tained. 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 16 to 25 years of age, may be estimated on the spot from £ 18. to £20. sterling. The Negro slave merchants, as I have observed in the former Chapter; are called Slatees; who, besides slaves, and the merchandize 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. This commodity is extracted, by means of boiling water, from the kernel of a nut, as will be more particularly described hereafter: it has the consistence and appearance of butter; and is in truth an admirable substitute for it. It forms an important article in the food of the natives, and serves also for every domestic purpose in which oil would otherwise be used. The demand for it is therefore very great. 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 Desart, and receive in return corn, cotton cloth, and slaves. In thus bartering one commodity for another, many inconveniences must necessarily have arisen at first from the want of coined money, or some other visible and determinate medium to settle the balance, or difference of value, between different articles ; to remedy which, the natives of the interior make use of small shells called kowries, as will be shewn hereafter. On the Coast, the inhabitants have adopted a practice which I believe is peculiar to themselves. In their early intercourse with Europeans, the article that attracted most notice was iron. Its utility, in forming the instruments of war and husbandry, made 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 trader's phraseology, a bar of that particular merchandize. Twenty leaves o f tobacco, for instance, were considered as a bar of tobacco ; and a gallon of spirits (or rather half spirits and half water), as a bar of rum ; a bar of one commodity being reckoned equal in value to a bar of another commodity. As, however, it must unavoidably happen, that according to ■the plenty or scarcity of goods at market in proportion to the demand, the relative value would be subject to continual fluc- E s
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