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read-and eclipse them. The western wilderness, from the Pacific to the Mississippi, will start into life under its magic touch. A long line of cities will grow up. Existing cities will take a new start. The state of the world calls for a new road to India, and it is our destiny to give it-the last and greatest. Let us act up to the greatness of the occasion, and show ourselves worthy of the extraordinary circumstances in which we are placed, by securing while we can an American road to Indiacentral and national-for ourselves and our posterity-now, and hereafter, for thousands of years to come."

Lieut. Maury of the National Observatory selects the route from Memphis on the Mississippi, to Monterey on the Pacific, as the best, geographically.

He says, "Crossing the Mississippi midway between the gulf and the lakes, the proposed route from Memphis would be through a healthy and, for the most part, fertile country. It never would be blocked up with snow. Of all the routes ever proposed from the United States to China, it is the most direct for the people of the United States, the West Indies, and all the intermediate country. The length of the rail-road may be shortened several hundred miles for the present at least, by starting it from the sources or head of the navigation of the Arkansas. The effects of a substantial rail-road from the Mississippi to one of the ports of California, in connexion with a line of steamers thence to China, would do much to break up old thoroughfares and channels of commerce, and to turn them through the United States. Let such a rail-road be given to the country, and after it shall have been for a little while in successful operation, you will hear no more said by the people on the Atlantic side in favour of a canal or rail-road across the isthmus of the continent, for their convenience in communicating with China and the Old East."" S.

[To be continued.]

SLAVERY.

We have been induced by the importance which this subject has latterly assumed, to throw together some historic facts for the benefit of our readers, without intending to discuss the question growing out of the compulsory servitude of one portion of the human family to another.

Slavery existed at a very remote period of society. In the patriarchal age of the world, every family or community had its bondsmen doomed to hereditary servitude. This practice was continued among the descendants of Abraham and Jacob in Judea, and the countries. adjacent. The Greeks, in the infancy of their states, and subsequently, in their pride of liberty, of refinement and science, imposed on slaves

the menial and severe labours of life. The name Helot, originally applied to Spartan slaves, was afterwards often applied to bondsmen in general. In ancient Rome, the slaves formed a large portion of the population, and were obtained from all the then known parts of the world-from Britain and Greece, from Asia and Africa. Carthaginian and Egyptian slaves were often brought from the interior of Africa, and thence exported into the southern parts of Europe.

At that early day, Africans bought and sold each other; thus the Ethiopians acquired slaves by purchase and by war, and held them in perpetual servitude. The Negro, as far back as his history is traced, subjected his own race and colour to slavery, and has continued to do so up to the present time. It is a mistake that he was first induced to do this by the demand of the white race for slaves; indeed, a writer well acquainted with the subject, without intending to excuse the slave dealer, has remarked, " that if the negroes had not been in the practice of making slaves of each other at the time when they became known to Europeans, negro slavery as it now exists, would not probably have been known." We may add, that there are black slave merchants who sell white girls in the eastern markets, under the most degrading circumstances.

In the same markets, slaves are brought from the eastern part of Africa, for the supply of Egypt and the Turkish territories. The late Viceroy, Mehemet Ali, was accustomed to fit out slave expeditions for the capture of slaves in Nubia and the other districts. In 1840, the preparations for this purpose were witnessed by Dr. Madden, who states that the force employed, consisted of two or three thousand foot soldiers, and five hundred or a thousand Bedouins; that they entered Nubia and levied a tribute of slaves on the inhabitants, and if they failed to comply with it, were immediately attacked, overpowered and carried into bondage.

Without prosecuting the subject in this direction any farther, we proceed to our main design, which is to state the leading facts in the history of slavery, as it is seen and understood by us.

The Portuguese were the first of the moderns who explored the western side of Africa. In 1412, they commenced their voyages, and by the year 1470, the whole Guinea coast had been explored. The Spaniards followed in their track; and in 1434, some negro boys brought thence by Gonzales, a Spanish captain, were sold in the south of Spain. Afterwards, it was customary for both Spanish and Portuguese traders to the gold or Guinea coast, to carry away a few negroes of both sexes; and the practice soon grew into a traffic.

In the year 1503, ten years after the discovery of America by Columbus, a few negroes had been carried from Spain to her transatlantic possessions, and it was soon ascertained that they far surpassed the Indians in the power of endurance, and ability to work. The climate, too, agreed with them; their health improved, and they in

creased in numbers. The Indian race, on the contrary, was fast diminishing under the ill-treatment and severe burdens imposed by the conquerors. In St. Domingo alone, they were reduced in seven years, from sixty thousand to fourteen thousand. They were averse to labour, and constitutionally unfit for it, and when obliged to work or carry burdens, they drooped and died. Bartholomew Las Casas, a Spanish priest, therefore interfered in their behalf, and denounced their employment as slaves. Whether he recommended the substitution of negroes in their stead, is not decided; but at any rate, it resulted from his interposition in favour of the Indians. Therefore it is said, that the benevolent design of Las Casas originated negro slavery in America.

