well to set down the inventory I made out of the
caravan's stock and its result, as the various items were intrusted to
my guardianship. The body of the caravan itself consisted of seven
hundred persons, principally men; while the produce was as follows:

3,500 hides $1,750
19 large and prime teeth of ivory, 1,560
Gold, 2,500
600 pounds small ivory, 320
15 tons of rice, 600
40 slaves, 1,600
36 bullocks, 360
Sheep, goats, butter, vegetables, 100
900 pounds bees-wax, 95
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Total value of the caravan's merchandise, $8,885
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Our profits on this speculation were very flattering, both as regards
sales and acquisitions. Rice cost us one cent per pound; hides were
delivered at eighteen or twenty cents each; a bullock was sold for
twenty or thirty pounds of tobacco; sheep, goats or hogs, cost two
pounds of tobacco, or a fathom of common cotton, each; ivory was
purchased at the rate of a dollar the pound for the best, while
inferior kinds were given at half that price. In fact, the profit on
our merchandise was, at least, one hundred and fifty per cent. As gold
commands the very best fabrics in exchange, and was paid for at the
rate of sixteen dollars an ounce, we made but seventy per cent. on the
article. The slaves were delivered at the rate of one hundred "_bars_"
each. The "_bar_" is valued on the coast at half a dollar; but a pound
and a half of tobacco is also a "bar," as well as a fathom of ordinary
cotton cloth, or a pound of powder, while a common musket is equal to
twelve "bars." Accordingly, where slaves were purchased for one
hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, only eighteen dollars were, in
reality, paid; and when one hundred pounds of powder were given, we
got them for twenty dollars each. Our _British_ muskets cost us but
three dollars apiece; yet we seldom purchased negroes for this article
alone. If the women, offered in the market, exceeded twenty-five years
of age, we made a deduction of twenty per cent.; but if they were
stanchly-built, and gave promising tokens for the future, we took them
at the price of an able-bodied ma