In All My Wanderings And Wretchedness I Found Them Uniformly Kind And Compassionate; And I Can Truly Say, As My Predecessor Mr. Ledyard Has Eloquently Said Before Me, "To A Woman I Never Addressed Myself In The Language Of Decency And Friendship Without Receiving A Decent And Friendly Answer.

If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they did not hesitate, like the men, to perform a generous action.

In so free and so kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a double relish."

It is surely reasonable to suppose that the soft and amiable sympathy of nature, which was thus spontaneously manifested towards me in my distress, is displayed by these poor people, as occasion requires, much more strongly towards persons of their own nation and neighbourhood, and especially when the objects of their compassion are endeared to them by the ties of consanguinity. Accordingly the maternal affection (neither suppressed by the restraints nor diverted by the solicitudes of civilised life) is everywhere conspicuous among them, and creates a correspondent return of tenderness in the child. An illustration of this has been already given. "Strike me," said my attendant, "but do not curse my mother." The same sentiment I found universally to prevail, and observed in all parts of Africa that the greatest affront which could be offered to a negro was to reflect on her who gave him birth.

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