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TRAVELS IN THE 
cannot sell his domestic, without having first brought him to 
a public trial, before the chief men of the place. * But these 
restrictions on the power of the master, extend not to the case 
of prisoners taken in war, nor to that of slaves purchased with 
money. All these unfortunate beings are considered as stran- 
gers and foreigners, who have no right to the protection of the 
law, and may be treated with severity, or sold to a stranger, 
according to the pleasure of their owners. There are, indeed, 
regular markets, where slaves of this description are bought 
and sold ; and the value of a slave in the eye of an African 
purchaser, increases in proportion to his distance from his 
native kingdom : for when slaves are only a few days' journey 
from the place of their nativity, they frequently effect their 
escape ; but when one or more kingdoms intervene, escape 
being more difficult, they are more readily reconciled to their 
situation. On this account, the unhappy slave is frequently 
transferred from one dealer to another, until he has lost all 
hopes of returning to his native kingdom. The slaves which 
are purchased by the Europeans on the Coast, are chiefly of 
this description ; a few of them are collected in the petty wars, 
hereafter to be described, which take place near the Coast ; but 
by far the greater number are brought down in large caravans 
* In time of famine, the master is permitted to sell one or more of his 
domestics, to purchase provisions for his family ; and in case of the master's 
insolvency, the domestic slaves are sometimes seized upon by the creditors ; and if 
the master cannot redeem them, they are liable to be sold for payment of his 
debts. These are the only cases that I recollect, in which the domestic slaves are 
liable to be sold, without any misconduct or demerit of their own. 
