For which he could again purchase five slaves in Kaarta, where there is no want of those wretched beings. Is it then to be wondered at that those people view with a jealous eye our endeavours to suppress that trade, or throw obstacles in the way of our penetrating into the interior of their country, where they suppose we are attracted with no other view than the ultimate subversion of their religion and favourite traffic in their own flesh and blood; for it is impossible to convince them (at least by words) that we have no such intention: and as to think of persuading them that the extension of our geographical knowledge in visiting unknown countries at such risks and expense, or that the lawful increase of our commerce alone attract our steps, we might as well tell them that a white man never bought a slave. Whenever I spoke of the Niger, or my anxiety to see it, they asked me if there were no rivers in the country (we say) we inhabit; for the general belief is, as before stated, that we live exclusively in ships on the sea. The Moors too, who are general traders, and visit all the states of the interior in their commercial pursuits, are aware that any encouragement given by the native chiefs to our direct and friendly intercourse with them must tend to undermine their own trade, and in the course of time to remove from the eyes and understandings of those chiefs and their subjects the veil of superstition by which they are now shrouded. They therefore take advantage of the credit and respectability which in their characters as Maraboos they so invariably enjoy, to circulate reports prejudicial not only to our views in Africa (which they, if they do not really believe like the negroes, represent in the same way) but to our character as a people, whom they designate by the degrading appellation of Kafér, or unbeliever.