Ten years' wanderings among the Ethiopians; with sketches of the manners and customs of the civilized and uncivilized tribes, from Senegal to Gaboon

Front matter

EUGENE L. MO Oriental a African Bo 39, Museum Stre LONDON, W.C

*

TEN TEARS' WANDERINGS AMONG THE ETHIOPIANS.

Preface

Without any fear or trembling, I come before the public with my third contribution to literature on the subject of Africa.

If I be accused of sketching in this volume a less favourable portraiture of the African character than I have done in either of my former works, I shall only advance the plea of never having set forth anything in my description of these people but the naked and unadorned truth as it stood before me.

That I have met native Africans conscious of their own inferiority, and anxious for knowledge

Yui PREPACE.

to develop the industrial riclies of their country, I have already confessed, — that "the slave population is destined to be the future working power in drawing forth Africa's resources for their own and their country's good," I still hold as an abiding faith — that I have witnessed a cannibalistic sacrifice during the past year in one of the most important commercial ports of the Bight of Biafra, these pages will attest to the reader.

More than three hundred years have passed since Shakspeare made the Prince of Morocco thus address Portia, the rich heiress in the play of the " Merchant of Venice" : —

"Mislike me not for my complexion, Tlie shadowed livery of the burnished sun, To whom I am a neighbour, and nigh bred. Bring me the fairest creature northward born, AVhere Phoebus' fires scarce thaw the icicles, And let us make incision for your love. To prove whose blood is reddest — his or mine."

Despite of the opinion recently given in a work by Dr. Bucknill, " On the Medical Knowledge of Shakspeare," that the bard, who "wrote

PREFACE. ix

not for an age, but for all time," had sound views in physiology and pathology, the foregoing extract from his writings leads me to doubt it, even after making a broad allowance for poetic license. In our days more is required to enable us to judge of the attributes of humanity than the colour of a man's blood; and although any negro between Cape Bojador and the Cape of Good Hope may possess as healthy life fluid as the most vigorous member of the Caucasian tribe, it gives me pain to feel obliged to record facts that prove the Ethiopian is not exactly a " man and brother " in that sense of perfect equaUty which the mistaken enthusiasts who advocate the claims of his race represent him to be.

Yet, amid such anomalies as I feel it my duty to describe here, it is my impression that the little which is known of the vast continent of Africa — even with the labours of Livingstone, Barth, Burton, and Speke — may be

X PREFACE.

considered but as a drop in the great ocean ot discovery lying hid, and some day to be brought to light. When such an occurrence as the butchery at Bonny comes to our knowledge, only in the present year, who would presume to define the limits of the strange things yet to be revealed ?

Not 1, at all events. For every day of my ten years' connexion with Africa brought to light some feature of the country, or of the people, whereof I had previously been ignorant. Indeed, so sombre is the cloud of mystery enveloping all things in that land of heathen darkness, that it was only within the last eighteen months I became cognizant of the facts connected with the horrible system of anthropophagy prevailing there.

If I am asked to suggest a remedy for the barbarity of the people amongst whom this custom exists, I freely confess I have none to offer.

PREFACE. xi

For I pin my faith to an axiom laid down by one of the critics [The Spectator^ March 20th, 1858] of my " Impressions of Western Africa" — that "neither slave-dealing nor marsh- malaria causes human sacrifices or gross superstitions, accompanied by grosser crimes" — leaving the reader to deduce his own inferences from my "Ten Years' Wanderings."

Chapter I

Domestic Slavery of "Western Africa — Difference between this and the Foreign Export of Slaves — Its Yaried Phases — Women — Palm-Oil Trading Cockswains — PuU-a-boys — Emancipated Servants— Blood-men — Egbo-bos — Mangangas — Dikukn — Mikuka — Bangolo — Of Domestic Slavery at Lagos — At Cape Coast, and in the Yomba Coimtry — Of the Pawning System in these Places — ^Domestic Slavery regarded as a Katiu-al Institution by Rev. ISIr. WOson — Social Phase in Bonny — Importance of considering seriously the Pawning System as an Incipient of Civilization 1

CHAPTER n.

Opinion of Archbishop Whately on Savage Ci^alization — African Faculty of Imitation — Peculiarity of Anglo- African Idioms — Specimen of Grumbling Anglo-Africanism — Of the Mendicant —Of the Amatory— Of the Didactic— Of the PatheticaUy Sublime — Of the Grotesquely Artistic— Of the Historically Descriptive — Present Development of Mental Intelligence in Native Africans — Sir Henry Huntley's Opinion — Oiu* Examination into the Proofs for or against 16 xiv

CONTENTS.

