Liberia 



<♦- 



Cess, at or near the mouth of the Pua River, about eight 

 or ten miles south-east of Grand Basa Point and the modern 

 settlement of Lower Buchanan.^ Canot created what he called 

 his " chapels of ease " (or minor depots to feed the central 

 station), at Digbi (to the north-west of Monrovia), at Little 

 Basa (ten miles south of the Farmington River), and at Manna, 

 near the Cestos River. His main establishment at New Sesters 

 he claims as a model of what such establishments should be. 

 It was built by the paid labour of Kru men, who, though entirely 

 averse to slavery themselves, were the faithful (because well paid) 

 allies of Canot and other slavers. The barracoons were spacious 

 and cleanly. The slaves while stored there were well fed (many 

 bullocks being killed each week), and they even became relatively 

 happy through the dances and entertainments organised for 

 their benefit. 



From New festers, Canot shipped his slaves on board 

 Spanish, Portuguese, and even American or Russian vessels 

 sent to him by Don Pedro. The British cruisers soon directed 

 a special attention to this place. Their commanders were 

 frequently gammoned or cajoled by Canot into letting important 

 consignments of slaves slip past them. Graphic descriptions 

 are given of the terrible dangers of the surf both at this 

 and at other points on the coast. Often Canot had, with the 

 sails of a British gunboat in sight, to ship hundreds of 

 slaves in tiny Kru canoes through the surf on to the im- 

 patiently-waiting slaver ship, and when some of the canoes 

 upset — as almost invariably happened in crossing the breakers 

 — some of the slaves would be devoured by sharks. He 

 mentions that on one occasion off the Gallinhas Coast Don 



1 Which itself is on the presumed site of Grand or Petit Dieppe. Biittikofer 

 considers it to be " Grand" Dieppe, and would place Petit Dieppe at Little Basa, 

 a place much farther west. 



166 



