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 LIBRARY 
 
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 FJUNCETOy, X. J 
 
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A VIEW 
 
 JHE PRESENT STATE i, 
 
 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AFRICAN SLAVE TRABE. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF A MEETING 
 
 KEPRESENTING THE 
 
 RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIEJVDS 
 
 IN 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA, NEW-JERSEY, &c. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 IrVillitm Brown, Prlntcrt 
 
A VIEW, ^c. 
 
 AMONG the various calamities which flow from the am- 
 bition and cupidity of man, there are few productive of more 
 extensive and distressing evils, or which give rise to greater 
 degrees of human misery and wretchedness — none that oc- 
 casion a more barbarous destruction of the species, or which 
 in their general tendency are more inimical to the peace, 
 the happiness and moral rectitude of a large portion of man- 
 kind, than the African Slave Trade. When we contemplate 
 the long train of cruelties which are inflicted upon the un- 
 offending negroes, from the time they are kidnapped in Af- 
 rica arxl dragged away from their homes to the slave ships, 
 till their arrival at the place of their destination, and reflect 
 that they are men — that the universal parent is just and 
 equal in all his ways — regards all the human family with the 
 same tenderness and compassion, and designs the happi- 
 ness of all — we must surely be forcibly and fearfully im- 
 pressed with the crying wickedness, the injustice and inhu- 
 manity, of this abominable traffic. 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted, that among ill the benevolent 
 and laudable exertions for meliorating the condidon of man 
 which characterize the present day, so little has been done, 
 or is now doing, towards informing the public mind in this 
 country, upon the subject of this nefarious and cruel occupa- 
 tion. 
 
 The citizens of many sections of our country, are not only 
 unacquainted with the barbarities and innumerable evils 
 which are its inseparable concomitants, but are in some parts 
 almost wholly ignorant of the present existence of the Slave 
 Trade. To this cause we may probably attribute the apathy 
 and indifference, which too generally pervades the United 
 States upon this momentous subject. For it can scarcely be 
 imagined that in a land where light and knowledge have 
 been so eminently diffused, we can be so devoid of the ten- 
 der feelings of human nature — so insensible of the principles 
 of righteousness and justice, as to read the melancholy r6- 
 
4 
 
 cital of the woes and the wrongs which the negroes endure, 
 without being awakened to a sense of the imperious duty 
 ^vhich rests upon every Cliristian, to use all proper exertions 
 for averting the progress of this desolating evil. 
 
 A successful means for aiding this very desirable object, 
 appears to be the circulation of tracts containing details of • 
 the various scenes of cruelty attendant on the several stages 
 of this horrid business, from the stealing in Africa, the jour- 
 ney to the sea shore, the sufferings and dreadful monality 
 of the voyage, till they at last enter upon a hopeless, an in- 
 terminable exile in a foreign land. 
 
 We rejoice in the persuasion, that the real character and 
 effects of the slave trade as it now exists, need only to be 
 published through our countrv, to raise one general feeling 
 of abhorrence, and to arouse men of liberal and enlightened 
 minds, to devote their time and talents in procuring the abo- 
 lition of a traffic replete with the deepest guilt in its prose- 
 cution, and whose design is the unconditional and cruel 
 bondage of thousands of rational beings, equally entitled 
 with ourselves to the enjoyment of all the blessings, the 
 comforts and the privileges of life. 
 
 The measures which have been adopted within the last 
 thirty years for the suppression of the slave trade would fur- 
 nish matter to compose a volume ; but it may be sufficient 
 to enumerate the principal laws which have been enacted 
 by the different Governments for that object, before we en- 
 ter upon a view of the present state of the traffic, and the ac- 
 cumulated horrors which accompany it. 
 
 In the year 1794, the American Congress passed an act 
 prohibiting the citizens of the United States, or any person 
 residing therein, from carrying on a trade or traffic in slaves 
 to any foreign country, or from procuring the inhabitants of 
 any foreign kingdom or country, to be transported to any 
 foreign country, &c. to be disposed of as slaves. In 1798 a 
 law was enacted, forbidding under severe penalties the in- 
 troduction of slaves into the Mississippi Territor)', to which 
 the constitutional provision did not extend. In 1800, a law 
 was enacted prohibiting citizens of the United States froni 
 holding any property in vessels used in transporting slaves 
 from one foreign country to another, or serving either on 
 board vessels of the United States, or others engaged in 
 such foreign trade ; anrl United States armed ships were 
 authorized to seize vessels and crews employed contrary to 
 this act. In 1803, a law was enacted disallowing masters of 
 vessels to bring into any port, where the state laws prohi- 
 bited the importation, any person of colour, not a native, a 
 
5 
 
 citizen or registered seaman of the United States. In 1807, 
 a law was passed totally abolishing the slave trade within 
 the jurisdiction of the United States, to take effect on the 
 first day of the next year, the earliest period at which such a 
 law could be enforced consistently with the constitutional re- 
 striction. And the President was authorized to instruct the 
 commanders of armed ships, to bring in vessels found on 
 the high seas contravening this act. Several additions and 
 modifications have been since made to this law, particularly in 
 1819 and 1820 ; in the latter of which, the trade is declared 
 to be piracy, and those American citizens engaged in it pu- 
 nishable with death. In the orders given by the Secretary 
 of the Navy to the commanders of American cruisers, they 
 are strongly enjoined to pay vigilant attention to the suppres- 
 sion of this inhuman and disgraceful traffic. 
 
 The British parliament, in the year 1807, passed a law for 
 the abolition of the African slave trade throughout the Bri- 
 tish dominions. The general abolition of this trade, has been 
 a subject of negociation between that government and the 
 different European powers with whom treaties have been 
 made since that time. A letter from Prince Talleyrand to 
 the British minister, dated 30th of July, 1815, states that 
 the King of France, in consequence of communications re- 
 ceived from the British minister, had issued directions, that 
 en the part of France, the traffic in slaves should cease from 
 the present time every where, and for ever. This was fol- 
 lowed by an additional article to the treaty concluded at 
 Paris on the 20th of November following between France 
 and the allied powers. By this article these powers engaged 
 to renew conjointly their efforts, with a view of securing 
 final success to those principles, Avhich they proclaimed in 
 1815, and of concerting without loss of time, the most ef- 
 fectual measures for the certain and definitive abolition of a 
 commerce, so odious and so strongly condemned by the laws 
 of religion and nature. 
 
 By a decree of the Spanish monarch, dated December, 
 1817, the subjects of his government are prohibited from 
 that day forward, from going to buy negroes on the coast of 
 Africa north of the line ; and the like prohibition applies 
 from May 1820, to places south of the equator. The slaves 
 bought in violation of this decree, are declared free, the ship 
 confiscated, and the purchaser, captain, master anu pilot, 
 condemned to ten years transportation to the Philippines. 
 
 By a law dated 1818, the subjects of Portugal are pro- 
 hibited from carrying on the slave trade in any part of the 
 African coast north of the line. Slaves bought north of the 
 
6 
 
 line are declared free, the vessel and cargo confiscated, and 
 captain, pilot and supercargo, banished to Mosambique for 
 fivt years, and subject to a fine equal to the expected profits 
 of the adventure. 
 
 A laAV dated November 1818, ostensibly designed to pre- 
 vent the slave trade, was promulgated by the government of 
 the Netherlands. 
 
 A treaty was concluded between England and Denmark in 
 1814, prohibiting the subjects of the latter kingdom from 
 carrying on the slave trade. 
 
 When the atrocious character of the African slave trade, 
 the abhorrence with which it has been long beheld by the 
 friends of humanity in every quarter of the globe, the stig- 
 ma stamped upon it by the Sovereigns at Vienna in 1815, 
 and the various laws enacted for its suppression, by the 
 principal maritime powers of Europe and America, are con- 
 sidered, it may appear incredible, that this traffic should still 
 continue to disgrace the Christian name ; yet from various 
 sources of authentic information, it is an unquestionable fact 
 that these people remain exposed to all the horrors insepa- 
 rable from this iniquitous commerce, and to an extent sur- 
 passing all former example. Of the truth of these general 
 assertions, the following extracts furnish ample testimony. 
 
 “ Previously to the revolutionary war, the number of slaves 
 carried away in British ships was estimated at 38,000 an- 
 nually. About 40,000 or 42,000 more were supposed to be 
 carried away by the Portuguese, French, Dutch, Danes, and 
 Americans. This estimate probably falls below the truth, 
 as there is reason to believe that the annual export of the 
 Portuguese alone amounted to 25,000 ; and the number of 
 slaves introduced into St. Domingo by the French, some 
 time before the revolution in that island, is known to have 
 been very large. In the course of a few years after the 
 breaking out of the maritime war of 1793, the English share 
 of the slave trade rose to the enormous amount of 55,000 in 
 a single year. TTi*e only other nations that during that pe- 
 riod, and down to the year 1810 were engaged in the slave 
 trade of Western Africa, were the Portuguese and Ameri- 
 cans. The number carried off by the Portuguese, has been 
 estimated at from 20,000 to 25,000 annually, and by the 
 Americans 15,000. Notwithstanding the prohibitory act of 
 America, which was passed in 1807, ships bearing the Ame- 
 rican flag continued to trade for slaves until 1809; when, in 
 consequence of a decision in the English prize appeal courts, 
 which rendered American slave ships liable to capture and 
 Condemnation, the flag suddenly disappeared from the coast 
 
1 
 
 Its place was almost instantaneously supplied by the Spanish 
 •flag. 
 
 This sudden substitution of the Spanish for the American 
 flag, seemed to confirm what was established in a variety of 
 instances, by more direct testimony that the slave trade, 
 which now assumed a Spanish dress, was in reality only the 
 trade of other nations in disguise.” See 13th report, Ar In- 
 stitution”, p. 60, 61. 
 
 Extract of a letter and memorandum transmitted from the 
 
 Governor of Sierra Leone to Earl Bathurst, dated January 
 
 14, 1822. 
 
 “ I sincerely lament that my forbodeings, as to the extent 
 of the traffic in slaves, have been fully realized ; that more 
 slaves were carried from Africa in the course of last year 
 than in the preceding year. 
 
 “ The circumstance of a heavy duty or custom becoming 
 due to the chiefs of Bonny and Calabar on every slave ship 
 when fully laden, necessarily induces them to keep a kind of 
 registry of the different vessels : numeral lists from these 
 rivers, and founded on the said registry, frequently come to 
 this colony, but from their magnitude had been deemed ex- 
 aggerated and incredible. Captain Leeke, however, in the 
 month of October (1821) ascertained on good authority, 
 that the number of slave cargoes taken out from Bonny, 
 from July in the preceding year (1820) up to that time, was 
 actually one hundred and ninety. A similar return from the 
 Calabar for a like period, made a total of one hundred and 
 sixty ;wo.” 16th report, p. 63 and 64. 
 
 It is perhaps impracticable to ascertain the exact amount 
 of slaves exported annually from Africa, owing to the legal 
 restraints upon the trade : but supposing the cargoes to 
 average 400 slaves each, 352 being shipped in 14 months 
 would amount to 120,684 slaves per annum from these two 
 rivers only. The aggregate of 200,000 per annum, would 
 not, therefore, appear to be too great a computation for the 
 shipments now made from the whole extent of coast, which is 
 at least double the estimated number annually transported 
 from Africa prior to the year 1810, notwithstanding all the 
 exertions of Europe and America to extinguish the trade. 
 
8 
 
 EKtract of a letter written by Lieutenant Stockton^ of the 
 United States Schooner Alligator^ to the Secretary of the 
 Navy, dated Boston^ 26 , 1821 . 
 
 “ The slave trade, as inhuman and impious as it is, amidst 
 All seeming difficulties, and the world’s boasts of advance- 
 ment in the science of civilization and Christianity, is at this 
 moment carried on to an extravagant extent. The capital, 
 as well as the ingenuity of a part of the commercial world, is 
 entirely devoted to it. The European, the American, and 
 the African too, are all interested in it, and are all implicated 
 in this charge against the integrity of man. In vain have 
 the amiable doctrines of religion and humanity, raised their 
 gentle voices against it, and in vain will governments de- 
 nounce it, until they shall meet on a broad and liberal policy, 
 until their resources shall be freely offered, and their power 
 vigorously exercised.” 
 
 LMract of a letter from the same, dated Charleston, S. C. 
 January 22, just returned from a cruize on the Af- 
 
 rican Coast. 
 
 If I met with a vessel bearing a foreign flag, I neither 
 approached, boarded, or examined her after it was display- 
 ed, except in the case of the vessel sent by me to the United 
 States, the commander of which I deemed a felon. In one 
 instance I approached a vessel during the night, and sent 
 my boat to ascertain her character. She claimed to be an 
 Englishman and refused permission to be boarded, which 
 was exceedingly mortifying, but in obedience to the views 
 of the government, I submitted to it with all possible patience, 
 and she was allowed to depart in peace without further exa- 
 mination. Arriving on the coast of Africa, my opinions 
 with regard to the French flag were confirmed by all re- 
 ports, and it is now generally believed, that the slave trade 
 is almost altogether prosecuted and protected by that flag, 
 which is, under existing circumstances, a guarantee for the 
 safety of the trade. I am informed that the estimated num- 
 ber of slaves taken from Africa under the French flag during 
 last year, is not less than 200,000.” 
 
 Extract of a letter from M. C. Perry, of the United States 
 Schooner Shark, to the Secretary of the Navy, dated Jan- 
 uary 17 , 1822 . 
 
 “ Slave traders continue to resort to the Canary Islands, 
 
y 
 
 in the ports of which they make their final preparations for 
 the coast, changing their papers and completing their com- 
 plement of men. About 10 days previous to my arrival at 
 Teneriffe, a slave trading brig under French colours left the 
 Island for the coast, and a Spanish schooner engaged in the 
 same traffic, was daily expected at the Island of Palma. 
 Whether or not American citizens are concerned in these 
 vessels, I have been unable to ascertain. From the Ca- 
 naries I shaped my course for the Cape de Verds, where I 
 cruized some days, examining numerous ports, and making 
 every enquiry respecting slave traders. The principal in- 
 habitants of these Islands are deeply engaged in the slave 
 trade, and there is every reason to believe that the Portu- 
 guese governmert is aware of the fact. Small vessels are 
 continually arriving from the French and Portuguese trading 
 establishments on the coast, Muth negroes, who are baptized 
 in the established Roman faith, and after remaining in the 
 Island.s one year, are shipped off to the Brazils as Portu- 
 guese subjects.” 
 
 Extract from Dr. E. Ayres’ observations on the slave trade., 
 
 communicated to the Secretary of the Navy., dated Balti- 
 more., February 24, 1823. 
 
 “ This trade, though nearly abandoned by American and 
 British citizens, is yet carried on to an alarming degree 
 by the other powers of Europe, and principally by the French. 
 It has been stated that 200,000 were taken from the coast in 
 the year ending on the 1st of June last. The following re- 
 port from the commander of His Britanic Majesty’s brig 
 Snapper in the month of July of that year, will give some 
 idea of the state of the coast at that time. The dealers have 
 been sensible that the trade could not be much longer tole- 
 rated by the civilized powers of the world, and have exerted 
 their utmost diligence, and in an equal proportion have the 
 sufferings and horrors of the unfortunate victims been in- 
 creased. 
 
 “ The report states the aggregate amount to be 17 vessels, 
 which could carry from 6 to 7000 slaves. These were ex- 
 amined by the brig Snapper in a short cruize of about three 
 weeks in July, In the beginning of August following, there 
 were 3 Hermaphrodite brigs and 2 schooners, under the 
 French flag, waiting for slaves at the Gallinas ; and about the 
 end of September, other vessels under the same flag came to 
 anchor off the bar, and were preparing to send their cargoes 
 ashore for slaves. H. B. M. schooner Pheasant, in a short 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 cruize, boarded 6 other vessels prepared for taking in slaves. 
 The following is a letter from an officer on board H. B. M. 
 ship Myrmidon when on a cruize in the month of Au- 
 gust, in the Bight of Benin. ‘ Fernando Po, August 6th. We 
 have been cruizing in the Bight of Benin in company with 
 the Pheasant, and in my life I never saw any thing to equal 
 the extent to which the slave trade Is carried on in this 
 place. To give you an idea of it, I will particularize the 
 vessels spoken to and chased, &c. At Whydah, two spoken 
 and two chased away by the Myrmidon, and caught at Bight, 
 (one, a Portuguese for slaves, the other said to be a trader, 
 likewise Portuguese) unfortunately for us no slaves on 
 board. A few miles further on, at Badagay, and on that 
 part of the coast, 2 large Portuguese schooners ; at Lagos, 
 6 large brigs, and a ship very nearly or quite as large as the 
 Myrmidon, to carry 800 slaves; one brig supposed to be a 
 Spaniard escaped. On the 20th of July, off Cape Formosa, 
 a schooner was seen from mast-head about 16 miles from 
 us ; at 3 we caught her ; she proved to be the Adelaide, 
 Portuguese, bound to Bahia; had on board at the time of 
 capture 232 slaves, 17 of whom have died from being so 
 dreadfully crowded. On the 15th of April last. Commodore 
 Sir Robert Mends arrived at the river Bonny, and discovered 
 in that river the following vessels, viz. 1st. Yeanam, Spanish 
 schooner from the Havanna, 306 tons, 380 slaves on board, 
 70 men, armed with 8 long 18 pounders and 2 long nines. 2d, 
 Vigilante, French .brig from Nantes, owner, Michard of 
 Nantes, a notorious slave dealer, to whom the “ Success,” 
 condemned at the Mauiitius belonged ; 240 tons, 346 slaves 
 on beard, 30 men, and armed with 4 twelve pounders, all of 
 which were brought over on one side for the attack. 3d, 
 Vecua, Spanish schooner from Havanna, 180 tons, 325 
 slaves on board, 45 men, and armed with 8 long 18 pound- 
 ers, and 1 long nine. 4th, La Petite Betsy, French brig from 
 Nantes, 184 tons, 218 slaves on board, 25 men, and armed 
 with 4 nine pound carronades. 5th, L’Ursule, French brig- 
 antine from St. Pierre, Martinique, 100 tons, 347 slaves on 
 board, 27 men, and armed with 4 nine pound carronades. 
 6th. The Liverpool brig William Rathbone, for palm oil. 
 7th, L’Theodore, French brig, slaves on shore.’ 
 
 “ These were attacked by the boats of the British squadron 
 and captured. On board the Spanish vessel, the British of- 
 ficer observed a little girl 12 or 13 years old, in irons, to 
 which there was fastened a big heavy chain 10 feet long ; 
 he ordered the irons taken off of the child and placed on the 
 captain, who had caused them to be put on her. In less 
 
11 
 
 than 3 months, the squadron under command of Sir Robert 
 Mends, had liberated from the iron grasp of slavery, more 
 than 2000 unfortunate victims, and placed them under the 
 fostering care of British benevolence in the Colony. 
 
