CHAPTER XIX.

THE BROAD PENNANT IN AFRICA.

THE work to which Matthew Perry was assigned during the next three years grew out of the famous treaty made by Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton. Of this treaty we, in 1883 and 1884, on account of the transfer of so much of our financial talent across the Canadian border, heard nearly as much as our fathers before us in 1842. In addition to the rectification of the long-disputed boundary question, the eighth and ninth articles contained provisions for extirpating the African slave-trade. By the tenth article, the two governments agreed to the mutual extradition of suspected criminals. Out of the interpretation of this last, grew the famous “Underground Railway” of slavery days, besides the residence in Canada of men fleeing from conscription during the civil war, and of defaulting bank officers in later years. To the crimes making offenders liable to extradition, in the supplementary treaty made under President Cleveland’s administration, four others are added, including larceny to the amount of fifty dollars, and malicious destruction of property endangering life.

It is very probable that war was averted by the sound diplomacy of the Webster-Ashburton treaty. The two nations instead of crossing swords were enabled through creative statesmanship, to join hands for wholesome moral work, and especially to improve off the face of the ocean, “the sum of all villainies.” The discovery of America had given a vast impulse to this ancient and horrible traffic, and about forty millions of negroes had been seized for the markets of the western continent. About seventy thousand of these victims were brought to our country prior to the year 1808, and many thousands have been surreptitiously introduced since that epoch.

The United States was to send an eighty-gun squadron to Africa to suppress piracy and the slave-trade. The preparation for this real service to humanity and the world’s commerce was curiously interpreted in South America, as a menace to the states of that continent. In their first thrills of independence, these republics were naturally suspicious of their nearest strong neighbor.

The work of the American men-of-war in overhauling slavers, involved the question of the right of search. Notwithstanding that the war of 1812 had been fought to settle the question, it was not yet decided. It required secession and the so-called Southern Confederacy to arise, with the aid of Captain Wilkes and Mr. Seward, to force the British government to disown her ancient claim.

Orders to command the African squadron, and to protect the settlements of the blacks established by the American Colonization Society, were received February 20, 1843. The spring was consumed in preparations, and on the 5th of June, the Commodore hoisted his broad pennant on the _Saratoga_.[13] In the flag-ship of a squadron, Matthew Perry sped to southern oceans, a helper in the progress of Africa. Arriving at Monrovia, in due time, his first duty was to mete out justice to the natives of Sinoe and Berribee for the murders of American seamen. He found awaiting him one of the head men of Berribee with authority to arrange a palaver of all the chiefs with the American commander. To understand the problem before the Commodore, let us glance at the situation.

The question of war or peace among the natives on or near the coast is a financial one of monopoly and privilege. The tribes occupying the coast or sea “beach” have the advantage of all the tribes behind them in the interior, inasmuch as they hold the monopoly of foreign trade and barter with passing ships. The coast men sell the coveted foreign goods, rum, tobacco, powder and notions to the next tribe inland at a handsome profit. These, in turn, sell to the next tribe within, and these to the next, and so the filtering process goes on. The prices, to the last purchaser and consumer, one or two hundred miles from the sea, after passing through all these middle-men, are enormous. The position then next the ships was a coveted one, and those in sight of blue water had to keep it by arms as champions. Only the most warlike tribes get and hold this place.

To gain this supreme advantage of trade at first hand, the Crack-Os, a tribe two days distant inland, had fought their way seaward and captured from the Bassa Cove and Berribee people, about ten miles of coast on which they had built five towns. Giving free rein to their predatory propensities, they seized all canoes passing their front, and plundered or murdered their crews. Growing bolder, they overwhelmed by their numbers even foreign vessels after enticing these to visit them, and their crews to land. The captain and crew of the American schooner, _Mary Carver_, were first tortured and then murdered. For three hours, Captain Carver suffered unspeakable horrors. He was bound and delivered to the tender mercies of the savage women and children who amused themselves by sticking thorns in his flesh. In another instance, Captain Burke, mate and cook, of the _Edward Barley_, were cruelly murdered. In consequence of these atrocities, traders avoided this villainous coast, and commerce came to a stand-still.

The mere destruction of any of the beach towns would be of no avail, if the black rascals were allowed to rebuild. With their rice and cassava or yam plantations a few miles back, to which they removed the women, children, and other valuables, they would laugh at the white man’s pains. The only lasting check on their villainy would be permanent exclusion from the beach.

