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from six to seven pounds, if they have two young children it in- 

 creases their value to nine or ten pounds; and with four or five 

 children, two of whom are beginning to work, the family will pro- 

 duce altogether from fourteen to fifteen pounds; this was at Palu- 

 Ghat: at Manapuram, in its vicinity, children sell from eight to 

 twenty-one shillings a-head, according to their growth. This ap- 

 pears a small sum for the purchase of a slave, but they are as cheap 

 in many other parts of the world. Chardin says the Tartars sold 

 their Polish prisoners for a crown a-head ; and the prophet Joel, in 

 describing the miserable captivity of the Jews, says, the children of 

 Jerusalem have ye sold to the Grecians; they gave a boy for an 

 harlot, and sold a girl for a drink of wine. 



The number of poor people who come clown to Anjengo and 

 the other sea-ports from the inland countries, during a famine, 

 either to sell themselves, or to dispose of their children as slaves, is 

 astonishing. During my residence at Anjengo there was no fa- 

 mine, nor any unusual scarcity of grain, but during the rainy 

 season many were weekly brought down from the mountains to be 

 sold on the coast. They did not appear to think it so great a hard- 

 ship as we imagine; what may be their usual degrees of filial and 

 parental affection I pretend not to determine, neither can 1 ascer- 

 tain the Malabar ideas annexed to dulce-domum, and the charities 

 of domestic life; but, without the smallest intention of countenan- 

 cing West India slavery, I must and do think the feelings of a Ma- 

 labar peasant and those of a cottage family in England are very 

 different; the former certainly part with their children apparently 

 with very little compunction, the latter are united by every lender 

 sympathetic tie. We know that it is no unusual thing for people to 



