THE SLAVE TRADE 
 
 - AND 
 
 SLAVERY: 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BRITISH SETTLEMENTS 
 ON THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA, 
 IN RELATION TO BOTH: © = - 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY EXTRACTS 
 
 THE LETTERS OF DR. R. R. MADDEN, 
 @ oi : 3 i 
 IN THE MORNING CHRONICLE, 
 
 THE UNITED SERVICE GAZETTE, &c. 
 
 : Ponvon ; a 
 JAMES MADDEN AND CQO,, 
 8, LEADENHALL STREET. 
 
 — 
 
 MDGCEXEIE. 
 
THE SLAVE TRADE 
 
 AND 
 
 S Fel VBE YY: 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BRITISH SETTLEMENTS 
 ON THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA, 
 IN RELATION TO BOTH: 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM 
 
 ath 
 THE LETTERS OF DR. R. R. MADDEN, 
 IN THE MORNING CHRONICLE, 
 
 THE UNITED SERVICE GAZETTE, &c. 
 
 Loudon ; 
 JAMES MADDEN AND CO:,, 
 8, LEADENHALL STREET. 
 MDCCCXLIII. 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 
BREWSTER, PRINTER, HAND COURT, DOWGATE. 
 
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CONTENTS, 
 
 LETTER I.—Page }. 
 
 Objectof appointment of Commissioner of Enquiry on the State of 
 British Settlements on the West Coast of Africa. ‘The treaties for 
 suppression of Slave Trade defeated at our own Settlements, and at 
 the notorious Slave Trade factories, by the assistance derived from 
 
 British commerce. 
 
 LETTER II.—Page 7. 
 The case of the ‘ George and James,’ condemned at Sierra Leone, 
 Oct. 25,1825. Mr. Canning’s dispatch thereupon. Nature ofarticles 
 signed by the crews of Mr. Forster’s vessels. 
 
 LETTER ITI.—Page 10. 
 
 Charges of Mr. Forster against “the Stephen and Macaulay 
 party.”” Nominal sale of the ‘ George and James,’ on the Coast.— 
 The particulars of that case, ownership, &c. Cases of the * Robert 
 Heddell’ and ‘ the Sea Witch:’ disposal of their cargoes to De 
 Souza. The employment of such goods, by De Souza, in the Slave 
 Trade. Equipment clause of Spanish treaty thus defeated. Capt. 
 Tucker’s proceedings. ‘ The ravages on the Coast of Africa,” 
 ascribed to Commanders of British Cruizers. 
 
 LETTER.  — Page 20. « 
 (By an error of the press, this letter-was left unnumbered. ) 
 Correspondence between Mr. John Hughes, and the Lords of the 
 Admiralty. Calumnies of the Slave Dealers of Cacheo and Bissao, 
 against the Commanders of the British Navy. Charges of Murder 
 and Rapine against them on the authority of the notorious Caetano, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Nozolino, and Mr. Mattos of Bissao—Mr. Hughes’s friends—Portu- 
 guese Circular surreptitiously printed in London, no printer’s name 
 ——Mr. Hughes’s correspondence with the Lords of the Admiralty 
 inserted therein—Character of Caetano—Proceedings from Official 
 Documents. 
 
 LETTER IV.—Page 33. 
 
 Reply to a Letter bearing the signature of J. W. Bunter—Object 
 of ascribing that communication to him. 
 
 LETTER V.—Page 37. 
 
 Refutation of statements of Mr. Forster respecting appointment of 
 Commission—Time employed in Mission, &c. 
 
 LETTER VI.—Page 43. 
 
 The Pawn System on the Gold Coast, its enormities, its identity 
 with Slavery—The Pawn Auctions at Accra, &c. 
 
 LETTER VII.—Page 56. 
 
 Refutation of charge of striking out evidence before the West 
 African Committee—Letters of the Chairman, of the Clerk of the 
 Committee—Reference to Reporter’s statement—Real falsification of 
 the Report of the West African Committee—Necessity of withdraw- 
 ing it from Parliament—The reprint of that Report. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I.— Page 67. 
 
 Extracts from Evidence given before the West African Committee, 
 in reference to contraverted Statements respecting Slavery at the 
 Gambia, &c.—Letter of the Rey. W. Fox, Missionary at the Gambia. 
 
 No. II.—Page 76. 
 
 Resolutions for adoption as the basis of any new measure, in= 
 tended to remove the evils pointed out in the preceding Letters, 
 
THE SLAVE TRADE 
 AIDED AND ABETTED, 
 
 AND 
 
 SLAVERY UPHELD 
 
 UNDER THE NAME OF PAWNING, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE GOLD COAST, &c. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Sir,—In the political strife of this country, as well as in contests 
 of another description, foreigners are struck. with a peculiarity 
 which they regard as the most remarkable one in the national 
 character; namely, a disposition to show fair play to all parties in a 
 dispute, without reference to their rank, station, or influence in 
 society. I expect neither more nor less than fair play on the 
 present occasion; and it will be the more readily afforded to me, if 
 it be true that I have been reluctantly driven into a discussion of 
 this nature, and that my name has been dragged before the public 
 in an unwarrantable manner, and for an unworthy purpose, in con- 
 nection with a subject that my position prevents me from going into 
 the merits of—at least which may prevent me from so doing till 
 some more urgent necessity arises than any connected with matters 
 personal to myself. 
 
 Parties possessed of wealth and power, whose interests have been 
 hurt by the discharge of my duties in the office of Commissioner of 
 Inquiry into the state of our settlements on the western coasts of 
 
 Africa, have found means to advocate their views, and to endeavour ‘ 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 to hoodwink the public mind with respect to their proceedings, in 
 the columns of the Morning Herald on some recent occasions. 
 The persons to whom I allude are the suppliers of the slave-dealers 
 of Africa, with the goods and stores that are essential to the mainte- 
 nance of the felonious trade of the latter. These parties, through 
 the columns of the Morning Herald, have the courage to present 
 themselves to the public in the truly paradoxical position of the 
 friends of Africa, and the first and foremost benefactors of that un- 
 happy country. We are sometimes astonished at the effrontery of 
 the Slave-holders of Spanish colonies, and of the Slave-breeders 
 of some of the American states; at their boasting of diffusing the 
 blessings of Christianity ; and of promoting the happiness and civili- 
 zation of the unfortunate negroes born in barbarism or emerging 
 from it, by their acquisition, possession, and employment of “ the 
 thews and sinews,” of the stolen men; but I doubt if the boldness 
 of the position I have just referred to, is less astoundingly brazen 
 and unblushing. 
 
 It is usually found more convenient to the advocates and ac- 
 complices of such parties to run down their opponents, than to 
 refute their statements. But in this country, there is some novelty 
 at least in the attempt to transfuse the scurrility of the colonial press 
 into the columns of a London newspaper. 
 
 I will not enter here into the proceedings of the committee which 
 those parties have commented on, and made use of such parts of 
 the evidence of its report, as might suit their purpose to refer to. 
 My object in replying to their statements, is to enable the public to 
 form an opinion of the predicament in which these parties find 
 themselves placed, when they feel the necessity of hazarding asser- 
 tions personally injurious to their opponents, no matter how much 
 at variance they may be with truth. 
 
 The hard names which are so liberally bestowed on me, I pass by 
 as the ebullition of rage, that.in its headlong anxiety to damage a 
 troublesome opponent, proves only injurious to the party who 
 deliver up its reason to its ungovernable impulses. I am described 
 as a “‘ hungry Whig Radical,” for whose advantage the mission to 
 the coast of Africa was planned and carried into effect. That I was 
 
 paid £1800 for discharging the duties of it, and had secured a 
 
3 
 
 pension to my wife in the event of death while employed in that 
 particular service; and that persons perfectly disinterested, whose 
 evidence is cited in condemnation of my report, had fully refuted 
 my statements, and satisfactorily shown the folly and absurdity of 
 my opinions. And, finally, I am charged with communicating to a 
 writer in the Siécle journal (Mons. Schoelcher), or causing to be 
 communicated to him, the matter contained in the letter published 
 in that journal, and copied into the Morning Chronicle. 
 
 With respect to the character given of my political sentiments, it 
 would have mattered little (I should have thought) to my opponents 
 what they were. They certainly have never heard them expressed 
 by me at any political meeting, for the simple reason that I have never 
 taken a part in the proceedings of one, unless it be to do so to move 
 in the politics of a people four or five thousand miles off—and to 
 frustrate, as far as lay in my power, the machinations of those who 
 aided and abetted the man-stealers or slave-holders of any country 
 in depriving their victims of their liberty, or defrauded them of their 
 labour. 
 
 Whatever my political sentiments were, they have undergone no 
 change, and, had they been such as to disqualify me for employ- 
 ment in the public service, I would probably not have been indebted 
 for that honour to the present Secretary of State for the Colonies ; 
 and to Sir Francis Burdett for the recommendation to his lordship 
 which led to my first employment, so far back as the early part ou 
 the year 1833. Since that period I have filled different offices 
 connected with our Anti-slavery efforts in various countries, and 
 from every successive colonial secretary of state up to the present 
 time, and including the present secretary, I have had the good 
 fortune to receive documentary evidence of the approval of my 
 services, and in no one instance te have received an intimation of 
 their displeasure. 
 
 The mission is said to have been a job created for the benefit of 
 “a hungry Whig Radical.” This assertion is of a piece with the 
 other statements, and they are all characterized by the old spirit, 
 known from the beginning for its enmity to truth, and which is 
 invariably found in alliance with the interests of Slavery in all its 
 branches. The necessity was most urgent for the institution of an 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 inquiry “into the connection of British commerce with the Slave 
 Trade. The rigorous system of surveillance on the part of our cruiz- 
 ing squadrons on the western coast of Africa, under Commodore 
 Tucker and the Hon. Captain Dennan, had effected a very impor- 
 tant object, namely, the prevention of Spanish, Portuguese, and 
 vessels of these nations under the fraudulent flag of the United 
 States, from supplying the various slave factories on the coast, with 
 those peculiar stores and goods which are essential to the felonious 
 trade in men. So great is the difficulty in Cuba and the Brazils of 
 procuring specie for the purchase of the slaves, and so enormous 
 the profits on the goods thus purchased (generally on long credits) 
 for the special purpose of exchanging for slaves, that without those 
 supplies it would be impossible for any considerable length of time 
 to carry on the trade. These supplies used to purchased by the 
 Slave-dealers of our merchants in Cuba and the Brazils. The 
 treaty with Spain of 1835, and our legislation for Portugal in 1839, 
 rendering vessels liable to seizure equipped for the Slave Trade, and 
 the cargoes likewise, in cases where any such equipments were 
 found on board, a stop was put to the old method of supplying the 
 Slave Factories. The plan then became generally adopted by cer- 
 tain parties in London, connected with our settlements on the 
 Gambia and at the Gold Coast, of supplying the Slave Factories 
 directly with those stores and goods, namely, guns, gunpowder, 
 cutlasses, roll tobacco, beads, spirits, and coarse Manchester cloths. 
 The Slave Trade Ships likewise obtained similar supplies at our 
 settlements, and were suffered to anchor under the guns of our forts, 
 and to be registered there as vessels employed in legal trade. Thus 
 the efforts of our cruising squadron were completely frustrated by 
 those parties, few indeed in number, but powerful in their commer- 
 cial influence, extending as it did from the Gambia to the Gold 
 Coast, and even beyond those limits along a range of coast of nearly 
 3,000 miles. 
 
 With respect to the knowledge of the latter practice, a particular 
 case of aiding and abetting a Slave Trade vessel called the ‘ Dos 
 Amigos,’ at Cape Coast Castle, was brought before the notice of the 
 government in 1839, and the case was deemed of sufficient impor- 
 tance in relation to the general question of the facilities afforded to 
 
5 
 
 the Slave-dealers at these places, and connived at by the authorities, 
 to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to ascertain the nature and 
 extent of these proceedings. 
 
 At the period this commission was determined on, I held the office 
 of superintendent of liberated Africans at the Havannah. In the 
 spring of 1840 I was in England on leave of absence, after having 
 been at my post there upwards of three years anda half. That 
 
 residence in Cuba, and my previous one in another appointment in 
 
 Jamaica, had so far impaired my health as to render it necessary for 
 me to return to Europe on a six months’ leave of absence. My 
 appointment in Cuba was a permanent one, held by royal commis- 
 sion ; the salary was £800 per annum. The period of my leave of 
 absence being nearly expired, I was about to return to the sphere 
 of my duties, when the determination of the government was com- 
 municated to me, with respect to the appointment of a commission 
 of inquiry into West African affairs, and an opinion was expressed 
 by the person I received that information from, that the mission 
 was one in which it was thought my services could be more advan- 
 tageously employed than elsewhere. I trust I am not departing 
 from the rule I have prescribed to myself throughout this communi- 
 cation, of abstaining from topics which trench on official matters, 
 when I state that the opinion expressed by this gentleman, I have 
 reason to know, was entertained by the noble lord who then filled 
 the office of Secretary of State for the Colonies. To accept of this 
 temporary appointment I relinquished a permanent one, the salary 
 of which was £800 per annum. So much for the truth of the 
 assertion, that this mission was a job created to provide for me, or 
 to promote my interests. 
 
 With regard to the sum I am said to have been paid for my ser- 
 vices on this mission, of £1800, the simple answer to that statement 
 is—it is not true. This, no doubt, will be consolatory to the feel- 
 ings of the London agents of the Slave-dealers, and the deep 
 concern they feel in the public welfare will be somewhat alleviated, 
 when they learn that the whole cost of that mission, including all 
 the expenses attendant on it, did not amount by some hundreds of 
 pounds to that sum. I doubt if any mission of similar importance 
 was ever carried into effect at so small an expense. 
 
6 
 
 The statement that a pension had been secured to my family, in 
 the event of my death, is equally destitute of foundation. 
 
 Lastly, in the strictures I have referred to I have to notice the 
 extracts from the evidence cited therein, of two gentlemen who speak 
 in condemnatory terms of my report. The evidence is described as 
 that of persons wholly disinterested ; and, as it is given to be un- 
 derstood, who could have been influenced by no feeling of animosity 
 or irritation towards me. On this point I have elsewhere entered into 
 particulars, which I am not at liberty to refer to here ; and I will 
 only observe that it would be much more than could be reasonably 
 expected from any person whose rule of life was not to return good 
 for evil, to look for a favourable judgment on that report, and 
 especially on those observations of mine, as they are to be found in 
 my original report on acts of theirs, respecting which I differed with 
 them. 
 
 I have now replied to such of these charges as were of a personal 
 nature, and were intended, by discrediting my statements, to uphold 
 the pernicious views and interests of those affected by them. I 
 have said these parties, though powerful in wealth and influence, 
 are, happily for the character of British commerce, few in number, 
 and their proceedings are not to be identified with the operations 
 of the British merchants who are engaged in legal trade on the 
 Coast of Africa. But the operations of the latter are comparatively 
 limited in extent, and the wide-spread influence of the former 
 embraces the whole of the slave haunts in the vicinity of the Gambia 
 and the Gold Coast. It is, indeed, lamentable to find that in 1842 
 we have still to look forward to the time that Wilberforce lived in the 
 expectation of, in 1791—“* when a commerce justly deserving the 
 name of commerce should be established with Africa, not like that 
 falsely so called, which now subsisted, and which all who were 
 interested for the honour of the national character, though there were 
 no superior principle, should hasten to disavow, it mattered not 
 however profitable it might be—for here was the smell of blood on 
 the hand still, and all the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten it.” 
 
 I have no desire to enter further into the subject. The public, I 
 trust, will be put in possession of sufficient documentary evidence 
 
 to come to a conclusion on it. But it may be necessary to recur to 
 
 | 
 
7 
 
 it, if unfortunately it should still be found requisite, to prevent those 
 who are interested in it from being misled by misstatements, how- 
 ever plausibly set forth, or deceived by garbled evidence, however 
 ingeniously devised in its arrangement for the public eye, inter- 
 spersed with matter calculated to confound inquiry, overlaid with 
 trivial topics and irrelevant details, or curtailed of its proportions, 
 wherever the latter were found offensive to the interests of the aiders 
 and abettors of slavery in any of its forms. 
 
 T have thus far endeavoured to resist the efforts that have been 
 made to run me down, where these efforts were calculated to pro- 
 mote an ulterior object that it is desirable to conceal. It indeed is 
 a hardship to be called upon to reply at all, to the wilful misrepre- 
 sentations of those who dare not put their names to their scandalous 
 misstatements. Perhaps the public are more deeply interested 
 than any individual similarly circumstanced to myself can be, in the 
 success or failure of such attempt, where the object is to damage 
 the character of a public servant—no matter how insignificant he 
 may be, or subordinate his official station—because he may not 
 have suffered himself to be bribed, bullied, or cajolled into an acqui- 
 escence with views and interests which were inimical to those com- 
 mitted to his charge. 
 
 I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, 
 
 Dublin, 3rd Nov. 1842. R. R. MADDEN. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Sir—Mr. Matthew Forster was pleased to address a letter to the 
 Berwick and Kelso Warder (the former of which towns he repre- 
 sents), on the 12th ult. This letter was duly inserted in the 
 Morning Herald, which has taken this soz-disant Liberal under its 
 protection. 
 
 I have much to say in answer to Mr. Matthew Forster’s letter, 
 which, throughout, is a scandalous libel against me. But, before I 
 proceed to close quarters with that gentleman, it may not be amiss 
 to lay before the public, through your columns, an extract from a 
 
8 
 
 parliamentary report of 1826, on the subject of the Slave Trade, 
 from which they will be enabled to understand what a veteran this 
 gentleman is in such transactions as those in which he has been 
 lately implicated on the coast of Africa. 
 
 Before, however, supplying the extract, it may be necessary to 
 state that the “ George and James” was captured off Whydah, by 
 the “ Atholl,” and was condemned in the Vice Admiralty Court, 
 Sierra Leone, in October, 1825, under 5 Geo. IV. cap. 13. sec. 7. 
 This vessel’s charter subsequently became the subject of a cor- 
 respondence between the British Vice Consul at Bahia and Mr. 
 Canning; and the matter of it, namely, the legality of a British 
 vessel supplying notorious Slave Trade ships with goods and stores 
 for their trade, was referred to the King’s Advocate, and his opinion 
 was, that the employment of British ships in this way came within 
 the terms of the prohibition. The following is the extract from the 
 Slave Trade Reports, 1826-7: 
 
 ** His Majesty’s Commissioners to My. Secretary CANNING. 
 (Received June 2.) 
 ‘* Sierra Leone, March 21, 1826. 
 
 ‘¢ Sir —We have had the honour to receive your despatch of the 
 13th January, with its enclosures, being copies of a correspondence 
 which has passed between yourself and his Majesty’s Consul at 
 Bahia, on the subject of charters which had been offered to English 
 vessels, to proceed from that port to places in Africa, north of the 
 line. We return thanks to you, Sir, for this communication. 
 
 ‘© As the name of the brig, ‘ George and James,’ appears in Mr. 
 Consul Pennell’s despatch of the 5th of November, 1825, it may 
 not be considered irrelevant to make a few observations regarding 
 this vessel, inasmuch as they will tend to show how just is the 
 view which was taken as to the object of the parties who employed 
 her. 
 
 “A person of the name of Dollond, came out to the coast of 
 Africa, as master of the ‘ George and James,’ then the property, or 
 said to be so, of Matthew Forster & Co., of London; he pro- 
 ceeded to Whydah, and there sold the vessel to a Mr. Ramsay, who 
 was his first mate. Ramsay takes her to the Brazils, ships the 
 
 cargo stated in Mr. Consul Pennell’s letter, and proceeds back 
 
9 
 
 again to Whydah, where a considerable portion of such cargo was 
 distributed to several vessels, which were on that part of the coast, 
 trading for slaves. 
 
 “ It is supposed that De Souza, the notorious Portuguese slave- 
 trader, who for so many years has resided at Whydah and its vici- 
 nity, was the real owner; that he furnished Ramsay with the dol- 
 lars with which the vessel was purchased, and that in reality, he 
 (Ramsay) was only the nominal owner, placed in command of her 
 by De Souza, to protect his property by giving a false colour to 
 the transaction. Ramsay died shortly after the return from Brazil. 
 The vessel was taken by his Majesty’s ship ‘ Atholl,’ at or off 
 Whydah, brought to Sierra Leone, tried under the Consolidated 
 Slave Trade Abolition Act, in the Court of Vice Admiralty, and 
 condemned under the 4th section of the said act, the 17th day of 
 October, 1825. ** We have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 (Signed) ** Joun Tasker WILLIAMS, 
 ‘* Gro. RENDALL. 
 
