These slaves are treated very differently from the unhappy victims who used to be transported from the coast of Guinea, and our settlements on the Gambia, to the West India islands. After suffering those privations, which all who traverse the African Desert must necessarily and equally submit to, masters as well as servants and slaves, they are conveyed to Fas and Marocco, and after being exhibited in the sook, or public market place, they are sold to the highest bidder, who carries them to his home, where, if found faithful, they are considered as members of the family, and allowed an intercourse with the (horraht) free-born women of the household. Being in the daily habit of hearing the Arabic language spoken, they soon acquire a partial knowledge of it, and the Mohammedan religion teaching the unity of God, they readily reject paganism, and embrace Mohammedanism; their Mooselmin masters then instil into their vacant minds, ready to receive the first impression, the fundamental principles of the Mooselmin doctrine; the more intelligent learn to read and write, and afterwards acquire a partial knowledge of the Koran; and such as can read and understand one chapter, from that time procure their emancipation from slavery, and the master exults in having converted an infidel, and in full faith, expects favour from heaven for the action, and for having liberated a slave. When these people do not turn their minds to reading, and learning the principles of Mohammedanism, they generally obtain their freedom after eight or ten years servitude; for the more conscientious Mooselmin consider them as servants, and purchase them for about the same sum that they would pay in wages to a servant during the above period, at the expiration of which term, by giving them their liberty, they, according to their religious opinions, acquire a blessing from God, for having done an act, which a Mooselmin considers more meritorious in the sight of Heaven, than the sacrifice of a goat, or even of a camel. This liberation is entirely voluntary on the part of the owner; and I have known some slaves so attached to their masters from good treatment, that when they have been offered their liberty, they have actually refused it, preferring to continue in servitude. It should not, however, be supposed, that the Arabs and Moors are always inclined thus to liberate these degraded people; on the contrary, some of them, particularly the latter, are obdurate, and make an infamous traffic of them, by purchasing, and afterwards intermarrying them, for the purposes of propagation and of sale, when they are placed in the public market-place, and there turned about, and examined, in order to ascertain their value.