The slave trade within the African continent 153the Africans themselves came to organize their commerce on a more rational
basis. Because of the risks of all kinds involved in trading independently, they
decided to join forces and 'form a caravan led by one or more overseers'.^12
Each slave train was composed of 'two or three slaves chained together, in
groups of four to twelve, depending on whether they [belonged] to a single
merchant or to several in the same partnership'.^13
To forestall mutiny or evasion, the African merchants would make their
captives carry a stone or some sand, weighing between forty and fifty pounds,
for the whole length of the journey; or alternatively trade goods such as sor-
ghum, elephants' teeth, hides or wax, so that sheer exhaustion would rob them
of any desire to escape.^14
Shortly before the date for departure to the coastal markets, where they
would meet up with the European slave-traders, the African merchants would
begin to round up the slaves who were to be sold along the coast at specific
rallying-points. The European goods they had acquired at the previous sale
had been used to purchase more slaves. They always had a way of having their
fellow countrymen repay them in slaves for loans in kind.^15 In Bambarena,
writes Pruneau de Pommegorge, the long-established institution of slavery led
the local rulers to set up villages where they kept the captives they had seized
during raids.^16 Whenever they wanted European goods they would select a
few of them and sell them to the Mandingo and Hausa merchants. According
to Mungo Park, the people captured and put in these special villages outnum-
bered those who were free. They made up three-quarters of the entire
population.^17
The African merchants preferred these people born in captivity to free
men who had been made slaves. For they were accustomed to hunger and fatigue
and stood up better to the hardships of the long voyages. They were resigned
to their unhappy fate. Never having been exposed to the joys of freedom, they
probably regarded their lot as the normal course of events. They presented no
danger to the African traders for they never attempted to run away.^18
Once this first batch had been gathered in, the African merchants would
fill up their caravans by going around to the various slave markets to buy more
slaves. When all was in order, the merchants would set off for the coast or for
the markets where they would periodically meet company agents. Those who
supplied the French would make for Galam but only when the rainy season was
imminent. Those who supplied the British would head for Gambia, but only
when the rivers could be crossed and the bush was destroyed by fire.^19 In this
way the merchants were less in danger of being attacked by the wild beasts
which roamed the lands between Faleme and Gambia.
During the march to the coastal termini or trading posts, the captives
were treated harshly. Regarded as nothing but merchandise transporting
another sort of merchandise, they were chained together by poles cleft at both