When the Sierra Leone Company was first settled, they endeavored to
bring over to their friendship all the petty African princes in their
neighborhood. Among others, they applied to a chief of the name of
Naimbanna, who was remarkable for a good disposition and an acute
understanding. He easily saw that the intention of the company was
friendly to Africa, and entered into amity with them.
They spoke to him about the slave trade, and gave him reasons for
wishing to have it abolished. He was convinced of its wickedness, and
declared that not one of his subjects should ever go into slavery
again. By degrees, they began to talk to him about religion, but he
was rather wary on that head. It seems he had formed some prejudices
against Christianity.
Finding, however, that the Company's factory contained a very good
sort of people, and that they lived happily among themselves, he began
to think more favorably of their religion; but he was still backward
either in receiving it himself, or in making it the religion of his
country. He was well convinced of the barbarous state of his own
people, on a comparison with Europeans, and he wished for nothing more
than a reformation among them, especially in religion.
But as he found there were several kinds (or forms) of religion in
the world, he wished to know which was the best before he introduced
either of them. To ascertain this point as well as he could, he took
the following method: He sent one of his sons into Turkey, among the
Mohammedans; a second into Portugal, among the Papists; and the third
he recommended to the Sierra Leone Company, desiring they would send
him to England, to be there instructed in the religion of that country.
It appears he meant to be directed by the reports of his sons in the
choice of a national religion. Of the two former of these young men,
we have no particulars, only that one of them became very vicious. The
last mentioned, though I believe the eldest, bore his father's name,
Naimbanna. The Sierra Leone Company received the charge of him with
great pleasure, believing that nothing could have a better effect in
promoting their benevolent schemes, than making him a good Christian.
Young Naimbanna was a perfect African in form, and had the features
with which the African face is commonly marked. While he was with the
Company, he seemed a well-disposed tractable youth; but when opposed,
he was impatient, fierce, and subject to violent passion. In the first
ship that sailed he was sent to England, where he arrived in the year
1791.
We may imagine with what astonishment he surveyed every object that
came before him: but his curiosity, in prudent hands, became, from the
first the medium of useful instruction. During his voyage he acquired
some knowledge of the English language; and although he could not
speak it with any degree of fluency, he could understand much of what
he heard spoken, which greatly facilitated his learning it, when he
applied to it in a more regular way.
The difficulty of learning to speak and read being in a great degree
subdued, he was put upon the grand point for which he was sent to
England--that of being instructed in the Christian religion. The
gentlemen to whose care he had been recommended, alternately took
him under their protection; and each gave up his whole time to him,
faithfully discharging the trust which he had voluntarily, and without
any emolument, undertaken.
Naimbanna was first made acquainted with the value of the Bible; the
most material parts of the Old Testament, as well as the New, were
explained to him. The great necessity of a Saviour, for the sinfulness
of man, was pointed out; the end and design of Christianity, its
doctrines, its precepts, and its sanctions, were all made intelligible
to him. With a clearness of understanding which astonished those who
took the care of instructing him, he made those divine truths familiar
to his mind. He received the Gospel with joy, and carried it home to
his heart as the means of happiness both in this world and the next.
His love for reading the Scriptures, and hearing them read, was such
that he never was tired of the exercise. Every other part of learning
that he was put upon, as arithmetic, for instance, was heavy work with
him, and he soon began to complain of fatigue; but even when he was
most fatigued, if he was asked to read in the Bible, he was always
ready, and generally expressed his readiness by some emotions of joy.
In short, he considered the Bible as the rule which was to direct his
life; and he made a real use of every piece of instruction which he
obtained from it. This was evident in all his actions. If his behavior
was at any time wrong, and a passage of Scripture was shown to him,
which forbade such behavior, whatever it was, he instantly complied
with the rule he received. Of this there were many instances.
One related to dress. He had a little vanity about him, was fond
of finery, admired it in other people, and was always ready to
adorn himself. His kind instructors told him these were childish
inclinations; that decency and propriety of dress are pleasing, but
that foppery is disgusting. Above all, they told him that the Christian
is ordered to be "clothed with humility, and to put on the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit." Such passages, whenever they were suggested
to him, checked all the little vanities of his heart, and made him
ashamed of what he had just before so eagerly desired.
The irritable passions, where lay his weakest side, were conquered in
the same way. His friends once carried him to the House of Commons, to
hear a debate on the slave trade, which Colonel Tarlton defended with
some warmth. When Naimbanna came out of the house, he exclaimed, with
great vehemence and indignation, that he would kill that man wherever
he met him; for he told stories of his country. He told people that his
countrymen would not work, and that was a great story. His countrymen
would work; but Englishmen would not buy work; they would buy only men.
His friends told him that he should not be angry with Colonel Tarlton,
for perhaps he had been misinformed, and knew no better. Besides,
they told him that, at any rate, he had no right to kill him: for the
Almighty says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." This
calmed him in a moment; and he never afterward expressed the least
indignation toward Colonel Tarlton; but he would have been ready to
show him any friendly office if it had fallen in his way.
At another time, when he saw a drayman using his horse ill, he became
enraged, and declared he would get a gun and shoot that fellow
directly. But his anger was presently assuaged by this or some similar
passage of Scripture: "Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go
down upon your wrath." He showed so much tenderness of conscience that
he seemed anxious about nothing but to know what his religion required
him to do.
When he could determine the rectitude of an action, he set an example
even to Christians, by showing that he thought there was no difficulty
in the performance. He said his father had ordered him, when he arrived
in England, never to drink more at one time than a single glass of
wine; and he considered his father's injunction as sacred. On this
head, therefore, all the instruction which he wanted was to turn his
temperance into a Christian virtue, by practising it with a sincere
desire to please God.