There was enough of another side to the story to remove indiscriminate vengeance far from the Commodore’s purposes. Our government heard many complaints against the blacks, while their voice was unheard. The native towns and fishing boats were frequently fired into, their towns cannonaded and burnt, and the blacks cruelly maltreated, or sold to warlike tribes, in pure wantonness by white foreigners. As all white men were the same to the negroes, they were apt to take the first opportunity for vengeance that offered itself. In this way, innocent men suffered.

An imposing force, more than sufficient for mere punishment, was determined upon. The Commodore had to move with caution, and both justice and victory must be sure, as a failure to awe would make matters worse. His first care was to obtain hostages from the Berribees. In doing this he was able to prove their guilt. He sent Lieutenant Stellwagen in the brig _Porpoise_, disguised as a merchantman, to their coast. Only five or six men, and these in red shirts, showed themselves on deck. The Berribee boats at once rushed out in a shoal to capture the harmless looking vessel. As only a sample of the thieving humanity was needed, the Lieutenant, satisfied with a good joke, refrained from opening his guns on the canoes. After witnessing the seizure of those first climbing over the ship’s sides, and the sudden resurrection from the hatches of his armed crew, the other blacks scattered for the shore.

The squadron, consisting of the _Saratoga_, _Macedonian_, _Decatur_ and _Porpoise_ sailing from Mesurado on the 22d of November, cast anchor on the 29th at Sinoe. This settlement, nominally under the care of the Mississippi Colonization Society had been greatly neglected. The negroes from the United States were there, but were little looked after. “Colonization,” in their case meant simply good riddance.

Landing with seventy-five sailors and marines, the procession moved to the Methodist Church edifice in which the palaver was to be held. Before the President of Liberia, Mr. Roberts, and the Commodore, with their respective staffs on the one side, and twenty “kings” or head men on the other, the murder of Captain Burke’s mate and cook was discussed. It appeared that the white man was the first aggressor, and the Fishmen and not the Sinoe people were the culprits. After listening patiently to the black orators, the Commodore ordered the Fishmen’s town to be burned, keeping three of them as hostages to be sent to Monrovia. He advised the settlers to build a stockade and block-house, assess the expense in town meeting, and endeavor to enforce the methods of self-government and protection so well established in the United States. Only in this way could civilization hold its own against the savages of the bush.

The next point of landing was Settra Kroo, in King Freeman’s dominions. At this place, the force from the boats stepped on shore at 9 A. M. Before the palaver began, the Commodore heard a piece of news that caused him to hasten in person to the scene of the incident. Humanity was the first duty. The pace of the burly Commodore was quickened to a run as he heard of the imminent danger of an innocent victim. A wealthy man of one of the Settra villages had been accused of having caused the death of a neighbor by foul arts of necromancy. To prove innocence in such a case, the accused was compelled to drink largely of sassy-wood which made a red liquid. In this case the elect victim was a hard-featured fellow of about fifty years of age. His wealth had excited envy, and avarice was doubtless his only crime. His two wives with their satin-skinned babies, were in agony and tears for the fate of the husband and father.

The natives, seeing the Americans approach, and suspecting their design of rescue, seized their victim and paddled him in a canoe across the lake. Perry, being told of this circumstance, on coming to a group of men grasped the chief, ordering the officers to seize others and hold them as hostages for the ordeal man. The territory belonged to the Maryland Colonization Society, and the rites of savagery were not to be done in view of an American squadron. This novel order of _habeas corpus_ was obeyed. After some delay and palaver, the negroes restored the victim, and, under the emetics and remedies of Dr. McGill, the man was delivered from the power of sassy and of believers in its virtue. The squadron had arrived just in time.

Returning from this lively episode with sharp appetites, the Commodore and party of officers were just about to sit down to dinner, when an alarm gun, fired from Mount Tulman, startled them. Almost immediately afterwards a messenger, running in hot haste, announced that the wild natives from the bush beyond were about to force their way to the settlement and attack the colonists. They had mistaken the salute to the Commodore, and thought that hostilities had already begun with King Freeman. They had come to support the native party and be in at the division of the spoils.

At once the Commodore accompanied by the Governor and his force marched through the blazing sun four miles to the scene of hostilities. On the Mount Tulman, named after a philanthropic Baltimorean, they found a picketed level space to which the civilized colonists, men, women and children, had fled for refuge. They were defended by fifteen or sixteen men then on the watch. The savage natives had been repulsed and some of them killed.

As there was nothing to do, the party enjoyed, for a few minutes, the superb scenery. The village beneath, and the white buildings of the Mount Vaughan Episcopal mission glittered in the sun, and the beach and ocean view was grand. The descent of the hill with their belated dinner in view, was an easy and grateful task.