 ** The Right Hon. George Canning, &c. &c. &c.” 
 
 In connection with this subject there is a report of a recent case, 
 that came before the Thames Police Office magistrates, which throws 
 some light on the trading on the coast of Africa. In the Times of 
 Tuesday, November 29, a report is given of an application to the 
 Thames Police magistrate, Mr. Broderip, on the part of several of 
 the crew of a vessel called the ‘ Emily,’ in the African trade, be- 
 longing to Messrs. Forster and Smith, of London. The claim of 
 the seamen was for wages, withheld on the plea that they had not 
 complied with the articles they had signed. 
 
 “Tt was found,” says the report, ‘ that these articles contained 
 a very singular provision. The voyage was stated to be from the 
 port of London to the west coast of Africa, ‘there to trade from 
 port to port, from coast to coast, and to exchange masters and ships if 
 
 necessary.’ ”” 
 
 This singular clause the report characterises as very improperly 
 worded, and not at all in the spirit of the act 5 & 6 Will. IV. c.19. 
 The claimants declared they were not aware of the nature of such 
 articles, and consequently had refused to leave the ‘ Emily’ on the 
 
 coast of Africa. The magistrate said, with such articles “‘ the men 
 
10 
 
 might have been compelled to go on board another ship at sea, 
 and to trade perpetually all over the world, like the Flying Dutch- 
 man.” 
 
 Mr, Symons, the chief clerk, and author of the work, “ The 
 Law relating to Merchant Seamen,” “ was decidedly of opinion the 
 articles were illegal.” I am, sir, &c. 
 
 Dec. 6, 1842. R. R. MADDEN. 
 
 From the Custom House Papers— 
 
 ‘¢ ¢George and James,’ 94 tons. Doland, Master. Entered out 
 for Sierra Leone, 3rd July, 1824, by Smith. Cleared at Gravesend, 
 17th July, 1824.” 
 
 No. ITI. 
 
 Srir—In my former letter I referred to a transaction on the Western 
 Coast of Africa, and a decision in the Vice-Admiralty Court of 
 Sierra Leone, in the latter part of 1825. Seventeen years have 
 elapsed since that period. 
 
 I have now to refer to the opposition which Mr. Forster tells us 
 ‘his plans for the civilization of Africa” have met with at the 
 hands of persons in high places. 
 
 He states, in his recent letter, that “‘ he has long been at vari- 
 ance with the Stephen and Macaulay party. He has repeatedly 
 exposed their jobs and corrupt influence.” 
 
 What was the precise nature of the variance with the gentlemen 
 alluded to do? What were the particular jobs they made, and the 
 corrupt influence they exercised? These Mr. Forster has not con- 
 descended to point out. Iam not simple enough to imagine that 
 the gentlemen whom Mr. Forster alludes to under the generic name 
 of the “Stephen and Macaulay party, 
 cacy ; neither am I quixotic enough to think that the Forster in- 
 terests of the Gold Coast and the Gambia are not sufficiently 
 
 ” stand in need of my advo- 
 
 powerful even at home, and their advocates, whose name is Legion, 
 not sufficiently numerous, to volunteer my services in behalf of 
 others who are obnoxious to them. It is essential, however, to 
 
 my own defence, to observe the position in which the gentlemen 
 
1] 
 
 referred to have long stood with regard to our efforts for the sup- 
 pression of the Slave Trade; one by his connection with the Colo- 
 nial Office for a long series of years, and his office of Under Secre- 
 tary of State under several colonial ministers. Mr. James Stephen 
 had better opportunities, perhaps, than any man living, of knowing 
 the precise state of the Anti Slave Trade question in our West 
 African settlements; the nature of the obstacles thrown in the way 
 of the measures for its abolition; and the parties whose interests 
 were inimical to these measures. 
 
 The other gentleman (Mr. Macaulay) filled the post of chief 
 commissioner in the mixed court of justice in Sierra Leone for many 
 years, and his opportunities, it must be confessed, were very con- 
 siderable, of knowing the extent to which the Slave Trade was 
 aided and abetted at our settlements on the Gold Coast. The Par- 
 liamentary Slave Trade Papers contain various references to this 
 painful subject; and one of the latest was that of the chief com- 
 missioner at Sierra Leone to the case of the ‘ Dos Amigos,’ which 
 vessel had been tried before him in the mixed court, and condemned. 
 The documentary evidence in this case, with respect to the ‘ Dos 
 Amigos,” having received at the British settlement of Cape Coast 
 Castle her supplies of gunpowder, Manchester cloths, and other 
 goods and stores, purchased there for the Slave Trade Factories, 
 for which she had been destined, was sent home; and the trans- 
 mission of that evidence was an act that Mr. Forster considered ex- 
 ceedingly opposed to the peculiar “ plans” which “he has had in 
 view for the civilization of Africa for so many years.” 
 
 The gentleman I have just referred to could not have been igno- 
 rant that the English vessel called the ‘ George and James,’ referred 
 to in my last letter, in the words of the consul at Bahia, as “‘ then 
 the property, or said to be so, of Messrs. Forster and Co., of Lon- 
 don,” had come out to the coast of Africa; that in the wide range 
 of her destination ‘* from coast to coast, from shore to shore,” she 
 proceeded, as has been stated, from the Gold Coast to the Brazils ; 
 that her master, Doland, had nominally sold her at Whydah, to his 
 mate, and that after the fictitious sale she was despatched to Bahia 
 for a cargo of Slave Trade goods, to be purchased of the merchants 
 there; that she then returned to Whydah, and disposed of her 
 
12 
 
 cargo to vessels then trading for slaves on that part of the coast; and 
 finally, that this British vessel was taken off Whydah, by a British 
 cruiser, carried to Sierra Leone, and condemned there by the Mixed 
 Commission Court, and that her condemnation was appealed to as a 
 precedent in another case of a British vessel similarly cireumstanced, 
 in 1840. The ‘George and James’ was condemned in the Vice- 
 Admiralty Court, at Sierra Leone, in October, 1825, under the 
 clause referred to in Mr. Canning’s dispatch. 
 
 Whether Mr. Forster’s ‘‘ variance” with these gentlemen, there- 
 fore, arose from their “‘ extraordinary ignorance’’ of the true interests 
 of Africa, and of their own country in its relations with the former, 
 or from the closeness of their acquaintance with the kind of pro- 
 ceedings which militated against these Anti-Slave Trade measures, 
 the public will determine; and to enable them to do so it will be 
 necessary to make_a few references to the published Parliamentary 
 Slave Trade Papers, quoting the passages in question without note 
 or comment of mine, from those official documents. 
 
 ‘PAPERS RELATING TO THE SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 ‘‘ Ordered to be printed by the House of Commons, May 17, 1826. 
 ‘} FROM MR, SECRETARY CANNING TO WILLIAM PENNELL, ESQ. 
 HER MAJESTY’S CONSUL AT BAHIA. 
 
 ** Foreign Office, July 24, 1825. 
 
 ‘¢ Sir—lI have referred to the King’s Advocate your two letters, 
 marked Nos. 10 and 12, of this year, adverting to practices of 
 chartering, under the circumstances there detailed, British vessels 
 destined for the coast of Africa, and laden with articles usually 
 shipped for the purpose of purchasing slaves. The King’s Advo- 
 cate reports, that by the act 5 Geo. IV., for suppression of Slave 
 Trade, cap. 18. sec. 7. it is enacted, ‘ That, except in such special 
 cases and for such special purposes as are in and by this act permit- 
 ted, if any person shall knowingly and wilfully ship, tranship, lade, 
 receive, or put on board, or contract for the shipping, transhipping, 
 lading, receiving, or putting on board of any ship, vessel, or boat, 
 any money, goods, or effects, to be employed in accomplishing any 
 of the objects or the contracts in relation to the objects, which ob- 
 jects and contracts have hereinbefore been declared unlawful, then 
 
13 
 
 and in every such case the person so offending, and their procurers, 
 aiders, and abettors, shall forfeit and pay for every such offence, 
 double the value of all the money, goods and effects so shipped, 
 transhipped, laden, or put on board, or contracted to be so as afore- 
 said, to be recovered and applied as is hereinafter mentioned.’ 
 
 ‘* The King’s Advocate further gives his opinion that the employ- 
 ment of British shipping described in your letters, comes within the 
 terms of this prohibition, and that if from any circumstance the 
 clause above recited should be found to be inapplicable to it, a trade 
 of this description is so far in the spirit of the trade intended to be 
 prohibited, that it would be assuredly thought proper to suppress it 
 by further enactments-in case they should become necessary. 
 
 “Tam, &c., 
 (Signed) ““GEorGE CANNING.” 
 
 ““WM. PENNELL, ESQ@., TO THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE CANNING. 
 
 ** Bahia, Nov. 5, 1825. 
 
 **Sir—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 despatch of 24th July last (marked ‘Slave-trade, No. 2”), contain- 
 ing the report of the King’s Advocate with regard to the legality of 
 the employment of British shipping, as described in my letters 10 
 and 12. 
 
 “The impression under which I gave my opinion to the master of 
 the brig ‘ Lima,’ as to the law was, that the charter then contem- 
 plated was illegal, if he knew that the cargo was destined for the 
 traffic in slaves. But it was assumed that such knowledge, if de- 
 nied, could not be legally proved. 
 
 ‘““ The English vessel which sailed for Africa north of the line, 
 was the brig ‘ George and James,’ of London, William Ramsay, 
 master, burden 94 tons, owner, Matthew Forster, loaded with to- 
 bacco, sailed in March last, with a crew of nine persons. 
 
 “The above-named English brig, ‘ George and James,’ was char- 
 tered by the owner of the smack ‘ Caridade,’ whose cargo of slaves 
 forms the subject of my letter of 18th of October, No. 30. It is 
 highly probable the cargo of the ‘ George and James,’ was appro- 
 propriated to the purchase of the cargo of the ‘ Caridade.’ 
 
 “ I have the honour to be, &c. &c. &c. 
 “Wm. PENNELL.” 
 
14 
 
 Mr. Forster undertakes to defend the character of British com- 
 merce from the calumnies, he states, I have cast upon it. I know 
 little, indeed, of its character, if it be willing to commit its interests 
 or its honour to his‘advocacy. Whoever takes the trouble to cast 
 his eye over my report, or the evidence given by me before the 
 committee, will find that I have made a broad distinction between 
 the casual trading of those merchant vessels which visit places on 
 the coast, where legitimate commerce was largely and generally 
 carried on, though an illegal trade might be known to prevail to 
 gome extent, as at Cape Mount, or the Nunez, and the constant 
 practice of supplying the Slave Trade Factories of Whydah, or the 
 Gallinas, with Slave Trade goods and stores, where no other traffic 
 to any extent, but that in slaves, is carried on. I have not con- 
 founded the palm oil trade of the Bonny, where a legal trade is that 
 in which the natives are principally engaged, with that which is 
 carried on with the Spanish and Portuguese miscreants of the 
 Gallinas, and Whydah ; with such persons as Blanco, Martinez, or 
 De Souza, who purchase goods for the sole purpose of bartering the 
 same for stolen men. 
 
 Mr. Forster endeavours to make it appear that I made no such 
 distinction; he says, “ It must not be supposed that our house was 
 the only one similarly slandered by Dr. Madden. All the London 
 houses having any relations in trade with the coast of Africa, are 
 equally calumniated by him in his report, our house is only selected 
 and named as the most extensive, and offering the broadest mark 
 for attack. He names but one vessel of ours as offending (accord- 
 ing to his novel theory of offence), while he names three vessels 
 belonging to a second house, and four vessels belonging to other 
 houses in the trade,” &c. 
 
 There are nearly as many mis-statements as there are lines in 
 this paragraph, nothing can be more untrue than that all the London 
 houses in the African trade, feel themselves equally aggrieved with 
 Mr. Forster by my statements, or have been represented by me as 
 engaged to the same extent in the practices referred to. I am not 
 aware that any Bristol or Liverpool houses have complained of 
 them, or that I gave them any cause to do so on this score. I do 
 not say that the Pedro Blanco and Martinez have not their acknow- 
 
15 
 
 ledged agents in this city. I have named the vessels of some other 
 London houses casually trading at places where the Slave Trade 
 was partially carried on, but I did not find their vessels engaged 
 in supplying the Spanish and Portuguese Slave-dealers exclusively, 
 or chiefly, embarked in the Slave Trade at any part of the coast I 
 visited. I was cognizant, however, of two vessels employed in sup- 
 plying the notorious Slave-dealer De Souza, at Whydah, with Slave 
 Trade goods, the property of Messrs. Forster and Smith, while I was 
 on the coast, and that fact and the orders of this house to their agent, 
 Captain Grove, of the Robert Heddell, to dispose of their cargoes to 
 De Souza, were admitted by their agent. By that admission he had 
 supplied these factories with the goods he received from Messrs. 
 Forster and Smith for many years past—nay, even had a factory 
 established on shore at that place, one of the assistants in which 
 was a son of M. de Souza, and another a son of a late governor’s 
 secretary of Cape Coast Castle. And what came to my knowledge 
 respecting these proceedings I communicated to my superiors. 
 What I desire to state distinctly on this subject is, that the Slave- 
 haunts along this coast, especially at Bissaos and Whydah, have 
 been supplied for many years, not casually, but continuously, with 
 the goods and stores which are bought at these places to be bartered 
 for slaves by the house of Messrs. Forster and Smith; and by Mr. 
 Foster’s own admission he has from twenty to thirty vessels a year 
 employed in the Coast trade. 
 
 Mr. Foster states that I have only named one vessel of his thus 
 employed, and a series of quibbles are had recourse to to confound 
 the disposal of the general cargo of Mr. Forster’s vessel, the Robert 
 Heddell, to De Souza, with that of the planks despatched by the 
 same house in the ‘ Sea Witch,’ to the Captain of the Robert 
 Heddell, and sold to the same individual. The proceedings J re- 
 commended to be instituted against the owners of the Robert 
 Heddell were for the acts of the owner of that vessel, and the dis- 
 posal of her own cargo to the Slave-dealer, De Souza. I had no 
 knowledge at the time of bringing the matter to the notice of 
 Captain Tucker, of the proceedings of the ‘Sea Witch,’ at Whydah. 
 
 The ‘ Sea Witch’ was consigned to the care of Captain Grove. 
 The cargo of that vessel was shipped at New York, and Mr. Forster 
 
16 
 
 states the planks of which it formed a portion, were shipped in con- 
 sequence of a request made to him by a missionary at Cape Coast 
 Castle, who had asked of his house, “ as a particular favour, that 
 they would send him out a few deals,” “ and they were accordingly 
 sent from New York, and reached Captain Grove before Mr. Free- 
 man, or any advice about them came to hand; and Captain Grove, 
 not knowing what to do with them, offered them for sale at the 
 British forts without success, and at last got rid of them, to his 
 great relief, at Whydah.” 
 
 With respect to the anxiety for the sale of these planks, I must 
 refer to my report for the account given to me, and communicated 
 officially to Captain Tucker by Captain Levinge, of Her Majesty’s 
 ship ‘ Buzzard,’ who was blockading the entrance to Whydah at 
 the period in question. ‘“ He (Captain Levinge) informed me, on 
 board the ‘ Wolverine,’ ” then off Whydah, where ‘‘ the ‘ Buzzard’ 
 was stationed, that he had entered the river when this vessel and 
 another merchant ship, belonging to the same house, were at anchor 
 there; that he went on board the ‘ Sea Witch,’ to make some 
 inquiry about a Slaver which had recently sailed from Whydah, and 
 the master of the latter declined to give him any information on the 
 subject. That on seeing the cargo of this vessel consisted of 
 American planks, he applied to the master to sell him a certain 
 number of pieces of them for the use of his vessel, but the master 
 refused to do so, stating that the cargo had been brought there for 
 the sole use of M. de Souza, and had been already sold to him.” 
 
 This statement, officially communicated to the superior officer on 
 the station by Captain Levinge, and by that officer also communi- 
 cated to me, it assuredly was my duty to bring to the notice of my 
 superiors. 
 
 Mr. Forster says the planks were sold by “ mistake” to De 
 Souza, and that fact ‘ he offered to prove by the accounts and cor- 
 respondence to the committee, who refused to look at them as 
 totally uncalled for.” It may not have been a necessary or an 
 agreeable duty to the committee to have ‘“‘ overhauled” these papers, 
 but had these planks been found on board a Spanish or Portuguese 
 vessel at Whydah, and she had been captured by our cruizers, any 
 documents of the kind, I take it, would not have been deemed 
 
17 
 
 “uncalled for’ by the Mixed Court of Commission at Sierra 
 Leone. 
 
 A passage in the minutes of Captain Broadhead’s evidence has 
 been adroitly separated from the context by Mr. Forster, for the 
 purpose of making it appear that a legal trade in palm oil was ex- 
 tensively carried on at Whydah; Captain Broadhead’s evidence is a 
 direct contradiction to that statement. “ At Popo,” he said, ‘ there 
 was an increasing trade in palm oil. But Popo was the only place 
 where the trade in palm oil is carried on to the extent I have men- 
 tioned. At Whydah, which is a much larger slaving port, there is 
 very little trade in palm oil; perhaps to one puncheon at Whydah, 
 ten go off from Popo.”—Vide Minutes of Evidence, page 126. He 
 then goes on to state the reasons which prevent the palm oil trade 
 from extending itself to Whydah as well as to Popo. 
 
 If the commercial pursuits of M. de Souza, of Whydah, or Don 
 Gaetano of Bissaos, are unknown to any parties trading to the West 
 African coast, such persons are in a state of blissful ignorance, which 
 the readers of the Parliamentary Slave Trade Reports are not suffered 
 to remain in. 
 
 These reports for a long series of years, have rung with the infamy 
 of the pursuits of this notorious Slave-dealer. The very name of 
 De Souza, to any person conversant with these papers, is associated 
 with every horrible idea that Montgomery has embodied in his 
 frightful picture of the monster who derives his wealth from “ battle, 
 murder, and sudden death,” and drives a trade in human flesh and 
 blood. Ihave elsewhere stated these miscreants could not have 
 carried on their iniquitous trade, after the equipment clause of the 
 Spanish treaty and the British act in lieu of the Portuguese one. 
 came into operation, if they did not obtain the goods and stores 
 which are essential to them to barter for slaves, from some other 
 source than that which they had been just deprived of. The new 
 system of surveillance of the Slave-haunts, on the part of our 
 cruizers, must have been successful, if it had been possible to prevent 
 our own commerce from supplying the Slave Trade ships and 
 factories. Captain Broadhead was asked “ if the equipment treaty 
 had not interposed considerable difficulties in the way of the Slave 
 Trade?” His reply was, “ The equipment treaty knocked the thing 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 up completely.” It knocked up, indeed, the carrying trade of 
 goods and stores from Cuba and the Brazils. But did tt knock up 
 the supplying of the Slave Factories with the same description of 
 goods conveyed with impunity in British ships? Thus with one 
 hand we are expending half a million a year in our efforts to sup- 
 press the Slave Trade, while with the other we are taking the most 
 effectual means to frustrate these measures. 
 
 Mr. Forster states that, ‘‘ The ‘ Robert Heddell’ happened to 
 touch at Cape Coast Castle while Dr. Madden was there; he 
 pounced upon the poor captain, who was nearly dead with fever, 
 pullied him, through the naval officer on the station, threatening to 
 have him ‘ tried for his life and the vessel condemned.’ ” 
 
 The naval officer alluded to was Captain T ucker, of the ‘ Wolve- 
 rine,’ subsequently of the ‘ Isis,’ and I grieve to add, one of the 
 unfortunate passengers on board the East Indiaman recently 
 wrecked on the French Coast neat Boulogne. A better and a 
 braver officer did not exist, a nobler minded gentleman, a kinder 
 hearted man, and one of milder manners and more sound discretion, 
 I never had the good fortune to be acquainted with ; and this poor 
 tribute of respect I shall be pardoned for paying to his memory, 
 when the base language applied by Mr. Forster to the conduct of 
 such a man, is called to mind. ‘The distinguished officer, who is 
 made by Mr. Forster to play the part of a bully, in deference to 
 my wishes on this occasion, was then acting as commodore on the 
 station. 
 
