William Bascom, Director Museum of Anthropology University of California Berkeley 4, California ^^V r{/^ University of CaKfomia • Berkeley William and Berta Bascom Collection \i THE DESTRlfCTIO^; OF LAGOS. LONDON: JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 1852. Price Sixpence. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/destructionoflagOOIondrich THE DESTRUCTION or LAGOS. Lord Palmerston's announcement at the open- ing of Parliament, that the Slave-trade is almost at an end, and that only 3,000 slaves have been landed in Brazil during the last twelve months, '*of '* whom a large number had been seized by the ** Brazilian Government for the purpose of emanci- ** pation," precisely fulfils the opinion expressed by the Committee of the House of Lords in 1850. That Report, after stating that '' the suppression of *' the Slave-trade can never be declared impossible to *' England until she has at least attempted to oblige *^ Brazil to fulfil her treaties," concluded in the following words : " There is every reason to believe " that the present system is susceptible of a large " and immediate increase of efficiency by the *' adoption of such improvements as we have re- ** commended ; and that, if these improvements be ** adopted, aided by the other measures recom- " mended, there is reason to believe that this great '' object may be speedily and certainly obtained." It may be interesting to show how stiongly the Report has been corroborated and confirmed by testimony from the most opposite quarters. Scarcely A 2 was it presented when a work* written in Africa by an American missionary twenty years resident upon that coast, arrived in England. This inter- esting pamphlet touches on every subject mentioned in the Report, and alike supports every statement, and coincides in ever}^ opinion it contained. The Report stated that the Slave-trade is the great hindrance to commerce, that in those parts of Africa where it continues " it renders all security *' for life and property impossible; prevents thecul- " tivation of its most fertile soil, and the consequent "increase of lawful commerce." "Cotton, and ** almost all tropical productions might, it appears, " be largely produced in Africa, if this one master " impediment were removed. The present valuable and increasing trade," the Report further stated, must be utterly extirpated if the cruizers were " withdrawn, and which might be developed to an " unlimited extent if the Slave-trade were sup- " pressed." The intelligence that the Slave-trade is at an end is repeated and confirmed by every arrival from either shore of the Atlantic. Mark already the consequence ! " A few weeks ago we called attention to the " gratifying change which the abolition of the Slave- * " The British Squadron on the Coast of Africa." By the Rev. John Leighton Wilson, an American missionary in the Ga- boon River, on the west coast of Africa. "With notes by Captain H. D. Trotter, R.N. Ridgway. ** trade has of late years produced in our relations " with Africa, by substitutingcargoes of palm oil for ** cargoes of negroes/' " The import of palm oil " into this port for the last year has been unprece- " dently large; 24,000 tons, an excess on any former *' year of upwards of 3,000 tons." — Vide Extract from Liverpool TimeSy in the Times of January 26th. About the time their Lordships were urging the value and importance of Anti-Slave-trade treaties with the native chiefs of Africa, the Foreign Minis- ter of Brazil bears similar testimony. On the 16th of July, 1850, in a speech in the Chamber of De- puties, after declaring that the Slave-trade could not be continued if Great Britain was determined to suppress it, the Minister concludes as follows : — '^ England had made treaties with several of the " principal chiefs on the African coast where the " trade was conducted, and the spirit of civilization *' would not rest until it had completed its work." — Times, September 13th, 1850, With regard to the theory that our measures " have enlisted the national honour of Brazil against " the suppression of the Slave-trade,'' the Report of the Lords' Committee stated : *' We believe this *' opinion is wholly unfounded, and that, on the *' contrary, the Anti-Slavery party in Brazil, and a ** large and increasing party in Cuba, are unani- *' mous in desiring the maintenance and efficiency * • of the squadron." At the very time the Report was presented, it 6 had been already completely borne out in this view by the event. Brazil had been for twenty years bound to Eng- land by treaty to put an end to the Slave-trade ; but instead of the joint action against the traffic required by the treaty for this long period, Brazil encouraged the crime. The breach of faith was a casvs belli J and what would justify war, of course justified measures short of war, limited to the sub- ject of complaint. Slave ships were seized in the very ports of Brazil, equipping under the protec- tion of the authorities^ and if war was to be the con- sequence, the responsibility was thrown on the wrong doer. Public opinion in Brazil, however, respected the justice of the course thus forced on Great Bri- tain ; the attempt to create a popular excitement against us failed ; the Anti-Slavery party prevailed ; the Government turned round, expelled the slave dealers, declared the trade piracy, and have since co-operated in putting down the crime in