Page:A Chapter on Slavery.djvu/61

 them prisoners of war; they had been taken by the Bambarra army and carried to Sego, where some of them had remained three years in irons. From Sego they were sent in company with a number of captives up the Niger in two large canoes, and offered for sale at Yammina, Bambakoo, and Kancaba; at which places, the greater number of the captives were bartered for gold dust, and the remainder sent forward to Kankaree.

"Eleven of these [that is, of the thirteen] confessed to me that they had been slaves from their infancy, but the other two refused to give any account of their former condition. They were all very inquisitive, but they viewed me at first with looks of horror, and repeatedly asked if my countrymen were cannibals. They were very desirous to know what became of the slaves after they had crossed the salt-water. I told them that they were employed in cultivating the land; but they would not believe me, and one of them, putting his hand upon the ground, said, with great simplicity, ‘Have you really got such ground as this to set your feet upon?' A deeply-rooted idea, that the whites purchase negroes for the purpose of devouring them, or of selling them to others, that they may be devoured hereafter, naturally makes the slaves contemplate a journey towards the coast with great terror, insomuch that the slatees are forced to keep them constantly in irons, and watch them very closely, to prevent their escape. They are commonly secured by putting the right leg of one and the left of another into the same pair of fetters. By supporting the fetters with a string, they can walk, though very