 The circumstance alluded to, it is to be noted, took place at 
 Accra, upwards of seventy miles from Cape Coast Castle, where I 
 happened to be at the period in question. The friends and brother 
 officers of Captain Tucker, will no doubt appreciate this account of 
 the brutal treatment which Mr. Forster alleges the poor sick captain 
 received at his hands, “ through me.” How the alleged violence 
 
 occurred ‘* through me,” who was not within seventy miles of 
 Accra, where he asserts the maltreatment of his captain took 
 place, it is not easy to conceive. Few naval gentlemen will under- 
 stand the complaisance imputed to Captain Tucker towards one not 
 belonging to his service, who had no right to meddle with his duties 
 or to prescribe his proceedings, in complying with any wishes of so 
 
19 
 
 extraordinary a kind as those which are attributed to me. But 
 while the conduct of Captain Tucker is represented by Mr. Forster 
 as that of a bully, and the services of the Honourable Captain Den- 
 man and other naval officers as “ ravages” on the part of the navy 
 on the coast of Africa, “ by which humanity was outraged,” I may 
 deem it no slight compliment to be entitled to the invective of Mr. 
 Forster, and to have his suppressed evidence rescued from oblivion 
 for the purpose of having his opinion of me recorded, as a person 
 “‘ whose past history in the public service in the West Indies, afford- 
 ed sufficient indications that his conduct would be rash, violent and 
 dangerous.” 
 
 Towards the conclusion of his letter it casually occurs to him to 
 remark ‘‘ he need hardly add that it is utterly false that the late 
 government contemplated any suit against the house of Forster and 
 Smith.” 
 
 Would Mr. Forster be good enough to state for what purpose and 
 with what object my report was referred by it to the law officers of 
 the Crown. The report of the committee, part II., p. 7, expressly 
 states the fact of its having been submitted to the law officers of the 
 Crown, and the reference to that point permits me thus far to notice 
 his assertion. How much further Mr. Forster may count on my 
 forbearance in respect to it, is a question that future circumstances 
 may determine. 
 
 Mr. Forster is pleased to inform the public, that his sense of 
 ** personal dignity prevents him from setting any value on the 
 services he has rendered to Africa and the cause of negro emancipa- 
 tion.” No doubt, ‘‘ we wound our modesty and make foul the 
 clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them.” 
 Nevertheless, it is to be lamented that Mr. Forster should fail to 
 set a value on these services, as it is much to be feared they will 
 never be sufficiently appreciated on this side of Bissao and Whydah. 
 
 I am, Sir, &c. R. R. MADDEN. 
 
 We find in the Slave Trade Parliamentary Papers, 1839, that a 
 Slave vessel, the ‘ Emprendedor,’ owned by De Souza, and com- 
 manded by his son-in-law, Senor Menezes, at anchor at Whydah— 
 was captured under the equipment clause—and tried and con- 
 
 ec 2 
 
20 
 
 demned at Sierra Leone, on the charge of being equipped for the 
 Slave Trade, having a certain quantity of spare plank on board. 
 The master in his declaration, said “ there were about 120 rough 
 planks on board, which he was carrying to Prince’s Island, for the 
 woodwork of a house which he was building there.” The vessel, 
 however, was condemned. She was less fortunate than the ‘ Sea 
 Witch,’ whose spare planks were disposed of to De Souza with im- 
 punity—though the plea set up for the possession of them was the 
 same.—Class A. 1839—40. p. 113. 
 
 In 1841 the Commissioners at Sierra Leone speak of Whydah 
 as a place “‘ where lawful commerce was almost unknown.”’—Class 
 A. 1841, p. 8. 
 
 ——— et 
 
 Sin—To attempt to refute the mis-statements with which the 
 columns of Mr. Forster’s organs are Now daily filled, would be a 
 labour of no small magnitude. 
 
 The object of this letter is to show the drift of the efforts that are 
 making to hoodwink public opinion. The machinery that is at 
 work, without this exposition it would be difficult to understand. 
 One part of its agency is devoted to the destruction of my credit, 
 another to the injury of the character of every British officer who 
 has recently taken an active part in the suppression of the Slave 
 Trade. 
 
 As far as lies in my power I will endeavour to defeat the former 
 object; chance has put it in my power to throw some light on the 
 nature of those vain attempts that are made to effect the latter. 
 
 There is a person of the name of Hughes connected with the 
 house of Mr. Forster’s brother at the Gambia, who acts in the capa- 
 city chiefly of factor at Cacheo, the Cassamanza, and Bissao, who 
 thas lately taken an active part on behalf of the interests of those 
 places, and is likely to become distinguished in the service of them. 
 He has contrived to enter into correspondence with the Lords Com- 
 missioners of the Admiralty. In this correspondence he takes up 
 the defence of his friends, the Slave-dealers of Bissao, and brings 
 charges of very grave importance against officers in the British 
 service, on the evidence, too, of one of the principal merchants in 
 this vile traffic, the notorious Nozolini (better known by the name 
 of Caetano), whose declaration is annexed to this correspondence. 
 
 The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, knowing little of Mr. 
 
 John Hughes, have been led into a correspondence with this man, 
 
21 
 
 and advantage is taken of their condescension to promote the in- 
 terests of the Portuguese miscreants who carry on the Slave Trade 
 on the coast. The communication to them, and their answer to it, 
 have been printed by this party, in the form of a circular, in the 
 Portuguese language as well as in English, for extensive distribu- 
 tion, of course throughout the Portuguese Slave Factories along 
 that part of the coast of Africa. In this country it was intended 
 for private distribution only, and was thus stealthily circulated by 
 Mr. John Hughes, within the last four or five days. I send you, 
 Sir, the precious document in the original, with the initials of Mr. 
 Hughes, and in his handwriting, at the top of this printed paper. 
 On the first page the correspondence with the Lords of the Admiralty 
 is printed in English; on the other side it is given verbatim in Por- 
 tuguese, and on the next page the document purporting to be the 
 deposition or declaration of Senhor Nozolini is given in the Portu- 
 guese language only. For what object this latter document is 
 printed in that language, and not in English, it is not difficult to 
 divine. It is evident the place where use is to be made of it, is at 
 the Portuguese factories on the coast—that the object is to furnish 
 the notorious Caetano with suitable materials for another deposition, 
 or to open to him a new channel for the heavy charges of rapine 
 and murder which he has brought against officers and British 
 seamen. 
 
 Of the Portuguese document JI subjoin a translation, for which I 
 am indebted to Mr. W. B. Macabe, as literal as the document would 
 admit of, for neither its language nor punctuation is that of a man 
 who has lived much in countries where the Portuguese schoolmaster 
 has been abroad. 
 
 “* 22, Upper Baker-street, 22nd August, 1842. 
 
 ‘“* My Lords—I have been for some years engaged in the trade 
 between St. Mary’s, River Gambia, and the European and Native 
 settlements between that place and Sierra Leone. This trade is 
 conducted in small vessels, destitute of any considerable means of 
 defence, and in carrying it on, I am, like all other British subjects 
 who embark in it, compelled to trust largely to the good faith of the 
 residents, my property and my personal safety. 
 
 “ T trouble your lordships with these remarks, that you may enter 
 fully into the feelings of alarm with which I have observed the 
 
22 
 
 attacks made of late by her Majesty’s cruizers on the property of 
 Native and European traders on that part of the coast, on the ground 
 of participation in the Slave Trade by the villages and factories 
 attacked. Without entering upon the question of the efficiency of 
 the means of repressing the exporting Slave Trade, I must call the 
 attention of your lordships to information I have received from the 
 River Gambia within the last two months, confirmed in all essential 
 points by the evidence of a seaman engaged in the enterprise, rela- 
 tive to an attack made by a party landed from her Majesty’s steamer 
 ‘ Pluto,’ on the 8th March last, upon a Native village on Hen 
 Island, one of the Bijuga group. 
 
 ‘‘ Tt appears that a Native village, containing four to five hundred 
 huts, each the residence of two or three people, was attacked by a 
 party landed from the ‘ Pluto,’ and completely destroyed, with the 
 domestic utensils, stock of food, goods, &c., of the inhabitants. 
 That the pigs and cattle found, were wantonly shot down by the 
 seamen and marines employed. That a young woman of Portuguese 
 extraction, whom I have often seen at Bissao and elsewhere on the 
 coast, who had received her education in Lisbon, and was the 
 daughter of a Mr. Mattos, with whom I am likewise acquainted, 
 was killed by a musket shot fired at her by a marine, during the 
 burning of her father’s house, which was situated in this village. 
 No slaves were found in Mr. Mattos’ house or elsewhere, speaking 
 by that name, of slaves intended for exportation ; a few pair of irons 
 were, it is said, found in the house, the small number of which 
 proved that they were not the furniture of a barraeoon, but were 
 employed as means of punishing the slaves retained for domestic 
 purposes and for cultivation. 
 
 ‘‘ My personal acquaintance with Mr. Mattos, enables me to state 
 unhesitatingly that his establishment on Hen Island, was not intend- 
 ed to be employed, directly or indirectly, for the purposes of the 
 exporting Slave Trade. 
 
 “‘ T submit herewith a copy of a Portuguese version of this story, 
 running about the coast; one as absurd was cireulated in America, 
 and appeared in the Morning Herald newspaper of the 28th of July, 
 under the head of American news; but that there is no exaggeration 
 in the statement that the unfortunate lady lost her life by a shot 
 
23 
 
 fired at her by one of the party destroying her father’s house and 
 property, I am too well assured. 
 
 ‘* The party from the ‘ Pluto,’ on this occasion, consisted of about 
 fifteen marines and seamen, commanded by no officer, in the usual 
 acceptation of the word, but by the Gunner. Under so little re- 
 straint, it was not surprising that some of the people availed them- 
 selves too freely of the liquors they found in the house of Mr. Mattos. 
 
 ** The following persons can afford your Lordships information on 
 this subject : 
 
 ** David Gwillam, late stoker and petty officer on board the 
 * Pluto,’ now serving on board the ‘ William and Mary’ yacht, at 
 Woolwich. 
 
 ‘¢ James Curtis, late seaman on board the ‘ Pluto,’ now at Wool- 
 wich. 
 
 ‘‘ William Holson, late armourer on board the ‘ Pluto,’ now 
 serving in her Majesty’s ship ‘ Avon,’ at Woolwich. 
 
 ‘*¢ Your Lordships will not wonder that I should entertain a strong 
 desire that some notice should be taken of these statements, and 
 that the Natives, with whom I must on my return to the coast again 
 communicate, should learn that these most unfortunate transactions 
 have not passed without investigation, and be thus prevented from 
 considering that they have only that wild justice of their own, which 
 considers every individual of a nation as liable to suffer for the acts 
 of every other individual of that nation, to look to for satisfaction 
 for the aggression in question. 
 
 ‘‘ T have the honour to be, my Lords, 
 ‘* Your Lordships’ most obedient humble servant, 
 ‘“* Joun Hucues. 
 *¢ To the Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of 
 the Admiralty, &c., London.” 
 ANSWER. 
 ** Admiralty, August 23, 1842. 
 
 ‘* Sir—Having laid before my Lords Commissioners of the Admi- 
 ralty your letter of the 22nd inst., stating the alarm with which, as 
 a trader to the West Coast of Africa, you have observed the attacks 
 made of late by her Majesty’s cruizers on factories on that part of 
 the coast, on the ground of the owners of such places being engaged 
 
24 
 
 in the Slave Trade, I am commanded by their lordships to acquaint 
 you that orders have been sent out to the Coast of Africa to put a 
 stop to the inconvenience of which you complain. 
 “ T am, Sir, your most obedient servant, 
 “ Joun Barrow. 
 “J, Hughes, Esq., 22, Upper Baker-street, London.” 
 (Copy-) 
 
 «The English war steamer ‘ Pluto’ appeared in this place; its 
 captain came on shore, and was in my house the second day after 
 his arrival. Afterwards two French vessels of war entered this 
 port; their captains came to visit me, and said to me, that the 
 captain of the steamer had said to them that he there expected about 
 a hundred men, that were about to arrive from Sierra Leone to 
 inhabit Bulama. The commander of the steamer appeared in my 
 house at evening. I asked him if it was true that which the French 
 captain had said to me, saying that it was. I said to him that he 
 knew very well that I had an establishment in Bulama, (and) if 
 perchance the English did not consent to it, they might tell me, 
 that I might withdraw my family from there. He answered to me 
 that they might be there, provided they had not slaves; to which I 
 answered him, that finding him assert this island was English, there 
 nobody could hold slaves; moreover, that I had commanded some 
 to be made free immediately after placing their feet on the land. 
 He replied that it was so. The next day he set out for Cacheo, in 
 returning from thence came to this place, and demanded permission 
 ( pratico) to go to Gibba, from which point he was to start, and he 
 went about a mile by the river, and returned and anchored that 
 night in the harbour, (and) at seven o’clock in the morning departed 
 and went to Bulama; arriving there, he commanded an officer to 
 land and search all the chests and boxes in the house, to see if there 
 should be any money found in the house. Besides, he said that 1 
 had procured utensils (or equipments) (otencilios) for slavery, a rare 
 thing! Where can persons see such things kept in commodes, 
 drawers, and boxes, for the traffic? In fine, as he did not meet with 
 what he wished, he withdrew on board. On the same evening he 
 
 went to Hen Island, where I had a portion of domestics for cultiva- 
 tion, as all knew and I had truly stated; for, after having forcibly 
 
25 
 
 bound all the assistants there, he set fire to all the houses, and 
 burned from fifty to seventy barrels of white rice that I had collected 
 there this year. The steward I had then was bound to a tree the entire 
 day, desperately ill-treated with blows in such a manner that he was 
 confined to his bed (em capas), and it is alone expected that he will 
 die speedily, for he is every moment throwing up blood by the 
 mouth. After that he passed to the establishment of Joaquin 
 Antonio de Mattos, where he arrived, and immediately inquired 
 where was the money; all the family had fled. The eldest daughter 
 of Mattos alone remained in the house; she had been educated in 
 Lisbon. They began to ask her where her father had slaves, and 
 where he had the money. She said she did not know anything (of 
 these matters), Seeing that the girl would say nothing, they began 
 to break with hatchets the drawers, trunks, commodes and looking- 
 glasses; and as soon as they met with wine and spirituous liquors, 
 they intoxicated themselves in such a manner, that at last they were 
 monsters not men (jente). They attempted then to offer violence to 
 
 the poor daughter of Mattos. She resisted, and was able to escape ; 
 
 and when flying from them they fired at her two pistol-shots, so that 
 instantly she fell dead on the earth; and after all standing by her 
 had gazed on her indecently (a ver todas as suas partes), they 
 laughed at her like barbarians; even savage beings are not capable 
 of committing such a crime. Thus, having performed their duty 
 (afungao) at Hen Island, they returned to Bulama; went on shore 
 to burn the establishment, but as there were there three canoes of 
 Bujagos, they did not dare to do it, but said to the lady of the 
 house that another day they would come to burn the houses. She 
 then asked him that he would allow her to take out the furniture ? 
 To which he answered, yes, but it must be that night, without fail, 
 for he would land very early, to burn all that night. Aurelia, with 
 her people, was employed, and also the King of Candabar, Neta. 
 They took out all into the street; in the morning very early the 
 steamer began to fire with ball on the land, and after having 
 discharged some thirty shots he came then to land with the boats, 
 and burned all the establishment, and after having consumed all 
 they grasped their swords and made a deadly war on the hens, 
 geese and swine, as well as on the banana trees and pine-apples, all 
 
26 
 
 of which they carried on board before retiring. He went to where 
 Aurelia had taken refuge; he said to her that she should give him 
 rice to sustain the people he was carrying on board. She replied 
 she had it not; that since he had burned it she only had a sack, 
 which was for the eating of that day, inasmuch as she had not been 
 to Bissao. The captain, without any commiseration, commanded 
 the sack of rice to be taken by force, and left all the people without 
 eating for the space of three days, till they could have assistance 
 from Bissao. Here have I told the entire case, but it is of no use, 
 for the great are always right; the little ones ( piquenos) must 
 suffer with patience. All this passed from the 7th to the 10th of 
 March, 1842. 
 
 (Signed) * C, S. Nozorin1. 
 
 “‘ Bissao, 13th of May, 1842.” 
 
 If this subject had been taken up by Mr. Hughes on those high 
 grounds which an honest advocate of the peace principle and an 
 enemy to the employment of force on any occasion might take, his 
 motives would be respected even by those who differ from him. 
 But Mr. Hughes can present himself in no such position to the 
 public. He comes forward as the friend and associate of Slave- 
 dealers. It is not the interests of humanity, but the infamous 
 interests of the notorious traffickers in flesh and blood that are at 
 stake. There is no mistake in the object of representing the seventy 
 captured slaves as the ‘‘ domestic servants” of Caetano—there can 
 be none in describing his friend Mattos as a lover of retirement, 
 flying to the seclusion of Hen Island from the busy Slave haunts at 
 Bissaos, where there were no other residents, and yet where he tells 
 us the seventy slaves found belonged to Caetano. The printing of 
 this circular in the Portuguese language, can leave no doubt of the 
 objects of its intended circulation, to revive the drooping spirits of 
 the disquieted Slave-dealers of Bissao and its vile vicinity. 
 
 I think it is of some importance that the true character of the 
 commerce of those places, and of those engaged in it, should be 
 known; and it is only one who is familiar with the official records 
 of their crimes, who can throw any light on the systematic attempts 
 
 that are now making to screen or palliate them. No violence 
 
SOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASs. 
 
 27 
 
 but that which proves injurious to the interests of his slave-dealing 
 friends is referred to by Mr. Hughes. The countless lives which 
 the monster Caetano has to answer for to his God, though not to his 
 country, the Lords of the Admiralty have heard nothing of from Mr. 
 Hughes. 
 
 The frightful consumption of human life attendant on the prose- 
 cution of so extensive a Slave Trade as that of Caetano (or, as Mr. 
 Hughes would dub him, Mr. Nozolini), disturbs not the tender 
 feelings of this gentleman. The terrible mortality in the slave 
 ‘* coffle”’ on its journey to the coast, in the frays of the marauders 
 with the hunted people in the interior, in the stalling of the slaves 
 in the barracoons of this brigand Nozolini, in that hell upon earth, 
 the stifling hold of a slave-ship, crammed with the dense mass of 
 human beings that has been shipped by this man and his infamous 
 associates; these are matters which affect only the lives of men, of 
 negro-men, and they are beneath the notice of Mr. John Hughes ; 
 but the commercial interests of buyers and sellers of them, and the 
 good understanding of this trader with them, these are things which 
 are of sufficient importance to get up a correspondence that is to form 
 the materials for a Portuguese circular in behalf of those interests. 
 
 I now refer to documents which throw some light on the charges 
 in question. 
 
 Mr. Hughes, on his examination before the committee of the 
 House of Commons, was asked, ‘‘ Did you ever observe that Senhor 
 Mattos carried on any Slave Trade there?” He said he had “always 
 considered Mr. Mattos to be the only man free from the Slave 
 Trade in Bissao, and his professed motive for building that house at 
 Hen Island, was to be away from the people at Bissao, and to be 
 able to live in quiet there.” 
 
 ‘‘ To whom did the slaves in those barracoons belong ?”—*‘ I 
 should say, if there were slaves in those barracoons, that they did 
 not belong to Senhor Mattos. I should think it much more proba- 
 ble they belonged to Mr. Caetano, who, I believe, has or had some 
 domestic slaves there.”’ 
 
 ‘¢‘ Who was the proprietor of the barracoons?”—* I never saw 
 any barracoons on Hen Island, therefore I cannot say who was the 
 proprietor.”’ 
 
28 
 
 ‘‘ What number of Europeans live on the island ?”—“ None, 
 except Mr. Mattos.” 
 
 In 1841, Captain Blount, of her Majesty’s steamer “ Pluto” 
 (stated on his examination before the West African committee), that 
 being at Bissao, where he had been sent by Captain Tucker, he 
 found there one of the liberated Africans of Sierra Leone, who had 
 been kidnapped, and carried into slavery. This man informed him, 
 if he (Captain Blount) took him to Hen Island (near Bulama), he 
 would shew him where the slaves were secured. At that place, 
 Captain Blount states, ‘‘ hundreds and thousands of slaves, he sup- 
 posed, had been embarked, and he got seventy slaves there;”’ §* A: 
 great many had been driven to other parts of the island.” cl he 
 place of Don Mattos is a perfect receptacle for slaves—a nest for 
 the slaves. The slaves were purchased, and centred in that island; 
 and that island is not under the dominion of Portugal, but merely 
 a native settlement.” ‘ The Slave Traders were in possession of 
 the island, and Mr. Caetano, the principle man at Bissao, who is 
 the greatest slave-dealer on the Coast of Africa, kept all his slaves 
 there; and from there they were shipped.” He did not find any 
 slaves in the house of Senhor Mattos. ‘‘ They had been all re- 
 moved; but the places they had been taken away from were all 
 very evident.” ‘‘ When his party were proceeding to the house, 
 they fired on his people.” This was long previous to the des- 
 truction of the barracoons, “‘ when they were first walking up to the 
 place; and then afterwards they came up and continued firing from 
 the bush upon his people.” 
 