Chapter III

The Republic of Liberia — Sentiments of Frederika Bremer about it — Its establishment on the unmixed Negro element a great mistake — Rev. E. Blyden's Vindication of the African Race" — Cases of Defection amongst the Colonists of Liberia — Its Causes explained by Mr. Blyden — His Condemnation of the Deference shown to White Men — Cases of Intellectual Development amongst the Native Africans — Contrast between African and Caucasian mental superiority and obtuseness — Position of Liberia investing its people with the power of good — Depressing state of things along the Gold Coast — Human Sacrifices at New Kalabar, Aboh, Brass, and Old Kalabar — The god country of the Brass people — Brutality of Human Sacrifice up the Niger — Punishment for Murder at Fernando Po — First Articles of War issued by Richard Coeur de Lion — Sacrifices in the Interior of Africa recorded by Dr. Livingstone — Heartless Wholesale Murder at Bonny — Homoeopathic Punishment for Offences in New Kalabar — The Long Ju-ju Country — Mode of Execution at New Kalabar 36

Chapter IV

Wilhelm Humboldt's idea of the human family being one fraternity— Baron Von Humboldt's concurrence in these opinions — Adherence of native Africans to gri-gris, ju-jus, and fetishes — Cannibalism — Probability of languages assimilating their nature to these practices — Of the sale of human flesh at Sierra Leone — Mr. Caulker's explanation of reasons for burning or burying alive the Negroes — Cannibalism at Omun, amongst the Boola tribe and the Ejoemen — Sale of Negro flesh at Old Kalabar — Cannibalism at Brass — Reasons given for eating the slaughtered bodies of their enemies — Of the Pangwes taking carcasses out of the ground to eat them — Reprisal cannibalism at New Kalabar 55

Chapter V

Author's doubts of foregoing brutalities, removed only by what he saw carried out — Reprisal Execution at Bonny preparatory to

CONTENTS.

XV a Cannibalistic Feast — Private Arrangements to obtain a View of the Scene of Execution — Sensations on seeing the Ju-ju house at early dawn — No Similarity between it and Newgate — The Executioner and the Victim — Appalling Nature of the Silence prevailing at the Butchery — Manner in which the Execution was carried out — Decapitation — Boys and Girls Carrying Bits of the Carcasses away with them — Two Women Squabbling for a Morsel of Negro Flesh — Inutility of Moral Force Preaching to prevent such Scenes — The Ju-ju Executioner's Reason for not Eating his Brother Negro's Head — Accounts of Similar Butchery and Cannibalism at Dahomey — Heroes Wearing Necklaces of Human Teeth 65

Chapter VI

Appalling consideration suggested by the foregoing Inhumanities — ■ DiflBculty of devising Remedial Measures for them — Paucity of British as well as Missionary Stations amongst the Native Africans — Questions regarding Great Britain's duty in aiding African civilization — No faith in the obligation of a National Compensation — From Serious and Sanguinary to Recreative and Refreshing — Sydney Smith's appreciation of Tropical Delectabilities — The village of Twa and its Attractions — Passage up the Creek from Brass Harbour to Twa — Architecture in the Village — Our trip to Brass town, the capital of Nimbe country — Richard Lander's description of it thirty years ago — Our night at the King's Country Palace — Variety of Serenading and other Attractions — The King's Fisherwomen — Ebony mermaids — Sensations on parting company 79

Chapter VII

Three glorious nights of jollity between Bimbia and Kameroons — Reflections on land about Sea-sickness— Preparing our Bivouac — A Game of Nine-pins with Cocoa nuts— My first Night's Comfort— Conjecture as to the possibility of M. Soyer's making a Palatable Dish from Leeches and Ship's Biscuit— Attractions in the Wrecked Ship— Pleasure of a Night passed on Board— Mingled attractions of Rats and Leeches— Thudding of Waves against the Ship— Of a Thirty -mile Walk along an African Beach, subsexvi

CONTENTS.

quent Sleep, and refreshing Dreams— Sensations of Waking in a Boat haK-fuU of Water — At sea once more — Dread of becoming a second edition of the Ancient Mariner — Safe at last . 92

