SLAVE. 277 
denee, says, that when parties of robbers were setting tire 
to villages, war was said to be carrying on. This account 
is confirmed by Mr. Town and Sir George Young, and all 
of them concur in stating, that these parties go out at night, 
break up villages, and carry off the inhabitants as slaves. 
Messrs. Town, Bowman and Storey, have seen them set 
out upon such expeditions ; and the latter, to satisfy him¬ 
self, accompanied them on one occasion. These came to a 
town in the dead of the night, set fire to it, and took away 
many of the inhabitants. The above practice is so common, 
that both up the river Scassus, Sierra Leona and Junk, 
and at Cape Mount and Bassau, the remains of burnt and 
deserted villages are to be seen, on which such attacks have 
been made, and that the natives are found to be constantly 
armed. In one of the towns, two or three houses only are 
described to have been left standing, 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 Simpson, of the royal marines, another 
evidence, understood that the villages on the Windward 
Coast were always at war; and the reason given was, that 
the kings were in want of slaves. Mr. Morley, another 
evidence, speaks in the same language. Slaves, he says, are 
generally made by robbers going from village to village 
in the night. 
The Gold Coast, which is next to the Windward Coast, 
presents us with the same melancholy scene. The Rev. 
Mr. Quakoo, who had resided as chaplain to one of the 
factories there for many years, informed Lieutenant Simpson 
that wars were often made for the sole purpose of making 
slaves. Dr. Trotter says, by prisoners of war, the traders 
mean such as are carried off by robbers, who ravage the 
country for that purpose; the Bush-men making war to 
make trade, being a common way of speaking among them ; 
and in a large cargo of slaves, he could only recollect three 
who had not been so obtained. Surgeon Falconbridge de¬ 
fines the term war, when used by the slave-dealers on this 
part of the coast, to mean a piratical expedition for making 
slaves. Mr. Morley says, what they call war, is putting the 
villages in confusion, and catching the inhabitants, whom 
they carry down to the coast and sell, where, it is well 
known, no questions are asked how they had been obtained. 
Indeed, a slave-captain, when examined by the House of 
Commons, acknowledged, that he believed a captain would 
be reckoned a fool by any trading man, to whom he should 
put such a question. And Mr. Marsh, the resident at Cape 
Coast Castle, told Mr. How, that he did not care how the 
slaves he purchased had been obtained ; and shewed him in¬ 
struments which were put into the slaves’ mouths, to pre¬ 
vent their crying out for assistance, while the robbers were 
conveying them through the country. 
From the end of the Gold Coast to the extremity of An¬ 
gola, which is the boundary of the slave-trade, and which 
vast district comprehends many navigable rivers, we are 
shocked by the repetition of the same atrocious practices. 
Here, as before, going to town in the night, setting them 
on fire, and seizing the people, or putting the villages in 
confusion, and catching the inhabitants, are called war. 
These piratical expeditions are frequently made by water in 
these parts. Mr. Douglass says, when a slave-ship arrives, 
the king sends his war-canoes up the river, where they 
surprise and seize all they can. Surgeon Falconbridge, 
Mr. Morley and Mr. Isaac Parker, confirm the account. 
Up the great rivers Bonny and Calabar the king sends fleets 
of canoes, with armed men, which return with slaves. Mr. 
I. Parker was twice up the river Calabar in one of these 
fleets, and perhaps the only white person who was ever per¬ 
mitted to go with them. In the day-time, he says, when 
they approached a village, they lay under the bushes; but 
at night flew up to it, and seized every one they could catch. 
In this way they proceeded up the river, till they had gotten 
forty-five persons, which they brought back to New Town, 
and sold to the European ships. About a fortnight after¬ 
wards, he was allowed to accompany them on another ex¬ 
pedition. Here, he says, they plundered other villages 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1570. 
higher up the river than before, taking, men, women and 
children, as they could catch them in their huts. They 
seized on much the same number, and brought them to New 
Town, as before. 
On the Gold Coast, a vessel seeking slaves, generally 
anchors at Annamaboe. A certain quantity of gold must 
be included in the articles designed for purchasing slaves, or 
else none can be obtained. At Whidah, Bonny, Calabar, 
Benin and Angola, gold is not demanded in exchange; and 
boats are unnecessary, except for reaching the shore, wood¬ 
ing and watering, and services of a similar kind. This is 
particularly the case at Calabar and Bonny, which have 
been the greatest markets for slaves. The traders of the first 
class, after an absence of about nine days, have returned fre¬ 
quently with 1500 or 2000 slaves at a time. 
The number of slaves that have been annually transported 
from the African coast has fluctuated according to circum¬ 
stances. In the year 1768, 104,000 natives of Africa were 
taken from their own continent; and it continued much the 
same for the next five years. During the American war it 
was diminished. In the year 1786 the numbers may be 
stated at 100,000, and the ships that conveyed them to the 
colonies at 350. The trade, before the abolition, was con¬ 
fined to the English, Dutch, Danes, Portuguese and French. 
England, in 1786, employed 130 ships, and carried off 
about 42,000 slaves. These were fitted out from the ports 
of London, Bristol and Liverpool; the latter of which alone 
sent out 90 vessels. 
The unhappy slaves are divided by Mr. Clarkson into 
seven classes. The most considerable, and that which con¬ 
tains at least half of the whole number transported, consists 
of kidnapped people. This mode of procuring them in¬ 
cludes every species of treachery. Mr. Wadstrom tells us, 
that at Dakard lived one Ganna, who was a notorious man- 
stealer, and employed as such by the merchants there. He 
saw a boy and a woman there in confinement, both of whom 
had been stolen. The boy had been privately taken from 
his parents, in the interior part above Cape Rouge; and 
the woman from her husband and children at Rufisque. He 
saw afterwards many of the natives, who had. been thus 
taken, brought to Goree. At Sallum the king sent for 
a poor woman, under pretence of buying her millet, and then 
seized and sold her. General Rooke, who was governor 
of Goree, detected three young persons who had been 
stolen and brought there; and at their request, he sent 
them back to their friends. The same governor was applied 
to by three slave-captains, to kidnap one hundred and fifty- 
men, women and children, the king of Cayor’s subjects, 
who had come to Goree in consequence of the friendly in¬ 
tercourse which had subsisted between him and that king. 
He refused, and was much shocked by the proposition; but 
the captain said, such things had been done by a former 
governor of the place. Captain Wilson says, that in his 
time, when he commanded the Racehorse ship of war, such 
private robberies were frequent on the continent, opposite 
to Goree. His predecessor, Captain Lacy, had sent one of 
the natives into the country with dispatches on his Britannic 
Majesty’s account; but the poor man was soon way-laid, 
seized, and sold. Captain Wilson rescued him afterwards 
from the hold of a slave-vessel, where his life had been en¬ 
dangered by the inhumanity of the French captain. So 
generally prevalent were these robberies, that they were’ac- 
knowledged by all. It was the first principle of the natives, 
never to go out unarmed while a slave-vessel was upon the 
coast, for fear of being stolen. 
The second order of slaves, and that not inconsiderable, 
consists of those whose villages have been depopulated for 
obtaining them. The third class consists of such as .are 
said to have been convicted of crimes. Captain Wilson says, 
that such as are sold on this account are sold for the benefit 
of their kings or judges. On asking king Darnel’s officer, 
who had brought down a culprit for sale, whether the man 
was guilty of the crime imputed to him, he was answered 
by the officer, that this was of no consequence. Mr. Town 
says, it is not uncommon to impute crimes falsely, or to 
4 B bring 