 “ The firing was kept up from the bush, when his men returned 
 the fire.” 
 
 He saw two Mulatto women, who had fled with the others from 
 the house. He heard nothing on the spot of one of these women 
 being shot. ‘ He thinks if such a thing happened, he should have 
 known of it.’ ‘* He heard it afterwards at the Gambia, from Mr. 
 Forster there, but did not believe it. He does not think it was the 
 case. He told him at the time that he thought he was mistaken.” 
 
 Captain Blount was not present when Matto’s house was de- 
 stroyed. The slaves were taken near his house, ‘just above it ; 
 not above half a mile from it; he was present when the slaves 
 
29 
 
 were taken. ‘‘ The slaves were not kept in barracooiis; they have 
 small houses, where they keep twelve, or fourteen, or sixteen 
 together; round places, similar to the ones where Caetano kept all 
 his.” He was asked by the chairman, ‘‘ If he did not say the fac- 
 tories at Bissao were principally supplied by English vessels ?”” He 
 answered “ Yes.” This, I think, is the substance of Captain 
 Blount’s statements on this subject before the committee. 
 
 The character of Bissao and Mr. Hughes’s friends, the Slave- 
 dealers of that place, is to be found in various documents bearing the 
 names of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Palmerston, the commis- 
 sioners of the mixed courts at Sierra Leone, and the naval officers 
 on the West African station, in the published records, commonly 
 called ‘‘ Slave Trade Papers,” annually presented to Parliament. 
 
 In 1827, in the case of the ‘ Toninha’ slave ship, tried and con- 
 demned at Sierra Leone, her master declared that ‘“‘ He had two 
 passengers on board; their names were Caetano Joze Nozolini, a 
 Portuguese by birth, and a captain in the service of that nation.” 
 The other was a Frenchman. That “ Sixty-three of the slaves on 
 board belonged to Caetano Joze Nozolini, and were his domestics.” 
 Several of the negroes being examined, were found to be Foulahs 
 recently stolen, and had been kept in irons at Bissao till they were 
 shipped. ‘‘ The whole of the case,” say the commissioners, ‘‘ affords 
 a clear demonstration of the illicit traffic that has long been carried 
 on between the Portuguese settlements at Bissao and Cacheo, and 
 the Cape de Verds.” They then go on to speak of the connivance 
 of the authorities ‘‘in granting passports for domestics, when the 
 persons so called were truly and bona fide slaves.”—Class A. 
 page 106. 
 
 In 1835, the commissioners at Sierra Leone transmit to Lord 
 Palmerston an extract from a letter addressed to them ‘‘ by a mer- 
 chant of Sierra Leone, well acquainted with the slave haunts in the 
 vicinity.” This letter states that, ‘‘ Until lately there were no less 
 than three slave factories in this river (the Nunez), belonging to’ 
 Caetano, of Bissao, commonly called Kyetan, a Portuguese; another 
 to a Frenchman of the name of Laporte, and another to Isidore 
 Powell, formerly master or supercargo of the ‘ Rosa,’ captured in 
 
 the West Indies, and condemned here by the mixed commission. 
 
30 
 
 To what nation Powell belonged it is difficult to ascertain. By 
 some he was stated to be a native of Liverpool, or some part of 
 Scotland; by others an American. He, however, called himself a 
 Spaniard, and being a perfect linguist, could pass himself off as the 
 subject of any nation which best suited his purpose. The factories 
 of Laporte and Powell are broken up. Powell died at 
 sea during the last rainy season. It now appears that 
 Powell was the agent of a mercantile house in New York, the name 
 I have been unable to learn. He arrived at St. Mary’s in the 
 Gambia, provided with a sum of money and letters of credit on a 
 house of the first respectability in London. He purchased of the 
 different merchants in the Gambia a large quantity of goods adapted 
 for his purpose, went to the Rio Nunez, was well received by the 
 chiefs, and allowed to establish himself. After his death Caetano 
 endeavoured to possess himself of the property left by Powell, in 
 the Rio Nunez, supposing that the chief there was ignorant of the 
 death of Powell, which, however, he was not, and Caetano did not 
 succeed.”—Class A. p. 4. 
 
 In 1831, in the case of the slave ship * Rosa,’ tried and con- 
 demned in Sierra Leone, having on board 157 slaves, miserably 
 emaciated, and on account of their sickly state, and many of the 
 unfortunate women being pregnant, landed at Nassau. It was 
 proved that the slaves were shipped at Cacheo, and a signed contract 
 was found on board, in the following terms :—“ I, the undersigned 
 Caetano Joze Nozolini declare that I have contracted with Don 
 Isidore Powell to deliver to him at the end of November of the 
 present year, 120 assorted slaves, in good health and all young.” 
 Part of the price of the slaves was to be paid by Powell “in rum, 
 tobacco, gunpowder, and blue cloths.” In a letter of the owners of 
 the vessel, found on board, the miscreant Powell, who figures as 
 nominal captain, is described as “ being a person worthy of great 
 confidence; of the best of men, in whom we put all confidence, 
 from the great experience he has had in voyages of this kind.”— 
 Slave Trade Papers, 1832—Class A. p. 34. 
 
 In the year 1835, the Duke of Wellington instructs Lord Howard 
 de Walden to remonstrate with the Portuguese government against 
 the conduct of the Governor of Bissao, and reporting the case of a 
 
jl 
 
 Portuguese slaver, the ‘ Felicidade,’ condemned at Sierra Leone, 
 ** which vessel was laden with slaves for the Cuba market, by the 
 Portuguese governor of Bissao.”—Class B. p. 28. This Portu- 
 guese governor was Mr. Hughes’s friend Caetano Joze Nozolini. 
 
 In 1836, Lord Palmerston informs the Portuguese Minister that the 
 Slave Trade continued to be carried on at Bissao, with the cogni- 
 zance of the authorities. That at Cacheo the slaves are embarked 
 even in the sight of the local authorities, while “ at Whydah, the 
 most powerful Portuguese merchants, aud among others the noted 
 De Souza are acknowledged slave agents, carrying on this trade 
 openly and with impunity.”—Class B. p. 53. 
 
 In 1835, in the case of a slaver called the ‘ Felicidade,’ condemn- 
 ed at Sierra Leone, the owner of the vessel, and the cargo of slaves 
 taken in her, was declared by one of the crew, examined at the trial, 
 to be ‘“ Don Caetano, the owner of Fogo, one of the Cape de 
 Verde Islands, who lives at Bissao.—Class A. p. 35. 
 
 In 1834, in the list of slave vessels from Africa arriving at 
 Havana, we find the ‘ Tigiera,’ J. P. de Mattos, captain, made 
 honourable mention of by the commissioners. In 1838 she was 
 captured by Lieutenant Kellet, off Gallinas, and condemned at 
 Sierra Leone.—Class A. 1834. 
 
 In 1836, we find the name of Don J. V. de Mattos figuring in 
 the proceedings of the case of the condemned Portuguese slaver 
 *‘ Mindello,’ of his having been the nominal purchaser of that vessel, 
 in one of the fictitious sales of Slave Trade ships which serve the 
 purpose of giving the owners a choice of flags.—Class A. p. 112. 
 
 In 1838, Mr. Macaulay addressed a letter to the Governor of 
 Sierra Leone, informing him that a Mr. Becaise had recently arrived 
 from Bulama, and had “ found there 300 slaves prepared for ship- 
 ment by Don Caetano, the notorious Kyetan, formerly governor of 
 Bissao. Mr. Becaise describes the island as completely beset by 
 Slave-dealers, and as always containing a larger or smaller number 
 of slaves in barracoons. 
 
 The commissioner adds that “* since Kyetan’s return to the coast, 
 the Slave-trading operations of Bissao have been transfered to the 
 British Island of Bulama.”—Class A. 
 
 In 1839, the chief commissioner at Sierra Leone (Mr. Macaulay), 
 in a communication to Lord Palmerston, speaking of the Portu- 
 
32 
 
 guese settlements, Cape de Verds, Bissao, Cacheo, Prince’s, and St. 
 Thomas, states that ‘‘ 21 out of 30 slave vessels adjudicated last 
 year, obtained their fictitious papers at one or other of those wretch- 
 ed places.” Speaking of Bulama, one of the Bissao group, he says: 
 —‘ Here the notorious Kyetan has fixed his residence, and is receiv- 
 ing constant supplies of slaves from the neighbouring rivers, loading 
 numerous vessels, and having seldom less than 3800 slaves in his 
 extensive barracoons.’*—Class B. p. 153. 
 
 In the same year Lieutenant Kellet, of her Majesty’s brig ‘ Brisk,’ 
 proceeded to Bulama, found 212 slaves in Don Caetano Joze Nozo- 
 lini’s barracoons, ‘‘ all heavily ironed and chained,” carried them 
 away, and destroyed the barracoons.—Class B. p, 155. 
 
 In 1839, the ‘‘Caridad Cubana’ was condemned at Sierra Leone, 
 with 174 slaves on board, shipped at the island Sacramento, close to 
 Bissao.—Class, 1838-9. 
 
 In 1841, Lord Palmerston is informed of two vessels of Caetano’s, 
 laden with slaves, being despatched from the vicinity of Bissao, 
 and that ‘‘ all the slaves collected there are sent away by that route 
 (the Lette river), or through the Cacheo.”—-Class B. p. 588. 
 
 In 1840, the authorities of Bissao are represented by Lord Pal- 
 merston, in a despatch to Lord Howard de Walden, as not only 
 conniving at, but carrying on the Slave Trade. In the case of the 
 ‘ Liberal,’ condemned at Sierra Leone, part of the slaves, his lord- 
 ship states, were owned, and shipped by the director of the customs, 
 Senor Frederico; and others were owned and shipped by the 
 governor, Barretto (Caetano being no longer in office).—Class B. 
 pe 79. 
 
 In 1841, the Sierra Leone commissioners mention the Slave 
 Traders at Bissao as carrying on a “ very active Slave Trade,” and 
 the notorious Caetano Nozolini as having ‘“ had his full share in 
 this traffic.” The annual export of slaves from Bissao they estimate 
 at upwards of 2,000.—Class A. p. 10. 
 
 In 1841, Viscount Palmerston addressed the Portuguese ambas- 
 sador on the subject of the charges brought by Major Joze Nozolini 
 against Lieutenant Kellet, of having robbed the major of 2,300 
 doubloons, stolen his domestic servants, and trampled on the flag 
 of Portugal, as being in command of the men of her Majesty’s ship 
 the ‘ Brisk,’ who committed these ravages at Bulama in 1838. His 
 
33 
 
 lordship replies that the officer appointed to enquire into these 
 charges, after examining various witnesses at Bissao, the governor 
 of that place, &c. had reported “ that there was no foundation 
 whatever for the charges which the Portuguese authorities at Bissao 
 had brought against Lieutenant Kellet.” Mr. Hughes’s friend, the 
 major, is said by his lordship to be “ better known to the British 
 government as Kyetan, a notorious and most unprincipled Slave- 
 dealer,” and that the Portuguese flag had been restored “ perfectly 
 clean, except from the moral pollution it had undergone.”’—1841, 
 Class B, p. 526. 
 
 I leave to Mr. Hughes and his employers the task of white- 
 washing his friends’ characters, and that of the commerce of Cacheo 
 and Bissao. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 R. R. MADDEN. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Sir—In your paper of the 27th ult.-the interests of Mr. Matthew 
 Forster have found a new advocate, in the person of one of his 
 customers at the Gambia, of the name of Bunter. It was expedient 
 to divert attention from the exposure of the proceedings then in 
 course of publication, and another ally was thrust forward to chalk 
 out a new outline of slander, which possibly might shift the greund 
 of attack, and prevent the continuation of those communications 
 which the party dared not to hope it was in their power to refute 
 one iota of. The advocacy of those interests was therefore com- 
 mitted to persons whose names were either new to the public, or 
 were less likely than some others of more notoriety to prejudice their 
 cause. One day they set up an agent on the Gold Coast, to defend 
 their interests at Whydah. Another day they pulled the wires, and 
 up started a new pleader for the mercantile connection with the 
 Slave Trade marts of Cacheo and Bissao. And lastly, another 
 automaton is brought before the public, and speaks what is set down 
 for him with due violence of gesture and of action, as if in propria 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 persona, and not as one of the persone dramatis of the Gambian 
 performance, he was representing the interests of the trade, instead 
 of doing the behests of his employers. There are two columns and 
 a half of personal invective bestowed on me by this new performer ; 
 and there are about a dozen lines of his communication devoted to 
 the refutation of the charges I have brought against his alter ego 
 Mr. Forster. 
 
 The object in putting forward the several agents and customers 
 I have referred to, either as disinterested individuals or as fellow- 
 sufferers from my statements (though their names may not be found 
 in my report), is too well understood by me to be promoted by 
 abandoning the course I have laid down, and by turning from it 
 to reply to all the innumerable falsehoods which have appeared in 
 the letter that bears the name of J. W. Bunter. While the flower 
 of Mr. Forster’s chivalry is thus figuring away in the press, and the 
 feint intended to draw off his assailant is in execution, the organ of 
 Mr. Forster triumphantly asserts that I have slunk from the refuta- 
 tion of the charges he has brought against me in the letter I under- 
 took to reply to. 
 
 I think Mr. Forster and his friends will find they are mistaken. If 
 the exposure of the practices which are the real subject of this 
 correspondence were not in question, and the refutation of the 
 slanders of Mr. Forster and his worthy compeers of the Gambia 
 were the only matters of consideration, I would not trouble the 
 press with a single line on the subject. 
 
 The criticisms on a work of mine, written twelve years ago, no 
 doubt in the judgment of the literary gentlemen of the Gambia, and 
 of their friends of Cacheo and Bissao, are very pertinent to the 
 subject of the connection of that commerce which is carried on at 
 the former place with the notorious Slave Traders at the latter. I 
 leave these literary gentlemen in full enjoyment of the triumph they 
 derive from the relevancy of the application of those criticisms. A 
 considerable portion of the audacious falsehoods with which the last 
 communication is filled, I have already refuted; and as to those 
 which remain unnoticed, in another communication in reply to Mr. 
 Forster, I trust it will be found that neither he, nor his associates, 
 
 have succeeded, or will succeed, in discrediting a single one of my 
 statements. 
 
 a 
 
JO 
 
 The chivalrous Mr. Bunter, in the impetuosity of his ardour in 
 defence of Messrs. Forster, enlivens the former statements put forth 
 in the Berwick Advertiser by a few falsehoods of a new origin, and 
 from as fertile a source as any of the preceding assertions. Of this 
 character is the statement—that I received two horsewhippings in 
 Jamaica, on account of the violence and injustice of my official 
 conduct. To this I have a short answer to make: 1 18 UTTERLY 
 FALSE. No man ever lifted a weapon of any kind against me, either 
 in Jamaica or elsewhere, unless I must except a pistol or a sword, 
 and on occasions when these were in the hands of highway robbers. 
 But there are villains worse than highway robbers, who waylay 
 their opponents’ characters, and would murder reputation with 
 coward slander, if their vile weapons enabled them to do S03 
 hypocrites, who weuld scalp and tomahawk the dearest interests of 
 humanity for the sake of their pernicious schemes, and yet who have 
 the impudence to talk of their efforts for the civilization of Africa, 
 and the abolition of the trade and system which makes a commodity 
 and a chattel of mankind. The single points of a resemblance even 
 to truth, on which the superstructure of falsehood is based in the 
 statement I have referred to, will be found noticed in a work of 
 mine, which the African reviewers deal with after the fashion of the 
 eritics of the coast, entitled ‘‘ Twelve Months in the West Indies.” 
 
 In that work I referred to the conduct of a poor half-witted 
 creature, the dupe of parties like those in whose service Mr. Bunter 
 has been put lately forward—who was made sufficiently drunk at a 
 second breakfast entertainment, to sally forth and to abuse me for 
 my conduct in reference to the discharge of my magisterial duties. 
 He had suddenly laid old of my arm as I was walking in the street, 
 and was proceeding to use violent language, when I did—what, in- 
 deed, it required little effort to do, namely—shake off my drunken 
 assailant, and, with the prompt assistance of the gentleman who was 
 in my company at the moment, lodge the man in the guard-house. 
 He was tried for this offence some months after I had left Jamaica, 
 and sentenced to fine and imprisonment. 
 
 Now, Sir, as to the opinions which Messrs. Forster and Bunter 
 entertain of the great injuries inflicted on the public service by my 
 conduct in Jamaica, in regard to the apprenticeship system, and in 
 
 D2 
 
36 
 
 Cuba to that of the liberated Africans, I must beg leave to refer, not 
 to Messrs. Forster or “his people,’”’ but to the colonial secretaries 
 of state—to the governors under whom I served—to the principal 
 officers of the colonial government; and I rest my character on 
 their recorded opinions, as they will be found in the following 
 
 extracts from the above-named documents : 
 [ Extract of a letter 
 
 From the Chief Justice Sir Josnua Rowe to R. R. Manpen. | 
 
 ‘“‘T am very sorry to find you are determined to leave Jamaica, as 
 I am sure the Island will experience a great loss, by being deprived 
 of your zeal and assiduity. Of your anxiety to discharge honestly 
 and justly the difficult and responsible duties of a special magistrate, 
 I can speak with confidence. (Signed) ‘J. Rowe.” 
 
 [Extract from the Attorney-General, Dowrtt O’Rertty, Esq. | 
 
 ‘“‘ Permit me to express to you how sincerely I regret your de- 
 parture, the more particularly, as I view it as a loss and injury to 
 this Island at the present moment. . . . You have done your 
 duty so as to have merited the sincere approbation of your Governor ; 
 and I will say for myself, that it never has been my lot to see 
 difficult duties performed more efficiently, more honourably, or with 
 more intelligence. (Signed) 8D O RELEY.” 
 [Extract of a letter from the Marauzss or Suico to R. R. Mappven. | 
 
 ‘‘It is with much regret I have learned from you your unalterable 
 determination to leave Jamaica, and give up your office of special 
 justice. Ican assure you that I shall deeply feel the loss of your 
 services in this Island, and shall be ready on all occasions to bear 
 testimony to the able and honest manner in which you have, to your 
 own detriment, conducted yourself since the administration of the 
 affairs of this Island have devolved on me. (Signed) ‘“ Srico.” 
 
 [ Extract of a letter 
 From the Marquess or Normansy to R. R. Mappen. | 
 
 “J have great pleasure in stating that, although, as the act for the 
 
 Abolition of Slavery had not come into operation before my de- 
 
 parture for England, you had not up to that time had an opportunity 
 of entering upon your duties as a special magistrate, yet I felt so 
 satisfied of your qualifications for that office, and of your anxious 
 desire to discharge its important functions with strict impartiality, 
 
 ) 
 } 
 
37 
 
 that, in fixing upon the different stations for the several special 
 magistrates, I took care to appoint you to a district which I con- 
 sidered to be a very important one, and likely to afford an extensive 
 field for the exercise of magisterial duties. I am happy to learn 
 the opinion I had formed of you was not disappointed. 
 
 (Signed) “* NoRMANBY.”’ 
 
 On the 3rd of March, 1836, Lord Glenelg, without solicitation on 
 my part, in consideration of my services in Jamaica, offered me the 
 appointment of Superintendent of Liberated Africans at the Ha- 
 vannah, stating that ‘‘it would give him pleasure to recommend me 
 to his Majesty for the appointment, from a sense both of the public 
 advantage, and of my own merits and character.” 
 
 On the 31st of March, 1840, in reference to the discharge of the 
 duties of my office at the Havannah, Lord John Russell was pleased 
 to approve of them, and to acknowledge ‘“ how zealous and con- 
 sistent my efforts had been, for promoting—under all circumstances 
 —the great objects of my mission to the Havannah.”’ 
 
