ourselves ain't capable. Roberts is a very fine gentleman, but he's more white than black, an' Mr. Benson's colored people all over! There's no use talking government, an' making laws, an' that kind o' things, if they ain't going to keep um up. I vote for Benson, sir, case I wants to know if we's going to stay nigger or turn monkey !" p. 164.

After describing the prospects of Liberia as in the main encouraging, and deciding, on the whole, affirmatively, as to the capacity of the black race for self-government, or at least for maintaining national existence, after the manner of the old and powerful kingdoms of Ashantee and Dahomey-" kingdoms, by the way," he remarks, "which, if we could add to them a few of the principles and arts of American civilization, especially the moral principles of the Christian religion, would compare favorably with many of the kingdoms of Europe, in the protection and privileges secured to their citizens," he proceeds to remark upon the probable effect of the progress of African civilization on the existence of slavery, as follows:

"Supposing, however, that Liberia should, in the course of time, become wealthy, powerful, established, how would that affect the relations of the black man in the South? Not at all. Southerners do not hold slaves, as such, because they believe them incapable of taking care of themselves; nor because skeptics have assigned to the black man an origin inferior to that of the white man; nor yet merely because the relation of master and slave is sanctioned by the writers of the Old and New Testament. The ground on which the relation rests is that of expediency. The present relation is deemed the best that can be adopted, considering the interest and happiness of all the parties concerned. This we believe to be the attitude of most southern men relative to this question, certainly that of all Christian and conservative southerners. In view of these facts, then, it is evident that, while the condition of the South remains the same, no changes or demonstrations from without, except physical force, can affect this relation. Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Loando, Yoruba, may become powerful and civilized nations-we sincerely hope they may; the scientific world may become one on the question of man's aboriginal unity—we think it will; the higher law sentiments and morbid humanity of certain sections may prevail in a large portion of the Union, though it is scarcely to be expected; yet, while in the opinion of southerners the present and prospective interests of the South de mand that the present relations of master and servant shall be sustained, southern slavery will be unaffected by these things. Since, however, this institution rests on expediency alone, it is not permanent in its form, but will continue to receive such changes and modifications as the internal circumstances of the South may demand." pp. 119, 120.

Our author answers as follows another question:

"What are the Liberians doing towards converting the natives?

"I once pulled a drunken man off a railroad track just in time to save him

from being run over by the train. The imminence of his danger sobered him a little, and rising to his feet, he exclaimed:

"Sir, you have saved my life! What shall I do for you?'

"Pray for me,' said I.

"Well,' said he, after a moment's thought, I guess I'll have to begin that job by praying for myself; and it'll give me enough for a while to do that.' "When the Liberians are converted themselves then they may strengthen their brethren. At present they have no means to spare in that direction. Indirectly, however, they are exerting an elevating influence over the tribes around. They hire their children as domestics, and these generally forsake the religion of their fathers for that of their masters. The savages acknowledge the superiority of the civilized man; they are gradually adopting the ideas and practices of civilized life, and eventually they will become one people. The schools and other missionary operations among them are hastening this event."— pp. 158, 159.

Of the abundant and unprejudiced testimony which this book contains in relation to the horrors and iniquities of the slave trade, we can only quote a single paragraph, which, though pointed with a fling at the north, is sufficiently illustrative of the general features of the traffic:

The tribes who inhabit its banks [the river Volta] have been among the most vigorous and cruel prosecutors of the slave trade, and to this day they are ready, whenever a Yankee craft makes signal, to ship, in a few hours, hundreds of their neighbors. It is said by old traders on the coast, that, rather than suffer in their reputation for promptness in supplying 'live cargoes,' these remorseless robbers will, when prisoners are scarce and neighbors hard to catch, sell their wives and children, and deliver them on the deck of the slaver for a few dollars each.

"A story was told us of a Yankee captain who visited this river lately. After paying the headmen, or traders, for five hundred lively darkies, he invited them into his cabin to take a drink. He was profuse in his hospitality, made them all drunk, put them in irons, sank their canoes, pocketed their money, and got under weigh. Two of the twenty-five thus taken jumped overboard shortly after, and were drowned; the remainder he sold in Cuba for four hundred dollars each!

"Were we to look for this shrewd gentleman now, he would likely be found occupying a neat cottage, with green blinds and brass door-knobs, somewhere in Massachusetts, a warm advocate of abolitionism and the higher law.'

"Could the waters of this bar tell their own story, we would hear of the tumult of revolt in slave canoes, and the destruction of captors and captives; cries of anguish from parents torn from their children, and from children torn from their parents; and of the sea being red with the blood of men, thrown a prey to the ravenous sharks which infest these waters, in order to lighten the slaver of her cargo on the approach of a man of war. Countless thousands will arise from these polluted waves when the sea shall give up her dead demanding VOL. XVIII.

54

eternal vergeance on their heartless murderers; and among these shall be mighty merchants and captains bearing the Christian name." pp. 239, 240.

It is also stated that when a slaver is pursued by a cruiser, and on the point of being taken, "it not unfrequently happens that, as a dernier pas, she discharges her load of human beings into the sea, and escapes while her humane pursuers are trying to rescue the helpless victims of civilized cupidity from the hungry sharks."

And yet, after all, in the light of southern theology, he seems to see some little glimmering of good in the accursed traffic, for which the negro ought to be grateful. He qualifies its accursedness thus:

"The slave-trade, as it has been carried on, especially in the course of the last half century, has been bad enough in all conscience, but let it be responsible only for the evil that it has done. We would not for any consideration be considered as saying anything encouraging to the forlorn hope of re-opening this trade—to do so at present would be to compromise the dignity of our nation and the humanity of our religion, yet at the same time we believe that the Great Disposer of events will so direct the issues of this trade as to make them contribute to the moral and intellectual elevation of the African race. Who that has compared carefully, and from actual observation, the condition of the black man in America with that of the black man in Africa, can hesitate to say that in the former this trade has been made a blessing indeed ?" p. 295.

But the native Africans hold another relation to slavery besides that of being sold as slaves. They are themselves slave owners. Slavery would seem to be an indigenous institution among them. Our author gives the following representation on the subject:

"It is said that four-fifths of the Africans are slaves. This estimate has been objected to, as being too large; we are safe, however, in saying, that in western Africa, three-fourths of the people are slaves. This large proportion will not be so much wondered at, when we see how numerous and easy are the ways by which men pass into slavery. First, the father is the owner of his children; and though the children of a free man are not generally considered or treated as slaves, he has the right to sell them whenever he may choose, and without respect to their age or circumstances. Second, the children of slaves are slaves, unless freed by their owner. Third, all captives taken in war are the slaves of the captors. This perquisite gives daring to the African soldiers, and prompts a degree of mercy without which all their wars would be wars of extermination. Fourth, persons sold for debt are slaves until the debt is redeemed. This is a fruitful source of slavery. In time of famine, men who have no slaves to dispose of, or not enough to meet the demand, pawn themselves, or their wives, or children, for food, or the means of procuring it; promising to pay as much as fifty per cent interest-this is a common interest in such transactions—and in a majority of such instances the pawn is never redeemed." pp. 291, 292.

"Africans are wild in their speculations, sanguine in their undertakings, and to carry out a favorite pursuit will pawn themselves even when the hope of redemption is small. They pawn themselves for tawdry merchandise; pawn themselves to lawyers to free them from difficulties, or to punish an enemy; pawn themselves to the priests for ghostly comfort, for relief from a malady or a witch. It is a dernier resort, but while they are free they feel that they are not destitute, even though poor; they feel that they own marketable articles in themselves. Every free man in Africa, therefore, owns one nigger.' How intense must be their self-consciousness! Fifth, the adulterer, among many tribes, is sold to pay the fines in such cases provided, if he have no other means of meeting them, or is turned over by the judges to the husband offended. To murder the offender would not be allowed, and if the new owner punish very severely he would be considered mean. Men of great cupidity and a superabundance of wives, often increase their property by employing a seductive and pretty woman to lure men into her wiles, and then betray them; having provided beforehand, and often ingeniously, that the proofs shall be positive and ample. The punishment of the women in such cases is merely nominal." pp. 292, 293.

