habit the sea-shore exclusively, and living apart
from other African tribes, are governed by their elders under a
somewhat democratic system. The Bushmen do not suffer the Kroos and
Fishes to trade with the interior; but, in recompense for the
monopoly of traffic with the strongholds of Africa's heart, these
expert boatmen maintain despotic sway along the beach in trade with
the shipping. As European or Yankee boats cannot live in the surf I
have described, the Kroo and Fishmen have an advantage over their
brothers of the Bush, as well as over the whites, which they are not
backward in using to their profit. In fact, the Bushmen fight, travel,
steal and trade, while the Kroos and Fishes, who for ages have fringed
at least seven hundred miles of African coast, constitute the
mariners, without whose skill and boldness slaves would be drugs in
caravans or _barracoons_. And this is especially the case since
British, French, and American cruisers have driven the traffic from
every nook and corner of the west coast that even resembled _a
harbor_, and forced the slavers to lay in wait in open roadsteads for
their prey.

The Kroo canoe, wedge-like at both ends, is hollowed from the solid
trunk of a tree to the thickness of an inch. Of course they are so
light and buoyant that they not only lie like a feather on the surface
of the sea, so as to require nothing but freedom from water for their
safety, but a canoe, capable of containing four people, may be borne
on the shoulders of one or two to any reasonable distance.
Accordingly, Kroomen and Fishmen are the prime pets of all slavers,
traders, and men-of-war that frequent the west coast of Africa; while
no one dwelling on the shore, engaged in commerce, is particularly
anxious to merit or receive their displeasure.

When I landed at New Sestros, I promptly supplied myself with a little
fleet of these amphibious natives; and, as the news of my liberality
spread north and south along the shore, the number of my retainers
increased with rapidity. Indeed, in six months a couple of rival
towns,--one of Kroos and the other of Fishes,--hailed me severally as
their "Commodore" and "Consul." With such auxiliaries constantly at
hand, I rarely feared the surf when the shipment of slaves was
necessary. At Gallinas, under the immediate eye of Don Pedro, the most
elaborate care was taken to secure an ample supply of these people and
their boats, and I doubt not that the multitude employed i