fulfilment of the long violated treaty, and will continue to co- operate so long as England is in earnest. As, however, this change has been owing solely to the vigorous measures of this country, so on the other hand must they be for some time longer per- severed in. If England now withdrew, the Brazi- lian Government, without her external support (even if it remained honest), could not prevent in- dividuals from reviving the traffic, and the autho- rities in remote quarters from abettingit. And though 7 it is clear that the true national interests of the Brazilian Empire are vitally opposed to the Slave- trade, still some time miist elapse before this truth is so generally established as to ensure the effective observance of a prohibitory policy. It is most important also to follow out the system of closing the shores of Africa against the slave ship by treaties with the native chiefs, and by the en- couragement of cultivation and commerce which springs up the moment the Slave-trade is effectually suppressed. '^ With regard to the actual and direct effect of " the squadron in suppressing the Slave-trade, it has " been proved,'' their Lordships stated, *^ that when '' its operations began, the traffic extended over al- ** most every part of Africa, from the Equator as far ** as Cape Verd, a distance of nearly 2,500 miles." Whereas now, the Report added, *'the Slave-trade *' has been expelled from every quarter north of the '* Line, except from the Bight of Benin, a space of " less than 300 miles." On the same subject, Mr. Leighton Wilson, the American missionary before mentioned, says, " Such has been the diligence and activity of the '* officers of the squadron, that they have forced this ** trade out of more than three-fourths of the strong- '* holds which it once occupied." '* From Senegal, near the borders of the Great *' Desert, to Cape Lopez, a few miles south of the *' Equator, a distance coastwise of something like ** 2500 miles, there is now, with the exception of 8 '* three factories on what is called the slave coast, ** (the Bight of Benin) no trade in slaves whatever/' The district described in these extracts as the only remaining haunt of Slave-trade north of the Equa- tor, has been during the last few years, the seat of occurrences of the deepest interest, and influences have there arisen calculated to afford the strongest support to the great work now rapidly approaching its consummation. Along the shores of the Bight of Benin a narrow tongue of land, divided from the main land by a long shallow lagoon, extends from Cape St. Paul's on the west to Lagos on the east, where it is divided by the river Ogun, which there discharges itself into the sea. From Lagos, this tongue of land con- tinues eastward for some thirty miles farther, until it merges in mud, swamp, and mangrove, unap- proachable by land or sea. From the British fort of Quitta, near St. Paul's on the west, to the point where the available coast terminates on the east, is less than 200 miles, and to this space, as the only remaining haunt of Slave-trade north of the Equa- tor, the above passages refer. Sixty miles in a direct line inland from Lagos, is a place called Abbeokuta^ situated on the river Ogun. This river, navigable for vessels of some burden as high as Abbeokuta, has been however entirely closed by the people of Lagos to all trade except that in slaves.* * The Times of February the 23rd, after stating the arrival of the '' Sampson" steam-frigate from the African coast, and report- Abbeokuta is in the Yoruba country, a most fertile tract far larger than England. It lies be- tween Abomey, the capital of Dahomey, and Lagos, 150 miles from the former, and, as before stated, 60 from the latter. The country in which it is situated, when Cap- tain Clapperton passed through it in 1825, had for a long period escaped the ravages of the Slave-trade, and we find it thus described : He found it '* well ** cultivated, beautiful, rising into hill and dale, the *^ road leading through plantations of millet, yams, " calavances, and Indian corn.*' On reaching the town of Jannah, he passed *' through the market, which was well supplied " with raw cotton, country cloths, provisions, fruit, *' and vegetables." He found, moreover, '* three " dye-houses in full work, with upwards of twenty " vats in each, employing indigo of excellent quality, ** and forming a most beautiful and durable dye." After leaving Jannah, " a country planted with ** corn and cotton met the eye of the explorers day " after day. In every cleft of the hills, wherever ing the healthiness of her crew, and the convalescence of most of those wounded at Lagos, adds, "Commander T. G. [F. E.] Forbes was at Abbeokuta (Jan. 6th) engaged in organizing the forces of the town for defence, and developing the resources of the coun- try. Abbeokuta is expected to become a very important place, now that its sea-port, Lagos, is open for legal commerce. Lagos is the key of the country, healthy, and well situated for trade ; the bar may be passed in a good sailing vessel four days out of seven, and has ten feet on it at high water." 