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gifts are made by the people at the inftigation of the priests, who keep them in the profoundest ignorance, and convert that ignorance to their own advantage, by thefe enormous impofitions. The king himfelf is deceived as much as his peoples. He continually is offering to the temple of the fnake the most valuable things. He is fpurred on by the advice of his courtiers, who fet before him the impoffibility of gaining victories over his enemies, or of enjoying his crown in peace, unless the divine being is first fatisfied by the homage paid to his fervant the fnake; and they never fail with the priests to fhare the booty.

The origin of the worship of this fnake, the negroes affirm to be very ancient; and it really appears to be so. Let the rife of it be when it would, we may take it for granted, it was in times of the darkest stupidity, and has been kept up, as it very likely was first instituted, by the cunning artifices of thofe who have known how to proût by it. The kings of Whidah ufed formerly to make annual proceffions to the fnake temple. Thefe were celebrated with great magnificence, and terminated with rich offerings. Prefents of great value were not only made to the deity and his priests, but to the nobiJity that affifted at the folemnity. The prefent king has with difficulty broke through the custom of making this proceffion; and indeed feems tired of offerings attended with so great an expence, and fo little advantage. This, Bofman fays, he had an opportunity once of obferving. Finding him one day in a violent rage, he took the liberty of enquiring into the occafion of his majesty's paffion. He frankly replied, he had this year fent much richer offerings than usual to the snake, in hopes of obtaining a good harveft: that his viceroys urged him to make farther offerings, and the priests threatened him with a barren year, if he refused to comply. "However, fays he, I have no in tention of doing it for if the fnake will not grant a good year, he may let it alone: he will fuffer with me. He cannot hurt me more than he has done, by emptying my coffers, and yet letting my corn rot.`

There is a very large temple erected for the refidence of this deity; a revenue appointed for its fupport; priests and pontiffs to attend it. In

this temple is the great and chief fnake, which the negroes are fo credulous as to believe, is the very fame that was placed there from the beginning, when they first had the happiness of being enlightened with the knowledge of this worship: fo of course, we may fuppofe, they think he will never die. The priests will take care they fhall never know of its death, and will always have another ready to fupply its place. Although this chieftain-fnake is the most honoured, yet all the rest are likewife worshipped, fed, and fondled. No infult or injury dare be committed to any of them by a native, on pain of death; and if an European should be so hardy as to pafs an affront on the deity, he would not fail fuffering from its votaries. Of this the English had a tragical inftance: for on their first fettling in Whidah, the captain having unfhipped his goods on the fhore, the failors found at night a fnake in their magazine, which they ignorantly killed, and threw upon the bank, little dreaming of any bad confequences. The negroes foon difcovered the facrilege, and had it confirmed by the acknowledgment of the English. Shocked at fuch horrid impiety, they were not long in avenging it, by a method no lefs horrible. All the inhabitants of the province affembled, attacked the English, maffacred them all to a man, and then confumed their bodies and goods in the fire they had fet to the warehouse.

Animals of all kinds are punished with death, for injuring a snake. In 1697, a hog that had been teazed by one of them, gnashed and devoured it with its teeth: whereupon all the hogs in the kingdom were ordered to be flain, and the order was immediately put in execution; till after fome thousands had expiated by their death, the affront offered to the deity, the king interpofed, and a stop was put to the flaughter. With this care and attendance, thefe ridiculous deities multiply fo faft, that the kingdom fwarms with them. They are a perfect puifance from their number and familiarity, and crawl about the houfes fo as to become very inconvenient: yet no one dares diflodge them or turn them out. Thefe are very large and long, perfectly tame, and no ways mifchievous or hurtful, unless provoked; and they are fure to receive no affronts in Whidah. It must alfo be acknowledged, that they are of fome fervice: for they have a particular

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particular enmity to all venomous ferpents, whom they always attack, and moft times

kill.

The highest mark of fuperftition, ignorance, and most amazing credulity in the people, is their fuffering themselves to be fo grofsly impofed upon by the priests, in regard to offering virgins to this fnake. Thefe facerdotal knaves apply to young girls, and tell them that the snake has a mind for them, and therefore they intreat them voluntarily to go to him, offering them liberal promifes; and if thefe fail, ufing many menaces, and denouncing terrible execrations if they refufe to comply, After they have perfuaded the girl into their opinion, they order her to embrace the opportunity at night, when the way is clear; then they immediately fall a fcreaming and howling, as if the snake had laid hold of her, and was carrying her off. They then adminifter a potion, which prefently renders her delirious; and this is believed to be the effect of the fnake's having taken her. She then is carried by the priests to the hofpital, provided on purpose for thefe occafions, to be cured. Their parents pay an extravagant price for their board and maintenance, and for the medicines applied to her, befides fees for the house. All this goes into the pockets of the priests; and this is the end and intention of the fcheme. The influence thefe villains gain over the understanding is amazing. By the time the girl obtains her liberty, the feems almoft perfuaded of the reality of the cheat contrived by the priests, and convinced that her brain had been actually difordered, and her person seized by the fnake. How ever, to fecure them against revealing the fraud, the priest never fails to threaten them with the most fignal vengeance, if they ever harbour fuch fufpicions, or reveal any doubts upon the matter. They have been known to execute their menaces; and women who have blabbed the fecret, have next day been found buried alive. All these particulars might ftartle our belief, were they not attested by writers of undeniable credit. Neither will it appear strange that those who can believe a reptile, or any other inanimate as well as animate thing to be a God, can have the reafon to stop there, and not as well credit the power of that God. On the contrary, they think this a plain proof

