Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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It Must Not,
However, Be Imagined, That Because The People Of This Country Are
Almost Perpetually Engaged In Conflicts With Their Neighbours, The
Slaughter Of Human Beings Is Therefore Very Great.
They pursue war,
as it is called, partly as an amusement, or "to keep their hands in
it," and partly to benefit themselves by the capture of slaves.
As
they were sailing down the coast, they were informed that the natives
of La Hoo, and Jack-a-jack, had been warring for three years
previously, and were still at variance, but during that long period
only one single decrepit old woman, who found it no easy matter to
run as fast as her countrymen, was left behind, and became the
solitary victim of a hundred engagements. Much after the same fashion
are the bloodless wars of Jenna. Success depends much more on the
cunning and address of the parties, than on any extraordinary display
of intrepidity, and living not dead subjects are sought after, so
that it is their interest to avoid hard blows, and enrich themselves
by the sale of their prisoners. Perhaps the extraordinary decrease in
the population of Jenna, has arisen principally from the desertion of
slaves, who embrace the opportunity, whilst their masters are from
home, engaged in predatory excursions, of running away; and thus the
latter often become losers instead of gainers by their unnatural
passion for stealing their fellow creatures. The individuals captured
are sent to the coast, and the chiefs of those unsettled and
barbarous tribes that inhabit it, are appointed agents to regulate
the sale of them, for which they receive half the profits.
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