Because of the riches Hawkins brought to England, Queen Elizabeth knighted him and granted him a coat of arms, showing, on a black shield, a golden lion rampant over blue waves. Three golden dublons above the lions represented the riches Hawkins had secured for England. To give due credit to the piety of this "nobleman," there was in the upper quartering of the shield a pilgrim's scallop-shell, flanked by two pilgrim's staffs, indicating that Hawkins' slave-hunts were genuine crusades, undertaken in the name of Christianity. For a crest this coat-of-arms shows the half-length figure of a negro, with golden armlets on his arms, but bound and captive.
In an article entitled "The American Slave," published in "Pearson's Magazine" for 1900, James S. Metcalf states that the slave trade quickly developed to tremendous extent and that from 1680 to 1786 there were carried from Africa to the British colonies in America 2,130,000 slaves, men as well as women. This does not include the number, vastly larger, taken to the Spanish and Portuguese colonies before, during and after the same period.
The same author states, that the traffic in human flesh was a recognized commerce at the London Exchange, and that, in 1771, the English alone sent to Africa 192 ships equipped for the trade and with a carrying capacity of 47,146 slaves per trip.
It was the tribal warfare among the aborigines of Africa that furnished the slave dealers with the greater part of their human merchandise. Small and unprotected villages were constantly in danger of being attacked by powerful roving bands. When in 1872 the famous explorer Nachtigal traveled through Central Africa, he witnessed a tragedy that happened at the shores of Chad Lake. Strong forces of Bagirmis made an assault on a negro village, to capture the inhabitants and carry them off for slaves. Alarmed by their guards, the negroes, terror-stricken, fled to some tree-huts, prepared for such emergency in a nearby forest. Here they considered themselves safe. But unfortunately the enemies were in possession of a few guns, with which they picked a number of the fugitives from the trees like birds. Falling from the dizzy heights, the wounded were hacked to pieces. After a while the cruel enemies succeded in constructing some rough ladders, by which the trees were scaled. Unable to escape, many of the assaulted, preferring death to slavery, threw themselves upon the ground below, where they perished.
The most desperate fight ensued for the tree-house of the chief. It took several hours, before the enemies succeeded in reaching the lower platform, where within a rude enclosure food, water, and even a few goats had been hidden. Unable
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