Travels in the Interior of Africa, vol 1 | Page 8

victims who are condemned to slavery for crimes
or insolvency--and, in short, all those unhappy people who are brought
down from the interior countries for sale--have no security whatever,
but may be treated and disposed of in all respects as the owner thinks
proper. It sometimes happens, indeed, when no ships are on the coast,
that a humane and considerate master incorporates his purchased slaves
among his domestics; and their offspring at least, if not the parents,
become entitled to all the privileges of the native class.
The earliest European establishment on this celebrated river was a
factory of the Portuguese, and to this must be ascribed the introduction
of the numerous words of that language which are still in use among
the negroes. The Dutch, French, and English afterwards successively
possessed themselves of settlements on the coast; but the trade of the
Gambia became, and continued for many years, a sort of monopoly in
the hands of the English. In the travels of Francis Moore is preserved
an account of the Royal African Company's establishments in this river
in the year 1730; at which the James's factory alone consisted of a
governor, deputy-governor, and two other principal officers; eight
factors, thirteen writers, twenty inferior attendants and tradesmen; a
company of soldiers, and thirty-two negro servants; besides sloops,
shallops, and boats, with their crews; and there were no less than eight
subordinate factories in other parts of the river.

The trade with Europe, by being afterwards laid open, was almost
annihilated. The share which the subjects of England at this time hold
in it supports not more than two or three annual ships; and I am
informed that the gross value of British exports is under 20,000 pounds.
The French and Danes still maintain a small share, and the Americans
have lately sent a few vessels to the Gambia by way of experiment.
The commodities exported to the Gambia from Europe consist chiefly
of firearms and ammunition, iron-ware, spirituous liquors, tobacco,
cotton caps, a small quantity of broadcloth, and a few articles of the
manufacture of Manchester; a small assortment of India goods, with
some glass beads, amber, and other trifles, for which are taken in
exchange slaves, gold dust, ivory, beeswax, and hides. Slaves are the
chief article, but the whole number which at this time are annually
exported from the Gambia by all nations is supposed to be under one
thousand.
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 sixteen to
twenty-five years of age, may be estimated on the spot from 18 pounds
to 20 pounds sterling.
The negro slave-merchants, as I have observed in the former chapter,
are called slatees, who, besides slaves, and the merchandise 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.
In payment of these articles, the maritime states supply the interior
countries with salt, a scarce and valuable commodity, as I frequently
and painfully experienced in the course of my journey. Considerable
quantities of this article, however, are also supplied to the inland
natives by the Moors, who obtain it from the salt pits in the Great
Desert, and receive in return corn, cotton cloth, and slaves.
In their early intercourse with Europeans the article that attracted most
notice was iron. Its utility, in forming the instruments of war and
husbandry, make it preferable to all others, and iron soon became the
measure by which the value of all other commodities was ascertained.
Thus, a certain quantity of goods, of whatever denomination, appearing
to be equal in value to a bar of iron, constituted, in the traders'
phraseology, a bar of that particular merchandise. Twenty leaves of