General Joubert-Pienaar declares that he never heard of a single case where one of these slaves had returned to his own country, while in the coast towns the abnormal proportion of native women and children noticeable is due to the fact that the men have been sent as slaves to the islands. The method of obtaining the slaves and of making the pretense of a contract with them is thus described: "When any slaves are wanted in the islands, the plantation owner informs the slave-traders on the mainland. The slave-trader goes to a strong chief, inland, and bargains with him for the number of slaves he requires, generally paying him in rifles and ammunition. {6} This chief will not send any of his own men to the islands, but, calling his braves, he goes to some weaker tribe, attacks it, and annihilates the tribe, taking the men, women, children, and cattle captive. The men, and as many women as are necessary, he hands over to the slave-trader, the rest of the women and the cattle he keeps for himself and his people, and the children he sells to colonists for slaves. On these slave-hunting expeditions the most terrible cruelties are enacted and the most gruesome atrocities perpetrated. … Arriving at the coast, these men—and sometimes women when they are required—are brought before an officer appointed for the purpose. He reads the contract to them in Portuguese; and after the contract has been read to these people, who do not understand one word of the language, a black man, who is stationed there for the purpose, shouts to these slaves to say ‘Yes!’ Of course they all repeat the ‘Yes’ after him, and the Portuguese official then certifies that these men have all agreed to go and work on the islands under the terms of the contract read to them. He then takes a little tin box, in which a copy of the contract is placed, and ties it around the neck of each of the slaves." AFRICA: Somaliland: Troubles with the Mullah.