The Mandingoes, In
Particular, Are A Very Gentle Race, Cheerful In Their Dispositions,
Inquisitive, Credulous, Simple, And Fond Of Flattery.
Perhaps the
most prominent defect in their character was that insurmountable
propensity, which the reader must have observed to prevail in all
classes of them, to steal from me the few effects I was possessed
of.
For this part of their conduct no complete justification can be
offered, because theft is a crime in their own estimation; and it
must be observed that they are not habitually and generally guilty
of it towards each other.
On the other hand, as some counterbalance to this depravity in their
nature, allowing it to be such, it is impossible for me to forget
the disinterested charity and tender solicitude with which many of
these poor heathens (from the sovereign of Sego to the poor women
who received me at different times into their cottages when I was
perishing of hunger) sympathised with me in my sufferings, relieved
my distresses, and contributed to my safety. This acknowledgment,
however, is perhaps more particularly due to the female part of the
nation. Among the men, as the reader must have seen, my reception,
though generally kind, was sometimes otherwise. It varied according
to the various tempers of those to whom I made application. The
hardness of avarice in some, and the blindness of bigotry in others,
had closed up the avenues to compassion; but I do not recollect a
single instance of hard-heartedness towards me in the women.
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