TRAVELS IN AFRICA. l6S value of a prime slave. In this, he said, he Could not interfere ; that what he had told me was by order of Almamy, and he could not alter it ; but should the man to whom the slave belonged wish to take the value in merchandize, he was certain Almamy could have no objection. Much entreaty on my part, added to the promise of a present, would no doubt have had the desired effect, were it not that the owner of the deceased was afraid, in case he should accept of merchandize, that Almamy would persuade, nay force him, to give it to him in purchase of a slave, which, most probably, he might never receive.

I was, therefore, reduced to the disagreeable necessity of employing a person for the sole purpose of going round the country in search of a woman slave, and which he, with much difficulty, procured, not in consequence of the scarcity of those poor wretches in the country, but of the enormous price demanded, arising no doubt from their knowledge of the obligation I was under of providing one without delay.

This transaction I could not bring myself to negotiate, as the idea alone of deahng in human flesh was more than sufficiently disagreeable to allow me to see the poor wretch, who, although only changing master, and, from what I could learn, getting a good for a bad one, was never-M 2