He had left the best
of memories in "the River," and there were tales of his having
manumitted in the Southern United States a small fortune of
slaves without a shade of compulsion. His volume on West Africa,
to which allusion has so often been made, contains a good bird's-
eye of the inter-tropical coast, and might, with order,
arrangement, and correction of a host of minor inaccuracies,
become a standard work.
I have already expressed my opinion, founded upon a sufficiently
long experience, that the United States missionary is by far the
best man for the Western Coast, and, indeed, for dangerous
tropical countries generally. Physically he is spare and hard,
the nervous temperament being more strongly developed in him than
in the bulbous and more bilious or sanguine European. He is
better born, and blood never fails to tell. Again, he generally
adopts the profession from taste, not because il faut vivre. He
is better bred; he knows the negro from his childhood, and his
education is more practical, more generally useful than that of
his rivals. Moreover, I never yet heard him exclaim, "Capting,
them heggs is 'igh!" Lastly he is more temperate and moderate in
his diet: hitherto it has not been my fate to assist in carrying
him to bed.
Pages:
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210