10 ^* there appeared the least soil, were cottages sur- " rounded by plantations of millet, yams, and plan- " tains, giving a lovely variety to the new scenery/* The people's honesty was no less remarkable. He ** travelled sixty miles in eight days, with a numerous and heavy baggage, and about ten diffe- rent relays of carriers, without losing so much as the value of a shilling, in public or private ; a circumstance evincing not only somewhat more than common honesty in the inhabitants, but a degree of subordination and regular. government, which could not have been supposed to exist amongst a people hitherto considered barba- rians." The chief seemed " to consider them as messen- gers of peace, come wuth blessings to himself and his country, and the general belief was that they were come to make peace wherever there was war, and to do good to every country through which they passed."* Very shortly after Clapperton's visit, this country was ravaged by Slave-trade wars, and the peace and prosperity he witnessed was succeeded by the most frightful atrocities and devastation. It is a fearful consideration, that these fell deeds were created by the ruthless cupidity of civilized men ; the supply of slaves to the white man has been the cause of all these miseries, and as the Church Mis- * Clapperton's Second Journey. 11 sionary Intelligencer well observes, *' The barbarities' of the middle passage, the imprisonment in the barracoon, were only the last links of a chain of horrors stretching far away from the sea coast into the interior." Within the last thirty years not a single house stood at Abbeokuta ; the natural strength of its situation, however, pointed it out as a place of refuge from the curse that was desolating the country, and the remnant of the population of no less than 130 towns assembled together for mutual security. Abbeokuta now contains at least 50,000 inhabitants. "^ Since 1839, the gradual diminution of the Slave- trade effected by our measures, had favoured the progress of agriculture, and secured another interval of rest and peace to this country, when, in 184*0, a movement commenced which appears to be provi- dentially directed to exercise an unbounded in- fluence over the destinies of Africa. A very large number of the Yoruba tribe, who, during the wars above referred to, had been shipped as slaves at Lagos, were captured by English cruizers and liberated at Sierra Leone, where they imbibed the habits of civilized life, while their hearts still yearned towards their native land. In 1840, fifteen of the Yoruba people were deputed by the rest to visit their country in order to obtain * Vide the evidence of the Rev. H. Townsend, a missionary at Abbeokuta, before the Committees of both Houses. 12 information relative to its state. Thev landed at Lagos, where they were treated with great cruelty by the slave dealers, they were robbed of all their property, and some lives were lost. The remain- der escaped into the interior, and reached Abbeo. kuta, which to their surprise, they found had sprung up on a spot where no habitation had existed formerly. They then embarked at Badagry, and returned to Sierra Leone, carrying with them the intelligence that the country was comparatively safe, and that they had been most kindly received by the inhabitants. In 1841 a large body of these people, in conse- quence of this intelligence, clubbed together and purchased a merchant vessel for the purpose of returning to their own country ; not only were they unassisted by the Government, or by European influence, but the vessel was seized by a cruizer on suspicion of being connected with the Slave-trade, and brought into Sierra Leone for trial. The facts, however, were so clear that she was released ; the voyage of 1,500 miles was safely performed; Lagos, the natural approach to their native land, being closed against them by the slave dealers, they landed at Badagry, and proceeded overland to Abbeokuta, where their arrival produced the deepest sensation. Had the dead risen again, the joy and astonishment of the inhabitants, who found their relations thus restored to them, could scarcely have been greater ; and the natural effect was, to inspire the warmest 13 feelings of gratitude and confidence in the English name. The tide of emigration continued, and now 3,000 British subjects are settled in Abbeokuta, and a few at Badagry, which was the only available sea-port, so long as the River Ogun, navigable up to Abbeo- kuta, continued shut up from all communication or transit but that connected with the Slave-trade of Lagos. The emigrants were treated with the greatest kindness, and so favourable a feeling existed, that in 1845, the Church Missionary Society formed an establishment at Abbeokuta, under the title of the Yoruba mission, with a branch mission at Badagry ; and far distant from British protection, six or seven missionaries are now devoting their lives to the great work Providence has opened to them in the heart of Africa. The Rev. Samuel Crowther, one of the mission, is himself a native of the Yoruba country. In a midnight attack upon his town, when quite a child, he was carried off as a slave. The vessel he was shipped in was captured by a British cruizer, and after being liberated at Sierra Leone, he was edu- cated at the Church Missionary school. He then became a school-master ; and, after several years trial, he was sent to England for ordination, and then proceeded to his native land to Christianize his fellow-countrymen. One of the first persons he met was his own mother, and she was his first convert. 