The native American., 1838-12-01


to get supply of tobacco and cloth for them
selves, and beads for the women; when they have
any thing to sell in the colony, the women carry
the articles on their heads, and their children on
their backs, while their lordly husbands walk on
before, carrying only knife or gun.
The children, soon after their birth, are expos
ed naked to the rays of the sun, and their mode Of
nursing the little creatures is any thing but gen.
tie. The first time that | saw the process per-
formed, was alarmed for the safety Of the child,
and excited much laughter among the men when
stated to them my fears that the mother would
kill the child by such rough treatment. The mo-
ther was sitting onsa low STOOL with the child laid
on its back across her knees: with one hand she
held the screaming child down, while with the
other she crammed its mouth full of what proved
to be rice, biting hot with red pepper, and then
pressed its nose until it was swallowed-the child
raving Justify whenever it was able to breathe.
The children are very healthy, and few die in in
fancy. The boys, when eleven or twelve wears
old, completely throw off all maternal restraint,
deeming 1t unmanly to be longer controlled by a
woman. Nothing will make native boy, in the
service of the colonists, run away sooner, than
being struck by woman.
Their mechanical and agricultural instruments
are as simple may well be; the latter being
merely small Ratchet for the men to cut down
the trees, and small hoe with the blade about
three inches broad for the women to plant the rice
with, which, when ripe is cut with a small pocket
knife. They cook rice admirably, and all their
peculiar dishes, highly seasoned with pepper, as
they always are, were they little more cleany,
require little selfdenial to enjoy. They live
chiefly on vegetable food, but are, nevertheless,
fond of animal food; snakes, monkeys, and qua
mas, are among their highest luxuries; but rats,
dogs, and cats, would not be refused-although
they rather avoid eating them when in the colony.
Smoking and drinking palm inc or rum, when
it can be had, is the su,1,nnum bonun Of their
lives. Inemperance is not, however, a very pre-
valent vice among them, at least, in the shape of
drunkenness. They are fond of games Of hazard,
played with large beans.
| The greater part Of these remarks on the Bas-
sas, will apply to the next tribe, the Greybo, be-
ing around Cape Palmas. They speak different
language from the Bassas, but have some points
of resemblance and affinity. They are estimated
at twenty thousand, and are represented by the
missionaries at that station as being kind, docile.
and Industrious, but, like all the natives great
thieves, although | was told by one Of the mis-
sionaries, lately from that colony, that they do
not steal from the misunderstanding an i'm
portant feature and cndeavor of missionary nflu-
ence. These people also act as Kroemen, or
boa,nen to vessels, and engage in fishing. Mr..
Wilson has succeeded in Is>'Ucing their language
into systematic form-usng it in his schools,
and Greybo hymns in his religious exercises.
Our information in relation to the tribes nteri-
or to those mentioned, is scanty and indefinite
The tribes on the seaboard have theirlanguage as
well as character modified by European inter-
and peculiar. We have had strong proofs, how
ever of their capacity in ingenuity and mechanics.
The frequent trade between the former and yes
sells, supplies great many of their wants, with
out increasing much their inventive faculties,
which necessity does for the latter. Between the
sea-coast tribes and the interior, is belt of
forest of some days journey Their trade is
through the former, who exercise sort Of mono:
poly. The beach people as they are called, af-
feet to despise the bush people, being ignorant.
happened to be at Little Bassa, when some of
those bush people first obtained sight Of the
sea- and shall never forget the mute look of aston
ishment with which they beheld the heaving,
boundless ocean, and when after the intense emo
ton which it excited had somewhat subsidized, they
dipped their fingers in its waters, and tasted it to
be SALT they set up loud shout of wonder.
They seemed at once to have acquired two new
and overpowerng ideas of water and Of wealth.
"To say" says Park, the African wanderer ''that
man eats salt, is to say he is rch.''
Relations to the Colony.-In estimating the
extent and influence Of the Colonies over the ma
tives around them, there is no eature more pro-
minent than that where the slave trade exists that
influence is much lessened and obstructed each
exercising entirely opposite tendencies. In exact
proportion, therefore, to the destruction Of that
abomnable traffic, and the institution Of Colonies
and missionary stations, will be the advancement
Of African Colonization and moral regeneration.
In this respect the Colony and missions of Cape
Palmas are more favoraby situated than any 9TH
er. There is no slave in its vicinity. Slave ves-
sells to be sure, purchase rice in large quantities,
of the natives there for their purposes, but no
slaves. 1t is ethen clearly the duty Of all who
take an interest in Africa, to lend their utmost aid
and influence to the suppression of that traffic, and
the support OF the missionary enterprise.
large number of the natives Of the different
tribes have bound themselves to be subject to the
authority of the Colonial Government, and not
to deal in slaves, but wherever the slave vessels
are allowed to land goods, that submission is
more. nominal than otherwise. This obstacle, il,
is the duty Of every christian nation to strive to
remove, either by assisting Colonization. or main
al IL