THE SLAVE TRADE. 
o 1 
~ J 
is calculated that in the present day not one in twenty 
ever reaches the coast, a very different average to that 
which existed when there were open slave markets. 
Formerly a slave woman who had a child was allowed 
to carry it, as both she and her child were of some 
certain value. Now, as her sole value is in proportion 
to the amount of weight she can carry, if she cannot 
carry the child as well as the ivory, the former is thrown 
into the jungle and shares the same fate as those who 
are too weak to keep up with the caravan ( i.e ., death by 
starvation or by wild beasts). If, instead of gunboats, 
there were open slave markets as before, all these 
wretched creatures would represent some value, and 
instead of being used as mere transport for ivory, and 
flogged till the last gasp, they would be treated with 
some consideration for their owner’s sake.* 
From what I know of these natives, I believe slavery 
properly supervised would be no hardship. They are 
childlike and of a singularly low order of intelligence, 
and it has yet to be demonstrated that they are capable 
of being improved up to a point of understanding 
needful to fit them for higher callings. So-called 
civilisation by conversion will not do it, as under such 
conditions the low class native simply deteriorates into 
the utter blackguard. I have no wish to advocate 
slavery as a principle, and would gladly subscribe my' 
* Though now, as in former days, a male slave is valued at thirty-five 
dollars, and a tolerable-looking female slave at seventy to a hundred dollars, 
the fact of private auctions replacing public ones, and the prohibition of 
the sale of “green slaves ” (those just sent to the coast) at any auction, makes 
the contraband trade difficult and risky. 
