Part 20

Le Maire tells an odd story on this occasion, which Barbot says he heard in Africa. A man, it seems, had formed a design of selling his son, who, suspecting his intention, when they came to the factory, went aside to the storehouse and sold his father. When the old man saw them about to fetter him he cried out, he was his father; but the son denying it, the bargain held good. The son met his desert, for, returning with his merchandize, he met a negro chief, who stripped him of his ill-gotten wealth, and sold him at the same market.

Abundance of little blacks, of both sexes, are also stolen away by their neighbours, when found abroad on the roads, or in the woods, or else in the lugaus, or corn-fields, where they are kept all day, to scare the small birds that come in swarms to feed on the millet.—(p. 256.)

_Labat.—Astley’s Voyages. vol ii. p. 259._

The French have been forced sometimes to make use of violent means, when they cannot get the princes to discharge these forced loans, by pillaging some village, and making slaves of the inhabitants; after which they have balanced accounts with his majesty, and paid for as many as they had taken above their due. But these measures, says the author, don’t always succeed; and even though one was sure of getting paid this way, yet that it would be better not to make a practice of it, for fear of drawing the resentment of the country upon a man, which, sooner or later he would feel to his cost—(p. 258.)

_Le Maire’s Travels, about 1690.—Astley’s Voyages, vol. ii._

Sometimes the king of Senegal makes incursions on the weakest of his neighbours, driving off their cattle, or making slaves of them, which he sells for brandy. When his stock of this grows low, he locks it up in a small chest, giving the key to one of his favorites, whom he dispatches, perhaps thirty leagues off, and thus saves his liquor by putting it out of his power to get at it. If he has no opportunity of exercising his tyranny on his neighbours, he makes no scruple of living on his own subjects, staying with his court, which consists of two hundred of those who have learnt all the worst qualities of the whites, till he has eat up the inhabitants; and, if they presume to complain, selling them for slaves.—(p. 260.)

As long as the brandy bottle lasts the prince is drunk: no answer is to be expected till all the liquor is out. When he grows sober, he gives his audience of _congée_, presenting the factor with two or three slaves, which he sends to have taken up in the nearest villages. Unhappy are they who at that time fall into the hands of his guards, for they stay to make no choice.—(p. 260, 261.)

_Travels (about 1730), of Francis Moore, Factor several years to the Royal African Company of England._

The king of Barsalle, so soon as he has wasted what he has gotten, either by taking an enemy’s town, _or one of his own_, he must look out for some new prize to give it to his men.—Astley, ii. 261.

Rohone, where the king of Barsali commonly resides, stands near the sea, about one hundred miles from Joar, which lies in the same kingdom. When he wants goods or brandy, he sends a messenger to the governor of James Fort, to desire he would send up a sloop with a cargo, which the governor never fails to do. Against the time the vessel is arrived, the king plunders some of his enemy’s towns, selling the people for such goods as he wants, which commonly is brandy or rum, gunpowder, ball, fire-arms, pistols, and cutlasses for his soldiers, and coral and silver for his wives and mistresses. If he is at war with no neighbouring king, he falls upon one of his own towns, and makes bold to sell his own miserable subjects.

His usual way of living is, to sleep all day till sun-set, at which time he gets up to drink, and goes to sleep again till midnight, when he rises and eats; and if he has any strong liquors, will sit and drink till day-light, and then eat and go to sleep again, When he is well stocked with liquor, he will sit and drink for five or six days together, and not eat one morsel of any thing in all that time. It is to this insatiable thirst after brandy, that his subjects freedoms and families are in so precarious a situation[58]; for he often goes with some of his troops, by a town in the daytime, and returns in the night, and sets fire to three parts of it, placing guards at the fourth, to seize the people as they run out from the fire: he ties their arms behind them, and marches them either to Joar or Rohone, where he sells them.—(p. 261, 262.). The king furnishes the Europeans with slaves very easily: he sends a troop of guards to some village, which they surround; then seizing as many as they have orders for, they bind them up and send them away to the ships, where, the ship mark being put upon them, they are heard of no more.

