Liberia ^ 



than the subjects of Britain, the United States, or Spain and 

 Portugal, The only power which besides Great Britain took 

 any effective naval measures against the West African slave 

 trade was France/ The reign of Louis Philippe was dis- 

 tinguished by a noble activity in this respect. "Libreville" 

 in the Gaboon was the French analogue to P'reetown at Sierra 

 Leone. 



The accounts of Liberia and the writings of Canot and 

 others give vivid pictures of the horrors of the nineteenth-century 

 slave trade. It is probable that during the last thirty years 

 of its existence (1815-35) the oversea slave trade caused 

 more misery than in the previous centuries, because, being illegal, 

 the risks were greater and the inconveniences much increased. 

 Reference has already been made to the difficulties of shipping 

 slaves through the surf. In terror of the arrival of some British 

 or French cruiser, the slave merchants dared not wait for a 

 change of tide or wind. Thus many slaves were drowned by the 

 swamping of canoes ; still more were devoured by sharks. The 

 herding in the barracoons provoked or intensified epidemics. 

 If smallpox broke out, the infected Negroes were often murdered, 

 drowned, poisoned, to prevent the disease spreading. Canot 

 himself admits poisoning a Negro boy on board ship because 

 he had contracted smallpox ; the body was then thrown overboard. 

 The slaves were also " medicated " by the native dealers, so 

 as to deceive even astute European purchasers at the coast 

 markets. The application of drugs internally and externally 

 swelled out the muscles and gave a glossy look to the dry skin. 

 Before the slaves were shipped they were — men and women 

 alike — reduced to absolute nudity, in case rags might harbour 



' Nevertheless, between 18 18 and 1830 there were French slavers on the 

 Liberian coast, especially at Cape Mount and the St. Paul's River. French war 

 vessels assisted Ashmun, the de facto Governor of Liberia (1822-8), to punish 

 their compatriots and destroy their ships. 



172 