 “ While I was at Montserado, there was ho time without 
 from 1 to 3 vessels lying at the St. Pauls, waiting for slaves, 
 and when returning in the Calypso, as we passed Cape 
 Mount, 2 vessels got under way from that place and pre- 
 pared for action ; as we passed them they both fired upon 
 us, but as the shot did not reach us we passed on uninjured. 
 There were at the same time several vessels lying at Gali- 
 nas waiting for slaves.” 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 Although the British and American governments, have 
 manifested a determination to enforce their prohibitory 
 laws for the suppression of the African slave trade, yet from 
 the negligence or connivance of other powers, the measures 
 which have been adopted for this purpose, ha^e hitherto 
 only partially effected their benevolent object. The trade is 
 still carried on, and particularly under the French flag, with 
 increased avidity and with little disguise or concealment. 
 In a pamphlet written by Thomas Clarkson, and distributed 
 at the time of the Congress at Aix la Chapelle, in the 10th 
 month, 1818, he says, “ The peace which followed the 
 overthrow of the revolutionary powers of France, and which 
 has been pregnant with so many blessings to Europe, has 
 proved to Africa a source of renewed calamities — of cala- 
 mities greatly aggravated, even by the partial repose she has 
 for a while enjoyed, as well as by the disappointment of her 
 new-born and reasonable hopes. No sooner was peace pro- 
 claimed, than the traders in human blood, hastened from va- 
 rious quarters to the African shores, and with a cupidity 
 sharpened by past restraint, renewed their former crimes. 
 Among the rest, the slave merchants of France, who had 
 been excluded for upwards of 20 years, from any direct par- 
 ticipation in this murderous traffic, now eagerly resumed it ; 
 and to this very hour they continu^openly to carry it on, not- 
 withstanding the solemn renunciation of it by their own gO'^ 
 vernment, in 1815, and the prohibitory French laws which* 
 have since been passed to restrain them. The revival and pro- 
 gress of the French slave trade, have in one respect been 
 peculiarly opprobrious, and attended with aggravated cruelty 
 and mischief. During the ten years which preceded the res- 
 toration of Senegal and Goree to France, no part of the Af* 
 
12 
 
 rican coast, Sierra Leone excepted, had enjoyed so entire 
 an exemption from the miseries produced by the slave trade 
 as these settlements, and the country in their vicinage. The 
 suppression of the traffic was then nearly complete ; and, in 
 consequence, a striking increase of population and of agricul- 
 ture in the surrounding districts, with a proportionate im- 
 provement in other respects, gave a dawn of rising pros- 
 perity and happiness, highly exhilarating to every benevo- 
 lent mind. It was in the month of Januafy 1817, that these 
 interesting settlements were restored to France ; and me- 
 lancholy indeed have been the effects : no sooner was the 
 transfer completed, than, in defiance of the declarations, by 
 which the king of France had prohibited the slave trade to 
 his subjects, that trade was instantly renewed and extended 
 in all directions. The ordinary excitements to the native 
 chiefs, have produced more than the ordinary horrors. 
 In the short space of a single year after the change of flags, 
 the adjoining countries, though previously flourishing in 
 peace and abundance, exhibited but one frightful spectacle 
 of misery and devastation. How, indeed, could it be other- 
 wise, when we contemplate the means employed ! Bands of 
 plunderers went forth on every side. Towns and villages 
 were surrounded in the night and set on fire. Their miserable 
 inhabitants, flying to escape the flames, either met death, 
 in a hopeless resistance to the assailants, or were seized, 
 carried away, and sold into interminable slavery and exile. 
 By day the peaceful labourers in the field met the same fate. 
 Ruffians approached them by stealth, seized, gagged and 
 bound them, and led them away to the ships. Others were 
 dragged before the barbarous tribunals of the country, and 
 accused of pretended or impossible crimes, that they and 
 their families might be enslaved and transported, under co- 
 lour of public justice. No sooner do these settlements re - 
 vert to her dominions, than the work of rapine, and carnage, 
 and desolation commence ; every opening prospect of im- 
 provement is crushed j thousands of miserable captives of 
 every age and sex, are crowded into the pestilential holds of 
 slave ships, and subjected to the well known horrors of the 
 middle passage, in order to be transported to the French co- 
 lonies in the West Indies. There, such of them as may sur- 
 vive, arc doomed to pass their lives in severe and unremit- 
 ting labour, exacted from them by the merciless lash of the 
 cart-whip in the hands of a driver.” “ But it is not,” says 
 the same writer, “ from the ports of Goree and Senegal 
 alone that the French obtain their slaves ; they go to very 
 distant parts, such as Bonny, Calabar, and Gaboon, where 
 
13 
 
 there are no French governors to check them. They fit 
 out regularly at Havre, Bourdeaux and other ports. Their 
 chains and hand-cufFs are put on board in boxes, and enter- 
 ed as if they were other articles. It is known that some of 
 these slave ships, have gone to those distant places just 
 mentioned, within the last two years, and that others are 
 now out. The case of the Rodeur is very striking ; she 
 sailed from Havre, in the last year (1819) for the river 
 Calabar. Having taken in a cargo of slaves, she proceeded 
 Avith them to Guadaloupe. On the passage the poor negroes 
 were seized with a violent Ophthalmia, (a disease of the 
 eyes,) which soon afterwards communicated itself to the 
 crew. The disorder had been increased from the captain’s 
 finding himself under the necessity of keeping his captives 
 constantly below, for they were so afflicted by their captivity, 
 that when brought upon deck, they took every opportunity 
 of throwing themselves overboard. To deter them, some 
 Avere hanged, and others shot ; but this having no effect, 
 they were obliged to be constantly confined between the decks. 
 In process of time, under these cruel circumstances, the 
 ophthalmia spread, and affected every individual both of the 
 officers and crew, except one man, who alone was left capa- 
 ble of steering the ship. It is remarkable, while the Rodeur 
 was on her passage, she passed a Spanish slave ship, called 
 the St. Leon, which had left the coast of Africa some little 
 time before her. It appeared that the crew of this latter ves- 
 sel, had also caught the Ophthalmia from their own negroes, 
 and that the complaint had spread, until not even one man 
 of the Avhole crcAv could see to steer. In this dreadful state, 
 the crew of the Spanish vessel implored assistance of the 
 crew of the Rodeur, whose voices they heard as the ships 
 approached each other ; but the latter had none to lend, so 
 that the St. Leon passed on just Avhere the Avind carried her. 
 This vessel has never been heard of since. It is presumed 
 that both the oppressors and the oppressed perished on the 
 ocean, either by famine, or by finding a watery grave. When 
 the Rodeur arrived at Guadaloupe, thirty nine negroes who 
 Avere totally blind, were thrown into the sea as being quite 
 useless ; those who had lost only one eye Avere sold at a 
 very low price. The crew of the Rodeur consisted of 22 
 men, of Avhom 12 Avere completely blind ; 5 of the remaining 
 10 were recovered, and the other 5 each lost an eye.” 
 
 In corroboration of these statements respecting the French 
 slave trade, take the folloAving extracts. 
 
14 
 
 Extract from the report of Commodore 6'ir George R. Collier^ 
 ' December 27, 1821. 
 
 “ It is true that certain powers have abandoned the slave 
 "trade entirely ; and others have professed, and even engaged 
 to confine it within certain limits ; but, notwithstanding 
 this, my full persuasion is, that this infamous traffic in 
 amount, is no less than it was ; and numberless opportunities 
 of personal observation justify me in saying, that in the man- 
 ner of conducting it, in cruelty and barbarity, it cannot be 
 surpassed.” Under the head France, he says, “Vessels un- 
 der her flag are occasion^ly to be found on all parts of the 
 coast ; her colours being protection every where ; but the 
 principal resort of French slavers is in the river Bonny, 
 where they are at most times in numbers ; and where, as I 
 was informed, they were establishing factors for the regu- 
 lar supply of their vessels. I had for some weeks on board 
 the Tartar, a remarkably intelligent man acquainted with 
 these parts, who informed me, that within the last 12 months 
 he had seen in the two rivers of Bonny and New Calabar, 
 nearly a hundred sail of vessels for slaves, and that the 
 greater proportion of these bore the white flag.” 16th Report 
 A. I. p. 77 and 82. 
 
 Extract from the translation of a circular letter^ dated Nantes^ 
 
 February 18, 1821, containing the prospectus of a slave 
 
 adventure. 
 
 “ Sir — Being desirous that you should take a share in an 
 expedition which I am about to form for the coast of Af- 
 rica, I proceed to detail my plan, together with its cost and 
 probable result. You will not fail to remark, from the con- 
 tents of this paper, that the only risk to be incurred will be 
 that of profit, as every thing will be insured. It appears to 
 me that these are, in fact, the best speculations to be under- 
 taken in the present day : this kind of adventure offers very 
 great advantages, of which our port bears testimony by the 
 number of equipments which are daily fitted out there for 
 the coast of Africa.” 16th Report A. I. p. 168. 
 
 This statement is corroborated by the following extract 
 from a memorandum furnished by Captain Moresby, dated 
 Port Lewis, April 14, 1821. Page 170 A. I. Report. 
 
 “ The next subject that now engrosses the French slave 
 dealers, is the trade to the Spanish and Portuguese settle- 
 ments in this part of the world : and at Nantes, it appears 
 
15 
 
 little to be doubted, but they have taken up the trade pro- 
 hibited to the Portuguese and Spaniards, as I was told b)* 
 N. Bertrand, that tiventy-four vessels had been fitted out at 
 that port, similar to ‘ Lc Success,’ whose next voyage was 
 to have been to the Havanna. It appears also from various 
 circumstances that Mr. Latorzee is the principal agent.” 
 
 Extracts from the Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser, 
 August 25, 1821. 
 
 “ On the 4th inst. 3 hermaphrodite brigs and 2 schooners 
 were slaving at the Gallinas, all under the French flag ; one 
 of the brigs intended to carrj^ 550 slaves, armed with 14 
 guns, and manned with 100 men. Another of the brigs 450, 
 and the smallest of the schooners 250 slaves.” See A. I. 
 16th Report, p. 176. 
 
 Sept. 29, 1821. “ Lieutenant Knight was informed that a 
 French schooner had lately sailed with 200 slaves for Cay- 
 enne, which vessel from the shortness of her built for the 
 advantage of sailing, could only carry at the rate ol nine gal- 
 lons of water per slave ; and the commander had no inten- 
 tion of touching at any other place before he reached his des- 
 tination.” p. 177. 
 
 November 10, 1821. “ During the month of July last, 
 
 M. Blanchard, the agent of Bourgerell’s house, had with the 
 assistance of M. Burdet, collected in the Cassamanza 200 
 slaves, which were to be shipped on board L’Africaine 
 then lying at Senegal. This vessel was in the usual manner 
 to have cleared out on a trading voyage, to have touched at 
 Cassamanza, take in her cargo, ancl proceed to Martinique. 
 The publicity that was given to this project, and the circum- 
 stances of M. Blanchard having taken in water-casks from 
 Goree, in a small schooner hired for that purpose, induced M. 
 du Plessis, the senior naval officer there, to dispatch a brig 
 of wav to Cassamanza. This vessel returned on the 18th of 
 August with 10 slaves. Blanchard’s hired schooner was 
 seized, but was given up the next day, and this wretch was 
 permitted to go at large in Goree ; it appearing, that as the 
 French law now stands, there is no criminality attached to 
 slave trading, and therefore there is no punishment.” p. 179. 
 
 November 24, 1821. “■ We are indebted to our corres- 
 
 pondent on board the Snapper for the following information 
 respecting the slave trade, acquired during her late cruize. 
 ‘ During our last short cruize, we fell in v/ith 9 slave ves- 
 sels ; seven of them were boarded and found to be French, 
 completely fitted for the slave trade ; in fact, 2 of them had 
 
16 
 
 their slaves on board : the eighth, a large French brig, was 
 not visited, owing to the badness of the weather, and late- 
 ness of the evening ; but her nationality was ascertained by 
 the fullest information. Most of the French vessels were fit- 
 ted out and equipped at Nantes, a certain evidence of the in- 
 difference, (to use the mildest term) shown by their govern- 
 ment towards the prevention of that traffic ; for it is cer- 
 tainly difficult to fancy, that vessels furnished with tiers of 
 water-casks, large boilers, irons and gratings, and also hea- 
 vily armed, could clear for this Coast for any other purpose 
 than the slave trade. The number of vessels at present on 
 the coast, and, indeed, the avowals of the masters and su- 
 percargoes, too plainly testify, that France, profiting by our 
 treaties with the other powers, has become the cairiers of 
 slaves for those nations, and thus reaps the enormous gains 
 produced by this odious system. One ofthe French schooners 
 boardttd, was a mere boat, though she had on board 150 
 slaves literally packed together. These poor creatures were 
 truly in a pitiable state, and by their most expressive cries 
 and gestures towards us, evinced their anxiety to be releas- 
 ed.” p. 182. 
 
 January 6, 1822. “ Disgusting to our feelings, as any al- 
 lusion to the slave trade must always be, a sense of duty 
 compels us to notice the enormous extent to which it has at 
 present arrived. That this abominable traffic has increased, 
 and is evidently increasing, we assert without fear of con- 
 tradiction from any person who may have taken the trouble 
 to make himself acquainted with the subject. The exertions 
 of Sir George R. Collier, and the squadron under his com- 
 mand) are duly appreciated in this Colony, as well as by every 
 friend to humanity ; yet it is impossible to calculate what 
 would have been effected, did not certain provisions of the 
 treaties, under which the squadron act, protect the slave 
 ships from seizure, unless the slaves are actually on board 
 them. So long as this clause remains in force, we must ex- 
 pect numerous Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch vessels on 
 the coast. But it is the flag of the most Christian King, 
 which has given an impulse and an activity to this traffic 
 hitherto unknown. In our late numbers we have occasionally 
 published the names of vessels under that flag, visited by 
 our naval officers, man)' of these having their human car- 
 goes on board. We have understood that most of the slaves 
 carried from the coast in French vessels, find their way to 
 the Havanna market ; for it is rather incredible, that so many 
 slaves should be required in their West India possessions. 
 Numerical calculations we will not now enter into: in fact, 
 
ir 
 
 if at all correct, they must from their magnitude appear in- 
 credible. The increase of this horrid traffic is sensibly felt 
 in this colony ; and indeed it is truly painful to reflect, 
 that the exertions of our government in effecting its total, 
 abolition, should be thwarted by the torpidity and indiffer- 
 ence of those powers, whose good faith stands pledged, by 
 their public declarations, for its suppression. At no very 
 remote period, the traffickers in human blood, however nu- 
 merous on the coast, could not with impunity visit the rivers 
 in our vicinity ; but now with unparalleled audacity, they 
 anchor almost within view of the British flag. Even at the mo- 
 ment we now write, a French vessel is taking in her slaves at 
 Shebar, a few miles south of the Bananas ; and a Spaniard, 
 the Rosalia, Don Francisco Freyre master, waiting for a si- 
 milar cargo, not 40 miles from the Isles de Loss. 
 
 February 9, 1822. “ On Friday, the French brig of war 
 L’Huron, commanded by commodore Du Plessis, arrived in 
 this harbour from a cruize to leeward. We learn that this 
 vessel proceeded down the coast as far as Gra.»d Bassa, that 
 she fell in with and boarded several slave ships under the 
 French flag, but that none were seized or detained. This 
 latter fact is to us, as it must be to all friends of humanity, 
 a matter of great disappointment and regret. We did en- 
 tertain a hope, that the arrival of a French vessel of war on 
 this part of the coast, would at least be the means of ridding 
 our immediate neighbourhood of slave vessels, under the flag 
 of the ?nost Christian king. We have however been griev- 
 ously deceived : the present visit of L’Huron serving but to 
 give an increased portion of confidence and audacity to the 
 French slave traders ; nor indeed do they require this stimu- 
 lus ; for it is a fact, that a few weeks since, a large slav^ 
 ship of that nation was examined by H. M. brig Thistle, al- 
 most within cannon shot of the Islands de Loss, and that a 
 schooner, from Goree, is at this moment in the Rio Pongos, 
 trading in human beings ! The frank avowal of commodore 
 Du Plessis, that he had met with, and examined four vessels 
 of his own nation fitted for slaves at Cape Mount and the 
 Gallinas, but that his instructions did not authorize him to 
 detain them, most fully exculpates that officer. Blame must 
 attach to another quarter ; but let it fix where it may, de- 
 voted Africa suffers ; and we lament to say, suffers without 
 much prospect of redress. Our readers will recollect the 
 circumstance of the seizure of 10 slaves by the French 
 commander, mentioned in the letter of Verax of 25th Octo- 
 ber last (N. 180.). W'^e have ascertained that Mons. Bour- 
 gerell, acting procureur du Roi at Senegal, at the time of the 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 seizure of these slaves, was so conscious of his guilt, that 
 he immediately threw up his situation ; yet the whole tri- 
 bunal of Senegal, the Governor excepted, did acquit Mons. 
 Bourgerell, and sentenced the commodore to pay the costs 
 'of the prosecution ! We have also undeniable evidence, that 
 on a late visit of one of H. M. C. Majesty’s cruizers, com- 
 manded by Villeneau, to the Bissagos, the court yards of 
 the governor and civil officers u'ere found filled up with 
 slaves ready for sale ; nay', that the master of a Portuguese 
 v'essel, which was detained for attempting to carry’ slaves 
 from Ruisk, near Goree, when in the course of examination 
 for that charge, before the civil authorities of Goree, tender- 
 ed an affidavit, stating, in his defence, that as the slave trade 
 was carried on openly at the Bissagos, he could not be pro- 
 perly suspected of attempting to carry on a smuggling trade 
 of that description, so near a French station.” 16th Report 
 A. I. page 131. 
 
 February 16, 1822. “On Friday the Thistle, Lieutenant 
 Hagan commander, arrived from a cruize to leeward. We 
 lament to find that the cruize of this vessel only furnishes 
 additional proofs of the increased, and still increasing num- 
 ber of slave vessels, by which wretched Africa continues to 
 be depopulated. At the Gallinas, the Thistle fell in w'ith 
 the bark Phoenix of Havre de Grace, and the brig Lespoir of 
 Nante? ; the former commanded by M. Duprie, and the lat- 
 ter by Philip Lemp,reur, a capitaine de fregate, in the navy 
 of his Most Christian Majesty. These vessels expected to 
 take in their slaves in a day or two, their tier of water-casks 
 being filled, and the platforms ready’ laid to receive their 
 victims. Will it be believed that M. Lempreur, came on 
 board the Thistle in the full dress uniform of his rank in the 
 French service, and stated, amongst other things, to Lieu- 
 tenant Hagan, that he had a few evenings before, had the 
 gratification of meeting an old friend and brother officer, in 
 the person of M. Mauduit du Plessis, captain of the French 
 brig of war L’Huron, and commodore of this station.” p. 133. 
 
 By a protest delivered before Charles Pollock, Notary 
 Public at New Orleans, as appears by his certificates dated 
 6th December 1821, by William M. Armstrong prize master, 
 appointed by the commander of the U. S. ship Hornet to take 
 charge of a slave vessel La Pense which belonged to Nantes, 
 captured by a privateer and recaptured by the Hornet; it 
 appears that on the 12th of November preceding, they took 
 possession of said brig, and found on board 239 slaves en- 
 tirely nakecl^ the vessel very’ short of provisions. Between 
 the time of capture and the 24th, twenty-seven slaves died 
 
19 
 
 from cold and other causes. The cold being intense, and 
 the crew obliged to remain on deck during all weathers, to 
 leave room below foV the slaves. The ship was run aground 
 near the Balize, Mississippi. 
 
 Not only is it evident from the foregoing authentic testi- 
 mon)', that the slave trade is extensively carried on under 
 the French flag, and in vessels owned by French citizens, 
 fitted out in the ports of France, but the following extracts 
 from speeches delivered in the Chamber of Deputies in 1821 
 and 1822, substantiate the assertion, that it is done with the 
 knowledge and connivance of the government of France. 
 The impunity with which this disgraceful traffic is thus 
 prosecuted, has increased, if possible, the hardihood and au- 
 dacity of those engaged in it, which are only equalled by the 
 barbarous treatment the poor sufferers receive at their hands. 
 
 After adverting to the laws of other nations for the anni- 
 hilation of this trade, the laxity of those passed by France, 
 and their repeated violations on the part of the French au- 
 thorities on the coast of Africa, B. Constant says in proof 
 of his allegations, “ I find it stated in a letter from Lord 
 Castlereagh to Sir C. Stewart, dated the 8th of December 
 last, (1820) that the English squadron on the coast of Af- 
 rica, has fallen in with a number of vessels bearing the French 
 flag, and openly engaged in the slave trade. The number of 
 vessels thus met e.xceeds 25 ; and Sir G. Collier, on entering 
 the harbour of the Havanna, found there upwards of 35 
 slave ships bearing the French flag.” 
 
