CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 109 in short ever}'tbiiig is the same as it was in the time of their forefathers. By the manner in which they perform their work, it is easy to perceive that they follow the plan adopted in former centuries, and the idea never enters their heads of improving upon any object, or of making a new invention.

This apathy to all progressive improvement is the more astonishing, as these negroes are for the greater part agriculturists, and have fixed places of residence, and consequently enjoy the opportunity of gradually perfecting themselves, as many other nations have done before them, who formerly stood at the same low degree of civilization. Amongst these people, however, civilization is in a state of permanent stagnation. A few individuals may indeed be met with who can read and write a little, but that is not worth mentioning, and thus everything is enveloped in the densest obscurity. The climate contributes in no small degree to this obtuseness of mind, and it is a well-proved fact, that Europeans who have passed several years in these parts suffer a diminution in their capacity of mind, and in time forget a great part of their former acquirements. Apathy and phlegma are congenital with the negroes : it is, therefore, not probable that they will ever rise in the scale of civilization. The west of Africa may, perhaps, form an exception to this rule.

These people are very candid and confiding, when they are acquainted with a person; they then seldom or never make a secret of their actions,