Note 196 — Chapter XIX

When King Gezo was lectured by Mr. Duncan upon the cruelty of slave exportation, the latter, to illustrate the barbarity of separating children from their parents, “pointed out a she-goat with two kids, and asked him, if one were taken away, whether the young would not show symptoms of regret as well as the mother. At this he laughed heartily, but remarked that the he-goat, the father of the kids referred to, would feel quite indifferent.” Mr. Duncan could not help smiling in return, when the King touched his forehead with his fingers, saying, “Englishman wonderful and a good man.” Probably, the royal cynic meant this compliment much as the “good young man” signifies in the mouth of a fast young “party.” Mr. Duncan, however, rightly says of Gezo, as compared with the mob, “The King possesses talent far beyond the generality of his subjects; in fact, his noble mind seems to have been formed to govern.”