suppose that the conquerors, finding it inconvenient to maintain
their prisoners, would compel them to labour--at first, perhaps,
only for their own support, but afterwards to support their masters.
Be this as it may, it is a known fact that prisoners of war in
Africa are the slaves of the conquerors; and when the weak or
unsuccessful warrior begs for mercy beneath the uplifted spear of
his opponent, he gives up at the same time his claim to liberty, and
purchases his life at the expense of his freedom.

In a country divided into a thousand petty states, mostly
independent and jealous of each other, where every freeman is
accustomed to arms and fond of military achievements, where the
youth, who has practised the bow and spear from his infancy, longs
for nothing so much as an opportunity to display his valour, it is
natural to imagine that wars frequently originate from very
frivolous provocation. When one nation is more powerful than
another, pretext is seldom wanting for commencing hostilities. Thus
the war between Kajaaga and Kasson was occasioned by the detention
of a fugitive slave; that between Bambarra and Kaarta by the loss of
a few cattle. Other cases of the same nature perpetually occur in
which the folly or mad ambition of their princes and the zeal of
their religious enthusiasts give full employment to the scythe of
desolation.

The wars of Africa are of two kinds, which are distinguished by
different appellations; that species which bears the greatest
resemblance to our European contests is denominated killi, a word
signifying "to call out," because such wars are openly avowed and
previously declared. Wars of this description in Africa commonly
terminate, however, in the course of a single campaign. A battle is