Chapter VIII

Three Phases of Sierra Leone : the Commercial, the Social, the Sanatory — Philanthropy of our Government and People towards Africa — M'Culloch's Account of First Colonization here — Its Cost to the Mother Country — Exports in 1850, 1856, and 1858 — Table of Imports and Exports for the year 1858— Like Table for Gambia in the same year — Population of Sierra Leone — Remarkable Absence of Increase since 1836 — Commercial Importance of Settlements in Africa defined by Mr. M. Forster in Martin's work on the Colonies — Of Church Missionary organization— Of "Dignity Balls" and " Goombee " Dances — Mortality in 1859 — Dr. Clarke's account of Prevailing Diseases— Sketch of Slaves when landed from Condemned Ships • — Country Doctors — Best means of preserving Health in Western Africa 106

Chapter IX

The Gold Coast — Brutalities of the King in Ashantee half a century ago — Sacrifices after his Mother's death — Bloodshed after his own — The present King of Dahomey and his sanguinary intentions — Report of Cruikshank's mission to Dahomey, in 1848 — Festal Recreations, in the shape of Human Sacrifices, at Ashantee — Men butchered to do honour to the Portuguese slave-dealer, De Souza — A like ceremony in compliment to the Dutch general, Verbeer — The Dahomean King's arguments in favour of the Slave-trade — The French nation in its early connexion with Africa, especially with the Gold Coast — Their repudiation of the Portuguese claims to primary geographical discovery in this part of the world — Beginning of British legitimate commerce with Western Africa — First opening of palm-oil trade — Number of forts on the Gold Coast — Immense "wealth of its interior districts — Its Missionary establishments — Its Colonial Commerce for 1858 • 122

CONTENTS.

xvii

Chapter X

Of the River Niger and Belzoiii's Exploration in Benin — General Scenery at the mouths of rivers falling into the Gulf of Guinea — Similar to that of Eastern Africa, described by Captain Burton — Author's Opinions on the Commercial operations up the Niger after Pleiad's Expedition of 1854 — ^IVIemorial presented to Lord Palmerston in beginning of last year — Its Ai-guments, and the Assent of Government to them — Causes of Attacks by the Natives upon Steamers sent up by IVIr. Laird — Commercial Operations recorded by that Gentleman during the past three years — His Present Contract with the Government and its Proceedings — Impossibility of establishing a Profitable trade up that River without Government Help — A Gun-boat, War-steamers, and Tug-steamer required — Sir John Bowring's opinion of the Negi'o — Plans in reference to the Niger — Mr. Jameson's Views 143

Chapter XI

Despotic Government in the Palm-oil Rivers — Pilotage and Trading Comeys at Brass, New Kalabar, and Bonny — Commencement of Troubles in Bonny on the Dethronement of King Pepple — New Articles to Treaty in January, 1854, constituting Dappo King — AboMtion of Trading made imperative on the part of the Governing Head in Bonny — Prohibition of Chopping Oil, or of going to War — Estabhshment of Quadruple Regency— Causes of the Inefficiency of such a Form of Govermiient — ^Proved by the Experience of Five Years — No Foundation for King Pepple's Claims on the British Government for Indemnity — Fact of his Dethronement emanating from his own People — British Authorities having no Power to nominate or reinstate a King in an African Neutral Territory — Letter to the Bonny Supercargoes 169

Chapter XII

Commercial Dealings in the Palm-oil Rivers — The Natives' Distrust of European Traders — Rev. James Martineau on the Cycle of Credit — Indiscriminate Trust given by the Supercargoes at Old Kalabar — Letter of Sir J. Emerson Tennant to African xviii

CONTENTS.

Merchants at Liverpool — Limited Trust Recommended, commensurate with the Annual Produce of the River — Suggestion of adopting the Hulk System — Opinion of Government on the Arbitrary Conduct of Supercargoes in Old Kalabar — Advice given to the Supercargoes of their Trust being a mere Speculation — System of Chopping Oil — Adoption of Native Laws for Recovery of Debts — Present Code of Commercial regulations up the Old Kalabar — Author's Attempt to improve them— With Copy of Advice to Supercargoes 185

CHAPTER XHL

Contemplated Order in Council for Western Africa — ^Formed on the Models of those for the Levant and China — Earl of Aberdeen's Definition of a Consul's Authority with reference to the Turkish Order in Council — A Consul's Authority being limited to be Defined by International Law — Difficulty of obtaining Treaties with African Kings in a Diplomatic Matter of this Kind — Causes of this difficulty in the different rivers — Principle of Latitude and Discretion, in the Exercise of Authority by Consul, as laid down in Report of Select Committee of House of Commons — Mr. Cobden's opinion of International Justice — Powers given to Consuls by Orders in Council — Moral Force of a Consul in Africa is a Moral Farce without the presence of a Man-of-AV ar — Cursory Revision of the Paragraphs of the Order in Council intended for Western Africa 208

