At another time, the military, who had been sent out to _Pillage_, returned with several captives. These consisted of men, women, and children. The men, as they were brought in, exhibited marks of great dejection. One of them, however, appeared to be quite frantick with grief. He beseeched his captors, with great fervency, that they would not tear him from his wife and children. The women, on the other hand, vented their sorrow in shrieks and lamentations. The children, in a state of palpitation, clung to their mother’s breasts. Their little eyes were so swelled with crying, that they could cry no more. During all this time, the captors, to shew their joy on the occasion, and to drown the cries of their unfortunate fellow-subjects, were beating large drums. To this was added, all the noise that could be collected from the blowing of horns, and the human voice. Taking in the shrieks and agony of the one, and the shouts and joy of the other, with the concomitant instruments of noise, I was never before witness to such an infernal scene. What I have said of the king of Barbesin’s conduct with respect to the mode of procuring slaves, is equally applicable to those other kings of the country, of whom I have any knowledge. King Damel, whose dominions lie between Portudal and Senegal, wanting a slave to deliver in exchange for some goods he had bargained for with a Goree trader, ordered his soldiers to seize on one of his own subjects. Finding a woman (whose husband was absent) in a hut with her children, they seized her, bound her, and tore her from her babes, who were rejected, as not being able to perform the journey down to the shore. The king of Sallum, though he never tastes any spirituous liquors, has recourse to the same practice, as if by the common consent of the kings of Africa, these were the measures to be invariably pursued. The articles, most in demand with this king, are Spanish dollars, and Dutch gourds. Both these he causes to be melted down, and then to be worked into chains, bracelets, and other ornaments for himself and his favourites. Having fixed an extraordinary value upon these, he will at any time depopulate a village to obtain them. Such are the effects of avarice, when it has the power of gratification. The vessels employed in the trade to Sallum, by the mulattoes of Goree, are generally sloops. With these they go up the river, and arrive in about three days. Their stay there is very uncertain. It is in general from one to four weeks, according as the king is successful or not in those _Pillages_ which he attempts for the sake of procuring slaves. When the traders have completed their cargoes, they return to Goree, where they deliver them, in about eight days. The slaves, so delivered, are shipped off, by the first opportunity, to the French colonies.