Observations Upon the Windward Coast of Africa   By: Joseph Corry

OBSERVATIONS UPON THE WINDWARD COAST OF AFRICA, THE RELIGION, CHARACTER, CUSTOMS, &c. OF THE NATIVES; WITH A SYSTEM UPON WHICH THEY MAY BE CIVILIZED, AND A KNOWLEDGE ATTAINED OF THE INTERIOR OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY QUARTER OF THE GLOBE; AND UPON THE NATURAL AND COMMERCIAL RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY; MADE IN THE YEARS 1805 AND 1806.

BY JOSEPH CORRY.

WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING A LETTER TO LORD HOWICK, ON THE MOST SIMPLE AND EFFECTUAL MEANS OF ABOLISHING THE SLAVE TRADE.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR G. AND W. NICOL, BOOKSELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY, PALL MALL; AND JAMES ASPERNE, CORNHILL. BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND ROW, ST. JAMES'S 1807.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

MY LORD,

Hightly flattered by your Lordship's polite condescension, in permitting me to inscribe to you the following Pages, I return your Lordship my most unfeigned thanks.

If they meet your Lordship's approbation, and that of a discerning Public; or if they tend in the most remote degree to excite more intelligent efforts and more active enterprise on behalf of the unenlightened African, or to augment the Commerce of the United Kingdom with a Country, now in danger of falling into the hands of our Enemies, I shall feel an ample reward for the risques and dangers to which I have been exposed in collecting these Fragments; while the occasion gives me the opportunity of subscribing myself,

With grateful acknowledgments, Your Lordship's Most obedient, and devoted humble Servant,

JOSEPH CORRY,

PREFACE.

With becoming deference, I shall endeavour to illustrate in the following pages, the observations I have personally made upon the Coast of Africa, and to give the information I have obtained from an extended circle of Chiefs, and native Tribes, relative to its Inhabitants, their Religion, Habits and Customs, the natural productions and commercial resources, &c. and attempt to delineate the most eligible grounds upon which the condition of the African may be effectually improved, and our commercial relations be preserved with that important quarter of the globe.

Though deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, and my own incompetency, I obtrude myself upon Public notice, governed by this reflection, that I am stimulated by an ardent zeal for the prosperity of my Country, and am animated by a philanthropic solicitude for the effectual manumission of the African, from his enslaved customs, his superstitious idolatry, and for the enlargement of his intellectual powers.

I shall guard against the sacrifice of truth to abstracted principles; and if in the most remote degree, I excite the interference of my countrymen in behalf of the African, extend our commerce, and enlarge the circle of civilized and Christian Society, I shall think that I have neither travelled, nor written in vain.