Chapter XIV

To Batanga — Reputed Non-existence of Slavery amongst the Bapooka and Banaka Tribes — Provoking Cahns and Preposterous Ciurents in the Bight of Biafra — ^View in the Roadstead of Batanga— The Waterfall at Lobei River — ^The Canoes and their Fishing Occupants — Canoe Racing on the RoUing Billows — Universality of Pipe-smoking here — A Visit to King WiUiam — Description of His Majesty, his Uniform and his Menage — General Appearance of the Beaux and BeUes of Batanga — De - scription of the Chief Koluctoo's Seven Wives — Walk along shore to the Waterfall — Beauty of the scene and its Accessories — Information about Interior Tribes .... 223

CONTENTS.

xix

Chapter XV

Further Information about the Tribes and Countries Interior to Batanga — Of the Fabulous Green Bird reputed to feed on Elephants' Eyes — Country whence Ivory comes — The Rev. Mr. Wilson's Account of the Banaka Tribe — He records nothing of the Absence of Slavery amongst them — Countries between Batanga and Cape St. John — Corisco Islands and their Aborigines — The Benga Tribe — American Mission at Corisco — Corisco Boats — Entrance to Gaboon River — The French Establishments there — Tribes of the Mpongwes, Shekanis, Bakeles, and Pangwes — Ascent of this River by Governor Beecroft in 1846 — Natural products of the Country — The Rev. Mr. Mackay on the exploration of the Rivers Nazareth and Fernan Vas. . . 241

Chapter XVI

French Voluntary Emigration — ItsDefinition by the Earl of Malmesbury — Desire for Information on the Subject Expressed by the Emperor Napoleon — Count Walewski's Repudiation of the assertion that the System has anything to do with the Slave-trade — Impossibility of inducing Voluntary Emigration from Africa — Prince Zahr's and the Kj:'oomen's Sentiments about Absence from Home — History of the affair of the " Regina Coeli " — Commodore Wise's Sketch of Voluntary Emigrants Stationed at Loanda — Consul M'Leod's Description of Emigrant's Voyage in a Portuguese Dhow — Consul Lawless' Information on the Emigrant regulations— History of the " Charles et Georges " affair at Mozambique— Opinion of an American Commander on the Emigration— Experience of the Rev. Mr. Townsend on the Subject — Provisions of the New Treaty in Reference to Coohe Immigration 261

CHAPTER XVn.

Of Fernando Po under its new Regime — Governor Don Chacon, and his Proclamation of 1858 — Alarm caused to the Residents of Clarence (now Santa Isabella) by that Proclamation — Their Remonstrance against its Provisions — Failure of these Remonstrances— The Commencement of Spanish Work in Colonization

XX

CONTENTS.

— ^IMortality amongst the Colonists — Its Causes — Clearing the Bush — Ascent to the Peak of Fernando Po — The Queen of Spain's Decree concerning her Possessions in the Gulf of Guinea — Example of Fertility in Fernando Po — The Aborigines the greatest Obstacle to the Development of the Island's Cultivation — Their Natural Indolence and Social Habits — Sketch of an Aboriginal Wedding — Sensible Evidence of Approach to a Fernandian Town — Cuisine at the King's Residence — Dress of the Bride and the Bridegroom — The Nepees, or Professional Singers — Matter of their Epithalamium — The Mothers being Boonanas, or Bishops performing the Marriage Ceremony — Peculiarity of the Mode of Celebration — Savage Dance in the middle of the Ceremony — Procession to the Bridegroom's House — Natural Politeness — Nuptial Offerings — Banquet after the Ceremony 286

CHAPTER XYIII.

Removal of Baptist Mssionaries from Fernando Po to Amboise Bay — Constitution of a new Settlement under the Name of Victoria — Advantages set forth by the Colonists regarding their new Settlement — King William the Sovereign of Bimbia and of Amboise — The Isebus, Baquiris, and Batohkes — Of the Bati reputed to be at the back of Kameroon Mountain — Dr. Barth's Opinion of them, and of their language — Information on these Mystical Tribes from the Rev. Mr. Anderson, at Old Kalabar ; from the Rev. Mr. Crowther, at Lagos — Inquiries about the Jetem and Mbafu — Of the Ding-Ding, ascertained to be nicknamed the Nyem-Nyem mentioned by Bayard Taylor — Prospective Utility of such Inquiries . . . .315

TEN YEARS' WANDERINGS

AMONG THE

ETHIOPIANS.

