Such is, such was the fact. It
struck Las Casas that if negroes could be introduced into the West
Indian islands, the Indians might be left alone; the negroes themselves
would have a chance to rise out of their wretchedness, could be made
into Christians, and could be saved at worst from the horrid fate which
awaited many of them in their own country.
The black races varied like other animals: some were gentle and timid,
some were ferocious as wolves. The strong tyrannised over the weak, made
slaves of their prisoners, occasionally ate them, and those they did not
eat they sacrificed at what they called their _customs_--offered them up
and cut their throats at the altars of their idols. These customs were
the most sacred traditions of the negro race. They were suspended while
the slave trade gave the prisoners a value. They revived when the slave
trade was abolished. When Lord Wolseley a few years back entered
Ashantee, the altars were coated thick with the blood of hundreds of
miserable beings who had been freshly slaughtered there. Still later
similar horrid scenes were reported from Dahomey. Sir Richard Burton,
who was an old acquaintance of mine, spent two months with the King of
Dahomey, and dilated to me on the benevolence and enlightenment of that
excellent monarch.
Pages:
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55