’ FROM SAO PAULO DE LOANDA TO THE Congo. 21 
eruisers and the absence of a lucrative market now-a-days, 
slaves are no longer exported from the Congo as in former 
days. And slavery will continue to exist, no matter 
under what name, as long as European merchants stand: 
sorely in need of labour, and native chiefs are willing to 
“apprentice” or sell their superfluous subjects for an 
important consideration in gin, cloth, or guns. Any 
traveller who visits the factories on the Lower Congo— 
except perhaps in those belonging to the English—may 
see groups of slaves in chains who are so punished for 
having run away, and if he arrives at a time when a slave 
has just been recaptured—possibly by his own relatives, 
who have brought him cheerfully back, sure of a reward— 
he will have an apportunity of studying the application 
of the formidable cow-hide whips to the runaway’s skin, 
and see the blood spirt from his well-flogged back. As a 
rule, | am bound to say the Krumanos are kindly treated. 
They are well fed, and have their wives and children 
often with them in their huts. If they were allowed to 
regain their liberty at the end of seven years of service, 
without being forced to renew their contract, there would 
not be so much harm in this system. The Portuguese 
method of government apprenticeship is one tolerably free 
from abuses, and would work well on the Congo. 