14 Thus, by the wonderful dispensation of Provi- dence, good has come out of evil ; and the slaves, torn from their homes and their country, have tra- versed 1,500 miles of sea, to return Christian and civilised men, and to spread these blessings over the land of their birth. The missionaries have secured the love and reve- rence of the people far and wide. As they traverse the country, they meet with traces of Slave-trade in every direction, in ruined and deserted towns ;* but * ** The Rev. Isaac Smith, one of the Mission at Abbeokuta, is making an expedition from Osielle, a large town in the neigh- bourhood, accompanied by two Christian Yorubans. He says — " I started early this morning, to visit where the large towns of Emere and Kesi once stood. Our road lay in a north-east direction from Osielle, and continued for two hours and a half through fine cultivated farms. We then entered the bush, and pursued our path for two full hours more in the same direction, till we arrived at a spot where a road once intersected ours nearly at right angles : here our guide said we must stop, as Kesi lay within a short distance on the left. " By cutting away the underwood, we soon succeeded in finding the remains of the town. The ditch is still deep and wide, and much of the wall is still there, and the lower parts of the houses ; but no human being can anywhere be seen or heard. It appears that both Kesi and Emere were large, though Kesi was the larger place, and each was protected by a triple wall, or rather by an inner and an outer wall, evidently of some strength, and a suitable stockade. The path to Kesi lay through Emere. We halted in the place where the market used to be held, and saw the remains of the headman's house. The space between the two walls north- east of Emere I found to be 1300 paces, and the distance from the market-place — which I think about the middle of the town — to the inner wall west, about 1820 feet, as measured by a rod. 15 they have been joyfully received at several places not much inferior in size to Abbeokuta, the inhabi- tants of which are resolved to make common cause in resisting any attempts to revive the Slave-trade. The Yoruba language has been reduced to writing, the Prayer Book and a part of the New Testament have been already translated, and a grammar and vocabulary will soon be completed ; these are for the most part the work of Mr.Crowther. It is hardly possible to reflect on these facts with- out feelings of joy and thankfulness, as affording the promise of great blessings to a vast portion of the human race, who have hitherto endured miseries unutterable. When the Slave-trade is stopped upon the coast, the motives for war and man stealing are removed ; a state of peace and repose will follow, enabling civilization, industry, agriculture, and com- merce rapidly to extend themselves far into the interior; and thus the Slave-trade will be finally eradicated. The ditch at the outer wall of this place is still of considerable depth. Standing within the old wall of Kesi, I said to Goodwill, * Thirty years ago you dwelt here, in your father's house, with family and friends. You were then carried captive, and the place of your birth destroyed. To-day you see it again ; but what has God done for you since that memorable day V I then said, ' Now, tell me, if you can, in what directions lay the other Egba towns prior to the destruction of Kesi ;' when he pointed around, saying, * Ilugun was there, Tesi there, Kemta there, Ikija and Ikreku there,' and so on. The whole of this beautiful and once fertile district is now one continuous forest." — Church Missionary Intel' ligencer, March, 1852, pp. 52. 16 No wonder, then, that the tyrant of Dahomey should regard the progress of Abbeokuta as fraught with danger to the system on which his blood- stained power is founded. The capital of Dahomey is about 150 miles north- west from Abbeokuta ; and, from accounts as early as 1708, repeated by Captain Snelgrave in 1734, and by Governor Dalzell in 1793, we find that the system, so well described in 1851 by Captain F. E. Forbes (now at Abbeokuta), has existed in all its horrors for at least 150 years. The power of the King of Dahomey depends on the success of his slave wars, which have been the source of his wealth. In the spring of each year his powerful army, which comprises several thousand women, is set in motion for the country chosen for attack, which is always studiously concealed until the last moment. The first notice of danger is often conveyed by the shouts of the army surround- ing some devoted town, which is set fire to, and the hapless inhabitants rushing out to escape the flames fall into the hands of the Dahomans. The children, the aged, and the feeble are slaughtered, the rest are carried off to load the slave ship, or to furnish the sacrifice. In one campaign whole countries are thus laid waste, before the king returns in triumph to his capital, his army laden with spoil, and driving before it many thousand slaves. At the annual feasts, as witnessed by Captain 17 Forl)es, a great proportion of these unhappy wretches are lashed to logs of wood, and are thrown down from a lofty platform to the populace, who thirst- ino: for their blood, dash their brains out with clubs, and commit indescribable barbarities. Significant of the source and origin of these de- vilish practices, the model of a slave ship is a con- spicuous object at these horrible orgies. Upon the number of sacrifices and the amount of the dona- tions distributed to his