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STATE OF THE NEGROES AT HOME.
From the French of Golberry, a late Traveller.

WE may compute the population of Africa, without extravagance, at 160,000,000. The climate and nature of Africa tend to render its black inhabitants singularly happy.

All the wants of the negro are satisfied, and all his pleasures attained, without the least trouble either of mind or body: his soul scarcely ever quits its peaceable indolence. Violent passions are almost unknown to him; in consequence of his fatalism, he neither hopes for nor fears any event, and submits to every thing without a murmur; in short, his life passes in calmness and voluptuous carelessness, which constitute his supreme happiness: hence the negroes may be reckoned the favourites of nature.

Like children, the blacks of a mature age devote their attention, for whole days together, to trifles. Conversations, which to us would appear only gossiping, are with them inexhaustible. These people incessantly amuse themselves in vague talk, with a confidence and gaiety of

VOL. V. NO. XXVIII.

which European societies scarcely afford an example.

In all the negro countries occur those assemblies called palavers, or palabres, which are formed at sunrise, and consist of thirty or forty blacks of all ages; they assemble either in a large hall, which they call the bentaba, or beneath the branches of some large tree in the village.

They range themselves in a circle, and the oldest begins the conversation by reciting the little events of the preceding evening; but these become important, by the applications, reflections, and remembrances, to which they give rise.

Soon afterwards the pipe makes its appearance; for the custom of smoking is doubtless general among mankind: all these talkers smoke, not excepting the youngest, and the prattling succeeds better on this account. The fumes of tobacco enliven their brains, and increase their pleasure, as those of delicate wine excite cheerfulness at our meals,

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when the charm is further heightened by the sweets of friendship and urbanity.

Gaming takes in its turn, and two of the most clever in the company are chosen to play against each other; the general interest is divided between these champions, but without jealousy, ill-nature, or the least dissention.

Their favourite game borders a little upon chess, and contains a degree of complexity which renders it difficult to be acquired. The ground, or the sand, serves for the chess board; for this purpose they prepare a small square surface, in which they plant, with a certain degree of order, some bits of wood or straw. It is on the skilfully displacing or removal of these strips, that the issue of the game depends.

Talking, smoking, and gaming, are so seductive, that they cannot prevail on themselves to separate till dinner-time, and many would sooner lose their meals than abandon their amusement; but the women, who are always kind, attentive, and complaisant, do not forget their fathers, husbands, or brothers, but bring them kouskou, or rice, to which they almost always add some dainty bits.

In this manner they pass the day, and, towards evening, I often observed these groups in the same place, and conducted with the same gaiety and spirit, the conversation being as animated as if it had just begun.

At length night puts an end to these palavers, and the company devote themselves to dancing, which during the dry season is performed in the open air, and in rainy weather under the bentaba. The negresses are passionately fond of this amusement. For half the night, throughout the year, all the negroes of Africa are engaged in dancing.

A thatched hut, the building of which cost nothing, some yards of coarse linen, and six pounds of millet, or rice, every day, are sufficient for lodging, feeding, and clothing a family, consisting of a father, mo

ther, and four or five children. The owner himself collects the materials for his house, and he is his own builder. The women procure the cotton, and manufacture their cloth; twenty days labour per year are sufficient to ensure an abundant supply of food, so that the existence of a negro family may be said to be a gratuitous gift of nature, granted without expence or fatigue: hence celibacy is scarcely known in Africa: indeed it is so rare, that a sort of stigma is fixed to those who adopt it.

The life of a negro, on an average, extends from 65 to 70 years, experiencing only an insensible alteration in their health and strength; an alteration which arises from a too abundant transpiration. They always submit, without complaint, to that fatality, which, according to them, determines the events of life and death; and they meet the latter with perfect tranquillity.

For the Literary Magazine.

YELLOW FEVER AT PHILADELPHIA IN 1805.

THE following is extracted from the annual report of the board of health of Philadelphia. The reporters, it will be seen, are advocates of one of the reigning doctrines relative to yellow fever; but being an official statement, even those who differ from them must acknowledge the propriety of publishing it in this collection.

"In addition to the sum of 16,000 dollars, which was due to the bank of Pennsylvania when the present board entered upon the duties of their office, they have been under the necessity of borrowing 7,000 dollars from the bank of Philadelphia, to meet the extraordinary expences which accrued during the calami. tous situation of the district of Southwark, in consequence of the prevalence of the malignant fever; of the last mentioned sum they have al

ready repaid 2,000 dollars, and they have a prospect of being able to repay the remainder of the money borrowed of the bank of Philadelphia, and part of the debt due to the bank of Pennsylvania, in the course of the ensuing year.

"Previous to the appearance of the fever, a certain number of labourers had been constantly employed to cleanse and wash the gut. ters of the streets and alleys, in addition to those employed to search for, and remove or correct, every kind of nuisance in the city and liberties. Every exertion was also made, on the part of the board, to forward the completion of the machine for cleansing docks, &c., mentioned in our communication of last year; but, from some unexpected circumstances, it has not yet been brought into operation.

"The additional buildings at the lazaretto, necessary for the accommodation of passengers and convalescents, have been finished, and the whole of the expences resulting from their construction defrayed.

"The board still retain possession of the old lazaretto on State island, and the city hospital on Schuylkill, both of which they propose to dispose of, as soon as they receive an offer equivalent to their value; with the proceeds of which they contemplate building an hospital in a more eligible situation.

"The late purchase on Hickory lane was occupied for an encampment, and served as an asylum to the fugitives from the fever.

"From the very great precautions which were taken at the lazaretto, to examine and purify all vessels from sickly ports, or that had sickness on board, and the very particular care which was taken to remove from the city and its vicinity, all such substances as might have a tendency to contaminate the air, the board flattered themselves that the city and liberties would have escaped the calamities inseparable from the prevalence of a malignant fever this year, as they had the last. These expectations, however, were not re

alized; for, on the thirtieth of July, they received information that two persons were ill of a fever, with malignant symptoms, at the house of Samuel Crisman, who kept a retail grocery store at the north-east corner of Catharine and Water streets, in Southwark, and that one of Crisman's apprentices was ill at his parent's, in the Northern Liberties. The two persons that were ill at Samuel Crisman's were immediately sent to the lazaretto, where one of them died, with highly malignant symptoms, on the 3d of August; the rest of Crisman's family retired to the country the day after the removal of the sick persons, and his house was cleansed and ventilated.

"At the time the sick persons were sent from Samuel Crisman's to the lazaretto, there was no other case of malignant fever in that neighbourhood, or in any other part of Southwark, and by the confession of Peter Young, one of the sick persons, on his death bed, in the presence of several witnesses, they had made a clandestine visit to the lazaretto the Sunday before they were attacked with the disease.

"At that time several vessels from different ports of the West Indies were performing quarantine at the lazaretto, on board of some of which persons had been sick, and had died of the yellow fever, and, among others, the schooner Nancy, captain Lake, from the city of St. Domingo, with a number of wounded French soldiers, who had been received on board from a military hospital, soon after which the whole of the crew, excepting two, became ill of the yellow fever; one died at sea, after three days sickness, and the captain and one seaman were landed, dangerously ill, at the lazaretto, according to the bill of enquiry, and an extract from the log-book of the vessel, transmitted to the health-office.

"For six or seven days after the attack of the persons at Crisman's, no other case of malignant fever, within the knowledge of the board, occurred in that neighbourhood, or

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