now sorrow and sighing have taken their final departure. They are

"With the years beyond the flood."

They are with the past forever.

This Hebraistic mode of expressing times is sometimes carried into the New Testament, especially that book of Revelations which comes the nearest in its style to the old prophetical Scriptures. We have an example of it, Rev. xxi, 4, which is closely allied to this thought in Isaiah xxxv, 10: "And there shall be no more sorrow, nor crying,” πόνος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, ὅτι τα πрτа апηλ0оν, "there shall be no more pain, for the old things have passed away."

ART. V.-CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF NEGROES IN AFRICA.

THE erroneous impressions which prevail in the civilized world respecting the condition of the Negro race in Africa are discreditable to the intelligence of the age. The people of the United States are doubly blamable for their false views on this subject, because we owe debts to that portion of our fellowmen for ages of wrongs inflicted on them for our benefit, and because, with ample means within our reach for correcting our erroneous opinions, we generally neglect them, and still persist in denying to negroes those intellectual faculties and moral qualities which the Creator has bestowed on the entire human family. With the books of recent travelers in Africa in their hands, it may well be wondered at that even our most intelligent and humane writers have not yet appealed to the testimony of Bowen, Livingstone, and Barth, to prove that millions of pagan negroes, in different parts of that continent, have been for ages in the practice of some of the most important arts of life, dwelling in comfort and generally at peace; while many other millions have been raised to a considerable degree of civilization by Mohammedism, and long existed in powerful independent states; under various changes, it is true, but

perhaps not so many or great as those through which the principal nations of "civilized Europe" passed during the same periods.

To refer to but one portion of the vast regions of Africa inhabited by the Black Race, namely, that extending along the southern border of the Great Desert, we find there, between the tenth and twentieth degrees of north latitude, five or six kingdoms, most of which have been in existence several centuries, and some a thousand years, mostly under the influence of Mohammedan institutions. These are everywhere similar, so far as they prevail, establishing fixed laws, customs, arts, and learning; and, although abounding in errors and evils on the one side, embracing benefits on the other which are not enjoyed by such portions of the negro race as remain in paganism. The Koran, as is well known, has copied from the Hebrew Scriptures many of the attributes of God and the doctrines of morality, with certain just views of the nature, capacities, duties, and destiny of man; and these are so faithfully taught, that they are conspicuous in the writings of many of the numerous authors in Mohammedan countries, and often displayed, in a more or less satisfactory degree, in the characters and lives of those educated in them.

Want of space in these pages must necessarily limit our remarks to very narrow bounds, and we shall therefore be unable to present many details which would interest the reader, and can give only a few facts relating to Mohammedan learning, its nature, institutions, and results. This forms an essential part of the Moslem system, and has long been in operation on large families of the negro race, and moulded them after the civilized model of the Arabs and Moors. Unlike Popery, it favors, nay, requires, as a fundamental principle, the free and universal reading and study of their sacred book; and, instead of withholding it from the people under penalties of death and perdition, it establishes schools for all classes, primarily to teach its languages and doctrines. Extracts from the Koran form the earliest reading lessons of children, and the commentaries and other works founded upon it furnish the principal subjects of the advanced studies.

As this has always been the practice, it may not seem strange that learning flourished among the Moors, in Spain, during the

Dark Ages of Europe, while Popery so long overshadowed the nations with her worse than Egyptian darkness. Readers who have neglected Africa may not be prepared to believe that schools of different grades have existed for centuries in various interior negro countries, and under the provisions of law, in which even the poor are educated at the public expense, and in which the deserving are carried on many years through long courses of regular instruction. Nor is this system always confined to the Arabic language, or to the works of Arabian writers. A number of native languages have been reduced to writing, books have been translated from the Arabic, and original works have been written in them. Schools also have been kept in which native languages are taught. Indeed, one of the most gratifying evidences has thus been furnished of the favorable influences exerted by the unrestricted use, as well as the general diffusion of the knowledge of letters; while the truth is not less certain, because hitherto unknown, that large portions of the African Continent lie open to the access of Christian influences through channels thus prepared by education.

