen at home are generous and brave.  They support the sick, the lame, and the blind.  They fly to the succour of the distressed.  They have noble and stately buildings for the sole purpose of benevolence.  They are in short, of all nations, the most remarkable for humanity and justice.”

“But why then,” replies the honest African, “do they suffer this?  Why is Africa a scene of blood and desolation?  Why are her children wrested from her, to administer to the luxuries and greatness of those whom they never offended?  And why are these dismal cries in vain?”

“Alas!” we reply again, “can the cries and groans, with which the air now trembles, be heard across this extensive continent?  Can the southern winds convey them to the ear of Britain?  If they could reach the generous Englishman at home, they would pierce his heart, as they have already pierced your own.  He would sympathize with you in your distress.  He would be enraged at the conduct of his countrymen, and resist their tyranny.”—­