The life of the sailor is most particularly attractive to the freed slave; for he thinks, in his conceit, that he is on an equality with all men when once on the muster-rolls, and then he calls all his fellow-Africans "savages." Still the African's peculiarity sticks to him: he has gained no permanent good.

The association of white men and the glitter of money merely dazzle him.

He apes like a monkey the jolly Jack Tar, and spends his wages accordingly.

If chance brings him back again to Zanzibar, he calls his old Arab master his father, and goes into slavery with as much zest as ever.
I have spoken of these freed men as if they had no religion.

This is practically true, though theoretically not so; for the Arabs, on circumcising them, teach them to repeat the words Allah and Mohammed, and perhaps a few others; but not one in ten knows what a soul means, nor do they expect to meet with either reward or punishment in the next world, though they are taught to regard animals as clean and unclean, and some go through the form of a pilgrimage to Mecca.