TEN YEARS' WANDERINGS AMONG THE ETHIOPIANS.*
IN Mr. Hutchinson's Ten Years' Wanderings Among the Ethiopians, we have that gentleman's "third contribution to literature on the subject of Africa." The new volume is as interesting as it is inform- ing. It abounds in details of the manners and customs of the civil- ized and uncivilized tribes from Senegal to Gaboon; it is rich in practical suggestion, bold and honest in its avowal of unpalatable convictions, temperate and clear in statement, and definite in general purpose, if not in special applications. Mr. Hutchinson is no advo- cate of the slave-trade system. Yet, while detesting its cruelties and abominations as strongly as any humanity-monger can do, he does not believe that the Ethiopian is exactly a "man and brother," and he repudiates the doctrine of perfect equality, so far as concerns that wearer of "the shadowed livery of the burnished sun." Human brotherhood and human equality would seem to us rather to denote an ideal towards which we should make all posaible approximations, consistently with the welfare of mankind, than to indicate a fact of a constitutive or legislative character. There may be a sense in which all men shall one day be equal. There is a sense in which equality is not untruly predicated of all those who possess the average intelligence, moral refinement, and social standing of their times. There is a sense again, in which all men are said to be equals, as sharing in the attributes of the same common nature, even when the broadest of conventional partition-walls separates the luxurious Dives from the starving Lazarus. But equality, as a fact, certainly does not exist. Even among those who are socially equal—the peers of the club and of the drawing-room—there are men of widely dif- fering degrees of mental excellence. It often happens, moreover, that of these admitted equals, the inferior in rank or position is morally the superior of the titled magnate, verifying the Irishman's saying that one man is as good as another, and a great deal better. Granting, however, that an absolute equality neither does nor can exist at present, the question still remains whether it cannot be re- alized, in the remote future, of a possibly regenerated humanity; and whether the coloured races cannot be rendered available for the pro- duction of some nobler type of the human species, or whether, on the other hand, they are so incorrigibly corrupt, so unimprovably low in the.seale of being, that they can only be regarded as the waifs aud strays of humanity, being indeed sometimes susceptible of utilization for the benefit of the white race, but destined to be ground down, and crowded out of existence, in the common struggle of life. Those who accept the doctrine of a unity of parentage for the human species, would, we imagine, find it difficult to show that the Ethio- pians, whatever be their present state of degradation, are hopelessly shut out from the grander hopes and larger prospects of the race. U.mmprovable individuals, perhaps unimprovable aggregates of in- dividuals, there may be, and yet the eventual ennoblement and re- * Ten Years' Wanderings Among the Ethiopians, with Sketches of the Manners and Customs of the Civilized and Uncivilized Tribes from Senegal to Gaboon. By ThOrnall J. Hutchinson, F.R.G.S. London : Hurst and Blaekett. storation of the African family to that original birthright which a common origin presupposes may be by no means an impossibility, when the principles of moral and physiological education are better understood, and more wisely carried out. To those, however, who believe in a plurality of origin even the remote equality of the Ethio- pians becomes more difficult of conception. Such persons turning away from the mirage of speculation, will content themselves with such a stand as they can get on the hard ground of experience and fact. Among these, Mr. Hutchinson, evidently with a strong con- viction against " the man-and-brother" theory of certain " mistaken enthusiasts," has his own practical view of the uses of the black people among whom he has travelled, and with whose qualities and customs he is familiar. His creed is very short and simple. He holds as an abiding faith that the slave population is destined to be the future working power in drawing forth Africa's resources for their own and their country's good. In any scheme of new°ro civili- zation that may be adopted, our author very judiciously observes that it is next to impossible to apply any one mode of action to all tribes, and maintains the inexpediency of endeavouring "to assimi- late their undeveloped ideas to ours, instead of bringing our higher reasoning faculties to the development and improvement of theirs." The first step in the civilizing project is, in Mr. Hutchinson's opinion, "to develop the industrial resources of Africa by teaching her children how to cultivate cotton and coffee, and to increase the manufacture of palm oil." To forward this object he suggests that the system of pataing—a kind of voluntary servitude, tending, when duly modified, to the gradual abolition of slavery—might be made available. The first great obstacle to the civilization of the African race being the relative position and mutual dependence of master and slave. For further explanations on this point, as well as for much curious information on the varied phases of the slave export trade, on the domestic slavery at Lagos, at Cape Coast, and in the Yoruba country, we must refer our readers to the first chapter of Mr. Hutchin- son's new book.
