GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 3G7 



consist of those who have no fixed property of their own, 

 but act as the labourers and peasantry of the country, and 

 are very much at the disposal of the Chenoo or chief, 

 though not slaves. 



Domestic slaves do not appear to be numerous, and are 

 not considered as common transferable property, and only 

 sold for some great offence, and by order of the council, 

 when proved guilty. Saleable slaves are those unhappy 

 victims who have been taken prisoners in war, or kidnap- 

 ped in the interior by the slave catchers, for the sake of 

 making a profit of them; or such as have had a sentence of 

 death commuted into that of foreign slavery. 



The Slave Trade. — The banks of the Zaire are not 

 the part of Africa where the slave trade, at present, is car- 

 ried on with the greatest activity, though there were three 

 Portuguese schooners and four pinnaces at Embomma, ou 

 the arrival of the expedition. The two great vents are the 

 Gulf of Guinea to the northward, and Loango and Ben- 

 guela to the southward of this river. The chiefs and their 

 Mafooks were, however, all prepared to trade on the ap- 

 pearance of the ships, and much disappointed on learning 

 that the object of the expedition was of a very different 

 nature. They had heard at Embomma, overland from the 

 coast, some vague rumours concerning the nature of the 

 expedition, which they did not well comprehend ; and when 

 the ]\lafook of the Chenoo first came on board, he was 

 very inquisitive to know, Avhether the ships came to make 

 trade, or make war ; and when he was distinctly told that 



