The fourth cause above enumerated, is the commission of crimes, on which the laws of the country affix slavery as a punishment. In Africa, the only offences of this class, are murder, adultery, and witchcraft; and I am happy to say, that they did not appear to me to be common. In cases of murder, I was informed, that the nearest relation of the deceased had it in his power, after conviction, either to kill the offender with his own hand, or sell him into slavery. When adultery occurs, it is generally left to the option of the person injured, either to sell the culprit, or accept such a ransom for him, as he may think equivalent to the injury he has sustained. By witchcraft is meant pretended magic, by which the lives or health of persons are affected; in other words, it is the administering of poison. No trial for this offence, however, came under my observation while I was in Africa, and I therefore suppose, that the crime and its punishment occur but very seldom.

When a free man has become a slave by any one of the causes before mentioned, he generally continues so for life, and his children, if they are born of an enslaved mother, are brought up in the same state of servitude. There are, however, a few instances of slaves obtaining their freedom, and sometimes even with the consent of their masters, as by performing some singular piece of service, or by going to battle, and bringing home two slaves as a ransom; but the common way of regaining freedom is by escape, and when slaves have once set their minds on running away, they often succeed. Some of them will wait for years before an opportunity presents itself, and during that period shew no signs of discontent. In general, it may be remarked, that slaves who come from a hilly country, and have been much accustomed

ans on the coast, and does not make payment at the time appointed, the European is authorised, by the laws of the country, to scize upon the debtor himself, if he can find him; or if he cannot be found, on any person of his family; or, in the last resort, on any native of the same kingdom. The person thus seized on is detained, while his friends are sent in quest of the debtor. When he is found, a meeting is called of the chief people of the place, and the debtor is compelled to ransom his friend by fulfilling his engagements. If he is unable to do this, his person is immediately secured and sent down to the coast, and the other released. If the debtor cannot be found, the person seized on is obliged to pay double the amount of the debt, or is himself sold into slavery. I was given to understand, however, that this part of the law is seldom enforced.

T

to hunting and travel, are more apt to attempt their escape, than such as are born in a flat country, and have been employed in cultivating the land.

Such are the general outlines of that system of slavery which prevails in Africa, and it is evident from its nature and extent, that it is a system of no modern date. It probably had its origin in the remote ages of antiquity, before the Mahomedans explored a path across the Desert. How far it is maintained and supported by the slave traffic, which, for two hundred years, the nations of Europe have carried on with the natives of the coast, it is neither within my province, nor in my power to explain. If my sentiments should be required, concerning the effect which a discontinuance of that commerce would produce on the manners of the natives, I should have no hesitation in observing, that in the present unenlightened state of their minds, my opinion is, the effect would neither be so extensive or beneficial as many wise and worthy persons fondly expect.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Of gold dust and the manner in which it is collected. Process of washing it. Its value in Africa. Of ivory. Modes of hunting the elephant. Reflections on the unimproved state of the country, &c.

THOSE valuable commodities, gold and ivory, the next objects of our enquiry, have probably been found in Africa from the first ages of the world. They are reckoned among its most important productions in the earliest records of its history

It has been observed, that gold is seldom or never discovered, except in mountainous and barren countries; Nature, it is said, thus making amends in one way, for her penuriousness in the other. This however, is not wholly true. Gold is found in considerable quantities throughout every part of Manding; a country which is indeed billy, but cannot properly be called mountainous, much less bar

ren. It is also found in great plenty in Jallonkadoo, particularly about Boori, another hilly, but by no means an infertile country. It is remarkable, that in the place last mentioned, Boori, which is situated about four days journey to the southwest of Kamalia, the salt market is often supplied, at the same time, with rock-salt from the Great Desert, and sea-salt from the Rio Grande; the price of each, at this distance from its source being nearly the same and the dealers in each, whether Moors from the north, or Negroes from the west, are invited thither by the same motives, that of bartering their salt for gold.

