^ The Last Phase of the Slave Trade 



left from the orgie, to be conveyed to their friends in the 

 forest. . . ." ^ 



Canot and his companions managed with great difficulty 

 to escape from the scene of this massacre of which he was the 

 indirect cause, and eventually reached Sierra Leone, where he 

 was imprisoned on board ship. Getting away from here, however, 

 he returned to New Cess. Hearing in 1839 that Pedro 



52. LIBERIAN SETTLEMENT AT CAPE MOUNT (SUPPOSED SITE OF CANOT'S 

 ESTABLISHMENT IN 1847) 



Blanco had retired for ever from Gallinhas with a large fortune, 

 Canot came to terms with the British cruisers at New Cess, 

 and gave a solemn pledge that he would for ever abandon 

 the slave trade. On this occasion he released the remainder 

 of his slaves in store. ^ He then proceeded to England in 



^ The whole of this episode may be mere sensational fiction. The Vai people 

 at Digbi have never been cannibals. 



2 This is his own story. But other Spanish slave traders seem to have 

 lingered on the Basa coast even if Canot retired, for in 1840 they induced the 

 Fish men of Basa Cove and the chiefs of New Cess and Little Basa to attack 

 the Liberian settlers. 



169 



