horrid customs, convey a
blissful and happy state of being; but, alas! we must now take another
view, and contemplate these beings in the most degrading state, absorbed in
superstitious idolatry, inhuman customs, and shut out from the civil arts
of life, and the mild principles of Christianity. Their customs, their
hostilities, slavery, and the mode I have conceived requisite to
infranchise this unhappy race of men, I shall attempt to represent in the
following chapter; and happy shall I feel if the description excites the
attention and interference of more capacious minds on this subject,
interesting to so large a portion of the human race, and to the claims of
humanity.

CHAPTER VII.

_The Mode of Trial by_ Ordeal _and_ Red Water _in Africa.--The Wars of its
Inhabitants.--The State of Barbarism and Slavery considered.--The Condition
of the Africans will not be improved by a late Legislative Act, without
further Interference.--Salutary Measures must be adopted towards the
Negroes in the Colonies.--A System suggested to abolish Slavery in Africa,
and the Slave Trade in general, and to enlarge the intellectual Powers of
its Inhabitants.--The proper Positions to effect an Opening to the Interior
of Africa, and to display to the World its manifold Resources._

Trial by _ordeal_ in Africa is a punishment for petty thefts and
delinquincies. Trial by _red water_ is generally applied to crimes of
greater magnitude. After the usual ceremonial of calling a palaver, the
operation is performed by heating a piece of iron in the fire, the hand of
the accused is dipped into a viscous preparation, and the iron is
immediately drawn horizontally over the palm of the hand. If the judges
(one of whom is always the executioner) have previously determined, in
defiance of all the evidence, to prove the culprit guilty, the consequence
is that the flesh is seared; but if they are predisposed to acquit him, the
iron is dexterously applied so as to absorb the unctuous surface on the
hand without affecting it, and a sentence of not guilty is pronounced.

Trial by _red water_ consists in making the accused drink a quantity of
water, into which is infused the poisonous juice of the melley or
_gris-gris_ tree; this is prepared by these _equitable_ judges, and
applied upon the same fraudulent principles as in the trial by the _ordeal
of fire_; it is, however, less resorted to. If the unhappy object of
suspicion is affected in such a