6680. _Chairman._] How do you distinguish the lawful from the unlawful trade carried on in a place where both are going on together?--It is almost impossible to distinguish them; for instance, at Bissao the principal slave dealer is also the principal produce dealer, Caetano or Kyetan Nossolino, with whom all the merchants at the Gambia have dealings; in my opinion, that is not a very beneficial trade, because it is not a direct trade with the natives at all; it is a trade between the slave dealer and the British merchants; he buys produce, with which he procures slaves; his principal trade is the slave trade, and he derives great advantages from his commerce with the Gambia in his slave trade. 6681. Would he not have the same facilities of getting the goods necessary for the slave trade from other sources?--He would not have the same facility; it would be much more difficult for him to get it from any other quarter, I apprehend. 6682. Mr. _Forster_.] Do you mean that it would be difficult, supposing the supply from the British settlements at the Gambia were cut off?--I think it would be more difficult. 6683. _Chairman._] Could you stop an American or a Hamburgh vessel going in with the same produce?--Certainly not, nor would I stop an English vessel, but I should wish to consider the means by which we might separate the legitimate trade from the slave trade; my opinion is, that the separation would be best effected by the occupation of Bulama, which would put our merchants in a better position to trade themselves direct with the natives. 6684. You consider then that the trade with Bissao is now thrown too much into the hands of one man, who becomes a monopolist of the trade, and who derives advantages from it in carrying on the slave trade, which would not be derived if we had an entrepôt of our own, to which the natives could resort for goods?--I do; instead of the trade passing all through his hands, I would endeavour, by the occupation of such places as Bulama, to create a rival trade between the English merchants and the natives, instead of goods going, as they now do, through the hands of Caetano and other slave dealers.