The three strongest characteristics of the African race appear to be domestic affection, love of country, and the faculty of imitation, of all of which our author gives seine anecdotic-al or expository illus- tration. The intellect of the tropical African is certainly not highly developed, and the boast of mental equality with the white race, made by the Rev. E. Blyden, the literary champion of the Liberian Republic, ism% author treats as a piece of flagrant bombast; contend- ing that its establishment on the unmixed negro element is a great mistake. Along the Gold Coast the existing state of things is very deplorable. Human sacrifices are celebrated at Old and New Kala- bar, at Aboh, and Brass or Nimbe. Civil wars are general through- out the coast. Cannibalism exists in the Omun country, in the Nimbe country, and at Dahomey. At Sierra Leone a Mr. Priddy, a missionary, saw hampers of dried human flesh, after the late war, carried on the backs of men, on which they intended to feast. In Brass, as at Bonny, all enemies taken in war are eaten, a practice justified by anthropophagists on the plea that devouring the flesh of their enemies makes them braver. On the river Gaboon, the Pangwes exhume and eat up the dead bodies of their friends. At Bonny, a Su-ju man, who was accused of having eaten the head of a brother black, replied with the most imperturbable sangfroid, that he had not eaten it,for the cook had spoiled it by not putting enough pepper on it. The brutalities of the King of Ashantee, half a century ago, who is reported to have sacrificed three thousand human victims on the grave of his mother, and at whose own death two hundred slaves were slaughtered every week for three months, have been imitated quite recently by Badahung, King of Dahomey. To exterminate a rival tribe is now the foremost object of the Bonny people; "and their modus operandi of effecting this resolution is by waiting for them in ambush, and then capturing, killing, and eating them." The "moral force" presence of a man-of-war (the only moral force which Mr. Hutchinson thinks of much value in Africa) would seem to be the sole remedial measure, which can be effectively applied in such a case. In this view he would be supported by Mr. Laird, who, in his evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, gave it as his opinion that "moral force meant a 24-pounder with a British seaman behind it." It may seem wrong to discourage African philan- thropy and evangelization by attesting the slight success of religious teaching, even when accompanied by industrial training. It cannot but be right, however, to place on record the avowal of the mission- aries themselves that at Cape Palmas, for instance, the people are apparently becoming worse and worse. Still the fault may be in the methods of reclamation adopted. Civilization has, perhaps, yet to learn how to treat barbarism.
In the eighth chapter of the present volume, Mr. Hutchinson exhibits three principal phases of Sierra Leone, the Commercial, the Social, and Sanitary. Sierra Leone, after all the exertions, after the enormous expenditure of the government and people of Great Britain, is, unhappily, no exceptional colony. Native enterprise, self-respect, or self-reliance, are nowhere to be found. Whether as regards our commerce or our philanthropy, our money has hitherto been wofully mis-spent, so far as any practical result is concerned. In one im- portant respect the colony has, however, improved. The mortality has diminished, not indeed from change of climate, but from the adoption of a more suitable costume, the general use of quinine, and the drainage of the town. It is some little encouragement to find that there the assimilated European is better able to resist the climatic influences than persons of mixed colour. The commercial recommendations of our author ; his advice to supercarg,oes ; his cursory revision of the paragraphs of the Order in Council intended for Western Africa; his attempt to improve the present code of trade regulations up the Old Kalabar ; his opinions on the operations up the Niger ; his remarks on the dealings in the Palm-oil rivers; his proportioning of credit to the yearly produce and the amount of tonnage in the rivers; and his comments on the so-called hulk system, testify to Mr. Hutchinson's practical wisdom and experience. Other passages in this volume evince also his enter- prising spirit, and throw light on the tribes and countries interior to Botanga ; give a sketch of Fernando Po under its new rigime (since 1858), and notice the Victoria settlement at Amboise Bay. Nor must we omit to mention the luminous chapter on French voluntary emigration, with the clearly related history of the "Charles et Greorges" affair at Mozambique. The supposed voluntary emigration has already given rise to internecine wars, while the horrors of the middle passage endured by the poor emigrants presumably equal those recorded of bond fide slave voyages, since out of a cargo of nine hundred and fifty negroes which left Longuebonne, near Iabenda, only six hundred and forty-seven, after a thirty days' voyage, arrived at Guadaloupe. As to the "Charles et Georges" affair, it is proved on the evidence before the Mozambique commissioners, that "the papers were all forged, while of the one hundred and ten negroes on board, many had been sold to the captain and some stolen from their masters." In Mr. Hutchinson's view, the whole proceeding from beginning to end reflects no credit on either the Portuguese orFrench Government; yet he has too strong a faith in the humanity and in- telligence of the French Emperor, Government, and people, to believe that they would sanction such a system as this were they aware of the existence of such horrors in conuexion with it as he has deemed it his duty to record.
As Consul for the Bight of Biafra and the island of Fernando Po, and as a ten years' wanderer among the Ethiopians, Mr. Hutchinson has had rare opportunities of observation. His impression of African character appears now to be less favourable than it was when he wrote his two earlier works. In this correction of opinion we may see only a result of an enlarged acquaintance with the "naked and unadorned truth" as it has gradually revealed itself to the author, or we may suspect imperfect generalization and erroneous conclusion, dictated by despondency and deferred hope. We leave it to more competent judges than ourselves to decide on the probable future of the Ethiopian race. Mr. Hutchinson has contributed some data to aid them in arriving at a decision. He has written a ;book which, if deficient in literary grace, has many and varied merit. He speaks as an eye-witness, as a reflective and experienced man, and the testi- mony of such a reporter cannot but be interesting and instructive. The problem suggested by his book is how to save and ameliorate "the Ethiopian people, a race the lowest in civilization of all created species, inhabiting a soil the richest in the production of such indus- trial resources as tend to the comfort of the great human family." Who shall be wise enough and bold enough to solve, or help to solve, this imperial problem ?
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