They usually carry the infants in sacks, and gag the men and women, for fear they should alarm the villages through which they are carried; for these actions are never committed in the villages near the factories, which it is the king’s interest not to ruin, but in those up the country. It often happens, that some escape, and alarm the country, which, taking arms, join the persons injured, and pursue the robbers. If they catch them, they carry them before the king, who then denies his commission, and sells them on the spot for slaves. What is further remarkable, if any of the injured people appear as evidence still in bonds before the king, they are also adjudged to be slaves, and sold as such.[59]—(p. 268.).

_Voyage of Atkins to Guinea, about 1720. Astley, vol. ii._

_Panyaring_ is a term for manstealing, along the whole coast.—(p. 320.)

_Voyage of Smith, about 1727—employed under the African Company._

December 18, they sailed from Sierra Leona, and on the 25th anchored at Gallinas; here lay the Queen Elizabeth, Captain Creighton, before mentioned, who invited Capt. Livingstone to take a Christmas dinner with him, and shewed him a letter from one Benjamin Cross (third mate of the Expedition, Capt. Mettisse) who had been _panyarred_ by the natives of Cape Monte, three months before, and detained there by way of reprisal for some of their men carried off by an English trader. This villanous custom is too often practised, chiefly by the Bristol and Liverpool ships, and is a great detriment to the Slave Trade on the Windward coast.[60]—(p. 475, 476.)

Mons. Brüe, (vol. iv.) relating a dispute he had with the Damel, respecting his giving in English ship liberty to trade in his dominions, on which M. Brüe seized and confiscated the vessel, says, “Most of the Negroes on board, he found, were free fishermen of the coast, whom the king had decoyed to Potadâlly, under the pretence of employing their canoes to transport his troops to attack Goree; but as soon as by this pretence he had assembled them, he sent them on board, and sold them as Slaves. There was not the smallest appearance that the Damel had even conceived so extravagant a project, says M. Brüe, but it was necessary to form some scheme to entrap these men, and sell them.” Although the injustice of the king in trepanning and selling them was notorious, it mattered not; they were all sent to America, and sold as Slaves.—(p. 204.)

Labat mentions that a Captain of a French man of war, at the suggestion of a French trader, (the Captain’s name was Montorsies, and the ship’s, Lion, and Fond was the name of the trader) pillaged the Isle of Cazegat, one of the Bissagos Islands. They landed 200 men without the smallest resistance. The king, of the island, named Duquermaney, was surrounded in his houses, and he chose to burn himself rather than fall into the European hands; the natives fled to the woods and mountains, so that, of about 3,000 inhabitants, they took only about a dozen. This unfortunate enterprise, says our author, made M. Fond greatly fear, lest he should lose all trade with these people: but he managed the matter so cleverly, “_il se donna tant de mouvemens, et fit jouer tant de ressorts_,” says Labat, that he made them believe he had no hand at all in the affair, and assured them it was a parcel of ruffians, a set of pirates and banditti, who had made this incursion, by which their king was lost, and their country laid waste.

_Depredations—Effect of Slave Trade._

In old Calabar River are two towns, Old Town and New Town. A rivalship in trade produced a jealousy between the towns; so that, through fear of each other, for a considerable time no canoe would leave their towns to go up the river for slaves. [Sidenote: Astley’s Voyages.] In 1767, seven ships lay off the point which separates the towns; six of the captains invited the people of both towns on board on a certain day, as if to reconcile them; at the same time agreed with the people of New Town to cut off the Old Town people who should remain on board the next morning. The Old Town people, persuaded of the sincerity of the captains’ proposal, went on board in great numbers. Next morning, at eight o’clock, one of the ships fired a gun, as the signal for commencing hostilities. Some of the traders were secured on board, some were killed in resisting, and some got overboard and were fired upon. When the firing began, the New Town people, who were in ambush behind the Point, came forward and picked up the people of Old Town, who were swimming, and had escaped the firing. After the firing was over, the captains of five of the ships delivered their prisoners (persons of consequence) to the New Town canoes; two of whom were beheaded alongside the ships; the inferior prisoners were carried to the West Indies. One of the captains, who had secured three of the king’s brothers, delivered one of them to the chief man of New Town, who was one of the two beheaded alongside; the other brothers he kept on board, promising, when the ship was slaved, to deliver them to the chief man of New Town. This ship was soon slaved, from this promise, and the number of prisoners made that day; but he refused to deliver the king’s two brothers, and carried them to the West Indies, and sold them.

