Ch. viii. different Parts of Africa. 147 



greater superabundance of women than we have 

 reason to suppose, many will be obliged to live 

 unmarried. This hardship will principally fall on 

 the slaves, who, according to Park, are in the 

 proportion of three to one to the free men.* A 

 master is not permitted to sell his domestic slaves 

 or those born in his own house, except in case of 

 famine, to support himself and family. We may 

 imagine therefore that he will not suffer them to 

 increase beyond the employment which he has 

 for them. The slaves which are purchased, or 

 the prisoners taken in war, are entirely at the 

 disposal of their masters.^ They are often treated 

 with extreme severity, and in any scarcity of wo- 

 men arising from the polygamy of the free men, 

 would of course be deprived of them without 

 scruple. Few or no women, probably, remain 

 in a state of strict celibacy; but in proportion to 

 the number married, the state of society does not 

 seem to be favourable to increase. 



Africa has been at all times the principal mart 

 of slaves. The drains of its population in this 

 way have been great and constant, particularly 

 since their introduction into the European colo- 

 nies; but perhaps, as Dr. Franklin observes, it 

 would be difficult to find the gap that has been 

 made by a hundred years' exportation of negroes 

 which has blackened half America.^: For not- 

 withstanding this constant emigration, the loss of 



* Park's Africa, c. xxii. p. 287. 

 | Id. p. 288. 



X Franklin's Miscell. p. 9. 

 L 2 



