The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade/Chapter 9
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. The first attempt by the British to establish a regular trade on the African coast, was made in the year 1618, when James I. granted an exclusive charter to Sir Robert Rich, and some other merchants of London, for raising a joint stock company to trade to Guinea. The profits not being found to answer their expectations, the charter was suffered to expire.
In 1631, Charles I. granted a second charter to Richard Young, Sir Ken elm Digby, and sundry merchants, to enjoy the exclusive trade to the coast of Guinea, between Cape Blanco and the Cape of Good Hope, for a period of thirty-one years. As the English had by this time began the settlement of plantations in the West Indies, negroes were in general demand; and the company erected on the African coast, forts and warehouses, to protect their commerce. Private adventurers and interlopers of all nations broke in upon them, and forced the trade open, and so it continued until after the restoration of Charles II.
In 1662, a third exclusive company was incorporated, consisting of many persons of high rank and distinction, at the head of whom was the king's brother, the Duke of York. This company undertook to supply the English plantations with 3000 negroes, annually. In 1664, all the Dutch forts on the African coast but two were captured by the English; but in the following year they were retaken by the Dutch Admiral, De Ruyter, who also seized one of the forts belonging to the English company. In 1672, the company surrendered their charter.
The same year, 1672, the fourth and last exclusive company was established. It was dignified by the title of the Royal African Company, and had among the stockholders, the king, the duke of York, and many other persons of high rank. The capital was £111,000, and was raised in nine months. They paid £35,000 for the forts of the old company. Besides the traffic in slaves, they imported into England great quantities of gold. In 1673, 50,000 guineas, (named from the country), were coined. They also imported redwood, ivory, wax, &c., and exported to the value of £70,000, annually, in English goods.
The revolution of 1688 upset the exclusive privileges of this company. By the 1st William and Mary, the African, and all other exclusive companies not authorized by parliament were abolished. The company, however, continued its operations.
The trade to Africa, by the statute, was virtually free, but it was expressly made so in 1698, under certain conditions. A duty of ten per cent, ad valorem, was laid upon the goods exported from England to carry on the trade, to be paid to the collector at the time of clearance. This duty went to the company. A further duty of ten per cent, ad valorem, was laid upon all goods and merchandise imported into England and the colonies, from Africa. This duty was applied to the maintenance of the forts and castles. No du+y was to be laid upon negroes, nor upon gold or silver.
Against the provisions of this law, both the company and private traders remonstrated, but without effect. In the course of a few years, the affairs of the company were found in bad condition; and Parliament, in 1739, granted them £10,000, and the like sum annually until 1744, when the grant was doubled for that year. In IT 41, no grant was made.
In 1750, the "act for extending and improving the African trade" was passed, and continued in force until the close of the century.
In 1790, the whole number of forts and factories established on the coast, was about forty; fourteen belonged to the English, fifteen to the Dutch, three to the French, four to the Portuguese, and four to the Danes. The value of English goods annually exported to Africa about that time, was estimated at £800,000 sterling.
It is impossible to arrive at any exact conclusion as to the number of negroes annually carried off by the traders of various nations about this time, but there is reason to believe that it did not fall far short of 100,000. It has been estimated, that up to the close of the last century, Africa must have been defrauded of a population of 30,000,000. The principal slave importing places were the West India Islands, the British Colonies of North America, Brazil, and other settlements in South America.
Yery early after the commencement of the slave trade, the Africans began to be considered as an inferior race, and even their very color as a mark of it. Under this notion they continued to be transported for centuries, until various persons, taking an interest in their sufferings, produced such a union of public sentiment in their favor in England, that parliament was induced to consider their case by hearing evidence upon it. It is this evidence which we now propose to lay before the reader, in all its sickening and horrible details. It was heard before a select committee of the House of Commons, in the years 1790 and 1791, and we quote it as most reliable proof of the enormities of the African Slave Trade. It was given by persons, some of whom had been engaged in the traffic, and had visited all the principal parts of Africa from the river Senegal to Angola, had been up and down the rivers, and had resided on shore. This testimony covers the period from 1750 to 1790.
ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE BEFORE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The trade for slaves, (says Mr. Kiernan), in the river Senegal, was chiefly with the Moors, on the northern banks, who got them very often by war, and not seldom by kidnapping; that is, lying in wait near a village, where there was no open war, and siezing whom they could. He has often heard of villages, and seen the remains of such, broken up by making the people slaves. That the Moors used to cross the Senegal to catch the negroes was spoken of at Fort Louis as notorious; and he has seen instances of it where the persons so taken were ransomed.
General Ruoke says, that kidnapping took place in the neighborhood of Goree. It was spoken of as a common practice. It was reckoned disgraceful there, but he cannot speak of the opinion about it on the Continent. He remembers two or three instances of negroes being brought to Goree, who had been kidnapped, but could not discover by whom. At their own request he immediately sent them back. Mr. Balrymple found that the great droves (Caffellas or Caravans) of slaves brought from inland, by way of Galam, to Senegal and Gambia, were prisoners of war. Those sold to vessels at Goree, and near it, were procured either by the grand pillage, the lesser pillage, or by robbery of individuals, or in consequence of crimes. The grand pillage is executed by the king's soldiers, from three hundred to three thousand at a time, who attack and set fire to a village, and seize the inhabitants as they can. The smaller parties generally lie in wait about the villages, and take off all they can surprise; which is also done by individuals, who do not belong to the king, but are private robbers. These sell their prey on the coast, where it is well known no questions as to the means of obtaining it are asked.
As to kidnapping, it is so notorious about Goree, that he never heard any person deny it there. Two men while he was there offered a person, a messenger from Senegal to Rufisco, for sale, to the garrison, who even boasted how they had obtained him. Many also were brought to Goree while he was there, procured in the same manner. These depredations are also practiced by the Moors: he saw many slaves in Africa who told him they were taken by them; particularly three, one of whom was a woman, who cried very much, and seemed to be in great distress; the two others were more reconciled to their fate.