_Natural Disposition of the Africans, and Capacity for Civilization.—Astley’s Voyages, vol. i._

James Welsh’s Voyage to Benin.—The people are very gentle, and loving.—(202.)

The inhabitants of Whidah are more polite and civilized than most people in the world, not excepting the European. (vol. iii. p. 14.)

Marchais.—There are no people on earth, says that author, more tender of their offspring, or that shew more parental affection.—(p. 20.)

Nyendael.—Kingdom of Benin. The inhabitants are generally good-natured and civil, and may be brought to any thing by fair and soft means. If you make them presents, they will recompense them doubly. If you want any thing of them, and ask it, they seldom deny it, even though they had occasion for it themselves: but to treat them harshly, or to think to gain any thing of them by force, is to dispute with the moon.

Artus says, that the people of Benin are a sincere, inoffensive people, and do no injustice either to one another, or strangers.—(p. 95.)

Although some of them be surly and proud, yet in general they carry themselves very friendly towards strangers; being of a mild conversation, courteous, affable, and easy to be overcome with reason, yet inclined to drink, especially Spanish wine and brandy. In conversation, they discover great quickness of parts and understanding, delivering themselves with so much sense and humour, that the most knowing persons take delight in hearing them.—(p. 247.)

The Negroes at Whidah are so industrious, that no spot of land, except what is naturally barren, escapes planting, though even within the inclosures of their villages and houses.—(p. 8.)

The soil is so fruitful, that as soon as one harvest is over, the ground is sowed with some other grain, so that they have two or three crops in a year. (p. 8.)

Captain Stibbs, about 1724.—The Foleys are a cleanly, decent, industrious people, very affable.—(p. 199.)

Moore’s Travels.—Their form of government goes on easily, because the people are of a quiet, good disposition, and so well instructed in what is just and right, that a man who does ill is the abomination of all. Their humanity extends to all, but they are doubly kind to their own race; so that if one of them be made a Slave, all the Fûli will join to redeem him. And as they have plenty of food, they never suffer any of their own nation to want, but support the old, the blind, and the lame; and, as far as their ability goes, supply the wants of the Mandingoes, great numbers of whom they have maintained in famines. They rarely are angry; yet this mildness does not proceed from want of courage, for they are as brave a people as any in Africa.

Winterbottom’s Travels, about 1796, &c. &c.—The Foolas impart to leather a red colour, equal to that of morocco in beauty; and by steeping it, they obtain a beautiful shining black. Another class of men are equally celebrated as blacksmiths; besides making every kind of necessary utensil, they inlay the handles, and chase the blades of swords, &c. with great neatness, and they make a variety of elegant fancy ornaments for the women, out of pieces of gold and silver dollars. A considerable degree of ingenuity in the arts with which they are acquainted must be allowed to all these nations, and is evident in the construction of their houses, and the formation of a variety of domestic and agricultural utensils. With the rudest instruments, they form canoes from a single tree, capable of carrying eight or ten tons; their mats shew much neatness and ingenuity, &c. &c.—(p. 91, 92.)

They have various substitutes for hemp and flax, of which they make fishing-lines and nets, equal in strength and durability to those of Europeans.—(p. 93.)

They make earthen pots fit for every domestic use. (p. 94.)

I have been often gratified by observing the strength and tenderness of the attachment subsisting between mothers and sons.—(p. 152.)

