278 SLA 
bring on palavers, that is, accusations or trials, in order to 
make slaves. Mr. Morley remembers a woman sold on pre¬ 
tence of adultery at Old Calabar; and in the river Ambris, 
says Mr. Falconbridge, a king’s officer wanting brandy and 
other goods, but having no slave with which to purchase 
them, accuses a man of extortion in the sale of his fish, and 
after a summary trial on the spot, procures him to be con¬ 
demned and sold. 
The fourth class includes prisoners of war ; being either 
such as are the produce of wars that have originated in 
common causes; or such as have been supplied by wars made 
solely for the purpose of obtaining them. The fifth class 
comprehends those who are slaves by birth. Some traders on 
the coast, it is said, who have slaves in their possession, make 
a practice of breeding from those, for the purpose of selling 
to others. After having been brought up to a certain age, 
they are reckoned saleable. The sixth class is composed of 
those, who have sacrificed their liberty to gaming. The 
seventh and last class consists of those, who, having run into 
debt are seized according to the laws of the country, and 
sold to their creditors. The two last classes are very incon¬ 
siderable, and scarcely deserve mention. 
Having lost their liberty in one or other of the ways now 
described, they are conveyed to the banks of the rivers, or 
to the sea-cost. Some are found to have belonged to the 
neighbourhood ; others to have lived farther up the country; 
and others in very distant parts. It has been calculated, 
that some of the latter have been brought 1000 miles from 
their homes. Of those who come from a distance, many 
have travelled by water, many have been made to walk also 
qver land. These march in droves, or cauffles, as they are 
called. They are secured from rising or running away, 
by pieces of wood, which attach the necks of two and two 
together ; or by other pieces, which are fastened by staples 
to their arms. They are made to carry their own water and 
provisions, and some of them elephants’ teeth, and other 
commodities, which their masters may have picked up on 
their route. They are watched and followed by drivers, 
who make the weak keep up with the strong. As they 
pass through different places, others, who have been re¬ 
duced to slavery in a similar manner, are purchased, and 
added to the cauffle. Many in these cauffles speak different 
languages, and cannot at all understand one another. 
When they reach the banks of the rivers on the coast, 
they are offered for sale: some to land factories, or depots 
kept for that purpose by the Europeans; others, where the 
rivers are small and shallow, to ships’ boats and tenders, 
which are constantly plying about to purchase them; and 
others immediately to the ships themselves. In the rivers 
Senegal and Gambia, from ten to forty are brought down 
at a time; in the rivers Bonny and Calabar, from a thou¬ 
sand to fifteen hundred; and on the Windward Coast, per¬ 
haps a solitary individual, or only two or three at a time ; 
so that slaving, as it is called, is very tedious in that quarter. 
All those who are thus offered for sale, undergo previous 
examination by a surgeon ; and none are taken but such as 
are free from disorder, and in the prime of life. Indeed 25 
years of age is the standard, beyond which the purchasers 
do not like to take them. In making their bargains, the 
goods as well as the slaves are valued by a medium, which is 
known to the parties concerned. 
When the slaves are conveyed to the shore, they are 
carried in boats to the different ships whose captains have 
purchased them. The men are immediately confined two 
and two together, either by the neck, leg or arm, with 
fetters of solid iron. They are then put into their apart¬ 
ments ; the men occupying the fore-part, the women the 
after-part, and the boys the middle of the vessel. The tops 
of these apartments are grated for the admission of light and 
air, and they are stowed like any other lumber, occupying 
such quantity of room as has been allotted to them. Many 
of them, whilst the ships are waiting for their full lading, 
and whilst they are near their native shore, from which they 
are to be separated for ever, have manifested great appear¬ 
ance of oppression and distress; and in some cases have re- 
V E. 
curred, for relief, to suicide; others have been affected 
with delirium and madness; others, again, have been 
actuated by a spirit of revenge, and have resolved on 
punishing their oppressors at the hazard of their own lives. 
In the day-time, if the weather be fine, they are brought 
upon deck for air. They are placed in a long row of two 
and two together, on each side of the ship; a long chain 
is then made to pass through the shackles of each pair, by 
which means each row is at once secured to the deck. In 
this state they take their meals, which consist chiefly of 
horse-beans, rice and yams, with a little palm-oil and 
pepper. 
When the number of slaves is completed, the ships weigh 
anchor, and begin what is termed the Middle passage, to 
carry them to their respective colonies. The vessels in which 
they are transported are of different dimensions, from 11 to 
800 tons, and they carry from 30 to 1500 slaves at a time. 
The height of the apartments is different, according to the 
size of the vessel, but may be stated to be from six feet to 
less than three ; so that it is impossible to stand erect in most 
of the vessels that transport them, and in some scarcely to sit 
down in the same posture. 
When the vessel is full, their situation is truly pitiable. 
A grown-up person is allowed, in the best regulated ships, 
but sixteen English inches each in width, two (English) feet 
eight inches in height, and five feet eleven inches in length. 
Surgeon Falconbridge declares, that he has known slaves go 
down apparently in health, and brought up dead in the 
morning. He once opened one of them surgically, to dis¬ 
cover with certainty what was the cause of his death;' and 
found, from the appearance of the thorax and abdomen, that 
it was from suffocation. He says, that once on going 
below, he found that twenty of the slaves had fainted. He 
got them instantly hauled up on deck; but notwithstanding 
the quickness of his movements on this occasion, two or 
three of them died. And once, though he was only fifteen 
minutes in their room below, he became so ill himself, that 
he could not get up again to the deck without help; and 
he never was below many minutes together, but his shirt 
was as wet as if it had been dipt in water. He says, 
algo, that as the slaves, whether well or ill, always lie on 
the'TSBre planks, the motion of the ship rubs the flesh 
from the prominent parts of their body, and leaves the 
bones almost bare. And when the slaves have the flux, 
which is frequently the case, the whole place becomes co¬ 
vered with blood and mucus like a slaughter-house; and as 
they are fettered and wedged close together, the utmost dis¬ 
order arises from endeavours to get to three or four tubs, 
which are placed among them for necesary purposes: and 
this disorder is still further increased, by the healthy being 
not unfrequently chained to the diseased, the dying and 
the dead. Dr. Trotter, speaking on the same subject, 
gives us an equal melancholy account. When the scuttles, 
says he, in the ship’s sides, are obliged to be shut in bad 
.weather, the gratings are not sufficient for airing the rooms. 
He never himself could breathe freely below, unless im¬ 
mediately under the hatchway. He has seen the slaves 
drawing their breath with all that laborious and anxious 
effort for life, which are observed in expiring animals, sub¬ 
jected by experiment to foul air, or in the exhausted re¬ 
ceiver of an air-pump. He has also seen them when the 
tarpaulings have been thrown over the gratings, attempting 
to heave them up, crying out, “ We are dying.” Most 
of them have been recovered, by being brought upon 
deck; but some have perished, and this entirely by suffo¬ 
cation. 
During the time that elapses from the slaves being put 
on board, on the African coast, to the time when the re¬ 
ceivers leave the colonies, after having disposed of their 
cargoes, about one-fifth, or nearer one-fourth of the number 
put on board are destroyed. 
This horrible traffic could not, however, exist long, with¬ 
out exciting hatred and indignation in all those not person¬ 
ally interested in its continuance. The first persons who 
bore their testimony against the trade in their successive 
writings 
