manner as they consider as a proof of
guilt, his brains are knocked out upon the spot, or the body is so inflated
by the pernicious liquid that it bursts. In either of these catastrophes
all his family are sold for slaves. Some survive these diabolical
expedients of injustice, but the issue is uniformly slavery. When chiefs of
influence, guilty of atrocity and fraud, become objects of accusation, the
ingredient is of course qualified so as to remove its fatal tendency. Hence
justice seldom or ever in this country can punish powerful offenders, or
shield the innocence of the weak and unprotected.

The iniquity and oppression sanctioned by these trials, is a dreadful
consequence of their avarice and inhumanity, for it is a fact that slaves
are created thereby, and human sacrifices offered to that spirit, which
they consider as their tutelar guardian: it is a subject which humanity
should seriously contemplate in the relinquishment of the slave trade,
whether, by the hasty adoption of that measure, before the intellectual
powers of the people are improved by civilization, this barbarous evil may
not be increased. When I closely enquired of the chiefs and natives
relative to these savage customs, they uniformly admitted the fact, "that
such live in their country," but with their characteristic dissimulation,
always denied having perpetrated these horrid acts, and shifted the
diabolical practice to some other nation or tribe, adding, "that only bad
men do that thing."

Circumcision is practised among men, and a certain infliction on women,
not, however, from religious motives, but to guard against the consequences
of a disease not uncommon among them. The infliction upon women is the
result of infidelity, or a sacrifice of chastity to loose gratification. As
a preliminary, they retire to the _bunda_, or penitentiary, and are there
secluded from all sexual intercourse. When the season of penitence is over,
the operation is performed by the rude application of two stones, fashioned
and sharpened for the purpose; this obliterates all delinquincy, and on
their return to the world they are considered as restored to virgin purity.

Wars in Africa originate from a variety of causes; in forming a correct
estimate of these, it is necessary to consider its localities and
situation. The inhabitants of this quarter of the earth, more particularly
those of the district now under consideration, compose numerous tribes and
nations, whose