people sacrificed his prime minister, three hundred and thirty-six of his wives, and upwards of a thousand of his slaves. The symbol of their divinity they always wear about the neck, in the form of a bit of wood, horn, or other common material. They call it the fetiche, and place the utmost reliance on its power to protect them from all harm.
Cannibalism is not uncommon. There is one tribe widely scattered over the country, whose food is said to be human flesh, and human bodies are hung up for sale in their shambles. Their prisoners of war are fattened, killed, and eaten, or sold to the butchers.
But the grand source of Africa's woes, is that inhuman traffic in her own people, which the civilized world unite in denouncing, and which several nations, the United States included, have united in endeavouring to suppress. This is the cause of the fearful state of society which there exists. This is the secret of their incessant wars. The Africans, in their wars, are not stimulated by revenge, like our Indians, nor hurried by the impulse of wanton cruelty, like the Moors of the desert; nor are they prompted by ambition and a desire to extend their dominions, like many more civilized nations, "but they go out to battle in order to steal and to sell one another, and they exult in victory in proportion to the trophies of human victims." I cannot undertake here to depict the horrors attendant upon this accursed traffic. It is not merely the terrific midnight assault, the violent seizure, and the murder of
