MPONGWE COSTUME.

33 and on the coast it is not uncommon to see them adorned with looking-glasses, chairs, tables, sofas, and very often a Yankee clock.

There is a great contrast between such neat dwellings and the low, circular, dark, and dirty hovels of the negroes between the Niger and Senegambia, with their rude high-peaked roofs and clay walls.

They are the best-looking people I have seen, looking very much like the Mandigoes; of ordinary size and with pleasant negro features, but handsomer than the Congo tribes. The men wear a shirt, generally of English, French, or American calico, over which is wrapped a square cloth, which falls to the ankles. To this is added a straw hat for the head. Only the king is allowed to wear the silk hat, of American or European manufacture. The wealthier men and chiefs, however, are fond of dress, and, when they can afford it, delight to show themselves in a bright military costume, sword and all.

The chief, and, in most cases, only garment of the women is a square cloth, which is wrapped about the body, and covers them from above the hips to just below the knees. On their bare legs and arms they delight to wear great numbers of brass rings, often bearing from twenty-five to thirty pounds of brass on each ankle in this way. This ridiculous vanity greatly obstructs their locomotion, and makes their walk a clumsy waddle.

Both sexes are extremely fond of ornaments and of perfumery, with which they plentifully besprinkle themselves, with little regard to kind.

The most characteristic point about the Mpongwe-indeed of all the negro tribes I have seen—is their great eagerness and love for trade. My friends the Mpongwe live by trade. Their position at and near the mouth of the Gaboon gives them such facilities and such a command of the interior as they know but too well how to use and misuse to their own advantage.

Let me here give the reader an idea of African commerce. The rivers, which are the only highways of the country, are, of course, the avenues by which every species of export and import must be conveyed from and to the interior tribes. Now the river banks are possessed by different tribes. Thus, while the Mpongwe hold the mouth and some miles above, they are succeeded by the Shekiani, and these again by other tribes, to the

C

number of almost a dozen, before the Sierra del Crystal mountains are reached. Each of these tribes assumes to itself the privilege of acting as go-between or middle-man to those next to it, and charges a heavy percentage for this office; and no infraction of this rule is permitted under penalty of war. Thus a piece of ivory or ebony may belong originally to a negro in the far interior, and if he wants to barter it for "white man's trade," he dares not take it to a market himself. If he should be rash enough to attempt such a piece of enterprise his goods would be confiscated, and he, if caught, fined by those whose monopoly he sought to break down, or most likely sold into slavery.

He is obliged by the laws of trade to intrust it to some fellow in the next tribe nearer than him to the coast. He, in turn, disposes of it to the next chief or friend, and so ivory, or ebony, or bar-wood, or whatever, is turned and turned, and passes through. probably a dozen hands ere it reaches the factory of the trader on the coast.

This would seem to work against the white trader by increasing the price of products. But this is only half the evil. Although the producer sold his ivory, and though it was resold a dozen times, all this trade was only a commission business with no advances. In fact, the first holder has trusted each successive dispenser with his property without any equivalent or "collater al" security. Now, when the last black fellow disposes of this piece of ebony or ivory to the white merchant or captain, he retains, in the first place, a very liberal percentage of the returns for his valuable services, and turns the remainder over to his next neighbor above. He, in turn, takes out a commission for his trouble and passes on what is left; and so, finally, a very small remainder too often nothing at all-is handed over to the poor fellow who has inaugurated the speculation or sent the tusk.

Any one can see the iniquity of this system and the fatal clog it throws on all attempts at the building up of a legitimate commerce in a country so rich in many products now almost indispensable to civilized nations. The poor interior tribes are kept by their neighbors in the profoundest ignorance of what is done on the coast. They are made to believe the most absurd and horrid stories as to the ferocity, the duplicity, and the cunning of the white traders. They are persuaded that the rascally middle-men are not only in constant danger of their lives by their intercourse

HONESTY IS THE WORST POLICY.

35

with the whites, but that they do not make any profit on the goods which they good-naturedly pass on to a market, so that I have known one of these scoundrels, after having appropriated a large share of the poor remainder of returns for a venture of ivory, actually, by a pitiful story, beg a portion of what he had handed over to his unsuspicious client. Each tribe cheats its next neighbor above, and maligns its next neighbor below. A talent for slandering is, of course, a first-rate business talent; and the harder stories one can tell of his neighbors below the greater profit he will make on his neighbor above.

The consequence is that the interior tribes-who own the most productive country-have little or no incentive to trade, or to gather together the stores of ivory, bar-wood, ebony, etc., for which they get such small prices, and these at no certain intervals, but often after long periods, even years elapsing sometimes before a final settlement is found convenient. Thus these are discouraged, and perforce remain in their original barbarism and inactivity.