In the gay scenes which often presented themselves to his view, he
never mixed. His friends were very solicitous to keep him from all
dissipation, which might have corrupted the beautiful simplicity of
mind that was so characteristic in him. He was fond of riding on
horseback, but when he got upon a horse, it was difficult to govern
his desire for rapid motion. After remaining in England a year and a
half, and being carefully instructed in the Christian religion, he only
waited for an opportunity of returning home, which did not occur for
five or six months afterward.
In the meantime, two great points were the burden of his thoughts,
and gave him much distress. The first related to his father, whose
death he heard had happened about a year after he left the country.
The principal cause of his solicitude was his uncertainty whether his
father had died a Christian. He knew that he had been well disposed
toward Christianity, but he had never heard whether he had fully
embraced it.
His other difficulty regarded himself. He had now attained the end
at which he had aimed. He had been instructed in a religion which he
was convinced would promote the happiness of his people if it could
be established among them. But how was that to be done? With regard
to himself, he had had wise and learned men to instruct him. But what
could his abilities do in such a work--especially considering the wild
and savage manners of his countrymen? In every light, the greatness of
the attempt perplexed him.
With a mind distressed by these difficulties, he took an affectionate
leave of his kind friends in England, and embarked for Africa in one of
the Company's ships, which was named after him, the Naimbanna. Though
he had shown great affection for his own country and relations, yet
the kindness which he had received from his friends in England had
impressed him strongly; and it was not without a great struggle that he
broke away from them at last.
The distress he felt was increased by the society he mixed in at
sea--being very different from that which he had left behind. The
profligate manners and licentious language of the ship's company
shocked him exceedingly. The purity of his mind could not bear it. He
had hoped, that in a Christian country he should always find himself
among Christians, but he was greatly disappointed.
The company he was in appeared to him as ignorant and uninformed as his
own countrymen, and much less innocent in their manners. At length, the
oaths and abominable conversation which he continually heard, affected
him so much that he complained to the captain of the ship, and desired
him to put a stop to so indecent language. The captain endeavored
to check it, but with little effect, which gave Naimbanna increased
distress.
But still the great burden of his mind, was the difficulty which he
foresaw in the attempt to introduce Christianity among his countrymen.
Many were the schemes he thought of; but insuperable obstacles seemed
to arise on every side. All this perplexity, which his active and
generous mind underwent, recoiled upon himself.
His thoughts were continually on the stretch, and this, it was
supposed, at length occasioned a fever, which seized him when his
voyage was nearly at an end. His malady increasing, it was attended
with delirium, which left him only a few lucid intervals. In these, his
mind always shone out full of religious hope and patient resignation to
the will of God.
In one of these intervals, he told Mr. Graham, a fellow-passenger with
whom he was most intimate, that he began to think he should be called
away before he had an opportunity to tell his mother of the mercies of
God toward him, and of his obligations to the Sierra Leone Company. He
then desired him to write his will, which he began in the presence of
Captain Wooles and James Cato, a servant that attended Naimbanna.
When Mr. Graham had written a considerable part, as particularly
directed, manifesting the feelings and generosity of his heart,
Naimbanna complained of fatigue, and said he would finish it after he
had taken a little rest. But his fever came on with increased violence,
and his delirium scarcely ever left him afterward.
The night after, the vessel, though close to the African coast, durst
not attempt to land, as the wind was contrary, and there was danger of
running on the Scarries bank. Next morning, though, the wind continued
contrary, Mr. Graham went off to the settlement in an open boat to
procure medical aid. But when the physician came on board, Naimbanna
was just alive; and in that state he was carried to the settlement, the
next morning, July 17th, 1793, when the ship came to anchor.
On the first account of his illness, an express was sent to inform his
friends at Robanna; and soon after he was landed, his mother, brothers,
sisters, and relatives came to the settlement. The distracted looks of
his mother, and the wildness of his sisters' grief, affected everyone.
His cousin Henry, an ingenuous youth, who stood among them, attracted
the attention of all by the solemn sorrow of his countenance, which
seemed to discover a heart full of tenderness and woe. In the meantime,
the dying youth appeared every moment drawing nearer the close of life.
His voice failing more and more, the little he said was with difficulty
understood. Once or twice, those who stood around him caught hold of
something like our Saviour's words: "Many are called, but few chosen."
About an hour before he died, his voice wholly failed. He was awhile
restless and uneasy, till, turning his head on his pillow, he found an
easier posture, and lay perfectly quiet.
About seven in the evening of the day on which he was brought on shore,
he expired without a groan. When his mother and other relatives found
his breath was gone, their shrieks and agonizing cries were distressing
beyond measure. Instantly, in a kind of frantic madness, they snatched
up his body, hurried it into a canoe, and went off with it to Robanna.
Some of the gentlemen of the factory immediately followed in boats,
with a coffin.
When the corpse was laid decently into it, Mr. Horne, the clergyman,
read the funeral service over it, amid a number of people, and finished
with an extempore prayer. The ceremony was conducted with so much
solemnity, and performed in so affecting a manner, that the impression
was communicated throughout the whole crowd. They drew closer and
closer, as Mr. Horne continued to speak; and though they understood not
a syllable of what he said, they listened to him with great attention,
and bore witness, with every mark of sorrow, to the powers of sympathy.
After the ceremony was over, the gentlemen of the factory retired to
their boats, leaving the corpse, as his friend desired, to be buried
according to the custom of the country.