6o4 A. D. 1777. 



free trade, by the governors of the forts, in conjunction with fome 

 people at home, one, or more, of whom have at the fame time been of 

 the very committee, which is authorized and fupported by parhameut 

 for the exprefs purpofe of corre6ling and reftraining abufes in the trade. 



The governors carry on a continual petty retail trade with the negroes 

 in fpiritous liquors and tobacco, whereby they colled almofl all the 

 gold on the coaft. Part of that gold they pay to the commanders of the 

 Dutch forts for Brazil tobacco, an article nearly as indifpenfible as gold 

 in the purchafe of flaves. 



The governors, availing themfelves of their refldence on the coaft, 

 and of the ufe of the ftores, flaves, and vefl^els, belonging to the public, 

 committed to their charge, have been enabled to engrofs more than one 

 half of the whole Britifh trade on the coaft*; and, if they are not 

 fpeedily put under proper reftridlions, they will foon effedlually exclude 

 every Britifh free merchant from any fliare in it, except in a dependence 

 upon them f. 



By the pre-emption of the beft flaves, and by purchafing flaves from 

 the Dutch governors, they are enabled to difpatch their fliips with full 

 cargoes, while others, attempting a free and independent trade, are ob- 

 liged to lie a long time on the coaft at a vaft expenfe, before they can 

 complete their cargoes ; and are generally under the neceflity of having 

 recourfe to the governors at laft, and paying them an exorbitant price 

 for fuch flaves as they do not think good enough to be flapped on their 

 own account if. 



Ships, with cargoes fuited to the African trade, are configned to the 

 governors by their partners here. Thefe fliips carry out, not only 

 Britifli goods, but alio great quantities of Dutch nianufaclures, to the 

 great prejudice of our own §. The inferior kind of rum, diftilled in 

 New-England, has been imported to the coaft in iuch abundance [I, 

 that in the year i 775 no lefs than thirteen ftiips from Bofton and Rhode- 

 •ifland carried off" from the Gold-coaft 2288 flaves, bought folely with 

 that article, and chiefly from the governors; and another ftiip from 



* It was dated by the (laving captains, that the ing the black, chiefs and traders at the national 



governors received their goods free of freight, and expenfe to turn the whole of the trade to their 



ftorcd them in warehoufes built and kept Jip at the private ad»antage, whereby, they fuppofed, they 



national expenfe, us they aifo lodged their flaves in might foon be enabled to engrofs the whole of it. 

 the Have-holes, of which iheie is one in every fort. | Genera! O'Hara, governor of Senegambia, in 



■\ It was afTerte 1 in evidence, that the governors the year 1766 cllimated the damage done to iho 



are exprefsly prohibited by their inilruftions from manufafturing intereft of Great Britain by the fal.- 



having any concern in trade. But it may be alked of foreign mannfadures at the Britilh fettlemeiits 



nn the ether hand, what could indnce them to in Africa to be confidetably above £ioo,coo 



accept fuch offices, if their emoluments were tp be fterling annually, 

 confined to their falaries. |{ Lord Sheffield ftatcs the quantity of rum cai- 



^ The commanders of the Having fliips declared, ried from North America to Africa, on the 



that the more money government bellowed for average of the years 1768, I7f>9) 'TJO, to be 



fopporting the freedom of the trade, the more the 2 to, 1 47 gallons. 3 



governors were enabled to monopoliic it, by brib- 



