SLAVE-TRADE. 



vent their crying out for aflillance, while the robbers were 

 conveying them through the country. 



From the end of the Gold Coaft to the extremity of An- 

 gola, which is the boundary of the flave-trade, and which 

 vaft diltrift comprehends many navigabls rivers, we are 

 (hocked by the repetition of the fame atrocious praAicea. 

 Here, as before, going to towns in the night, fetting them 

 on fire, and feizing the people, or putting the villages in 

 confufion, and catching the inhabitants, are called tvar. 

 Thefe piratical expeditions are frequently made by water in 

 tiiefe parts. Mr. Douglafs fays, when a flave-fliip arrives, 

 tlie kmg fends his war-canoes up the river, where they 

 furprife and feize all they can. Surgeon Falconbridge, 

 Mr. Morley, and Mr. Ifaac Parker, confirm the account. 

 Up the great rivers Bonny and Calabar thj» kine fends fleets 

 of canoes, v>ith armed men, which return with flavcs. Mr. 

 I. Parker was twice up the river Calabar in one of thefe 

 fleets, and perhaps the only white perfon who was ever per- 

 mitted to go with them. In the day-time, he fays, when 

 they approached a village, they lay under the bullies ; but 

 at night flew up to it, and feixed every one they could catch. 

 In this way they proceeded up the river, till they had gotten 

 forty-five perfons, which they brought back to New Town, 

 and fold to the European fhips. About a fortnight after- 

 wards, he was allowed to accompany them on another ex- 

 pedition. Here, he fays, they plundered , otlier villages 

 higher up the river than before, taking men, women, 

 and children, as they could catch them in their huts. They 

 feized on much the fame number, and brought them to New 

 Town, as before. 



On the Gold Coaft, a veflel feeking flaves, generally 

 anchors at Annamaboe. A certain quantity of gold mull 

 be included in the articles defigned for purchafing flaves, or 

 elfe none can be obtained. At Whidah, Bonny, Calabar, 

 Benin, and Angola, gold is not demanded in exchange ; and 

 boats are unnecelfary, except for reaching the (hore, wood- 

 ing and watering, and fervices of a fimilar kind. This is par- 

 ticularly the cafe at Calabar and Bonny, which have been the 

 greateit markets for flaves. The traders of the firft clafs, 

 after an abfence of about nine days, have returned frequently 

 with I joo or 2000 flaves at a time. 



The number of flaves that have been annually tranfported 

 from the African coaft has fluftuated according to circum- 

 ftances. In the year 1768, 104,000 natives of Africa were 

 taken from their own continent ; and it continued much the 

 fame for the next five years. During the American war it 

 was diminillied. In the year 1786 the numbers may be 

 ilated at 100,000, and the (hips that conveyed them to the 

 colonies at 350. The trade, before the abolition, was con- 

 fined to the Englifli, Dutch, Danes, Portuguefe, and 

 French. England, in 1786, employed 130 fliips, and 

 carried oft' about 42,000 flaves. Thefe were fitted out from 

 the ports of London, Briftol, and Liverpool; the latter of 

 which alone fent out 90 veft'els. 



The unhappy flaves are divided by Mr. Clarkfon into 

 leven claifes. The moft confiderable, and that which con- 

 tains at lead half of the whole number tranfported, confifts 

 of kidnapped people. This mode of procuring them in- 

 cludes every fpecics of treachery. Mr. Wadftrom tells us, 

 that at Dakard lived one Ganna, who was a notorious man- 

 ftealer, and employed as fuch by the merchants there. He 

 fav/ a boy and a woman there in confinement, both of whom 

 had been ttolen. The boy had been privately taken from 

 his parents, in the interior part above Cape Rouge; and 

 the woman from her hulband and children at Rufilque. He 

 fsw afterwards many of the natives, who had been thus 

 taken, brought to Goree. At Sallum the king fent for 



a poor woman, under pretence of buyiflg her millet, and 

 then feized and fold her. General Rooke, who was go- 

 vernor of Goree, detected three young perfons who had 

 been ftolen and broueht there ; and at their requell, he fent 

 them back to their friends. The fame governor was applied 

 to by three flave-captains, to kidnap one hundred and fifty 

 men, women, and children, the king of Cayor's fubjefts, 

 who had come to Goree in confequence of the friendly in- 

 tercourfe whicli had fobfilted between him and that king. 

