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CHAPTER XIV

TALES OF THE OUTLAWED TRADE

How the Laws were Interpreted — Slavers that would Make a Fierce Fight — Famous American Privateers that Became Slavers — Whole Cargoes of Slaves Thrown to the Sharks to Avoid the Confiscation of Vessels — Tales of the Rapido, the Regulo, and Hemans's Brillante — A Cargo of Slaves Bound to Anchor and Chain and Thrown Overboard — A Slaver Who Coolly Murdered His Sweetheart and Child — A Trade that was Lucrative in Proportion to Its Heinousness.

The trade being now outlawed, the tender solicitude of legislators for what were called lawful traders, that is, traders who exchanged rum and cast-iron muskets for ivory and palm-oil, was so great that the law regarding slavers was restricted in ridiculous fashion. Nor was it ridiculous alone from the point of view of one who sees that to trade rotten muskets for good palm-oil and ivory was degrading to the trader. The lawful traders, so called, on the coast of Africa were almost invariably panders to the slavetraders. Says Drake, in his ‘‘ Revelations of a SlaveSmuggler" (p. 66), regarding the goods he exchanged for slaves: "Our spirits, cotton, powder, and guns are bought from English trading stations on the Congo. We buy on the coast, and pay higher for these goods, rather than that the old factories should break up;