chap, ii.] WEST INDIES, 257 
sary. Many of the factories on the coast are pri¬ 
vate property; of course they procure slaves for 
the ships in their own concern. Sometimes they 
barter slaves with strangers, in order to enlarge 
their own assortment of goods, or to procure some 
particular commodities of which they are in want. 
Among the forts, the officers that belong to them 
carry on trade more or less with the shipping as 
their circumstances will admit, and according as 
they are more or less independent; but the black 
traders are supposed to sell their slaves about forty 
shillings each cheaper than the factories. 
In those parts of the coast to which shipping re¬ 
sort all the year, the intercourse between the black 
traders within land, (for an extent as yet unexplo¬ 
red by any white person), and those on the coast, is 
constant and regular; but we have no sufficiently 
precise and particular account of the manner in 
which this constant supply of slaves for sale is kept 
up and supported. I shall hereafter give the best 
information I have been able to collect on this head. 
I regret, that I have not sufficient materials to ena¬ 
ble me to furnish an accurate statement of the 
number of Africans that have been transported to 
the British colonies since their first settlement. 
However, that curiosity may not be wholly disap¬ 
pointed, I have collected such materials as I think 
will enable the reader to form some judgment in 
this respect, which probably will not be very wide 
ef the truth. 
k k 
Voi. n. 
