SLAVE-TRADE. 



while the feamen of the different (hips, by every pofTible ar- 

 tifice, enticed others on board, and tranfported them to the 

 Tf^ions of fervitude. 



The coUedlors of flavea were diftributed into feveral 

 claffes. The firft confiHed of fuch black traders as pre- 

 ferved a regular chain of traffic, and a regular communica- 

 tion with each other, from the interior parts of the country 

 to the fea-fhore. Many of the flaves, thus driven down, 

 ;uc reported to have travelled at lead 1200 miles from the 

 place where they were firft purchafed. A piftol or a fword 

 may have been the full value of one of thefe flaves, at the 

 firft coft ; but his price advances, as he travels towards the 

 fea-(hore. The fecond clafs of flave-traders is compofed of 

 fuch as travel inland, but have no chain of commerce or 

 communication with the fhore. At a certain diftance they 

 ftrike off in a line parallel to the (hore, and vifiting the fairs 

 and villages in their way, drop down occafionally to the 

 coaft, as they have procured flaves. The third clafs con- 

 filU of fuch as travel by water up the great rivers, in their 

 canoes, which are very long, well-armed, and carry from 

 50 to 70 hands. Thefe often proceed to the dillancc of 

 1000 miles, and bring down from 60 to 1 20 flaves at a time. 

 The fourth clafs includes thofe who, living near the banks 

 of the rivers, or the fea-fliore, fcarcely travel at all, but 

 coming by feme means or other into the pofleffion of flaves, 

 either drive them, or fend them immediately to the fliips 

 and faftories. Moil of the traders now defcribed traific on 

 their own account ; but there are fome of the poorer fort, 

 who travel for the fliips. The different forts of goods, 

 with which the traders deal for flaves in the inland country, 

 may be divided into three forts, viz. Eall Indian, home- 

 made or colonial, and Venetian. The firft confifts of 

 cowries, or fmall (hells, which pafs for money on fome parts 

 of the coaft ; blue and white baffs, romals, bandanoes, and 

 other cloths and produdlions of the Eaft. The fecond con- 

 fifts of bar-iron, mufliets, powder, fwords, pans, and other 

 hardware ; cottons, linen, fpirits in great abundance, with 

 other articles of lefs note. The third confifts totally of 

 beads. Almoft every (hip carries the three forts of articles 

 now ftated, but more or lefs of one than of the other, ac- 

 cording to the place of her deftination ; every different part 

 of the coaft requiring a different affortment, and the Afri- 

 cans, like the Europeans, repeatedly changing their tafte. 

 This is particularly the cafe with refpeft to beads. The 

 fame kind of beads, which finds a market one year in one 

 part of the coaft, will probably not be faleable there the 

 next. At one time the green are preferred to the yellow, 

 at another the opaque to the tranfparent, and at another the 

 oval to the round. 



The flave-trade, at the time of its fubfiftence, may be faid 

 to have begun at the great river Senegal, and to extend to 

 the farther limits of Angola, a diftance of many thoufand 

 miles. On the rivers Senegal and Gambia, the Europeans 

 proceed in their (hips till they come to a proper ftation, and 

 then fend out their boats armed to different villages ; and on 

 their approach to them, fire a mudcet, or beat a drum, to 

 apprife the inhabitants that they are in want of flaves. The 

 country people fupply them in part, and they alfo procure 

 them from the large canoes above-mentioned. 



The Moors, who inhabit the left bank of the river 

 Senegal, are notorious for depredations of this fort. They 

 crofs the river without any previous provocation, and make 

 war upon thofe on the other fide of it, and bring them in as 

 prifoners, and fell them at I'ort St. Louis for flaves. Mr. 

 Kiernan has foen the remains of villages, which they had 

 broken up in fuch expeditions. 



Captains Hills and Wilfon, and Mr. Wadftrom, and licu- 

 8 



tenant Dalrymple, inform \is, that the kings in this part of 

 the country do not hefitate to make war upon their own fub- 

 jecfs, when in want of money. They fend out their foldiers 

 in the night, who lying before, or attacking or burning a 

 village, feize fuch as come out of it, and return with them 

 as flaves. 



On the river Sierra Leona there are feveral private fac- 

 tories, belonging to the merchants of Europe, in which 

 their agents, being white people, rcfided. Thefe agents 

 kept a number of boats, which were fent up the river for 

 flaves ; and thus they procured for the faAories a regular 

 fupply. 



On the Windward Coaft, which reaches from Cape Mount 

 to Cape Palmas, the natives, when they have any flaves to 

 fell, generally fignify it by fires. Praftices fimilar to thofe 

 already recited prevail from the river Gambia to the end of 

 the Windward Coaft. Lieutenant Storey fays, that public 

 robbery is here called war. Mr. Bowman, another evi- 

 dence, fays, that when parties of robbers were fetting fire 

 to villages, war was faid to be carrying on. This account 

 is confirmed by Mr. Town and fir George Young, and all 

 of them concur in ftating, that thefe parties go out at night, 

 break up villages, and carry off the inhabitants as flaves. 

 Meffrs. Town, Bowman, and Storey, have feen them fet 

 out upon fuch expeditions ; and the latter, to fatisfy him- 

 felf, accompanied them on one occafion. Thefe came to a 

 town in the dead of the night, fet fire to it, and took away 

 many of the inhabitants. The above praftice is fo common, 

 that both up the river Scaffus, Sierra Leona, and Junk, 

 and at Cape Mount and Baffau, the remains of burnt and 

 deferted villages are to be feen, on which fuch attacks have 

 been made, and that the natives are found to be conftantly 

 armed. In one of the towns, two or three houfes only are 

 defcribed to have been left ftanding, and two plantations of 

 rice, which were ready for cutting down, but which the in- 

 habitants, by being carried off, had been deprived of en- 

 joying. Lieutenant Simpfon, of the royal marines, another 

 evidence, underftood that the villages on the Windward 

 Coaft were always at war ; and the reafon given was, that 

 the kings were in want of flaves. Mr. Morley, another 

 evidence, fpeaks in the fame language. Slaves, he fays, are 

 generally made by robbers geing from village to village in 

 the night. 



The Gold Coaft, which is next to the Windward Coaft, 

 prefents us with the fame melancholy fcene. The Rev. 

 Mr. Quakoo, who had refided as chaplain to one of the 

 factories there for many years, informed lieutenant Simpfon 

 that wars were often made for the fole purpofe of making 

 flaves. Dr. Trotter fays, by prifoners of war, the traders 

 mean fuch as are carried off by robbers, who ravage the 

 country for that purpofe ; the Bu(h-men making war to 

 make trade, being a common way of (peaking among them ; 

 and in a large cargo of flaves, he could only recoiled three 

 who had not been fo obtained. Surgeon Falconbridge de- 

 fines the term war, when ufed by the flave-dealers on this 

 part of the coaft, to mean a piratical expedition for making 

 flaves. Mr. Morley fays, what they call war, is putting the 

 villages in confufion, and catching the inhabitants, whom 

 they carry down to the coaft and fell, wliere, it is well 

 known, no queftions are afl<ed how they had been obtained. 

 Indeed a flave-captain, when examined by tiie lioufe of 

 commons, acknowledged, that he believed a captain would 

 be reckoned a fool by any trading man, to whom lie flunild 

 put (uch a queftion. And Mr. Mirfh, the relidcnt at Cape 

 Coaft caftlo, told Mr. How, that he did not care how the 

 flavca he purchafed had been obtained ; and fluwed him in- 

 llruments which were put into the flaveu' mouths, to pre- 

 vent 