Captain Wilson says, that slaves are either procured by intestine wars, or by kings breaking up villages, or crimes real or imputed, or kidnapping. Villages are broken up by the king's troops surrounding them in the night, and seizing such of the inhabitants as suit their purpose. This practice is most common when there is no war with another state. It is universally acknowledged that free persons are sold for real or imputed crimes, for the benefit of their judges. Soon after his arrival at Goree, king Darnel sent a free man to him for sale, and was to have the price himself. One of the king's guards being asked whether the man was guilty of the crime imputed to him, answered, that was of no consequence, or ever inquired into. Captain Wilson returned the man.
Kidnapping was acknowledged by all he conversed with, to be generally prevalent. It is the first principle of the natives, the principle of self-preservation, never to go unarmed, while a slave-vessel is on the coast, for fear of being stolen. When he has met them thus armed, and inquired of them, through his interpreter, the reason of it, they have pointed to a French slave-vessel then lying at Portudal, and said their fears arose from that quarter. As a positive instance, he says, a courier of Captain Lacy's, his predecessor, though a Moor, a free man, and one who spoke the French language fluently, was kidnapped as he was traveling on the continent with dispatches on his Britannic Majesty's account, and sold to a French vessel, from which he, Captain Wilson, after much trouble, actually got him back.
When he presided in a court at Goree, a Maraboo swore, with an energy which evinced the truth of his evidence, that his brother, another Maraboo, had beeu kidnapped in the act of drinking, a moment known to be sacred by their religion, at the instigation of a former governor, who had taken a dislike to him. This was a matter notorious at Goree.
Mr. Wadstrom knows slaves to be procured between Senegal and Gambia, either by the general pillage or by robbery by individuals, or by stratagem and deceit. The general pillage is executed by the king's troops on horseback, armed, who seize the unprepared. Mr. Wadstrom, during the week he was at Joal, accompanying one of those embassies which the French governor sends yearly with presents to the black kings, to keep up the slave trade, saw parties sent out for this purpose, by king Barbesin, almost every day. These parties went out generally in the evening, and were armed with bows and arrows, guns, pistols, sabres, and long lances. The king of Sallum practices the pillage also. Mr. Wadstrom saw twenty-seven slaves from Sallum, twenty-three of whom were women and children, thus taken. He was told also by merchants at Goree, that kiug Darnel practices the pillage in like manner.
Robbery was a general way of taking single slaves. He once saw a woman and a boy in the slave-hold at Goree; the latter had been taken by stealth from his parents in the interior parts above Cape Rouge, and he declared that such robberies were very frequent in his country; the former, at Rufisco, from her husband and children. He could state several instances of such robberies. He very often saw negroes thus taken brought to Goree. Ganna of Dacard was a noted man-stealer, and employed as such by the slave-merchants there. As instances of stratagem employed to obtain slaves, he relates that a French merchant taking a fancy to a negro, who was on a visit to Dacard, persuaded the village, for a certain price, to seize him. He was accordingly taken from his wife, who wished to accompany him, but the Frenchman had not merchandise enough to buy both. Mr. Wadstrom saw this negro at Goree, the day he arrived from Dacard, chained, and lying on the ground, exceedingly distressed in his mind. The king of Sallum also prevailed on a woman to come into his kingdom, and sell him some millet. On her arrival, he seized and sold her to a French officer, with whom Mr. Wadstrom saw this woman every day while at Goree. Mr. Wadstrom was on the island of St. Louis, up the Senegal also, and on the continent near the river, and says that all the slaves sold at Senegal, are brought down the river, except those taken by the robbery of the Moors in the neighborhood, which is sometimes conducted by large parties, in what are called petty wars.
Captain Hills saw, while lying between Goree and the continent, the natives, in an evening, often go out in war dresses, as he found, to obtain slaves for king Darnel, to be sold. The reason was, that the king was then poor, not having received his usual dues from us. He never saw the parties that went out return with slaves, but has often seen slaves in their huts tied back to back. He remembers also that some robbers once brought him a man, bound, onboard the Zephyr, to sell, but he, Captain Hills, would not buy him, but suffered him to escape. The natives on the continent opposite to Goree all go armed, he imagines for fear of being taken.
When in the river Gambia, wanting servants on board his ship, he expressed a wish for some volunteers. A black pilot in the boat called two boys who were on shore, carrying baskets of shallots, and asked Captain Hills if they would do, in which case he would take them off, and bring them to him. This he declined. From the ease with which the pilot did it, he concludes this was customary. The black pilot said the merchantmen would not refuse such an offer, lie apprehends these two boys were free people, from the pilot's mode of speaking, and from his winking, implying that it was an illicit thing. A boy, whom he bought from the merchants in the same river, had been carried in the night from his father's house, where a skirmish had happened, in which he believes he saw both his parents, but he well remembers that one was killed. The boy said many were killed, and some taken.
Mr. Ellison spoke the Mandingo language, in consequence of which he has often conversed with slaves from the Gambia, to which river he made three voyages, and they universally informed him that they had been stolen and sold.
The natives up the river Scaffus informed Mr. Bowman that they had got two women and a girl, whom they then brought him, hi a small town which they had surprised in the night; that others had got off, but they expected the rest of the party would bring them in, in two or three days. When these arrived, they brought with them two men whom Mr. Bowman knew, and had traded with formerly; upon questioning them, he discovered the women he had bought to be their wives. Both men and women informed him that the war-men had taken them while asleep. The war-men used to go out, Mr. Bow man says, once or twice in eight or ten days, while he was at Scaffus. It was their constant way of getting slaves, he believed, because they always came to the factory before setting out, and demanded powder, ball, gunflints, and small shot; also, rum, tobacco, and a few other articles. When supplied, they blew the horn, made the war-cry, and set off. If they met with no slaves, they would bring him some ivory and camwood. Sometimes he accompanied them a mile or so, and once joined the party, anxious to know by what means they obtained the slaves. Having traveled all day, they came to a small river, when he was told they had but a little way farther to go. Having crossed the river, they stopped till dark. Here Mr. Bowman (it was about the middle of the night) was afraid to go farther, and prevailed on the king's son to leave him a guard of four men. In half an hour he heard the war cry, by which he understood they had reached a town. In about half an hour more they returned, bringing from twenty-five to thirty men, women and children, some of the latter at the breast. At this time he saw the town in flames. When they had recrossed the river, it was just daylight, and they reached Scaffus about midday. The prisoners were carried to different parts of the town. They are usually brought in with strings around their necks, and some have their hands tied across. He never saw any slaves there who had been convicted of crimes. He has been called up in the night to see fires, and told by the town's people that it was war carrying on.
