Part 58

On our departure from Sierra Leone, we proceeded down the coast of Liberia, and landed at Harper, Cape Palmas. I found the Rev. Mr. Ramba in charge of the Missionary Establishment. There were two young ladies who had recently arrived from the United States. One of them had not recovered from the African fever. I found there, in the little town, many manumitted slaves from Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland, with whom I conversed; also, some of the recaptured slaves from the brig Echo, which were sent out by the frigate Niagara. The United States Government pay one year’s schooling, and those unable to take care of themselves are apprenticed. I was invited to dine by the family who occupy the Asylum buildings, erected by the Protestant Episcopal Society of the United States. The position is most commanding and elevated, on a promontory bathed by the rolling surf, with tropical fruits and flowers in the background. But notwithstanding its advantageous location, the malignant fever of Africa finds its way. Being in a country where no distinction is made in color, I find myself at table with white and black missionaries and their wives, reminding me of my peregrinations in the island of Hayti, where my table companions in some outside villages were only of the sable hue. You are aware that the English and French are unlike the Americans in their prejudices in this particular. On board our steamer, we have had in the first cabin, and at table, practical amalgamation. Foreigners have native wives, and you find children running about of every dye. It goes even further, in the marriage of white women with black men.

Liberia, you are aware, is a republic, having its President, Senators, and Representatives. The towns are mostly occupied by the native population, whose wants are quite limited, as is the case with the black race generally in this country, whose dress consists at most of a small handkerchief or a string of pearls about the loins. The incentive to labor is slight, and the efforts of the missionaries meet with little success; and unless through some special providence, this benighted coast can make but little progress. An intelligent mulatto woman came down with us to Cape Coast Castle, in the cabin. She was from Savannah, Georgia. She had come over with her husband, to visit her father and mother, who had emigrated to Liberia, and died with fever. She had lost her husband by the same disease, and wished herself back again. She remarked, that at times she had hopes for the Colony, and then again felt discouraged, as many of the manumitted slaves, instead of showing an example to the heathen, fell into their vices. The trade of Liberia is very limited; and, were it not for the Colonization Society, their case now might be hopeless. They have a small war schooner, presented by the British Government; one schooner, called the Monrovia, was in port, which trades with the United States. I must here mention a circumstance which occurred in sending over a parcel of manumitted negroes from New Orleans. A philanthropic captain offered to bring over the party for a nominal sum; he supplied himself with water casks well filled, and abundant provisions for a long voyage, and returning with ample berth accommodations. Of course he obtained his clearance for such a benevolent object without difficulty, landed the released blacks, ran down the coast, filled up with slaves, and landed his cargo of human flesh on the island of Cuba!

We proceed along, down to the Dutch town and fort of Elmina, and the English fort and town of Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast. The surf and breakers along this coast at times are frightful; but the naked natives, in boats dug out of the trunks of trees, containing from ten to fifteen persons, with side oars or paddles, not unlike huge wooden shovels, swarm around the ship, and carry you ashore through the foaming billows. Once the beach struck, they jump in the water to draw the boat up, and then carry you on their backs to dry land. The Dutch Governor, six miles above here, has just visited the English Governor, and held what is termed a Palaver with the Queen of Assin, who was escorted by bands of nearly naked negro troops or subjects, with the most wild and discordant music from tom-toms or kettle-drums, reed flutes, frightful sounding gongs, ringing of small bells, etc., amid the yells and shouts of this maddened crew. Another body of Bushmen, who were going to war with a neighboring tribe, were congregating with their muskets, which they are all provided with; they had been parading with a white umbrella over the captain’s head, under a vertical sun, with as much veneration as the carrying of the Host over the head of the Pope, in the church ceremonies of Rome. At length they bivouacked under the shade of a wide-spread mango tree, where rum, the usual beverage of the natives, was passed around, amid the shouts, laughter, and war songs of these half savages, much to the edification of a half dozen slave girls, who were peeping over a wall adjoining.

Ships come down to the coast of Guinea from Boston and New York, loaded with the two staples of negro luxury, rum and tobacco; but I am sorry to learn that some of those people who cry out so strongly against our domestic institution of the South, and would willingly sacrifice our beloved Union, lend themselves to the slave trade, in furnishing empty rum casks to slavers, which are filled with water, and get a clearance from the Custom House, as if engaged in legitimate traffic; thereby enabling them to run along the coast for the sale of articles without suspicion, when they fill up with slaves and start for Cuba.

