INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 23 
swers the purpose of a public hall or town-house ; it is composed 
of interwoven canes, and is generally sheltered from the sun by 
being erected in the shade of some large tree. It is here that 
all public affairs are transacted and trials conducted ; and here 
the lazy and indolent, meet to smoke their pipes and hear the 
news of the day. In most of the towns the Mahomedans have 
also a missura, or mosque, in which they assemble and, offer up 
their daily prayers, according to the rules of the Koran. 
In the account which I have thus given of the natives, the 
reader must bear in mind, that my observations apply chiefly to 
persons free condition, who constitute, I suppose, not more 
than one-fourth part of the inhabitants at large ; the other 
three-fourths are in a state of hopeless and hereditary slavery ; 
and are employed in cultivating the land, in the care of cattle, 
and in servile offices of all kinds, much in the same manner as 
the slaves in the West Indies. I was told, however, that the 
Mandingo master can neither deprive his slave of life, nor sell 
him to a stranger, without first calling a palaver on his con- 
duct ; or, in other words, bringing him to a public trial : but 
this degree of protection is extended only to the native or do- 
mestic slave. Captives taken in war, and those unfortunate 
victims who are condemned to slavery for crimes or insolvency, 
and, in short, all those unhappy people who are brought down 
from the interior countries for sale, have no security whatever, 
but may be treated and disposed of in all respects as the owner 
thinks proper. It sometimes happens, indeed, when no ships 
are on the Coast, that a humane and considerate master, incor- 
porates his purchased slaves among his domestics; and their 