At Cape Palmas, or “Maryland in Africa,” the naval force landed Dec. 9th, for a palaver with twenty-three “kings” and head men. The Commodore and Governor, at the usual table, were face to face with the sable orators, whose talking powers were prodigious. His Majesty, King Freeman, was a prepossessing negro, who, in features, recalled to the narrator Horatio Bridge,[14] Henry Clay. The interpreter was Yellow Will, a voluble and amazing creature in scarlet and Mazarin-yellow lace.

The substance of the palaver was the request that King Freeman should, for the good of the American colonists, remove his capital. The meeting was adjourned to re-assemble in the royal kraal or city two days later. On December 11, twelve armed boats were sent ashore from three ships. The feat of landing in the surf was accomplished after several ridiculous tumbles and considerable wetting from the spray.

On shore there were about fifty natives in waiting, as an escort to the palaver house. These braves were armed with various weapons, muskets guiltless of polish, iron war spears, huge wooden fish-harpoons, and broad knives.

The royal capital was a palisaded village in the centre of which was the palaver house. Most of the male warriors were out of sight, evidently in ambush while the women and piccaninnies were in “the bush.” Some delay occurred in the silent town, while arrangements were perfected by his Majesty. By orders of the wary Commodore, marines were posted at the gates as sentinels, while the military forces of either side were marched to opposite ends of the town. The parties to the controversy being seated, Governor Roberts spoke concerning the murder of Captain Carver. The towns along the beach governed by King Crack-O were implicated. They shared in the plunder, the cargo of the ship being worth twelve thousand dollars. The evil results were great, inasmuch as all tribes on the coast wanted to “catch” foreign vessels.

His Majesty, King Crack-O, was a monstrous fellow of sinister expression. He wore a gorgeous robe and a short curved sword resembling the cleaver used by Chicago pork-packers. The blade of this weapon was six inches wide. He made a rather defiant reply to President Robert’s charges, denying all participation in the matter. Touching his ears and tongue symbolically to his sword, he signified his willingness to attend the great Palaver at Berribee.

At the Commodore’s suggestion, he was invited on board the flag-ship with the object of impressing him with the force at command of the whites.

During the embarkation, several funny scenes occurred. All the villagers, men, women and children, came to see the canoes set off, many of which were repeatedly upset, and the passengers tossed into the water and soused. There was little dignity, but no end of fun, in getting from shore to ship.

The next meeting was appointed at Little Berribee, because the great palaver for the division of the spoil of the _Mary Carver_, had been held at this place. It was hoped some exact information would be gained. The line of boats leaving the flag-ship December 13, moved to the shore, and the march was begun to the village. The palaver house was about fifty yards from the town gate inside the palisades, and King Ben Crack-O’s long iron spear, with a blade like a trowel, was, with other weapons, laid aside before the palaver began; but arrayed in his gorgeous robes, the strapping warrior, evidently spoiling for a fight, took his seat, having well “coached” his interpreter.

After the Governor spoke, the native interpreter began. He quickly impressed the American officers and the Liberian Governor as a voluminous but unskillful liar, and himself as one of the most guilty of the thieves. His tergiversations soon became impudent and manifest, and his lies seemed to fall with a thump. The Governor, had repeatedly warned him in vain. At last, the Commodore, losing patience, rose up and hastily stepping toward the villain sternly warned him to lie no more.

Instantly the interpreter, losing courage, bolted out of the house and started on a run for the woods. Perry quickly noticing that King Crack-O was meditating treachery, moved towards him. The black king’s courage was equal to his power of lying and treachery. He seized the burly form of the Commodore, and attempted to drag him off where stood, on its butt, his iron spear. It was already notched with twelve indentations—in token of the number of men killed with it.

His black majesty had caught a Tartar! The burly Commodore was not easy to handle. Perry hurled him away from the direction of the stacked arms, and before he had more than got out of the house, a sergeant of the marines shot the king, while the sergeant’s comrades bayonetted him.

In the struggle, the king had caught his foot in the skirts of his own robe and he was speedily left naked. Spite of the ball and two bayonet wounds he fought like a tiger, and the two or three men who attempted to hold his writhing form needed all their strength to make him a prisoner. His muscular power was prodigious, but their gigantic prize was finally secured, bound, and carried to the beach. The interpreter was shot dead while running, the ball entering his neck.

The palaver, thus broken up, suddenly changed into a melee in which the marines and blue-jackets began irregular firing on the natives, in spite of the Commodore’s orders to refrain. The two-hundred or more blacks scattered to the woods, along the beach and even into the sea, some escaping by canoes.