Whatever rivers he traded in, such as Sierra Leone, Junk, and little Cape Mount, he has usually passed burnt and deserted villages, and learned from the natives in the boat with him, that war had been there, and the natives had been taken in the manner as before described, and carried to the ships.
He has also seen such upon the Coast: while trading at Grand Bassa, he went on shore with four black traders to the town a mile off. On the way, there was a town deserted, (with only two or three houses standing), which seemed to have been a large one, as there were two fine plantations of rice ready for cutting down. A little further on they came to another village in much the same state. He was told that the first town had been taken by war, there being many ships then lying at Bassa: the people of the other had moved higher up in the country for fear of the white men. In passing along to the trader's town, he saw several villages deserted; these, the natives said, had been destroyed by war, and the people taken out and sold.
Sir George Young found slaves to be procured by war, by crimes, real or imputed, by kidnapping, which is called panjaring, and a fourth mode was the inhabitants of one village seizing those of another weaker village, and selling them to the ships. He believes, from two instances, that kidnapping was frequently practiced up Sierra Leone river. One was that of a beautiful infant boy, which the natives, after trying to sell to all the different trading ships, came alongside his, (the Phoenix) and threatened to toss overboard, if no one would buy it; saying they had panyared it with many other people, but could not sell it, though they had sold the others. He purchased it for some wine. The second was, a captain of a Liverpool ship had got, as a temporary mistress, a girl from the king of Sierra Leone, and instead of returning her on shore on leaving the coast, as is usually done, he took her away with him. Of this the king complained to Sir George Young very heavily, calling this action panyaring by the whites.
The term panyaring seemed to be a word generally used all along the coast where he was, not only among the English, but the Portuguese and Dutch.
Captain Thompson also says, that at Sierra Leone he has often heard the word panyaring; he has heard also that this word, which is used on other parts of the coast, means kidnapping, or seizing of men.
Slaves, says Mr. Town, are brought from the country very distant from the coast. The king of Barra informed Mr. Town, that on the arrival of a ship, he has gone three hundred miles up the country with his guards, and driven down captives to the sea-side. From Marraba, king of the Mandingoes, he has heard that they had marched slaves out of the country some hundred miles; that they had gone wood-ranging, to pick up every one they met with, whom they stripped naked, and, if men, bound; but if women, brought down loose; this he had from themselves, and also, that they often went to war with the Bullam nation, on purpose to get slaves. They boasted that they should soon have a fine parcel for the shallops, and the success often answered. Mr. Town has seen the prisoners (the men bound, the women and children loose) driven for sale to the water-side. He has also known the natives to go in gangs, marauding and catching all they could. In the Galenas river he knew four blacks seize a man who had been to the sea-side to sell one or more slaves. This man 
was returning home with the goods received in exchange for these, and they plundered him, stripped him miked, and brought him to the trading shallop, which Mr. Town commanded, and sold him there.
He believes the natives also sometimes become slaves, inconsequence of crimes, as well as, that it is no uncommon thing on the coast, to impute crimes falsely for "the sake of selling the persons so accused. Several respectable persons at Bance Island, and to windward of it, all told Mr. Town that it was common to bring on palavers [1] to make slaves, and he believes it from the information of the slaves afterwards, when brought down the country and put on board the ships.
Off Piccaninni Sestos, farther down on the Windward Coast, Mr. Dove observed an instance of a girl being kidnapped and brought on board by one Ben Johnson, a black trader, who had scarcely left the ship in his canoe, with the price of her, when another canoe with two black men came in a hurry to the ship, and inquired concerning this girl. Having been allowed to see her, they hurried down to their canoe, and hastily paddled off. Overtaking Ben Johnson, they brought him back to the ship, got him on the quarter-deck, and calling him teefee (which implies thief) to the captain, offered him for sale. Ben Johnson remonstrated, asking the captain, "if he would buy him whom he knew to be a grand trading man;" to which the captain answered, "if they would sell him, he would certainly buy him, be he what he would," which he accordingly did, and put him into irons immediately with another man. He was led to think, from this instance, that kidnapping was the mode of obtaining slaves upon this part of the coast.
Lieutenant Story says that slaves are generally obtained on the Windward coast by marauding parties, from one village to another in the night, He has known canoes come from a distance, and carry off numbers in the night. He has gone into the interior country, between Bassa and the River Sestos; and all the nations there go armed, from the fear of marauding parties, whose pillages in these countries are termed war. At one time in particular, while Mr. Story was on the coast, a marauding party from Grand Sestos came in canoes, and attacked Grand Cora in the night, and took off twelve or fourteen of the inhabitants. The canoes of Grand Sestos carry twelve or fourteen men, and with these go a marauding among their neighbors. Mr. Story has often seen them at sea out of sight of land in the day, and taking the opportunity of night to land where they pleased.
Mr. Falconbridge supposes the slave trade, on these parts, to be chiefly supplied by kidnapping. On his second voyage, at Cape Mount and the Windward Coast, a man was brought on board, well known to the captain and his officers, and was purchased. This man said he had been invited one evening to drink with his neighbors. When about to depart, two of them got up to seize him; and he would have escaped, but he was stopped by a large dog. He said this mode of kidnapping was common in his country. In the same voyage, two black traders came in a canoe, and stated that there was trade a little lower down. The captain went there, and finding no trade, said he would not be made a fool, and therefore detained one of the canoe-men. In about two hoars afterwards a very fine man was brought on board, and sold, and the canoe-man was released. He was informed by the black pilot, that this man had been surrounded and seized on the beach, from whence he had been brought to the ship and sold.