 He states the case of the Elisa of Bordeaux, having car- 
 ried a cargo of negroes from Africa in 1818, in which no 
 prosecution had been instituted, although original docu- 
 ments were offered to prove the sale and purchase of the 
 negroes, bearing on them the name of the vessel, the name 
 of the captain, the name of the purchaser, and shewing that 
 the price had been paid into the hands of the captain. “ Do 
 you know, gentlemen,” says he, “ what farther has been 
 done ? This ship, the Elisa, convicted on moral evidence, 
 because the functionaries, dismissed or pensioned, had pur- 
 chased negroes for her^ and which probably would have been 
 convicted on legal proof, had it been thought fit to ask the 
 petitioner for the documents which he possessed ; — this ship 
 •was neither prosecuted nor confiscated, but was, on her re- 
 turn from her voyage, purchased from the captain who had 
 carried on this traffic, by the governor of Senegal.” 
 
 He then relates the instance of the Rodeur already men- 
 tioned, and for his authority refers to a periodical work pub- 
 lished in Paris on diseases pf the eye, into which it was intro- 
 
20 
 
 duced as a case of extraordinary ophthalmia. The account was 
 furnished by the surgeon who had lost his sight by the epi- 
 demic. He then proceeds ; “ Gentlemen, the vessel is named, 
 the port whence she sailed is pointed out, the name of the 
 captain is known, the surgeon is here ; his name is Maignan. 
 You cannot then think it extraordinary that I should ask, at the 
 eaid of 18 months after the fact has become public, whether 
 the captain has been prosecuted, and whether the surgeon, 
 who witnessed the whole, has been interrogated ? I have 
 much reason to doubt, that any thing of the kind has been 
 done ; for at the close of the year 1820, the Rodeur was re- 
 fitted for an adventure of the same kind, under the same 
 captain.” Another circumstance he mentions as a corrobora- 
 tion of his doubts ; in the copy which he then held in his hand 
 was contained these “ horrible words,” “ thirty nine negroes 
 ivere thrown overboard^"' but that another copy had been is- 
 sued with these words omitted, for the purpose, as he be- 
 lieves, “ of obliterating the traces of a most atrocious 
 crime.” He thus concludes : “ The traffic is still carried on, 
 and carried on with impunity. The dates of the departures, 
 of the purchases, of the arrivals, are known ; advertise- 
 ments are published, inviting persons to take shares in this 
 trade. The only attempt at concealment, is to represent the 
 purchase of slaves, as the purchase of mules^ on the coast of 
 Africa, where in fact there are no mules. The traffic is con- 
 ducted with more cruelty than ever ; because the slave cap- 
 tains to avoid detection, have recourse to the most atrocious 
 expedients for getting rid of their captives. By the official 
 reports relative to La Jeune Estelle, fourteen negroes were 
 on board. The vessel was stopped and examined, but no 
 negro could be found. A search was instituted, but in vain. 
 At last a groan was heard issuing from a cask. It was open- 
 ed, and two young girls from ten to fourteen years of age 
 were found nearly suffocated within it. Several casks of the 
 same form and dimensions had been previously thrown over- 
 board.” “ I call upon you to unite with me in demanding 
 the law which the minister has promised.” “ Above all, let 
 this law repress an abuse which the minister admitted last 
 year, and which he appeared to regard as a thing quite na- 
 tural. When the English capture and confiscate slave ships, 
 they- give freedom to the negroes; but on asking the mi- 
 nister what had been done with the negroes confiscated at 
 Senegal, he replied that they had become the property of the 
 government, and were employed in the works of the Colony. 
 Truth, Gentlemen, discovers itself through this smooth ex- 
 pression ; it is in fact saying, that In spite of promises, of 
 
21 
 
 treaties, and of roval ordinances, the slave trade is carried 
 on for the profit of the state. The government reaps the 
 sanguinary fruits of the crimes which it punishes ; and Af- 
 ricans, torn from their country in despite of the laws, are 
 nevertheless made slaves.” 
 
 In a speech delivered by the same person in the year 1822, 
 he says, “I will not repeat the facts I adduced last year; 
 unhappily, however, I can adduce new ones. I hold in 
 my hand the judgment pronounced in the Vice Admiralty 
 Court of the Mauritius in 1821, in the case of ‘ Le Succes,* 
 and the correspondence found on board, duly authenticated, 
 and which both develops the nature, and establishes the mul- 
 tiplicity, of the frauds that are practised by the slave traders. 
 Were I to produce extracts from this correspondence, you 
 would be astonished at the facts which it brings to light. 
 You would then see the impunity, which in our colonies, 
 those are certain of enjoying who violate the laws of huma- 
 nity, and of their country. Nay, you would then find what 
 is scarcely credible, and certainly, deeply to be deplored ; 
 that men invested with the office of judge, and charged to 
 pronounce, in the name of the king, the sentence of the law, 
 on this most execrable crime, do not scruple themselves to 
 buy slaves of the very persons whom their duty and their 
 oaths bind to condemn.” “ Why, I ask, is it that this trade, 
 declared infamous as it is, by our own government, and pro- 
 scribed by all the governments of Europe, is continued with 
 such audaciousness ? Is it because the laws are inadequate to 
 its suppression ?” “ The miserable man who commits an act 
 of common delinquency, incited to it perhaps by seeing his 
 family starving, or the man who rashly utters some senti- 
 ment which is judged to be injurious, is subjected even after 
 he has undergone a severe punishment, to a surveillance, to 
 a privation of his civil rights ; in short, to measures of pre- 
 caution, which press heavily upon him for a long time after 
 his crime has been expiated ; whilst he who with premedita- 
 tion, proceeds to traffic in the blood and sufferings of his 
 fellow creatures, may, even after he has been convicted and 
 condemned, march with his head erect, protected from the 
 horror his crimes should inspire, and enjoying shamelessly 
 the fruit of his infamous adventure.” 
 
 The Due de Broglie, in a speech delivered in the same 
 year, having reviewed the history of the abolition of the 
 African slave trade, and produced a variety of cases from 
 official documents, shewing that it is still prosecuted by 
 French citizens, notwithstanding their prohibitory laws, says, 
 “ France is the only nation that has not enforced the aboli- 
 
22 
 
 tiou of the slave trade, by the infliction of corporal and 
 really serious punishments, and which has adopted no effica- 
 cious and really menacing measures for the prevention of 
 the trade in slaves. Hence it happens that most of the capi- 
 tals destined to be embarked in the slave trade, are directed 
 towards P' ranee ; from our ports are despatched most of the 
 vessels, the object of whose speculations is to furnish slaves 
 to the colonies of every other nation. There is reason to 
 believe, that a certain degree of concert already exists, for 
 placing these speculations under the protection of the French 
 flag, and that we are now in a situation which enables us to 
 make those who are disposed to purchase this odious immu- 
 nity, pay dearly for it. That the French flag thus shelters 
 the slave trade of foreigners ; that it serves to protect Eng- 
 lish, Spanish, or Dutch merchants from the severities of 
 the laws of their respective nations, is a misfortune of the 
 existence of which we can no longer entertain a doubt. The 
 French government is itself convinced of this fact.” 
 
 “ A letter, dated Demarara, August 18, 1820, and which 
 forms part of the documents officially communicated to the 
 English parliament, informs us, that the traffic in slaves 
 which is carried on between the French Antilles and Africa, 
 
 ' is not intended merely for the supply of those Islands, but 
 that Martinique forms an intermediate mart, whence nume- 
 rous cargoes of negroes are daily reshipped to Surinam and 
 other colonies. This fact is moreover fully confirmed by 
 the official reports made to the English government by its 
 commissioners at Surinam. If such be the case already, when 
 most of the laws of the different nations of Europe relative 
 to the abolition of the slave trade have scarcely begun to be 
 enforced, when those laws are yet imperfect, when the mea- 
 sures taken to carry them fully into effect are yet incomplete, 
 what may be expected, when the union which exists among 
 the different maritime powers, shall have consolidated and 
 extended their operation ? We see by the paper laid on the 
 table of the English House of Commons, that an extensive 
 traffic in slaves is still, in spite of the laws, carried on under 
 the Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese flags ; but we also see 
 that numerous condemnations have already taken place; that 
 the obscure and questionable points, which still favour fraud, 
 are the subject of active correspondence and reciprocal ad- 
 justment between the above powers and England ; that new 
 decrees are issued when they are found necessary ; and that 
 the doubtful parts of the laws and treaties, are interpreted 
 according to the generous and humane spirit which dictated 
 them. In proportion therefore as the engagements of this 
 
23 
 
 kind shall be strengthened between the United States, Eng- 
 land, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal ; in proportion 
 as the means of repression shall be fortified by their influence 
 on each other, and perfected by experience, the traffic carried 
 on under the flags of those countries will become more and 
 more hazardous ; it will soon entirely cease ; it will be con- 
 centrated under the French flag ; our colonies will become a 
 general mart where all other colonies may supply themselves 
 as they wish, eluding by means of a short contraband voy- 
 age, the vigilance of the cruizers stationed on the coast of 
 Africa ; our ships will then become the universal vehicle of 
 this universally proscribed, and universally detested com- 
 merce ; and France will at length enjoy the execrable mo- 
 nopoly of a trade in human flesh and blood, of a trade which 
 is the opprobrium of civilized ages and nations.” 
 
 The following extracts from the 16th Report of the Af- 
 rican Institution in 1822, will shew the state of the slave 
 trade as conducted by the subjects of Portugal and' Spain. 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 “ In this work of iniquity and devastation, Portugal still 
 takes a prominent part. Her restrictive stipulations, have 
 been attended with little benefit to Northern Africa, for they 
 have continued to be most grossly and extensively violated 
 by her subjects ; some even of her public functionaries, go- 
 vernors of African colonies, have not scrupled by their own 
 practice, openly to sanction the violation, and to set at 
 nought the laws they were bound to execute. An active 
 slave trade has been unceasingly carried on between the ad- 
 joining Continent and the Islands of Bissao and Cape de 
 Verd. These Islands are used as depots for the slaves 
 taken thither in canoes and small vessels, by French and 
 other slave traders, with the view of being afterwards re- 
 moved to the Havanna, or to the French West India Islands. 
 But it is to the rivers which run into the Bight of Benin, 
 and into that of Biafra, that the Portuguese slave ships chiefly 
 resort. Many such vessels, in the course of the last year, 
 have been found there by his Majesty’s ships, completely 
 furnished with all the implements of their criminal traffic, 
 and in a state of readiness to embark their human cargo. 
 
 “ The ordinary course of proceeding adopted not only by 
 the Portuguese, but by all the other slave traders (excepting 
 
24 ■ 
 
 the French, who alone pursue their trade without the risk of 
 capture) is to keep the slaves whom they purchase on shore, 
 until the very day on which they may deem it safe to com- 
 mence their voyage ; and when they have ascertained that 
 there are no cruizers in the way to obstruct their passage, 
 they embark their cargo, and depart forthwith to their des- 
 tined place of sale. Such, however, is the number of vessels 
 engaged in this guilty commerce, that notwithstanding the 
 facilities of escape thus afforded them, several Portuguese 
 ships have been seized in the course of the last year, and 
 condemned by the Mixed Commission Courts.” p. 6. 
 
 In a report of commodoi*e G. R. Collier, dated December 
 27, 1821, he says, “ The Portugvtese will cling to the slave 
 trade as long as it shall be possible ; the profits are so large 
 as to induce all risks ; aiicl vessels of this nation range every 
 part of the coast, whether north or south, enter ever)^ port 
 and creek where a slave is to be purchased ; and many small 
 vessels under this flag are still employed in supplying the 
 slave factories of Prince’s Island and St. Thomas. Nothing 
 can more strongly mark the indifference, the people who na- 
 vigate the slave vessels of Spain and Portugal shew, to the 
 miseries they inflict on the unfortunate Africans in their 
 grasp, than the manner in which they crowd them on board 
 their schooners. 
 
 “ In two small vessels, the one only 73 and the other about 
 160 tons, captured nearly at the same time by the boats of 
 the Tartar and Thistle, there were 700 slaves. The height 
 of between-decks of these vessels was less than three feet ; 
 the slaves were all fettered in pairs, jammed (for so only 
 can I speak when I describe their situation) one within the 
 feet of the other. Fever, dysentery, and all the train of hor- 
 rible diseases common to the African climate (increased by 
 filth so foul, and stench so offensive as not to he imagined) 
 had attacked many of them ; and the evident consequences 
 to greater part of the slaves, determined me to seek a remedy 
 if possible. Several of the slaves died notwithstanding our 
 best efforts ; and I am fully persuaded, few of those cap- 
 tured would have lived, had I suffered those in fevers to re- 
 main in the filthy and putrid dungeons of the slave vessels.” 
 p. 83. 
 
 “In February, 1821, captain Finlaison of the Morgiana 
 reported to me his having captured the Emilia, from Onim, 
 in the Bight of Biafra, with 369 slaves, and that many other 
 slave vessels had been seen in the Bight. The Portuguese 
 I master of the Emilia affirmed in my presence, that he came 
 from Malembo, south of the line, though it is proved that 
 
25 
 
 he left Onim only three days previously to his capture ; and 
 the xvounds from the hot iro7is on the breasts of the men^ and 
 on the bosoms of the women^ marking the property, being still 
 fresh, gave further evidence of his falsehood.” p. 99. 
 
 “ The slave trade at Whydah is conducted to a very great 
 extent by a Portuguese renegado, named de Souza, who, ba- 
 nished from the Brazils, has fixed himself at Whydah, where 
 he is the agent or slave factor to the Brazilian nation, and lives 
 in prodigious splendour ; assumes the rights and privileges 
 of a person in authority, granting papers and licenses to the 
 slave traders, in all the forms and confidence of one empower- 
 ed so to do by the Portuguese government. The extent of 
 the slave trade at Whydah, may be judged of by the number 
 of Portuguese vessels anchoring off this port and Lagos an- 
 nually, being generally calculated at 100, and for no other 
 purpose than to obtain slaves.” p. 103. 
 
 A letter dated 27th of March, 1822, states, “ An extensive 
 trade appears to be kept up with the Cape de Verd Islands, 
 'from the Portuguese settlements of Cacheo and Bissao, and 
 the slave traders at Cacheo have recently given their traffic 
 in the Rio Grande, a new feature of barbarous atrocity. 
 They visit this river in armed sloops and boats, and, landing 
 during tbe night, carry off as many as they can of the unfor- 
 tunate inhabitants.” p. 86. 
 
 From the Sierra Leone Gazette, August 31, 1822. “The 
 Portuguese schooner San Jose Hallacca, prize to Lieutenant 
 Hagan of the Thistle, and condemned in the Mixed Court, 
 affords a melancholy instance of the unfeeling and atrocious 
 manner in which the slave trade is carried on to Leeward. 
 This schooner, or rather schooner boat, did not measure 7 
 tons burthen, was only twenty-eight feet long, and the space 
 over the water-casks, in which the miserable slaves in irons 
 were stowed, was barely seventeen inches in height ! From 
 the information obtained by Lieutenant Hagan in the river 
 Calabar, and corroborated by the evidence taken in this co- 
 lony, it appears that 30 negroes were put on board this boat 
 in the Calabar ; that they were at sea nearly two months 
 without being able to make Princes, when they put back to 
 Calabar with the loss of ten negroes, literally starved and 
 crushed to death. It was at this period the boats of the 
 Thistle made the seizure, and rescued the remaining twenty 
 from the grasp of Duke Ephraim, in whose possession they 
 were. The state to which these poor creatures were reduced 
 when received on board the Thistle, Lieutenant Hagan de- 
 scribes as most dreadful ; the action of the irons on their 
 arms and ankles, and the sores produced bv the small casks 
 
 D 
 
'26 
 
 on which they were stowed, added to their extreme state of 
 emaciation and debility, presented altogether such a specta- 
 cle of horror and suffering humanity, as that officer, long as 
 he had been on this coast, never before witnessed. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Although the Spanish government has given assurances of 
 lending its assistance for effectually carrying into execution 
 the treaties existing between her and Great Britain, for the 
 abolition of the nefarious commerce, “ As yet, however,” 
 says the report, “ there has been no relaxation of that trade 
 in Cuba and Porto Rico. Fewer vessels, indeed, have ap- 
 peared on the African coast during the last year under the 
 Spanish flag ; but the importations into the Island of Cuba, 
 especially under the flag of France, have been large ; while 
 the only attempt made there to check them, by bringing one 
 of the vessels so employed before the Mixed Commission 
 Court of that place, proved abortive. The whole number of 
 Spanish slave ships condemned at Sierra Leone, by the 
 Mixed Commission Court, has been eleven, of which three 
 were condemned during the last year.” p. 12. 
 
 G. R. Collier, in his report respecting Spain, says, “ Al- 
 though by her treaty she has relinquished the trade, her sub- 
 jects infest the coast of Africa still ; in the period of the 
 rains they become most active ; as then, to afford some pro- 
 tection to the crews of his Majesty’s ships from the destruc- 
 tive consequences of the most unhealthful part of the season, 
 these necessarily run to the Cape de Verds or Ascension. 
 And I am quite satisfied, as suits the views of the Spanish 
 slaving schooners, they at one time act as pirates against all 
 vessels ; then under the flag of Artigas, as South American 
 cruizers ; and then, when it shall better serve them, return 
 to the practice of slaving ; and a vessel under the South 
 American flag, professing herself a cruizer, may wait a car- 
 go of slaves off the port where they may be collecting, with- 
 out power on the part of a British officer to prevent her doing 
 so, but at the risk of his ruin.” p. 83. 
 
 A communication from the Havanna, dated 1st of Sep- 
 tember, 1821, made by one of the Commissioners states, that 
 “Twenty-six vessels have entered the port of Havanna with 
 slaves, to the amount of 6,415 since the 31st of October, 
 1820, the period assigned by treaty for the total abolition ot 
 the Spanish slave trade. Of these vessels, 18 were Spanish, 
 5 French, 2 Portuguese, and 1 American. Not one of these 
 has been judicially noticed by the government of the Island. 
 
27 
 
 On the contrary, the merchants declare, they received as- 
 surances that their vessels entering from Africa after the 
 31st of October, would not be molested. Six months from 
 that time were mentioned as the extent of such immunity ; 
 butthe 10th month has ended, andslave ships still enter openly 
 and unquestioned. Certain it is, also, that vessels are still 
 permitted to fit out for the slave trade, as well as to enter 
 their cargoes from Africa ; nor has any order, notice, or 
 / other public document been issued, declaratory of the dis- 
 approbation of this government, or an intention to enforce 
 . the abolition of the traffic. With respect to the preventive 
 influence of the British and Spanish cruizers, it is to be ob- 
 served, that since the residence of the Mixed Commissioners 
 in this city, 95 slave ships have entered the port, (26 of them 
 in open violation of the treaty) besides about 40 others in 
 the miner parts of the Island, yet not one of these has 
 been visited or detained by the cruizers of either power.” 
 p. 109. 
 
 “ Vessels are publicly clearing out for Africa, whether in 
 legitimate trade for gold dust and ivory, is a doubt that is 
 only answered here by a smile. Two schooners are now 
 fitting out in the harbour of Havanna, expressly for the slave 
 trade. At Mantangas, Nuevitas, Trinidad, Barasoa, and 
 Batabano, it is carried on with perfect impunity ; and it is 
 only ten days ago, that a cargo of negroes, landed at the lat- 
 ter port from a French brig, were publicly advertised for 
 sale in the Havanna. The majority of the vessels that have 
 lately sailed on the well understood voyage to the African 
 coast, have cleared out for other destinations. Some to 
 Montevideo, others to Teneriffe, Cape Verd Islands, and 
 Prince’s Island. The A-oyage is patronized bjkl some persons 
 of established credit, and accionistas (or share holders) are 
 admitted to bear its charges. The shares are as low as 100 
 dollars, and are eagerly sought for. When the vessel re- 
 turns from Africa, if the principal owners have sufficient 
 weight and influence, she touches at Puerto Rico and provides 
 herself with a passport, for the total or surplus cargo to this 
 Island ; thus removing all subsequent danger of seizure, 
 under Article VII. of the instructions appended to the treaty 
 of 1817. If she is without this, she directs her course 
 through the Cayes, which lay round the north and south 
 east part of the Island, into one of the bays on the coast. 
 The cargo is frequently bespoken ; if it fs not, it is conveyed 
 to the plantations of the consignee, and either sold from 
 thence in parcels, or, as I have known in several instances, 
 
inarched to the Havanna, as the stock of a planter about to 
 retire.” p. 111. 
 