Chapter I

Domestic Slavery of Western Africa — Difference between this and the Foreign Export of Slaves — Its Varied Phases — Women — Palm-Oil Trading Cockswains — Pull-a-boys — Emancipated Servants— Blood-men — Egbo-bos — Mangangas — Dikuku — Mikuka — Bangolo — Of Domestic Slavery at Lagos — At Cape Coast, and in the Yoriiba Coimtiy — Of the Pawning System in these Places — Domestic Slavery regarded as a !N"atm:al Institution by Rev. Mr. Wilson — Social Phase in Bonny — Importance of considering seriously the Pawning System as an Incipient of Civilization.

Connected with Western Africa, there seems to me no subject on which the general public has received information so minute and so extensive as on that of the slave traffic.

It may be needless to explain that there is a vast difference between the exportation of slaves,

B

SLAVEEY IN WESTERN AFRICA.

which constitutes the slave trade, and the domestic social slavery which exists as indigenous to the whole continent.

The former part of this subject I leave to the blue-books and the African squadron, for both of which it is still quite sufficient. On the latter there is much more to be spoken and written than I possess ability or have had opportunity for doing.

We find many classes of social slaves in Western Africa — first amongst which are the women. In all African states they are the work- day labourers — in many they constitute the artists — and in whatever position they may be, whether wives of kings or of serfs, they are handed over to the successors of their lords and masters, who have liberty to kill, sell, or dispose of them in any other fashion. There are the slaves who have the cockswainships of palm-oil trading canoes, and who consider themselves an aristocracy above the mere commonalty of the pull-aboys, whose work is to tug night and day by paddling canoes. To these may be added an indiscriminate class, who are to be found at different places inhabited by Europeans along the coast, nominally in the character of servants, but who have been bought as human cattle.

TREATMENT OF SLAVES.

Some of these last named have undergone the mockery of being emancipated. Yet I have no hesitation in saying — because I know it — ^that the social treatment of these poor creatures has been, and still is, as bad and as brutal as it is possible for soi-disant civilization to inflict.

It is a melancholy anomaly to be obliged to confess that the black man has no master so cruel as the civilized negro. Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Mrs. Stowe's model republic of Liberia can show numerous instances of this. I do not make such a statement without having had ocular, and still possessing written, evidence of the fact before me.

In many of the palm-oil trading rivers slavery is purely mythical — except in reference to the preposterous superstitions on which the authority of the governing powers is upheld. In Bonny, the men who rule the roast in political debate, as well as on the palm-oil 'change, are of the slave class; and the same condition of affairs, only perhaps in a lesser degree, exists in Old Kalabar. The bloodmen of this latter place, as well as the Egbo-bos of Brass, rank in a very trifling degree inferior to the freemen.

A very apt illustration of the influence which

B 2

EGBOSHIP.

the domestic slaves possess, and sometimes demonstrate, is apparent from what we find in Kameroons. Here, as in Kalabar, there is an Egboship amongst the freemen. There are also two orders of Egbo, entitled " Mikuka " and " Bangolo," to which freemen and slave boys are alike admitted; not, however, to the enjoyment of equal privileges ; for the masters or freemen are the governing heads, and oblige the serf party to be satisfied with what they can get. The slaves have also orders of their own, to which the titles " Mbwe," " Kosso," and " Kella Remba," are given. Of the minutiae of these nothing is known, more than of their Egbos elsewhere, for they are all kept as secret as freemasonr}^ is with its professors. That they are invariably used as engines of oppression, is patent by every deed of their regulations. On the death of a late chief, his son energetically carried out a despotic principle in the " Mikuka" order, rendering it incumbent on candidates who were going through the routine of initiation into the body, that other people's yards and houses should be plundered of any goats or fowls to be found. The slaves, being the least protected class, were chiefly the parties on whom these forays were made, particularly

THE MANGANGA ORDER.

that portion of them getting into comfortable position from their palm-oil trading. The freebooterism was carried on in the night, as the neophytes, during their period of probation, are kept locked up all day, in order to maintain a fable of their invisibility. So the slaves were driven to a reprisal, and established a new order, entitled " Manganga," whose doctrines they brought with them from the interior country of Abo. One of the chief provisions of this was to be opposed to the kings and chiefs in everything — acknowledge no allegiance to them, and use every exertion tending to the subjugation of royalty.