As the real culprits had mostly escaped, the Commodore ordered the town to be fired. Our sailors forced the palisades or crept between the gates. Meeting in the centre of the town, they gave three cheers and then applied the torch. In fifteen minutes the whole capital, built of wattles and mud was on fire, and in little over a half hour a level waste.

The blacks, from the edge of the woods, opened fire on the Americans. With incredibly bad aim, they shot at the blue-jackets with rusty muskets loaded with copper slugs made out of the bolts of the _Mary Carver_. From one pile of camwood, the fire of the rascals was so near, that Captain Mayo’s face was burned with their powder, so that he carried the marks to his grave. Little harm was done by the copper shower. Our men charged into the bush, and presently the ships opened fire on the woods, and the little war with the heathen ended for the day.

Among the trophies recovered in the town, was a United States flag, articles from the _Mary Carver_, and several war canoes. The king’s spear, made of a central shaft of wood with iron butt and top and the blade heart-shaped, was kept by the Commodore, and now adorns the collection of his son-in-law.

Embarkation was then made to the ships, where King Crack-O died next morning at eight o’clock.

On the 15th, as the boats moved off at 7 P. M., to a point twelve or fifteen miles below Berribee, they were fired on by the natives when near the shore. The boat’s crew and three marines dashed ashore, and charged the enemy. The landing was then made in good order, the line formed and the march begun to the town. The palisades were at once cut through, and the houses set on fire. While this was being done, the blacks in the woods were sounding war-horns, bells and gongs, which the buzzards, at least, understood, for they soon appeared flying in expectation of a feast.

A further march up the beach of a mile and a half brought the force to a line of palisades behind which were thirty or forty natives. The boat-keepers rowing along the line of march, were enabled to see that these were armed and ready to fire. Halting at forty yards distance, the marines and blue-jackets charged on a run, giving the blacks only time to fire a few shots and then break for cover. This they could easily do, as the woods reached nearly to the water’s edge. After searching for articles from the _Mary Carver_, this third town was burned, and then the men sat down to dinner. Another town three miles further up the beach was likewise visited and left in ashes. All day long the men were hard at work and in constant danger from the whistling copper, but the only bodily members in danger seemed to be their ears, for the blacks were utterly unable either to aim straight or to fire low. The men enjoyed the excitement hugely, and only two of them were wounded. The eight or ten cattle captured and the relics of the _Mary Carver_, were taken on board.

On the 16th at daylight, the ships raised anchor and proceeded to Great Berribee. White flags were hoisted in token of amity. The king came on board the flag-ship, and a “treaty” in which protection to American seamen was guaranteed was made. Gifts were exchanged, and the five Berribee prisoners released.

The effect of this powder and ball policy so necessary, and so judiciously administered, was soon apparent along a thousand miles of coast. By fleet runners carrying the news, it was known at Cape Palmas when the squadron arrived there on the 20th. The degree of retribution inflicted by no means exceeded what the original outrage demanded. According to the well-understood African law, the whole of the guilty tribe must suffer when the murderers have not been delivered up. The example, a peremptory necessity at the moment, was, for a long time, salutary; the American vessels not only experienced the good effect, but the event had a powerful influence in the native palavers.

A year or so later, the king and headmen of Berribee, visited Lieutenant Craven in the _Porpoise_. The people had begun to make farms, and cultivate the soil. They were very anxious to see Commodore Perry, “to talk one big palaver, pay plenty bullock, no more fight white man, and to get permission to build their town again on the beach.” The Lieutenant reported the effect on all tribes as highly salutary, even as far as fifteen or twenty miles in the interior. The Missionaries, the Reverend and Mrs. Payne whose lives had been threatened, and their schools broken up by the wild blacks, were now enjoying friendly intercourse with the natives and suffered no more annoyance. He also received the warm approval of the other missionaries on the coast, both Roman Catholic as well as Protestant, as well as of Governor Russworm, of the Maryland Colony. The Reverend James Kelly, of the Catholic Mission, in a letter, said of Perry, “His services were tendered in a way decidedly American—without ostentation—yet carrying effect in every quarter.”

This systematic punishment, after examination, and the certainty that the stripes were laid on the right back was a new thing to the blacks. The Berribee affair is remembered to this day. During the forty years now gone, anything like the _Mary Carver_ affair has never been repeated. The coast was made safe, and commerce increased.

On the 25th, the Commodore arrived at Monrovia, and on the 28th, sailed for Porto Praya, and later for Funchal, where he found the inhabitants bitterly complaining that the American taste for other wines had greatly injured the trade in Madeira.

[13] Used as a training-ship now, May, 1887.

[14] Journal of an African Cruiser, edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne.