The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-01 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

European Settlements on the West Coast of Africa.
By Captain J. F. Napier Hewett, F.R.G.S.
Chapman and Hall.
Having visited, or rather been ordered on duty
to, those graves of the white man, Gambia and
Sierra Leone, and survived to tell the tale, Captain
Hewett has put his experience in print, and has
produced a volume both interesting and valuable;
inasmuch as it gives considerable information re-
specting the different negro tribes of that portion
of the African coast, and treats of its capabilities
for producing cotton. His opinion of the climate
as regards European residence is by no means fa-
vourable. Thus he says—" The climate of Bathurst
is undoubtedly more deadly and injurious to the
European constitution than that of almost any
other place in the world ; not so much from
being situated in the tropic as from the delete-
rious miasma which is generated in the surrounding
mangrove swamps, and from the impossibility of
efficient drainage." The average duration of
European life was, formerly, three months, but it
is now about five years, owing to the increased
skill of the. doctors (through practice) and the
drainage of a swamp near the town, but much of
the mortality must be attributed to the habit the
Europeans acquire, almost without exception, of
excessive drinking. Intoxication seems to be almost
the only amusement open to them, and although a
few may survive its continuous indulgence the ma-
jority succumb. One of the greatest torments of
the climate is a horribly hot blast which blows from
the great desert of Sahara, and which, bringing
impalpable particles of sand, irritates the nostrils,
throat, and eyes, while the scorching wind parches
the skin and cracks the lips, so much so that the
face, when thrust in contact with the breeze, feels
as if seared by a hot iron. The negroes say on these
occasions, " Some big medicine man go dead" (some
great magician is dead) ; and the influence of this
wind extends more or less throughout the whole
western coast of Africa. Insects of various kinds
form another of the plagues with which the Euro-
pean has to contend. It is necessary to place the
legs of the bed at night in saucers of water, and
there is a story told of an officer who shut up his
dress coat securely in a box, and on opening it some
months after found nothing but the buttons and a
swarm of cockroaches. Of the ordinary negro, for
there are various tribes differing greatly, in form
and capacity, the writer has no great admiration.
Indeed we fear his sentiments will greatly shock
those who consider the negro not merely a man and
a brother, but the type of all that is good, great,
patient, and long suffering. He says, "It certainly
never could have been intended by Providence
that the negro should be the only creature on
earth to live in idleness ; and if so,
the question is, by what means or process is his
labour to be obtained and made available ?" and
" as he will not write without compulsion, coercion
must be the means adopted." But Captain Hewett
goes on to explain that the coercion is to be moral,
not physical, and he thinks that Jamaica even
might be restored to prosperity could a sufficient
number of negroes be induced to emigrate there to
make the obtaining a livelihood more difficult. As
it is the negroes' "chief happiness consist in doing
nothing,—in lying in the sun, dozing in the shade,
swingingin a hammock,and as long as he has enough
to eat, what cares he ? If he wears clothes at all,
very little work, or the sale of a few fowls, or some
small produce, will procure the little required in
so hot a climate, as also the few luxuries, tobacco
and rum ; and as the country not being peopled and
the land waste, ho may squat where he likes, and
as he requires no animal food, a few days' scratch
ing in the soil will, in those fecund climes, produce
sufficient to supply his wants during the year,
while his fowls, which obtain their living in the
bush, suffice him for a supply of animal food." It
seems to us that the negro is a perfect philosopher.
He thinks with the poet, that " man wants but
little here below." He gets that little without
trouble, and he does not at all see why
he should " fardels bear" and " gruntandswmeaayt
under a weary load," that his white brother
ride in a carriage and be waited on by
a train of
flunkeys. And with regard to of
the intention
Providence we suspect the nigger would have his
opinion on that too.
might say, with some
enough
gwhh fori
e
Bahl wa
nodf rtehaas
to np,
rtohvaitd teho
ewiloer
leavei
Capt.
man should let him alone. willt daet
lintendeddml wasw
Hewett and the emancipationists to settle this point But we
at their Leasure. With much that he sdaryeasniwiothf
there
purposes to -
arforeign missions . e entirely agree. "Little
do
etd to
subscribershe w
which their money is devoted ; little do
they comprehend thtoe character of missionsof the men to whom
manner
• •
tthhee
feeddistributionaarelaivhed little do they know the
small and in what
small amount of gcod purchased by that expendi-
ture—and little do they conceive the false colour-
ing bestowed upon the reports of missionary
labours." Doubtless there are many excellent and
devoted men amongst the missionaries who effect
much good ; but to suppose that mere Christianis-
ing the natives without accustoming them to regu-
lar habits of industry, will reclaim them, is a
visionary fallacy; but if they can be disciplined,
induced, or compelled to labour—taught that to
labour is the duty of all men—and Christianity
made to go hand in hand with industry, then, and