The soil here abounds with particles of gold, which the natives wash when their daily wants require small means, but they are destitute of the merit of perseverance unless forced to it. The white population consists here of only a few officers in the fort, supported by native or apprenticed soldiers. The native houses or huts are of wicker or reed work, plastered with mud and covered with palm leaves or branches. The Wesleyan missionaries have a fine, eligible establishment. I found three of their number here present, as also some native preachers and teachers. One of the number is the nephew to the king of the Ashantees. He had been sent to England for an education. They were well provided with the good things of this life in eating and drinking, which they are entitled to in this barbarous country.

I saw sheep and goats on the grounds--some monkeys chattering about; large numbers are found in the woods; the natives are fond of them, and their skins are an article of exportation, for ladies’ muffs.

We have had a melancholy duty to perform: one of our fellow passengers, who-occupied a state room opposite to me, died night before last. He was a physician, who could not heal himself according to the command in Scripture. Our number of passengers was now reduced to four. He had supped with us, and two hours after was a corpse. I felt it a duty to assist in performing the last rites of a Christian burial, not knowing but others might be called upon to perform a similar service for one seven thousand miles from home. The ship carpenter made a rude pine coffin, which was covered with the English union jack. We solicited the offices of a missionary, but whether from the sudden shock, or fear of fever, I know not, but I found myself the only passenger among the group following his mortal remains to the white man’s little graveyard, carried upon the shoulders of negroes. The captain, purser, first engineer, and myself, stood with white umbrellas under a broiling sun, the parched earth almost blistering our feet, until the burial service was read by the officiating Episcopal clergyman in his white robes. It was the mournful sight of a Christian burial in strong contrast with the listless, idle, and gazing groups of dark, naked figures, which curiosity had attracted to the spot. A civil engineer in the Government employ, was the only resident who joined us in the funeral, and to whose house we adjourned after the ceremonies were over; we were provided with refreshments, which we stood in need of.

Many forts along the coast, which once amounted to thirty, have fallen into decay; they were used for slave factories, and were in the possession of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, and the English, to provide the Colonies with slaves.

We proceed to Acra, further along the coast, in possession of the Dutch and English, and thence to the territory of the king of Dahomy, who is now waging war to procure slaves for the annual sacrifice, and I may be able to give you some of these barbarous statistics.

CLIX.

STEAMER ATHENIEN, OFF LAGOS, WEST COAST OF AFRICA, _March 23, 1860_.

After visiting the Grain, Ivory, and Gold Coasts, and the territory of the king of Dahomy, we now find ourselves off the formidable breakers of Lagos. The mail bags we headed up in a puncheon, in the event of capsizing the native boat. The landing is so unsafe, and being probably the worst on the coast of Africa, none of us are allowed to make the attempt. Two passengers from Acra go on board of vessels lying outside, at anchor, until a more favorable opportunity offers. Sometimes no landing is effected for weeks. The sharks are so abundant that they upset crews of natives, and strangers are often lost.

Acra, our next landing-place after Cape Coast Castle, is one-half occupied by the English fort and native town, and the other half by a Dutch fort and settlement. The resident traders complain of the want of commerce, as the king of the country, whom the English had punished and laid under tribute of ten thousand pounds, payable in palm oil, at fixed prices, would not execute the payment. I there found two merchants from Cape Coast, who had bought the contract, &c., which the king now rejects. It remains to be seen if the British will enforce it.

The Danes were in possession of a large fort at Christianborg, a few miles from Acra, which they have sold to the English for the nominal sum of five thousand pounds. The Commandant of the English fort politely offered me his horse, and a recommendation to the officer in command, which I accepted, and found, in the absence of the Governor, only one officer and the doctor of the station. Five officers had died of the African fever, and the soldiery consisted of one hundred and thirteen negroes. The town looked abandoned, and in part battered down, as the native tribes had attacked the fort, which is well mounted with small brass guns. They were soon put to flight, and the broken walls of the village indicated the result.

The fort is eligibly situated; the sand was scorching hot, but the sea breeze in the shade was cool and refreshing; the surf was rolling in strongly, and hundreds of negroes were in it bathing. The little cemetery, as I passed, showed the new-made graves; the African ants had thrown up, hastily, pyramids of a conical form, ten feet in height.

