APPRENTICE SYSTEM. 319 



beads, and calico (these being the articles most sought 

 after by them). He then selects the most fitting 

 objects for his purposes, and, after considerable chaf- 

 fering on both sides, the purchases are taken aboard 

 ship to be conveyed to a foreign country, ostensibly 

 for a term of years, but really for as long as their 

 owners choose to detain them. At the same time 

 the purchasers do not know whether they are pris- 

 oners of war or the king's own flesh and blood ; 

 neither do they care, their object being to gain 

 money by making merchandize of a free people. 

 The governor of Mauritius receiving so much per 

 head, as a perquisite, for each one that is imported 

 into the colony, holds out every inducement for their 

 introduction into the island; and I should judge, 

 from the crowded state of the ships that arrived with 

 them as cargoes, that the trade was most thriving. 

 In fact, at the time we lay here, this was the only 

 freight procurable, shipmasters complaining that 

 they could not find employment for their vessels ; 

 some of them having laid here for months without 

 being able to engage a freight. I should think that 

 at least two thousand of these pseudo apprentices 

 arrived whilst we were here ; they embraced for the 

 most part the natives of the Malabar coast, and of 

 the Island of Madagascar. I omitted, in my descrip- 

 tion of the latter, to remark upon their fondness for 

 ornament ; scarce one of them can be seen, male or 

 female, young or old, whose arms or ankles are not 

 covered with silver wristlets and anklets ; those 

 whose finances will not admit of their wearinfc the 

 precious metals for ornamental purposes, use those 

 made of clay, neatly ornamented and gilded. Many 



