294 TRAVELS IN THE 
liation; and when large parties cannot be collected for this 
purpose, a few friends will combine together, and advance into 
the enemy's country, with a view to plunder, or carry off the 
inhabitants. A single individual has been known to take his 
bow and quiver, and proceed in like manner. Such an attempt 
is doubtless in him an act of rashness ; but when it is considered 
that, in one of these predatory vVars, he has probably been 
deprived of his child or his nearest relation, his situation will 
rather call for pity than censure. The poor sufferer, urged on 
by the feelings of domestic or paternal attachment, and the 
ardour of revenge, conceals himself among the bushes, until 
some young or unarmed person passes by. He then, tyger-like, 
springs upon his prey; drags his victim into the thicket, and 
in the night carries him off as a slave. 
When a Negro has, by means like these, once fallen into the 
hands of his enemies, he is either retained as the slave of his 
conqueror, or bartered into a distant kingdom ; for an African, 
when he has once subdued his enemy, will seldom give him an 
opportunity of lifting up his hand against him at a future 
period. A conqueror commonly disposes of his captives ac- 
cording to the rank which they held in their native kingdom. 
Such of the domestic slaves as appear to be of a mild dispo- 
sition, and particularly the young women, are retained as his 
own slaves. Others that display marks of discontent, are dis- 
posed of in a distant country; and such of the freemen or 
slaves, as have taken an active part in the war, are either sold 
to the Slatees, or put to death. War, therefore, is certainly the 
most general, and most productive source of slavery ; and the 