Lieutenant Simpson says, from what he saw, he believes the slave trade is the occasion of wars among the natives. From the natives of the Windward Coast he understood that the villages were always at war; and the black traders and others gave as a reason for it, that the kings wanted slaves. If a trading canoe, alongside Mr. Simpson's ship, saw a larger canoe coming from a village they were at war with, they instantly fled; and sometimes without receiving the value of their goods. On inquiry, he learned their reasons to be, that if taken, they would have been made slaves.
Mr. How states, that when at Secundee, some order came from Cape Coast Castle. The same afternoon several parties went out armed, and returned the same night with a number of slaves, which were put into the repository of the factory. Next morning he saw people, who came to see the captives, and to request Mr. Marsh, the resident, to release some of their children and relations Some were released and part sent off to Cape Coast Castle. He had every reason to believe they had been obtained unfairly, as they came at an unseasonable time of the night, and from their parents and friends crying and begging their release. He was told as much from Mr. Marsh himself, who said, he did not mind how they got them, for he purchased them fairly. He cannot tell whether this practice subsisted before; but when he has gone into the woods he has met thirty or forty natives, who fled always at his appearance, although they were armed. Mr. Marsh said, they were afraid of his taking them prisoners.
The same Mr. Marsh made no scruple also of shewing him the stores of the factory. They consisted of different kinds of chains made of iron, as likewise an instrument made of wood, about five inches long, of an inch in diameter, or less, which he was told by Mr. Marsh was thrust into a man's mouth horizontally, and tied behind to prevent him from crying out, when transported at night along the country.
Dr. Trotter says, that the natives of these parts are sometimes slaves from crimes, but the greater part of the slaves are what are called prisoners of war. Of his whole cargo he recollects only three criminals: two sold for adultery, and one for witchcraft, whose whole family shared his fate. One of the first said he had been decoyed by a woman who had told her husband, and he was sentenced to pay a slave; but being poor, was sold himself. Such stratagems are frequent: the fourth mate of Dr. Trotter's ship was so decoyed, and obliged to pay a slave, under the threat of stopping trade. The last said he had had a quarrel with a Cabosheer (or greal man) who in revenge accused him of witchcraft, and sold him and his family for slaves.
Dr. Trotter having often asked Accra, a principal trader at Le Hou, what he meant by prisoners of war, found they were such as were carried off by a set of marauders, who ravage the country for that purpose. The bush-men making war to make trade (that is to make slaves) was a common way of speaking among the traders. The practice was also confirmed by the slaves on board, who showed by gestures how the robbers had come upon them; aid during their passage from Africa to the West Indies, some of the boy-slaves played a game, which they called slave-taking, or bush-fighting; showing the different manœuvres thereof in leaping; sallying, and retreating. Inquiries of this nature put to women, were answered only by violent bursts of sorrow. He once saw a black trader send his canoe to take three fishermen employed in the offing, who were immediately brought on board, and put in irons, and about a week afterwards he was paid for them. He remembers another man taken in the same way from on board a canoe alongside. The same trader very frequently sent slaves on board in the night, which, from their own information, he found were every one of them taken in the neighborhood of Annamaboe. lie remarked, that slaves sent off in the night, were not paid for till they had been some time on board, lest, he thinks, they should be claimed; for some were really restored, one in particular, a boy, was earned on shore by some near relations, which boy told him he had lived in the neighborhood of Annamaboe, and was kidnapped. There were many boys and girls on board Dr. Trotter's ship, who had no relations on board. Many of them told him they had been kidnapped in the neighborhood of Annamaboe, particularly a girl of about eight years old, who said she had been carried off from her mother by the man who sold her to the ship.
Mr. Palconbridge was assured by the Rev. Philip Quakoo, chaplain at Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast, that the greatest number of slaves were made by kidnapping. He has heard that the men on this part of the coast, dress up and employ women, to entice young men, that they may be convicted of adultery and sold.
Lieutenant Simpson heard at Cape Coast Castle, and other parts of the Gold Coast, repeatedly from the black traders, that the slave trade made wars and palavers. Mr. Quakoo, chaplain at Cape Coast Castle, informed him that wars were made in the interior parts, for the sole purpose of getting slaves. There are two crimes on the Gold Coast, which seem made on purpose to procure slaves: adultery and the removal of fetiches.[2] As to adultery, he warned against any woman not pointed out to him, for that the kings kept several who were sent out to allure the unwary. As to fetiches, consisting of pieces of wood, old pitchers, kettles, and the like, laid in the path-ways, he was warned to avoid displacing them, for if he should, the natives who were on the watch would seize him, and, as before, exact the price of a man slave. These baits are laid equally for natives and Europeans; but the former are better acquainted with the law, and consequently more upon their guard.
Mr. Ellison says, that while one of the ships he belonged to, viz: the Briton, was lying in Benin river, Capt. Lemma Lemma, a Benin trader, came on board to receive his customs. This man being on the deck, and happening to see a canoe with three people in it crossing the river, dispatched one of his own canoes to seize and take it. Upon overtaking it, they brought it to the ship. It contained three persons, an old man and a young man and woman. The chief mate bought the two latter, but the former being too old, was refused. Upon this, Lemma ordered the old man into the canoe, where his head was chopped off, and he was thrown overboard. Lemma had many war canoes, some of which had six or eight swivels; he seemed to be feared by the rest of the natives. Mr. Ellison did not see a canoe out on the river while Lemma was there, except this, and if they had known he had been out, they would not have come. He discovered by signs, that the old man killed was the father of the two other negroes, and that they were brought there by force. They were not the subjects of Lemma.