army depends the con- tinuance of the reign of the King of Dahomey. The mind turns with horror from the contem- ^plation of all the woes inflicted upon suffering humanity by the long continuance of this infernal system, nor must it be forgotten that England in former times, as the principal slave-trading nation, probably contributed, if not to create, at least to stimulate and continue these crimes. The object of the mission of Captain Forbes and Mr. Beecroft in 1850 was to induce the King of Dahomey to abolish his Slave-trade, and failing in this, to urge upon him the deep interest the Queen of England took in Abbeokuta, where so many of her subjects were located. But the influence Abbeokuta was spreading ad- verse to the Slave-trade, was too powerful to be longer neglected, and with the secrecy ever observed in his marauding expeditions, the King of Dahomey with a great army, suddenly appeared before its walls in March 1851. The attack, however,' had 18 been expected, aiid happily a large supply of arms and ammunition, sent by the Governor of Sierra Leone, arrived the very day before. After a des- perate conflict the Dahoman army was utterly defeated, and fled in confusion with tremendous loss. This event was soon followed by an assault of the Chief of Lagos upon Badagry, the only available seaport of Abbeokuta, and the seat of a branch mission, which was attacked by near 100 canoes armed with swivels, when an Englishman, and a Krooman in his service, in charge of Mr. Hutton's stores, were killed, and a very large amount of British property destroyed. It is worthy of particular notice that a body of 600 men were instantly despatched from Abbeo- kuta to protect the missionaries and the town. Since his defeat, the King of Dahomey has been vigorously preparing for the destruction of Abbeo- kuta, in which he was to be aided by the Chief of Lagos, who having possession of the river Ogun, could, by means of his large fleet of canoes, land his army close to Abbeokuta. Between such powerful enemies the position of Abbeokuta was most critical, and a simultaneous attack could scarcely have failed of success. But most happily the destruction of Lagos has removed half the danger, and we may trust that the hand of Providence, which has so wonderfully raised up this great centre of all good influences, will bring 19 it through the heavy trials which may yet be in store for it. The people of Lagos had been long trained to arms in their habitual Slave wars; great military skill was shewn in their defensive wn^rks, which were armed with near 60 pieces of cannon, and manned by at least 5000 musketeers, while the ob- stinacy of the resistance is but too clearly proved by the heavy loss we have to deplore. From these facts we may in some degree esti- mate the enormous power for mischief possessed by Lagos over the comparatively defenceless countries around, especially by means of its fleet of upwards of 100 armed canoes, by which the army could be transported along the perfect network of water com- munication, which extends in every direction from Lagos, into the heart of Africa. It may be questioned whether, on the general principles of the law of nations, such places as Lagos ^ can be deemed to possess rights as States, or * The reputation in which Lagos and its chief were held upon the coast, is shewn by the fact that Messrs. Hutt (Feb. 22, 1848) and Bailhe (March 17, 1818), in advocating the with- drawal of the squadron in their places in Parliament, repeatedly quoted the report, that " the native chief of Lagos, finding he could not dispose of the numerous slaves on his hands, had caused upwards of 2000 of them to be slaughtered, and their heads to be stuck on stakes round the town of Lagos." — Hansard'^s Parliam. Debates^ vol. 96, 3rd series, p. 1098. We are aware that the authenticity of this statement has been controverted, but it is adduced to shew the kind of conduct which parties, who disapproved of the action of the cruisers, did not deem incom- patible with the character of Kosoko and his band of ruffians. 20 be entitled to the observances of international law. It is by the habitual violation of every principle of the law of nations that they exist at all, and the whole civilised world is interested in putting down criminal communities which devote themselves to the ruin of every country within their reach. Vattel, after stating that in the case of injuries inflicted by individuals of a State which accustoms or authorizes its citizens to commit habitual w^'ong, the State whose subjects are thus aggrieved may justly punish the entire nation, he exclaims, *' What *' do I say ? All nations have the right to league *' against her, to repress her, and to treat her as ** the common enemy of the human race. Christian ** nations would be no less justified to unite against *' the Barbary States to destroy the haunts of these " Corsairs, with whom the love of pillage and the ** fear of chastisement are the only rules of peace ** or war." — "Law of Nations," Book 2. chap. xi. " If there should be a nation which made openly "profession to trample justice under foot, despising " and violating the rights of others, whenever it " found occasion, the interest of human society " would authorize all the others to repress and chas^ ** tise it. We do not forget here the maxim estab- ** lished in our preliminaries, that it does not belong " to nations to erect