The trade in slaves is carried on in exactly the same way, except that sometimes an infraction of trade-laws, or some disturbance on account of witchcraft, causes a war between two tribes in the commission business, when, of course, each side takes all it can of the opposite and ships them direct to the coast-to the barracoons, or slave dépôts, of which I shall have something more detailed to say farther on.

There are, however, other obstacles to the prosecution of a regular commercial enterprise even by the shrewder among the negroes. It is not permitted that any member of a tribe shall get into his hands more than his share of the trade. It occurred some years ago to a shrewd Mpongwe fellow that in trade transactions honesty might be the best policy, and he followed the suggestion so well that presently both the whites and the interior natives threw a very considerable trade into his honest hands. But no sooner was this observed than he was threatened with poisoning, accused of witchcraft, and such a hullaballoo raised about his ears that he was forced to actually refuse the trade offered him, and, in a measure, retire from business to save his life.

More recently still, there were three or four men in the river who had obtained, by long good conduct, quite a character for honesty, and also, in consequence, got a good deal of business. At last a captain came for a load of bar-wood, and declared that he

36

THE CREDIT SYSTEM.

would trust only the three or four men in question, to the bitter disappointment of other traders. The vessel was quickly filled and departed; and there arose a great "palaver"-the Portuguese cant for a quarrel-in which the kings and chiefs and all the disappointed trading fellows met together at Glass Town-the residence of my honest friends-to advise about such an outrage. The men were called up for trial. They had been educated at the American mission, and knew how to write; and the charge made against them now was that they had written to the white man's country to say that there were no good men in Gaboon but themselves.

To this the accused shrewdly replied that the white men would not believe men who should thus praise themselves.

But reply was useless. They were threatened that if they took the next ship that came, the malcontents would "make a boondgi," or work a spell of witchcraft upon them, and kill them. Fortunately, in this case, the honest fellows had learned at the mission not to fear such threats; and the French commander for once stepped in and protected them against their envious fellows, so that for this time, on the west coast of Africa, honesty seems likely to get its reward.

Again, through the anxiety of white traders to secure "trade," there has sprung up along the coast an injurious system of "trust." A merchant, to secure to himself certain quantities of produce yet to come down from the interior, gives to such black fellows as he thinks he can depend on advances of trade goods, often to very considerable amounts. In this way, on the Gaboon and on the coast, often many thousand dollars' worth of goods are in the hands of natives, for which no consideration has been received by the white trader, who meantime waits, and is put to trouble and expense, and thinks himself lucky if he do not eventually lose a part of his investment.

This system of "trust," as it is called, does great injury to the natives, for it tempts them to practice all sorts of cheats, for which they are sharp enough-indeed, much too shrewd often for the white man. Of course, his only dependence lies in the knowledge of his black debtor that if he cheats too badly his future supplies will be stopped entirely. But the practice develops all kinds of overtrading as well as rascality-negroes seldom hesitating to contract to supply much greater quantities of produce than they can hope to procure during a season.

A DAY WITH THE TRADERS.

37

Even the slave-trade, I found, on my visit to Cape Lopez, is burdened with this evil of "trust," and some of the Portuguese slavers, I was told, get preciously cheated in their advances on shipments of slaves sold "to arrive," but which do not come to hand.

I have heard the negroes called stupid, but my experience shows them to be any thing else than that. They are very shrewd traders indeed; and no captain or merchant who is a new hand on the coast will escape being victimized by their cunning in driving a bargain.

Say that to-day the good ship Jenny has arrived in the river. Immediately every black fellow is full of trade. The ship is boarded by a crowd of fellows, each jabbering away, apparently at random, but all telling the same story.

Never was there such dearth of ivory, or whatever the captain may want!

Never were the interior tribes so obstinate in demanding a high price!

Never was the whole coast so bare!

Never were difficulties so great!

There have been fights, captain!

And fever, captain!

And floods, captain!

And no trade at all, captain!

Not a tooth!

This point settled, they produce their "good books," which are certificates of character, in which some captain or other white trader who is known on the coast vouches for the honesty-the great honesty and entire trust-worthiness of the bearer. It is not worth while for a fellow to present himself without a certificate, and the papers are all good, because when "the bearer" has cheated he does not apply for a "character." Now these certificates help him to cheat. When he finds the need of a new set of papers, he conducts himself with scrupulous honesty toward two or three captains. These, of course, "certify" him, and then he goes into the wildest and most reckless speculations, upheld by the "good books," which he shows to every captain that comes.

Now, while they are pretending that nothing is to be bought, that there is no ivory on the coast, all this time the lying rascals have their hands full, and are eager to sell. They know