At Bonny, says Mr. Falconbridge, the greatest number of slaves come from inland. Large canoes, some having a three or four pounder lashed on their bows, go to the up country, and in eight or ten days return with great numbers of slaves: he heard once, to the amount of 1200 at one time. The people in these canoes have generally cutlasses, and a quantity of muskets, but he cannot tell for what use. Mr. Falconbridge does not believe that many of these slaves are prisoners of war, as we understand the word war. In Africa, a piratical expedition for making slaves is termed war. A considerable trader at Bonny explained to him the meaning of this word, and said that they went in the night, set fire to towns, and caught the people as they fled from the flames. The same trader said that this practice was very common. In the same voyage an elderly man brought on board said (through the interpreter) that he and his son were seized as they were planting yams, by professed kidnappers, by which he means persons who make kidnapping their constant practice. On his last voyage, which was also to Bonny, a canoe came alongside his vessel, belonging to a noted trader in slaves, from which a fine stout fellow was handed on board, and sold. Mr. Falconbridge seeing the man amazed and confounded when he discovered himself to be a slave, inquired of him, by means of an interpreter, why he was sold. He replied, that he had had occasion to come to Bonny to this trader's house, who asked if he had ever seen a ship. Replying no, the trader said he would treat him with the sight of one. The man consented, said he was thereupon brought on board, and thus treacherously sold. All the slaves Mr. Falconbridge ever talked to by means of interpreters, said they had been stolen.
Mr. Douglas, when ashore at Bonny Point, saw a young woman come out of the wood to the water-side to bathe. Soon afterwards two men came from the wood, seized, bound, and beat her for making resistance, and bringing her 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.[3] 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 villages higher up the river. They seized on much the same number as before, brought them to Newtown, gave the same notice, and disposed of them as before among the ships. They took man, woman and child, as they could catch them in the houses, and except sucking children, who went with their mothers, there was no care taken to prevent the separation of the children from the parents when sold. When sold to the English merchant they lamented, and cried that they were taken away by force. The king at Old Calabar was certainly not at war with the people up this river, nor had they made any attack upon him. It happened that slaves were very slack in the back country at that time, and were wanted when he went on these expeditions.
Mr. Falconbridge thinks crimes are falsely imputed, for the sake of selling the accused. On the second voyage at the river Ambris, among the slaves brought on board was one who had the craw craw, a kind of itch, lie was told by one of the sailors, that this man was fishing in the river, when a king's officer, called Mambooka, wanted brandy and other goods in the boat, but having no slave to buy them with, accused this man of extortion in the sale of his fish, and after some kind of trial on the beach, condemned him to be sold. He was told by the boat's crew who were ashore, when it happened, who told it as of their own knowledge.
Beside the accounts just given, from what the above witnesses saw and heard on the coast of Africa, as to the different methods of making slaves, there are others contained in the evidence, which were learned from the mouths of the slaves themselves, after their arrival in the West Indies.
The Moors, says Mr. Keirnan, have always a strong inducement to go to war with the negroes, most of the European goods they obtain, being got in exchange for slaves. Hence, desolation and waste. Mr. Town observes, that the intercourse of the Africans with the Europeans, has improved them in roguery, to plunder and steal, and [tick up one another to sell. Dr. Trotter asking a black trader, what they made of their slaves when the French and English were at war, was answered, that when ships ceased to come, slaves ceased to be taken. Mr. Isaac Parker says, that the king of Old Calabar was certainly not at war with the people up that river, nor had they made any attack on him. It happened that slaves were very slack in the back country at this time, and were wanted when he went on the expeditions, described in a former page.
Mr. Wadstrom says, the king Barbesin, while he, Mr. Wadstrom, was at Joal, was unwilling to pillage his subjects, but he was excited to it by means of a constant intoxication, kept up by the French and mulattoes of the embassy, who generally agreed every morning on taking this method to effect their purpose. When sober, he always expressed a reluctance to harrass his people. Mr. Wadstrom also heard the king hold the same language on different days, and yet he afterwards ordered the pillage to be executed. Mr. Wadstrom has no doubt, but that he also pillages in other parts of his dominions, since it is the custom of the mulatto merchants (as both they and the French officers declare) when they want slaves, to go to the kings, and excite them to pillages which are usually practiced on all that part of the coast. The French Senegal company, also, in order to obtain their complement of slaves, had recourse to their usual method on similar occasions, namely, of bribing the Moors, and supplying them with arms and ammunition, to seize king Dalmammy's subjects. By January 12th, 1788, when Mr. Wadstrom arrived at Senegal, fifty had been taken, whom the king desired to ransom, but they had all been dispatched to Cayenne. Some were brought in every day afterwards, and put in the company's slave-hold, in a miserable state, the greater part being badly wounded by sabres and musket balls. The director of the company conducted Mr. Wadstrom there, with Dr. Spaarman, whom he consulted as a medical man in their behalf. Mr. Wadstrom particularly remembers one lying in his blood, which flowed from a wound made by a ball in his shoulder.
Mr. Dalrymple understood it common for European traders to advance goods to chiefs, to induce them to seize their subjects or neighbors. Not one of the mulatto traders at Gorce ever thought of denying it.
Mr. Bowman haring settled at the head of Scassus river, informed the king, and others, that he was come to reside as a trader, and that his orders were, to supply them with powder and ball, and encourage them to go to war. They answered, they would go to war in two or three days. By this time they came to the factory, said they were going to war, and wanted powder, ball, rum and tobacco. When these were given them, they went off to the number of from twenty-five to thirty, and in six or seven days, a part of them returned with three slaves.
In 1769, (says Lieut. Storey,) Captain Paterson, of a Liverpool ship, lying off Bristol town, set two villages at variance, and bought prisoners, near a dozen, from both sides.
Mr. Morley owns, with shame, that he has made the natives drunk, in order to buy a good man or woman slave, to whom he found them attached. He has seen this done by others. Captain Hildebrand, commanding a sloop of Mr. Brue's, bought one of the wives of a man, whom he had previously made drunk, and who wished to redeem her, when sober next day, as did the person he (Mr. Morley) bought the man of, but neither of them was given up. He supposes they would have given a third more than the price paid, to have redeemed them.
Sir George Young says, that when at Annamaboe, at Mr. Brue's, (a very great merchant there,) Mr. Brue had two hostages, kings' sons, for payment for arms, and all kinds of military stores, which he had supplied to the two kings, who were at war with each other, to procure slaves for at least six or seven ships, then lying in the road. The prisoners on both sides were brought down to Mr. Brue, and sent to the ships.
Mr. J. Parker has known presents made by the captains, to the black traders, to induce them to bring slaves. Captain Colley in particular gave them some pieces of cannon, which he himself saw landed.
On the subject of Europeans attempting to carry off the natives, General Rooke says that it was proposed to him by three captains of English slave ships, lying under the fort of Goree, to kidnap a hundred, or a hundred and fifty, men, women and children, king Darnel's subjects, who had come to Goree in consequence of the friendly intercourse between him and Darnel. He refused, and was much shocked by the proposition. They said such things had been done by a former governor, but the chief Maraboo at Rufisk did not recollect any such event.
Mr. Wadstrom was informed at Goree, by Captain Wignie, from Rochelle, who was just arrived from the river Gambia, that a little before his departure from that river, three English vessels were cut off by the natives, owing to the captain of one of them, who had his cargo, being tempted by a fair wind to sail away with several of the free negroes, then drinking with the crew. Soon afterwards the wind changed and he was driven back, seized, and killed, with all his crew, and those of the two other vessels. Mr. Wadstrom has, by accident, met with the insurer of two of these vessels in London, who confirmed the above facts.
Captain Hills says a man at Gambia, who called himself a prince's brother, had been carried off to the West Indies, by an English ship, but making his case known to the governor, was sent by him to Europe. Captain Hills was advised not to go on shore at Gambia, by the merchants there, for fear of being taken by the natives, who owed the English a grudge for some injuries received.
Mr. John Bowman says, that when a mate under Captain Strange ways, the ship then lying in the river Sierra Leone, at White Man's Bay, ready to sail, he was sent on shore to invite two traders on board. They came and were shown into the cabin. Meantime people were employed in setting the sails, it being almost night, and the land breeze making down the river. When they had weighed anchor, and got out to sea, Mr. Bowman was called down by the captain, who, pointing to the sail-case, desired him to look into it and see what a fine prize he had got. To his surprise, he saw lying fast asleep the two men who had come on board with him, the captain having made them drunk, and concealed them there. When they awoke they were sent upon deck, ironed, and put forward with the other slaves. On arriving at Antigua they were sold.
The Rev. Mr. Newton has known ships and boats cut off at Sherbro, usually in retaliation. Once, when he was on shore, the traders suddenly put him into his long-boat, telling him that a ship just passed had carried off two people. Had it been known in the town, he would have been detained. He has known many other such instances, but after thirty-six years, he cannot specify them. It was a general opinion, founded on repeated and indisputable facts, that depredations of this sort were frequently committed by Europeans. Mr. Newton has sometimes found all trade stopped, and the depredations of European traders have been assigned by the natives as the cause, and he has more than once made up breaches of this kind between the ships and the natives. He believes several captains of slave ships were honest, humane men; but he has good reason to think they were not all so. The taking off slaves by force has been thought most frequent in the last voyage of captains lie has often heard masters and officers express this opinion. Depredations and reprisals made to get them were, so frequent that the Europeans and Africans were pi a spirit of mutual distrust: he does not mean that there were no depredations except in their last voyages. He has known Liverpool and Bristol ships materially injured from the conduct of some ships, from the same ports, that had left the coast. It is a fact that some captains have committed depredations in their last voyages who have not been known to have done it before.
Mr. Towne was once present with part of the crew of his ship, the Sally, at an expedition undertaken by the whites for seizing negroes, and joined by other boats to receive those they could catch. To prevent all alarm, they bound the mouths of the captives with oakum and handkerchiefs. One woman shrieked and the natives turned out in defense. lie had then five of them tied in the boat, and the other boats were in readiness to take in what more they could get. All his party were armed, and the men of the town pursued them with first a scattering, and at length a general fire, and several of the men belonging to the boats, he has reason to believe, were killed, wounded, or taken, as he never heard of them afterwards. He was wounded himself. The slaves ho had taken were sold at Charleston, South Carolina. The natives had not previously committed any hostilities against any of the ships, whose boats were concerned in this transaction. They owed goods to the captain, for which he resolved to obtain slaves at any rate. He has had several ship-mates, who have themselves told him they have been concerned in similar transactions, and who have made a boast of it, and who have been wounded also.
Mr. Storey believes the natives of the Windward Coast are often fraudulently carried off by the Europeans. He has been told by them that, they had lost their friends at different times, and supposed them taken by European ships going along the coast. He has himself taken up canoes at sea, which were challenged by the natives, who supposed the men in them had been taken off the day before by a Dutchman. When once at an anchor, in his boat, between the river Sestos and Settra Crue, he prevented the crew of a long-boat, belonging to a Dutchman then lying off shore, from being cut off by the natives, who gave as a reason for their intentions, that a ship of that country some days before had taken off four men belonging to the place. Afterwards, in 1768, being in a boat, with two other white persons, the natives attacked them. Both the former were killed, and he himself, covered with blood and wounds, was only suffered to escape, by consenting to give up boat and cargo, and to go to Gaboon. The reason the natives gave for this procedure was, that a ship from Liverpool (one Captain Lambert) had, some time before, taken a canoe full of their townsmen, and carried her away. He heard the same thing confirmed afterwards at Gaboon.
Mr. Douglas states that near Cape Coast the natives make smoke as a signal for trade. On board his ship (the Warwick Castle) they saw the smoke and stood in shore, which brought off many canoes. Pipes, tobacco, and brandy were got on deck, to entice the people in them on board. The gratings were unlaid, the slave-room cleared, and every preparation made to seize them; two only could be prevailed on to come up the ship's side, who stood in the main chains, but on the seamen approaching them they jumped off, and the canoes all made for the shore. The Gregson's people, while at Bonny, informed Mr. Douglas, that in running down the coast, they had kidnapped thirty-two of the natives. He saw slaves on board that ship when she came in, and it is not customary for ships bound to Bonny to stop and trade by the way.
Mr. How says that abreast of Cape La Hou, several canoes came alongside of his Majesty's ship Grampus, and on coming on board informed the captain that an English Guinea-trader, a fortnight before, had taken off six canoes with men, who had gone off to them with provisions for trade. On coming to Appolonia he was also told by Mr. Buchanan, the resident there, that a Guineaman, belonging to one Griffith, an Englishman, and a notorious trader and kidnapper, between Cape La Hou and Appolonia, was then in that latitude.
Captain Hall was told by Captain Jeremiah Smith, that in 1771, a Captain Eox had taken off some people from the Windward Coast. He says also that the boat's crew of the Yenus, Captain Smith, which had been sent to Fernando Po for yams from Calabar, enticed a canoe .to come alongside that had about ten men in her. As soon as she got near, the boat's crew fired into her, on which they jumped overboard: some were wounded, and one was taken out of the water, and died in less than an hour in the boat: two others were taken up unhurt, and carried to Old Calabar to the ship. Captain Smith was angry at the officer for this procedure, and sent back the two men to the bay from whence they had been taken. Immediately after the boat had committed this depredation, Captain Hall happened to go into the same bay in his own ship's long-boat, and sending on shore two men to fill water, they were surrounded by the natives, who drove three spears into one of the men, and wounded the other with a large stick, in consequence of taking away the two men just mentioned. It was said that the crew had disputed with the natives on shore when trading with them for yams, but the former had not done any of the boat's crew any injury.
Mr. Ellison knew two slaves taken from the island of Fernando Po by the Dobson's boat of Liverpool, and carried to Old Calabar, where the ship lay. He went to the same island for yams, a few days after the transaction, and fired, as the usual signal, for the natives to bring them. Seeing some of them peep through the bushes, he wondered why they would not come to the boat. He accordingly swam on shore, when some of the islanders came round him: an old man showed, by signs, that a ship's boat had stolen a man and woman. He was then soon surrounded by numbers, who presented darts to him, signifying that they would kill him, if the man and woman were not brought back. Upon this, the people in the boat fired some shot, when they all ran into the woods. Mr. Ellison went to Calabar, and told Captain Briggs he could get no yams, in consequence of the two people being stolen; upon which Captain Briggs told the captain of the Dobson there would be no more trade if he did not deliver up the people, which he ai length did. As soon as the natives saw their countrymen, they loaded the boat with yams, goats, fowls, honey, and palm-wine: and they would take nothing for them. They had the man and woman delivered to them, wlnnu they carried away in their arms. The Dobson did not stay above eight, ten, or twelve days. This was the last trip her boat was to make, when they carried off the two slaves.
Mr. Morley says, that when off Taboo, two men came in a canoe, alongside his vessel. One of them came up and sat on the netting, but would not come into the ship. The captain at length enticing him, intoxicated him so brandy and laudanum, that he fell in upon the deck. The captain then ordered him to be put into the men's room, with a sentry over him. The oilier man in the canoe, after calling in vain for his companion, paddled off fast towards the shore. The captain fired several musket balls after him, which did not hit him. About three or four leagues farther down, two men came on board from another canoe. While they were on board, a drum was kept beating near the man who had been seized, to prevent his hearing them, or they him. He says again, in speaking of another part of the coast, that Captain Briggs's chief mate, in Old Calabar river, lying in ambush to stop the natives coming down the creek, pursued Oruk Robin John, who, jumping on shore, shot the mate through the head. He says also, of another part of the coast, that a Mr. Walker, master of a sloop, was on board the Jolly Prince, Captain Lambert, when the king of Nazareth stabbed the captain at his own table, and took the vessel, putting all the whites to death, except the cook, a boy, and, he believes, one man. Captain Walker, being asked why the king of Nazareth took this step, said it was on account of the people whom Matthews had carried off from Gaboon and Cape Lopez the voyage before. Walker escaped by knowing the language of the country. Mr. Morley sailed afterwards with the same Captain Matthews to Gaboon river, where the chiefs' sons came on board to demand what he had done with their sons, and the boys he had carried off, (the same that Walker alluded to,) and told him that if he dared to come on shore, they would have his head.
As a farther corroboration that such practices as the above take place, it appears in evidence, that the natives of the coast and islands are found constantly hovering in their canoes, at a distance, about such vessels as are passing by, shy of coming on board, for fear of being taken off. But if they can discover that such vessels are not in the slave trade, but are men-of-war, they come on board readily, or without any hesitation, which they would not otherwise have done, and in numbers, and traverse the ships with as much confidence as if they had been on shore.
Mr. Ellison says, when he was lying at Yanamaroo, in the Gambia, slaves were brought down. The traders raised the price. The captains would not give it, but thought to compel them by firing upon the town. They fired red hot shot from the ship, and set several houses on fire. All the ships, seven or eight, fired.
Mr. Falconbridge heard Captain Vicars, of a Bristol ship, say at Bonny, when his traders were slack, he fired a gun into or over the town, to freshen their way. Captain Vicars told this to him and other people there at the time, but he has seen no instance of it himself.
Mr. Isaac Parker says the Guinea captains lying in Old Calabar river, fixed on a certain price, and agreed to lie under a £50 bond, if any one of them should give more for slaves than another; in consequence of which, the natives did not readily bring slaves on board to sell at those prices; upon which, the captains used to row guard at night, to take the canoes as they passed the ships, and so stopping the slaves from getting to their towns, prevent the traders from getting them. These they took on board the different ships, and kept them till the traders agreed to slave at the old prices.
Lieutenant Storey says that Captain Jeremiah Smith, in the London, in 1766, having a dispute with the natives of New Town, Old Calabar, concerning the stated price which he was to give for slaves, for several days stopped every canoe coming down the creek from New Town, and also fired several guns indiscriminately over the woods into the town, till he brought them to his own terms.