 These opinions of my poor services are, fortunately for me, at 
 variance with those of Mr. Forster, who deems my conduct in Cuba 
 and Jamaica, as well as in Africa, as “rash, dangerous, and violent ;” 
 and with those of his friend Bunter, which are emanations of the 
 profounder judgment of his London correspondent; but they will 
 serve for my purpose, and it has nothing, I trust, in common with 
 that of my opponents. 
 
 Tam, Sir, your very obedient servant, 
 
 R. R. MADDEN. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 Sir—The assertions relied on as the forlorn hope of Mr. Forster’s 
 interests, are pressed forward with a desperate energy, befitting the 
 condition and the character of those relations with the commerce of 
 the factories on the coast of Africa, to which I have referred in my 
 former letter. The scurrilous abuse he has heaped on me is a 
 matter of little moment to the public, except so far as it shows that 
 there must be a strong conviction of the badness of his case, when 
 
38 
 
 we find interests—that if they were legitimate, should be upheld with 
 a high hand—defended with such weapons as are employed by Mr. 
 Matthew Forster and “his people.” 
 
 Mr. Forster’s organ informed the public, that the mission on which 
 I was sent was a job got up for my advantage. In the Berwick 
 manifesto of the 12th ult., the veracious gentleman himself takes a 
 new view of the origin of that mission, its object being “to divert 
 public attention from the misdeeds of my employers at home, and 
 the Niger expedition.” This is one of the choice specimens of Mr. 
 Forster’s slap-dash style of asseveration, when choler gets the better 
 of the craft that is ‘fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch,” and when 
 bluster and abuse supersede the exercise of memory as well as reason. 
 What misdeeds of my employers could possibly have the attention 
 of the public diverted from them, by sending me to the coast of 
 Africa, to inquire into proceedings similar to those connected with 
 the case of the Dos Amigos? How could it have been intended to 
 divert public attention ‘ from the failure of the Niger expedition,” 
 when that expedition had not then left the shores of England, and I 
 had set out for the coast of Africa long before that expedition had 
 yet sailed ? 
 
 Mr. Forster states that ‘‘ on the character of my reports there was 
 no difference of opinion in the committee; even my own friends 
 therein gave meup; all they could do was to break my fall, and let 
 me down by such excuses as they could find for me—such as the 
 shortness of my stay on the coast, ill health, &c.; in fact, they 
 begged me off, for having recommended so unfit a man to Lord John 
 Russell.” . 
 
 Were I to follow the example of Mr. Forster, by making any 
 reference to the opinions or proceedings of the committee, the 
 question at issue—not between us, but between him and the public— 
 would be speedily and easily determined. If I were to take this 
 course, I could tell Mr. Forster, all his plausibility, all his effrontery, 
 all his recklessness of assertion, would not suffice, even for the 
 passing day, to mystify this subject, or to serve the purposes he has 
 in view. He says that I had friends on that Committee—persons 
 by whom I had been recommended to Lord John Russell—and that 
 they reluctantly gave me up; of the friends I can boast of having, 
 
39 
 
 there certainly was not one of them on the Committee; there was 
 not one member of it, with the exception of Mr. Forster, with whom 
 I had ever had any previous intercourse—not one by whom I was 
 ever recommended to Lord John Russell, or to whom I was per- 
 sonally known ;—and consequently there could be none by whom I 
 was given up. 
 
 This much, however, from what came to my knowledge in that 
 Committee, I feel, without impropriety, I may say—that Mr. Forster 
 is not the man whom some members of it would be willing to have 
 considered as the exponent of their opinions. 
 
 Mr. Forster says I was ‘‘ seven weeks on the coast of Africa, 
 during which time I scarcely left my room, through a childish fear 
 of the climate.” Here he states what he positively knew was not 
 the fact. He was perfectly aware that I sailed for Africa in the first 
 week of January, 1841, and returned to England the middle of 
 July, the same year, after an absence of six months. My voyages 
 out and home did not amount to half that period. 
 
 During the time I was employed on this mission, I visited every 
 British settlement on the western coast of Africa, with the exception 
 of Dixcove, and touched at most of the Portuguese slave-haunts 
 along the coast; and from the Gambia to the Line, I had far more 
 ample opportunities than Mr. Forster deemed essential to his 
 peculiar views for the civilization of Africa, of making myself ac- 
 quainted with the nature of his commercial operations. That I 
 laboured under a childish fear of the climate, would seem to imply 
 that its dangers were new to me, or if they were known, had become 
 the more formidable the longer I had been acquainted with them. 
 A previous residence of nearly four years in Africa, and of five years 
 in the West Indies, might have been supposed to have habituated 
 me, if not to the effects—at least to the dangers of hot climates. 
 
 I was attacked with fever at Cape Coast Castle, and suffered 
 severely from it. Of the five weeks which I passed at that place, I 
 was confined to my bed, and unable to attend to my duties for 
 about ten or twelve days. If I had been incapable of attending to 
 them during the whole time I was on the coast, and scarcely left my 
 room during the seven weeks Mr. Forster speaks of, I must have 
 been conveyed by some miraculous means from one point to another, 
 
40 
 
 along a line of coast of about three thousand miles. If my childish 
 fears had so potent an effect on my energies and exertions, how does 
 it happen that I managed to collect that vast mass of information 
 which will be found embodied in the appendices of my Report, and 
 especially in the series of questions and answers on every subject 
 connected with my mission? How did I contrive to have my 
 efforts for the suppression of the vile pawning system protested 
 against by the magistrates? How did I manage to make myself 
 acquainted with the particulars of each case of the ninety-one 
 wretched prisoners immured in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle, 
 and to bring these prisoners face to face with the members of Mr. 
 Maclean’s council ? 
 
 The amount of public money I pocketed, according to Mr. Forster, 
 was ‘‘nearly two thousand pounds.” Now the first statements put 
 forth by Mr. Forster’s organ respecting the remuneration of my ser- 
 vices was, that I had received £1,800. I denied the fact in my 
 letter to the Editor of the Morning Chronicle; and in reply to that 
 letter, the Herald, on the 12th, retracted its former statement, and said, 
 on further enquiry, it had been found the amount was only £1,700. 
 The circumstantiality of this new misstatement, encouraged Mr. 
 Forster to advance in the amount as he progressed in guessing, and 
 accordingly he made the sum in his Berwick letter, ‘‘ nearly £2,000.” 
 The first statement in the Herald was false—the second statement 
 in that paper was false—and the new statement in Mr. Forster’s 
 letter is also false. The whole expense of my mission, including 
 the remuneration of my services, and the defrayment of all the ex- 
 penses incurred by me in its accomplishment, did not amount to the 
 lowest sum set down in any of the preceding statements. This, 
 indeed, is a matter of httle moment to the public, so far as the 
 amount in question is concerned; but the mendacious spirit which 
 is discovered in these and all his other assertions—the skilful fenc- 
 ing—the subtle cunning—the crooked, cogging character of these 
 statements, it is of importance to notice, and these will be found to 
 
 pervade almost every passage in the three columns and a half of the 
 
 quibbling communication I reply to. 
 I am charged by Mr. Forster with making a trade of the Slave 
 question. It is something, after all, to be obnoxious to the charge 
 
4] 
 
 L 
 
 of trafficking in the question only. Against him I have brought a 
 graver charge. I freely acknowledge that for many years my efforts 
 have been calculated to be injurious to his interests. I have wilfully 
 and wittingly aided and abetted the abolition of Slavery, and the 
 trade in Slaves, by all the means in my power; and while these 
 efforts were in the public service, they were remunerated, and my 
 sense of “‘ personal dignity ” did not prevent me from applying four 
 times in the year for the payment of them. 
 
 To have belonged to the medical profession, and to have ceased 
 to live by the practice of it, when I was otherwise employed, in Mr. 
 Forster’s eyes is a proof of trading in the pursuit I have been engaged 
 in. He is not content, however, to leave me in my old position. 
 There is a natural connexion between the subject of the Slave trade, 
 and the circumstance of my belonging to the medical profession :— 
 that between Macedon and Monmouth could not have been more 
 obvious to Captain Fluellen. Mr. Forster, therefore, animated by a 
 noble zeal for the interests of his commerce on the Gold Coast and 
 the Gambia, comes forward to inform the public that I am a mem- 
 ber of the College of Surgeons, and not an M.D. The fact, no 
 doubt, is highly important to the public, if it be true; it happens, 
 however, that one half of it is false: anda letter from Dr. James 
 Johnson, a physician in this city, who has known me for the last 
 twenty years, will be found to declare that Mr. Forster’s assertion 
 is a false and malicious libel. 
 
 Mr. Forster states that “the only evidence he had to rebut my 
 statements, was that of two or three persons who happened by 
 chance to be on the spot. That those against whom I had com- 
 plained, and who were able to rebut my statements, were unable to 
 do so, as it had been kept back from them till the committee began its 
 sittings, and had no opportunity of receiving communications from 
 Africa with regard to it, which, could they have received, would have 
 
 overturned my statements.”’ A reference to the minutes of evidence © 
 
 before the committee, will shew this statement to be of a piece with 
 nearly all the others of Mr. Forster. Was it by mere accident that 
 a.large number of the witnesses examined were summoned at his in- 
 stance, and that not one was summoned or examined at mine? Was 
 it by mere accident that those witnesses of his happened to be his 
 
42 
 
 own African captains, customers, and servants? Was it by mere 
 accident that such wonderful harmony existed in the evidence of his 
 friends and agents, that the interests of the injured Slave dealers of 
 the Gallinas, Bissaos, and Whydah—the humanizing influence of 
 the commercial operations of Pedro Blanco, Don Gaetano, and De 
 Souza, with the help of the civilizing proceedings of their London 
 correspondents had, as it were, but one mouth-piece in the cloud of 
 Mr. Forster’s witnesses. 
 
 He asserts that he and his friends had no opportunity of receiving 
 communications from Africa, before the meeting of the committee. 
 How did it happen that every complaint to be found in my report, 
 —whether respecting the connivance at Slavery on the Gold Coast, 
 the pawn auctions on the part of the authorities, the imprisonment 
 for undetermined periods of the ninety prisoners whom I found in 
 the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle—had its specific defence sent 
 home from the Gold Coast, in some instances communicated in 
 writing to the committee by Mr. Forster himself, in some cases 
 transmitted to the London committee of management, and presented 
 by its members to the parliamentary one? Among the documents 
 handed in to the committee, purporting to be from Africa, for the 
 purpose of rebutting the statements in my report, the minutes of the 
 committee will shew that one was presented, and is found at page 
 578 in the index, entitled ‘“‘ Copy of a letter from Captain Maclean, 
 dated Cape Coast Castle, 17th January, 1842, to the African Com- 
 mittee, remarking on Dr. Madden’s report to the Colonial Office, 
 respecting these settlements.” 
 
 What opinion can be formed of the veracity of a man who 
 solemnly denies that the authorities on the Gold Coast had received 
 a copy of my report, when a copy of the acknowledgment of the 
 receipt of it, at Cape Coast Castle, under the hand of Mr. Maclean, 
 can be produced; and the copy of another letter, from the same 
 place, stating that the report of mine was forwarded to Captain 
 Maclean, in Mr. Forster’s vessel, ‘‘'The Emily,” which sailed from 
 London the end of May, 1842. Not only was Mr. Maclean fur- 
 nished with this report, but up to the 13th of June he was in posses- 
 sion of the minutes of evidence given before the parliamentary 
 committee then sitting. These minutes could only have been 
 furnished to Mr. Maclean by a member of the committee ;—and it 
 
43 
 
 is to be noted, that it is strictly enjoined on every member of a 
 parliamentary committee, that such minutes should not go out of 
 his hands. 
 
 But even had these documents never reached the Coast, Mr. 
 Forster, in his two-fold capacity of a member of the committee and 
 a witness before it, was surely enabled to defend the interests of his 
 agents and protegées on the Gambia and the Gold Coast. 
 
 The anomaly of stepping from the judgement-seat into the witness- 
 box, is not reserved for Gold Coast jurisprudence; but where these 
 parties had the benefit of Mr. Forster’s judgment as well as his 
 testimony in their favour, they could not be said to be left without 
 advocacy or defence. 
 
 A vast portion of the entire examination of the witnesses was 
 conducted by Mr. Forster; with no ordinary astuteness, he brought 
 the evidence to what subjects he thought fit to lead it, and he 
 directed its course and its continuance as circumstances required. 
 No legitimate efforts of his were surely wanting to protect himself, 
 in the persons of “his people” on the Coast, and to invalidate my 
 testimony against him and them: 
 
 How far he feels he has succeeded, notwithstanding all his efforts, 
 may be conjectured by the amount of choler he has expended, in his 
 recent communications to the press. I am, Sir, &c. 
 
 R. R. MADDEN.* 
 
 INOw Vile 
 
 S1ir—The able manner in which this subject has been treated in your 
 journal, has excited a deep interest in it, and one that is not likely 
 to share the fate of the common topics of the passing day. I there- 
 fore address this letter to you, Sir, by whom this subject has been 
 brought forward with so much ability, and with so much benefit to 
 the interests of humanity. 
 
 If the influence of Mr. Forster over the authorities at those parts 
 of the Coast where his commercial interests are predominant, were 
 only half as great as that which he informs us he exercised hereto- 
 
 * The above letter is the only one of the series that has not been 
 previously published. 
 
44 
 
 fore over the Government itself, it would be high time to set some 
 limits to his pretensions. He states, that ‘‘it is only recently he 
 compelled the Colonial-office, under penalty of public exposure, to 
 cancel two successive improper appointments, in the highest post of 
 the Government of our settlements at the Gambia, made at the 
 instance of THAT PARTY.” These statements are deserving of atten- 
 tion. They will be found to prove rather too much for Mr. Forster’s 
 views. The mere claim to such a power, boldly and arrogantly 
 asserted, would necessarily tend to render those authorities—whose 
 official life (they were made to believe)‘depended on the bare 
 intimation of Mr. Forster’s sovereign will—somewhat cautious of 
 offending so influential a gentleman. Civility would not be a suf- 
 ficient recompense for the countenance of so powerful a person, and, 
 if the better feelings of the party, trammelled by such an assumption 
 of superior influence, revolted against it, if the precarious tenure of 
 office was not affected by its exercise, there could, at least, be little 
 security for the peace and comfort of an officer, dressed in a little 
 brief authority, supposed to exist on the sufferance of an individual 
 unconnected with the Government. 
 
 With respect to Mr. Forster compelling the Colonial-office, under 
 penalty of public exposure, &c., to rescind, or in any way to 
 influence, the appointment of such governors as were in his judg- 
 ment fit or unfit for that high office—in plain terms, who were 
 favourable or unfavourable to his views, the power laid claim to on 
 the part of a private individual over the British Government, was 
 indeed a monstrous assumption. ‘‘ Here was a hand to hold a 
 sceptre up, and with the same to act, controlling laws.” Ifsuch a 
 power had been extorted from any minister, it would speak volumes 
 as to the inconvenience that might be apprehended from meddling 
 with a privilege of so formidable a kind. In one of the instances 
 where he tells us he caused the appointment of a governor to be 
 rescinded, the person he objected to had been a merchant in the 
 
 Gambia, his former competitor in trade. This gentleman now holds 
 the office of Commissioner of Arbitration in the Mixed Court, at 
 Sierra Leone; and had he been an unfit, or improper person for 
 that office, or for any other, he would hardly have been appointed to 
 such a post by Lord Aberdeen, nor would many of the principal 
 
45 
 
 merchants and bankers of this city have been likely to have recom= 
 mended him for it; and yet within the last three months, the 
 gentleman so calumniated has been thus employed by Government, 
 and thus recommended to it. 
 
 With these observations, I reply to that portion of Mr. Forster’s 
 statements, the accuracy of which is based on the representations of 
 persons dependent on him, or who were led to believe he possessed 
 the power he laid claim to—of cancelling their appointments at his 
 pleasure. The ten columns of matter lately published in the Morn- 
 ing Herald, purporting to be a communication from Mr. Maclean, of 
 Cape Coast Castle, speak the sentiments, and advocate the views 
 which Mr. Matthew Forster has already taken no small trouble to 
 uphold. 
 
 The details, perhaps, are more circumstantial and less charged 
 with vituperation than those in Mr. Forster’s letters, but from begin- 
 ning to end, they are not only obviously at variance with one 
 another, but there is on the face of them the stamp of statements 
 made with reluctance, and with a painful sense of the fallacy of a 
 large portion of them. I stated in my report that I had found 
 ninety-one of the Native people confined in the dungeons of Cape 
 Coast Castle; that I called on Mr. Maclean for the official record of 
 the sentences pronounced in these cases, and that no such record 
 was, nor could be, produced ; that a vast number of these persons 
 had been imprisoned for long periods, some even for four years, and 
 the great majority for no determined period: that there were no 
 judicial establishments on the Gold Coast, and that the power of 
 inflicting capital punishments was claimed, and had been exercised, 
 by Mr. Maclean; and that Captain Tucker, of her Majesty’s ship 
 ‘ Wolverine,’ had been cognizant of such executions having taken 
 place. 
 
 I likewise asserted that I found slavery existing at all our settle- 
 ments on the Gold Coast, that the practice of buying, holding, and 
 selling, men under the name of pawns, existed at Cape Coast 
 Castle ; that I had received memorials from eleven of the pawns of 
 Mr. Maclean himself, complaining of the hardship of being thus 
 held by him; and, lastly, stated that a Mr. Frazer, at Accra, be- 
 coming embarrassed, and among others being largely indebted to 
 
46 
 
 Messrs. Forster and Smith, of London, Mr. Maclean had proceeded 
 to Accra, and sold forty or fifty of the insolvent’s negroes for the 
 benefit of his creditors, the person who acted as auctioneer being a 
 brother of the late partner of Mr. Forster. 
 
 The ten columns of Mr. Maclean’s letter, are chiefly in reference 
 to these subjects; he has denied much, but he has disproved no- 
 thing. With respect to the prisoners, the total number was 87, 
 according to his account, and not 91 as I have stated. The differ- 
 ence in the numbers is not great. I am satisfied, however, of the 
 correctness of my statement. The document (on the authority of 
 which it was made) contained the names and numbers of the pri- 
 soners, and the time they had been in confinement, was furnished to 
 me by a member of the council who presided at the examination 
 which I called for, before the magistrates of Cape Coast. On that 
 occasion a considerable number of the prisoners were produced, the 
 nature of their offences, as well as the period of their imprisonment, 
 was inquired into; and the result of that examination was, that a 
 great many of the prisoners were immediately released, and those 
 cases were specified by me in the document referred to. 
 
 I shall trouble your readers, Sir, but with one or two observations 
 on this subject. The number of European settlers at Cape Coast 
 Castle amounts to about 18 persons. The number of Natives im- 
 prisoned in the Castle amounted to 91, (or according to Mr. Mac- 
 lean 89), so that for every European established in that place, it 
 would appear that the interests of the settlers rendered it necessary 
 to have about five of the Natives kept in jail. With respect to the 
 term of imprisonment, it is denied both by Mr. Forster and Mr. 
 Maclean, that the period in any case extended to four years, and the 
 return given to me by the member of Council previously referred to, 
 is appealed to in proof of that assertion, the longest term specified 
 therein, being three years and six months. 
 
 I have elsewhere complained both of the incorrectness of that 
 document, and the scanty nature of the information given in it. 
 Previously to the examination of the magistrates, I had gone 
 through the various places of confinement in which these people 
 were immured, and taken down, in writing, the particulars of each 
 
 case that seemed to me of peculiar hardship, from the prisoners 
 
 eel cle! 
 
 ee ee eee 
 
 Cpe SER 
 
AT 
 
 themselves. This I was induced to do in consequence of receiving 
 a memorial from the prisoners, in which they stated their numbers 
 and the period of the imprisonment of some amongst them. The 
 words of this memorial are, “‘ We are very sorry to say, that we 
 confine in this fort for about this five or six years, now some three 
 year and some six,” &c. This document will be found in the ap- 
 pendix to the original Gold Coast Report, page 69. The result of 
 my inquiries was, to leave no doubt on my mind that some of them 
 had been in confinement certainly upwards of four years; and on 
 the examination before the magistrates, I pointed out the discrepancy 
 between the statements of prisoners and the return of the magis- 
 trates. 
 