 By a subsequent despatch, dated 10th December, 1821, it 
 appears that the Spanish members of the Mixed Commission, 
 have received instructions from the government, “ to carry 
 punctually into effect, in all their proceedings, the stipula- 
 tions of the slave trade abolition treaty, concluded between 
 Great Bidtain and Spain in September, 1817” — “ And that 
 circular orders to the same effect have been received by the 
 Captain General, the Admiral, and the Intendant, with di- 
 rections to communicate the same to the several branches of 
 I their respective departments.” p. 112. 
 
 It was but a few weeks prior to the date of the above des- 
 patch, that the British Commissioner transmitted with a com- 
 munication from the Havanna, the following articles of in- 
 telligence, published in the official paper of that city, viz. 
 
 Departures of yesterday. 
 
 1. “ For Africa, Spanish schooner Vienna, Captain Don 
 Vincente Gomez, with goods for the slave trade. 
 
 2. “ For the same destination, Spanish schooner Icanam, 
 Captain Don Antonio Moreira, with ditto. 
 
 “ The above vessels were openly and regularly cleaVed 
 out at the Custom House, ‘ Para la Trata,’ a term exclusively 
 used in the Spanish islands to express par excellence the 
 slave trade.” ' 
 
 By these public notices. It is evident the prosecution of the 
 slave trade must be with the knowledge and consent of the 
 government ; and notwithstanding the instructions just re- 
 cited, to enforce the stipulations of the abolition treaty, the 
 trade is still continued. In the fore part of the succeeding 
 year, 3 Spanish vessels, one having 325 slaves on board, 
 were condemned in the Mixed Commission Court at Sierra 
 Leone, and one other with 380 negroes, taken possession of 
 by the Iphigenia, was unhappily upset in a tornado, and only 
 11 persons saved; 16 of the crew of the Iphigenia and 2 
 officers being among those lost. In addition to these, the 
 following instance is a further proof of the facility with 
 which such clearances are made at the Havanna, and of the 
 indifference of the officers of that government respecting 
 the abolition of this commerce. 
 
 From the Sierra Leone Gazette^ October 12, 1822. 
 
 “ British and Spanish Court of Mixed Commission, Oc- 
 tober 1st. Schooner Josefa, alias Maracagerca, Josef May- 
 ona, master. This vessel, of 90 Spanish tons burthen, with 
 
29 
 
 •a crew of 21 men, armed with one long 18 pounder, 21 
 muskets, nine cutlasses, 12 pikes and 6 pistols, with ammu- 
 nition in proportion, cleared out from the Havanna on the 
 6th of April last for the coast of Africa, ostensibly for a 
 cargo of ivory, wax, dyewoods, &c. The clearance was 
 signed by the regular officer, ‘ Nicolas de Foro,’ who signed 
 a clearance for this same vessel, Don Juan Baptista Zavala 
 being master, in August 1821, for a similar voyage. In this 
 last mentioned clearance, it was stated that she was to land 
 some ‘ free negroes’ in Africa ; but does not mention who 
 or what they were, nor where to be landed. After leaving 
 the Havanna, the Josefa called at the Gallinas on this coast, 
 then at Grand Bassa, and finally entered the river Bonny, 
 where her cargo was delivered, and a return cargo of slaves 
 purchased. Whilst lying in that river, with water-casks full, 
 platforms laid, and waiting for her cargo, she was boarded 
 in the latter end of July, by Lieutenant Saumarez, in com- 
 mand of the boats of his Majesty’s ship Driver ; but there 
 being no slaves actually on board, he was unwillingly obliged 
 to leave her, after taking the precaution of endorsin.g her pa- 
 pers. She crossed the Bonny bar on the 18th of August, 
 and was met the same day by the Driver, which had returned 
 in search of her, and after a long chase, was captured at eight 
 next morning, having on board 216 slaves, all males, and 
 with a small exception, all men. Captain Woolrige imme- 
 diately sent her to this place. The case being clear, the 
 Commissioners passed sentence of condemnation without 
 any remarks.” 
 
 NETHERLANDS. 
 
 “ In the supplementary report of last year, a detailed ac- 
 count was given of the manner in which the treaties and abo- 
 lition laws of the Netherlands had been violated, by the 
 large importation of slaves into Surinam, which had been 
 openly permitted by the local authorities, and, in defiance of 
 the remonstrances made by our government, with a view to 
 put a stop to this breach of faith. In consequence of these 
 remonstrances, the king of the Netherlands issued on the 
 21st of April, 1821, a new decree on the subject, which, 
 though it professed to prohibit and punish the importation 
 of slaves into Surinam, did in fact, only open the ports of 
 that colony more widely for their admission ; diminishing 
 at the same time, instead of raising, the penalties attached 
 to such importations as might still be deemed illicit. The 
 attention of his Majesty’s minister for Foreign Affairs was 
 
30 
 
 early directed to this extraordinary decree. The result ap- 
 pears to be, that no effectual check has yet been put to the 
 importation of slaves into the Dutch colonies. This state- 
 ment is confirmed by a letter, dated from the colony in Feb- 
 ruary last ; the writer of which affirms, “ that thousands of 
 new negroes have been imported into Surinam, since the 
 Mixed Commission had been sitting there ; and that there 
 was no doubt, the importation would be continued unless 
 very strong and decisive measures were adopted.” I6th re- 
 port A. I. p. 13 . 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 The government of the United States, having declared 
 that any of its citizens who engage in the slave trade, shall be 
 adjudged pirates, and manifested a determination to carry 
 the law into effect, this traffic under the American flag has 
 very much ceased. But as the French nation has refused to 
 permit vessels carrying their flag to be examined by the 
 cruizers of others, and have adopted no efficient measures 
 to prevent its abuse, there can be no doubt that this flag is 
 often assumed, to cover the contraband traders of other na- 
 tions. Although the instances of the assumption of the 
 French or Spanish character by the citizens of the United 
 States arc not ascertained to be numerous, yet there are suf- 
 ficient reasons to fear, that American capital and citizens 
 are often protected in this illicit traffic by the flag of one or 
 the other of these nations. The American cruizers having 
 been restrained from visiting vessels under foreign flags, the 
 number of slave ships sent into the United States for adju- 
 dication has been small. 
 
 The following extracts from official documents, together 
 with those already presented, exhibit some of the facts con- 
 nected with the slave trade as pursued by American citi- 
 zens, and the part the government has taken in its sup- 
 pression. 
 
 Extract of a communication on the state of the Slave Trade^ 
 made by E. Ayres^ principal Agent for the Coast of Africa, 
 to the Secretary of the Navy, dated Baltimore, February 
 24 , 1823 . 
 
 “ To form a just estimate of the operation of the measures 
 which have been made use of, it will be necessary to take a 
 view of the state of that trade previous to the passage of the 
 
31 
 
 late act of Congress declaring it piracy, and making it pu- 
 nishable l)y death. 
 
 “ I was informed by an American officer who had been on 
 the coast in 1820, that he had boarded 20 American vessels 
 in one morning, lying in the port of Gallinas, and fitted for 
 the reception of slaves. It is a lamentable fact, that most 
 of the harbours, between the Senegal and the line, were vi- 
 sited by an equal number of American vessels, and for the sole 
 purpose of carrying away slaves. Although for some years 
 the coast had been occasionally visited by our cruizers, their 
 short stay and seldom appearance, had made but slight im- 
 pression on those traders, rendered hardy by repetition of 
 crime, and avaricious by excessive gain. They were ena- 
 bled by a regular system, to gain intelligence of any cruizer 
 being on the coast, and to conceal by false information their 
 own condition. If an armed vessel approached the harbour, 
 they could get intelligence in time to land their slaves, if 
 any had been taken on board, and assume the character of 
 a lawful trader, or avoid the track of the cruizer for the few 
 days she remained on the coast, when she would return, 
 seize her prey, and proceed in safety to the destined market 
 without fear of molestation. This was the state of the trade 
 previous to the late operations on the coast : but since the 
 passage of the late law, and especially since planting a colony 
 of Americans on that coast, it was thought our cruizers 
 would have such facility in gaining immediate intelligence 
 of the presence of traders being on the coast, and believing 
 no doubt that the law was not an empty threat, but would 
 be followed by a sufficient force kept there to carry the law 
 into effectual operation, these vultures of human prey have 
 thought it too hazardous to attempt, and have Udarly aban- 
 doned the trade. 
 
 “ There has been but one instance for the last two years, of 
 sufficient hardihood to hoist the American colours in this in- 
 human trade. This one was the case of the schooner Dol- 
 phin of Charleston, Captain Pearson. A British officer of 
 commodore Mends’ squadron, boarded the Dolphin while 
 lying in the Rio Pongos, fitted for the reception of slaves, 
 and waiting, as I was informed, it appeared on her examina- 
 tion at Freetown, to take in her cargo ; Pearson knowing 
 the British would not capture, and believing himself secure, 
 as there was no American armed vessel on the coast af- 
 ter the departure of the Alligator. Commodore Mends, 
 who arrived on the coast shortly after the departure of 
 Lieutenant Stock^qn, seeing the defenceless state of the 
 trade in the absence of American cruizers, offered to re- 
 
32 
 
 pair the Augusta, which had become unseaworthy for want 
 of repairs, to arm her at his own expense ; and place a 
 lieutenant and 25 men on board under the command of Mr. 
 Hunter, to cruize until the arrival of an American vessel. 
 Should the capture be an American, Hunter was to take charge 
 of her ; if a vessel amenable to the laws of England, she was 
 to be a prize to the British officer. Mr. Hunter accepted 
 the offer, when Lieutenant Clarkson and the above comple- 
 ment of men were put on board. The Augusta was so far 
 repaired as to enable her to proceed to the Rio Pongos. 
 The Dolphin was taken possession of, and carried to Free- 
 town, where an examination was had by the judicial autho- 
 rities of that place ; and it appearing that she was actually, in 
 the opinion of the court, intending to carry slaves, though 
 not recognizable by that court, Mr. Hunter determined to 
 send her to the United States for adjudication. There being 
 no naval officer on that station under whose charge he could 
 place the prize, he engaged the mate of a vessel then in 
 Freetown to take charge of her, with orders to proceed to 
 New-York, in whose hands he placed a copy of the pro- 
 ceedings of the court, and the evidence taken on the case. 
 This vessel, I am informed by the newspapers, arrived in 
 Charleston, S. C. a short time before my arrival in this 
 country. 
 
 “ Hunter and Clarkson discovered a vessel lying in Gallinas 
 harbour, Baltimore built with an American crew, but a no- 
 minal Danish Captain and under Danish colours, but with- 
 out papers from any government. This vessel had 5 slaves 
 on board, but when seeing the Augusta approach they were 
 landed, and placed in a factory with 70 others, which they 
 had just before began to place on board. This vessel was 
 taken into custody and carried to Freetown, where she was 
 examined in the Court of Mixed Commission, and con- 
 demned to the use of the captors. These two were the 
 only cases of American vessels which were heard of on the 
 coast for slaves during my stay in Africa. By subsequent 
 arrivals, it appears, there have some few ventured since that 
 time to take off cargoes of slaves.” 
 
 Although our flag has nearly ceased to be disgraced by 
 this inhuman traffic, it is yet to be feared that much Ame- 
 rican capital is still employed in the trade under the protec- 
 tion afforded by the French and Spanish flags, as some of 
 our citizens have occasionally been heard of on board of 
 French and Spanish vessels. 
 
33 
 
 Extract of a Letter from Captain Edward Trenchard^ of U. S. 
 Ship Cuane^ dated off the Gallinas, Western Coast of Af- 
 rica, April 10, 1820.' 
 
 “ Having obtained information at Sierra Leone, that several 
 vessels of a suspicious character were olF the Gallinas, I im- 
 mediately proceeded there ; and early in the morning of the 
 5th of April, discovered 7 sail, 1 brigand 6 topsail schooners, 
 close in shore. On perceiving us, they made all sail and 
 stood off ; it being nearly calm, I instantly despatched the 
 Cyane’s boats, properly officered and manned, in pursuit, 
 who succeeded in taking possession, and bringing along side 
 6 .of them, viz. 
 
 Schooner Dasher, Thomas Munro, Danish, from St. Eustatiai 
 Eliza, Constant Hastings, Martinico. 
 
 Brig La Anita, A. D. Pedro Puche, Matanzas. 
 
 Schooner Lorise, Francoine Sablon. do. 
 
 Esperanza, Lewis Mumfordt, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 Endymion of Baltimore, commanded by Alex- 
 ander M‘Kim Andrews, a midshipman in the U. S. service, 
 as per naval register of 1820. The Esperanza and Endy- 
 mion, I consider as lawful prizes, they being evidently Ame- 
 rican vessels engaged in the slave trade in contravention of 
 the laws of the United States, passed April 20, 1818, and 
 March 3, 1819, for the suppression of the traffic. 
 
 Midshipman Andrewscommandingthe Endymion, on per- 
 ceiving the approach of the Cyane’s cutter, attempted to 
 make his escape to the shore in his boat, he was pursued, 
 overtaken and brought on board. At first he assumed an 
 air of indifference, and totally denied his vessel to be Ame- 
 rican, or his being concerned in the slave trade ; but after 
 finding we were in possession of his papers and going to 
 make a prize of him, his confidence forsook him, and he ac- 
 knowledged his vessel was American and engaged in the 
 traffic of slaves. An investigation took place next morn- 
 ing by the commissioned officers of the Cyane, and Mr. 
 M‘Cartn, coast pilot, authorized by me for the purpose, 
 who reported that they considered the Endymion and Espe- 
 ranza as lawful prizes ; a copy of this report I have the 
 honour to enclose. The others not exhibiting sufficient 
 marks to identify them, I did not think proper to detain. 
 On board of the Esperanza, was found a blank Spanish 
 journal, on one of the leaves of which I found endorsed and 
 signed by Sir G. R. Collier, commodore of his B. M. ship 
 
 E 
 
34 
 
 Tartar, that he had fell in with her, and considered her to be- 
 an American vessel, engaged in the slave trade under colour 
 of Spanish papers, that the owner was an American of the 
 name of C. Radcliff, then on shore. I also was informed 
 that one C. Radcliff (corresponding with the indorsement 
 of Sir G. R. Collier cm the Spanish journal) and another 
 citizen of the United States, were about 6 miles in the in-^ 
 terior of the country, with a horde of natives around them 
 devoted to the service, who appeared- to be chief agents in 
 the purchase of slaves, but unapproachable from the nature 
 of the country and hostility of the inhabitants towards ves- 
 sels of war, under an apprehension instilled into them by- 
 slave dealers, that ships of war interrupt the commerce, and 
 are unfriendly towards them. In fact I have no doubt, but 
 there is at present collected near the coast, hundreds, perhaps 
 thousands, of unhappy victims destined for slavery ; and 
 property to a large amount deposited on shore in exchange 
 for them, only waiting an opportunity to accomplish their 
 purpose. I must however remark, that all the vessels ho- 
 vering on this coast, are similar in respect to size, fitments, 
 and general appearance, sharp built, and no doubt American 
 built vessels, in general topsail schooners.” 
 
 Lieutenant Stockton of the U. S. schooner Alligator, 
 having taken possession of 4 schooners on the African coast, 
 and ordered them to the U. S. for adjudication ; in the ac- 
 count of the capture, and the facts proving the character of 
 the vessels, transmitted to the Navy Department, dated May 
 27, 1821, he has the following observations : — 
 
 “ All these facts can be established, yet it is possible there 
 may be some difficulty in persuading men generally, to be- 
 lieve in the adroitness and fraud with which this trade is 
 prosecuted. The)^ have almost reduced it to a science, and 
 heretofore in the disguise of Frenchmen, and with the facilities 
 afforded them in the West Indies, have made certain calcu- 
 lations with regard to their success, laughing at the exer- 
 tions of all Christendom to put an end to it. They will 
 stand convicted by their own testimony. Though my cruize 
 has not been conspicuous or successful ; though I have not 
 given actual liberty to more than two slaves, still I have 
 great satisfaction in the reflection, that I have procrastinated 
 the slavery of some eight hundred, and broken up this hor- 
 rible traffic to the northward of Cape Palmas for at least this 
 season.” 
 
 At the request of the Secretary, he furnished a statement 
 containing a more minute detail of his reasons for making 
 
35 
 
 laid captures, from which the subjoined extracts are taken, 
 viz ; 
 
 “ The U. S. schooner Alligator under my command, ar- 
 rived oit the coast of Africa in the month of May last, 1821, 
 near the mouth of the river Pongos ; Irom this place we pro- 
 ceeded to Sierra Leone, where we were informed that there 
 were several vessels on the coast further south trafficking 
 for slaves. On this information I immediately proceeded 
 to the river Gallinas; in my passage thither I boarded a small 
 sloop, which left the Gallinas on the morning of that day, and 
 was informed by her that there were two schooners lying in 
 that river, for the purpose of receiving slaves on board ; I 
 found one of the schooners there at anchor, and took pos- 
 session of her. She was represented to be La jeune Eugene, 
 and I ordered her to the U. S. She has, as you are inform- 
 ed, arrived at Boston, and will there be tried in the usual 
 course. Proceeding still southwards, we arrived at Triton, oi? 
 Tradetown, where I took possession of three other schooners, 
 viz. La Daphnee, La Matilda and L’Elize, and ordered them 
 also to the U. S. These three vessels were afterwards recap- 
 tured by a revolt of their original officers and crews, and 
 have never arrived in the U. S. I shall now proceed to 
 shew in each case, the evidence relative to the occupation 
 and character of these vessels. I will' begin with the La 
 Daphnee. This schooner was taken possession of in the af- 
 ternoon of the 24th of May, 1821, in the road of Triton, or 
 Tradetown. I had received information from a person at 
 Grand Bissa, whom I had sent down the coast to collect in- 
 telligence with regard to such vessels as were trading there, 
 that there was a cargo of slaves collected at Tradetown for a 
 schooner lying in the roads, the mate of which was on shore 
 preparing them for embarkation ; and that they would be 
 sent on board the night of the next day. I left Bissa, cal- 
 culating to arrive at Tradetown at or about the time the 
 slaves would have been embarked on board the schooner. 
 On my approach to Tradetown, 1 descried two schooners 
 lying in the roads, which proved to be La Daphnee and La 
 Matilda ; the former of which had a French flag flying at her 
 main, and a Dutch flag at the foremast head, the latter 
 having a French flag at her main. I entered and anchored 
 in the roads without boarding or molesting either of these 
 vessels, whose movements it was my object to observe. 
 Some short time after coming to an anchor, the command- 
 ing officer (Mr. Guoy) of La Daphnee, came on board of the 
 Alligator., mistaking her for La jeune Eugene Such infor- 
 ^ mation was obtained from him before the discovered his mis- 
 
