e a proceeding to garrison our colonies with English negroes as
to garrison India with such men. Yet that is done at the present day,
and excites no remark.

The English-speaking negro of the West Indies is most excellent material
for a soldier. He is docile, patient, brave, and faithful, and for an
officer who knows how to gain his affection--an easy matter, requiring
only justness, good temper, and an ear ready to listen patiently to any
tale of real or imaginary grievance--he will do anything. Of course they
are not perfect; they have their faults, like all soldiers, and when
they chance to be commanded by an officer who is unnecessarily harsh, or
who speaks roughly to them, they manifest their displeasure by passive
obedience and a stubborn sullenness. English soldiers, on the other
hand, under such circumstances, proceed to acts of insubordination, and
it is for military judges to say which mode of expression they prefer.

The West African negro does not appear to such advantage as a soldier.
Although all the specimens, with the exception of the Sierra Leone
negro, possess the first necessary qualification of personal courage,
they are dull and stupid, and cannot be transformed into intelligent
soldiers. It may be wondered why the Sierra Leonean, who alone among the
West Africans is an English-speaking negro, should be worse than his
more barbarian neighbours; but I believe the solution may be found in
the fact that the large proportion of slaves landed in former days at
Sierra Leone from captured slavers were so-called Eboes, from the tribes
of the Niger delta; which tribes all ethnologists are agreed in
describing as among the lowest of the African races, and which, it may
be remarked, are even at the present day addicted to cannibalism. The
West African soldier is a mere machine, who mechanically obeys orders,
and never ventures, under any circumstances, to act or think for
himself. Should an African be placed on sentry, he fulfils to the letter
the orders read to him by the non-commissioned officer who posts him,
but frequently entirely ignores their spirit. Sometimes this is
productive of amusing incidents. For instance, some years ago, among the
orders for the sentry posted at Government House, Sierra Leone, was one
to the effect that no one was to be permitted to leave the premises
after dark carrying a parcel. This order had been issued at the request
of the Governor, to prevent pilfering on the part of his