After the experiment had been fairly tried, ships were loaded with negroes by the authority of the king of Spain himself. In Hispaniola, they increased astonishingly, until they outnumbered their masters.

The Spaniards for a time had the whole country to themselves, monopolized the trade, and introduced slaves from Africa into all their possessions. But when adventurers from other European nations followed them to the new world and planted colonies, they too adopted the use of negro labour.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1562, an act was passed legalizing the purchase of slaves, but it was not until about the year 1620, that negroes were imported into the colonies. It is said the first slaves introduced into this country were twenty in number, brought by a Dutch ship, from the coast of Guinea. They were landed on James' river, in Virginia. After that period the English merchants engaged earnestly in the traffic, and along with wax and elephants' teeth, brought over negroes from Africa. At a recent meeting of the colonization society, it was stated, that Great Britain at one time, enjoyed a monopoly of the slave trade for thirty years.

The French, Dutch and Portuguese, had also embarked in the traffic, and by the middle of the seventeenth century a very active trade was carried on, and slaves introduced into America in great numbers. The consequence was an increase in the demand, and a corresponding supply from the interior of Africa was required. Instead, therefore, of pursuing the original plan of sailing along the coast, and picking up the slaves at the different villages, the traders established a line of settlements or factories as depots for the slaves that were brought to market. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, the number of factories around the shores of the gulf of Guinea, were said to be forty in all; of these, fifteen belonged to the Dutch, fourteen to the English, four to the Portuguese, four to the Danes and three to the French. Slave markets were, as a consequence, created in the interior, and from them the slaves were for the most part brought down in droves by the slatees or slave merchants to the factories on the coast. Mungo Park, the celebrated traveller in Africa, observed that the abduction of the negroes had grown into a profession, and that the

native merchants treated their slaves whom they were bringing to market, with considerable kindness. They would halt in the march occasionally, and encourage them to sing, play and dance.

Slaves were obtained in various ways. There were instances in times of famine and great distress when the negroes would surrender themselves to servitude, and beg to be put upon the slave chain. Sometimes parents sold their children-sometimes a creditor sold his debtor; but generally they were obtained from captures made in battle or on a slave hunt. The tribes of the interior were constantly engaged in conflicts, and powerful chiefs made inroads into the territories of their weaker neighbours. The king of the Foulahs* kept at one time a force of sixteen thousand men, who were constantly occupied in depredations upon the surrounding tribes, and in forcibly carrying off the inhabitants into slavery.

We have no data from which to estimate the number of those who have been carried into slavery, or of those now in slavery.

Up to the end of the last century it was estimated that as many as thirty millions had been taken from the coast of Africa. Since that time the drain has been incessant. But it seems impossible from the very nature of the trade and the secrecy with which it is conducted, to arrive at an approximation even of the number who have embarked -of those who have been lost in the passage, or of those who have arrived at the places of destination. Slaves are still in great numbers in Brazil-in the Spanish, Dutch, Danish and Portuguese islands and colonies, and in the Mahommedan empire. In the French and English colonies they are emancipated.

At the time of the declaration of independence in 1776, the whole number of slaves in the United States was estimated as follows:

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By the census of 1840, the slaves and free people of colour in the United States, were numbered as follows:

The Foulahs, a remarkable race, are of doubtful origin, but probably Asiatic. Throughout the whole of Nigritia or negro-land, they have the pre-eminence. They are spread over a large surface of country, extending from the desert of Sahara, to the mountains of Guinea, and from the Atlantic ocean to the kingdom of Bornou. In some places they are politically supreme-and every where have great influence. They differ essentially from the negro race, and occupy the intermediate space between the Arab and the Negro. They are rigid Mohammedans, and where they have conquered, they force the adoption of the Koran by the sword; and suppress the barbarous rites of pagan idolatry.

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In eleven of the free states, one thousand, one hundred and twentynine persons are returned as slaves-by what title or degree of servitude, we are not informed.

There is said to have been an alarming increase in the African slave trade, during the year 1848. The English and American squadrons stationed on the coast of Africa, in pursuance of a convention between the two nations for the suppression of the traffic, have been successful to some extent; but in several instances, the shots fired by the cruisers into the slave ships have killed the slaves, and the traders have forced the poor creatures into a narrower space and increased their sufferings. The Edinburgh Review condemns the maintenance of a squadron by the British government as having produced no ascertainable results, "except the loss of officers and men, and the aggravation of the horrors of slavery."

Emancipation has been gradually progressive in the United States. In one half the states the work has been completed, and there seems now to be a majority in congress opposed to any further extension of slavery. The question on this subject has violently agitated the whole country, arrayed to some extent the north against the south, and at times has appeared to threaten the perpetuity of the union. It is hoped, however, that the greatest violence of the excitement has subsided, and that the causes of danger are passing away. The Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, in a letter dated 17th of February, 1849, written in view of the approaching convention of that state, to amend the constitution, has declared himself in favour of the gradual emancipation of the slaves. We make the following extract from this remarkable letter:

"A vast majority of the people of the United States, I believe, regret the introduction of slavery into the colonies, lament that a single slave treads our soil, deplore the necessity of the continuance of slavery in

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