White man: “I will give 200 pieces of cloth.”
Interpreter to native trader: “He will give you 80 pieces of cloth.”
Native trader: “That is not enough, I want 170 pieces.”
Interpreter to white man: “They want 250 pieces of cloth.”
White man: “That is too much; I will give 210 pieces.”
Interpreter to native trader: “He will give you 90 pieces.”
After much haggling the white man reached his limit of 220 pieces; and after much talking, lasting nearly the whole day, the native trader brought his price down to 150 pieces, and the interpreter worked his up gradually to that amount. Being now agreed, the interpreter told the white man to take the rubber, and pay 150 pieces to Satu’s agent. Satu had instructed his agent not to take less than 135 pieces of cloth, and had also informed him what goods he was to select from the store. Having received fifteen pieces more than they anticipated, they reckoned that they had sold to great advantage.
Having settled the price, we went over to the store to draw the goods. Arranged round the store were the trade goods: cloths of various colours, lengths and qualities; plates, dishes, basins, ewers, mugs, cups, glasses, looking-glasses of different sizes, bright beads of gorgeous colours, machets, knives and guns. In another store was a huge pile of bags of salt, and isolated from the other houses was a store full of gunpowder.
Satu’s agent, according to his instructions, picked out fifty pieces of cloth; gunpowder to the value of fifty pieces, and fifty pieces worth of beads, mugs, trinkets, rum and gin.
All these articles were carried over to the shed in which we were living while transacting our business with the trader. Then the ivory was sold in the same manner, and, the price having been settled, guns, powder, liquor, blankets, cloth, etc., were selected up to the agreed amount. The sale of the peanuts was a very simple matter. We put the nuts on the scale, and salt was weighed against them, and when they balanced a gaudy coloured plate was put on top and the sale was completed, i. e. we received weight for weight in salt for our peanuts and a make-weight of a plate on top of each load.