to him, Mr. Douglas, desired him to put her on board, which he did; the captain's orders were, when any body brought down slaves, instantly to put them off to the ship. When a ship arrives at Bonny, the king sends his war canoes up the rivers, where they surprise all they can lay hold of. They had a young man ou board, who was thus captured, with his father, mother, and three sisters. The young man afterwards in Jamaica having learned English, told Mr. Douglas the story, and said it was a common practice. These war canoes are always armed. The king's canoes came with slaves openly in the day; others in the evening, with one or two slaves bound, lying in the boat's bottom, covered with mats.
Mr. Morley states, that in Old Calabar persons are sold as slaves for adultery and theft. On pretence of adultery, he remembers a woman sold. He has been told also by the natives at Calabar, that they took slaves in what they call war, which he found was putting the villages in confusion, and catching them as they could. A man on board the ship he was in, showed how he was taken at night by surprise, and said his wife and children were taken with him, but they were not in the same ship. Mr. Morley had reason to think, from the man's words, that they took nearly the whole village, that is, all those that could not get away.
Captain Hall says, when a ship arrives at Old Calabar, or the river Del-Rey, the traders always go up into the country for slaves. They go in their war canoes, and take with them some goods, which they get previously from the ships. He has seen from three to ten canoes in a fleet, each with from forty to sixty paddlers, and twenty to thirty traders and other people with muskets, suppose one to each man, with a three or four pounder lashed on the bow of the canoe. They are generally absent from ten days to three weeks, when they return with a number of slaves pinioned, or chained together. Captain Hall has often asked the mode of procuring slaves inland, and has been told by the traders, that they have been got in war, and sold by the persons taking them.
Mr. J. Parker says, he left the ship to which he belonged at Old Calabar, where being kindly received by the king's son, he staid with him on the continent for five months. During this time he was prevailed upon by the king's son, to accompany him to war.[1] Accordingly, having fitted out and armed the canoes, they went up the river Calabar. In the day time they lay under the bushes when they approached a village, but at night flew up to it, and took hold of every one they could see; these they handcuffed, brought down to the canoes, and so proceeded up the river till they got to the amount of forty-five, with whom they returned to Newtown, where, sending to the captains of the shipping, they divided them among the ships. About a fortnight after this expedition, they went again, and were out eight or nine days, plundering other
- ↑ The reader is requested to take notice, that the word war, as adopted in the African language, means in general robbery, or a marauding expedition, for the purpose of getting slaves.