It is my earnest wish to divest myself of partiality, and neither to “extenuate or set down aught in malice.” They (the Africans) are in general of mild external manners; but they possess a great share of pride, and are easily affected by an insult; they cannot hear even a harsh expression, or a raised tone of voice, without shewing that they feel it. As a proof that they are not deficient in natural affection, one of the severest insults which can be offered to an African, is to speak disrespectfully of his mother. (p. 211.) The respect which they pay to old people is very great.—(p. 211.)

The hospitality of the Africans has been noticed by almost every traveller.—(p. 213.)

I have ever met with a welcome and hospitable reception on arriving at their villages; mats have been brought out for myself and friends to repose on; and if it happened to be meal time, we have been at liberty to join them without ceremony, or to wait till something better could be provided. If we intended to spend the night there, a house has been set apart for us; and, on taking leave in the morning, a guide has generally offered to shew us on our way.—(p. 213.)

As soon as a stranger is observed, all the inhabitants quit their occupations, and hasten to shake him by the hand, repeating several times the word “Senno,” welcome. Even the children who can barely lisp a welcome, when a little custom has diminished the dread attending a white face, are eager to discharge this duty of hospitality, and with a smile hold out their little hands, and seem delighted if he deigns to notice them.—(p. 214.)

Smith’s Guinea, about 1730.—These Negroes seem to be very industrious, for they all go clad with their own manufactures.—(p. 104.)

The natives of Axim industriously employ themselves either in trade, fishing, or agriculture. (p. 115.)

Whydah.—Before the king of Dahomey conquered this place, the natives were so industrious, that no place which was thought fertile could escape being planted.—(p. 199.)

The discerning natives account it their greatest unhappiness that they were ever visited by Europeans. They say that we Christians introduced the traffic of Slaves, and that before our coming, they lived in peace. But say they, it is observable, that wherever Christianity comes there come, with it a sword, a gun, powder and ball. (p. 266.)

_Africans natural Qualities, and Capacity for Civilization—Commercial Intercourse practicable.—Astley’s Voyages, vol. iii._

Bosman.—Whidah.—All who have seen it allow it to be one of the most delightful countries of the world.

The number and variety of tall, beautiful, shady trees; the verdant fields, every where cultivated, and only divided by those groves, or in some places by a small footpath; together with the innumerable little agreeable villages.

The farther you go from it (the ocean) the more beautiful and populous you find the country; so that it resembles the Elysian fields.

There is also a weekly market in the province of Aplogua, which is so resorted to, that there are usually five or six thousand merchants.—(p. 11.)

Ogilby.—Kingdom of Loango.—There are many handicrafts among them, as weavers, smiths, cap-makers, bead-makers, potters, carpenters, vintners, fishermen, canoe-makers, besides merchants and other traders, (p. 221.)

There are whole mountains of porphyry, jasper, and marble, of divers colours, which in Rome are called marbles of Numidia, Africa, and Ethiopia; certain pillars whereof may be seen in the palace of Pope Gregory. (p. 299.)

_Natural Qualities and Disposition of Africans._

Capt. Wilson, of the Royal Navy (in Africa about 1783–4) fully believes Africans to be equal to Europeans in capacity. They have various manufactures, chiefly for home consumption. They make cotton cloths beautifully fine, under every want of machinery: also very curious ornaments of gold, and weapons and tools of iron, which their experience makes them prefer to those sent from hence, which are made for them.

The Africans are most grateful and affectionate: they treated him most kindly, when many miles up their country, and unprotected; and numbers shed tears on his departure.

Mr. Wadstrom (in Africa, about 1787–8.) thinks the Africans very honest and hospitable; was treated by them with all civility and kindness. Is clearly convinced that the Negroes surpass such Europeans as he has known, in affection. Has been surprised at their industry in manufacturing cotton, indigo, iron, soap, wood, pottery, leather, and other articles. They work gold so well, that witness never saw better wrought trinkets and ornaments in Europe. They manufacture cloth and leather with uncommon neatness. The latter they tan and work into saddles, sandals, and a variety of useful and ornamental articles. They forge iron very dexterously on anvils of a remarkably hard and heavy wood, when they cannot get stone for the purpose.

The Negroes are particularly skilful in manufacturing iron and gold. They are equal to any European goldsmith in fillagree, and even other articles, as buckles, except the chafes, tongues, and anchors.

The Rev. John Newton:—Made five voyages to Africa, the last in 1754, as master of a slave ship. Lived ashore about a year and a half, chiefly at the island of Plantanes, at the mouth of the river Sherbro.

Always judged, that, with equal advantage, the natives capacities would be equal to ours. Has known many of real and decided capacity.

The best people he met with were on the R. Gaboon, and at C. Lopas. These had then the least intercourse with Europe. Believes they had then no Slave Trade, and has heard them speak against it. They traded in ivory and wax. One great man said, “if I was to be angry, and sell my boy, how should I get my boy back when my anger was gone?”

They are generally worse in their conduct in proportion to their acquaintance with us.

Capt. Sir George Young, Royal Navy; in Africa from 1768 to 1792.—Many Negroes he met with seemed to possess as strong natural sense as any set of people whatever; their temper appeared to be very good-natured and civil, unless where they suspected some injury; are, however, naturally vindictive, and revenge the injury done.

Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq.; in Africa 1779.—As far as he could judge, in natural capacity, the Negroes are equal to any people whatever; and in temper and disposition they appeared to be humane, hospitable, and well disposed.

James Towne; about 1760, Carpenter of his Majesty’s ship Syren.—The natives are hospitable and kind, and capable of learning quicker than white men. They differ as our own people in character; those on the coast learn to be roguish; inland, they are innocent. The intercourse with Europeans has improved them in roguery, to plunder and steal, and pick up one another to sell.

_African Commercial Tendencies._

Mr. Wadstrom.—The Africans have an extraordinary genius for commerce and industry. The Slave Trade makes it dangerous for the Negroes to pass from one part of their country to another, and is the chief hindrance to the improvement of their cultivation, since they never venture into the fields, unless very well armed.

The Negroes are particularly skilful in manufacturing iron and gold; they are equal to any European goldsmith in fillagree, and even other articles, as buckles, except the chapes, tongues, and anchors.

Captain Sir George Young, Royal Navy.—He verily believes that the natives would cultivate the soil for natural productions, provided they had no other means of obtaining European commodities. He recollects some circumstances in proof of their industry. A number of people from the Bulam shore came over to Sierra Leone, and offered their services to work at a very low price; he accepted of a few (who worked very well) and might have had thousands of the same description. Further is of opinion, from observation, that Africa is capable of producing every thing of the East and West Indies, in equal perfection, with equal cultivation.

Is of opinion, that, by shewing the natives of Africa how to cultivate the land, a greater quantity of shipping and seamen would be called for in the commerce, for the natural productions of that country, without any greater inconvenience, in point of health to the seamen, than in the present West Indian trade.

Anthony Pantaleo How, Esq.; in Africa about 1785.—Saw no European commodities in the interior parts; is sure no European spirits were to be had there. The inhabitants there remarkably industrious, also hospitable and obliging. A village of several hundred houses on the Lake of Appolonia, whence in the rainy season they supply the sea coast with vegetables, grain, palm wine, &c. Thinks they have but little capacity in regard to manufactures, but quick in learning languages.

Has no doubt but spices in general, and all other tropical productions, might be cultivated with success there. The soil and climate adapted to produce the sandal wood. Has seen indigo at Apollonia in its raw state, and also manufactured, but not manufacturing; also cotton growing in great abundance; but knows not that any or either of these two articles were exported.

Cinnamon plants at St. Thomas, at the sea-side, about twenty feet high; from what he heard, grew inland to a higher size; those on the sea-side he considered only as shrubs. He saw a number of them, and, from the appearance of the bark brought down, concludes there must be a great quantity inland.

Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq.; in Africa about 1779.—They manufacture cotton cloths, almost equal in the workmanship to those of Europe; they work in gold, silver, and iron remarkably neat, also in wood, and make saddles, bow-cases, scabbards, [Sidenote: Golberey.] grisgris, and other things of leather, with great neatness.