Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/336

 promised to enforce the laws. Squadrons of dragoons and troops of lancers have been paraded with convenient delay, and ordered to gallop to plantations designated by the representative of England. It generally happens, however, that when the hunters arrive the game is gone. Scandal declares that, while brokers are selling the blacks at the depot, it is not unusual for their owner or his agent to be found knocking at the door of the captain-general's secretary. It is even said that the captain-general himself is sometimes present in the sanctuary, and, after a familiar chat about the happy landing of 'the contraband,' as the traffic is amiably called, the requisite rouleaux are insinuated into the official desk under the intense smoke of a fragrant cigarillo. The metal is always considered the property of the captain-general, but his scribe avails himself of a lingering farewell at the door, to hint an immediate aud pressing need for 'a very small darkey!' Next day, the diminutive African does not appear; but, as it is believed that Spanish officials prefer gold even to mortal flesh, his algebraic equivalent is unquestionably furnished in the shape of shining ounces!"

The following extract will be read with satisfaction, exhibiting as it does one of the native tribes in a very favorable aspect: "During the rainy season, which begins in June and lasts till October, the stores of provisions in establishments along the Atlantic coast become sadly impaired. The Foulah and Mandingo tribes of the interior are prevented by the swollen condition of intervening streams from visiting the beach with their produce. In these straits, the factories have recourse by canoes to the small rivers, which are neither entered by sea-going vessels, nor blockaded for the caravans of interior chiefs.

"Among the tribes or clans visited by me in such seasons, I do not remember any whose intercourse afforded more pleasure, or exhibited nobler traits, than the, who dwell on the solitary margins of those shallow rivulets, and subsist by boiling salt in the dry season and making palm oil in the wet, I have never read an account of these worthy blacks, whose civility, kindness, and honesty will compare favorably with those of more civilized people.

"The Bagers live very much apart from the great African tribes, and keep up their race by intermarriage. The language is peculiar, and altogether devoid of that Italian softness that makes the Soosoo so musical.

"Having a week or two of perfect leisure, I determined to set out in a canoe to visit one of these establishments, especially as no intelligence had reached me for some time from one of my country traders who had been dispatched thither with an invoice of goods to purchase palm oil. My canoe was comfortably fitted with a water-proof awning, and provisioned for a week.

"A tedious pull along the coast and through the dangerous surf, brought us to the narrow creek through whose marshy mesh of mangroves we squeezed our canoe to the bank. Even after landing, we waded a considerable distance through marsh before we reached the solid land. The Bager town stood some hundred yards from the landing, at the end of a desolate savanna, whose lonely waste spread as far as the eye could reach. The village itself seemed quite deserted, so that I had difficulty in finding 'the oldest inhabitant,' who