 He refufed, and was much (hocked by the propofition ; but 

 the captains faid, fuch things li.id been done by a former 

 governor of the place. Captain Wilfon fays, that in his 

 time, when he commanded the Racehorfe (hip of war, fuch 

 private robberies were frequent on the continent, oppofite 

 to Goree. His predeceffor, captain Lacy, had fent one of 

 the natives into the country with difpatches on his Britannic 

 majefty's account ; but the poor man was foon way-laid, 

 feized, and fold. Captain Wilfon refcued him afterwards 

 from the hold of a flave-veffel, wheie his life had been en- 

 dangered by the inhumanity of the French captain. So 

 generally prevalent were thefe robberies, that they were 

 acknowledged by all. It was the firft principle of the na- 

 tives, never to go out unarmed while a flave-veffel was 

 upon the coaft, for fear of being ftolen. When he has met 

 them armed, and enquired the reafon, they have pointed to 

 a (hip of this defcription then lying at Portudal, and faid, 

 their fears arofe from that quarter. Captain Hills, when 

 he comhianded the Zephyr floop of war on the fame part 

 of the coaft, came to the knowledge of fafts fimilar to thofe 

 related. He tells us, he knew the fame Ganna mentioned 

 by Mr. Wadftrom, and that this very Ganna offered him a 

 young man for fale, whom he had kidnapped ; and that all 

 the natives went armed, for fear of being fo taken. Cap- 

 tain Hills, while lying in the river Gambia, cxpreffed a 

 wi(h, in the hearing of the black pilot, to obtain a few 

 black volunteers for his fliip. Upon this the black pilot 

 called to two boys, who were on the (hore carrying bafltets 

 of fhallots, and a(ked captain Hills if he thought the boys 

 would fuit him ; in which cafe, he would take them off, 

 and bring them on board. The captain declined taking 

 them. The black pilot appeared much mortified, and faid 

 that the merchantmen would not have refufed fuch an offer. 

 On the Windward Coaft, robbery of this kind was fo no- 

 torious, that, according to fir George Young and captain 

 Thompfon, it went by a diftinft name. It was there called 

 panyaring. Many are the inftances teftified in the evidence 

 of this kind of depredation, and this all over the coaft. Let 

 the following fuffice. At Sierra Leona a beautiful boy is 

 ftolen. Oft Galenas a trader, returning home with goods, 

 is feized by the way, and fold. Lower down a young man 

 is furprifed on the beach, and difpofed of in the fame man- 

 ner. Off Piccanini Seftus not only a young girl is kid- 

 napped, but her kidnapper is feized in turn, and fold to the 

 fame veffel. To the right of Piccanini Seftus a young man 

 is invited to a feaft, and then betrayed and enflaved. A 

 little farther on, a countryman, having occafion to go to a 

 black trader's houfe, the trader adcs him if he had feen a 

 fhip : the other replying, no ; he then engages to ftiew him 

 one. Tak.ng him on board a veffel, he receives the money 

 for him, and leaves him there. A young woman comes out 

 of the woods at Bonny Point to bathe: robbers watch her, 

 and then feize lier, and fell her. Three perfons, croffing 

 the river Benin, are overtaken by a black trader and his 

 people in one of their large canoes, and carried to a (hip, 

 and fold. On the other fide of the river Benin, a woman is 

 kidnapped, as flie is returning from a vifit ; and a father 

 and his fon, as they are planting yams for food ; and all of 



them 