 A merchant established at Accra, Mr. Gedge, who happened to 
 be present when my statements on this subject were impugned in 
 the committee by Mr. Forster, said to me, in the hearing of Mr. 
 Scoble, that he could have corroborated my account of the lengthen- 
 ed period of imprisonment on the Gold Coast, from circumstances 
 which had come to his own knowledge; that he had procured the 
 liberation of a man at Anamaboe, who had been imprisoned in that 
 fort for seven years for a debt, the amount of which, in English 
 money, did not exceed five pounds; and for the truth of this state- 
 ment having been made to me, I refer to Mr. Scoble. 
 
 With regard to the existence of slavery and man-pawning at our 
 settlements on the Gold Coast, I have a few remarks to make, and 
 many are not required to dispose of the statements of Messrs. 
 Forster and Maclean on this subject. Negroes are held by Euro- 
 peans at these settlements, both in the condition of absolute and 
 temporary slavery. The former are purchased for life; the latter 
 are either sold by others for debt, or being indebted, they sell them- 
 selves to their creditors, till such time as they may be able to pay 
 their debt, and thereby obtain their liberty. This system is called 
 pawning, and the persons pledged, and made over to the debtor 
 under the above-named condition, are called pawns. During the 
 time they are in pledge, their labour is the property of the holder of 
 their persons. In fact, the thing pawned is the person of the man 
 in debt; and the advantage derived from this possession, is not only 
 the security of the debtor’s person till such time as he pays the 
 
48 
 
 ereditor, but the engagement of his labour, during the time that he 
 is held in pawn. The possessor of it has the power of disposing of 
 the person of his pawn; at his death his person is transferable, and 
 the property in him is sold for the benefit of his estate, or of his 
 creditors. In fact, the condition of a pawn in no material respect 
 differs from that of a Spanish slave, except in the rigour of his fate. 
 The law gives the latter the nominal power of claiming his liberty 
 whenever he is able to pay his master the sum which he originally 
 paid for him, or the amount his value has risen to, if he has been 
 taught a trade, and when that sum is determined before the Syndico 
 of the district, and the slave undertakes, within a given time, and 
 by specified instalments, to pay his master the price fixed on, the 
 slave is said to be cohortado, or in a condition to be freed, at some 
 determined period, on the payment of some stipulated sum ; but it 
 rests with the master either to retain the services of the slave, or to 
 permit him to hire his services to others, while the proceeds of them 
 the law declares the master to be entitled to, deducting only such 
 part as may bear a proportion to any sum the slave may have 
 advanced in part payment of his freedom. ‘The man never ceases 
 to be a slave in the eye of the law, till the last farthing of his price 
 is paid to his master; and till it is paid, he is subject to him while 
 he lives, and he is disposable as the property of his heirs at his 
 death. The British pawn differs thus from the cohortado Spanish 
 slave—he is chiefly employed in domestic labour, and the rigour of 
 his fate is consequently generally a mitigated one, in comparison 
 with that of the Spanish predial slave. 
 
 It is a question, however, whether the misfortune of being subject 
 to the condition of a pawn in the safe keeping of the Governor of 
 Cape Coast Castle, is greatly preferable to that of an equal number 
 of years of slavery on a coffee plantation in Cuba. Ten of the 
 pawns of Mr. Maclean, who addressed a memorial to me, inserted in 
 the appendix of the report, do not appear very conscious of the 
 many advantages which those voluntary labourers are possessed of, 
 who contract, as hired servants do in England, to give their labour 
 for a specified term, to those they engage with, as we are told by 
 Mr. Maclean. They say, ‘‘ They are pawns to Governor Maclean, 
 as canoe-men, who do not know how they do live during last six 
 
49 
 
 years.” The blacksmith of Cape Coast Castle, who stole “a piece 
 of steel to make a file,” and, according to his account, received three 
 hundred lashes, and spent three years in jail—if the statement made 
 in the letter of his inserted in the appendix of the report be correct 
 ~—would probably have purchased the freedom of the three pawned 
 children he speaks of, at the price even of his own liberty elsewhere. 
 The other blacksmith of Cape Coast Castle, whose letter we find in 
 the same appendix, may entertain very different opinions of the 
 merits of the pawning system, from Mr. Forster and Mr. Maclean ; 
 he does not write, it is true, in polished language, but the words 
 will stand when the ten columns of Mr. Maclean’s ingenious letter 
 will be forgotten. ‘I beg to write you this, to say that I only 
 pawn to Mr. Maclean for one ounce of gold, and so I work for these 
 eight years, and only they pay me three fathom romaule a month, 
 and my pay is very little, as from yesterday and to-day I have not 
 taken morsel,” &c.; and, on the subject of the sale of slaves and 
 pawns at Accra, the property of Mr. Fraser, the particulars of which 
 had come to my knowledge at Accra, I addressed a series of ques- 
 tions to Mr. Maclean, which, with the answers to them, are to be 
 found in the appendix of the report. 
 
 In the replies of Mr. Maclean it will be observed that he denies 
 the existence of slavery on the part of British subjects on the Gold 
 Coast; that he does not consider the British Act of Emancipation 
 applicable to our settlements on the Gold Coast; and that slaves, or 
 pawns, are never sold to pay the debts of British subjects in these 
 settlements. He admits, however, that, in 18389, ‘‘ a native of the 
 country, named Frazer, became insolvent, and he (Maclean) was 
 called upon to interfere for the protection of his creditors. On an 
 examination into his affairs, it was found that he was possessed of 
 a number of slaves, acquired by means of his creditors’ money. 
 These, according to the uniform practice which he had followed, and 
 which had been approved of, he forthwith enfranchised, apportion- 
 ing to each, according to his ability, a small sum, which he was to 
 pay to the estate. These sums many paid, others borrowed the 
 necessary amounts, giving their labour at low wages until they 
 could raise money to pay the debts so contracted. Mr. Marmon, I 
 believe, advanced money for several of them, as he required their 
 
 E 
 
oO 
 
 labour. It is incorrect to say that pawns (that is, individuals) are 
 the property which is really made over to the purchaser: such is not 
 the case. Jt is a certain portion or quantity of labour which the 
 purchaser gets in return for his slaves. He has no property what- 
 ever in, or right over, his debtor, who can leave him at any moment 
 
 he chooses.” 
 
 If Mr. Maclean was not aware that any British subjects, properly 
 so called, held, sold, or purchased slaves, whence arose the necessity 
 i for the uniform practice of his interference for the benefit of the 
 creditors? If no British subjects held slaves or pawns, how did it 
 happen that Mr. Maclean devised a plan for their enfranchisement, 
 which had previously met with approbation? When the auction 
 took place at Accra, how was Mr. Maclean enabled to apportion 
 their labour to those who advanced the small sums for them, without 
 giving any right, title, or interest in the persons of the labourers? 
 When he enfranchised them, of course they were free ; what security 
 did the persons who ,advanced the money, with the view of getting 
 the labour that was required, obtain for the services of the labourers ? 
 If Mr. Maclean sold no slaves on this occasion, what did he sell to 
 the person who advanced the money for many of them? Do men 
 give their money away on the Gold Coast without an equivalent ? 
 It was an advance on a fixed sum, that was a price for something ; 
 or it was a gift, ora loan? If Mr. Maclean received an advance for 
 the benefit of the creditors of Mr. Frazer, it follows there was a 
 bargain and a sale. If he accepted of the money as a gift from the 
 party requiring the labour, for the benefit of those creditors, there 
 could be no value expected in return ; therefore, it would be unjust 
 to allot any part of that labour to the giver, which was of the utmost 
 value to the objects of his bounty. Ifa loan was made, some secu- 
 rity must have been required by the lender. Bills and notes are 
 not current on the Gold Coast, but human beings are; and the 
 labour that is pledged for loans of this kind, is, to all intents and 
 purposes, considered the exclusive property of the individual who 
 invests his money, for the time being, in a redeemable commodity, 
 called pawns. Mr. Maclean contends that no such word is to be 
 found in the Emancipation Act of 1834. The word slave occurs 
 there frequently enough, and the plain meaning of that word I 
 presume to be, a man who has not the power of employing his own 
 
 | 
 : 
 
51 
 
 labour for his own benefit, for an indefinite period or for ever; and 
 Mr. Maclean need hardly be told that a man whose person continues 
 for a long time the property of another, is very likely never to 
 acquire by industry or accident, the means of getting back what he 
 relinquished or was deprived of, on account of poverty or crime. 
 The most startling statement of any in Mr. Maclean’s replies, is 
 that in which he declares that the man pawned, or whose labour is 
 given to another in consideration of a certain sum of money, ‘‘ can 
 leave his debtor at any moment he pleases.” 
 
 A practical illustration has been lately given on the Gold Coast, 
 of the correctness of this assertion. I refer to a correspondence in 
 the United Service Gazette, on the subject of a Native of Cape Coast, 
 a blacksmith of the castle, a ‘‘ debtor” to Mr. Maclean, having been 
 received on board a vessel of war, with a view to his employment 
 elsewhere, and of Mr. Maclean refusing to let the man leave his 
 service till ‘ the debt” due to him by that man was paid. The 
 facts, Mr. Commissioner Cook, in a recent letter to the Editor of 
 the United Service Journal states—“ are substantially correct ;” 
 and, in alluding to the system out of which this circumstance arose, 
 he speaks of it as “‘ the infamous pawning system of the Gold 
 Coast.” This gentleman’s testimony is valuable in many respects ; 
 but in one especially, that his experience of the system he describes 
 is of a much more recent date than mine, and that the communica- 
 tion is from one with whom I was unacquainted, when that com- 
 munication was made. 
 
 In concluding this subject, I have to refer to another communica« 
 tion from a gentleman better able to throw light on it than any other 
 person I could have applied to for information. The gentleman I 
 refer to is a merchant established at Accra, and a magistrate—Mr. 
 Gedge. He was present at the sale of the pawns and slaves of Mr. 
 Frazer, and was lately in this country. Had I seen him at an 
 earlier period, I should have been in possession of precise data, 
 which might have prevented Messrs. Forster and Maclean the 
 necessity of expending the vast amount of sophistry which has been 
 bestowed on the mystification of this subject ; for his statement will 
 be found to bear out the most important facts which I have detailed. 
 The immediate agency of Mr. Maclean in this transaction, he cannot 
 speak of from his own knowledge; nor is it of any importance that 
 
 E 2 
 
‘ 
 fel 
 
 on 
 
 he should, for Mr. Maclean fully admits it in his replies to my 
 queries, inserted in the appendix on my report on the Gold Coast. 
 So far from my having over-stated the particulars as to numbers, | 
 think it will be found, if there be any incorrectness, it is in the 
 under-statement of these matters. 
 EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. GEDGE. 
 ‘‘ Binfield Bracknell, Berkshire, 26th Sept. 1842. 
 
 *¢ Your letter and queries of the 20th I will endeavour to answer, 
 as far as I am able, and acquainted with the circumstances ; those to 
 which I cannot confidently reply, are those connected with Captain 
 Maclean, not being in any way aware of what may have been the 
 nature of his instructions to Mr. George Smith, who had the 
 management of Mr. Peter John Frazer’s estate, under the direction 
 of the Governor. 
 
 1st Query. Were you present at that sale, and who acted as 
 auctioneer ?—Answer. I was present at the sale, by public auction, 
 of a portion of Mr. Frazer’s slaves. Mr. George Smith, a merchant 
 of British Accra, acted on the occasion as auctioneer. 
 
 2. How many persons or slaves were sold?—TI have heard Mr. 
 Frazer state them to be near a hundred, or thereabouts, in slaves ; 
 and pawns, either more or less. 
 
 3. By whose order were they sold, and when ? 
 
 4. Did Captain Maclean attend the sale ? 
 
 5. What was the date of the sale?—I am not prepared to state 
 positively by whose order they were sold. The sale took place in 
 the latter end of 1840—(Mr. Maclean says 1839). Whether Cap- 
 tain Maclean attended the sale personally or not, I do not recollect. 
 
 6. Were they sold without reserve to any purchaser who offered 
 for them ?—They were. 
 
 7. Were they sold as any other slaves or pawns would be sold by 
 the Dutch or Danes, to the best bidder ?—They were. 
 
 8. Were any of them sold to a dealer in Popo, or elsewhere, out 
 of the Accra?’—Many of them were purchased by Mr. Marmon, who 
 trades extensively at Popo, and other factories along the leeward 
 coast ; by parties residing at Danish Accra; and by a party residing 
 at Anamaboe. 
 
 9. Were any of them shipped from Accra and sold there, or 
 detained there as slaves and pawns ?—I have no knowledge of any 
 
53 
 
 having been shipped from Accra; neither do I know what became 
 of the pawns after they were disposed of by auction. 
 
 10.~ Were these slaves sold with the consent or sanction of Mr. 
 Fraser ?— From various conversations I have held with Mr. Fraser 
 upon the subject, the impression upon my mind is, that they were 
 not sold by his consent. 
 
 11. What prices were they sold for ?—Like any other article when 
 put up for auction, they brought various prices, say from four to 
 forty dollars; one, a deaf and dumb boy, brought the latter price. 
 
 (Signed) “ Wittiam E. Genes.” 
 
 ‘To R. R. Madden, Esq.” 
 
 With respect to the case of ‘ Dos Amigos,’ the facts are simply 
 these :—A notorious Spanish slave-vessel, under Portuguese colours, 
 called the ‘Dos Amigos,’ in October, 1838, on her voyage to Lagos for 
 a cargo of slaves, fully equipped for the illegal traffic, arrived at Cape 
 Coast, was examined there by the government officer, permitted to 
 anchor by Mr. Maclean, and was duly registered in his list of trading 
 vessels arriving there. The captain purchased of a merchant, 113 
 guns, 16 barrels of gunpowder; then went to Accra, and obtained 
 further supplies at that place. On the 16th of November she was 
 captured at Lagos, where she was found waiting for her cargo of 
 slaves; she was taken to Sierra Leone, and condemned asa slave- 
 ship, equipped for that trade. 
 
 The commissioners reported the fact of her obtaining her supplies 
 at our settlements, and described the practice as one of frequent 
 occurrence. The Secretaries of State, Colonial and Foreign, the 
 Lords of the Treasury, a Law Officer of the Crown, Mr. Rothery, 
 all pronounced the illegality of the act. Mr. Maclean is called on to 
 prosecute the merchant at Cape Coast, who supplied the slaver. In 
 his explanation on this subject to the African committee, he says, 
 *‘ we are neither at war with Spain, Portugal, or the Brazils,” and 
 he asks, “‘ by what authority, or upon what pretext, he could seize 
 their vessels anchoring at any of our ports. These vessels, though 
 fitted up for the slave trade, do not come to purchase or ship slaves, 
 but to purchase goods to enable them to carry on the slave trade to 
 leeward.” ‘* But,” he continues, “I repel with indignation the 
 insinuation, if such has been made, that these slave dealers receive 
 
o4 
 
 any aid or encouragement whatever from the authority here.” Vide 
 Rept. W. A. Com. p. 127. So that Mr. Maclean allows the slavers 
 to purchase goods at Cape Coast, to enable them to carry on the 
 slave trade; but he indignantly denies they receive any aid what- 
 ever at these places. Now, as to the extent to which they have 
 been aided there, a return was given in my report of the number of 
 slave trade vessels that touched at Cape Coast, between January, 
 1835, and February, 1838, and the number of them amounts to 47. 
 This statement was stoutly ealled in question before the committee, 
 and yet this identical statement, with the names and nation of each 
 slaver, or ‘‘ vessel that might be suspected of being engaged in the 
 slave trade,”’ was furnished to me by Mr. Maclean, as the original 
 document will show. Vide appendix. 
 
 The following brief notices of Mr. Maclean’s communications and 
 movements in relation to the case of the ‘Dos Amigos,’ will be 
 deserving of attention. On the 27th January, 1840, he addressed a 
 letter to Lord John Russell, from which the following is extracted : 
 
 ** The council have requested me to adopt such measures as will 
 tend most effectually to prevent persons engaged in the slave trade, 
 being in future supplied with stores, or merchandize, in any port of 
 this colony. I have accordingly issued a proclamation,” &c. &c. 
 
 Now, the proclamation referred to is dated the 15th December, 
 1839, and it “ strictly cautions all Her Majesty’s subjects against 
 directly or indirectly aiding or abetting, or trafficking with notorious 
 slave dealers.” 
 
 Notwithstanding this letter and proclamation, when the Govern- 
 ment commissioner is at Cape Coast, in March, 1841, Captain 
 Maclean tells him—‘‘ That it is the general opinion, and that it is 
 acted on at every place on the coast, that so long as a British mer- 
 chant, or trader, sells his goods to any description of persons, pro- 
 vided he receives money or produce in return, his trade is legal.” 
 Commissioners’ Report, p. 22. 
 
 It may be worthy of notice, that the proclamation professed to be 
 issued on the 15th December, 1839, was not communicated to the 
 committee in London until after the arrival of the Government 
 
 commissioner at Cape Coast, in March, 1841. 
 
 Mr. Maclean, in his letter to Lord John Russell, admits that in all 
 
50 
 
 his experience he never knew a vessel of the nation of the ‘ Dos 
 Amigos’ on the Gold Coast, engaged in legal trade. Then why did 
 he suffer the ‘Dos Amigos’ to remain at anchor under the guns of 
 the fort? He states that he never suffered a suspected vessel to 
 purchase canoes at this settlement. Then why did he allow this 
 vessel to be supplied at Cape Coast with guns, powder, &c. He 
 states, that in a general sense none of the merchants of Cape Coast 
 deny a knowledge of the true character of this vessel. Thenin what 
 particular sense could a belief of her engagement in legal pursuits be 
 maintained? It is evident, that if there were good grounds for sus- 
 pecting the vessel, she ought not to have been suffered to anchor in 
 the roads; and the President of the Council could not have been 
 ignorant of the circumstances which rendered her suspicious, and 
 which made it imperative on him to prevent her remaining in the 
 waters of a British settlement, thus giving the merchants there not 
 only an opportunity of trading with her, but the sanction for so doing 
 of an examination of her by his officer, and of the appearance of her 
 name on the list of vessels arriving at that place, and registered 
 therein as any other vessel engaged in legal trade. 
 
 It is difficult to understand the assumed ignorance of the illegality 
 of such a proceeding, when we find one of his predecessors in the 
 office of President of the Council at Cape Coast, denouncing a 
 similar act on the part of the Dutch authorities, which the English 
 ones now are found to sanction and defend. On the 5th of March, 
 1817, the Governor and Council of Cape Coast addressed the African 
 committee in these terms :—‘‘ We deem it our duty to inform you 
 of the conduct of General Dandels, who is acting independent of his 
 Government. We are aware that the desire of preventing the slave 
 trade is a peculiar feature in the Dutch Government; but this traffic 
 their representative in this country takes every opportunity of aid- 
 ing and abetting. Portuguese vessels are furnished with canoes, 
 and Spaniards supplied with water. The beginning of last month a 
 large Spanish ship was four days at anchor at Elmina roads, receiving 
 water, and bartering dollars for such goods as were suited for the 
 purchase of slaves.”—(Vide Report from Committee on African 
 
 Forts, 1817, p. 51.) 
 The Home Government, moreover, left no possible excuse for the 
 
56 
 
 British authorities on the Gold Coast continuing to afford suspected 
 
 -vessels supplies either of goods, stores, or refreshments. 
 
 On the 1st July, 1812, a letter was addressed to the African com- 
 mittee by Mr. Peel (now Sir Robert), desiring “‘ that directions may 
 be given to the commanders of the British forts on the coast of 
 Africa, to desist from giving any facility whatever to Portuguese 
 vessels engaged in the slave trade.” 
 
 The London committee addressed the following instructions to 
 the officers on the coast : ‘‘ Immediately on receipt hereof you are 
 to take the most effectual methods for procuring a compliance with 
 what is required in the papers herein referred to, at each of the set- 
 tlements in your charge, acquainting the several governors and 
 other persons stationed thereat, that the committee expect the most 
 implicit obedience from them to the orders herein given,” (vide same 
 Report, 1817, p. 56; and in compliance with this letter the com- 
 mittee instructed the governors and council, on the 10th July, 1812, 
 ‘that all persons assisting vessels in that traffic were liable to the 
 penalties of the Act of Parliament, passed the 14th May, 1812 (vide 
 same Report, 1817, p. 55). 
 
 All the sophistry of Mr. Maclean, or the bluster of his friend, 
 eannot get rid of the preceding references, or prevent the application 
 of them to their own proceedings. 
 
 I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, 
 R. R. MADDEN, 
 
 Nos. Vil. 
 