36 
 
 talce, as confirmed the previous account I had received, and 
 left no doubt that La Daphnee was engaged in the slave 
 trade. I was satisfied from the, external appearance of this 
 vessel, that she was an American bottom, and of that de- 
 scription of vessels called, by way of distinction, Baltimore 
 built vessels : and being fully convinced she was concern- 
 ed in the slave trade, I presumed of course the colours 
 she had hoisted were assumed for the occasion, and not true ; 
 for it was well understood that the slave trade had been de- 
 nounced by both nations whose protection she appeared to 
 claim. I therefore took possession of her, and found her to 
 be an American built schooner of about 120 tons, as near as 
 I could judge. She was said by Mr. Gouy to be com- 
 manded by a Captain Allaine, but that he (Mr. Gouy) had 
 at that moment the command of her. She had two decks ; the 
 lower, or birth deck, was such as vessels in this trade are 
 usually provided with, and the upper deck furnished with 
 gratings for the admission of air and light, and secured by 
 bars and locks. Slave ships are known usually to have 
 such decks, and as no other mercantile vessels are provided 
 with them, the inference is manifest. Again, the extraor- 
 dinary supply of water and rice which was on board, is it- 
 self deemed convincing evidence of her occupation : there 
 was a quantity on board equal to 5 or 6000 gallons, obvi- 
 ousl}' out of all proportion to the possible wants of the crew. 
 In the next place, the number of her crew being 19, greatly 
 exceeded the ordinary complement of that size, if engaged 
 in a lawful trade. Shackles for slaves and other moveable ar- 
 ticles were not expected to be found on board, for it was un- 
 derstood to be the practice of slave ships, to land such 
 articles at the time of arrival. From a consideration of 
 the past circumstances, which I have now mentioned, it 
 seemed impossible to doubt the business of this vessel. Sub- 
 sequent discoveries prove, that in relying on them, I did not 
 deceive myself, or come to any wrong conclusion. She ap- 
 peared to have cleared from Point a Petre (Guadaloupe) 
 for Prince’s Island in the Gulph of Guinea, whither she had 
 not been, nor had she been south of Cape Palmas, as I was 
 informed by the officers and crew. Part of the cargo had 
 been landed, and of that which remained on board, con- 
 sisting of rum, tobacco, small arms, gunpowder, &c. a con- 
 siderable proportion, in being compared with the manifest 
 or clearance, was not included in that document. A num- 
 ber of memoranda shewing the reception or disposal of ne- 
 groes, male and female, and two letters establishing the fact 
 of her being engaged in the slave trade, were found among 
 
37 
 
 her papers. One of these letters was from Captain Allaine, 
 the ostensible captain of the vessel, to Mr. Gouy, who was 
 the officer in command at the time of seizure, dated May 
 12th, 1821, urging despatch in making preparation for the 
 reception of slaves, and reminding him of the proximity of 
 the sickly season. The other letter was from Mr. Labalette, 
 the officer who was on shore purchasing, to the above named 
 Mr. Gouy, dated May 22d, 1821, relative to the number of 
 slaves the Daphnec could carry, and stating that there were 
 then on shore 190, ready to be embarked on board La Ma- 
 tilda, the other schooner that has been alluded to as lying in 
 the same roadstead. There was another letter found on 
 board in possession of the captain of the Matilda, addressed 
 by Mr. Gouy to Mr. Pisten or some other person at Gua- 
 daloupe, in which he states the success of the enterprise, and 
 the number of slaves La Daphnee would probably carry. It 
 seems this letter was sent on board La Matilda, she being on 
 the eve of her departure for the West Indies, having her 
 slaves prepared for embarkation. The confession of Mr. 
 Gouy, after his seizure, that La Daphnee had come to 
 the coast for slaves, was a corroboration of the truth of the 
 circumstances that had induced me to take possession of her. 
 The captain was landed at Cape Messurada, some distance 
 to the northward of Tradetown. The absence of Captain 
 Allaine and one of his officers (Mr. Labalette) was ac- 
 counted for by supposing it to be for the purpose of pro- 
 curing slaves. Mr. Labalette was on shore at Tradetown 
 for the same purpose ; and the vessel after having received 
 them that were procured by Mr. Labalette, was to go to 
 Cape Messurada for the purpose of receiving on board Cap- 
 tain Allaine and the rest of his complement. There were 
 found on board some permits to receive part of her cargo, 
 stating her to be a Dutch vessel, under the command of 
 Captain Fromentin, which double set of papers seemed to 
 account for her having flags of two nations flying at the 
 same time. On the morning after her seizure, two slaves 
 were delivered on board, but suspecting all was not right, 
 the person who brought them jumped overboard and escaped 
 to the shore. Three slaves were left on board La Daphnee 
 to the care of Lieutenant Inman, who was charged with the 
 duty of conducting her to the U. S. These evidences were 
 recorded at the time of her seizure, and the original papers 
 were intended to be transmitted to the U. S. in the schooner, 
 but her recapture prevents them being produced ; but the 
 principal circumstances are confirmed by the extract of a 
 letter addressed byLieutenant Inman to me after his arrival 
 
38 
 
 in the U. S. In allusion to the conduct of the vessel and 
 her commander, he says, that after her recapture ‘ He im- 
 mediately bore up, hoisted the white flag at the main, and 
 made sail to the northward and eastward ; they were so for- 
 tunate as with a very favourable gale to reach Triton in 50 
 hours. They anchored on the morning of the 12th : Mr. 
 Labalette the chief mate came on board, and assured us 
 we had nothing to fear ; that we should be landed on the 
 coast for a few days, and gave us his word of honour we 
 should not be left there. We were immediately landed, and 
 received by Mr. Tallon, mate of the Matilda : he assured 
 us that we should not be molested, led us to his house, and 
 during the 14 days we remained, we were well treated by 
 him and Labalette, who sent the Daphnee to cruize. 
 Tallon had his complement of 250 slaves ready when the 
 Matilda left Triton. Labalette had 160, and Allaine was 
 at Messurada collecyng the remainder. In the course of 
 our stay, the schooner Point a Petre called at Triton and 
 took part of Tallon’s cargo which she bought, and part in 
 consideration of slave for slave as freight. In 14 days La 
 Daphnee returned, the slaves embarked, and she proceeded 
 to Messurada. Captain Allaine then brought the residue of 
 the slaves on board, and after disposing of the men as above, 
 we made sail for Guadaloupe, olF which place we arrived the 
 27th of July. This cargo was landed in a few moments at 
 the town of St. Francois, and Captain Allaine, who was very 
 ill on the passage, went on shore. They immediately made 
 sail for St. Barts. Such are the proofs with regard to the 
 real object of La Daphnee’s voyage to the coast of Africa. 
 I will now proceed to the national character of this vessel. 
 It is asserted that she is a French vessel, bona fida owned 
 by French subjects. In the first place it may be observed, 
 that the character of this vessel cannot be safely taken from 
 the representation of those who were found navigating her. 
 If it be said, she bore a French flag, and possessed French 
 papers ; it may be answered in the first place, that she also 
 bore a Dutch flag, and possessed Dutch papers ; and, if it had 
 suited the occasion, she could have set up a Dutch character 
 with as much plausibility as she now sets up a French cha- 
 racter. Both of these characters cannot truly belong to her, 
 one or the other (if not both) must be assumed and false. 
 If a slave vessel be found on the coast, she may be expected 
 of course to bear the flag of some nation, which has not a 
 naval force at hand to suppress it. It would be vain to ex- 
 pect an American vessel engaged in the slave trade, to hoist 
 an American flag at her mast head, while she knew there 
 
39 
 
 was an armed vessel cruizing in the neighbourhood, for the 
 purpose of capturing all vessels of this description found so 
 engaged. It may be observed, that less even than ordinary 
 weight can be given to the papers in this case, as they ap- 
 pearecVto be false in most or all of those particulars, in which 
 their truth or falsehood could be ascertained. It appeared by 
 the statement of their crew, that instead of entering upon, or 
 pursuing any such voyage as her papers expressed, viz. from 
 Point Petre to Prince’s Island, she proceeded from Point 
 Petre to St. Thomas in the West Indies, then received on 
 board a cargo exactly suited to the slave market, but which 
 was not described in any invoice, bill of lading, or other pa- 
 per on board, and then proceeded to the place where she 
 was found trafficking for slaves. This deviation from her 
 ostensible voyage, or rather this adoption and prosecution 
 of an entirely different voyage, being not mentioned at all in 
 her log book, or any other papers, but on the contrary, pur- 
 porting to describe a direct voyage from Point Petre to the 
 coast of Africa. These are among the reasons which led to the 
 conviction that no faith or credit ought to be given to her 
 papers. Under these circumstances, it appeared, that the 
 only just mode of ascertaining the character of the vessel, 
 was to recur to her history and origin ; and it being clear 
 and admitted, that she was originally an American vessel, 
 it appeared to me that character must be considered as ad 
 hering to her, until she should produce some credible evi- 
 dence of a change of character. There was no bill of sale, 
 or other instrument of transfer produced, or any account of 
 the time, place, or manner of the sale and purchase of the 
 Vessel. I'he only paper in relation to this part of the case, 
 was the formal French paper, called the act of francis- 
 cation, which for the reasons above set forth, being unac- 
 companied by any actual proof, was thought not sufficient 
 authentication of the alleged fact of sale. It may be add- 
 ed, that there was found on board no invoice, bill of lading, 
 charter party, or other paper, stating who owned the goods, 
 or on whose account the ship sailed or the goods carried. 
 Finding then a fast sailing schooner, built in the U. S. pro- 
 ceeding to Guadaloupe, there falsely pretending to com- 
 mence a lawful voyage to Prince’s Island, but immediately 
 proceeding to a slave market, and producing no bill of sale 
 or other instrument of transfer of the property, it seemed 
 impossible to entertain any other belief, than that her origi- 
 nal character of an American vessel still belonged to her.” 
 
40 
 
 The circumstances of La Matilda, and the arguments 
 used to shew her character and object, are very similar 
 with the preceding. In addition. Lieutenant Stockton says, 
 ‘‘ When the commander of the Matilda found we had so 
 completely fixed upon him the object of his voyage, he ac- 
 knowledged that we had two good prizes, alluding to his 
 own vessel, and La Daphnee lying in company, and offered 
 to ransom La Matilda, and give a bill of exchange on St. 
 Thomas for the amount ; and Mr. Gouy, the officer found 
 in command of La Daphnee, offered to remain as a hostage 
 to secure the acceptance of the bill.” 
 
 “ I will observe, however, in further confirmation of the 
 want of integrity as respects the Matilda’s national cha- 
 racter, that only three persons of her whole crew, including 
 officers, were subjects of the French government.” 
 
 The following is stated by Lieutenant Stockton, in his 
 proofs of the character of L’Elize. “ The subsequent evi- 
 dence of her own crew, shewed that I was not mistaken 
 or misled by appearances against her. They said that 
 L’Elize had been lying some time in the Gallinas, in com- 
 pany with La jeune Eugene. It was said by them that 
 L’Elize was fitted and went to the coast for a cargo of 
 slaves, and that Captain Oliver went on shore at the Galli- 
 nas, taking in the boat with him the shackles, and what they 
 called the big boiler ; and that the schooner was sent down 
 the coast for the purpose of procuring wood and water, and 
 to lay the other deck on which the slaves were to live. It 
 was stated also by her crew, that Maristine the captain of 
 La jeune Engene was at the Gallinas also, and that he and 
 Captain Oliver had purchased some slaves before the de- 
 parture of L’Elize. 
 
 “ La Eugene was boarded and taken possession of on the 
 night of the 18th of May, 1821. She was found to be an 
 American built vessel of about 120 tons, in all respects pre- 
 pared for the reception and accommodation of slaves ; the 
 decks laid, water stowed, and gratings for the admission of 
 light and air, with a large quantity of rice and water on 
 board. The roll d’equipage shewed a crew of 21 souls, an 
 extraordinary number of men for a vessel of her class. 
 
 “ I will observe, that although in her papers it is admitted 
 that she was built in the U. S. they could not shew any le- 
 gal proof of a transfer from her original owners. Instead 
 of pursuing the direct and only voyage authorized by her 
 papers, viz. to the coast of Malaquette, she went direct to 
 the Island of St. Thomas in the West Indies. Her log book 
 distinctly states this fact, and that the crew was employed 
 
41 
 
 being Sunday 25th February, 1821, in loading the vessel, of 
 which lading, as to species or quantity, there was no account, 
 and the work was continued until the 28th following, when 
 she got under way to pursue her vo 3 -age, but to what des- 
 tination is not shown by any paper on board, nor is there 
 any document authorizing her departure from St. Thomas. 
 Here too it will be found that another name has been added to 
 the roll of equipage without any sufficient verification there- 
 of. The route of this vessel is distinctly traced by the log- 
 book, to almost the very spot in which we find her, and on 
 the 9th of April, it is noted that she was anc«hored in 10 fa- 
 thoms water off the Gallinas, where her captain and others 
 proceeded in a boat to the shore, and remained until the 
 13th, when they came back with boats and canoes and com- 
 menced landing their cargo, (what cargo ?) the cargo plainlj' 
 that was gotten at St. Thomas, and a part of which consist- 
 ing of gunpowder and muskets are now on board of her. 
 The officer in command of the vessel declares that on dis- 
 covering us, he made preparations to repel every attempt that 
 would be made to discover who or what he was; an evidence 
 sufficiently conclusive as to the nature of the business in 
 which he was engaged.” 
 
 The French minister remonstrated against the conduct of 
 Lieutenant Stockton, in making prize of these vessels which 
 he affirmed were French : only one of them arriving in the 
 United States, he demanded that she should be given up, 
 asserting, at the same time he deprecated the traffic, that it 
 was the right of the French government, to judge of the 
 conduct of its own subjects, and to punish their infractions 
 of its laws. Although the conduct of Lieutenant Stockton 
 was approved, the schooner, in compliance with the demand 
 of the French minister, was restored. 
 
 The following circular, issued from the Navy Depart- 
 ment, dated November 6, 1820, was directed to the marshals 
 and district attorneys of Maine, New- Hampshire, Massa- 
 chusetts, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jer- 
 sy, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North- 
 Carolina, South-Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana. “ In the 
 execution of the Act of Congress, approved 3d MarcJi, 1819, 
 respecting the slave trade, several oaptures of Africans have 
 been made by the cruizing vessels and revenue cutters of 
 the United States. To carry the acts of Congress int© full 
 effect, it becomes necessar)' that this department, which is 
 charged with this duty, be informed of all the cases of cap- 
 ture, and of the whole number of blacks delivered over 
 within your district, and how they are disposed of, or may 
 
42 
 
 be subject to the order of the President of the United States. 
 I request therefore, the above information as soon as conve- 
 nient.” 
 
 In reply to which, William Crawford, district attorney, 
 in a letter dated St. Stephens, Alabama, July 2, 1820, to S. 
 Thompson, Secretary of the Navy, states, “ no Africans have 
 been brought into that state since 3d March, 1819. About 
 100 captured and brought in, in May and June 1818, and in 
 the hands of the marshal.” 
 
 “New Orleans, December 13, 1820. J. Nicholson, mar- 
 shal, states, no information on the subject of blacks illegally 
 introduced into Louisiana.” 
 
 “ New York, November 13, 1820. R. Tillotson, district 
 attorney, states, schooners Endymion, Esperanza, Platts- 
 burgh and Vienna, sent in, two first condemned, and one 
 sold as violating the laws prohibiting the slave trade, the 
 others not decided.” The Plattsburgh has since been con- 
 demned. See notes of 16 Rep. A. I. 
 
 “ Baltimore, November 14, 1820. Elias Glenn, states, in- 
 formation filed against H. H. Ford, of the General Artigas, 
 for having imported 12 negroes contrary to law. Negroes 
 delivered to the marshal, 10 of them in jail, and 2 made 
 their escape.” 
 
 When vessels engaged in the slave trade have been de- 
 tained by the American cruizers, and sent into the slave- 
 holding states, there appears at once a difficulty in securing 
 the freedom to these captives which the laws of the U. S. 
 have decreed for them. Heavy charges have been produced 
 on account of the keeping of captured Africans during the 
 Intervals between their landing and re-embarkation for Afri- 
 ca or other disposition of them. These difficulties are illus- 
 trated by the following correspondence, obtained from the 
 navy department, which, while it manifests the zeal of the 
 officers of government to enforce the laws, also further de- 
 velopes the moral turpitude produced by the practice of 
 dealing in human flesh and blood. 
 
 Charleston, July 18, 1819. Thomas Parker, district at- 
 torney, after stating defects of the law in regard to a provision 
 for the support of Africans captured, or illegally imported 
 and abandoned, no claimant appearing : says, “ I have re- 
 ceived information from a person who will not be seen in 
 the business, that upwards of 100 of the same parcel (of 
 which he had previously stated 4 to be in jail, under care of 
 the marshal,) were offered to him to be conveyed into the 
 
43 
 
 country on certain conditions. I have been well informed 
 of one or two cases, in which the first party imported Afri- 
 cans contrary to law and hid them in the woods, the second 
 party robbed the first, and the third the second, and the 
 negroes could not be traced.” 
 
 In a letter from the Navy Department, dated 1st April, 
 1820, the Secretary directs (M. M‘Ilwain, j.) the marshal 
 of South Carolina, to place some Africans in his custody, at 
 service, where they will be treated with kindness and hu- 
 manity, and safely kept, until they can be removed, pursuant 
 to the act of 3d March, 1819. 
 
 From the marshal of South Carolina, Charleston, May 9, 
 1820; to the Secretary of the Navy. “ In pursuance of the 
 instructions received from your department, I have endea- 
 voured to place the Africans who are in my custody, in the 
 service of some discreet and humane person, who would 
 treat them with humanity and indulgence, and allow some- 
 thing for their labour. I have not succeeded, neither do I 
 see any prospect of succeeding, because there is no service 
 in which they could be employed, that their employer could 
 derive much advantage from their labour, at most, the ad- 
 vantage would not be equivalent to the trouble that might 
 reasonably be expected from them. Since writing the above, 
 I have received the following communication from Mr. 
 Parker.” 
 
 “ Charleston, May 13, 1820. On the subject of four Afri- 
 cans now in jail, I am willing to receive them on the follow- 
 ing conditions : I will carry them to my plantation, 16 miles 
 from this city, where I will house, clothe and feed them as 
 I do my own, but I will not agree to pay the physician’s 
 bill, nor be answerable for them, should they run away, or 
 be stolen. As to running away, it is not probable they will 
 do so, as none of my own have ever run from me. As to 
 their being stolen, there is some risk of its being done, in 
 case the importer should find out where they are, as such 
 things have already been done in Charleston, and therefore 
 the place to which they may be sent, must remain a secret. 
 But should the above Africans refuse to work or be dissa- 
 tisfied with their condition, I shall claim the right of restor- 
 ing them to you, as such conduct in the first particular would 
 injure my own slaves, and in the second I would not be 
 compensated by any little services they might perform.” 
 
 Thomas Parker. 
 
N 
 
 44 
 
 A letter to the marshal of Charleston, S. C. dated Decem- 
 ber 15, 1820, directs him to send the liberated negroes in 
 his possession to Norfolk, in order to be shipped on board 
 the brig Nautilus, for Africa, under the care of J. B. Winn 
 or E. Bacon. The number appears to have been four. 
 
 Extract of a letter from Judge William Johnson^ to the Secre- 
 tary of State, dated Charleston, S. C. June 12, 1821. 
 
 “ When I was last at Washington, I was requested by the 
 President, to furnish him with information respecting the 
 situation of the several gangs of slaves, which have been at 
 various periods introduced into Georgia. 
 
 “ The first capture by Captain Elton, consisting of about 
 130, were delivered up to the original Spanish claimant, un- 
 der a bond to transport them beyond the limits of the U. S. 
 But I am informed, and doubt not the practicability of prov- 
 ing, that whilst yet within the state of Georgia they were 
 purchased by a citizen of that state, and now residing on 
 the Savanna river ; if so, they were illegally purchased, and 
 he is liable to a heav)' penalty. 
 
 “ Not conceiving it consistent with my situation to have 
 any influence on prosecutions, until officially brought to my 
 notice, it will rest with the President, whether he will give 
 any instructions to the district attornies on the subject. I 
 should think it myself an object, to make it very unsafe for 
 our citizens to soil their hands with such purchases. The 
 slaves, it is understood, have been transported to East Flo- 
 rida, and are now there, — more probably they have been 
 smuggled back. 
 
 “ The next parcel brought into the state, were those, con- 
 cerhing which Governors Clark and Mitchel are now pub- 
 licly maintaining a discussion, of whom you will recollect 
 the state of Georgia sold a portion, and 60 or 80 still remain 
 in the hands of the constituted authorities of that state — 
 These are now in Milledgeville, and are ready to be deli- 
 vered up to the Colonizing Society upon the payment of 
 about 1200 dollars, expenses said to have been incurred by' 
 the state. This sum, the Society either has refused, or is 
 unable to refund ; or perhaps they are of opinion, that a part 
 of the money raised from the sale of the residue ought to be 
 applied to the expenses of those remaining unsold. 
 
