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hundred miles from the ſea coaſt; and theſe fairs are ſupplied from an interior part of the country. Many negroes, upon being queſtioned relative to the places of their nativity have aſſerted, that they have travelled during the revolution of ſeveral moons, before they have reached the places where they were purchaſed by the black traders. At theſe fairs, which are held generally every ſix weeks, ſeveral thouſands are frequently expoſed to ſale, and they conſiſt chiefly of men and boys, the women ſeldom exceeding a third of the whole number. From forty to two hundred negroes are generally purchaſed at a time by the black traders, and are of all ages, from a month to ſixty years and upwards. The ſlaves purchaſed at theſe fairs are only for the ſupply of the markets at Bonny, and Old and New Calabar. Moſt of the negroes ſhipped from the coaſt of Africa are kidnapped: and it frequently happens, that thoſe who kidnap others, are themſelves, in their turns, ſeized and ſold.
Continual enmity is thus foſtered among the negroes of Africa, and all ſocial intercourſe deſtroyed; which moſt aſſuredly would not be the caſe, had they not these opportunities of finding a ready sale for each other.
The preparations made at Bonny by the black traders, upon ſetting out for the fairs which are held up the country, are very conſiderable. From twenty to thirty