Notwithstanding the curious scenes to occupy the mind, and the white umbrellas as a protection from heat, I felt the blood boiling in my veins, and if I had given way to my emotions, would have fancied the fever was upon me.

In Acra, I met with a Yankee trader, whose house was situated among and surrounded by the huts of the natives. The walls of the court inclosed his cooperage and his buildings for palm-oil casks, and supplies of rum, tobacco, and notions.

A group of nearly naked boys and girls were counting cowrie shells from Zanzibar, which furnishes small currency, and which are separated in little parcels with great alacrity. They are there worth forty to the cent, or four thousand to the dollar. They are also strung as beads, and worn about the neck and loins by both sexes.

The Yankee looked sallow, as if the African climate was doing its work; but the desire of gain is an incentive sufficient for the white man to try to live in a climate which nature designed only for the black race.

The king of Dahomy, whose capital is about ninety miles from the coast, permits no forts in his dominions. Whydah and Badagry have been famous for the slave trade. When the late king died some six hundred slaves were buried alive with him. They were made drunk and then driven into an excavated grotto or prison house, which was then walled up. I here give you a list of the articles and objects deposited on the occasion of the funeral from an eye-witness:

Ten pieces of silk, five dozen country cloths, twenty guns, eight bags of cowrie shells, two boxes soap, male and female slave, as present from the Yavogah of Whydah, scarfs, table cloths, satin, silk handkerchiefs, velvets, carpets, packages of unbleached shirting, a present from the great slaver Domingo, a cocked hat and plume, gold chains, slippers, ten puncheons of rum, forty kegs of powder, another male and female slave, with letter to the deceased king, in addition to the six or eight hundred already mentioned.

The king of Dahomy is now at war with his neighbors to procure prisoners and slaves for the anniversary custom of sacrifices and consecration to the memory of the late king. All the whites within his territory on the coast are invited and commanded to be present at the sacrifices. All resident traders and vessels are compelled to pay tonnage dues for the privilege of trade, or make presents to the king. A Portuguese whom we landed from the steamer, and who had delivered a cargo of negroes in Havana, for which he obtained one thousand dollars per head, and which had cost from twenty-five to forty dollars, had four trunks of valuable goods, comprising rich crimson velvets, and other articles, as presents for the king.

He is said to have some twenty-five thousand warriors, and a body-guard of eight thousand Amazons, with a vast number of wives in addition. He also possesses extensive buildings and palaces, all of which have been contributed without doubt by the whites in the way of trade, or for the purchase of slaves.

If a vessel is wrecked, or goes ashore, the whole property belongs to the king, and the officers and crew are sent up to his capital. A Hamburg brig just wrecked lost everything, and the captain and crew would have been sent up, had not the king been absent making war for slaves. We found three of the crew on board of an American brig now in the offing.

The captain of the brig Jehosse has just come on board of us from the American trading barque Baron de Castine, whose supercargo we brought down from Acra. The former captain had died and been replaced; the present captain was also sick, but under the care of the doctor of the British steamer Viper. He represents that he came out with lumber and provisions from Charleston, S. C., and was on a legitimate trading voyage, when he was boarded by Captain Fitzroy, of the British steamer Falcon, who demanded his register and list of crew, which were given up, who declared him to be a slaver, and ordered him to haul down his flag, which he refused; he was then ordered to open his box of private papers, which he also refused. A prize crew was ordered on board, and himself and crew sent as prisoners on board the steamer. The men were stripped and examined, the captain’s box broken open and papers examined. The clearances, &c., were all found legal, and the captain and crew released. He protested against a release, but was put on his vessel, where he found his liquors all drunk, cigars smoked, prize crew drunk, and the vessel in danger of beaching in the kingdom of Dahomy. The officer in command of the prize crew begged of him to come to his relief, and gave a certificate to that effect. The brig has waited fifty or sixty days for an American cruiser, but not finding one to take up the case, the captain sends his vessel to the United States as abandoned, and takes our steamer to catch an American man-of-war before which to bring his case.

It will be a serious matter for Captain Fitzroy, who is represented as a dissipated commander, of aristocratic family, but will now probably lose his commission, and the British government will pay heavy damages.

