CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Checks to Population in different parts of

Africa.

THE parts of Africa visited by Park are described by him as neither well cultivated nor well peopled. He found many extensive and beautiful districts entirely destitute of inhabitants; and in general, the borders of the different kingdoms were either very thinly peopled, or perfectly deserted. The swampy banks of the Gambia, the Senegal, and other rivers towards the coast, appeared to be unfavorable to population, from being unhealthy; but other parts were not of this description; and it was not possible, he says, to behold the wonderful fertility of the soil, the vast herds of cattle proper both for labor and food, and reflect on the means which presented themselves of vast inland navigation, without lamenting that a country so abundantly gifted by nature should remain in its present savage and neglected state."

1 Park's Interior of Africa, c. xx. p. 261. 4to.

Id. c. xxiii. p. 312.

Of the checks to population

The causes of this neglected state clearly appear, however, in the description which Park gives of the general habits of the negro nations. In a country divided into a thousand petty states, mostly independent and jealous of each other, it is natural to imagine, he says, that wars frequently originate from very frivolous provocations. The wars of Africa are of two kinds, one called killi, that which is openly avowed; and the other, tegria, plundering or stealing. These latter are very common, particularly about the beginning of the dry season when the labors of harvest are over, and provisions are plentiful. These plundering excursions always produce speedy retaliation.'

The insecurity of property arising from this constant exposure to plunder, must necessarily have a most baneful effect on industry. The deserted state of all the frontier provinces sufficiently proves to what degree it operates. The nature of the climate is unfavorable to the exertion of the negro nations; and, as there are not many opportunities of turning to advantage the surplus produce of their labor, we cannot be surprised that they should in general content themselves with cultivating only as much

'Park's Africa, c. xxii. p. 291 & seq.

in the different parts of Africa.

ground as is necessary for their own support.' These causes appear adequately to account for the uncultivated state of the country.

Buf

The waste of life in these constant wars and predatory incursions must be considerable; and Park agrees with Buffon in stating, that, independent of violent causes, longevity is rare among the negroes. At forty, he says, most of them become grayhaired and covered with wrinkles, and but few of them survive the age of fifty-five or sixty. fon attributes this shortness of life to the premature intercourse of the sexes, and very early and excessive debauchery. On this subject perhaps he has been led into exaggerations; but, without attributing too much to this cause, it seems agreeable to the analogy of nature to suppose, that as the natives of hot climates arrive much earlier at maturity

Park's Africa, c. xxi. p. 280.

2 Id. p. 274.

3 L'usage prématuré des femmes est peut-être la cause de la brièveté de leur vie; les enfans sont si débauchés, et si peu contraints par les pères et mères, que des leur plus tendre jeunesse ils se livrent à tout ce que la nature leur suggére, rien n'est si rare que de trouver dans ce peuple quelque fille qui puisse se souvenir du tems auquel elle a cessée d'etre vierge. Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme, vol. vi. p. 2355; 5th edit. 12mo. 31. vols.

Of the checks to population

than the inhabitants of colder countries, they should also perish earlier.

According to Buffon, the negro women are extremely prolific; but it appears from Park, that they are in the habit of suckling their children two or three years, and as the husband during this time devotes the whole of his attention to his other wives, the family of each wife is seldom numerous.' Polygamy is universally allowed among the negro nations, and consequently without a greater superabundance of women than we have reason to suppose, many will be obliged to live unmarried. This hardship will principally fall on the slaves, who according to Park are in the proportion of three to one to the free men.3 A master is not permitted to sell his domestic slaves, or those born in his own house, except in case of famine, to support himself and family. We may imagine there

1 Park's Africa, c. xx. p. 265. As the accounts of Park, and those on which Buffon has founded his observations, are probably accounts of different nations, and certainly at different periods, we cannot infer that either is incorrect because they differ from each other: but as far as Park's observations extend, they are certainly entitled to more credit than any of the travellers which preceded him. 2 Id. c. xx. p. 267.

3 Id. c. xxii. p. 287.

in different parts of Africa.

fore, that he will not suffer them to increase beyond the employment which he has for them.

The slaves which are purchased, or the prison ers taken in war, are entirely at the disposal of their masters. They are often treated with extreme severity, and in any scarcity of women arising from the polygamy of the free men, would of course be deprived of them without scruple. Few or no women, probably, remain in a state of strict celibacy; but in proportion to the number married, the state of society does not seem to be favorable to increase.

Africa has been at all times the principal mart of slaves. The drains of its population in this way have been great and constant, particularly since their introduction into the European colonies; but perhaps, as Dr. Franklin observes, it would be difficult to find the gap that has been made by a hundred years exportation of negroes which has blackened half America. For, notwithstanding this constant emigration, the loss of numbers from incessant war, and the checks to increase from vice and other causes, it appears that the population is

1 Park's Africa, c. xxii. p. 288.

2 Franklin's Miscell. p. 9.

n