Is similar to that of Timbuctoo; in both places foreign merchants
always employ agents, or brokers, to trade to advantage; a man
should reside sometime before he begins. Ivory is sold by the
tooth; he bought one, weighing 200 lb. for five ducats (1_£. 5s._);
he sold it in Marocco for 25 ducats, per 100 lb.; it is now[84]
worth 60.
[Footnote 84: A.D. 1795.]
46
The king cannot make any of his subjects slaves. They get their
cotton from Bengala.[85] They have no salt, it comes from a great
distance, and is very dear. Goods find a much better market at
Housa than at Timbuctoo. There are merchants at Housa from Timboo,
Bornoo, Moshu, and India; the travelling merchants do not regard
distance. From Timboo and other great towns he has heard, and from
his own knowledge can venture to assert, that they bring East India
goods. Gold-dust, ivory, and slaves are the principal returns from
Housa. The people of Housa have slaves from Bornoo, Bambarra,
Jinnie, Beni Killeb[86] (sons of dogs), and Beni Aree (sons of the
naked); they are, generally, prisoners of war, though many are
stolen when young, by people who make a trade of this practice. The
laws are very severe against this crime; it requires, therefore,
great cunning and duplicity; no men of any property are ever guilty
of it. The slave stealers take the children by night out of the
town, and sell them to some peasant, who sells them to a third, and
so from hand to hand, till they are carried out of the country; if
this practice did not exist, there would be few slaves for the
Barbary market. Beyond the age of fourteen or fifteen, a slave is
47 hardly saleable in Barbary. Few merchants bring to Housa above two
or three slaves at a time; but there are great numbers of merchants
continually bringing them. His own slave was a native of Bambarra,
and was brought very young to Timbuctoo. Slaves are generally
stupid; but his, on the contrary, was very sensible; he understood
several languages, particularly Arabic; he bought him as an
interpreter; he would not have sold publicly for above twenty
ducats; but he gave 50 for him; his master parting with him very
reluctantly. He bought two female slaves at Housa, at 15 ducats
each.[87] The value of slaves has since then doubled in Barbary; he
does not know the present[88] price at Timbuctoo. At Timbuctoo not
ten slaves in the hundred bought there, are females; when bought,
the merchant shuts them up in a private room, but not in chains,
and places a centinel at the door: when the confidence of any of
them is supposed to be gained, they are employed as centinels.
Housa having a great trade, is much frequented by people from
Bambarra, Foulan, Jinnie, and the interior countries.
Manufactures and husbandry are similar to those at Timbuctoo.
[Footnote 85: Bengal, or the East Indies.]
[Footnote 86: Properly Ben Ekkilleb, or Hel Ekkileb, i.e. the
canine-race. These are described to be swift of foot and low of
stature, having a language peculiar to themselves.]
[Footnote 87: About the 1790th year of the Christian era.]
[Footnote 88: In the year 1795.]