censure. The poor sufferer, urged on by the feelings of domestic or paternal attachment, and by the ardor of revenge, conceals himself amongst the bushes, until some young or unarmed person passes by: then, tigerlike, he springs upon his prey, drags his victim into the thicket, and in the night carries him off as his slave."
What a picture of unmitigated barbarism is this! It is surpassed only by the still more ferocious character of the negroes of Dahomey, with whom human skulls are said to constitute the, favorite ornament in the construction of palaces and temples; and whose king has the floor of his sleeping-room paved with the skulls, and the ceiling ornamented with the jaw-bones, of the chiefs he has conquered in battle. One of these kings is said to have put to death, at the funeral of his mother, three thousand prisoners, to build a tomb with their skulls. — Park thus continues:
"When a negro has, by means like these, once fallen into the hands of his enemies, he is either retained as the slave of his conqueror, or bartered into a distant kingdom; for an African, when he has once subdued his enemy, will seldom give him an opportunity of lifting up his hand against him at a future period. A conqueror commonly disposes of his captives according to the rank which they held in their native kingdom. Such of the domestic slaves as appear to be of a mild disposition, and particularly the young women, are retained as his own slaves. Others, that display marks of discontent, are disposed of in a distant country; and such of the freemen ‘ or slaves as have taken an active part in the war, are either sold to the slatees [negro slave-dealers] or are put to death. War, therefore, is
