The Ethnologist Need Only
Go To Zanzibar To Become Acquainted With All The Different Tribes
To The Centre Of The Continent On That Side, Or To Congo To Find
The Other Half South Of The Equator There.
Some few freed slaves take service in vessels, of which they are
especially fond; but most return to Africa to trade in slaves and
ivory.
All slaves learn the coast language, called at Zanzibar
Kisuahili; and therefore the traveller, if judicious in his
selections, could find there interpreters to carry him throughout
the eastern half of South Africa. To the north of the equator
the system of language entirely changes.
Laziness is inherent in these men, for which reason, although
extremely powerful, they will not work unless compelled to do so.
Having no God, in the Christian sense of the term, to fear or
worship, they have no love for truth, honour, or honesty.
Controlled by no government, nor yet by home ties, they have no
reason to think of or look to the future. Any venture attracts
them when hard-up for food; and the more roving it is, the better
they like it. The life of the sailor is most particularly
attractive to the freed slave; for he thinks, in his conceit,
that he is on an equality with all men when once on the muster-
rolls, and then he calls all his fellow-Africans "savages."
Still the African's peculiarity sticks to him: he has gained no
permanent good. The association of white men and the glitter of
money merely dazzle him.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 19 of 767
Words from 5070 to 5330
of 210958
