advance takes the tree of the man behind him on his shoulder." In this way, the men carrying the sheba, the boys tied together by the wrists, the women and children walking at their liberty, and the old and feeble tottering along leaning on their relations, the whole of the captives are driven into Egypt, there to be exposed for sale in the slave-market. Thus negroes and Nubians are distributed over the East, through Persia, Arabia, India, &c.,[1]
CHAPTER IX.
African Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century.
England first engages in the Slave Trade in 1562 — Sir John Hawkins' voyages. — British first established a regular trade in 1618. — Second charter granted in 1631. — Third charter in 1662. — Capture of the Dutch Forts. — Retaken by De Ruyter. — Fourth charter in 1672; the King and Duke of York shareholders. — Monopoly abolished, and free trade in Slaves declared. — Flourishing condition of the Trade. — Numbers annually exported. — Public sentiment aroused against the Slave Trade in England. — Parliament resolve to hear Evidence upon the subject. — Abstract of the Evidence taken before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1790 and 1791 — Revealing the Enormities committed by the Natives on the persons of one another to procure Slaves for the Europeans. — War and Kidnapping — imputed Crimes. — Villages attacked and burned, and inhabitants seized and sold. — African chiefs excited by intoxication to sell their subjects.
Sir John Hawkins was the first Englishman who transported slaves from Africa to America. This was in 1562. His adventures are recorded by Hakluyt, a cotemporary historian. He sailed from England in October, 1562, for Sierra Leone, and in a short time obtained possession of 300 negroes, "partly by the sword and partly by other means." He proceeded directly to Hispaniola, and exchanged his cargo for hides, ginger, sugar, &c., and arrived in England, after an absence of eleven months. The voyage was "very prosperous, and brought great profit to the adventurers."
This success excited the avarice of his countrymen; and the next year, Hawkins sailed for Guinea with three ships. The history of this voyage is related at large in Hakluyt's collections, by a person who sailed with Hawkins. They landed at a small island on the coast to see if they could take any of the inhabitants. Eighty men, with arms and ammunition, started on the hunt; but the natives flying into the woods, they returned without success. A short time after, they proceeded to another island, called Sambula. "In this island," says the narrator, "we staid certain days, going every day on shore to take the inhabitants, with burning and spoiling their towns." Hawkins made a third voyage in 1568, with six ships, which, it seems, "terminated most miserably," and put a stop for some years to the traffic.
- ↑ Dr. Madden's Egypt and Mohammed Ali.
