Captain Drake, under date of January 5, 1840, writes of another coast prince as follows:
"Da Souza, or Cha-Chu, as everybody calls him, is apparently a reckless voluptuary, but the shrewdest slave-trader on the African coast. Whydah was built by his enterprise, and he lives the life of a prince. His mansion here is like a palace, and he has a harem filled with women from all parts of the world. He keeps up a continual round of dissipation, gambling, feasting, and indulging in every sensual pleasure with his women and visitors. . . . His house is the very abode of luxury. He must squander thousands. But what is money toa man who has a slave-mine in Dahomey, bringing hoards of wealth yearly by a hundred vessels. Da Souza enjoys almost a monopoly of the coast trade. Blanco has been his only rival of late years. . . . This morning Cha-Chu met me and proposed to supply me with a wife. ‘ You shall have French, Spanish, Greek, Circassian, English, Dutch, Italian, Asiatic, African or American,' he said laughing."
The origin of the demand for silks and other fancy goods of which Commodore Perry made mention is thus apparent.
The kidnapping and the raiding were increased, although the market price of slaves fell as low as from $12 to $20 a head. The demand continued because the hardships of the slave-life killed off the slaves more rapidly than slave children were born. This was true even in certain parts of the United States. Virginia and some other States were breeding places, but by a statement printed in De Bow's Review for November, 1858, it appears that the slave population
