that there would be no want of arms and ammunition, which they
well knew would, if rightly used, enable us to make a whole nation
of wild men fly before us.
These, and many similar arguments, were urged with the most
impressive declarations of sincerity and unreserve; yet, whether it
might be owing to that almost universal prevalence of deceit and
falsehood, which teaches these people, as a matter of course, to
regard no man’s words as expressing his real thoughts and intentions.:
or whether some dissuasive advice and misrepresentations
had pre-occupied their minds, I had the mortification to find that
all I could say appeared to have very little effect. Therefore, after
convincing my own men that it was not my intention to lead them
into danger, I engaged them privately, and as it were on their own
parts, to talk with these people, and use their persuasion to induce
some of them to enlist for the expedition. The smallest number
that would suffice for the bare purposes of travelling and conducting
my waggons, was six in addition to my own ; and I had resolved to
proceed on my journey the moment these were engaged. As I
could not hope to obtain a body of men strong enough to render
our safety from attacks of the natives certain, I contented myself
with a number which would answer all my views in other respects,
and be sufficient for our protection and defence in ordinary cases,
trusting to prudence and watchfulness in circumstances of greater
danger, and relying on the Providence of that Great Being whose
works and whose wisdom in this remote corner of the creation, I
was desirous of studying and making the objects of my meditation.
To view the admirable perfection of Nature in a new light, and
not less beautiful in the wilds of Africa, was the irresistible motive
which led me o n : while the charms which novelty of scenery, heightened
by the interesting consideration of Human Nature under forms
perfectly new to me, and a philosophical contemplation of the various
objects which in these untrodden regions incessantly present themselves,
have for a mind constituted to feel them, inspire an enthusiasm which
none can know but those who have been placed under these circumstances.
How pitiable are those cold-hearted beings, whose amusements
and views, whose whole life, and even thoughts, are artificial.
Doomed to breathe the thick air of Insensibility; to feed on the gross
food, and wallow in the mire, of Sensuality and Selfishness; greedy of
every thing which, among men, passes by the name of enjoyment,
they never dream of the genuine pleasure which Nature bestows
only on those who view, with a broad admiring eye, the beauty
and perfection of all her works, equally stupendous in the smallest
insect, and the glorious picture of the starry heavens.
It must not be supposed that these charms are produced by the
mere discovery of new objects: it is the harmony with which they
have been adapted by the Creator to each other, and to the situations
in which they are found, which delights the observer in
countries where Art has not yet introduced her discords. To him
who is satisfied with amassing collections of curious objects, simply
for the pleasure of possessing them, such objects can afford, at best,
but a childish gratification, faint and fleeting; while he who extends
his view beyond the narrow field of nomenclature, beholds a boundless
expanse, the exploring of which is worthy of the philosopher,
and of the best talents of a reasonable being.