It was usually impossible to tell the false from the true in the reports of the loss of goods by fire and flood, theft and rapine, mildew and white ants, or the loss of slaves by death or mutiny.

The expense of the salary list, ship hire, provisions and merchandise was heavy and continuous, while the returns were precarious to a degree.

Not often did such great wars occur as the Dahomey invasion of the Whidah country in 1726[16] and the general fighting of the Gambia peoples in 1733-1734[17] to glut the outward bound ships with slave cargoes.

As a rule the company's advantage of steady markets and friendly native relations appears to have been more than offset by the freedom of the separate traders from fixed charges and the necessity of dependence upon lazy and unfaithful employees.
[Footnote 14: Moore, pp.

112, 164, 182.] [Footnote 15: _Ibid_., p.