Observations upon the windward coast of Africa
by JOSEPH CORRY.
[Illustration: A MANDINGO CHIEF, and hisHEADMAN, in their COSTUME, & other NATIVES]
OBSERVATIONS
UPON THE
WINDWARD COAST OF AFRICA,
THE
RELIGION, CHARACTER, CUSTOMS, &c.
OF THE NATIVES;
WITH A
SYSTEM UPON WHICH THEY MAY BE CIVILIZED,
AND A
KNOWLEDGE ATTAINED OF THE INTERIOR OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY
QUARTER OF THE GLOBE;
AND UPON
THE NATURAL AND COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY;
MADE IN THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806.
BY JOSEPH CORRY.
WITH AN APPENDIX,
CONTAINING
A LETTER TO LORD HOWICK, ON THE MOST SIMPLE AND EFFECTUAL
MEANS OF ABOLISHING THE SLAVE TRADE.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR G. AND W. NICOL, BOOKSELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY, PALL-MALL;
AND JAMES ASPERNE, CORNHILL.
BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND ROW, ST. JAMES'S
1807.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH,
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES
OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
MY LORD,
Hightly flattered by your Lordship's polite condescension, in permittingme to inscribe to you the following Pages, I return your Lordship my mostunfeigned thanks.
If they meet your Lordship's approbation, and that of a discerningPublic; or if they tend in the most remote degree to excite moreintelligent efforts and more active enterprise on behalf of theunenlightened African, or to augment the Commerce of the United Kingdomwith a Country, now in danger of falling into the hands of our Enemies, Ishall feel an ample reward for the risques and dangers to which I have beenexposed in collecting these Fragments; while the occasion gives me theopportunity of subscribing myself,
With grateful acknowledgments,
Your Lordship's
Most obedient, and devoted humble Servant,
JOSEPH CORRY,
PREFACE.
With becoming deference, I shall endeavour to illustrate in thefollowing pages, the observations I have personally made upon the Coast ofAfrica, and to give the information I have obtained from an extended circleof Chiefs, and native Tribes, relative to its Inhabitants, their Religion,Habits and Customs, the natural productions and commercial resources, &c.and attempt to delineate the most eligible grounds upon which the conditionof the African may be effectually improved, and our commercial relations bepreserved with that important quarter of the globe.
Though deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, and my ownincompetency, I obtrude myself upon Public notice, governed by thisreflection, that I am stimulated by an ardent zeal for the prosperity of myCountry, and am animated by a philanthropic solicitude for the effectualmanumission of the African, from his enslaved customs, his superstitiousidolatry, and for the enlargement of his intellectual powers.
I shall guard against the sacrifice of truth to abstracted principles;and if in the most remote degree, I excite the interference of mycountrymen in behalf of the African, extend our commerce, and enlarge thecircle of civilized and Christian Society, I shall think that I haveneither travelled, nor written in vain.
Africa is a