Note 81 — Chapter XII · MOHAMMEDANS, SLAVE-RAIDING, AND DOMESTIC SERVITUDE

The absence of any wish to “act otherwise” on the part of the native is invariably assumed in Europe, and but too often by Europeans in Africa. In this connection the following passage from Clapperton (when travelling in Nigeria) is worth noting: “It was with feelings of the highest satisfaction that I listened to some of the most respectable of the merchants, when they declared that; were any other system of trading adopted, they would gladly embrace it in preference to dealing in slaves.”