Captain Hall says, in Old Calabar river there are two towns, Old Town and New Town. A rival ship in trade produced a jealousy between the towns; so that, through fear of each other, for a considerable time, no canoe would leave their towns to go up the river for slaves. This happened in 1767. In this year, seven ships, of which five were the following — Duke of York, Bevan; Edgar, Lace; Indian Queen, Lewis; Nancy, Maxwell; and Canterbury, Sparkes, — lay off the point which separates the towns. Six of the captains invited the people of both towns on board on a certain day, as if to reconcile them: at the same time they agreed with the people of New Town to cut off all the Old Town people who should remain on board the next morning. The Old Town people, persuaded of the sincerity of the captains' proposal, went on board in great numbers. Next morning, at eight o'clock, one of the ships fired a gun, as a signal to commence hostilities. Some of the traders were secured on board, some were killed in resisting, and some got overboard, and were fired upon. When the firing began, the New Town people, who were in ambush behind the Point, came forward and picked up the people of Old Town, who were swimming, and had escaped the firing. After the firing was over, the captains of five of the ships delivered their prisoners (persons of consequence) to the New Town canoes, two of whom were beheaded alongside the ships. The inferior prisoners were carried to the West Indies. One of the captains, who had secured three of the king's brothers, delivered one of them to the chief man of New Town, who was one of the two beheaded alongside; the other brothers he kept on board, promising, when the ship was slaved, to deliver them to the chief man of New Town. His ship was soon slaved on account of his promise, and the number of prisoners made that day; but he refused to deliver the king's two brothers, according to his promise, and carried them to the West Indies, and sold them. It happened in process of time that they escaped to Virginia, and from thence, after three years, to Bristol, where the captain who brought them, fearing be had done wrong, meditated carrying or sending them back, but Mr. Jones, of Bristol, who had ships trading to Old Calabar, and hearing who they were, bad them taken from the ship, where they were in irons, by habeas corpus. After inquiry how they were brought from Africa, they were liberated, and put in one of Mr. Jones's ships for Old Calabar, where Captain Hall was, when they arrived in the ship Cato.
So satisfied were the people of Old Town, in 1767, of the sincerity of the captains who invited them, and of the New Town people, towards a reconciliation, that the night before the massacre, the chief man of Old Town gave to the chief man of New Town one of his favorite women as a wife. It was said that from three to four hundred persons were killed that day, in the ships, in the water, or carried off the coast. The king escaped from the ship he was in, by killing two of the crew, who attempted to seize him. He then got into a one-man canoe, and paddled to the shore. A six pounder from one of the ships struck the canoe to pieces; he then swam on shore to the woods near the ships, and reached his own town, though closely pursued. It was said he received eleven wounds from musket shot.
Captain Hall, in his first voyage on board the Neptune, had this account from the boatswain, Thomas Rutter, who, in 1767, had been boatswain to the Canterbury, Captain Sparkes, of London, and concerned in the said massacre. Rutter told him the story exactly as related, and never varied in it. He had it also from the king's two brothers, who agreed exactly with Rutter. Captain Hall also saw at Calabar, in the possession of the king's two brothers, then depositions taken at Bristol, and of Mr. Floyd, who was mate of one of the ships when the transaction happened, but he took no copy. Mr. Millar says that a quarrel happened between the people of Old and New Town, which prevented the ships lying in Calabar river from being slaved. He believes that in June, 1767, Captain S. Sparkes, (captain of his ship, the Canterbury,) came one evening to him, and told him that the two towns, so quarreling, would meet on board the different ships, and ordered him to hand up some swords.
The next day several canoes, as Sparkes had before advertised him, came from both of the towns, on board the Canterbury, Mr. Millar's own ship, and one of the persons so coming onboard, brought a letter, which he gave Sparkes, immediately on the receipt of which, he, Sparkes, took a hanger, and attacked one of the Old Town people then on board, cutting him immediately on the arms, head and body. The man fled, ran down the steps leading to the cabin, and Sparkes still following him with the hanger, darted into the boy's room Mr. Millar is sure this circumstance can never be effaced from his memory From this room he was, however, brought up by means of a rope, and Sparkes renewing his attack on him, he leaped overboard.
This being concluded, Sparkes left his own ship to go on board some of the other ships then lying in the river. Soon after he was gone, a boy belonging to Mr. Millar's ship came and informed him, Mr. Millar, that he had discovered a man concealed behind the medicine chest. Mr. Millar went and found the man. He was the person before mentioned as having brought a letter on board. On being discovered by Mr. Millar, he Legged for mercy, entreating that he might not be delivered up to the people of New Town. He was brought on the quarter-deck, where were some of the New Town people, who wonld have killed him, had they not been prevented. The man was then ironed, and conducted into the room of the men slaves.
Soon after this transaction, the captain returned, and brought with him a New Town trader, named Willy Honesty. On coming on board, he was informed of what had happened in his absence, and Mr. Millar believes, in the hearing of Willy Honesty, who immediately exclaimed, "Captain, if you will give me that man, to cut off his head, I will give you the best man in my canoe, and you shall be slaved the first ship." The captain upon this looked into Willy Honesty's canoe, picked his man, and delivered the other in his stead, when his head was immediately struck off in Mr. Millar's sight.
Mr. Millar believes that some other cruelties, besides this particular act, were done, because he saw blood on the starboard side of the mizzen-mast, though he does not recollect seeing any bodies from whence the blood might come; and others in other ships, because he heard several muskets or pistols fired from them at the same time. This affair might last ten minutes. He remembers a four-pounder fired at a canoe, but knows not whether any damage was done.
As to other acts of injustice on the part of the Europeans, some consider frauds (says Mr. Newton) as a necessary branch of the slave-trade. They put false heads into powder casks; cut off two or three yards from the middle of a piece of cloth; adulterate their spirits, and steal back articles given. Besides these, there are others who pay in bottles, which contain but half the contents of the samples shown; use false steelyards and weights, and sell such guns as burst on firing, so that many of the natives of the Windward Coast are without their fingers and thumbs on this account.
- ↑ An African word, which signifies conferences of the natives on any public subject, or as in this place, accusations and trials.
- ↑ Certain things of various sorts, to which the superstition of the country has ordered, for various reasons, an attention to be paid.
- ↑ 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.