It Sometimes Happens, Indeed, When No Ships Are On The
Coast, That A Humane And Considerate Master Incorporates His Purchased
Slaves Among His Domestics; And Their Offspring At Least, If Not The
Parents, Become Entitled To All The Privileges Of The Native Class.
The preceding remarks concerning the several nations that inhabit the
banks of the Gambia, are all that I recollect as necessary to be made in
this place, at the outset of my journey.
With regard to the Mandingoes,
however, many particulars are yet to be related; some of which are
necessarily interwoven into the narrative of my progress, and others will
be given in a summary at the end of my work; together with all such
observations as I have collected on the country and climate, which I
could not with propriety insert in the regular detail of occurrences.
What remains of the present chapter will therefore, relate solely to the
trade which the nations of Christendom have found means to establish with
the natives of Africa, by the channel of the Gambia; and the inland
traffic which has arisen in consequence of it between the inhabitants of
the coast and the nations of the interior countries.
The earliest European establishment on this celebrated river was a
factory of the Portuguese; and to this must be ascribed the introduction
of the numerous words of that language which are still in use among the
Negroes. The Dutch, French, and English, afterwards successively
possessed themselves of settlements on the coast, but the trade of the
Gambia became and continued for many years a sort of monopoly in the
hands of the English.
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