The gold of Manding, so far as I could learn, is never found in any matrix or vein, but always in small grains, nearly in a pure state, from the size of a pin's head to that of a pea, scattered through a large body of sand or clay; and in this state, it is called by the Mandingoes sanoo munko, (gold powder.) It is, however, extremely probable, by what I could learn of the situation of the ground, that most of it has orignally been washed down by repeated torrents from the neighbouring hills. The manner in which it is collected is nearly as follows:

About the beginning of December, when the harvest is over, and the streams and torrents have greatly subsided, the Mansa, or chief of the town, appoints a day to begin sanoo koo, (gold washing) and the women are sure to have themselves in readiness by the time appointed. A paddle, or spade, for digging up the sand, two or three calabashes for washing it in, and a few quills for containing the gold dust, are all the implements necessary for the purpose. On the morning of their departure, a bullock is killed for the first day's entertainment, and a number of prayers and charms are used to ensure success; for a failure on that day is thought a bad omen. The Mansa of Kamalia, with fourteen of his people, were I remember, so much disappointed in their first day's washing, that very few of them had resolution to persevere, and the few that did, had but very indifferent success; which indeed, is not much to be wondered at; for instead of opening some untried place, they continued to dig and wash in the same spot where they had dug and washed for years; and where, of course, but few large grains could be left.

The washing the sands of the streams is by far the easiest way of obtaining the gold-dust; but in most places the

sands have been so narrowly searched before, that unless the stream take some new course, the gold is found but in small quantities. While some of the party are busied in washing the sands, others employ themselves farther up the torrent, where the rapidity of the stream has carried away all the clay, sand, &c. and left nothing but small pebbles. The search among these is a very troublesome task. I have seen women who have had the skin worn off the tops of their fingers in this employment. Sometimes, however, they are rewarded by finding pieces of gold, which they call sanoo birro (gold stones) that amply repay them for their trouble. A woman and her daughter, inhabitants of Kamalia, found in one day two pieces of this kind, one of five drachms, and the other of three drachms weight. But the most certain and profitable mode of washing is practised in the height of the dry season, by digging a deep pit like a draw-well, near some hill which has previously been discovered to contain gold. The pit is dug with small spades or corn paddles, and the earth is drawn up in large calabashes. As the Negroes dig through the different strata of clay or sand, a calabash or two of each is washed, by way of experiment; and in this manner the labourers proceed until they come to a stratum containing gold. or until they are obstructed by rocks, or inundated by water. In gene. ral, when they come to a stratum of fine reddish sand, with small black specks therein, they find gold in some proportion or other, and send up large calabashes full of the sand for the women to wash; for though the pit is dug by the men, the gold is always washed by the women, who are accustomed from their infancy to a similar operation, in separating the husks of corn from the meal.

As I never descended into any one of these pits, I cannot say in what manner they are worked under ground. Indeed, the situation in which I was placed, made it necessary for me to be cautious not to incur the suspicion of the natives, by examining too far into the riches of their country; but the manner of separating the gold from the sand is very simple, and is frequently performed by the women in the middle of the town; for when the searchers return from the valleys in the evening, they commonly bring with them each a calabash or two of sand, to be washed by such of the females as remain at home. The operation is simply as follows:

A portion of sand or clay, for the gold is sometimes found in a brown coloured clay, is put into a large calabash, and mixed with a sufficient quantity of water. The woman whose office it is, then shakes the calabash in such a manner as to mix the sand and water together, and give the whole a rotatory motion, at first gently, but afterwards more quick, until a small portion of sand and water, at every revolution, flies over the brim of the calabash. The sand thus separated, is only the coarsest particles mixed with a little muddy water. After the operation has been continued for some time, the sand is allowed to subside, and the water poured off; a portion of coarse sand, which is now uppermost in the calabash, is removed by the hand, and fresh water being added, the operation is repeated until the water comes off almost pure. The woman now takes a second calabash, and shakes the sand and water gently from the one to the other, reserving that portion of sand which is next the bottom of the calabash, and which is most likely to contain the gold. This small quantity is mixed with some pure water, and being moved about in the calabash, is carefully examined. If a few particles of gold are picked out, the contents of the other calabash are examined in the same manner; but in general, the party is well contented, if she can obtain three or four grains from the contents of both calabashes. Some women, however, by long practice, become so well acquainted with the nature of the sand, and the mode of washing it, that they will collect gold, where others cannot find a single particle. The gold dust is kept in quills, stopt up with cotton; and the washers are fond of displaying a number of these quills in their hair. Gene

rally speaking, if a person uses common diligence in a proper soil, it is supposed, that as much gold may be collected by him in the course of the dry season, as is equal to the value of two slaves.

Thus simple is the process by which the Negroes obtain gold in Manding; and it is evident from this account, that the country contains a considerable portion of this precious metal; for many of the smaller particles must necessarily escape the observation of the naked eye, and as the natives generally search the sands of streams at a considerable distance from the hills, and consequently far removed from the mines where the gold was originally produced, the labourers are sometimes but ill paid for their trouble. Minute parti