 Sir—The great attention you have given to the question in which 
 Messrs. Forster, Hughes, and Co. are my opponents, and which is 
 indireetly connected with the interests to which your journal is 
 devoted, induces me to request of you to publish a final letter on 
 
 the subject of my controversy with Mr. Forster and “his people,” 
 i justification of my conduct. 
 
 I have now to notice Mr. Forster's crowning charge, of falsifying 
 
57 
 
 my evidence before the committee, by clandestinely striking out a 
 portion of it. 
 
 Nothing, I believe, but the consciousness of a position which 
 could only be retrieved by some desperate endeavour to inculpate 
 others, for the purpose of deterring them from disclosing acts similar 
 to those which are fabricated, could have given rise to a charge so 
 utterly unfounded and malicious. 
 
 The author of this fabrication, charges me with striking out a 
 question and the answer to it, No. ]0;152, in my evidence given 
 before the committee, and fraudulently ‘ contriving to smuggle the 
 minutes into the hands of the printer, through the clerk, without the 
 knowledge of the committee, or its chairman, who, of course, would 
 not have allowed such a fraud to have been practised on Parliament, 
 had he known of it.” 
 
 “There cannot (he says) be any mistake in this matter, because 
 independent of the short-hand writer’s notes, and the original print 
 of the evidence, I can produce the testimony of witnesses who were 
 present, and heard his evidence.”—‘' The bearing of the question 
 
 and answer, extracted above, was more important than would appear 
 from their present insulated form, hence the desperate expedient of 
 surreptitiously altering them, unknown to the committee. After 
 
 this, I think I need give no further proof of the character of Dr. 
 Madden.” 
 
 Mr. Forster’s conduct on the committee had not left me unpre- 
 pared for any step it might suit his interest to take, or for any 
 assertion that might require an extraordinary degree of audacity to 
 put forth. In this instance, however, he has surpassed his former 
 achievements. The identical passage referred to by him, question 
 10,159, and the answer thereunto, which he charges me with fraud- 
 ulently suppressing and striking out of my evidence, without the know- 
 ledge or consent of the Committee or the Chairman—was EXPUNGED 
 BY THE EXPRESS DIRECTION OF THE CHAIRMAN IN HIS PLACE IN 
 THAT COMMITTEE, communicated to the reporter, Mr. Gurney, who 
 had taken the minutes of evidence at my instance, to the chairman, 
 and in whose presence the passage was struck out by the reporter, 
 by the direction of his lordship. 
 
 The reason for the application to the chairman to expunge the 
 
58 
 
 matter in question, was the following. On my examination before 
 the committee, a passage was referred to by Mr. Forster, in my re- 
 port, at page 11, on the Gambias, in the latter part of which I 
 accounted for the falling off of the coast trade exports to the destruc- 
 tion of the barracoons at Gallinas. The following are the words 
 referred to :—‘‘ It must be remembered, that when these exports of 
 British fabrics from the Gambia so suddenly increased in the year 
 1836, the new Spanish treaty with the equipment clause, which 
 made vessels seizable for carrying goods and stores intended for this 
 trade, had come into operation, and rendered other methods neces- 
 sary to supply the slave trade factories with those goods; and 
 in 1840, when we find such a speedy falling-off in the exports, 
 namely, from £57,980, the preceding year, to £31,570, we have 
 evident proof of the panic produced by Captain Denman’s proceedings 
 in the year 1840, in destroying the slave trade factories, and the pro- 
 perty found in them at Gallinas.”—Page 11, Original Report on 
 the Gambia. Mr. Forster perceived, that in attributing the decrease 
 to the event which terminated the previous rigorous blockade of the 
 Gallinas without my having specified the latter, the statement was 
 verbally incomplete ; and not content with the advantage he derived 
 from that omission, he endeavoured to show that I was mistaken 
 with respect to the date of the destruction of the barracoons. He 
 accordingly put a series of questions to me, the object of which was 
 to prove that I was in error, both in the date of the transaction, and 
 the inference I drew from it. Referring to the falling-off in the ex- 
 ports between 1839 and 1840, he said—‘‘ And you ascribe this to 
 Captain Denman’s proceedings in the former year at Gallinas?” 
 Now, the passage in my report will clearly show that I did not refer 
 to Captain Denman’s proceedings as having taken place in the for- 
 mer year 1839, but as having occurred in 1840. 
 
 This question, however, was put by Mr. Forster with an air of 
 confidence that led me to suppose I must have been mistaken as to 
 the date, and my answer was in accordance with that impression, 
 He then proceeded to ask me, ‘‘ Was I not aware that Captain 
 Denman’s proceedings at Gallinas took place at the end of the year 
 1839, and were not known till the beginning of the year following 
 
 at the Gambia?” And my answer was, “ that I might have been 
 
59 
 
 mistaken in the time Captain Denman destroyed the barracoons.”’ 
 He then asked me (No. 10,157), ‘‘ Would not the correctness of my 
 statement depend entirely on the date at which these proceedings 
 took place at the Gallinas ?”—I replied, “I had given it only as a 
 proof of the panic that was produced by the destruction of the barra- 
 coons.” He then put the question No. 10,158 in different words, 
 but precisely to the same effect, namely, denying the inference 
 drawn from the date of the destruction of the barracoons ; and my 
 answer was, “I cannot state what the time was, but I presume that 
 you are right, and that | am wrong in the date.” He then put 
 another question, No. 10,159, asking me “if I must not be alto- 
 gether wrong in my conclusion?” my answer was, “so far as that 
 (event) could not be a proof of the panic, but I was not sure that it 
 was so.’ Captain Denman, who was fortunately present, was then 
 asked by the chairman to determine the point at issue between Mr. 
 Forster and me, namely, the date of the destruction of the barracoons, 
 and he, Captain Denman, informed the committee, that it was in 
 November, 1840. Mr. Forster’s error as to the date was acknow- 
 ledged by him, but he said it only proved my inference to be still 
 more erroneous; and the chairman remarked that he did not agree 
 with me in the latter, but that I was right about the date, and made 
 some observations, smiling, with respect to Mr. Forster’s remark as 
 to my being altogether in the wrong. Now, it is to be observed, 
 that the reference to Captain Denman, and the conversation that 
 grew out of it, being only incidental to my examination, were not 
 taken down, nor could they have been, without making a jumble of 
 the evidence ; but Mr. Forster had the date in his first question, in 
 the notes of the reporter, amended. The date 1839 was struck out, 
 and 1840 substituted ; thus conforming his query to Captain Den- 
 man’s correction of the date, while my answers to all the queries on 
 the subject of this first one, remained as they were given in reply to 
 
 a question which had undergone an alteration that completely 
 altered the sense of all the others. 
 
 On the following day, the minutes of the above-mentioned ex- 
 amination were given to me for correction by the clerk of the 
 
 committee. I made no amendment in the first or second queries on 
 this subject, though my answers stood evidently in reference to the 
 
ce 
 
 60 
 
 queries before they had been set right by Captain Denman’s state- 
 ment. When I came to the answer to the next question, numbered 
 10,157 (still in reference to the date), ‘‘ I cannot state what the time 
 was, but I presume that you are right, and I am wrong in the date,” 
 it was impossible for me to allow that answer to stand, without 
 either making reference to the point determined by Captain Den- 
 man’s statement, or abstaining from declaring I was wrong as to the 
 date, where it was acknowledged by the chairman I was right. To 
 have taken the former course would have required a lengthened ex- 
 planation, that would have required the minutes to be reprinted, I 
 therefore wrote in the margin, for submission to the chairman, the 
 following words to be substituted for the preceding answer. ‘‘ I can 
 only say what I have stated in the previous answer.’ On reading 
 over the next query, No. 10,159, ‘‘Must you not be altogether 
 wrong in your conclusion?” and the answer, ‘‘So far as that it 
 could not be a proof of the panic, but I am not sure that it was so,” 
 IT immediately determined to refer the matter to the chairman. I 
 called on the reporter, Mr. Gurney, to point out the difficulty in 
 which I was placed by the circumstance of the answers standing as 
 they were given, without reference to the conversation with Captain 
 Denman, which completely altered the bearing of the questions, or 
 the alteration made in the date, at Mr. Forster’s instance, namely, 
 the substitution of 1840 for the original date of his query, 18389. 
 Mr. Gurney instantly did what it became a man of his character to 
 do; he took the printed minutes to the chairman, and his lordship, 
 having read over the passage, had that portion of it expunged which 
 I am accused of having struck out without his sanction or know- 
 ledge. Without further alteration or amendment, the minutes of 
 evidence were handed back by me to the clerk of the committee, 
 through whom 1 am charged with having smuggled the same into 
 the hands of the printer!!! It is hardly necessary to add, that had 
 I been inclined to smuggle any such a document into the hands of 
 the printer, it must have been by collusion with the clerk of the 
 committee. 
 
 I have only further to say on this subject, that having waited on 
 the reporter, Mr. Gurney, on the 28th of November, and having 
 
 requested him to refer to his notes; on doing so, in my presence, 
 
61 
 
 he therein found the alteration made in Mr. Forster’s query, which 
 I have before mentioned, the first date having been struck out, 
 namely, 1839, and 1840 substituted in its place. 
 
 He perfectly remembers the circumstances I have referred to in 
 the above statement, of his having taken the minutes at my request 
 to the chairman, and of having brought them back to me from his 
 lordship with the passage expunged, to which I had objected, but 
 had not taken on myself to cancel when the minutes were presented 
 to him by me. 
 
 I may further add, I have Mr. Gurney’s permission for referring 
 to him for the truth of what I have stated on this subject. An ex- 
 tract from the letter I addressed to him, embodying the particulars 
 given in the preceding statement, I addressed to Viscount Sandon, 
 the chairman of the committee, and his lordship’s reply; that of Mr. 
 Gibbon, the clerk of the committee, and of Dr. James Johnson, in 
 reply to another fabrication of Mr. Forster, will be found subjoined. 
 After this statement, and these documents in confirmation of it, I 
 think, to use Mr. Forster’s words, I need give no further proof that 
 his conduct in this matter was “ unprincipled and unscrupulous,” 
 as much so as I believe the interests to be that are attempted to be 
 upheld by it. 
 
 FROM LORD SANDON, THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
 
 WEST AFRICAN SETTLEMENTS. 
 Brighton, Nov. 29, 1842. 
 
 Srr—I have read the statement which you have addressed to Mr. 
 Gurney, of which you have inclosed me a copy, and to the best of 
 my recollection, it is in substance a correct narrative of what passed 
 on the subject of that part of your evidence before the West African 
 Committee which is in question. 
 
 I would, perhaps, except the words about yourself, which you 
 state to have dropped from me, and which J imagine you not to 
 have apprehended or caught. They are, however, of no importance. 
 
 I am not aware of any variation between the rough notes of your 
 evidence, as printed for the use of the members of the committee, 
 and the revised copy, which accompanies the reports, save such as 
 one duly authorized by me as chairman, certainly not in the pas- 
 sages which are called in question. In that case I allowed you to 
 
62 
 
 remove a confusion, which had arisen in the manner in which you 
 have stated it, but in such a way as in nowise affected the course of 
 examination, or the inference drawn from the facts, or that would 
 have led to any cross-examination. Mr. Forster had originally made 
 a slight error in the date he mentioned, but one which in no way 
 affected his argument, for the real date was as inconsistent with 
 your hypothesis as the one which he had at first stated. It did, 
 however, make a confusion in your answers, and this I permitted you 
 to remove. That, I believe is the whole case. 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Dr. Madden. (Signed) SANDON. 
 FROM THE CLERK OF THE COMMITTEE ON WEST AFRICAN 
 SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 Shipperton, near Chertsey, Nov. 29, 1842. 
 
 Str—lI have this day had the honour of receiving your letter of 
 the 26th instant (marked “ too late” on the cover), in which you 
 state that a charge has been brought forward against you in a Ber- 
 wick paper, of the 12th instant, of having fraudently expunged a 
 part of your evidence given before the Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons on the West Coast of Africa, during the last 
 session of Parliament, and of having contrived to smuggle the above 
 and similar corrections into the hands of the printer, through the 
 clerk, without the knowledge of the committee or its chairman, and 
 thereby of having committed a fraud on Parliament. 
 
 As clerk of the above committee, I have no hesitation in stating 
 my conviction that there is not the slightest foundation for such a 
 charge against you. I remember perfectly well observing how 
 scrupulously particular you were in making the very few corrections 
 you did. ‘These received the sanction of the noble chairman (Vis- 
 count Sandon), and were sent by me in the usual course of business 
 to the printer; and Ihave not the slightest reason for believing 
 that any unfair means whatever, on any occasion, were either used 
 or attempted by yourself or any other party, in reference to the cor- 
 rection of your evidence. 
 
 You are at liberty to make what use you please of this letter.—I 
 have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed) R. K. Grpzons. 
 
 R. R. Madden, Esq. 
 
63 
 
 Rerty or Dr. James Jounson to a letter inclosing documents, 
 and requesting him, on examination of the same, to state whether 
 they were genuine or spurious, and were sufficient to refute the 
 statement of Mr. Forster, that I had taken a medical title which I 
 had no right to assume. 
 
 Suffolk Place, Pall Mall, 29th Nov. 1842. 
 
 I hereby declare that I have been intimately acquainted, person- 
 ally and professionally, with Dr. Madden for nearly twenty years, 
 and that I conscientiously believe there is not a more upright, 
 honest, and honourable man, on earth. I have this day examined 
 various documents and diplomas, proving him to be—first, a Licen- 
 tiate of the Company of Apothecaries of London: secondly, a Fellow 
 of the Royal College of Surgeons, of London: thirdly, a Doctor of 
 Medicine of the University of Erlangen. Independently of his 
 professional qualifications and abilities, which are highly creditable, 
 his acquirements, &c. 
 
 The paragraph which I have seen in a Berwick paper, charging 
 Dr. Madden with having assumed the title of M.D. without proper 
 authority, is a false and malicious libel, totally unfounded in truth. 
 
 (Signed) Jamrs Jounson, M.D. 
 Physician Extraordinary to the late King, Editor 
 of the Med. Chir. Review, &c. &c. 
 
 Perhaps, Mr. Forster may now feel that while we are on a subject 
 of this kind, some little explanation on his part in a matter of a 
 bona fide falsification of a report, might be condescendingly given to 
 the public. Will he be good enough to say how it happened that a 
 passage was surreptitiously introduced into the report of the West 
 African Committee presented to Parliament ?—and why a member of 
 that committee, Mr. Hamilton, had to stand up in his place in Par- 
 liament, the day after its presentation, and to announce that the 
 report was incorrect, and must be printed over again ? 
 
 The matter that was surreptitiously introduced into that report, 
 was contained in a motion which has been brought forward by Mr. 
 Forster for the insertion of certain passages into the report in sup- 
 
 port of his views, which motion had been negatived by the com- 
 
 mittee. 
 The design of that motion for the insertion of the matter in 
 
64 
 
 question, was to fix a foul imputation of corrupt conduct against 
 individuals holding high offices in the service of the Government. 
 The following were the words :—‘‘ The papers tendered to this 
 committee by the Colonial-office, in explanation of the alleged 
 abuses and corrupt influence here and in Africa, in respect to the 
 colony of Sierra Leone, are not of a nature, and cannot contain the 
 evidence, satisfactorily to explain or rebut the charge given in evi- 
 dence against this committee, and which charges and evidence the 
 committee have determined not to report with the other evidence 
 to the House.”’ 
 
 The motion was negatived, yet Mr. Forster’s object was gained. 
 When the report was printed, the matter of the negatived motion, 
 to the astonishment of the committee, was found, to use Mr. Fors- 
 ter’s term, “ smuggled” into the report which had been presented 
 to Parliament; that report was immediately withdrawn. It should 
 have been stated, that not only words were introduced which did 
 not form a part of the report, but that others were omitted which 
 ought to have been inserted, and which Mr. Forster had previously 
 made a motion to leave out. The following are the words he 
 proposed should be omitted :—‘“‘ In spite of the facilities for a full 
 investigation which were offered by the Colonial-office.” Mr. 
 Forster’s motion for leaving out these words was not carried, and 
 yet the words were found to have been left out in the printed re- 
 port presented to Parliament, and Mr. Forster’s negatived motion 
 was found foisted into its stead. 
 
 In concluding this subject in your columns, I would beg leave 
 to observe that I am fully sensible of the advantages which Mr. 
 Forster has over me, in some particulars, in regard to a discussion 
 of this kind. He has wealth at his command, and his use of it will 
 not be restrained by any trifling consideration in the defence of his 
 interests. 
 
 He has the columns of a morning paper at his command, and he 
 
 has a seat in the House of Commons, and consequently he has 
 the privilege of devoting his eloquence to the advocacy of his 
 views, I have none of these advantages. Mr. Forster describes 
 
 me as a poor man, totally unacquainted with the rules of grammar ; 
 
65 
 
 at one time writing from my lodgings in obscurity, and at another 
 making a miserable figure before that committee of which he was so 
 distinguished a member. ’Tis true, I cannot “ speak of Africa and 
 golden joys,” in Pistol’s vein, or with Mr. Forster’s enthusiasm or 
 interest in that El Dorado topic. 
 
 I am fully sensible of the superior sharpness and shrewdness of 
 the intellectual powers of Mr. Forster over any mental dexterity of 
 mine, where the end in view is “to make the worse appear the better 
 reason.” I freely admit the unspeakable advantages of a magnifi- 
 cent abode over humble lodgings, or even a small house. There is 
 but one advantage which I am very conscious of possessing over 
 Mr. Forster ;—namely, the advantage which the calumniated have 
 over the calumniator—the friend in practice of Negro Emancipation 
 and Slave Trade Abolition, over the sly, covert pretender, whe 
 maintains, by his acts, what he assumes to reprobate by word, and 
 who promotes his private interests by means which he publicly 
 eondemns. 
 
 Iam, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 R. R. Mappen. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 No. I. 
 
 Tue evidence adduced in refutation of several statements of Dr. 
 Madden before the West African Committee, respecting the existence 
 of Slavery at some of our settlements on the coast—the condition of 
 the liberated Africans—and matters connected with the locality of 
 the settlement at the Gambia, will be found in the following ex- 
 tracts; and without note or comment—in reply to that evidence— 
 the copy of a letter recently received from the Rev. W. Fox, on the 
 subject of those statements :-— 
 
 COLONEL FINDLAY EXAMINED BY MR. FORSTER. 
 
 2873. Dr. Madden says, on the authority of Mr. Missionary Fox, 
 that it is by no means uncommon, in the rainy season, to see the 
 Natives travelling in canoes from house to house in the streets.—I 
 think the reverend gentleman must have made a very great mistake, 
 for I never saw anything of the kind during my residence in St. 
 Mary’s. 
 
 2874. Chairman. Do you conceive it, from the level, to have 
 been impossible ?—I think it is impossible ; I think no such thing 
 ever took place. 
 
 2875. Mr. Forster. You mean if the drainage and embankments 
 were properly attended to ?—Yes. 
 
 3153. Mr. Forster. Dr. Madden speaks of a system of slavery 
 being carried on at the Gambia ; have you read his remarks upon 
 that subject ?—Yes. 
 
 3154. Have you any observation to make upon them ?—His 
 remarks are quite erroneous ; there is no such thing as slavery known 
 at the Gambia. 
 
 3155. What is it that he means?—I suppose he must mean the 
 French artificers and labourers who resort to the Gambia for labour 3 
 perhaps not so much now as they did in my time, because the 
 
 Gambia is now supplied with liberated Africans. 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 3156. Chairman. Were those French artificers under engagements 
 similar to a state of slavery ?—They were slaves altogether. 
 
 3157. Belonging to the French ?—Yes. 
 
 3158. They came into the colony to work for the benefit of their 
 masters ?—Yes. 
 
 3159. But they were not held in slavery by any residents in the 
 English settlement ?—Not at all; they were at perfect liberty to 
 come and go back when they pleased. 
 
 3160. Were any claims upon them as slaves ever maintained in 
 the British courts ?—Never. 
 
 3161. They were never detained to perform services for their 
 masters ?—No. 
 
 3162. Were their masters ever assisted in recovering any slaves 
 who had come into the British settlements?—No; I never knew 
 any instance of their refusing to go back to Goree or Senegal. 
 
 MR. JOHN HUGHES EXAMINED BY MR. FORSTER. 
 
