one voyage, 250, and lost 132. In this voyage, be says, they were so straightened for provisions, that if they had been ten more days at sen, they must either have eaten the slaves that died, or have made the living slaves walk the plank, a term used among Guinea captains for making the slaves throw themselves overboard. He says, also, that he fell in with the Hero, Captain Withers, which had lost 360 slaves, or more than half her cargo, by the small-pox The surgeon of the Hero told him that when the slaves were removed from one place to another, they left marks of their skin and blood upon the deck, and it was the most horrid sight he had ever seen.
Mr. Wilson states that in his ship and three others belonging to the same concern, they purchased among them 2064 slaves, and lost 586. lie adds, that he fell in with the Hero, Captain Withers, at St. Thomas', which had lost 159 slaves by the small-pox. Captain Hall, in two voyages, purchased 550, and lost 110. He adds, that he has known some ships in the slave-trade bury a quarter, some a third, and others half of their cargo. It is very uncommon to find ships without some loss[1] in their slaves.
Besides those which die on the passage, it must be noticed here that several die soon after they are sold. Sixteen, says Mr. Falconbridge, were sold by auction out of the Alexander, all of whom died before the ship left the West Indies. Out of fourteen, says Mr. Claxton, sold from his ship in an infectious state, only four lived; and though in the four voyages mentioned by Mr. Wilson, no less than 586 perished on the passage out of 2,064, yet 220 additionally died of the small-pox in a very little time after their delivery in the river Plate, making the total loss for those ships not less than 836, out of 2,064.
The causes of the disorders which carry off the slaves in such numbers, are ascribed by Mr. Falconbridge to a diseased mind, sudden transitions from heat to cold, a putrid atmosphere, wallowing in their own excrements, and being shackled together. A diseased mind, he says, is undoubtedly one of the causes; for many of the slaves on board refused medicines, giving as a reason, that they wanted to die, and could never be cured. Some few, on the other hand, who did not appear to think so much of their situation, recovered. That shackling together is also another cause, was evident from the circumstance of the men dying in twice the proportion the women did; and so long as the trade continues, he adds, they must be shackled together, for no man will attempt to carry them out of irons.
Surgeon Wilson, examined on the same topic, speaks nearly in the same manner. He says that of the death of two-thirds of those who died in his ship, the primary cause was melancholy. This was evident, not only from the symptoms of the disorder, and the circumstance that no one who had it was ever cured, whereas those who had it not, and yet were ill, recovered; but from the language of the slaves themselves, who declared that they wished to die, as also from Captain Smith's own declaration, who said their deaths were
- ↑ Total purchased, 7,904, lost, 2,053, exclusive of the Hero, being above one-fourth of the number purchased. The reader will observe that Mr. Claxton fell in with the Hero on one voyage, and Mr. Wilson on another.