 “The last parcel introduced, consisted of about 280 seized 
 the last year on the coast of Florida by the Revenue Cutter, 
 in a vessel called the Antelope or General Ramirez. The 
 - sickly summer carried off about 50 of them, and the rest of 
 
45 
 
 them are distributed in the neighbourhood of Savanna, to 
 various individuals, under the superintendance of the mar- 
 shal. God knows how they are treated, but we have no 
 other mode of disposing of them ; they work for their main- 
 tenance. Twenty-five of these were taken by the Artigan 
 privateer, that claims them, from on board the American 
 schooner Exchange, said to have been owned in Bristol, R. 
 Island, and found slaving on the African coast. The rest 
 were taken by the privateer from Spanish and Portuguese 
 vessels, and as the privateer was fitted out in the great offi- 
 cina, Baltimore, I have ordered them to be restored. The 
 twenty-five taken from the Exchange, I have adjudged free, 
 and they will await the orders of the Executive.” 
 
 Letter from R. W. Habersham^ District Attorney^ dated Sa- 
 vanna^ 18 th July, 1821 ; to the Secretary of State. 
 
 “ I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
 communication of the 7th of July inst. in which you state 
 that information had been received by the Executive, that 
 one hundred and thirty slaves, captured by Captain Elton, 
 were, while yet within the state of Georgia, purchased by 
 a citizen of the state of Georgia, residing on the Savanna 
 river, in violation of the 5th and 7th sections of the act of 
 Congress of 20th April, 1818, and that the facts are sus- 
 ceptible of proof, and that should I upon proper enquiry, 
 find that to be the case, I am to institute a prosecution for 
 the due execution of the law. 
 
 “ There were three cargoes captured and brought in by 
 Captain Elton, those of the Syuna, Politina, and Tentativa. 
 The then marshal having, as I understand, refused to take 
 charge of the negroes, they were delivered out on bonds. 
 Of the first cargo in the Syuna, twenty-four were delivered to 
 B. M‘Kinne, for which number he gave a bond, condition- 
 ed for the forthcoming of the negroes when an order should 
 issue from the Admiralty court to that effect. Such an or- 
 der did issvie, and fifteen of that number were delivered to 
 the agent of the claimants, and were_ by him transported to 
 Florida, as appears by affidavits and certificates filed in the 
 Admiralty. The other nine it also appears by affidavits 
 filed, died while in possession of Mr. M‘Kinne. In the 
 case of the Tentativa, B. M‘Kinne and Co. appear to have 
 been the agents of Gobel the Spanish claimant, in whose fa- 
 vour the decree went. In this case the negroes were deli- 
 vered out to sundry persons. B. M‘Kinne and Co., gave 
 their bond to account for thirty-one, the original number of 
 
46 
 
 the cargo landed being one hundred and two. It appears 
 however that M‘Kinne must have received others after- 
 wards, for the marshal returns to the attachments issued at 
 my instance out of the admiralty, that he had received out 
 of this cargo, from B. M‘Kinne, thirty-eight ; from Thomas 
 N. Morel, thirty; from N. S. Bullock, twenty-four; from 
 Boyce, one ; making ninety-three in all. The remaining 
 nine are reported dead. The ninety-three so returned to 
 the marshal were afterwards delivered to G. W. Denton, 
 one of the firm of B, M‘Kinne and Co., for transportation, 
 and it appears by certificates and affidavits, filed in the ad- 
 miralty, that they were actually landed in Florida by Den- 
 ton. In the case of the Politina, nineteen appear to have 
 been delivered to B. M‘Kinne and Co., and afterwards to 
 have been transported to Florida by them, in consequence 
 of the proceedings in the admiralty, to compel such trans- 
 portation. It then appears that M‘Kinne has actually trans- 
 ported beyond the then limits of the United States, all the 
 negroes which he received. It also appears that nearly all 
 the surviving negroes of those three cargoes, have been, un- 
 der the orders of the admiralty court, removed to Florida. 
 Certificates of the removal of the remainder have not yet 
 been furnished, the time for the return under the attach- 
 ments having been extended by the court, to enable the par- 
 ties to procure the necessary documents. This number, 
 however, is small. What private understandings may have 
 existed among the parties interested in the several cases, as 
 to the ultimate property in these negroes, it is impossible to 
 say, nor do I see any mode by which evidence could be pro- 
 cured, to establish in a court of justice, the fact of a pur- 
 chase or sale. Such arrangements are probably only known 
 to those engaged, and who would be criminated by a disclo- 
 sure. The negroes delivered to B. M‘Kinne, were as I un- 
 derstand, placed on his plantation, upwards of one hundred 
 miles from this place in the interior, and I am inclined to 
 think that the information given, is founded on a mistake, 
 arising from the circumstance, that a number of new ne- 
 groes were in possession of M‘Kinne, without the further 
 information, that they actually came into his possession un- 
 der bonds as above stated. 
 
 “ I am informed that about forty of these negroes are now 
 in Florida, in the actual possession of G. W. Denton, the 
 former partner and co-agent with M‘Kinne, of the claimants. 
 That negroes have been introduced into the state, in viola- 
 tion of the law, that such negroes have been sold, that there 
 has been illegal trafficking in those brought in by Captain 
 
47 
 
 Elton, are facts, of which there can be but little doubt. At 
 the same time I would remark, that the gentlemen who re- 
 ceived the negroes of the Tentativa, and whose names are 
 above mentioned, appear to have acted fairly and honour- 
 ably, in the re-delivery of the negroes in their possession to 
 the marshal under the orders of the court. Notwithstand- 
 ing the belief which prevails, that the laws of the United 
 States have been violated in the partipulars above specified, 
 yet there never has been an affidavit delivered into my of- 
 fice to that effect. A great majority of the people are, no 
 doubt, opposed in principle to the slave trade, and the offi- 
 cers of the government here, would act with promptitude 
 and zeal in its suppression, if such information could be 
 procured as would authorize them to act.” 
 
 Extract of a letter from Richard IV. Habersham., District 
 
 Attorney^ dated 17th August., 1821 , to the Secretary of the 
 
 Navy. 
 
 “ It appears to be almost impossible to enforce the laws 
 of the Unitred States against offenders (alluding to those en- 
 gaged in the illegal importation of slaves,) after the negroes 
 have been landed in the state, particularly in this neighbour- 
 hood, where so many of the cargo of the Ramirez are out 
 upon bond, and daily about the streets of the city. For 
 they so soon learn the language and become assimilated in 
 every respect to the other negroes, that it is almost impossi- 
 ble in a very short time to discriminate between them. 
 Hence, unless the detection is made at the moment of land- 
 ing, it is almost hopeless to expect that it will be made af- 
 terwards.” • 
 
 “ A letter from John H. Morell, marshal, dated Savanna, 
 September 29 , 1821 , states that sixteen of the crew of the. 
 Ramirez, and two belonging to other vessels, were ready 
 for delivery to the President of the United States. A let- 
 ter from the Navy Department, dated April 8 , 1822 , directs 
 J. H. Morell, to send all the captured Africans in his pos- 
 session to Norfolk or Baltimore ; the latter to be preferred, 
 in order that they may be re-exported to Africa. They ap- 
 pear, eighteen in number, to have been sent to Baltimore, 
 and the marshal is authorized by letter dated May 4, 1822 , 
 to deliver them to the agent of the Colonization Society, and 
 pay their passage, ten dollars each, the amount of which 
 shall be repaid upon producing the receipt. ” 
 
48 
 
 Navy Department, March 28th, 1823: to R. W. Haber- 
 sham, District Attorney, Georgia. “ The Honourable 
 Judge Johnson has directed in relation to the Africans now 
 in the custody of the marshal of Georgia, that as the decree 
 of the court below was in favour of the claimants, they were 
 entitled to the preference of taking them on bond, but that 
 he should make the order in the alternative ; viz,, that if the 
 bond was not given in a limited time, the said Africans 
 should be delivered to my order. Be pleased to attend to 
 this matter, and as early as practicable, have the Africans 
 delivered to W. C. Daniell, Esq. conformably with the in- 
 structions given to you the 21st January last.” 
 
 R. W. Habersham’s reply, dated 17th April, 1823. “Your 
 communication relative to the disposition of the Africans of 
 the cargo of the General Ramirez, has been received. The 
 claimants having complied with the order of Judge Johnson, 
 by giving the bonds required within the time specified, the 
 negroes were all delivered to them or their agents. The al- 
 ternative of the order therefore cannot be eflFected.” 
 
 An attempt having been made by the government of the 
 United States, to form a settlement on the African coast for 
 the reception of capture^ negroes, the result, so far as it was 
 then known, will be seen by the following extract of an ac- 
 count of its commencement and progress drawn up by D. E. 
 Ayres, the present agent for liberated Africans, viz : 
 
 To the Honourable Smith Thompson^ Secretary of the Navy 
 of the United States. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 “ In pursuance of the authority vested in him by an act 
 passed the 3d day of March, 1819, in addition to an act for 
 the suppression of the slave trade, the president of the Unit- 
 ed States proceeded to appoint two agents to reside on the 
 coast of Africa; there to receive and provide for all cap- 
 tured Africans, who might be delivered into their custody 
 by cruizers of the United States, or who might be returned 
 to that country, having been ‘ seized, captured, or brought 
 into the United States,’ under the provision of that act. 
 
 “The ship Elizabeth sailed from New-York on the 6th of 
 February, 1820, carrying out the Rev. Samuel Bacon, prin- 
 cipal agent, and John P. Bankson, assistant agent, appointed 
 by the president, with thirty effective labourers and mecha- 
 nics, their wives and children, to be employe din this work. 
 I'he special instructions delivered to Mr. Bacon, are not 
 
49 
 
 now in the possession of your agent ; but in pursuance of 
 the instruction he received, he proceeded to Sierra Leone, 
 and after obtaining an experienced pilot, and procuring all 
 the information of the coast in his power, he determined to 
 elFect_a temporary settlement at Sherbro. 
 
 “ He proceeded with the ship Elizabeth and the schooner 
 Augusta, which he had found it necessary to purchase ; and 
 on the 18th of March, 1820, came to an anchor about twen- 
 . t)'-three miles from Sherbro ; being as near as the pilot 
 thought advisable to approach the shore. A temporary re- 
 sidence was obtained of John Kizell at Canpalar ; and nego- 
 ciations were opened with the kings and head men for a 
 tract of land on the river Bagroo. Prospects of obtaining a 
 permanent settlement being so favourable, Mr. Bacon pro- 
 ceeded to discharge the cargo and dismiss the ship Eliza- 
 beth. Unfortunately for the cause, both the agents, a mid- 
 shipman and seven sailors, sent from the.U. S. ship Cyane, 
 to their relief, together with several of the labourers, fell 
 victims to the bad water, and confined situation of the place, 
 soon after landing. By the death of Mr. Bacon, the nego- 
 ciations for the Bagroo tract were interrupted, and after re- 
 peated trials by the subsequent agents entirely failed. 
 
 “Daniel Coker, a coloured man, on the death of Mr. Bacon, 
 had become invested with the agency for captured Africans, 
 and had all authority in his own hands. After long and re- 
 peated exertions to get a grant of lands from the natives, 
 some time previous to the 25th of September, of the same 
 year, he embarked in the Augusta, with such of the labour- 
 ers as put sufficient confidence in him to follow his fortunes, 
 and proceeded to Sierra Leone. He took with him great 
 part of the provisions, clothing, and merchantable articles, 
 that were left in his charge at the death of Mr. Bacon. 
 
 “ When Coker left the Sherbro for Sierra Leone, the la- 
 bourers were left without an agent, and nearly destitute of 
 provisions or clothing; sick, dispirited, and almost de- 
 , spairing of any further assistance from this country. Some 
 of them believing the object that brought them out to be 
 entirely abandoned, proposed dividing the property left by 
 Coker in the storehouse, among themselves; and each one 
 seeking the best accommodations he might find aitiong the 
 the natives. The preservation of the property which re- 
 mained at this time, is owing to the prudent conduct, princi- 
 pally, of Elijah Johnson, and Joseph Blake, two of the co- 
 loured labourers ; who stepped forward to protect it and 
 preserve order, until they should be relieved from their diffi- 
 culties by an arrival, anxiously hoped for, from this country. 
 
 G 
 
50 
 
 
 They appointed magistrates, instituted regulations, and 
 maintained order, until they were timely relieved by the ar- 
 rival of Mr. Winm The people were then transported to 
 Fourah Bay, with great part of the property. On my arri- 
 val at that place in November of the same year, finding that 
 some of the property still remained at Sherbro, I despatched 
 the schooner Augusta, and brought away all that could be 
 found. 
 
 “ Information having been received of the death of the 
 agents, and the failure of the attempt to carry the law into 
 execution in Africa ; it being necessary to appoint other 
 agents, to procure a residence and to carry out five captured 
 Africans, who had been delivered over by the goverhment 
 to be returned to their native land ; Mr. J. B. Winn, and 
 Mr. E. Bacon, were appointed for that purpose, and sailed 
 from Norfolk in January 1821, with twenty-eight effective 
 labourers and their families, and the above mentioned five 
 captured Africans in addition to the labourers and mecha- 
 nics before taken out ; with instructions ‘ to proceed to the 
 coast of Africa, and upon landing at or near Sierra Leone, 
 to ascertain the state of the persons who were left at Sher- 
 bro the preceding year, and afford them such relief as their 
 circumstances might require, and then proceed to make an 
 establishment either in Sherbro, or upon such parts of the 
 coast as shall appear to be most eligible for the purposes 
 contemplated by their appointment.’ 
 
 “ In pursuance of these orders the agents lost no time 
 after arriving in Sierra Leone, in gaining an interview with 
 the colonial authorities of Freetown, and after a free and 
 candid exposition of the wishes and views of the agents, 
 which was as fully and frankly met on the other part ; the 
 agents agreed to relinquish all claim on the Bagroo, on 
 condition of having accorded to them, fora reasonable com- 
 pensation, a suitable reception for the labourers arid mecha- 
 nics, and liberty to land the property and reship it again, free 
 of duty, when a suitable situation should be obtained. These 
 preliminaries being entered into, and a place selected at 
 Fourah Bay, the property was landed. The agents then 
 turned t^ieir attention to the examination of the coast, and 
 selection of a more suitable situation for a permanent set- 
 tlement. Mr. Bacon, and the Rev. J. R. Andrews, were 
 selected for that duty, and finally entered into a contract 
 with the natives of Grand Bassa, for a tract of country in 
 that vicinity. Shortly after the return of Bacon and Andrews 
 from down the coast, Mr. Bacon was attacked with the fever 
 of the season, and returned to the United States. Mr. and 
 
51 
 
 
 Mrs, Winn, soon fell victims to their indefatigable exertions 
 in the duties of their office, the whole of which then devolved 
 upon C. Wiltberger, who had taken passage in the Nauti- 
 lus, as sub-agent of the Colonization Society. In this la- 
 mentable state were affairs found by your present agent, 
 when he arrived at Fourah Bay, in the capacity of physician 
 to the captured Africans, and agent of the Colonization So- 
 ciety. From the death of Mr. Winn, on the 25th of August, 
 1821, Mr. Wiltberger continued to act as agent for govern- 
 ment until the 2d of April, 1822, when the whole duties de- 
 volved on your present agent. 
 
 “ Our stock of clothing and most articles of provision had 
 been either exhausted or spoiled, and we were under the ne- 
 cessity of purchasing in Freetown. 
 
 “ Finding upon my arrival at Fourah Ba)’, your agent 
 dead, and his successor unable from four months indisposi- 
 tion, to perform the duties devolving upon him, and the ul- 
 timate object of the expedition unattained, I did not hesitate 
 what course to pursue. Perusing the instructions given by 
 you to Mr. Winn, I found it had been made his duty on 
 landing at Sierra Leone, ‘to ascertain the actual state of 
 
 * those persons who were left at Sherbro during the early 
 ‘ part of the present year, (1820) and offer them such relief 
 
 * as their circumstances may require. You will then proceed 
 ‘ to make an establishment, either in Sherbro or upon such 
 ‘ other part of the coast as shall appear to be most eligible 
 ‘ for the purposes contemplated by your appointment. In 
 ‘ making an establishment at Sherbro, or elsewhere, as cir- 
 ‘ cumstances shall point to be most expedient ; the first ob- 
 ‘ject of your attention will be, to make the necessary and 
 ‘ amicable arrangements with the government of the coun- 
 ‘ try, or such other place as you may select, and a full and 
 ‘ candid exposition of all the objects contemplated ; in which 
 ‘ you will be guarded against possible deception or bad faith ; 
 ‘ and then proceed to make preparation for buildings to shel- 
 ‘ ter captured Africans, and to afford them comfort and pro- 
 ‘ tection, until they can be otherwise disposed of, and also to 
 ‘ procure permission to cultivate a certain portion of land 
 ‘ contiguous to their barracks, to raise corn and vegetables, 
 ‘ and such other articles as may be necessary and useful.’ 
 
 “ Accordingly, on the arrival of Lieutenant R. F. Stock- 
 ton, who was authorized to co-operate in accomplishing the 
 object of the expedition, I proceeded in company with him 
 down the coast, and on the 15th day of December, 1821, 
 succeeded in accomplishing the long desired object, of pro- 
 curing an establishment for captured Africans. It now re- 
 mained to remove the labourers to the place selected, and to 
 
erect buildings, and to carry into effect the other objects 
 contemplated in the instructions to the agents. To aid in 
 the prosecution of these objects, Lieutenant Stockton was so 
 good as to detach H. D. Hunter and four men, to take 
 charge of the vessel to be engaged in removing the people 
 and goods. 
 
 “ On the 1st day of January, 1822, we dropped the vessel 
 down with the labourers on board to Freetown, where w'e 
 procured the necessary provisions and presents for the kings ; 
 to pay for the use of the land, and the next day sailed for 
 the settlement at Montserado, now called Liberia. Several 
 of the labourers taken out from the U. S. had died, others 
 had become naturalized in the British settlement, and some 
 were discharged for laziness and misconduct ; so that 19 
 effective labourers were all who now remained, to carry into 
 effect the objects of our mission. After we had got pos- 
 session, our labourers were engaged in clearing the land ; 
 and nearly all the goods were removed and stored on the 
 Island of Persuareas. I returned to Fourah Bay to settle 
 the accounts, and bring down the remainder of the property 
 and people. During my absence while at Freetown, a most 
 disastrous affair happened to our labourers at the cape.” 
 [Here follows an account of the attack made by the natives 
 upon the settlers.] 
 
 “This unfortunate affair made it necessary that I should re- 
 turn to Freetown and procure supplies sufficient to last the 
 labourers, until I could return to the U. S. and lay their 
 pressing demands before the government. On the 18th 
 day of May last, Mr. J. Ashman sailed in the brig Strong, 
 with 16 captured Africans, and sufficient supplies for six 
 months ; and about 30 persons of colour with their wives 
 took passage with him. 
 
 “ The objects contemplated in the President’s message 
 to congress, on the 17th of December, 1819, are now so far 
 accomplished, as that a settlement is established on the coast 
 of Africa, where the captured Africans may be returned in 
 safety, and a shelter provided for those who were taken out 
 in the brig Nautilus ; but it still remains to provide a shelter 
 for those 16 who went out in the brig Strong ; and it would 
 also be expedient to have a shelter in readiness for such as 
 may be sent out in future. There are now at Montserado 
 under charge of the government, 20 captured Africans, 30 
 labourers, some of them with their families. 
 
 “ It will be remembered that when Mr. Bacon was ap- 
 pointed the first agent, under the law for the suppression of 
 the slave trade, and for providing for captures on the coast 
 of Africa, he was authorized to take out with him that num- 
 
53 
 
 ber of labourers and women, for the purpose of enabliug 
 him to erect houses for the agents, and the public goods, 
 and provisions, and for the reception and accommodation of 
 the captives, that might be placed under his charge. His 
 successors, and my predecessors in the agency, found it ne- 
 cessary to keep up the same number of persons for this ser- 
 vice, because the work for which they were thus engaged 
 has never been accomplished, and for the same reason, I 
 have considered it necessarv to continue them. The erec- 
 tion of these houses, and other necessary measures of pre- 
 paration, were never commenced at Sherbro (the first place 
 of settlement selected by Mr. Bacon) on account of the death 
 of the U. S. agents ;](the mortality among the people, and 
 their unavoidable removal from the place, as heretofore com- 
 municated by the agents. 
 
