538 
CONGO EXPEDITION, 
noticed. The objects of cultivation are chiefly 
maize or Indian corn, with tobacco, and beans of 
two sorts. Sugar-cane was also seen ; cotton 
grows wild ; and the palm-tree affords the only 
native fermented liquor. The chief object of in- 
ternal trade is salt, which is made at the mouth of 
the river, and brought up in canoes. The people 
were clothed entirely in European manufactures, 
having no stuffs of their own except caps and 
shawls of grass. The agricultural labours are per- 
formed entirely by the feinales, the king's daugh- 
ters and prince's wives being employed with the 
same assiduity as those of the humblest subject. 
This is a lot to which the female sex are liable 
among all barbarous tribes ; but the shameless 
manner in which their virtue is trafficked for by 
their fathers and husbands, stamps a deep degra- 
dation on the national character. It must not be 
concealed, however, that for this feature they are 
deeply indebted to European intercourse, since, 
farther up the river, if it did not entirely cease, 
it was no longer exhibited in the same systematic 
and unblushing manner. It may be noticed, that 
criminal intercourse, when it takes place without 
the consent of the proprietor, (father or husband), 
is punished in the severest manner, with slavery, 
and even death. The expedition had httle rea- 
son to complain of theft.— The veneration of 