Another of its codes gave power to a slave buying oil at an interior market for his master to demand one "big ting" (a form of apocryphal currency, representing from fifteen shillings to a pound in value) for his commission, no matter how trifling the amount of oil purchased. If it were not paid, the slave belonging to the " Manganga " order had the power of placing a supposed witchcraft stick, called dikubu," outside the freeman's door ; and from that moment the fate of the latter was doomed. The presence of the dikubu before his house sentenced him to drink sangaree (or test-poison) water.

DOMESTIC SLAVERY.

No one was allowed to communicate with him, and on the first time of leaving his home (if he escaped the sangaree) his dwelling was burnt or razed to the ground.

With the notable exceptions of Dahomey and Ashanti, the domestic slavery of Western Africa is, in fact, little more than a nominis umbra^ as regards the difference in position between the children and slaves of a chief Such horrors of daily life as those described by Mrs. Stowe as existing in the United States, and those recorded as taking place on board slavers in the middle passage, are not known in Africa. Neither the ordainers of, nor the victims to, superstitious sacrifices, look upon this institution as a cruelty. It sometimes, and not unfrequently, happens that a slave is more wealthy and more powerful than his master or owner. In such a case it is where the terrible Egbo law of Old Kalabar acts with so much despotic power.*

Domestic slavery difi'ers from the feudalism and vassalage of English history, chiefly in reference to the brutalities and superstitions by which it is upheld.

A very good definition of this domestic sla-

* Vide "Impressions of Western Africa," chap. x. Longman, Brown, and Co., 1868.

EXPLANATION OF THE SYSTEM.

very is thus given by Mr. John Chillingworth, of Lagos, in a shrewd letter to the Cotton Supply Reporter^ dated October 10th, 1859 : — " It is argued in favour of the slave trade, that slavery is indigenous to Africa, and that the Africans but change a black master for a white. But the domestic slavery of Africa is altogether different ; the slave, or rather vassal, is on a par with his master physically and morally. There is no strong line of demarcation. It is difficult, indeed, to say which is master and which is man. Frequently the master gives his daughter as a wife to his ^boy,' as he calls him, and when the master dies without a direct heir, his boy becomes possessed of his property. This sort of 'boy '-hood comprises all the domestic slavery, provided cupidity is not excited, and evil passion aroused by the European slave-dealer. Nearly everyone you meet is a boy, who has in turn a boy, and that boy has another boy."

This system is explained more fully in a communication I have had on the subject from Mr. Bannerman,* of Cape Coast. On the Gold Coast he says : — " Everywhere domestic slavery

* This gentleman lias established a new paper, the West African Herald^ at Cape Coast, whose contents are invariably characterised by a spirit of manly independence.

8 MR. bannerman's communication.

prevails. It is not easy to convey to the mind of a stranger precise notions of this institution as it exists amongst us, nor to give clear ideas of the nature of the tie existing between master and slave. Here there exist hundreds of families in which it is quite impossible for even the members to discriminate who amongst them are slaves, and who free. Thirty and forty years communion from intermarriages obliterate the distinction. A man may be a slave to his own son. For example, I buy a slave and marry him to my niece. (Here the line of succession is usually, but not invariably, from uncle to nephew or niece). If they have a son, the child, on my death, becomes possessed of my property, and his own father is one of his slaves. But ^ slave ' is not the proper term for this class of persons ; for in very truth they are in general nothing less than members of the family, who have become part of it by purchase instead of by birth. About forty or fifty years ago, when the Ashantee invasion had upset the whole country, thousa^nds of families were broken up, and people were sold right and left around the Gold Coast. Now natives of the coast are not accustomed to be sold. The slaves are brought down from the far interior. They

SLAVERY ON THE EAST COAST.

are of all ages. Purchasers prefer buying them at the ages of between ten and twenty, for then they can be trained up. The old fellows are usually very lazy and obstinate (having been probably sold on that account). If brought down to the seaside, these slaves fetch from thirty to forty dollars a-piece. They are all marked in a peculiar manner on the face."

I need not, I trust, explain that this statement is meant to describe the sale of servants to residents of a British colony, whose social ordinances must need thus chime in with the social arrangements of the country in which it is situated.

The domestic slave on the eastern coast of Africa does not seem to be the same marketable article that he is on the west coast. Dr. Livingstone writes : — " These various chiefs^ though nearly independent of each other, are by no means independent of their people. Suppose a man is dissatisfied with one chief, he can easily transfer himself to another ; and as a chiefs importance increases with the number of his followers, fugitives are always received with open arms."