 “ The terms on which they were originally engaged, and 
 on which they are still continued, are merely to provide for 
 their support during the period of their engagement to la- 
 bour. The situation of these captives and labourers, if their 
 provisions were to fail, would be very deplorable. They 
 have not yet had time to make a crop, nor are bread and 
 other necessaries to be had, but by going to Sierra Leone, 
 and they are without a vessel or any means of sending there, 
 and the articles could only be procured there at an extrava- 
 gant price. 
 
 “ I have the honour to be. 
 
 Your obedient humble servant, 
 
 E. AYRES, Ag-ent, C. A” 
 
 “ Washington, January 15 , 1823 .” 
 
 Having taken a cursory view of the slave trade as con- 
 ducted by Europeans and Americans, it remains to give a 
 condensed statement of the cruelties and carnage which ac- 
 company the procurement of slaves, and their passage to the 
 place of destination ; and to exhibit the benefits derived to 
 those who have been happily rescued from the merciless 
 fangs of their brutal captors, by being placed in a situation 
 to become acquainted with agriculture and the mechanic arts. 
 It has been proved, on the best authority, that famine, de- 
 vastation, and continual warfare, undertaken for the sole 
 purpose of procuring prisoners, were the inevitable conse- 
 quences of the presence of slave ships on the coast of Af- 
 rica, and that the Europeans not only were witnesses of this 
 spectacle of desolation, but furnished the arms, nourished 
 the hatred, and fomented the discord which produced it. It 
 has been proved on the most convincing evidence, that the 
 
54 
 
 demand for slaves, had the fatal effect of developing and ex- 
 citing every vice and every evil passion among these na- 
 tions, of perverting their rude institutions, and poisoning 
 their domestic relations. The petty tyrants of those coun- 
 tries were daily induced to condemn indiscriminately whole 
 families for trivial or imaginary crimes, with the sole object 
 of obtaining possession of their persons, and exchanging 
 them for such articles as the trader offered in barter ; to 
 station their soldiers in ambush on the roads, with orders 
 to rush on the unarmed traveller, and load him with chains ; 
 to attack at night, and without previous notice, villages 
 sunk in sleep, dragging into slavery men, women, and chil- 
 dren, of an age suited to their purpose, and mercilessly 
 butchering the old men and infants. See Due de Broglio’s 
 speech, 16th Report A, I. 267. 
 
 The renewal of the traffic in human beings on the Wind- 
 ward coast, must be viewed by every friend to humanity 
 with deep regret, accompanied as that renewal has been, with 
 cruel wars amongst the hitherto peaceful natives. 
 
 Numerous slave factories are established on various parts 
 of the coast by the French, Spanish, and Portuguese, where 
 the slaves are collected and purchased as brought in until 
 the cargo is complete. Although in their hovels or yards 
 their suffering is mild compared with that on the passage, 
 yet penetrated with grief at the thought of being finally se- 
 parated from all they held most dear, and fdled with gloomy 
 forebodings of the rigours of an interminable servitude, 
 the situation of the poor negroes is calculated to awaken 
 the tenderest sympathies, where repeated crime has not ren- 
 dered the heart callous by extinguishing every spark of hu- 
 manity. A person residing at Senegal, writing from St. 
 Louis, says, “No one in the town is ignorant, that there are 
 here 600 wretched creatures, shut up in the slave yards, and 
 doomed to be transported to America by the first opportunity. 
 Of these, 150 belong to a house of Nantes. The delay which 
 has occurred, causing a serious expense, they receive only 
 what is sufficient to keep them alive ; and they are made to 
 go out for a short space of time in the morning and evening, 
 loaded with irons, to breathe the fresh air, of which they 
 stand in need. Parties of these unhappy persons are to be 
 seen in the streets ; and I have m)"self encountered several, 
 dragging themselves along with difficulty, being restrained 
 of their fetters which prevented them from advancing more 
 than a few inches at a time. I have ^een more than one thus 
 chained in the open day, in the court yard of some public 
 functionaries. If you knew all the infamous transactions 
 
55 
 
 or rather all the crimes, which the thirst of gold produces 
 in this country, you would scarcely credit such atrocities. 
 White men, officers of the government, have been seen 
 causing the blacks to be hunted even in the streets of St. 
 Louis ; that is to say, causing blacks, either slave or free, 
 to be seized and carried off to the coast, where a ship was 
 in waiting for them. In one instance, a black having been 
 kidnapped in this manner, the next day his mother hastened 
 to offer a sum of money for his liberation. The honest 
 white took the money, and two days after, both mother and 
 son were shipped off for America. The latter, indignant 
 at the outrage, stabbed himself, saying, ‘ Thou white man, 
 devourer of blacks, I cannot revenge myself upon thee, but 
 by depriving thee of mj' person.’” 13th Report A. I. p. 99. 
 
 “ Lieutenant Hagan describes the town of Cacheo as the 
 most wretched slave factory he ever visited. The low, damp, 
 and confined cells for the slaves were loathsome in the ex- 
 treme, many' of them being below the high tide mark of 
 the river. The swamps and stagnant pools immediately in 
 the rear of the town, render Cacheo assuredly' the most un- 
 healthy place that can be imagined ; but this is not sufficient 
 to deter the slave traders, who generally lose one half of 
 , their crews, frequently all their Europeans.’? Sierra Leone 
 G. 1822. 
 
 On the arrival of a vessel, the supercargo lands with the 
 goods which have been selected to suit the market, and 
 through the agency of a factor, circulars are despatched to 
 the neighbouring kings, acquainting them of his arrival, and 
 that he has a handsome assortment of goods which he wishes 
 to dispose of for slaves in a given number of days. They 
 immediately flock to the depot with their slaves, which they 
 exchange for goods at the rate of 100 bars per head ; in the 
 mean time, the ves-sel is preparing rice, wood and water, and 
 when the slaves are collected, they are all embarked in one 
 day : the same night the vessel puts to sea, and if not cap- 
 tured during the first night, or prevented by' the weather, 
 they generally succeed in getting off. At the present pe- 
 riod, a slave vessel receives a full cargo on her arrival, in less 
 than one third of the time vessels were formerly detained. 
 Cargoes are sometimes collected from different places, in which 
 case, canoes and canoe-men are hired to transport them to 
 the vessel, or to some convenient spot, until a full cargo is 
 in readiness, when a few hours only are required to ship 
 them. In a communication made to the British Commis- 
 sioners at Sierra Leone, by a trader of known observation 
 and intelligence, he states, Mr. M‘Coy, the master of our 
 
56 
 
 schooner, saw 550 slaves marched from the old French fort 
 (where Cha Cha, the chief slaver resides) to the beach in one 
 day, and from thence put on board one of the brigs the fol- 
 lowing night. One corvette had sailed a few days before 
 our arrival with upwards of 800 on board. Two of the cor- 
 vettes were chiefly manned with American sailors, but 
 shewed no flag ; the other was Spanish, the Minerva. She 
 came to Accra when I was there, and took on board 150 
 in one night from Accra, the Caboceer of the Dutch Town. 
 I afterwards saw 125 slaves in one house, all in irons, sit- 
 ting in three rows upon the floor. At Tradetown we met a 
 French brig and schooner, the brig direct from Nantes, with 
 a cargo for 400 ; the captain had his goods on shove, and 
 was purchasing his cargo at the slave house on the beach, 
 not daring as usual to trust king Wise at his town in the 
 bush. However, his majesty had, the morning I went up 
 to his town, brought in thirty-five prisoners, whom his peo- 
 ple had caught the evening before in a small town in the in- 
 terior, and who were intended for this vessel.” 16th Report 
 A. I. p. 70. 
 
 The manner in which most of the American slavers carry 
 on their trade is this ; they sail from the U. S. to some port 
 in Cuba, with a cargo of blue and white cottons, India checks, 
 nankin, powder, tobacco, &c. where they make a sham sale of 
 the vessel, for the purpose of procuringa set of Spanish papers. 
 The officers make oath that the cargo, entitled to debenture, 
 has been landed, and procure the requisite certificates, 
 whilst every article has remained untouched onboard. They 
 then take on board a Spaniard, who passes for the captain, 
 though perhaps this is his first voyage to sea, hoist the 
 Spanish flag, and proceed to the coast of Africa, north of the 
 line^ keeping three log books, two in Spanish, one true and 
 the other false, and one in English. Having obtained their 
 human cargo, and escaped the vigilance of the cruizers oh 
 the coast, the next plan is to arrange the logbook to be pro- 
 duced in Cuba, which must shew that the slaves were ship- 
 ]>ed south of the line, and the vessel with her cargo is then 
 admitted to entry. When overhauled by the English or 
 Patriot privateers, they exhibit American papers, and when 
 by the Americans, Spanish papers, by which means many 
 escape capture and condemnation. See letter from Cape de 
 Verds, dated May 29, 1820, published in the Boston Pa- 
 triot a few months after. 
 
 The following significant extracts of a correspondence, 
 dated Isle of Bourbon, and found on board “ Le Succes” 
 are a striking delineation of the probity and veracity of a 
 
57 
 
 slave captain and his crew. The vessel performed quaran- 
 tine, though the slaves had been landed and disposed of. 
 The captain says, “ All the crew have been confined on 
 board, with two soldiers of the garrison. On the 13th after 
 our arrival, I obtained permission to proceed on shore. The 
 harbour master had orders to accompany me to a justice of 
 the peace, by whom I, as well as the officers and crew, were 
 examined on oath. The crew had been previously tutored., 
 and they all answered very properly. [There can be no 
 doubt that this proper answer which the officers and crew 
 were instructed to make was a direct falsehood.] We there- 
 fore entertain the greatest hope that we shall get safely 
 through all these unpleasant proceedings. We have the laws 
 in our favour ; but great delay is caused in my operations ; 
 the cargo, however, is safe, thank God !” “ We were not 
 
 taken in the fact, therefore they cannot condemn us. All the 
 judges are colonists, who have themselves purchased ne- 
 groes belonging to our cargo, and therefore ive are perfectly 
 easy, and you may be so too.” “ I shall transmit you by 
 the first opportunity my statement of trading transactions, 
 which, however, will not be very specific, from the circum- 
 stance of my having been under the necessity of burning my 
 waste book and journal, our instructions, invoices, and even 
 your letters, which came to hand on our arrival at Bourbon, 
 and the letters from our families, lieing apprehensive of a 
 search on board. We even sunk in the roads our caboose, 
 and the copper boilers for the negroes, and the iron fetters : 
 but we may easily recover them.” “ You will herewith re- 
 ceive the account of sales of the merchandize sold at Bourbon, 
 and that of the negroes. It unfortunately happened that I 
 found four large Spanish ships engaged in the trade ; but for 
 this adverse circumstance, I might have procured near 400 
 negroes. The Success takes her departure to-morrow for St. 
 Paul’s, to sweep for the copper boilers, and the negroes’ ca- 
 boose, &c. On the 30th I will rejoin her in order to pro- 
 ceed to sea. At length our miseries are over. The Isle of 
 Bourbon has cost us dear. It must not be dwelt upon. If 
 I should only have the good fortune of introducing 250 ne- 
 groes into the Havanna, we shall be freed from all our mi- 
 series. God grant it may be so.” I6th Report A. I. p. 149. 
 
 As the slave trade is now generally prohibited by those go- 
 vernments, whose subjects or citizens are engaged in its 
 prosecution, it appears to be carried on in a manner more 
 abhorrent to the feelings of humanity, and more destructive 
 to its victims, than before those prohibitory laws were enacted. 
 While the trade was tolerated, the abuses, however enor- 
 
58 
 
 mous, were subjected to some control, from which the trader 
 who now pursues his traffic in defiance of national, as well 
 as moral restiaint, is totally free. The number of negroes 
 which each slave ship was allowed to transport, could then 
 be adapted to her burden ; the maintenance of these poor- 
 creatures in a certain degree could be provided for, and they 
 more or less protected from the barbarity of their tyrants. 
 In order to conceive, if possible, some idea of the horrors of 
 the middle passage, it will be useful to recur to a section of 
 a slave ship, published by the committee in London in the 
 year 1789, and frequently printed since in Clarkson’s His- 
 tory of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Here the unhappy 
 victims are exhibited stowed so closely, as to leave scarcely 
 any part of the floor uncovered. Their situation, when thus 
 confined in a sultry climate, loaded with heavy irons, and 
 depressed with the prospect of a hopeless captivity, must be 
 deplorable indeed. This representation too, it must be re- 
 membered, is according to the regulations established by Sir 
 William Dolbin’s bill, assigning three men to two tons bur- 
 den of the ship. Now the traffic is entirely prohibited, the 
 risk induces the slavers to crowd the negroes into their ves- 
 sels in much greater numbers, and to compel them by stripes 
 and cruel tortures to continue in this intolerable situation, 
 unless disease and death should thin their ranks. When 
 closely pursued by armed cruizers, they have been even 
 thrown overboard, as contraband goods ; and when rendered 
 useless to their captors by disease, they have been cast into 
 the sea, as damaged goods subject to average. In a letter 
 written by an officer on board the British ship Tartar, on the 
 coast of Africa, printed in the London Courier September 
 3d, 1821, after stating the capture of two slave vessels at 
 Bonny, he says, “ If you could judge what 400 people would 
 suffer in the between-decks of a Margate hoy, not above 
 three feet six inches high, you may form some opinion of 
 the necessity there was for removing a considerable number 
 of these wretched beings to the deck of the Tartar, and 
 liberating them from their horrid slave rooms, and from the 
 confinement in irons as soon as possible. One of the slave 
 vessels captured, had been completed in her cargo of human 
 misery only two days, and was waiting a favourable wind to 
 clear the shoals, and yet there were more than thirty cases 
 of the very last stage of dysentery. The dying and the dead 
 were mingled together. The women were comparatively 
 comfortable, and yet there were nearly 100 confined in a 
 space not 4 feet high, nor above 16 feet by 9 to sleep in. I 
 can speak to these facts, as I measured every part of these 
 vessels. Their tubs shewed they were not exempt from the 
 
59 
 
 dreadful disease which had already commenced amongst the 
 men, and which the nature of slave food with impure water 
 invariably produces. Nothing can be supposed more hor- 
 rid, than the treatment and condition of the slaves on their 
 passage from Africa. Fever and dysentery let loose, the 
 hatches scarcely open to admit sufficient air even to prevent 
 immediate suffocation ! Perhaps you will hesitate in be- 
 lieving, that the thermometer which stood in the shade at 
 85, rose immediately at the entrance of the slave room to 
 110, and at last to 115 degrees.” Nat. Int. Oct. 27, 1821. 
 
 Sir William Dolbin’s bill, as we have stated, provided 
 that not more than three persons should be carried to every 
 two tons burden of the ship : let the following cases, laid 
 before parliament by direction of the Prince Regent in 1819, 
 be compared with this provision. The Venus Havannera, 
 180 tons, her cargo according to W Dolbin’s bill would 
 be 270 slaves ; the number actually carried was 530, very 
 nearly 6 to every 2 tons. The Manilla of 272 tons, legal 
 complement 410, number carried 642. The Nueva Con- 
 stitucion, 30 tons burden, with 81 slaves, and several others 
 enumerated p. 72. 13th Report A. I. 
 
 From the testimony of an eye witness, it appears that on 
 board the schooner Aglae, of the registered burthen of only 
 40 tons, with a hold, by actual measurement, not 3 feet high, 
 were stowed 70 men, chained together in pairs ; 22 young 
 women, and about 60 children, all in a state of perfect naked- 
 ness. The only care seemed to have been, to pack them as 
 close as possible ; and tarpaulin was placed over tarpaulin, 
 in order to give the vessel the appearance of being laden 
 with a well stowed cargo of cotton and rice. 9th Report 
 A. I. p. 86. 
 
 “ The Novo Felicidada of 11 tons burden, had 71 human 
 beings crowded in her hold. Their sufferings, surpassing in 
 cruelty if possible, all former example, are related as fol- 
 lows in the l’4th Report A. I. 
 
 “ Captain Kelly of his Majesty’s ship Pheasant, captured 
 on the 30th of July last, in lat. 2° 23' north, long. 9° 50' 
 east, a Portuguese schooner, called the Novo Felicidada, 
 belonging to Prince’s Island, having on board 70 slaves, 
 and a crew consisting of 1 master and 10 sailors. This ves- 
 sel measured only 11 tons ! She was carried by Captain 
 Kelly to Sierra Leone for adjudication, and his judicial de- 
 claration contains the following statement : “ I do further 
 declare, that the state in which these unfortunate creatures 
 were found, is shocking to every principle of humanity ; 
 17 men shackled together in pairs by the legs, and 20 boys 
 one »n the other in the main hold ; a space measuring 18 
 
60 
 
 iect in length, 7 leet 8 inches main breadtli, and I foot 8 
 inches in height, and under them the yams for their support. 
 One of these unfortunate creatures was in the last stage of 
 d}'sentcry, whose natural evacuations ran involuntarily from 
 him amongst the yams, creating effluvia too shocking for 
 description. The appearance of the slaves when released 
 from their irons, was most distressing ; scarcely any of 
 them could stand on their legs, from cramp and evident 
 starvation. The space allowed for the females, 34 in num- 
 ber, was even more contracted than that for the men, mea- 
 suring only 9 feet 4 inches in length, 4 feet 8 inches main 
 breadth, and 2 feet 7 inches in height ; but not being con- 
 fined in irons, and perhaps allowed during the day to come 
 on deck, they did not present so distressing an appearance 
 as the men.” 
 
 From the statements of facts of the character here exhi- 
 bited, there can be no difficulty in adopting the sentiment of 
 Sir G. R. Collier, “that the crews of slave vessels are be- 
 “ 5 'ond all question, from the captain to the cabin boy, the 
 “ vilest and most depraved class of human beings. In my 
 “ belief, there is not a crime they consider one, and there- 
 “ fore whenever a prospect of robbery with impunity offers, 
 “ I can have no doubt any one of the crew of a slave ves- 
 “ sel would never for a moment hesitate.” In contending 
 with the present restrictions upon the trade, perjurj' is very 
 commonly resorted to, and by the following instance, we 
 see they do not stop to commit immediate murder, when 
 circumstances of the case in their opinion require it. “ The 
 
 schooner Don Morales master, arrived in the Rio 
 
 Pongos during the month of August last (1821), where she 
 took on board 260 slaves, and sailed in the beginning of 
 September for Havanna. Our informant states, that the 
 master (Morales), when trading for his cargo, exhibited 
 many instances of a ferocity of character towards his slaves ; 
 but it appears that after leaving the river, his cruelty had its 
 full scope. The number of slaves on board being quite dis- 
 proportionate to the stowage of the schooner, he was obliged 
 from the first to issue short rations of water and rice, in 
 co-nsequence of which, some discontent w^as manifested by 
 the slaves. Morales, deaf to their wants, by way of punish- 
 ment, kept them all below for three days without food of 
 any kind, and with a barbarity unparalleled, except amongst 
 slave dealers, discharged all the fire-arms in his vessel into 
 the hold upon the poor victims, bound down and fastened to 
 each other with chains. Some of the sailors presumed to 
 interfere ; but this barbarian silenced their clamour, by cut- 
 ting off the head of the most forward with his sabre. He 
 
61 
 
 then made sail again for the Rio Pongos, where with the as- 
 sistance of the slave factors, he got every thing put to rights, 
 took in slaves to supply the number killed, and again sailed 
 for the Havanna. The above facts are from the mouth of 
 Morales himself ; and we feel it unnecessary to offer any 
 further comments upon them.” Royal Gazette, Sierra Leone, 
 I6th Report A. I. p. 185. 
 