These and other facts, which we shall not stop to mention, make it appear wonderful indeed that the African race should be judged by us only from that small and unfortunate portion of it found in the western continent. Where is the excuse for looking only at ten millions, more or less, of slaves and descendants of slaves in America, and entirely neglecting to inquire into the condition and character, the history and capacities of the hundred or more millions of negroes in their native country, who have had some opportunity to show what they are capable of? It is now time for public attention in the United States to be directed to Africa, and an attentive perusal of the most recent travels will afford the reader the details of many things which we can only cursorily mention in this article, while earlier publications will be found to afford confirmation of some of the most important facts. It certainly will bring more compunction to the hearts of the humane among us, to learn that the race which we have been accustomed to despise, as well as to ill treat, still lie under a load of evils perpetuated by the prejudices prevailing even among many of the most enlightened Christians; and it will be surprising to be told, that among the victims of the slave-trade among us have been

men of learning and pure and exalted characters, who have been treated like beasts of the field by those who claimed a purer religion.

About a hundred years ago a report reached England that a young African slave in Maryland, named Job-ben-Solomon, was able to write Arabic, and appeared to be well-educated and well-bred. Measures were taken to secure his release, and he was sent to England, where he assisted Sir Hans Sloane in translating Arabic, and acquired a character of the highest kind for intelligence, judgment, morality, and kindness of heart. He was sent up the Gambia River to Bundu, where he was received with the warmest welcome, and the truth of his story was fully proved, he being the son of the hereditary prince of that part of the country. Several other Africans. have been known at different periods, in different parts of America, somewhat resembling Job-ben-Solomon in acquirements; but, unfortunately, no full account of any of them has ever been published. The writer has made many efforts to remedy this defect, and has obtained some information from a few individuals. But there are insuperable difficulties in the way in slave countries, arising from the jealousies of masters, and other causes, which quite discouraged a gentleman who made exertions in the South some years since, and compelled him to abandon the undertaking in despair, although he had resided in Africa, and had both the taste and the ability necessary to success. The writer has found a few native Africans in the North, of whom only three were able to write, and only one had opportunity to give him long personal interviews. "Prince," or "Abder-rahman," he saw once in New York, about the year 1830; from "Morro," or "Omar-ben-Sayeed," long living in Fayetteville, N. C., he procured a sketch of his life in Arabic; and from "Old Paul," or "Lahmen Kibby," he obtained a great amount of most interesting information. That venerable old man was liberated in 1835, after being about forty years a slave in South Carolina, Alabama, and other southern states, and spent about a year in New York, under the care of the Colonization Society, while waiting for a vessel to take him back to his native country. The writer held numerous and prolonged interviews with him, and found him deeply interested in making his communications concerning his native

country and people, as well as his own history, for the purpose of having them published, for the information of Americans. He often said, "There are good men in America, but all are very ignorant of Africa. Write down what I tell you exactly as I say it, and be careful to distinguish between what I have seen and what I have only heard other people speak of. They may have made some mistakes; but if you put down exactly what I say, by and by, when good men go to Africa, they will say, Paul told the truth."

The writer has since arranged and written out the voluminous notes which he took from the lips of the old man, (some of them in stenography,) and has added many extracts from travelers and others, all confirmatory of his statements, but has never found an opportunity to publish them. It appears that his aged informant was in possession of many facts still unknown even to the most learned of America and Europe, which the most bold and enterprising travelers have failed to discover, though risking life, and even losing it, in the attempt. Three or four pages on the subject, published in 1836 in the proceedings of the American Lyceum, attracted attention in Europe, and the Paris Geographical Society to make repeated applications for more information; and Dr. Latham quoted them as one of the only three authorities on the Sereculy language, in his learned paper presented to the British Scientific Association. Dr. Coëlle, missionary of the Church Missionary Society, has since given a brief vocabulary of that language, (Paul's native tongue,) but without any particular information of the people. They are one of the negro families before alluded to, which are intermingled, without being amalgamated, over extensive regions in Nigritia, partly Mohammedan and partly Pagan.

His native country is Footah, peopled by several races, all governed by the Foolahs. This is the most western of the seven or eight separate and independent states or kingdoms lying in a remarkably regular series, and in a straight line along the southern boundary of the Great Desert, or Zahara, from Senegambia to Nubia and Abyssinia. These have been recently visited by that learned and energetic traveler, Dr. Barth, whose three octavo volumes contain a vast amount of information concerning those fertile and populous regions, their history and condition, so materially affected by the influence