This domestic slavery, in our author's opinion, is not at all a result of the foreign slave trade, but is an aboriginal institution. And instead of being weakened by the increase of legitimate trade with Africa, it is only strengthened, and the distinction between master and slave widened, in consequence of the increased value of slave labor for producing the articles demanded by the foreign trade. Slaves are, therefore, he tells us, actually advancing in value, on parts of the coast, despite the suppression of the foreign slave trade. This domestic slavery he regards as "a blessing rather than an evil, under the present conditions of society in Africa."

It is natural to infer, from this representation, that the true way to break up the slave trade is, not to enact penalties, or send fleets, but so to stimulate by commerce the demand for slave labor in Africa as to render slaves too valuable to be made an article of export! When negroes cost more in Guinea than in Cuba or Carolina, the trade towards Cuba and Carolina must cease! And this gives a hint also as to the way in which our own surplus slave population may be disposed of. By promoting commerce with Africa, and encouraging the American type of civilization there, a demand may be created for them in their father-land, and sales be made of them to their brethren over the water, at an advance upon prices in Virginia. This would benefit the south by superadding to the profits of slave labor the profits of slave breeding. We commend this idea to southern patriots!

We cannot refer to our author's interesting sketches of the Canary Islands and Madeira, further than to call the attention of the lovers of

Madeira wine to his account of the total cessation of the grape culture in that island since 1852. Not a drop of wine for export has been produced in all this time, and the small stock of wine now in the island is in the hands of a few wealthy merchants, who hold it at extraordinary and daily increasing prices. Our author, therefore, very pertinently inquires, "Is it not a little remarkable that Madeira wine is as abundant in the American market as ever, and that it can be bought at any country store in the interior at a price which is lower than the present first cost in Madeira! If you doubt the genuineness of the article, examine the-label !"

series of sketches Having spent the

THE PIONEERS, PREACHERS AND PEOPLE OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.*The style of Mr. Milburn as a writer, is animated and graphic, and in the volume before us he has given us a in the form of lectures, which will well repay perusal. earlier years of his life and ministry in the south and west, and shared in many of the struggles peculiar to pioneer life, it is natural that he should be an enthusiast respecting the stirring scenes and the heroic characters which belong to the history of the Great Valley. These sketches are in part made up of personal observations and reminiscences, but to a much larger extent are lively historical pictures, drawn from trustworthy sources, of the leading events which characterized the early settlement and growth of that portion of our country. The scope and spirit of the book cannot be better learned than from the author's own words:

"I have sought to follow the pilgrimage of the plumed cavaliers of De Soto in their quest of the Great River, and the gold which they fondly hoped was to be found upon its banks; I have floated with Marquette in his bark canoe as he went upon his gentle embassy to the Indians; I have wandered with La Salle as he vainly strove to found a French Empire in the West, and mourned by the Texan grave of one of the most unfortunate but heroic of men; I have sat down with the kindly French in their Paradise of Kaskaskia, and enjoyed the spell of their idyllic life; I have trudged with our own pioneers, as with stout hearts they crossed the Cumberland Gap and entered the Dark and Bloody Ground; I have stood with them at their guns in their blockhouses, have slept on their rawhide beds, and shared their jerked meat and 'dodger;' and I have sought to appreciate the development of Saxon sense under the tuition of the wilderness,

*The Pioneers, Preachers and People of the Mississippi Valley. By WILLIAM HENRY MILBURN, Author of "The Rifle, Axe and Saddle-bags," and "Ten Years of Preacher Life." New York: Derby & Jackson. 1860. 12mo. pp. 465.