 It will appear by the following cases furnished in reply to 
 the query addressed by Viscount Castlereagh to the African 
 Institution, “ whether the trade has been conducted with pe- 
 culiar inhumanity and waste of life by these illicit traders,” 
 that from one quarter to one third of the cargo usually 
 perishes either on ship board, or soon after landing, by the 
 diseases and hardships of the voyage. 
 
 “Of the 530 slaves carried off. in the Venus Havannera, 
 when captured on her passage to the Havanna and carried 
 into Tortola, the mortality was found to be 120. 
 
 “The deaths in the Manilla of 642 slaves, on the passage 
 to the West Indies previous to her capture, amounted to 
 140. 
 
 “ The Gertrudes, a ship sailing under the Spanish flag, took 
 on board 600 slaves. This ship was taken while yet on the 
 African coast, and brought to Sierra Leone for adjudication ; 
 but notwithstanding the short time that had elapsed since 
 the slaves were taken on board, such was the dreadful state 
 of crowding, that about 200 died before the ship was brought 
 in, or within a short time after arrival ; many even of those 
 who survived, were so debilitated by their sufferings, as 
 never to be likely to enjoy sound health. 
 
 “ Maria Priemeira, took on board 500 slaves. This num- 
 ber was reduced to 403 by extreme crowding before she was 
 brought into Sierra Leone, and nearly 100 more died soon 
 after, in consequence of diseases contracted on board. 
 
 “ Portuguese brig San Antonio of 120 tons, took on board 
 600 slaves. When captured, although she had only sailed 
 80 leagues, 30 slaves had already died, and many more 
 w'ere found to be in a dying state. When the capturing of- 
 ficer first went on board the slave ship, he found a dead 
 body in a state of absolute putridity, lying among the sick. 
 
 “The Spanish brig Carlos under 200 tons burthen, took on 
 board 512 negroes in addition to a crew of 84. About 80 
 slaves died previous to her capture, and the rest were in a 
 most deplorable state. Many more instances might be added, 
 but these may be considered as exhibiting the ordinary rate 
 of mortality on board the ships engaged in this illicit slave 
 trade.” 13th Report A. I. p. 72, 73. 
 
 t 
 
62 
 
 Although these facts are not of so recent a date as many 
 others adduced, yet they are equally conclusive, as the trade 
 carried on under similar circumstances, must be at all times 
 marked with similar destruction of life. 
 
 Here let us pause for a moment, and reflect upon the melan- 
 choly picture of distress which these facts exhibit. Let us open 
 our hearts, and give place for awhile to the tender emotions 
 of sympathy and love. Let us place ourselves and our helpless 
 families in the miserable situation of these unprotected, these 
 unoffending people, and then say whether as men and as Chris- 
 tians, we are not bound by all the ties of humanity, as well 
 as by every obligation of religious duty, to raise our voice, 
 and to exert our influence in their behalf ! But although the 
 feeling mind, in examining the foregoing statements, will 
 necessarily be impressed lyith strong sensations of indigna- 
 tion and horror, yet it must be admitted that the description, 
 with all the assistance which the imagination can afford, is 
 still very inadequate to convey a just idea of the miseries 
 inseparably connected with this traffic. To contemplate 
 hundreds of miserable fellow beings, torn away with brutal 
 violence from their homes and country, and every thing which 
 nature or habit holds most dear ; separated for ever from the 
 tenderest and loveliest connexions in life ; chained together 
 like the beasts of the field, and crowded into the pestilential 
 hold of a slave ship, where they must gasp for breath with 
 all those laborious and anxious efforts for life, which ex- 
 piring nature exhibits ; the living, the dying and the dead, 
 stowed promiscuously together, and subjected to the con- 
 trol of the most merciless of men : and to reflect that these 
 are our fellow men, our brethren, endued with feelings like 
 our own ; children of the same kind and bountiful parent, 
 and equally the objects of Redeeming Love, is surely enough 
 to excite feelings of the tenderest commiseration, and an 
 anxious solicitude to arrest, if possible, this scourge of man. 
 Bitter, very bitter indeed, is the cup of woe meted out to 
 hapless Africa, and she has been compelled to drink it to 
 the very dregs. All the injuries and the cruelties whioh 
 ingenuity, sharpened by avarice could Invent, have been 
 heaped upon her, till her once peaceful and happy shores 
 are stained with the blood of her children, and desolated by 
 all the barbarizing mischiefs of slavery and the slave trade. 
 And it now becomes us to enquire, what we can do to di- 
 minish the grievous load of suffei ing which still presses hea- 
 vily upon her. Her suffering sons call aloud for redress : 
 their tears, their sighs, their groans and supplications, are a 
 loud and touching appeal to the best feelings of our nature ; 
 
63 
 
 and if we turn a deaf ear and refuse to hearken, we may im- 
 plicate ourselves in the weight of guilt for which her perse- 
 cutors are responsible, and thus render ourselves offensive 
 in the Divine sight. “ Open thy mouth for the dumb — in 
 the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.” 
 
 These details of cruelty and injustice not only excite a 
 heartfelt abhorrence of this execrable traffic in the blood of 
 our fellow men, but strike the unprejudiced mind with the 
 conviction, that much is due to repair the wrongs and the 
 sufferings which are inflicted on that deeply injured people. 
 Great Britain has set the example, in her endeavours to 
 make some amends for these injuries, and the benefits which 
 have already accrued to the degraded and benighted chil- 
 dren of Africa, through the unwearied exertions of the 
 friends of that people in England, seconded and assisted by 
 the government, are a subject of pleasing coutemplation, 
 and should stimulate others to “ go and do likewise.” From 
 the happy effects of British benevolence and perseverance, 
 exhibited at the colony of Sierra Leone, in the improvement 
 of the liberated negroes in literature, and the knowledge of 
 the useful arts of civilized life, there is good ground to be- 
 lieve, that by enlightening the natives, and encouraging them 
 to seek the means of subsistence in the culture of their lands, 
 and the exchange of the products of their labour, for the 
 manufactures and produce of other countries, a very impor- 
 tant and extensive check would be given to the unnatural 
 commerce in their own species. This opinion, in unison 
 with the following observations of Dr. E. Ayres, U. S. 
 agent for liberated Africans, extracted from a communica- 
 tion to the Secretary of the Navy, dated February 24 , 1823 , 
 is substantiated by the representations of various persons, 
 who have visited and resided at Sierra Leone. 
 
 Speaking of the slave trade, he says, “ The means hereto- 
 fore made use of for its suppression, can never accomplish 
 this desirable object, until France can be induced to enter 
 with sincerity into effectual measures, to prevent her flag 
 from affording protection to all, who choose tc take shelter 
 under it. Until this fortunate arrangement shall be entered 
 into, it becomes an enteresting enquiry, what other means 
 could be made use of under the existing state of things, to 
 lessen the extent, and abate the miseries of this enormous 
 traffic. I am happy in being able to state with confidence, 
 that such means do exist and are entirely within our con- 
 
trol as far as respects the natives within the vicinity of our 
 settlement. Hence I will hazard the assertion, founded on 
 personal observation of the character of the natives, their fa- 
 cility in acquiring our language, their desire of adopting our 
 mechanical arts, and the attainments they have already made 
 in the vicinity of the British settlements, that had half the 
 money which has been spent by the British and American 
 governments, in legislating on the subject and in bringing 
 to justice the violators of the laws on the slave trade, been 
 judiciously employed in the introduction of the arts, and the 
 promotion of agriculture among the natives, Africa would 
 not at this day, have to lament the loss of so many of her 
 sons, and her dependance upon the sale of her children, for 
 the necessaries of life. England has done much, very much 
 for that benighted country. Immense sums have been ex- 
 pended, but until very lately, little progress had been effect- 
 ed among the natives, towards the introduction of civilized 
 improvements. A better order of things has succeeded. 
 The last year was a memorable era for Africa. A pacifica- 
 tion was brought about, between two potverful kings of the 
 interior, who had been in a state of hostility for many years. 
 This has opened a large tract of country to the trade of 
 Freetown, in which lies the extensive nation of the Mendin- 
 goes. A travelling priest has arrived from Egypt, through 
 the interior and by Tombuctoo, from whose representations, 
 there was a new map of Africa forming, when 1 left that 
 country. 
 
 “ A very favourable crisis has arrived for the introduc- 
 tion of a new course of life among the natives. For two 
 hundred years past, they have been taught to depend upon 
 the sale of their species for the necessaries of life, to the ne- 
 glect of every other mode of supply. This has rendered 
 them incapable of gaining a subsistence in any other way. 
 The interruption given to the slave trade has rendered the 
 supply from this source irregular and often scanty. The 
 cry of hard times, is perhaps not less frequently vociferated 
 in the wild and luxuriant regions of Africa, than in the 
 streets of the gay and voluptuous cities of civilized countries. 
 Many in that country, are looking forward with anxious so- 
 licitude, to some less exceptionable and more certain supply 
 of those articles, which from bad habit are considered as the 
 necessaries of life. Could they be supplied with the instru- 
 ments of agriculture and many of the mechanical arts, and 
 taught how to use them, they would joyfully renounce their 
 present mode of living. When I explained to one of the 
 most powerful kings in the country, our method of ginning. 
 
65 
 
 spinning and weaving cotton, and told him I would learn his 
 people how to do it, he was much pleased, and pressed me 
 to fetch his son home with me, that he might acquire the 
 ability of introducing those arts into his country. A small 
 present of hoes, axes, ploughs, &c. with instructions how to 
 use them, would now effect a great revolution in the habits 
 of these people. They would in a little time see that the la- 
 bour of one year from each slave, would be worth more, than 
 they are in the habit of receiving, for his final purchase. This 
 alone would prevent his being sold as a slave, or should the 
 force of long habit, still blind the eyes of the native holder 
 to his own interest, yet the value of the slave would be so 
 much enhanced, and detract so much from the profit, that 
 the trader w'ould be deterred from hazarding the conse- 
 quences of the trade.” 
 
 Various documents contained in the 16th report of the 
 African Institution in London, give ample evidence of 
 the labours of the friends of humanity for the annihilation 
 of the slave trade, some of which have been accompanied 
 with a cheering result. By successive treaties with Radama, 
 king of Madagascar, the slave trade which had so long wast- 
 ed that fine and fertile land, is discontinued in his domi- 
 nions. “ One of the conditions of the last treaty was, that 
 twenty Madagascar youths should be taken under the care 
 of the British government ; and that ten of them should be 
 placed at the Isle of France, there to acquire the knowledge 
 of certain useful arts, and that the other ten should be sent 
 to England for the same purpose. This condition has been 
 fulfilled.” The power of the king is absolute, and by differ- 
 ent accounts, the treaty for the suppression of the slave trade 
 is observed with scrupulous exactness ; and so long as its 
 stipulations are mutually complied with, it is the opinion of 
 Captain Moresby, that more will be done for the cause of 
 humanity in the extinction of the traffic in that place, “ than 
 the most active marine or coast police could possibly per- 
 form.” — p. 38 & 379. 
 
 The progress of agriculture, mechanics and commerce 
 among the coloured inhabitants of Sierra Leone, as related 
 in the report, affords an encouraging prospect. In the year 
 1821, there were 10,000 liberated negroes in that colony dis- 
 tributed throughout its different towns and villages. On 
 the arrival and condemnation of a captured slave vessel, 
 those of a proper age are named and sent to the adjacent 
 villages. A house and lot is appointed to each family, and 
 they are supportfed one year by government, at the expira- 
 tion of which they are obliged to look out for a subsistence 
 
 I 
 
66 
 
 tliemselves. The captured children are also sent to the vil- 
 lages, where they are kept at school till married, which is 
 always at an early age. Schools are established in Freetown, 
 Regent, Gloucester, Leopold, Bathurst, Charlotte, Kissey, 
 Waterloo, Wilberforce, Kent, and Seminary Regent, in 
 which were instructed that year 1959 adults and children of 
 both sexes, 
 
 A spirit for advancing their local accommodations was 
 evident from the improvement of the roads in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Freetown, and in the mountains ; the bridges 
 have been constructed of more durable materials than here- 
 tofore ; considerably more ground has been cleared in the 
 environs of the mountains, numerous stone and brick houses 
 are supplying the places of the former wooden ones, and 
 population is rapidly increasing. There was imported into 
 Freetown this year goods invoiced at 105,060/. sterling, 
 and exported in 26 vessels, upwards of 15 tons and 16 
 casks of elephant’s teeth and scrivelloes, 49,752 gallons of 
 palm oil, 167 tons and 1276 billets of Camwood, I 5 tons of 
 gum copal, 2 tons 9 cwt. bees wax, 2304 oz, gold dust, 
 23 oz. gold, and 424 tons of rice, besides different grains, 
 spices, timber, shingles, and many other articles of mer- 
 chandize. G. R. Collier, expresses his satisfaction in re- 
 porting, that the settlement of Bathurst is fast improving in 
 trade and commerce with the native Africans. The mer- 
 chants are likely to benefit in a very high degree by the re- 
 newal of the gum trade with the Trarzar Moors at Porten- 
 dick. The British merchants engaged in the trade assert, 
 that gum to the full extent of what may be required by 
 Great Britain, may be had in exchange for British goods. 
 
 Regent’s Town, says Captain H. Turner, in a letter of 1822, 
 wears the aspect of a well peopled village in our happy land ; 
 its inhabitants civilized, industrious, honest and neatly 
 clothed. The ground allotted to each family is cultivated, 
 each lot being distinctly marked out. The town contains 
 nearly 2000 inhabitants. 
 
 “Wellington,” says the Sierra Leone Gazette, “has a 
 very respectable appearance. There are 300 houses in it ; 
 each house stands in a small allotment, and the inhabitants 
 cultivate their farms about the country surrounding them. 
 There are no less than 200 farmers, 40 lime-burners, 30 
 sawyers, and 10 shingle makers, besides a few carpenters, 
 masons and a blacksmith. There are upwards of 200 acres 
 in the vicinity of the town, under cultivation ; several men 
 have raised this year a ton and a half of rice, and a large 
 quantity of cassada, cocoa and Guinea com. The inha-' 
 
6 / 
 
 bftants are commended for their orderly and industrious 
 habits.” p. 334. 
 
 “ The town of Gloucester, Leopold, Charlotte and Ba- 
 thurst, all appear to be thriving. Gloucester is next in size 
 to Regent’s Town, and by no means inferior in its progress 
 in religious improvement and civilization.” 
 
 The Gazette, under date of September 1, 1821, remarks, 
 “ It is gratifying to know, that within the last fortnight, a 
 great many Foulahs, and other nations from distant parts, 
 have arrived at Port Logo for the purpose of bartering ivory, 
 gold and cattle, for articles of European manufacture. It is 
 not generally known, that Mr. K. Macaulay, established a 
 respectable trading factory at Port Logo, so soon as the suc- 
 cess of the late mission to Almamy Abdulkadan was pub- 
 lickly known. To this factory, the nativ'es of Foulah now 
 daily resort, and it is certainly most pleasing to all real 
 friends to Africa, and to those of this colony more espe- 
 cially, to find that by the friendly intercourse which ensued 
 from the late mission, so many of the inhabitants of near and 
 remote countries, are endeavouring to participate in the ad- 
 vantages of that legitimate commerce, which led to the ori- 
 ginal foundation of this colony. They are well acquainted 
 with the views and leading objects of the local government, 
 and are likewise well aware of the rooted hatred, with which 
 that inhuman traffic is viewed by every inhabitant of this 
 colony. It is therefore a great point gained in our friendly 
 and commercial intercourse with these warlike nations, who 
 have ever shewn the greatest attachment to the slave trade, 
 that they now so freely resort to this colony, and are en- 
 couraged to do so, as much by the influence of Almamv of 
 Teembo and other chiefs, as by the love of gain.” p. 332. 
 
 “ Every year,” says G. R. Collier, “ some new prospect of 
 improvement opens to the merchant. An intercourse witjj the 
 interior of Africa now fairly promises ultimate success, and 
 which must be productive to Great Britain ; and it may be 
 even expected that some years hence, caravans shall resort to 
 the neighbourhood of Port Logo (on a branch of the Sierra 
 Leone) to convey articles of British manufacture into the 
 very interior of the continent of Africa.” p. 343. 
 
 An intelligent trader on the coast, states, “ along the 
 whole range of coast, where the restrictions may be consider- 
 ed as having been effective, (that is from Accra to Trade- 
 town) industrious habits are extending their beneficial in- 
 fluence among the inhabitants ; a greater attention to agri- 
 cultural and commercial pursuits is evidently increasing, 
 and these pursuits want only encouragement to render them 
 
68 
 
 productive of extensive gain to the merchants, and to make 
 them the means of supplying the increasing wants of the na- 
 tives. A s a proof that on the total abolition of the traffic in 
 slaves, the Africans would, in the course of a short time, 
 turn their attention to other pursuits, I would refer you to 
 the fact, that though previous to the abolition, the inha- 
 bitants of the Gold coast actually purchased palm oil from 
 the Lago and Benin traders, for domestic purposes ; yet in 
 the course of the la'st twelve months, there were shipped from 
 the same country, above 500 tons of that commodity.” 
 Speaking of the inducements held out for settlers from 
 home, he proceeds, “ Their success would encourage the na- 
 tives to the employing of their numerous domestic slaves in 
 similar objects, which is what is chiefiy wanted to lead to 
 the rapid civilization and improvement of the African peo- 
 ple,” 
 
 “ Along the whole coast from the Kroo Country, as far 
 as Appollonia, the inhabitants are all anxious to cultivate a 
 close and increased connexion with the English ; and the 
 chief men desirous that their sons should r^ad and write, or 
 as they express it, “ to know book all the same as white 
 man.” In corroboration, or as an evidence of the ex- 
 istence of this spirit, I have only to acquaint you that the 
 Caboceers of Accra and of Cape Lahoo sent their sons with 
 rne to this place to be educated ; and had I been aware that 
 the object would have been so liberally met by the govern- 
 ment here, I could have brought two or three of the chief’s 
 sons of every town on the coast where I am known.” 
 p. 72. 
 
 We will close this short sketch of the prosperous state 
 of the colony', with an account of the landing of a company 
 of liberated Africans, The cheering welcome which they 
 met with from their own countrymen, who had also escaped 
 the. ^rasp of the slaver, presents a pleasing contrast to those 
 dreadful midnight scenes of carnage and devastation, in the 
 midst of which many of these poor creatures become the 
 prey of their murderous robbers. It is furnished by W. 
 Johnson, superintendant of Regent’s I’own, dated May 21, 
 1821. “ On Thursday' morning I was informed that the 
 
 slaves and vessel were condemned by the court. The de- 
 scription was then taken; after which 219 slaves were de- 
 livered to me. I cannot describe the scene which occurred 
 when we arrived at Regent’s Town. I have seen many ne- 
 groes landed, but never beheld such an affecting sight. As 
 soon as we came in sight, all the people came out of their 
 houses towards the road to meet us, with the greatest acclu- 
 
69 
 
 mations. When they beheld the new people weak and faint, 
 they carried and led them up towards my house. After they 
 had laid themselves on the ground, being quite exhausted ; 
 many of our people recognized their friends and relations, 
 and there was a general cry, ‘ O master ! my sister ! my 
 brother ! my countryman ! he lived in the same town ! my 
 countrywoman !’ &c. The poor creatures being faint, just 
 taken out of the hold of a slave vessel, and unconscious of 
 what had befallen them, did not know whether they should 
 laugh or cry, when they beheld the countenances of those 
 whom they had supposed long dead, but now saw clothed 
 and clean, and perhaps with healthy children in their arms. 
 In short I cannot describe the scene ; it was too affecting ; 
 no one could refrain from shedding tears, and lifting up the 
 heart in prayer and praise to the wonder-working God, whose- 
 ways are in the deep. The school boys and girls brought the 
 victuals which they had prepared ; and all the people follow- 
 ing their example ran to their homes, and brought what they 
 had got ready ; and in a short time their unfortunate country- 
 men were overpowered with messes of every description, 
 such as they had not been accustomed to for a long time.” 
 p. 346. 
 
 THE END. 
 

 
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