of its divinity; and therefore it highly behoves the priests to keep them up to this belief. Befides, next to the diety himfelf, they reverence his minifters; and as they suppose them acquainted with all his myfteries, it would be the highest impiety to doubt the veracity of what they declare to be true. The priests and priesteffes are fo much respected, that their very office is a protection for all crimes. Their power is exorbitant, their riches are immenfe, and their villainy and extortion intolerable. Some of the nobility look upon them as impostors; but were they to disclose the leatt hint of fuch a thought, poifon would be the confequence. If we have a view to the dark ages of Christianity, and to the priefts among all these ignorant nations; we thall think Butler did not much exceed the truth, when he said,

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Amidst all this abfurdity the negroes have fome glimerings of truth, at least the most fenfible among them. For they believe the fuperior great, all-wife, and invifible deity punishes vice, and rewards virtue; that he caufes the heavens to thunder, the clouds to rain, the fky to lighten, and the fun to fhine that his refidence is in the heavens, whence with infinite justice and goodness, by means of the inferior deities, the fnake and other fetiches, he governs the world. They have confused notions of hell, the devil, and departed fpirits. The former they call a fubterraneous abode, where the wicked are punished by fire; and this opinion has been confirmed amongst them by the arrival of a forcerer, (probably a missionary) who pretended to have come from thence. There, he affirmed, he saw feveral perfons of the court, particularly the late prime minifter.

We conclude with a short defcription of the country of Whidah. All Europeans fpeak of it with rapture, and extol it as the most beautiful in the world. The trees are ftrait, tall, and dispersed in the moft regular order, which prefent to the eye fine long groves and avenues, clear of all brushwood and weeds, The verdure

of

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THROUGH

Hamilton Puke of Brandon

B. Clowes Iret Sculpy,

of the meadows, the richness of the fields, and the multitude of houses, with a dimpling ftream, murmuring down a declivity to the fea, form the moft delightful profpect fancy can picture to itself. Every inch of ground is converted into ufe, except those places destined by nature for pleasure, where the woods fpring up fpontaneously in the most exquifite rural fimplicity. A perpetual fpring and autumn fucceed each other. No fooner has the husbandman cut his corn, than he again plows and fows the ground. Yet, is it not worn out: the next crop puts forth with the fame vigour as the former, as if nature here were inexhauftible. Certain it is, the kingdom of Whidal is fo

populous, that one fingle village contains as many inhabitants as several entire petty kingdoms on the coaft of Guinea; and yet they ftand fo clofe, that one is amazed how the moft fertile land on earth can supply the number of people contained in fo fmall a compafs. The whole kingdom may be compared to a great city, divided by gardens, lawns, and groves, and, in a word, is a true image of what the poets have fung of the Elyfian fields. There are great markets in all the provinces, and much trade carried on every where. That with flaves is the greateft, from whence the 'coaft takes its

name.

A Genealogical Account of Hamilton, Duke of Brandon.

HIS nobleman, who is the of that kingdom. He was after

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lord-commiffioner to the Scottish parliament; appointed one of the extraordinary lords of feffion, and one of the lords of the treasury, and died in the year 1694, in the palace of Holy-rood-houfe, Edinburgh.

fcends by the father from the illuftrious family of Douglas. William earl of Selkirk, fon of William the first marquis of Douglas, by his fecond wife, lady Mary Gordon, efpoufed Anne dutchefs of Hamilton, daughter of James duke of By Anne his dutchefs, he had Hamilton, who was beheaded by feven fons, namely James earl of Oliver Cromwell, for his attach- Arran, who fucceeded to his title ment to his fovereign Charles I. and fortune, lord William, who died 'The earl of Selkirk, on his mar- a batchelor in France, Charles earl riage, adopted the furname of the of Selkirk, John earl of Rutherglin, dutchefs. He was raised to the George earl of Orkney, lord Bafil, dignity of duke of Hamilton, by and lord Archibald.The eldeft, letters patent, dated September 20, James earl of Arran, was educated 1660, immediately after the refto- at the univerfity of Glasgow, and ration; and after wads inftalled travelled for improvement. knight of the garter. He declared was appointed by Charles II. one for the prince of Orange at the re- of the gentlemen of his bed-chamvolution, was chofen prefident of ber, and afterwards fent as envoy the convention of eftates of Scot- extraordinary to congratulate Lewis land; and when that convention XIV. of France on the birth of became a parliament, he fat as Philip, duke of Anjou, who in the high commiffioner; being alfo ap- fequel afcended the throne of Spain. pointed lord-prefident of the privy. During his refidence in France, council, and lord high admiral he ferved two campaigns as aid du June 1761.

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