In the account which I have thus given of the natives, the reader must
bear in mind, that my observations apply chiefly to persons of _free
condition_, who constitute, I suppose, not more than one-fourth part of
the inhabitants at large; the other three-fourths are in a state of
hopeless and hereditary slavery; and are employed in cultivating the
land, in the care of cattle, and in servile offices of all kinds, much in
the same manner as the slaves in the West Indies. I was told, however,
that the Mandingo master can neither deprive his slave of life, nor sell
him to a stranger, without first calling a palaver on his conduct; or, in
other words, bringing him to a public trial; but this degree of
protection is extended only to the native of domestic slave. Captives
taken in war, and those unfortunate victims who are condemned to slavery
for crimes or insolvency, and, in short, all those unhappy people who are
brought down from the interior countries for sale, have no security
whatever, but may be treated and disposed of in all respects as the owner
thinks proper. It sometimes happens, indeed, when no ships are on the
coast, that a humane and considerate master incorporates his purchased
slaves among his domestics; and their offspring at least, if not the
parents, become entitled to all the privileges of the native class.

The preceding remarks concerning the several nations that inhabit the
banks of the Gambia, are all that I recollect as necessary to be made in
this place, at the outset of my journey. With regard to the Mandingoes,
however, many particulars are yet to be related; some of which are
necessarily interwoven into the narrative of my progress, and others will
be given in a summary at the end of my work; together with all such
observations as I have collected on the country and climate, which I
could not with propriety insert in the regular detail of occurrences.
What remains of the present chapter will therefore, relate solely to the
trade which the nations of Christendom have found means to establish with