 7735. Is there any other part of the Report you wish to remark 
 on?—Yes. In page 5, Dr. Madden says, the land of St. Mary’s 
 is a sandy desert in the dry season. If Dr. Madden had gone at all 
 over the island, he would have called it any thing but a desert ; for 
 the south-west part of the island is a perfect forest of palm-trees, 
 studded here and there with the pullan-tree. He also says, upon 
 the information of Mr. Fox, that it is by no means uncommon to 
 see the Natives paddling about the streets in canoes, from house to 
 house, in the time of the rains. 
 
 7736. Is it common?—I can only say, during a residence there 
 
 of 17 years (I suppose I have passed 15 rainy reasons in the place, ) 
 
 I have never seen a canoe in the streets, paddling there; such ca- 
 noes only exist in the imagination of Mr. Fox, or Dr. Madden’s 
 informant. 
 
 DR. MADDEN EXAMINED BY MR. FORSTER. 
 
 10176. Mr. Forster. You have stated in your report that he 
 (Mr. Fox) informed you it was no uncommon thing, in the rainy 
 season, to see the Natives paddling between each other’s doors in 
 canoes.— That was stated to me by him. I have a distinct recollec- 
 tion of it. He pointed to places, from his own house, where he 
 had seen persons paddling in canoes, in the wet season. 
 
69 
 
 10177. Mr. Forster. Would you still rely on your recollection 
 as to that fact, if it was stated to you that there was a gentleman 
 in this country to whom Mr. Fox stated that he did not make such 
 an observation.—I would, entirely. I have a distinct recollection, 
 and nothing would alter my impression of the fact. Ido not state 
 that the fact is so; I only say that he told me so. 
 
 MR, JOHN HUGHES FURTHER EXAMINED. 
 
 9962. Mr. Aldam. Is it within your knowledge that slavery 
 exists at the Gambia ?—It is not, to the best of my knowledge and 
 belief, slavery does not exist in any shape there. I observe that it 
 has been stated before this Committee, that the Native inhabitants of 
 the Gambia are not aware that they are free, and as such an asser- 
 tion tends to throw great discredit upon the former Governors, I 
 think it my duty to state to the Committee that it is notorious 
 at the Gambia, that slavery is not tolerated in any shape. 
 
 9963. Chairman. Do you believe that to be notorious to the black 
 population ?—Colonel Findlay incurred a great deal of unpopularity 
 from the French authorities at Goree, when he was Governor there, 
 for issuing a proclamation informing the inhabitants of the Gambia, 
 that slavery would not be tolerated in any case, and every Governor, 
 from that time up to the present period, has been accused by the 
 French authorities of enticing their people away from Goree, 
 
 9964. Mr. Aldam. Do you know anything of a slave who was 
 said to have taken refuge on board a French vessel, and afterwards 
 to have been delivered up to his master, resident at the Gambia ?— 
 I never heard of any such case, and if any such case had occurred I 
 must have heard of it: I have often heard of Goree slaves running 
 away from Goree and coming to the Gambia, but I have never 
 heard of a person running away from the Gambia to go on board a 
 French vessel. Sometime ago a French man-of-war in the river 
 seized upon two persons that had run away from Goree, and who 
 were engaged as labourers at Albradar. The Commander, Captain 
 Bonette, took those two people as runaway slaves, and took them to 
 Goree, against the remonstrances of the Governor of the Gambia. 
 Captain Denman went to Goree to make some enquiries, but I do not 
 know the result of his enquiries: the people never came back. 
 
 9965. Mr. Forster. Albradar is a French settlement within the 
 
70 
 
 Gambia ?—Yes, the circumstance of a person alleged to be a slave, 
 running away from the Gambia on board a French vessel, and 
 having been claimed by the Governor of the Gambia, I feel con- 
 vinced never took place: if it had, I must have heard of it. There 
 are now in this country two merchants from the Gambia, and a 
 government officer, the whole three highly respectable men: and I 
 believe they would corroborate the statement I have made before 
 the Committee. 
 
 9966. The Chairman to Dr. Madden. At what time is this event 
 supposed to have occurred ?—~In the month of May, 1841. 
 
 9967. To Mr. Hughes. Were you at the Gambia in May, 1841? 
 —I arrived the latter end of the month of May: but if such a thing 
 had occurred in the Gambia, I should have heard of it. 
 
 9968. Mr. Aldam. Is there any thing in the relation of master 
 and servant at the Gambia, that might have been mistaken by a 
 stranger for a state of slavery ?—There is not. There are many 
 persons in the Gambia, living in the houses of British merchants, 
 who if they were to go back to Goree, would be immediately seized 
 upon as slaves, and four-fifths of the Jaloff population in the Gambia 
 dare not go to Goree. 
 
 9969. Is it usual for persons to come from Goree to the Gambia 
 with servants, who may be slaves, and for those slaves voluntarily to 
 return ?—That is usual. 
 
 9970. Then it is possible that there may be such parties who 
 may be slaves ?——-They are not slaves in the Gambia; but very few 
 of them go back. 
 
 9971. Is it probable that cases of that kind may have occurred, 
 and slaves may have come with their masters or mistresses from 
 Goree to the Gambia, and may have remained with them at the 
 Gambia, and afterwards voluntarily returned with them to Goree ?— 
 That has occurred, but they very seldom voluntarily return. 
 
 SIR HENRY VERE HUNTLEY’S OBSERVATIONS ON COMMISSIONER 'S 
 REPORT. 
 
 In page 15, it is endeavoured to be shown that neglect of the 
 liberated African is alone the cause of his being behind the other 
 Natives, especially the Jaloffs, in trades of art, &c. So far from 
 
71 
 
 their having been neglected in such pursuits, there is in the liberated 
 African department a carpenter and a blacksmith, expressly paid for 
 teaching those who are apprenticed respectively to each; the car- 
 penter had many apprentices, but none of them ever attained even 
 mediocrity as artificers; those under the blacksmith the same; the 
 work was shockingly coarse, although they had been from one to 
 three years under apprenticeship, and their indolence was excessive. 
 “The liberated Africans are brought here in barbarism and are 
 says the Commissioner; he might have added, 
 
 ? 
 
 left in barbarism,’ 
 
 ’ 
 
 ** because they will not learn.”” The apprentices and the others could 
 have noticed and followed the habits of the Natives, Mandingoes or 
 Jaloffs, and thereby have advanced themselves, but the trouble was 
 too great. How often has the liberated African, when master of his 
 own actions, exclaimed, when offered work, ‘‘I sabby read, I don’t 
 want work ;”’ such has been the most general effect of instruction 
 upon them. I had a boat’s crew of liberated Africans; they were 
 upon daily pay; they had been from three to seven years in the 
 boat; they knew nothing of the most common management of the 
 boat, nor could one of them splice a rope or make a knot. 
 
 In page 16, paragraph 9, I find, and agree to the statement re- 
 specting the discontinuance of ‘‘ the wholesale system of marriage ;” 
 but the obligations of marriage appear to be in general as little un- 
 derstood by the liberated African as ever: in very few instances do 
 
 they live together with any social feeling or domestic comfort; the 
 
 cases of voluntary separation and desertion of family are very fre- 
 quent; I think the liberated African, by marriage, infers that he 
 gains a right to exercise a power over a female for any purpose; she 
 must work for his support, she is not to complain of his indolence, 
 his drunkenness, nor is she to refuse prostitution, if required, in 
 order to sustain his vicious expense. 
 
 In page 26, under the head of ‘‘ Slavery,” the Commissioner says, 
 ** Slavery is said not to exist at the Gambia, but it does exist.” I 
 meet his contradiction with as direct a denial. The existence of 
 Slavery is the right of arbitrarily controlling the actions of another, 
 and even gives the right to sell that other: this has not been, and 
 cannot be done in the colony; no one can exercise any right over 
 another in the settlements on the Gambia, farther than that which 
 
72 
 
 the laws of England give to enable the enforcement of an agreement. 
 Appendix of Report of West African Committee, page 224. 
 [Extract from Mr. Forsrerr’s letter, 
 Published in the Krtso Warner, the 12th of November. | 
 
 “ And here it occurs to me, to invoke the testimony of the heads 
 of the Missionary body, on the whole line of Coast, in reply to the 
 ealumnies of Dr. Madden, against our house. I will name Mr. Fox, 
 at the Gambia, Mr. Dove, of Sierra Leone, (now in this country) 
 and Mr. Freeman, acknowledged to be three of the best and ablest 
 Missionaries who ever served on the Coast, and I will ask whether 
 any one of these respectable men, who have been witnesses for many 
 years to the transactions of our house and our friends on the Coast 
 of Africa, will lend their sanction to the calumnies of Dr. Madden. 
 On the contrary, will they not feel, and feeling will they not hesitate 
 to express, if called upon, their disgust at them ?”’ 
 
 One of the gentlemen invoked—the Rev. Wm. Fox, at the head 
 of the Wesleyan Mission, at the Gambia,—‘ One of the best and 
 ablest Missionaries” on the Coast, (in the opinion of Dr. Madden, 
 as well as of Mr. Forster,) has recently addressed a letter to the 
 former, of which the following is a copy, on the subject of some of 
 those statements which are described as calumnies, by Mr. Forster. 
 
 St. Mary’s, Gambia, Noy. 29, 1842. 
 
 My pear Sir,—A few days ago, I received a copy of the Parlia- 
 mentary Report on West African affairs. 
 
 Your Report, with the Appendix, is now in the Colony, and I 
 have had the loan of it for a short time, but not sufficient to give it 
 a careful perusal. I am induced, however, to trouble you witha 
 few lines by the first vessel: from the answers of Colonel Findlay 
 and Mr. John Hughes, which I find in the evidence given before a 
 
 Committee of the House of Commons, to a statement you received 
 
 fram me, relative to the Natives being seen, in the rainy season, 
 paddling about the streets in canoes. 
 
 Although I do not recollect the particulars of what I communi- 
 cated to you, yet I have not the slightest hesitation here to repeat 
 that the above statement isa fact, and therefore cannot be overturned 
 
73 
 
 by Colonel Findlay, “ thinking that the Rev. Gentleman must 
 have made a very great mistake,” because I have, (as well as many 
 others,) witnessed the same during the rains which have just closed; 
 and as Colonel Findlay has, I believe, not seen the Gambia for the 
 past twelve years and upwards, I can make every allowance for his 
 ** thinking the Rev. Gentleman is mistaken,”’ but I cannot conceive 
 on whose or what authority the gallant officer can assert, under any 
 or every circumstance, such a thing “to be impossible;”’ and there- 
 fore with all due deference to Colonel Findlay’s age and rank, I 
 must here beg leave to say, that in making the above assertion, I 
 don’t think, but am sure Colonel Findlay “has made a very great 
 mistake.” 
 
 As to Mr. Hughes’s uncourteous and peremptory denial of the 
 fact, it is scarcely worth notice, as I conceive it to be in tolerable 
 good keeping with a good deal of his other evidence. I shall, there- 
 fore, content myself with the belief that after this written communi- 
 cation to you, the validity of that statement will not again be called 
 in question. 
 
 There is, however, a qualification connected with this canoe 
 palaver, that I am not sure that you correctly understood. I do not 
 mean that people go from house to house in canoes on business, or 
 from absolute necessity; the probability is, that it has been as much 
 for amusement as anything else, and this has taken place more par- 
 ticularly in the vicinity of our mission premises, and as Mr. Hughes 
 resides in the front streets, he may possibly not have witnessed such 
 an occurrence; but then why does he give the reins to a wild 
 imagination, and assert that which he knows nothing about ?—had 
 he confined himself to his own ignorance I should not have com- 
 plained of his insult. 
 
 In my statement to you I think I pointed to the place where I 
 had seen people with canoes, which is only a few yards from our 
 Mission House. This is at what may be called the grand terminus, 
 as the greater part of the water that falls in Bathurst, concentrates 
 here and passes along the large drain at ebb tide into the river; but 
 in addition to these open drains (in the middle of all the streets, ) 
 being frequently filled with water, there are many parts of the 
 streets (as well as many other parts of the Island,) where the water 
 
74 
 
 continues for some time, twelve, fifteen, and eighteen inches deep, 
 and at this you will not be surprised, (knowing the low state of the 
 Island,) by a perusal of the following memoranda of the quantity of 
 rain that has fallen during the last season, and which has been 
 kindly furnished me by W. 'S. Whitaker, Esq., Clerk of the Works, 
 and an Officer of the Royal Engineer Depot, who has kept a careful 
 account by a water guage, from the commencement to the close. 
 In the month of June, 1842—-10 inches 
 
 5 July’. 5; 1645 
 wy Aug... 55 634 ,, 
 5 Sept. -,, 214 ,, 
 a Oeti 22; C7. Gs 
 + Nove 35 PD iits, 
 
 Total 120 inches, or 10 feet. 
 
 Added to this the embankment at Half-Dye is of very little use 
 indeed, for even now that the rains have ceased, the water still 
 comes over and breaks through the said embankment every flood 
 tide, up to the very gateway of many of the Native residences, cover- 
 ing a space of not much less than three-quarters of a mile, and then 
 recedes again at the ebb tide: and during the rains many of the Na- 
 tives had to make embankments outside their garden fence to pre- 
 vent the salt-water from rushing into their houses. I think I have 
 now said sufficient to establish the conversational statement I made 
 to you, (and which I had quite forgotten,) about the quantity of 
 water that falls and remains on the ground during the rains, (and it 
 was not made by way of complaint against any person); were it 
 necessary I could very easily furnish you with fifty, or even one 
 hundred affidavits to the same effect, but I presume the following 
 letter I have to day received from an European gentleman in answer 
 
 to the note preceding it, will be quite sufficient: it relates to the year 
 1837. 
 
 Bathurst, 29th Nov. 1842. 
 My pear Si1r,—As I believe you resided near our Mission House 
 in 1837, and I was at M’Carthy’s Island most of that year, I shall 
 be glad if you would favour me with some account of the rains 
 during that season, and especially with reference to the depth of 
 
79 
 
 water in the streets and drains in the locality where you resided. 
 
 By doing so you will much oblige, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 W. Fox. 
 To H. F. Gibson, Esq. 
 Bathurst, St. Mary’s River, Gambia, 29th Nov. 1842. 
 
 My pear Sir,—In answer to your note to me of this morning’s 
 date, I beg to state that I did reside in this settlement during the 
 whole of that most awful year, 1837, and as far as I can recollect, 
 and to the best of my belief, the rain that fell during the season was 
 much greater than during any other that I have been in Bathurst. 
 
 I resided within one hundred yards or thereabouts of the Mission 
 House, and have good cause to remember the state of that vicinity, 
 as I was twice during that season obliged to change my residence, as 
 the water in my yard was more than two feet deep, and I beg fur- 
 ther to inform you that there was more than five feet of water for 
 many days together, at the part where the rain concentrates, near 
 the Mission House, at which time there were no bridges over it: in 
 fact, the state of the whole town, in consequence of the depth of 
 water on the ground, was dreadful, and the fact alone of 17 or 18 
 Europeans having fallen a sacrifice, during the space of about three 
 months, may be considered as a sufficient proof of the state to which 
 this settlement was reduced; in short, it was, in my opinion, a season 
 which will never be forgotten by any of the survivors. 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir, yours most sincerely, 
 (Signed) Henry F. Grsson. 
 Rey. W. Fox, &c. &c. &c. Bathurst. 
 
 I now close this subject, I may at some future period venture a 
 few observations on the Gambia generally; it is to me surprising to 
 see the feeling of dislike evinced by many persons against the poor 
 liberated Africans, and how persons can state before a respectable 
 Committee of the House of Commons, that Slavery does not exist 
 in the Gambia is more than surprising. Why the fact is this, that 
 this Colony has, for some months past, been in the greatest ex- 
 citement, and it has principally arisen from two slave cases at 
 M‘Carthy’s Island, which were reported to Captain F. who, as Com- 
 mander of the Island, was obliged to notice them, and from the 
 
76 
 
 paucity of magistrates there, he was obliged to sit as one of the 
 Justices of the Peace. One of the men (a trader,) is bound over to 
 appear at the Sessions, the other escaped for want of more evidence, 
 in consequence of which, proceedings were immediately instituted 
 against Captain F., by the parties employing the trader, (laying the 
 damages at £1000,) and Captain F. has actually been obliged to 
 pay £150 to compromise the matter, or he would have been in- 
 carcerated in the small loathsome miserable jail at Bathurst, in 
 common with low characters of the most dissolute habits, which 
 might probably have caused his death, and all this for merely en- 
 quiring into a reported slave case in his official capacity. To say that 
 slavery does not exist in the Gambia is false, and after so many re- 
 presentations of it, it is to me surprising that means are not taken at 
 one stroke to rid the settlement of every particle of so nefarious 
 and horrible a system. | 
 
 With best wishes and fervent prayers for your health and happi- 
 ness, 
 
 I am, my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, 
 Witiram Fox. 
 
 To Dr. Madden. 
 
 No. IT. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Tur evils referred to in the preceding communication, cannot be 
 remedied or removed, without making the following or similar resolu- 
 tions the basis of some new measure for the prevention of the Slave 
 Trade and Slavery, under its existing forms, on the part of British 
 subjects. 
 
 Ist. Resolved,—That the facilities afforded at our settlements, 
 
77 
 
 on the West Coast of Africa, to Slave Tracing pursuits, by permit- 
 
 ing foreign vessels reasonably suspected of being engaged in illegal 
 pursuits, to anchor in our roadsteads, and to obtain supplies of 
 canoes, stores, goods, or provisions, from the British merchants at 
 these places, are of a character exceedingly prejudicial to our efforts 
 for the suppression of the Slave Trade. 
 
 2nd. Resolved,—That the practice of selling British merchandize, 
 to foreigners, at factories on the Coast of Africa, notoriously esta- 
 blished for Slave Trade purposes, and supplying persons thus 
 notoriously and exclusively, or principally engaged in these pursuits, 
 with stores, or goods, that are purchased to be bartered for stolen 
 men, are of a nature similar in character and consequences to the 
 former. 
 
 3rd. Resolved,—That the employment of ships in carrying such 
 goods or stores to Slave Trade factories ; the freighting, chartering, 
 or selling them for this trade; the insuring of them in England, or 
 any of her possessions, the shipping of goods on board of them, 
 or consigning them to persons notoriously engaged in this trade ; is 
 a practice disgraceful to our commerce, and as injurious to its 
 general interests as it is illegal. 
 
 Ath. Resolved,—That the formation on the part of British sub- 
 jects, of companies, or becoming shareholders in companies esta- 
 blished in foreign countries, for objects which can only be promoted 
 by the purchase and possession of slaves, both of which acts are 
 illegal in our possessions, ought to be held, and explicitly declared. 
 to be equally so, on the part of British subjects in foreign countries. 
 
 5th. Resolved,—That the institution of banks in the Slave Trad- 
 ing countries, whose capital is employed in loans or discount to 
 persons engaged in the Slave Trade, or in Slavery, which is its 
 corollary, and, therefore, whose capital is employed in promoting an 
 illegal trade, is one of those new forms of aiding and abetting the 
 latter, which together with the preceding practices, require a more 
 precise specification in any enactment that may be made supple- 
 mentary to the existing law. 
 
 6th. Resolved, —That the existence of Slavery in our settlements 
 on the Gold Coast, and elsewhere ; the practice of buying and sell- 
 
78 
 
 ing, and holding Slaves under the name of pawns, or debts, on the 
 part of the British residents; the sanction it receives from the 
 authorities ; the auction sales of human beings at the death of the 
 holders of this species of living security, or when the parties become 
 insolvent, for the benefit of their creditors; and finally, the recogni- 
 tion of the principle that men uncharged with crime, may be deprived 
 of the property in their own persons, and the remuneration of their 
 own labour for an unlimited period, or for ever, by contract with 
 the friends or creditors of the party pawned or enslaved—are 
 practices and principles totally at variance with the law of 1834, and 
 with the spirit as well as the letter of it. 
 
 7th. Resolved,—That the practices referred to in the preceding 
 resolutions, are eminently calculated to prove detrimental to our 
 general interests, and to disparage our character with foreign nations, 
 who are unable, or indisposed, to distinguish between such mal- 
 practices, and the honourable pursuits of legitimate commerce, thus 
 furnishing the malignant opponents of British interests in other 
 countries, with plausible grounds for cavilling with the high and 
 holy purposes of the British people, in the suppression of the Slave 
 Trade. 
 
 Brewster, Printer, Hand Court, Dowgate. 
 
8, LEADENHALL STREET, LONDON. 
 February, 1843. 
 
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