A singular custom prevails among the natives of the coast. I asked particularly the details of a black missionary. Every man has a lien upon his nephews and nieces, and can pawn them for debt, or sell them into slavery, but this right he cannot exercise over his own children. In the event of the death of a person, his property goes to his sister, as next of kin. She or her husband takes care of the children, and if occasion demand, they are made slaves, or pawned.

CLX.

BONNY RIVER, GULF OF GUINEA, _March 27, 1860_.

From Lagos, our steamer proceeded to the river Benin, landed some cargo, and received forty-two puncheons of palm oil. We there found a Hamburg ship, just in from Zanzibar, on the coast of Africa, with a full cargo of cowrie shells, used for currency and ornaments. The shores are here monotonous; the vegetation is rank, as well as at the mouth of the Niger, which we passed on our way to this place.

A project is on foot for a new expedition up the Niger, the former expedition on the part of the British government having met with disaster. We have a disabled steward now on board, who accompanied these adventurers; he is as yellow as a marigold, and the seeds of fever in him will probably never be eradicated.

The entrance to Bonny river is difficult, and requires watchful navigation. We brought on deck a huge iron riveted air-tight boiler, to be used as a buoy or guide to mariners passing the bar, and came near losing it, as well as our vessel.

Sunday morning, May 25th, according to usual custom on board of British vessels, the Church of England service was read in the presence of crew and passengers; and I was quite interested in noticing some blacks from Monrovia, who were present, and seemed to take some interest in the ceremonies. At five P. M., just at the close of dinner, the ship some seven miles from the mouth of the river, under full sail and heavy head of steam, the captain on the bridge, struck a sand-bar, jumped twice, and we rushed on deck and found her in a perilous condition. We got out hawsers astern, furled all sail, and worked the machine and windlass back, to haul off, but without success. Night was approaching, and the breakers increasing, the ship at times keeling over, and then jumping as if the masts would come out of her. The ports and skylights of cabin closed, with the sea breaking over the stern, made it look dreary enough. Being on a barbarous coast, where no white man lives, the prospects were not very flattering. The boats were all got in condition, with buckets for bailing. Rockets were sent up for relief, hoping they might be seen some five miles up from the mouth of the river, where lay a small steamer, used as a tender, and for the continuation of the voyage to Fernando Po. Our own steamer being at the end of her line in the Gulf of Guinea, usually takes in her coal from a hulk moored in the stream, brushes up, and waits the return of the tender, with freight picked up in the Old Calabar and Camaroon rivers. A little time after the accident occurred, one of our passengers, an old sea captain, came to me, and said softly, “If you have anything valuable which you wish to save, you had better get it out, as I would not give fifty pounds for the vessel.” I was hurriedly packing up a few articles, when the purser came to me and said, “I have been securing the ship’s papers and valuables, and I would advise your taking a few articles in your valise, as we may have to take the ship’s boats outside the breakers, and wait for the tide.” You can imagine we passed a wretched and sleepless night. The engines were soon choked up with sand, and all began to think the ship must be lost, although strongly built. Morning brought us more quiet weather. We sent the second mate with a boat’s crew up the river for relief. He had twelve miles to make, with sails and oars. At mid-day the little steamer came. We threw overboard coal, and palm oil in puncheons, to lighten the ship, took advantage of the wind, steam, &c., and succeeded in forcing her over the sandbars by nightfall. We had taken refuge on board of the small steamer, in the distance, as she could not approach us for the shoals; and I got off with a portion of my effects, in wet condition.

The Bonny is a broad and navigable river. The New Calibar River comes in a short distance from this place. The trade of the two rivers is in palm oil. Vessels of large size come out from England with a variety of goods, that can be used by the natives in the interior, such as waistcloths, beads, rum, tobacco, guns, powder, &c.

The vessels are anchored, sails put away, the ship is housed in, with peaked roof, covered with palm leaf, making it cool; and here they remain for two years, or until they get full. They have their cooperage on board, the casks being brought in shooks [bundles of staves]. The natives come alongside in canoes, with the oil made from the berry of the palm tree, boiled and skimmed, and enter the ship, fitted up like a country store for barter and trade. Some want brass stair rods as currency, which treasure can, in emergencies, be buried, and not injured by rust. Some want a portion of most articles named. The native chiefs and traders buy largely, and some on credit, which is paid for in oil in quantities.

The small currency here is not the cowrie-shell, but small horseshoe-formed brass articles called manillas.