﻿OF HINZUAN, OR JOHANNA. 9I 



" knives, c!< w cotton, and other articles 



" brought from Bombay, and with those we trade to 

 " Madagascar for the natural produce of the country 

 •* or dollars, with which the French buy cattle, 

 " honey butter, and so forth, in that island. With 

 ** gold, which we receive from your ships, we can 

 " procure elephants teeth from the natives of Mo- 

 " zambique. who b&rtei them also for ammunition 

 " and bars of iron ; and the Portuguese in that 

 <' country give us clothes of various kinds in ex- 

 " change for our commodities ; these cloths we dis- 

 " pose of lucratively in the three neighbouring islands, 

 " whence we bring rice, cattle, a kind of bread-fruit, 

 <c which grows in Comara, and slaves, which we buy 

 fC , also at other places to which we trade ; and we carry 

 " on this traffic in our own vessels." 



Here I could not help expressing my abhorrence of 

 their slave-trade, and asked him by what law they 

 claimed a property in rational beings, since our Cre- 

 ator had given our species a dominion, to be mode- 

 rately exercised, over the beasts of the field and the 

 fowls of the air, but none to man over man. " By no 

 " law," answered he, " unless necessity be a law. 

 '* There are nations in Madagascar and in Africa > 

 " who know neither God nor his prophet, nor Moses % 

 ** nor David, nor the Messiah : those nations are in 

 " perpetual war and take many captives, whom, if 

 i( they could not sell, they would certainly kill. °*Tn- 

 " dividuals among them are in extreme poverty, 

 " and have numbers of children, who, if they can- 

 " not be disposed of, must perish through hunger, 

 Sl together with their miserable parents. By purchas- 

 " ing these wretches we preserve their lives, and, 

 tl perhaps, those of many others whom our money 

 " relieves. The sum of the argument is this : If we 

 " buy them they will live ; if they become valuable 

 <c servants, they will live comfortably ; but, if they 

 " are not sold, they must die miserably." f There 



