Page:Bible Defence of Slavery.djvu/260

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ORIGIN, CHARACTER, AND

were mean and groveling of soul. On that famous occasion, it is said by the above historian [vol. i, p. 285], that when the Carthagenians saw how much superior the abilities of Zantippus were to their own generals, in manœuvering the troops in battle, they were struck with astonishment, and said that the ablest generals of Carthage knew nothing in comparison with this Greek. As to the natural courage (which is but another term for superior abilities) of the Roman white men, and the black Carthagenians, there was no comparison; as the former, though often defeated, were never discouraged; while the latter fell into despair at the very omens of defeat. — Rollin, vol. i, p. 297. This author further saith, vol. i, page 356, that whenever the Carthagenians got a victory over the Romans, their white opponents, they would butcher, crucify,and tear the prisoners to death; but that, on the contrary, when the Romans got a victory, they were lenient and humane. This fact, to Hannibal, was a very strange thing, which his mind could not readily comprehend. Mercy to a defeated enemy, was, to the Carthagenians, a solveless problem, while in the minds of the Romans it was a virtue of the highest order. That such dispositions as these are the innate character of the negro race, is further shown from the fallowing: In Western Africa, it is now a custom of the king of Dahomey, annually to assemble all the chiefs and nobles of his kingdom, in order to aid him in the ceremony of watering the graves of his ancestors with blood. On such occasions, hundreds of human beings were butchered, consisting of prisoners, of criminals, and also of many