r
protector _son or daughter_) and the children of the person with whom
they live. Such persons intermarry, and frequently become the heads of
state: indeed, generally so, as I do not remember at present a king or
chief with whom I became acquainted whose entire members of the
household, from the lowest domestic to the highest official, did not
sustain this relation to him, they calling him _baba_ or "father," and
he treating them as children. And where this is not the case, it either
arises from some innovation among them or those exceptional cases of
despotism to be found in every country. Indeed, the term "slave" is
unknown to them, only as it has been introduced among them by whites
from Europe and America. So far from abject slavery, not even the old
feudal system, as known to exist until comparatively recent in
enlightened and Christian Europe, exists in this part of Africa.

Criminals and prisoners of war are _legally sold_ into slavery among
themselves, just as was the custom in almost every civilized country in
the world till very lately, when nothing but advanced intelligence and
progressive Christianity among the people put a stop to it. There is no
place, however, but Illorin, a _bona fide_ Mohammedan kingdom, where we
ever witnessed any exhibition of these facts.

How Slaves Are Obtained

Slaves are abducted by marauding, kidnapping, depraved natives, who,
like the organized bands and gangs of robbers in Europe and America, go
through the country thieving and stealing helpless women and children,
and men who may be overpowered by numbers. Whole villages in this way
sometimes fall victims to these human monsters, especially when the
strong young men are out in the fields at work, the old of both sexes in
such cases being put to death, whilst the young are hurried through
some private way down to the slave factories usually kept by Europeans
(generally Portuguese and Spaniards) and Americans, on some secluded
part of the coast. And in no instances are the parents and relatives
known to sell their own children or people into slavery, except, indeed,
in cases of base depravity, and except such miserable despots as the
kings of Dahomi and Ashantee; neither are the heads of countries known
to sell their own people; but like the marauding kidnapper, obtain them
by war on others.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Lagos is an exception to this, the market commencing early in the
day, and closing at night.

IX

DI