Most Of These Unfortunate Victims Are Brought To The Coast In Periodical
Caravans; Many Of Them From Very Remote Inland Countries; For The
Language Which They Speak Is Not Understood By The Inhabitants Of The
Maritime Districts.
In a subsequent part of my work I shall give the best
information I have been able to collect concerning the manner in which
they are obtained.
On their arrival at the coast, if no immediate
opportunity offers of selling them to advantage, they are distributed
among the neighbouring villages, until a slave ship arrives, or until
they can be sold to black traders, who sometimes purchase on speculation.
In the meanwhile, the poor wretches are kept constantly fettered, two and
two of them being chained together, and employed in the labours of the
field; and I am sorry to add, are very scantily fed, as well as harshly
treated. The price of a slave varies according to the number of
purchasers from Europe and the arrival of caravans from the interior; but
in general I reckon that a young and healthy male, from 16 to 25 years of
age, may be estimated on the spot from L. 18 to L. 20 sterling.
The Negro slave merchants, as I have observed in the former chapter, are
called _Slatees_; who, besides slaves, and the merchandize which they
bring for sale to the whites, supply the inhabitants of the maritime
districts with native iron, sweet smelling gums and frankincense, and a
commodity called _Shea-toulou_, which, literally translated, signifies
_tree-butter_. This commodity is extracted by means of boiling water from
the kernel of a nut, as will be more particularly described hereafter; it
has the consistence and appearance of butter; and is in truth an
admirable substitute for it.
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