them into judges, the one of ** another. In particular cases, and susceptible of " the smallest doubt, one must suppose that each ** of the parties may have some right ; the injustice *' of that which is wrong may come from his 21 ** error, and not from a general contempt for justice. ** But if by constant maxims, by a sustained con- '' duct, a nation shews itself evidently in that per-^ ** nicious disposition, if no right is sacred to her, " the welfare of the human race requires that she '* should be repressed. To form and to sustain an " unjust pretension is to wrong only him who this *' pretension interests; to mock at justice in gene- '* ral, is to wound all nations." — -Book 2. chap. v. In another place he says, the laws of natural so- ciety are of such importance to all States, that all nations *' have a right to repress by force that which " openly violates the laws of the society which na- " ture has established amongst them, or which at- ** tacks directly the good and the welfare of that ** society." — Book 1. chap. xix. As a nest of piracy" and plunder, the destruction of Lagos was a duty owing by civilised nations to themselves, in vindication of the law of nations^ and the principles so long ago laid down by the hischest international authorities with reojard to the Barbary States, in every respect hold good when applied to Lagos. But, apart from these general grounds, the con- duct of Lagos towards English subjects created in itself an unquestionable cause of war, and never was an act of war more just, or more hallowed by the peculiar circumstances connected with it. The treatment of the liberated Africans in 1840, the destruction of English life and property at 2^2 Badagry, the frequent occurrence of buying and selling the people of Sierra Leone as slaves, loudly called for redress, and the constant repetition of such outrages, could alone be prevented by putting an end to the Slave-trade, which created them. The thousand Dahoman allies, sent to join the Chief of Lagos, will carry back tidings which will be a very knell in the ears of the King of Dahomey. The people of Abbeokuta, with the devoted band of missionaries, will recover confidence, and may defy the worst efforts of his rage. The only remaining spots in the Bight of Benin, whence the King of Dahomey could export his slaves, are comprised in a narrow district, and these are hermetically sealed by our cruizers from the approach of slave vessels. No profit can hence- forward arise from his slave wars, and his power, so far at least as it is based on the export of slaves, must therefore perish. Great will be the gain to humanity when the power of Dahomey shall fall to pieces through its internal dissensions; greater still, if the king should abandon the accursed system he has so long pursued, and be able to induce his people to apply themselves to agriculture and the arts of peace. The destruction of Lagos and the opening of the river Ogun to the Yoruba country will be followed by a wide extension of the influence of the mis- sionaries, and of Abbeokuta.* Thousands more of * The pacificatory results of the destruction of Lagos are im- 23 tlie Yoruba people will return from Sierra Leone, and the Slave-trade will be quickly replaced by great exports of cotton, and the various other valu- able products of this fertile part of Africa. Yet a short period of vigorous prevention of Slave-trade, and we shall be enabled to reduce our forces, and ultimately to reap vast profits by calling into life a commerce capable of almost unlimited increase. No mistake however could be more de- plorable than to reduce our squadron prematurely, and the truest economy consists in maintaining it in a state of efficiency fully adequate to the demand for its services. Common justice to the heroic devotion of our officers and men at Lagos requires that the great importance of their enterprise should be fully understood by the people of England, who have so long demanded the suppression of the Slave-trade, and who will not fail to appreciate the gallant struggle which has struck the death-blow to the last remnant of the crime over 2500 miles of coast. Every Englishman may be supposed to be in some degree influenced in his opinions on this great question, by prejudice or party feeling, we there- fore conclude in the words of a citizen of the United States: '' In all these varied ways it does mediate. ''Peace has just been concluded between Abbeokuta and the tribes usually at war with it — Ijebu, Ibadan, and Ijaye. It appears that the king of Ife was their mediator." — Church Missionary Intelligencer J Marchj 1852, pp. 58, 59. 24 ** seem to us that the British squadron* has ren- ** dered important service to the cause of humanity. "It has put down piracy on the African seas ; has ** restored peace and tranquillity to a line of sea- '' coast of more than 2000 miles ; has called into ** existence a large and flourishing commerce, and, *' at the same time, has thrown the shield of its " protection over the cause of Christian mis- " sions, and all the varied agency that has been " employed to promote the cause of humanity and " civilization among the benighted inhabitants of ** this great continent. If these great objects are not ** icorthy of British philanthropy, we know not " where to find those that are^ ♦ The Rev. J. Leightoa Wilson. THE END. KORMAN AND SKEENj PRINTERS, MAIDEN LAKIj COVENT OARDEK.