334 
THE AFRICAN ASSOCIATION^ 
and wide ditch, slightly covered with canes and 
earth. As the Foulahs have no method of as- 
saulting these forts, they can only reduce them 
by blockade, which is commonly for the most 
part unsuccessful, as they contain springs, and 
are generally stored with provisions. The king's 
vicegerent, in a conversation with the travellers, 
openly avowed that the sole object of the wars of 
Teemboo was to procure slaves, " as they could 
" not obtain European goods without slaves, nor 
" slaves without making war," He also admit- 
ted, that the old men and old women captured in 
these wars, who were known to be unsaleable, 
were put to death, by cutting their throats. 
When the travellers suggested, that, by a trade 
in ivory, rice, cattle, and the other native produce 
of the country, they might acquire wealth with- 
out going to war for slaves, by which they must 
certainly offend the God to whom they prayed 
five times in the day : " The people on whom 
" we make war," replied he, ** never pray to 
" God : we do not go to war with people who 
serve God Almighty," He farther stated, that 
the European factories would not trade with guns, 
powder, and cloth, for any articles except slaves. 
Similar conversations were held with the king of 
the Foulahs, and several of the chiefs. The king 
declared, that he would I'enounce the slave-trade, 
if a trade in native produce could be established. 
