is an argument long since protested against with noble feeling, and
strikingly exemplified, by the ever-illustrious Humboldt. It is often
attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our
poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws
of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this
bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the
thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another
land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at
the slave owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put
themselves into the position of the latter; what a cheerless prospect,
with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever
hanging over you, of your wife and your little children--those objects
which nature urges even the slave to call his own--being torn from you
and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and
palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves,
who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes
one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and
our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been
and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least
have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate
our sin.
On the last day of August we anchored for the second time at Porto
Praya in the Cape de Verd archipelago; thence we proceeded to the
Azores, where we stayed six days. On the 2nd of October we made the
shore, of England; and at Falmouth I left the Beagle, having lived on
board the good little vessel nearly five years.
Our Voyage having come to an end, I will take a short retrospect of the
advantages and disadvantages, the pains and pleasures, of our
circumnavigation of the world. If a person asked my advice, before
undertaking a long voyage, my answer would depend upon his possessing a
decided taste for some branch of knowledge, which could by this means
be advanced. No doubt it is a high satisfaction to behold various
countries and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures gained at
the time do not counterbalance the evils. It is necessary to look
forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some fruit will
be reaped, some good effected.
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